Slowly, he lowered her so that her feet touched the floor again, but for a long moment, they stay leaned against each other, letting their hearts slow and simply breathing together.
“That... that command. In my head,” Rachel said after a long moment. “Were you just telling me to come… or did you make me come?”
Lynxar's smile was mischievous. “Well, that's something for you to find out, isn't it?”
He consented to leave the gym and take a shower with her, but as the last shadows of their pleasure dropped away, she could feel the edges of his dark mood return.
The meeting was in a few hours, and she prayed that it would give her lover both forgiveness and relief.
Chapter Two
Bryan Hillman had grown up rich, and growing up, despite his now-cured illness, he had always been told that he could do anything he set his mind to. He hardly thought that “anything” would turn out to be taking the role of the superhero known as the Ghost, possessed of super strength and the ability to turn invisible, and he sure hadn't thought that it meant he would be playing mediator to super-powered beings.
“Feeling all right?” Vicky asked, giving his shoulders a friendly rub. He kissed her hand gently as she went by, and he allowed himself to enjoy the look of her, clad only in a cream bra and a slip, but he knew that she was on her way out.
“I'm sorry you can't be there,” he said wistfully. “Bellaron likes you more than he likes me.”
“Ha, he just sees someone he needs to stuff with food because he thinks I'm always starving to death.”
“I think you're beautiful,” Bryan said loyally.
Vicky laughed, pulling on her work clothes. “Thank you, dear, that's all that matters to me. Don't worry about it. The fact that this meeting is happening at all is a great thing.”
She gave him a final kiss on the lips and was out the door, leaving him to dress more slowly.
She was right, he supposed. Bringing Lynxar, the leader of Colossal City's superhero force, into the same room with Bellaron, an alien who had landed more recently and seemed intent on fighting crime on his own, was definitely progress. It was simply too dangerous to have people with super powers around who didn't know of each other, and Bryan dreaded the idea of them hurting one another in misunderstanding simply because they did not recognize each other.
He was attending some of his own work in the library when the butler showed Bellaron in.
The two men greeted each other warmly, and Bryan asked Bellaron to take a seat at one of the chairs close to the enormous bay window.
Bellaron was a large man, and there was an easy strength and grace in his body that made Bryan a little envious. The man had black hair that reminded him a little bit of Vicky's own, and green eyes that were cool and calculating.
“I do not know what you are expecting from this meeting, Bryan,” Bellaron said. “There's no need for it.”
Bryan sighed. Sometimes, it was like herding cats. “What if you're trying to rescue someone, and in the confusion, Lynxar or Archer think that you're attacking them instead? If they know it's you, they wouldn't think twice, but if the circumstances were wrong, they could easily see you as a threat that needed to be dealt with.”
Bellaron flashed him a smile that was full of sharp white teeth. “Well, then they would be welcome to come and try to attack,” he said, sounding as if he would relish the challenge.
Bryan shook his head. “First, they're not normal men, and second, you're missing the big picture. If you're fighting each other, what happens to the person you were trying to help protect? What happens to the people around you? Does the villain get away?”
Bellaron snorted, but Bryan continued.
“The truth is that the world is big, and it's dangerous. The more we know about each other, the better things will go, yes?”
Bellaron started to respond, but the door opened and Lynxar strode in. Except for his hair, he looked perfectly human, but Bryan was suddenly and acutely aware that he was in the presence of men who had traveled to Earth from places that he could only begin to imagine.
Lynxar hesitated, looking at Bellaron with uncertainty, but Bellaron stood smoothly, offering Lynxar his hand.
“Well met, Lynxar,” Bellaron said coolly. “Your reputation precedes you.”
They shook, and to Bryan's dismay, there was no easing between the two of them at all. They were both large men, and they could see eye to eye with one another. It felt like a challenge of some sort, something that could end in bloodshed and violence if things went wrong.”
“I'm afraid yours does not,” Lynxar admitted. “You have me at a disadvantage. All I know is your name, traveler.”
A dark shadow swept over Bellaron's face, and for a moment, Bryan could see something violent there, something that howled for release. He tensed to interrupt, to provide a distraction, something, but Bellaron started speaking.
“My name is Bellaron. It used to be longer, because on my planet of Naith, there were different names that I would be called by my people and my family. I was Si-Bellaron-Atreya-Naith to my people, which means prince in English, I was Bellaron-Ishan to my six brothers, I was Bella-i to my mother and my father.”
He paused, letting the weight of a lost world settle onto Bryan and Lynxar, and when he continued, his voice was soft and deadly.
“To my wife, I was Kashan, which means beloved, and to my son, I was only Ada. Do you understand?”
Lynxar swallowed hard and shook his head. “I never could,” he said. “When I was stranded here, I was lost from my people, but I knew that they were always out there. I knew which star in the sky was ours, and I knew that my family was safe. I have never suffered as you have.”
Bellaron growled angrily. “We heard of you,” he said, his voice still quiet. “We called to your home for help, pleaded for it, and they offered us you.”
“My ship malfunctioned, it fell here, and it was only by luck that I was not killed.”
Bellaron shook his head. “Do you think that matters to me?” he demanded. “The Angels, the winged fallen ones, they set upon my planet and my people like dogs after a wounded animal. They heard that we had lost our defense against them, and they came for us. The ancient allegiance between our people should have protected us!”
Bryan's gaze darted between the two men as he tried to keep up. Every piece of information was brand new, and now he felt like he had done something truly awful. “Look, let's settle down...”
Bellaron turned to him with a furious glare. “I owe you a great debt of thanks, Bryan Hillman. You were the one who found me trying to earn a living here after my escape pod landed on this planet. You saw my skills, and you purchased a restaurant for me to refine my craft. You gave me a living and you gave me a home. I will never forget that, but there are other things that I cannot forget.”
“Like your home,” Lynxar said softly.
Bellaron spun to face him. “Yes,” he hissed. “I am the only survivor of Naith, the only one to remember the crystal waterfalls and the dances of the New Year. I remember my wife and my son. It is only I.”
There was a long moment of silence, and Lynxar swallowed hard. “There is only you,” he said softly, “and to the end of my life, I will mourn it. I will mourn it with you, if you allow me to.”
Bellaron took a step back as if he heard something foul, and in that single gesture, Bryan saw a man who was still wounded from a trauma that no one on Earth had ever felt. He was the last. The powers, the songs and the history of his people were gone, and he was all that remained.
“I want nothing from you,” Bellaron growled, and for a moment, it seemed to Bryan that he would lunge at the other man. “I want nothing from someone who left so many to die, to perish one by one, as he did nothing.”
In the appalled silence that followed his words, Bryan stifled the urge to shout that it wasn't true. There was nothing that Lynxar could have done. However, he realized that there was nothing he could to convince Bellaro
n of this, and worse, there was nothing that could convince Lynxar of this either.
“What do you need to know of me?” Bellaron asked, his voice as flat as the blade of a sword. “Bryan said that you needed to know my strengths and my skills if I was to fight in this city.”
“Yes, tell us that,” Lynxar responded, his mouth twisting unhappily.
“I am stronger than the humans here, and I am swifter too. I can smell things far better than a human can, and I have a shape that is not unlike that of your wolf species, though larger by far. This is the extent of my power, Lynxar. Is it enough.”
Lynxar nodded.
With a snort, Bellaron turned away. “You are a fine friend to me, Bryan, but never ask me to do this again.”
Bryan only swallowed hard and nodded, and he watched as Bellaron left. The slammed door echoed throughout the room, and he shook his head.
Lynxar sat down slowly on one of the chairs nearby, and he covered his face with his hands. “His rage... it was so hot it burned...”
Bryan realized that if he could feel beaten by Bellaron's anger that it must have been so much harder for a telepath, and he nodded, sitting down next to Lynxar.
“There was nothing you could have done,” he said, trying to find the words to comfort his friend. “You could not have controlled the malfunction of your ship, and you could not have known how it would turn out.”
Lynxar shook his head. “I know that, I do. It is only that such grief, and such anger... would it have been a mercy if he had died with them? He walks like a dead man.”
Bryan started to agree, but then he thought of the way the alien prince had spoken about the artist he had hosted the other night. It made him think that there might be some hope yet, and silently, he prayed that it was so.
Chapter Three
As Bellaron walked through the streets of Colossal City, the rage slowly dropped away from him. Instead of taking Bryan's limousine as he had to come to his friend's estate, he walked, and between his quick ground-eating stride and his inhuman endurance, he was now miles away in one of the city's quieter residential areas. He passed a bakery that smelled of rich breads and pastries, and walking further, he caught the scent of frying egg rolls drifting out of an open window. The comfortable, homey smells of food comforted him, and he slowed a little.
He had been worse than unkind to the purple-haired hero, he had been unfair. He understood that, had understood it even as he had stood opposite the man and hurled abuse at him. He had lived among humans for some years, but seeing Lynxar, seeing a reminder of the life that he had led before, had torn the scars right off of those old wounds. He remembered the message sent from Lynxar's home world, that had promised them aid, that had promised them a warrior who could turn the tide. He shook his head.
It was all over, and he knew it. Bellaron himself knew the dangers of deep space travel, and how travelers could become lost, turned around and their ships so damaged that they were lucky to ever come to a habitable planet that offered a chance of repair.
Perhaps that was what troubled him so. Lynxar, in many ways, had been terribly lucky. For himself, the last of a dead people, Bellaron felt cursed.
He had been wrong to abuse Lynxar, but some part of him still hated the man. He had come close to losing it all, and then soared upwards again. Bellaron still felt like he was falling, and he was beginning to wonder when he would land.
His dark thoughts were interrupted by a shrill scream, and he realized it was not the joyful shout of children at play but something far more angry and afraid. Now that he was listening for it, he could smell something that he had not smelled in years, and the scent, so similar to charred paper, made his stomach drop even as a deep growl thundered in his chest.
He started running and transforming at once, and when his front paws hit the pavement, his clothes were shredded away. He looked like a wolf, but he was the size of a carriage horse and leggy. He raced toward the shouts, which were growing louder, and now people were dashing by, trying to get away from the cause of the disturbance. They saw him, but though some snapped pictures with their phones, they didn't get in his way.
He rounded the corner, and the first thing he saw made a deep, dark fury rise up in his throat. It was a tall thing and burnt, its skin covered in unwholesome char and blister. It was shaped like a man, but tall and thin as a rail, and from its back were the remnants of what Bellaron knew had once been beautiful wings. It had landed crouched on three limbs, and its terribly long arm was stretched toward...
Apple Muldoon faced off against the terrible thing, her round face full of anger and fear. She wielded a thin spar of sharp metal, waving it in front of her like a knife. Her whole body was tensed for battle, and when Bellaron saw the cluster of young children behind her, he saw why she had not fled with the others.
The chain that he kept on the beast within him broke, and the world narrowed to scarlet fury.
Chapter Four
“Come on! Come on, you ugly fuck!” Apple snarled. She had already seen the creature tear a stop sign from the concrete, and she had no illusions that it could rip her apart, but she was going to be damned if it was going to go after little kids.
The thing was hideously burned, but when it bared its teeth, they were pure white, a travesty in that ruined face. It made a wheezing noise, and at first Apple thought it meant to snarl. Then she realized that it was laughing at her, and she bared her teeth.
When it reached for her almost lazily, she swiped at it with her sculpting tool, a long bit of metal that she had sharpened for clay incisions. Homemade tools were the best, and she allowed herself a grim smile when the thing pulled back with a yowl of despair.
When it took another lunge at her, it was more careful, and though she pushed it back a second time, she realized that that might not be something that she could keep up.
I think I need a hero, was the thought that drifted up in her mind, and just as she thought that, she heard an earthshaking howl.
At first she couldn’t believe her eyes, but then she realized that it was true. An enormous brindle wolf had slammed hard into the burned monstrosity and even now was pinning it to the pavement. It feinted at the thing’s face, seeking its throat.
Shuddering, Apple turned to the terrified children behind her. “Go... go home,” she said sternly, even though her voice was shaking. “Go right home, you understand? Don't leave for anything!”
They took off, running as hard as they could, and for a fleeting moment, she wished that she could join them. Instead, she took a tighter grip on her weapon and watched the fight.
The wolf had left oozing wounds on the burnt thing's body, but it had suffered as well. There were raking gashes along its shoulders, and as she watched the thing grabbed one of its hind legs. The wolf howled, and a snap of those fearsome teeth made it let go, but when the wolf resumed the attack, that rear leg was definitely weakened.
She wondered if there was a way for her to lunge in, to stab the thing or to hold it, and she knew how foolish it was. She knew that she should run, but the wolf's desperate fight captivated her.
For a moment, it looked like the burned monster would get away, but the wolf's powerful jaws closed on its throat, ending its life with a final crunch. Apple winced, but when she remembered the terrified eyes of the children, she couldn't find it in herself to care much.
The wolf's head snapped up, and she suddenly remembered that it was a major predator, regardless of what good it had done her. She started to stutter, to back away before it could attack, and then it... changed.
It shrunk and melted, and before her astonished eyes, turned into a naked man. The eyes were the same, though, green as the forest and vivid, and she realized that not only was this a naked man, it was a naked man that she knew.
“Bellaron?”
He staggered toward her, and she ran to catch him before he could fall. This close to him, she could smell his scent, sweat and dirt and a simple human scent, yes, but it was overla
id with something wilder, something that made her think of pine forests and arctic nights.
“You... that monster, did... did it harm you? Did it touch you?”
“No, not even a little bit. I promise you, you are safe. You are safe, and you did well, Kashan, you did so well.”
He stood abruptly, and Apple found herself gripped around the shoulders by arms that felt like they could bend steel bars. “What did you call me?”
“I... I don't know, put me down, you're hurting me!”
Bellaron let go of her as if she was hot, and to his credit, he looked abashed. “Forgive,” he said, “I did not know my own strength.”
“I'll say,” she retorted, and she would have said more, but then she became aware of police sirens in the distance. They still sent a pitch of fear through her stomach, and she looked from the wreck of the monster on the ground and the tall man standing naked before her, completely unashamed. With a muttered swear under her breath, she stripped off her hoodie and tied it around his waist.
“Come on,” she said, “we need to get out of here.”
She took off running away from the sirens, and to her relief he followed.
Chapter Five
Apple didn't have many plans for what she would do with a naked werewolf when she got back to her apartment, but she assumed that at some point, that would work itself out. She lived in a seven-story walk-up not far from where their encounter with the burned monster had occurred, and by the time she had let them both in and shot the deadbolt behind them, she felt calm enough that she could speak.
Bellaron, wrapped in nothing but an improvised kilt made from her hoodie, was looking around her tiny apartment as if there was nothing amiss at all. It was a small clean place, even if the windows looked straight into another brick wall, and though her only real piece of furniture was her bed, he looked at it with respect and curiosity.
Lynxar Series: Boxed Set (Books 14-19) (Superhero Romance - Werewolf Romance) Page 4