by Isabel Wroth
She stood up and smoothed imaginary wrinkles out of her dress, giving her scarlet hair a toss over her shoulder and sniffed, “You lot decide whether or not you want to give this generous opportunity a chance, or hope that our people will be found and that you can go back to your previous existence. I am going to go find my big, scary alien man cat, and ask a few more questions. It’s what I do, baggage that I am, and my last bit of advice to all of us, myself included? Don’t be an idiot.”
She nodded to the two massive males waiting to escort her back to Tarek’s quarters, doing her best to hide her trembling hands in the folds of her skirt. Adrenaline rocketed through her system, her nerves shot to hell, unable to believe she’d just ranted on and on like that! God she was embarrassed! She nodded in thanks to the warriors when they dropped her at her door, hissing and pressing her hands to her flaming red cheeks as she rushed inside, only to come up short to see Tarek, arms crossed over his bare chest, looking at her with narrow eyes and flanked by Falken and Ga’rae. “Um…did I interrupt some-“ Tarek crooked his finger at her and wordlessly pointed to the spot directly in front of him.
She could all but hear the unspoken, ‘Come,’ in his gruff expression, and found herself almost laughing on her way over to him. But it would have been one of those high pitched, obviously uncomfortable laughs, and Falken and Ga’rae already looked fit to spit nails. She licked her dry lips and looked up into Tarek’s golden eyes, her heartbeat leaping up into her throat when he spoke. “Am I truly, still, so terrifying?” She blinked, floundering for a moment wondering why he was asking, until she noticed the hologram to her left, still on and silently displaying in life size, the common room where her crew still sat at the table talking. “You were watching?” She gasped, her face so hot she worried her skin was going to melt clean off, “Of course I was. I require an answer, Clary.”
It was one of the rare times he had used her name, and not his very endearing, ‘my one’. It made her feel like she was in trouble. But she knew if she lied to spare his feelings, he would smell it anyway and then he’d probably think less of her for the lying. “Tarek? You’re a massive male, a warrior, an alien, and a shape shifter. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frightened by most of those things, but I think I’d also be insulting you to say that no, you’re not terrifying at all.” His lips quirked, just barely, but enough to know she was at the very least, speaking her way to the right direction. “I believe you called me a hot, scary, snarling alien man cat.” She rolled her lips under and bit down, utterly and completely mortified at this point. And there were witnesses. “I believe I did, yeah.”
“Do you fear me, in truth?”
“Yes and no.”
“Explain.” He ordered gruffly, but by some miracle, she could tell he was fighting to keep from smiling.
She glanced at the hologram again, at Falken, at Ga’rae, and figured that since they’d heard probably every word of her, hardy bastards speech, that there was nothing for it now. She just had to finish it. “Yes, because you’re a giant, shape shifting warrior cat, and I know seven days’ worth of your personality. Yes, because by circumstance I am reliant on you for my survival, and though I wish with all my heart I could just blindly accept that all you’ve offered is every bit of the truth, I can’t seem to do it. And no, because despite all the yammering in my head, all the doubts and fears, I feel safe with you.” He made a very animal like chuff and reached out with his rough, callused palm and gently cupped her scalding cheek. His touch settled all the butterflies rioting in her belly, almost immediately. The stroke of his thumb made her turn her face further into the comfort of his touch, and he purred softly. “Do you believe I intend to cause you harm?”
“Never on purpose.”
“That I would allow harm to come to you?”
“Not unless there was nothing to be done to stop it.”
“What is it most that you are afraid of now?”
That voice of his was dangerous. It just kept getting softer, gentler, deeper, until she wasn’t much more of a pile of goo, one quiver away from melting at his feet. She didn’t know how best to answer his question, but then she looked into his eyes, her mouth fell open, and out it all came. Everything she was afraid of. “I’m afraid because I’m not so afraid. I’m frightened by how manic I feel when I’m not near you. I’m afraid of how angry I get when my people question your motives, even though I’ve questioned them myself. I’m terrified that I hardly know you, and if suddenly all four remaining ships carrying my people showed up tomorrow, if my parents showed up alive, and I was asked to choose between you or my own, that I’d pick you without hesitation.”
His granite features softened with a soft huff of a laugh, and with a tiny shake of his head, he pulled her close and cradled her against his bare chest, bending to rub his cheeks over her hair. “Go,” He said, and she heard the boots of the other two warriors, leaving his quarters. “This is becoming an embarrassing habit,” He said with his lips on her brow, warming her when she hadn’t even realized how chilled she’d been, “What is?”
“Your mate, underestimating your strength. Come,” He murmured, “I wish to have you close for a while.”
He took her over to the long couch he favored while doing his work and took her with him when he sat. He braced one leg up against the curved back and drew her between to lie curled against his chest. She sighed at the incredible heat his body put off, how her muscles relaxed and some of her mortification started to bleed away. His one hand covered the back of her head, keeping her cheek pressed to his heart while he further melted her into a near purring state with the long strokes of his other hand up and down her spine. Swirled patterns over her low back, turned his lips to her brow, doing nothing to make her more aware of the fact that his arousal was pressing like a lead pipe into her stomach. “I have discussed extensively with Ga’rae, the differences occurring in our matings. The disturbance you feel when you are not near me, the surge in violence I feel when we are apart. I find myself taking offense to things I logically know are not meant as such. Falken, Ga’rae, the others too experience a rise in their territorial nature, their aggression, that fades and calms when our mates are near.”
His voice vibrated through her body, left her feeling drowsy, in a tremulous state of arousal and relaxation. She snuggled up closer to him, half smiling when he growled in answer, “You said differences? Are your matings usually not this way?”
“No,”
“How so?”
“I suppose part of it is that Sarazen females are every bit as primal as their male counterparts. They know their mate by scent too, and there is no question as to what follows. Your olfactory senses, your intuition is not as honed, thus it is Ga’rae’s theory that your kind must go through a period of doubt and many false starts until you believe in what is known as fact among my kind. He has counseled patience to us, to allow our fated ones to accept us fully by their own choice, but I admit I am finding it exceedingly difficult. To hold you this way…it is the most perfect torment. You are soft, my one. Your scent is intoxicating, distracting in the most debilitating way.”
He grabbed a handful of her hair and brought it to his face, their eyes meeting when she tilted her head back to look into his eyes. He watched her with his lashes having fallen to half mast, rubbing her hair against his mouth sensually. “What do your tattoos mean?” She blurted, and his lips curled in amusement. She pushed up onto her arm, braced against the rigid hardness of his chest and he tilted his head to the side when she stroked her fingers alongside his skull, tracing the unusual black marks. “They are birthmarks that identify my lineage.” Down the side of his neck they curled and coiled to the thick muscles of his shoulder, stopping just at his collar bone. “I like them. I thought you shaved your head, but your hair just naturally grows in this one stripe?”
He purred when she began to unravel the braid he’d coiled it in, combing her fingers through the silky looking strands. But they weren’t silk, the texture
was almost coarse, a reminder that the man beneath her was in fact more than a man. “As children, Sarazens are born with a full mane. But as we mature, it begins to shed to reveal our markings and only the center stripe remains.” She hummed with curiosity, turning her cheek into the stroke of his fingers, taking his palm then to compare the size difference. No surprise, his fingers could fold almost in half over the tops of hers, palm to palm. “Does it hurt? When your claws come out?” She slid her hand up his to surround his index finger, rubbing at the pad with her thumb, and remarkably she actually felt the tendon flex and the harder cartilage slide out to reveal the long black claw. “No. I believe it may have, when I was a cub. But no longer.”
It slid back under his nailbed, and she kissed his fingertip just because he was a big tough warrior, and felt his rumbling growl shake her entire body. It made her laugh and wrap her arms under his neck to touch a kiss to the corner of his lips, just shy of an actual kiss, gasping gently when his big hands settled on her butt and tugged her higher up his body. Higher up, until her breasts were almost sitting on either side of his face, and her knees did in fact fall to either side of his hips. She sat up and looked down at her scary, hot, snarly alien man cat. At the unbelievable bunching of muscle under his golden skin. How it flexed and rippled like ropes of iron at the stroke of her palms, quivered, jumped a little. He was stunning, an unbelievable creature of such remarkable strength, and he was telling her that she belonged to him. “Amazing.” She murmured, and squealed out a laugh when he suddenly, with no warning flipped her down and reversed their positions.
The breath oomphed out of her softly, her heartbeat kicked into high gear while for a moment he just sat there above her and stared with his pupils having slit vertically and taken on a metallic golden sheen. “I would see all that is mine, Clary Starborn.” He told her gravely, and even though she licked her dry lips and couldn’t find words to speak her answer. Repeating over and over to herself, that she had no reason to be afraid. That she had no reason to be an idiot. Her nod, had him leaning down to rub his nose up the length of hers, down the other side, finishing up with the softest kiss she had ever received.
She kept him there by reaching up to cradle his sharp cheekbones, taking another kiss, and another until he growled deep in his chest and tore himself away. His animalistic chuff made her blood sing, the burning look of lust in his eyes that he kept on a very tight leash while he took his index finger and released his claw again. Just like in her fevered dream, she watched him lower his hand to the neck of her dress and with barely a hiss of noise he pulled down, slicing the fabric so cleanly she idly wondered what those claws could do to skin.
Cool air touched her breasts, making her nipples furl into hard points right in front of his eyes. He licked his lips hungrily, his powerful hands shaking a little when he stroked them down between her breasts, his skin so hot on hers it almost hurt. But it was a good, delicious sort of burn, the kind that made her quiver and her breaths come shorter, “So soft, my one. When I first saw you, saw these,” He cupped her breasts and a soft moan feathered out of her mouth, she twitched with the desire that whipped up so powerfully, “I thought you were already carrying a cub. Sarazen females only ever have such soft, beautiful breasts when they are breeding. I had seen mated pairs, females carrying cubs and secretly I envied the males whose mates were so lush and soft, when more often than not our females are tough and sinew like our males. I now know I will be the cause of such envy, to have so soft and beautiful a mate. This brings you pleasure?”
His hands covered her breasts totally, kneading gently, his thumbs brushing and rubbing over her nipples like he was testing their texture. Exploring it. While she did her best to lie there and not writhe or moan wantonly. She confirmed that yes, his touching was in fact bringing her pleasure, lots of pleasure. “Not nearly enough,” He stated with a serious frown, “I do something wrong if I am not able to draw sounds of it from inside you.”
“There is no wrong,” She gasped out, and he gave a studious hum, nostrils flaring wide to catch her scent, and a deep purr rumbled out of him after a second. “Firelight,” He suddenly commanded, and instead of the warm white lights, they shifted to flickering orange and red and yellow, like firelight throughout the room.
She was distracted by that for a moment, and missed how he sliced her gown the rest of the way open. “Come,” He ordered, tugging on her hand to get her to her feet, positioning her just so in front of him, whipping the remnants of her ruined dress off of her and prowled around her in a loose circle, his hand never leaving her body. The room spun around her at the dizzying stroke of his palms, his massive body behind her while he stroked his hands down her shoulders, gently moving her hair around to cover her front, so he could inspect her backside. She shuddered and shivered at the gentle brush of his fingers down her spine, touching each vertebra like he was counting them. Swirling over her hips, palming her butt with a pleased grunt.
He touched her like he was committing her entire body to memory, burning the texture of her skin into his mind so that any time he wished he could recall the sensation. When he was satisfied that he knew her shape from behind, he scooped her hair back over her shoulders and stepped up, molding his taller frame to hers and lifted her arms up and back to loop around his neck so that he could have unrestrained access to her front. “Know, my one, that I find you no less than perfect.” He growled in her ear, making her blush clear to her toes.
His hands circled her hips and whipped her around to face him. She had time to gasp and to clutch at his arms, a sound of surprise yipping out of her at the strength in his one hand where he scooped her up by having palmed her butt to lift her higher against his chest. His low growl made her nerve endings sing, the press of her breasts on his hard chest, her stomach filling the hollow of his, she fit. They fit. Her heart was pounding so hard she wondered if he could feel it, hear it. She felt him take a breath to speak, but an unfamiliar voice came from the communicator on his wrist, “Apologies, commander. Commander Brennaugh of the Fifth is requesting an immediate audience.”
A very unhappy growl feathered out from the lips of her Sarazen, his answer to be there shortly clipped and tight. He sighed then and dropped his brow to hers, licking his lips, giving half a smile when she stroked her hands down the tail of his hair. “Soon, my one, we will have uninterrupted time for ourselves.”
“I look forward to it.”
“I know not how long this will take. If you grow tired, it would please me greatly to join you in our bed, and have you naked like this. The feel of your skin on mine is a pleasure I would have as often as possible.”
“I am confident I can make that happen.” She touched her lips to his softly, their lips parting with a wet smack. “Go. I’ll be here.”
Thirteen
In a foul mood at having been called away from exploring the glorious figure of his mate, he stomped onto the command deck and threw himself into his chair with a growl. “Brennaugh, there best be an excellent reason for this interruption. I was with my mate.” The face of his fellow commander filled the view screen, his scarred face etched in seriousness, “Commander Tarek of the First, my apologies. My ship will soon be within proximity to yours, the council having sent us on a mission to seek out the remaining human ships. I would ask a boon of you before we enter in to deep orbit.”
He chuffed, confident he knew what this boon was that Brennaugh wished to ask of him. He rubbed his hand down over his face, inhaling the sweet scent of his mate, and grudgingly admitted if in the other male’s position, he might ask the same boon. “You and your warriors wish to see if any of the females aboard my ship, are possible mates to any of yours.” Brennaugh inclined his head, “Yes. The breeding festival draws nearer, and with this mission, all of my men will be unable to attend. With your permission and that of the council, I would give my warriors the same well-earned opportunity that you and yours have been blessed with.”
It was not an unreasonable request, but
one he alone could not agree to. He had taken responsibility for the welfare and wellbeing of the few precious human females, the ones unmated at least, and he had made sure that every two of Clary’s earth hours, another regiment of his men were allowed to take guard position near the open doors of the female’s living quarters. So far he was almost all the way through the entire rotation, and no more of his warriors had been called. Of the twenty, only four had been claimed, which meant there were sixteen still yet to be potential mates to his people. He inclined his head, “I have no objections, Brennaugh,” He saw the triumphant flash of the other male’s eyes, and held up a hand to stay his response. “My mate is their chosen commander, I must speak to her first, so that she may gain the willingness of her people. I advise you to alert the council of your request, gain their approval, bring your ship in proximity and await my response.”
Brennaugh blinked in confusion, asking if the females did not understand the importance of what he asked, genuinely confused, and he inclined his head. “They have been told. But these females are not like our own. They do not have a beast within to guide their instinct, and they do not recognize us with visceral certainty. They are not bred for ward as we are, and just now they are still debating whether or not the find us trustworthy. We are the second alien species they have encountered, as you know, and they still are coming to terms with the attack upon their ship by the Na’ah. One of mine claimed vengeance for his female, against the harm brought to her person by one of her own. All of the humans witnessed him in full shift. Witnessed our justice. I regret that it frightened some of them greatly, and as they are under my protection, I must give them the choice.”