In just a short time, I found myself bundled in extra furs, my silver thermal blankets wrapped tightly around me. I was rather helpless this way, but the warmth spreading through me was well worth the loss of a little freedom. He swung me into his arms—bridal style this time—then tilted his head into the air and flicked his tongue into the wind, perhaps catching scents.
“This way,” he said, as if I had any choice in the matter, and then he was moving fast. His long, agile body coiled across the snow beneath the trees we were under. He did not leave a single trace of his passage, the snow appeared undisturbed by anything but the wind. It was very impressive. It also made me aware of just how big he was. Somehow, that hadn’t quite sunk in when I’d met Nala’s native before.
“How did you get here? Why were you inside the ship?” I asked. My body was starting to warm up a little, and I was beginning to shake again. That was a good sign, but everything stung, especially my hands and feet. The shaking was violent enough that he had to hold me tightly, and I could see that it was distracting him, especially when my teeth chattered between words. They clacked together, and that made him hiss. “What? Do you not shake when you get dangerously cold?”
His expression said he wasn’t stupid enough to let himself get into a situation like that. At least he was tactful enough not to answer the question. I waited, hoping he’d at least answer the first few, but he was awfully good at being quiet. After he’d gotten over his initial reaction to the weird way my body was warming itself, he focused his gaze on our surroundings, and that was it. Perhaps he thought this was good enough, and he was taking me somewhere far away, hishome, his friends. If he did, I had news for him: I was warming up, sure, but I needed more if I wanted to keep my toes and fingers. Mostly my toes, they’d gotten the worst of it so far, and I was trying not to let fear get to me about that.
I wasn’t prepared for the darkness that suddenly swallowed us, not prepared one bit. “What the hell?!” I shouted, blinking rapidly and hoping my eyes would adjust. Not fast enough. We’d gone down some kind of hole, and the light from outside was rapidly growing smaller and less effective. Where the hell was he taking me?
Chapter 6
Khawla
My female was squirming and shaking so badly that I feared she’d shake herself apart. She said she was dangerously cold, and I believed that readily. In fact, I was cursing myself for not realizing it sooner. I might not have had many interactions with humans, but it was a main topic of conversation among the hunters. They scrounged up every bit of information they could find, and their thin skin and fragile bones were frequently discussed.
I might have never traveled far beyond Thunder Rock Clan lands, but I had my ear to the ground. Traders always had a word for the curious Naga with the flatly colored scales. Just as my hunters were curious about humans, other Naga were often curious about me. That’s how I knew a little about the precautions that Naga took in colder climates. We were not as bothered by the cold, clearly, as humans were, but up north, we definitely needed to wrap up warmly or risk losing the tip of our tail. I suspected it was the same forJolene, so finding a source of heat for her as soon as possible was essential.
There were hunter caves everywhere, packed with supplies for the next hunter, and always faithfully restocked. Some of these places were nothing more than a hollow with furs and fire-making supplies. Most hunter hideouts had some relics, like a firestarter and a heat source. Some hideoutswererelics themselves, though, and I happened to know one such hideout was nearby. It was our best bet to save all of her peculiar toes.
The entrance was narrow and well hidden, and its long tunnel would block out the sharpness of the wind. It already smelled like it was thawing, and to me, it was brisk outside but nowhere near dangerous. I was going to find this hideout sweltering—unpleasantly warm—in comparison. That did not matter; Jolene would want to keep her toes. I kind of wanted her to keep all her toes.
Of course, she did not know what was good for her, shouting when I dipped into the dark, narrow tunnel. I heard a flock of Sleara startle and take flight outside, possibly giving away our location. I swore, warning her to be quiet, and in response, she growled at me. A sweet, adorable little growl that was even less impressive than the ones Nisha managed. This female did not know the meaning of the word “fear”—or, at least, she did not let it keep her down. In that, she was very much like a Naga.
“You need heat, do you not?” I demanded when her little growl tapered off. “I am getting you heat,” I clarified when she glared up at me. Possibly she thought I could not see that in the dark. I was certain of it when she stuck out her blunt, pink tongue. That was meant as a sign of disrespect, but it just made my cock ache inside its pouch. The taste of her was still on my lips, and I wanted more of it.
I could not have a human mate—it was extremely inconvenient—but already my brain was turning over options. Stars help me, I wanted to keep her badly. She couldlive with Artek and Nala, perhaps, and I could visit. Or closer by, in a cave in the woods? My younglings would want to know where I was going. Nisha was curious, but Daois and Rasho were old enough to try and follow me. Then the image of a hunter discovering her wormed into my mind, and I knew I could not do that to her.
If she were lucky, he’d be sympathetic or want her for himself, but just as likely, the male would be loyal to the new Queen and kill her on the spot. The thought made my stomach ache. I could not keep her and allow my younglings to grow up in the only home they knew. I’d have to make a choice.
In the dark, when she could not see how closely I was watching her, I drank in her features. The long, pale hair was so very unlike anything females in the Clan had. Her skin was creamy, but dotted with curious little spots across the bridge of her nose and the rounded slopes of her cheeks. Even her mouth was different, her lips, that dark shade of bluish purple which had lightened to pink after I’d pressed my mouth to hers. That dark shade again… I wanted to see it change. Wanted to taste her again, with a need that bordered on obsession. So this is what a true mating drive felt like, no wonder everyone had questioned my commitment to Kusha.
The tunnel made the glow of my mating sigils blatantly visible, but most of those on my chest were covered by my tunic. They spiraled and slashed down the front of my tail, all the way to the very tip. Some of the marks even curled around to the side and back, making them the most abundant marks I’d ever seen. As if my body felt the need to make it inescapably clear that she was meant to be mine. Fate sucked, and its timing was terrible.
Then the heat began to waft our way, and the first glimmer of light appeared up ahead. Jolene lifted her head and gazed that way, her eyes gleaming. “Oh, is that where we’re going?” she asked. I didn’t answer, because it wasobviously not a question that required one. The tunnel led only to a single destination, though once, more stairs and pathways had led to the surface. Those had all collapsed or filled with dirt, but hunters made sure to keep this one clear. The heated pools still functioned and were exactly what my female needed to warm back up.
The rooms with the pools opened up suddenly around us, and the passage from dark tunnel to functioning bathing chamber always felt like a shock. Humid heat wrapped around us, choking me with warmth, wrapped as I was in my thick fur tunic. If possible, Jolene started shaking even more, her limbs trembling violently beneath the furs and odd silver blankets she was wrapped in. Despite that, she made an awed sound and leaned in my grip to swivel her head left and right. “Whoa, what is this place? Where are we?”
Not every hunter was willing to enter a place such as this. Thunder Rock strictly believed we were not to enter ancestral caves and disturb the dead. There were no dead here, though, and it was only a small place in comparison to some of the massive cave systems beneath the mountains. Even Ahoshaga, where the humans and outcasts had made their Haven, was small in comparison to some of the other secret places. Places I was not supposed to have entered.
“Our ancestors built this,” I said to Jolene. “Very long ago.” So long ago that their bones had turned to dust and blown away on the winds. Though my clan might believe we could incur their wrath by entering their homes or using their relics, I knew better. There were no such things as ghosts. Still, the awe Jolene felt at seeing the bathing chambers, lit by the crystals in the ceiling, made me look at them with new eyes.
Tall, arched ceilings were held up by sinuous pillars. The tiled floors came in many shades of purple, with several deep pools featuring steps or slanted floors for easy entry and exit. I knew each pool had its own temperature—some were salt-laced, while others contained fresh water. Dirt always seemedto whisk away in that water, the pools somehow cleansing themselves. That was the part that marveled me, though I could understand how the tall arches and intricate mosaics impressed others. Jolene came from a skyship; she might know exactly how the water was cleansed.
“Oh… If your ancestors built this, what happened to them? I thought Nala said you guys only had Stone Age-level technology.” I could infer what she meant by that term, though I had never heard it before. Her gaze had gone to the tip of my spear, where it jutted above my shoulder. Its sharp blade was made of black stone. Sharp but fragile, it often needed replacing. Most hunters were skilled at knapping their own stone blades, and I’d always taken pleasure in the fickle process.
“They died,” I said to Jolene, sliding to a stop at the edge of one of the warmer pools of water. I began to slide her down my body to the floor, and she stood on wobbly legs inside her blankets. When I started pulling them from her body, she even helped, and I was a bit shocked to discover just how inadequate her clothing was. Especially the scraps of gray that covered her small, strange little feet.
She huffed out a laugh, blue eyes twinkling at me as if I’d said something very funny. “I get that, big guy. I mean, how?” She was not shaking so badly now, but she stood as if her feet hurt. I grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled, since she wasn’t taking those off so she could get in the warm water. Maybe she hadn’t understood that was the plan yet. So, I swung a loop of my tail over her cold toes as a stopgap measure. She could have some of my warmth.
“I don’t know,” I told her truthfully. “War, disease. It is knowledge the Shaman safeguards.” Artek would know; the Shaman was a very learned male. It was also knowledge the Queen normally had, but I wondered if Thunder Rock’s newest Queen had been informed. Worse, she was actively against educating any of our young males about any of it,including reading and writing. The phrase “knowledge is power” came to mind on that topic.
She slapped away my hand with a mutinous glare. “Easy there, friend. I don’t even know your name yet. I’m definitely not getting undressed unless you look away.” Not undressed? Why? At least she did not seem to protest the prospect of doing so, just my permission to see her body without her coverings. She had also called me “friend,” but the way she said it made me think she was considering me anything but.
“You need to warm up in the warm water,” I hissed at her in warning, pointing at the steaming pool with a claw. “And my name is Khawla. I am the Master Scout of the Thunder Rock Naga.” I hadn’t even realized I hadn’t told her this. She had distracted me with her pretty mouth and sapphire eyes. I tucked my claw into the neckline of her drab gray shirt and yanked, and the fabric split open right down the middle.
To my disappointment, she was not bare beneath the shirt. I had not expected the odd scraps that covered her breasts, but they were enticing and delicate. She was also far curvier than I had expected beneath the shapeless clothing. Her breasts spilled from the fabric that concealed them, her hips widening in an enticing manner. Everything about her body appeared soft, even her scaleless skin.
“Hey! I’m not your mate, remember?” she snapped at me, her arms crossing over her chest as if that could hide the abundant spill of her breasts. My mouth watered, and my tongue flicked out to catch her scent. She was too pretty; she made me ache. My cock was growing so firm inside my pouch that I struggled to keep it from extruding. Her words did not even dampen my arousal, though they lodged like arrows in my chest. How long was she going to hold that over me? Did that mean she knew it was a lie, or did she believe those words were true?
