Chapter 9
Damn it! I was so close!
A Mindoran Shifter looms over me, panting, with feral desire glinting in his silver-blue eyes. I’m not going to beat the other woman. He has placed himself directly between me and the button. I wager by his size, he could break me and snuff out my life in one hit.
Or make it slow and painful with those claws. I glance at them, then up and down his body, taking him in. His marbled blue skin looks soft, like really short fur. But it’s the deep scars across his face which worry me most.
He’s been rejected from his pack. But why?
My distraction makes me lose my footing. I’m going to fall from this blasted cliff that I climbed, hoping to win.
But just as the rock slips away, he reaches down and catches my wrist. His padded hand is warm, his grip painfully strong as he hauls me up the ledge to him.
Cannons go off. He is far taller than I am, dressed in black armor, and growls softly as he tackles me, forming his body around mine like a shield.
Like he thought that was a grenade blast.
Whoever he is, he’s been in battle, and his instinct was to put my life first.
He looks me over with hunger and pulls me against him. My instincts make me tense and push away. He’s too close to the Myndrous that chased Radar and me, raked open my shoulder, and hunted us for two days.
The Mindoran has canines that protrude from his mouth, even though his lips are pursed as he studies me.
He might have a perfect body, with shoulders that stretch his armor and broad planes of muscle, but he has deep scars that tell me he’s not a pretty boy looking to post me as his claim of the day for his social media followers. No, this Mindoran has seen some shit.
Exhaustion slams into me like a heartless fall from a cliff. I’ve lost the million, and an abnormally large Shifter has claimed me. I had hoped for a Nytheralian or Alustri, someone more…normal.
Not an animal.
A tear breaks free from my eyes. Then another. I try to hide them, but he lifts my chin, studies the wet streaks, and leans in close. His hot breath falls over my cheek.
Panic frays my nerves. I’ve felt warm breath on my neck before, from the Myndrous. Please don’t eat me!
Hot, wet velvet glides over my skin as he licks the tears away. Then he moves to the other side of my face and does the same.
It takes a few moments for him to finish cleaning my face to his satisfaction, and for me to come to grips with the fact that he’s not going to hurt me.
Chill out, Tessi. He’s here because he wants a mate. Mindor is an allied world. But looking up and seeing a wolf dude peering down at me is too close to the nightmares that have haunted me for months.
He won’t stop licking me.
My captor sniffs my neck, then licks it and returns to my face. He inhales a breath near my mouth, then licks my cheek again to the point where it’s starting to tickle.
“Okay, okay. I’m fine. Thanks for…uh…not letting me die.”
His jaw cocks like he’s chewing on something when he bashfully looks away. The other couples begin heading for the Mingle Celebration below. Then, without warning, he gets up, hauls me up, and folds me over his shoulder.
I gasp in disorientation and try to steady myself on his muscled back as the lights dim over the race grounds to simulate night. He hums a low note, stops on a lower landing, and inhales deeply. The Mindoran adjusts his grip on my body. Claws nip at my hips.
Or was that his teeth? I can’t be sure. But it sends an unexpected tingle of interest through my belly.
A part of me wonders if he’s going to try and take me now. Mindorans are known for claiming their mates in front of the pack.
I’ve got to break the ice somehow, or I may never know what he is planning to do to me. In my intergalactic communications class in college, they taught us to offer inconsequential information as a gesture of trust and openness. “Hi. Uh…I’m Tessi.”
I want to say more but I’m struggling to decide what to tell him.
He stops on a landing, slides me over his shoulder, and down his front, but doesn’t let my feet touch the ground like somehow if he does, he’ll lose me.
“Zorrrrrin.” He grimaces and shakes his head. His teeth retract a little more until he almost looks human. “Sorry about that. My Shifter took control when he caught your scent.”
He squirms and stretches his neck, fighting back a ripple of fur through his skin. His eyes find mine again, and I realize his irises aren’t quite human. They’re almost like cats’ but shaped more like four-point stars.
“My brother, my nephew, and me… That’s all that’s left of our pack.” He clutches me tighter until the contours of his body dig into mine, and I get a sense of just how hard he is. A growl overlays his voice. “We want you. But we must know if your pack will let you be with us.”
“Us?” I get it the moment I ask. He must mean him and his Shifter. Or maybe his family?
“I just have a dog, Radar. We’re all that’s left of my family…pack. He’s three years old. Abr has him in a special room while I’m out here with you. We were scavengers, hunted through shipwrecks for parts to sell.”
He cocks his head. “A dog? That is one of those small wolves that doesn’t shift, right?”
I snort a laugh. “Do you not have dogs on Mindor?”
“Uh, no.” He grimaces. “Only our pups remain in Shifter form, usually until they are around two. Then they stand upright until puberty, when the Shift happens again. Or something traumatic pulls it out of us before then.”
The way he says it as he leans back to look up at the stars, makes me think the latter is what is true for him.
“How old is your nephew?”
“Nine months.” He hangs his head. “His mother died during a battle about three months back. He was taken from us to be fed by another pack’s female who is still producing milk.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.” I frown. “Well, at least there was an available female who could feed him.”
He looks at me like he doesn’t know what to make of what I just said.
“Do you not have bottles and formula on Mindor?”
“What is formula?”
“Just a powdered mixture that we use to replace milk when there isn’t any or there isn’t enough. I could get you some bottles and formula from Earth. It’s how I fed Radar. He was just a few days old when I found him.”
“Is he healthy after formula?”
I smile, thinking back to fishing with Radar and how he would hunt them from a rock then dive in and surface with a fish in his mouth. “No doubt. He’s too smart for his own good, faster than me, and has strong teeth.”
As the cameradrones and Ohni follow the winner down the mountain, we’re given a slice of peace and quiet.
He finally eases my feet to the ground. Zorin swipes a strand of hair from my sweaty face and guides it behind my ear. I’m starting to think that the money wasn’t really what I wanted. I haven’t been touched so gently or with such concern in years.
Zorin slides in close to me, lowers his nose to mine, and inhales my exhale. A hand slides around my waist as a rumble starts deep in his chest. His eyes close. He sweeps his nose over my neck.
Hot breath feathers over my skin in long waves. His rigid cock digs into my belly, flexing with his every inhalation against my neck.
Holy fuck. This guy actually wants me?
No way. There has to be a mistake. “It’s okay if you want to mingle and reconsider.”
Zorin’s rumbles grow into a growl. His teeth gently nip at my neck, evoking a blissful surge of need. “Your scent changed me inside. I want only you.”
I hesitantly set my hands on his proud chest. I changed him? “My…”
“Yes.” He nibbles my ear, causing a wave of goosebumps down my shoulder.
“Radar goes where I do. If you want me, you should know he will come with me, or…I won’t accept you.”
“You fed him like a mother. I would never separate a mother from her pup.” He swipes a claw over my lower lip, then my upper one, no doubt inspecting my teeth. “I do not know how you eat with such blunt teeth.”
“I eat more than meat.”
“Like what?”
“Nuts.”
His expression quirks like he isn’t sure if I’m being dirty.
Suddenly, he jerks his head up and snarls at the trees.
I tilt and look where he is and catch the faint light of a shield. By its pulsations, I know exactly what kind it is. “Someone’s hiding in the trees. That’s a Denarsoan stealth shield. I’ve found a few on Earth.”
His skin ripples outward with dark, silver-tipped fur that doesn’t match his blue skin. Zorin drops to all fours as he slings me over his shoulders and onto his back.
The motion is so fast and violent that it strangles my cry of disorientation.
He bounds down the trail. I cling to his furry neck. When I look back, I see a set of glowing green eyes in the shadows of the trees.
What the fuck? Myndrous? Here?
I clutch Zorin tightly and pray this isn’t the end of my last hope.