Page 35 of The VaDorok's Unexpected Mate
Great. It sounded cute. Like Bambi. Time to revisit childhood trauma.
Lips twisting in a grimace, she followed Kull toward the trap as he continued to point out certain things that she could look for to tell her more about the lay of the land and the local wildlife. She attentively stopped and studied everything he pointed out to her until at last they arrived at the area where the trap was hidden. A sudden movement among the trees just ahead of them caught her attention and, upon catching sight of the source of the disturbance, her heart dropped with dismay. Katie dragged her feet reluctantly as she followed him over to where the small animal was trying to shake itself free of the trap.
Oh no. It was not just Bambi. It was as if Lisa Frank took a small deer with a bright pink, spotted pelt and big lavender eyes, and gave it the bright red mane and tail of a lion, and four delicate, ivory horns twisting in such a way that they framed its head. It bleated softly and tossed its head at their approach, and her eyes immediately began to tear up while Kull dropped lower and began to stalk toward it.
What a crappy hunter she was turning out to be. But why couldn’t it be butt-ugly like a burrah. It just had to be cute.
“This is an eschar,” Kull rumbled as he gestured to it. He glanced back at her with a pleased smile that immediately slipped from his face with an expression of concern. “Katie? What is it? Are you too cold?” He shifted his weight and easedtoward her, his hands going to the furs covering her and brisky rubbed her arms.
Her lower lip trembled despite her best efforts to control it, and she shook her head.
His brows dipped with confusion. “Then what is it?”
“It’s just... do we have to kill it?” she asked in a rush, allowing the words to explode from her in a rapid paced fire. “I get that we have to hunt so that we have food to eat and so that we have furs, leather, sinew, and bone for supplies. But—”
His brows lowered further. “But what?”
She winced. She was about to sound like the high queen of all idiots for saying this on a planet filled with aliens who had to hunt to survive.
“But—it’s so cute! Do we have to kill it?”
Kull stared at her, and his eyes shifted back toward the eschar before turning back to her without a thoughtful expression. “The durwa,” he rumbled with a grimace.
Katie gave him a confused look. What did Gremlin have to do with anything?
He sighed heavily and then laughed, the sound rumbling out of him in a rich sound as he covered his eyes with one hand. “I suddenly understand very well what Ren went through when it came to his prank with the durwa. Your heart is soft.”
She frowned at him. “Just because I don’t want to kill something that looks perfectly cute and huggable?”
“An eschar is an omnivore that will tear your flesh from your bones quicker than most predators due to its incredible agility,” he pointed out in such a deadpan voice that she couldn’t help but believe him.
“Seriously?” she squawked, and he nodded grimly.
She stared at the little beast as it regarded her with large, velvety eyes. Suddenly it opened its mouth in the most horrifying shriek she ever heard, baring numerous shark-liketeeth that had her stumbling a couple steps back from shock. Holy deceptions Batman! She gaped at it as it thrashed more violently, its shrieking rising to ear-piercing levels.
“On second thought, have it,” she said, backing away.
Kull gave her a knowing smile, but that smile of his only grew with increased satisfaction when later that night she was tucked into her meal, enjoying every bite of the unholy menace of a beast.
It appeared that even more was not as it seemed on Dorok, and she couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Nearly destroyed by fantasy fluff Bambi. Damn.
Chapter 27
Katie squinted against the daylight gleaming brightly off the snow as she stood up from her crouched position and stretched. Her cheeks were feeling a bit chapped from the cold air, but she was gradually becoming accustomed to it. Maybe she could talk to someone about what could be used to make a protective ointment. Or trade with that alien... what was his name... A’Jular.
Something soft tickled the back of her leg, and she glanced down, barely holding back a chuckle. Whatever Kull’s feelings were beneath his often-stoic exterior, his tail at least seemed to like her. It curled around her leg, flicking in a way she could only call affectionate as the large male worked at the soil. He didn’t even seem to notice it was there as he softly grunted and pulled a large gawl root from the ground. Glancing over at her, he grinned at her over shoulder and triumphantly held the root up.
“Your dinner, I think,” he said as he turned and scooted in very close to her to lay the tuber into the basket with the others.
Katie chuckled, knowing damn well that a root that big was better suited to Kull’s or Ren’s appetite. That he would offer the best one was sweet though. She swallowed nervously, however, when his side brushed hers, his tail sliding briefly against her leg. Not only did it send a shocking heat driving deep into her belly, but it also made her hyperaware of his presence as she was unaccustomed to him being practically pressed up against her. He had certainly grown to be very familiar around her, and comfortable with it at that.
She bumped him playfully with her hip, and his tail swished as his head came around, his amber eyes fixing on her. His tail flicked at her in turn, swatting across her buttocks as his eyes narrowed humorously and the corners of his mouth upturned. Ifhe thought that shocked her, then the joke was on him. She was into it. His tail was soft and warm compared to a lot of other toys she had experimented with prior to being taught no realm of unpleasant humiliation by the Agraak. Heat curled within the pit of her belly as Kull’s nostrils flared, drawing in her scent, and his eyes widened in a look of surprise.
“Katie,” he murmured. The look on his face was filled with such longing that it suggested that he wanted to do... something... but did not know how to act on that desire.
And, as she hadn’t a clue what it was, she couldn’t exactly take it on herself to help him out with it.
