I sigh. “God, this is all so complicated.”
“I know. I’m trying to smooth things out where I can, you know.” Her hands make little circles in the water.
“Oh?” I don’t know that I like the sound of that.
Georgie hesitates, then blows out a long breath. “Don’t get mad, okay? Just know that I already defused the situation.”
I stare at her, my entire body tense. “Well, now you’d better fucking spill the beans or I really will get mad.”
She makes a pained little face and then wrings her curly hair again. “So…Vektal wants to get things settled and calmed as soon as possible so everyone can go back to their normal lives. And there’s a few males that are widowers with grown children–”
“No,” I growl immediately. I know where this is heading and absolutely fucking not. “No, no, and hell no!”
“He thought they would be willing to take on a mate and a child,” she says quickly. “But I told him humans don’t work like that and it would be really, really bad.”
“I can’t believe him,” I explode at her. “Are you fucking serious? Raahosh has been exiled a day and he’s trying to marry me off to someone else!”
Georgie waves a hand, trying to get me to lower my voice. “He’s not thinking like a man with a mate would,” she explains, “but as the chief of his people. I pointed out to him how he’d feel if the same thing happened to me and that shut things down fast.”
I wrap my arms around myself under the water and try to hold back my trembling. This is ridiculous.
I have to find a way to fix this, and soon.
• • •
The tribal caves are pure torture.
For one, I’m surrounded by happy couples, several of whom are newly mated and doting on each other. It’s hard to watch Vektal caress Georgie’s arm while she works on braiding a net. It’s hard to see Ariana all giggly over her mate. It’s even hard to see Maylak handing off her small child to her husband, because I’m struck with such envy.
Nights are even worse, of course. The caves are mostly quiet, but they’re not super large, so you can usually hear someone – or several someones – having sex. Occasionally one of the girls in the bachelorette cave will giggle when we hear Georgie’s voice rising in a soft cry that she’s not so good at muffling. Mostly it makes me jealous and sad, though. Some of the unattached girls sneak out of the bachelorette cave at night. I don’t blame them.
In fact, seeing them sneak around gives me ideas.
I wait until things are super quiet and it’s late at night. Then, I slide out of my own pallet of furs (since they’ve ‘thoughtfully’ given me a permanent one now) and tiptoe toward the main room of the cave.
And of course, that jerk Aehako is sleeping at the mouth of the bachelorette cave. He gives me a sleepy look and sits up as I try to tiptoe past. “Where are you going?”
“Pee break,” I tell him.
“There is a room for such things,” he comments, getting to his feet.
“Now where are you going?” I ask as I try to step past him.
“I am following you, of course.”
“Gah. Can you not?”
He sighs and looks around, then pulls me into the main cave. I follow him, curious, and we step into a quiet alcove. Then, he stoops down to whisper. “Are you trying to escape?”
“Escape implies I’m being held captive, doesn’t it?” I cross my arms over my chest. “You tell me. Am I trying to escape?”
“You’re very stubborn, aren’t you?” He crosses his arms over his chest in imitation of mine.
“Buddy, you have no idea.”
He looks confused. “If I had an idea, I would not be asking.”
I wave a hand. “Sarcasm. Ask Kira about it. Look, I just want to see Raahosh, okay? I miss him.” My voice breaks a little. “I want to know if he’s okay.” Actually, I know he’s not okay, but I want to see him anyhow.
I expect Aehako to put his foot down and demand that I go back to my bunk, but he glances around the cavern instead. He leans in again. “If I let you go out and talk to him, I must ask you to do something.”
“What’s that?” I try not to let my eagerness show.
For once, he’s not laughing or smiling. His face is drawn with tension. “You must tell him that he needs to leave here. He cannot stay.” When I gape, he continues. “It’s killing him. He’s hunting endlessly and not sleeping. He feels his only purpose is to provide for you, so he is destroying himself to do so. He has no sense of worth at the moment. You must convince him to leave and start a new life.”