Page 26 of The VaDorok's Unexpected Mate
On the other side of Kull, Ren peered down at the tracks. “It is a burrah track,” he replied dutifully. “Adult male. They have longer claws on their forepaws than the females do, and longer, thicker tails that tend to drag more in the snow,” he said, pointing to the faint line that followed the path of the tracks.”
Katie blinked at it foggily. Since when had everything seemed to slow down in her brain? She blinked again and tried to focus despite her mind’s refusal to do much more than drift against the background of Ren’s droning voice. Burrah. She remembered Ren saying that before. They had burrah for dinner, and it was so good. She hoped that the one that left the trail would be fat and juicy. She licked her lips and winced at the way they stung.
He blew out all of his pent-in breath in annoyance. “This is pointless. Look at her. She’s not listening, and she’s beginning to turn blue. That cannot be the right color for her species,” he pointed out.
I am?Katie lifted a hand clad in one of the ugly mittens she’d managed to piece together and touched it cautiously to her lips. She couldn’t feel her lips.
“Katie?” Kull rumbled, and suddenly his big face was in front of her, his eyes searching her face with concern. “Ren is right. You do not look well,” he said. “How do you feel?”
She gave a weak little laugh. “I don’t think I can feel my skin. Can you check and make sure it’s still attached?”
His eyes widened, and a displeased growl escaped him as he whipped his hand up and placed it against her cheek. Hot! It was too hot! She winced and jerked away clumsily from the scorching touch.
“You are frozen! Why did you not say that you were so cold?” he demanded with an angry snarl.
She instinctively shrank into her fur and whimpered as the heat of her fur scored her cheek painfully with its light touch. “I was trying to keep up,” she mumbled but was promptly silenced when he swept her into his arms and pressed her firmly into the heat of his chest.
“Ren grab the string of burrah. We are going back to the den before she freezes to death. Little fool,” he snarled.
Around his arm, she could see Ren staring at her wide-eyed as he quickly nodded. For once there were no smirks or nasty comments. He merely did as he was told as Kull spun around and jogged through the woods, his heat wrapping around her in a tight blanket that drew her into slumber.
“Do not sleep,” he growled. “You are too cold to sleep. Stay with me. We will be back at the den soon.”
She nodded weakly and struggled to focus on his words. Every time she began to nod off, he shook her awake, his voice rising in demanding questions barked at her, forcing her to respond and remain lucid.
It occurred to her as the shadow of the den loomed just ahead of them that if the Agraak had really wanted to torture any of them, all they would have had to do was shove them into the snow for a while until they were half frozen and then pull them out. She never knew such misery as what he was forcing her to stay awake for. As the numbness receded, she cried, scorching tears running down her face, as Kull’s body heat began to thaw her flesh, sending sharp blades of pain through her skin and deep into her muscles.
It wasn’t until she was wrapped firmly in several furs, and the fire was stoked high that Kull finally allowed her to drift to sleep, his admonishments filling her ears.
“Little fool female, what am I going to do with you?”
Chapter 21
Watching Katie come so dangerously close to freezing made something clench painfully in Kull as he hovered anxiously over her. He felt useless in his inability to help her while she shivered violently under the thick furs that he pulled over her.
“Will she be all right?” Ren asked in a hushed voice from the door.
Kull looked over at the young male and gave him a reassuring smile that he didn’t feel. “She will be fine. We got her home quickly and built up the fire to warm her. Now we just need to wait.”
“What are we supposed to do with these humans if freeze quicker than younglings?” Ren muttered. “It is foolish to keep them as pleasure-mates. They should have gone back to where they came from.”
“It is not that simple,” Kull sighed. “Their people do not know that they are here, or what their fate is. The Edoka assisted in their rescue, but not only did he not have enough fuel to make it directly to the Intergalactic Space Station to begin with, but the females were too frightened to go with him into another unknown situation. Nor do we have the means for a long-range system to reach that far. As it is, we can only reach A’Jular specifically when he comes within range of our world, but he has promised to inform their people. In the meantime, Borax promised them continued safety while they wait for their people to retrieve them.”
A pensive look crossed Ren’s face. “That does not explain why they need to be our problem, or why you needed to bring a human home as your pleasure-mate. A hunting shelter could have been put up for them in the gathering grounds where they could wait.”
Kull glanced toward his younger brother, suddenly annoyed despite the fact that he had offered these same arguments only a short time ago. “So, they are frightened and have been abused, and your solution would be just to stick them all together alone in a hunting shelter?”
The younger male shifted his weight in place uncomfortably, his expression anxious as he looked at Katie’s sleeping form. “Maybe that would be a little unkind,” he hesitantly replied. “But why us? Why take a pleasure-mate? We are much further from the gathering place than anyone else in the tribe, and we seldom socialize with others. This cannot be the best place for her.”
Kull grunted in agreement. But it was not simple either. Letting out a heavy sigh, he rubbed his face with one hand. “She trusts me. I killed for her and took her from that place. In my eyes, I am safety. And perhaps I have been alone for long enough and would like to enjoy the company of a female.”
Ren snorted mirthlessly. “Safety? Does she not know that you intentionally threw me in the lake because I hated getting wet while you were teaching me to kill finned gurups with a sharpened pole?”
“You survived,” Kull muttered. “I would naturally be gentler with a little female pleasure-mate who is not VaDorok.”
His brother gave him a sidelong look and grunted. “Okay. Then why are you teaching how to make fires, sew, and hunt if it is not just to torture her?”
He gaped at the younger male in disbelief. “She wished to learn! Do you really think that I am forcing these things on her?”
