“Did they hurt you?” Liz whispers when the guards walk away. “You’ve been gone a while.”
“Is she okay?” I ask instead, looking at Josie.
Liz shakes her head, her mouth tightening into a grim line, and I know the worst has happened. Josie was raped, probably in front of the others.
“You?” Megan asks, touching my hand.
“I’m fine. No one touched me.” The lie feels awful on my lips. “They just examined me on one of the tables and put me under.”
Kira looks relieved. She reaches over and squeezes my shoulder. We all fall silent again, the only sound Josie’s muffled sniffs as she tries desperately to keep quiet. Liz rubs her arm and comforts her.
No one touches me, and that’s how I like it.
Chapter Two
SALUKH
I rub a twig on my teeth as I lean against the cave wall and watch the dark-skinned human woman emerge from her cave. Watching Tee-fah-nee has become one of my favorite pastimes since we moved to the south caves, and I know I’m not the only one. I’m just the only one that is subtle about it. Nearby, Taushen jumps to his feet at the sight of her. She smiles at him but it doesn’t reach her eyes. I want to tell him that’s not the way to get her attention, but I don’t want to help him out.
Tee-fah-nee is mine. She just doesn’t know it yet.
My khui is silent in my breast, but it doesn’t matter. It will come around. I rub the stick and continue to watch as Taushen – ever so eager – tries to take the basket from her hands. She shakes her head and says something polite to him, and he wilts. When he returns to the central fire pit, he looks as if he’s been chastised.
Tee-fah-nee hurries outside. I’ll follow her, but in a moment. She needs time to think she is alone. She’s skittish, my woman, but that’s all right. I am a patient male. Tracking my woman is like tracking any prey – it requires patience and persistence in the hunter. It means watching the movements of the hunted, learning their patterns. In the case of the human, it means befriending her and giving her space when others will not. It means keeping my distance.
For now. When my khui resonates to her, I will no longer have to keep myself at arm’s length.
I let a few minutes pass, scraping idly at my teeth and watching my tribe move about the south cave. Aehako’s mate, Kira, is standing nearby with her kit cradled in her arms. The loud one known as Josie holds her arms out for the child and her yearning is written all over her round human face. That one does not hide her emotions like Tee-fah-nee. She wears them plainly for all to see. My mother and one of the elders are smoking meat and making travel rations, and nearby several hunters are sharpening their blades, preparing to go out hunting. With the twelve new mouths to feed – plus the young the caves now seem to be full of – there is more of a need than ever to hunt.
But I have no one to hunt for. Not yet. I am a solo hunter with no cave to feed. My furs are yet in the cave with the other unattached hunters. I will hunt soon…but first I will visit my female and make her feel needed. I push myself off the cave wall and saunter over to Kemli’s side and snatch a square of travel rations. “Ho, mother. I see you are making me food.”
She slaps at my hand like I’m a naughty child. “Put that back. You should go hunt.”
“Ah, but I am on the hunt.” I grin at her and take another bite out of the food. “Just not for meat.”
She rolls her eyes and waves me away. My mother would like to see me mated, I think. Other than my young sister Farli, I am the last to leave the cave. Both of my brothers Pashov and Dagesh mated humans and now have young kits at their hearth. “You cannot have more of the rations, my son. We need them for the upcoming trip.”
I swallow my bite and look to the cave entrance where Tee-fah-nee disappeared a short time ago. If I wait too long, someone’s going to come by and bother her. I need to go soon, but my mother’s words have me curious. “What trip?”
“The human called Har-loh opened three new family caves with her stone-cutter, Aehako says. That means there is room for three families to go back to the main tribal caves. Farli, your father and I are going back. I want to be near my other sons and their mates while their kits are young.” She tilts her head, gazing up at me. “You are welcome to come back with us.”
“Not yet.” I’ll go where Tee-fah-nee goes. If she is not moving back yet, then I will stay.
“Because of the human females?” My mother arches one gray eyebrow. She knows me far too well.
I just grin at her. She knows I stalk Tee-fah-nee, though I have yet to resonate to her. I have staked her out as the one that will be mine. The only thing that remains is to convince my khui that she is mine.