Clearing his throat, to divert the awkward moment, John again explained to their friends in minute detail about receiving Harimal’s message a week ago. Since that time, despite trying to convergence-contact with him, Harimal had not responded.
“That’d be right,” Taren hissed. “Scare us all to death, talk to us and then go quiet. Feegling cat.”
“That’s my brother you’re talking about, clan-brother-mine,” Sam snapped back. “He’s done what he can.”
Taren ruffled his feathers.
“And don’t do that, either, bird-brain,” Sam retorted.
“The kitten has grown claws.”
“Damn right.”
“Good, I approve,” Alesiar said. “You can bite your cat for me anytime.”
“Sam needs no encouragement in that regard,” John said, laughing at the two women over the rim of his glass.
“So…what have you been doing, since we last met?” Kareena’s gaze lingered over Sam who pretended not to notice the nuances of that look.
“Painting and stuff.”
“Ah, it’s the stuff, I’d be interested to discover,” Lenar said.
“In your dreams, cat-boy.”
They laughed, comfortable silence descending.
“That reminds me, Kuno,” Sam said. “I can’t find two of my paintings. I wanted to take them in for framing. Have you been pawing around my studio again?”
John grinned. “Pawing? I like that. You want me to paw you?”
“Later.” She waved a dismissive hand. “My paintings, where are they?”
“I sold them.”
“You what? Who would want to buy my paintings, they’re—”
“When I walked into the shop with the paintings, it started a bidding war. Some rich guy from Tau Ceti bought them both. Fifty thousand credits each.”
“He’s got more money than sense.”
John raised a brow. “You know what a Cetian’s like! Oh—you don’t? Once they get their sixth eye on something, they won’t rest until it’s theirs. Single-minded to a fault.”
“Like cats.”
“Yep, you bet.” John smiled. “Only, maybe I won’t take you to Tau C., because if one of them gets his bug eye on you, he’ll try to make me an offer I can’t refuse, at least politely. If it’s a female Cetian, it’d be worse—they don’t take no for an answer. Ever.”
They all laughed, except Sam. She flung her hands on her hips. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“No,” Taren said, wiping tears from his eyes. “Cetians are predatory, and if they get their feelers onto you—”
“Into you, more like,” Kareena retorted.
“Yes, into you, they just don’t let go. Feegle you good and proper. Trust me, feelers can be very um…feeling,” Lenar said
Even Sam had to laugh.
“And kitten, Sandi wants more work from you.”
“He’s only being polite.”
“Sandokan is an astute businessman, among other things. Trust me, kitten-mine, if he says your work is good, he means it. So you can earn your keep. I doubt there’s a chocolate ice-cream to be bought from here to Adelaide, trying to fill your cravings.”
“I do earn my keep,” Sam snapped. “Keeping up with all your demands.”
“In bed or out of it?” Kareena asked.
“You have to ask?”
“Nope, but I thought I’d like to hear your answer and make you blush,” Lenar said, grinning.
Sam flung herself to her feet. “You’re all feegling impossible.” She spat two felinus oaths and stalked from the patio.
“Phew!” Taren grimaced. “Brother-mine, you have my sympathies.”
John smiled. “I like Sam hot and hissy.”
“Bodes well for the child,” Kareena said.
“Mmmm.”
Sam brought her thoughts back to the present and stared at her reflection. She fluffed up her hair. She grimaced at the result. Instead of sexy, she looked like she was having a bad hair day. She smoothed her hair into its customary sleek shape and then smiled at herself.
Nearly six months ago, she had done just the same thing, in her hotel room overlooking the rings of Saturn. Outside her door a man awaited—not just any man, a sensualator. But never in her wildest dreams could she have guessed that the man, the sensualator was not human, but a hybrid felinus, a prince, a man destined to be her life, her soul, her every breath. Kuno.
You called? Aren’t you ready, yet?
Just coming.
Lucky you.
I remember.
So do I.
That repartee re-enacted from the time at the Saturn Hilton, before she had opened the door to him, before her world was changed forever.
Sam smoothed her hands over the halter-necked Chizan silk gown Herrall had given her. The fabric altered hue as she moved, so it was neither green nor black, just a confusing swirl of color that only a cat could properly define. She fiddled with the pearls at her throat and the crystal on its pendant. The two silver bracelets chinked together. John and Taren had replaced the bracelets stolen from her by the starlord, inscribing each new piece of jewelry with protective symbols and studding them with Chizan pearls and Avenor crystals, obsidian-dark.
Kitten-mine!
Smiling at John’s impatience, she descended the inner staircase and made her way out to the patio. Sandokan and Pete had seen to the catering and tables resting against the wall were literally groaning with all manner of culinary delights—all vegetarian.
“No feegling carnivore makes it past my door,” John had said when he had shown Sam the email with the proposed menu.
She paused, orienting herself. The patio was strung with rows of colored fairy lights and candles floated in the central fountain.
Guests, dressed in anything from cut-off denims and T-shirts to the latest Paris-Aldebaran couture roamed around the house. Some sat on the walkways, dangling their feet in the water, while dolphins frolicked about. The pod female allowed herself to be caressed by a few guests. The whale was still visiting. In the distance, she heard the smash of a fluke against the water.
Sam paused to greet Sue and Rob who had flown in that morning to attend the party. They’d been invited since they had helped John in his plot to entice Sam out of her seclusion over twelve months ago.
Yet, as she talked to them, she again sensed a distance between them. A distance, she felt when she was with other humans.
Kari had explained. “It is the felinus gift, or curse. We shifters tend to stay with our kind. Our sexuality is misunderstood.”
In the kitchen, she and Sam worked side by side to prepare special felinus dishes.
“I know some humans can’t stand to be near us. Makes them sneeze.”
Kareena smiled. “At very least. We share in ways no human can comprehend. We have our intimate Circle, as others. You know what I mean, Sam?”
“Yes.”
Kareena’s talon stroked the back of Sam’s wrist. “I’m pleased you’re with John. He’s glowing from inside out. As you. I don’t have to ask how happy you are.”
“No. If I was any happier, I think I’d explode.”
Kari smiled. “I’m happy for you, Samantha. The life within you grows. She’ll be your joy.”
“She’ll be yours, too, Kari.”
“Oh?”
“I’m naming you her clan-sister.”
Kareena burst into tears and she gripped the side of the table as great sobs shuddered through her.
“But…But… I thought it’d please you. I’m sorry, I’ve offended.”
“You feegling human!” Kareena wiped her face free of tears and laughed.
“Who you calling a feegling human?” Sam demanded.
“You, kitten-sister.” Kareena inclined her head, her right hand over her heart. “You do me much honor. I’ll nurture the child as if she were my own. Ah!”
“What?” Sam demanded as she saw Kareena’s fresh tears.
“I can never have a child. L
en and I tried. None ever came to term and in the end…well, no amount of trying saw me quicken again.” Kareena touched a talon to Sam’s bare gut. She tweaked the mutatis gem and smiled. “I envy you.” Kareena turned and walked to the window, staring out.
Sam joined her side and saw the men setting up rows of lights around the balustrades. Len, in his short kilt turned and saw them, waved. His smile froze. Sam, glancing at Kareena and then at Len, realized that they shared something, and she caught the faint echo of sorrow escape from her friends. So much for the playful, carefree exteriors of Len and Kari, the owners of the notorious Rendezvous Bar. But John had once told her that Kareena was a Starwatch operative—one of his best. The masks of her Circle Companions were multi-layered, hiding hurts, the truth and the lies.
Len must have caught his mate’s agitation, but before he could take more than a few steps, she held up her hand, shaking her head. It’s okay, babe. Sam caught the mental echo between them.
The men resumed their work, but occasionally, Lenar looked back at them, frowning.
Kareena grimaced at Sam. “He’s too protective of me, sometimes.”
“I know all about that.”
“Mm. Taren and Alesiar have four children and they proposed a mating. Len wouldn’t have it. So, I found other partners for him. The women were only too happy to feegle with him, he’s good at what he does.” Kareena waggled her brows. “But he said no. Every time.”
“Oh?” Sam paused, chewing her lower lip. Lenar had once offered to soothe her, when John was in the first stages of mutatis. She hadn’t really understood then, just how special that offer had been.
Kari smiled wistfully. “He only wants me. I love him for that. We are a mated couple, but even so, there’s duty to clan and race. It isn’t often that a felinus woman can bring a pure blood child to term.”
“I haven’t heard of this before,” Sam whispered. “But why?”
“Why it’s secret, or why the blood fails?”
“Both.”
“Why it’s a secret—who wants to talk about the future, a galaxy where shifters may no longer exist? The blood fails among other shifter species, not just felinus. As to why? We don’t know. Our science has worked on the problem, with little success.”
Sam glanced at her friend, a chill making her shiver as she remembered what the starlord had told her. That he and his kind had created the shifters for their exploitation—made them their sexual slaves, before shifters had risen up in revolt, joining humans in the starlord wars. Perhaps shifter blood was failing because the starlords had perished, were no longer able to manipulate their creations.
Ah, feegling bloody hell—how could she tell Kari that, or any of her friends?
Kareena frowned, leaning her head against the glass, watching Lenar. “I wish…”
“One day you and Len will have a child of your own,” Sam whispered.
“I’ve wished upon a star for that most nights, kitten,” Kari said.
“I’m your sister. Len is my clan-brother. I’ll propose…what did you say…a mating?”
Kareena glanced sharply at her. “Samantha?”
“Look, Len offered once to soothe me when John was indisposed with that mutatis fever. I thought then he was just being kind, and he’d just close his eyes and think of you when he was with me. I didn’t understand about the Circle. I may not be his first choice, but…” Sam shrugged. “If he, well…um…”
“You’ll offer to be our surrogate? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Is it allowed?”
Kareena took Sam’s shoulders and gently shook her. “It is allowed, but never asked. It must be offered. Freely. Kitten-sister. And Len loves you. Trust me. He doesn’t love many people, despite his façade, he’s very reserved. You might say shy.”
“Len—shy?”
“Yes.” Kareena gently kissed Sam. “It’ll be our deepest pleasure to share with you, Samantha.”
“Just let me get over being this fat before I start thinking about getting fat again.”
Kareena gently touched Sam’s stomach. “There’s no bulge, Samantha.”
“I feel enormous.”
“Trust me, I’d give anything to be as you, no matter what.”
“Then, I won’t complain ever again about being fat.”
“Be happy, Sam. Even if, in the future, you can’t have my Lenar as babe-mate, I won’t love you the less.”
Sam glanced down at the patio. Lenar was gorgeous, not in the same way as John, but…
“Definitely not a man to kick out of bed?” Kareena laughed.
“How’d you know I was thinking that?”
“You’re part of our Circle, kitten, we share.”
“Bodies, love, fear, sorrow…life?” Sam asked.
“That and more.” Kareena grinned, her gaze taking in the men.
Sam tried not to look, but it was difficult. Tall, sleek male bodies, stripped to the bare minimum of clothes—even Taren was wearing a kilt, the leather breeches put aside—muscles rippling, flesh shining with perspiration…
“They used to call it eye candy.”
“W…what?” Sam asked, hoarsely.
Kareena grinned. “Eye candy. Women admiring the male body. I savor and so do you, so stop blushing! You’d have to be dead not to react.” She paused. “Uh-oh! Now look at that. Trouble!”
Sam saw Aarn, in cat shape, shimmy up a light tower, a cable between his teeth. Across the patio, Zeren watched his friend, his eyes narrowed.
He morphed to cat, raced up the pole, bit Aarn on the ass and raced away. Aarn lost his paw hold and slithered down the pole, landing in a tangle of cable on the ground. He morphed to youth, struggled with the cables, shifted to cat and tried to slither out of the entanglement.
John, grinning, waded in and pried the cables apart.
Zeren his fiery red hair braided and hanging to his waist, sat on the balustrade laughing, his arms folded, his emerald eyes glowing.
Aarn streaked across the patio, launched himself at his friend and they went over the side, arms and legs flailing. Two cats, locked in mortal combat hit the water.
The older men laughed, watching the cats swimming in the sea, before returning to their work.
“They’ll both be trouble when they grow up,” Sam retorted. “They’ll break the hearts of all the girls.”
Kareena smiled. “Maybe, but their hearts are already taken. By each other.”
“What?” Sam paused. “Oh. Oh, I see.”
“They’re devoted to you, as is right and when the babe is born, they’ll be her guardians. She’ll need them and more to stay out of trouble. To keep the boys away.”
Sam glanced at Kareena. “What?”
“John is already acting the protective father. If he can’t look after his girl, then he’ll make damn sure those boys do their duty to the Ronsevaal clan.”
“He didn’t ask me.Why, I—”
Kareena held up her hands. “You never heard it from me.”
“Right!”
Excusing herself, Sam found John swimming in the sea and joined him. Turning him over on his belly, she slapped him hard on the ass.
“Ouch! What’s that for? It hurt.” He rolled over and faced her.
“I’ll hurt you some more, if you ever—ever—make any decisions about my daughter without talking to me first. And spare me that Mister Innocent look, Jo!”
The innocent look faded, to be replaced with wary regard. “What decisions?”
“Having Aarn and Zeren as Saphyna’s protectors. I want our daughter to be free, to grow up without a care, to choose her own friends.”
“She’ll be able to do all that and more, kitten. I’ll make damn sure. But she’s Ronsevaal and there are fortune hunters who’d use her as a way to power and wealth. Aarn and Zeren will make sure she’s never hurt.”
Sam glared at him. “Is that it?”
“Yep.”
“Then I owe you an apology. For hurting you.”
“It didn’t hurt.”
“What about this?” Sam dove at him, her fingers pinching. They went under the water, arms and legs entangled, swirling bubbles.
Later, they floated on the sea. He had listened deeply, his smile in his eyes and in his soul as she told him about Lenar and Kareena. “It’s my greatest honor, Sam, that you would consider doing this for our Circle.”
“You’re not shocked? Angry?”
“Human!” He laughed gently, taking her shoulders. “How much more you have to learn of us.”
“Yeah, I know. You’ll tell me a secret each night, just like Scheherazade.”
“Mm. Well here is one to whet your appetite, wife-of-mine. When the time is right, when the babe is to be created—felinus call it gifted—I’ll love you, with the others. Something you’ll have to experience to appreciate.” He smiled, kissed her and took her under the water…
Sam drew her thoughts back, hearing Sue’s voice. What had her friend been saying? She tried to re-enter the conversation without missing a beat. Yet, her gaze strayed around the party, finding her Circle.
They regarded her intently, thoughts caressing. Flushing, she turned her attention to Sue and Rob.
“Oh, no, Samantha. That monster is coming this way.”
“What…monster?” Sam turned, her heart thudding in her temples. She looked around the party. There were no monsters.
“That dragon thing. I mean, honestly!”
“What? You mean Vax? He’s a sweety.”
“He’s got talons and teeth and that tail gets in the way. Look, he’s swept another chair over the side.”
“This home isn’t set up for draconis. They’re agile in their own environment. And it’s a special concession they’ve made to be here. Draconis-fire and water do not mix. And they get seasick.” John had treated both the draconis with a sensualtor’s remedy to counteract their aversion to water. They were staying on-shore with Pete and Sandi, much to the alarm of some residents and the excitement of others, especially the children of the town.
“They give me the creeps,” Rob said. “Sorry, Sam, I know they’re your friends, I just can’t say how do you do to a three meter tall lizard.”
“I understand.” Sam inclined her head. The gulf between them had become a chasm and there was nothing, no bridge she could build that could span their differences. She drifted to another group and saw Zeren, in his cat shape, balancing on the balustrade. Up to mischief. She intercepted the cat, just as he was about to leap onto the lap of a young woman.
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