Chapter 8
Fatima
That afternoon, I woke up feeling refreshed and cozy in the furs. I didn’t remember having so many blannkets in my bed. Then I realized I wasn’t in my bed. I’d fallen asleep at Zander’s house.
I sat up hoping to find the bossy shifter, but when I looked around, he was no where to be found. A knot formed in my throat and I struggled to push away the sadness creeping into my gut.
This was silly. Zander and I were just friends. He’d agreed to teach me to hunt that was all. There was no need to get emotional over the fact that he wasn’t here when I woke up.
I got up from his bed and was tiding up the blankets when I heard the door open. Zander walked in with sweat on his brow and blood on his hands.
“I apologize for taking as long as I did. I was hoping to get back sooner,” he commented as he strode to the basin and washed his hands with soap and water. He opened the door and tossed the water outside then refilled the basin with snow.
“Where did you go?” I asked as I tucked my hair behind my ear.
“Hunting.” He replied as he dried his hands on a towel.
“But the storage house is full, isn’t it? There’s no room for anything else.”
“Exactly. That’s why my kill is sitting outside on that worktable, and when I’m done it will be stored in my ice box outside.” Zander pointed out the window to a table not far from his house. It contained a large dead animal with tusks and course fur.
“I don’t understand. What are you going to do with it?” Why go hunting when there was no need for extra meat.
“I’m going to feed you, is what I’m going to do. That’s a wild boar.”
The breath left my lungs. He’d gone out hunting while I slept all so I could have bacon again? I didn’t know if it was the pregnancy hormones or something else entirely, but I suddenly had tears running down my face.
Zander rushed to my side and pulled me in close. “Don’t cry,” he spoke so lightly it was barely above a whisper. “I can fix many things, but I cannot fix your tears.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” I whispered into his chest. “I’m supposed to learn to hunt so I can get the bacon myself.”
“I know,” he rubbed my back in a soothing motion. “I’m going to teach you to hunt, but I’m going to make sure you’re well fed too.”
“You don’t have to do that either,” I whispered between tears.
“I know. I want to.”
I want to. My heart squeezed at his words and hope filled my soul.
Maybe I wasn’t as alone in this as I thought I was.
Maybe he just wants to be close friends, a voice whispered in my head.
That was equally as likely, and I couldn’t afford to hope for romance with a little one on the way.
I could only rely on myself for the foreseeable future.
“Thank you, I really appreciate this,” I commented as I stepped away from the husky blue alien in front of me.
“It looks like dinner is about to be served,” I pointed at the window where a line of people were walking down the path toward the dining hall.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I didn’t dare look at Zander’s face as I scurried out of his house like a scared mouse.
If he looked hurt that I was leaving, it would break my heart.
If he didn’t look bothered at all, that might shatter my heart entirely.
I wanted Zander in a way I couldn’t deny, but I didn’t dare believe that he’d want me to.
I made my way to the meeting house which essentially served as our dining hall, and fell in line behind Vianna.
“Did you talk to him?” she whispered in my ear.
“Not yet, sorry. I promise I will soon.”
“Okay, thanks. I appreciate it.” She started to move away but I looped my arm around hers before she could.
“Hey, why didn’t you tell him you were moving out?” I tried not to use my commanding eldest sister tone with Vianna but it came out anyway.
She looked away and the tips of her ears turned a dark blue from embarrassment.
“I was afraid he’d say no,” she admitted.
“Vianna,” I sighed. “If you want to be treated like an adult, you need to face problems like this head on. Zander didn’t seem mad at all that you’d moved out, but I could tell he was hurt that you hadn’t even told him before you did so.”
“Oh,” the young sirret woman pouted. Her long silver hair fell over her shoulder as she scanned the room.
“I’ll go talk to him,” Vianna sighed and walked toward her brother with a clay bowl filled with food and her shoulders slumped.
I turned my attention to the food on the table and smiled at Orsu as he cooked over the makeshift stove.
The smell of cooked meat wafted up to my nose and immediately made me queezy. I turned my attention to the flat bread that was being offered as well as the fresh fruit.
I filled my plate with both and looked for a place to sit in the crowded meeting house.
There was a seat near Favalor. He was sitting by himself looking like a lost puppy as he eyed Vianna sitting with her brother so far away. From the way he looked at her, you’d think they were on two separate planets instead of just two sides of one room.
I sat next to the sad sirret male and his face brightened with a warm smile as he greeted me.
“Good evening, Fatima.”
“Good evening,” I smiled back at him and heard a low growl from across the room.
Zander was staring us down with a ferocious expression on his face. Favalor sunk down in his seat in an attempt to avoid the fire shifter’s gaze, but it was no use.
“Just ignore him,” I whispered. “He can’t do anything more than growl.”
“Maybe to you,” Favalor huffed. “I’m pretty sure he’d beat me up, if he thought Tarak wouldn’t mind it. It’s only out of respect for the Savrix that he keeps his distance.”
“Is it true that he dislikes you because you pretended to be loyal to Dameron?” I asked in a hushed tone.
“Yeah, he says anyone who was loyal to Dameron has no honor.”
“Were you ever truly loyal to Dameron, or were you pretending the whole time?”
“I was never loyal to that vile male,” Favalor’s lip curled back in a snarl emphasizing his disgust.
Zander must have thought that snarl was directed at me because he got up from his seat and prowled toward us like a lion on the hunt.
The big shifter with broad shoulders and red hair leaned in close to Favalor and spoke to him in a low and threatening tone.
“It is only by the grace of the goddess and the will of the Savrix that you sit here today unharmed, but if you snarl at Fatima again, I can assure you that not even the goddess herself can protect you from my wrath.”
“I wasn’t snarling at her. I promise,” Favalor confessed as sweat began to form on his brow.
“He’s telling the truth,” I chimed in. “We were discussing Dameron. That is what made Favalor snarl.”
“Stop bullying him!” Vianna had caught up to her brother and chastised the big male in a way that only a younger sibling could.
“Come on Favalor, we can go eat dinner somewhere else,” the young Sirret shifter grabbed the male she clearly loved so dearly by the hand and pulled him safely away from her brother.
There was a momentary pause in conversation from everyone in the dining hall as the two love birds left the building, Vianna slamming the door behind them.
Everyone’s attention shifted to Zander for a brief moment before they went back to their conversations.
“Sit,” I commanded the big shifter as I pointed to the seat Favalor had just vacated. Zander did as he was told and sat. Then I settled next to him.
“What the fuck was that?”
“I thought he was threatening you,” Zander shrugged his shoulders.
“Well he wasn’t, and I can defend myself,” I huffed.
“From a sirret male a whole head taller than you as you carry a growing child in your belly?” Zander raised a questioning eyebrow up at me.
“I...Ugh, never mind.” I chose not to linger on that topic for now.
“Tell me why you hate him so much.”
I’d heard Vianna’s point of view, now I wanted to hear his.
“He has no honor,” Zander growled. “He stood with Dameron, and he marched with his hunters as they made their way to kidnap you from the mountains.”
“Yes, he marched with them, but I don’t think he was ever truly loyal to Dameron,” I suggested. “And if he hadn’t been there, then Tabby may have never gotten back to Gabby safely. He offered to hold her to keep her safe and then he risked his own life sneaking back into our cabin to reunite them.”
“One heroic act does not make up for the fact that he stood with Dameron,” Zander argued.
“Yes, but he says he was never truly loyal to him.”
“And I am supposed to just take him at his word? It’s convenient for him to claim he never sided with Dameron now that his hunters have been cast out, but how will we ever know the truth?”
“His actions with me and the other hostages are proof enough that what he says is true,” I countered.
“Am I supposed to put my faith in his word and just let him be mated to my sister? My only other living relative? My parents placed her in my care. My mother told me to protect her before she died, and then my sire did the same before he died a few years later.
Letting her run off with this untrustworthy male does not feel like protection, it feels like a mistake, like I’m betraying their wishes after all this time.
When Vianna first shifted, I thought our lives were over. I thought we’d be found out in a matter of days, but by some miracle, I convinced her to keep her abilities hidden. I did all that for what? To watch her slip away with some male I cannot trust?”
I could tell Zander was not going to budge from his point of view. He had made up his mind that Favalor was not to be trusted, and I doubted anyone or anything would change that.
“I’m sorry you lost your parents,” I placed my hand over his and gave him a gentle squeeze.
“I know what it’s like to have to look after one’s siblings. My parents didn’t die, but they put me in charge at young age and I often felt like I was all alone. You did a good job raising Vianna, and you successfully kept her safe.”
Zander’s eyes turned glossy as he took in my words.