Chapter 11
Ekkire
My head was a confused, jumbled mess when I woke.
The world tilted at an odd angle I just couldn’t figure out.
Not until Jasmine moved and I realized we were on a bit of a slope.
My stomach turned, but that was from the concussion.
I’d been lucky I hadn’t been more seriously injured in a fall from that height.
I’d done what I could to slow our descent, while also trying to protect tiny, fragile Jasmine.
Seeing her up and, albeit slowly, moving about made me feel a great deal of relief.
I needed rest—at least another handful of hours—but then I was certain I’d be feeling much better.
I always healed fast, and I had far more reasons to get well quickly than ever before.
Curling my tail, I shifted to hug more of her body against mine.
Emboldened when she did not protest, I reached for her, carefully drawing her into a horizontal position next to me.
With a coil of my tail, I lifted her injured leg to elevate it.
“I must rest, so do you, and this will keep you warm.”
“Sure,” she sassed, “we’re cuddling purely for heat.
That never works out. I can tell you that.
” I raised a brow, confused by her words.
A hint of possessiveness curled through me, and I struggled to control it.
This female, cuddling with another male?
It was a picture I couldn’t shake, no matter how badly I tried.
She was so soft and small in my arms, and despite her sassy tone, she willingly curled into my chest.
“You cuddle with other males?” I growled, the words out despite my struggle to shove the feeling away.
No, I did not have the right to ask this.
She did not want a mate. She did not want me, and I’d made her think I did not want her, either.
I knew how wrong that was now, but how did I rectify that mistake?
Her finger prodded my chest, a firm stab right between my pectorals.
I lowered my chin and stared, wondering if she was trying to point out the still brightly glowing gold of my sigils.
Those marks would glow each time we touched, and I wouldn’t be able to control them until after we’d completed our bond. After I’d seeded her.
Ah, stars, why did I think of that? My body grew tight, heat spiraling through my veins and arrowing straight for my cock.
It stirred in its pouch, eager to extrude, eager to taste her heat.
I couldn’t blame it, I had more control than this.
Yanking the furs she’d previously curled around herself, I pulled them over both of us, over my groin, where I pulsed with pleasure bordering on pain.
“Now listen here, buddy!” she snapped, rising on one elbow to glare at me with that beautiful fire sparkling in her velvet-brown eyes.
“It’s not your business who I’ve cuddled with in the past, is it?
You made it clear you didn’t want me, and the feeling is mutual, it hasn’t changed.
” Want me, she said, making it a personal rejection, not a general one.
That wasn’t what I’d meant, what I’d felt when meeting her. Not even close.
Perhaps the fogginess still clouding my brain loosened my tongue.
I spoke in a way I never would have otherwise, not unless halfway through a bottle of Iave’s most potent Abseal.
I just needed her to know: I wanted her.
I didn’t want a mate who’d tie me to one place.
Those were very different things, and now that I knew who she was, perhaps both were even possible.
“Jasmine,” I started, interrupting her tirade.
“If I could have chosen a mate, I couldn’t have chosen anyone better than you.
Bold, brave, clever, and so beautiful you take my breath away.
You make me ache to have things I did not think were possible, not for a male like me.
I roam. I always have, and I always will.
That’s why, it’s got nothing to do with you. ”
I took a deep, shuddering breath, squirming when the heat in my body—the desire I felt for her—still did not go away.
“You make me believe it’s possible. You make me want, so badly…
But look where we are. Look at how I failed you with my choices…
” I gestured at the tunnel we’d fallen into, up at the shaft above our heads.
We were lost because I’d never been down this deep, and that meant it might be days before she could ever get to the healer she needed.
“Stop it! Enough, okay?” Jasmine suddenly pressed her hand over my mouth, startling me into silence more effectively than her words did.
She looked furious again. Her glare was so fierce it made my belly tingle, answering a rising passion that translated into heat for her.
By the sacred streams, I’d never desired a female like I desired her. She made me lose my mind.
“It is the truth,” I murmured against her palm, and the soft touch of her flesh on my lips only fanned the flames.
I’d known it by the campfire, when she’d undressed and I’d caught that first, tantalizing glimpse.
My response had been so powerful it had nearly undone me.
I’d known that if I could not slip away quickly, I’d never slip away at all.
“No, it isn’t,” she refuted immediately.
“You didn’t get us trapped down here; that was an accident.
We would still be here even if you had wanted me as your mate.
” She bit her lip and lowered her head, and the pink and black of her silky hair slid forward to shield her face.
“The truth is, I’ve been running from having a mate too.
And it has nothing to do with you, either. So I understand. Okay?”
She tried to slip away then, but her broken leg made her slow. I caught her in my arms and dragged her back against me. “What makes you run, Jasmine?” I asked. She didn’t want to tell me, her face closing up, her eyes turning away. “Who hurt you?” I demanded.
“No one,” she snapped. “Everyone,” she relented.
Everyone, a generalization, I hoped. My mate, she was not just wounded physically, but in spirit too.
A drop of something struck my scales. Alarmed, I reached for her chin and lifted her head.
More wetness clung to her cheeks, to the curl of her lashes; even her eyes looked watery.
“What is this?” I asked, thoroughly alarmed.
“Why are your eyes leaking all of a sudden? Are you sick? Injured? What can I do?” She looked so sad, and that wasn’t the Jasmine I’d gotten to know over the past two days.
She was bold, she was always furious, and she was so brave she was a hunter in her own right—a warrior I’d gladly have at my back.
She’d already proven capable of covering our retreat before, her arrows precise even with a subpar weapon.
“It’s called crying. Didn’t you see that while you were at Haven? Humans do it all the time,” she said, a smile that was still sad tilting the corner of her mouth upward. She was putting on a brave face, but she wasn’t over whatever pain had caused this strange response.
“No.” I shook my head, frowning as I thought back, but very certain I’d seen nothing of the kind at Haven.
“Crying is a sound. You do it with your mouth, not your eyes!” She chuckled, then smothered the sound with a hand.
I was glad it was cheering her up, but I still very badly needed to know what had made her cry in the first place.
Everyone, she’d said, everyone had hurt her. Had she been hurt at Haven? Zathar would pay for letting that happen on his watch. I could not imagine anyone getting to Jasmine, though, but if she’d been hurt, no wonder she was so easily angry all the time.
“Maybe that’s how naga cry, but with humans, there are tears involved.
” She rubbed a finger over her cheek, and then we both stared at the droplet lying on her fingertip.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all mushy. Let’s both get some rest, and then we’ll find away out of here tomorrow, together.
” She seemed to think that meant the conversation was over and began turning away, but I wouldn’t let her retreat just yet.
“No, you must explain to me who hurt you, and when. Then we will think of a plan to make them pay, together.” I purposefully echoed her last word, hoping to drive home that she had me now. That whatever my previous desire had been, soothing her hurt, avenging her pain, it mattered more.
“Oh…” she said, so startled that I wondered when she’d last had anyone stand up for her.
I knew what that was like. I was always alone, but that was by choice; I liked being alone.
If I wanted friendship, a brother to watch my back, there were always options.
A Water Weaver was welcome at any hearth, and many of my Clanmales were scattered across the land.
There were places we’d meet, stories we’d share.
I considered Zeidon my closest friend and knew without a shadow of a doubt that he’d come to my aid if I asked him.
Jasmine’s reaction told me she did not believe she had anyone like that she could trust.
“Look, Ekkire. I appreciate that, but it’s not necessary.
” She shook her head, but the tears had begun to dry; that was a good sign.
She also stopped pulling away and curled against me instead.
I took great satisfaction from that. She was safe with me, and I hoped she knew that.
Then Dove piled on, fluttering down from wherever she’d been foraging, to land on my chest beside Jasmine’s head.
She circled twice before settling into a tight curl and going to sleep.
Now I had two small females sheltering in my coils, and I felt rich beyond compare.
“It is necessary. If you were hurt at Haven, I will take it up with Zathar. He promised the humans they would be safe, and he failed to keep his promise!” As furious as I was about it, I kept my tone down so the little sleara wouldn’t startle.
I pinned Jasmine with a fierce stare, though, so she knew how serious I was.
“I don’t need your protection,” she said, bristling like a little Ayala testing her quills.
I tried to decipher the statement rather than respond with instinctive fury, with a claim.
We weren’t there yet. She wasn’t there yet, even if I was.
She was mine to protect, now and forever.
She did need me, but perhaps not for protection. Not the way other humans did.
“No, you don’t need it,” I said firmly, “but I’m offering it freely anyway.
Perhaps being mates means something different to us than it does to those at Haven.
I just know that you don’t have to carry this alone, this hurt.
” I gently touched her chest, over her heart, and saw with relief that her features softened, the anger fading.
“Okay, okay,” she nodded. “Yes. But you’re too late. I was talking about my life before, back on Earth. You can’t reach the ones that, uh… need some serious payback. I appreciate it, though, Ekkire. You’re a good guy.” I nodded. Yes, good guy—that worked for me.
When she settled down to rest, I let her, this time.
I needed so much sleep myself, I couldn’t afford to stay up much longer.
We appeared to be safe, for now. With our fall into this hole, I was certain Msera and those of Thunder Rock with him would have given up the chase.
They should never have followed us into the ancestral cave in the first place, and had broken many taboos by doing so.
Maybe this was enough to persuade them their superstitions were well-founded.
They certainly wouldn’t try to burrow deeper to find us, and would assume we were either dead or trapped.
Still, it took me a long time to fall asleep, listening to the slow breathing of Jasmine and watching the peaceful expression on her delicate face now that she was resting.
She was so many things all wrapped in a tiny package, and proof that the fates choose right, even for the most stubborn of males.
My mind whirled with possibilities, with a future filled with her smile and companionship on my journeys, with all the obstacles that came with it, and how to overcome those.
Would she mind traveling all the time? Could I stand living at Haven with her several months out of the year?
I didn’t know. I didn’t have those answers, but I wanted them very badly.