Page 34 of Unleashed

When he was done, his hands roamed over her shoulders and neck, gently petting and massaging, easing away the aches and the cold. It wasn’t long before her head lolled and her eyelids grew heavy.

“Rest,” Vortok said gently. “We will watch.”

She smiled and sank into slumber.

Chapter Eight

With his head leaning against the tree trunk behind him, Vortok stared skyward. The branches and leaves overhead were wrapped in shadow, reduced to black shapes against the darkening blue of the sky as night fell. The floodwaters below moved restlessly. Their sound had greatly diminished from its earlier clamor, but remained a constant presence, mingling with the rustling of leaves overhead, the snapping of distant branches, and the crash of debris against the trunks of surrounding trees.

He absently trailed his fingers along Nina’s arm. She was curled up against him, so small and delicate. Whether it was beast or man, heart or heartstone, he wanted her. He wasn’t sure if coming to that conclusion so soon was normal; between his intimidating size and his rough features, he’d never won the attention of a female in his own life. But Nina saw past that. Despite his changes, she made Vortok feel like himself; she made him feel…desirable.

Nina was new. A new experience, a new person, a new set of emotions, desires, and instincts.

“She is at ease with you,” Aduun said.

Vortok lowered his chin to look at Aduun, who was perched on the branch a short distance away. “Because I am at ease with her.”

Aduun snarled softly. “After everything, how can you trust her so easily?”

“Who are you to say it is easy?” Vortok asked. “We spent so much time locked in those cages, slaves to our beasts, paying the price for seeking our freedom after suffering countless betrayals. I have not forgotten all of that.”

“Then how? How have you cast it all aside?”

“I have not. I made a simple choice, Aduun.” Vortok dropped his gaze to Nina and frowned. “If she is here because of Kelsharn, she is just as much his victim as the three of us. She nearly died today. He plays deceitful, terrible games, but if she were truly part of his plot, why would he risk her so soon?”

“Think of what happened when she first came, Aduun,” Balir said. “She fell through the ceiling into Vortok’s cell with a shrieker. If it hadn’t been for that beast, or if she’d taken just a little longer to escape, Vortok would’ve torn her to pieces. Even after that, she blooded the heartstonesaccidentally, and gave them over to us without a fight.”

“Because Kelsharn wants to give us hope,” Aduun snapped. “To make us believe there is a chance to—”

“No,” Vortok whispered harshly. He paused to confirm he hadn’t disturbed Nina. “I am norokahn, and I do not possess the wisdom either of you do, but Iknowhope is not our enemy. Kelsharn has taken much from us. Everything. But Nina has given us hope that we can have a future, agoodfuture.”

His heart thumped, its volume elevated in his own ears. It wasn’t a result of the rage that always seemed to course through him since his change; this was something he hadn’t felt in a long, long while. It was the very hope Aduun had condemned.

“Iwantyou to be right,” Aduun said, reflected light making his eyes flash as he turned his head. “But we stood against him once, and he crushed us. We thought we had little left to lose. He proved us wrong. I will fight him until there is nothing left of me, but after all he has done, I cannot allow myself to hope things will be different this time.”

“There is no more fighting him,” Balir said. “He is gone.”

“And we’re to believe that? After the way he fought us off, after the wounds we inflicted didn’t even slow him down?”

“She has no reason to lie about it, Aduun. I believe her.” Balir lifted his hands. “And would it not be better to return to a world without him than one in which he still reigns?”

“The best outcome I can hope for is to die with his blood on my claws,” Aduun growled.

Vortok couldn’t accept that such a fate was the best they could accomplish. He understood Aduun’s bitterness, his resignation, and knew that he’d be in the same place were it not for one thing — Nina.

“He is gone,” Vortok said, “and that means our vengeance must come in a different form, Aduun. We have people to save. People to look after.” He brushed his fingers gently over Nina’s long head fur.

The trio fell into silence. Vortok kept his eyes on Nina, frowning as the fresh memories of the sudden flood and the battle against the treeclaws morphed into imaginings of what might’ve gone wrong. It was this body, which had been painfully, forcibly reshaped, that had failed Nina. A body Kelsharn had given him as agift. A body that belonged squarely on the ground, that lacked the grace and dexterity he’d once possessed as a man.

Nina’s aroma mingled with the pungent scent of the moonweed paste smeared over her wounds. While she’d fought alongside Aduun and Balir, Vortok had been trapped below them, battling several of the treeclaws on his own. He’d felt helpless; all he wanted was to aid his tribesmen, to protect the female who’d blooded his heartstone. When she’d fallen, his heart had constricted, and his heartstone had felt suddenly brittle.

Even then, he was unable to help her. His body was made for rage, for destruction, to terrorize and trample and tear anyone and anything Kelsharn found displeasing to shreds.

It was not made for swimming.

Fury kindled in his chest now, erupting into a blaze that would sweep up and ignite the heavens if it escaped his body. What good were his strength, his toughness, his rage if he could not use them to defend those he cared about?

A gentle hand settled on his chest, directly over his heartstone. Vortok looked down to find Nina twisted to look up at him, a frown on her face.

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