Okay, he was just a jealous little bitch. Didn’t matter if it was a purely platonic hug.
It was Divina who gently pushed out of Sorin’s arms.
The warrior glared at Ere over her head, but Ere unapologetically glared back.
He got her to stop crying. Enough was enough. No more touching what was his!
“Where is Andros?” Sorin asked, looking back at Divina, ignoring the fact that Ere was about to have an infantile fit of his own.
Her lips trembled threateningly, as if she was on the verge of a new crying jag.
“What happened?” Ere snapped, impatience and frustration marking his tone, earning him another dark look from his Mate.
Sorin’s disapproval only made him madder.
Ere really missed Rui in this moment. The truffle—er—treasure dragon who accompanied Sorin and him on their first quest. Rui was the opposite of melodramatic. She was a cold, hard warrior through and through. Logical and precise. Her only soft spot was her Mate, Wolfe. For him, and only him, she was squishy like jelly.
And maybe, sometimes, she tolerated Ere too.
Why couldn’t they get another co-quester like Rui? Which god did he piss off to end up with this high-maintenance cry-baby?
Divina drew a deep breath and finally began to communicate with intelligible words, though she stuttered on every other one.
“A-Andros went to the f-fort to meet the arriving centaurs. They’ve come down from th-the mountains to head to the city for the sacrifice. A-Andros left me here. H-he said I wouldn’t be able to help. But…But there are two dozen of them! What if he gets h-hurt! It’s all my f-fault!”
When Sorin would have pulled her close again, Ere strode purposely between them in a huff.
“Walk and talk. The sooner we get to the fort, the sooner we can assess the situation.”
He set a brisk pace with his long strides, while Sorin slowed his own to make allowance for Divina’s much shorter legs. She practically jogged to keep up, Chewie guarding her side.
“Now,” Ere said, “why do you say it’s your fault?”
“I hurt his f-feelings,” she answered in a small voice, filled with guilt and contrition.
“And how did you do that?”
Sorin rumbled a warning beneath his breath, indicating that he didn’t like the brusque way in which Ere was interrogating Divina.
Well, tough.
Ere didn’t feel like coddling the woman, especially if it was “her fault.”
She remained silent for a long while as they walked.
Finally, she revealed, “He…he was interested in…something between us, and I turned him down. I told him we should be friends.”
“Ouch,” Ere said with a wince.
“I didn’t mean to hurt him! I was trying not to. I mean, I want him too. But I don’t know if I want him in the same way. He’s just…he’s not like anyone I’ve ever met before.”
“Yeah, this is the first time I met a centaur too, and I’ve lived a long,longlife, if you count all my incarnations. I thought I’d seen everything.”
“It’s not that,” she said with a vehement shake of her head, tossing her tangled tresses around her face.
“It’shim. I don’t…I just don’t want to mess things up. He’s special.”
“Well, that makes a lot of sense,” Ere said sarcastically. “Hurt him with rejection now so you don’t hurt him later. Even though he wants you, I’m reading between the lines, and you want him.”