"Yeah." And he held out his hand. "I'm sorry we didn't really meet last time, Ayla. I was just curious how she's doing for you."
"She's amazing!" Ayla said, bending down to hug and pet Pepper. "And she gets along with Holly really well. I've been teaching her how to help me hunt, and she's so good!"
"My partner always said she was a little too aggressive."
Ayla made a face and shook her head. "She likes to use her teeth, but we're working on that. She's such an amazing dog, and I'm sorry about your partner."
"Me too," he agreed. "I think she'd be happy to know Pepper's found someone to love her, though. I was never a dog person, but you clearly are."
The way that made Ayla beam? I had a feeling hearing it from someone else, someone who should be judging her, only made her believe his words more. We'd told her dozens of times that she was good at this, but her smile proved it hit differently from a stranger.
"Well, don't want to interrupt," Moldan said. "I was just hoping I could pet her one more time."
"Any time you want," Ayla assured him.
So Moldan knelt down and murmured soft words to Pepper. Oddly, the dog ignored him. Oh, she didn't try to leave, but thewhole time he was ruffling her fur, Pepper looked up at Ayla as if waiting for her next command. I'd thought Rymar was simply trying to spoil our woman by buying her yet another dog, but now I had a front row seat to what he'd tried to explain.
"You're right. That's her dog," I said softly.
"Yeah, she is," Kanik agreed. "Rymar did good."
"Again," I added.
"Shut up," Rymar grumbled. "And we don't want to be late for this."
He tried to walk off, but I caught his arm, holding him in place. "I'm making a new rule in this relationship. If Ayla's being cute, everything else can wait. Holding your hand counts as cute, Ry. The last thing we want to do is make her think she's annoying us."
"I mean," Kanik said, "if she was holding my hand, it might as well be a leash. I'd follow her as loyally as Holly."
"Rymar's more like Pepper," I joked. "Loyal, but too afraid to show it."
"Fuck off," he groaned.
But this time, when he walked away, he headed straight for her. I watched as he shook Moldan's hand, said a few more words, then turned Ayla toward the seating area. Beside me, Kanik chuckled under his breath, but more like he was impressed than amused.
"Guess that talk you had with him is working?" I asked.
Kanik hummed as if weighing that. "He's trying. Ry's problem is he has so many people tell him what they think he wants to hear that he has to figure it out for himself each and every time. He's getting there, though."
"And she doesn't play by our rules," I pointed out. "Ayla's values are based on very different things than what we're used to."
"But you're missing the obvious problem, Zasen," Kanik told me. "She's gorgeous. That woman has fleshed out, muscled up, and turned into the kind of woman who could have any man she wants. She also doesn't have a tail, so those looking to settle down would put her at the top of their lists. And here we are, thinking we're not good enough because all of us have insecurities, but we keep forgetting that in her culture, we're the ones offering something she thinks is impossible to find."
"Yeah," I agreed. "And yet I don't want to count on her ignorance to allow me to give her less than she deserves. One day, she'll barely remember her time down there. When that happens, I still want her to think we're the right men for her."
"Which is why we're all so paranoid," Kanik said. "Now go make arrangements, Wyvern."
I slapped his back and turned him to walk with me. Together, we found a place to sit at the front, where any of us could stand and address the group without acting like we were taking over. Then we waited.
Eventually, Eriska moved to stand before the flames. "All right!" she called out. "It's been determined that we have enough meat. The problem is what comes next. Our goal is to send that meat to the Moles, hoping it will keep them locked in their little caves a while longer. This is where the problem comes in."
"They'll come when we're not looking!" someone called out.
That was when I stood. "Hopefully, I have a plan for that," I said, looking at Eriska for permission to keep going.
She gestured for me to take over and stepped aside, but not away. "All yours, Zasen."
So I moved before the flames, feeling my tail whip to the side to avoid the heat. "In order to move this much meat, we're going to need volunteers. Currently, I think we have four carts filled with game. I'd like to have between ten and twenty people help with this plan."
