Archangel's Enigma (Guild Hunter)(48)

Her eyes went to the rabbit he’d taken in the hunt. He’d been quick, merciful. He was always fast and he never hurt his prey. They fed him and for that, he was grateful. He was a predator. He had to eat. That was the natural order of the world. And he was careful never to take things of which there were a small number in the world. He didn’t want them to disappear.

Today, however, he realized he should’ve tried fishing even if it was a far less efficient method of finding food—if fish could even be called food. Before he could speak and try to stop Andromeda from screaming, she said, “Oh, you caught something.” A frown. “Do you think it’s safe to light the fire in here? There doesn’t seem to be any electricity.”

Walking inside after her, he put his catch on the kitchen table. “There’s no reason anyone should wonder about this cabin from the air,” he said, treading carefully because he wasn’t sure if Andromeda really wasn’t angry he’d brought her meat. “The neighbors who know it’s empty are gone.”

“Great. I unearthed the firestarting tools.” She laid the fire using the sticks and pieces of wood in a basket next to it, then started it with competent hands.

Since he’d already cleaned and prepared the results of his hunt before bringing it to her, all they had to do was put the meat to roast on the spit already set up in the fireplace. Naasir sighed at seeing perfectly good meat get seared, but he didn’t say anything. He knew Andromeda wouldn’t want to eat raw meat.

After placing their clothes near the fireplace so they’d dry, she sat and turned the spit as needed. “You were really quick.”

“I didn’t have to go far.” He’d scented the existence of prey on his first sortie. “I took the old one in the group, the one whose time had come.” Never did he take the young ones, for that would destroy the ecosystem of which he was a part.

“My thanks to the hunter, and my thanks to the creature that gave up its life so we can live.”

Naasir looked at her profile. “You are a scholar.”

Somehow, she understood what he was asking. “I didn’t grow up a scholar. My parents are based in an untamed part of Charisemnon’s territory.” When Naasir bared his teeth at the sound of her grandfather’s name, she nodded, her next words blunt. “Yes, he is a disgusting excuse for an archangel.”

The ugly emotion in Andromeda’s tone had him growling. “Did he touch you when you were a cub?” Naasir knew of Charisemnon’s appetites, that he took those not yet full-grown to his bed.

Andromeda shuddered. “No . . . but he looked at me in a way that made it feel as if I had spiders crawling over my skin.” She shook herself, clearly throwing off the memory of the sensation. “My parents control a remote sector for him and it’s a sprawling place full of creatures wild and free.”

Her tone changed, her love for her distant homeland a second heartbeat. “I saw nature at its fiercest and most ruthless growing up. There are predators and there are prey. The lion runs the antelope to ground, and the cheetah hunts the gazelle. It is the natural order of things. It’s only those who hunt without need of food that upset that order.”

Feeling more comfortable as his pants started to steam from the heat, drying out fully at last, and his bare chest heated from the fire, Naasir stretched out his legs. “I’m glad you’re not a vegetarian.” He knew scholars who only ate leafy things, found them to be fascinating creatures. Who could live on only leafy things?

A soft laugh from the woman beside him, the one who smelled more delicious than the meat and who had beautifully uncontrollable hair he wanted to rub his face against. “Do you need blood?”

He thought about it. He’d eat some of the meat even if it was cooked, and he’d fed well during the journey to Lijuan’s stronghold. “No. Not yet.” Looking at her, he allowed himself to turn his eyes to her pulse.

It jumped.

Forcing himself to look away when his cock started to swell and harden, he stared into the flames. “Not from you,” he said, the words coming out rough; he wanted to pin her down and sink his fangs into her at the same time as his cock. “You need your strength. I’ll find someone else.”

She didn’t say anything, but there was a new stiffness to her as they finished watching the meat cook. When it was done, they ate in silence. He gave her the best pieces but she still didn’t talk to him as she had before. Unable to figure out what he’d done wrong, he decided to talk about something else.

“Did you take your vow because your parents can’t control their need to rut?”

Her head jerked up. Going so pale that her freckles stood out stark against her skin, she finished the food on her plate and got up to wash it clean. Then she went to the bed she’d made up using sheets from the cupboard, and lay down.

Not wanting to hurt her by asking more questions, he finished his own food in silence before going to stand watch at the window so she could sleep in safety.

“It’s part of it.” A soft confession from the bed almost ten minutes later. “But it’s not all of it.”

He waited; he could be patient when it was needed. Sometimes, he didn’t move for hours when hunting cunning prey.

Sitting up with her arms wrapped around raised knees, Andromeda met his eyes. “It’s me,” she said, her tone husky and one hand tight around the wrist of the other. “I have the same carnal drives as my mother.”