Sam's Secret (Icehome)

The male chuckles, shifting his weight on the furs. "Water would be good." I offer him my skin and he takes a sip, then watches me. "You said she belongs to you? You buy her?"

Buy? I do not understand what he means. "She is my mate," I say slowly. "We have resonated. Our khuis have chosen us for each other."

"Right, sure," Kvasaht says. He drinks more water and grimaces. "I think I finished that off, friend. Didn't realize how thirsty I was."

I take it from him, fighting back my feelings. Even though water is easy enough to come by here with the pool, it is rude to drink the last of someone's skin without saving a sip for them. Water must be melted many times, and acquiring it is usually work. But he called me friend, and as he said, he is thirsty. I try to remember what it was like when the humans first arrived to our tribe, but I was young and cannot recall. "I will get more water. Think nothing of it."

"So she's your mate, huh?" The stranger peers up at me, his odd, dead eyes fixed on my face. "She's not wearing much of your scent."

I stiffen, anger flaring. "What do you mean?"

He raises a strange hand, indicating he did not mean offense. "I saw you two earlier. I know you're together. It's just…if that was my female, I'd cover her in my scent so keffing heavily everyone would know she was mine the moment she walked into the room. And I saw you licking her earlier. She seemed to like it." He gives me another toothy smile. "But if you guys were really mates, she'd reek of you. And she doesn't."

"She likes to swim," I say tightly.

"Even so." He gives me a sly look, like Bek when he is up to something. "Just saying she don't much smell like a mated female, that's all."

"We are resonating—"

"What are you guys talking about?" I hear Sam's feet on the rock before she touches my side. "Everything okay?"

Kvasaht leans back in the furs and rubs his leg, as if it pains him. "My friend here was just giving me a drink. You've got yourself a good man." He rubs his leg again. "Don't suppose you know when the snows will head out?"

Head out? The snow is going somewhere? Puzzled, I look at Sam.

She gives me a sweet smile and plucks my skin from my hands. "I'll refill this for you, sweetie. As for the snow, it's going to stick around for a few days at least."

"Ugh," says Kvasaht. "Glad it's not as frosty in here."

"Mmhmm," is all Sam says. She touches my tail again before she wanders away, and I am confused. The more people speak, the less I understand what is going on.

19

SAM

I feel Kvasaht's eyes on me all day long. I try to ignore it as best I can, chatting with Sessah in a bright voice as we mix fruit and rinds to make more sah-sah, but the cat-man's gaze lingers on me like an itch at the back of my neck. I'm relieved when he drifts off to sleep and we head for our bed down below, by the water's edge. Let Kvasaht sleep above with all the furs. All I need is Sessah by my side. I take our warm cloaks, spread them out on the rocky floor, and then wait for Sessah to join me.

As if he senses my unease, he's been at my side all day. Sessah lies down next to me a moment later, after refilling his waterskin for the third time in as many hours. "He drinks a lot," Sessah whispers as he settles in, pulling me against his bigger body. "Is that normal?"

I shrug, trying to fight off my bad feelings. Kvasaht has been perfectly friendly so far. I'm human, so of course he's going to stare a little. It doesn't mean anything. "He said he didn't feel well, and I don't think I felt great when I woke up, either. Maybe tomorrow will be better."

"We have not told him about a khui." Sessah's voice is worried. He strokes my shoulder. "He needs to know that he must have one."

I hesitate, because the awful part of me doesn't want to tell him. Not just yet. There's something about his manner that bothers me, and I can't shake my unease.

"Are we leaving tomorrow?" Sessah asks.

"No."

"Sam," Sessah says quietly. "I do not understand what is going on. Will you explain to me?"

I prop up on one shoulder, gazing down at him. Sessah is brave and strong. He can probably lift hundreds of pounds and skin a dvisti without breaking a sweat. He can run from one mountain to the next with ease. But when it comes to the greater universe, he's out of his depth. He's never experienced anything but the warm, friendly tribe, of a people that do whatever it takes to help one another. Who band together and have each other's back even when someone doesn't get along. His idea of a “bad guy” is probably cranky Bek, who hovers over his mate and baby daughter obsessively and is the first to speak up when he's unhappy about something. Bek is thorny, sure, but he would still give a stranger the shirt off his back, no questions asked.