Page 30 of Claimed By the Alien Barbarian

“Do you want younglings?” she asked.

“If the gods ever saw fit to give them to me, then yes.”

She paused on the path. “Then I’m sorry your mate died.” Her probing gaze sought mine.

“Thank you. We were . . . We weren’t a love match.”

Her mouth formed a circle. “But you came to love her eventually, right?”

“Unfortunately, no.” I studied the trail ahead. Soon, it would widen, and the vegetation would thin. Then the ground would slowly become sandy, and we’d reach the shore not long after that. Despite the fact that it was no longer my clan, I was eager to show Kerry the wonders of the world I grew up in.

“I should’ve loved her,” I said. “I tried, but she loved someone else.”

“Really?” she breathed.

“I believe her lover killed her.”

“Lover?” She clutched her fingers to her throat. “This sounds . . . sad.”

I nodded. “I knew she had found someone else. I was waiting for her to tell me.”

“Do your people divorce?” She explained the meaning.

“If a couple doesn’t wish to be together any longer, the elder dissolves their union, so yes, one could say we also have divorce.”

“You would’ve let her go,” she said.

“Yes. Instead, I think her lover killed her and made sure I took the blame. I was found with her lying dead beside me on the ground and me with her blood soaking my hands.”

“That’s damning.”

I sought her gaze. “I didn’t do it. I swear this. When I came across her on the trail outside our village while returning home from a hunt, she wasn’t dead. She was bleeding, and I turned her, hoping I could put pressure on her wound, only to find such a huge gash in her back that it would take the very gods themselves to seal it closed. The blade was still inside her, and I pulled it out, tossing it aside.”

“They say not to do that.”

“They are right, then, because she bled even harder and died in my arms. Others heard my cries and rushed to us.”

“They found the blade and saw blood on your hands.”

“It was my knife. Whoever killed her stole it from me.”

“Wow. After they touched her still warm body, they assumed you did it,” she said.

I nodded.

“There wasn’t anything anyone could do?” she asked.

“It was already too late. Because no one should die alone, I’d lifted her into my arms. She whispered to me with her last breath.”

“What did she say? Did she tell you who stabbed her?”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t understand her words.” I sighed. “She died, and I was accused.”

Guilt kept dragging me down, and if I allowed it to do so, it would consume me. I hadn’t killed her, but could I have savedher if I hadn’t sat beside a stream and dreamed of a better life after I’d finished my hunt? If only I hadn’t pulled out the blade.

“You couldn’t determine who did it?”

I loved that she still didn’t think I’d murdered my mate. “I defended myself but our former traedor didn’t believe me. Neither did her parents. They were angry, mourning, and they wanted someone to pay for her murder. I was the ideal choice.”

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