Page 3 of Hunter of the Tide

Randall lifted his hands and displayed open palms. He didn’t move any closer, leaving several body lengths between himself and the females. “I didn’t mean to interrupt anything. I heard they found Melaina, and just wanted to make sure she was okay.”

“As you can see, she’s fine. Be gone.”

“Enough,” Rhea snapped, glaring at Aja.

Aja twisted to narrow her eyes at Rhea. “You are defending this human? Do you side withthem?”

“There are no sides here,” Randall said. “We’re all just living, right? I’m not—”

Aja lunged toward Randall. “Were it up to some of us, you would not be—”

Rhea caught Aja’s arm and yanked her back, shoving her against the wall. She pinned her in place with her forearm across the other female’s chest and held the claws of her other hand at Aja’s throat. In her peripheral vision, Rhea saw Melaina carefully pick up her container and move behind Thana.

“Have you forgotten so easily that this human is under Dracchus’s protection?” Rhea asked, voice low.

“You are as much a betrayer as he is!” Aja snarled, struggling against Rhea’s hold.

Rhea caught Aja’s wrists with her tentacles, forcing the other female’s hands down to her side, and leaned more of her weight against her captive. She cocked her head. “Do you challenge me, Aja?”

Heaving through clenched teeth, Aja only glared at Rhea.

“There’s no betrayal happening here, and no need for a challenge,” Randall interjected. “I’m not here to cause trouble.”

“Be silent, human,” Rhea commanded, though gently. She didn’t remove her gaze from Aja. “Do you?”

Aja shook her head sharply.

Rhea released her and moved back.

Sagging slightly, Aja rubbed at her chest with one hand. She glanced at Randall, face tight with anger and humiliation, glared once again at Rhea, and then spun away. All the females save Thana hesitantly followed her. Randall pressed himself against the wall as they passed him; none so much as looked at him while they were near.

“Has she sided with Kronus?” Rhea asked.

Thana sighed and lifted her hands, palms up. “If she has not yet, she is likely to now. I believe Leda has been whispering in her ear.”

“These jealous females will start a fight they cannot win.”

Thana looked at Randall. “Even threat of Dracchus’s retribution will not deter some of Kronus’s supporters. Though they despise Arkon, they gladly used the wounds he suffered at the hands of the human hunters as proof that humans are our enemies.”

“I’m not trying to incite more violence,” he said, frowning. The hunters who shot Arkon had been under Randall’s command until they’d betrayed their leader. Randall still bore scars as evidence of their treachery.

“Your mere presence does that,” Thana said.

“It’s not like I asked to come here.”

“But here you are,” Rhea said. “Thana, tell the other females he is under my protection, as well. An insult to him — to any of the humans here — is an insult to me.”

Randall clenched his jaw, and a crease appeared between his eyebrows. “I can’t say I don’t appreciate the gesture, but you don’t need to welcome trouble on my behalf, Rhea.”

Rhea grinned at him. “It is no trouble.”

Randall’s gaze dipped to her mouth. Humans had mostly flat teeth, and she supposed hers were as odd to him as his were to her.

“I am glad Melaina is safe,” Thana said. She looked from Rhea to the youngling. “I will see you both soon, I hope.”

Dipping her head in a silent farewell, Thana set off down the corridor in the same direction the other females had gone.

Randall offered Thana a warm, uncertain smile as she passed. Once she was gone, he ran his hand through his hair. Rhea had been tempted many times to comb her fingers through it, too, to feel its softness against her fingertips, to feel it brush along her palm.

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