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The remaining ochokochi fanned out, trying to flank me. I backed away until my spine touched Hugh's. I had no idea how, but I had known with one hundred percent certainty that his back would be there to brace me.
"Getting tired?" Hugh asked.
"I can do this all day."
The lead ochokochi bellowed. If they came at us all at once, we'd have a hell of a time protecting the horses.
Another roaring cry. The ochokochi turned as one and streamed in a rust-colored current to the right, through the bushes and trees away from us.
I exhaled.
"Looks like we dodged a bullet." Hugh grinned.
I surveyed the clearing and the heaps of brown fur dotting it. "Do ochokochi count for the hunt?"
"No."
"Damn it. There goes my chance for glory."
"You're out of luck," he said.
I slumped forward, catching my breath, straightened, and pulled a cloth from my pocket. I had to clean my swords.
* * *
After the fight Hugh made no effort to talk. The sharing hour had passed, apparently, and we concentrated on getting the clearing back into shape.
At three o'clock Hugh pulled a horn out of his saddlebag and made a noise that would have made the dead sit up in their graves. Fifteen minutes later teams of shapeshifter hunters began trickling in. Curran and company were second on the scene after the Volkodavi. The brush rustled and the colossal gray lion pushed through it. The leonine lips stretched in a distinctly human grin. If lions could look smug, Curran did.
I raised my eyebrows. Carcasses of dead deer, tur, and goats were piled on Curran's back. He shook, tossing them to the ground, the gray mane flying in the wind, and looked at me. And then at the pile of shaggy red bodies behind me. Hugh and I had dragged them all into a big heap on the edge of the clearing to make space and keep the horses from freaking out.
The lion shrank, and a man straightened in his place. "What the hell is this?"
"Hi, honey." I waved at him from my perch on a rock and kept polishing Slayer with a little cloth.
Curran spun to Hugh. His voice was a snarl. "Did you do this?"
"I can only claim responsibility for half of the kills. The rest belong to your wife . . . fiancee?" Hugh turned to me. "You're not married, right? What is the term?"
Oh, you bastard.
"Consort." Barabas rose behind Curran. "The term is 'Consort.'"
"How quaint." Hugh winked at Curran. "No marriage, no division of property, and no strings attached. Well played, Lennart. Well played."
Curran's eyes went gold. "Stay out of my business."
Hugh smiled. "Heaven forbid. Although you should know that if the hunt had a prize for the most elegant kill, she would've won it." He turned away.
Curran looked at me. He'd never asked me to marry him. It didn't come up. This fact hadn't bothered me until Hugh rubbed our faces in it. Come to think of it, it still didn't bother me.
I slid Slayer into the sheath on my back. "How did the hunt go?"
"Fine," he said.
"Anybody hurt?"
"No."
A lean gray wolf padded over and stopped next to Curran. Its body stretched and contorted, and Lorelei stood next to Curran. Nude again. Imagine that.
"It was a most glorious hunt," she said. "Curran is amazing. I've never seen such power. It was . . ."
"I'm sure it was." I waited for him to tell her to move. He didn't. She was standing so close, their hands practically brushed. Neither of them wore clothes, and he didn't tell her to move. He didn't step away. A cold steady anger rose inside me and refused to dissipate. Nudity wasn't a big deal to shapeshifters, but if a naked man stood that close to me, Curran would bite his head off.
I waited for him to react. Nope. Nothing.
"I wish you could've joined us," Lorelei said.
I smiled at her.
Lorelei blinked and took a careful step back.
"I had my own fun right here." I got up and stepped between them. Lorelei shied to the side, letting me pass. Curran made no move toward me. I checked his face. Blank. He was closed off. It felt like a door slammed shut in my face.
Say something. Say you love me. Do something, Curran.
Nothing. Argh.
Behind Curran, now-human Desandra put her hand in the small of her back, pushing her stomach out, and winced. Radomil was standing by her, saying something in a language I couldn't understand. It must've been something funny, because she laughed. And then she subtly glanced to her left, where the Italians were sorting out their clothes. I glanced, too. Gerardo wasn't looking her way. Her face fell.
My voice came out cold. "Your clothes are on that rock, Your Majesty. I folded them for you."
"Thank you," he said, his voice casual.
"Is something wrong?" I asked quietly.
"No." A spark of frustration shone in his eyes and melted. There was my pissy lion. He was up to something. Somehow that didn't make me feel any better.
* * *
The djigits sorted the game and tagged the hooves with different types of dye. We waited for the stragglers while the shapeshifters put on their clothes. The amount of game they had killed was staggering. Dozens of animals had lost their lives. I hoped they had ability to freeze the meat because thinking of all that game going to waste made me ill.
The team winner would have to be declared after the castle staff had a chance to weigh and sort the animals, but the prize catch was painfully obvious: a beautiful mature tur, at least two hundred thirty pounds, its horns like two curved moons. Hugh picked it out of our pile and the djigits made a big show of carrying it around.
"Will the hunter stand up and claim their prize?" Hugh boomed.
Aunt B stepped forward. Hugh bowed and presented her with the glass pitcher containing a plastic bag of panacea. Everyone applauded.
Aunt B smiled and passed the panacea to Andrea. "My gift to my grandchildren."
Relief flashed on Andrea's face. It was there for a mere blink, but I saw it. She hugged the pitcher for the tiniest second before handing it over to Raphael.
Clothes were put back on, horses were freed, and we began our descent to the castle. People around me seemed happier, calmer, satiated.
Curran walked in front of my horse. Lorelei must've sensed it wasn't a good time to test my patience, and she had moved to talk to George behind us. Curran kept walking and I kept riding. Either something had happened on that hunt or he had hatched some sort of demented plan and was now following it.
We didn't speak.
On my right Desandra chatted with Andrea about the hunt.
