Baring the Thorn (The Mountain Tribe #3)

Chapter 27

W hen we return to camp, we find Hawk waiting for us, a carefully blank expression on his face as he sharpens his tools.

The fire burns nearby, but his tent and his belongings are packed up and placed neatly behind him.

I do not think he heard us, but by the slight downward twist I suspect he knows why we lingered at the bathing caves for so long. I have grown up with Hawk, and I can tell when he is unhappy.

My hand is tangled with my female’s, the pack lighter on my back now than it was when we left the cave, and my heart full knowing that we return to my own tribe as a pair. But my old tribe mate’s misery speaks as loudly from his posture and face as if he was stating it aloud.

There are things he does not need to say for me to understand.

He was close with the female healer in our tribe when we were boys, he had told me many times that they would be a couple when they were old enough. And now she is gone.

Judging from the pain in his eyes, that he fails to hide, it was recent.

If it were anyone else, perhaps one of my own hunters, who mourned a female, then I would not be so obvious in my affections for Samara. It would be cruel. But this is Hawk, and while I pity him, I still do not trust him.

So I keep my female close, tucked against my side as we exchange a strained nod of greeting.

“You look well, broth- Thorn,” he quickly amends. “I can assume the journey did not make you ill?”

“I am healthy again,” I agree. “It is time for us to depart.”

And it could not come soon enough.

Having Hawk nearby, a constant reminder of my brutal childhood, is like a scratch beneath the surface of my skin that tugs and tears and will not heal. I will be relieved when we are free of him.

He nods thoughtfully. “And our deal?”

Samara pulls away from me, and vows, “Our deal is solid. I won’t abandon your sister when it’s time. Before you leave, are you certain you know how to administer the medicine in your half of the cache? Do you need another demonstration?”

“No. I understand.” Hawk gives her a hesitant smile. “You have my thanks, healer. I have lost members of my tribe to infection, but to know that it may not happen again is a comfort.”

Samara reaches up to pat his arm, and the gesture is friendly, the kind of considerate touch one expects from a healer. That does not stop the shock of jealousy that burns on my tongue.

She returns the smile. “You have my thanks, Hawk. You helped me save Thorn. I’ll always owe you.”

I step forward. “You owe him one safely delivered baby of his sister, then we will be free of the northern tribe.”

I receive identical glares from Hawk and Samara.

He cuts out, “You would be wise to make peace with the past. Our tribes could benefit from support from each other.”

“And you need to forgive him,” my bossy little female adds. “Hawk was a kid, and I’m sure if he had the power to stop what his dad did, he would’ve. Let’s put it behind us. Kiss and make up.”

The mere idea makes me grimace. This must be one of the female sayings that make no sense to us, because there is no way I am kissing Hawk, a man I have only just gone from despising to disliking.

“Think on it before you come to deliver the baby,” he offers. “You might need my help in the future.”

I sincerely doubt it, but Samara’s eyes shine with hope, and I know that it is important to her that I try and move on from the past. Hawk is not his father, and though the thought does little to soothe the lifelong bruise that day inflicted on my heart, it helps to remind me of that.

During our brief time together, I have seen how different he is, how generous he was to help Samara and I instead of leaving her to starve and me die.

In his place, I would have given her all the medicine and helped her, but he is from a tribe that is cold and detached, that sacrifices their own for the good of the many. It is a kind gesture for someone like him to let us leave with half of the cache, even if all of it should belong to my little healer.

I see the question in Samara’s eyes, and I want, more than anything, to please her. Perhaps I will need Hawk’s help in the future, but I am not even certain I will have a tribe anymore once I tell them the truth.

It does not matter, what matters is answering that question that Samara points at me with her pleading gaze.

“I will think on it,” I say, and then add, with a pointed frown in his direction. “But the safety of my tribe comes first. Before yours. Before everything.”

Hawk nods. “As does mine.”

I want to be done with this, so I tell him how to find us.

It takes some explaining, as there are little markers in the land and Hawk is not as familiar with this area than he is with the north. We have to kneel, and I have to use a stick to paint out a map in the dirt, but I think that he will figure it out well enough.

As long as he reaches the crest of mountains that the tribe is tucked in the valley of, he will find us. He will see the smoke just as Samara and I did when we left the camp behind.

All the while, she packs the rest of our things, which now only fit in one pack since my own was destroyed. Even our half of the medicine fits in her old pack, but we will make do. We only need some furs, since we will sleep together, and all our food will be hunted, our tea fresh, but we will survive.

I will care for my female, now that my body is healed.

When we are certain that Hawk is comfortable with finding his way to us, and our things have been packed, we find that there is nothing left to do.

“Thank you again. If you’d found us one day later, Thorn would be dead.” Samara clasps Hawk’s arm under her hand in another friendly gesture.

“And thank you, healer.” Hawk takes her small hand in his. “You have given me hope for my sister and her child where I thought I would never feel it again. You are free to visit whenever you wish, even if it is just for a spiced rabbit skewer.”

I glare at the other male. Samara likes her meat the way I prepare it, sliced right off the bone, steaming hot.

She laughs. “Thanks for the invite, but I think it’s a bit far for a skewer.”

He turns his gaze to me, “The invitation is open to you, too, Thorn. You are always welcome amongst us, brother.”

“Thank you,” I have to force the words out. “We will see you when your sister is delivering. Safe travels.”

“Safe travels,” with a final nod, Hawk departs, disappearing through the trees silently like the apt hunter he is, and we are left in the empty clearing, the fire reduced to only smoking coals.

With him gone, I haul my female against my chest and kiss her, feeling half-mad that I had to keep myself from putting my lips on hers for even a short while.

She smiles against me, pliant and soft.

“There,” her voice is light, her arms winding around my neck, securing us together, “was that so hard?”