13. Kerry

Chapter 13

Kerry

" I know you can climb on your own, but would you let me help you?" he asked.

"Thank you." She glanced down at her pet. "Should Molly come with us?"

"She'll be safe here on the ground. This is her home, and she knows where to hide." As if she heard him, she gave me one long look before she scampered over to duck below the bushes where my clothing had been draped to dry.

"We'll find her in the morning," he said, coming over to stand in front of me. He was so much bigger and broader than me. Strong and kind and determined where I felt suddenly weak and pitiful.

"You're tired," he said, stroking my hair. "Let me take care of you."

Did I dare relax my guard enough to let this male in? I looked up at him, reading only caring in his gorgeous teal eyes.

"Would you do all this for me if I wasn't your mate?" I asked.

"Yes. I would never leave someone unprotected and vulnerable. Not even an enemy."

"Except the person who stabbed you and stole your things."

His low laugh rang out. "Yes, I wouldn't help them."

"I hope we discover who it is."

"We will. I appreciate that you want to help me with this."

"I'm someone who believes in fairness, and they've done awful things."

"They have." He lifted me and urged me to wrap my legs around his torso and my arms around his shoulders. "You'll need to hold tight."

Pressing my face into his chest, I nodded.

One leap, and he'd grabbed onto the lowest branch of the tree, though it had to be at least ten feet up. With everything this male did for me, he showed me how much stronger he was, how easily he fit into this environment. Survival of the fittest and all that. While I was grateful to my mother for teaching me the skills that had helped me live long enough for Nevarn to find me, I wished I was a foot taller, that I had larger muscle mass. I wasn't puny as far as Earth women went, but my physical deficiencies were becoming more obvious the longer I remained on this planet.

He continued jumping, taking us up into the canopy, where he settled on a branch so wide, our legs wouldn't fit around it. Sitting with his back to the trunk, he placed me on his lap with my legs still wrapped around him.

"Sleep," he said, tucking the blanket he'd somehow drawn from inside the tree around me. "I'll keep you warm and safe."

A few light taps overhead were followed by splatters on my face.

"It's raining." I huddled beneath the blanket.

He pointed. "Watch."

Tipping my head back, I stared in amazement as branches shifted overhead, moving closer together until a thick cluster of leaves created an umbrella to keep us dry.

"How is any of this possible?" I asked, too tired to process it all. Everything had caught up to me and like an incoming tsunami, it was going to knock me over.

He shrugged. "Many would say this is a gift from the gods and leave it at that."

"What do you say?"

"That I'm thankful for however these gifts are given to me, that I don't take any of them for granted."

"You're an old soul." I studied his face that was difficult to see in the darkness.

His head tilted, and I could tell he was thinking about what my words might mean. "I believe you're right," he finally said. "I think you also have an old soul. We've both experienced things in life that have changed us for the better. I'm not saying this change didn't leave scars or that our souls remained untouched. Bad things have happened to us, but instead of wallowing in the pain, we mourned and moved forward. By doing so, we created something new and often, better."

"You're right. I lost my mother much too young, and I still miss her. But I've taken all she taught me and used it to make my life better. Although," she said wryly, "I wish I'd paid a bit more attention to everything she tried to teach me."

"Most younglings feel they know everything already, that there's nothing their elders can share that they'd want to take on as their own."

"I wish I'd had more time with her."

He tapped my chest. "She's still with you in your heart."

"You're right. I have my memories of her and the feel of her hand on my forehead, her touch on my shoulder. She loved me and she showed me all the time." If only she'd chosen a different career, but she'd always been someone who had deep feelings for others. A regular old nine-to-five job would never have given her the chance she needed to make a difference. I could see that now with the clarity gifted to me by time.

Yawning, I snuggled against him. He smelled amazing, like the crisp air around us mixed in with a light grassy scent I found addictive.

His arms went around me, holding me tight enough to keep me from falling but lightly enough I could pull back if it felt like too much.

My eyes slid closed, and the rain lulled me to . . .

I woke in his arms, with sunlight warming my spine, and looked up. He stared down at me, and for one moment, his gaze was unguarded.

He craved me. Not just physically, but emotionally.

I could barely breathe.

What would it be like to be with someone who saw me as his whole world, not someone he left to complete a job, then came back to when they had time? I'd never begrudged my mom for working, but the long stretches without her had gnawed away at my emotions until I put a block between us. Only then could I deal with her being my all for a short time and then my nothing.

He leaned closer, stopping before we touched, and I drank in the warmth in his eyes.

He longed for me, and I felt the same. I craved what I suspected only this guy could give me. He wouldn't just bring joy to my life but peace and contentment.

I rose enough to place my lips against his. I'd thought his tusks might get in the way if we kissed, but I didn't feel them at all.

He groaned and tugged me closer, gathering me up in his arms and holding me as if I was the most precious person in the world. I let the wonderful feeling sink into me. When he lifted his head, he smiled. "Pleasant morning."

"Pleasant morning."

"I imagine you'd like me to take you to the ground."

I actually wanted another kiss, but what if he didn't?

No, he did. I could see it in his eyes and feel it in the way his fingers still ran up and down my spine.

"I suppose we should eat and get going."

"Yes, we have a long day of walking ahead. We want to reach the island before it gets dark."

I reluctantly slid off his legs.

He eased onto his feet and scooped me up, holding me with only one arm. "I'm going to jump."

"Wait, I—"

The world rushed past us as he dropped, landing squarely on his feet on the forest floor.

When he released me, I scooted along the river and ducked behind a bush to take care of business. I'd discovered the exact right leaf to replace toilet paper, though I'd only found the plant growing near the water. After, I washed quickly and brushed my teeth, returning to the campsite to find Nevarn approaching from the river upstream after doing the same.

He made quick work of heating our leftovers for breakfast. We ate quickly and packed everything up.

I dressed in the pants and t-shirt the tree had left for me, neatly folded near the base of the trunk. I wasn't sure what I thought about wearing tree-generated clothing, but they were clean, they fit, and it was wonderful to wear something other than my hand-washed stuff.

The tree also left a tunic and pants for Nevarn, and he quickly donned them. I kind of hated to see him covering up his body, but it would be easier to move through the woods if he didn't have to worry about thorns scratching his skin or mosquitoes, assuming they had bugs like that here.

After securing his spear holder to his back and my skinning knife around his waist, he shouldered my bag. "Ready?"

I tucked my bow into its sheath.

"Come on, Molly." My voice drew her attention away from the grass she was nibbling on. When she scooted over to me, I lifted her and tucked her into my arms like a baby.

"I could hold her if you'd like," Nevarn said.

"Later? I've got her for now."

"This way, then." After scanning the area, he led me through the woods and back onto the broad trail weaving through the dense forest.

Though we kept pausing to listen and Nevarn periodically worked his way around to scout the area behind us, we didn't see any sign we were followed. Had they given up?

I had a feeling they hadn't. If, as he suggested, this was the person who'd killed Weela, and they were determined to keep him from revealing their identity, they'd make their move again soon.

We whispered about this and that, me sharing what my life was like on Earth and him telling me about the homes his clan lived in, those provided by Helena, the goddess of wood.

"When you spoke with the trees last night," I said, "were you actually speaking with Helena?"

He shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. She communes, as you called it yesterday, with the trees in the territory I claimed for my clan. But she taught us how to speak with the lesser gods who reside within the forest itself."

"Lesser gods?"

He frowned. "I'm not sure how to explain it other than to say that everything on Zuldrux is, to some extent, sentient. I believe each being residing inside a rock or a tree is a fragment of the gods who originally came here, hence the term lesser."

"Could they be aliens like me, a species of people who came to this planet on their own?"

"Perhaps. Who's to say?"

We walked farther in silence, but I could tell by the way his brow kept knitting and how he kept shooting me odd looks, that he had something to say.

Finally, I stopped on the path and lifted my eyebrows.

He paused with me. "Do you need to go behind a bush?"

Not yet. I placed my hands on my hips. "I feel like you're holding something back, that you need to come clean about something."

"Clean . . .?" He glanced toward the river on our left. He said it wound all the way to the sea, that we'd follow it to the shore.

"It means saying something you're worried the other person won't like."

"Ah, yes, I'm dirty."

My laugh snorted out. "Dirty isn't often used in this context, but I like it."

He nodded, his brow furrowing deeper. "I have to ask you something, and you're right, you may not like it."

"Then tell me. Come clean."

"When we reach the Dastalon Clan, will you be willing to stay in a residence with me and allow them to believe you accept me as your mate?"