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“And the third?”
He scoffed in what sounded like disgust. “Torian has a personality like a digger crab’s ass. A respectable warrior but not one you would want to turn your back on for too long. He was nearly thrown out of the pack during my Alpha trials.”
“Why?”
“He challenged me, and it turned out he had smeared a contact drug on his fingernails. He kept trying to claw me in his Gladiator form, and I couldn’t figure out why until he broke the skin and I got a taste of it. The stuff was odorless, but when I started suddenly getting dizzy, I knew.” He shook his head. “He nearly lost his place in the pack entirely and was banned from challenging for leadership again for that despicable act.”
“Because he cheated and tried to poison you.”
He nodded, his thoughtful expression getting a hint of anger. Of course he wouldn’t have forgiven Torian, not for something like that. He had too much sense of fair play.
“Sounds like the guy who might try to take advantage of your absence.” I mused. “Any other packmates you don’t get along with?”
“No.” He frowned. “But I cannot imagine that my pack would support Torian as Alpha.”
“Because of his reputation?”
“That and his attitude. It takes a special coldness to plot against your own packmates.” But his eyes stayed thoughtful. “He could never have taken the pack leadership with persuasion or demonstration of leadership prowess. He’d fail at both.”
“Uh-huh.”Yeah, the guy sounds like a real prize.“What about by force? Or by taking hostages?”
“A coup?” Something dangerous flashed in his eyes. We stared at each other for a few electric moments, and it reminded me of him in his beast form and that first time our eyes had locked. “Would he dare?”
“Well, someone allowed the purchase of the women headed to your pack,” I said.
“Hm. This is true.” He swallowed hard. “Torian was the loudest voice among us to support buying Earthlings despite my ruling against it.”
“Stands to reason that he’s the one who took over then.” I watched him wrestle with that.
“We should stop for a meal soon,” he blurted.
“I don’t mind eating in the saddle.” The idea of making another stop made my stomach jump around. The guilt and sense of urgency that I carried seemed to weigh harder on me with every hour that went by.
“No, you’ll end up injuring yourself further if you ride nonstop. Overexertion will slow your healing.” He looked me hard in the eyes, and I knew at once not to push the issue.He’s right,but it was more than that. There was worry in his eyes, behind the fierce insistence, and when I saw it, my stubbornness softened at once.
“Fine.” I sighed, looking around at the jungle surrounding us.
Another delay.
But I knew there was no point arguing.
He seemed determined to protect me, even from myself.
CHAPTER16
AMARA
Naxer slipped off to hunt while I was stretching my legs, leaving Chaser to watch over me. He told me that fresh meat would make me heal faster. I didn’t know if a fresh kill was his people’s chicken soup or if his kind really healed faster with enough protein.
I was craving fresh bread. Beer, mushrooms, pasta, chocolate. I couldn’t live the whole rest of my life without eating another crusty, steaming loaf fresh from the oven and slathered with butter. Another dark chocolate truffle. Raspberries. I could have eaten fistfuls of them just thinking about it.
I wanted to go home. But that was at the bottom of this grief and all these strange symptoms.
I longed for Earth food, music, the rumble of trains, the rush of traffic. I wanted a new pair of sneakers, the expensive kind that made you feel you were walking on clouds.
His telling me it was impossible to go back home had flipped a mental and emotional switch in my brain. Most of my time here I had focused on the here and now and my plan to free the others. But learning that home was out of my reach, out of our reach, made me suddenly long for it with everything I had.
Earth. America. Home. Gone.
