Page 36 of Unleashed

Offering a nod, Balir carefully slipped away from Nina and Vortok. Aduun moved aside to allow him past.

“When was the last time you slept?” Balir asked.

“It doesn’t matter. I am going to sleep now.” Aduun turned toward the others.

Balir caught his arm, calling Aduun’s attention back.

“Lean on us, Aduun. We are herewithyou, not against you.”

Aduun settled a hand on Balir’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I know. I am sorry I have not behaved accordingly. You have trusted me through everything, and I have not extended the same trust to you.”

“Though we all went through the same experiences, we each carry our own wounds, and they will all heal in their own ways.” Balir smiled; the expression was full of sorrow. “We will make it through this together, as we always have.”

For the first time in a long while, Aduun smiled. It was unsettling and relieving at once. “We will.”

“Get some rest.”

They released each other, and Balir moved toward the end of the branch to keep his watch. Aduun looked down at Vortok and Nina. Now that he was here, a strange anxiety tightened his chest. The beast wanted to mate with Nina, to claim her, but didn’t want to getcloseto her. It didn’t need to know her to have her as its own.

He cast aside his uncertainty, flattened his quills, and lay down on his side with his chest and abdomen pressed along Nina’s legs. He settled one arm over her thigh and drew in her scent. Vortok grumbled and shifted his leg.

After a few moments, Nina’s hand moved, brushing over Aduun’s brow before coming to rest on his cheek. Her body heat seeped into him, and a sense of calm settled over him like a blanket. Despite its desire for solitude, even his beast was soothed by her closeness.

He took in another deep breath. Sleep claimed him swiftly.

* * *

Aduun watchedthe flickering flames for what felt like an eternity. The wood didn’t seem to burn down at all, and the heat of the fire felt far away, though he was close enough to reach out and stick his hand into the flames if he so chose. He huddled beneath the heavy furs draped over his shoulders.

Warmth remained elusive. The tent was small, and the hide walls were thick; they should’ve served as barriers enough against the cold. Wild shadows leapt and danced around him. Unease and apprehension soured his gut, leaving his mouth dry and his hands clammy. A chill crept along his spine.

Come morning, he would speak with his father, the chieftain.

“Aduun?” a familiar voice inquired. He looked across the fire to see Nina seated upon the furs, her face bathed in orange light. Her wide eyes sparkled. “What’s wrong?”

She wasn’t supposed to be here, but he was grateful for her presence all the same.

He raised a hand — a hand with blunt nails instead of claws — and rubbed it over his face, sweeping his palm back along the nubs of bone that jutted from his skull. It encountered no fur, no quills.

“Tomorrow I will speak to my father,” he said, and the weight of the words crashed down upon him with crushing force.

“What are you going to speak to him about?”

“I will convince him to accept the friendship of Kelsharn,” he replied. “It will be the doom of my clan. Of my people.”

Nina rose and stepped through the flames. The fire licked at her legs but left no mark, and she made no expression of pain. She knelt before him and took his face between her hands to stare into his eyes. “You didn’t know. How could you have known?”

Everything about this place — the tent that he had slept in, that he had built up and taken down and carried as his people moved around Sonhadra — was hazy and unreal, a distant memory without substance. He could barely feel the fire’s warmth, the furs he’d wrapped himself in, the hide spread beneath him…

But he felther.

Nina’s hands were firm, warm, and surprisingly strong. Her palms were against hisskin, not his fur. The feel of that was so much better than he could ever have imagined. Her touch grounded him.

This moment — this memory — had long since passed. He knew what was to come, knew what had already occurred.

“It was my duty to know. To do what was best for them,” he said, placing his hands on her upper arms to steady himself as this little world threatened to spin around him. “I failed them all.”

“Kelsharn’s kind came to Sonhadra with trickery and lies. You never failed your people, Aduun. You did what you believed was right.” She brushed her thumbs over his cheeks and along the bone ridges beneath his eyes.

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