Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Maxsim
A snarl escapes my mouth as I bolt upright in bed. The smell of antiseptic and sadness bombard my senses, causing unease to coil in my stomach as I look around. It is quickly replaced with Echo’s frost and crisp apple scent, and some of the panic wanes.
“Hey, easy. You’re safe and healed. You’re back on the ship.” My pregnant omega runs a hand through the fur on my arm, and his touch settles me a little more, but I’m missing my other omega, and when I lost consciousness, she was missing while we were battling a hoard of Madovian reptile bitches. I won’t feel completely secure until I see her with my own eyes.
“Lila?” I shove back the sheet covering me and swing my legs to the side. My vision wavers slightly, and I close my eyes, but it soon settles, and I peel them open to look around the med bay. Link is standing over another patient in a bed, and my heart starts to race as a growl rumbles in my chest. I go to push off, but Echo shoves me back firmly. I blink in surprise at the aggression from my omega.
“Calm yourself,” he snaps. “That is not Lila. She is fine. She went to our suite to get some rest. She was exhausted after switching forms a few times and healing you.” My usually unshakeable omega looks flustered, and I feel slightly guilty, but it doesn’t calm me down.
“I need to see her,” I tell him, unable to control the snarl that follows. He has the audacity to roll his eyes at me, and I growl at him.
“Of course you do, but are you just going to wander through the hallways naked?” He waves a hand at me, and I look down. I shifted, so of course I’m naked.
“Yes,” I reply, not caring about my naked state. There is no one else on the ship to look apart from family anyway. I’m a shifter, so being naked is natural. He chuckles and steps back. I push off the bed, pausing as my paws touch the ground, but unlike my dizzy spell before, this time, I’m fine.
Before I get any farther, Link approaches me.
“Good, you’re awake. I’ve monitored you all night, and all you needed to do was rest. Lila healed everything else.” He looks me up and down like he’s marveling at Lila’s healing abilities, and I only just stop myself from preening under his admiring gaze. What the hell?
He pauses on the side I was attacked, puts out a hand, and brushes it over the healed injury. I almost jump when my body reacts to his touch. It doesn’t recoil but leans into it. I frown, confused by my reaction. I inhale and smell my mate all over the cyborg. Maybe that’s why I’m having such an intense reaction to him. I hadn’t noticed before how much he smells like Lila now that they are mated. We’ve been so busy, I don’t think we’ve been around each other without everyone else’s scents muddling the air. I feel my cock twitch, and my eyes widen with surprise. Am I attracted to the cyborg? I know he and Lila’s other mates play with one another occasionally, but I haven’t been interested in that before. I’m happy with both my omegas, and I don’t need anyone else—not to mention other races aren’t necessarily compatible with alpha lightning cats because of our knots. They will do damage to someone not designed to take them.
Before I can speak, he continues. “You can head back to our suite now if you want. No need to hang around here.”
“You should go get some rest too, Link.”
I startle and snarl in the direction of the voice. I hadn’t even noticed Eric Adams sitting in a chair on the other side of the form on the bed. That must be his wife. Why is she still asleep, and why is he so sad? I would have thought it would be an occasion for celebration.
Echo must see my confused look, because he leans forward and whispers, “I’ll explain later.” I give him an almost imperceivable nod.
“I think I might. Liliana has been stable all night, and there is no sign of change. I haven’t slept in days, and I’m starting to worry I’ll make a mistake with my fatigue.”
Before anyone can respond to him, the doors open and the god of earth appears in the doorway. I freeze for a moment. Lightning cats still worship the old gods, but Tito, the god of water, is our deity. Although he hasn’t been seen for hundreds of years, we still give thanks to him during special occasions and ritual holidays. Seeing evidence that he may still be alive was shocking to say the least. For Zeydan to announce that our mate is his as well is something I still need to adjust to. Despite him claiming to be diminished of power, if he ever gets them back, what’s to stop him from getting rid of the rest of us so he would have Lila to himself? The gods are known for being ruthless. Look at what they did to both the Aaz’axians and the Carevasta bears—cursed them to face extinction and persecution.
He looks around the room, his gaze stopping on me, and he studies me like I’m an experiment he doesn’t know what to do with.
“Contrary to your thoughts, I would not dispose of you if I got my full powers back. Lila loves you all, and losing you would destroy her. I want my mate’s happiness more than I want to keep her to myself. I am not that selfish, and I am perfectly capable and content to share. If my true powers ever return to me, and I reunite with my fellow gods, then we will need to decide if we wish to retake our control of the galaxy, but to be honest, I’m not interested. The council has things well in hand. I don’t need to be worshiped.”
I snarl, annoyed that he read my mind, or maybe I was just projecting loudly. Either way, at least I know where he stands, and I feel my muscles relax ever so slightly.
“Poor alpha. You’re not having the best of times since you woke up, are you?” My omega murmurs behind me, and I can’t miss the amusement in his voice. Did he smell my reaction to the cyborg?
“I will watch over Lilessa… Liliana, so that you may get some rest. I will summon you if her condition changes.” Zeydan takes the seat next to Eric, giving him a nod in greeting. “You should go too. You will be no good to her if you make yourself sick with worry. She’s going to need her mates when she wakes.”
Lilessa and Liliana? The goddess of life and Lila’s grandma. I look to my omega for help. I must have missed something while I was injured.
“I’ll explain it on our way to the suite. Come on,” he tells me, tugging my hand, and we don’t wait for Eric’s response to the god. I feel Link follow us out, my body very much attuned to his presence.
Between the two of them, they tell me what they know about what happened after I lost consciousness and Saxon returned to the ship with me.
“So Brannock and Lila are mated now?” I ask, trying to get everything straight. Apparently they both went into berserker mode and made quick work of the rest of the Madovians then fucked in the aftermath of the carnage. How very primal. I approve.
“Aaz’axians don’t have fated mates.” Link sounds more tired than I’ve ever seen him. “So Lila will need to mate him in the Skarrian way.”
“Lots of sex and mutual orgasms,” Echo announces happily, and I can scent his arousal in the air. Just like Lila during her pregnancy, he is also easily aroused. I growl at the thought of my other omega having an orgasm with another man, and both of them look at me in surprise.
I’m not normally territorial with Lila, but after being injured and not seeing her when I awoke is messing with my mind. I’m sure once I am close to her again, and I can reassure myself she is fine, I will calm down. I stalk down the corridor to our suite as soon as the elevator doors open, hearing Echo and Link following in a hurry.
“Max,” Echo calls, but I ignore him. I just need to see Lila, hold her in my arms, and make sure every single hair on her head is unharmed. There’s a low, possessive growl rumbling from my chest that I can’t stop. I think the fact that she mated the dragon and then was intimate with the Aaz’axian is urging my inner cat to stamp our own mark on her. All I want to do is fuck her and fill her with my seed so she’ll smell like me again. I know I have to share, and usually I’m okay, but my inner animal likes to rear his head occasionally and force the issue.
The door to our suite slides open after I swipe my paw across the sensor, and I step into the room. A snarl leaves my mouth when I catch sight of her on the couch. I stop as the sound of the babies’ favorite movie reaches my ears, but not even the vision of them snuggling with her can ease my worry.
The dragon jumps up, putting his hands out and warning me to be calm. He must sense how on edge I am. I’m sure he was feeling that way too, but he spent the morning with her reassuring himself of her safety and well-being. It’s my turn now. I know he’s just being protective, but I ignore him and focus on the strange man sitting next to Lila. If I couldn’t smell that it’s Brannock in a different form, I would be tempted to rip his heart out of his chest. I need to reclaim my omega, and I need to do it now, and nobody is going to stop me.
I watch on as Brannock scoops up the girls and Jack hurries off to their bedroom for a nap. Lila has a conversation with Link, and he and Tirrian disappear in the same direction, leaving the three of us alone. Echo has been muttering soothing words to me and rubbing my back, but none of it is calming me like it usually does. Lila turns her attention back to me and smirks.
I snarl and stalk forward, moving around the furniture between us.
“Max, you’re going to scare her,” Echo cautions, but I’m too far gone. I don’t take my eyes off Lila as her cat form appears. My cock starts to harden as I scent her, and I pick up my pace, but all of a sudden she shimmers and disappears. I stop, and my mouth drops open.
“Did she just teleport in cat form?” Echo asks.
I roar loudly, furious my prey got away from me as a thrill of excitement rushes through my body. Now I’m going to chase her, and when I get her, I’m going to pin her down and fuck her full of my seed.
I rush back to the door, not caring about pushing any of the furniture over. Echo steps out of my way, but I hear him follow behind me. Good. When I’m done with Lila, I’ll pin him down and fuck him full of my seed too. Both of my omegas will be begging for my bite before I’m through.
I track Lila’s scent to the elevators. I can smell how excited and turned on she is, and I grin with anticipation.
“You know that smile on your face is half crazy, right?” Echo points out as the doors close and I stare at the buttons, trying to figure out where Lila would have gone. “You’re going to scare her off if she sees you like that.”
I snarl and grab hold of my omega, pinning him against the wall with my throbbing cock jammed between the two of us.
I kiss him hard, and he relaxes into me, moaning softly. Although I couldn’t hear them, I could feel that Echo and Lila were having a telepathic conversation before. I have no idea how, but Echo knows where our mate is, and I’m not opposed to using dirty tactics to get that information out of him.
I reach under his loin cloth and stroke his rapidly hardening cock. He groans a little louder into my mouth, and I pull away, sliding my other hand into his mane and grabbing it so I can look him in the eye.
“Where is our omega?” I demand, and his eyes widen in shock. “Tell me, and I will fuck you with my knot once I’ve dealt with Lila.”
His perfume fills the air, and my eyes drift closed, the heady scent of both my omegas making me unsteady and slightly scent drunk.
“Tell me, Echo.” I use my alpha bark that a bonded omega can’t resist. He just looks at me with his big doe eyes.
“She’s in our old habitat.”
I reward him with another kiss.
“Good boy,” I praise him, and he preens as I press the button for the correct level. It’s but a matter of moments before I’m stalking through the corridors to our old room with Echo still firmly in my grasp. I can smell Lila, although it’s fading, but it definitely leads to the door to our old room. I pause and release my omega.
“You can have a head start, but you better run, because if I catch you before I find Lila, I will punish you,” I promise him.
His pupils dilate, and he breathes heavily as he absently strokes his cock through his loin cloth.
I bark again to get his attention. “Run, Echo.”
The door slides open, and cold air seeps out. We have the charms Xavier gave us to regulate our temperature, but the cold still doesn’t affect me. I feel invigorated and ready to stalk my intended prey.
Echo doesn’t wait, my bark having the desired effect, and he hurries through the snow while I pace back and forth and give him a fighting chance. When I can’t wait any longer, I let out an ear-splitting roar, a bolt of lightning bursting from my tail, then I shift and stalk my prey.