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“Please do. The thought of hurting you destroys me. I-I do not want to mess this up, Vivi. This mating. I want to be the best mate. You deserve nothing less.”
She tilts her head back, gazing up at me, and then pulls on my neck until I lean in and kiss her. “So far, you are doing an excellent job. Ten out of ten, no complaints.”
“Good.” Because Vivi has become the most important thing in my world. Not battles. Not victories. Not sparring with worthy opponents. Not breeding faster than anyone else on this planet.
Just Vivi and her smile. That is all I want.
“Let’s clean up,” she tells me, her hands moving to her hips as she surveys the cave. “We made a bit of a mess last night. We’ll clean up and air the place out, and then we’ll ski back to where I saw the tracks for our snow-cat. Once we find him, we’ll deliver the package and hopefully, fix him up so he can have a new start.”
“It might be kinder to kill him,” I point out. “The sa-khui do not eat much predator meat but they will not turn their noses up at it. We can kill him and be back at the main camp before dark.”
But Vivi is shaking her head emphatically. “Just because he’s got a flaw doesn’t mean that he should die. If he’s fighting this hard to live, I want him to live. He shouldn’t be killed just because someone else has decided that he’s not worth the trouble.”
Now I understand why this means so much to her. “You mean like us?”
“Exactly like us. Someone discarded us because we weren’t what they wanted, whatever that was.” She shakes her head, and I love the fierce, determined expression on her face. “But we’re living, breathing creatures that deserve a chance. This cat does, too. And if there’s a hope that we can help him out, I want to do it. If there’s not…then we’ll put him down peacefully. But I want to try. I have to try.”
And because Vivi wants it, I will make it happen. “Say no more.”
* * *
“Oh my god,”Vivi breathes. “Look at how thin he is.”
Her face is full of sympathy as we get the first look at the creature we’ve been tracking all day. It has been a journey to find him, but Vivi reasoned that if he was injured, he would not be able to go far. Once we found his trail again, we followed him until we saw a small, rocky cave. Vivi felt confident this was his hiding spot, so we tossed our dead hopper onto the snow and retreated. We’ve been waiting for him to come out, and all the while it grows colder and the suns continue their journey toward the horizon. It will be another night in a hunter cave, I suspect. We will not go back to the village this evening. My khui hums in my chest and I am foolishly pleased at the idea. I like spending time alone with Vivi.
At least, I am in a good mood until I see the creature.
Vivi says he is thin—but that does not matter. He is as tall as she is through the shoulder, his head heavy and full of fangs. His hipbones jut out even as his tail lashes back and forth, and he stalks forward, sniffing out the scents we’ve left behind.
“Poor thing,” she breathes, and I stare at my mate as if she is crazed.
That “poor thing” could destroy her with one swipe of its paw. I know a formidable opponent when I see one, and it does not matter that this snow-cat is injured or thin. He would make short work of her. “I am having second thoughts, Vivi.”
“I’m not. Look at his leg. The front one.”
We’ve placed the dead animal stuffed with leaves in the midst of a snowy clearing so we can chase off anything else that approaches our kill. We settled the drugged meat on the snow-cat’s trail in the hopes it would be the first thing to come after our lure. It has, and as it lopes forward, its gait is all wrong. There’s a strange bend to its front leg in a place there should not be a bend, and it’s clear the snow-cat is avoiding putting his weight upon it.
Vivi doesn’t take her eyes off the creature. She reaches out and grabs my hand, holding me tight with excitement. I have misgivings about the sheer size of the cat and the fact that it’s wounded. It will fight harder, knowing it cannot run.
“What if the leaves don’t work on it?” I whisper to Vivi. “What then?”
“We ski away and hope he doesn’t catch us,” she whispers back. “Watch, he’s taking the bait.”
I look over at the injured snow-cat again. He’s nosing the dead animal and looks around again almost as if he suspects the trap. I could swear his gaze lands on us for a brief moment, and I hold my breath.
But then the snow-cat grabs the dead animal in his mouth and swallows it in two bites.
Vivi makes a strangled sound of excitement, shaking my arm.
“I see it.”
“I don’t know how long it’ll take for it to work,” she hisses at me, her gaze locked on the cat. “We’ll follow him when he leaves and watch for signs of him slowing down.”
This seems like yet another terrible idea. What if he returns to his cave? I am not letting Vivi go down inside it to check if the animal is drugged. Absolutely not. I do not care how fierce my human mate is, I will be that much fiercer if she even suggests such a thing.
The cat lowers his head again, sniffing the trail, and takes another shuffling step forward. His mouth opens and he tastes the air, his head swinging towards us again. A low growl starts in his throat and I grab my spear.
Then, the cat sways and topples over in the snow.
