Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75650 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75650 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
His eyes open.
Pashov gives me a slow smile and cups my face, pulling my mouth to his for a kiss.
What. The. Fuck.
I rear back, both relieved and shocked, even as Farli and Harrec break into laughter. Pashov grins, too. “It is not so big a fall,” he tells me.
My fear gives way to blinding fury. He thinks this is fucking funny? I curl my fingers into a fist and punch him in the shoulder.
He shrugs it off, grinning. “Do not be mad, Stay-see—”
Not be mad? He just risked his fucking life for a fucking egg and I nearly lost my mate again and everyone’s laughing and this is funny to them? I punch him again, and then I can’t seem to stop hitting him. They’re not hard hits—my hands are small and my strength is crap—but I need to get it out of my system before I start screaming and grab a knife and castrate him for being such a dick in this moment.
“Stay-see,” Pashov soothes again. “It is all right.”
“It is not fucking all right,” I say, punctuating my words with slaps. “You’re an asshole.” I jerk to my feet and turn my accusing stare on Farli and Harrec, who are still laughing. “All of you are assholes!”
Chompy belches at me.
That does it. I am out of here. I feel frustrated and terrified and full of anxiety and I don’t see the humor in this at all. I’m about to start crying, actually, and the last thing I want to do is get all blubbery in their faces. So I turn on my heel and leave.
“Remember to keep your fingers on the right-hand wall to find your way home,” Harrec calls after me, amused.
I shoot him the bird and continue marching away.
“Stay-see?” Pashov jogs after me and grabs at my arm.
I shrug his touch away. “Leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“You are mad?”
Oh, understatement of the year. “I am fucking furious.”
PASHOV
My mate has used the human curse word more times in the last few minutes than she ever has since I met her. I know this ‘fuck’ word. It is a very angry one. She has only used it a few times in the past—once when she sliced open her finger while dicing roots, and once when Pacy was being born.
I…I remember that. Delighted, I jog after my mate. I want to share this with her.
But Stay-see is marching away, her little back stiff with anger. Her shoulders are shivering—no, wait. That is not shivering. She is crying. She is hurting.
I turn back to Harrec and Farli, who are equally mystified. “What did I do?”
Farli shrugs, the nests in her arms. “She is worried you hurt yourself.”
“Pfft. Over that small drop?” It left me winded and made my ribs creak, but I have fallen from much worse. It is nothing to panic over…
And yet Stay-see is upset. Very upset. I have never seen her so furious. Mystified, I stare after her as she marches out of the canyon.
“Well?” my sister prompts.
I turn to look at her. “Well what?”
“Are you going to go apologize?” She juggles the two nests in her arms, twisting away before Chompy can grab at one with his teeth.
Am I? I pull the frozen egg out of my tunic. It is still whole, rock hard and frozen solid in the frigid weather. Stay-see will be pleased…I think. I got this for her. All I wanted to do was make my mate smile. Make her say Yes, Pashov, I want to be your mate again. Please come back to my furs. But those were not the words she said.
I am fucking furious.
I do not want her upset. I want her smiling and hungry for my kisses.
Harrec scoops something off the ground and offers it to me. It is the other frozen egg. “Go after your mate,” he tells me. “Quit being a fool.”
“I am being a fool?” I echo, surprised.
“Are you not? You are here, talking to us, when you should be kissing your mate.” He takes one of the nests from Farli’s hands, drops the egg into it, then offers both to me with a grin. “Go and tell her that you miss her and wish to take her to your furs. Everyone in the hunter cave is tired of your snoring. You should return to your mate.”
“If she will have me,” I say, dubious.
Farli rolls her eyes. “Do not be stupid, brother. Stay-see is upset because she worries over you. If she did not care, she would not worry so much. Go chase after her.” My sister thinks for a moment and quickly adds, “And tell her that she is pretty.”
“Pretty?”
“A female likes to be told she is attractive,” my sister lectures me as if she is the expert. “When was the last time you told Stay-see you thought she was pretty?”