Page 30 of Bear Protector
10
Kiera
“I’m glad you made it.” Xander’s deep voice floated out at her.
Kiera kept her eyes on him as he sat on his bed and pulled her to stand in front of him. She stood with her back to the fireplace, where fresh logs crackled and caused even more warmth to spread out from between her legs.
“I am too.”
“Is it warm enough for you?”
“It is perfect.”
He ran his hands up her arms. “I don’t feel the cold the way you do.”
“I never considered all the ways shifter magic altered men, but I guess that makes sense.”
“Are you hungry?” He looked up into her eyes and smiled playfully. “For dinner, I mean.”
“Sure. Let us have supper,” she said, looking over at the large basket of food she had brought with her. “I have missed so many meals at the fortress, the cooks did not think twice about preparing a basket with no questions asked. My friend, Reena slipped it out of the fortress for me.”
“Nice. Thanks for thinking of me.”
She pulled him over to the table and opened the basket. “Is this enough food?”
“More than.”
She placed the dishes on the table while Xander set out two plates and cutlery. They sat to eat, and she marveled at the way he dug into the thick, juicy steaks.
“Oh, this is good,” he said between bites. “It has been a while since I enjoyed this much meat at one sitting.”
“Glad you like it. You mentioned the camp is supplied with food from the fortress, correct?”
He nodded. “Every few days there’s a delivery of meat, milk, that sort of thing. Food that spoils quickly. Fruit and vegetables come once a week. Grain once every two or three weeks, depending on how much we’ve gone through. There is never enough meat.”
“Do you hunt for food while in shifter form? I am only curious because Coco does. In the warmer months, that is. She cannot go for more than a few days without fish.”
“She probably does her hunting in the old shipping canals, or the rivers on the south end of the island. For us, hunting is more of a rare, winter privilege. Summer hunts are out of the question. The water this far south is just too warm. We would have to swim a few hundred miles north to hit water that is cold enough to enjoy. Or even further away. In winter, well, we fight the destroyers. I suppose you could call it hunting, except those disgusting monsters are not food. A few of us do get the chance to swim the canals in winter, and yes, fish are the meat of choice then.”
“How would you change the region if Minassus was no longer ruling?”
He turned to her, eyes wide. “Seriously?”
“Of course.”
“You’re not afraid of discussing thistreachery?” he joked, then bit into a hunk of bread.
“Come on. I want to know.”
Xander put down his cutlery. “There was a time when all I wanted was to be human again. To have this magic reversed so I could go back to the life I had before the Big Storm. But nine years of living as a shifter changes you. I am just as much a human as a Kodiak bear, and my animal’s call is just as powerful. So what I want now, is to be free. First, I would visit my mother. I would convince her to leave with me, and if she agreed, we would pack our things and prepare to go as far north as we can. It makes sense to wait for summer to arrive, as the destroyers around this region hibernate. In the meantime, I would find a functioning fishing boat, or a ship, whatever is large enough for as many shifters who want to join us. And we would head north until we find land.”
“And what of the people? Who will protect them?”
“The truth, whether you can open your mind to the idea, is that the witches already can.”
“You mean with spells?”
“Sure. It could take work, testing and such, but only if Minassus will stop his power-hungry crap and let them get there. Plus, any shifter who wants to remain here can do so. That is the beauty of free will. They get to choose.”
