Sam's Secret (Icehome)

She is incredible. My khui has truly chosen well.

"Where is he?" she asks again. "If you let him live, I'll do whatever you want. But you have to let him go."

He snorts, waving the shiny knife in the air. It is a piece of metal, I realize, long and sharp. Where did he get that? And when? I have been too wrapped up in resonance when I should have been paying attention to him. The moment he said he wanted Sam, I should have forced him into the snow, exiled him from the warmth of the fruit cave. But…how was I to know the male would attack me? To attack another male with the intent to injure is unthinkable. Hunters occasionally have tempers, and spats occur in a tribe, but not like this. Never with bad intent.

He is not…good. He is another Brad, out to hurt my Sam. Frantic, I writhe in my bonds again, ignoring the pain in my arms. I must get to my mate, and quickly.

Kva-saht speaks again. "Get out of the water, female."

"Come in and make me."

"I nearly drowned you once. I can do so again."

He what? I tremble with anger, growling.

"Why are you doing that?" the male asks. "The humming? Why did it start again?"

I watch as she touches her chest. She resonates—she must sense me nearby. Her face becomes frantic as she twists around in the water, looking for me. "Sessah? SESSAH? Where are you?"

"Sam!" I bellow out, twisting forward, desperate to reach her. "I am here!"

"Sessah!" She screams my name, wading toward me. The male alien immediately moves to the far side of the pool before she can get there, blocking her from getting to me. He waves the knife in the air with a warning, and Sam stops in her tracks.

"Stay in the water," I tell her, twisting my arms. "He will not come in after you."

"You, shut up," Kva-saht says as he approaches me. He picks up a heavy rock as he walks in my direction, a look of irritation on his strange face. "You're supposed to be unconscious for a bit longer."

I growl low in my throat as he looms over me with the rock in his hands. "If you hurt my mate, I will—"

He brings the rock down. Red pain blooms behind my eyes, then darkness.

25

SAM

"Sessah!" I scream, horrified as Kvasaht tries to bash his head in with a rock. "Stop it! You're killing him!"

"That's the idea," the feline-alien says as he brings the heavy rock down on Sessah's head again. "An alive mesakkah is a dangerous mesakkah. He's only good dead."

I wade to the edge of the pool, scrambling out before I can give it a second thought. My only concern is to get to Sessah, whose big, strong body is lying so damn still on that ledge. As I race across the slippery rocks, Kvasaht raises the rock overhead again, the knife precariously gripped in the same hand he's using to heft the beach ball-sized rock. It feels like I'm walking in slow motion as he lowers the rock once more, and I'm moving too slow to stop him—

—so I shove him.

I let my slippery, sliding feet carry me across the wet, tricky rocks and I slam into Kvasaht's body as he tries to bash the brains out of my lover. Momentum carries me and as I crash into him, we both go flying forward. Pain flares through my body as I collide with his larger, harder form, and his hard back knocks the breath out of me.

I sprawl over something hard. Sessah's horn. Oh god. I scramble to my feet, near-hysterical, and shove at Kvasaht. There's something absolutely horrifying about smashing my unconscious mate under our bodies, and I want nothing more in this moment than to get Kvasaht off of him. I push at the cat-alien, out of my mind with terror. "Get off, you fucker! Get off him!"

Kvasaht only groans, but doesn't move.

I shove at him again, only to see that the knife he was holding has landed…sideways. He must have hit it in the fall, and the long, narrow blade has shoved itself into the soft skin between collarbone and throat. His fur grows darker, spreading like a stain as I watch, and he gurgles something.

"Help," he says after a moment, his body twitching. "Help me."

Trembling, I stare down at him. A thousand scenarios race through my mind. I can help him and he'll owe me. I can patch him up and it'll give me a few more days to decide if he should get a khui. I should let Sessah decide what to do with him. I should…

It doesn't matter. I only know one result that will satisfy me. I grab the knife by the rough handle and give Kvasaht a delicate smile. "Hold still," I whisper. "This is going to hurt a little."