While he was still asleep, I thought I’d get up and grab our breakfast rations instead of him grabbing breakfast for me like he normally did, but as soon as I tried to rise from our bed, I felt strong arms hold tightly around my middle.
“Let me up. I want to grab the breakfast rationsfor us,” I giggled.
“Never. That’s my job, my honor to provide for you, my mate.”
My mate. God I loved hearing that from him.
“You honor me by staying in bed.”
Axon got up and tightly tucked the top fur around me in an attempt to keep me where I was. I wasn’t going to get up, but his effort made me smile.
He returned with two pouches full of dried food for us to munch on. We ate as the sun rose through the trees. The golden light danced along the dark purple hues of the forest, creating a picture perfect fall image, and I was glad to be seeing it with my mate.
“You ready?” Axon asked as I closed the pouches shut. I looked him up and down and noted the tension had returned to his shoulders.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I want to know the truth whether I’m ready for it or not.”
That was understandable. There were some truths a person could never really be ready for.
Hand-in-hand we headed out into the forest. This time there was no path to follow. Axon used his keen sense of direction, memory of the area, and his heightened senses to guide us.
“It’s not much further,” he assured me as the sun started to rise high in the sky.
It wasn’t long after that, when we ascended a hill that overlooked the valley, his childhood home.It was beautiful. Trees that I’d never seen before had heavy branches that drooped low from the fruit they carried. We hadn’t had fresh fruit in weeks since the weather turned cold.
A deep anger festered in the pit of my stomach on Axon’s behalf, for all the guys. This place was lush and beautiful, and most of all, safe, and they’d been banished from it as children.
I was once again very thankful that Axon’s parents had chosen to come with him into exile. They not only parented Axon, but they became stand-in parents for a lot of the guys. They were becoming like second parents to me too, which I appreciated after losing the family I had once I was abducted.
“Are you alright?” I squeezed Axon’s hand in reassurance.
“No, not really.” He looked over the lush green land. “There’s a reason I never came back here.” He clenched his jaw. His expression turning resolute. “Let’s get this over with.”
I agreed wholeheartedly with that plan. Axon took us the long way around the valley to a dense forest.
“The priestess’ home in this way.” He stopped and took in our surroundings. His nostrils flared and his gaze darkened. “I can smell them everywhere. The males of this dekes. The ones that tried to take Taylor from Brexl.”
He shifted into his spider form and once again I was struck by how powerful he looked. Otherthan the hard exoskeleton that covered his arms and shoulders, he remained mostly the same from his head to the bottom of his torso. But below that he was fully spider, complete with a large abdomen section and six thick spider legs. I knew exactly how fast those legs could take him. I’d seen him in action once before when we were attacked on our first journey to the mountain. He was not a male to be messed with, that was for sure.
“I want you to ride my back again. It’s the best way for me to make sure you’re safe in case we run into anyone.”
“That sounds good to me,” I agreed. Anything to help keep our journey safe.
Axon lowered himself for me and I rode on his back through the dense forest until we approached a lone house with smoke billowing out of a small chimney.
“That’s her place up that hill.” My mate whispered.
Our approach was slow and silent. Axon’s spider legs didn’t make a sound as they trekked across the forest floor.
Once we were close enough, he helped me off him and shifted back into his sirret form.
We silently stood in front of the door. Axon’s tail nervously whipped behind him as he mustered up the courage to do what we’d come here for. I took his hand in mine and squeezed.
“Let’s do this.” He said aloud before knockingon the door.
I had been expecting an older sirret to open the door but instead it was a young woman who looked to be about my age.
