Page 119 of Citrine

I turn to Ree. "Was he just laughing at us?"

She smiles. "Definitely."

"Huh. Well, okay, I earned it by ending up with such acare-chimba."

We both crack up again.

A thread of anxiety breaks through the stress induced merriment. "I didn't tell him what Thivoll said."

She wipes away some tears. "Was there really a need? Isn't that what Wroahk would do if someone harmed you?"

Valid point. "I like how you think, Ree."

She smiles at me and then we both turn to help poor Rannek settle in.

52

Wroahk

The orange male swims faster without his human and I am sure to follow the agreement by chasing away Many Teeth. He doesn't take the same route as our previous crossing. Possibly to confuse me so I don't know where to find his hiding spot.

Not that I would ever try to follow, but I'm glad I have been threatening enough that he takes the effort. The best defense is the threat of violence.

After he leaves the water, I have a moment of anger that I can't just return to Eli. Then I think about how glorious she was in her anger today. I didn't like anything she made me agree to, but my mating tentacles are all wrapped up in excitement at the memory.

Just thinking about her turning to me with that fierce look on her face when I was scaring that worthlessfriendmakes them pulse.

Making her threaten me is a glorious feeling, just like I get when I make a difficult kill. But I think I have figured out something very important. She talks in her own words of making adeal, but how this really works is the more things I do that she wants, the more likely it is she will always touch me.

I also know I can't tell her I know this, or she will probably stop yelling at me. I gag when I think of her talking to me like she did that purple coward in the tree. It makes my tentacles wilt, and I thrust the thought of it violently out of my mind.

No. I need to be strategic.

Pondering how best to go about it helps me get through the annoyance of waiting.

I also have more time to think over what Eli said about how herfriendshave been killing the enemy. At first, it caused a surge of jealousy, then I remembered how effortlessly he killed the Many Teeth.

With nothing to do but wait, I think of what Eli keeps saying about thiscommunityshe wants and how it's important to her that it's a form of protection. Now I see the other side of it. There are many more of the enemy out there, and with thiscommunitycomes others, like Thivoll, who will help me kill them.

He isn't trying to take my prey. There are too many out there for me to kill while also protecting Eli. Or someone needs to protect her so I can kill them.

I was prepared to protect thiscommunityjust to make Eli happy, but now I'm excited for my own reasons.

When the large male returns with a silver shell just like the one Elis was in, I see another female inside. He is already protecting more than one human. He will probably protect Eli, too, and while part of me wants to rip him to pieces instead of letting him have my territory, the other part finally understands what she has been trying to tell me.

I don't always have to be watching and protecting if someone else is there to do it with me.

With this thought in mind, it doesn't make me angry when the male is slower in the water as he moves the sleeping female. Halfway across, I even reach out two tentacles and help steady the silver shell, then steadily take more of the weight.

When he rumbles something I can't understand, I somehow know he's pleased, and it feels… good.

Not as good askindtouch, but similar.

When he gets to the shore, I can't quite bring myself to help move the silver shell above the water, but instead keep away the Many Teeth.

Then they all talk endlessly as they gesture at the shell before they move it to the cave nearby Eli's cove. It makes me glad that I threw the dead Many Teeth out of it.

The purple coward has retreated up into the forest, so I don't have to look at him anymore.

---