Stolen: Warriors of Hir, Book 3 (8 page)

“No.” His blue gaze was raw, the comb clenched in his hand. “You simply hate us.”

“After what they did to me? What the fuck do you expect?”

“I am g’hir,” he rumbled, searching her eyes. “Do you hate me as well, Summer?”

“
You?
” She pushed her hair behind her ears. “That’s not—Look, you’ve got to understand. Ar’ar—”

His fangs bared. “I am not Ar’ar!”

“I
know
that, goddamn it!”

“Do you?” he demanded. “Do you truly know me to be a different man?”

Summer threw her hands out in frustration. “You said yourself that you’d take a human mate if you had half a chance! That doesn’t make you much different, does it?”

His blue eyes flashed. “I will
never
treat a mate as Ar’ar has! The arrogance! The ingratitude! I would never have let anyone—”

He broke off and looked away, his grip tight on the comb.

“Look—” She wet her lips. “Ke’lar, I really appreciate all that you’ve—”

“By the All Mother, please do not thank me,” he interrupted, shutting his eyes for a moment. “These wrongs done you, Summer, I cannot ever set to right.” He offered her the comb and she took it from his hand. “The Betari sought to deny you a Day of Choosing, they kept you isolated, prevented you from receiving even the most basic medical evaluation by an impartial healer. They have acted unconscionably.” He took a step back, his voice hoarse. “And you have every right to hate my kind.”

Eight

“What’s wrong with her?” Summer asked, holding her hand up against the pelting rain as Ke’lar dismounted from his place behind her, keeping hold of the reins, his brow furrowed as he hurried to stand before the nervous animal.

He didn’t answer, stroking Beya’s long nose to soothe her, searching her rolling eyes. It occurred to Summer then how much of Ke’lar’s life had been spent in silence out here, how much of it in quiet communication with this creature.

The day had started clear enough, then clouded over. A few drops here and there had turned into a downpour.

“The storm is worsening.” His face was grim. “We must seek shelter.”

“It’s just a little rain!”

It was a ridiculous way of describing this cloudburst. The skies had darkened terrifyingly and the wind was picking up fast but—

“We can ride through this! We have to!” she insisted. “You said we need to get to the other side of the river before nightfall. How much farther is it?”

“Too far.” He shook his head. “We will not make it in time to cross.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I am not,” he said. “Beya is sure.”

She wiped the water out of her eyes. “So we ride faster. We ride real fast and we can get across the river, right?”

Ke’lar glanced in that direction, his long blue-black hair lifted by the wind, his grip tight on the reins, Beya shifting nervously beneath her.

“Right?” Summer prompted, her legs dangling on either side of the multari’s powerful back. There were only two stirrups and Ke’lar used them as he rode, leaving her feet hanging. It didn’t take long for that to get pretty uncomfortable and they’d been riding for hours but she wasn’t about to give up.

“No.” His glowing gaze met hers then, and he had to raise his voice over the sound of the storm. “If she has become this agitated we will not have time to cross the river safely before the waters rise. If they rise quickly we cannot let ourselves be caught in the valley like this.”

“Wait, are we talking flooding here? But—” They weren’t even in sight of the river yet. “How bad? The bridge will still be there. We could still cross.”

He shook his head.  “There is no bridge.”

“No bridge!” she exclaimed. “How the hell were we going to get across if there’s no damn bridge?”

“I would swim carrying you, then return for Beya and our supplies.”

“You were going to
swim
it?” Summer squinted against the rain. “Twice—no, three times?”

“If the storm had not come I would not doubt my ability to get you safely across but—” He shook his head and mounted behind Beya again, turning the multari. “We must make for the mountains.”

“No!” Summer cried, trying to catch the reins for the all the good it did her. Ke’lar had four times her strength. “That’s the wrong direction! We have to get to the clanhall as fast as we can!”

“What we must do is reach higher ground—and quickly,” he said grimly. “Once the storm has passed we will take the mountain pass to the south and reach the clanhall that way.”

“But—how much longer will it take to get to the clanhall if we do that?”

Ke’lar’s arm went around her, holding her firmly against him. “It does not matter if the alternative is not getting there at all.”

He kicked the multari and the beast took off at such a speed that Summer was clutching the saddle, her head bent to protect her face from the pelting rain as Beya galloped toward the mountains.

Summer never knew rain could
hurt
.

But this rain sure as hell did and this wasn’t a storm—it was a goddamned hurricane.

Ke’lar’s arm was like steel around her middle as he fought to control the multari one-handed. Summer didn’t know how he could even see where they were going. She was forced to ride curled forward in the saddle, her head bent to her shoulder, trying with her other arm to protect her face against the pounding rain, utterly blinded by the downpour. She ached from holding this position so long but she didn’t dare shift. It was all she could do against the wind to hold on.

She was shivering, the new boots he’d given her heavy with sopped up water. He’d thrown a blanket around her shoulders when the rain had started getting bad but the sodden fabric did nothing to keep her warm and her teeth had been chattering so long her jaw hurt.

Summer screamed as a flash and instant loud crack electrified the air. Her cry was swallowed up by the storm and her ears were ringing. The stench of ozone and charred wood mixed with the dampness and mud made her choke. The tree beside them swayed, then there was a loud crack and a
whoosh
as the tree fell, nearly crushing them beneath it.

Ke’lar strained to keep the beast from bolting as the terrified multari spun away, her huge body trembling beneath them.

He swung down from the multari and Summer gasped as the freezing rain pounded against her unprotected back. He yelled something to her but his words were carried off by the wind. Nearly blinded by the darkness and the rain, Summer reached out, fumbling for him.

His fingers caught hers, strong and steady as ever. He pressed her hand for a moment, then let go. Holding her palm above her eyes and squinting against the rain, Summer saw Ke’lar take the multari’s reins and bend his body against the storm. A moment later Beya started forward again, the terrified animal moving as if by her master’s will alone.

It went on like that, Summer huddled over the saddle, her fingers cramping from gripping the wet leather, Ke’lar, his shoulder to the wind, pulling on the reins to keep the multari moving.

They were ascending again, although slowly. From the rocky path they rode upon, the swaying trees revealed the valley beneath, the water swelling the already turbulent river. Summer had seen flash floods on TV, seen the devastation a wall of water could do. The valley was flooding fast and if Ke’lar hadn’t insisted they turn toward the mountains they too would have been swept away with it.

I would have been out here alone if I hadn’t stumbled into his campsite. I’d be dead . . .

Ke’lar yanked Beya’s reins hard, urging the animal to the right. A glance to the left showed why—the path had narrowed as they climbed and there was a drop sharp enough to make Summer swallow hard.

The beast stopped moving as Ke’lar’s arm went around Summer’s middle. He hauled her down from the saddle as if it were effortless.

“I can’t see!” she cried, thankful at least to feel firm rocky path beneath her feet as he pulled her along. She stumbled on legs that felt wooden from the long ride and his hold tightened, his strength all that was keeping her upright. “Where are we going?”

The howling wind took his answer, the rain and wind so heavy they had to lean into it to move at all. Ke’lar gripped her waist tightly and she knew if he let her go she’d be lost here in a nightmare of lightning and never-ending water. 

Summer had to fight to take every step, blindly clutching at him, wondering in a jolt of panic if a person could actually drown standing up.

Suddenly they were out of the rain, Summer gasping at the dank air. She passed her hand over her forehead to clear the water from her eyes. The damp smell made her nose crinkle, the dirt soft and powdery under her new—now soaked—boots.

“Oh my God,” she panted, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “I never thought I’d be so happy to be in a freaking cave.”

His bright glance went over her. “Are you all right?”

“Soaked, freezing, but yeah. You?”

“Also pleased to have shelter, even here.” His eyes narrowed as his gaze turned to the furthest reaches of the cavern. “If it proves unoccupied.”

“Considering the alternative,” she offered with a glance at the wall of water at the cave entrance, “I’m willing to share.”

“I am not,” he growled, pulling a luma from his belt to reveal the rock walls, the ceiling rising high above them. The cave extended many meters into total darkness.  “Wait here.”

“You got it. Not big on bats, personally. I bet on Hir they have glowing eyes too. Do me a favor, ’kay?” Summer, trembling a bit with cold and exhaustion, wrapped her arms around herself. “Don’t find any bats.”

“I do not think we have that creature on our world.” Ke’lar advanced into the cave, his blaster in hand as he explored.

She watched him go, his movements lithe, catlike, until the light he carried vanished and he was swallowed up by the darkness, leaving her alone in the gloomy, chilly cavern of an alien world. He moved silently, of course, a true g’hir warrior, but that was hardly reassuring. She’d feel a hell of a lot less creeped out if she could see or hear him.

What if they
weren’t
alone in here?

Crap, maybe I just should have gone with him and screw whatever Hir’s equivalent of bats is . . .

Summer chewed her lip. Should she call out to him? Go after him? She didn’t even have a luma and her blaster was in her pack back on the multari. Her glance darted around, seeking a rock she could take along to defend herself if she had to go in search of him.

“Are you okay?” she demanded at first sight of his light as he finally emerged from the cave’s depths to join her near the entrance. “You were gone so long!”

He gave a short huff of disbelief as he joined her near the cave’s entrance. “A few minutes at most. Not long enough to distress you.”

“Sorry, we humans have something called a horror movie.” Summer pushed her hair back behind her ears. “And trust me—being the braless blonde in the wet shirt is
always
fatal.”

Ke’lar’s vibrant gaze dipped to her breasts for an instant, to her nipples taut and apparent under the soaked material.

Summer’s face went hot. Why the hell had she been talking about her boobs anyway? She might as well have just pointed at them.

“This cave ends many meters from here,” he growled, looking back toward the darkness of the cave. “But there is no chance we would become disoriented or lost and we are alone here, thank the All Mother.” He holstered his blaster. “You are shivering, little one. I will set the heater to maximum when I return.”

“When you—?” The cave opening showed nothing but gray rain and bursts of lightning. “You can’t go back out into that!”

“Our supplies are out there.” He raised black eyebrows. “I think you will want to have food, a bed, as well as warmth tonight, will you not?”

“I’d rather have you not dead.” She folded her arms. “You are
not
going back out there. We’ll just suck it up till the storm passes.”

“I must find shelter for Beya as well,” he reminded with a gesture toward the downpour. “I will not leave her in this.”

Summer shifted her feet. Leaving that poor creature out in that kind of weather wasn’t just cruel, it was criminal.

“Can’t you just bring her in here? This place is huge.”

“A smaller cavern would make Beya feel more secure. There are other caves nearby. I will find one to house her, settle her there, and return as soon as I am able.”

She had barely started to warm up a bit but she gave a reluctant nod.  “Okay, but I’m going with you.”

“No, you will not,” he growled. “I cannot tend to a skittish multari and guard your safety as well. Going back with me endangers us both. You will remain here, where you are safe.”