Free Capture of a Heart by Mya Lairis Page A

looked there were displays of beauty, of horror, of courage and pride…
    There was so much to learn, too much as she sat down and stared. At the setting of the sun, a winner was presented…and although she had committed a few movements to memory, Shoraya lamented when the crabs began to dig back into the loamy mud.
    She still told herself that she had to leave, that she could not allow herself to become attached to a man she barely knew and who barely knew her, but she could not lie to herself about the need to travel far and wide. There were countless lessons in the forest that she was ignorant of…in the same way that she was ignorant of Gavenas’s heart, and she was overwhelmed by all of them.

Chapter Twelve
    Gavenas knew that there was something different about Shoraya the moment that she drew back the den’s panel and stepped inside. If he had to be honest with himself, he had suspected something when she chose to linger just past nightfall. Fear, however, kept him riveted to the hearth.
    He had occupied himself with the preparation of the night’s meal, an ample-sized shimmer trout stuffed with mashed quari root paste and nuts, a simple salad, and wine. It was a meal fit for royalty and one that would show off his cooking skills. Not that Shoraya had ever professed any of his meals to be anything less than extraordinary, but he relished the opportunity to please her, had become accustomed to it, and yet he could see it in her eyes, the very moment that he had dreaded.
    As Shoraya moved to the pallet and placed her sheathed swords beneath the bed, Gavenas pretended to be overly concerned with tending the grilling fish, which was wrapped tightly in leaves and smoking nicely without his meddling fingers.
    He heard the pallet creak as she sat down and swore he could detect the exhaustion in her bones as she settled. He wanted to believe that he was just paranoid. That rather than coming to the conclusion that she was well enough to be on her way, that she had realized her need for him. It was an absurd hope that he had aptly displayed his capacity to care for, feed, provide for, and love her. Surely a woman such as Shoraya could attain any male she wished for.
    There was nothing truly special he had done, and yet Gavenas wanted to believe. He cursed himself for ever uttering that what he had done for her was the equivalent of how he might have tended to a wounded bird, even as he sat back and left the meal to cook on its own.
    “There is a chill in the air.”
    “Yes, there is. Winter is not far off,” Gavenas said as matter-of-factly as he could.
    A measure of silence passed between them, where Gavenas stared into the flame, praying silently. Then Shoraya spoke.
    “I should be getting on my way soon, before the snow begins to fall, I think.”
    A horrible pressure settled into Gavenas’s chest as the desire to change her mind, to beg her to stay, raged within him. There was so much that he had planned to show her, things he wished to teach her about the forest and about herself. He felt sure that somehow he could incorporate not only magic but himself into her life. More importantly he felt she was his mate and that she simply didn’t realize it. Instead of prayers, Gavenas looked to the shimmering flames for emotional support, as each breath hurt to take.
    “Does the forest get much? Snow?”
    Gavenas heard the wavering hesitation in her voice and knew the decision had not been an easy one for her. Yet as she seemed strong enough to endure it, so would he be. He stood up from the hearth and drew his robes tightly about him, as if the warmth being provided by the cook fires wasn’t sufficient enough to keep the chill out of his bones. “It does. Several feet. But as you move toward the desert, the climate will warm to a furious heat. The nights, however, carry a harsher cold than you might expect. You should be properly prepared.”
    He had several chests along the far side of the den but knew which one he