“I smell blood, Aehako—“
“It is nothing, my mate,” I tell her between fierce kisses. “Let me mate your mouth with my tongue before I mate you with my cock.”
Her hand pounds on my shoulder, and her outraged gasp echoes in my ear a moment later. “Aehako! You’re bleeding!”
I sigh and simply hold her close, hugging her against me as her frantic hands move over my chest. Has ever a sa-khui male been so happy? I stroke Kira’s soft hair and inhale her scent. Nothing else matters except my mate is alive.
“You’re wounded!” Her cry of surprise screeches in my ears. “Aehako, stop! Let me look at you!”
I cannot stop smiling, cannot stop touching her. “My wounds do not matter, Sad Eyes. Where have you been? How did you escape?”
“Your wounds matter to me,” she fusses, and it feels good to have my mate’s small hands pulling at my clothing, determined to care for me.
I could die happily in this moment.
As she strips my tunic from me and binds my wound, she tells me how she escaped from the ship. Her eyes are troubled as she presses a thick piece of leather to my wound. “I killed them all, Aehako. I’m not even sorry about it. I just keep thinking of what would have happened if we went back with them. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“You protected your people, as fiercely as any chief,” I tell her, caressing her cheek. “I am proud of you.” Proud, and so utterly beside myself with joy that she is alive.
“I keep telling myself that maybe I should have negotiated more,” she says in a soft voice, wrapping a long strip of torn clothing around my chest. “That maybe they’d have listened to reason and left us here. But I couldn’t take that chance.”
I say nothing. It’s clear that she’s working through this on her own. All I can do is support her and love her – two easy tasks.
“And I just thought—，” her thoughts stop and she looks around, then back at me. “Where is Harlow?”
“Gone,” I say, unable to stop the irritation from flooding my voice. “Abandoned us and fled like a coward.”
Kira’s brow furrows. “I didn’t think Harlow was a coward. I wonder what happened?”
“She left to get poles for the travois, and never returned. She has ran for the hills seeking safety from your aliens. She is foolish and has caused her own death, and possibly that of Haeden.” I force myself to get up, even though I want nothing more than to remain here, seated in the snow with my mate as she fusses over me. “We must get him to the healer, and soon. I do not know if he will last another night.”
Kira’s eyes are wide. “But Harlow—“
“We must choose,” I say gently. “We can wait here and hope she returns, and Haeden will almost certainly die. Or we can leave her to her fate and take Haeden to be healed.” I leave the choosing to her. It is not my choice to make, because I will never be able to choose flighty, fickle Harlow over the man I have grown up with and whom I think of as a brother.
Kira’s gaze moves to the travois, and then back to me. “Of course we can’t stay,” she says, her voice soft with sorrow. “I just thought…” she shakes her head. “I guess it doesn’t matter. Poor Harlow. I hope she can find her way back to the caves at some point.” She gets to her feet and then presses a hand to my bandages as I stand. “Let’s get Haeden back safely. If he dies, I’ll blame myself.”
“Then we will not let him die,” I tell her in a firm voice.
KIRA
The return back to the caves is brutal. I worry about Harlow, who’s gone missing. She’s so secretive, though, I don’t know if she’s all right and just in hiding, or if something else has gone terribly wrong. Aehako is wounded, and Haeden is hovering at death’s door, so there’s no time to wait and see if she’s going to return. We load Haeden onto the travois and pull it across the crisp snow.
For once, the weather holds on us, and the day fades into night with clear skies and not a bit of snowfall. We don’t stop even when the sun goes down. We walk through the night, endlessly trudging back to the tribal caves. Aehako’s weaker than he tries to let on; he has to pause and rest several times. I take the poles of the travois from him and drag it for a while to help out, though my strength is not even half of his. He kisses the top of my head and murmurs words of thanks at my efforts, though.
It’s a long, miserable night. I make it by simply concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. As long as I’m with Aehako, it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. I wish I could hold his hand, but when he doesn’t have the travois poles, I do. So I just tuck my hands into my fur cloak and imagine what life is going to be like when we get back to the caves.