Page 20 of His Human to Chase

When I finish telling them everything I know, Deja fills in a bit more from before any of us were in the tribe. She tells us of what happened to Olivia during the first month when she was the only human. How a demon and his companions tried to overthrow Ralleth and take her for themselves to share between them. My face pales when she tells me about it. At least when it happened to me, it was strangers who were immediately killed. Olivia was attacked in our home by males who had been around her and knew her.

We all sit in silence while we think about what all of this could mean for not only the rest of the humans but also for the tribe in general. Our demons aren’t fighters. Yes, we have three warriors, or two and a half, since Alice still hasn’t mated Toron to give him his full strength. All of the other men in the tribe are not fighters, though. They all go hunting for food so we can survive, but that’s it. If we get attacked by a larger tribe, with more men than us, that has actual trained fighters, we’ll be completely screwed. Not that I don’t think our mates will allow us to be taken without a fight, because all of them will fight and probably fight until they die. That’s what scares me the most.

Simone is the one who changes the subject when it’s clear we’re all thinking the same horrific things. She asks about what our lives were like on Earth and has us each tell her what we miss the most. It’s not the best change of topic since Alice is still trying to acclimate to never going back, whereas Deja and I are perfectly content to stay here forever. It does get our minds off the males in the woods right now and away from the thoughts of fighting and death just long enough that we’re able to find some happiness before we drift off to sleep.

We each fall asleep in one of the three beds. Me all by myself, Deja in the bed she shares with Dath when they stay in the great hall, and Simone and Alice share the final bed that belongs to Toron. I don’t think about how safe we are because, of course, we’re safe. We’re in a stone building that’s filled with over thirty demons who only want to keep us safe. I don’t have my mate, but the rest of the demons are watching over us like we’re theirs. We’re part of the tribe now, and that means they’re all my brothers, and we’re all their sisters. If something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.

In my dreams, I feel my mate pressed against me. I feel Yril’s hands wrapped around me, holding me, caressing me as he finds his own sleep. I know it isn’t real, but it feels so real that I wonder if it isn’t the work of the tether that has us latched to one another. I let his touch cool me and make me feel complete until it’s all shattered. The dream is cast aside when Deja screams bloody murder in the middle of the night.

“Someone was tapping on the window,” She cries from Dath’s bed. “They were tapping on the wood. I swear.”

The fire’s already died out, and I feel my tether screaming and tugging on Yril’s. I did so good at not bothering him with the pull, but as soon as I’m woken up from my peaceful sleep with him to a hysterical Deja, I know I need him back with me. No matter what he’s doing, I want him back. I don’t care that he’s keeping me safe or working on keeping me safe. I want him next to me and to never leave my side again. If that means he has to leave other males out there to tell the others, so be it, because I need my mate, and I need him now.

The door busts open, and two giant aliens, one almost black and the other dusty red, are snarling in the darkness with their mate pushing between them. They share the room next to us, so it makes sense that they’re the first to come here to check on us when Deja is screaming her head off.

“Someone was at the window,” I tell them as calmly as I can.

The two demons look at each other, and then the darker one stalks off down the hall like he’s going to see if anyone is out there. His mate’s face pales, and she tries to run after him, but the other grabs her and keeps her planted in front of him. Long, tense moments pass as we all stand in the darkness, listening to the erratic breathing we all have. A few other demons poke their heads in to see if we need anything, but the male at the door shakes his head and tells them to wait in the dining hall if they want to hear about it later. Otherwise, they can go back to bed.

“Get out of my way!” The dark demon shouts. Apparently, plenty of the other demons are still in the hallway, crowding the hall, so he can’t get through. His eyes are bright red as he steps inside with a torch in his hand and a piece of paper in the other.

“They were here,” he says with a snarl. He hands the piece of paper to us, and I take it with shaky hands. I feel myself begging and yanking on the tether even more before the words of the note fully register. My eyes scan the dark room in search of all the familiar faces, and my heart sinks when I notice someone missing.

Hide your females. My brother was the first to scout. He will not be the last.

-Morran

Yril

The scream that cuts through Skylar’s dreams is what wakes me and has my claws scraping against the stone floor of the safety building so hard I’m in danger of snapping one of them. Dath must hear it too because he is jolting from his slumber just as quickly as me, his claws extended and fangs dropped.

We have to nudge Toron awake, and even that feels like it takes too long. My mate is begging me to return to her, yanking and tugging at my soul like she needs me right this instant.

It is dark outside still, which means the verpar are hunting, and they will not think twice about attacking us if we go out.

Dath clearly does not care about the verpar threat because he is swinging the front door open and bolting back toward the tribe before Toron has fully wiped the sleep from his eyes. Oh, I am envious of Dath’s ability to just go to his mate with no care or thought about what lies out there for us. He has killed two verpar already, and those were when he was young. There is no telling how many he will kill tonight if they impede him from getting to his mate. The large, dark-furred beasts with jaws that unhinge are no match for a male needing to protect his mate. No, Dath going ahead of us means if any verpar try to attack, they will be killed before Toron and I see them.

“We need to leave,” I say to Toron.

I am trying my best not to get upset with him because he is very much not himself anymore. He finally stands from where he was sleeping on the floor and gives me a confused look. He is currently nothing but rage. Rage for being away from his mate, rage that his mate continues to reject him, and rage for the males who think they can take our females from us. What he cannot do is think clearly at all.

“We are leaving now!” I snap at him.

His lips pull back into a snarl, and he lunges for my throat. He is slow and sloppy with all of his fury. I will be soon as well if my mate keeps yanking on my soul like she is in desperate need of my protection. I swing a fist into Toron’s face, and he stumbles back slightly, his eyes narrowing before he huffs a complacent sound.

“What is happening?” He asks, sounding more like a feral beast than my brother, but I will take what I can get.

“Dath and I can feel our mates begging us to return.” I offer him a slightly sympathetic smile.

Toron would be feeling his mate tug on his soul, too, if she would just allow him the honor of mating her. Alice is nervous about being with one of us, though, so he is being patient with her. As patient as he can be since the goddess will only make it harder and harder for him not to have her. At some point, he will get too ravenous in his need, and I will have to make the decision on what to do with him if he cannot control himself. I can only hope his female will choose him before I have to think of those terrible things.

“We go back then.” He nods, looking out into the darkness.

We found a group of four males earlier. Dath talked with one of them while Toron and I killed the other three. His talking consisted of finding out how many others had traveled to look for our tribe. When he had his answer, the male was no longer of use and no longer in need of his life.

I thought killing males would be hard for me, and to some extent, it is. Knowing that I am keeping my floof safe makes it worth it tenfold. I would kill entire villages if that is what it took to keep her safe. I don’t care if I am seen as a monster because she has seen me in such a monstrous state. Still, she chooses to be mated to me, to offer me the beauty of her marking. No, killing these males is easy because they all came for one reason. They want weak and small females who can not reject their offers of mating. A quick death is a kindness to them, considering if they were to attempt to touch our females sealing them would be their punishment, and then they would still probably be killed.

I am out of the safety building before Toron, and I wait for him as patiently as I can even though I know I am soon to crack and break in my need to get back to my Skylar. When he stands in the doorframe, his eyes scan the dark shadows of the trees. Fear is evident on his face even though he is trying to hide it. Not that he cares what I think, but he tries to hide it from himself because he refuses to acknowledge that he may still fear the darkness and what all it holds.

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