“If she’s so good at chasing the tumek, then maybe we should put her in charge of herding the animals in Pen’Kesh all the way to the moxxel quarter.”
Her face pales.
I reach down, pluck her out of the cart, and set her on my gorja in front of me. “Sojek will take care of the tumek, Tansey. I have a better idea how to use you.”
“God, I hope so,” she says, breathing a sigh of relief as she settles in against me.
My arm circles around her waist, locking her to me. Gods, the feel of her against me…I’ve missed this. It’s been too long. We have one day together, and then…Vekk, I don’t know what to do to make her respect me again, enough to perform risha with me.
Sojek snaps the reins, getting the gorjas pulling the cart moving again, and we head toward Pen’Kesh, the only market on Kovos where all five species meet, trade, and try not to kill one another.
CHAPTER THIRTY
VERIG
Tansey leans back against my chest. The weight of her pressing into me, her scent filling my lungs, and my hand resting on her middle are all so familiar, so perfect. Her touch, the life she exudes, reaches deep in me, stirring me, making me want to live. I’ve not had that desire in a long, long time.
I question why I’ve been avoiding her. I want her, more than anything, and I believe she wants me. If not, then she is going to a lot of trouble just to apologize for her words, words that were spoken from fear, mostly. And truth. I had been thinking of myself, of getting what I wanted. Her.
When she lashed out at me, she did not know of Veeya. She never would have said those words otherwise. I know this about my female. Her heart has no room for hatred or cruelty.
“I’m not afraid of the tumeks,” she says after riding with me in silence for nearly an hour.
“You speak, at last.”
“I’ve been thinking.”
“About tumeks? They’re tasty.”
She swats the arm I wrapped around her middle to keep her from falling. “I’m being serious.”
“So am I. Slow roast a tumek over a fire, and the meat will fall from the bones.”
“Eww.” She swats me again. “And stop talking about food when I’m trying to tell you something.”
“You’re making me hard by striking me, female. If you continue, I will not wait to return to Mount Racha to mate you.”
“Oh, you think I’m that easy?”
“Nothing about you is easy,” I say in all seriousness.
Her laugh reaches up and cuts the invisible bonds that have kept me hostage since the day I brought Ethan to her against her wishes. She has forgiven me.
“You pretended to fear the tumek, knowing I would take you on my gorja, and I suspect you tricked Atox into letting you leave with us on this trip.”
“No, I was totally truthful with him as to why I wanted to come. He agreed. Said something about you needing me to pull the sartog from your backside.”
That sounds like Atox. “What have you been thinking about?”
“I’ve been trying to determine if you’re angry or glad I’m here. You’ve been avoiding me for weeks.”
“I’ve had much to think about.”
“Your wife and daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me about them? I mean, you told me a little about Haaka, but you never even mentioned you had a daughter, Verig. Why?”
