Page 52 of Ragoru

“We will convince some,” Vrishna assured her as he squeezed her in a gentle hug. “There are many who are tired of struggling to survive and will see the advantages of having each other without being controlled by another. We will manage.”

“And what of him?” Sabol asked, glowering at the huntsman laying crumpled on the ground.

Evie bit her lip. And that was exactly the question. She didn’t know what the right decision was when it came to Huntsman Vale. The huntsman was a greater monster than any of them, but she wasn’t so certain that she could allow her family to stoop to that level. Mercy had to come from somewhere first to make an effort for peace.

CHAPTER40

Sabol growled softly as he prowled closer to the huntsman. This was the pitiful human who had brought the humans upon them with every intention to slaughter them and harm their mate. This was the male who had injured Vrishna and whose actions could have gotten Evie killed. He wanted nothing more than to rip the male from limb to limb, but the conflicted look in his mate’s eye stopped him, no matter how much he wanted to. From the expression on the faces of his triad, he knew that they were entertaining similar thoughts. They all lusted for his death and were only being held in check by the whim of their mate.

Personally, he thought that Thral was showing remarkable restraint by not just taking control of the situation rather than deferring to their female’s obviously tender heart. Sabol wasn’t so sure if he could do it if he were alpha, but then he thanked the Dark Fathers that he was not because he preferred to bask in his mate’s approval rather than make hard decisions for the family. In this case, however, Thral’s deference was marking his respect toward her as this was a foe she had clearly brought down herself. This was her prey, and as was right, he was giving her first rights to make the decision even ahead of his position as alpha to see to their safety.

The broken human gurgled, and Sabol’s lip curled as the male’s head swung from side to side. “It doesn’t matter. If you kill me, you won’t protect your secret. I commed my superiors before I entered the caves and told them all about you. As a huntsman I have access to superior technology due to my position, especially here, and I made good use of it,” he rasped, his words fading into a terrible groan as he clenched his side. Hate filled his eyes as he looked up at all of them, despite the pain that filled his face. “You’re all dead. All of you. Your whole damn species is dead!”

Evie’s expression hardened, and she stepped forward. “You truly are evil, aren’t you? You would condemn an entire species to die without knowing anything about them just because you can.”

A menacing grin slid over the male’s face, and Sabol’s hackles rose. He growled though the human ignored him.

“This isn’t about good and evil, and if you really think it was then you’re as unrealistic as a child. This is about our survival as a species on this planet. It means being the top predator, the strongest. Even if it means annihilating any obstacle to that.”

Her jaw tightened. “You mean me.”

“You and any woman like you who would betray your own species for their benefit,” he spat. “I heard these monsters calling you their mate.” His eyes rolled toward Vrishna, and he smirked. “How you cried for your mate. Without you, I never would have even realized. I don’t even think you knew what you were saying as you lay there so pitifully. I knew I should have just put a bullet into that brain, but now I’m uncertain if it would penetrate that thick skull.” He groaned miserably. “So see you see,” he panted, “you doom yourself if you leave me here. I am the only avenue for clemency, Ms. Willocks. Youwillnotleave me here to die unless you wish to suffer the same fate!”

Sabol stepped forward a pace, his lips peeling from his teeth as a deep snarl echoed through his chest. The human would not threaten his mate!

“Sabol,” Thral’s snapped, his deep voice cutting through the fury rising in his mind.

He didn’t move back, but he relaxed his stance a little and his snarl shifted into a predatory smile that he fixed upon the human. The human was trying to act as if he were unaffected by it, but Sabol could see the way his throat worked and could smell the fear spoiling the air.

“I see,” Evie murmured as she clasped her hands in front of her. “Then I suppose there is only one choice I can make.”

The huntsman grinned triumphantly through the blood and dirt that coated his face.

Evie glanced at Thral, and then Vrishna before her gaze finally came to rest on Sabol. A smile curled her lips and the tension from her shoulders eased. “I leave this matter, and the safety of our family, in my triad’s hands.” She brushed her hand over her shirt and turned toward the tunnel that Avareth had disappeared through. “I will just wait over there for you.”

Sabol was glad for that. Their Evie didn’t need to witness what was to come.

The moment she was out of sight and her footsteps faded down the corridor, Sabol bared his teeth as his triad pulled in closer, their own snarls vibrating through them as they closed in around their prey. The human’s eyes widened in panic as they rolled in his head with the effort to look at each of them all at once.

“No. No, wait!” he screamed, and then screamed louder when they descended upon him.

Claws and muzzles bloodied, when they withdrew from the mess there was little left that was recognizable of the huntsman. Sabol spat on the ground, not wishing for that terrible taste to linger more than it had to in his mouth before following after his triad, the human forgotten in their desire to reunite with their mate.

Despite their bloodied appearance, Evie greeted them with a smile and pointed out the direction that they would take, a much wider tunnel than any of those they had been down. “Let’s go home,” she said.

They followed her into it, the darkness fitting around them but this time without alarming pressure or the sense of danger. As they walked, the taste of blood thickened in Sabol’s mouth disgustingly and he exchanged a commiserating look with Vrishna. There was a faint sound of water trickling somewhere. It would only be a small matter to scout it.

“Where do you think the water is? I need to get this shit out of my mouth,” Vrishna rumbled.

Evie’s head snapped toward them, and she blinked with a faint expression of horror. “No! Don’t drink any of the cave water unless you want it to destroy your body and mind. It carries a parasite.”

Sabol and Vrishna both recoiled from the tunnel as Thral snarled out a vicious curse. Sabol recalled a little too clearly the creature that had attacked Vrishna. The thing that had looked a little too human but not. Snapping his mouth closed, he plucked his mate up and carried her down the tunnel as his triad loped beside him, eager to be well away from the cursed place.

CHAPTER41

Evie sighed as she looked at the final page of her field journal. She’d filled it up over the months she’d been with the Ragoru, since her first meeting with Sabol. So much happened that had filled her pages, especially after the incident at the facility. Though they’d skirted around the mining village to save themselves any more problems, which had only been made possible because they no longer required use of the long-distance comm, convincing the Ragoru to take to living in their “village” hadn’t been easy. But it had happened, and within the first few months one of the families in their community birthed a small litter of rogs.

Evie had been enraptured and since the pregnant female, Irikhai had been one to quickly befriend her after their settlement, Evie was able to spend numerous hours in the female’s company not only detailing female anatomy—such as the fact that the females had two uteruses in which they could carry young, which suddenly made the male anatomy make a little more sense—but cataloging the development of the rogs. So much so that she’d barely noticed her own body’s changes until her mate snuggled around her, rumbling happily over her change in scent.

---