Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 71832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
The urge to scream grows.
"Oh?" I manage casually. "I was just about to go hunting for some herbs."
"Indeed. He says he has a gift for you?" Her eyes are full of interest.
I ignore her curiosity. "I'll make sure and squeeze him into my schedule. I'm busy at the moment."
Before she can ask me anything else, I turn and power-walk-slash-run back to the hut I share with Dawn. I grab my bag and a digging stick, and head out, skirting far around the main part of the settlement and moving to the far side of the beach, where I can take one of the many steep, winding paths up to the hills.
As I do, I run into Steph and Harlow, their children clustered around them. "We were just going herb hunting," Steph says, showing off a digging stick that matches mine. "Are you doing the same? We could always use another set of hands."
I'm trapped. Trapped all around. I grit my teeth and smile brightly. "Herb hunting is exactly what I was going to do."
CHAPTER 6
VALMIR
If April's challenge is meant to be difficult, she's going to have to try harder.
Finding an animal isn't all that difficult. I talk to some of the hunters, asking where they have last seen tracks. Vordis mentions that he has had a snow-cat robbing his traps in one particular valley, and so I head in that direction. The moment I do, I smell the dung-stink of a den and see tracks of a smaller creature all over the snow. Perfect, and the sooner I get this done, the better.
I return to the beach encampment later that day with the animal den on my mind. I've set my traps in front of it. Once I catch a creature, I'll have to skin it carefully to get April the perfect hide she's demanding. For now, I'm going to let her know that I should have her prize tomorrow, if my traps are fruitful.
Just thinking about her reaction fills me with intense pleasure. Her eyes will light up once she sees how committed I am to doing this for her. She will cling to my arm like O'jek's chatty mate does to his, and bat her eyes at me with wonder.
Then she will feed me, just as she promised.
I daydream of April feeding me choice tidbits of dinner with her fingers. My cock grows hard at the thought, and I wonder if she will let me mark the front of her hut again. She watched me while I did so last night, and today, the scent of my seed on her hut's entrance almost made the ache of unfulfilled resonance bearable.
Almost.
I would still rather be upon her, filling her body with my seed and claiming her as my own, but I'll take an exclusive, special dinner with her.
Triumphant and full of plans, I saunter back into camp. I look to the main fire but do not see April's form. The scents of people in camp are intermingled, and her aroma is harder to pick out. A praxiian's senses are elite, however, and I eventually lock in on her. She is not near the others and has not been all day if my nose is correct. Interesting. April is normally very sociable with the others. Is she sulking? She did not strike me as the type to pout, but perhaps resonance is affecting her harder than she likes.
I know it has been on my mind ever since my khui began to sing. It's impossible to not think about. I was unable to sleep, panting and desperate for the feel of my body's chosen mate. The fact that I ended up bunking near the cock-withering Jason, Kyth, and Chalath is the only reason I wasn't hard all night.
Following April's scent trail, I head toward the beach and to the cluster of newer huts. April and Dawn's is amid several others, built haphazardly on a small clearing of ground without a thought to privacy. I would do it differently, I think as I approach. Build somewhere quieter. Somewhere with fewer scents. Somewhere where you are not in the midst of everything.
As I approach her hut, my khui begins its steady thrumming, and pleasurable heat floods through my body. I fight back a groan, because all I wanted to do was tell her that I have nearly completed her first task, but now I am thinking of other things. Things like touching her. Things like running my muzzle over her soft skin and tasting her scent with my tongue. Things like marking her door again. The scent of yesterday's mark is still heavy in the air, and it fills me with a sense of pride. No one with a nose could ever mistake her as anyone else's. She is mine, evidenced by the aroma of my claim dried all over the portal to her home.