His ever-present frown was in place. I thought that he was a handsome male. Not nearly as handsome as Seerin, but I thought if he didn’t scowl so much, he would be very appealing. His mate obviously thought so, though perhaps not quite at that moment since they’d been arguing.
He didn’t reply, but I still turned regardless, walking towards thepyrokienclosure. I liked to watch them in their nests, though my regular presence often irritated themrikro, thepyrokimaster. Then again, he was a cranky older male, who seemed irritated at most members of the horde, not just me. He loved thepyrokimost of all.
I heard thepujerak’sfootsteps after a moment of hesitation and when I reached the fence of the enclosure, I saw he was only a few paces behind me.
“Neffar?” he growled, his mood already soured from his argument with his female.
Pressing my lips tight, I looked at him carefully. He’d never liked me, even back at the village. It was him I’d spoken to first, not Seerin, that day the horde had come for me.
“What did you talk about at the council meeting that night?” I asked.
His eyes flared. He knew which council meeting I spoke of. The one where everything had changed. Seerin’s mood that night when he’d returned to thevoliki, and in the morning before he’d ended us, had been so…strange. I often thought about that and I wondered what had been said that would make him sochanged. The change in him had been like night and day.
“The council’s business is private and—”
“I need to know,” I said, looking up into his eyes, unflinchingly. Determination pulsed in my veins. “Please.”
His nostrils flared with a sharp breath and his features squeezed in an expression that I thought looked like…shame? But why?
After a long, tense pause, he finally murmured, “That night, we threatened to leave the horde.”
I inhaled a quick breath, stunned.
“Who?” I asked. “Allof you?”
“The three elders on the council, the head warrior…and myself.”
“Youthreatened to leave?” I rasped, disbelief spinning in my mind. I reached out a hand to steady myself on thepyrokienclosure. “But your Seerin’s…you’re his closest friend. He loves you.”
I was in such shock that I didn’t even realize I’d used Seerin’s given name until thepujerak’slips pressed together.
“I am his friend,” he said. “Or at least I was. I betrayed his trust with my bluff.”
So, he’d never meant to leave. It was only a manipulative ruse to get Seerin to end his relationship with me. It had worked too…until it backfired.
“He’s barely spoken to me since,” he said softly, his eyes shifting from me to thepyrokis.
It was a soft admission, one he probably hadn’t meant to reveal to me of all people, but it tore from him as if he couldn’t stop it.
He seemed to realize that because he straightened ever so slightly, swallowing, embarrassed.
“There were other factors, though,” he said gruffly, “that we brought to his attention. Other members of the horde had also announced they would leave after the thaw. Almost two dozen, many of them warriors.”
Discomfort made me shift. “Because of me.”
He didn’t confirm or deny it, which only added to my guilt. It started to make sense, why Seerin had changed so drastically that night. He’d been betrayed by a male he thought of as a brother, who had been at his side sinceDothik. He’d been blindsided by hisentirecouncil, who’d threatened to leave. And not only that but he also risked losing a significant number of his horde.
Briefly, I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping the fence until my knuckles turned white.
“He didn’t tell me any of those things,” I whispered. All he’d said was that it had become clear to him that I couldn’t be hisMorakkari.
Because he’d been backed into a corner by the advisors he trusted.
So what had changed? Even knowing that his council and horde threatened him, he’d still decided to come after me, to bring me back, to want me as hisMorakkariregardless.
Seerin loved his horde but…
Is it possible that he loves me even more?I asked myself.
