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“Is this your place?” I called out over the roaring waterfall behind me as I approached him, loving the warmth already radiating from the blaze. Yet a chill still spiraled up my spine from the opening at my back, and freezing droplets rolled over my shoulders from myhair.
“It’s one of my rest places.” He walked to a wall and returned with a blanket and something else in his other hand. “Dryyourself.”
I didn’t protest and pulled the thick fabric over my shoulders and crouched near the fire. “Thank you. Why do you have a blankethere?”
Oryn also handed me a dried strip of meat, which I accepted. “I don’t usually spend every second of the day in my wolf form, and it gets cold inwinter.”
Yesterday had been a regular day at my store. Now, I was in Den territory, and I’d met three wolf shifters, made one unconscious, had sex with another, and was now stuck in a cave, naked, with the third. I had zero idea how to even get out of this situation since huge problems awaited me once I returnedhome.
“So, what is your business in our territory?” Oryn asked, sitting with his knees bent to his chest, as he bit into a meatstrip.
“It wasn’t my intention. I ran in here to escape capture, then I fell off a cliff and ended up in the river. The rest is history, Iguess.”
“Who was after you and why? Are you a criminal?” He studied me as if I were a microscopic insect just recentlydiscovered.
“Ha, you’re funny. I have never stolen anything in my life or hurt anyone either. But I witnessed something I shouldn’t have and now the priestess wants to imprison me, probably for life. She’s part royalty—did you know?—so no one can overthrow her decision while she rules over Terra. My protests would get ignored, and I need aplan.”
He broke off a chunk and nodded as he chewed. Blood wove down his shoulder and he wiped the scar beneath hiseyes.
“Let me tend to your wounds?” Ioffered.
“I’ll be fine. These arenothing.”
I moved closer to him. “I insist.” Though I didn’t have my bag or any herbs. “Do you have any material I can use? The cut on your arm is deep and at least let’s try to stopthat.”
He shrugged and his chin pointed to the wall across from the fire. I climbed up and found shelves dug into the rock surface with another bunched up blanket and what looked like a shirt, but when I pulled it out, it was half a bed sheet. Okay, this would do, so I tore off one end with my teeth and shredded it into longstrips.
I kneeled next to Oryn and wiped the blood with the material. “Thanks for saving me earlier. You took on four wolves. That’sinsane.”
He chuckled as if his mind were miles away, and considering the dozens of healed scars on his body, just like on Dagen’s, it might have been an ordinary fight forhim.
“I survived.” He took another bite of hismeal.
“Why did you saveme?”
He chewed on his food. “Can’t explain it, you just smelled different to me. Sweet and alluring. And my wolfinsisted.”
“So I guess it’s normal for an alpha to face death every day? Sounds horrifying. Not sure I’d want to be looking over my shoulder every moment of the day, not knowing if today would be my last.” Why would anyone be analpha?
He shrugged. “Is there any otherway?”
I sat on my heels. “Of course. Don’t you have time away from being in charge when you can sleep in, go for a stroll in the afternoon, just laugh and not always be onguard?”
He twisted to look at me with an arched brow, his nose red from the cold. “Strolling? Is that what you do inTerra?”
“Sometimes. My grandma used to say life wasn’t worth living if you didn’t make time for family andfriends.”
Oryn scoffed and scrunched hisnose.
“Don’t be rude if you don’t agree.” I wiped more blood dripping down his arm and wrapped his wound, pulling the fabric tight. Then I cleaned the bite mark across his ear, though it had already stoppedbleeding.
He cleared his throat loudly. “I grew up being told if I wanted to survive, I had to fight for everything. Never showweakness.”
“That’s harsh. Yourparents—”
“No.” He cut me off with a stern look. “They deserved the death they got. They abandoned me at four years old, then my adoptive parents did the same when I was eight. But I made my way to the alpha position. The Den is harsh; everyone here accepts that. So don’t pityme.”
I swallowed the rest of my words and tied up the loose end of his bandage. We sat in silence, him brooding and staring into the fire. I changed thetopic.
