Page 5

Chapter

Five

A grel watched for the female as he went about his day.

He sometimes caught glimpses of her as the days passed since their first meeting, but he made no further attempts to approach her.

But he certainly watched her. He longed for the moments he caught a glimpse of her.

He recognized that his guarding instinct was already engaged.

That was what made him want to hover attentively nearby whenever she was walking through the town or in the overgrown fields.

He was as careful as possible to reduce his chances of being seen, but there were many times when she suddenly straightened, and her head turned his way, that he was almost certain that she knew he was there.

He did not care what Gehj said, he was certain that there was no male.

He had seen no signs of a male in the village or around her, not even from a distance.

There was certainly no one to stop him from perching on the roof and admiring the way the sunlight poured through her clothes, revealing the beautiful shadow of her female body beneath.

The roof briefly vibrated as Gehj dropped down and lowered himself into a crouch.

Agrel watched him from the corner of his eye and smirked as he observed the way his ahaku’s eyes narrowed with interest on the female.

The male’s wings trembled for but a moment before he wrenched his gaze away to pierce Agrel with an annoyed look.

“When you said that you were going hunting, this is not what I had in mind,” Gehj observed drily.

Agrel shrugged, unconcerned. “I did that, too. The meat is currently smoking. But I must admit that this hunt is far more interesting.”

Gehj sighed and sank down onto the roof beside him. “This is foolish. If she has a mate?—”

A derisive snort escaped Agrel. As much as he respected his ahaku, this was getting tiring. “What male? Have you seen any male since we arrived?”

“He could be in the woods,” Gehj protested, but he said it weakly, clearly not even believing it himself.

Agrel shook his head. “If he was in the woods hunting, he would have returned by now. He would not be absent so long that there is no trace of his presence. No male would be gone for so long unless he was?—”

“Dead. Or willingly abandoned them,” Gehj finished with a sigh.

Agrel gave a curt nod, his gaze sliding back to the female. She was all alone with her nestling, and that was aggressively triggering his instincts. He recognized that fact and made no effort to fight against it.

“Do you think a human male would truly abandon his mate and nestling?” he asked as he returned to studying her. “Would it not be more logical to assume that he is dead, and that is why he has not returned?”

He would prefer to believe that. The idea of an unknown male abandoning the female that captivated him oddly rankled, even though it still provided an opening for their claim. It pained him to think of them being hurt in such a way.

“They are not Atlavan,” Gehj unnecessarily reminded him. “We do not know how their males treat their mates. Even among our own species, it is not unheard of for a deviant male to abandon his nest. We cannot discount the possibility.”

Agrel’s heart sank, but he inclined his head in agreement. It was a possibility that they could not ignore. Not that it would change the outcome. If the male attempted to interfere, he would be dealt with in the harshest terms possible. And he was nothing if not an inventive male.

“It does not matter. We are here now,” he replied, pointedly ignoring his ahaku’s sigh.

“And if she does not want us?”

They would broach that problem when they arrived at it.

He was not going to think so pessimistically.

They still had time. His gaze drifted over the female and the field lazily, imagining what it might be like to gather food at her side.

Of course, the mountains would be far safer than the wretched village.

There would be no forest hiding murderous wildlife and plenty of space for a male to stretch out his wings.

His sharp gaze shifted as the tall, overgrown grass just behind her seemed to shift unnaturally.

The movement was slight, but not insignificant.

Something other than himself was hunting her.

Without a word, he stretched out his wings and launched himself from the roof, ignoring Gehj’s questioning coo.

The grass shifted again, and a hint of fur very briefly became visible before it was concealed once more.

Blood going cold, Agrel beat his wings faster, his entire body growing taut as he aligned his position with it.

He did not recognize the predator as one they had encountered, but it was a predator, nonetheless.

Folding his wings, he dropped silently from the sky, his claws lengthening into talons in preparation for the kill.

The stalks of grain whipped as he crashed down into them, his talons going for the creature stalking his female.

A shout rose from behind him, and he rose his wings defensively, reeling, as a woven basket came down on his head and back repeatedly.

“Get away from her!” the female shrieked.

Her? Flicking his wings to shake off his stupor, Agrel lifted his hands in front of him to demonstrate that he was unarmed.

“Do not be afraid. We mean you no harm,” he assured her. She immediately flinched and shrank away, her eyes going round with fear as they focused on his talons. What? Oh! He immediately dropped his hands and discreetly broke off the excess length. “There was a beast preparing to attack and I?—”

His words faded as the female picked up a small furry creature and cradled it in her arms.

“Y… you mean this?” She peered at him quizzically. “You thought you were saving me from a… kitten?”

He peered down at it as it stared at him with large, yellow eyes. Its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth opened and he tensed, ready to slap it aside if it attempted to tear flesh from the female holding it. Instead, it let out a soft mew, and he blinked down at it in surprise. It was… cute?

A very soft chuckle rolled over him, making his feathers fluff with pleasure.

His gaze lifted from the kitten curiously.

The female stared down at him, her hand pressed against her mouth, muffling her laughter.

Her eyes sparkled down at him from above her hand with open amusement, and his lips curled kindly in response.

“I take it that you do not require saving,” he observed with a trill of amusement of his own.

She shook her head, and she lowered her hand from her mouth, though an uncertain smile remained in place. “No, Nimh might be mischievous, but she is our pet. She wouldn’t actually hurt us.”

“Nimh,” he said slowly and cautiously extended one hand only to draw it back quickly when tiny needle-like claws extended from the kitten’s paw to swipe at his fingers. “Mischievous indeed,” he muttered, and to his delight, the female gave another quiet chuckle in response.

“Flexing her predatory instincts is part of her play, but she doesn’t mean any harm either,” she said as she bent and set the wiggling kitten back on the ground. Her fingers clenched together, betraying anxiety.

He nodded, his eyes dropping to the discarded basket and all the foodstuff that once again scattered everywhere because of him.

He grimaced as he heard the loud sound of Gehj’s beating wings as the male landed just behind him.

The female’s smile slipped, a look of wariness coming over her expression as her eyes bounced between them.

“Making a mess again, Agrel?”

He did not even bother to look back at his ahaku but smiled apologetically at the female in front of him instead.

“It seems that you have lost all of your foodstuff again,” he observed as he slowly knelt and began to gather it up.

“I apologize that I frightened you so much that you were willing to sacrifice it to beat me away.”

“I… I didn’t really think about it,” she admitted. “I was a bit surprised. And afraid you were going to eat her.”

“Eat her?” he echoed, his gaze trailing back toward the kitten that was busy chasing an insect through the grass. She was no larger than some animals that he had hunted and brought back to the village. “I can see how you might have misunderstood the situation.”

She shook her head, a look of exasperation on her face as her eyes followed the kitten for a moment. “I hadn’t planned for her to follow me out here, but I suppose she was getting tired of being cooped in the house, too.”

Too? His mind immediately went to the nestling, and he wondered if she was also being kept within the dwelling because of their presence there.

Guilt ate him, but he kept it to himself.

He did not want to make her wary of him again by expressing too much interest in her offspring too early.

Instead, he focused on picking up the spilled roots that she’d been busily pulling from the ground a short distance away.

His nose wrinkled as he held up one pitiful looking root and dangled it in the air by its stem.

“Surely this is not all you are going to eat?” Agrel asked as he peered at it with a measure of distaste. “Do you not eat meat?”

The little female’s shoulders slumped with defeat, frustration gathering in the small line between her brows. At this side, Gehj puffed up with annoyance, swiftly reacting to her obvious discomfort.

“Agrel,” he hissed. “It is rude to assume. She may not even eat meat.”

“Actually… I do,” she interrupted, her eyes flicking between them nervously.

“I just don’t have any. At least not after the chickens you killed.

I should thank you for that. We were able to eat well off the stew while it lasted.

But there is nothing left now. The forest is…

not safe. I wouldn’t dare to enter it to hunt, even if I knew how to set a basic snare. ”