“I can leave anytime I want, right?”
Skye rolled her eyes. “Mandy, you ask that maybe ten times a day.”
“No, more like five lately.” Lisa’s blue eyes sparkled. “I think she’s falling in love with her mates.”
“They’re not my mates.” Mandy felt the blush heating her cheeks. “I mean, they have each other.”
Skye and Lisa shook their heads.
Skye tugged playfully at Mandy’s hair. “Say what you want, but I can see the ties binding you guys. Just like Lisa is connected to Maht, and I’m bound to Talzec and Xaveht, you, Zehn and Lore are a family. Your energies align.” Skye huffed. “Deny it all you want, but eventually you’ll settle here. Hey, I didn’t think I’d like it either. All I wanted was my dream job at the resort. But life is good in the village.” Skye sounded surprised to hear herself say that. “It’s real. And it’s honest. You should give it a shot.”
“Yes, but you made the choice to stay. I’ve never had a choice to be where or what I wanted to be.” And that still bothered her. “I want a chance to make my own decisions, at least for a while. Then if I like it I can come back, right?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Skye didn’t look certain. “So let’s talk about something else, something you do have control over. Like what you’re doing to do with your treasures.” Lisa laughed. “If you’re not going to keep the stuff, can I have that bone knife? It would go great with my daggers.”
***
Lore sat with his bond-mate and did his best to pay attention to their alpha. Talzec instructed his inner circle, a dozen of his best warriors, of which Lore and Zehn were a part, in the Nasuhl clan’s latest patterns of movement. Lore heard little.
It was all he could do to keep his distance from Mandy.
He and Zehn had done their best to give her space. After Talzec had stopped punishing them with extra duty rotations for taking an offworlder from the resort—without permission—he’d examined Mandy’s energy, seeing it through Lore’s hold.
Intrigued at Mandy’s bountiful power, he’d agreed that only the Maker could have accepted her, since she’d gotten with child so quickly. Though the warriors could scent Zehn and Lore’s markers upon their female, very few had the ability to sense the delicate life stirring in her womb so soon after conception. And those few had been sworn to silence.
“You must woo her,” Xav, their beta, had told them. “It’s not so easy when your human wants to leave. Encourage your female to stay. But you cannot force this on her.”
Lore knew that. But he also knew Mandy would be in danger without them. Too bad the stubborn female wouldn’t give in and demand their attention. Zehn had thought that refraining from more joining with the female would cause her to come to them. It would also show her they respected her right to choose.
But so far, Mandy remained distant. Lore hated it. Hated being apart. Needed—
“Yes, Lore?”
All eyes turned his way.
Zehn sighed, no doubt feeling the instinct tugging him to their mate as well.He’s asking if the Nasuhl seem ready for war, in your opinion. Tell them what you sensed from their fighters.
Xav’s eyebrow rose, his smirk telling. “Well, Lore?”
Lore quickly describe their fight again, for all those present to hear. “They are chaotic and scrambling to connect, yet there is power in their fighters. They still left their weak behind, so I do not think they have changed much under Morlo’s leadership. But they will not be so easy to beat. Not if what Kahl says is true.”
Kahl’s lips firmed. “At last count, they a have doubled their numbers. Rogue warriors banding with them to raid our prosperous village, no doubt. And with the Cloud Games coming up, we have movement in the jungle we haven’t had in a while.”
Arghet agreed. “It’s difficult to tell numbers with so many passing nearby. I can’t tell if they’re Nasuhl additions or individual tribesmen gathering for the celebration.”
Talzec frowned. “We need more patrols.”
“Already taken care of.” Xav nodded.
“Good.” Talzec focused once more on Lore and Zehn. “Your female. How goes your progress on that end?”
Lore groaned. “Slowly.”
The others laughed, and Talzec grinned. Though the fiercest of them all, their leader had a huge capacity to care for his people. He’d avenged the death of his first female and finally allowed himself to mate Skye and Xav. He was a well-balanced male and dangerous warrior, what Lore strove to be.
“Take heart, Lore. She follows you with her eyes. And she’s well tied to the village. I can feel her bonds with Ussed.” Talzec thumped his chest. “Now it’s up to you and Zehn to give in to your instinct and bring us new life.”
Which would come in another ten months, should all go well with her pregnancy. Zehn sighed. “Could we be excused, Talzec? We had best be making plans to handle our mate.”
