Unable to resist, he leaned down, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
She’s mine. My mate. And I’m hers.
He still hadn’t quite gotten over the disconcerting feeling of not being able to feel his kangaroo within him, echoing his thoughts or arguing with him in its irritating way, but he believed Zina when she said it’d be back soon. As strange as it felt and as little as he liked it, he could put up with anything if it was only temporary.
“Mmm…mmm…”
Muttering in her sleep again, Zina stirred, before her eyes fluttered open. She seemed disorientated for a moment, but then her eyes swept up, focusing on his face.
“Oh, good,” she said after a moment of lookingveryhard into his eyes. “I was worried that was all a dream for a moment. It surefeltlike a dream.”
“Nope. Sorry.” Trent smiled at her. “’Fraid not.”
Zina shook her head, sitting up and running her fingers over her short hair. “Well, thanks for not taking the opening I just gave you to gloat and smirk, I guess,” she said, glancing back at him with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. “Don’t let what I said about it feeling like a dream go to your head, though.”
“I would never,” Trent said, sitting up next to her. “Don’t worry – I’ll keep doing my best to try to impress you.”
Zina’s smile was brief, but brilliant. “Good to hear.”
Looking around her, her eyes fell on the bag containing the box with the eggs fitted snugly inside it. Following her gaze, Trent felt a pang of guilt. He didn’t feel good about the decision he’d had to make not to take them to Tahnee’s sanctuary. But right now, he wasn’t sure what other decision hecouldmake. If this Bloodhound guy was as dangerous and tenacious as Zina seemed to think he was, then he couldn’t risk it. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t feel terrible about exposing the eggs to more danger.
“Do you want a bit of breakfast?” Trent asked, as Zina reached for her shirt. “We have some bikkies and tea, if that suits your fancy.”
“Uh, sure, sounds great, whatever bikkies are,” Zina said. She swallowed as she stood up, reaching for her bag. “Uh, but before that, I just wanted to say that… that I’m sorry.”
Trent cocked his head, honestly confused. “For what?”
“For… for being so dumb about this whole thing,” Zina said, grimacing. “For not realizing sooner that… that we were mates. I was so caught up in everything I just never thought… I mean, it wasright there,staring me in the face the whole time. I just never really thought about the whole mated bond or anything like that before. I always just had my job, and that was it. I wasn’t evenlookingfor my mate. I always just thought it’d be a distraction. So I guess… maybe I didn’twantto see it. But even despite that, it still led me back to you. It led me back to the one person in the whole world I knew I’d be able to trust. Even if I didn’t knowwhy.”
Trent’s heart swelled as she spoke. “It’s okay, Zina. I admit, I was kind of confused when you didn’t seem to feel the bond yourself – but then, I was confused as to whether you evenwerea shifter andwouldbe able to feel it to begin with. But I understand it now – and to be honest, as happy as I am that’s all been cleared up, wedohave a few things on our plate just now. Being mates means we know we can trust each other, but we can sort out the rest once we’ve figured out what to do with your little guys, yeah?”
Taking in a deep breath, Zina nodded. “Yeah. One thing at a time, I guess.”
Trent found he couldn’t argue with that. Pulling on his jeans, he made his way over to the car, where their food supplies would be waiting for them. Biscuits and tea wouldn’t be the most amazing breakfast he’d ever had, but it would do for now.
Oh, bonus,he thought, as he prized open the Esky and remembered they’d also bought some bananas and apples. So at least they’d have a bit of fresh fruit, too.
He was just collecting their humble bounty together when he heard Zina’s shocked cry from where they’d spent the night.
“No!”
His head snapped around, immediately on the alert for danger. But without his kangaroo, his senses felt blunted. It was impossible to make anything out. “Zina?!”
Fear shot through his veins as he raced back to where he’d left her. He found her kneeling on the blanket they’d slept on, her hands wrapped around the sleek black box that housed the precious eggs.
“Zina, what’s wrong?!”
She looked up at him, terror etched into every line of her face, her fingers still curled around the box.
“One of the eggs,” she managed to get out, her voice strained and tight. “It’s – it’s broken. I was just checking on them, and I saw –”
Trent blinked, horror coursing through him. It must have happened while they were on the run, and not able to be as careful with the eggs as they should have been, he thought, as he knelt by Zina’s side. The boxseemedsecure, but nothing was completely safe, especially with something so delicate and precious.
Swallowing, Trent looked down into the box, expecting to see a shattered mess of eggshell – but instead, on a first inspection at least, nothing seemed amiss. But on a closer look, he saw what Zina was talking about – one of the dark blue eggs had a distinct crack running through it, marring its perfect surface.
Shit.
Trent shook his head. He’d thought they were keeping the eggs safe – and he felt guilty enough as it was not being able to take them to safety at Tahnee’s sanctuary. Now, to find out that because of his carelessness, they might have damaged one of the eggs, perhaps fatally –
