by Brenna Lyons
“What if you’re wrong? What if self-gratification isn’t enough?” he asked quietly.
Erin blushed deeply and looked uncertain for the first time. “I — don’t know. The same as you, I suppose. I’d have to find a willing man for simple release, a one-night stand, but it would have to be a human who can’t print.” She shook her head sadly at the thought. Okay, she hadn’t thought that part through.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” he mused honestly.
Erin snuggled her cheek to his shoulder. “I hope it doesn’t either. I’d rather keep it simple.”
Curt shook himself mentally. A week later, she’d left Maher range. Erin hadn’t been back since then except for brief visits while he was off chasing beasts. He wondered if her self-gratification had lasted then decided that it was none of his business and less than conducive to his mental health. After all, he was her friend. Or was he?
Erin cut him off when she left, just like she had every other Warrior. Curt wasn’t sure which would be worse. If he was still her friend, could he get close to her and hint at more when he felt she was receptive? If he wasn’t, did that mean Erin saw him as a man? More important, when she came back in a week, would she see him as a man? And, could Curt see her as anything but a woman he desired?
* * * *
April 20, 2029
Curt took a deep breath then strode across the yard and plucked the sea bag from Erin’s grip. She turned suddenly – warily, glaring at him. He locked on her face, deciding that drifting his eyes over the cut-offs and t-shirt would be dangerous business.
“Relax,” he joked. “It’s no reflection on you. Grab the other bag, and I’ll show you to your room.”
“Same one as last time?” she asked brusquely.
“That’s what I’ve heard.”
Erin jumped down from the back of Talon’s truck and reached for the bag in his hand. “I can find my way,” she assured him.
“Kord sent me to help,” he informed her.
“Then send him my thanks after you hand me my bag,” she replied calmly. “I don’t need any help.”
Curt furrowed his brow. “Your choice, of course.” He handed her the bag and walked to the door. He continued through, not stopping for her. Whatever Erin’s problem was, Curt knew better than to crowd her.
He leaned against the far doorframe and watched as Erin trudged in with the sea bag strapped to her shoulder and her duffel in her other hand. The padded bracer on her left wrist was the only sign of Warrior wear. She wore jean cut-offs with a lavender v-neck T-shirt and white Keds with no socks. Even her bracer had been decorated with a bright, eye-catching design in jewel tones that made it appear more like a piece of jewelry than a piece of equipment.
Erin narrowed her eyes at him as she kicked the door shut behind her. “Problem?” she asked.
“No. Admiring the art on your bracer. I’ll just make sure you make it up the stairs. Then I’ll be on my way.”
“Fine.” She climbed the stairs, stopping to re-position her sea bag halfway up.
“It would be much easier if you’d just let me help,” he noted.
“I’ll bet,” she replied sarcastically. “Look, Curt... I’m pretty sure you’re honestly just trying to help, but don’t.”
“Friends, remember?” Okay, Curt was reaching now, but he had to talk to her. He couldn’t live with Erin giving him the cold shoulder for the entire stay, even if it meant she saw him as a man.
She glanced at him uncertainly. “That’s not a good idea. There have been a lot of changes in my life.”
“You don’t have to use your patented smack down on me. I know you better than that.”
“I’m not the same person I was then. I can’t be.”
“Neither am I, but I’d still like to talk to you like I used to.”
“I can’t, Curt. It doesn’t work like that anymore.”
“Okay. I’ll be around, if you change your mind. Can you make it up all right?”
“Yes. I’ll be fine on my own.”
That hurt. Curt didn’t want her to be all right on her own. He wanted Erin to need him, to want him. “Then I’ll go now.” He turned and walked away.
It was several heartbeats before he heard Erin start up the stairs again. A slow smile spread over his lips. Maybe he’d confused her. Confused was better than any of the other Warriors ever managed with her.
* * * *
Erin stared at the empty doorway in surprise. Curt really walked away. She almost laughed in relief. Maybe, they could still be friends, after all. She sobered again. No, that was impossible. Erin knew it was impossible the last time she saw Curt, and the four years away had done nothing to change that fact. He might be able to be friends, but it wasn’t enough for her.
It seemed almost funny that the one man who wasn’t chasing her was the one she found most attractive, the only one she found sexually stimulating. Even at fifteen, Erin’s fantasies for self-release centered around Curt Maher, especially an immediate exercise of her autonomy with him when she was granted it. The fact that he saw her as a Warrior and a friend was appealing in its novelty and frustrating as far as her grand fantasy went.
Coming here now was a type of madness. Her madness! Yes, Talon had ordered them back to Maher range, but the need in her to see Curt— Erin sighed. She debated the issue of touching him, not release but a kiss or exploration that could feed her fantasies for self-release before it lost effectiveness entirely.
He’d have to know that’s all it was, but this was Curt. Curt was safe in more ways than one. He wasn’t looking to print on anyone, especially not her. He was well-schooled in taking meaningless release. Most of all, he would respect that someone else was only out for the same. If Erin needed another reason, it would be all the secrets of hers he already kept. No, Curt wouldn’t be out to brag about banging the König princess.
If she ever rescinded her vow and took a Warrior, Erin couldn’t think of a Warrior she’d rather take release with than Curt, but she wasn’t sure she could stop at once with Curt. That was the danger of him. She could picture more than release with him, and Erin wouldn’t allow herself — or Curt to fall into that trap.
Not that it mattered. Friends, remember? The thought of it was like pouring alcohol in an open cut. Curt had always seen her as a friend and always would. Erin still remembered the day she decided she had to leave Maher range. He made his feelings pretty clear. She was a kid, sisterly. It was Curt’s duty to protect her, and he liked her company. Other than that, Erin was out of luck.
Okay, maybe she had fumbled her attempts to gain his other attentions. Erin had no practice at it, after all; but if Curt ever had any hopes, her announcement of her grand plan should have had some effect. He took it in stride, laughed at it, even talked about her having sex with other men. The thought of Curt taking release with other women was like a blade in her. Erin decided she had to leave that day. Her joke of the grand plan became a reality. If she couldn’t have Curt, she didn’t want anyone.
Erin sighed as she pushed the door to her room open. She stared in shock at the sight of the man stretched out on her bed, his upper body reclined against pillows stacked against the headboard. Okay, this is a new approach. Stupid — but new.
“What do you want, Bryant?” she demanded, dropping her bags on the floor unceremoniously and contemplating fishing her weapons out of the duffel.
“I just wanted to welcome you back to Maher range and make sure you get settled in.”
She set her jaw. “Kord already welcomed me, and I’m capable of unpacking on my own. Kindly leave my room.”
“Are you sure? It would take half the time with help.”
“Leave. I’m sure my belongings don’t need your assistance. In other words, my unmentionables will remain as such with you, Warrior.”
Bryant laughed in amusement and pushed from the bed, crossing to her. “If you need anything, I am at your service, Erin,” he assured her, the unspoken invitation to return t
o bed with him stressed in the drawn out ‘anything.’
“Thanks but no thanks. I don’t recall you ever being particularly — helpful when I needed it before.”
His smile dimmed. “That was eight years ago, and I paid a heavy price for it. Haven’t you forgiven me yet, Erin?”
“Forgiven, yes. You were still young and stupid.” Still are stupid. Erin pushed that thought away. “Forgotten, no. You make a mistake like that once, you could make it again. Only people who prove themselves to me have my back.”
“After the beating I took? I don’t think I’m capable of even considering a mistake like that again.”
“That’s nothing compared to the beating you’ll get if you don’t leave my room.”
“As you wish.” He smiled a predatory smile and bowed a little too low and close to her cleavage for Erin’s comfort.
“Do I have to kill you, Bryant?” she warned.
“I’m going,” he replied in renewed amusement, making his way to the door.
She watched the doorway for several seconds after he walked away then sighed and hoisted her sea bag onto the bed. “Keep going, Bryant. You’re gonna keep going, because you won’t be coming. Not with me anyway,” she muttered.
“What was that?”
Erin jumped and threw a pillow at the doorway behind her. “Dammit, Dad! Don’t ghost around me. I hate it when you do that.” She flopped down on the bed and curled her arms around her legs.
Talon’s smile was wide and teasing. “You’re just mad that Sarah’s not here. Sorry, honey. I couldn’t resist. I saw a man leaving my daughter’s room.” He smiled that infuriating smile she always wanted to smack off his face.
“And it’s such an unheard of event, you decided to snoop around a little. Don’t get your hopes up. I didn’t invite him in.”
“So, I heard.” He shook his head. “You’ll never know unless you at least talk to them.”
“Give it up. I’ve talked to them. I’ve trained with them. I’m less than impressed with the lot of them.”
“So, no one strikes your fancy?”
“Should someone? So far as I’ve been able to tell, they all just want to be the newest König, to screw the König princess, or some variation on that theme. The fact that I have a nice body is pretty much icing on the cake to them. I’m tired of it, Dad.”
“Not every Warrior is like that,” he countered.
“Most of them. The rest are even more annoying or printed already and have found their real brain again. You know, the one not nestled conveniently in their jeans?”
“What about Curtis? You two used to get along well.”
“Yeah, we were friends,” Erin admitted, “but that was a long time ago.”
“Maybe you need a friend.”
“I have friends. Hunter and Sarah, Alex and Peg—”
“All married couples,” he noted.
“Stephen, Kord—”
“And old men.” That smile settled on his face again.
“We’ve been through this, Dad. Mom was given the choice. I have autonomy. I have a choice.”
“Yes, you do. I won’t deny that, but—”
“Yeah. I know. The stone tends to get what it wants. Corwyn warned me.” He also told me I had a choice.
“That too, but I was going to tell you that passing up something you know will make you happy is never a good idea, whether the stone is in its corner or not.”
“What am I passing up, Dad? Sex with some guy I don’t even like well enough to have a conversation with?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that the stone told Lewis to bring you here, and you’ve been avoiding Maher range since you got your autonomy.” Talon crossed his arms over his chest, stroking his chin with the fingers of one hand. “You know, I never realized that, until Lewis pointed it out to me. Why is that?”
Her mind locked as a sick certainty sank in. Her four years of freedom were more than over, and the stone was trying to reel her in. With Adam mated and Curt unwilling, that left Bryant. “That’s it. I’m leaving,” she decided. The sooner, the better. I will not be tied to Bryant!
“Why?”
“Either the stone is running my life again, or Lewis is trying to bait me to his boys. I don’t like either reason, personally.”
“So, you’ll run away? I didn’t raise a coward.”
“There is a difference between running away and walking out,” she reasoned.
“Not a big one. Why avoid Maher range?”
Erin shrugged, buying time to think of anything passable. Nothing came to mind. “Dunno,” she managed. “I just didn’t want to be around Bryant and Adam anymore, I guess.”
“Where do you plan on going?”
“Hunter will take me in. He’ll give me a cabin, if I ask.”
“So, you’ll become a hermit?” Talon raised an eyebrow dubiously.
“You know, you wouldn’t believe how good that sounds. What difference does it make? I can’t trust anyone this way, especially not you. Ghosting around and spying on me.”
“Make me a deal.”
“What deal?” she asked suspiciously.
“A month. Give me a month here in Maher range, and we’ll go anywhere you want for the next six months. For that month, I won’t spy on you or interfere in your life in any way.”
“Bryant will be dead in a week.”
“So, he dies. You can’t convince me you’d miss him.”
“If we used that as a basis, we’d thin our ranks overnight,” Erin countered acidly.
“Do we have a deal?” He put out his hand for her to clasp in agreement.
“You won’t spy on me and ghost around?”
“You have my word.”
“Can I get a blood oath on that?”
“Do I need to prove it that way?”
Erin clasped her father’s wrist and met his eyes as his hand closed around her own, completely circling it. “You break your word, and all bets are off,” she warned him. “House lord or no, I will not stand for it.”
* * * *
April 23, 2029
Curt knew his brother’s days were numbered. For three days, Bryant had hovered over Erin, annoying her to threats of violence. A need to see him taught a lesson and a bristling look from Erin the one time he tried to intervene convinced Curt to let her handle her own fight.
Curt’s warnings to Bryant fell on deaf ears. The older man firmly believed that he was wearing her down. He optimistically theorized that he would have her bedded in less than two weeks. Curt was laying odds that Erin would drop the civil houseguest routine and deck him in less than half that. Three days was her absolute limit.
When the crash and masculine grunt of pain came from the front porch, Curt smiled and checked his watch. “Fifty-seven hours,” he mused. “Idiot! This has to be a new record.”
Kord looked at him curiously as Curt pushed to his feet and brushed the front of his jeans, smoothing the wrinkles leisurely.
“What was that?” he demanded.
“Nothing, Grandfather. Bryant is simply sampling Erin’s patented smack down. I warned him, but you know Bryant.” He shrugged and stretched his back as he turned toward the door.
His grandfather darkened in fury and took to his feet. “If Bryant has been hounding her, he’ll answer to me,” Kord fumed on his way to the door.
Curt fell in beside him. “I imagine Erin fights her own battles, and I’ll lay odds she doesn’t lose.”
“You knew about this and let Bryant at her?” His eyes narrowed dangerously.
Curt smiled widely. “Erin made it clear that she didn’t want my interference. So, I told her to call if she changed her mind. Notice, I am not rushing to her aid.”
“Then, what are you doing?”
“Going to laugh at Bryant, of course.”
Kord scowled at him, but he didn’t protest Curt accompanying him to the front porch.
Curt got his chance to laugh in spades. Bryant was pulling himself out of a
puddle of mud over the side porch rail, while Erin sat with her bare feet curled under her on the porch swing, looking unruffled in her jeans and a peasant shirt, a Maher history open on her lap. She would change to Warrior wear for the evening soon. She always did for practice or the evening when she might have to battle, but she looked fresh and pretty in bright colors and indulged that love whenever she could.
“I warned you,” Curt commented through his laughter.
“I warned him, too,” Erin noted evenly. “Your brother doesn’t heed very well.”
Kord grunted. “A failing I thought I had cured.” There was malice inherent in that simple statement.
“With your permission, I’ll cure him of it. At least as far as I’m concerned.”
Kord looked at her in concern. “Has he injured or offended you, Erin?”
“More of an affront, Kord. A woman can only say she’s not interested so many times before it becomes a rather tedious situation.”
Kord set his jaw. “I’ll inform Talon for you,” he decided.
“That’s not necessary. I’m not a freed female. I’m a Warrior. Unless it’s a capital offense, I fight my own battles.”
Bryant froze on the top riser. “You want me to battle you?”
“What’s the matter?” she shot back. “Afraid of hurting the poor little Warrior girl?”
“After you tossed me over the railing like a rag doll?”
“Then, what’s the problem?” Erin waited for his answer patiently.
“It’s just not—”
“I know what you had planned, Bryant. You’re a little more original in your approach to the whole thing, but you made it clear enough. I’m through playing nice. I tried nice, and you didn’t respect it.” She shook her head. “You should have left it at nice. I’m much easier to get along with that way.”
“Okay. If a battle is what you really want, I’m game,” he decided. A smile curved his lips.
Erin sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I don’t suggest you try it, Bryant. The last Warrior who did couldn’t leave his bed for three days.”