“Of course I want you to untie me,” she snaps.
“That is not a promise to remain here.”
“I will not run away. It’s dark and I have nowhere to go.” Her voice catches, but her posture remains defiant.
“That did not stop your friend.”
She scowls. “Ruby isn’t my friend. She was security, and she knows how to look after herself. She might have already killed your brother.”
I doubt it. Aldit is a fierce warrior. Yet neither of them has returned to us, so perhaps they have been captured by Mia’s people. Or perhaps they are both dead. From fighting each other, or from the animals that live here?
Mia lifts her hand. “Untie me please. I just want to pee and eat and sleep.”
I check with Orik that Bridget has behaved.
He nods.I kept her on the rope until we made camp. I think she is resigned that she will never go home.
I glance at her, sitting on the blanket with her knees drawn up to her chest.
We have all felt that.
The sudden loss of all that is familiar, and the sense of being adrift and alone. Except these women are not alone. They have each other. We had to find each other and learn to trust another banished warrior.
And Mia?
She hasn’t accepted this is her new life.She is seeking a third option.
Orik laughs, startling both women. They wouldn’t have realized we were talking. It must be terrible to have such muted senses. To be so unaware of others.There is no other option. You are banished or you are not.
Yet, like Mia, I had once hoped to find another option. I was young and too selfish to think how my wants would affect my tribe and beyond. What if women started to choose fourth sons as mates? Who would then be banished?
There would be far too many males in the tribe, and no third son would want to leave. They might even attack their younger brother. There would be fights and bloodshed that would tear apart families and tribes.
I understand why I was punished—to show the other fourth sons what would happen if they thought they could break the laws—and why she had to choose one of my brothers instead.
I undo the rope around Mia’s wrist. Her skin is red and raw where the course fibers have rubbed, and I have no salve to soothe the chafing.
She casts her gaze around, taking in the fire and the blankets. “Is there anything to eat?”
“There will be soon.” Orik says as he stands. “I will catch a serpent if you protect them.”
Mia snorts.
“You do not sense them, but we do. There are big creatures out there who are listening to us the way we are listening to them. We are both trying to determine the size of the threat and the risk of the fight.” I place my hand on her neck over her pulse.I can sense their heartbeat. The same way I can sense yours.
Her eyes widen, and she becomes prettier. “Only because you are touching my pulse.”
I send a spark from my kam, down my markings, to the tips of my fingers, so it dances over her skin.You have a charge, every creature does.
Beneath my fingertips, her pulse quickens. I like the way she is staring up at me with her dark eyes. They are like a starless night. The firelight flickers over her bronze skin, and I want to taste her.
I pull my hand away but my meq has hardened and I am unable to hide my interest. How long until my markings glow with the need to mate?
It is not Mia who needs to run off into the night. It is me.
I cannot go into rut. But having tasted it before, my body is primed and being close to a woman might trigger it without any mating.
“Do what you need to, but do not stray too far from the firelight.” I make my words as gruff as possible. But as I watch her walk toward a tree, my meq pulses and I am tempted to follow and claim her.
