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It might have been fucked up, but I loved his words. The rage he felt for my pain was a strange sort of balm. But a balm all the same.
I sniffed and shook my head.
“Anyway, the night after he left, my mom sat down on the edge of my bed and told me he wasn’t coming back. She was so strong for me. She...” I broke off, too many tears choking my words.
Errok’s arms were around me in an instant. I tensed, then relaxed, allowing myself to accept the comfort of his embrace. I couldn’t keep talking about Mom. Not now, anyway. But I knew I’d tell him more about her soon.
“When she left my room,” I continued after a moment, “a storm broke out. The thunder was insane. Practically shook our house. But I wasn’t scared at all. I felt like... Like someone out there saw me. Like the sky was as mad as I was. Like the rain was grieving with me. And the sounds covered up my crying. I didn’t want my mom to hear me and feel even worse. I’ve loved storms ever since that night.”
For a moment, I was back in that dark, rain-lashed bedroom of my childhood.
But no, I wasn’t. Because Errok was here. His arms were around me. I was safe.
I was loved.
I could have stayed in that quiet embrace forever. But the storm was edging ever closer.
“We have to go warn Gahn Thaleo’s tribe. You don’t have to talk to him,” I added quickly, worried Errok would argue with me. “I’ll just tell one of the women or something. Then we can fly home together and beat the weather.” We were a lot closer to Thaleo’s territory than the shuttle right now, so even with the fact the shuttle was faster, it just made sense for us to fly there and warn them first.
There was a long pause, and I geared up to fight with Errok about this.
But instead, my breath whooshed out of me, arguments unused.
“My Gahnala commands,” Errok said, stroking a hand down my hair. “I obey.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Stephanie
The mountains glintedas we soared over them, heading for Gahn Thaleo’s home. Errok kept his arm firmly around me as we flew, which allowed me to lean back and go back and forth between taking in the view and checking out the storm’s progress on my small tablet.
By mid-afternoon, Thaleo’s mountain was visible ahead of us on the horizon. I gave a small sigh of relief. Plenty of time to let them know about the oncoming storm. I made a mental note that we’d have to leave a comms tablet with them and teach them how to interpret the data the drones were sending so that they’d have the first heads-up about any oncoming weather systems. We’d left in such a hurry after all the awkwardness with the taklok issue that we hadn’t done so yet. It wouldn’t be practical to have to fly here and warn them every time bad weather was on the way. But I knew we’d get all these snags figured out eventually. We’d only just recently arrived in the mountains, and it would take time to get into a comfortable pattern.
Not that Errok and Thaleo will ever exist in a comfortable pattern...
I glanced back at my mate, twisting to look up at him. The fierce joy from our earlier flights had been replaced with a glowering seriousness. A flash of doubt entered my mind. I worried that he might have agreed to take me back there just so he could start something with Thaleo again.
