“Protect me from what?” she asked with a worried glance at the forest around them.
His fangs showed for an instant as if warning the universe at large not to dare threaten her. “From anything.”
“We’re in your clan’s territory,” she reminded. “We should be pretty safe here.”
“I am a g’hir warrior, you are my mate. I cannot tolerate danger to you.” His hand cradled hers. “But you are human, I do not expect you to understand.”
“Hey, I have a kid, remember?” she pointed out. “You want to see some serious mama-bear action—threaten a human female’s baby.”
He stopped, his glowing eyes serious. “You must tell them.”
“About Emma?” Her jaw hardened. “No fucking way.”
“When the decision was made to take women from your world it was decided that no female who had already borne offspring be taken from her young. Ar’ar has broken this directive. They will allow you to return to Earth. They must.”
“Or instead,” she began sharply, “the Council—that Mirak practically runs—will give their clan a slap on the wrist instead and decide that Ar’ar has a right to go get ‘his’ daughter. That’s the law too, isn’t it?”
“A child belongs to the mother and the mother’s mate. Emma is not Ar’ar’s daughter,” Ke’lar said quietly. “She is mine.”
Summer swallowed hard. “What will your clanfather do? What will the Erah do if they find out they can add not just one female but two to their enclosure?”
“I am not saying they will be pleased to let you go,” he growled softly. “But they will obey the law. My clan will respect your choice.”
“The choice I get to make after one moon cycle with you, right?” she asked hoarsely. “To obey the law your clan could only let me go home after my Day of Choosing—a full moon cycle from our first coupling, right? Twenty-seven days from now.”
He passed his hand over his face. “Yes.”
“That just resets the clock. That has me getting home a month after Dean brings Emma back.”
“And so I must not claim you for my mate,” he said, his shoulders falling. He regarded her gravely for a moment, then gave her hand a gentle tug. “We will plead your case to my father. He too has great influence with the Council.”
“What if that doesn’t work? What if your father won’t help?”
“Emma—”
“No,” she said firmly. “I won’t risk them knowing about her. For all I know Mirak will arrange a military raid to find her.”
His glowing blue eyes were steady. “Then we must trust that the All Mother will soften my father’s heart to your cause.”
They walked in silence, hand in hand, each absorbed with their own thoughts when Summer slowly became aware of something she hadn’t seen in days.
Summer blinked. “Hey, this is a road! An actual road!”
It was dirt road, granted, but a wide cleared space. The kind of road she’d thought would enable her to cover ten miles a day when she’d first escaped the Betari clanhall.
“It is the southern road of our territory and will lead us to my clan’s enclosure. I have walked it many times. But come,” he said, leading her instead through the trees, toward the river and to a shaded spot there. In the distance was a village-like cluster of buildings and towering over them a structure that could only be the Erah clanhall.
Her way home.
Ke’lar glanced about the place and gave a nod of approval, already shrugging off his pack. “This will do.”
“Why are we stopping here?” she asked, and her eyebrows shot up as his clothes started coming off. “And uh, what are you doing?” Her gaze traced his naked form, her breath quickening. “I mean, not that I mind . . .”
Her tone was husky but the expression he turned on her was serious.
“They will smell me on you, and you on me,” he reminded. “They will know we have mated.”
“Oh,” she murmured.
His jaw worked for a moment. “We must convince my father to return you to Earth. If I claim you, you must remain on Hir until your Choosing Day, so I cannot do so. The only way for you to be returned to Earth is to publicly accuse the Betari of threatening you, of denying your right to choose, and then asking my father to take up your cause. You must enter the Erah clanhall as Ar’ar’s mate to do that.”
“I see.” She shifted her weight. “I didn’t realize how much that was going to bother me.”
“To proclaim yourself his mate and then forswear him?”
“No,” she said softly. “To pretend like you don’t mean anything to me.”
“It will take all my strength to do this.” His face was ragged. “To stand by and not declare you mine. But if you are to forswear Ar’ar and do it in the Erah clanhall, you must be seen as one of the Betari, not one of my clan. You cannot be seen to favor me as an alternate to Ar’ar. We must wash and change here before we encounter any of my clanbrothers and we must not touch again.”