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CHAPTER FOUR
Errok
Night drenched thesands the way the mate bond drenched me. Made me dark and heated. A deeper, truer version of myself than I had ever known. Harder and stronger and pulled to a taut and vicious point.
The Cliffs of Uruzai were visible ahead, just as Priya’s maps had indicated. A vast, sprawling shape of reddish stone, painted by the darkness until the stone looked like dried blood. I didn’t need to speak to Togo to command him to go faster. He felt it in the straining forward of my body. The never-shifting angle of my head.
As we got closer, I located the settlement area with ease. It was easily recognizable by the tents that littered the sand. The tents bloomed outward from a sheltered dip in the cliff wall, and became more concentrated within the cliff area.
This is how she has been living?I thought darkly. In a puny little tent? No cave walls to protect her?
That would not stand.
We got closer and closer, the air whipping my hair back from my face and making my skin thrum with tingling tension. Soon, more than tents were visible. Men, guarding the settlement. Men like the ones I’d seen in Gahn Thaleo’s mountains. Sea Sand and Bitter Sea men.
I almost wanted to dare one of them to try to stop me, to attack me, as I landed among the outer tents and dismounted to face the row of seven guards.
None did.
Instead, one of the Sea Sand men turned away, jogging into the more sheltered area of the settlement.
The other guards – four Sea Sand men and two Bitter Sea monsters – regarded me. Still but wary.
They do not even raise their tails.
I could not wait to get my mate out of these barbarian lands. Away from men who did not even have the smallest inkling of the grace and courtesy owed to a mighty Gahn.
But perhaps theydidhave an inkling. Because when five men approached from the settlement, the Sea Sand guards turned and raised their tails for them. Anger flared beneath my skin. Anger at being treated as less than these other Gahns. I recognized two of the men who came to a stop before me. Gahn Fallo and Gahn Taliok. The other three I had not yet met.
“You and your men do not raise your tails for your new ally and fellow Gahn?” I said smoothly, masking my irritation. I lifted my chin and regarded the men before me critically. It annoyed me to see how many features they shared with my people. Withme. Apart from our colouring and slight individual differences in size and proportion, we all shared characteristics. The same shape, the same sight stars. It bothered me that I was closer to these men in appearance than I was to my own mate.
“And yet you have not raised yours,” growled the man who stood at the very centre of the five Gahns. He was nearly as tall as me, second in height only to Gahn Fallo. One long, dark braid hung behind his shoulders and a black axe glinted at his hip.
“I will raise my tail to no one here. No one but my own mate.” My voice lowered, turned dangerous. “Where is she?”
Tension and growls rippled through the Gahns at my response. I narrowed my eyes, preparing to snatch my bow from my chest and fire an arrow through each and every one of them if needed.If they try to keep me from her...
The Gahn in the centre heaved a huge breath and swished his tail in a placating gesture to calm the other Gahns.
“I am Gahn Buroudei,” he said, his sight stars taking in my face. They flicked momentarily to Togo, then back to me. “These two men beside me are the Gahns Razek and Baldor. You have already met Gahns Fallo and Taliok.”
I cared little for meeting these other Gahns. Cared little for this alliance at all. The only reason I’d succumbed to this ridiculous arrangement was to have access to my own mate.
I was starting to regret it.
I should have just attacked them after all...
