Page 7 of The Naga Maverick’s Determined Mate

I wanted to bare my teeth at the advice. Damn, I was so riled up I was ready to forsake everything and come to blows with the Outcast leader, just because he was trying to advise me on how to approach my mate. I knew it was true now, like I’d known in my bones from the moment I’d laid eyes on her.

When I freed Cosima from her assailant’s grip, my sigils had flared across my entire front for just a moment as our flesh collided. I was certain she hadn’t seen it, but that bastard had, and he wasn’t talking. I was glad for that, because if there was one thing I knew to be true, it was that Cosima was not ready to acknowledge me yet. I needed to find out why first. I needed to help her heal before she could move on, straight into my coils.

“I’m not sure,” I dared to say to Zathar, “I don’t think any of us know what will help Cosima to find her place here. Don’t you?” Then my eyes narrowed on the crumpled leather bag a little further away in the dirt, right in the location where I’d fought with Scar’at. I headed over without waiting for Zathar’s reply and picked it up, my fingers instantly staining purple from the sap of the Exar berries that had been crushed inside it.

I knew instantly that Cosima had dropped these. I’d watched her every night during dinner, she picked at the good, healthy pieces of meat but ate all her cereals and fruit. Especially the Exar berries, they were her favorite. She was already tiny, but I worried about how little she ate. Why did she not like the meat we hunted? I knew exactly who I had to ask to get this information.

With a nod at Ses over my shoulder, I made my careful, leisurely way back through the palisade. My dragon lost his guarding posture and threw himself in a tight spiral into the air above our heads, then winged away toward the wetlands to gorge himself on some Arazal or Vakarsa. I located the humans just beyond the wall, clustered together while they peered through the gate to see what was going on.

Naomi was at their center, sitting on her strange floating chair. A vehicle that Corin and Krashe had repaired for her to use on days her legs wouldn’t quite obey her the way she liked, or when her mate felt she needed to rest. That one didn’t slow down unless you told her to, always active, always making up new dishes. No complaints from me though, her food was absolutely delicious, which was why it confused me that Cosima didn’t seem to like it.

When I reached the women, I hesitated. There was one major flaw to this plan of mine, Naomi was mated, she could understand what I said, but I couldn’t understand anything she said back. I needed a translator. Damn, that sucked. I had hoped to keep the mated males out of this, they didn’t need to know about my obsession with my flame-haired beauty.

Forging ahead anyway, I smiled at the ladies and held up the pouch of berries. “Can anyone of you tell me why Cosima prefers these over the good meat we hunt? I don’t think she’s eating enough…” The black-haired one glanced over at Naomi with a grin, asking her a question in their strange, lyrical language. To me it always sounded like they were singing. Vera answered, likely translating what I’d said, because Min-Ji, like me, wasn’t mated.

“Krashe!” Naomi called out, and then she pushed the bright green Sleara from her lap. “Fetchmymate!” The little guy flapped into the air with a little chirp and arrowed straight for the gate and the ruby-red shape I could see beyond it. Krashe appeared to be berating two former Copper Tooth males, gesturing wildly as he pointed at the long poles of wood lying next to them. Ah, probably another mistake in what construction parts he wanted fetched. I wondered what it was this time, not flexible enough? Too flexible?

I met the eyes of Vera, Zathar’s mate, and then Min-Ji again who was bouncing on her toes and grinning from ear to ear. The other female, Kalani, wasn’t there, but I could hear her voice further away, the tone clearly implying she was instructing someone. That tone seemed universal, it was an exact, but feminine, match for my old training instructor back at Serqethos.

“What’s wrong, brave heart of mine?” Krashe asked, chasing after Kiwi toward us. I raised an arm in greeting, quickly glancing over his body to see if I hadn’t done him any damage in our scuffle earlier. He might not be so willing to help me with this request if I had. I didn’t notice any obvious marks but Naomi was much more thorough in checking him over when he lifted her in his arms as a greeting.

A pang of jealousy shot through me at the sight but I quickly squashed it and adopted my most easygoing smile. I had a mate, I was working on winning her over. I was a lucky male so there was no need to be jealous of what Krashe already had. I didn’t see my female anywhere but she’d gone through the gate, which meant she was safe, most likely she’d raced for the caves.

“She needs you to translate for her,” I said with a smile, reaching up with a fist to grasp one of the horns rising proudly from my head. I squeezed it as I waited, worried the male would deny the request but he just nodded at his mate and she babbled rapidly in her language at him, gesturing with one hand in the air as she did.

“Ah,” Krashe said, glaring my way, “The weepy one was a not-meat-eater. She prefers to eat vegetables and fruit only but there is not enough of that so she has no choice.” I tried to imagine never eating any meat and just couldn’t. Meat was the tastiest part of the whole meal, to never have a big juicy Arazal steak again? No way! But it was making my female unhappy to eat things she disliked, so I was resolved to find a solution for her.

“Krashe!” Naomi said with a scolding tone, more words following right after she elbowed her mate in the chest. His fierce expression briefly flickered to amused and endeared before he settled a scowl back on his face.

“She cries a lot, she is weepy,” he warned his mate, but his eyes were on me. He was questioning my sanity for showing any interest in a female he clearly deemed weak. Well, he was wrong. Just because she cried easily didn’t mean she wasn’t strong in her own way. I knew it. I recognized her scars even if he didn’t.

More heatedly than was probably wise, I snapped at him, “Maybe she has good reason to cry! Has anyone of you even asked her what is going on? Do any of you know her story?” I knew there was a lot going on, from our strange truce right now with Bitter Storm to the restoring of the ancestral caves and their systems. We were building a new village from the ground up and vetting members who wished to join, a brewing stew of anxious males waiting outside our gates to prove themselves. It was a lot and Cosima and her struggles had been lost in the midst of all that, but not on my watch.

Vera nodded at me, clearly understanding what I’d said and shocking me by agreeing. Krashe begrudgingly translated her words for me as well. “Vera says that Cosima admitted that her fanssssy died. She might be sad about that.” My eyebrow ridges shot up, what in the blazing suns was a fansssy? I had never heard of such a thing. Naomi giggled and then hurriedly corrected her male and he amended, “Her mate died.”

Those words were like a fire went off inside my chest, pain radiating through me. Her mate? But she was my mate. No, I should not look at it that way, and I shook myself out of that strange tangle of thoughts. Humans had no true mates like we Naga did, I had learned that much. She had loved a male once, and he’d died, that was all that mattered to Cosima. She had lost the male she loved, no wonder she was not ready to be mine yet.

“When?” was all I asked, narrowing my eyes on Vera who seemed to be the only one who knew. She shrugged and shook her head, she didn’t know. My eyes lifted back to the caves where I suspected Cosima had run to hide. How much time did she need before she could move on from the death of her lover? I could not compete with a dead male, was I ever going to win her affections now?

I spun around and stalked away without a backward glance. This changed things, but it didn’t change everything. I could still provide for her, so that was what I was going to do.

***

Cosima

“Are you sure about this?” Kalani asked me from where she stood, smack in the center of the training field. The beautiful and extremely confident woman just radiated exotic beauty and calm. I wanted to be her so badly that it hurt. Kalani was the bravest woman here, and if I wanted to make changes, if I wanted to get out of the hole in my head, then I needed to learn from her. Starting with learning how to fight.

“I’m certain. I want to learn how to shoot with a bow, I want to learn how to protect myself. I don’t want to have to rely on rescue ever again, you understand that, don’t you?” I didn’t want to talk more about the reasons why but thankfully, Kalani didn’t press the matter, she just nodded.

“Let’s get you in shape, girl. I can do that!” she offered me a pleased grin. I wasn’t sure if being in shape was the same thing as learning how to fight but I was willing to find out. After being on one endless cleaning spree for the past couple of months, I could probably keep up better than she expected me to. Scrubbing ancient, grime-covered floors was hard work after all.

Two hours later I wasn’t sure if I still agreed with my initial brave thoughts, but I couldn’t regret my choice. It felt good to use my body as Kalani and I worked out side by side. She ran me through tons of physical exercises that focused on building my core strength, and she did them all with me. It felt like a reward when she picked up a bow at the end of the session and showed me how to shoot it.

It felt even better when Min-Ji and Naomi greeted me with excitement when I dropped down on a log by the fire afterward. “You go, girl! I’m so proud of you,” Min-Ji grinned and she waggled her eyebrows, “You looked hella sexy with that bow in your arms. Trust me!” I was pretty sure that the last thing I needed was to look sexy to anyone, but I still felt a rush of warmth at how included I felt right that moment. Their happiness was infectious, and I let it touch me instead of shutting it out by feeling guilty. I was pretty sure that Caleb wouldn’t want me to feel guilty over being happy if he had anything to say about it.

“Someone brought you a gift,” Naomi added, and she pulled another satchel from a basket nearby. I knew instantly what was in it, but this bag was even bigger, filled to overflowing. The berries I enjoyed, my favorite part of any meal these days. I took the bag carefully, and considering how hard I’d worked out, I dug into them like a starving woman.

“Who?” I asked with my mouth full, the fresh and tart tastes hitting me just right. They eased both my thirst and my hunger at the same time, and these were definitely the juiciest, sweetest berries I’d had so far. Whoever had gotten these had gone out of their way to pick only the ripest of them all.