Page 29 of Lion Conquers All
“I only want your happiness,shuarra.” He let the Reylean term slip naturally from his lips. It’s what she was to him. His body. His soul. His beast. Everything in him recognized her as his mate. And she wasn’t correcting him. She wasn’t denying it. He would take every tiny little inch she would willingly give.
She didn’t look at him. Just kept her eyes staring out the windshield.
“Seven years ago a man sold me to traffickers.”
Aarav searched his mind for the meaning of the word. The only definitions rising to the top had to do with vehicles moving on roads and that didn’t make sense.
“I don’t know that word, I apologize.” He kept his tone low and soft.
“They buy women. Sell women. Sometimes men and children too. They are slavers.”
Those words hit his gut like he’d swallowed a rock. Bile boiled in his stomach, threatening to push the rock back up his throat and choke him.
It was worse.
What had happened to her was worse than what he’d imagined.
His stomach tightened again. The rock sank deeper.
He breathed through his mouth to control the urge to vomit.
“Dalmeck.” He hissed the curse out under his breath.
She gave a half barking laugh. The laugh of a person who had escaped her demons but hadn’t beaten them.
“Is that word like when we sayfuck?I’ve heard all of you at one point or another use it. It sounds like a good angry curse. I’d use it, but anyone around me that wasn’t one of your people would think I’d lost my mind.”
“Dalmeck, doesn’t have an easy translation. That’s why we still use our own language. But you are correct in your assumption thatfuckis a close equivalent. Or at least the attitude behind the curse. The worddalmeckdoesn’t refer to a sexual act between two people like your word does.”
“Yeah. Fuck can mean a lot of different things. It can be positive or negative. It’s like the ultimate curse word.”
“Connie. How did you come to live in Mystery? Has this always been home for you?”
“No. I’ve only been here about five years. I used to…” Her words trailed off. “I was a nurse before I came here.”
“Don’t you still somewhat have that role here in town?”
“Yes, but I can’t tell anyone that I’m a nurse. Being an EMT was pushing it already. Please don’t tell anyone. I shouldn’t have told you. It slipped out.”
“Of course. I would never betray your confidence. At least not intentionally.”
“I know you wouldn’t. And I want you to know that I appreciate you so much. You’ve brought small slivers of joy into my life that I never thought I’d have again. I know it’s just coffee. And I know it’s you that chops my firewood. And you always seem to know any time anything breaks in my house. I feel like if I cornered Henrietta she’d tell me that she tells you any time I order something for the house.”
Small slivers of joy.
His heart doubled in his chest, but tears burned at the back of his eyes. His sweetshuarrahad been so hurt. And it was such an old wound. He wished she would tell him who they were so he could hunt them all down and rip out their throats. He and his lion would destroy all her pain if she would let them.
“It’s true. I bribe Henrietta with donuts weekly to get a report on anything that you might need. Truthfully, I don’t think she does it for the donuts.” He turned the truck over the bridge and headed down the road that would lead them toward Gaven’s property.
“I figured. How did you know to bring Tara with Owen?”
“I don’t want to come across obsessive, but I watched you long enough to learn that you are very uncomfortable when alone with a man.”
“You called Ava and Ryder for me, didn’t you? To hike with us.”
“Yes. I knew you had hurriedly committed to help out of the goodness in that giant heart of yours, but you hadn’t thought it all the way through.”
“Thank you for that. I was holding off a straight-up panic attack the further I got from my truck.”
