Author's Note:
So I went from vastly confused, to one of the longest chapters I've written so far. I've struggled getting the story to be on track with where I want it to be, and where I want it to eventually end. Theres still so much more I want to do, I just couldn't figure out how to get there. I put off writing because I wanted to rewatch the show, and it was just taking too much time and frankly, giving me an excuse to procrastinate. So I've decided to go back to doing what I sort of started with, which is me using what I want from the show to make my OWN world. Instead of me trying to replicate the show with my character worked in. So while there will be references to events in the show - like in this chapter - they are going to happen my way, and in my own order. There are also multiple breaks in this chapter - but no POV switch, just FYI since I've been inconsistent with that in the past.
So for those of you who reviewed or messaged that I should just end or delete my story - sorry. But not really. Your frustrations were justified, because even I was frustrated. But I'm getting back on track, and making moves to get this story where I want it to be. So continue to read, or don't.
And thank you for all the people who continue to review/love on/give helpful feedback despite it all. Seriously, thank you.
/endrant.
"So Artigas is the only one with black blood then?" I asked, choosing my steps carefully as we traveled back to the clan.
"I regret ever mentioning it," Penn grumbled from behind me, making Artigas laugh beside him. Since his recovery I had been firing questions non-stop and doing all the small simple tests I could think of while being so far away from a workable science lab. Tests on Artigas' blood had been inconclusive so far, but field tests were unreliable. I needed a microscope, and had been searching the camp for parts and tools I could use to create one - itemizing what I didn't have for Nyko so that once we returned back to the clan I could actually assemble a makeshift one.
"It is not a common trait," Nyko explained evenly. "We only see it every other generation."
It was a forced gap though I thought to myself. Nyko had explained earlier that those with black blood are gathered as children and trained together. When the ruling leader dies, those in training are pitted against each other and the last one standing becomes the new commander and joined with the flame - an idea that still hadn't been adequately explained to me yet. They lost a large portion of their mutated population because democracy and voting wasn't a thing on Earth I thought candidly. Not even the strong survive on Earth with their selection system. But I had quickly found myself on the losing side of that argument so had let the topic drop hours ago.
"Are the studies on black blood?" I asked, knowing the the clans didn't have a strong affinity for written word. "Old records maybe?"
Nyko glanced back at me with a curious look, thinking over my question. Only the ruling commander selected what got written down and recorded, and the lack of available books told me that not much made the cut.
"Not here," he answered after a moment. "Maybe in Polis."
He was referencing the capitol I realized after a moment, still not familiar with the name. With the discussion of the black blood, or nightblood, Polis had been referenced a number of times. It was the heart of the clan, an apparent sprawling village unlike all others they said. It was where the commander stayed most of the time, and I briefly wondered if I could talk Lexa into letting me travel there once the war was over. Maybe I could find my answers there.
"Why does it matter to you so much?" Penn asked, voicing the question that I was sure was on everyone's mind. "Artigas is alive, isn't that what's important?"
"Of course," I answered, peering at him from over my shoulder for a moment. "But if I can figure out how his blood healed him, and duplicate it. Imagine what that would mean for the tribe!"
"You can really do that?" he asked incredulously.
"Well I brought you back didn't I?" I teased.
"On second thought, maybe you shouldn't look into the nightblood," Nyko countered seriously. "Making that one even harder to kill would be some type of cruel torture for the rest of us."
Artigas and the others surrounding us let out a series of laughs, with Jaxon even chuckling at the healer's jibe. Penn just scowled at Nyko's back and grumbled to himself. I just smiled and turned to focus on the road ahead.
It wasn't much longer until we reached the clan again, though Indra and the other leaders greeted us with stern faces quickly pulling myself, Jaxon and Nyko aside.
"Much has happened while you were away," Indra explained, striding purposefully towards the center of the camp.
"Yes, we have news as well," Nyko responded, falling into step beside her, leaving me and Jaxon to trail behind them.
"It will have to wait, the commander needs to speak to Cole immediately," Indra's cool voice explained. I shot Jaxon a puzzled look, but his narrowed eyes told me wasn't aware of what the commander would want me for either.
"We attacked the sky people's camp after you left," Indra continued, not needing a response from us apparently. "They set off some kind of explosion once we got close. Three hundred of our warriors are dead, Tristan among them."
If we hadn't been moving so swiftly I might have faltered in my step as I processed the new information. An explosion? The bomb they had set off on the bridge had been lethal, but nowhere near the size to take out an entire tribe - yet alone Tristan who was uncharacteristically vicious and difficult to subdue.
"Jus drein, jus daun," Jaxon growled from beside me, anger breaking through his stoic tone. Blood must have blood. I just wondered what that meant from me.
"We have captured two of their so called leaders," Indra explained. "They do not look like the others, the commander wants you to identify them."
I nodded even though her back was to me. I wondered what she meant when she said they looked different - to me everyone from the Arc looked the same. All just so normal. That and the clan already knew who Clarke, Finn, Bellamy and the others were. They knew the acting 'leaders' of the sky crew so who could these people be claiming that role?
"Go," she commanded, specifically making eye contact with me as she pulled the tent flap to the commander's war room open. Moving past the three warriors I entered first, scanning the room quickly. Seated in her makeshift throne, Lexa sat patiently eyeing us as we filtered in. However, minus the few guards she normally kept with her there were no others in the tent.
"Indra has explained what has happened in your absence?" Lexa asked, sparing no pleasantries and cutting the chase, though I expected nothing less.
"In part Commander," I replied, keeping my tone as even and respectful as I could manage. Though Jaxon stood a half a step behind me, with Nyko not much further, their presence would not help me if the commander suddenly decided I was no longer an ally. "She told us about the attack, and some sort of explosion and that you have two people here claiming to be their leaders?"
"I tested them both," she answered, "And found them to be truthful in their response. We have let one go, to spread our message and have kept the other one here to speak for them."
"What message?" I asked before I had a chance to filter. I could feel Nyko tensing behind me, he had warned me countless times before to not ask questions or doubt the commander's decisions.
"The message is simple," she replied, not bothered this time by my interruption. "Leave, or die."
Simple in theory alone I thought to myself, carefully censoring my response this time. The sky crew were not familiar with the land, even if they managed to convince everyone to leave they would just be walking into another clan's territory. A vicious cycle it seemed.
"You will come with me to meet with this leader, tell me if he really is such," Lexa continued leaving no room for disagreement or questions now. I just nodded once, I was more than a little curious to see who was waiting for us.
It was a short walk to the holding cells which were really nothing but dug out cement bunkers. The other tribe leaders were waiting when we arrived, apparently this was going to be a clan affair.
"Do you know his name?" I asked Lexa quietly as we stopped before the chained metal gate.
"No," she answered quickly. "Only that he says he is their leader, a chancellor I believe."
I couldn't hide the confusion on my face and Lexa noticed. No one from the sky crew would have taken the title chancellor, especially not after it was that very person who sent them down to this hell in the first place. The others had wanted to follow after us, Jaha had said that much in the video as we crashed into the atmosphere, but surely they hadn't arrived yet. If the entire Arc had made it down then the war was about to take a drastic turn, the numbers would be far more even and we would potentially be outgunned if they came with all their supplies.
Pushing back my racing thoughts I followed Lexa into the bunker, trailing only herself and Gustus as Jaxon , Nyko, Indra and other leaders followed behind me.
His back was towards us, taking water from one of the villagers. Already I knew he wasn't from the sky crew, but it wasn't until he turned around that I truly recognized him.
"Colette?" he asked unbelievingly. "It's really you, wow, look at you."
Before I could respond Lexa turned to me, "Colette?"
"My full name," I answered automatically, not taking my eyes off the man in front of me. Though it had been months since I had seen him, while a little worse for wear, he looked exactly the same. Same wavy brown hair, same dark cold eyes.
"So you do know this chancellor then?" she questioned. I broke my gaze to meet her glare instead.
"Yes," I admitted. "But when I knew him he was no chancellor."
"Things have changed Colette, since you've been gone," the man hurriedly tried to explain. I shook my head at his words.
"Since I've been gone?" I asked. "You mean since you fired a group of us down to Earth to die."
"Yes," he readily agreed, though had some forethought to sound slightly remorseful. "But you survived."
"You have no idea what I've been through since we landed here," I argued, my voice hard. "No idea the impact you have had on the people here."
"We don't have to fight," he tried to explain, but was met with harsh laughs from the leaders surrounding him.
"Your people have brought nothing but death and devastation to my people since they have arrived," Lexa told him sharply. "We offered peace, but your leader blew up our offer."
"Leader?" he asked curiously, "I was never given the option of peace, that was why I came here."
"Not you," Gusts sneered from beside the commander. "The little sky crew leader."
"You?" the man asked, looking at me for clarification. I shook my head.
"Our ship landed further north, we made peace and joined with the tribe there. We have no fued with the clan. We only traveled south when word the the others came to us," I partially explained. "He means Clarke Griffin."
"Clarke isn't a leader," the man scoffed.
"She is now," I told him. "Someone had to take charge while you were up playing space cowboy."
"Colette, watch your tone," he warned, taking one step forward before seeing Jaxon move forward as well. Weighing his options he took a step back, though Jaxon didn't retreat from his position guarding me.
"Watch yours chancellor," Lexa warned. "You are speaking to the leaders of our tribes who each hold power beneath me - pay them the respect they deserve."
"Of course commander," he answered smoothly, slipping back into the cordial leader persona I had become numb to over the years. It was a role he played well, but it was a trick I was no longer blind to.
"Does he have authority to speak for the sky people or not?" Lexa asked, turning to me.
Glancing over at the man I weighed my options. It would be simple to deny his leadership and have Lexa kill him. His title of chancellor, if that was truly what he was now, was most likely not fairly earned and would not be a huge loss for the Arc station anyways. Yet, as his brown eyes reflected my own I couldn't bring myself to voice that lie.
"How many stations made it down?" I asked pointedly. If the entire Arc station landed then his claim of chancellor would be null, there would have to be a vote between the 12 stations.
"Just Alpha," he admitted. "The others would have crashed down too, but we haven't found them yet."
"Other wreckage has been spotted across the mountains commander," one of the leaders from behind me offered. "No survivors."
"Chancellor or not, he's always held a position of power in our government," I told Lexa, turning away from the man in the center of the room. "He can speak for the others who have landed, but I am not sure how much control he'll have over Clarke and the others."
"They are with us now," he tried to argue but Lexa quieted him.
"Enough, I will speak of your terms of surrender only when both you and Clarke are present - the treaty must be absolute," she reasoned. "Gustus, set a time and meeting location and then let him go."
With that she turned and walked out of the bunker, other leaders following her out just as quickly. Not wanting to linger I moved to leave as well before his voice called out.
"Colette, stay," he asked, his tone edging on desperate. "Come back with me, to where you belong. You can help negotiate the treaty."
I shook my head, disappointment swelling in my eyes. Go figure he needed me now.
"I will help the clan from here," I told him absolutely. "This is where I belong."
He called out again but I let his voice fall on deaf ears. His sudden appearance had already caused enough of a disruption. I stayed quiet, reflecting on my life back on the Arc and the events leading up to everything that had left me stranded on this hellish planet in front of a fire eating a mutated deer off a stick.
Jaxon had brought me food ten minutes ago, but I had just picked at it, staring into the fire that was crackling in front of us.
"So you knew him then?" Penn asked, breaking the silence. Word had gotten out about the meeting, but only shrewd rumors and speculations.
"Yes Penn," I answered deftly. "I know him."
"Is he like the others?" he followed up. I wondered for a moment what he would mean by 'like the others.' Ignorant, entitled, power-hungry, desperate - all of which fit so I nodded.
"Worse," I told him. Manipulative and self serving came to mind. Years of memories came to mind at the very thought.
"Who is he?" Nyko asked, taking a bite into his own meal.
"He was a council member on the Arc," I explained. "He can't be trusted. He'll say one thing, but do the other. His good intentions are lies."
"Sounds like you speak from experience?" Indra voiced, curious at the sudden flair in my mood.
"Yeah, I know him well," I replied, wanting to drop the subject.
"Did you work under him?" Nyko questioned, and I shook my head to answer.
"No," my voice void of feeling. I had none to spare for the man. "But I spent my entire life listening to him twist and manipulate others."
"He called you Colette," Penn remarked, with his trademark grin. If I had been in a better mood I would have played along more, let him tease me about my name which sounded so foreign to them.
But I wasn't in a better mood, so I answered shortly, "yes. Only my friends call me Cole."
"So he was no friend of yours?" Indra clarified.
"No," I answered solemnly. "He's my father."
"Stop looking at me like that," I whined, knitting my eyebrows together as Jaxon gazed curiously at me for the hundredth time. He was packing and should have been done by now, but was taking his sweet time. He was giving me a chance to change my mind, to ask him to stay, but I was firm in my resolve…. Even if I would have preferred him with me instead.
"Like what?" he asked feigning ignorance.
"Like you're thinking about changing your mind," I replied, not breaking away from his stare. "Like you think something bad will happen to me if you leave for a few days."
"When I leave you, bad things do happen," he argued, one arched eyebrow challenging me to say otherwise.
"Not always," I countered, but his look told me that wasn't swayed.
"We need food," I continued, deciding I would try to play to his practicality instead. "The more hunters who go, the more successful we'll all be. Anyways, you'll be a day or day and half hike tops away if anything does happen."
"One hunter won't make a difference," he retorted.
"It will if it's one of the villages best hunters," I shot back, crossing my legs underneath me shooting a satisfied smirk at him. Jaxon never required his ego stroked, but that didn't mean he was immune to flattery on occasion.
"Just one of?" he teased back. Even though we were discussing him staying or leaving, the fact that he hadn't stopped packing through the entire conversation told me that he had already made up his mind. He would stay if I asked him, I was sure, the lasting lingering around our tent just served as an indicator that he was worried about me and I was touched by the sentiment - but not moved.
"The very best, I'm sorry I should have clarified better," I joked back, jumping to my feet to walk over to him. He had stopped the pretense, his pack closed and secure now. As soon as I stepped within range his strong arms pulled me against him.
"Be careful, and hunt well," I mumbled into his chest. I told him to bring me back another cat blanket as well, an attempt to lighten the mood, and I was rewarded with the quiet rumbling of his laughter.
"We'll see, don't you have enough furs?" he teased, continuing before I could defend my need for the plush throws. "Try to behave and be careful especially while I am away."
"You say that like I don't behave normally even when you are here," I told him, pulling back slightly with a fake shocked look on my face. It won me a soft smile as he gazed down at me.
"You are a lot of things Cole, my heart," he told me honestly, "but obedient is not one of them."
"I'll be on my best behavior," I promised, seeing the sincerity in his expression. "Nyko is staying too, I'll help him for the next few days. He doesn't let me do anything remotely fun or challenging so that should satisfy your safety requirements."
"The healer will not be able to watch over you all the time," he countered.
"I will be careful," I repeated, and was rewarded with a swift, but soft kiss. He brushed his thumb over my cheek as he grasped my head gently, his stormy eyes searching mine for a moment. He pressed another kiss to my temple before releasing me and stepping away to grab his pack.
I silently followed him out of the tent, already a group of warriors from our area were gathered ahead. With Jaxon and Penn gone it was going to be a boring, quiet couple of days. I frowned slightly at the thought.
"We'll be back soon," Jaxon told me quietly, stopping for a moment to look back at me sensing my shift.
"I know," I told him, steeling my resolve. He nodded once and moved towards the group stopping only when I called out to him with a lopsided smile on my face.
"I was serious about that fur!" I teased, watching his eyes light up even though he was just shaking his head at me. I stood there until the group had disappeared into the trees. Looking around idly I realized that I didn't know what to do now that he was gone. I groaned, it was going to be a long two days.
The time passed quicker than I had thought, much to my pleasure. I had spent my mornings with Nyko treating minor injuries and restocking and reorganizing supplies. Hopefully with the peace treaty talks coming up there would be no need for our war supplies - but I knew better than to hold my breath. Humans are fickle creatures and reaching a compromise both sides would be happy with would be a difficult task. I pushed the thought from my mind though as I re strung an arrow.
With nothing but free idle time in the afternoons - or as long as Nyko could go with having me crammed in close quarters with him - I had taken up my archery lessons with Artigas again. He was as healthy as ever, much to my confusion, and as sassy to as he made yet another comment about the shooting as an arrow sailed wide.
"You weren't even this bad when you first started," he criticized, shaking his head with a small smile.
"I have a lot on my mind Artigas, I'm just having a hard time focusing," I explained with a huff. Not all my shots had been bad, but more than I wanted to admit had missed my target completely.
"Just be happy Penn isn't here to see this," he teased. "You would never live it down."
I groaned loudly at the thought. Penn would be having a space walk with how badly I was shooting. I didn't even want to think about what Jaxon would say.
"Well let me go get the arrows I shot and we'll keep practicing then," I told him, determined to take more care in the next round.
"Yeah, I'll wait here while you find those then," he shot back. "Try to get back before dark."
I shot him a dirty look as he sat against a tree laughing. Mumbling to myself I trekked into the forest to start my hunt. It was a tad more difficult to find the wild shot arrows than I thought it would be, but once I had found most of them I decided to head back. I had ventured out further than I realized, only making a note of the distance when I heard screaming coming back from the main camp. I moved into a quick jog and raced back.
"Where is she?!" a voice yelled, echoing through the camp. I was weaving around buildings and tents trying to get to the source.
"I know you have her!" the same voice yelled desperately. My confusion only grew when I stepped from behind a building to see both Finn and John standing in front of my people with guns raised. I had come in behind them and they had yet to see me, though Nyko spotted me instantly, purposefully keeping his eyes away from me after a brief second.
"We have none of your people," Nyko argued softly, trying to reason with Finn. "Please, these people are not our warriors. They are innocents, they can not fight back."
Finn wasn't calmed though, stepping forward aggressively pointing his weapon at the villagers now gathered in one of the empty corrals for the warriors horses.
"You're lying," he yelled. "Tell me where she is or I'll start shooting."
That was all I needed to hear before I stepped further, raising my bow. Aim be damned, I wasn't going to just stand here.
"Finn, I'm going to need you to put the gun down," I called out calmly, causing both men in front of me to jump. Their guns now pointed at me. Finn, obviously distressed, kept his weapon shifting between me and the villagers. Unsure and untrusting.
"Cole! You're one of us, where is she?" he asked urgently. I looked towards John who only shrugged half-heartedly.
"Who Finn?" I asked, trying to keep his attention on me. "Who are you looking for? I'll help you find them, but I can promise you that you won't find any of your people here."
Finn looked even angrier if possible so John spoke for him, "it's Clarke. We're looking for Clarke. One of the grounders we caught said that she had been taken to this camp."
I couldn't hide my confusion at Clarke's name, she was supposed to be getting ready to meet with Lexa and the other leaders to discuss a peace treaty in two-days time. If she wasn't with her people then where the hell was she?
"Grounder you caught?" I asked, deciding to start there. They had already ran into one of our people then, and with the fit Finn was in I doubted that it ended civilly.
"A man scavenging through the wreckage of the drop ship," John explained, "he had one eye and a massive scar."
Delano. The name rang through my head like an alarm, and as I put the pieces together that had led to Finn holding a gun to my people I saw red. I should have killed him when I had the chance.
"Delano is an outcast and a liar," Nyko spoke up when I hesitated. "He is trying to trick you into attacking us."
"Or maybe you're lying," Finn growled.
"Finn, Nyko is telling you the truth," I tried to reason, curbing my anger for the moment. "He was exiled from the clan. I know because I did it myself, he was the one who attacked me and gave me this scar."
"You should have killed him," John said lowly. We had talked briefly about it when I had stayed with the sky crew. He would know that I was telling the truth.
"It doesn't matter what he did," Finn interrupted. "He's dead now. And Cole, I'll kill everyone in this camp if you don't tell me where you're hiding Clarke."
"Finn, if I knew where she was I would tell you," I told him earnestly, my arms burning with the weight of holding my bow notched. "The last I knew she was meeting with Marcus to discuss the upcoming negotiation."
"That was days ago," he snarled, pointing his gun back towards the villagers in the pen.
"That was the last time I saw her Finn, truly," I replied. His body tensed and his eyes glazed over, a cold shiver ran down my body.
"That's not good enough," he replied, his voice monotone and void of all anger. He turned away from me and raised his gun higher, aiming at Nyko and Artigas who had moven to stand. Without a second thought I released my arrow, immediately going to grab another one from my quiver.
The arrow hit him in the shoulder, but not before a round of shots rang out. A woman screamed in the background, and I heard Nyko's voice yelling out commands in his native tongue. It was chaos as people started to move and shout, but the adrenaline was pumping now and I was focused.
Finn dropped his weapon turning to me with a pained look, his free hand gripping his shoulder where the arrowhead was protruding.
"Please Finn," I begged. "Don't make me do that again. Just drop the gun."
Finn looked between me and John, who had his gun at the ready but still aimed low. John, torn between the two sides, dropped his weapon first.
"I'm not going to shoot her man," he defended to Finn.
"Please Finn," I repeated, seeing Nyko moving closer behind him slowly with his knife drawn. But after a moment Finn dropped the rifle, letting it clatter to the ground as he sank to his knees. He looked exhausted I thought to myself as he clutched his shoulder tighter, tears staining his cheeks. Tears that I knew weren't from the pain of the arrow.
Nyko kicked the gun out of reach and pushed Finn to the ground on his stomach roughly.
"Hey man, come on," John argued softly, taking a step out of instinct towards the two men.
"You take another step and my arrow isn't going to just hit your shoulder," a voice called out from the trees surrounding us. Stepping out from the shadows, Penn leveled his bow at John. It seems the hunting party was back just in time. Other archers from the woods slowly emerged as well. Knowing better, John dropped to his knees interlocking his hands behind his head. A classic submission pose that had been ingrained in us from the Arc. However, it meant very little on Earth and the warriors only eased their bows after he was face down on the ground wheezing at the rough treatment.
"Tie them up, put them in a holding area," a low timbre called out from behind me. A voice that I would recognize anywhere. I turned and met his glare, his eyes hard and cold as he took authority. Once the two sky crew boys were towed away Jaxon pulled me, Nyko and Artigas aside.
"We heard gun shots on our way back and came as quick as we could," Penn explained, starting the conversation. "Why the hell were they even here?"
"Their sky girl is missing," Nyko voiced. "They captured Delano who told them that we had taken her, so they came to get her back."
"We don't have the sky crew girl," Penn answered, obviously confused.
"Yeah, well they didn't believe us until Cole came back," Artigas replied. I felt Jaxon's cool gaze fall on me, but I kept focused on the others. Seeing that I was going to ignore him for now, he turned away.
"Where any of our people hurt?" he asked, causing me to curse myself silently. In all the commotion I hadn't even thought of seeing if one of the stray bullets had hit someone. What kind of healer was I? Nyko's negative answer put me at ease, but only slightly. At least one of the healers was actually focused.
"Do we know where their sky girl is?" Penn asked curiously. I shook my head in turn with the others - Clarke's disappearance was a whole other problem in itself.
"We will keep them tied up until the gathering," Jaxon decided, sounding with a sense of finality. "If their leader is not there by then, we will let Anya decide what to do with them."
It was a fair decision I thought to myself, though I knew the possibility of just killing them had ran through each of their minds. It would be their normal response if any other group attacked them, but on the eve of potential peace the act would only prolong the war. Jaxon was as much of a tactician as he was a warrior, and I admired him for his cool logic.
"Cole, with me," Jaxon's voice cut me from my thoughts. Already the others were turning to leave, and without many other options I fell in step behind Jaxon as he made his way to our tent. There wasn't even a moment of reprise, as soon as the tent flap was closed he rounded on me. The chilled demeanor replaced by a bitter anger.
"I thought I told you to stay safe," he hissed, setting his pack down roughly not breaking eye contact. "And yet I walk back into camp to find two guns pointed at you with your bow drawn."
"I had to do something," I argued.
"You are not one of our leaders, the healer should have handled it," he spat. "You should have stayed hidden and out of the line of fire."
"If I hadn't done anything then we would be burning bodies right now," I replied, anger rising in my voice as well. I knew he was just concerned at what he had walked back to, knew that he was always concerned about me in general really. But whether or not it was what I was supposed to do or not, stepping in the line of fire for the people I cared about wasn't even up for debate. I would, every single time.
"If we had shown up minutes later I could have been burning yours," he growled, moving forward like a predator closing in on its prey.
"John wasn't going to shoot me," I told him. "I knew what I was doing."
"You had no plan," he scolded. I had been counting on John not shooting me, but truthfully had not known for sure who he would side with. The whole sum of my plan had been to distract or injure Finn long enough for the others to get away and I hadn't figured out much past that.
"You never have a plan," he continued angrily. "You rush into danger without a second thought every time. Your actions have consequences for you and those around …."
I moved forward quickly, wrapping my arms around him and pulling myself against him tightly.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, wanting this argument to end. I didn't have a plan, and I did go head into danger. And I was sorry, just not for that.
"I didn't mean to scare you," I continued when he paused during his rant. His hands slowly dropped to my waist, though his touch was light and almost barely there.
"You said it yourself, I'm not very good at taking orders," I said with a shy smile, trying to ease the tension. Jaxon scowled down at me but didn't move me away.
"What am I going to do with you?" he asked quietly, more to himself and to me I figured. But I smiled anyways and laid a kiss on his chest softly.
"Still trying to figure that out?" I teased. "That isn't the first time you've asked yourself that."
"It will probably not be the last," he admitted with a sigh, his anger fading to a low simmer. He pulled away and moved over to where he had set his pack earlier, taking a seat in a nearby chair as he opened it. Setting a number of knives and tools aside, he pulled out a brown bundle.
"No cats, so this will have to do," he said quietly, outstretching his arms to offer me the furs. I moved forward without hesitation to grab the heavy bundle and let it fall open. The animal was huge I noted, watching as the ends swept the floor. It was coarse, but soft and the tanned hide was thick so it give more than enough heat when it got colder.
"It's perfect, thank you" I told him honestly, having forgotten about asking for a new blanket in the first place. I set it down on a work table and moved to stand between Jaxon's legs. Grasping his face gently with both hands I kissed him softly and tenderly, trying to express my gratitude and love through the gesture. He responded immediately, pulling back for only a moment to whisper his response before tugging me closer.
"You're welcome dear heart."