Page 45 of Feast

But could she learn to trust him?

Now, as Slaine washed her, there was a sadness on her pretty little face, and Thusar knew the reason why.

Rolf.

Ika clearly had a strong bond with that ukkur as well. Was it the same as the bond that Thusar now felt with her? He did not think so. Those things they had done earlier with their cocks and with her hole—he sensed that she had never done anything like that with Rolf. Her reactions had been both too shocked and too curious.

The experience was as new for her as it was for Thusar and his brethren.

Then what was her connection with Rolf? Something like the bond that Thusar shared with his pack brothers, perhaps. A powerful bond of friendship.

But Thusar sensed her relationship with Rolf was different.

Part of him was tempted to take her back to Rolf. To interrogate that old ukkur and find out more about Ika’s origin. All she really knew was that Rolf had found her. A gift from the gods, she had said.

There had to be more to it than that.

Now, various strands of thinking unraveled in Thusar’s mind, and he came to the hard knot that lay at the heart of his problem.

He was not willing to deviate from his quest to the south.

He was even less willing to part with Ika.

That meant separating her from Rolf.

They could go back and try to convince Rolf to join them on their quest. But they had already invited him once before, and the old ukkur had flatly refused. Perhaps that refusal had been born of a desire to keep Ika hidden. Then again, perhaps not. Rolf had always been something of a loner.

If they could not convince Rolf to join them, then there would probably be a fight to claim Ika.

A fight to the death.

That fight would end in one of two ways. Thusar’s death or Rolf’s. Both options were unfavorable. Both paths meant that he would lose Ika forever. That was unacceptable.

Thusar had to make a decision.

He was the leader.

Muk was too young. He lacked wisdom. Gunnar, by contrast, was too intelligent. He could reverse engineer a nith contraption, but when it came time to make a difficult decision, he would get stuck. And Slaine, well…gods only knew what went on inside Slaine’s damaged skull.

So the decision lay with Thusar.

He chose to go with the best compromise he could think of.

They would journey to the southern lands as they had already decided. They would not swerve from that quest.

They would take Ika with them as well. To give her up now was out of the question.

After they’d had a chance to see exactly what was transpiring in the southern lands, then Thusar would return and confront Rolf by himself. Ika would remain behind, protected by the three other ukkur.

Thusar let go a deep breath, and some of the tension went out of his shoulders.

He had decided.

“Come,” he said to Ika, whom Slaine had finished bathing. “It is time to retire for the night. Tomorrow we have a long day ahead of us. Tomorrow we begin our trek to the south.”

Something crumbled like ashes behind Ika’s face, and for a moment Thusar thought her eyes would begin leaking again as they had done before when she was upset. But they did not.

Thusar made one final decision for the night.