“Look at me!”
The bar trembled above Tess’s head. Polly couldn’t see Njkall behind her, but she could feel him. Tense. Ready. Waiting.
“Tess,” she said as calmly as she could. “He isn’t going to hurt you.”
“He’s one of them!”
“No. He’s Njkall.”
Tess took another step towards her and Njkall growled, the sound rolling through the cave.
Tess gave a panicked cry, and the bar started down.
CHAPTER FOUR
Njkall’s hand closed around the bar a hand’s breadth from Polly’s skull. The rusted metal bit into his palm and the shock of the blow traveled up his arm. Another growl, deep and grinding, emerged from his throat before he could stop it. His mate had almost been broken in front of him.
The other human female froze. She stared up at him, and every drop of color that the cold had left in her face drained out of it. Her fingers went slack on the bar, and she scrambled back into a crevice, crouching down with her arms over her head.
Restraint,he told himself, and he unclenched his jaw. He unclenched his hand and let the bar drop. The growl died in his throat, although it cost him. He had come within a breath of watching that bar cave in Polly’s skull. His hands were still shaking with it.
“Njkall,” Polly said sharply. She was on her feet between them, looking at the cowering female in the corner. “Stop. You’re scaring her.”
“She nearly—” He made himself stop and breathe. “You put yourself in front of it.”
“I know.”
“You put yourself between her and the bar.”
“Iknow, Njkall.” She said it without turning around, and there was a steel in her voice he rarely heard from her. Her voice softened as she sank back down on the cold floor, making herself small and safe again. “Tess, look at me. It’s all right. He wasn’t going to hurt you. He thought you were going to hurt me, that’s all. He was protecting me. He would never touch you. Never. I promise.”
Tess didn’t lift her head, but she didn’t lunge, either. Her breath came in ragged, whistling gasps behind the shield of her arms. He stood very still. He knew that fear. He had spent a year learning to make himself smaller so it would ease from Polly’s eyes. He took one slow step back, into the passage, until the shadows took most of him and only his outline remained.
“I’ll back away, little one,” he said, his voice as soothing as he could make it. “But perhaps it would be best to continue making friends outside. Before the branch collapses.” Another groan from the rock underlined his words.
Polly looked over her shoulder at him, her grey eyes wide and her lips pressed into a thin line, but she nodded.
“Tess,” she said. “We need to go.”
The female stayed curled into a ball, shaking. He leaned his shoulders against the cold rock and closed his eyes and let his mate do the thing he could not do. It was not in his nature to stand aside. Every instinct he owned wanted to gather up hismate and this other fragile creature and carry them somewhere warm and safe and defended, whether they liked it or not. He held himself still against the stone and did not.
“Please.” Polly’s voice cracked, but she held her ground. “Tess. You’re freezing, and you’re still scared, I know, but I can’t leave you here. Please come with me.”
A long moment passed. Another trickle of stones fell from the ceiling, and Tess finally raised her head, slowly.
“Can I have my weapon?”
“Of course,” Polly said.
He waited until Tess had picked up the bar, keeping his entire body perfectly still. He didn’t move towards her. He backed slowly out of the cave, giving them the whole width of the passage, and he let Polly lead her out.
The other warriors had backed away, not gone but hidden in the snow, and only Cera remained. He’d brought a small sled with him, piled high with furs, and after both females were tucked under them, he picked up the guide rope and began the trek back to the caves. As he walked, the female began, haltingly, to talk.
Tess hadn’t been intentionally dumped on Hothrest. She had escaped when the ship she was on put down on Hothrest for supplies. A fight had erupted at the cargo hold and in the confusion, she’d managed to grab the bar, knock out her guard, and run. She’d run into the snow with nothing but the thin clothes on her back and that metal bar. She had run until she couldn’t run anymore, and then she had crawled into a hole to die.
That was the shape of it. He had heard enough stories like it to fill in the rest, and he knew Polly had no intention of making her say the parts she couldn’t.
Someone had brought a captive human to his world, and he intended to find out who. When they reached the caves, Polly helped Tess into the healer’s cave while he waited outside and pulled out his communicator.
