Page 50 of Darkness Bound (Night Prowler 5)
No one replied.
Cradling his jaw and staggering around in the demolished bushes, Nando snarled, “You won’t be able to play with Luiza tonight because you’ll be back in the stocks again, Salsu Maru! You can’t attack the Alpha’s guard!”
“We’ll see about that,” Hawk muttered. He turned, grabbed Jacqueline’s hand, and pulled her along behind him as he marched into the trees, not bothering to look and see if the group had followed.
They hadn’t yet . . . but they would.
They always did.
After trudging through the dark forest behind a seething Hawk for about five minutes—and regaining her equilibrium after witnessing a group of giant black cats morph into a group of giant naked men—Jack said, “So! That went well.”
He spat something in that strange, beautiful language Nando had spoken. His strides were so long and hurried she nearly had to run to keep up with him.
“Just out of curiosity . . . are you that popular with everyone in your colony?”
Still he didn’t answer. She heard grumbling and growling over his shoulder, some noises that sounded like a spitting snake, but he didn’t answer or even break his stride, seemingly determined to get where they were going as fast as humanly possible.
Humanly. Ha!
Jack was breathing hard, and it wasn’t because of their accelerated trek through the jungle. Her nerves were screaming, her heart was pounding: she felt as if she might jump right out of her skin.
This was it. This was what she’d spent nine days of her life sailing and hiking and dreaming about, and getting mentally prepared for.
The Big Event.
Did a bride walking down the aisle feel as nervous as this?
She doubted she’d ever find out.
“Uh . . . Hawk?”
Silence.
Okay. You don’t want to talk. Fine. Let’s try—
“Salsu Maru!”
What a lovely sense of satisfaction that was, watching him freeze mid-step when she spoke those two—admittedly unknown—words.
He whirled around and stared at her with all the geniality of a shark contemplating the fat, luscious form of a seal bobbing in the waves above its open maw.
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“You don’t even know what you’re saying!” he spat, livid.
Jack crossed her arms over her chest. “Whatever it was, it served my purpose. I have your attention now.”
His lips thinned. His nostrils flared. His eyes—the darkest, richest emerald—narrowed.
Scary-beautiful. Been there, done that. Moving on.
“I just want to ask you this one thing, and then we can continue our lovely death march down the hill toward my ultimate demise.”
He waited, breathing hard, his eyes flashing Danger! like neon signs.
Jack drew in a breath and asked, “Are you okay?”
He blinked a few times. His nose twitched. “Am I okay.”
