You Don't Belong Here

Chapter Eighty One

"A hunt? In a hive? And what of Zhan'tha? You wish to take a pup to such a place?"

"O'kaor will watch after him while we are gone. He is fully capable of caring for a pup and we have to aid in population control before the hive grows to large to handle."

Dhadtoudi clicked furiously as she paced the room with her eyes trained on the oblivious pup. "You know how I feel about leaving him, descendant of Yahti." T'ahrou said nothing as she berated him. "If anything happens while we are gone, I will hold you personally responsible."
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"There are too many, Blooded One! We need to fall back!"

T'ahrou growled a warning to the Young Blood. "We do not run from these beasts! We stand, we fight, we triumph, or we die with honor!"

The Young Blood did not argue but his eyes grew wide from behind his mask as one of his comrades was killed before his eyes.

On the opposite side of the room Dhadtoudi was holding her own against one of the creatures, but in the chaos of everything it was able to dislodge her mask from her face and its blood colored her skin with sizzling burn marks that began to eat away at her flesh. She cried out in pained terror as she writhed helplessly on the ground.

Dhadtoudi stirred from her slumber when a clap of thunder rolled through the sky above and a bright flash of lightning illuminated the room. She longed to return to her dream state, but the rapid speed of her heart rate told her that would not be possible right now.

She sat up from her position on the "futon" and looked around the room as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. T'ahrou was sitting cross legged in the corner of the room furthest from the door and windows, and a snoring Zahn'tha was positioned in his lap just so, to where the pups head was propped against his slumbering fathers chest.

She could hear Brielle talking now, followed by O'kaor's thundering steps marching toward her quarters before the door was thrown open in such a way that it knocked against the wall. T'ahrou's head snapped up so quickly that she was sure he had given himself whiplash, but upon hearing the commotion in the next room, her mate clicked in annoyance and attempted to go back to sleep.

After some more chatter sounded from the other room, Dhadtoudi could hear O'kaor return to the gathering area. Her lips pressed into a firm line as she waited for her mate to drift back off, and only when she was sure he wouldn't wake did the woman slip off of the futon and silently cross the room. Her heartrate remained surprisingly low as she crept through the doorway and tiptoed to the darkened area that was serving as O'koar's sleeping quarters.

He was standing before an open window as he watched the torrential rain fall down around the city. The scent that was flooding through the room was tantalizing and it sent chills spreading across the female's skin.

"Have you come to disturb me as well?"

She frowned at his tone. "No."

"You were dreaming about the hunt again, weren't you?"

She didn't answer at first, and O'kaor didn't remove his eyes from the skyline. "Yes." She could see his shoulders rise as he inhaled. "Why do you refuse to speak to her about what is bothering you?"

"Why do you refuse to speak with T'ahrou about your nightmares?"

She moved to stand next to him now, her shoulder only about an inch away from his bicep as she took another whiff of the falling rain. "He blames himself for what happened." O'kaor clicked softly. "I did not want to leave Zhan'tha. T'ahrou insisted. We underestimated the hive growth rate and went in with a large disadvantage."

"As we always do. You know as well as the rest of us that whenever we step into our Chiva, the Kiande-Amedha already have the upper hand."

"I know."

"Then what is the issue?"

Dhadtoudi pondered his question before holding her arms over her chest. "I believe that he sometimes forgets that fact." He said nothing this time. "Would you change it if you could?"

O'kaor looked at her in confusion now, a flash of lightning illuminating the room and his amber eyes with it. "What are you blabbering on about?"

"Meeting her...choosing her...following her." The male didn't respond and Dhadtoudi gave a sad smile as her grey eyes moved from the skyline to the cloudy sky above, but O'kaor kept his gaze fixed on her. "My father would often tell me that if given the chance to return to the past and relive the night that he found me, he would not change anything about it. He said he would bring me back a thousand times over, and that he never regretted doing so. My advice to you now, warrior, is this..." She turned to face him, craning her head back to meet his eyes. "If you regret ever bringing her to the mother world, and would choose a different path if given the chance to do so, then continue to shun the Ooman female. But if you would repeat your actions and do not regret allowing her into the personal aspects of your life, then you need to allow your mate to return to your side."

"You expect me to trust her so easily after everything she put us through? She killed Zaiyu!"

"His death was not by her hand, nor was my incision. But no, I do not expect you to trust her as you did before so quickly. I know that I certainly won't. But I also know that if you didn't still hold some sort of faith in her, you would not have put my pups life in her hands."

He scoffed now. "You know not of what you speak."

Another sad smile and she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Just consider what I said. You have said before that my father was a wise being...heed his words and follow your soul for once, not your logic and instincts."

He watched she returned to her families sleeping quarters abs O'kaor couldn't help but take one final glance at Brielle's open door. His mandibles flared with rage and a deep growl resonated from within his chest.

Damn those soft meats and their asinine advice.