The Lobos' Heart Song: Book 2 of the Soul-Linked Saga

by Laura Jo Phillips

  Saige’s body was still throbbing with need. It seemed odd after all of the orgasms she’d already had, but she knew that until she had Ban, her body would not be satisfied.

  “Please,” she said. “I need you.”

  “Are you sure, amada?” Faron asked.

  Saige did not take her eyes from Ban. “Please.”

  Ban could not deny her, nor did he want to. He immediately moved into position between her legs and placed his cock gently at her entrance. She was so hot, so wet, her flesh throbbing against him, that for a moment Ban thought he might disgrace himself and come before he even got inside of her.

  He gritted his teeth and pressed himself slowly into her, groaning with the pleasure of it.

  “You are so sweet, tight and hot,” he said as he worked himself deeper and deeper into Saige’s welcoming body.

  “More,” Saige gasped. Ban thrust deeper into her, giving her what she asked for. He could not believe how tightly she gripped him, how soft she felt around him, how hot she was. He thrust harder, faster, groaning with his own pleasure as well as Saige’s as her hips rose to meet his strokes. Ban reached down and began flicking her hard, throbbing clit with his thumb with each stroke. Saige’s moans of pleasure became more high pitched, more breathless with each flick, each thrust, until he knew she was about to climax yet again. He pulled himself almost all the way out, then pinched her clit firmly between his fingers at the same time he slammed himself home. They both came together, their bodies straining, hearts pounding as Saige’s hot pussy clamped down around Ban’s jerking cock as he filled her with his hot seed, blending with Faron’s and Dav’s as nature intended for his species.

  Saige closed her eyes as her breathing began to return to normal, her body finally satisfied, her arousal finally cooling. She was suddenly very tired, but at the same time, more relaxed than she could remember ever being in her life. She felt as though she should get up and do something, but she couldn’t seem to muster the energy for it at the moment.

  “That was beautiful Saige,” Faron said softly as he stroked her arms in a soothing gesture.

  “You are beautiful,” Dav added.

  Ban snorted, an inelegant sound that had Saige instantly tense with worry. “She is not just beautiful,” he said. “She is the most stunning creature in the Thousand Worlds. And the best tasting too.”

  Faron and Dav chuckled, and Saige tried hard not to grin. “We will have to take your word for how she tastes little brother,” Dav said. “For now.”

  “Saige,” Faron said, his voice serious which caused her to tense again. “We must admit that we released some pheromones earlier, which increased your level of arousal.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said.

  “We have the ability to release pheromones which enhance a female’s sexual excitement,” he explained. “Usually we can control it, but we got carried away.”

  Saige smiled. “I’m not sure it matters,” she said. “It does explain that sudden...rush...I had, but I did nothing I did not want to do before that.”

  Faron’s expression lost its worry and Saige allowed her eyes to close again.

  “Just relax, amada,” Faron said. “We want to make sure you are well. You don’t need to do anything. Let us take care of you.”

  “What does that mean, amada?” she asked sleepily.

  “It means beloved,” Faron said.

  Beloved. Saige felt an old, familiar ache inside of her. How she wished she could be someone’s beloved. No, she thought. Not someone’s. Theirs. The Lobos. But she knew that was not going to happen. She could not do that to them. Or to herself.

  “Relax for a few minutes,” Faron said. “Then we will bathe you.”

  Saige closed her eyes again and relaxed as Faron asked, the word beloved still rolling around in her mind as she drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 20

  Lio sat at his desk, flipping morosely through the catalogue of currently available female slaves on his vid screen. He had racked his brain trying to remember some woman, any woman that had appealed to him either in the past or the present, but he had come up empty. Nor did any of the images from the catalogue interest him.

  He closed the program with a frustrated click and leaned back in his chair. He was so annoyed that when the vid terminal beeped, he nearly ignored it. He really didn’t want to talk to anyone. On second thought, with Za-Queg in a temper, it was unwise to be careless. He reached out and pressed a button, accepting the call.

  “Hello Jack,” Lio said as the narrow face of one of his more reliable men filled the screen.

  “I have something to show you Mr. Perry,” Jack said, going straight to the point, as always. It was one of the things Lio liked most about the lanky Terien. He was serious, loyal and dedicated to his job.

  “Very well,” Lio replied.

  The vid screen went blank for half a second, then fuzzy before settling into a picture. Lio found himself looking at a sleek red ground-car as it slowed beneath an arching gate, then sped up as it reached paved road. The car went around a turn and disappeared from sight. For two seconds Lio stared at grass and hills. Then the image changed and he was looking once more at the red ground-car. Now it was pulled over to the side of the road and a beautiful woman with long blond hair was getting out of the driver’s side door. For no obvious reason, the woman began to screech and yell as she stomped back and forth across the pavement alongside the car. Lio smiled faintly when he noticed that she broke the heel of one shoe after a particularly hard stomp. The woman picked up the shoe and threw it, then, evidently deciding that throwing things was helpful, she bent over and picked up several stones and threw them as well. The temper tantrum went on for an impressively long time. Before long, Lio grew bored enough with watching the woman that some of what she was screaming began to register with him. By the time the woman exhausted herself and got back into her red ground-car, Lio was grinning.

  “Information?” Lio asked.

  “Her name is Darleen Flowers,” Jack replied as the vid of the woman driving the red car cut off. “She is 34 years old, been on Jasan for one year. She’s an Earth native, parents deceased, one sibling. She currently lives in Granite Falls with her sister, Caitlyn, who owns a ladies’ dress shop. Information on Miss Flowers indicates there is a standing arrest warrant for her on Earth. She is charged with blackmailing a couple of wealthy, married men. She skipped the planet in time to avoid being arrested. Gossip has it that she is intent on marrying a Jasani male-set. She’s had her eyes on the Lobos for the past several months but, from what you just saw, they have apparently found another female they prefer over her.”

  “Send me that vid file,” Lio said. “I also want her address, the address of the sister’s store, and their usual schedule.”

  “Give me one hour,” Jack said.

  “You have a half hour,” Lio responded. He disconnected the call and thought for a moment. He hit the button on his desk that connected him with his assistant. “Have the ground-car prepared for a trip to Granite Falls in one hour,” Lio ordered. He broke the connection and smiled when a flashing light on his vid screen indicated Jack’s file of the woman’s temper tantrum had been received. He opened it up and played it, reversing in several places and replaying until he was certain he had heard all of the dialogue and written it down.

  He read his notes and chuckled softly to himself. Miss Flowers hated the Dracon’s woman and her new friend. Lio was certain that their missing berezi and the new friend were one and the same.

  He watched the vid again, this time without the sound, studying the woman intently. Her clothes, shoes, hair, makeup, even her car told him much about her. That she had maintained her temper until exiting the Dracon’s property told him much as well.

  Yes, he thought. She is just the right type. Scheming, conniving, amoral, vain and greedy. Exactly what he needed. Lio laughed out loud. Yes, exactly what he needed, in more ways than one.

  Chapter 21

 
When Saige woke up the next morning she felt better than she had in a very long time. She yawned and stretched before opening her eyes, loving the feel of hard warm flesh surrounding her. She liked knowing that it was Faron on her right and Dav on her left without having to look at them to check. When she opened her eyes she saw Faron propped up on one elbow, his pale blue eyes smiling down at her. Again, she thought how interesting it was that eyes that looked so much like ice could be so warm. She turned to smile at Dav who was up on one elbow on her other side, smiling at her just as Faron was.

  “How are you feeling this morning lorea?” Dav asked.

  “I feel wonderful,” she replied with a soft smile. “What does lorea mean?”

  “It means flower,” he replied. Saige wrinkled her nose.

  “You do not like that?” he asked.

  “It just reminds me of that woman yesterday. Darleen Flowers.”

  Dav made no sound or movement but Saige sensed that he was not comfortable with mention of that name. She cocked her head and looked at him for a long moment.

  “Tell,” she ordered. Dav and Faron smiled at her imperious command, but their smiles quickly faded at the seriousness of the subject. Ban chose that moment to enter the bedroom with a tray loaded with steaming cups of coffee.

  “Tell what?” he asked as he set the tray down on the dresser. Saige, Dav and Faron all sat up in the bed, Saige yanking the sheet up to cover herself. Ban removed a clean t-shirt from a drawer and tossed it to her. It was gigantic, but it covered her up and helped her feel more comfortable.

  Ban passed out the cups of coffee and Saige sipped hers gratefully. “That is so good. Thank you Ban.”

  Ban settled himself on the bed facing them and grinned. “You are most welcome. Knowing how Lariah loves her coffee, I thought you might as well. So, what is it that you want to be told?”

  Faron had a brief, but intense urge to smack his brother for reminding Saige of their earlier conversation. She turned her head to look at him and grinned. “I did not forget, so no violence,” she said, surprising Faron greatly.

  “Can you read my mind?” he asked. “Jackson told us how you were able to speak with him telepathically, but he indicated it was a deliberate communication, not a mind reading experience.”

  “No, I cannot read your mind,” she replied. “I started out being able to sense the three of you. Now, not only am I able to sense your physical presence, but I am beginning to sense your emotions as well. I just knew that you were frustrated with Ban for his question and I filled in the rest. Just like I know that Dav is intensely reluctant to discuss the subject of Darleen Flowers.”

  “We are able to communicate telepathically with each other only when we are in our alter form, and the further away from each other we get, the more difficult it becomes,” Faron said.

  “When Jackson was trying to locate me at the spaceport he told me to keep talking to him because I became more clear to him the closer he got to me. But that was the first time I had used that ability since I was a child. In fact, I only remembered having the ability as a child when I woke up in that box.”

  “We should experiment with it and see if you can communicate with us in that manner,” Faron suggested. “I think it could be useful.”

  “Alright,” Saige agreed. “But first, tell me about Darleen Flowers, please.”

  They all looked at her, all wishing that they did not have to do this. But they would not lie to their Arima, nor would they refuse to answer this question. She had a right to know, especially since she would certainly cross paths with Darleen again.

  “As we told you, without an Arima, Jasani male-sets must choose a human woman to mate with if they want to have a family,” Faron said, deciding he should be the one to tell her this. “Since Lariah is the first Arima in three thousand years, the hope that another would appear for us was slim, and statistically unlikely.”

  “Had you already asked her to be your mate?” Saige asked, her face numb with shock. If they had, then she was the other woman and had no right to be in bed with these men.

  “We did not,” Faron said quickly, noting the sudden paling of Saige’s face. “Nor did we give her any reason to think that we would.”

  Ban shifted uncomfortably and all eyes swung to him. “I did ask her if she was agreeable to mating with a Jasani male-set,” he admitted. Faron growled softly and all eyes swung back to him.

  “I did not indicate that we intended to mate her, or even that we were considering it,” Ban explained. “It was a general question only. I thought that, if we did decide to ask her, it would be best to know ahead of time whether she would be agreeable to the idea.”

  Faron stopped growling and leaned his head back against the headboard with a thunk that caused Saige to wince.

  “It is difficult for Jasani male-sets when they decide to mate a human female, and then have to watch her run away screaming when she learns that we are shifters, and that they will have only male children who will also be shifters,” Faron explained as he stared at the ceiling. “We have waited over four hundred years for an Arima, and believed that it was a futile wait. Darleen Flowers made it plain that she had interest in us.”

  Saige cocked her head, a gesture they were becoming used to and which seemed to indicate a flash of intuition or deeper understanding on her part than they were used to seeing in females. “No,” she said softly. “Faron wanted to wait for an Arima.” She looked at Dav, then Ban. “You two are the ones that wanted to mate with a human.”

  Dav and Ban nodded their heads. “That is true,” Dav admitted. “We became impatient, especially after seeing Lariah swell with the Dracons’ babes. Instead of giving us hope, as it should have, it made us more impatient.”

  “On the same night that you were rescued by the Bearens, we told Faron that we no longer wished to wait,” Ban said. “He told us that he wished to continue the search for our Arima, but after so many years, he would not continue to stand in the way of mating with a human woman. We suggested Darleen Flowers as she had indicated an interest and willingness to mate, even though she knew the things that scare off most women. Faron refused to mate with her, agreeing only to search for another human woman to mate with.”

  Saige sipped her coffee as she considered her own feelings before speaking. “Do you have feelings for her?” she asked.

  “No,” Ban replied. “Our decision to mate was based solely on a desire to have a family.”

  “Well, I don’t want you to take this wrong, and I admit that I do not know Darleen Flowers, but I can almost guarantee you that she would never have agreed to have children. She is not the maternal type.”

  Ban and Dav stared at her for a long moment, considering. “Why then would she wish to mate with a Jasani male-set?” Dav asked. He did not doubt Saige’s intuition, and now that she had mentioned it, he realized that she was right. There was nothing maternal about Darleen Flowers, nor had she ever expressed any desire for children or family, even though she had made it clear that she wished to mate with them.

  “I have no idea,” Saige replied.

  “Because she wants to remain young,” Faron said.

  “If you knew that why did you not tell us?” Ban asked.

  “I did not understand that until just now,” Faron replied. “Saige is correct, though I did not know it until she said it, but Darleen Flowers would not agree to have children. Perhaps that is what I disliked about her. Aside from that, the only reason a woman such as she would wish to mate with a Jasani male-set is to gain the ability to regenerate so she would not age.”

  “Mating with Jasani men means you no longer age?” Saige asked.

  “Yes,” Faron replied. “We are shifters, and as such our bodies must be able to regenerate quickly in order for us to be able to shift from one form to another. The ability to regenerate is passed to the female as a result of our mating ritual, whether it is a human woman or a Jasani woman.”

  “I’m sorry if its rude to ask, but how old are
you guys?” Saige asked curiously.

  “We are 414 standard years old as of last spring,” Faron replied.

  “Wow,” Saige said solemnly, “You don’t look a day over 300.”

  “Yes well, we eat right,” Dav replied, deadpan.

  Saige grinned and shook her head, but she would not be diverted from the subject of Darleen Flowers just yet.

  “Well, that would certainly be a good enough reason for Darleen Flowers to want to mate with just about anyone,” she said. “I do not believe I have ever in my life met a woman as vain as that one.” Saige blushed with embarrassment.

  “Sorry guys, that was not a nice thing to say and I know you must have some feelings for her.”

  “We have no feelings for her lorea,” Dav said. “Please believe that our desire for family in no way indicates affection for her.”

  Saige nodded. A small part of her did not want to admit that she believed they had no feelings for the woman, but she could sense their real emotions quite clearly, and she knew better. She could not use Darleen Flowers as an excuse.

  “I understand how much you want family,” she said, staring hard at the coffee in her cup. “But as you know, I am unable to provide that for you.”

  Ban opened his mouth but Faron shook his head, silencing him before he uttered a word.

  “We understand that,” Faron said. “However, the reality of you is far more important to us than the dream of children.” He did not miss the slight hunching of Saige’s shoulders. She did not believe him, and he was uncertain how to convince her.

  “Are you hungry?” Dav asked.

  “A little,” Saige replied, relieved by the change of subject. “I prefer to work out before eating though.”

  “Work out?” Dav asked curiously.

  “Exercise.”

  “Yes, we prefer to move our bodies before breaking our fast as well,” Faron said, though he had no idea that women did such a thing.

  “What manner of exercise do you prefer?” he asked.