Page 28 of Brutally Mated
While planning my exit, I fall asleep.
CHAPTER 6
Thorn
Morning comes, the train bell rings, and we all tumble out of bed, grab a bit of breakfast on the way, and board the train. Tabby comes along with us quite nicely. Her hair is tousled from days of travel and quite a bit of drama. She needs a bath. I’d like to give her one. I’d like to help her wash her hair. I’d like to clean every inch of her skin. I’d like to be inside her again, but not in a horrible, terrible, fucking monstrous way.
Krall is not leaving her alone for a single moment, and Skor isn’t anywhere too close, but his eyes never flick away from her. All three of us are absolutely obsessed with our mate.
The train is not that full. We are almost the only passengers on it, aside from a couple of adventurers who load on with big rucksacks and crates. I suspect they’ve been mining gems in the lower hills. They look very defensive of their haul. We’ve no interest in their shiny rocks, but it will be better to stay away from them. As the journey goes on, more and more people will join until it is crowded.
“We’ve got a sleeping cabin until Westwood,” Krall tells us. “That’s about three days from here. After that, we’ll have to see what we do. Maybe get a car and go by road rather than rail.”
Three days seems far enough away that worrying about it would be on the unnecessary side. I’ve had life change so much in three days it’s completely unrecognizable. Three days ago we didn’t even know Tabby, and now she is the most important thing in my life.
We settle into the cabin. It has two double bunks and two singles up top. It’s designed to sleep six, which is generous. Tabby immediately climbs to the very top bunk and looks down at us.
“This is mine,” she says. “I need my space.”
Skor and Krall look put out about that, but I just smile. I think she’s cute, I think she’s smart, and I’ll never forget how strong she is. If she wants a top bunk, she can have a top bunk. I’ll spend my life getting her what she wants.
“I’m going to patrol,” Skor says.
“I will take the other way,” Krall says.
That leaves me and Tabby alone in the cabin as the train starts to hiss and snort like a wild animal. She looks a little perturbed. She’s never been inside a vehicle before. This is going to be wild for her.
“Can I come up?” I ask the question as if she’d be doing me a favor, not as if I’m trying to protect her from her fear of being in the train as it gets going.
She pretends to think about it for a second, then shuffles over obligingly. I jump up there, using one rung on the ladder.
“Here,” I say, producing a crumpled brown bag from my pocket. It contains a dozen sweets that I noticed she particularly liked.
“What is that?” She grins at me as she looks in the bag and her pupils dilate with excitement. “Where did you get these?”
“I dropped into the store before we left. I woke up a little earlier than the others. I usually do.”
“She let you buy them?”
“She did.”
“She was going to cook me alive and eat me.”
“Well, nobody is perfect,” I deadpan.
She giggles, and offers me a sweet. That says a lot to her nature. She loves these treats, but her initial impulse is to share them with me. We are incredibly lucky to have found a mate like her. We could have been left with a feral mountain girl with a cold heart and cruel tongue. Instead we have one with a loving bosom and a sweet tooth.
“They are for you,” I tell her. “All of them. Save them. We might not find others as good.”
“Really?”
“No,” I say. “There will be others, but those are the only ones from this place.”
“Oh,” she says, looking at me with something like surprise. “Oh!” she says again. “Yes,” she says, tucking them into her satchel. “Thank you.”
The train makes a jolt as it starts to move, along with a loud whistle.
She reaches for me with a little shout of shock.
