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Her mate gave her a startled look, but then chuckled softly. “Yes. I know it looks alarming here, but we do not roost off the side of the mountain. There are plenty of little valleys and flatter areas that our people make our home.” He nudged her gently with his wing before folding her under it. “That we can worry about tomorrow. For now, we will enjoy our dinner. Prey will not be particularly plentiful here, but I am certain we can improvise something with what we brought with us.”

Nodding, Delilah fell into step with him and headed back to the wagon to pull out supplies. Thankfully, because her mates were able to hunt fresh food nearly every day, they still hadplenty of food. For that reason alone, they were all able to go to bed with comfortably full stomachs. But that didn’t help to quiet her mind as uneasiness crept through her. They were literally trapped against the side of the mountain. Although there was no good reason for the huntsman to pursue a Ragoru so far up, their current position, while defensible for Atlavans, made her feel like a sitting duck waiting to be taken out.

She drew a deep breath and slowly expelled it. That was just her paranoia talking. Everything would be fine. Her mates had just assured her not even an hour ago that she had no reason to be concerned, as they hadn’t caught sight of anyone following them. She just wished she could feel reassured.

Snuggled between her mates and daughter in the wagon, she listened as Zemb moved around a bit until he found a comfortable place to lie down. She always felt guilty that he had to sleep outside, even though he told repeatedly not to be concerned about it because his pelt kept him comfortable and dry. Still, she strained to listen, her anxiety keeping her awake, certain that she heard something—or someone—prowling out there. And yet no one had reacted, and no alarm went up. By degrees she relaxed until she finally drifted off, not even rousing entirely when her mates slipped from the bed with loving whispers that they would return quickly. She smiled in her sleep and when she woke to birdsong in the morning, she felt exceptionally foolish about all the concerns and paranoia that had occupied her the night before.

Shaking her head in amusement at her overactive imagination, she pulled back the cloth that enclosed the back of the wagon and hopped down, only to immediately trip over something large in her path. She teetered and stumbled, but her eyes fixed on it with a look of horror. She’d tripped on a large mass of fur. Her anxiety threatening to overwhelm her, she bent and reached out with trembling fingers to check and makesure Zemb was still alive. She pressed them cautiously against his throat and exhaled with relief when she felt a thready pulse beneath her fingers. He was unconscious, but alive. But she had a bigger problem: the huntsman. A throat cleared a short distance away. She froze, her gaze skittering over to the shadows as a tall, familiar shadow unfolded itself from where it was reclined and stalked toward her.

“Hello, Delilah.”

“Zack,” she whispered.

He smiled coldly at her as he approached. She backed away, but she was neither quick enough nor had enough room to make an escape. Striking fast, he twisted her arm behind her back and forced her belly-down to the ground. He held her there, his stench rolling off him as he held her pinned in place. “I do believe that you and I need to have a talk.”

Chapter

Twenty-One

Agrel’s wings stretched out, carrying him quickly through the air, the peaks of the mountains flowing beneath him. His body tilted, shifting as he glided from one current to the next, his wings beating a steady rhythm before stretching wide to glide once more. To his right, Gehj drifted through the air flying under him and to the left until they were flying at a diagonal parallel, the sun glinting off the gold in his wings and tail. The male’s head tipped toward him and he smiled in shared happiness.

They had found it. Nestled low between two mountains but with high cliffs difficult to scale, they had found a fertile and ripe valley lush with plant life along the rocky slopes while lacking the dangers that hunted within the Great Forest. And yet to the south there was a view that captured his breath and stole it entirely, the desert so much like that of their home world stretched on and on beneath the sun. It was a good place for their people, but also it was a good place for their family. He was certain once the stones were laid for the rookeries, and Delilah saw the beauty that it would become with her own eyes that she would love their new home. She and Lily would be safe, far fromthe threat of the huntsmen, comfortable, and would lead a happy life among the Atlavans.

Now they had to collect what was theirs and bring their family and belongings up into the valley. Only once they were secure would he feel comfortable enough to leave Gehj and Zemb alone with them while he searched for the chieftain’s household and guards to lead them back to the valley.

But first—Delilah and Lily. They were too far down the mountains for his comfort. Far too close to the forest that climbed up the side of the mountains to the best of its efforts. More than that, the forests belonged to the huntsmen, and he wanted them nowhere near his family.

Flapping his wings to pick up speed, he careened over the peaks with Gehj, their crests and tail feathers fluttering in long, colorful streams. Peaks and valleys fell away; great cliffs dropped from view as he angled his trajectory for the single slope where he knew their family waited. He could see it in the distance and his heart fluttered, eager to be with his mate once more. The cliffs stood stark, almost white against the dark shadows of the mountainside. There, his mate and nestling were just below that rise?—

Below him, Gehj whistled a long note of warning, drawing him out of his ruminations. He frowned down at his ahaku and the male pointed. What was he seeing?—No, he saw it, too. A dark blue cloak stirring in the air… whipping… concealing. A cloak that did not belong to their mate and did not belong there. A hiss boiled out from him, falling from his lips in a piercing shriek. Folding his wings, he dropped at the same moment Gehj did, flames rising from them as they plummeted down the sheer cliff side. His wings fanned wide at the last minute, bringing his upper body aligned upward so that his feet swung down, slamming into the hooded figure.

The cloak spun away, bringing the human male into full view as he twisted and rolled across the ground only to come up in a defensive position, his blade drawn and held in guard a position in front of him. Agrel sneered at the weapon. He had no fear of blades. Although many among his kin enjoyed forged weapons, he preferred his claws, which were far more wicked, as was the heat of his flame. He held the male’s eyes as he allowed his claws to extend. The tip became sharper as they grew and began to hook like massive talons that were nearly the full length of the fingers they grew from. The human stared at him, his eyes widening in surprise. Agrel merely smiled, fingers spreading as he allowed his talons to slash through the air on either side of him with the rhythmic dance of his fingers.

“Afraid human?” he hissed, his eyes studying the male, taking in the strange symbols decorating his clothes and distinctive blue hues. Not any ordinary human.

His gaze drifted from the male toward his mate and his jaw clenched as he saw her drop to the side of the young Ragoru she had been protecting. The male was unconscious, clearly taken by surprise and injured. There was only one sort of human who could be so formidable to have taken a healthy young male and have a chance of escaping without suffering any injury. It seemed that his mate had not been exaggerating.

“Huntsman,” Gehj spat, arriving at the same conclusion.

A hard smile stretched across the huntsman’s face. “That I am. But you have me at a disadvantage as I don’t have a clue what you are. Though it is surprising to find my‘wife’tangled up with not one but two alien monstrosities. You’ve certainly changed, Deliliah, if you’re whoring yourself out for monsters now. You should have had the good grace to die,” he spat.

Agrel stiffened and exchanged a silent glance with his ahaku. This was not just any huntsman, this was the male who had disappeared and let his family believe he was dead. This maleleft two vulnerable females to die. Hatred boiled up within Agrel, stoking his inner fires so that flames crackled and snapped along the feathers of his wings.

“Zack, just leave… please. If you have even the smallest bit of compassion for me for the years that we were together?—”

A scornful look passed over the male’s face and he barked out a hard, cruel laugh—a sound that made Agrel’s crest snap up defensively—and shook his head. “You think I owe you something for the years we were together? Years of torture, you mean. It was fine while you were a companion that was eager to follow me and eager to please no matter what I asked. But then you had that little brat and stylized yourself as my wife, as if I would ever lower myself to marry a woman like you.”

Agrel hissed, Gehj’s voice rising to echo with his as their crests raised in threat at the insult. He would have happily killed the male on the spot—and was certain that Gehj would have been more than happy to assist—if their mate hadn’t held up a hand to them in a silent plea. Wings snapping in irritation, he withdrew, nudging against Gehj to drive the other male back with him. Surprisingly, his ahaku was less eager to listen, his blue eyes blazing with fire. Agrel slapped him harder with his wings, drawing Gehj’s startled gaze to him. Agrel gestured for him to calm himself and wait. They needed to let this play out for their mate’s sake. He understood that she had questions that she never got the chance to ask. She deserved to hear those answers and to finally allow herself to vent all the pain and anger that she had been holding within herself.

There was plenty of time to kill the male.

Delilah shook her head; her brows knitting together with confusion. “We married before we left the citadel.”

“That ceremony officiated by the Order? You are still naïve, Delilah, if you believe that a woman of common background would have been legally married to a huntsman. Especially whenthe Order prefers to pair huntsmen with women with notably strong bloodlines that have numerous sons. What does your genetics have to offer? Nothing. Which is why they provided me with the means of medicating you to prevent pregnancy. I still do not understand how you managed to conceive.” He shook his head with a look of disgust. “And look at what you gave me, anyway, a weak daughter.”

Delilah’s expression hardened, and she slowly straightened from where she was crouched at Zemb’s side. “You… you asshole!”

The male nodded. “That I am. I make no apologies for that. I really thought you would have been cast out of the village and died by now, but I suppose I should thank you.”