He frowns, blinks twice, then finally his eyes come back into focus and he looks down at me. “I need to go talk to Kai.”
“Go ahead,” I reply lightly.
He doesn’t elaborate further and looks annoyed as he walks away.
When Fox returns thirty minutes later, he looks even more irritated, jerking his head for me to follow him back to the tent. Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I follow without comment.
Inside the tent, Fox makes a direct beeline for the table where we keep our notes and bends to scribble a quick message on the already nearly full scroll of parchment.
I have to leave.
I stare at the words, my stomach dropping. “What?” I blurt out.
On a hunt. It will probably go overnight.
I exhale, my shoulders dropping. For a second there, I thought he meant he was leaving for good, going back to Vernallis without me. But as the relief washes through me, something else follows—a hollow feeling in my chest.
I don’t want him gone, even for a night. Not without me.
Not that I’m going to tell him that, especially after last night. He’s going to think I took his comment about “belonging to him” seriously, and then he’ll probably think he has to reject me again. Absolutely not, that is not happening.
What are you hunting?
The last wyvern.
I don’t bother asking if I can come. Kai was already clear that outsiders can’t join the hunts, and Fox will probably take it as a sign I’m obsessed with him or something equally pathetic and mortifying.
Trying to keep things casual, I reply:
Will you be back in time to go to the palace?
Yes.
Alright. Good luck.
Fox jerks his head, as if to say:“thanks,”but I don’t need it.
He turns away, still frowning deeply, and I can’t stop myself from whipping a hand out to grasp his arm. He stops and looks back at me, raising a curious eyebrow.
What’s wrong?
His eyebrows raise even higher and scribbles several question marks in a row.
????
You look upset.
I gesture toward my own face and frown dramatically, trying to mime what he looks like. The corners of his mouth turn up slightly, but he still looks frustrated.
Kai is staying here. Viktor will be leading this hunt.
The one you said should be alpha?
I said he is an alpha, not that he should be.
What’s the difference?
Fox sighs, looking irritated again, then writes.
