Page 21 of The VaDorok’s Unexpected Mate (The Mate Index: Dorok #1)

Katie frowned as she dug through one of the large baskets in the bedroom.

Kull had asked her to find the length of braided leather cord that he said he’d stored in there.

She didn’t even recall ever seeing any such thing, but she was here taking his word for it and hunting for something that clearly didn’t want to be found.

“I don’t see why we need it,” she mumbled as she set the basket aside and moved onto the next one, a basket that came close to being as tall as she was.

What did he say he wanted it for? Something about tying her to him when he took her out hunting.

It sounded silly because she was a grown adult, not a toddler who would make a break for it at the first opportunity for escape, but she was too excited about going to put up much of a protest. Now if only the cord weren’t playing “find me.”

She was practically climbing inside the giant basket in an attempt to get to the bottom when the fur curtain over the doorway shifted and Kull leaned against the frame, his eyes bright with amusement as he studied her.

“Any luck?” he rumbled.

Katie blew the lock of hair that had fallen over her eyes out of her face and shook her head. “Not yet. Are you sure that we will need it?”

Kull nodded, his expression sobering. “If it starts heavily snowing while we are out there, it will be easy to become disorientated. I will feel better if I can make sure that you are safe while we are hunting.”

In other words, she was going to be leashed like an errant toddler.

Sighing, she adjusted her angle. He had a point. Her sense of direction wasn’t great even in the best of times. If she became blinded by a sudden snowstorm and got separated from them, then she would be up shit creek without a paddle.

“Alright, I’m going to keep looking.” She bit her lip as she glanced around the room. “Are you sure it’s in here?”

“Yes. I made it for...” he broke off and swallowed thickly. “It does not matter. I stored it in here afterwards because I had no further use for it. It was just by chance that I recalled that it was here.”

“Okay. I’ll find it then,” she said as she shifted her weight to tip herself lower into the basket.

Kull hesitated, and a strange look crossed his face as he watched her.

She imagined that he wanted to pluck her up from the basket and set her out of the way so that he could help her look without the risk of falling into the basket.

She indulged in the fantasy briefly, but then he retreated, and the moment was gone.

“Let me know when you do,” he replied. “I am going to finish sewing the coat that I have been making for you while you look.”

She grinned at him as she leaned over the basket, rocking it slightly with her weight. “You’ve been making me a coat?”

His ears tipped back, and his tail twitched disconcertedly, which made laughter bubble up inside of her before she got ahold of it and choked it back down.

It was really sweet that he had put thought into doing something like that for her long before they started talking about going hunting together.

“You need something more substantial and that covers you better than the fur cloaks that you wear,” he replied gruffly. “It is a matter of practicality... nothing more.”

She nodded in reply and watched as his tail twitched one last time before he let the fur curtain fall between them once more and he headed back to the common room.

She stared at the fur for a moment, half-amused as she considered his words, but then divided back into the basket.

She wrinkled her nose at the stale, musty smell of old fur, leather and cloth that had been accumulating dust bunnies for at least a decade as far as she knew.

It was only when she shifted a large blanket out of the way that her fingers skimmed the rough braid and knotting of a cord hidden beneath it all.

“Jackpot,” she mumbled as she grabbed hold of the end and began to pull.

It gave slowly as the cord gradually came loose from wherever it was caught in the basket.

What the hell? She tugged a bit harder and leaned her weight into it and was rewarded with a longer length of it.

Bracing her leg against the basket, she pulled harder, and she strained.

Whatever it was caught on, it was caught good.

She considered just upending the basket just to make her life easier.

“What are you doing?” Ren interrupted. “You look like you are wrestling with an alpak,” he observed with a grin.

Katie swiped her hair out of her face with her elbow and grimaced at him. “It is not as easy as it looks. It’s caught on something.”

He shook his head as he sauntered into the room. “You are just weak. Let me try.”

“I don’t know, Ren...” she began, but he took hold of the end of the cord and nudged her out of the way.

“With as much as there is in the basket, you will be at it all day if you do not pull harder,” he instructed. “Now watch.”

She stepped back and eyed him uncertainly.

He gave her a cocky smile and yanked on the cord with so much strength that there was a sharp crack of something giving within the basket seconds before the cord went slack and flew from the basket at a rapid rate with the force pulling on it.

Ren shouted in surprise and stumbled backwards as every bit of tension evaporated.

His arms wheeled, the cord whipping up for a moment before shooting downwards as he collided with the table in from the hearth and fell backwards.

Katie’s eyes shot to it, a cry of alarm escaping her.

She made to grab him to keep him from falling onto the table, but she was nowhere near quick enough.

He hit the table hard. The wood buckled and everything on its surface exploded upwards. .. including Kull’s carved flute.

It seemed to float in the air in slow motion.

She tried to grab for it, but her fingers merely skimmed the polished wood in the midst of its flight before it slammed against the stone.

The crack of the flute breaking was deafening, but the sound was nearly matched as it then proceeded to fall to the ground.

She stared in horror at it as Ren scrambled off the table and gaped down at it.

“Oh no,” he moaned.

“Katie? Are you well?” Kull called, his footsteps pounding toward them at a rapid jog. “Did you hurt yourself?”

“N...no,” she shouted back in reply as she stared aghast down at the broken flute.

Ren flung the cord guiltily away so that it landed at her feet and crept back from her, his ears flattening as his tail tucked close to his body.

Katie looked over at him questioningly, but then the curtain was flung back and Kull rushed in, dragging her attention away from the younger male.

He grabbed her arms, dragging her toward him as he frantically looked her over, his gaze cutting worriedly toward Ren.

“What happened?” he demanded. “I thought I heard something break and...” and his words dropped off when his gaze fastened on the broken flute on the floor.

A garbled sound of anguish left him, and he pushed by her to drop to the ground, his claws frantically scraping up the pieces of the instrument.

He shuddered, and she understood the barely contained anger and grief for what it was.

.. loss. “What happened?” he repeated, a furious note in his voice.

“Kull, I...” Ren began.

Katie pushed forward. “It was my fault,” she said quickly, her eyes lowering.

She felt Ren’s gaze swing toward her in surprise, but she pointedly ignored it.

Although it had clearly been an accident, ultimately, it had been her responsibility.

Ren never would have had the cord if it weren’t for her yielding it to him.

In any case, he appeared torn up enough by what had happened.

She didn’t want to see a rift develop between the brothers due to a moment of carelessness.

“I had managed to get ahold of the cord, but I pulled too hard on it. I wasn’t expecting to fall back like I had,” she explained, glancing guiltily at the table.

Kull’s gaze shifted to the table, shock and grief dulling his eyes. He stared at it for a moment and then nodded as he collected up the pieces and stood. “I need some time,” he rasped, not even looking at her as he resolutely turned away and left the room.

Katie stared after him, caught between her desire to give him space and the desire to chase after him and make sure that he was okay. She bit her lip worriedly as Ren came up to her side, his head bowed so that the firelight danced over the ivory spikes of his developing horns.

“You did not have to take the blame for me,” he rasped.

She drew a deep breath and slowly expelled it.

“You are right. I didn’t have to do it, but there was no sense in making the situation worse since you hadn’t been sent to look for the cord.

There is no reason to punish you further than you are already punishing yourself for your recklessness,” she said quietly.

“Thank you,” he mumbled.

She nodded in acknowledgement but didn’t say anything further on the matter.

Instead, she uprighted the basket and began to clean up the things that had spilled out onto the floor when it had suddenly tipped over.

There, deep within the basket, she found what appeared to be the start of a carving that had been abandoned and forgotten.

A small segment had broken off—the part that the cord had obviously been caught on.

She brushed her fingers remorsefully over it and packed it back into the basket with everything else. She didn’t even hear Ren leave.

Once the mess was cleaned up and the long leather cord coiled up and set on top of what was left of the table, Katie sat on the edge of the bed and waited for Kull to return.

Time trickled slowly and eventually her eyes grew heavy and she began to smother yawns with her hand.

When it appeared that he wasn’t going to return anytime soon, she gathered a small pile of furs and pillows from the bed and deposited them on the floor.

As angry as he was, she was betting that he would want his space, and after everything that happened, it wouldn’t be fair if he was the one who ended up taking the floor to avoid sleeping beside her.

Arranging everything as comfortably as possible, she curled up on the floor, her eyes drifting closed.

She dozed fitfully, coming awake when Kull’s footsteps padded across the room.

She heard him stop in the middle of the room and felt his eyes on her.

He didn’t make a move for a long moment, but then, eventually, he made his way to bed and climbed into it.

She lay in the dark listening to him breathe and the soft shift of furs when he adjusted his position.

She squeezed her eyes shut, determined to go back to sleep when Kull suddenly sighed heavily and rose from the bed.

He paced towards her, and her heart sped up, uncertain of what he intended to do.

But then a small pile of furs fell to the floor beside her, and he dropped a pillow before lowering himself to the ground and squeezing onto the rug with her.

The rug was spacious for one person, but with two people lying on it—and one a very large VaDorok—there was little room to lie in any way that didn’t have them plastered together. Kull’s arms and tail curled around her, and he made a content sound deep in his throat, a purr rattling from him.

“Aren’t you mad?” she whispered.

“No,” he rumbled tiredly. “But regardless of your good intentions, it seems that I cannot sleep without you.”

She closed her eyes and smiled despite herself. She couldn’t sleep well without him either.