Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
I’rec eyes me as if on to my game. “If anyone blows too hard, it is R’jaal. He lusts after you like a kaari in heat.”
I giggle harder. “You are too mean.” What does it say about me that I like it? Not that he’s being mean to R’jaal behind his back, but that he sounds so grumpily possessive while he says it. Like he’s jealous. It’s that jealous note in his voice that makes my heart giddy for some reason. I wave him forward. “Come here, anyhow. Before we set off I need to fix your hair.”
He touches his mane, frowning.
“You look like you spent all night fucking,” I point out. It looks that way because we did, but I don’t want him rolling up into camp like that. “Let me do something with it for you.”
I’rec gives me another one of those grouchy looks but comes to my side and then bends down in the snow in front of me. My heart flutters, but I try to ignore it. Stupid khui is making my brain turn to mush. With one of the cut ties from my leggings still in my herb-gathering bag, I draw his hair together, using my fingers to smooth out stray locks. I pull it into a knot at the back of his head and then study my handiwork. It’s…not quite a man bun? It should look ridiculous, perhaps, but drawing his thick mane back from his face calls attention to his blunt, heavy features and makes him look ruggedly masculine and slightly feral. Like he’d fight a grizzly bear for even looking in your direction.
It makes me absurdly turned on. That could be the resonance talking, of course. But I brush one last lock back behind his horns, unable to stop touching him. “This is a good look for you, you know. I like your hair pulled back like this.”
He grunts, rolling his shoulders and getting back to his feet once I’ve finished fussing with him, but I can tell he likes my praise. Has anyone ever praised him, I wonder? He’s the leader of his little clan, but being the leader can be thankless. A’tam is handsome but kinda dim. U’dron is friendly as all get-out. O’jek is very loyal and steadfast and I’rec…well, I’rec is cranky. I know a lot of the tribe tolerates him because they’re family, not because they enjoy his company.
They don’t see him for the good guy that he is. He’s handsome and devoted and clever. Unrelenting. Determined. Brave. Fucks like an absolute demon. Tia should be thanking her lucky stars he’s so intent upon her.
Just thinking about Tia sours my mood. Everything between us is still up in the air and will remain up in the air until we all come to an agreement. I’rec hasn’t said what he wants to do and I haven’t asked.
Honestly, I’m a little afraid to ask.
Resonance is supposed to be a done deal, but our situation is messier than most. Everyone else that resonated wasn’t with someone. I’rec’s been patiently waiting for Tia for years now. He’s loved her for what feels like forever, and I wouldn’t ask him to give her up just because of resonance. He doesn’t love me and I wouldn’t want to stay with someone that doesn’t want me wholeheartedly. That’s why I balked with R’jaal so many times. I felt like he wanted me because he was lonely, not because I was endgame for him.
But now because of resonance, I don’t get an endgame. When I’rec goes back to Tia’s side, I’ll just be Auntie Flor again, but this time with a kiddo at my side. There won’t be any hope for a mate, and that thought is more than a little depressing. Why is it everyone else gets the fairy tale and I get some sort of fucking soap opera?
It’s freaking unfair.
“Come,” I’rec says, taking my bag and slinging it over his shoulder. He hands me a pouch of trail mix instead. “We should go, and you should eat.”
“I just ate,” I protest.
“Eat again. It is good for you.”
Weirdo. I take a piece of trail mix and try to keep my spirits up, though I’m not looking forward to returning to camp. “So who do you think we’re going to run into first when we get back?”
“H’nah,” he says immediately, as ready to gossip as I am. “She is a nosy one.”
She’s more of a busybody, but I think he’s right. Hannah it is. “And you know A’tam will say something crude.”
“And R’hosh will scowl and shake his head at us as if we are naughty kits,” I’rec continues. “And Leezh will bark a bunch of words at us that mean nothing to me.” He shoots me a wry smile. “But it is because we are naughty kits to her, too.”