Ke’lar indicated that she should go first. Ducking her head, she preceded him, and discovered she was trying to make herself a little smaller as she walked past the men.
Summer trusted Ke’lar’s senses enough that she knew he would be aware if one tried to follow them but a glance back showed the men hadn’t budged, still watching her with predator-like fixation.
“That was uncomfortable,” she muttered when they had gone far enough along the road to be out of sight.
“That was nothing compared to what you would have encountered had you entered the capital alone,” Ke’lar growled. “And there would have been none at hand to call upon clan loyalty and good manners. They would be fighting in the streets over you.”
“Okay, yeah, maybe the city wasn’t the best plan.” She glanced back. “What did that warrior mean? That challenging Ar’ar would be worth the price.”
Ke’lar’s jaw hardened, his glowing gaze on the road ahead. “A warrior may challenge another for his mate.”
Summer’s brow creased. “What kind of challenge?”
“A battle between unarmed men. The victor takes the female.”
“That’s barbaric,” she got out. “That’s appalling!”
“Most females find it flattering, a great tribute to their desirability,” he grumbled.
“And a great insult to their self-determination!” she cried. “What if the woman in question doesn’t want this new guy?”
“There is the understanding that she would have voiced some interest in having him as her new mate.” He gave her an impatient look. “Did you not understand that is what N’ar”—he indicated the road behind them—“was asking? He wanted you to know he would fight for you. And he wished to know if you would have him.”
“Wait—” Summer frowned. “If he was asking—I can pick someone instead of Ar’ar?”
Ke’lar gave a g’hir nod. “Of course.”
“No wonder Ar’ar was always showing his fangs to his clanbrothers,” she murmured.
“I do not doubt it.” He gave a snort. “He was trying to warn them off from flirting with you.”
“That’s how g’hir flirt?” she asked. “Hey baby, let’s get a drink sometime and hey, mind if I beat the snot out of your mate?”
His rippled brow furrowed. “Only if the female already has a male who is mate-bonded to her.”
“What if she doesn’t?” Summer asked. “I mean, what if she’s single?”
“He would court her.”
“Court her how?”
He shrugged. “Dine with her, compliment her. Make a mating roar to her.”
“A mating roar? What’s—” She broke off, remembering Ar’ar coming at her in the snow, his roar so loud it made her ears ring. “Never mind. I think I know what it is.” She raised an eyebrow at Ke’lar. “Hey, how come you never did that for me?”
“I did not have to,” he said confidently. “You initiated our coupling.”
Summer gave a short, shocked laugh. “Oh, sure. After you were all ‘let’s lay here in bed together and just talk’!”
“I offered to sleep outside the shelter, in the cave.” He turned innocent, glowing eyes on her. “It was you who insisted I join you in the bed.”
“I insisted—?” Something in his expression caught her attention and she gaped up at him. “Oh my God, you played me, didn’t you? You made it all my idea that you sleep next to me.”
He flashed a full—and unapologetic—fanged grin. “A clever hunter knows when it is best to lure the prey rather than chase it.”
“You—!” She pushed at him in mock-outrage, and he caught her against him with a huffing laugh.
She shook head, outraged and smiling up at him.
“It worked well, I think,” he said huskily, and the softest of rumble-purrs started in his chest as he bent to bring his mouth to hers.
He froze and abruptly his purr broke off and he wrenched his face away.
Hurt slashed through her chest as he let her go and stepped back. “Ke’lar? What’s the—” She swallowed. “Right. No touching.”
“This lapse will make no difference,” he growled. “It will be dismissed, as if I had helped you when you had stumbled.”
“Yeah,” she murmured, dragging her feet as he started again toward the clanhall.
His other clanbrothers were no less astonished by the sudden appearance of a human woman in their midst. They stared at her round-eyed as she walked past but, while they returned Ke’lar’s greetings in a pretty distracted way, none sought to impede their progress through the enclosure.
The closer they came to the clanhall, of course, the more clanbrothers they met. Many of them had Ke’lar’s coloring, very dark hair and blue eyes, and it was funny to think how she’d once found their alien faces so frightening. In their eyes and expressions she could read all the same emotions humans felt. Still, having dozens of strange warriors from an entirely unfamiliar clan staring at her wasn’t exactly comfortable. Just their physical presence, their size and strength, was overwhelming, let alone the way they stopped whatever it was they were doing to watch her pass.