Page 9 of The Hunter

“I do not know your words,” he said, bending and reaching for her.

Lacey scrambled back. “Telok, no. Don’t you dare!”

Her final word came out in a screech as he caught her waist and hips and easily hoisted her over his shoulder.

She kicked and thrashed. “Damn you, you spidery sonofabitch! Put me down!”

He grunted and banded an arm around the backs of her thighs, pinning them against his chest. “Be still.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

Telok’s jaw clenched, and his fist tightened around the shaft of the spear. He exhaled heavily through his nose holes.

Hunter, if you have any patience to spare, please grant it to me.

As he turned toward the waterfall, his eyes caught on the crimson pooled upon the stone where Lacey had been sitting. Her blood. And within were darker, thicker clumps that had clotted.

Something pulled taut inside him and contorted.

I’m going to sit here and bleed to death.

Could such a thing happen? It didn’t matter that the humans said this was natural. Blood was life, and he could not accept that Lacey’s had been spilled here, or that she was still bleeding.

Telok’s anger flared. He stepped down from the stone ledge and into the water. How could she be this foolish, this careless, and come out here alone? She’d left herself vulnerable, an easy prize for any hungry beast that might’ve chanced upon her blood scent.

“Telok, I swear, if you don’t put me down right now, I’m going to kick your arachnid a⁠—”

He moved under the waterfall, and its roar cut off her words.

Lacey was sputtering when they emerged on the other side. He used the distraction to adjust his hold on her, sliding her body lower against his chest and clamping his arm around her middle.

She growled, braced her hands on his shoulders, and whipped her head to the side. Her long, wet hair smacked him in the face. “Jerk.”

Telok halted. Chest-deep water churned around them, making him sway slightly.

Patience.

He turned his head aside. Strands of her hair clung to his face, obscuring his vision. He lifted a hand, hooked the strands with his fingers, pulled them free, and flung them back at her. “Be. Still.”

She glared at him. “Screw. You.”

He forced his mandibles snug against his cheeks and ground his teeth together. She was infuriating, but the fire in her green eyes roused something else inside him. Something deep, something heated, something…hungry.

“Hold on, female.” He allowed her no time to respond before kicking off the bottom and propelling himself into the deeper water.

Lacey gasped, throwing her arms around his neck and lifting her face to keep it above the surface. “Are you trying to drown me?”

“I gave warning.” Somehow, he managed to keep the strain out of his voice. Swimming with a human in one arm and a spear in another hand wasn’t exactly easy.

“I can swim on my own,” she muttered even as she wrapped her legs around his abdomen.

Telok grunted. All his focus was on his limbs, on keeping them moving, on getting to the shore. Because otherwise, his senses would be dominated by Lacey. Her scent, the feel of her warm, soft body against him, the feel of her arms around his neck, her breath in his hair, and her legs squeezing his waist.

His claspers twitched, reaching for her, but he swiftly drew them back and crossed them tightly over his slit.

Was he truly the hunter, or was he prey that had fallen for the bait?

As soon as his legs could reach the bottom, Telok stood and strode the rest of the way. Without the challenge of swimming to hold his attention, he was only more aware of Lacey and the growing heat behind his slit, where his stem pulsed unrelentingly. Only more aware of the heat between her thighs warming his hide.