Chapter 12
After the IV is empty and I’ve washed the blood from my face, I stare into the hospital’s bathroom mirror at the scars that rake across my face.
Augmented mixed breeds are unpredictable, but they’ve always stayed close to their motherships.
Now the Nebs are kicking them out to do their dirty work.
And all of it has something to do with Tessi, with the female my Shifter scent-bonded to.
The scars bother me, not in the way they look but in what they expose about the archaic nature of Luna culture. Scarnis just added injury and insult on top of utter heartbreak when what we needed was to come together as a pack to protect Rhysan and the others who were left without their loved ones.
Scarnis has anger management issues. He never liked us and used his opportunity to cast us out when we had done nothing wrong.
I want to lash out, punch the mirror, and shatter the sink beneath my hands. All it would take is a single brief release of the anger that simmers inside me.
Carnas peeks inside. He lifts a stack of clothes. “They let me into your room to grab some clothes for you, with a guard team watching my every move. But I only found armor with your badge on it. Guess they didn’t get your race suits in yet.”
I thank him, but it’s a struggle to get dressed without messing up the plethora of bandages.
“Badge?” Tessi asks as she helps guide my shirt down my back.
Carnas introduces himself to her. “Your chosen is a Slayer. You would call it an infiltration crew. I’m a Shredder. We’re a bit more smash and thrash. We go in after they do.”
Another Mindoran joins us. He’s taller, doesn’t have the same scars across his face, but he’s got a bite mark on his neck that’s clearly from a Myndrous by it’s wider spread of scars. “Zorin, Carnas…”
“Who, the fuck, are you?” Carnas eyes him up and down like he feels threatened.
“I’m a Haunt. I’ve monitored you on a few missions, both of you. Just wanted to check in, let you know I’m with you. I’m a Spinel. Name’s Spike.” He hooks a thumb over his shoulder. “After the incident, I got in touch with command. Turns out the Myndrous are becoming a real problem back home.
“Isonians just arrived. They’re tracking Nebs’ Umbra dropships. We’re looking at about thirty between our two worlds, Earth and Mindor.”
Tessi leans against me. I don’t care that it hurts. I’m glad she finds comfort in being close to me. “I heard they want young Mindor and females to help populate their empire. Human females, too.”
“That’s what I heard as well,” Spike replies.
“There’s something else,” I say. “But General Viriden is going to meet with us to discuss it. For now, I suggest we stick together, keep our eyes open.”
“Mingle?” Carnas asks.
I slip into my boots, tie them quickly, and motion for the others to lead the way.
Just outside, two human females stand chatting.
They stop when Carnas and Spike join them.
After a quick word, we walk through the hallways back to the buffet with thumping bass-heavy electronic dance music, colorful lights flashing over the walls, and half of the couples already grinding on each other.
It’s not easy to watch them and keep control of myself around Tessi. I am bound to her now in more ways than one. But I am no longer just a male hunting for a female. I’m on a mission, so acting impulsively is not on the table.
Tessi orders a shot of something bright blue that burns with a flame. She takes it from the server, winks at me, blows it out, and throws it back with force. She sucks air in through her teeth. “Ooh. That’s better.”
Then she takes my hand and leads me out and onto the dance floor.
“What are you doing?” I ask. “I can’t watch the perimeter like this.”
“Catch you later, Slayer,” Carnas grins as he and Spike wander off with their females.
Tessi guides my hand around her waist and presses her plump ass against my crotch, then starts swaying to the beats like she’s already drunk.
Fucking hell. I forget every cut and tear in my flesh to live in this moment with her.
My body moves without my consent because my Shifter senses what she wants, and follows her lead.
Every sway releases more of her scent until I am lost in a mirage, forgetting about the party, the other dancing couples, my promise to Viridin to maintain emotional distance from her because she feels too damn good.
I have waited too long, endured more pain than most could handle, and I want this.
Tessi speaks with other females, but I can’t hear what they say over the pounding bass that shakes the floor and rattles my heart.
When Tessi guides my arms tighter around her, she pulls me lower until my nose nestles into the loose strands of her hair as they slip over her shoulder.
I get another whiff of her, and the need to make her mine becomes mind numbing.
My Shifter craves more, begs me to take her now, in front of everyone, clawing at my insides with fiery need that burns deep in my groin and knocks my pulse into a sprint.
I am not my Shifter.
I am not my Shifter.
I am not my Shifter.
Still, my teeth lengthen, and I rest my mouth on her luscious neck.
“Thank you, again.” Her eyes lift to mine, drunken reverence in them.
“You don’t usually drink, do you?” I ask.
She giggles. “Haven’t in years. But I like my alcohol like my love. Hot, fast, and it better sting just a little.”
Fuck. My last thread snaps. I graze my teeth down her neck, lightly enough she can feel it without actually breaking her beautiful flesh.
The moan Tessi lets out has my cock swelling to a painful level. I spin her around, pick her up by the hips, and set her on a barstool at the counter behind us. I don’t care who watches. I crush her against me until I’m sure she senses exactly how badly I want her.
“Oh, Zorin…” she breathes as she hooks her ankles behind me.
I take her by the back of her neck and guide her mouth close to mine until I can pick up the metallic and musky notes to her breath that say she wants me too.
“Tessi…”
The guard by the door notices us on his visual patrol. His eyes linger a second longer than I like.
I can’t lose my head. I’m just teasing her and myself as I sweep my lips over hers and nip at each one.
We can’t get too close.
I have to protect her.
I can’t be compromised.
But I already love the way she feels a little too much.
Her heels dig into the backs of my thighs, drawing me tighter against her. She kisses my neck.
I laugh in shock. “I thought you were a blue, a gentle female.”
She grins, her eyes glassy. “Liquid courage helps.”
A passing woman smirks. “Fucking lightweight. You’ve had one shot, Tess.”
“It’s Tessi, bitch,” my female snarls back. “And fuck off, Carielle. You don’t know a damn thing about earning what you keep, you little rat butt sniffing, daddy’s money will get me out of anything…ho.”
Carnas snorts a laugh as he passes with his female under his arm.
I make a mental note of the pink-banded female’s flawless light tan skin, highly painted face, and exceptionally smooth curls to her bleached hair. Her brown eyes are cold, not warm, and she carries herself with an air of smugness that reminds me of Tahliel. “You know her?”
Tessi sighs and eases me back. She glares after the woman. “She likes to hunt me when I’m scavenging. She’s shot me off of hillsides, cliffs, towers, and often takes what I drop.”
Anger surges through me. “Why didn’t you report it?”
“Carielle has a powerful family with corporate money. I have no one. Nobody believes me. They all think I am trying to weasel my way to their fortune. So I just…” She tightens her ponytail and tugs at the collar of her race suit like it itches. “Figured out how to survive while being shot at.
“Falgus and Reji hunted me, wanted a three-way. Then there’s Eian, the sneaky bastard that slips in and steals shit while people sleep or are away from their camp.
Geist is a code name for another guy I never actually got the name of, but he’s known for manipulating people into trading for lesser goods, then using any information we divulge against us.
He cleans out new sites before we even get there. It’s just a salvager’s life.”
She seems so broken and sad, and her life has been hard. The way she scans the room like she’s expecting another attack proves to me she doesn’t see what I do.
I lift her chin and summon her eyes to mine. “It has made you a fighter. You’re resilient. You probably improvise a lot.”
“More than I like.”
“Those skills are really important in this era. Let go of the wrongs, of your hatred of them.”
Let me destroy them for you.
“Focus on what you can build from the lessons their shitty behavior has taught you.”
I’ll teach them a lesson or two.
She squints at me. “Sorry for ruining the moment.”
“You didn’t. Pretty sure nothing can.” I sweep my lips over hers. “I got torn up by Myndrous, and I’m still here, desperately trying to control my urges to carry you back to my room and make you mine.”
It comes out more of a growl than I anticipate, and I realize my Shifter is not on his best behavior today.
Tessi pants a breath. “There’s no way you can feel like that so fast.”
But it’s true. I can’t quite quell the longing deep in my groin or the pulsing heat that thrums in my bones. “Your scent ignited my rut, one that’s been absent for a long time. I want you. My Shifter wants you, needs you.”
A light laugh eeks out of her as she peers up at me. “Then why hold back?”
“Because…” I curl my lips and hang my head. “I now have orders to keep you safe. There are a lot of things to discuss with Viriden when he is ready for us. Tonight, I just want to look at you, savor finding you, even if I can’t…”
“I feel so yanked around right now.” Tessi slides back on the barstool and returns to her former, calm self. The fiery, passionate female she was just moments ago is gone.
Now I definitely hate Carielle.
Tessi runs her hands down my chest. “Please just be yourself. I don’t think I can handle any more lies and deception.”
I’ve already come close to losing her. I don’t want to risk is again. “Trust me, how I feel hasn’t changed and isn’t going to. I just have to put your safety first.”
She licks her lips and nods. “Okay.”
A Mindoran with a Luna Pack paw mark tattooed on his chest shoulder-checks me, then leans in close. “Do not shift off-world. Or did you forget your oath, soldier?”
I bare my teeth at him. “Back off before I silence you…permanently. And get your eyes checked, Captain Maw. There were four Myndrous threatening this human.”
He tilts back and visually dissects my face like he’s appalled. “You defend your dishonor.”
“Neb’s do not give a shit about our traditions. I fight like my life depends on it because it does. But a silk coat like you wouldn’t know anything about getting blood in your fur, now would you?”
He snarls and gets in my face, but Spike, the tallest of all of our kind here intervenes, guiding him back with a few quiet words and a hand to his chest.
“Zorin, why isn’t your chest marked with a badge like the others?” Tessi asks.
I bare my teeth at the Luna before I turn to address her. “Because my brindle blue gives away what I am.”
“And what is that?”
“Aegeris. Pressure wielders. We break things: rock, glass, metal…”
She chews a nail. “Bone?”
I look away to scan the room. “Yes. All descendents of Thelisoria, our powerful guardian, have these different skills. Spike is from Spinel. Their fur turns into quills. Carnas’ coat turns into metallic armor. Each ancestral pack has its power.
“Lunas, the original Shifters of Mindor, just have exceptional healing abilities, super speed and strength. But they do not believe the Nebulous Empire is real. They think Aegeris, the original supernatural pack, caused the falling wreckage, the Denaroan invasions, the Myndrous...” I pause to note where the Lunas and their loyalists are in the mingle hall.
“But we’re all telepathic as Shifters. And some of our packs have multiple skills. ”
“Do you have more?” She asks.
“A few. There is a rumor that Thelisoria was descended of powerful beings, another species from far away. There is no one left of our pack to tell us what that might be or who she really was. Her home on Mindor was raided and the contents burned long ago.”
Tessi rests her head on my shoulder. At first, I think it’s that she’d just had too much too drink. But I grow concerned by how fast she’s crashing.
“Hey.”
She blinks up at me. “Sorry. There’s so much going on. I thought I’d be safe coming here.”
I’m pretty sure there’s nowhere in this galaxy that’s safe for her except with General Viriden.
Tessi slumps. And now I know something is wrong. Her body gives out. When I catch her, I see the tiny dart in her neck. And that’s when I sort out the whistle of another through the raucous dance hall.
I jerk aside and catch the dart between my fingers. I focus on it and find a set of human eyes peering out at me from inside a guard’s uniform, the man that looked a second too long at her.
“Spike, Carnas?”
They join us, reaching out to support Tessi when they see her condition. Their two females take an interest in her as well.
“Watch her, please,” I call to them over the music without taking my eyes off of the one I’m certain attacked us. I set the dart I’ve caught on the bar counter.
Carnas swears. “I got her, brother. With my life.” Carnus’ female slides in to support Tessi from the other side and lifts her wristband, calling security.
I circle the bar and stalk after the human guard. He backs out of the room.
Come here you little fucker. I’m going to tear you apart until I find out from you exactly what’s going on.