"Give that back!"
"I want something in return then."
I eyed him warily; something about this man intrigued me even as his manner repelled me. "I already told you my name."
"Well, I am certain you can think of something else then." He knelt there in the dirt as I came up to a crouch. He was too cocky. I was going to take my knife back and maybe knock him down a limb or two.
I lunged at him and hit the pressure point in his shoulder which caused him to drop my knife. I started to crow in triumph when his other hand came up and around my back, pinning my much slenderer body to his. His face was barely an inch from mine and I gasped when I saw the intent in his ice blue eyes just before his mouth dipped to mine.
None of my warrior training had prepared me for the damage that came from something as simple as the soft touch of his lips to mine. It was my first kiss and I was overwhelmed and aroused; I could feel it deep inside, could feel him somehow completing me. I felt at peace, my arm no longer throbbed, my anger melted away, and I couldn’t help but respond to the passion overtaking me. I grabbed the back of his head and kissed him back fiercely, wishing I hadn’t hit him so hard so that he could wrap both of his strong arms around me.
I needed to breathe so I pulled back and stared at him, feeling that bond to him still there even with the kiss broken. Oh gods! This man was my mate. This very strange somehow human but not human man was destined to be my other half? No! I wasn’t ready for this.
I pushed away from him and jumped to my feet. I took off running and luckily saw no one until I came to my own home. My mother had already returned from the battle and stood in the kitchen making tea and food for the rest of the family. My father and brothers would be hungry and the way she calmly made sandwiches assured me they were not hurt.
“Aleria?” My mother looked at me where I stood frozen in the door, “You’re hurt, sit down!” She grabbed a towel off the counter and hurried over to me. I was still in shock as I sat at the table, not even noticing the cut.
“Mama? I… I met him.” I was so confused.
She glanced up at me sharply. “Him?”
“My mate, Seth. I was being attacked by a lynx and he came to help me. We fought together when another one showed up. When they were dead he kissed me and I felt it. It was so strong, Mama. He’s my mate.”
“Oh, honey,” my mother cupped my cheek with her palm, “that’s a good thing, isn’t it? You’ll be mated and when you have your ceremony you’ll get your wings. You won’t be a fledgling anymore.”
“I’m scared. I’m not like other girls, Mama, what if he doesn’t like me?” I was crying, damn it, I hated crying! I wanted to be strong like my brothers.
“Well if he kissed you he must have seen something he likes. Don’t worry, love. If you’re mates it will all work out.”
She bandaged my arm while I drank tea waiting on my family. My father and brothers came home rowdy with battle high. They cheered and celebrated when my mother shared the news of my mate. They wanted to go find him but my mother somehow convinced them not to try.
“He’ll be here on his own,” she said. I was tired; too tired to think about any of this anymore so I went to bed. I was so exhausted I expected to sleep without dreaming but my mind had other ideas. I found my dreams plagued with thoughts of the man who had come to my aid. Seth…
The next morning he came for me. He brought sky lilies and my knife. I laughed, perhaps he did understand me. We walked along the cliff edge by my home and talked and got to know one another. Day after day he came back, wooing me carefully. I learned about his human father and Carthera mother, something I had never heard of before but it explained his human name. I told him of my dream to be the best, to follow my father and brothers into the Falcons, the elite hunters and defenders of our clan.
“Is there any place in that dream for me?” he asked me.
I blushed as I remembered the dreams I had every night since I met him. Knowing him now there was nothing I wanted more than to be his mate. “Yes,” I said boldly.
The ceremony to mate us couldn’t come fast enough. A month later the morning finally arrived. I wore a traditional blue gown. It was silk and backless, leaving my skin bare. Seth was dressed in black leather pants with his torso bare. The thick muscles from his human father made my heart race as we came together under the sky and before our family and clans.
The bonding ceremony was short. We were asked to acknowledge our bond before our assembled loved ones in the ancient ceremony and assent freely to mate. I had eyes for no one but Seth, making my family chuckle when I didn’t see Velarta approach. The leader of our clan held out the knife to complete our bond and I took it.
I took a deep breath. “I share my heart, my soul and my body with my mate.” I cut a deep slice into the ball of my thumb. Blood welled up as I passed the knife back to Velarta who cleaned it on a white silk cloth and then offered it to Seth.
“I share my heart, my soul, and my body with my mate.” He cut a matching wound in his thumb. We moved toward each other. I brought my hand up to his mouth and watched in fascination as he took my thumb into his mouth. I could sense his thumb in front of me though I could not look away from him. I took it into my mouth and suckled just as I felt him take his first taste of my blood.
The bond surged from a single tenuous link to a shining cable that bound his heart to mine. I could feel his ecstasy echo my own as the pleasure took over. I could barely hear our families began to sing our birthsongs that wove together into one harmonious whole as our bond was completed.
Suddenly my back arched and I lost my hold on Seth’s thumb. We both let go but managed to lock our hands together. I could feel my hands tingle and a huge pressure in my back. From the small nubs behind my shoulder blades two wings began to unfurl and I could feel talons begin to grow from Seth’s hands to lock together with mine. I stared at his wings, the feathers a deep black that matched his hair. He was gorgeous with them spread behind him like a black velvet curtain.
The edges of my wing blended with his, soft dove gray with shining white tips. The instinct to fly was strong. With my head thrown back I called out to the sky as my wings spread wide behind me. Seth’s voice joined mine and we sang our bonding song into the crooning melody our families still sang. Standing before the edge of the cliff I leaned up and kissed my mate breathlessly as he brushed his hand down my cheek. We turned to face the open sky and jumped off together.
Complicated Cargo
by Frances Pauli
Rina slid her boots off the ship’s console and frowned at the light. She reached out and gave it a flick, but it continued to flash, casting the surrounding toggles into a dance of fiery reflection. She sighed. She might not be the galaxy’s most experienced pilot, but any idiot could tell you a flashing red light meant nothing but trouble.
She brushed aside her rations tray and triggered the comm. “Phil, you got a handle on that?” Her fingers drummed a rhythm against the nearest gauge. Everything looked fine. She counted flashes, reached five before the synthetic voice answered.
“I’m on it, Captain.” The droid’s limbs clicked as they unfolded. Rina could hear the distinctive clatter across the line.
She waited. Once Phil extracted himself from storage, he could run a diagnostic from the closest port. He could also handle more repairs than most graduate mechanics, and he wasn’t half bad with a weapon either. The droid had cost her the total from her first five runs, but he was well worth it. He earned his keep, and his skills alleviated any need for a crew.
“Captain?”
“Yeah, Phil. What is it?”
“Cargo bay. Something’s set off a motion detector.”
“Damn.” They’d probably picked up a rat along with their cargo. “Is Tamarinth known for any nasty pest species?”
“Only the Tamrinthians.”
“Nice. Okay, hop down there for me and see if you can hunt the little bugger down.” She spun her chair to the side, rest
ing her boots atop the pile of clothing, equipment and generic detritus that filled the second chair in the cabin. Rina grinned. No copilot required—not so long as she ran the back lanes, not so long as she kept to a class C freighter.
All of the above suited her just fine. No crew meant no sharing. It meant no conversation, no arguments, and no complications. Rina hadn’t had a complication in her life in more months than she cared to count. A burst of static rattled through the cabin. The light continued to flash on the console, but now Phil’s voice joined it, garbled and higher pitched than normal. “Phil?”
“—Not a rat, Captain.” The static growled over his words. “Cargo—compromised—assistance.”
“Shit.” The vid screen faced co-pilot territory. Rina shoved the junk to the floor and slid into the other chair. She jabbed at the controls and waited for visuals to hum to life.
Phil’s voice continued to mumble through the interference. Not a great time for communications to glitch on her. She could hear clicking, static and not a whole lot more.
“Come on,” she growled at the vid. It fluttered twice and then steadied. A bird’s eye view of her cargo bay filled the screen. The huge crates stood in lines down the room’s length, kept tight against any jostling by a layer of netting. Nothing looked amiss. She tapped the console and the perspective shifted. She twitched the view right and caught the line of cryo-couches at the fore end.
They’d picked up four loaded cryo-units along with the usual shipment of crates. She squinted at the screen. The furthest bed looked wrong. She counted indicator lights, tried to get a visual on the panels, but an inconvenient row of boxes blocked the camera. Rina toggled to ground level. She flicked through cameras and watched the picture shift down the rows. There. The second to last eye had a clear view of the couches. At this altitude, however, she couldn’t make out the controls. Where the hell was Phil? She leaned closer to the console and squinted just as a figure appeared on screen.
Rina jumped back against the chair. “Who the hell?” Her pulse stuttered at the surge of adrenaline. The stranger on screen stopped directly in front of the camera and stared up at her. With trembling hands, she tapped a zoom and watched his features close in.
The word “broad” came to mind. “Muscles” followed, and then “practically naked.” She sat up straighter, but kept her eyes riveted. He wore a cryo suit, barely enough to keep things civilized. One of her frozen passengers then, which meant at least one of the units had malfunctioned.
“Damn.” She tapped the zoom again, and his face filled her view, tan skin, long, white-blonde hair. His square jaw tensed and released quickly, and something around belly level squirmed inside her. Complications—she knew it. Flashing lights meant trouble.
When the stranger grinned, a sideways amused thing that darted through the camera directly to her, Rina shook off the feeling that he could see her, that he knew she watched him. She tore her gaze away and glared at the pack she’d flung to the floor. Trouble all right. She’d need a weapon, then.
She found Phil inside the bay doors. His cylindrical body leaned against the wall, and all but one of his limbs had retracted into slots along his sides. The last one remained frozen, reaching for the comm controls. Rina cursed and drew the blast pistol. Why the hell would her cargo turn hostile?
She thumbed Phil’s reboot and turned on her heel, facing the lines of crates. His chassis bleeped softly. She heard movement in response. Footsteps padded between the rows. Anger surfaced, this was her damned ship.
“Hello?” Rina stood and called openly. “This is Captain, Katarina Ridge. There’s been a malfunction with your cryo unit, and I’d appreciate it if you showed yourself, so we can sort this mess out.” She trained the weapon on the nearest gap and took a short step forward.
A flash of white drew her gaze to the side. Her cargo, quite unfrozen, stepped into view. He towered over her, and she didn’t exactly run on the short side. His head tilted to one side, and a cascade of white hair flowed over his muscular shoulders. She didn’t realize she was staring until he grinned again.
“Uh.” She stepped to the side, away from the boxes and back toward Phil. “Do you mind telling me what happened?”
His mouth started to move, but his eyes darted over her shoulder. She heard the rustle behind her and spun back around. Her blaster came to a stop facing a second stranger.
“Who the hell are you?” She’d had about enough of complications, and this guy wasn’t wearing a cryo suit. He didn’t belong on her ship in any state.
He snarled, and dark eyes narrowed in a piggish face. He was short and squat, but Rina quickly labeled this guy the more dangerous of her two rats. She flickered a glance toward the first, and wasn’t the least bit surprised to find he’d vanished back into the shadows. She focused on the one in her sights.
“What do you want, and how did you get on my ship?”
“Justice.”
“Excuse me?”
“This shipment is an abomination.” His lips twisted into a nasty tangle. “You are a participant in organized prostitution. Your ship and your life are forfeit.”
“Hang on a minute.” The guy was a freaking loony. She raised her blaster and waved it toward his head. “I have a serious problem with that, jackass.”
“Your weapon doesn’t scare me.” The rat grinned. Rina caught a movement behind him, as a well-built patch of shadow circled their position. She almost missed his whisper, “We’re dead already.”
Before she could question his meaning, he lunged for her. She fired and leapt backwards. Her blast caught him in the chest at the same instant a huge arm reached out and snapped his neck. Either way, the guy was dead before he hit the ground.
“Wow.” She trained her blaster on the big blonde. “I take it you two aren’t together?”
He shook his head, but continued to stare down at the dead man. “He belonged to a movement that wishes to sabotage our treaty.”
“Ah.” Rina lowered her weapon, but kept a hand over it just the same. “Right.” She had a policy against knowing too much about her cargo. His treaty was his business. His affect on her nervous system, however, might be hers. She needed to get him back to sleep as soon as possible. “Well, then, let’s get you to your couch, shall we? Phil?”
She heard a bleep that meant her droid neared functional capacity. Good. Phil could back her up if the cargo got frisky before she could put him away. She nodded toward the fore of the bay, but only got a grin in response. It didn’t help that the damn smile had her knees shaking. It didn’t help that she’d been alone, really alone, for almost two years. Too many months. She shook it off and slid away from him, sideways, toward the cryo-couches.
He followed behind her, even more nerve-wracking, and she led him through the rows to his fellows. The other three beds still functioned. At least his friends wouldn’t be joining them. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be joining them either. The controls to his couch hung by a solitary wire, loose and damaged beyond her abilities. Rina glared at them.
“I don’t suppose you know how to fix this?”
“I’m sorry.” He stood next to her, and she could feel the heat radiating from his skin.
“Damn.”
Maybe Phil could fix it. She’d just have to keep him busy till Phil rebooted fully. She could do that. If he’d just step back a little. She shook her head, realized the man had been talking, and that she hadn’t heard a word.
“What was that?” She turned to the side and found him even closer. Damn, he was tall. She had to lean back to make eye contact and immediately wished she hadn’t. Grey eyes, almost silver, and looking at her with an intensity that said she should have been listening—she’d missed something important.
“You look exactly as I imagined.” He leaned forward, brought his eyes closer to hers.
“I—what?”
“I no longer wish to comply with the treaty.”
Shit. She shouldn’t have let him get this close. The heat must ha
ve dulled her brain. When his arms snaked around her waist, her body rebelled as well. She curled closer. His lips brushed against hers, and the cargo bay vanished. Rina’s skin flared. Her mouth pressed against his in a kiss that sent shockwaves pulsing to her toes.
He pulled her in, held her like a vice and burned the kiss deeper. Her hands found his hair and twined for purchase, leveraging their bodies more tightly together. A flash of thought intervened, stole through the heat when his lips lifted. This was a very bad idea, it assured her. He nibbled at her jaw and banished the idea. His lips trailed along her neck. His hands slid to her sides, cradled her and angled her slightly away.
Rina took a long breath and thought about stopping him. She forgot about it when his hands pulled at her uniform. The length of his body pressed against hers, and it had been far too long since anything felt that good. His fingers slid into her collar, tugged at the stretchy material while his mouth searched along the garment’s edge. He peeled the fabric away from her shoulder, and his lips against her skin sent a spasm down her spine.
Her legs wobbled once when his teeth sank in. Her body seized against the bite, the flood of pleasure, and blackness engulfed her.
“Captain?” Phil’s voice broke through the quiet.
“What happened?” Rina groaned and sat up. She blinked twice before she recognized her closet-sized medical bay. “Medical? Really?” She frowned at the form on the other couch. A silver cloth covered it completely.
“The saboteur,” Phil said. “Are you feeling all right, Captain?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She felt a little stupid, but otherwise unharmed. “What about the other guy?”
“He has agreed to be confined in your quarters.”
“Right. What?”
“My systems recovered just after you swooned. The Denrian male assisted me in diffusing the explosives, and then carried you here before confining himself to your quarters.”
“I didn’t swoon.”
Just One Bite Volume 3 Page 8