Page 43 of The Hunter

Fuck.

A cool breeze swept through the jungle, making the trees sigh and sending a chill across Telok’s hide. He folded his arms across his chest.

Humans were more sensitive to heat and cold than vrix. If Telok was cold, what was Lacey feeling? There was no fire here to warm her, and that silk blanket would help little against the wind.

Bracing his lower elbows on the branch, he propped himself up to look at her. His mandibles drooped.

Lacey looked so small, so vulnerable, huddled beneath her blanket. Her eyes were closed with a little crease between her brows, and her skin looked far too pale in the darkness. The wind flapped the cloth wrapped around her and stirred stray wisps of her hair.

But there were two details that truly concerned him—the subtle shivers coursing through her body, and the fact that she’d moved closer to the edge of the branch.

Even as he watched, she curled up more tightly under the blanket, scooting herself another handspan closer to a twenty-segment fall.

Hearts thundering, Telok flipped over, grabbed his spear, and shoved himself up. He strode to Lacey and lay on his side next to her before he could take even a moment to consider what he was doing. After placing his spear on the branch behind her, he hooked his right arms around her and dragged her against his chest.

She gasped, eyes shooting open as she pushed her palms against him, but Telok held her tight.

“Etorri’ven, Lacey.”

She stiffened. “Telok?”

Cradling the back of her head with his upper hand, he drew it back toward his chest, tucking it beneath his chin. The wind was at his back, allowing his larger body to shelter her from its bite. “Sleep.”

“Okay.” Cuddling more snugly against him, Lacey rubbed her face on his hide, pressing her chilled nose to the base of his neck. She inhaled deeply, and her body relaxed.

Telok did not allow himself to move. After battling desire for so long, this was a foolish position to have placed himself in, but his wants were not important now. Lacey needed to rest, and he would not be able to get his own unless he knew she was safe and comfortable.

Yet he could not ignore how her body fit his so well. It didn’t seem to matter how he held her, she molded to him as though they’d been shaped for one another.

He curled his foreleg around her, and his claspers, unbidden, wrapped around her hips.

Soon, her shivering subsided, and her breathing slowed and deepened. Telok closed his eyes. Her warmth seeped into him, contrasting the cold air on his back. Every time he’d seen her sleep, she’d been restless, twisting, rolling, and turning through the night. Now, she was still but for the faintest erratic brushes of her finger against his chest.

For her to so easily sleep in his embrace...

It meant that despite the way he’d treated her, Lacey still trusted him. Despite the hurt he’d caused her, he still made her feel safe.

Once more, the threads around his hearts coiled tight.

Mine.

She…is mine.

CHAPTER 11

Something rasped against bark.

Telok’s eyes snapped open. The gray gloom that often preceded suncrest had enveloped the jungle, and the air was cool, heavy, and still.

How is it nearly morning?

That didn’t matter. A sound had awoken him and set his hearts to thumping.

Lifting his head, he scanned the nearby tree trunk for movement. The Tangle was quiet, as it often was in this brief span between night and day, yet he could take no comfort in it.

He’d heard something. He knew he had.

The brush of warm breath against his chest caught his attention, and Telok stiffened.