Page 106 of Bride of Choice

As if to right my cockeyed world, my big ol’ furry, pain in the ass constant came storming onto the scene.

“Ey! No laughs! Why you laughs-” Rek stilled, freezing on the spot as he spied the river my leg was making.

Pissy, pseudo admirer turned into panicked fuss monster as our eyes met and mine grew even more glossy with the wetness rimming them. “Give!” he demanded of Berkr, who paused for a moment longer than I cared to think about, before Kirch butted in, barking at both of them in their native tongue, and whatever he said that Rek replied to must have been good enough that Berkr immediately, carefully handed me over.

“If I die,” I started to say, feeling woozy and lightheaded, but that was probably due to me eyeing my leg the entire time.

“Shuts up,” Rek growled down at me, a fierceness stealing over him that had my chest all fluttery. “No die. No be stupid. Rek say Jojoknee die? No. No die ‘less Rek say!”

A high pitched, startled giggle slipped free. My hand clapped over my mouth in surprise. I had to mentally point out my body’s response could actually be attributed to the blood loss.

“Don’t tell me what to do, bleach squatch,” I mutteringly grumbled, even as I closed my eyes and rested my head on his wide shoulder. The steady sound of his breathing calmed my racing heart.

“Bad,” I thought I heard Berkr repeat.

“Super bad, baby. The baddest bitch of them all.” A small, hysterical laugh escaped me. It started to segue into something else, something festering and ugly bubbling to the top, when the shakes really got ahold of me and Rek grunted down at me.

“My Jo?”

Of course Gopher would join the crew right this second. Of course he would.

“Hey! Are you all j-j-just going to st-stand around and look at me, or is s-s-someone going to st-st-stop my leg f-f-f-f- fr-fr-from b-b-b-bleeeding?” I felt like a bleating sheep as I finished speaking.

Walking right up to Rek, Gopher sandwiched me between then, cupping his arms under me, and grunted something at Rek that I assumed meant he’d best hand me over if he didn’t want to be beaten with his own arms.

Some grunt-speaking went back and forth, back and forth, until they started literally fighting over me, jerking me into Gopher’s arms to jerk me back into Rek’s.

“I don’t want either one of you!” I finally had enough and felt lucid enough, the chattering chills easing up enough with their warmth aiding me to burst out.

“Give,” the dark shadow coming up behind Rek boomed out over their chaos.

Gopher jumped and nearly dropped me, startled, he was so engrossed in his argument with Rek, and Rek didn’t really have much of a choice as Odix quickly grew tired of their bickering and pinched down on Rek’s shoulder in a weird move that sent my headache’s eyes rolling up in his head, his body spiraling towards the ground.

“Nice catch,” I mumbled as Odix swooped in.

Odix let out a disgusted sniff at Rek’s prone form, a warning rumble directed at Gopher following.

“How did you get Gopher to let me go?” I wondered aloud, muttering the question under my breath.

“Him say others, not good mate to Jo. Has… Has mate-want sick. Want warriors help watch over Jo him not there.” Louder, he rumbled, “Not hiding from him’s female.”

Gopher let out a vicious growl but didn’t argue any of what Odix was stating.

Goph really has given up on us.

My heart sank as Odix carried me over to the fire a few hunters I was fuzzy on their names were building.

Doogie was putting something in a pot to boil over it, a small, crude white bowl with weird designs on it I’d never seen the likes of before.

“What’s he doing?” I leaned towards Odix to whisperingly ask.

“Skull bowl. Gut string. Fix Poo- Uh, Joadnee’s owed-ies,” he replied quietly.

My eyes widened and I clung to him harder than necessary. They were going to stitch that shit up.

A small, nervous laugh left me. “You wouldn’t happen to have numbing anything on any of you, would you?”

The silence following that was deafening. Fuuuuck.

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