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"That looks very...interesting," I say.
She laughs, the loudest I've heard yet and I have to fight not to close my eyes as I savor it and let that sound wrap around me. Then, she extends the plastic wrapper to me. Nothing about it looks the least bit appealing, but she's offering, so I'm damn sure going to take it. I pop it into my mouth, but the moment I bite into it and the sourness spills over my tongue, my right eye closes and my head shudders. If I thought her laugh before was beautiful, this one now, with her head thrown back and eyes closed, is stunning. I would eat a million of these disgusting things for her to laugh like that again.
She opens her eyes, looking at me again as she asks, "I take it they're not your favorite?"
I can't lie so I murmur, "No."
I do manage to chew and swallow it though.
"I remember one time," she begins, but then shakes her head. "I don't need to tell you. You can just see it all in my mind."
"No, please," I hurry to object. "I love hearing your voice."
She smiles and continues, "My sisters and I had a competition once of who could eat the spiciest food. Just know ahead of time, that I lost, miserably, in the first round. But Keri and Grace wouldn't let the other win, so they were in tears, noses running, still acting like the spicy food wasn't affecting them. Then, suddenly, Grace passed out. She would have hit the floor if it weren't for us catching her at the last second. We took her to the emergency room, and the first thing she said when she woke up was that she hadn't admitted defeat, so she didn’t lose the game."
I laugh. "That sounds a lot like Grace. Olex was teaching her to swim, and she would not stop until she's perfected it. I'd left the hot spring to go to sleep and they were still in there."
"Yup, always in control," she agrees. "I guess she had to be."
I hate how her memories go from her and her sisters laughing in the hospital to memories of Grace saving her from her father. Her hand begins rising towards the mark on her shoulder, left behind from when he burned her with a fork, the time Keri saved her. Before I fully realize what I'm doing, I reach forward and wrap my fingers around her hand, stopping it. She goes still and I begin to retract my hand, but she turns it around, bringing her palm to mine and interlocking her fingers with mine. She's afraid but likes it. Likes touching me and feeling my touch.
Her eyes go back and forth between mine, her mind filled with other places she wants to touch me, and wants me to touch her. But just like every other day since she had me tied to the couch, she denies herself from going any further than thoughts, reprimanding herself for having gone that far with me at all because things like desire, want, and lust for me or not, she's still not sure of me, of us. She wants to be sure there is something beyond those feelings for me, especially if she really is my mate. As if there's any doubt.
She swallows and releases my hand. "I think I'll bathe now."
I give a shaky nod and stand. "I'll get everything ready."
"Thank you," she says low.
I smile and begin walking towards the hot spring. Once I'm in there, I light two fires and a few candles so Leah will be able to see well in here. The water relaxes her, until she remembers I can hear her thoughts and she tries to keep control of them. So, for the last two days, I've begun going above ground while she bathes, gathering things to give her some privacy.
She comes into the room, and I look at her over my shoulder, wishing more than anything that I could watch her as she removes her clothes so I can see her body again, hold her skin to skin again. Patience. I know it's what I would have heard my father tell me to have again and again as I prepared to claim Leah, had she been drafted. At least, unlike the usual process, I get to tell her the truth of things this way.
"Anything specific you want me to look for?" I ask as I pass her.
"Hmm. Chocolate."
Her mind fills with thoughts of that being exactly what my cum tastes like. Her groan of frustration hides my groan of desire. I clear my throat.
"I'm make sure to find it."
I walk out of the hot spring room and then the cavern, rushing to get to the hole. The forest is empty around me, except for a few animals I hear rustling leaves. I rush towards the houses, wanting to get everything and return to Leah as quickly as I can. There are no empty houses near this time, so I do something I know I shouldn't and break into one that I can hear the occupants are sleeping in. I stay to the kitchen instead of looking for things Leah might need throughout the house like I usually do. I find her three chocolate bars and grab some water bottles and bread. The meat, I can hunt for, and I can find fruit in the forest on my way back to her.
I prepare to leave, but the murmur of the TV in the living room stalls me. Standing there, knowing I've been here too long already, I can't help but peek around the wall at the TV when I hear the word monster mentioned at least three times.
I see the video for the first time now, and even I can admit, it looks like some crazed blood-thirsty monster gruesomely killing three humans. It's edited so Leah is not shown at all, and all you hear are my growls and the sounds of the injuries I inflict. Is this the version they will have showed my father, my brothers? What must they be thinking right now? Are they waiting for me to come home and explain everything or to rebuke me, tell me of the danger I am sure I've brought upon my village? Because the human leaders won't let this go unanswered. That I know.
I hear someone rousing from their sleep above me and hurry out the back door. I run through the forest, back to our cavern without stopping once. Water splashing and fabric rustling tells me Leah is just now getting out of the hot spring to wrap a towel around herself. She's thinking of me, wondering if I'm back. If I found her some chocolate because she feels like she's going through withdrawal at this point from not eating it for so long.
There's a chuckle in my voice when I say, "I found some chocolate."
She doesn't even jump at my voice, just sighs at knowing I'm close. I will never stop being grateful for that. While she dresses, I begin cooking some of the meat I hunted yesterday. Something that will be quick so we can get to the part where I hold her in my arms as we sleep. She emerges, a beautiful pink dress on, just as I'm finishing up.
"Our meal is ready," I tell her.
"Maybe one day, far from now..." She grins. "I can help you cook."
Far from now. I love hearing her say that, even if a small part of me wonders if staying with me is just convenient, because staying with me means staying with her sisters. Because, really, nothing awaits her above ground anymore. For the first time, I can see the sense of the thirty-day period to convince your mate to stay. I've always thought it was so stupid, but what I wouldn't give now to know that Leah is staying only for me, without knowing about her sisters, without knowing there's a new family, a new world, waiting for her. That I would be enough for her to stay.
