Another hour goes by, and the tension eases from my shoulders. We pass by another series of ruins when something pricks my ears. A voice far off in the distance. Vruksha and I stop at the same time, waiting to see if the voice comes again.
I move under his arm and into the curl of his tail before he can tug me to him.
“What was that?” I whisper.
It sounds like someone, or something is—
“DAISY!” They’re shouting her name.
I jump. Vruksha plasters me to his side.
“Daisy?” I gasp.
“DAISY!” Her name comes again, sounding from elsewhere, roaring through the trees.
Gooseflesh rises on my arms. “Daisy! Someone is looking for Daisy. She could be nearby.”
Vruksha’s eyes darken.
“We have to look for her!”
He nods, curling his fingers around my wrist, and we take off after the voice.
It seems like hours go by before it’s loud enough to eclipse the sounds of the forest. Still, the quicker we move, the farther the voice seems to get. I want to call out but don’t.
“DAISY!” The roar comes again after a short while. We reach the summit of the mountain and stop.
“Which direction did it come from?” I ask, huffing. I can see everything from here.
“It’s Zaku.”
I shake my head, wiping the sweat from my forehead as the naga with the large, spiked cowl rises in my mind. “Great.”
The trees beside us shake. I stumble back just as something large and green drops down from them. Vruksha swings in front of me.
A naga male, shimmering vibrant green, rises, catches my eye, and puffs out his chest.
“Azsote,” Vruksha snarls.
“Vruksssha,” the other male hisses in answer.
“DAISY!” the roar comes again, startling the three of us.
“Take your eyes off my female,” Vruksha’s voice lowers, sending a shiver down my spine.
Azsote looks away from me and at him.
“I’m not here for her,” he tells Vruksha. “I’m looking for Zaku.” Azsote’s eyes cut to me again though, making Vruksha hiss.
“Why?” he snaps.
“I’ve found the other female.”
I step forward before Vruksha can stop me. “You have? Where is she? Is she okay? Take us to her.”
Vruksha pulls me behind him, coiling his tail around me. “Is she safe?” he asks.
“She’s hurt, burned up.”
My lips part. Burned? The skiff didn’t make it… “Take us to her, now,” I demand, clutching Vruksha’s arm.
Azsote flicks his eyes to me.
“DAISY!”
All three of us flinch. Zaku’s roaring is further away now—we’re losing him.
“She’s not asking for you, female,” Azsote says. “She asks for Zaku.”
Azsote looks at Vruksha, and I see something pass between them. Vruksha lowers his spear, and Azsote slips into the forest, vanishing so swiftly it was like he was never here at all.
I twist under Vruksha’s arm. “We’re following him, right?”
I think he’s going to fight me, tell me our job is done, but to my complete surprise, Vruksha nods, picks me up, and chases after Azsote. It’s not long before he catches up to the silent green male, joining him in his swift hunt for the king.
Twenty-Five
Daisy
Vruksha
I slide through the trees after the Boomslang, holding my female against me. I’ve missed having her in my arms. My mate’s softness warms my scales, and her scent invigorates me.
She is mine, and I adore it.
“Thank you, mate.”
I curse as the words snap into my head.
They haven’t stopped repeating through my mind since Gemma said them. I didn’t know how badly I needed to hear her call me mate in return, until she did.
Then they stung, and now, each time they repeat, the thrill of it muddies further. She called me mate so I would help her find her friend. And once that thought entered my head, I haven’t been able to push it out. I’ve been mulling it over all night.
I don’t feel like I’m her mate. Not entirely. Not yet.
Gemma’s mine, but I’m not hers. Glancing down, I find her eyes are closed, her forehead wrinkled, face scrunched up again. She gets this way when I sprint through the trees and it’s almost… precious.
She would not like being held if I swung through the trees as Azsote does. The branches above us shake as the Boomslang slips from one to the next, catching and bracing with his tail muscles.
Zaku’s roars heighten as we catch up to him.
“King Cobra!” Azsote yells when we’re close. “I know where she is,” he calls out, dropping from the trees. I come to a stop a short distance away. Gemma wiggles in my arms.
Azsote won’t try and steal her. I read it in his eyes. And if Zaku is after the other female, then Gemma is at least safe from these nagas, but if there are more nearby, brought out by Zaku’s shouting, I want to keep a hold on her so they know she’s been claimed.
I could coax her into a rutting for everyone to view—to establish who is her mate, the one who caught her—but I neither want Gemma naked in front of them nor want to share her sweet secrets with males who may try and risk taking her from me anyway.
If I were made to watch such a beautiful female open up her arms and accept her mate with a moan, I would want to steal her for myself—nothing would stop me. Not even another naga’s prick sinking into her.
It would be the last thing he ever did.
“Zaku!” Azsote yells once more, coiling his tail around the trunk of a nearby tree.
Noises of passage strike my ears, snaps of sticks, and the rustle of leaves. Zaku’s giant form bursts into the clearing, tackling Azsote to the forest floor. The Boomslang slides himself out from under Zaku, using his hold on the tree.
“Where is she?” Zaku claws at him. “Take me to her!” Zaku’s nostrils flare, his cowl expands, and the spikes of it straighten out. He’s covered in dirt, eyes fierce, and I bare my
