Cannon

25

RYVER

C

annon woke to Ryver’s voice calling his name. She noticed it took him a few seconds to notice she wasn’t saying it sweetly but with terror. He opened his eyes and sat up. She was pointing at something in the dark.

“We have a visitor,” she whispered.

The scorpion waddled about on her leg, flicking its stinger in the air as if it were a threat. Ryver sat still, hoping it wouldn’t notice they were both staring down at it.

“Don’t move,” Cannon said quietly.

Cannon looked down and saw the large scorpion making a home on her leg. In a blurring motion, he rolled away from her, grabbing a nearby stick. He flicked it off her leg, which clearly startled it. Before it could scurry away, he smashed it hard with a rock. They both heard the intense crunching sound of its skeleton turning to dust.

“Jesus Christ!” Ryver said through laughter. “That scared the s**t out of me!”

“No wonder,” Cannon said as he lifted the rock to inspect what he’d done. “These are the deadly kind, so you don’t want to take any chances with that.”

“Fuck.” Ryver stood quickly, looking around to see if she could find any more. In that second, everything she’d been through in the last several days came crashing around her. Cannon embraced her, and she felt her heart going a mile a minute.

She was frustrated and angry. All she wanted to do was get somewhere safe with Cannon where they could live their lives together.

“It’s okay. There’s no way you would have known that.”

She held back tears, pressing her face into his chest. “It feels like I’m at death’s door at every turn around here!” She yelled, expressing a feeling she had been holding back for some time. It was like a fairy tale being with Cannon out here. But no matter how lovely being with him was, there was a terrible world waiting for her outside. She felt like there was nothing she could do about it.

Cannon stroked her hair and her back. She was tiny and almost had her face in his waist. He bent over slightly to accommodate the difference and reassured her that everything was okay. It made her heart swoon.

“They normally don’t come up this high, so that guy was probably lost. It was just a freak occurrence.”

“Those seem to happen a lot around here.”

Ryver found it hard to be vulnerable, so she tried to lean into the moment and listen to his words without feeling defensive. But that was her nature, and she could feel her anxiety and anger swelling inside like a red-hot balloon.

“We are safe right now,” Cannon said. “We will head out when it gets dark again, and we will make sure we look out for each other.”

Ryver looked up at him, tears in her eyes. She wiped them and smiled. Her anxiety was beginning to fade. She truly believed him when he spoke, and that was all she really needed to hear.

“Thank you. I’m sorry, that really took a lot out of me.”

“No need to apologize.” He had his hands on her shoulders. “You can sleep on top of me if you want. No scorpions will get past me.”

Ryver smiled, then hugged him close. She felt safe in his arms. Fear seemed to dissipate whenever he was near.

Ryver sat, having calmed down. Cannon lit another fire as they were both slightly chilly. Cannon put his clothes on and wrapped his arms around her. She shivered slightly, so he brought out the warmth of his dragon. He really was like a human furnace.

She snuggled into him. “Thank you,” she whispered again.

Despite the scorpion scare, Cannon fell asleep quickly. Ryver held him and tried to stop thinking about the possible enemies outside waiting for them. She thought about their future and what things might look like when they got out of this mess. But this wasn’t real life – it was like chewing on a bite of candy and letting yourself absorb the taste. The rest of life was the distinct indifferent flavor she hadn’t realized she had grown accustomed to.

But what if it didn’t have to be that way anymore?

He was a mercenary, yes, in a world that Ryver had never considered. But he defied those stereotypes and anything she had ever imagined before. He was arrested on bogus charges, it sounded like. She wouldn’t hold that against him.

She fell asleep in his arms, imagining their life away from fear and the potential for violence.

He awoke before she had when night had fallen. She saw him packing their things away as she sat up.

“Good evening, sweet Ryver,” Cannon said.

Ryver smiled. She knew this wasn’t going to be an easy night. She wished they could continue talking in this cave, getting to know each other, and just living in the eternal bliss of their bodies and souls. But they had to get out of there – who knew how long it would take until another group would find them?

He held her for a moment as if he had sensed her fears. He was good at that – maybe it was a shifter thing. He kissed her forehead and glanced down at her. “You good to go?”

She shrugged. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

He slipped his backpack on and offered her a hand up. She stood and felt more strength than she had anticipated. She followed Cannon, and he reached out his hand for her. She smiled and took it. He led her out of the cave into the darkness. He removed a flashlight from his pocket, and they started down the path.