Leila of the Prey [Book Six]

Turmoil

  Using tents as bags, Fera carried supplies from the camp up the mountain to the cave. The camp was no longer safe since its safety had come from numbers and guns. The cave, however, was high up and easy to defend from predators while providing shelter from the rain.

  Packing food, clothes, pelts, and anything useful I could find, the beast hauled it over his shoulders while I carried some weapons and utensils stashed in packs. I felt a bit foolish returning to that damn cave yet again, but it was the best option I had at the time.

  Throughout the day, Fera watched me sort through the supplies. He sat on a rock out of the way as I carried the food to the back of the cave where it was cool and dry. I felt his eyes on me even as I sorted the clothes inside a tent canvas before rolling it up. That was all he did for several hours.

  Watch.

  However, when I moved some rocks and laid out some canvas as the bottom layer of my new bed, Fera seemed to become more interested in what I was doing. As I carried some of the furs to the cleared spot, I began to make my bed similarly to the one I'd made in the tent.

  Fera's words came back to mind as I was layering the pelts. Looking at the bed, with its raised edges and lower center, it did....look like a nest. I could understand why that had been the word he used.

  Once I was done, I found the deer pelt the beast had given me and sat down to make a pillow using wool the trappers had collected from animals that looked like cattle with humps on their backs as a filling. When I lined up the sides of the pelt to start sewing them together, Fera got up from where he was sitting.

  I glanced up at him as he walked across the cave. The beast gathered up pelts and carried them to the opposite side of the cave. He kicked a few rocks out of the way before laying down some canvas.

  The beast was going to make a bed for himself after watching me make mine. He used smaller pelts on the bottom before layering larger ones on top. He made his bed bigger than mine since he was a giant in comparison and used several pelts from the large humpback cattle.

  He glanced back a few times as if to compare my bed to his to make sure that he was doing it the same way. It was amusing.

  Trimming the sides of the deer pelt, I turned it inside out to begin stuffing it. Fera rolled onto his new bed when he finished it and propped his head up with his cheek in his palm while leaning on his elbow. Glancing at him again, I could see how he was slowly relaxing as he watched me.

  Focusing back on my work, I finished stuffing the pillow until I reached the top. Folding the edges in, I began to sew the opening closed. Halfway across, I heard what sounded like snoring.

  Looking up, I saw that Fera's head had fallen to rest on his bicep. I scoffed at how ridiculous it was. He was snoring and even drooling on his arm.

  Finishing up the pillow, I tossed it to the side and quietly cleaned up the mess I'd made. Fera slept through it all, and I left to gather some wood for the fire later. I gathered sticks until my arms were full and brought them back to the cave.

  Fera was still snoring, but it was louder now that he was lying on his back. His limbs were sprawled out with his long legs hanging off the edge of the pelts. One of his hands was resting on his stomach, and his mask was still on.

  I tried to be as quiet as possible while moving around. Taking the rest of the pelts toward the back of the cave, my mind began to wander in the silence. Everything was finally catching up to me.

  I was exhausted in a way that sleep would not fix.

  I needed time to collect the pieces of myself. I wanted to get back home as soon as possible, but with no way of getting back, I was stuck here. Yet that didn't seem entirely bad. If I went home now as I was, I could hurt the ones I loved.