Page 166 of Moon Chosen

She wasn’t able to look away from him or find her voice until he crouched to greet Rigel.

“Hey there, good to see you again, big man. Good to see you.” He scratched the wriggling canine behind his ears.

Mari glanced at Sora and really saw her—the tear-streaked face, the bloody lip—the torn clothing. “You’re hurt!” She disentangled from the two girls and began quickly assessing Sora’s injuries, adding bloody, bruising bites on the soft part of her upper arms to the list. “What happened? Tell me what happened!”

Nik came all the way inside the burrow, closing the door behind them, which is when Danita started screaming.

“Go to her. I’m fine,” Sora said.

Mari rushed to Danita and took her face between her hands. “Danita, you are completely safe. That is our friend, Nik. He isn’t an Earth Walker, so he has no Night Fever.”

“He’s a Companion! He’ll take us away or kill us!”

“No, he won’t. He’s different,” Jenna said, joining Mari. “Nik just helped me escape from the Companions.”

“Jenna, take Danita into our back room and tuck her into bed.” But before Jenna could do as she asked, Mari pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re back!”

“Me, too, Mari.” Jenna pulled back and looked into Mari’s eyes. “What happened to your hair?”

“Sora.”

Jenna giggled, then her expression sobered. “Nik told me about Leda. I’m so sad about it.”

Mari hugged her again. “I know, honey. I know.” When she finally let her loose, Jenna kissed her cheek before taking Danita’s hand and leading her into the other room.

Mari went to Sora, who was trying to pour water into the pot for tea, but her hands were shaking so badly that she was spilling more than she was saving.

“I’ll do that. Sit down.” Sora sank down in her usual spot by the hearth and stared into the fire. Mari glanced at Nik, who was sitting on the chair by the little desk, petting Rigel, whose tail hadn’t stopped thumping. “Are you hurt?” she asked him.

“Nothing new. I think I broke open the back wound, though.”

“Is it bad?”

He shook his head. “Tend Sora first. She needs you.”

Mari sat beside Sora. “What happened, and where are you hurt?”

“My—my arms hurt, and my breasts,” she whispered. Then her voice began to rise. “My face. What happened to my face?” Sora looked frantically at Mari, her hand lifting to her bloody lip.

Mari caught her hand, gently holding it out of the way. “Your lip is cut, but not badly. Your cheek is swelling and already bruised.” She hesitated before pulling off the remnants of Sora’s clothing. Over her shoulder she said, “Nik, could you leave the burrow? Just wait right outside. I need to examine Sora.”

Nik was getting stiffly to his feet when Sora spoke. “He doesn’t have to leave. He saved me. But c-could he turn around?”

“Of course, Sora,” Nik said, turning the chair so that his back was facing the women.

“All right, talk to me,” Mari said as she began untangling the torn clothing from Sora’s bruised body.

“I was in the clearing. I was so happy I was wading in the stream and thinking about what wonderful thing I was going to do with the turkey we’d snared.” Sora smiled through new tears. “It felt good to be so happy.”

Mari nodded and made an understanding sound, though she didn’t take her focus from the nasty bite wounds on Sora’s arms.

“Jaxom, Bradon, and Joshua came out of the forest. I didn’t even know they were there until it was too late,” Sora continued. “I tried to reason with them, but they’re completely mad, and in terrible shape, worse than Night Fever, worse than anything I’ve ever seen. They wanted me to Wash them during the day… and when I couldn’t they dragged me from the water and, and they attacked me.” Tears slid down her face. “They held me down. Even Jaxom. Jaxom was going to rape me—they were all going to rape me.” Sora’s shoulders began to shake. “Then Nik was there. He-he killed Bradon and Joshua, and he shot Jaxom, but he got away.”

Mari glanced at Nik’s broad back. “Did you kill the third one, Nik?”

“Not sure,” he said. “Not outright, but the arrow went through his shoulder. If I hit the right place he’ll bleed out. If not, my guess is he’ll die slowly of infection. Sora’s right. There’s something seriously wrong with those males.”

“Jaxom and I used to be friends,” Sora sobbed. “We even talked about being mates.”