Page 81 of Ravenous

She rolled to her side, guiding his arm around her. “Then kiss my nape and mate me softly, my love. Afterward, as I drift off for a nap, whisper in my ear that you can’t live without me.”

So Torben did.

Chapter 33Lia

Uh, where’s my guard?She eased the cave flap aside and scanned the ledge.

Tonight everyone had gone to the feast. Well, everyone except her and the lone sentry assigned to Arctos’s den. She’d even rehearsed a casual greeting about the weather to try to get him to talk.

The ledge was empty. He must be using the facilities.

Laughter drifted up from the court, bright and communal, so unlike the cruel humor the vampires loved: the barbs that always claimed a victim.

Was Arctos’s laugh woven in? She ached with the realization that she would never be one of them.

At least I’m consistent.

Tonight the clan welcomed the migratory arrival of the water nymphs, females who could morph with any body of water. Arctos would rendezvous with one of them in particular, Undara.

The winds had grown unusually still. The moon—full just yesterday—blazed in the cloudless sky. Warmer days had melted away all the snow, but Arctos had told her it would soon come in buckets, cocooning them in like hibernating bears until the spring melt.

Wait. Was that her guard on the other side of the ravine? He’d wandered from his post to meet with a female!

Lia gave a bitter laugh.I’m the only one alone tonight.Even the sentry hadplans.

Moonlight sketched the kissing couple—his hand sliding into the woman’s trousers, her hips undulating for more. He was only too happy to comply, cupping between her thighs and rocking her on his hand.

Would Arctos kiss his nymph like that and fondle her sex?

Lia’s chest twisted. Not jealousy, exactly. Just comprehension: the shieldchief’s public affair would confirm to everyone that she didn’t matter here.

Earlier today, she and Arctos had stood on the peak as they often did, the Skein unfolding beneath them. In just a few short weeks, she’d become a different person from the first time she’d surveyed the territory.

Food tasted better. Now that her sense of smell had returned, she didn’t need as much seasoning. Delicious meals shared with Arctos fortified her. Muscles took shape. Her sword no longer felt like an absurdity.

And still he’d left her to meet another.

She told herself she’d imagined his pause at the door, the searching intensity in his gaze as he’d glanced back.

She must have. Because when the time came, he’d turned without a word and departed.

Stung, she’d stared after him for what felt like hours as her thoughts raced. She must’ve imagined other things as well…the new respect in his eyes during training…the moments at meals when tension slipped from his shoulders…

I’m no better thanCo?tin, lying to myself about what someone feels.

Umber called to her: land of outcasts, where a gentle scholar might collect words instead of weapons and kiss her sweetly, where vampires might favor bread over blood.

I’m an outcast; I belong in the land of them.

Besides, if she stayed here, Co?tin would eventually come for her. He’d steal her back and kill her “husband.” By freeing herself from Ravinelun, Lia would free Arctos.

Everyone wins, she told herself.Or at least survives.

The wind was still tonight; she already scented the river, could follow that thread through the maze, finding her way. The sentry remained entangled.

Now is the time.

Lia packed in haste—clothes, food, a loaf of bread—and drew on her coat. Sword at her hip, she slipped from the cave.