Page 56 of The Hunter

Cole fell back to nudge Garahk’s arm. “You’re a bro. A dude. You know, my guy.”

“So descriptive, Cole,” Lacey said, rolling her eyes.

“Ah! Dude.” Chittering, Garahk thumped Cole on the back, making the man stumble forward, before catching him by the backpack and ruffling his blond hair. “Kess elad kir’ani guy.”

“Hey!” Cole ducked away from Garahk’s hand to fix his mussed hair. “Watch the hair.”

Lacey chuckled.

“What is princess?” asked Telok, drawing her attention back to him.

“A princess is the daughter of a king or queen.”

His mandibles widened along with his eyes. “You are the brood of a queen?”

“Absolutely not,” she replied a little more forcefully than she’d meant. Gentling her tone, she continued. “Cole is saying it to me because princesses are usually pampered and spoiled.”

Telok tilted his head, a brief, uncertain grunt sounding in his chest. “Pam-purred?”

“It’s when someone is taken care of without having to lift a finger themselves. Like being picked up, set down in the shade, and getting served fruit and water, or being carried around…”

“I did those things.”

“Mmhmm…”

His mandibles ticked. “It is…wrong?”

“No, not wrong. But did you give fruit to everyone? Did you offer to carry Cole?”

“Cole can walk.”

“So can I.”

He shook his head firmly. “No. You are hurt.”

“If Cole was hurt, would you carry him?”

Telok huffed. “Yes.”

She wasn’t sure how he infused that little word with such comical grumpiness, but she knew he wasn’t lying. Maybe he wouldn’t be happy about it, but he’d do it.

Lacey smiled as she ran a finger down Telok’s chest, relishing the shiver that coursed through him and the way his jaw clenched. “Would you carry Cole like you’re carrying me?”

“No.”

No hesitation, no second-guessing.

Her smile widened into a grin. “Telok, are you pampering me?”

With that fire in his eyes, he held her gaze. “I am taking care of you.”

That fluttering in her belly intensified, spreading through her like warm honey, but a sharp ache followed the tenderness.

No one had ever taken care of her before.

Turning her face forward, she curled her lips in and bit down on them, struggling to keep her emotions at bay. She was tired and in pain, and she knew it wouldn’t take much for her to cry. She really didn’t want to have to explain to Telok why she was leaking again.

The jungle here looked like it did everywhere else. Gigantic trees with gnarled roots and long, thick branches, rocks covered in moss, dense foliage with varied leaves and colorful flowers. She’d become somewhat familiar with the area around Kaldarak, but this far out, everything bled together, and she had no landmarks by which to situate herself.