“Yes, you’re right. Without going into any details, because you’re too young for the discussion, alpha-born or not, I would very much like to talk to her tonight if she’s willing to talk to me.”
“All right then.” Yonn seemed satisfied by the request. “I’ll go and convey the message and rejoin my cohort at the barracks. Good luck, Enforcer. May the Goddess be with you.” He gave a salute and walked away toward the residence caves.
Not sure he’d done the right thing, Reede leaned on the huge tree trunk and idly flicked his talons in and out of their sheaths, a nervous gesture he didn’t usually make but tonight he was on edge.
The breeze brought him Fallyn’s delicate scent and he had the usual reaction, with all the muscles in his body tightening and blood rushing to his cock. He took a deep breath and reached for calm. Not now, idiot. He needed to talk to her tonight, nothing more. Reede stepped away from the tree to meet her, remembering the humans’ night vision was abysmal compared to the Badari.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet me,” he said, admiring her lithe beauty in the moonlight. She always moved with a purpose and confidence. “I hope Yonn made it clear I was only asking if we could talk.”
“He’s a delightful person, isn’t he?” she said with a smile. “Yes, that was the substance of the message he gave me on your behalf.” Reaching his side, she stood looking up at him and Reede had all he could do not to take her into his arms.
“I couldn’t go into the dorm. I’ve never been there and I didn’t want to embarrass you if you weren’t in the mood to talk,” he added in an attempt to be fair.
She laid one hand on his arm. “It’s no problem. I understand completely. Since I arrived here I’ve come to understand a lot more about your position in the pack and the valley. Where shall we sit for this conversation?” Fallyn peered in the direction of the lake. “I think there are benches by the water’s edge.”
“I know a special spot, in the Badari only sector,” he said, conscious it was early enough for there to be passers-by in this area. “It’s beautiful at night and I’d enjoy showing you.”
“All right, sounds good.” She took his hand, lacing her fingers in his.
The simple gesture reassured him he was going down the right path. Tingles of electricity flashed through his body from the place where their hands were clasped. He had to order himself to move toward the correct trailhead. Now that he had Fallyn by his side, he racked his brain for what to say. Diving right into the mate issue didn’t feel right but neither did casual small talk.
“This—this thing between us isn’t going away, is it?” she asked in a soft voice.
“Do you want it to?” Fear rippled through his mind at the idea of losing her.
“Do you?” Fallyn shook her head. “I don’t want to sound like an obsessed Badari groupie or a stalker but I think of you all the time. I’m constantly hoping to see you in meetings, or at the dining hall…I’m greedy for any snippet of conversation where your name is mentioned.” Her voice faded and they walked in silence for a while. She tapped her chest over her heart. “The best way I can express the situation is I have an ache I can’t escape or wish away. As if there’s something pulling at me, a need only you can satisfy.”
“It’s the same for me,” he admitted.
“I never felt anything like this before.” Running her hand through her short spiky blond hair, she laughed. “Although now we’re together, my heart and my mind have gone quiet. Peaceful.”
“I should have explained better, when we first met,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking clearly and I never expected to meet my m—I mean the woman who could be my mate, not under those circumstances and then I threw all the stuff at you about claiming and bonding for life.”
“To be fair, you were being tortured for part of the time.” Fallyn shivered. “Chained to that metal structure, probes and needles everywhere. Hardly at your best.”
He remembered how her instinctive first move had been to free him and the warmth of the memory shoved aside the cold horror of having been in Khagrish hands again, subject to their will.
“I’ve asked a few questions since getting here,” she said.
Reede was startled and his adrenaline pumped. Who had she talked to?
As if sensing his surprise, she stroked his arm and the skin to skin contact was pleasing. “Relax, I only spoke with Taura Dancer, Jadrian’s mate, since she’s my commanding officer technically. I understand the nature of the mate bond now, what you were trying to tell me the night in the cave, about it being for life. I swore Taura to secrecy.” Fallyn chuckled. “She didn’t seem surprised though. Humans and Badari must mate fairly often.”
“Not really, not so far.” Although when he reviewed the list of mated couples in his mind, he realized there were getting to be more and more. Bettira, the admin assistant and Skyl, a soldier on the rise in the pack were the most recent. “There are Badari and humans who date as your people refer to it, casually spending time together and even enjoying physical relations without ever feeling the mate bond, which was an unexpected development to the Alpha.”
“But not Reede the enforcer, am I right? Nothing about you is casual.” Her voice made it sound as if the remark was a compliment. “Taura explained more about the various roles in the pack command structure and all the things you and Mateer are responsible for.”
“No human fully understands the complexities,” he said, compelled to issue the warning. “We’re not human and our pack isn’t subject to rules based in your psychology.”
“But you’re remarkably similar to us in many ways and we’re compatible as mates so give me a little credit when I say I get the overall picture.” Now her voice held a tinge of asperity. He liked the way she pushed back when she believed he was overgeneralizing. Strong women appealed to him—he wanted a partner who could go toe to toe with him when necessary, the way Jill and Aydarr were loving partners in all things but disagreed respectfully on occasion.
But Fallyn will only be here for a few more weeks at most. The reality of the deadline pounded in his head like a persistent drumbeat. Reede concentrated on navigating the two of them through the forest along a rudimentary path until they reached the overlook he’d wanted to show her.
“Oh this is astonishing.” She released his hand and stepped forward, closer to the edge of the cliff, staring at the horizon where spray from the falls at the end of the lake was illuminated by the light of the three moons in a silvery, iridescent display. Oddly colored rainbows danced in the water, adding to the beauty.
Although he was pleased at the way she reacted to the beauty of the scene, he felt the loss of physical contact with her acutely, a chill running through his frame. “I’m sure as a scout you must have seen wonders on many worlds before this.”
Fallyn glanced over her shoulder at him. “Nothing like this and never with a man like you.” She came to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head against his chest while he stood as if he’d been hit with a stun pulse.
Eventually he got over his shock and it occurred to him to put his arms around her and hold her close for a long moment, knowing she’d feel the evidence of his desire unmistakably. He decided that might not be such a good idea either. The entire situation was throwing him for a loop, between his desire for her and his reluctance to enter into a deeper relationship that would ultimately hurt them both when they were forced to say goodbye. Talk, he’d brought her here to talk. Desperately he clutched at the idea. “We can sit over here,” he said, tugging her to the right. “There’s a bank of moss.”
When they reached the area he’d mentioned, he waited for her to seat herself and then he sat close to her. “I never met a woman like you,” he said. “I actually never expected the goddess to give me the chance to have a mate. And then you came. I felt—I felt amazing but worried about getting you to safety, and of course I still had my mission to complete. And then you turned out to be the person I was trying to locate. My hi
gh value objective. ”
“And?” she prompted gently as he fell silent. “How did that make you feel?”
The words ripped out of him with a brutal honesty he couldn’t quell, not after his long talk with Timtur earlier. “I was angry at the goddess and hurt she’d showed me such a happy possibility for a future I’d never expected to have and then yanked it away again.”
“Because I have to take the Chimmer ship with Walt and Gabe and fly back to the Sectors.” She made a statement of fact.
“And I’ll never see you again. So there we’d be, bonded for life and a galaxy away from each other. I’ll never get over you, Fallyn, never lose these emotions locked in my heart, whether we claim each other or not, but I don’t want to shackle you with a bond to me. I don’t even know if a human heart would maintain the bond once we were permanently separated. I hate the idea of you with any other man but I couldn’t ask you to commit—“
“Stop right there.” She placed her slender hand on his lips and her voice was stern. “Why are you assuming we’d never see each other again? I know Gabe is mated to a Badari woman and they certainly didn’t have any expectation of being separated forever when the plan was for him to go off on this mission to the Sectors. Until I arrived and took his spot. Why were you so sure I wouldn’t come back? Do you think so little of me, that if I bonded with you, I’d walk away without a second thought when the opportunity came? If that’s your opinion of me, of the kind of woman I am, which is so lacking in integrity, why do you want to be my mate at all?”
The words were provocative and hurtful but her tone wasn’t. Reede was puzzled but the only way through this was forward and he had to explain himself as fully as possible tonight or lose his mate forever. He knew that in his bones. It was past time they settled what was unsettled between them. “Gabe’s not active duty military. He retired from the Special Forces a few years ago.”
Fallyn laughed. “Being in the Sectors military isn’t like being born into a Badari pack. It’s not a lifelong thing. I can and will resign my commission—I’ve put in more than enough years—and I’ll get back here to you. If the Sectors won’t send me with the battle group, I have friends who are mercenaries. I’ve never spent much of my pay because I never found a place, or a man, I wanted to invest in, no one to put roots down with. No one who gives me the kind of ideas you do, about a home and kids and a life together.”
His head was whirling. They’d never discussed any of this and she was way ahead of him. What she was saying warmed his heart and suffused him in happiness. “Mercenaries?”
“Point being I have a huge stack of credits in my account on New Switzerland. Seven hells, I could even cash in my veterans’ acres benefit if I needed more credits. I’d be able to pay enough to get them to fly me out here and maybe even join in the fight. Once I have the final co-ordinates from your friend MARL, I’ll won’t forget them.” She moved, straddling him, winding her arms around his neck and kissing him softly, lightly. Her voice was a whisper. “I’ll be back, if you want me.”
“Wanting you has become so distracting I can’t function,” he said, his voice hoarse. “And Timtur made it clear to me how wrong I was to try to make a decision affecting both of us without talking to you.”
She rocked over his iron hard cock, putting pressure on him through their layers of clothing that made him bite his lip and shift in response to the stimulus, which he realized a minute too late only increased the sensations rampaging from his arousal through his entire body.
“It does take two for major life decisions like this,” she said, nibbling his ear lobe. “I think I’d be good for you, Enforcer Reede. You need to think out of the box more, challenge all those rules and rigid protocols you live by. Open yourself up to possibilities. As a scout, I’m trained to improvise, adapt and overcome and I intend to apply all of those principles to you and your qualms.”
Although having her body pressed against his was supremely distracting, Reede said, “We only survived in the labs by staying within the rules. The Khagrish were quick to punish, to kill for infractions.”
She leaned away far enough to see his face in the moonlight. Her expression was serious, her focus on him intent. “I understand that, as well as anyone can who wasn’t there, but you’re in a new situation now.”
“Locked into the same role.”
Head tilted and eyebrows raised in puzzlement, she asked, “Meaning what?”
“I didn’t want to be an enforcer but that was my only choice. No one could ever challenge Mateer for dominance and win but I had to fight many battles before my position was solidified, despite Aydarr’s support. Even now there are men who’d like to rise in the pack and see mine as the only position that might be remotely vulnerable. Good men, men I call friends and fight side by side with.”
“Maybe Aydarr should consider restructuring the pack, creating more opportunities for people to try new things.”
This was not what he wanted to talk about tonight and he regretted his impulsive declaration so he shrugged. “First we have to win the battle for survival, to own the planet. I’m not complaining. I take pride in what I do for the pack. It’s just sometimes I—”
“Reflect on choices made and paths not taken.” She nodded. “Everyone does. I do. So getting back to the subject of us being mates and acting on the undeniable mutual attraction…” She reached between them and pressed her palm to the hot hard length of his cock. “How private is this beautiful spot you’ve brought me to?”
Make love to her for the first time here? Reede found the idea pleased him. This area is strictly off limits tonight, he sent on a tight broadcast to Mateer and the senior soldier in charge of the valley’s night security, supplying the location. I rely on your efficiency.
From Mateer he caught only a hint of good natured amusement. From Camron he got prompt confirmation of the order…and the whiff of a brotherly smile.
Shutting down the telepathic link, he was free to concentrate on the woman in his arms.
CHAPTER TEN
As Reede took her carefully over onto her back on the soft embankment, Fallyn breathed a deep sigh of relief. Her Badari was a stubborn man but now he’d reached his decision to throw caution to the winds, he was apparently all in. “I’m glad you see my point,” she said before she kissed him, teasing him by licking his lips with the tip of her tongue until he allowed her entry into the warmth of his mouth. Exploring the taste and heat of him, running the tip of her tongue cautiously over the retracted fangs made her shiver deliciously at the lethality of the man she loved. Fallyn ran her hands under his tee shirt, savoring the play of his muscles flexing as he held her close and returned her kiss with fervor. Reede was all chiseled abs, arms and legs defined by muscles and more muscles, a hard man made for danger, yet a consummate protector of those smaller and weaker than he. Smart, sexy, caring and a superb soldier. A partner the likes of whom she’d given up hoping to find for herself years ago. She ground her hips against him, desire throbbing at her core.
As he broke off the kiss and sat up to strip off his shirt with an impatient sound she was grateful for the moonlight, which outlined his body to perfection. Fallyn traced his flat nipples with one fingertip and then ran her hand down to the waistband of his pants. He sucked in a breath, keeping his eyes focused on her as she slid her fingers under his waistband to grip his shaft, stroking hard to stimulate every inch of the ridges on the shaft and the throbbing vein on the underside. He responded to her, thrusting against the pressure she applied as if he couldn’t stop himself.
“I want to see all of you,” she said, rubbing her thumb across the head of his cock before withdrawing her hand. She sucked the moisture of his arousal off her finger, watching him watch her with avid desire as she teased him. “Not the way I saw you before, not against your will as their prisoner, but as my lover.”
“I didn’t mind your eyes on me,” he said, even as he was stripping his boots and the pants. “You’re not anything like them.
” Naked, he stalked her, extending one hand to trace a line between her breasts.
As her tee shirt and the bra underneath fell away, she realized he’d used one talon to carefully slice through the fabric. She stripped off the remnants and lay against the soft moss, enjoying the way his eyes glowed with amber fire as he watched her. “I could use help getting the pants off,” she said, giving her hips a sexy shimmy. “But I’m going to need them later so no more fancy tricks with the claws. Show off.” She waggled her finger at him.
For answer he leaned close, extended one talon and ever so carefully traced a circle with her left nipple at the center, much as she’d done to him a few minutes earlier with her puny human fingernail. The sensation sent a tingle straight to her core and she arched toward him. Cupping her breast to hold her steady for him, Reede lowered his head and tasted her, alternately swirling his tongue over the sensitive bud and adding suction, while he kneaded her other breast.
When he raised his head, he said, “You taste like nothing I’ve ever experienced before—a rare essence of beauty and desire. I’m addicted to you and I need to explore this further.” With a grin, he nuzzled his way down her body, pausing to remove her shoes and the sensible utility pants she’d worn. He lingered over her rather utilitarian panties before drawing them down her legs and tossing them aside.
“If I’d only known we were going to go out on a date,” she said, running her hand through the silken weight of his hair, “I’d have demanded sexier lingerie from the nice lady at Stores.”
“Your bare skin is the sexiest of all,” he said. “Nothing hidden, spread for my eyes alone.” Suiting action to words, he pushed her thighs apart and lowered his head to lap at her clit with his tongue, while he kept his huge hands on her hips to hold her still for his attention.
Fallyn moaned and squirmed as he single mindedly worked to heighten her arousal. “I—I’m right on the edge,” she said. “Don’t make me go there alone— I want you inside me. I want all that strength sheathed in my core.”
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