Chapter 24
I wash away Geist’s blood in the river, hoping I didn’t scare Tessi. She definitely looked frightened when she saw the blood in the daylight.
But I do not regret it.
He was on a Denarsoan ship filled with Nebs, and as much as I wanted to stay and wreck their plans, I know protecting Tessi is more important.
She’s safe with Kren and Davarok.
And the portal cloak is safe inside my armor. I’m not dumb enough to throw away a tool I might need in the near future.
The cold water helps my Shifter chill out. I thought getting a taste of Tessi when no one was looking would be enough to calm my desire to mate with her. But it’s only made it stronger. It took every ounce of control to keep from ripping my armor off and burying myself in her.
I peel myself out of my race suit and wash away any evidence that Tessi can make me ejaculate with a simple moan. I get hard just thinking about her delicate, musky flavor, and the smoothness of her beautiful pussy.
No one touches my female.
Even when I’m done washing, I know I’m in no condition to be close to her.
I can’t take her, and a large part of me still doesn’t feel like I deserve her.
She’s too anomalous in my life. She is everything war and my world are not: patient, kind, understanding, loving, a place I can curl up and feel wanted.
A soft giggle echoes through the rocks. I still and listen. Rocks rattle over others. I turn to look and catch a hint of movement on the beach behind a row of boulders.
I keep myself low, just in case it isn’t who I hope it is. Stalking through the rocks, minding every paw placement, I search for her.
A soft breath of her fragrance draws me between boulders. My claws dig in, and for a moment, the urge to barrel my way through the rocks to chase her down and take her nearly overwhelms me. I pause and force myself to inhale deeply. When my racing heartbeat eases just enough, I keep hunting.
Stones tumble from a short ledge. But when I make my way there, I lose track of her scent. I turn around, a twinge of panic buzzing through my nerves. I circle and back track, sniffing for a wisp of her on the breeze.
I snake through the edge of the river bed, unable to track her, when a stone taps me in the back. Whipping around, I find Tessi casually leaning against a boulder I just passed.
“Caught you.” She winks at me.
I rise into my upright form. “How did I not find you?”
“Just had to get downwind of you.” She smirks, and I love the way the confidence toys with her plump lips. “We have wolves and coyotes on Earth that wouldn’t hesitate to tear apart Radar and me in winter.”
She hugs herself. “I just considered myself a glorified metal detector operator for a long time, until shit got real. We had a small dilapidated house at the end of town for a short time. Until Falgus found us and we had to run so I didn’t become his plaything.
But living in the wild is really just long term camping with a higher likelihood of encountering bigger threats.
Bears were the scariest. Bullets don’t always work on them. ”
Tessi pops off the rock and walks up to me.
Her eyelashes look impossibly soft when she gazes into my eyes.
“Zorin, I know you aren’t used to asking for things.
But if we’re going to be together someday, I need you to know you can open up to me.
Whatever burdens you’re struggling with inside, let me carry them with you. ”
She slides her hands over the sides of my face.
I look away. Tessi wouldn’t like me if she knew all of the missions I’ve been on, how many lives I’ve taken, even though they were all enemies of the federation.
I still fear karma will come for her someday because of the life my brother and I live.
And that is difficult to explain. It’s something I can’t let go of as a soldier who is supposed to be practical and rational.
Tessi draws me gently toward her as she rises on her toes. Her warm breath falls over my lips.
I would do anything for her, for more of her love. Anything.
“I guess I’ll just have to distract you so you don’t go there…” She taps my forehead with a fingertip. “Anymore.”
Her lips are soft and warm, and she tastes of fresh, vulnerable life.
I almost didn’t get to her in time. Geist was so close. My frantic hunt through the tunnels for her flashes through my mind.
“Stop that.” Tessi nips painfully at my lip. “I can see it when I touch you.”
I draw her hands from my face. “Then stop.”
“I’d rather you show me.”
“I don’t want you to see that side of me. You deserve better. The last thing you need is someone violent like me.”
“Oh, is that what this is about?” she asks. “Why you actually came out here to bathe in private?”
I rub my head, trying to push back the throb from replaying the moment Geist took her.
Tessi guides my mouth to hers again with one hand this time. After another long kiss that starts to pull me out of my regrets, she asks, “How did you find me?”
“It’s just a feeling. I know what’s beneath me, always. I could feel the vibrations in the tunnels. And your scent right now is…extra strong.”
“Thank you again.” She takes my hand and leads me back toward the maze.
But I don’t want to go back. I want to leave. I have her. We should let the Lunas deal with the war themselves.
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask if you think your brother is watching the race on the holofeed.” Tessi playfully kicks a small rock with her boot. “Do you think he knows about any of this? The Myndrous, Geist, the hunt for anomalies like me?”
I’d like to think he is. “I don’t know. Probably not. He wouldn’t even talk to me. It’s been months.”
The hum of a cameradrone buzzes behind the maze. I try to pull away, but Tessi hangs on tightly. “Oh no. You’re not getting away from me again.”
“Teasing me is a pretty good way to get into trouble,” I whisper. “I almost lost it in the cave. You’re in heat. I can taste it in your scent.” I inhale the deep musky notes on her breath. “I…”
She is gorgeous under the sunlight, the way it shines in her hair and her moonlit eyes. There is no one else for me.
Why are we fighting this?
Screw it…
I bond my mouth to hers, pick her up and press her back against a tree. I cannot get enough of her. My claws extend like my teeth. My skin ripples with every hot wave of lust.
“Shit, Zorin…” Kren whines and tries to tug me off of Tessi.
I bite a hand into the tree and pull myself back to her.
Tessi giggles. “Zorin.”
Davarok growls. “Orders, Zorin! Focus! Besides, it’s time for the formal dinner. Lieutennant Vrasler is expecting you there to represent MTF with honor.”
The compulsion to bury myself in her grows until it pulses through me like blood. My heart slams in my ribs.
“Just…need…one…more…touch…”
Tessi wraps herself around me and plunges her tongue into my mouth as cameradrones hover around us.
For the first time in years, I feel alive, truly, deep in my chest. My Shifter binds her to us and takes in the softness of her neck, the perfect scent that tells me she’s ready.
I don’t care who’s watching. Tessi is everything I need and want, and she feels the same way about me.
Esrynne’s scent breaks up Tessi’s. I open my eyes and see her reach around Tessi’s middle. Carnas and Spike each take one of my arms. Kren and back them up. Marne’s arms wrap around my waist. My kind, my own M-pack, my team tears us apart. It happens so fast.
“Stand down!” Marne shouts.
I jerk and writhe, snarl and snap, trying to free myself from their arms. Claws bite into my shoulder.
“Ah, shit, sorry!” Davarok growls.
“Zorin! Stand down!” Marne gets angry. He never gets angry.
I watch as Esrynne escorts Tessi away from me, pressing her hand to a spot that’s bloody on the back of Tessi’s shoulder.
“Brother, please.” Marne grabs me and shakes me. “Zorin!”
I tear my eyes from Tessi’s curvy hips the ones that beg me closer and snap at him. When I try to retort, I can’t talk, and realize just how out of control my Shifter has become.
Marne sighs. “I didn’t want to do this.”
An injector taps the back of my neck, and my knees buckle. My heart stutters. Rorsar gives me a pained glance as he retracts the needle.
“Denying a rut is agonizing, I know.” Marne takes a knee beside me. “I promise, you will sync with her during her next heat. But this is not the time to lose your head.”
I am falling apart, losing control of myself, and crumbling in front of my team in a way I never have before.
I hang from Carnas and Davarok’s arms as my hormonal surge shatters, and deep rejection fills me.
“It’s not you. It’s the meds. Okay?” Marne glances at Rorsar who nods. “They’re going to chill you out, bring you back to who you normally are.”
“I… argh!” I shake my head. “I don’t want that. I want her. But I also know that’s not right.”
“It is right when we’re in a rut. But the other species don’t understand it.” Marne sighs and checks my eyes as my body shifts back to humanoid form. “That’s better. It’s just not the right time, got it?”
They all help me up, but the portal generator shifts in my armor. Ignus notices it and pulls it out. “What the hell is this?”
“Blood?” Rorsar scours me. “Are you injured?”
“Took it off Geist after I slit his throat with my claws. I didn’t bother washing it when I was in the creek.”
Ignust looks it over. “I’ll clean it and run it through a scanner for trackers.”
I muster a nod.
Marne helps me up. He leads me past cameradrones and Tessi, who’s claiming the ruby egg prize with Ohni. We walk back to the Abr complex and to the room I have yet to set foot inside.
The way Marne looks around says he doesn’t trust the masses of other alien males and females not to attack. “This is a nightmare place.”
“That’s only because you don’t like relaxing,” I mutter flopping down on my bed.
“And you do?” He shakes his head. “Go clean up. I’ll get your uniform ready.”
He leans against the wall while I shower and change. When I’m out again, he adds, “Lieutennant called.”
“I know.”
“Mindor doesn’t support cross-breeding with that species.”
I turn to him. “Like they’d give less of a fuck if I just walked away from her now. They won’t. So the high council can all go fuck themselves.”
A slow smile eases across Marne’s face. “Finally. Where the fuck have you been, man?”
“Treading carefully because I wanted Tessi to be welcomed. But now that my Shifter is quiet, I can think clearly without the hormones blurring reality. They aren’t going to accept us.
Only Viriden seems to give a shit, and he still says no mating.
I’ve been rejected from a pack we shouldn’t have belonged to ever in the first place.
Jezza should’ve left and come with us, but she made Azrim soft.
And I wanted him to be happy. But at this point, I think it’s long past time we start over.
Completely. Let the Lunas have their world. Let them learn to protect it.”
“Leave Mindor behind?” he asks.
“We have enough ships to start a small pack in the stars. We need distance between us since we can’t seem to stop going at each other’s throats.”
Marne considers it as he smooths his hair in the mirror and brushes off his armor. “We’re going to need a few more ships for families.”
“I know. I’m still working on that.” I exit into the hallway and start toward Tessi’s room.
“Esrynne is going to bring her to us.” Marne steps in my way and motions me toward the upper dining hall.
“Is anyone else with them?”
“Onidus remained behind. He is Tessi’s assigned Isonian representative.”
“Do you trust Esrynne to be gentle with Tessi?” I ask in doubt.
Marne chuckles. “No. But I trust her to arm your mate so she can protect herself.”
“From me?”
He gives me a knowing look. “Not your best moment. But Tessi is fine. Your earcom is not.”
Marne hands me a new one.
I feel a little better about the situation as we step into the upper level dining hall that overlooks the Lunar complex, and I tap the earcom into place. I find an empty table, walk to it and stand beside the table. “You’re sure she’ll come?”
Marne posts up behind me against the wall between the windows. “Esrynne promised she would. She knows Tessi could change the war. She’ll protect her with her life. You know that.”
I look down at the polished boots of my uniform.
“How are you feeling?” Marne asks.
“Calm. Like myself. How did you know that would work?”
Marne tucks his hands behind his hips and crosses his ankles. “You think it’s my first experience?”
“No.”
He nods. “There was a Shifter once. She was beautiful like Tessi. But she chose her pack over me in the end. And I couldn’t blame her. It’s a lot to ask a female to leave behind everything she knows to start a new life as messed up as ours.”
I realize I may not have considered this with Tessi simply because she joined Abr, so I assumed she was okay with it.
Marne glances toward the entrance and jerks his head in that direction.
When I follow his gaze, I lay my eyes on the most stunning female I’ve ever seen. Tessi sashays into the room in a silver-blue dress that stretches over her ample breasts and hips in all the right ways.
My heart beats faster. My Shifter notices, but he stays put like the obedient, drugged, drooling monster he is.
“You good?” Marne asks.
“Yeah,” I utter as I meet Tessi halfway.
She smiles up at me. “You clean up nice. Military uniform?”
I look down at my dark blue suit covered in medals and badges.
“Quite the record.” Tessi rests her hand on my chest, over the fang-shaped badge for surviving a mission I shouldn’t have. “Glad you’re still here.”
I don’t know how, but I think she knows what it’s for.
I pinch her chin and lean down to her lips.
“So am I. I didn’t know back then that you were in my future.
But every sideways mission has been worth it, just to taste this.
” I kiss her in front of the entire dining hall, the cameradrones, and Marne.
She hums like she can’t get enough. Her hands wrap over my arms. “What about your orders?”
“I’m okay now. Rorsar gave me medicine to keep my Shifter under control. When your heat ends, I’ll be back to normal without meds.”
“Just don’t hide him from me forever,” she simpers, grabbing my bottom lip with her teeth and tugging it away until it slips her grip.
A wave of heat spreads through my body. “W-why?”
She grins slowly, darkly. “Never been so turned on in all my life.”
“You’re not afraid of me?” I ask.
Tessi grabs my sides and pulls herself against me. “I like danger. It makes me feel alive.”
Stars, she is perfect.
Marne coughs behind a hand.
I sweep her long dark hair behind her shoulder. “How about we start with dinner?”
She winks up at me. “If we have to.”