long enough and you’ll learn this land is a monster, kid, full of despair and the echoing voices of those long dead. The voices of those the rest of the world wouldn’t have.”
The men went quiet as they contemplated his words, and not one of them disagreed.
“Corsov,” Bo said into the silence, “is beautiful, but it is deadly.”
They nodded soberly.
“And,” Graez said, a little too loudly, “there are not enough fucking females!”
“There are a few,” Bo said, grinning.
Graez snorted. “Devri and Oxra, for example?” He shuddered. “I wouldn’t fuck those two with your dick.”
“Well I think it’s a very interesting place,” Krey declared, his face shining despite the ever-present dirt covering it. He yanked his cap down a little further, and then stood. “Bo, could I trouble you for some hot water in the cabin? I saw the metal basin in the corner. I’d like to wash up.”
“What?” Graez said. “One dunk in the river and already you love baths?”
Krey shrugged. “I want to be clean before I get back into that nice bed.”
“Nice?” Grathus chortled. “If you think that’s a nice bed, you must really be used to some sick shit.”
Krey lifted his chin. “It’s a clean bed in a cabin, there’s a warm fire, and my belly is full. And that is nice.”
No one laughed at that. Grathus cleared his throat. “Sorry about punching you, kid.”
“Thank you.” Krey smiled, and it lit up his face.
I straightened slowly, the breath knocked from my lungs. It was that moment, that moment when he smiled, that I realized Krey wasn’t a fucking boy. Krey was a woman. A female pretending to be a male.
That was why my jeqwa was going bonkers. Yes, she was Drimuti, and a street kid, and a thief, but she wasn’t a boy. I don’t know why I hadn’t seen it before.
There was no fucking way Krey was male.
Then I closed my eyes and inhaled, trying to breathe through the realization, and also understanding that I wanted it to be the truth so badly that it might not be true at all. But gods, Krey was female. I’d stake my life on it.
I didn’t move for a while. I had to let it sink in. I had to think about it. I had to wallow in the hope. I had no idea why she’d hidden it from me, and I didn’t care. Not then. It was enough that my fated mate was a woman after all.
I understood something else when Bo climbed hurriedly to his feet and told Graez to get a bucket of water from the stream, then turned to order someone else to build up the fire to begin heating it.
Graez looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “Heat the water? Throw his ass in the river! He can bathe like everyone else.”
“Krey’s sick,” Bo growled, clenching his fists. “Get the fucking water.”
Bo knew.
He knew, and that was why he’d become suddenly so solicitous of her. He knew, the traitorous fuck, and he’d kept it from me. He’d let me think that for the first time in my life, I was attracted to another guy. He’d let me agonize over the fact that I was apparently meant to lifemate with a male.
I was going to kick his ass for that.
But first…
I slipped quietly through the trees and entered through the back of my cabin, my muscles tight, my rock-hard cock throbbing like a sonofabitch, my hands clenched into fists. I would stand quietly in the tiny—and dark—storage room of the cabin and watch my fated mate get naked.
And then…
Well, then we’d see.
Chapter Sixteen
KREIA
Dexx had disappeared, and though I felt his presence, I missed him. I needed to tell him my secret, but the longer I waited, the harder it became. What if Bo was right and I needed to wait until Dexx stopped fighting it and loved me even if he thought I was male, Drimuti, street kid, thief, and now, big fat liar?
He wasn’t going to be happy that I’d deceived him, and that was just another thing to add to the growing list of reasons why he should never want to accept me as his mate for life. He couldn’t trust me.
Also, there were apparently few women here. Since he believed the XCRU hunters were after me, where would he send me so I’d be safe? Once he discovered I was female, he wouldn’t want to leave me here in a harsh camp full of criminals. Full of males.
I sat on the