“Law?” I echo, marveling at the brutal practice. “And what would happen—”
“Cyphus would heal up and come again for Tage. He would keep coming until he succeeded. Until he killed Tage.”
I make a slight sound of acknowledgment at the explanation.
By the time I look to Tage, he’s shifted back again, puncture marks and scratches all over his body. He straightens from where he hunkers over Cyphus, wiping the back of his hand along hisbloody nose, the only nod he gives to being less than wholly intact. He’s as cold as ice, his expression merciless. Gesturing to the body, he directs the others, “See to him.”
The three jump to action.
Tage’s voice rings out with more ferocity. “And just so there is no confusion among any of you, she is under my protection. If anyone mistreats her again, you can look for another pride to join. It won’t be this one. And if that means it’s just me...” He shrugs fatalistically. “I already left one nest of vipers years ago. I’d rather go at it alone than live again in a pride without heart or honor.”
Viggo answers. “Understood, Alpha.”
“We’re with you,” Danhy adds.
Merik nods vigorously.
Eyes still fierce, Tage turns to me, but I stand my ground. I even manage not to shrink away when he approaches and sweeps me up into his sweat- and blood-streaked body. I swallow back my sound of protest.
“Now.” Tage looks at each of them, adjusting me a little higher in his arms. “I’ll attend to her wounds—”
Danhy speaks up, coming alive. “What of your own injuries?”
“I’m fine. I can tend to the both of us.”
“Viggo or I can attend to her for you,” she offers, “so that you may—”
“I have her.”
Danhy blinks her umber eyes. “In...your den?”
“Not that it is anyone’s concern, but it won’t be the first time she’s shared my den.” At the truth of that, Danhy’s face burns bright beneath her tan skin, and I have no doubt she’s remembering Cyphus’s words.You want to fuck her.
Viggo looks away uncomfortably, and I know he’s recalling it, too.
Merik, the newcomer, hangs back, watching with wide-eyed interest.
In my touch-starved state, I don’t relish spending another night alone with him in his den. Not after how I behaved with him in thehot spring. My throat suddenly thickens at the memory of us locked together.
Invisible—unseen or not—I really need to get back to Penterra. I don’t know how much more of this I can withstand.
I look up at the hard set of his handsome features, determination etched over every line and hollow—in the deep set of his eyes, in the sweep of his inky lashes, in the sensual curve of his mouth. The scent of battle clings to him...the fight still fresh on his body, in the flex of his jaw, in the strain and contraction of his muscles beneath his skin.
I tell myself sharing his den is a perfunctory move. For him, it’s about my safety. Maybe he feels guilt after what happened to me and thinks I deserve the comfort of his furs. I don’t know. But I do know this does not involve emotion or intimacy. He’s the leader of this pride. The alpha. The blood on the air, filling my nose, just made that indisputable.
I can share a den with him. He can even remain naked.
It doesn’t have to mean anything. Nothing has to happen. I can keep my hands to myself and stay to my side of the furs. The echo of his words replayed through my head.I won’t touch you again.
Carrying me, Tage sweeps past the others and marches down the tunnel into his den. I twist my fingers in my lap to keep them from brushing all of his warm, beckoning skin still humming from recent combat.
I clear my throat and decide to try to steer the conversation into something other than the dead body behind us. “What happened out there? While you were gone? I heard the fighting. They sounded so close.”
“Humans at war. What else?” Tage expels a weary sigh. “They were close. For now, we’re safe. The threat has passed. The humans have moved out of our territory.”
My shoulders ease a bit at this, and I didn’t realize how much this still lurks in my mind as a worry.
We enter his den, and I look around as though it might havechanged in the time since I was last here. Five days, I think. I’m not even sure how much time passed while I was tethered to that boulder. Even beyond that, how long since I first joined them in this cavern.
