her chest. “Of what you’re doing. Is everything okay?”
I lean in. My hunter mangles my voice when I say, “Aoa, if anything, you will serve me. You will breed with me and give me pups, and you will not be free to leave me or the pups.” My hunter clouds my judgment. I just threatened to mark and trap a goddess. The loss of freedom would enrage her. She could strike at the entire tribe, and I’d be helpless against her wrath. How could this tiny prey carry a goddess within her? It cannot be true. And yet, she fucking owns me. I’m the collared one, and I can’t stand it.
I peck her small nose because I scent fear again. “Don’t be afraid.”
She hugs her legs. “It’s hard not to be.”
“I’m a bitchhole. But I’m not gonna consume you.” I’m not. Right? Yeah, I think so. Fuck. Dealing with a female is hard.
Standing, I extend a hand. She clasps it, and I pull her up, nearly flinging her across the room in the process. “You’re light,” I say, noting I need to learn how to handle her delicate, practically weightless body. When she rode my hunter, I barely felt her on my back.
I sniff her hair. “You must bathe. I must bathe. We brought Ra mud and dirt with us.”
She huffs. “You didn’t mind when you were eating my pussy.”
“Oh, Aoa, I did not eat the pussy.”
“Yeah, you did, Nar. That’s what you did.”
Horrified at the thought, I shake my head. “I would never eat that. We don’t eat that part of prey.”
Aoa’s looking at me strangely. “Gross,” she says.
“Exactly. I’m happy we agree on that.” I carry her to the portal and open it, then step into the part of Ka land that has warm waters, and immediately regret that I chose this portal. At least fifty of my tribemates freeze, some midjump into the water, ending up plopping into it, emerging, and staring at my swollen hook and her in my arms. A female.
Tis recovers first. “Games!” He cheers like a lunatic. “We are having games again. Two in a row.” Shouting commences, males cheering, arms up in the air, fists pumping. I turn around, bend, and show them all my ass.
“Boooo,” they shout after me as I walk back into my house and close the portal behind me.
Aoa stares at me. “No bath?” she asks.
“Nah, we’re good.” I go to put her on the bed, then change my mind because if I put her on the bed, I’m gonna wanna mount her, and I can’t do that because I wanna mark her, and marking her is a bad idea. Unless it’s not bad. I haven’t decided yet, so I walk to the sitting area and plop her on a stool, then check out the empty firepit.
I glance at her. “Can you start a fire? A small one to warm you up.” Not a fire that burns the entire city. I don’t mention her pyro tendencies woven through the legends of my people over the ages. Mae is her mother, after all.
Aoa shakes her head. “Were those other Ka males?”
“Mmhm.” I need wood. I need clothes for her. I need shoes for her. I need bowls, vases, food.
Fuck, the food. “Are you hungry?” Thirsty? Horny?
“Yes.”
Amti, the goddess my brother marked, ate the male Sor, and I’d feed Aoa a Ra if one were available, but none are, though they’re coming. I stole a prize from their games. Just snatched her while they fought. I brought her into my tribe, and Hart’s gonna lose his mind over what I’ve done. Eh, I don’t wanna dwell on that now. Wood. Fire. Barbecue.
A knock on the door makes me groan. I just know it’s my brother.
He knocks again.
“Someone is knocking,” Aoa says.
“Yeah, I hear him.”
“I would like to dress now.”
I nod. “You know where the clothes are.”
“I can’t see portals, Nar.”
“Why?”
She shrugs. “Don’t know.”
Groaning, I get up at the same time as my brother pounds on the door again. From the closet, I pick out a winter fur from an animal, not from a Ra. I don’t need to provoke my brother when he’s already gonna get all itchy under his skin when he sees a female in my house. I toss her the fur, and after she wraps it around her body, I open the door.
My brother Hart, the Kai of my people, the strongest, stealthiest, fiercest fighter in the lands, holds a bouquet of flowers and a bowl of