Page 33 of Hunter’s Harvest

He’d survived through a lot more than this. He was going to be fine.

But what if… What if he wasn’t?

***

The hotel room was too damn small without my seven feet of purple muscles and massive horns.

The sun had set hours ago, and the settlement was getting ready for bed. But there was still no word from Var’n. How could there be? He didn’t have a working device.

Where the hell was he?

“You’re going to wear a groove into the floorboards,” Kim admonished from the doorway. “Come with me to grab some leftovers from the cafeteria before they put them away for the night. You haven’t eaten.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You are. You just don’t feel it. Come on. We can talk. I want to know what happened. You didn’t look super happy stuck to that hunter, but now that he’s gone you look worse.” Kim grabbed me by the arm and guided me to the door.

“Because it is worse. They cornered us, and Var’n just shoved me at Mal’k and ordered him to take me away. He wasn’t even armed.”

“You’ve seen these hunters work, haven’t you? They don’t need weapons. I bet you he ran circles around those assholes.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No, I don’t, but I’m willing to bet my chocolate bar collection on it.”

I grimaced. “That’s not a lot.”

“It’s something.”

We stepped out into the chilled evening air, and I immediately regretted not putting something extra on. Luckily for us, the main survivor building was just across the “street” and down a few buildings, which wasn’t a street anymore. The settlers had turned it into a plant-filled courtyard.

She opened the door and urged me inside. “What changed during your trip? I was getting the distinct feeling that you weren’t exactly happy about the mating the last time I saw you.”

I sighed. “Do you remember how I cried when I found you because I was afraid of losing you all over again?”

“Yes, of course I remember. I said you were being silly.”

“I’ve been avoiding getting close to anybody. It’s why I stayed with my group there. We are so busy and short-staffed that we don’t have time to hang out and bond and all that stuff. I thought if I kept my heart out of it, I wouldn’t break it again. I couldn’t stand losing any more people.”

“So you avoided connection. I get it. That’s actually a very common coping mechanism.”

“It was impossible to avoid connecting with Var’n when he was literally stuck to me. It was threatening. It was the worst connection I could make. Xarc’n warriors go out into danger every single day. I’d never survive it. But then I found Mari again. I realized that it didn’t matter how far I stayed away from people. It still hurt when I lost them. And I was only hurting myself by not forming any connections.” My voice cracked. “I was going to tell him when we got back that I was all-in on the mating.”

“Oh, Nells, I’m so sorry.“

I was afraid to breathe, afraid to inhale at all lest I fell apart and broke down right here. I looked around to see where “here” was. Kim had led me to the cafeteria. It was mostly empty now that the dinner rush was over. But there were people here grabbing a midnight snack.

Kim was by my side giving me a hug. “It’s not over. Like I said, these guys are tough. And he doesn’t have a shuttle, so it’s going to take him some time to get here. But he will.”

“Thanks, sis.” I knew she was doing her best to calm me.

The cafeteria door opened, and Vince stepped in. Despite the black eye, he looked a lot better. There was color in his face now, and he didn’t look like death warmed over. “There you are! Mari just woke up.”

“She did?” I perked up.

“Yup. Hungry as fuck too.” He went over to the self-serve buffet, grabbed several pan-sized pies, and placed them on a tray. “Let’s get these to her.”

I followed him over to the mothership building, again regretting not bringing my jacket.