sleeping quarters. One that had contained weapons until that morning when he’d removed them, the other with food and water rations and supplies for wound care. Every now and then, a kekevir had made it past the tunnel and into his base. Sometimes, it would catch him by surprise before he managed to get a weapon. He kept the bandages and healing salve as a precaution. Now that Erin was here, he would need to begin work on a gate to ensure her safety.
Rising away from her briefly, he rummaged through one of the chests and took out the last clean cloth—he’d have to boil more later—and a bottle of healing salve he’d traded a fur for in Lopixa last rotation.
In his absence, Erin had rolled over, pressing her back to the wall of the cave and watching him warily as he approached her. When her gaze went to what he had in his hands, she said quietly, “I can do it.”
When she reached out a hand for the cloth and salve, he ignored it and knelt before her. It took him a moment to realize he was growling. It was a rumbling deep in his throat and he pressed the palm of his hand to his eyes in an attempt to calm the beast inside him. As if Jaxor wasn’t mad enough as it was, his Instinct felt like another being’s will had burrowed deep into his mind, tearing at it, clashing with it, changing it.
He made a concerted effort to stop growling and only when it was silent did he take his hand away. Erin, surprisingly, let him take her left foot in his hand. He slid it onto his lap and her foot twitched when it brushed against the furs of the pants he’d pulled on that day.
That small twitch made his brows furrow. He looked down at her foot and for the first time marveled at the strangeness of it, how small it was, how delicately the bones sloped and arched, how soft the sole was, obviously without callouses to help with the hardness of walking on the rough facev floor of his base.
Strangely, it was the first true realization that she was of a different species. That he didn’t truly know a single thing about her race, except for what he’d gathered from the Mevirax, who’d gathered it from the Jetutians, who’d gathered it from the Krevorags.
Jaxor felt frozen as he looked down at her foot, nestled against his thigh. When he looked up at her, she was watching him. She was neither frowning nor smiling. Her lips were parted slightly, as if she’d come to a similar realization…that this should never have happened. That the Fates should have never given Jaxor something so precious, so valuable to protect and care for.
He swallowed. The growling started again and Erin jolted, beginning to pull her injured foot away.
Jaxor kept it in place, pushing those thoughts from his mind. He felt unsettled. Something in him felt wrong. It had felt wrong since the moment he’d seen her, when, for the better part of five rotations, he’d been so certain in his destiny.
Almost methodically, as if it were his own wound, he washed it, brushed a thick layer of healing salve over it—ignoring the way her first toe, the largest of them all, twitched when he did—and wound the clean cloth over it, securing it tightly.
When he was done, he rose, not quite meeting her eyes. Not sure if he didn’t want to or simply couldn’t.
“Thank you,” she whispered, so quiet he barely heard it.
“Do not ever thank me,” he murmured just as quietly back, turning away from her, replacing the supplies in the chest before closing it. He was met with silence and in that silence, he felt himself grow angry. At her, at himself, at the Fates, at the Mevirax, and beyond all, at the Jetutians.
Always so fucking angry, he thought. But he needed that anger, he needed to hold onto it or else everything he’d worked for would be for nothing. He’d developed the trust of the Mevirax, which were a people that did not trust easily, especially a direct descendant of Kirax’an. It had taken him twice as long. And it had paid off. He’d made the agreement with Tavar, the leader of the Mevirax. It would be Jaxor that would deliver the females to the Jetutians. After so long, not only could he finally avenge his mother, he could finally help his people.