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CHAPTER FIVE
Haina
Itwaseasytocompartmentalize my senses below deck while holding hands with Jorik since there weren’t too many sensations to process.
I easily located Zane and Rix’s heartbeats on deck, the smell of the ocean, the metallic, meaty scent of dried blood on Jorik’s clothes and the faint but acidic smell of the trees along the shore.
None of that was overwhelming. I could pinpoint how many beats per minute each person’s pulse was without a problem. But that was because the safety and quiet of the bow were too similar to that of the training rooms at the compound.
Every so often, another faint heartbeat would join the mix, and I assumed it was a fish under the boat or some kind of other creature. But it wasn’t enough to cause me a headache or pressure behind my eyes like before.
“She needs more distraction,” Zane said after six days of sailing and mooring deep into secluded bays, putting the cloaking device on the boat and lying low until sunset.
Jorik had taken the cloaking device apart a couple of days ago, but he said he lacked the proper tools to increase its radius. He stabilized it a bit more by adding a series of metal pins that were once staples the fabric on the kitchen table bench, he just straightened them and pounded them flat. The pins kept the projector from wobbling, but Zane wasn’t ready to risk sailing during the day just yet.
Zane said he could feel the enemy getting closer. That it was only a matter of time until they found us and attacked. So the longer we continued to play it safe and sail at night, when it would be harder for drones to detect us, the better.
And even though I wasn’t a fan of the grumpy captain, I reluctantly had to admit that he was probably right. I could feel the enemy closing in on us, too. We needed to keep our wits about us, even if it was driving me stir-crazy being stuck on the boat with the blistering ray of sunshine that was Zane the Pain.
“Daytime, in the woods with animal heartbeats and unfamiliar smells and vibrations. That’s the only way she’s going to learn,” Zane continued, casting a harsh glare my way.
“Sheis right here,” I snapped as we all sat around the kitchen table in the boat, choking back food packets. Our freshwater rations were getting low. We had a freshwater distillation system on the deck, but the last several days had presented overcast skies, so there wasn’t nearly as much evaporation going on as we liked.
Zane did no more than snort and smirk at me. I narrowed my gaze at him and envisioned pulling my dagger from my thigh strap and jamming it between his ribs.
Maybe that would get an emotion besides annoyed and cantankerous out of him.
“We need to find another freshwater source,” Rix added. “I’m okay taking Haina ashore to work on her training, and we can set some traps and look for a stream while we’re at it.”
Zane hitched one brow.
I still couldn’t figure what Zane’s deal was, but I also stopped trying. He was just a grump, and I had no patience for his mood swings. His dislike of me held no bearing on my mission, as long as he didn’t get in my way. I could handle a jerk—Moord had been worse a thousand times over—so if Zane wanted to be Moord junior and give me attitude, I could dish it right back.
Though, to be fair, his moods didn’t swing too much. They more mildly oscillated between grumpy and super grumpy, once in a while peppered with a touch of snide.
Even though Rix and Jorik deferred to Zane most of the time, since he was clearly their leader, he wasn’tmyleader. And I wasn’t about to let him boss me around. I was free, and without a handler for the first time in my life and I intended to stay that way.
But I also didn’t want to cause a rift between the trio or upset Jorik and Rix, pitting all of them against me. I might be a triple threat Hellcat, but my blood still enhanced them and they could easily band together and take me out. They saw me as the interloper—even though they’d invited themselves on my sailing journey, so I needed to keep the peace, and make sure I was a useful and contributing member of this vessel and not the helpless, vulnerability that Zane considered me to be.
“I’d like to go ashore and test what I’ve learned so far,” I said, focusing my attention on Rix and ignoring the heated glare I knew I was getting from Zane. Just like his moods, the man had very little range with his facial expressions. His resting Zane face was a perpetual glare with a dipped brow and scowl on his mouth. A genuine, sunny smile would probably cause him to have an aneurysm.
“I can go, too,” Jorik offered.
I perked up.
Over the last several days, I’d come to really like Rix and Jorik. Unlike Zane, they were kind, patient and talkative with me. They made me feel comfortable enough to ask any question and didn’t treat me like the naive, shelteredkittenthat Zane kept calling me.
I had to admit, though, when Jorik started explainingseductionto me, I thought he was going to have a stroke or a heart attack or something. His pulse raced, which made my pulse race. Were those the feelings that I was having when I saw the guys naked or took in the chiseled lines of their faces or the defined ridges of their stomachs? Was Iaroused?
I’d certainly never felt the flutterings in my belly, breasts or between my legs before. Mind you, nobody had ever shown me such kindness and compassion before either.
Well, maybe Neffers. But not in this way. His kindness had been very professional, and he’d never led me to believe that he was helping me for the sole purpose of helping me. He was helping me so that I would join the cause and the uprising.
But I took his help for what it was—help and joining the cause seemed like an infinitely better alternative to the perpetual hell I was living in.
He’d treated me like a human but a human he needed something from, whereas Rix and Jorik were just treating me like a person.
Zane, however, wasn’t showing me kindness; he was showing me tolerance, and yet, when he wasn’t looking at me and I looked at him, those stirrings between my legs and in my belly were still happening.
