Page 13 of Dweller of the Mists

Gwum made a sound of agreement as he led her to a natural alcove among the branches. Storing his satchel there, he gestured for her to enter the alcove. “It is a part of Kren that I would never give up,” he quietly acknowledged. “How any male can give all of this up to be beholden forever inside his mate’s den is beyond my ability to imagine.”

Her head turned toward him as she settled inside, and he felt the weight of her gaze, but he refused to make excuses or apologies. It was how he genuinely felt, and she could not possibly be surprised. Not when she knew that he had no desire to mate. So why did he feel guilty for uttering it? It felt as if he was betraying her somehow.

Turning away from the alcove, unable to meet her eyes, he gestured vaguely to the swamp below them. “I am going to acquire food. I will not be gone long.”

“Okay,” she replied just as quietly.

He swallowed past the stubborn lump of emotion in his throat and nodded as he moved toward the edge of the branch.

“Hey, Gwum… is Kren the name of this world?”

A laugh of surprise bubbled up within him, but it came with no little amount of bewildered disappointment. With everything going on between them at this moment and she was interested in the name of their world?

“It is,” he agreed and dropped from the branch without another word.

He hit the water with hardly any sound and drew his legs up against his chest to slow his descent into the depths so he did not stir the sediment at the bottom. He floated in place for a moment but then kicked downward, descending at a controlled pace toward the bottom. Working quickly, he gathered several small stones to add to the collection of what he already had.A disturbance in the water just ahead of him was even more fortuitous as a mane-finned willip fish broke in its course toward him and expanded its enormous fins wide in mock threat.

Gwum grinned at the fish. Now that would make a fine meal for his Noelle. Kicking forward, he slashed with his claws and dispatched the large fish with the ease of a male who had fished the great majority of his lifetime. Getting it back to the tree took far more work than the actual hunting, but it was all worth it to see the rapt fascination on her face as he laid out the stones and created a bed for the fire to cook their meal. Watching her smile did funny things to his hearts, but watching her enthusiastically devour every bite of fish that he handed her fed a sense of rightness that settled deep within his gut.

In spite of that knowledge, he could not face the fact that some part of him was growing more and more insistent that this was something he could happily do for the rest of his life.

Chapter

Ten

Noelle stretched as she roused from sleep, her body instinctively seeking the warmth of Gwum’s body wrapped around her. After so many nights sleeping wrapped safely in his arms, she was becoming far too accustomed to this, and she couldn’t even find it within her to regret it. It was going to hurt her in the end—she wasn’t stupid to think that this had any hope of lasting—but she couldn’t imagine waking up on Xal… no, Kren… without Gwum tucked snugly against her back.

Careful not to jostle him too much, she turned in his arms so that she could admire his sleeping face. He was beautiful. It took her a while to realize it, but there in his arms, with only inches separating his face from hers, she couldn’t deny it. His violet skin, while much thicker than hers, possessed a polished smoothness of uniform color except for the sprinkling of bioluminescent markings sprinkled over his nose, forehead, and cheekbones like freckles on a human. His powerful arms were covered in the same markings, but they were larger on that part of him, as well as his broad chest. They were only small on his face, hands, and feet, though she struggled to imagine whatsort of evolutionary advantage that posed. Did they aid in some sort of camouflage in the swamps at night?

Gwum stirred and his eyes slowly opened, revealing the oblong slit pupil and glowing green brilliance of his irises before she had the chance to close her eyes and feign sleep as she usually did when they woke.

“Noelle,” he breathed, sending a tiny little shiver through her. “You are awake early.”

She struggled not to blush. She didn’t want to admit to even herself that every morning she’d set her comm to silently wake her early. She told herself it was so that she could get to the supply drop sooner, but that didn’t account for how she spent the time watching him until he began to show signs of awakening. And she always allowed her eyes to flutter closed so that he could wake her with his hand stroking in gentle circles on her back.

Damn it!

She blinked and turned away with a yawn. “I just woke up myself,” she mumbled as she pushed herself to seated position and brushed her hair out of her face to peer at the lightening sky peeking through the trees. “You’re right. It is early.”

Gwum nodded and sat up beside her. He remained there for several heartbeats, but she refrained from looking at him until she heard him stand. Only then did she dare to glance at him as he studied the tree line.

“We will be crossing into Shoowilp territory soon. I expect that we will arrive at my home shortly after midday.”

Noelle nodded and pushed herself to her feet, her blush returning in full force when Gwum leaned forward to grip her arm and steady her. His touch ignited a warm flutter deep within her belly and her breath hitched slightly in reaction, and it only got worse when he bent and swept her up into his arms. If he noticed her reaction or had any inkling as to what they meant, hethankfully did not acknowledge it. It made her mortification and deep inner turmoil a lot easier to deal with.

Her mother would have been horrified, but then Mom had drunk the whole human purity synthade along with most of United Earth’s planetary nationalist bullshit ages ago. She doubted the woman even had a second thought about her family as she proudly marched off to her colonial assignment, abandoning her family at home. No loss there. Grandma had spirited her away to the swamp to live a life of freedom that few non-gratas would ever know. Grandma wouldn’t have been horrified by Noelle’s reaction to the alien. She would have cackled gleefully.

Noelle buried her face against Gwum’s chest, her lips twitching at just picturing the old woman’s delight as he hauled her effortlessly back down the tree. Grandma had often expressed regret that she had been put into a non-gratas breeding program when young. She’d fancied the idea of illegally being carried off by a powerful alien and had quite a few contraband romances on her datapad. Ninety-five and still going strong, the old woman would love that Noelle was currently living her greatest fantasy.

“You seem happy,” Gwum observed, a smile in his voice as he dropped onto the mass of roots below them, his powerful legs effortlessly absorbing the shock.

“I was just thinking of my grandmother—my mother’s mother,” she clarified as he lowered her to her feet and glanced down curiously at her. “She would have loved all of this.”

The corners of his mouth hitched. “I imagine that she is very much like you then, possessing a great, adventurous spirit.”

Noelle blinked at him, startled by his observation. “Is that how you really see me? Even when I’ve been literally hiding from everything?”

Gwum lifted his hands in a shrug. “Every Bia knows that there are plenty of occasions where hiding is the more intelligent choice… as is necessary caution. But you came here, and you are persevering despite the challenges and dangers in this world. So I see a female with a great spirit.”

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