Mot!I’d come out here to help her, to bring her back, and all I was doing was hurting her again and again. I had no idea one person could hurt another so much without touching them at all. I hated myself for it. I would not be the cause of her pain, not when I wanted so desperately to be the cause of her joy instead.
“Fine,” I relented. “We will go to my moon cave. It’s not far from here.”
Her eyes grew wide with surprise. “Really?”
She quickly schooled her features to be more harsh. “Good. That’s good. I wasn’t going back, anyway.”
I restrained myself from rolling my eyes at her stubbornness and led the way through the trees to my cave.
Chapter 7
Ashley
I followed Axon, as we trudged through the rain down a lesser-worn path than the one I’d taken to get to the kala.
I knew I shouldn’t have called him out like I had. The only thing I’d succeeded in was hurting my own feelings.
Was it really so awful to touch me? If I were being chased down by jagwas, would he touch me then? He’d probably be gagging the entire time if he did.
No, no, no! I would not cry again. Get it together Ashley! I knew better than to think about Axon or to wonder why he loathed touching me. All it ever did was make me cry, and I would not cry in front of Axon. I would not let him see my pain. It was my pain, mine alone, and I didn’t want to share it with anybody.
I’d come here to figure things out alone, and while I was thankful that we weren’t going back to the mountain, Axon was the last person I wanted to be stuck in a cave with. It hurt too much to be around him. I felt too vulnerable already, too raw. If Axon were to accidentally touch me now, and shudder withdisgust, there was no way I’d be able to hold back my tears.
“Not much further,” Axon called over his shoulder. He glanced back and gave me a weak smile. I nodded my head in acknowledgment, but I didn’t smile back.
He thinned his lips in a sad expression and turned back around.
We passed a few more trees and turned along a bend in the path. Then, through the brush, emerged a large cave. There was no boulder blocking the entrance, instead webbing covered the whole thing from top to bottom.
“Welcome to my moon cave.” Axon gave me a sheepish smile as he brought a clawed finger down through the middle of his webbing, clearing the way for our entrance.
Once inside, he covered the entrance with webbing again. I’d only ever seen him using his webbing that one time, when he secured that healing leaf to my aching foot on our first trip to the mountain.
He shuddered when he touched me then, too. He complimented me on how soft my skin was, so I didn’t think anything of it. But now I knew better. Someone doesn’t suddenly shift when they are accidentally touched by someone else unless they really hate the feeling of their skin on theirs.
That didn’t explain why he flirted with me for such a long time, or why he gave me an admittedlythoughtful Valentine’s Day gift. Maybe he was a masochist. He didn’t seem to have the self-loathing the other guys did, but maybe he was just better at hiding it. Maybe he saw me as his punishment.
Flirt with Ashley, so she’ll touch you, which you hate, but you deserve the pain you gross shifter...
No, now I was just letting my imagination get the best of me. It was easier to make up stories in my head than be left in the dark. Axon confused me, and I was already confused enough about everything else.
“It’s not big, but I hope you find it to be a comfortable place to wait out the storm.”
His words brought me back to reality, and I took in the sight of his immaculate moon cave for the first time.
Is Axon bougie, because this place is about as bougie as it gets on Valo Prime. The entire cave was covered in soft moss from floor to ceiling, which made it both incredible to walk on and sound proof. The difference between the sound of the rain outside verses in here was insane.
The ceiling also had those adorable glow worms that the silent cave had back in the mountain. We won’t need to light a fire unless we get cold.
A small stream of water, no wider than two inches across, ran on the floor alongside the wall.
“Is this fresh water?” It’d be nice to have such easy access to clean drinking water while we were here.
“Yep, it’s filtered through the rocks, so it’s safe todrink.”
Axon’s tail swayed behind him in a nervous gesture. Was he anxious about showing me his cave?
“It’s very nice, very comfy.” I assured him and he seemed to relax at my words.
