Page 45 of Unleashed

“We should have found a way to send her back,” Vortok said.

Balir shifted, turning his attention to the big valo. “What do you mean?”

“She doesn’t deserve to suffer all this. We should have figured out how to get her back up through the hole in the ceiling. Back to where she belongs.”

“It would not have worked,” Balir said. “The inclines of those openings are too steep. Even we would find ourselves unable to climb them.”

“If I can climb trees and cliffs, we could’ve found a way to get her out,” Vortok rumbled, his brow falling low.

“Enough,” Aduun said. “I agree, Vortok. We should at least have tried, but we did not. I didn’t trust her enough to even consider attempting it. She does not deserve to face trials that were devised asourpunishment.”

“Her pain claws at me,” Balir said, “but…this brought her to us. Selfish as it may be, I do not regret bringing her along. She belongs withus.” He stroked her leg with a palm, running it between her knee and her hip.

Aduun clenched his teeth; his instinct was to bite the hand touching what washis. As a distraction, he laid his head down and faced Nina, studying her features. The serenity that normally overcame her face while she slept was not present now; this was no relaxing slumber. For a moment, he wondered if she was hearing the voices calling for help, if she’d been drawn into that black place once again.

He brushed his thumb along her jaw, wrestling the conflicting natures within him. Vortok and Balir were more than friends; they were his brothers, his family, though they did not share blood. They’d been close since they were small — for more than a thousand years, if Nina was correct about how much time had passed. He didn’t want to be jealous of them, didn’t want to struggle with a constant urge to battle them away, to assert dominance.

He didn’t want to give in to the desire to take Nina and leave so he could have her as his own.

“What was done was done,” Aduun said, repeating the words Nina had spoken in their shared dream. “We are here now, and there is no going back.”

“And once again, Kelsharn has us trapped,” Balir said. “This weather is more than I can bear; my body cannot tolerate it, now that it has been changed. And it is only worse for Nina…”

“Allof this is worse for her,” Vortok said. “Even if her mother was changed to give her the power she has, it was not the same as Kelsharn did to us. She’s even more vulnerable than we were as men. She’s soft. Breakable.”

“She is tougher than we realize,” Aduun said. “Tougher, I think, thansherealizes. And we will do all we can to keep her safe.”

Vortok snorted. “Good work we’ve done of it so far.”

Anger sparked in Aduun’s gut — not at Vortok’s tone, but at the truth of his sentiment. Their bodies and senses were enhanced beyond anything they could’ve imagined, far surpassing any natural creature, but they’d done a poor job of protecting Nina up until now. That failure hit Aduun hard. He’d already let so many people down, had led them from one mistake into another. Could he bear it if Nina became another person to suffer for his inadequacies?

“So we will try harder, Vortok. What more can I say?” Aduun struggled to draw in that growing rage. Their tempers had woken her on more than one occasion, and he didn’t want to disturb her slumber…though part of him knew that she would not easily be roused in her current condition. “This is our situation. We must deal with it as we are able. When our efforts are no longer enough, we will die.Shewill die.”

“I will not allow that to happen,” Vortok growled, shifting.

“Do you thinkIwill?”

Balir hissed sharply, calling their attention to him. “None of us will let her die,” he rasped, “and your arguing will accomplish nothing apart from disturbing her.”

Aduun clamped his mouth shut, jaw muscles bulging. He inhaled deeply and focused on Nina. On her scent, on the feel of her skin against him, on her slowly strengthening heartbeat.

“She’s said that we are still the men we were before the change,” Balir continued, “and I believe in her ability to see such things. Kelsharn has not changedwhowe are, onlywhatwe are. We cannot allow ourselves to succumb to his will. We cannot become what he wanted us to be.”

The valos lapsed into silence. Aduun stared at Nina’s face as Balir’s words echoed in his mind. If Aduun was the same man, the rest of them were fools to trust his leadership. If he was the same man, they were doomed to fail, just as they had in the past.

But…if he was the same man, he could trust. He could accept his tribe as they were, he could master his beast. Even if he would eventually fail, he would fail ashimself. He would fight for what he believed in, fight to protect the people he cared about, until he had nothing left to give.

“The storm didn’t look as though it will ease anytime soon,” Vortok said after a long while.

“Knowing Kelsharn, it will not ease at all,” Balir said.

Aduun turned his hand and brushed the backs of his fingers over Nina’s cheek. “Then we will use this place as our camp and provision ourselves as possible to prepare for what we may face.”

Chapter Ten

Light stones, arranged in alcoves along the walls, cast a soft yellow glow over the bathhouse. Their light played upon the clear, rippling water and illuminated the steam rising from its surface.

Nina stood on the deep end of the pool, swaying with the easy motions of the water, which reached nearly to her chin. The welcoming heat enveloping her reduced the numbing cold that had consumed her in the valley to little more than a faint memory.

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