16. Ryoch
16
RYOCH
I was floating. Satisfied and content, all the way back on the drive into the city.
Coming down my mate’s throat while I brought her to climax with my lithis would do that. But it was more than the physical release that had me feeling so easy.
Something had changed. Charlotte was relaxed, smiling. I was back in my human form, but she knew how I really looked, and she accepted me. We were connecting, and she was giving me a chance.
She loved that I’d read her books.
“I noticed you wrote scenes with characters having sex for the first time in cars, in Time for His Love and Over the Moon . Was your first time in a car?”
Charlotte laughed. “No, a dorm room.” She smiled over at me as I turned onto her street. “Why? Did you consider seducing me in the backseat?”
“Only for a second. It seemed a little uncomfortable.”
She laughed again, and I savored the sound.
I pulled up in front of her driveway, and we sat in silence for a moment. Until my phone buzzed. It had been doing that off and on since the signal came back.
“Work?”
“No. It’s Gravod.” His persistence was starting to make me worry.
“Oh. Do you need to check it?”
“I probably should. Don’t get out yet.” I wasn’t ready to say goodnight.
Charlotte waited while I listened to my messages. It was bad. I must not have hidden my emotions well, because by the time I put the phone down, her face had paled.
“What is it?”
I debated keeping it from her, to spare her anxiety, but she needed to know. “Jess is safe now. But earlier tonight, she was abducted and briefly held captive by a disgruntled member of our crew. She got away, and he didn’t injure her.”
“What the fuck?” Charlotte pulled out her phone and started texting frantically. “You’re sure she’s okay? She must have been terrified. Who is this guy?”
It tore at me to see her so worried, and I kept my voice calm to reassure her.
“I’m sure. Jess wasn’t hurt, and Gravod is with her. But I should go out to the bar anyway and help look for Thylor, the one who took her. He’s a jackass, but I doubt he intended to harm Jess.”
I told her what I could about Thylor. How he’d been in prison before he was pressed into coming on the mission. His obsession with going back and clearing his name.
“A criminal?” she shouted, looking horrified. “Who thought that was a good idea?”
I had the same question.
“We needed a qualified ship’s engineer, and he was an eligible xa’xan . His crime had something to do with fraud, nothing violent.” As I said it, repeating what I’d heard from others, I started to wonder if there was more to it.
“Fuck, Ryoch. I thought you guys were safe. Is he the only one who wants to go back? Do we need to worry about anyone else?”
Her fear made me want to do battle. My mate ought to feel safe, always. I was already angry at Thylor, but now I wanted to tear him apart.
“No, no one else. We are safe. Thylor wouldn’t have been offered the chance to come if anyone believed he was dangerous.” I hope. “He has his own motivations. If others were sympathetic to him before, they aren’t now. None of us would put another’s mate in danger, I promise.”
Thylor had crossed the line, irrevocably. Once we found him, he wouldn’t receive any mercy. For frightening my mate and her friend, I would personally destroy him.
Her phone lit up. “Okay, Jess texted me back… She says she’s fine. She’s going to sleep, and she’ll call me tomorrow.” Charlotte let out a breath and faced me, brow still furrowed with worry. “Not the way I wanted this evening to end. You’re sure it’s safe for you to go out there?”
It wasn’t how I wanted it to go at all, but her concern pleased me.
“Thylor is hiding, and a Lydaxian is difficult to track if they don’t want to be found. I want to check in with the others, but I don’t expect anyone will find him tonight.” It was going to be a problem to find him, period. “Then, unfortunately, I’m working for the next few days. I’d like to take you out again when I get time off.”
“I’d like that too.” She sighed, sounding lost.
I reacted instinctively, gripping the back of her neck and tugging her toward me. My heart warmed when she leaned in easily.
As soon as our lips met and I tasted her again, I wished we were back on that blanket, away from all these complications. But we weren’t. I gave what comfort I could, kissing her with a light sweep of my lithis into her mouth. She moaned softly, and I forced myself to pull back.
“I’ll call you.”
Charlotte nodded, but she couldn’t hide her disappointment.
My instincts told me to stay with her, and going against those impulses physically pained me. An ache built in my stomach, the beginning symptom of separation illness. I needed another dose of the medication I kept on the ship. After I checked in at the bar, that would be my next stop.
I came around the car to help her out, then walked her up to the front porch. With a final kiss on my cheek, she went inside and closed the door, and I heard the bolt lock. I stood there, dazed, before going back to my car and heading to the bar.
As I drove farther away from Charlotte, my skin felt tight, then chilled. Delaying the initiation of a bond with one’s mate was known to be uncomfortable, but this seemed worse than before, likely because I was anxious about her safety.
The tether of a bond, that emotional link, would provide a level of protection.
My mind and body were in sync, demanding that I do everything possible to keep her from harm. Thylor might go after her next, and without the bond, I’d have no way to know. I could ask members of the crew to check in on her while I was working, but that wasn’t enough.
My gut twisted. I ought to be the one protecting my mate.
When I pulled into the parking lot, I found it almost empty. The only vehicle illuminated under the dim lights was a motorcycle. Jake’s. I saw him pacing as I drove up. He stopped and stood in front of the closed bar, arms folded, waiting for me to walk over after I parked.
“The last of your crew left about fifteen minutes ago. I was doing one final check, but Thylor’s long gone.”
“Thank you. I wish I’d been here to help.”
Jake shook his head. “Wasn’t much you could’ve helped with. Hopefully I didn’t make it worse.” I raised a brow, and he sighed. “Jess and I had a chat. She asked some good questions about how all of this is supposed to work with you guys, but I didn’t have a lot of answers.”
“How what’s supposed to work?”
“Having kids with an alien. I guess it’s good that she wants to know.”
I rocked back on my heels. “It is.” Gravod must have been further along with her than I realized. “What did you tell her?”
He shrugged. “Just how it is for us. Our pups don’t shift until puberty, but I didn’t know...”
It was my job to monitor any pregnancies, so I’d spoken to our scientists about this at length. “It’s likely our offspring would look like us at birth, and they’d be unable to shift to look human for at least six months to a year.”
Jake winced. He’d never been comfortable with our true forms. “She was worried about having to hide. We’re used to it. Wolf shifters have been hiding in plain sight for millennia.”
I nodded but didn’t respond. At least the human shifters—the wolves and the bears, and others—had support systems on this planet. We were in a much more tenuous position, and Jess was right to worry. Our mates would be taking on a life of hiding, with the consequences of discovery too terrible to contemplate. I knew from experience.
Jake stepped up and slapped me on the back. “Cheer up. You found your mate. A lot of us are pretty fucking jealous.”
Before I could say anything, he walked past me to his bike and got on, fastening his helmet. The engine roared, echoing loudly around the quiet lot, and he rode off without a backward glance.
Typical alpha.
He was right, though. I needed to focus on the positive. But I also felt like shit.
I walked across the parking lot, then over the grassy field to the hangar, where Thylor had taken Jess. Along the way, I checked for scents, but didn’t find anything notable. This area had been combed over already, muddling anything I might detect.
On the ship, Gravod and Jess’s scents lingered, but they’d been gone for hours. It was quiet and empty. I went to the medical bay and found the medication I needed, using the pressure injector to administer it painlessly. In seconds, I felt physically better.
But until I bonded with Charlotte, I would never feel whole.