Page 75 of Feast

Thusar smirked at the hoarseness of her voice, and Ika reddened.

The pack leader had a talent for making her do that.

All of them did, in fact.

Ika hoped that Rolf wouldn’t ask about her voice or her bow-legged walking. She certainly didn’t wish to explain to him what these ukkur had done to her, and she hoped they would show some discretion as well.

Rolf. The thought of her life long protector and caretaker lifted Ika’s heart. She couldn’t wait to see him again, to throw her arms around his neck in a big hug and tell him how much she had missed him these past days.

But just as quickly, her heart sank.

The reunion did not promise to be an entirely happy one. Would Rolf be angry at her for sneaking out and getting caught by the nith? Probably. And then there was the matter of her four ukkur escorts. He might try to fight them, and that would be bad.

Ika felt herself caught between two unyielding forces. The ukkur planned to travel south, and they intended to take Ika with them. But stubborn Rolf wanted to stay where he was, and he would not give up his Ika without a fight.

And to make matters worse, Ika wanted to be with all of them. She didn’t want to leave Rolf behind, but she also did not wish to be separated from her four ukkur mates.

Her head pounded with anxiety at the trouble that was coming.

She would need all of her powers of persuasion and reconciliation to make this work out.

Still, as the surrounding forest became more and more familiar, her mood brightened. She was almost home.

At last, the trees opened up, and they found themselves in the stony shadow of the mountain. A steep gradient of scree and loose rubble led upward to a vertical cliff, and there above them, inset into the ancient stone wall, was the mouth of Rolf’s den.

It had only been a little over three days since Ika had been here last, but so much had happened in that short period that it felt like a lifetime.

I broad grin spread across Ika’s face and her heart fluttered with joy and anticipation.

She drew a deep breath and prepared to call out Rolf’s name.

But before she had a chance to do so, Thusar placed a hand on her shoulder, signalling for her to be quiet.

Ika looked up at the pack leader with a questioning expression. His head was upraised, and the wings of his nostrils twitched as he scented the cold winter air.

“Something isn’t right,” he whispered.

Now Ika felt it too. That nervous prickling sensation between her shoulders. The same danger sense she had experienced yesterday when the abolith was stalking her.

Thusar let out a sudden, startling roar.

“Get down!”

No sooner had the words left Thusar’s mouth, than the air around them erupted with gunfire. Red-hot blaster bolts skewered the air all around them, sending up geysers of half-melted snow wherever they struck the ground.

Thusar threw himself on top of Ika and together they rolled back into the darkness and shelter of the forest. The other three ukkur quickly joined them, ducking behind the trunks of trees to get out of the line of sight of the snipers.

“Nith,” Thusar growled in disgust.

Ika caught a whiff of cooked flesh. She looked up and saw wisps of smoke rising from a black scorch on Thusar’s shoulder.

“You’ve been shot,” she gasped.

“It’s fine,” Thusar grunted. “Just winged me. I’ll live. Everybody else okay?”

“Aye,” Gunnar said from his hiding place behind a nearby tree.

“Aye, boss,” Muk called from the other side where he and Slaine were hiding. “There’re two of ’em up there. I can smell ’em.”