Chapter Three
Jaya glanced down at her scarred hands, and sighed, placing one of them in his. His were twice the size of hers, just as he was almost twice as tall as she was.
Gently he pulled her around to stand in front of him. “Look at me, Jaya.” He pressed two fingers under her chin and lifted her head. “That’s my woman. You have beautiful blue eyes and I want to see them. Let me introduce myself. I am called Bryn.” He paused and waited.
Her heart raced and her nipples hardened at the thought of her night lover standing in her home. She had told him everything, her every fear, dream and fantasy. “Why?”
He walked around her, running his hand up her arm, and pulled her back against his chest. “I knew the first time we talked that you were meant to be mine. Then, when I saw the real you…” Bryn brushed his hand against her breast. “Yes, Jaya, the real you, not the woman you tried to show me. That skinny thing could not have kept me interested or handled my kind of love. I’ve waited for you to choose me, but you are a stubborn one.”
She turned and frowned up at him. “What do you mean to choose you? You never told me I could choose me.”
“I wasn’t allowed to, according to your laws. Remember, my kind are monitored here on Earth.” He undid the first two buttons of her nightshirt, then stepped back, lowering his hands to his sides.
“You must choose, Jaya Sartar. I give you this one last chance to refuse me, but know this: once you chose me, there is no going back. You will be mine, and with that, you will live by my rules. Your body will be mine to touch, play with, punish and enjoy. You will carry my children, be my woman, and only my woman. I will protect you and our children, and you will have everything you need. I can promise you there will be no other women once I seal our bond. Only you will serve me, as I serve you.”
Jaya stood there in shock. Then she did the only thing she could think of this early: she turned and headed toward the kitchen to make coffee. “I can’t think without my coffee.” Jaya glanced at the clock on her hallway wall and stopped.
“Wait, how did you get here so fast? It’s only 2:00 a.m.” She turned to find him still standing in the same spot. He hadn’t moved, but his gaze held hers.
“I will answer all your questions, Jaya, but I need your answer now.” She could have sworn his eyes were glowing.
Jaya knew this was important, that once she said that simple word, he would take control of her. Did she want that? Did she want to belong only to him, to have his children? She drifted back to him and looked up at him. “I have family here, Bryn. Are you going to take me away? I don’t think I could leave and not see my mom or dad again. They’re getting up in age, and I want to be here for them. I need to know this. I’ve already told you my dreams and my fears. You know all of me, but I need to know we won’t leave my family.”
“My family is just important to me. I would never take you away from yours without a way for you to see them. Will you trust me now, in the flesh?” He reached up to do something, but stopped, waiting.
She glanced down and stared at her scarred hands and arms. “Bryn, you’re the only man I have been with since the attack, and that was only in my head. I’m scared. Right now my heart says yes, my body says yes, but my mind…” Jaya looked up at him. “I just feel as if I’m going to be lost, that I won’t be me anymore.”
Jaya turned and moved to the bay window and stared out into the woods. “Yes, Bryn. I’ll be your woman.” She rubbed her arms when he moved up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
“I would never change you, Jaya. You will be as you are, but I will step in if you put yourself in danger.” He scooped her up into his arms and carried her through the house and into her bedroom. “I had the plans of the house uploaded into my mind,” he explained as he lowered her feet to the floor.
“Take it off, Jaya. Everything. I want to see what is mine. I have waited for over two years for this moment.” Bryn stepped back and looked at her expectantly.
In one sweep, she lifted the nightshirt and tossed it onto the dresser. He nodded at her thong, which she slid down her legs and kicked aside. Her stomach was a knot and her hands sweaty as his gaze slid down over her body.
His clothes disappeared instantly, and she sucked in her breath. He was taller than she had dreamed. He had to stand at least seven feet. Light black-and-white fur that covered his body, but his muscles were well pronounced. Her gaze slid down his hard eight-pack to his hips, and she gasped at his cock.
She shook her head. “Damn, that’s bigger than any of my heroes’ cocks in my books.” Jaya covered her mouth with her hand, moaning.
Bryn threw his head back and laughed. “You are amazing, my little writer. I’ve read every one of your books, by the way. It helped me pass the time until I could come here.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her to him.
The fur on his skin was like silk, and she rubbed her face on his chest. “So soft. I’m so going to be curling up to you every night.” Even his cock was smooth with minuscule hairs on it as it brushed against her legs.
“It’s late and I know you’re tired.” He scooped her up into his arms. “Come, let’s get some sleep.” He laid her on the bed and crawled in next to her. “We’ll get a new bed tomorrow. This one is too small, and I have certain requirements I want added to our bed.” Bryn slid her body over his.
Jaya curled up on top of him. “You smell so good, Bryn. I have a party in two days. I really don’t want to cancel it, but I don’t know if I’ll be safe. If I do cancel it, he’ll win, and I’m so tired of letting him win.”
He rubbed her back, and his hands moved down to her ass and cupped her cheeks. “Don’t worry about him. I know this party is important to you. I have it on good authority that Ragger has security under control.”
She lifted her head and stared into his now-glowing eyes. “You know Ragger?”
“He’s one of my close friends. How do you think I’ve kept an eye on you, making sure you were safe, until I could come?” Bryn frowned. “I’m still trying to comprehend how this man got close enough to you to take that picture, and when I find out what man slacked in protecting you, he will be no more.” He growled. She actually felt his whole body shake.
Rubbing her cheek against his chest, Jaya reached up and traced her finger down his cheek. He took her finger into his mouth, biting it softly. “How can your man be responsible if we don’t know who this man is, Bryn? I should remember him. I mean, he burned my arms and hands, but I can’t recall his face.” She glanced down at his chest and drew a circle around his nipple. “I see the mask he wore, and he had tattoos on his fingers…”
“Stop, Jaya, you don’t need to remember. I saw what you saw. We will find him, I promise. Now rest. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. But, Jaya, what I tell you or show you of our kind must stay between us. You may speak of it with your friend Tammy, since she is now bonded with one of my men, but I’m afraid no one else can know about us.”
“Is this why you’re not, well, why we’re not going to make love?” Jaya rolled her eyes and buried her face into his chest. Her face heated, and her voice squeaked. God, she hated when she was nervous.
* * *
He smiled and watched her hide her face. “Don’t hide from me, Jaya. Yes, that is one of the reasons, but I want you to understand what will happen the first time I take you.” Slowly she looked up at him.
“That’s better. When we do come together as one, my body fluids will prepare you to give birth to our children, but they will also connect us. I will always know where you are, you will have my lifespan, and your life will be joined to mine. Do you understand what that means?”
Jaya rolled her eyes. “I’m not that stupid, Bryn. It means if you die, I die.”
“I think the first thing we will be working on is your smart mouth.” He smacked her bare ass, and she jumped. “Now, as I was saying, what you see now is not my true form. We have two forms we can take. Our animal or beast form, which we
use for war and battle, and our natural form. You are seeing part of our natural form. My computer is helping hide the rest of me.”
Jaya slid off his body to rest beside him. “Show me.” She waved him up off the bed.
He held her gaze for a minute, then nodded. “Please do not be frightened.” Bryn stood, and slowly his fur grew longer, his tail and horns appeared, and he knew his eye color was a dark purple now.
Jaya moved off the bed and didn’t hesitate before sliding up to him. She ran her hand over his arm. “So soft.” She grinned and glanced at his tail, then up at his horns. “You remind me of Chewie, but with horns and a tail.” She smiled. “Do you know about Star Wars?”
She tried to wrap her arms around his neck, but couldn’t. “Lean down a little, please.” He grinned and picked her up so she could. “So you have fur, horns, a tail, and your eyes are a different color. So what? You’re still the same man who talked to me and comforted me every night for two years. Nothing is going to change how I feel about you.”
He cupped her ass and rubbed his cock against her mound. Her face was inches away from his. The only parts of his body not covered in long hair were his face, hands, feet and cock, but Jaya wasn’t as surprised as he thought she’d be.
Soft, warm lips touched his in an unsure kiss that touched his heart. “You saw me at my worst but still came for me. Bryn, you’ve seen the scars but still want me. You are the Valentine cyborg they advertised, because nothing on the outside bothers you. You see only me, inside here.” She placed her hand on her chest.
“You have taken my heart and protected it for the last two years. What makes you think I’d do any less for you? Do you remember the day I got that box with the dead…?” Her eyes watered but she took a deep breath. “That’s the night I feel in love with you. If I’m not mistaken that was on Valentine’s Day, also. You were there for me and comforted me. You chased the nightmares away.”
His little spitfire held his gaze, refusing to turn away. Her words spoke volumes and came from her heart. No wonder her writing had a strong following.
“Move!” Jaya yelled, throwing her weight to their left side. She caught him unaware and unprepared. He stumbled but held her tight as he spun. Her body jerked in his hands, her eyes watered and she mumbled the word sorry before her head dropped forward onto his chest as she passed out in his arms. The warmth of her blood dripped onto his hands as he held her.
Bryn’s world stopped for a moment as he held his bonded mate. He covered her wound with his hand, and at once antibiotic and other healing agents from his body seeped into it, ensuring her safety. His superior hearing picked up the sound of her heart struggling to beat, before he shifted, becoming the beast he’d warned her about. Relieved, he knew she would recover.
He turned toward her attacker, and the metal in his body shifted and grew. Poison-tipped claws and fangs now replaced his normal-seeming ones; his tail, a weapon itself, was now barbed, and his horns, also weapons, emerged to shred any object in his way.
The windows rattled and the wood of the farmhouse shook as his roar pierced the night. He spun with precision and placed Jaya’s wounded body on the bed. He then grabbed her attacker’s arm as the man tried to stab him again and again, but this time he was ready.
“You will never have her! She’s mine, you alien freak!” The man squirming in his hold was obviously delusional. “I would have had her on Valentine’s Day. You just had to ruin everything!”
Bryn shook him, cracking his ribs. “This will be the last time you harm or scare anyone, let alone what is mine!” He spoke in the language of his home world, not caring if the little human could understand.
Blood poured down Bryn’s throat as he bit into the human’s neck, increasing his bloodlust, but he didn’t take all the blood. He withdrew his fangs and threw the man to Ragger who appeared at the door, as if he were a sack of garbage. “Let him be food for our pets.”
Ragger smiled and glanced behind him. “Do you need me to call the medical team?”
Bryn knew Jaya was awake and was watching everything he did. She was partially covered by the bloody blanket, and the wound on her back was red. “No, I will finish healing her, but I want to know how the hell he was able to get into this house without our men knowing. If we can’t detect one small male human, then my men need more training,” he snapped as his body shifted back to his human-like state.
“There is no way he got past our men.” Ragger threw the limp body to two of the men behind him. “He was already in the house.” Ragger scanned the room, and his gaze stopped at the paneling near the foot of the bed.
“Reek na!” Bryn slammed his fist into the other wall, and tore out the other camera there while Ragger ripped apart the paneling on the far wall.
“He has been watching her for some time. If I’m not mistaken, he was here already, before we set up the guards. Why wasn’t this caught? Was this home even checked? I want answers. I’m trusting you to find out what happened here. We are getting sloppy and with that we have trouble.”
Bryn turned his attention on his bonded. She would be in serious trouble when she was healed. Her backside would be tanned well for placing herself in harm’s way like that. His palm heated, adding to the healing process, helping to prevent infection. She would be weak from the blood loss, but she would live.
Jaya flinched and glanced back at him. “I take it I’m not dead.” She tried to sit up, but he placed his leg over the back of hers and held her to the bed.
“I suggest you refrain from making jokes, because right now I am very tempted to spank your ass for putting yourself at risk, but I will wait until you are fully back to normal before I dish out your punishment. You saw my warrior form?” He leaned down until he was nose-to-nose with her.
“If you ever, and I mean ever, do that again…” Bryn ordered.
Her small hand grazed over the small cuts on his arm. “I couldn’t let him hurt you, the one thing in my life that has kept me going. You are the only thing that matters.” She frowned. “What does reek na mean? And yes, I saw your other form, but if you think it’s going to scare me off, then think again.”
Bryn released the breath he’d been holding when he heard the door behind them close. “It’s not a pleasant thing to repeat. Let’s just say it is something like your F-bomb.” He lifted his palm and inspected the wound.
“How bad is it?” She glanced back over her shoulder. “Do I need stiches?” Jaya gasped as she looked down at her bed. “If he wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him.” She once again tried to get up. “That son of a bitch! Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of things? It’s going to take me forever to clean this!”
He shook his head and picked her up off the bed. “I don’t want us to stay here tonight. My men need to go through the home and secure it.” Bryn grabbed the blanket at the end of the bed and covered her before the bedroom door opened.
“Your brother is back with the shuttle,” Ragger announced and moved in front of them as Bryn carried her down the hallway and into the living room.
“What the hell are you doing?” she shrieked, seeing one of his men going through her belongings and tried to get out of his arms. “I swear, Bryn, if you don’t tell your man to carefully put my computer back, I will rip his cock off.”
Jaya glared at him, then at the man, who now placed her computer back down onto her desk. “I won’t have my house torn up, and keep them away from my desk!” she yelled as the man started to open her drawers.
Apparently, not caring about her nudity, or her wound, Jaya managed to jump out of his arms. She wrapped the blanket around herself and stepped in front of his man before jabbing her finger into his chest. “Listen here, you big ox! You will not touch my things! Bryn, it’s bad enough that freak was watching me, I can’t have people going through all my personal belongings!”
Bryn came over to her and gently scooped her back into his arms. He nodded for his man to move away from her desk. “Easy, Jaya, they won
’t break anything, I promise. They just need to make sure there are no more cameras in the house.” He carried her outside to the shuttle, and her small body started to shake.
“I’m cold, Bryn, real cold.” Her teeth chattered as he raced to the shuttle, wrapping the blanket around her more tightly.
“Turn up the register, Markus,” he ordered as soon as the door slid shut behind them, then they were in the air. Bryn moved through the shuttle to his personal room, where he crawled into his bed with Jaya and covered her with the hyper-granular blanket.
“Oh, warm…” She curled up on top of him, her breathing slowed and her body stopped its trembling.
He looked up to see his brother standing inside the door. “Ragger wanted to know what you wanted them to do with the tapes they found. It seems this man had a hidden room in the cellar that she didn’t know about. From the records we found, he was the previous owner. His grandfather built the home.” Markus spoke in a quiet tone, trying not to wake Jaya.
“Destroy everything, and Markus… I want nothing of that man left.” Bryn looked down at Jaya.
She stared up at him. “I can’t go back in there…” Her nails dug into his chest. “It was his house, not mine. How could I have been so stupid?” she whispered as wet human tears slipped onto his chest.
“Jaya, I’ll find us a nice home, I promise, with no bad memories.” He nodded to his brother, who left to do his bidding. He held on to Jaya and let her cry till she fell asleep. If he could, Bryn would have killed the human again for the pain he’d caused her.
She would have her new home.
Chapter Four
Jaya slowly stretched and opened her eyes. At first, the light from the large window blinded her. When she realized, she wasn’t at home, she sat straight up, clutching the soft fur-like blanket to her chest.
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