Page 52 of The Highseer's Mate

“Thank you,” I whisper. Because I can’t think of anything else to say right now.

“Hey!” I hear Ryan shout from inside the chamber. “Get your hands off her!”

I duck inside. Draxel has laid Melina down on a bed of furs and Selvara is hunched over our friend, plucking away the makeshift stint that holds her leg straight.

Ryan rears back and charges for the older woman, but Draxel springs into action. He throws his arms around her middle and crushes her to his chest, his glows flaring.

“Get the fuck off me!” she shouts, kicking and scratching at his arms.

Draxel grunts, but doesn’t let up.

“Draxel,” I bark at him.

His jaw clenches and a growl tears from his chest as he looks at me. I pull back and I shiver in fear at the terrifying look on his face—as if he would bring this mountain to the ground before letting Ryan go.

But she can’t understand him, and out of all of us, she’s going to be the least understanding of a massive, muscular Vrut manhandling her. As much as I don’t want to get involved—inject myself in a tussle between mates—I’m the only one who can translate for the two of them.

“Draxel,” I say again, my voice less firm.

He growls again, but I don’t let it intimidate me.

“She’s afraid. She can’t understand you and she doesn’t trust you.”

“She’s my mate,” he growls at me. “Her body will learn soon enough.”

I shake my head. “That’s not how it works for us.”

Ryan shouts, “If you don’t tell this asshole to let me go in a language he understands I’m going to lose my fucking mind. Let me down, you big idiot!”

He tugs her tighter and she quiets as the breath surges from her lungs.

“You’re hurting her,” I say.

Draxel’s arms slack instantly. He lets her down onto her feet and she shuffles away from him, grumbling and cursing as she catches her breath. He watches her until she straightens toher full height and then stalks out of the chamber, his mane standing on end.

“We’re better off out there at the ship, taking our chances and rationing our food. If that alien puts his hands on me again, I’ll kill him,” Ryan threatens, pointing at the Vrut that is her mate. She doesn’t know it yet, but soon she won’t be thinking that.

It happened to me. Eventually, the pull will be too strong for her to ignore too.

Selvara clicks her tongue as she feels Melina’s clammy forehead.

“What’s wrong with her?” I ask Selvara.

She examens my friend but doesn’t answer me. She holds a long finger up just under Melina’s nose to check for breath and then hums.

“What is she doing?” Nicole asks. She’s sitting next to Melina, holding her hand as Selvara pokes and prods down her mangled leg.

“She’s a healer,” I answer.

Lara goes to Ryan and the two settle down in another pile of furs across the chamber. The energy in the chamber calms under the soft light of the luminite, flaring and thrumming with life as we all watch the healer work.

She wets some kind of cloth in a basin of water and then wrings it out. Placing the cloth across Melina’s forehead, she reaches into the pouch slung across her back and finds a bundle of yellow and purple herbs. They’re dried and wrapped together by what looks like a hunk of hair. Selvara turns to me and points to a glowing nodule in the wall.

“Go pull a piece of luminite.”

My mouth falls open but my legs seem to move on their own. I approach the glow and slide my fingers across the gem, tapping for a spot that is weak. It glows brighter as I touch it andwhen my fingertips hit the edge of the rock, a hunk of it breaks off into my palm.

A flush of adrenaline rattles through me as I hold it in my hand. Even when separated from the bigger piece, it still glows like its own little ball of energy.

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