Page 23 of The VaDorok’s Unexpected Mate (The Mate Index: Dorok #1)

“Fuck! It’s colder than a witch’s tit in a brass brazier out here,” Katie complained as she huddled deeper into her fur cloak.

Kull’s words about being easily frozen were now coming home to haunt her.

They had been out for hours so that she could learn how to check and set traps as they moved around the woods.

She trudged after him, hunkering miserably into her furs as she traipsed through the snow, one hour bleeding into another.

All the while, Kull filled the minutes in between trap locations, pointing out various things to watch for when traveling across the frozen landscape.

She appreciated the effort, even if it was getting harder and harder for her to focus on what he was saying the longer that they were out there.

She slapped her hands on her thighs as she attempted to warm them.

Parts of her were either tingling sharply or starting to feel like blocks of ice.

Though Kull gave her an amused look from where he was crouched over a set of tracks in the snow, it was Ren’s expression that made her bite back a laugh. He clearly didn’t seem to know whether to be confused or disgusted by her expression.

“What’s wrong, Ren? Does the word ‘tit’ bother you?” she sang out innocently.

He gave her a disgusted look and edged away from her. “You do realize that you are crazy, right?”

“Takes one to know one,” she fired back, gleefully releasing her inner juvenile.

It felt amazingly freeing just to be completely ridiculous for a change, especially if it got under Ren’s skin when he’d been doing his damnedest to make every mile through the snow completely miserable for her.

First, he mocked her for how slow she was, and then he poked fun at her difficulty moving with all the furs that she needed to keep warm and the way she seemed to just sink in the snow.

The fact that she needed frequent breaks to catch a breather also didn’t go uncommented on.

And although Kull hadn’t let him just get away with his little quips, being able to unload right back at him was immensely satisfying after so many months of not being able to talk back to her abusers in the lab.

Not that Kull tolerated that for very long from her, either.

Still, taking a potshot when she could was making her feel a little better despite the blistering cold.

Ren’s lips peeled back from his teeth in annoyance but quickly pressed back together when Kull looked over at him sharply. Kull’s gaze shifted to her and back again, his brow beetling.

“Are you two finished? Your arguing is going to scare all the game away.”

Despite his surly words, Katie noted that he didn’t seem to be too put out.

In fact, the male appeared more relaxed than she recalled ever seeing him.

She probably would have appreciated that fact, and found a way to milk his present pleasantness for all it was worth, if she hadn’t felt like her extremities were about to fall off.

Now she had a much clearer understanding of what Kull had said about the cold.

It was a lot different from when he was carrying her snugly against his warm body.

Sighing heavily, she squinted at the tracks in the snow as she tottered awkwardly to his side.

She wished it were just a few degrees warmer so that she could shed a layer or two.

As it stood, the thick furs were going to be the death of her.

She was going to end up tipping into a snowdrift and be incapable of saving her own skin.

She suddenly very much missed Kull’s den.

At least there were warm fires kept burning throughout the day so that the rooms were toasty warm for her comfort. Wasn’t a little cabin fever worth that?

Kull’s gaze shifted to her face as she took her place beside him, his eyes narrowing slightly as he scrutinized her.

“Why is your flesh that funny color? Are you warm enough?”

“Just peachy,” she replied weakly, grateful that at least her teeth had stopped chattering roughly twenty minutes ago when the last of her shivers subsided. Instead, she felt so very, very tired. And miserable.“It’s such a... lovely... day.”

He nodded, a faint smile hitching at the corners of his mouth. “It is. I knew that you would appreciate it since it has finally warmed up a little.”

Katie stared at him, her brain going deathly silent as it stuttered in horror, altogether failing to compute the words coming out of his mouth. “Did... did you say that it has warmed up?”

Ren smirked nastily and leaned on his spear-thingy. “That is correct. The weather is finally shifting over to the warm season. If you are too hot, I can carry some of those furs for you,” he offered in an overly sweet voice that made her clutch her furs to her suspiciously.

Over her dead body. Which it would most definitely be if he took even a single fur. She would freeze right on the spot into a human ice cube.

She feigned a smile as she mentally pictured several different ways in which she might be able to successfully murder the brat.

“That’s okay. I think I will just keep them with me.

” She nodded pointedly at the tracks in an attempt to divert his awfulness away from her. “What are we looking at here?”

Ren scoffed but Kull leveled him with a quelling look that immediately silenced the younger male.

Her hero. Although she was frequently forced into battles of will with Kull, she had to admit the way he knocked Ren down a peg or three when he was being intentionally obnoxious toward her was highly admirable, not to mention enjoyable.

It was too bad she hadn’t been able to watch him tear apart a few more Agraak when he rescued her.

It probably would have gone a long way to curb her own hostility if she could have enjoyed seeing her vengeance being carried out.

It didn’t seem right that she didn’t get to see more of them taken out. She felt a bit cheated.

“Do not mock Katie, Ren,” he rumbled. “It is only natural that she doesn’t recognize the tracks that the animals on Dorok leave.

Everything I am teaching her are things I had to patiently teach you as well.

As an off-worlder, she has no context about how to survive here. It is our duty to teach her.”

“You mean that Chief Borax decided it was your duty to teach her, and you were not given a choice in the matter, so of course you pleasure-mated with her,” Ren replied in a sulky voice. “What else can he do with a bunch of useless females?”

He yelped suddenly when Kull rose and grabbed him by one of his more prominent horns and dragged him back down so that he was crouched awkwardly in the snow beside him.

“The gods did not give you a tongue with which to speak in order to say such things,” he growled.

“You owe Katie an apology, and you owe Borax your support and loyalty. Though we all have our own territories, our survival is a weight on our chief’s shoulders.

And that includes the survival of these females.

They did not ask to be here. Borax is correct that we should help them survive.

It is not something meaningless for which you have a right to complain.

For all that this is difficult for her, Katie is out here doing it. Support her or be silent.”

Katie smiled as warmth settled within her chest and spread.

“Besides, it is not like I do not have to bite back my own complaints from time to time to do what is compassionate and necessary. It would not kill you to do the same.”

And the happy feelings deserted her. She was absolutely going to go cuddle with Gremlin and find the biggest chunk of leather to feed to little monster when she got back.

She scoffed silently to herself. It would serve him right.

Bite back his own complaints, indeed. It wasn’t like she didn’t have plenty that she could complain about.

Being nearly frozen to death while dragged across the forest was currently at the top of her list.

Kull glanced over at her and released Ren’s horn, leaving the younger male to rub the tender flesh around its base, as he reached for Katie and drew her close to his side.

As close as he was, his warmth immediately surrounded her.

She swallowed back a moan of pleasure, recognizing that it wouldn’t be the most appropriate reaction.

But fuck, it was good. Her eyes began to drift shut, and she came dangerously close to missing it when Kull gestured to the tracks in front of them.

She frowned a little at it, noting the three prominent forward-facing toes and a fourth that came out from the side almost like a thumb. It kind of resembled a print that a deformed, mutant racoon might leave behind.

“Ren, inform Katie as to what animal makes this track.”

With considerable effort, she pushed back the drowsiness that had invaded her and fought to focus on the tracks.

On the other side of Kull, Ren peered down at the tracks.

“It is a burrah track,” he replied dutifully.

“Adult male. They have longer claws on their forepaws than the females do, and longer, thicker tails that tend to drag more in the snow,” he said, pointing to the faint line that followed the path of the tracks. ”

Katie blinked at it foggily. Since when had everything seemed to slow down in her brain?

She blinked again and tried to focus despite her mind’s refusal to do much more than drift against the background of Ren’s droning voice.

Burrah. She remembered Ren saying that before.

They had burrah for dinner, and it was so good.

She hoped that the one that left the trail would be fat and juicy.

She licked her lips and winced at the way they stung.

He blew out all of his pent-in breath in annoyance. “This is pointless. Look at her. She’s not listening, and she’s beginning to turn blue. That cannot be the right color for her species,” he pointed out.

I am? Katie lifted a hand clad in one of the ugly mittens she’d managed to piece together and touched it cautiously to her lips. She couldn’t feel her lips.

“Katie?” Kull rumbled, and suddenly his big face was in front of her, his eyes searching her face with concern. “Ren is right. You do not look well,” he said. “How do you feel?”

She gave a weak little laugh. “I don’t think I can feel my skin. Can you check and make sure it’s still attached?”

His eyes widened, and a displeased growl escaped him as he whipped his hand up and placed it against her cheek. Hot! It was too hot! She winced and jerked away clumsily from the scorching touch.

“You are frozen! Why did you not say that you were so cold?” he demanded with an angry snarl.

She instinctively shrank into her fur and whimpered as the heat of her fur scored her cheek painfully with its light touch. “I was trying to keep up,” she mumbled but was promptly silenced when he swept her into his arms and pressed her firmly into the heat of his chest.

“Ren grab the string of burrah. We are going back to the den before she freezes to death. Little fool,” he snarled.

Around his arm, she could see Ren staring at her wide-eyed as he quickly nodded. For once there were no smirks or nasty comments. He merely did as he was told as Kull spun around and jogged through the woods, his heat wrapping around her in a tight blanket that drew her into slumber.

“Do not sleep,” he growled. “You are too cold to sleep. Stay with me. We will be back at the den soon.”

She nodded weakly and struggled to focus on his words. Every time she began to nod off, he shook her awake, his voice rising in demanding questions barked at her, forcing her to respond and remain lucid.

It occurred to her as the shadow of the den loomed just ahead of them that if the Agraak had really wanted to torture any of them, all they would have had to do was shove them into the snow for a while until they were half frozen and then pull them out.

She never knew such misery as what he was forcing her to stay awake for.

As the numbness receded, she cried, scorching tears running down her face, as Kull’s body heat began to thaw her flesh, sending sharp blades of pain through her skin and deep into her muscles.

It wasn’t until she was wrapped firmly in several furs, and the fire was stoked high that Kull finally allowed her to drift to sleep, his admonishments filling her ears.

“Little fool female, what am I going to do with you?”