The Sabertooth's Mate (Ice Age Alphas Book 2) Read online

  She cracked open her eyes and saw Eron stride in through the entrance of the hut. He should be in the caves, asking the gods for a safe birth.

  “This is no place for a man!” Tira barked as she darted to her feet, looking ready to shift into her sabertooth form and drag Eron out with her teeth if he dared to refuse.

  He held up his hands as his wide wise eyes took in the angry woman before him. “I need to be here, Tira. This birth needs the gods in the birthing hut.”

  Tira looked divided as her golden eyes flickered from Ezi over to Eron.

  “No one else in the clan can call upon the gods and their generosity.” Eron’s sky blue eyes dared Tira to disagree with him. “They can be cruel if we don’t honor them properly.”

  Ezi could care less who was in the birthing hut with her. Another pain ripped through her abdomen, and she screamed as her eyes slid shut and more sweat poured down her spine and forehead.

  She was going to die.

  Aiyre had been wrong. Clearly, the gods owed them nothing, because she wasn’t going to survive this. The pain was unbearable, and no matter what tea Tira brewed, nothing worked, and the baby refused to come out.

  “Fine. You may stay inside the hut, but stay on the other side.” Tira rushed back to her side as her vision blurred with black dots.

  “Save my child.” Ezi panted out. She couldn’t live knowing she’d lost Drakk and the baby he had left for her.

  Tira leaned in until her face was close to Ezi’s face. “I am going to save both of you.”

  Chapter 2

  Tor panted as he plodded through the forest. His fur coat brushed up against low hanging branches. His sabertooth’s head turned in every direction as he sniffed and processed all the scents floating through the air. It’d been too many moons to count since he had shifted out of his sabertooth form. He wasn’t even sure he could change back into his human form.

  A growl rumbled out of his chest as his sabertooth instinct remembered the hurt Ezi had delivered to them both.

  She’d rejected him. Rejected him because of his sabertooth side. He’d never resented his other half until she’d wandered into his life. Never before had he wished that he was something other than a sabertooth, then, maybe then, his mate would accept him.

  A growl ripped up his throat, rumbling low in his chest. She hated him for what he was, even though he’d never done anything to warrant her hatred. He only wished she’d give him a fair chance at winning her heart. All he wanted was to wrap his arms around her and protect her from the cruel land they called home.

  But not only had her rejection stung, but he’d seen the depth of her hurt, and every instinct inside him had screamed at him that she wouldn’t ever accept him. What his clan had done to hers had created a rift that he wasn’t sure he could fix. It wasn’t like patching the tear in a piece of clothing.

  Tears in the heart were a lot harder to repair.

  It would take time and patience, something he wasn’t sure he could give her, so he’d left the village. Only distance would keep him from ruining things between them even more.

  He glanced up at the sunlight streaming through the shifting tree branches above him. By now, Ezi should’ve had her child. A child another man had put inside her. It’d been before him, but still, he couldn’t help the jealousy that reared its ugly head, but there was also some eagerness. He hoped the child would bring her copious amounts of joy. After everything she’d lost, he hoped this would give her something back. Give her a spark in her eyes.

  The father of Ezi’s unborn child had been able to win her over, and yet Tor feared the gods wouldn’t be so kind to him. The gods were waving his mate in front of his face but had given her to him damaged. If it was a test, then he wasn’t entirely sure he would pass it.

  Eron, the healer of their village, always said the gods wouldn’t give them more than they could handle, but Tor had a hard time believing that wise old man. Tor couldn’t handle being around Ezi. The mistrust in her eyes had cut him to the bone.

  His sabertooth growled in displeasure at the direction his thoughts were headed. It didn’t want to relive the rejection, but what else could he focus on out here? Thoughts of Ezi plagued him like a bad hunting season.

  A light breeze picked up, rustling the leaves overhead and wafting a scent straight past his sabertooth nose.

  A wholly rhinoceros.

  He would recognize that scent anywhere. There was a muskiness to them that no other animal possessed, and it was hard to describe but distinctive. It filled the air and crinkled his nose in disgust. Those hairy beasts weren’t known for their cleanliness. Tor swore there were more creatures living in their thick fur than he would ever see in his entire life.

  Despite their stench, they did make a great challenge for a skilled hunter. The rhinoceros were known for their foul temperaments and willingness to fight back.

  The opportunity to distract himself from thoughts of Ezi had arrived.

  A smile curved the lips of his cat head as he plodded his way through the forest. His large paws crushed fallen leaves, but the pads of his paws deafened the sound as he moved across the forest floor. As the stench of the wholly rhinoceros grew stronger, he crouched low to the ground. His lightly colored belly skimmed over the fallen leaves and grass as he made no sound.

  If he wanted to take out one of these rhinoceroses by himself, then he needed to catch it by surprise, and even then, it would be quite the fight. But it would take his mind off Ezi and relieve some of his boredom.

  Creeping forward, one slow paw at a time, Tor weaved his way through the tall green grass. It waved around him as he crawled through it, but wholly rhinoceroses weren’t known for their eyesight. What he had to worry about was their sense of hearing or smell.

  When his paw began to press down on a brittle piece of wood, and he heard the creak of wood, he pulled it back and chose to take a different path through the tall grass. One wrong sound and the rhinoceros would either bolt or charge the sound, and he didn’t want to be on the wrong end of one of their horns.

  A light wind brushed over the fur on his back, tickling his skin.

  He froze.

  But the wind was on his side. It was blowing his scent in the opposite direction of the wholly rhinoceros, and a smile played across his cat lips. The gods were on his side. As he broke through the tall grass, he finally caught sight of his prey.

  The wholly rhinoceros was larger than he’d remembered them being, but he was determined to take it down. He’d never hunted such a large creature by himself, but he had faith in his sabertooth form. If his sabertooth thought they could do it, then he would believe it.

  The grayish-black fur on the animal waved in the light wind as it shuffled a foot in the dirt, searching for the spring shoots that were popping out of the ground. Something that’d be easy to digest after such a slim winter they’d all lived through.

  Testing the scent on the wind, Tor found the rhinoceros by itself.

  His heart thundered under his ribcage with the task ahead of him.

  Now all he needed was the rhinoceros to shift its lumbering body so that he could get a good angle for the attack. Although he best keep in mind that though this animal might look like a lumbering beast, he’d seen one of them trample a man in the blink of an eye before. They were much faster than anyone could ever imagine just looking at their short legs and ginormous bodies.

  As if reading his mind, the wholly rhinoceros turned away from him and began lumbering off in search of some more young plant shoots to munch on.

  If he was going to take on this beast, then this was his chance.

  Tor’s muscles bunched up in his hind legs as he launched himself, dirt flying wildly behind him as he tore off. His claws dug into the ground as he used them to gain some grip and speed.

  Then as he neared the rhinoceros’s rear end, his hind legs bunched once more, launching his large cat frame into the air. His front paws reached out wide as he zeroed in on the target below
him.

  As he landed on top of the massive animal, he dug his claws and the long canines in his mouth into the rhinoceros’s back, trying to sever the spine or hit the jugular, but the animal startled the moment his claws landed on its skin.

  Holding on for his life as the animal tore into a high-speed bolt, Tor growled in frustration as the long hair on the rhinoceros’s neck tickled the back of his throat as he attempted to get a better hold of the massive animal under him.

  This animal was refusing to go down easily.

  But that was fine with him. He was up for a bit of a challenge. All thoughts of Ezi had fled from his mind, and his only goal now was to stay alive and bring down this brute of a beast.

  It began to zig-zag, tossing his body around until he was braced on its side. As he looked around without releasing his grip on the beast’s neck, he saw, too late, what the wholly rhinoceros was up to with its zig-zagging ways.

  It slammed its side into a thick tree trunk, and a loud snap reached his ears at the same time that pain rammed through his entire body. His grip on the beast weakened, and he slipped down the side of the rhinoceros until he was laying on the ground in a heap.

  His long pink tongue rolled out of his mouth as he panted in pain. Glancing up, he saw the beast had turned itself around and was now bearing down on him. Its large bottom horn aimed straight for him.

  Frantically, Tor got his feet back under him and bolted right before the rhinoceros barreled past him, ramming the horn on its nose into the thick tree trunk. Wood chips flew through the air, and a shiver spread down his spine as he realized how close to death he’d been.

  The rhinoceros wasn’t done with him though.

  Turning, it barreled down on him again. The large beast was in a blind rage, and its sole focus was Tor.

  Tor leaped to the side, but this time he wasn’t quick enough when one of his paws slipped on a patch of mud. The wholly rhinoceros filled his vision, and he feared it would be the last thing he would ever see.

  Chapter 3

  Ezi’s vision blinked back to see Tira bending over her, stroking a hand over her sweating face. Even through all the pain, she could feel that her hair was stuck to her scalp from the amount of sweat pouring off her. If childbirth didn’t kill her, lack of water might.

  “We are almost done,” Tira promised sweetly as she wiped another hand across Ezi’s brow.

  “Am… I dying?” She managed through the pain that was radiating up from her abdomen.

  “We won’t let you.” Tira smiled down at her. “I will save both the child and yourself. The gods will have to look elsewhere if they are seeking a soul to join them in the Eternal Hunting Grounds.”

  Ezi’s head lolled to the side, and then she spotted Eron, the sabertooth clan shaman, burning incense and chanting to a small stone statue in front of him. The statue was that of a pregnant woman, her thick legs spread wide and her immense bosom welcoming all the children of the land. Eron bobbed up and down as he worshipped the statue with his hands outstretched in a pleading manner.

  She had to be dying.

  Eron, a man, wouldn’t be allowed in the tent unless the situation required extra guidance from the gods, which meant things weren’t going as they should.

  A lone tear carved a path from the corner of one of her eyes, down over her cheek before plopping onto the thick furred blankets under her. She felt mixed about the possibility of passing. She’d been raised to believe the Eternal Hunting Grounds would be a land full of food, warmth, and loved ones, like Drakk, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to be rejoined with Drakk so soon.

  The unknown scared her. Terrified her. Her heart thundered inside her chest.

  “Ezi?”

  Shifting her head to the other side, Ezi’s eyes landed on Aiyre. Her friend’s brunette eyebrows were drawn down over her eyes in worry.

  “Take care of my child.” Ezi pleaded with her friend. She needed to hear the words from Aiyre’s mouth. She couldn’t join the gods when she didn’t have the promise. If she did end up seeing Drakk again, she wanted to be able to say truthfully that she’d left their child in good hands.

  Aiyre shook her head, a brunette braid rolling over one shoulder. “You will take care of your child, Ezi.”

  “I’m dying.” She croaked, her dry throat hating her for even trying to speak.

  “You won’t die.” Aiyre shook her head, refusing to believe what was right in front of her face.

  “Please.” Ezi pushed the darkness that was calling her name away. She couldn’t leave this world for the Eternal Hunting Grounds, not when she didn’t have a promise. She needed someone here to promise to take care of her child. “Please.”

  Aiyre reached out of her line of sight and took hold of one of Ezi’s hands and squeezed it. “You will live.”

  Despair slowly choked her. Aiyre wasn’t going to let her fade away. It was like her lifelong friend, and clanmate knew she wouldn’t die until she got the promise out of someone.

  “Place this in her mouth.” Tira handed a wooden bowl of green mash of herbs to Aiyre.

  Aiyre sniffed it before her nose crinkled in disgust. “What will it do?”

  “It will relieve some of her pain.” Tira glanced down at Ezi, and she could see the pity in the other woman’s eyes. “We aren’t done yet, but we are getting close.”

  Close.

  Ezi clung to that word. Soon this would all be over. Her life was in the gods’ hands, and maybe in Eron’s hands as well. Her head lolled to the side again, and she watched Eron, letting him distract her from what was happening around her.

  He was bowed over the statue of the pregnant woman with a stick of dried herbs burning, filling the tent with its comforting floral scent.

  Fingers pressed something against her lips, and she opened her mouth only to choke on the taste of whatever was being pushed into her mouth. Quickly, she swallowed before the paste overpowered her taste buds. If Tira said it would take some of her pain away, then she would choke it down while smiling.

  “Push.” Tira encouraged her. “Push. Your baby wishes to enter our world.”

  Ezi heaved every time Tira told her to give a push. Sweat continued to pour off her. It ran down her back in streams as her body quivered with her tiredness. She had no idea how long she’d been in labor.

  In what seemed like several lifetimes of panting and pushing, the crying of a baby reached her ears, and a smile spread across her face as everything went dark.

  All Tor felt was the front horn of the rhinoceros tearing through the flesh on his leg. The pain seared up his spine, and his teeth ground down as a growl of agony tore through his throat. Then the wholly rhinoceros tossed its head back, flinging him through the air by his leg, and he felt his flesh tear with the force.

  A roar of pain and shock left his sabertooth mouth as he flew through the air, his paws stretched wide as they tried to find a grip in the air. Birds scattered in the trees above at the horrific sound below them.

  Then he landed. Hard. Pain rocked through him, and lights danced across his vision. Instinct kicked in. He had to save his life by getting away from the wholly rhinoceros. He’d picked a fight he was incapable of winning, and now he needed to get out of the area or die. And he had no intention of dying.

  Heaving himself to his paws, he pushed through the pain in one of his back legs, trailing blood as he searched for a safe place to assess his wound.

  The ground below him trembled. Dumbly, he turned his cat eyes to the ground and watched a couple of stones bounce wildly near his front paws. When Tor glanced up his cat eyes widened as he saw the rhinoceros charging back at him. Its horns were once more lowered, and he knew it was coming back for the kill. Pushing through the pain that tried to knock him off his paws, he shoved himself to the side, this time before the rhinoceros could trample him.

  The beast rumbled past going too fast to slow down and change course.

  Without waiting to see what it would do, Tor shot off, each step radiating pa
in up to the base of his skull. If he didn’t push past the pain, the rhinoceros would most definitely come after him.

  The ground under him rumbled again. Little rocks on the ground beside him jumped into the air as if trembling in fear of what was bearing down on them.

  A growl ripped out of Tor’s throat as he whipped around and found the rhinoceros bearing down on him once more. He knew he’d started this fight, but he needed it to be over before he died due to his stupidity for thinking this would be an easy or fair match.

  As the rhinoceros aimed its horn at him, Tor tensed his muscles waiting for the right moment. At the very last second, he threw himself to the side, pain ripping up his leg with the movement, but this time instead of fleeing he readied a clawed paw and swiped at the beast’s face as it galloped past.

  His claw connected, hooking on the flesh of the rhinoceros’s face.

  It let out a bellow of pain before turning tail and fleeing the area.

  Tor sighed in relief as he slumped over on the ground. He couldn’t deal with the pain anymore, so he receded into the back of his mind and let his sabertooth instinct come to the front. It would take care of him. It always took care of him.

  Tor didn’t come back to the front of his mind until his sabertooth had found them a safe place to stay the night. It wasn’t much. It was only a tree, but there was something familiar about it like he knew it from somewhere, but he was unable to place it in his current state of mind.

  Slumping onto the ground, he licked the wound on his leg. Tor knew he was going to pass out again, but he wanted, needed, to get his wound cleaned. Slowly, his vision blacked out, and before he lost consciousness, he thought to himself, I’m going to die, and my mate won’t even know or mourn the loss.

  Chapter 4

  Blinking, Ezi glanced around the hut and caught sight of Aiyre standing off to one side. She swore that woman was always around. The woman lurked around like a mother bear, always watching and waiting for the cry of her cub. She wished Aiyre would realize that she was a grown woman who knew out to take care of herself.