Time rushed ahead at light speed, and Farid’s pulse raced to match. Bren blinked. “How the hell did you throw—”
Run! His senses vibrated with danger, shrieking at him that six more of the enemies sprinted at them from multiple directions.
Bren was already on her feet, her boots kicking up dirt as she obeyed. She shouted over her shoulder, “Did you kill him?”
This is a Class Three razer. At full charge, it can only cause unconsciousness. He’ll be fine. Worry more about your own hide than his and move faster. Now! He watched her flip a rude hand gesture at him, but she obliged him by pouring on more speed. Another aircraft was coming—he could hear it whirring in the distance. More soldiers to come down ropes, more light to seek them out in the dark, and more enemies to hunt them. They dashed through the trees until they found themselves moving along a ridge that dropped into a wide, rushing river.
While Farid’s superhuman speed could easily outdistance their pursuers, he wasn’t going to leave his One’s side. Sweat made his tunic stick to his back and dampened his hair. His muscles shook as his instincts screamed to run faster, to get away, and his lungs burned as he sucked in oxygen.
They broke into a wide clearing and were nearly halfway across when he knew they’d neither be able to escape nor evade confrontation with the humans. One came out of the trees in front of them, three more to the side. Trapped. Farid knew going back the way they’d come was futile, and the river boxed them in. The soldiers began to circle their prey. One of the aircraft reached them, circling overhead to shine a blinding beam down on them. Farid hissed, his feline eyes aching at the adjustment to fluctuating light.
Squinting against the glare, he focused his psychic power on the nearest soldier and shoved in the image that the man’s arm was on fire.
“I’m on fire! Oh, my God. My fucking arm is on fire!” He screamed, slapping at his shoulder frantically before diving on the ground to roll.
Spinning to level his weapon on the next soldier, he watched the man pull out the same kind of small, round object the other soldier had dropped. Bren gasped. “Oh. Shit.”
He grabbed her arm and shoved her behind him, bracing for an explosion. It didn’t come. Instead, a high-pitched squeal rent the air, and Farid felt as though something vital had suddenly numbed, a shocking blow that left his ears ringing. Something he’d always known was there was blunted, ineffective. A white-hot blade sliced through his mind. He staggered, his claws and fangs exploding forward. A deep roar issued from his throat, the feline taking hard, abrupt control of his body.
His vision tunneled to one focus, one purpose. He would kill now, the beast had been unleashed.
“Arjun!” Bren sprayed gunfire at the feet of the soldiers to send them scrambling back for the cover of the trees. She launched herself forward, plowed all her weight into Farid, and sent them both careening over the sheer drop into the river. Reflex made his muscles tense, his hand gripping his gun. Blind instinct made him reach for his One, and he wrapped his arms around her in the single heartbeat it took to fall.
Sanity returned with a cold slap as they hit the frigid water. The river dragged them under, whipped them around in dizzying circles before he could propel them to the surface. They broke through, sputtering and coughing up fluids. His hold tightened on both his weapon and his One for fear of losing either in the rushing current. His heart pounded so loudly in his ears, it almost drowned out the roar of the river.
White foaming water slapped him in the face with the force of a battering ram when they hit rapids. He tried to kick, to take the brunt of the glancing blows from protruding rocks. Agony made his body arch, made a chilling feline scream burst from him. Bren gagged when they went under again, screamed and clung to him, her grip as desperate as his was. The only truth he knew was that he could not allow her to die, too. Not his One. They dipped in the river’s eddies, spun weightlessly, helplessly, jerked in any direction the water would taken them.
Endless miles sped by before the currents calmed, and his muscles shrieked, his body trembling. He swam with the stream, directing their mad flight through the water. Bren scissored her legs to help him, her expression one of grim determination. They braced each other to be able to stand upright and maintain their footing as they stumbled out of the sucking current. His wet clothing felt as if it weighed more than the Vishra as it threatened to drag him to his knees.
They staggered to the relative cover of a copse of trees, sobbing for breath, vomiting up water. He caught one hand on his knee to keep from slamming face-first into the forest floor and shoved his pistol into the holster at his back. Every inch of his body shuddered and cramped, pain taking on a new definition in his mind.
When he managed to look up again, it was to see Bren sagging against a tree with her eyes closed. She gasped raggedly. “Are you all right, Arjun?”
“Fine.” Honing his senses in on her revealed scrapes and bruises but no serious injuries. Relief wound through him with an intensity that alarmed him. Shaking himself beastlike to fling as much of the water off him as possible, he pushed away the feeling and focused on something safer—the events in the clearing. His voice emerged a rough croak. “What was that device they used?”
“It was—” Her low whisper cracked and broke off. She cleared her throat, her expression closing to tell him nothing. “All I know is it was designed to target the wavelengths in the Kith mind and nullify psychic power.”
“Madness,” he breathed, horror cresting within him. “The psychic power is what allows us to control the rampaging animal side of our nature.”
“So I saw.” She pushed herself upright, a low groan breaking from her. “Since you have your psychic mojo back, you can contact your ship and tell them to send a shuttle.”
“I cannot.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “It is too far for my powers to reach. I would be unable connect with them from here.”
“You make it from your ship to Earth just fine when you connect with me.” Her gaze called him a liar, though the word didn’t escape her lips.
He looked away, unable to meet her brilliant blue eyes. “It is different with you.”
“How?” Combing her fingers through her tangled hair, she squeezed out the water, worked it into a long, thick plait, and fastened it with a tie she pulled from her pocket. She flipped it over her shoulder and arched her eyebrows at him. “How is it different, Arjun? I’m not even Kith to…you know, boost your power source from the other end.”
“You would not understand. It’s complicated.” Outside of that, he wouldn’t tell her the truth. He never intended to initiate the One bond, so she had no need to know. “Suffice to say, we must wait until they realize I am no longer gone of my own accord.”
The Sueni would search for him soon, but he was far from the site of his landing and out of range of any ability to contact his people. He sent psychic distress calls up and outward, pushing his power as far as it would go. Nothing happened. He shook his head and sighed. With the exception of Kyber, no Kith had the ability to reach so far with their mental power. And Kyber had been more than a little distracted of late, so Farid had no idea when the emperor might be open to contact. He snorted. At this point, he wasn’t even sure where his cousin was. Back on the Vishra, still on Earth, possibly bonding with his One?
“Well, we can’t stay here. They’re going to search the river for us.” Her lips twisted in an unpleasant imitation of a smile. “Of course, they’ll be hoping the rapids took care of us and all they find is our dead bodies.”
“Wonderful.” His body screeched a protest when he began moving, but he gritted his teeth and pushed on. She was right. They couldn’t stay here, no matter how much he might crave rest. He stayed behind her as she began hiking, forced his psychic and feral senses open, and remained alert for any danger.
3
Hours passed as they ghosted through the trees, dawn lightened the sky, and Farid’s clothes went from uncomfortably clammy to merely damp
. His muscles throbbed, and the slight stagger to Bren’s stride told him she fared no better. The scent of water reached him long before the sound of a babbling brook. Thirst wrenched deep inside him, the hunger and fatigue he’d been pushing away suddenly demanding notice. “Let me see if the water is safe. Then we need to find food.”
Bren nodded. He heard her stomach gurgle loudly and she pressed her palm to her belly. “I like that plan.”
He noted the paleness of her face, the way stress pinched the skin around her mouth. She looked worn, battered. He wanted to take her in his arms and tell her he’d make everything right. He refused to let it shake him, this need to protect. It hadn’t been this strong since his family was still alive, but that meant little. It was mere possessiveness. It would pass once he tired of her. No lover had ever kept his interest long, and while fucking his One had been excellent, the novelty would surely wear off. It had to. He dismissed the concern from his mind.
Sighing, he stared into the rushing water for long moments before he settled on his haunches and dipped his fingers into the cool liquid. Scanning it with his senses, he found no living organisms. Bringing it to his nose, he smelled it for impurities, flicked his tongue out for an experimental taste. It was different from the water on Suen, but he found nothing wrong with it. “I believe it stems from the same source as the river. It should be safe to drink.”
“You’re sure?” Her voice had more than a hint of doubt in it. “We should probably boil it first.”
“You cannot bring yourself to trust me about whether or not the water is drinkable?” Irritation scraped over his nerves and he knew it shouldn’t. She’d spent months considering him her vilest enemy, only dropping her guard when his dreams melded with hers. It wasn’t as though he wanted her trust. Of course not. That would be irrational, and the rational side of him was what controlled the beast that always sought its mate. It was necessary to keep a tight grip on his animalistic nature, a constant struggle for his kind. He refused to fail, not the way Cilji had. Not the way his parents had.
“Fine, I’ll drink the water.” She knelt beside him, dipping her cupped palms into the brook. “If I end up sick and they overtake us because of it, I will find a way to get loose just to kick your ass. I didn’t go AWOL for nothing. I’m getting Emperor Kyber to agree to help before this is all over.”
He glanced at her. “I will do everything I can to help you convince him, Bren. I swear it.”
She blinked, a smile that was both shy and sweet crossing her face. He hadn’t even known she was capable of such an expression. “I…thank you. For coming, and for being willing to help.”
He liked that smile, liked that her gaze shone with something besides disdain and distrust, and hated that he liked any of it. He shouldn’t like her or want her to like him in return. He would use her for sex as she used him for his influence with the emperor. Nothing more. He arched an eyebrow, shoving any warmth he might feel for her to the deepest, darkest corner of his soul. “There, now, did you choke on those words before you got them out?”
A laugh bubbled out of her and she rolled her eyes at him, throwing her hands in the air. “You make it so hard to be civil with you.”
“So do you.” He shook his head when she stuck her tongue out at him. “Thus far, your entire planet has been an odd combination of fawningly welcoming and catastrophically vicious.”
“We’re a complicated bunch.” She smirked. “You don’t want to deal with us. Go away.”
He snorted and scooped up another handful of water to drink. “Yes, that’s going to solve your problems with Arthur now.”
“We wouldn’t have had these problems if you hadn’t shown up.” She sighed, and a wave of her powerless frustration billowed out from her like a cloud.
“I know.” He nodded, feeling some of that dissatisfaction himself. After all these months of futile negotiating, he understood her position very well.
A flicker of surprise crossed her expression. “You…know?”
“Of course. I am not stupid or unaware of the consequences of our arrival on your planet and people.” He leaned toward her, her delicate, feminine scent as heady to him as ever. He forced himself to consider the discussion at hand, not something that he’d had to do often as a diplomat. “You seem impervious to the damage you have caused to us though. Why is that, do you think? Is it truly that you think we brought it upon ourselves?”
“No. Yes. No.” Her slender, dark brows contracted, the inner conflict roiling out to touch him. “I don’t know.”
“A definitive answer. I like those.” He let a small smile tuck in one side of his mouth, wanting to soothe her, but not knowing how, and knowing that he shouldn’t care either way. What was so simple with other people in his profession was always complicated with his One. He didn’t like it.
She huffed out a breath and pushed to her feet. “Quit politicking me.”
“Quit oversimplifying the situation to make it suit you,” he retorted. He rose with her, towering over her. “There is no one who is entirely innocent here, but also no one who is entirely to blame. The nuances aren’t mere inconveniences; they are vital to understanding the true meaning of the problem.”
Which he’d been unsuccessful at discussing with any of the heads of state on Earth who would see him. America, especially, was stubborn in its need to have a clear right or wrong, winner or loser, black or white. It bespoke a young culture, not yet matured to a full grasp of their own place in the order of things.
“You can do all the detailed navel-gazing you want, but don’t miss the big picture…lives are at stake. Your people’s, my people’s. People have died and more are going to die unless we do something. You get to run off into space whenever Kyber finds his soul mate or whatever, but you leaving won’t solve the problem. Not anymore. Arthur will still be in power after you’re gone, and he’s not going to give up that power without a fight. And again—the big picture—that means innocent people will die.” She sighed, crossing her arms and drawing his gaze to her breasts. He could see the outline of her nipples through her shirt and his cock rose in eager response. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t…think you brought this on yourselves. It’s just that, as a soldier, it’s never a good thing to think too long or too hard about the damage you do to the enemy. You have to have some emotional distance from that or it’ll make you crazy. You don’t survive in the military long if you can’t make that separation between us and them.”
“You’ve survived as a warrior a long time, haven’t you?” He’d wager a great deal that she’d never had to struggle with this kind of gray area before, and he hated seeing the distress reflected in her expression.
“My entire adult life.” She nodded, eyes the color of the bluest ocean on Suen moving over his face. She looked so lost, nothing like the hardened soldier he knew her to be. He reached for her, wanting to protect her from this pain, but she flinched away. “Don’t. I can’t stand it when you touch me. It makes me want things I won’t do again. I’m not sure I can hold out if you put your hands on me.”
It shook him that she confessed such a thing to him, made herself vulnerable, and gave him information he could use against her. The beast within him grappled for control, willing to take whatever she offered. His muscles tightened as he fought his conflicting urges. The man wanted to run as fast as he could from the sweetness of her vulnerability because he liked it too much, and the more he learned of her, the more he liked her. Not good. Not good at all.
The man won the struggle and he forced himself to step back out of arm’s reach. He needed to get away from here, from her, before he gave into the feline’s desire to convince her how often what they’d done the night before would happen again. And again.
“You lost your weapon in the river, yes?” He pulled the razer out its holster and tossed it to her.
She caught it but gave him a questioning glance. “Unfortunately.”
“Keep my razer with you.” He jerked his
shirt over his head, folded it in precise quarters, and set it on the ground.
“Wh-what are you doing?” Her fingers tightened on the gun, but her gaze locked on his bare chest, a throb of pure want passing from her to him and shredding his tenuous grasp on his self-discipline.
He unfastened his pants, shoving them down and stepping out of his boots at the same time as he pulled his legs free of his clothing. “Undressing.”
“Why?” Her gaze dropped to his hard dick, her lips parting. A pulse of her desire hit all his senses at once. The scent of her wetness, the need trickling through the mental connection he hadn’t been able to let go of entirely after they’d made love.
He was so close to dragging her to the ground whether she was willing to admit she wanted him or not that his hands shook. That kind of abandoning of self-restraint was his worst nightmare realized, was a step toward the kind of disaster that had claimed the entire Arjun line—everyone he had loved the most.
Rolling his shoulders forward, he stooped to let the beast within loose. A low buzz filled his ears, his psychic power melding and shifting with the feral instincts. White and black fur crisscrossed his arms in stripes. Dirt shoved under his claws as he hit the ground. His body twisted, his bones popped, and some of his muscles tightened while others loosened as he reformed into a feline.
He hissed, shaking from head to tail as he settled into the new shape. Turning on his haunches, he launched himself into the waiting brush. He sent Bren a final thought to answer her question. I am hunting. You wanted food, yes?
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