Hannah's Hero - Ruby Dixon Page 0,30

why not? In my day, it was spear throwing and expertise with slings. Some horn butting, but that is mostly to solve disputes. Surely the humans can throw spears and hit targets?”

I relax slightly. If it is those things, then N’dek can indeed participate. “Our games back home were climbing and races of all kinds,” I say, poking at the fire.

“Mmm. But we have a tribe of many kinds now. I am sure the games will be modified so all can enjoy themselves.” He pats Z’hren’s head lovingly. “Perhaps there will even be games for the kits.”

N’dek snorts, a derisive sound. I glance over at H’nah. She sits in the thick of things, but no one speaks to her. They all ignore her and the fragile smile on her face tells me she is painfully aware of it. I remember how she told me that she felt alone, that everyone hated her. I thought she was wrong, but when I see S’bren turn and give her a dismissive look, I want to leap across the fire and shove his head into the sand.

She has only ever asked one thing of me…and I said no. I hate that. I hate that I cannot give her what she needs. More than anything, I want to run away into the snowy hills with her, to take her away from everyone else and touch her until she no longer cares if they like her enough.

If we have each other, nothing else matters.

Perhaps I should go to her anyhow. Get to my feet, ignore her protests, and sling her small, soft body over my shoulder and carry her away. Do not let her say no to resonance. Do not let her say no to anything. But then she will hate me, and I will hate myself for forcing her. No, it must be her idea, no matter how painfully my cock throbs at her nearness.

As I stare hungrily at my mate, another female—the pink-maned mate of sa-khui T’shen—approaches her. She leans in and says something, and a look of utter panic crosses H’nah’s face. I am on my feet between the space of one breath and the next, ready to fix whatever worries her.

“Just a little bit longer,” H’nah says to the female. “I promise. I’ll find someone.”

Ah.

Before H’nah notices that I am leaping to her rescue, I quickly turn and move back to my spot near the fire, pretending to throw yet more wood onto it. I bend over and poke at the logs, and as I do, something yanks on my braid.

I look up and V’za is at my side, Z’hren’s small, sticky hands jerking on the rope of my braid. V’za looks curious and leans in, one hand supporting Z’hren. “What is going on with your female?”

I pry my braid out of Z’hren’s grasp and move back toward N’dek. “It is…nothing.”

“If it is nothing then why do you look so upset?” V’za follows me and plucks a stick from my wood pile, brushing off the sand before handing it to Z’hren.

The kit immediately beats on his arm with it, babbling loud noises. “Ba ba ba ba!”

V’za is a patient father. He merely winces as the stick slaps his arm over and over, and focuses on me. “Well?”

I straighten, telling myself I will not look over at H’nah. I will not. I stare at the ground instead. “She wants to go to the fruit cave with T’shen and his mate. She asked me to go with her…and I said no.”

“You should have said yes,” N’dek adds, his tone sour.

I pick up a large branch—too big to throw on the fire as it is—and snap it with a satisfying twist of my hands, imagining that it is N’dek’s neck. “I cannot leave you and you know it.” Because it is my fault that you are injured.

“I do not know why you keep saying that.” N’dek’s voice is flat. He throws a bit of wood into the fire and stares at it with a scowl on his face.

V’za gives me an uncomfortable look.

I straighten. One of the females was about to sit next to N’dek, but she carefully moves away, as if sensing an argument. I do not blame her. I am tired of N’dek’s frustrating attitude. “You mope near the fire all day and do nothing,” I say. I want to be crueler, but I cannot. He is my brother. “You act as if you wish you were dead.”

He looks away. “Perhaps I do.”

Hearing