Vin pressed his hand against his chest, and it came back wet with blue blood. He cracked his neck and stepped off onto the footpath as the ramp bounced back into shape, relieved of his massive weight.
"Alright, you wanna really go, brother?" Vin asked with a grin, towering taller than even most venandi, let alone a yiwren. "We can really go."
A war chuckle burst from Fásach's chest.Yes.He needed this. There was no way he could wait like a civilized, logical buck. Not any longer. He neededresistance,violence, something to distract his restless temper and uncontrollable fear.
Vin opened his mouth to expose all his fangs, mandibles splayed wide, and roared right back. His talons lengthened as he braced his knees.
Fásach crouched, strafed to the side, and leapt for his guildmate's back. The venandi grabbed him by the horn and tossed him off, ignoring the way the yiwren's claws raked through his shoulder plates. Fás slid to the ground and righted himself in a shiver of fur, immediately leaping back into close quarters.
"Hell-fuckin'-dude!"Vin griped as Fásach's teeth came within inches of snapping his mandible in two. Fásach would never actually hurt him—at least, notthatbadly—but the feint was enough to make Vin lose a breath, and that was all he needed. Fásach sank his claws into the venandi's scarred red plates, straight through his tattered shirt, and bent back with all his might. Vin flipped onto his back on the ground with a thunderous boom.
Clouds of dust rose up around Vin and he coughed a lungful of gravel. "Get back here, you mongrel!"
"Fuck you!" Fás snapped in victory, leaping up the ramp.
Then the doors opened, and something slammed into his chest at full force.
Soft curls filled his vision, brown like soil, with copper highlights. Ineffectual nails bit into his pelt and held him close. Pillowy breasts pressed against his ribs.
Fásach caught Roz and wrapped his arms around her, breathing hard, eyes wide and staring straight ahead, afraid that if he looked down, she wouldn’t be real.
"Thuais,"he said with a sharp inhale. "You're—"Alive. Awake. Real...
"Home," she said, beaming up at him.
His ears twitched and time stood still as she hummed with relief and rubbed her face into his velvet. Her harmony immediately soothed his temper, the fight leaving him in the wake of disbelief.
Then he crushed her to him as his hackles rose, bent his shoulders over her to cage her into his arms. She hiccuped from the pressure, but he couldn’t bring himself to let go.
“You ran,” he rasped.
She swallowed, holding him tighter as her voice trembled. “I told you I’d get you and Safia and Misila here at any cost. That meant me, too.”
“But—”
Roz lifted her face, biting her cheek to keep from crying. Fat tears still welled in her eyes as she tried her best to steady her breath. “You’re worth dying for,Fás.”
Pain clenchedFásach’s heart. He propped Roz’s chin on his thumb, brushing the tip of his claw against her lip.
“I’d rather us be worthlivingfor.”
Roz buried her face in his chest and let loose, unable to stop her sobbing. She nodded against his fur as he pet her hair and he emitted a soothinghuh huh huh.
She didn’t speak, but her cries rang with enough relief and wonder and love for them both.
Epilogue
One Week Later
Clarissa gasped. "There's a whole other forest and it'sgloomy?!"She clapped her hands together with teenage excitement. "I wish I could see it!"
"It's beautiful," I agreed, not going into detail about exactlywhyI liked it. Still, my cheeks reddened at the thought of being hunted out in the open. And snuggling. Ilovedsnuggling. Especially in a bed, where we didn't have to deal with dew and dirt.
“Can I, um.” Safia glanced at me, then Clarissa, abandoning her sister to play with their ships on the floor alone. “Can I touch your silk?”
“Sure.”
Safia sat next to Clarissa, entranced by her long, blonde hair and freckles, and the teen put her arm around the little girl's shoulder.Safia combed the lengths just like she did for her dad.