Page 45 of The VaDorok's Unexpected Mate
“It would have been useless. Aunt sent me on a useless task,” Jegar gasped with pained laughter where he lay in thesnow. “She is not a pleasure-mate. He has been hiding the ulukskinon!”
His uncle’s brows rose in surprise. “Truly? You have been blessed with ulukskinon for a second time?”
“Does it matter?” Kull quietly challenged. “Ulukskinon or not, Katie is the one I love and the only female I would want as my mate. No one had any right to interfere.”
The other male considered him and smiled. “Such is how it should be. Ulukskinon is a powerful and wonderful thing, but it is what is in the heart that is far greater. That they would conspire against you has shamed the elders in our family. Allow me to collect Jegar and return him to our kin.”
Kull nodded as he stepped back, drawing his mate with him. “Return with him, but I will not let this go,” he growled. “Though I have collected the debt that Jegar personally owes Katie, Zalla and Jegar both need to answer to Borax.”
His uncle regarded him gravely before dipping his head. “Of course,” he rumbled.
Turning, the male bent and scooped Jegar up so that the younger male lay partially draped over his shoulder and back. Kull did not watch them make their slow return to the gathering grounds. He cared nothing about his injured cousin at that moment. All he cared about was that he had his mate at his side, safe and sound, and her heart was open to him in ways that he never dared imagine.
Matters regarding his kin and the tribe could wait.
Wiping Jegar’s blood from his ulukska’s face, he smiled lovingly down at her. “Come. You must be hungry. Let us return. You will need your energy.”
A smile slowly spread across her face with a heat that he felt pierce him to the marrow. “Really? I do look forward to seeing how you plan on expending it.”
He shivered with the lust flaring hotter and brighter within him and smiled back at her. He looked forward to showing her exactly that.
Chapter 34
Katie smiled as Kull dabbed at her face with a wet cloth, studiously removing the remaining traces of blood from her skin. He was ignoring Zalla, that much was obvious, but more importantly his attention fully focused on her as if she was the most important thing in the world despite his mother making small noises of protest and casting beseeching looks his direction while the chief spoke grimly to the female and her nephew.
It was exactly what they deserved. Although no true harm had been meant, Katie still couldn’t wrap her mind around exactly how they imagined it all playing out. As if Kull wouldn’t have used his considerable skill to track her down. She snorted in amusement, drawing a small smile from the male in question.
“What amuses you so, ulukska?” he murmured as he moved on to another spot to clean.
She shook her head and whispered, “I just don’t understand how they thought this trick was even going to work against your stubborn hide. Do they not know you?”
He chuckled softly and continued to dab at her with the cloth. “Clearly not as well as they thought. Certainly not as well as you do, ulukska.” His eyes shifted to his mother, and his smile faded as a grim look overcame him. “I do hope that Zalla finally learns from this humiliation.”
Katie glanced over at Zalla, and the female met her eyes with a hopeful look. Katie groaned inwardly. She was so not getting involved in mending bridges. Absolutely not. Even Ren was refusing to get involved. Any time Zalla tried to look at him entreatingly, he looked away, disappointment clearly evident on his face. She was getting no help from that corner either.
Unfortunately, a female nearby, dressed in a similar manner as the hunters, kept glancing over at Katie hopefully. She grimaced in response and tried not to look directly at her so as to not encourage her.
“Ignore Tev,” Kull murmured. “She has been a friend since I was a youngling, and though she supports my decision, she is also naturally sympathetic to my mother. She will not interfere, but she will encourage reconciliation whenever possible, much like Torok.”
Ok, that was even more awkward. A childhood friend, who was likely something closer to a sibling, wasn’t going to just let it go. So much for trying to ignore things and just let Kull handle it as he saw fit. It seemed that she had married... uh, mated... into a messy family situation. Lovely.
“Kull—about Zalla—perhaps we should just—”
He met her eyes and frowned. “No.”
Katie pursed her lips as she returned his regard. He didn’t even let her get a complete sentence out. Fine. No skin off her nose. She rolled her eyes, and her gaze drifted toward the other women gathered with their big alien mates loving on their big alien pregnant bellies. That reminded her—
“What is with all the humans looking like they swallowed one of your larger baskets?” she asked. “We have only been here for one planetary month... however that time is reckoned by your moon cycle...and yet all the pregnant women are absolutely huge.”
He lowered his hand and tucked the cloth into a small pouch on his belt as he glanced around at the other women around them. “I see nothing amiss. This is normal for VaDorok reproduction. Males are only seasonally fertile in the spring. This, paired with a rapid gestation, permits offspring to be born in the warm season without putting too much duress on the mother during the colder parts of the year,” he explained. “Thefirst month is the period where there is the most rapid growth. Similarly, the first two lunar cycles following birth are those within which younglings rapidly grow larger to compensate for their small birth sizes.”
“I see,” she murmured and tried not to wince.
Ballooning up like that didn’t sound comfortable at all. Then again, neither did lugging around a baby that likely at least doubled its birth size within the first couple of lunar months after it was born. Was that what she had to look forward to?
“I don’t suppose there is any birth control?” she whispered.
Kull’s brows rose but he gave her an understanding smile. “Yes. There is a plant that can do this. Truthfully, there is no rush, ulukska. I will acquire enough to keep us well supplied until we decide that we are ready for young of our own.”
