Instead, she found herself rooted to the spot, staring at the picture they made—this massive warrior and his small daughter, alone in their cave at the edge of the world, so clearly, desperately lonely.
Walk away,she told herself.This isn’t your problem. They aren’t your people. You have your own chains to carry without taking on someone else’s.
“What’s your name?” she asked instead.
For a long moment she didn’t think he’d answer, but he spoke just as she finally turned to go.
“I am Valrek.”
“Then I wish you well, Valrek.” She nodded and turned to leave.
“Wait.”
His voice caught her at the threshold. She turned to find him watching her, Lilani half-asleep against his shoulder.
“I meant what I said.” The words seemed to cost him something, dragged out of some deep place that didn’t give them up willingly. “I owe you a debt I cannot repay.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“You saved my daughter.” His golden eyes blazed in the firelight. “This debt stands. Whether you want it or not.”
Unable to think of a response, she finally just nodded and left.
CHAPTER 5
The net refused to cooperate, and Valrek fumbled with the braided cord for the fourth time. The repair should have been simple, a straightforward splice where the storm had torn through the weave. He’d done this a thousand times before, in the dark, in the rain, half-asleep and fully exhausted.
Tonight, his hands couldn’t complete the task.
Three nights. Three nights of pacing the cave entrance like a caged animal, scenting the wind for something that wasn’t there. His beast hadn’t stopped prowling since Ariella left—restless, hungry, demanding in a way it had never been before.
She’s not coming back. Why would she come back?
He’d been cold to her, growling at her like she was a threat instead of the female who’d saved his daughter’s life. He’d warned her away from his territory with all the warmth of a predator defending his kill.
Because that’s what you are,his beast rumbled.A predator. A broken exile playing at domesticity. She was right to leave.
But she’d looked back. Just once, before the darkness of the cave entrance had swallowed her. Those luminous specks on her skin had pulsed with something that might have been curiosity, might have been fear, might have been?—
Stop.
He pressed his palms against his eyes until stars burst behind them. This was madness. She was human—or close enough. Modified, perhaps, but still one of them. The people who’d hunted his kind, who’d called them beasts and monsters, who’d driven him from the city for daring to have a relationship with a human female.
And yet.
And yet she smelled like cold sea and warm honey,his beast supplied helpfully.And yet her voice made the air vibrate in ways that you felt deep inside. And yet when your hands touched?—
He groaned and tried to concentrate on the net as Lilani chattered at his side.
“—and then she glowed, Papa, she glowed like the little fish that come to the edge of the water when it’s really dark, but bigger, and prettier, and her glow was blue at first but then it went purple and I think that means she was feeling things because you know how when I’m sad my eyes get all?—”
“Lilani.”
“—watery and red? Well I think her skin does that but with colors and isn’t that amazing? Do you think she can glow other colors too? I bet she can glow green. Or pink. Oh! What if she can glow rainbow?—”
“Lilani.”
His daughter paused mid-breath, her small body practically vibrating where she sat on the pile of furs. The cut on her forehead hadn’t dampened her enthusiasm in the slightest. If anything, nearly drowning had only increased her energy, like the ocean had poured its chaos directly into her veins.
