Page 19 of The VaDorok’s Unexpected Mate (The Mate Index: Dorok #1)

“Do you usually hunt for such long stretches of time?” Katie asked conversationally as she fed a bit of old, tough meat the durwa. She was both entertained and slightly horrified at just how easily the critter could tear through something thicker than shoe leather.

Kull tensed as he peered over at her, his strange, spear-looking weapon held tightly in his hand. “I had informed you from the first that this would be the way of it,” he said slowly. “You agreed.”

She nodded. “I did. I’m just thinking that I should have at least something to keep me occupied throughout the day, though. We would probably both benefit if you remained here for a few days and taught me how to take care of things within the den.”

She didn’t mention that having him nearby while she was feeling fragile and helpless would make her feel better.

She just wanted him to hold her hand for a bit and reassure her.

She hadn’t anticipated that when she’d hastily agreed to his stipulations, but being stuck in the den all day with no one but Ren for company—who had lost all interest of conversing with her once his attempt to torment her had failed—had made her realize how much she just wanted someone to cling to.

Someone who would tell her it was all going to be okay.

And who would be a barrier against her paranoia that thought every little sound from outside—even the blowing wind—was an Agraak guard ready to descend upon the dwelling and take her captive again.

She clearly wasn’t ready to be on her own in more ways than one, but she wasn’t going to gain confidence by being helpless.

She even enjoyed bantering with him in the evening and having him close as she drifted to sleep.

All she needed was for him to help her push through her neediness and become confidently self-reliant again.

And that started with learning how to survive on Dorok.

So, she waited anxiously for his response.

His jaw tightened and flexed as he considered her request. Katie forced herself to breathe normally when she caught herself unconsciously holding her breath and smiled at him hopefully.

Finally—with considerably reluctance—he nodded and begrudgingly set his spear-thing once more into the corner that his weapons and hunting gear occupied.

“That is logical,” he grumbled. “Especially if Ren is going to be unreliable. The first thing would be how to build a fire. You are thin and lack fur, so this will be the most critical thing for you to learn.”

Katie nodded eagerly as she sidled a little closer to get a better view as Kull walked over to the box filled with scraps of wood chips and shavings.

He glanced down at it and then looked again, a fleeting look of surprise appearing and just as quickly disappearing from his countenance.

Sighing, he bent and plucked Gremlin out of the box with a faint sneer before thrusting her little terror muncher at her.

“First and foremost, that thing—and, more importantly, its waste—does not belong in this box.”

She gave the box a confused look. It just looked like an oversized litter pan to her. She couldn’t imagine why they would be storing bits of shaved wood other than for the convenience of having it out of the way until it could be emptied.

“Gremlin needs a spot to do his business if you don’t want him doing it all over the house,” she pointed out.

His brow scrunched for a moment, and then a look of disgust descended over his face.

She recognized that look. It was the same expression he’d worn when she’d been talking about Gremlin the previous day.

He glared at Gremlin in a manner that almost looked threatening before turning abruptly from the bin and walking a short distance away to retrieve a shallow, woven basket.

He returned to the bin and regarded the wood shavings once more with disgust before neatly scooping the soiled bits of wood into the basket and thrusting that at her, too.

“For your pet,” he replied from between his teeth, and immediately covered the bin. “Kindling is useless if it is soiled. Any fire we build would have an extremely unpleasant fragrance.”

Kindling... fire? Oh. Oh! She winced apologetically and carried Gremlin to another corner and set her improvised litter box there before gently settling her into it to reinforce its new location to her.

The durwa immediately hopped out, but Katie always trusted the process when it came to such things.

Confident that she’d resolved one little mishap, she hurried quietly back to Kull’s side so that she stood practically at his elbow as he withdrew a handful of the kindling and headed for the hearth.

At some point, while she’d been positioning Gremlin’s litterbox, Kull had extinguished the fire.

He pointed to the hot coals with one claw.

“Technically, it takes very little effort to awaken a banked fire from this point, as the embers merely need to be fed and stirred up a bit. I can demonstrate later, but it is more important for you to understand the mechanics of how to build the fire to begin with.”

“Okay,” she gamely replied, and she followed him to the large hearth where she promptly squatted beside him as he lowered himself into a low crouch. She wished she had a notebook but settled for leaning in close to get the best view.

A large hand settled on her shoulder, its touch sending abrupt little tingles through her for just a moment before she was yanked back from the fire by the glowering alien beside her.

“Foolish creature. Are you trying to get yourself burned?” he snapped.

Katie returned his stare, affronted. It wasn’t like she was some kind of lemming. “Of course not. I just want to make sure that I can see exactly what you are doing. How am I expected to understand the exact process if I can’t see it up close?”

He snorted gruffly, and she could almost hear the silent repetition of what he called her drifting through the air between them.

She wasn’t the sort to believe in psychic connections of any kind, but that was pretty damn clear.

She frowned but settled back at a Kull-approved distance as he turned his attention back to the glowing embers.

“You will be practicing this one skill repeatedly throughout the day until I am satisfied that you have it right. That is how you will understand—by doing,” he replied drily.

Build fires all day? Nothing else? Her enthusiasm took a sudden nosedive as she stared at the different types of wood that he began to gather and place in front of him with dismay.

Was it really going to take that long? She thought he might have been teasing her, but he didn’t even look at her as he intently set to work. Gods, he’s not joking.

With slow, methodical care, Kull built the fire, starting first with nothing but kindling and a small fire-starter that seemed to be nothing more than a two-part case that was abruptly twisted so that the flint and bit of metal in the opposite ends sparked.

The kindling smoked with the birth of the flames, and Kull leaned forward, gently blowing on it to encourage it.

Katie watched it with wide eyes and immediately grinned and clapped her hands at the first glowing of red flames flicking through the kindling.

Kull put more of the smaller pieces of wood down and slowly built the fire up from there until they had a nice little blaze going.

It took longer than she expected, and her fingertips were rapidly chilling, not to mention the grumbling complaint from her belly that reminded her that she hadn’t yet eaten.

Perhaps they shouldn’t have begun the lesson before breakfast. But she couldn’t complain too much now that the fire was slowly growing once more.

Actually, truth be told, it was quite cozy squatting there in front of the fire with him. Comfortable. She stretched her hands out toward the blaze to warm them, her thoughts turning toward breakfast. Some meat sizzling on the misshapen metal pan hanging nearby would be quite good—

Her fantasy was interrupted quite rudely as the fire was abruptly kicked over and stomped out of existence. Her mouth fell open, and her eyes dropped to the fire-starter that he thrust at her.

“Your turn. Do it how I showed you.”

She gaped at it for a moment and shook her head. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

He gestured dismissively with his empty hand.

“Do not be concerned if you do not get it right away. It took me many attempts as a youngling before I understood the mechanics of successfully starting a fire and then building it and keeping it alive. You will master all three of these things before the day is done, I promise you.”

Her shoulders dropped. So... no breakfast.

She gave him a weak smile as she imitated him to the best of her ability.

She grabbed a handful of kindling and dropped it in the hearth in front of her, and then promptly leaned forward with the fire-starter.

She clicked it and clicked it, her frustration growing when the few sparks that she managed to get puffed out in sad little deaths the moment they hit the kindling.

She scowled at it and clicked it faster, but with even less result as sparks failed to even erupt.

She glared at the fire-starter, shook it, tried it again and then threw the whole damn thing onto the kindling with a grunt of disgust.

“It’s impossible.”

Kull chuckled as he plucked the fire-starter from the pile of shavings. The warm sound washed over her pleasantly, much to her surprise.

“Most younglings know how to start a fire by the time they have seen seven summers. It is hardly impossible.”

“That doesn’t sound like something to brag about. Who wants a kid setting fire to things randomly?” she observed as she glared at the kindling dourly.

“They are taught patience and respect for the fire. Which is what you need,” he pointed out. “First, start with the finer kindling, leave out the larger chips, and use half the amount.”

She frowned doubtfully, but she adjusted her little pile as he instructed. What was left didn’t look the least bit convincing that it was capable of doing anything, but she had to admit that it did resemble his pile a bit more from what she recalled.

“Now try again. Slow, sharp scrapes.”

She nodded and bent to attend to her task.

Again, she got nothing more than the occasional little spark that arrived and fizzled out.

But Kull kept encouraging her and made her try over and over again.

A few times he took the fire-starter from her and showed her how to get the kindling to light, but he immediately stamped it out before handing it back to her.

They did end up stopping for a few minutes to enjoy some dried meat and fruit, but it wasn’t quite how she pictured breakfast with Kull.

It was barely satiating and seemed to give her barely enough energy to keep at it for what felt like hours.

Not only was the entire process taking forever with no results, but she was starting to feel achy and sweaty, and her mood didn’t improve in the least bit when Ren came out of his room and lumbered forward, a mocking smile on his face.

He sat a short distance away, grinning as he watched her.

He got a few snickers out but quickly choked them down when Kull shot him a warning look.

Ha! Take that, evil brat!

Her internal gloating didn’t last long, however, because she was beginning to feel more and more like she was even more helpless than an alien child.

“Ignore Ren. It took him four days to figure it out,” Kull soothed and then promptly lashed his tail at the younger male when he began to bluster. Katie bit back a reluctant smile, and Kull purred softly. “Just slow and steady. Don’t get impatient with it.”

She nodded and slowly clicked it again. A bright spark flared and leapt from the fire-starter, and a trail of smoke slowly rose as the glow brightened.

Katie’s eyes widened in excitement as she immediately threw on a huge handful of woodchips only to watch that glow snuff out in the blink of an eye.

She stared at it in disbelief, her bottom lip trembling.

Throwing her head back, she screamed all her pent-up anger and frustration in a dropped bomb that had both males withdrawing rapidly from her.

Spent, she dropped her head and sobbed to herself as Kull crept back to her side, his big arms drawing her awkwardly into an embrace.

Despite how stiff he was as he hugged her to him, she really appreciated it and curled into his embrace.

“You can try again later. Let me build a fire so you can warm yourself again, and then I will prepare the midday meal.”

It was only midday? Katie sagged against him in disbelief and sobbed.

She had been completely defeated by a task as ridiculously simple as building a fire.

The fact that it took Ren four days when he was something like six years old didn’t make her feel much better.

Still. Kull continued to hold her awkwardly until she finally grew quiet, and then silently extracted himself from her octopus hold so that he could rebuild the fire.

Its warm glow made her feel marginally better, but it didn’t go beyond her notice that he carefully avoided the topic of the fire for the rest of the day.

Instead, he engaged her by teaching her about the various foods in the VaDorok diet and explaining how the food was acquired and preserved.

It was that gentle and patient consideration, and a full belly, that brought her back from the brink of her frustration.

And when he lay beside her in the bed at night and slowly began to massage the kinks from her back and in between her shoulders, it made her more determined than ever to succeed.

The last thing she wanted was for Kull to decide that she was unteachable and to basically avoid her until he could get rid of her—especially when that seemed to be his preference.

As long as there was some hope that she would be able to do this, he seemed to be willing to try.

So, she wasn’t going to give him any reason to doubt her now. She wasn’t licked yet.

Licked at fire-building, she hastily reminded herself as heat rose rapidly into her cheeks. She certainly didn’t mean the other kind. Nope. Even though the VaDorok seemed to be blessed with an exceptionally long tongue from what she observed while he was eating. Nope, not that at all.