“What is this place?” Talia asked, confused.
Cora Lee looked at her in concern. “Oh, I’m sorry, is this your first time? When I came, I had a guide. And I’d already been prepped. Oops, looks like someone screwed up on your orientation.”
“I told you this was a bad idea,” Mar-ee said to Talia. “I should not have brought you here.”
“What are you talking about?” Cora Lee demanded indignantly. “This place is perfect for Talia! I would never have met my sweetie if I’d been stuck going to the Earth meetups. Those guys were horrible. They all kept telling me they’d love to pay for my liposuction. Assholes. Most of these men are a dream come true, and they’ll love Talia.”
“That is not what I meant,” Mar-ee said, her silver forehead wrinkling as she frowned. “Lukan will be displeased.” Her head swiveled around, and she scanned the crowd. “Lukan is here somewhere. I will go find him and bring him to you.” She glided off, weaving her way through the crowd.
“Oh, here comes a hot prospect,” Cora Lee said, and pointed.
Talia looked at where she was pointing, and gulped. A werewolf was striding towards them. Or rather, a man who was wearing a tux and had the head of a wolf and furry paws protruding from his sleeves. As he walked towards them, his pointy ears shrank and rounded, his long snout retreated, and his face seems to melt and rearrange itself. He had a tail that seemed to shrink up under his jacket and disappear. His fur sank into his skin, leaving behind a normal-looking guy.
“Cora Lee, isn’t it?” He grinned at her. “And who is your beautiful new friend? She dims the stars with her beauty. I’ve never seen her here before.”
Talia looked around to see who he was talking about. It was just her and Cora Lee, standing alone at the edge of the party.
“He’s talking to you, silly,” Cora Lee said happily. “The guys here love bigger women. They prefer them. I don’t know why Alexandra doesn’t send more.”
“Yeah, me either,” Talia said, pasting on a big, fake smile.
She wasn’t quite ready to admit that she had no idea what was going on. She was afraid she’d violated some company rule. Mar-ee had warned her that Lukan wasn’t going to like this.
Cora Lee put her arm around Talia’s shoulders.
“Halvor, isn’t it? I’m going to talk privately to my friend here for a few minutes, if you’ll excuse us,” she said.
“Don’t keep her too long,” Halvor said anxiously. “And don’t let any of the other men meet her. And be sure to tell her about how well-endowed I am.” He waggled his eyebrows and patted his crotch.
Talia winced. “Just no,” she informed him, and his face fell.
Talia raised an eyebrow at Cora Lee.
“What?” Cora Lee shrugged. “I said most of these guys were a dream come true. That one’s a pig.”
She quickly led Talia away from him, then pointed at a group of men who were now checking her out with interest.
Cora Lee gestured at the group of men. “Do you feel anything when you look at any of those guys?”
“Feel anything like what?”
“Well, it’s different for different people, but I’ve heard it described as an immediate attraction and a sense of rightness, a sense of belonging,” Cora Lee said happily. “When I met my Tristao, that’s exactly what I felt.”
Talia felt a twinge of envy, even if she was really genuinely happy for her friend.
“They’re physically attractive, but I didn’t feel drawn to them in any way,” she said with a shrug and a sigh.
Let’s face it – fine physical specimens though they were, none of them held a candle to Lukan. Despite the way he kept her at arm’s length, just being in his presence made her feel safe, as if he projected some sort of subliminal message that being with him was right. Except he pushed her away with his curt, carefully chosen words and his closed-in body language, and that chased the sense of belonging away and left her feeling confused and hollow.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, that just means that you haven’t met the right one for you,” Cora Lee assured her. “It took me a little while too. I came here and stayed at the suites and went to several of the gatherings, and I was just about to give up hope, when one night, there he was. My Tristao. Wouldn’t you know it, he’s the Chief Guardian of his pack, and he’d been off fighting the cyborgs the first few times I came here.”
“Oh. I hate it when that happens.” Chief Guardian. Pack. Cyborgs.
Okay, then.
“Right?” Cora Lee said happily. “I almost didn’t meet him at all. But Tristao said that was impossible. We were fated to meet, from all the way across the galaxy.”
That was so romantic, Talia thought, with an ache in her chest. Was it possible that the right man for her really was out there, someone meant specially, perfectly, for her?
And would she ever be as attracted to that special someone as she was to Lukan?
“What is this place, exactly?” she asked Cora Lee.
“It’s a building in the neutral zone, in the middle of Ilyria’s capitol city, Donnelle.”
“What do you mean, neutral zone?”
Cora Lee sighed. “Long, sad story, but basically, Lukan’s pack lives off to the east, and my Tristao’s pack lives off to the west. The two packs have a bad history, but they were forced to come to a truce when it came to this dating agency thing. Other than that, they’re kind of at war with each other. You know the other business partner at Million Dollar Matches? Treffon? He’s the Reginar of my sweetie’s pack. That’s like an Alpha.”
“My beloved!” a voice boomed out, and a large, handsome man hurried over to Cora Lee. He was so big that he looked as if he were about to burst out of his tux.
“That’s him! My Tristao! Isn’t he the sexiest, most handsome thing you’ve ever seen?” Cora Lee squealed as Tristao swept her into his arms.
“He certainly is a stunner,” Talia agreed.
Tristao bent down and kissed Cora Lee passionately – so passionately that Talia blushed and looked away.
A minute later they still were going at it, and now his hands where roving all over her body. And sliding under her clothes. And Cora Lee was moaning enthusiastically. Yoiks.
Apparently they were very happy to see each other.
It didn’t look as if they were going to stop anytime soon, and Talia was starting to feel like a voyeur. She walked away quickly, towards the area where people were mingling, and men began crowding around her.
What was taking Mar-ee so long?
“Hello, are you alone?” a man growled in a low, rumbly voice.
Good lord, he was huge, and towering over her.
“Um, I’m not sure. Not really. I don’t know.” It came out in a squeak of alarm.
Nervous, she hurried off. She reached out and grabbed a crystalline glass off a drinks tray as it floated by. She took a huge gulp before it occurred to her that maybe it wouldn’t be compatible with Earth metabolism.
It tasted sweet and delicious, and she looked around and saw that some of the other women were sipping drinks, and they didn’t appear to be keeling over and dying. Yet.
“Have you decided if you are alone?” the big man’s voice boomed in her ear. She started, spilling some of her drink.
“Leave her alone. She’s going to dance with me,” another man-wolf growled at him, and now they were starting to crowd around her. She took several steps back, alarmed.
“Enough!” a furious voice bellowed from right behind her. Lukan! “She is with me, and any man who touches her dies.”
All the man-wolves surrounding her turned and hurried off, ducking their heads in a submissive fashion.
Mar-ee glided up to Talia, hovering beside her. “I found Lukan for you, as you commanded,” she told her.
“Yes, you sure did,” Talia murmured, staring at him in shock.
Lukan had changed. His ears were now pointy and had tufts of dark fur, just like the rest of the men here. He was one of them. An alien
wolf-man. Werewolf from the stars. She swallowed hard, trying to take that in. Of course. It all made sense now. That strange aura of power and grace that clung to him. She’d never felt anything like it before. Never seen anyone move like him, like an enormous predator stalking through a herd of gazelles.
“What are you doing here?” he growled, and she felt just the teeniest bit afraid, which instantly put her back up. Her mother’s voice rang in her ears. “Don’t get scared – get angry at whoever is trying to scare you.”
“What do you mean?” she bluffed. “Why shouldn’t I be here?”
“Alexandra did not tell me that you had signed up to use the off-planet services.” His voice came out in a loud, furious rumble.
Talia felt a flare of anger and hurt. “And why the hell shouldn’t I be here?” she demanded. “Because you think I’m not pretty enough? I know you don’t think so, but other men seem to find me attractive.”
“What?” Lukan demanded, eyes blazing with fury. As she watched, his eyes darkened in color until they were almost black. “Who has approached you? Those men who were just trying to talk to you? They had no right! They—” He choked off whatever it was he’d been going to say.
She put her hands on her hips. “I know you just send the skinny girls here, but you did send Cora Lee, and she found someone.”
“Are you telling me that you are actually looking to form a bond with someone on this planet?” Lukan barked, and fur covered his face and then vanished again.
“I will repeat, why not?” Talia snapped. It wasn’t that she wanted to meet one of the men here. It just really hurt that Lukan didn’t think she even stood a chance.
“Because you would be abandoning your three small children on Earth, and if you have signed up for our services, then Alexandra must have explained to you that we only allow women with no family ties to use our off-world services. I cannot believe that you would be willing to abandon your young.” And he turned and stormed off, leaving Talia with her mouth hanging open in shock.
Chapter Five
As Lukan marched off, Mar-ee called after him. “You should not speak to her that way!” Then she quickly ducked behind Talia. “Don’t let him reprogram me!” she squeaked.
Lukan whirled around with a growl. “Watch yourself. I made you,” he snapped at Mar-ee.
Mar-ee slid out from behind Talia. “Yes, you made me to place Talia’s interests above all else, to always obey her, and to be loyal to her,” Mar-ee said. Then she quickly ducked behind Talia again.
He had? Why would he have done that?
Talia stared at him in astonishment as he turned and stalked off, stiff-backed and angry. People fell away from him on either side, glancing at him fearfully.
“That sonofabitch,” she said angrily.
She was almost ready to let it go. Then she saw a skinny woman who had frequently given her dirty looks back on Earth during client meet-and-greets. The woman slithered over to Lukan and stroked his arm. He shook her off angrily, but the woman stepped in front of him and leaned up to murmur something in his ear.
Talia felt a swell of completely irrational rage, and clenched her hands into fists. Lukan wasn’t hers, but still, if that bitch laid her paws on him again, Talia was going to chew her face off. Also, Lukan wasn’t getting away without giving her some answers.
She stormed over and punched him on the arm, hard. Everyone around them gasped. She didn’t care. A year’s worth of pent-up feelings were welling up inside her, ready to explode like a volcano.
The skinny woman shot a fearful glance at Talia and scampered off.
“Yes, you had better ambulate quickly!” Mar-ee called after her.
“I don’t have any children, you idiot,” Talia snapped at Lukan, livid with anger. “I live with my father and grandparents. Where the hell did you get the idea that I had young children?”
“You do not have any children?” Lukan echoed, a look of shock on his face. “You are not a mother of three?”
“No, you giant hairball!”
“But Alexandra told me that you did,” Lukan protested, shaking his head. “It is in your company profile; she showed it to me. You have three children, from three different fathers, and you left each of their fathers.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Talia said furiously. “You think I have children that I’m leaving behind on Earth? If I had children, I would never leave them. Not for any man in the universe. Not even you.”
There was a short, breathless silence. “What do you mean, not even me?” Lukan asked, his brows drawing together quizzically.
What Talia meant was that Lukan was the only man she wanted, and she doubted she’d ever again want a man other than him, if she were honest with herself. But she wasn’t about to tell him that; she was furious.
“How dare you think that of me? How could you?” she shouted.
“Yes, how could you?” Mar-ee said indignantly from behind Talia’s shoulder. Then she slid out and crossed her metallic arms indignantly.
“Because Alexandra said so. She was very detailed and specific in what she told me about you. I do not understand why she would say such things,” Lukan said. Then a look of comprehension dawned on his face. “Actually, I do understand it. Alexandra wanted to form a pair-bond with me, even though I told her that she was not my true mate. She must have lied so that I would not pursue you, because she thought I might change my mind about her. On your first day at work, I expressed interest in you. She immediately told me that you had a history of meeting with men, bearing their young, and then being unfaithful with a new man.”
“And you believed that about me?” Talia spat.
“I had no reason to suspect that Alexandra was lying to me.” Lukan shook his head. “She was very clever with her deception. She told me that you did not like to talk about your children because you were ashamed that you were an unmarried mother. Therefore, I never brought it up. ”
Talia made a choking sound.
“I believe the phrase you are looking for is ‘you stupid jerk’,” Mar-ee said. “Or does this call for stronger language? I can consult the lexicon of obscenities on my hard drive for more appropriate insults if you like.”
“No, thank you, I have plenty of my own that I’m sorting through right now.” Talia took a step back, away from Lukan.
He looked down at her. “Talia, wait.” A pleading note had crept into his voice, a note that she had never heard before. “I have yearned for you from the moment that I first saw you, and when Alexandra told me those terrible things, it was like a living death for my heart. Even though Alexandra told me terrible things about you, for some reason I could never quite bear to let you go. That was why I insisted that you work directly with me, even though it was a torment to me.”
“Having me work with you was a torment?” Talia felt a stab of pain right through the heart, and blinked as hot tears spilled onto her cheeks.
“Now you are making her cry! You gor-bellied, toad-spotted malt-worm!” Mar-ee shouted.
Then she paused. “Sorry. Wrong era. Those were Shakespearean insults.” She banged the side of her head with the palm of her hand. “My hard drive needs updating.”
Lukan reached out to grab Talia’s hand, but she took another step back. He let out a groan of frustration. “Talia, if I have hurt you, my heart will tear in two. It was a torment because you are my true mate, and I thought that I could never have you. You were so close to me, and I yearned for you and could not have you. Those pills that I chew every day? They are a drug from Ilyria, which I had to take after I met you. A Vulfan who is denied his true mate is at risk of going mad. The pills dulled my pain and kept my animal from leaping out of my skin. Just barely.”
This was too much for Talia to process. “What are you saying?”
His eyes burned with intensity. “You are mine. I am yours. Shall we go back to my home now? Our home, I mean.”
Our home? One minute he acted like she was the devil in female form, a
nd believed every horrible thing Alexandra said about her, the next minute he was talking about ‘our home’?
“Whoa,” she said, a storm of conflicting emotions swirling inside her. “Not so fast.”
“Hey! You big lug, what did you do to her?” Cora Lee shouted, pushing her way through the crowd, with her werewolf boyfriend at her side. “Why is she crying?”
Instantly, wolves began to gather around Lukan, and another group began to gather around Cora Lee and Tristao.
Talia realized that all the wolves around Lukan wore red ties and twisty silver lapel-pin insignias, and all the wolves around Cora Lee and Tristao wore blue ties and circular lapel pins.
The two warring packs. She didn’t want them to fight because of her. She also felt as if her head was about to explode. She had just been transported to another world where alien werewolves were real. Cora Lee was going to marry an alien werewolf. Lukan had programmed Mar-ee to be her BRF – Best Robot Friend. Lukan had believed horrible lies about her for the past year. And now he suddenly wanted to basically throw her over his shoulder, caveman style, and carry her home?
“Are you all right?” Cora Lee asked her.
“No, I am not all right,” Talia said, clearing her throat and blinking hard. She felt as if her heart might swell and burst in her chest. “Can I go home with you?”
“Of course.” Cora Lee put her arm around her. “I’m sorry I left you before – I was just so excited to see my sweetie. You stay with us as long as you like.”
“No!” Lukan shouted, and instantly he was covered with fur. “She is my true mate. I have waited too long for her. Nobody will take her from me!”
“Are you saying that I’m not allowed to leave?” Talia asked icily.
“Of…course not.” That had taken him aback. “Do you want to leave me?”
The plea in his voice stabbed at her. Do you want to leave me, he’d said.
The Vulfan's True Mate (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Starcrossed Dating Agency Book 1) Page 3