Page 17 of His Human to Charm

“Of course,” Deja says before reaching out and giving his arm a squeeze of endearment. “We’re blood, right?”

“Right.” He turns to me, his eyes narrowing. “I am glad my brother has mated someone so kind and selfless. The goddess blesses me with a brave sister, and I am grateful.”

My cheeks flush at all of the compliments, but of course, the only thing I think to say is. “I haven’t mated Toron yet.”

“Yet?” Yril tilts his head to the side, a ghost of a smile pulling at his lips. “Then you have decided you will. This is good.”

“I’m not having this conversation again today,” I sigh and try not to laugh when Skylar is only a couple of feet away, still passed out from something bad happening to her. “When she wakes, I want to know.”

“I will be sure to find you,” he says, his gaze turning back to the sleeping human. His body relaxes when he sees her sleeping, clean, and unharmed. His fingers find her cheek, where he strokes her softly before dismissing us blatantly. “Now, I ask that you leave.”

We don’t fight him on it. We have no reason to think he might cause her harm, and with the way he’s looking at her, he’s beating himself up about her being in the state she’s in more than anyone else ever could.

Deja and I go out to the bathing pools, her mate following us with extended claws and fangs. I don’t strip from my clothing. Instead, I use my hands to help clean the blood from my skin and try to wash it from my tunic.

By the time we finish, the sky has darkened, and exhaustion sets in. Toron isn’t in his chair when I make my way to my room for sleep. He’s probably dealing with whatever happened with his brother earlier. I’ll talk to him tomorrow. I promise myself I’ll talk to him tomorrow.

10

Toron

Day of Kidnapping

After I had Alice and Simone lock themselves inside the new human room yesterday, I went outside to find out why the tether around my soul was pulled so tightly.

My brother, Yril, was calling out to Dath and me to aid him out in the trees for some reason. We did not know what could be happening to him, and neither of us wanted to leave our mates to go out and find him. So, we waited near the outskirts of the tribe for him to return. When he did, it was with his blood-soaked human in his arms and a dead look in his eyes.

Yril’s mate, Skylar, was unharmed from their encounter with males from another tribe, but Yril told us that the males handled her roughly and threatened to force her if she could not fight them off. It is what we feared most when we were told that males were coming to see if there really were females in our tribe. They have been told stories about how small and weak our humans are, and they want a female like that for themselves.

Ralleth waited to send Yril, Dath, and me out into the trees to hunt them down until Yril had a chance to make sure his mate was okay. Once Skylar woke, assured everyone she was unharmed, and allowed Yril out of their bed, the three chosen warriors were sent out into the trees to hunt down the males who thought they could take our females from us.

That is what we are doing now. Running through the trees, searching for males who think they can take a female without so much as a simple wooing. No, even worse, they wish to force themselves on the females, and that means we hunt them and kill them.

“There are more,” Dath says after returning from where he was questioning the one male we left alive. Or he was alive until Dath finished speaking with him. Where he is, or what he is now, is left for the verpar and the other creatures of the night to deal with. “He says that at least ten of them came in search of the females. Yril killed three that attacked his mate. We just killed four, so that means there are at least three, maybe more left.”

A hiss forms low in my throat, but no words form. I have been nothing but gnashing and snapping of my teeth and growls and hisses since we left the tribe. I am an unmated chosen, which means I will slowly lose my mind to the bloodlust and the rage simmering under my scales.

My blood, Yril and Dath, have mates that calm and temper their fury, but I am not as lucky since Alice has still not accepted our bond. Once she does, I will feel her tether around my soul, and it will help me in times like this. Until then, I am more beast than male. I am the monster my Alice thought of me as, even if she no longer does. That is okay now. I know that sometimes a monster is what is needed to keep a mate safe.

“The light is fading.” Yril looks up at the tree limbs above us and squints at the darkening clouds. “We should find shelter soon unless we want to search in the dark.”

My eyes narrow at the trees around us, wondering if a verpar is lurking behind any of them. It has been many, many years since I was attacked by one, but it is still something that fills me with much fright. Not that a single verpar could kill me now, I am no longer the young male I was when one tried to kill me and feed it to its young. No, I am much larger and much stronger now. That is not to say that my fear does not remain, though. My fear is still very real and very strong. I might physically be able to kill a verpar now, but mentally it would kill me in an instant.

“We will find shelter,” Dath answers Yril’s question. “The males who are searching for the tribe will have found shelter too.”

Neither one of them pays me much attention anymore. They did at first, asking if I was okay, if I felt myself falling to bloodlust, if we needed to return, if I am unable to control myself. I can control myself just fine, especially when it comes to making sure the tribe is kept safe. I may not be able to vocalize it very well since I am just snarling and hissing, but I am not here for my ability to hold a conversation. No, I am here to help them kill, and I can do that just fine.

“We hope they have found shelter too,” Yril amends, which has both Dath and me hissing.

“Yes, I hope, because we need rest.” Dath steps up to my brother, a clear challenge in his tone. “If we continue as we have, we’ll be too tired to help anyone when the time comes.”

Yril’s lips pull back to reveal his fangs as he puts his head against Dath’s. Their horns clash for a moment, but Dath is bigger than Yril and me. He was the first to be chosen by the goddess and the first to have his mate accept him. He will always be stronger than Yril and me, even though he was much smaller than us not that long ago. Still, it does not stop some familial feuding from happening. Nothing will ever stop that.

“I can still go,” Yril says. “You do not understand what I saw them willing to do to my mate.”

“I do not need to have seen it to have felt your fear, brother,” Dath’s voice takes on a softer tone even though he does not back down from clanging his horns with Yril’s. “We are of no use if we tire ourselves out searching during the night.”

“It is light enough still to find more,” Yril counters.

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