There was a terrible moment where he was certain the bench was about to collapse from the way the wooden frame creaked ominously. He let out a sigh of relief when it held. Furis scrambled off it, followed by Bero, not wanting to destroy the human’s furniture. It would be a terrible show of gratitude on their part.
He was barely aware that Bero had dropped to lie limp on the floor as Furis stumbled forward to help the human settle Yeril more comfortably. The moment the male was settled and covered with a large blanket, Furis’s body finally gave out on him, and he dropped to his knees in exhaustion. It was only with considerable effort that he was able to lift his head to look up at the human hovering anxiously over him.
Sympathetic green eyes peered down at him from a delicate face, the thin strips of fur on the female’s brows knitting together with concern. How cruel that it was only at his weakest moment that he was presented with such a fine female. He doubted there were any in the Citadel who were her equal. He lifted one clawed hand toward her, uncertain if she was even real. She stared at it with confusion.
A sudden commotion drew her attention to the side, and he turned his head so that his gaze followed hers. He didn’t know what he expected to see, but it was not the pair of human offspring who scampered into view, their thin little bodies jostling each other as they stared at him and his brothers with wide-eyed curiosity. Furis dropped his hand, regret and disappointment washing over him.
She was a dam with young. No doubt her mate would be nearby.
He would be quite displeased to see Ragoru in his den.
Furis closed his aching eyes, too exhausted in that moment to care as he allowed himself to drift off by Bero’s side.
Chapter 5
Betani sucked her teeth nervously as she eyed the Ragoru males sleeping in her living room. The one on the couch worried her the most. Though the other two had collapsed from obvious exhaustion, the male on the couch twitched with spasms, licks of foam appearing on him that made her wince.
She wasn’t an expert, but it reminded her of the convulsions of an alley cat that had been poisoned from the tri-petal darkwort flower. Sadly, it was a pretty common sight. The toxic flower grew plentifully in the shadowy places around the Citadel. Animals tended to avoid it, but it was commonly ground up into meat to deal with pests.
She couldn’t believe that someone had used it against a Ragoru. The flower was known to lead to a terrible death and was rarely used against people. No doubt whoever used it hadn’t seen the Ragoru as such. She curled her lip in disgust at that thinking. Not too long ago, there were many in the Citadel who would have considered her and her children nothing more than vermin that they would have happily poisoned if they could have gotten away with it. Given that the Ragoru were guaranteed safety within Old Wayfairer Citadel, this was an audacious move. Despite the damnedest attempts of whoever had tried to kill him, the male was somehow miraculously alive.
Betani reached down and brushed a comforting hand against the male’s brow when he shivered and made a low, pained sound. Her hand sank into the snowy white fur that thickened there, falling in a long, well-groomed mane around his shoulders. Despite its length, there were no matts in it from any sort of neglect. Several sections were, in fact, braided. He was beautiful. She didn’t understand how anyone could even imagine that he was nothing more than an animal to be poisoned. She stroked him, luxuriating in the soft feel of the fur, but forced herself to stop, holding her hand in place as guilt assailed her.
Here she was, mentally chiding someone for poisoning him as if he were an animal, and she was petting him! She bit her lip and began to pull her hand away, but he made a distressed sound and moved his head back into her hand. Immediately, he calmed and leaned into her touch. Betani felt as though her heart melted at the trusting gesture.
“Don’t worry,” she said softly as she gently pulled her hand away and tucked the blanket around him. “I will do everything I can to help you.”
There was still hope yet for him to recover.
Darkwort had no known antidote. Those who accidentally consumed tiny quantities of it—if they survived it—had to be watched for days, their symptoms relieved by cooling their bodies and consuming small amounts of bone broth mixed with twin-stars herb to relieve stomach distress. That was all that could be done among humans, and she couldn’t even do that much with him unconscious. Since she knew nothing of Ragoru, she guessed that all she could do was treat him as if he were human.
Grabbing what few blankets she had left, she covered her guests, unable to turn away from the sight of them shivering. Their fur was sodden from melted snow. Tucking a blanket around each of them, she smiled comfortingly as the two males on the floor opened exhaustion-glazed eyes to stare at her as she pulled the blankets around them. They seemed confused and uncertain at the gesture, but neither had the energy to fight his way out of a sack if given the opportunity. They were utterly reliant on her.
Alis’s face crumpled as she watched Betani spread a pink blanket over the silver male lying against the other, his blue eyes and the black mask around his eyes distinguishing him from the other gold-eyed silver Ragoru beneath him.
“Momma, that’s my pink blanket.”
She brushed a hand over her daughter’s head.
“Don’t worry, baby. He’s just borrowing it so that he doesn’t get sick. You will get it back.”
“Like I was sick?”
Alis had come down with hypothermia when she was three from the faulty heating in their apartment that the landlord had never bothered to fix. The cold drafts had been such a constant that Betani had known that it had been a matter of time before someone fell ill.
“Yes, like you were.”
Alis’s tiny brow pulled with concern as she looked at the sleeping male. “Oh, I don’t want that to happen. He can use it.”
“That’s my big girl,” Betani praised as she dropped a kiss on her daughter’s brow. “Don’t worry, you and Nik will sleep with me tonight. We will be plenty warm.”
“Okay, Momma.”
Nik wrinkled his nose at her from where he leaned over the edge of the couch. He had been inspecting their unexpected visitors with fascinated glee.
“No, Moooom. I’m too big to sleep with you,” he complained with a shudder of disgust.
Betani smoothed her expression before he could see the hurt that struck her. They had always been so close, but things changed after he and Alis started attending school. Now everything was either fascinating or disgusting—and usually shows of affection fell in the former category. That much was apparent by the way he started pulling away if she tried to kiss or hug him. It hurt, but it was a necessary reminder that she couldn’t stop her children from growing up. “Can’t I just sleep here with them?” he wheedled. “They’re so weird.”
Growing up or not, he was definitely not doing that.
“Absolutely not. They need rest, not you hovering over them like a buzzard. Now come along, go wash up. It’s time for bed.”
With a token protest, her children filed off toward the bedrooms at the rear of the small apartment. She stood sentry as they washed in the water she’d warmed over the stove after dinner. Her presence there was mostly for Nik’s benefit since he was too often tempted to skip washing in favor of something else that grabbed his attention. He scowled at the water as if he resented it for being forced to endure cleanliness. Betani rolled her eyes and massaged her neck with one hand, trying to alleviate some of her tension.