Page 15 of Keeping His Mate

Her pink lips quirk up on both sides before she resumes walking. “We’ll see” is all she says. As if this is a challenge she is eager to take on.

When the rest of the crew comes into view, lined up in front of the trees, I straighten my spine and grit my teeth. Now is not the time to dwell on pain from the past. I must be alert. I must protect Elle-noor from her own tenderness. Her kind heart will not be the death of her. I will not allow it.

“Greetings, Elle-noor,” Varrek says when we approach the path leading to the falls. “Bruvix,” he adds with a stiff nod.

“Morning, Varrek,” Elle-noor replies warmly. “Thanks for letting me do this. I know it goes against multiple clan safety rules, so I really appreciate it.”

“You will enter the falls, check the surrounding area, and then you will return,” he commands as he clasps his hands behind his back. “This is not a lengthy excursion. We do not know what is out there, and you could both be in a tremendous amount of danger by seeking out the source of those cries.”

“Understood,” Elle-noor says. “At the very least, I’m hoping to learn about the tr’gorys, so we can get a better idea of their hunting techniques, pack hierarchy, and physical behavior so we can keep everyone safe.”

Varrek’s brow lifts, a curious look spreading across his face. “Very well. That is information we shall certainly benefit from having.”

Then he glances at me, his expression skeptical. “You are certain you desire to do this?” I understand he is no longer acting in his role as clan leader but as a member of my family. He knows the pain I endured and how difficult this will be for me. Surely, he is surprised I volunteered for this task.

“All will be well,” I reply as I put a hand on his shoulder. He mimics the gesture and gives my shoulder a squeeze, and I know he is praying for our safe return.

Varrek steps aside, giving us room to enter the forest.

I take the lead onto the narrow path with Elle-noor following close behind. Pulling my sword from its sheath, I keep it in front of me, my dagger in a tight grip in my other hand, and my laser pistol strapped to my thigh. Elle-noor wraps a hand around the back loop of my vest, and I cannot resist the shudder that racks my body at the contact.

“It’s quiet,” Elle-noor whispers. I immediately turn and shake my head, putting a finger to my lips to indicate she must not speak. Not yet. Not until we know what lies ahead.

She is correct, though. There have been no strangled howls since the sun rose. It is quiet in the forest. Too quiet considering the uproar of the previous eve. I was expecting to hear a tussle between the creatures seeking to devour the tr’gory corpse. Or at the very least, the victor of said tussle gleefully tearing the tr’gory’s meat off its bones.

I hear none of that.

There is only the hushed buzzing of insects and an occasional chirp of the plukki birds. But even they seem to be unsettled this morning.

The heavy flow of water fills my ears as we edge closer to the falls. I can feel Elle-noor’s grip tighten with each step, though her fear scent does not fill my nose. It is as if excitement is driving her forward, whereas my fear is doing everything possible to push me back. Back toward the main path. Back toward the clan. Back toward safety.

This is something Elle-noor needs, and for that reason, I carry on. I can deny her nothing.

When we enter the clearing, I let my eyes, ears, and nose scan the area. I do not see movement or even the still remains of a tr’gory long dead. There are no scraping or heavy footsteps in the distance. I do find the scent of a tr’gory, perhaps more than one, but it is faded.

There is nothing here.

How can that be?

“It is vacant, somehow,” I tell Elle-noor. She steps around me and stands at my side, letting her own senses investigate the scene.

“The hell?” she whispers, her small nose scrunched up tight in confusion. She places her hands on her waist as she stomps around the clearing, kicking up clumps of moss and piles of leaves. She is angry, and I am finding it difficult to focus on my duty to protect her when she looks like this. There is a spark of determination in her eyes, and a hardness in the way her shoulders are set. She does not give up easily, this one. “I don’t understand,” she finally says, walking around the edge of the pond.

I strive to conjure an explanation, something to ease the furrow in her brow. “It is a good sign, is it not? Without remains of a tr’gory, it is possible that tr’gory survived.” I do not agree that this outcome is good because it means there is an injured tr’gory that is probably still close by. We could be in for many more eves with obnoxiously loud howling keeping us awake. I do not say any of this to Elle-noor, though.

There is another explanation. One I certainly prefer. “Or perhaps the tr’gory did not survive, and the body was dragged away by pred–”

Elle-noor’s horrified gasp sends adrenaline coursing through my body as I race to her side on the outer edge of the falls. I find her kneeling in the dirt, leaning over a large pool of blood.

“What is...that?” I ask, sheathing my weapons and pointing to a long string of yellowish-white floating in the center. The end of it is attached to a mass of dark red I cannot identify.

She shakes her head, her hands pressed into either side of her face. “Some kind of tissue. It could be anything.”

My eyes scan the ground surrounding the blood, and I discover a subtle trail of blood droplets leading to a hole in the ground in front of a cluster of boulders. Slowly, I pull out my blades once again, and keep my feet light as I approach. The hole is wide enough for me to crawl into, but smaller than I would expect for a pack of tr’gorys.

Placing my dagger in my sword hand, I reach into my pocket and pull out a douku orb. Throwing it onto the dirt at the entrance of the tr’gory den, the palm-sized orb cracks upon impact and light beams out. I wait for movement, weapons at the ready.

Elle-noor creeps behind me and pokes her head around my arm but remains quiet. It pleases me to see her taking this seriously.

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