Page 13 of His Human to Chase

“Fucking liar!” Skylar screams at him and throws an elbow back against his abdomen. She is coated in the other male’s blood, but her fury is righteous and blinding as she tries to get away from the male holding her. “I told you and your stupid friends I was mated.”

I step closer to him, and his claws immediately shoot back out to touch my Skylar’s neck, silencing her and causing a look of terror to cross her face instead of her indignation. Bile rises in my throat. Skylar’s eyes are rimmed with tears, but she does not let them fall. She is not used to killing. At least, I do not think she is. She is handling it much better than I would have ever expected, though. I am handling it much better than I expected since these are the first lives I have ever taken that did not belong to olack for food. I will worry about my feelings about this once I have Skylar back in my room in the tribe, alone and in my arms.

“Release her, and I offer you a quick death,” I snarl, “If I have to pry her from your claws, I will make you beg for death for many days, and even then, I may not give it to you.”

The male’s eyes widen just a bit more, and then my Skylar is dropped to the grass. She scrambles onto her feet, her body tenses like she’s preparing to fight him off, but she no longer needs to protect herself. I will make the male pay, and then I will beg for her forgiveness since I could not keep her safe. I keep my eyes on my mate as she bares her teeth and holds her hands up like she wants to strike the male. She backs up slowly until she is close enough to me that I can pull her behind me.

“Please, please,” the male begs as I move closer to him.

His pleas are nothing to me. He is nothing to me. He should be grateful I offer him a quick death when it is taking all of my restraint not to tie him to a tree, cut open his abdomen, and leave him for the verpar to feast on tonight. He utters one more beg before my claws rip out his throat, and his body falls lifeless to the grass.

Skylar.

She is the only thing that matters in my entire life. She is what gives me happiness, what calms my rage, what eases the pain I feel. All of this she does for me, and the one thing I must do for her, the only thing that truly matters, is keeping her safe. I have failed at this. I have failed and proved myself unworthy of being a chosen warrior. Proved myself unworthy of my mate.

Still, I turn to her, and I place a hand on her back. She is shaking violently, but she doesn’t make a sound as she stares up at me with blood dripping from her pretty pale hair. Her body is still tense. A soft whimper escapes her lips, and she throws her small body against mine. She still needs me. She still comes to me for comfort. I need her to need me still because if she doesn’t, then I have no purpose in life.

“Is it over?” Her voice is barely a whisper, barely loud enough for me to hear, but I catch the faintest sounds, and I thank the goddess.

All of her fury is washed away, and she is a small, shaking human in my arms. All of her ferocity is erased as she begins to sob against my chest. My soul shatters into many pieces as I hold her. She was terrified. All of her fury and anger was a front because she thought she needed to be strong and ferocious to keep herself alive. My brave little floof.

“It is over, Skylar.” I move my hand down to the small of her back as she lifts her eyes from where she had her face hidden against my chest.

She doesn’t look around, doesn’t look at the blood covering my scales or the blood covering her body. She looks into my red eyes. Eyes that are begging her to forgive me for being so careless with her protection. Begging her to be my mate still, to give me a chance to redeem myself from letting this happen.

“You saved me,” she cries against my chest, and the hollowness I feel eases a small amount.

I do not have the heart to tell her that she only needed saving because I failed as her protector. No, I will discuss it with her another time. I need her to know that I realize my mistake and I will not make it again. I do not need her to doubt or for anything to fester between us, but it is not a conversation to have right now. For now, I will hold her and give her comfort because it is what she needs.

“Thank you,” She wails against my bloodied scales. Two words that I do not deserve in the slightest, so I do not respond to them.

I let her cry and hold onto me until she has exhausted herself from her tears, and then I help her put on the tunic I brought from the safety building. She is silent as I put it on her, and when I cradle her in my arms and start walking back to the tribe, she drifts off into sleep. I am grateful she still trusts me enough to fall asleep in my arms, but I worry it is due only to her exhaustion and that once she is woken, she will not want my protection or my mating any longer.

The walk back to the tribe seems to take an eternity, even though I know we did not go very far when I first chased my floof out into the trees. No, it feels like it is taking so long because I am left with nothing but my thoughts. Thoughts that remind me that I couldn’t keep my mate safe, that I killed three males, and that I was willing to torture a male. These are not things I ever thought myself capable of, and yet I so easily did them. Not the not protecting my mate. That has been the worst thing I have ever done. The other two are what I am grappling with. How can I be honorable when I am covered in the blood of males I killed that I did not even know the names of? I cringe when I look down at my sleeping mate and see her pale hair stained with the blood of one of her abusers.

Toron and Dath are waiting for me at the gate as though they could feel me needing them. We are all tethered to one another just as I am tethered to my mate. Their tethers are not as strong, but when I was in distress, I knew I was pulling on their souls to help me, to aid me. They probably did not know what it was, but they waited at the gates, not wanting to leave their own mates because they are more important.

“What happened?” Dath runs to me as soon as he sees the bloodied female in my arms.

I snap my teeth at him, a low hiss telling him to stay away from us. He forces himself to stop and then holds out an arm to stop Toron as well before he can get too close to me.

“Brother,” Toron softens his voice when he speaks to me and keeps his eyes on the female still asleep in my arms. “Your mate, is she breathing?”

My lips peel back into another snarl. They think I cannot keep my mate safe either. They all know. They all know I couldn’t protect her. That I am not suited to take care of a soft and gentle female.

My eyes fall down to her again, and I realize Toron is probably asking because she is motionless and covered in so much blood. The rational part of me knows that is why he is asking, but the part of me that is winning thinks it is because they know I am not worthy of this female.

“She breathes,” I force the words between my teeth.

I straighten my back and push toward them. Thankfully, they part so I can walk through them and toward the great hall. They flank me on either side but not to watch me. No, they warn other brothers as we approach to keep a wide berth and to let me through without saying anything to me.

When we get to the great hall, Dath opens the door for me, and I make my way straight for Ralleth, our tribe’s leader. I offer him one sentence as he takes in the sight of my bloody mate in my arms and the fury in my eyes. I do not care that his brother sits beside him or that he may even know the males who I just slaughtered. I offer one sentence. One sentence is all they get from me until I can finish caring for my mate.

“There are others coming for our humans.”

Skylar

Imust have been bathed, clothed, and put to bed in a room with a fire roaring in the fireplace. My hand shoots out next to me, looking for the cool scaled body of my mate, but when I find more mattress, I shoot up in the bed, all of the events of the day returning to me and causing fresh tears to prick my lower lashes.

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