She’s talkative this morning, and I can’t help but feel more like a useless fool at her side. “I can make the food,” I grumble, and dig through the packs. There are two different kinds of roots in the first pack, and I pick the first one up, holding it out to her. “This root?”

Vivi takes it from me, and as she does, her fingers brush mine. “Skarr, you’re like ice again!”

“Am I?”

I watch as she immediately strips off her clothing, her lips pursed with focus. She flings her tunic aside, revealing her pretty, bouncy little teats again and then her boots and leggings come off. I open one corner of the furs, inviting her in, and I love that she immediately sprawls against me, pressing her warm—so keffing warm—body against mine.

Groaning with the pleasure of it, I immediately extrude again, like a foolish boy. “Ignore that.”

She chuckles and slides her arms around my neck, tilting her face toward mine. I kiss her, brushing my lips against hers, and her tongue teases against mine. For a long moment, the world is silent as Vivi kisses me, all hot, wet mouth and thrumming khui. When she pulls away, she lets out a little sigh of pleasure and wriggles against my throbbing cocks. “Better now?”

“If I say yes, are you going to get up?” I pull her closer so I can feel her nipples drag against my skin. They get tight and hard when I touch her, little pebbles of flesh that I’m just dying to take into my mouth again. “Because if that is the case, no. I am frozen solid and need your body against mine at all times.”

My joke lands poorly. Her smile turns into a line of worry, and this time when she runs her hands over me, there is no desire to it, only fear. My cocks shrivel and threaten to slide back into my body. “Skarr, I want you to tell me when the cold bothers you. I don’t want to get into the same situation like we did last night.”

“Last night, when I woke up with my mouth upon your teats? I did not mind that.”

Her expression hardens. “Last night when you were so cold and unresponsive I thought you were dead.”

Her tone is as wintry as the landscape, and my cocks retreat fully. “I am not weak—”

“It’s not about weakness! It’s about knowing your vulnerabilities so they can be accounted for!”

“Bah. I have no vulnerabilities.”

Her nostrils flare and she looks enraged. “You’re being a stubborn ass and I want to kick you right now.”

“You want to spar?” I am not sure I will be at my best, but if Vivi wishes to try me out, I will go easy on her.

“No, I just want to inflict damage because you’re making me angry.” She presses her fingers to my face, testing my skin, and then gets up again, unfolding her long legs. Her teats tighten to pricks of pink in the chill of the hut, and she adds a few more cakes to the fire and finishes the tripod.

I remain quiet, because I do not know how to appease an angry female. Nothing in my arena training has prepared me for this. I know how to put an opponent in a headlock, not how to make them smile at me. I need more of the resonance mind control, like I’rec suggested. Presents work, and pleasuring her.

Ah, I should pleasure Vivi. I eye her naked, shivering body as she chops food for the stew. I try to help with the knife, but she glares at me so hard that I pull my hand back. I offer her a fur to wrap over her shoulders instead, and this she takes—but glares at me anyhow.

Pleasure, definitely, I think. She liked it when I licked her teats, but it did not make her cry out like Flor did when I’rec was touching her. Then again, Flor screamed that she was sitting upon his face. So he could tongue her cunt? He mentioned that before, as well. I lick my lips, eyeing Vivi’s lean form as she stands. There’s a teasing little tuft of hair over the cleft of her cunt, hiding everything from my sight.

I bet I could lick her there and she wouldn’t scowl at me.

But if she doesn’t come to join me under the furs again, how will I get her to lie down? Should I tackle her and twist her into a leg lock? I contemplate the grappling moves I know, looking for one that hurts the least and will still have the desired result of prying her legs apart.

Females are so complicated.

“Here,” she says, interrupting my thoughts. She thrusts the waterskin toward me, the contents sloshing. “This is the tea Gail made. It might still be warm. Drink it while the stew is heating.”

“You should come and drink some, too,” I encourage, pulling out the plug of waterproofed leather that fits in the mouth of the skin. I tilt it back and grimace at the taste of the tea. It’s warm, all right, but it also tastes like leaves. Not my favorite. I hold it out to Vivi and she gestures that I should drink again.

“I’m mad at you,” Vivi says when I lower the skin. “I’m mad at you and I’m trying to remind myself that you don’t think the way I do, so I’m going to talk about it instead of turning and leaving like I want to do.”

My eyes widen and I automatically reach for her. “I don’t want you to leave.”

She tries to pull out of my grasp, retreating away a bit. “I don’t want to leave either, but Skarr…remember when I broke my finger and you looked out for me? You being affected by the cold is no different than that broken finger. If we really are a team and we’re going to look out for each other, that means you have to let me look out for you, too.”

“But this is different.”

“How is it different?”

I stop the words before I say them. It’s different because it is happening to me will just make her angry. I know her well enough now to realize this. “Because I am supposed to protect you as your mate.”

“What about me? Can’t I protect you? We’re supposed to be equals. That’s what a partner is.”

Frowning I imagine a scenario where Vivi might be able to “protect” me. I imagine us in the arena, with opponents rushing toward us, and a hot stab of fear makes it impossible to think straight. I do not want her anywhere near that. I certainly do not want her standing at my side, toe to toe. She should never be in danger, not when I’m around. “I…I don’t know.”

She tilts her head at me, her expression exasperated. “I can take care of myself, Skarr. You have to trust that—and trust me—if we’re partners. Do you trust me?”

I know what the right answer is, and yet I don’t know that I can give it. “I am trying. I do trust you.”

“But not enough to sit back when I say sit back?”

I hesitate again, because it goes against everything I am to “sit back” and let someone else take care of things. I am always in the lead. I am the instigator. It is how I have been trained. Yet Vivi does not seem pleased with this, and I desperately want to please her. “I will…try? How far back must I sit?”

Her lips twitch and she gives me an exasperated smile. “Please try. I trust you, you know.”

“You do?”

She nods. “You’ve proved yourself to me. Apparently I have farther to go to impress you.”

It wounds me that she thinks she is not perfect in my eyes…and yet this is the opportunity to sway her thoughts, to use the mind control that I’rec hinted at. “If you trust me, then we should wrestle.”

Confusion moves over her face and Vivi straightens, putting the last of the vegetables into the pot to let them cook. “I’m sorry, what?”

“We should wrestle,” I state again.

“Like…to get blood flowing? Or is this some sort of ceremonial thing?”

“No, nothing like that.” I hold my hand out to her and get to my feet. My breath puffs white in the air and I immediately want to return my naked body to the blankets, but this will not take long. Vivi has said herself that she is no fighter, and I have no wish to truly wrestle. It is simply to get my way. “I will not hurt you. We will be quick. You trust me, right?”

I can see on her face that she feels cornered. Her skepticism is plain to see, but if she backs out, she has made a liar of herself. Her jaw clenches, but she puts her hand in mine. “I trust you, but if this is a trick, I’m going to be really upset with you.”