Tempting Tabitha

by Tianna Xander

  “I know. It’s just a difficult habit to break.” She rubbed her bare arms, wishing she’d chosen a blouse with long sleeves. She wasn’t used to being in human skin, and she was cold almost all the time.

  “By the way,” Charly paused and looked her up and down. “You look great. Where’d you get the clothes?”

  “Deno had them waiting on the bed when I came out of the shower. As far as I could tell, he’d replicated them for me.”

  “Really?” Charly’s eyes widened. “If I’m not mistaken, that is a perfect knockoff of a designer label blouse, and those shoes look suspiciously Italian. If the replicator can do that, I’m fixing myself a new wardrobe before we get back to Earth.”

  “Me, too,” Birgit and Sela said at the same time and then laughed.

  “I knew the thing could make food, but I had no idea it could make clothing.” Sela moved over to one of the replication devices and bent to examine it. “I don’t see any special controls. Do you think the ones in the cabins are different or do you just press the controls in a certain combination?”

  “Question not understood,” came a disembodied voice. “Please rephrase question.”

  “Was that the computer?” Sela straightened and stepped back. “I’ve never had one talk to me before.” She rested her hand on her hip. “Well, not without specifically making it read a book out loud or anything.”

  “I think it was. It has the same inflections in its voice as my car.” Birgit moved up next to her.

  “Wait, what... your car talks?” Tabby raised her brows.

  “Yes. When my car broke down in Magic, Ceno gave her a new motor which was powered by ion propulsion.” She chuckled. “I don’t know what he was thinking. After all, I could have traded it in, and it wouldn’t have taken long for someone to get under the hood and figure out it wasn’t a gas engine pushing it down the road. Anyway,” she continued when Sela elbowed her in the ribs. “To make an even longer story a bit shorter, the computer he used for the ion propulsion unit gave my car a voice. Apparently, it had been sentient all along and was, in essence, trapped inside its body.”

  “And to hear Reno and Ceno tell it, the car hasn’t stopped talking since.” Sela snickered. “I guess she’s annoying, opinionated, and a bit snarky.” She glanced at Birgit from the corner of her eye. “Like her owner, I’m told.”

  “Riiiight.” Birgit gave her a sisterly swat. “Pick on the pregnant lady.”

  “Well, she’s your car. She had to learn that behavior somewhere.”

  “Ha, ha, ha.” Birgit stuck her tongue out at Sela before giving her a hug. “I’m so glad you’re my sister.”

  “Me, too, doll.” Sela hugged her back before she moved back to the table and sat. “I never had any sisters, and I lost my mom when I was a kid. I don’t think I’ll know how to hang out with all of you women.”

  “You’ll figure it out,” Clyde called from the other side of the room. “There’s not a gaggle of females in the world that can’t figure out how to get along and gang up on the men in their lives.”

  “Stay out of this, Gramps,” Sela called over her shoulder. “Leaning into the table, she whispered, “I love him to death, and I’m glad he’s young and healthy again but sometimes, I wish they hadn’t fixed his hearing. He’s such a busybody now.”

  “I heard that!”

  “See what I mean?” She hissed the words with a scowl. Turning, she waved her arm. “Hey, there, you. Mind your own business unless you want us to make you an honorary member of the group.”

  The color washed from Clyde’s face as though the thought of being an honorary woman was the most terrifying thing he’d ever heard.

  “Don’t you dare!” He ejected his disk from the media player and huffed. “I’m going back to my room, where I can watch this movie in peace.” He shook his head. “Imagine being threatened like that by my own flesh and blood. Your grandmother would be appalled.”

  He left the mess deck mumbling to himself as the four of them laughed among themselves.

  “I just love your grandfather.”

  “Me, too,” Sela said with a wistful smile. “I really am glad that the med bay on the ship was able to cure all of his ailments. I don’t know what I’d do if he...” Her eyes misted over, and her voice wavered a bit. “You know.” She glanced down at her clasped hands.”

  “We know.” Birgit patted her shoulder and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “We’re all glad he’s still around. I love him as much as I could love my own grandfather if I had one.”

  “Thanks for that.” Sela swiped her hand over her eyes. “It’s good to hear he’s liked. He can be a bit...”

  “Vexing?” Birgit offered.

  “I guess you could say that.” Sela laughed and dabbed at her eyes with the hem of her blouse.

  “We need to find him a woman. I wonder if there are any out there who can hold their own with him.” Birgit had a thoughtful expression on her face. “How old is he anyway? He doesn’t look a day over thirty-five. I assume it’s because the medical bay reversed most of the signs of aging.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Sela bit her lip. “But Gramps and Geno finally came clean. He looks so young because Geno gave him some of their blood. Apparently, they have blood stored somewhere on the ship just in case they need an emergency transfusion or something. Anyway, they decided the only way to cure his diabetes and cancer he had for good was to give him shifter blood. They...” She took a deep breath. “They had no idea it would make him like them.”

  “Are you saying they can make us like them if they want to?” Birgit choked on her coffee, and Charly slapped her on the back.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I think so. I just...” She shook her head and coughed a few more times. “I didn’t know they could make us shifters as well.”

  “Well...” Sela moved to the replicator and ordered a cup of coffee. “Apparently, we wouldn’t be able to shift. At least they don’t think so as none of their women shift anymore.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t shift,” Charly said thoughtfully. “I wonder...”

  “You wonder what?” Sela leaned forward, holding her coffee in both hands.

  “Well... I have never shifted, but Tabby insists that I must be able to.” She glanced at them all in turn. “I wonder what would happen if we gave you our blood.”

  “I’m not sure I’d want to risk it without typing it first.” Sela took a sip of her drink. “I’m no doctor, but I know giving someone a transfusion is a risky business, especially if we don’t know our blood types.”

  “Maybe, once this is all over and Birgit isn’t preggers anymore, we can investigate the matter more. I mean, what the hell, why not? I’m not sure, but I don’t think there are a whole lot of shifters left in the world. Adding to our ranks might be a good thing. There’s only one drawback that I can think of,” Charly added, her expression thoughtful.

  “What’s that?” Tabby couldn’t believe she was even discussing this with her sister and the other women.

  “Well... It would put them,” she glanced at Sela and Birgit, “in the same type of danger as we are in with those crazy, mad scientist types.”

  “Too late. They’re already after us,” Birgit piped in. “Especially once we’re both carrying or have carried children. They’re going to want to see if there are any changes in our bodies. I would think to be able to shift would make us better able to protect our children.”

  “There is that.” Tabby shrugged. “In for a penny, in for a pound?”

  “Gramps would skin my hide if he heard me even talking about this.” Sela lowered her voice. “He’s as afraid of losing me as I am of losing him.”

  “Then giving you two a transfusion is something we should definitely look into.” Tabby stood and straightened her shirt. “I wonder... Just how smart is the ship’s computer?”

  “Pretty darned smart,” answered the disembodied female voice. “When do we get started?”

/>   “Oh, no. Another sentient device?”

  “Another,” the voice asked with a sniff. “I am the original.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Deno stood staring down the cooridor, either unwilling or unable to make his way to his cabin and pack his bags. What had he been thinking, telling her he’d move out?

  “What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” Reno scowled at him along with the rest of his brothers and his sire.

  “I got upset with Tabby this morning and told her I’d pack a few things and move out this afternoon.”

  “And to think I even slowed us down so you’d have enough time to woo her before we got back to Earth.” His father gave a disgusted snort. “Kids. Can’t teach ‘em anything, can’t beat ‘em in the head with a stick.”

  “Bullshit. You slowed us down to make sure we made all the repairs before we got back. You’re always pressing us into service. Why pay a repair crew when you can force your sons to do it for free?” Ceno’s snort echoed their father’s so well, the two sounds might have come from the same man.

  An outsider would have assumed they were all brothers, or cousins as their father didn’t look much older than Reno. Their shifter genes kept them looking young, well into their one-hundred and fifties, which is why Clyde had an apparent age reversal when they gave him their blood. He only wished the man would start acting as young as he looked. It was odd to see a man who could be in his mid-thirties acting like an eighty-year-old human. Sooner or later, someone would think he needed a keeper.

  “Maybe I coerced you into helping me fix this old bucket, but the main reason I slowed us down was to give this dummy a chance to sweet talk his woman into falling in love with him.” He reached out and cuffed Deno on the back of the head. “But he’s too dense to know what sort of gift the gods have granted him. The goddess must be crying with frustration at his stupidity.”

  “Okay, okay. I admit it. I fucked everything up. What the hell do you guys want me to do? She can barely stand the sight of me. She’s always looking at me as though I don’t think she’s too bright or something. I have no idea why. I have never accused her of being anything other than a bright and beautiful woman, even when I was an ass to her that first day.”

  Deno shoved his fingers through his hair and then slammed his fist into the bulkhead before pacing between his kin.

  “What am I supposed to do, go in there and profess my love for her? She’d never believe it. Even if she did, would she accept that, or would she believe that it’s the chemistry between us talking? At least some part of her has to know the chemical reactions between us are at least partly to blame for how we feel. Will she ever understand that even though it might be a chemical reaction, it’s no less real for me? Will she believe that I’m in love with her no matter what I might have said before or will she dismiss it as something that will go away like a virulent case of the flu?”

  His father gave him a look that told him, at least, he’d gotten through to him, even if he hadn’t managed to get the matter through his brothers’ thick skulls.

  “It doesn’t matter at this point.” His father clasped his shoulder. “Your beast has begun the imprinting, hasn’t he?”

  “He has.” Deno scrubbed his face with his hands before lowering them to his hips. “I couldn’t stop him. He’s chosen.”

  “Even though you have not.”

  “I have chosen.” Deno sighed. “How could I not choose her when she is everything I have ever dreamed of in a mate?”

  “But... if she refuses you—”

  “I know, I know. If she refuses me, I’ll be alone for the rest of my life or, at least according to legend, for the rest of hers.”

  “You’d better hope she comes around,” his father said with a shake of his head. “To the best of my knowledge, no one alive has ever known a male who has found a takana.”

  “Second mates are a myth, aren’t they?” Rowen squeezed between them, an apple in his hand. He raised the fruit to his lips and took a large bite before continuing with his mouth full, the slob. “I mean, I know they’re supposed to exist, but aren’t they a bit like Earth’s Loch Ness Monster?”

  “I hope not, son.” His father crossed his arms. “For your brother’s sake. I certainly hope not.”

  “Oh. I thought you wanted one for yourself.”

  “Me?” His father laughed. “I’m not suited for an Earth woman. I would want to protect her all the time, and it would stifle her. It’s best to leave the Earthlings to you young ones, and possibly Clyde if he’d ever stop acting his age.”

  “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone complain that someone was acting his age before.” Reno chuckled, crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “They’re usually complaining that people aren’t acting their age.”

  “That’s most generally because the person in question is acting younger than their years.”

  “I’d imagine it’s going to take a bit of getting used to. Did you know that he still hasn’t bothered to use an imaging device yet? Perhaps he thinks he still looks like an eighty-five year-old human.”

  “Then, we need to find him a mirror as soon as we get back to Magic. Maybe if he sees that he’s got the looks and body of someone less than half his age, he’ll stop acting like an old man and adopting everyone he meets as his grandchild.” Geno headed for the mess deck. The rest of you might not be hungry, but I’m starving. And all this speculation has made me thirsty.” He led the way to the dining area and, ignoring the women, strode over to the replicator. Anyone need a drink?”

  A glass of amber liquid appeared on the pad before him. Picking it up, he turned and waved to his sons.

  “Well?”

  “I’ll have one. It’s not as good as the real thing, but the flavor and intoxication approximation is good enough for me.” Deno reached out and took the glass his father held out to him.

  “I think we could all use a drink. I’ll need one before I get back to my cabin.” Reno rested his head in his hands. “Between your griping and repairing this piece of junk you call a ship, I’m exhausted. How am I going to draw up the plans for the nursery Birgit has been asking for?” He groaned. “Do I look like a friggin’ architect?”

  “You’re a young man. Take a deep breath, suck it up, and pull up your big girl panties.”

  “I think you mean big boy pants,” Reno said as he accepted a glass of liquor from their father.

  “Did I?” Ceno met Reno’s gaze, his brow raised in a clear challenge.

  “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.” Reno slammed his drink down onto the table in front of him. “Well... I’m ready to go back to Birgit for the day. If any of you have any objections about that, file it with the complaint department.” Standing, he moved to the door and stopped.

  “If I were you...” Reno turned and met Deno’s gaze. “I would go back to your cabin, get on my knees, and beg her forgiveness, yet again. Blame your behavior on your hormones, your inability to articulate correctly, or your stupidity. Either way, make her believe you mean what you say. And, damn it, mean what you say. A man only has so many chances with a woman before she gives up on him entirely. I just hope you haven’t gotten there yet.”

  “Me, too, brother.” Deno tipped his glass and drank down the contents in one gulp. “Me, too.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Tabby sat in Deno’s cabin, awaiting his return. She wasn’t sure how she was going to convince him to stay, but she was going to try. After talking with her sister and the other women on board, she was certain she and Deno needed another second chance.

  She’d spent most of her adult life alone, and that kind of existence held no appeal anymore. When her sister married Xeno, she’d be free to leave and spend as much time alone as she wanted. The thing was, being alone no longer held any appeal for her. Not anymore.

  Her stomach churned at the thought that whatever she’d said to make Deno say what he had might come up again. She didn’t want that. She wished he would take
her in his arms and hold her the way he had the night before. It wasn’t a surprise to find that she wanted to feel warm and safe and fall asleep in his arms again.

  What if she replicated a nice meal for him? Would he be thankful that she’d thought to feed his hunger, or would he brush her aside, pack his things, and leave anyway?

  She moved to the replicating device, pulled out the manual, and began using the machine to make him the best meal she could think of making. After years of eating nothing but fish, the only meal she could think he might like that she would eat was something his brother had loved on their trip to Magic.

  Hot roast beef sandwiches with cottage cheese, corn, and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy.

  She’d just finished figuring out how to program the meal into the replicator when she heard the door open and close.

  Time’s up, girl.

  Touching the start icon, she spun around to face Deno, who stood in the doorway, his expression unreadable. At least he didn’t look angry or resigned like he had earlier.

  Don’t give him a chance to say anything. You do all the talking.

  Wiping her sweaty palms on her slacks, Tabby gave him a smile that she hoped was sultry or at least tempting. Unfortunately, something told her that if it wasn’t wobbly, it most likely looked painful instead of attractive.

  “Hi!” Did that sound too perky? She didn’t want to sound perky. That just pissed off some guys. “How was your day?”

  Deno didn’t answer at first. He stood just inside the door and looked at her as though he hadn’t expected her to be there.

  “It was... okay. My father has decided that we’re not going back to Earth until his ship is repaired.” His mouth quirked at the corners. “A couple of my brothers have the habit of ditching him when we’re on a planet.”