Page 20 of Prison Moon
Toren held out his hand, waiting for her to take it. When she did, he linked their fingers, kissed her knuckles, and led her into the trees.
* * *
Toren stepped into the light beyond the forest and squinted. They’d spent a good portion of the day inside the dark confines of the forest and the sun was bright now that they’d stepped out from under the trees. He still held Sarra’s hand. He didn’t know what she’d been telling him earlier but he thought he understood. The way she kissed him and rode his hand said she enjoyed his touch, so once they were safe, he’d mark her as his and she’d belong to him fully.
He scanned the area. The trees were more sparse here, the ground rocky. He could see mountains in the distance and more of those flying things that watched everyone here. If not for them, he’d already have Sarra safe and fed.
The landscape had changed much over the last several hundred years but he knew the mountain range in front of them wasn’t the same one where his lair was hidden. The color of the stone was different, the shape of the peeks all wrong. He scanned the horizon and wondered which way to go. Sara tugged on his hand, a question in her eyes when he looked down at her. She threw her hand out in a wide arc. “Where are we going?”
Her smile said he’d guessed right. “To the mountains. I don’t imagine there are many of the others there. We’ll find shelter in the hills and food should be more abundant.”
She didn’t say anything and her silence said she trusted him. The thought warmed him more than anything had in a long time. They walked half the morning, stopping several times so Sarra could rest. He’d peeled the other adreca for her, disappointed this time when she’d angled her body away so the juice went to the ground and not on her. The look she gave him as she ate said she knew what he was waiting for and he’d have to wait. And he would. He’d wait as long as he needed to.
They’d gone several miles when they came to the edge of a large, deep hole in the ground. It was hundreds of feet wide and Toren knew if he flew down into it, he’d find a tunnel under the mountain.
Sarra squeezed his hand.
Her eyebrows were raised when he looked at her. When she glanced back down at the hole he knew she was wondering how it had come to be. “Centuries ago, a race much different from my own came to these lands and brought great machines to do things like this. They mined the planet for its resources and left the land barren when they were finished. Much of this world is only a shell of what it once was. Lush valleys of wild grasses and streams are all gone. After the war, the others came. They dropped them off and left them to run wild. They’ve destroyed our world.” His thoughts were turning black, anger causing fire to boil in his chest. Sarra tugged on his hand and said something he didn’t understand. As much as he wanted her, he wanted her words the most. When she motioned for them to go, he leaned in for a quick kiss, then led them away.
The sun was high in the sky when they made it around the hole in the ground and walked until he knew Sarra was getting tired. He reached to pick her up but she pointed to something up the incline to their left. A dark splotch on the rocky bank looked like a cave. He’d been asleep long enough the landscape had changed but he knew most all of these mountains had caves dotted along them. The Draegon had lived the majority of their lives in Dra’lera but there wasn’t a male alive who hadn’t carved out a lair for himself, even the youngest among them tried. He and his brothers had dug more than a few shallow caves in their youth. It looked as if Sarra had found one.
Her face was red, her chest rising and falling quickly as she stood there staring up the incline. He’d walked her too long today. Scanning the trees, he saw nothing move. The air carried no scent other than trees and dirt. “I think it’s a cave. Wait here and I’ll run up and see. No reason to exert yourself if it’s not.” He looked at the trees behind her. “I scent nothing in the area, so you’ll be safe until I get back.”
Her eyes widened a fraction but she never replied so he turned and darted up the craggy incline without her, loose rock sliding underneath his bare feet. When he reached the top, he looked back down at Sarra. She was staring up at him. The moment she smiled, fierce need coiled in his limbs, his fire burning to make her his. He headed across the rock-strewn grass to the dark spot on the side of the mountain and hoped it was shelter. He’d waited long enough. He needed to claim his mate.
As it had been down the hill, nothing stirred here. He could hear nothing moving under the trees—or in them—and smelled nothing in the air. As he got closer to the dark indention in the rock, he smiled. It was a cave.