Page 31 of Saved By a Barbarian

She rolled her eyes, a smile pulling at her lips. “I think if you told him you picked him, he’d bond with you before daybreak. Have you not noticed how he looks at you?”

Lifting a shoulder, I carried the bag back to my table and got comfortable on my stool again. “I want it to be real, but we’ve never discussed it. He’s a sweet person in general. It could just be in his nature to dote on those he’s… spending time with.”

Finn snorted, raising his eyebrows at me. “You mean Verus? He’s smitten with you. Rath says he’s too distracted on the hunt because he won’t stop thinking about you. I’m glad he went on the long hunt. He’ll be just as eager to come back as Rath, and between the two of them, hopefully it won’t take very long.”

I hoped that too. Verus said he’d get back as soon as he could. Counting down the days was going to be brutal, though.

The children came back in a flurry, holding up their bowls for treats. I had to focus on cutting up the fruits and passing them out, struggling to keep up before their bowls were empty again, and they were begging for more. Yamileth had to eventually send them away to give me a break.

“Shoo! Off with you! You’re going to eat all our food, and we’ll have none for later! Wait until your next meal!”

They squealed and laughed, running from her as she batted at them with a towel. She chuckled as they disappeared, the last one being the toddler who slipped off Finn’s lap to run after the others.

I sighed watching them go. If what she and Finn were saying was true, I could finally have the future I wanted. A future filled with love and warmth, with days feeding people and making them happy and nights wrapped in the arms of the man I loved. It was a dream I thought was too far-fetched to ever come true. But because of one barbarian who showed up to rescue me, maybe it could actually happen.

As soon as he came home, I’d ask. I had to. I needed to know one way or another if it was possible. Because the more time I spent with Verus, the harder I fell for him. If I had any chance of sparing myself the heartbreak, I needed to know sooner rather than later. Because I wanted forever with him. Hopefully, he wanted the same thing.

Twenty-Two

It took a week just to get close to the herd. A series of storms slowed us down while the herd moved farther south when the ground got too muddy for them to find food. With each passing day, I grew more frustrated. I’d promised Patrick I would be back quickly. If it took this long just to find the herd, it did not bode well for returning soon.

Rath ducked into our makeshift shelter, his long hair soaked and his expression annoyed. I sighed heavily.

“It’s not going away any time soon, is it?”

He shook his head, sitting in front of the small fire. The others were just as unhappy about it, if the grumbles were anything to go by. Since the mud slowed us down just as much as the herd, we never hunted them during this kind of weather. But that just meant we were stuck here waiting until it passed.

“Do you think I am cursed?”

Rath looked up, his brow furrowed tightly in a frown. “What? Why would you ask this?”

I waved my hands wildly, my words rushed and frustrated. “Ever since I found Patrick, things have been difficult. I was not quick enough to find him before his injury, I scared him when we first met, and I could not protect him from Tavik’s hurtfulwords. Yami had to step in because I was too distracted to deal with it myself. Orthorr still has yet to agree to let me bond with Patrick, and should he not allow it, I will be forced to leave my clan. And now all this.” I thrust a hand at the storm outside our shelter, which answered back with a flash of lightning. I scowled. “We cannot go home until we get Morak what he needs, but the storm started the day we left. It feels as though I am cursed.”

“Do you think Patrick is cursed, and it transferred to you?” Rhos suggested.

Horrified, I whipped my head around to look at him. “Why do you think that he’s cursed?”

He lifted a shoulder from where he lounged on his bed roll, ticking off things on his fingers. “He was chased from his home, got lost in the forest, was hunted by a shadowstalker, and hurt himself so badly he cannot walk—all before he even met you. It sounds to me like he is more likely the one who is cursed, not you.”

Rath made atsksound behind his teeth. “No one is cursed. I thought the same thing when Finn arrived. He has been fine since our bonding. It will pass.”

Orvak, who sat near the entrance to the shelter as a lookout, glanced over his shoulder at us. “Perhaps it is all townsfolk who are cursed. You said Finn has been fine since the bonding. Maybe once he became a clan brother, the curse was broken.”

Pursing my lips thoughtfully, I considered it. A lot of what happened did revolve around Patrick. I didn’t want to consider the idea of him being cursed because it would only worry me more, being so far from him. But if Orvak was right, there was an easy fix for Patrick’s problem. I needed only to bond with him to keep him safe.

Of course, that was easier said than done. I still hadn’t gotten Orthorr’s permission to bond with Patrick. I hadn’t even asked Patrick if that was what he wanted. I felt like he would agree—heseemed happy with me—but a part of me was afraid to ask. What if he said no?

Rhos sat up, scowling at the rain. “I’m hungry. Whose turn is it to hunt dinner?”

We’d run out of the bread Patrick made us days ago. He’d mentioned that it would last if we were careful with it, but it was so delicious, it was too much to resist. My brothers and I were already planning on asking Patrick for more for our next hunt. I regretted being so gluttonous when we first set out. It would make me feel better if I had a little more of it right now.

“Verus and I will go,” Rath grunted.

I didn’t argue with him. Perhaps hunting would get my mind off of everything. There was nothing I could do about curses or the like right now, anyway. Not until I got back to Patrick.

Since the herd was in the plains, it was a journey to get to the closest forest for hunting small game. We tried to make our shelter somewhere in between the forest and the herd, but we still needed our stallions to cross the distance safely. We had to be quick while lightning coursed through the sky so we didn’t end up hurt, and it was faster to do that with stallions.

“Make haste, Dhellgas. The weather is against us.”

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