by Leann Ryans
Chuckling, Lyric curled into Raider’s chest, imagining some small child roaring at a bear as she drifted off to sleep.
23. Lyric
Lyric woke to Raider’s voice booming outside the tent.
“Show yourself Andtay, I know you’re there.”
Worry creeping in, Lyric pushed herself up, wincing at the lingering pain in her shoulder. It wasn’t as bad as it had been during the night, but it was worse than it had been before the infection set in. Standing, she spotted her shirt. Raider had pulled it off to treat her wound, and she’d never even thought to be embarrassed at being topless before him.
Shrugging off the useless concern, Lyric slipped the shirt on before struggling into her coat. Still unable to get her boots on with only one hand, she took them with her as she peeked from the tent. Seeing Raider standing between her and the fire, facing into the trees to the south, the way his pants clung to the muscles of his legs and ass momentarily distracted her.
Movement from the trees in the direction he faced drew her gaze away from his tight buttocks to a smaller man sliding down from a pine and striding towards them. By his stature she would guess he was a beta, or perhaps an adolescent Alpha who hadn’t come into his growth yet. With him being downwind of her and the trees casting dancing shadows across his face, she wasn’t able to catch his scent or guess his age. The confident swagger could be an Alpha’s ego or youth’s false bravado.
Not wanting to catch the man’s eye or distract Raider, Lyric remained at the opening of the tent, crouching down where she would be less likely to draw attention. There could be many reasons for one of the Andtay to be checking on them since they were still in their territory, but Raider’s concerns about betrayal were creeping through her mind.
“What are you doing out here alone? Shouldn’t you be with your wagons?” the man called as he moved closer.
With legs braced wide, Raider’s arms crossed over his chest as he replied.
“Just trying to get home. The wagons are slow, so I went ahead to be sure the way was clear.”
Stopping on the other side of the fire, the man was close enough for Lyric to see his eyes narrow.
“The wagons are south of here heading due west. They won’t be passing this way.”
“I came this way to scout a path in case the southern one was unusable. We weren’t sure how bad the snow would be.”
Raider continued to stare at the man who hooked his thumbs over his belt, taking on a casual stance. Lyric could feel the tension rolling from Raider’s back and it surprised her that the man could bear the weight of his attention.
Glancing around the makeshift camp, Lyric gasped and jerked backwards into the tent when the Andtay’s eyes locked on hers. Heart fluttering in her throat, she couldn’t hear anything outside of her own panicked breaths for a moment.
Risking a glance back towards the men outside, Lyric was caught in the Andtay’s gaze, a lopsided grin splitting his face.
“So that’s the reason you’re out here alone,” the man drawled, attempting to walk around the fire towards the tent.
Raider’s low growl was clearly audible, and the man stopped, though he lifted his nose in the air, attempting to catch her scent. With the wind blowing in his direction, it didn’t take long for him to notice Lyric’s sweet smell.
“Mmm… An omega too! I don’t blame you for wanting to have her all to yourself.”
Turning his attention back to Raider, he tried to move closer again but Raider’s hands dropping to the belt where his knife hung caused him to stop.
“Did you steal her from your clan? Are you trying to get away with her? I might know a nice spot where you could hole up if you were willing to share. We are allies after all,” he said with a lecherous grin as his eyes slid back to Lyric.
He couldn’t see more than her head sticking out from the tent, but Lyric felt like she had been stripped bare and smeared in grease. Shivering, she wrapped her good arm around her chest as her stomach squirmed inside her.
“I did not steal her, she is mine. I am taking her home.”
The man’s eyes darted from her to Raider as he licked his lips, nostrils still flaring. She was sure he could scent the stench of her fear even from where he was. Raider continued to hold his ground, showing no sign that he was even aware of her behind him.
“Then consider it payment for letting you pass through our land unscathed. It won’t take long, and I promise not to damage her.”
Hands twitching at his sides, the man once again began to sidestep around the fire towards the tent while staying as far from Raider as he could. Raider’s snarl jerked his attention back to him as he bared his teeth in a growl of his own.
“I could simply kill you now and take her for myself. All I’m asking for is an hour,” the man growled.
Raider moved, putting himself between the Andtay and where Lyric hid in the tent, his deeper growl resonating between the trees.
“You’ll have to kill me if you think you’re going to touch my mate. Then you will have to pray to the Gods that Verik doesn’t find out you broke the treaty and brought war upon his people.”
Bouncing his weight from one foot to the other, the man’s eyes narrowed as he studied Raider.
“No one will ever know, and if they did, they wouldn’t care. You’re nobody. Probably a thief to your own clan.”
“You think no one would notice when you come back with the mate of the leader of Tayueta? I’m Raider you fool. Leave now while I’m still willing to let you,” Raider growled between clenched teeth.
Where the other man seemed to be a ball of nervous energy, Raider was a pillar of calm. The deadly predator camouflaged behind the mask of civility he chose to show. Muscles coiled and poised to strike, he waited for the other man to make his move, Lyric knowing there was no way Raider would let him get away now.
The Andtay’s obvious inexperience was his downfall. Body tensing and teeth bared, his choice was broadcast to anyone who could see him.
It happened so fast, he was dropping to the ground in a spray of crimson between one heartbeat and the next. Raider stood over him as he twitched on the forest floor, fingers scrabbling in the dirt as his blood poured from the grin cut into his neck.
Eyes catching Lyric’s before they glazed over, staring at what he had tried to take, his brief life ended at Raider’s hands. It left lyric with her mouth hanging open in a soundless scream as visions of her father’s murder played before her eyes.
Dragging her gaze up Raider’s red-splattered body, his stern glare was the last thing she saw before darkness swallowed her whole.
24. Raider
Rushing to Lyric’s side, Raider began to reach for her before noticing the gore covering his hand. Torn between wanting to help her and needing to clean himself first, he let out a frustrated growl before stomping a few feet away where there was snow on the ground.
Pulling his shirt off, he wiped the worst of the blood from his skin with it before tossing it under a nearby tree. Taking handfuls of snow, he scrubbed himself, ignoring the tendrils of cold snaking across his skin. Cleaning his face and chest as well as his arms and hands, he did what he could to clean splatters from his pants. Without a change of clothing or a place to bathe, this was the best he could manage.
Hurrying back to Lyric, he lifted her into his arms, careful of her shoulder as he took her back into the tent and laid her on the furs. Her breathing and color were even, and she felt much cooler than she had the day before, so he figured she must have passed out at the sight of the blood. He hated that she had seen it happen, but he would not leave a threat free to follow them and try to attack when he was unprepared.
Noticing her boots, he eased them onto her feet and laced them before pulling on his coat. Without an extra shirt, it was all he had now, and was glad he hadn’t been wearing it when he had left the tent to stir up the fire and relieve himself.
Going outside again, he grimaced at the body. He didn’t want Lyric to see i
t like that, so he couldn’t just leave it sprawled there. Kicking dirt and snow over the puddle of blood to hide it, he grabbed the man’s feet and pulled him away from the camp.
Raider wasn’t sure how the Andtay handled their dead, and in winter with the ground frozen and no time, there wasn’t much he could do for the man even if he had wanted to. Kicking the drag marks away as he walked back to the fire, Raider collected his things before smothering it with a lump of snow.
Moving into the tent, he gently shook Lyric, tapping her cheek to bring her around. Raider didn’t want to waste any more time getting to his land and warriors.
“Lyric, I need you to wake up. We have to get moving,” he said as her eyes began to flutter.
Confusion filled her gaze as she looked up at him before glancing around the tent. Helping her sit up, she rubbed her head before looking back at him. Keeping a straight face, he wasn’t going to give anything away without a direct question, and she seemed hesitant to ask.
Trying to pretend like nothing had happened, Raider began to pack everything away in the saddle bags he had emptied and dried during the night. Standing, he held out a hand to Lyric and pulled her to her feet.
Leading her to the side of his horse, he saddled him before lifting her to his back.
“Drink this,” he said, passing Lyric the bottle of water that he had already mixed her medicine into.
Taking down the tent, he kept one eye on her as he finished putting everything away. The look on her face at the first swallow made him chuckle to himself. He had been forced to take that medicine with water before and knew how bitter and awful it tasted, and the berries he had found half frozen nearby and tried to squeeze into the bottle apparently hadn’t helped hide the flavor.
She passed the bottle back to him once he swung up behind her, having finished it.
“I’ll go a bit slower, but I’m hoping to get to the meeting point before noon,” he told her as Raider pointed his horse in the right direction and urged him into motion.
A trot was rougher than the gallop they had ridden at yesterday, so he was forced to keep his horse to a brisk walk, which the horse probably appreciated. Trying not to be impatient, he watched for the signs that they had crossed over into his territory, breathing a sigh of relief when the trees began to thin.
Edging along the plains that made up the southern part of his land, he kept inside the tree line to help cut down on the wind he knew blew across the flat land until he could see the lake where his men should be waiting for him.
Turning to cross the field, the wind hit them as soon as they passed the last of the trees. His horse slowed, bogged down in the snow that was even deeper here than it had been in the Andtay land.
Hunching his body to shield Lyric as much as he could, he felt her press back against his chest, turning her head into his neck. Though the wound had been far less swollen and hot when he had dressed it early that morning, he worried that she would fall sick again if she was exposed for too long.
Reaching into his pack, he pulled out one of the fur blankets and wrapped it around her, tucking it under her legs as far down as he could reach before pulling it up over her head.
“Just stay in there while we cross the plains. We’ll be out of the wind before too long,” he said to her.
The howl of the wind forced him to yell to be able to hear himself.
Lyric remained cocooned against his chest, though he would occasionally notice her wiggling her legs and feet. He could feel the biting wind through his own pants and was happy when they finally pushed into the scant trees around the lake. Though they weren’t as dense as the forest they had just left, there were enough to cut back the wind, and he felt Lyric’s body relax against his before she pulled down the top edge of the fur to peek out.
Gasping, she stared out at the frozen lake they rode next to. While it was shallow and froze solid each winter, the lake had never dried up, and was an important part of his territory. He remembered many hunting trips camping alongside this lake, and it was one of his favorite places.
Heading towards an alcove on the side of the lake, a grin split his face as one of his Nicaavet came bounding towards them. When laying still, they blended in perfectly with the ground between the trees, but it was impossible to miss something so large running towards them.
Lyric’s little jerk when she noticed the animal a minute later made him chuckle as he held out his hand to it. Snuffling first his fingers, and then their legs, it went back to bounding around the horse in its excitement to see him, making little chirrups.
Shaking his head, he whistled a command to it, and it headed off in the direction they were going, stopping and looking back every few bounds to be sure they were still following.
25. Lyric
Did it really happen?
When Raider had taken her from the tent, she had almost been too scared to look at the spot she thought she had watched a man bleed to death, but as she sat on the horse’s back waiting on him, the need to know had grown too strong. Dirt and snow were the only things that had met her questioning gaze, but the scent of copper in the air warred with what she could see.
The dirt had looked disturbed, but not enough for her to say that it had been turned to hide blood. The copper scent could be from some animal Raider had caught to eat, yet she knew he was experienced enough to not have something like that near camp where it could draw scavengers, and the meat he had given her to eat was more of the dried sticks he had fed her before.
Lost in her thoughts, questioning her memory and senses, Lyric hadn’t noticed most of the ride until they left the cover of the trees and the sharp wind bit into every inch of exposed skin. Worming its way through her clothing, it left trails of goosebumps along her body. Shivering, she had tucked herself as close to Raider and the horse as she could, glad when he pulled out a blanket to wrap her in.
Breathing in his earthy musk as it curled around her in the warm pocket he created, Lyric let her mind go blank. In the dark space behind the blanket, she listened to Raider’s heart as she rested her head against his chest.
So what if he had killed a man over her? He had killed or been complicit in the death of almost all of them men in her village, what was one more?
But the man she had watched him murder had threatened them. Had wanted to use her. If Raider hadn’t killed him, he could have followed them or found a way to stop Raider and take what he wanted.
Letting out a shuddering sigh, she squeezed her eyes shut and focused on breathing. Her shoulder was aching again, though she didn’t feel the wave of heat signifying a fever this time. When the chill of the wind whipping by them lessened, she relaxed from her shivering huddle and raised her eyes above the edge of the blanket.
The sight of the frozen lake before her caused her to gasp. Though there was a river next to her village, only the very edges ever froze, and she had never seen such a great expanse of ice. The sight mesmerized her until motion at the corner of her eye caught her attention.
Jerking in surprise, Lyric had almost forgotten about the giant predators that Raider kept as pets before she recognized the one running up to them as they followed the edge of the lake. Watching its antics, she felt a small smile pull at her lips.
Knowing Raider’s warriors and the other omegas had to be nearby, Lyric straightened in the saddle, settling the fur over her legs as she wiggled her toes in her boots to get feeling back before she was forced to use them to walk. Feeling more alert than she had since the morning before, she studied the area around them as they followed the Nicaavet.
“Does this lake have a name?”
“Fratine. This is where the young men of my clan learn to hunt. There are ruins on the edge of the lake up ahead from a great castle that my ancestors lived in. Back before the world changed. I’ve spent many summers on the edge of this lake,” Raider said, a wistful note in his voice as his head turned to take in the expanse of frozen water. “This is one of my favorite places in the spring and early
summer, when the plains’ flowers bloom, and the herds gather.”
Eyebrows raised, Lyric turned to look up at Raider’s face. That and the night before were the first time he had shared something personal with her, and she couldn’t help the spike of warmth that bloomed in her chest. She was beginning to think the rough, uncaring exterior he presented hid a softer inner core. One that she was growing attached to at an alarming rate.
Smirk pulling at the corner of her lips, she decided that she would crack his shell and expose the inner fluff he held so tightly in check. When he looked down at her, his confused expression made her let out a chuckle as she turned back around to watch for the others. He had no idea what was going to happen to him.
As they crested a small hill, she looked down into an area that looked as if some giant mythical monster had taken a bite out of the lakeshore and left a crescent shaped dip that was hidden from view unless you were right on top of it. The lake came up into the west side, and the castle ruins he spoke of framed the north edge, but there was still enough space for more than the two tents pitched in the space between the water’s edge and the dirt wall protecting the other two sides.
Dismounting, Raider led the horse on foot along a barely discernable path curling down the wall until they reached the bottom. Even mounted she couldn’t see out of the little hollow they were in, and the walls protected this area from the bitter wind.
