Page 29 of The VaDorok’s Unexpected Mate (The Mate Index: Dorok #1)

Kull’s expression was serious as he wrapped Katie in another heavy fur. She grinned up at him, trying to relieve some of the worry she could see knotting his brow.

“Hey, stop looking like you’re marching me out to my death,” she teased. “We are just trying this hunting thing again.”

She sighed as his scowl deepened. Not only did her attempt to alleviate the tension not work, but it seemed to have made things worse.

Instead of relaxing, he looked around anxiously for yet another fur, picked it up, and wrapped that around her as well.

She moved her arms experimentally and sighed again.

“Kull, anymore furs, and I won’t be able to move at all. This is good... seriously.”

He paused in the midst of grabbing yet another fur and peered at her skeptically. She wiggled her arms at him to demonstrate and raised her eyebrows.

“See?”

To her relief, the tension on his face eased slightly, and he cracked a faint smile in response as he fussed with the outermost layer a bit. After what happened last time, she understood why he was worried, but this was nothing that they couldn’t meet head on and conquer. She was certain of that.

Setting a hand on his arm, she gave him an encouraging smile. “It’s going to be okay. We’ve got this. And look, if I start feeling too cold, I will let you know. Okay?”

A long, heavy sigh escaped the male, but he dipped his head in agreement. “Very well. I will put a couple of extra furs on the sled,” he muttered but then met her eyes sternly. “If you start feeling the least bit uncomfortable, you will tell me.”

Katie nodded and gave him her best Girl Scout salute. “Promise.”

His eyes dropped to her fingers and he peered at them with a perplexed stare.

She curled them meekly and offered him an embarrassed smile.

Right. As if he even knew what that was.

Way to make herself look silly. To her surprise, the corner of his mouth hitched in a small smile in response, and he nudged her gently with his arm as he picked up his lance with his other hand.

“Come on. We should not waste daylight.”

“Don’t I get something stabby?” she asked, eyeing the weapon hopefully.

Kull regarded her for a long moment and nodded.

He did not, however, fetch her another lance.

Instead, he removed a thick belt that held a singular large knife sheathed on it.

She gave it a critical look. That was all?

That didn’t have any reach at all. She gave it a disappointed look but froze when he suddenly leaned in close, his body curling intimately around her as he wrapped his arms around her waist and secured the belt in place.

“There,” he rumbled, straightening.

She poked the leather sheath with one finger and frowned. “What am I supposed to hunt with this?”

“You do not. For now, you are assisting me. All you need is a cutting tool.”

“Only assisting?” She gave her knife a morose look. “I thought you were taking me out to hunt.”

“I am,” he replied flatly. “But this is where you begin. You start by watching and assisting in the butchering and dispatching of the animals caught within the traps. Basic skills first. You need to understand how to kindly end an animal’s suffering, how to clean and butcher the meat, and many other skills long before you can begin to learn how to bring an animal down. ”

Katie made a face, but she supposed that it made sense. Although her first hunting trip out with Kull had been highly instructive in terms of tracking, she had to admit that there was probably more to it than aiming a weapon at her meal on four legs.

“Oh, alright,” she muttered, and she gave the knife a small pat. At least it was something.

Kull’s gaze swept over in a final inspection before he finally nodded as if satisfied.

He didn’t say anything. He merely walked out the door, his tail sweeping from side to side fluidly with his every step, with the expectation that she would follow him.

Her gaze fastened on his white tail. It was long and strong, and the tuft of fur at its end was not only voluminous but also looked incredibly soft to the touch.

It was as tempting to her as swinging a string of yarn in front of a cat.

Even without the promise of another opportunity to learn how to hunt, that twitching tail was alluring enough.

So much so that she caught herself following gamely after it before she even realized what she was doing.

Gleeful excitement bubbled within her as she jogged in little hops after him, her gaze tracking the swish of that delightful little tuft. She knew that she was hardly the image of a strong and capable hunter but at that moment she didn’t particularly care. She was just so damned... well... happy.

She paused for a moment as that realization settled within her.

She was actually happy. Not merely content with existing, nor gritting her teeth and working hard in anticipation of a better future.

She was ridiculously happy for no other reason than the fact that she was going out with Kull and that the sun was shining, making the snow sparkle all around them.

Granted, they were also going out to hunt small fur-bearing critters, but that just meant ending the day with a full stomach, so she couldn’t complain.

This was her world now. There was no corner market, but there was safety, wide open spaces, and there was Kull.

Kull glanced back at her over his shoulder, his steps slowing. “Is everything well, Katie?” he asked with a genuine note of concern in his voice.

She had no doubt that if she said “no” that he would turn their little hunting party of two right around and head directly back into the den.

He was so fiercely protective that way, and those thoughts were blatantly evident on his face as his eyes narrowed at her.

Despite his grumpy demeanor, his protectiveness gave her a soft, warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

“Everything is fine,” she assured him.

He gave her a skeptical look but nodded before trudging off ahead of her once more, this time, however, at a slower pace so that she could far more easily keep up.

Biting back a smile, she gripped the hilt of her blade and jogged over to his side.

She probably resembled a small, excitable, yappy breed of dog the way she was practically bouncing beside him, but surprisingly Kull didn’t seem to mind.

The longer her antics continued, the more often he glanced over at her and the softer his expression became as the corner of his mouth begrudgingly lifted.

“So, what is first?” she asked brightly.

Kull grunted and nodded toward a cluster of trees up ahead. “Last time you learned something about how we track our prey. I have set traps not too far from here. What has passed through this part of the forest?”

Crap. No one told her that there was going to be a pop quiz. She peered down at the snow, noting the small marks left by the passage of various wildlife. She located one that appeared to be shuffling in the direction Kull indicated, and she pointed at it.

“That one there. It’s too large to be from a burrah, and it appears to have a wider spacing of its legs, which suggests longer legs, but it is definitely heading in the direction of the trap.”

A smile of approval curled the corners of his lips, sending a thread of heat dipping low through her.

“Very good. It is an eschar. They stand about knee-high on an adult VaDorok,” he explained, gesturing, “and possess slender legs and delicately formed bodies from hoof to the nest of horns framing their heads, and very good eating. They inhabit these woods, migrating throughout the seasons. Although the print is distorted by the thick fur around its hooves, the tracks that they leave are quite distinctive.”

Great. It sounded cute. Like Bambi. Time to revisit childhood trauma.

Lips twisting in a grimace, she followed Kull toward the trap as he continued to point out certain things that she could look for to tell her more about the lay of the land and the local wildlife.

She attentively stopped and studied everything he pointed out to her until at last they arrived at the area where the trap was hidden.

A sudden movement among the trees just ahead of them caught her attention and, upon catching sight of the source of the disturbance, her heart dropped with dismay.

Katie dragged her feet reluctantly as she followed him over to where the small animal was trying to shake itself free of the trap.

Oh no. It was not just Bambi. It was as if Lisa Frank took a small deer with a bright pink, spotted pelt and big lavender eyes, and gave it the bright red mane and tail of a lion, and four delicate, ivory horns twisting in such a way that they framed its head.

It bleated softly and tossed its head at their approach, and her eyes immediately began to tear up while Kull dropped lower and began to stalk toward it.

What a crappy hunter she was turning out to be. But why couldn’t it be butt-ugly like a burrah. It just had to be cute.

“This is an eschar,” Kull rumbled as he gestured to it.

He glanced back at her with a pleased smile that immediately slipped from his face with an expression of concern.

“Katie? What is it? Are you too cold?” He shifted his weight and eased toward her, his hands going to the furs covering her and brisky rubbed her arms.

Her lower lip trembled despite her best efforts to control it, and she shook her head.

His brows dipped with confusion. “Then what is it?”

“It’s just... do we have to kill it?” she asked in a rush, allowing the words to explode from her in a rapid paced fire. “I get that we have to hunt so that we have food to eat and so that we have furs, leather, sinew, and bone for supplies. But—”

His brows lowered further. “But what?”

She winced. She was about to sound like the high queen of all idiots for saying this on a planet filled with aliens who had to hunt to survive.

“But—it’s so cute! Do we have to kill it?”

Kull stared at her, and his eyes shifted back toward the eschar before turning back to her without a thoughtful expression. “The durwa,” he rumbled with a grimace.

Katie gave him a confused look. What did Gremlin have to do with anything?

He sighed heavily and then laughed, the sound rumbling out of him in a rich sound as he covered his eyes with one hand. “I suddenly understand very well what Ren went through when it came to his prank with the durwa. Your heart is soft.”

She frowned at him. “Just because I don’t want to kill something that looks perfectly cute and huggable?”

“An eschar is an omnivore that will tear your flesh from your bones quicker than most predators due to its incredible agility,” he pointed out in such a deadpan voice that she couldn’t help but believe him.

“Seriously?” she squawked, and he nodded grimly.

She stared at the little beast as it regarded her with large, velvety eyes.

Suddenly it opened its mouth in the most horrifying shriek she ever heard, baring numerous shark-like teeth that had her stumbling a couple steps back from shock.

Holy deceptions Batman! She gaped at it as it thrashed more violently, its shrieking rising to ear-piercing levels.

“On second thought, have it,” she said, backing away.

Kull gave her a knowing smile, but that smile of his only grew with increased satisfaction when later that night she was tucked into her meal, enjoying every bite of the unholy menace of a beast.

It appeared that even more was not as it seemed on Dorok, and she couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Nearly destroyed by fantasy fluff Bambi. Damn.