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I gesture for her to go further inside, then use two of my horns to motion that I am going to return to the shadows to search for the ungez.
Ken-dee goes up on her tiptoes, pursing her lips. I recognize this. Whenever Ken-dee does that, she wants a ‘kiss’.
I am happy to take it with me before I ease the door to my home open before stalking back out into the shadows.
After living with the ungez for many moons, I know the creature’s scent as well as Ken-dee’s. Since it imprinted on my mate, it smells of her.
I know Ken-dee’s scent anywhere. By following that, I can find the ungez for my mate.
I break further into the shadows. For those used to them, they fade enough so that we can use the landscape as I guide. It’s how I can track and can hunt, and it’s how I plan on retrieving the ungez for Ken-dee.
Most of this part of Sombra is covered in ash trees. Impossibly black, gnarled and bare, they are covered in soot from the days before the shadows on the edge of Sombra advanced this far. Once they burned, now they stand twisted, warped by the shadows.
The ungez prefer to make their nests in the branches and the knots of those trees. I search those, knowing I’m close when Ken-dee’s sweet scent wraps around my senses.
My ears twitch. There are plenty of ungez that scatter around this part of the shadows, but when I hear the familiar chittering as I continue to follow my mate’s scent, I’m certain I have discovered its hiding place.
Like I expected, it’s tucked deep inside of a knot on a towering ash tree.
“Come, little creature. My Ken-dee misses you.” I click my tongue against my fang. “Come to Loki.”
It must recognize my scent as well. After a few moments, the ungez pops its head out of the knot, it’s nose twitching. When I hold out my palm, it jumps into it, wrapping its tail around my wrist.
I trap it beneath my claw. Even if it decides to run off, it no longer can.
With Ken-dee’s companion in hand, I start to turn back toward the shack. As I do, another wave of the arkoda’s musk filters in front of my nose.
He is near, I realize. And Ken-dee is not in sight to watch me complete the hunt.
For a moment, I think about shoving the ungez back in the knot and stalking off after the wounded arkoda. It will regenerate if left in the shadows, but not if I finish what I started.
Once, the satisfaction of besting the arkoda would have drawn me out of my madness and my weariness for a time.
But that was before I found my Ken-dee.
If the arkoda approaches my territory again, I might have to. For now, my mate is waiting for me and this vermin.
CHAPTER11
KENN-UH-DEE
LOKI
The sound of Ken-dee’s delighted squeal when I hand her the ungez is another to soothe the last of the fear of losing her from my chest. Until she is immortal and nothing is left to threaten, it shall return, but for now I am just pleased that I could make her smile so widely up at me.
“Tanku Loki.” She lifts her companion to her nose, nuzzling past the shadowy fur of the critter. “Freya ubadgurl. Dontdodat gen, k?”
She’s still smiling, even if her tone sounds slightly scolding. Again, she glances up at me but, this time, her smile dips.
It’s not quite a frown, but it’s close.
“Loki,” she breathes out. “Ureyez.”
Before, she was talking to the ungez. Now she’s addressing me, but I do not understand. So, like I do when she’s trying to teach me her language—or learn mine—and I struggle with a word, I shake my head.
Giving the ungez one last snuggle, she sets it down on the floor. Chirping happily as its escape didn’t nearly cost my mate her mortal life. Until I have claimed her fully, with both the essence exchange and the mate’s promise, she won’t share my immortality. And all for an ungez.
Hm. Perhaps I should have left it in the knot…
