does it have to be you, J’shel? Why not Taushen?” She shakes her head. “I’m going to go down there and talk to him—”
My brave, fierce H’nah. If I were not so tense, I might laugh at her bossy demeanor. “It must be me, H’nah. I told him so. I am the one with camouflage. I can get far closer than he can.”
H’nah bursts into tears. “No! You c-can’t leave me here alone,” she sobs. “What if you g-get k-killed?”
I kneel before her and press my mouth to her knuckles. I hate the sight of her weeping. It tears at me. “If I die, then your way back to your home is clear, is it not? You can see your book and your movie.”
She jerks her hands out of mine, horrified. “You know I don’t want that shit anymore. I want you!”
“I want you, too, H’nah. And that is why I must do this. I must be your hero. Yours, and our kit’s.”
“I am so fucking mad at you,” she sobs, tears sliding down her cheeks.
“Be mad when I return,” I tell her. “For now, I would like to hold you until it is time to go.”
“You’re such an asshole,” she weeps, even as she jerks her hands out of mine and puts her fingers on my belt. She tears at it, fumbling at the leather, and her haste makes my cock hard. “I’m going to fuck you so hard right now that you’re going to come back, because you’re going to need some more of this.”
My fierce, determined female. “Is that so?”
“Yes,” she snarls at me. Her hand slides into the front of my pants and the breath hisses from between her teeth as she finds me hard and ready. “You’re my man, and you’re not leaving me here alone, not now, not ever. You understand? So if you want a lifetime of hot, nasty sex, you make sure you come back alive. You got me?”
“I got you.” I rip her grass skirt off and pull her forward. “I got you, H’nah.”
“No more talking,” she says, and neither of us says a thing for a very long time.
A short time later, our things are packed, H’nah is dressed in her thick layers, and she stands next to B’rukh and T’shen with a miserable expression on her lovely face. I know she hates this. I know she wants to be angry and scream and stomp her feet as if that will change things. She knows I am right, though. Even now, I put my cloak on and let my color ripple to match it, as if I must show off for my H’nah, reassure her that I will do my best not to get killed.
T’shen holds out the pack to me. It is stuffed to overflowing with chakk leaf. I throw it over my shoulder, then take my spear in another hand. I have my boots on, and my pants. Once I get out into the valley, I must discard my cloak and approach in nothing but my camouflage, and move slowly so that Old Grandfather does not see me and pounce.
I want to touch H’nah, to reassure her that all will be well…but I do not know if it will be. All I know is that she must leave this place, one way or another. It is too comfortable here, and I do not want to wake up one day to find that we are too tired and weak to make the journey home. We must leave, and it must be now.
“I will go out as soon as it is dark,” I tell them, going over the plan one more time. “It will take some time to climb up to where Old Grandfather is roosting, so do not go out until the moons are high in the skies. Understand?”
H’nah fidgets. At her side, B’rukh looks grimly determined, and T’shen just nods, his spear clenched in hand despite the fact they are not leaving for some time. I know he will protect my mate, as I would his.
“Should I create a distraction?” T’shen asks. “I can go into the valley with a torch, try to draw it out toward me so you can climb without fear.”
His mate gives him a terrified look. “What?”
I shake my head. “It is a good idea, but you will be needed to get the females away, T’shen. I have been thinking about this,” I say slowly, reluctant to reveal this part of my plan because