looked impatient to get moving for real.
Hard to believe, but Grif was pretty sure he was starting to understand the creature.
“Thank you, for everything, Nayla.” He cleared his throat. “This is extraordinary. Even back on New Earth, there’s nothing like this anymore. I…I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime.” Aping the pack gesture of affection she’d shown him earlier, he bent down and rubbed his nose against her collarbone.
Her eyes lit with pleasure—until her gaze caught on his right shoulder. Her expression darkened at the sight of the blood. “You are hurt.” She raised her hand, but didn’t touch him, her hesitancy obvious.
He could tell she was worried all over again that she’d upset him by hurrying ahead. What was between them was still so new and fragile.
Seizing her palm, he brought their joined hands to his chest. “It’s just a scrape.” He held hers to his beating heart. “We’re learning how to be a team. Which means we talk. Occasionally disagree. But we never give up on each other. We always have each other’s back.”
Her smile loosened the worst of the knot in his chest.
Damn it, he was good for her. Just as she was good for him. They might have started out all kinds of screwed up. They might both be broken as hells. That didn’t mean they couldn’t make this work.
“I like be a team with you.” Her fingers brushed his skin.
Heat and need shimmered between them.
“Grif? You down there?” Zale’s voice echoed down the chute.
With an apologetic smile and a quick press of his lips to hers, he hustled over to where the tunnel had spat him out.
“Yes. We’re here, and it’s amazing.” He couldn’t keep the pride from his voice. “Everyone is going to want to cover themselves before they come down the chute, but it’s well worth it. You are not going to believe what Nayla has to show us.”
A growl sounded behind.
Grif spun. Four massive silvery creatures with long twitching trunks and a mouthful of sharp teeth rose from the water, making their way onto the sandy bank, their six giant eyes each locked on him.
“No move.” Nayla’s voice was a strained whisper. “Walrhinots. They scent your blood. Make them hungry.”
That didn’t exactly imbue him with confidence. Especially with his crew on their way down the chute, and more bangs and scraps likely.
“Stay where you are.” He reached for his ax. “I’m coming.”
But Nayla shook her head. “Better not to move.”
More growls.
Followed by a deafening squawk—and an all too familiar blur of movement.
Then, things got ugly, and Nayla’s pet was right in the thick of it.
36
“Am I crazy or is the current starting to pick up?” Grif’s words reached Nayla over the roar of the rushing water.
“Always fast here.”
They bobbed along, lashed together by Grif’s rope. The tie was cumbersome, but comforting—since separation was next to impossible.
Which, Grif had explained as he wrapped it tight around her waist and his, was exactly why he’d refused to allow either of them to enter the water without it.
The incident with the Walrhinots had definitely placed him on the alert.
On the plus side, his fondness for Sharluff appeared to have grown astronomically.
Her pet had ripped apart the slow moving, silvery beasts with ease. There were few creatures in the river as fierce as her Sharluff.
Still, Grif was not as relaxed as before.
She’d seen the others exchange a look when he’d insisted on the tether, but she didn’t mind. In all honesty, his concern warmed her.
They were a team. How…astounding.
Carried by the churning waves, she was lighter than she’d been in a long time. The fate of the missing females weighed on her, as did her responsibilities to her pack, but her sense of hope was growing. The affection in Grif’s stare was genuine.
“Something’s moving beneath.” Concern roughened his voice.
“Dofels. No danger.” A school of the yellow and orange striped swimmers, each one the length of her leg, flashed beneath the water at a lower depth, hitching a ride on the swiftly moving currents.
“They’re beautiful. Do they taste good?”
She laughed, inhaling a lungful of water. Apparently, an obsession with their next meal was universal in all males, pack or Other. He’d already been disappointed to learn Walrhinot meat was too tough to eat.
“Yes.” One coughing spell and a worried look from him—he was already paddling closer—and she was finally able answer. “They taste good, but too fast. Grif can’t catch.”
“We’ll see about that.” But his focus was all on her. “You still okay? Need a