“No,” she said, softening. “That’s not what I mean. I mean, I don’t know what I want. But I’m leaving now, because I’m pretty angry with you, and I need time to think.”
Without another word, she hurried off with Cora Lee and Tristao. Mar-ee glided along behind them.
The door had barely shut behind her before Lukan let out a bellow of rage and shifted.
Fur washed over his skin, and his bones cracked and reformed. He dropped onto all fours, his back arching and hackles bristling down his spine. His fingers contorted into twisted claws, before the shift took over and they became paws. A wolfish snout pushed forward from his face and rows of vicious teeth curved from his gums as he threw back his head and let loose a howl half of pain and half of anguish.
Most of his pack members shifted too, and piled on top of him as he bayed furiously.
One of them, his brother Fangor, stayed humanoid, and shouted at Lukan. His voice barely penetrated through Lukan’s thick fog of rage and need.
“Lukan! We do not force a woman to stay with us against her will! We are not Thorolfs, Lukan! You must let her go!”
Chapter Six
Lukan paced the floor of his meeting hall in wolf form, head hanging low, snarling.
Alexandra had lied to him, and he’d been stupid enough to believe her. It had kept him from his true mate for a long, agonizing year…and now that Talia knew he’d believed the worst of her, perhaps she would never want him. He ignored the pain from the cracked ribs where his brothers had taken him down. Bones would heal. His heart would not – not if he had lost his Talia forever.
Chairs were scattered on the floor, some broken to pieces. There were patches of torn tapestry on the floor, and the curtains were shredded. A thousand scents assaulted his nostrils. He smelled the worry and anger of his men pacing outside the massive wooden doors, and shaar meet and vegetables roasting in the kitchen, and the sharp scent of woodsmoke. Normally the smells of home were a comfort, but today they just added to the swirl of emotions that stabbed at him with sharp knives.
One of the doors flew open, and his brother Fangor walked in, along with Asmund. Asmund had been on a mining expedition several years ago, on a small moon that was the only other place known to be colonized by purebred humans. He had found his true mate there and entered into the pair-bond ceremony, believing they would never be able to have children.
Then – a miracle had happened. She’d become pregnant, and her genes had begun to change. By the time she’d given birth to their twins, she had mutated to Vulfan form.
That was how the Vulfan had been able to approach the Federation and convince them to contract with the Earth dating agency. The mining moon where Asmund had met his mate was too small; there weren’t enough single females. Although the Federation had a rule against interfering with developing planets before they achieved interstellar travel, they had waived the rule rather than see the Vulfan race die out.
“Brother! We must speak to you!” Fangor snapped his fingers at him. “Change back, now, please.”
With a shudder, and with supreme effort, Lukan drew his wolf back into him. His bones cracked and shifted, his fur melted into his skin, and his claws sank into his fingers. The world changed, colors becoming more vibrant but the thousands of scents becoming a little fainter. He could still smell much more vividly than any humanoid could, but his senses of smell and hearing were most acute when he was in Vulfan form. Or wolf form, as the Earthers called it.
He stood up, glowering at his brother.
“Have you prepared the troops for war?” he demanded. He’d barked out the orders at his brother several hours earlier, when they’d arrived back at the castle, then stormed into the meeting room. Wisely, his men had left him alone.
“First, a word,” Fangor said.
“No, first we fight and rescue my mate,” he snarled furiously.
“Your mate is not in any danger, you know that,” his brother said. “You saw her leave with them. She asked to go with them.”
Lukan could not argue with him. The memory of her leaving him burned through his body.
However, his frantic need for Talia was clouding his brain. He had managed to survive the past year only with the greatest of effort, and only because he knew his mission on earth was vital to the survival and propagation of his species. The Leerian weed pills had helped to dull his rage and pain, but just barely.
Now his need for her was overpowering.
A year’s worth of yearning and craving had him ready to explode. His feelings were a tidal wave battering against the dam of denial that he had built inside him. He knew what was likely to happen if he did not consummate his union with her soon. She was his true mate. Being separated from her like this was almost certain to drive him mad. It was a wonder that he had lasted this long.
“Fight,” he growled as a red mist of fury obscured his sight. “We take her back. Now.” His animal side was struggling for control, and it was hard to think.
“Stop it! Do you want to start a war, storm there your way in there and seize your mate by force, only to lose her forever?” Asmund snapped.
That brought Lukan up short and cut through the raging cloud of emotions that threatened to overpower him.
“Of course not,” he said angrily. “What do you mean?”
“Human females are different from Vulfan females. A show of force does not necessarily help to woo them. In fact, it might frighten her off forever, and she might no longer love you,” Asmund said.
Lukan struggled for self-control. “You…you do thinks she loves me, though?” he said. Asmund would know; he had lived with his human for several years now – they already had five children, and they were very much in love.
His brother had been wise to bring him.
“From what you have described to me, and from what I watched on vid replays of the encounter with her at the party tonight, yes, I do,” Asmund said. “That is why she left.”
“Explain,” Lukan said furiously. “If she loved me, why would she leave?”
“Because you made her angry, and she needed time to think and sort through her feelings.”
“If she was angry, why would she not just bite me until I bled?” Lukan protested. “Or knock me over, or head-butt me and break my nose?” After all, he’d have healed within minutes.
Asmund sighed. “That is not the human way. Believe me, I have learned this. Human females do things differently. You should know this, Lukan – your brother said that you have been studying them for the past year, during your time on Earth.”
“You’re right. My var-hool is making it very hard for me to think right now.” The var-hool was the mating lust that descended on a Vulfan and his true mate at first encounter. Denying the var-hool was to invite madness; that was why Lukan had to take the Leerian pills.
“We know that,” Asmund said. “But you hurt your mate and you must make it right before you can be with her.”
That drew a howl of rage from him, and he lunged at Asmund. Fangor leaped in front of him, and the two brothers stood there growling and snapping at each other until Lukan got control of himself.
“Hurt her? How dare you accuse me of such a thing?”
“Think about your feelings over the last year,” Asmund said. “Think of how much pain it caused you. But you knew why you were denying yourself, or at least you thought you did. It was because you thought that she had several children that she needed to care for, and also that she was an unfaithful mate. Now think about how she felt. If the var-hool was affecting her as well, all she saw for the last year was that the man who was meant to be her mate was rejecting her for no reason at all.”
“Oh no,” Lukan groaned, stumbling back and clenching his fists in anguish.
Asmund continued, relentlessly. “She thought you did not love her or want her. Not only that, but you believed terrible things about her, which she probably found quite insulting and hurtful when she realized you had been thinking about her
like that for the past year.”
“Oh, curse the heavens, no,” Lukan ground out, burying his face in his hands. “How can I fix this? I will do anything. What can I do?”
“The answer to that is inside you,” Asmund said. “And you should be the one to come up with that answer, because it must come from your heart.” He and Fangor turned and left the room.
Lukan paced the floor, furiously thinking. All right, he’d been studying human females for the past year.
He had read books. He had watched human “tele-vision” shows. He had scanned their “inter-net”.
He knew the kinds of things a man needed to do when he had accidentally hurt his woman. He needed to tell her that he was sorry, acknowledge what he had done wrong, and promise that he would not do it again. He also needed to make some kind of grand gesture to show her how much he cared about her, and to woo her.
All right. Grand gesture. He had some ideas on that. He pressed the button on his wrist-com. “Roj,” he said. Roj was his Castle Master, in charge of all events held within his castle. “I need you to come here. I must plan a banquet to woo my true mate, and I will need your assistance.”
The door opened quickly. But the man who walked in was not Roj, it was the Commander of the Guard, Kaspar. Kaspar was as tall as Lukan, with thick hair shot through with silver, and he wore their uniform of red and black, with their pack insignia on it.
“Kaspar, I do not need you after all – there will be no war today,” Lukan said.
“Sir, I came to inform you that our scanners have detected the cyborg fleet, on trajectory for Ilyria. There are two Class One Destroyers en route. We have notified the Federation, and are awaiting their response.”
That brought Lukan up short. This was serious news.
The cyborg fleet had been all but wiped out thirty years ago, after the Population Wars. The cyborgs had been created to work on a mining planet, but they had revolted and slaughtered all the human inhabitants. They had no planet of their own, and had decided to take over Ilyria by releasing a deadly virus. Half the males and ninety percent of the females, including Lukan’s mother, had died. Lukan’s father had been the commander of a fleet who had sacrificed themselves to destroy the cyborgs. The Federation had finished off most of the rest, but rumors had been circulating that the cyborgs were rebuilding.
“We have intercepted their communications,” Kaspar said. “They appear to have targeted the Thorolf stronghold.”
At that, red-hot fury boiled through Lukan’s veins.
“Prepare our fleet for interception,” he snapped.
“Are you sure? We could let them attack the Thorolf territory first. They do not appear to be aware of the cyborgs’ approach yet.”
Under other circumstances, it would be tempting. The Thorolf clan had started the conflict when they raided the Wor-Lans and stole women and cubs after the Population War. Then the Wor-Lans had struck back, rescuing their kidnapped pack members, and killing many Thorolfs in the process. The Thorolfs had staged an attack in revenge, and the fighting had gone back and forth, for decades.
Normally, Lukan’s orders would have been to have all of his fleet standing at the ready in case the cyborgs attempted to attack them, but he would not have defended the Thorolf pack, any more than they would have defended his pack.
Not today.
Today, the cyborgs were attacking his true mate.
“My mate is there.”
“Ohhh.” Kaspar nodded vigorously. He headed for the door. “She is being held prisoner there? We must stage a rescue immediately afterwards?”
“No, she is just visiting there for the day. She will return to me tomorrow.” He prayed she would.
“Yes sir,” Kaspar said, although the expression on his face suggested that he did not understand at all.
Lukan hurried after him. He would man the lead ship in the Wor-Lan sky fleet.
Fury boiled inside his chest, and for the first time in his life, a sharp stab of fear. Had he come so close to finding the love of his life, only to lose her?
Chapter Seven
Talia sat glumly at the table in her guest chambers, ignoring the sumptuous feast that had been spread out before her.
“Humans need nourishment,” Mar-ee said. “You should consume calories.”
There was a golden plate heaped with chunks of meat in a sweet, savory sauce. She’d taken one bite and set it down. There were exotic candies in a bowl, and plump berries in another, and a jug of wine, and a jewel-encrusted goblet.
For once in her life, food just wasn’t appealing to her right now. It really, really hurt her feelings to think that Lukan had spent the last year believing she was a horrible person. No wonder he’d been so cold to her. On the bright side, sort of, his feelings for her had been so strong that he’d still kept her near him, and he’d even made Mar-ee specifically for her. He’d cared for her despite himself.
But still.
Ouch.
It was sincerely killing her appetite.
Earlier, there had been a banquet to welcome Cora Lee to Treffon’s castle. Hundreds of pack members had crowded into the massive banquet hall to welcome the new member of the Thorolf pack, and plates of food had magically floated past Talia, piled high with luscious, tempting meats and breads and vegetables and desserts.
Talia had just picked at her food there, too.
And now Cora Lee had been nice enough to tear herself away from Tristao for a little while to explain things to a bewildered Talia.
“By the way, I checked, and your message got through to Rosamund, and the email went to your family,” Cora Lee said, plopping down in the cushioned chair next to Talia’s and grabbing a handful of candies, which she stuffed in her mouth.
“Thank you for that,” Talia said gratefully. She had written a message to be delivered to Rosamund, apologizing for vanishing from the party. She’d said that she’d been called away by a family emergency which might keep her for a few days. Cora Lee had also spoken to Treffon, who was Alexandra’s other business partner. He would see to it that Giorgio was fired immediately; Rosamund would not be harassed again.
Talia had also recorded a video message to her family, saying that she’d had the wonderful opportunity to travel overseas for work, and would not be returning home for several weeks.
Treffon had sent a messenger through the transporter, back to Earth, to relay the messages. Apparently, the transporter was able to send people anywhere in the galaxy as long as there was a receiving station on the other side. The secret elevator in the Anders tower was a receiving station.
There was a mass limit to what the transporter could send – no more than a thousand Earth pounds per transport – so they still used ships to travel between planets, for commerce, vacation, and to wage war. If they tried to transport more than a thousand pounds, then everything inside the transporter went kablooey.
“I just want you to understand something,” Cora Lee said. “I know it’s hard to believe that Lukan fell for Alexandra’s bullshit, but you’re dealing with an alien species here. They think differently than we do. They’re warriors. They’re simple and direct. If they want something, they just go take it, and mow down anyone who tries to stand in their way. They don’t resort to lying or manipulating. Like, if two female Vulfan wanted the same guy, they’d fight over him, possibly to the death.”
“I guess,” Talia said glumly. “It’s just…he spent an entire year thinking I was this low-down, cheating skank.”
“That no good rat-bastard,” Mar-ee said. “Unless we have forgiven him. Have we forgiven him?”
“She will,” Cora Lee said firmly.
“Give me time. And I’ve got a million questions about what’s going on here,” Talia said.
“And it’s possible I have four or five answers.” Cora Lee grabbed a golden, two-pronged fork from the table and speared a chunk of meat. “Mmmm, being with Tristao really works up an appetite. He has the most talented tongue. And oh, my God, the s
ize of him.”
“TMI!” Talia shrieked. She clapped her hands over her ears. “La la la la, I can’t hear you!”
“You have lost your hearing? Should I call a healer?” Mar-ee asked, swiveling her head to look at Talia with concern.
“It’s just an expression, Mar-ee,” Cora Lee assured her, her mouth full of the savory morsel. “And Talia, you’ll find out about the talents of Vulfan men soon enough.”
“Argh! Also, why does their name sound so much like ‘wolf’?”
“Common ancestry. That is also why we can mate with them and have their children. Eons ago, the common ancestors of numerous humanoid races were forced to leave their planet because their sun was dying. They scattered throughout the Milky Way. Earth was meant to be one of their colonies, but the Earth ship crash-landed, and only a few children survived, along with some animals like dire wolves and big cats. They forgot all their technology and knowledge of their past. Did you know that the Vulfan are actually part dire wolf and part human?”
“Aren’t dire wolves those extinct prehistoric giant wolves?” Talia asked.
Mar-ee picked up the plate of sweet-meats and shoved it under Talia’s nose. “Consume. Calories. Now.”
“Fine, Mom.” Talia rolled her eyes. She grabbed a two-pronged fork from the table and used it to spear a potato-like vegetable and popped it in her mouth. It was delicious, she had to admit.
Mar-ee shook her head. “That is not possible. I am a mechanical unit and you are a meat unit.”
“My sweetie’s got a meat unit.” Cora Lee giggled as Talia groaned. “A humongous one. And yes, they are. The dire wolves originated on the same planet as our ancestors.”
“Ok, I understand all of that. But how is that they can change from humanoid into animals?”
“Genetic engineering. There are a lot of species who consider it dishonorable to use weapons when they fight with each other, it’s some cultural thing, again, passed down from those common ancestors way back when. But they still waged war. So their scientists worked on making their species the strongest, fiercest fighters possible. There are shifter wolves, bears, big cats, and even dragons. And apparently, once I become pregnant with Tristao’s babies, the stronger genetics will take over and I will become a Vulfan.”
The Vulfan's True Mate (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Starcrossed Dating Agency Book 1) Page 4