by Isabel Wroth
“The intent to draw them out,”
“It will take time, the threat to my mate will increase. As it will to Elenna.”
“I cannot allow that, for either of us.”
“We can openly acknowledge the threat and the lies, their intent to keep our mates away from us. Which will draw them out, and increase the danger to Clary and Elenna.”
“There is another way.”
“Yes. You can find reason to challenge me, and I will win the right to rule.” He let his distaste for that option ring in his voice, and his expression, and T’mai gave a mirthless laugh. “It would be no contest, brother. I would willingly give it to you, I know I am not the one who should have led us.”
“You have done well, despite the treachery mired around you. Our sire would never say it, but I will. You are my brother, and I am proud of all you have done.”
T’mai flushed, chuffing at him even as he shoved his shoulder playfully, a grin twitching at his lips. “Your mate as made you soft,” He shoved his brother back, but breathed deep and looked once again to the stars. Where his mate had come from. “I never knew what that felt like until I lay hands on her.” They were silent for a long time, lost in their thoughts, comfortable beside one another. Brothers. “Niora will claim right of challenge if we cannot prove she was complicit in the scheme to be my false mate.” He snorted, “I will not allow it.”
“Brother, I don’t enjoy the thought any more than you do-“
“Firstly, there would be no contest. Clary has already proven that. Secondly, I will not allow it. Her scent has changed,”
T’mai jumped slightly, his head jerking to the side as his meaning sank in, and when it did, his brother forced a smile, clapped a hand to his shoulder and squeezed firmly, even as the scent of his regret, his sadness tainted the air between them. “Even without formal contest, you best me again. You are blessed, brother.” He turned to face his little brother, returned the firm clench of his hand to his shoulder and stared into his eyes, “There is no contest, and we are both blessed. The humans bring us renewal of life, of hope. I confess I had lost the desire for both, long ago. It seems the gods have other plans. Te’sha and Ne’tare look after the humans with greatest care and will do so until such time as they are not needed. We will uncover this plot to destroy us, together. Right now, you rule this pride, and I will follow whatever course you plot for us.” T’mai nodded, then jerked his head towards the open doorway, “Tomorrow is the feast to celebrate those who found mates among the pride this season.”
“Brennaugh’s mate wishes to be bound to him by blood and beast. He asked my Clary to see her through her change.”
“Of course he did. Go back to her. I need to think,”
“Who do you trust without question?”
“Aside from you?”
“Yes.”
“No one.”
“Unacceptable. It will be reported that we talked alone. It will make the traitors nervous, reckless if they feel threatened. Which no doubt they already are feeling,”
“After the message your mate told Mr’awl to send them, they should be.”
“Take precautions when you are alone.”
“I will.”
Clary was waiting for him when he got back, lounging in the mossy grotto with her tablet in her hand, her hair piled up in a messy knot on top of her head, lying on her belly with her feet kicked up in the air and a tray of food close by. She wore nothing but a sheet around her body, and when she looked up at him her eyes sparkled with her smile. His chest ached with how much he loved that look, that happiness that filled her expression at the sight of him. “How’d it go?” She asked, setting her tablet aside to give him her focus, and her laughter when he knelt down, rolled her over and threw his knee over her hips so he could bend and catch her mouth in a hot, sensual kiss. He loved her mouth, loved the sweet shock of pleasure that hissed down his spine like a lightning strike, every time she made that sweet sound of surrender and opened her lips to take him.
He could not believe that in all his many long years he had never tasted this kind of pleasure, that no female had ever offered him her lips to show him her affection and appreciation. The connection it brought was profound. When he let her up for air, she blinked sensually at him and scraped her nails softly down his arms. “Tarek? Are you alright?” He stole another, softer kiss and nodded, purring under his breath while he bent and touched a kiss to her heart. “Are you sore?” Her nails dug deeper into his skin, kneading carefully while he licked the edge of the sheet farther down to bare her gorgeous breasts. “Yes, but I still want you.”
She moaned and panted, arching her back to push her breasts deeper between his lips while he suckled gently. He loved how her nipples turned such a dusky red from the suction of his mouth, the peaks hard and crinkled tightly, quivering against his tongue. She shuddered, a whole body quake at the lick he gave down the center of her belly, a short, hard hiss of a gasp feathering out of her when he nipped at the soft skin at her hip. Murmured a tender sound when he rolled his cheeks over her softer belly, smiling secretively to himself. “What?” He looked up at her and shook his head, letting his hands follow the gorgeous round of her hips, tugging at the sheet to bare the rest of her to his gaze, his touch.
The sounds of her pleasure filled cries, echoed in the mossy grotto, the waterfall that made the air moist, made the scent of her permeate the entire room. For days it would smell of her juices, the moss soaking up the aroma like perfume. He licked her soft pink lips, suckled at the tiny nub that pulsed angrily with blood, stabbed his tongue inside her and cut his tongue on his fangs, wanting to push his healing blood up into her tight pussy, wanting the fluid to ease her soreness from the frenzy of the past two days.
She didn’t rush him, didn’t spur him on, she moaned and undulated beneath him, seeming to revel in his touch. She did hiss at him when he stopped, just before she crested the wave of her orgasm, but gasped and mewled at him when he replaced his tongue with his cock and eased into the tight confines of her body. He took her slowly, gently, bracing his weight on his arms, their bodies moving and sliding together from chest to toes, her breathless whimpers and ragged gasps falling across his lips while he kissed her and stared into her eyes from a hairsbreadth away. He watched her shatter, watched her expression as the pleasure chased across her face and the shape her lips around his name, most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life.
He lay curled around her, stroking his fingers through her hair over and over while she drowsed. He memorized every inch of her face, counted the individual lashes where they rested like crimson fans on her pale cheeks. She was exhausted and she needed to rest if they were to face whatever came tomorrow, but he couldn’t keep his hands off of her or his body from curling tighter around hers. He would die before he allowed any harm to come to her, or threaten the life he wanted to build with her. He would raze this entire citadel to the ground to eliminate the ones making that threat, with no hesitation. “Something is wrong, don’t hide it from me.” She murmured out of the silence, tangling her legs with his and slid her arm around his waist, nuzzling her face up into his chest. “I hide nothing, I just wanted this to last a little longer.”
Her eyes opened and he was pierced by the vivid, unmarred green. The others had taken on a glimmer of their mate’s eyes, but not Clary. The color seemed brighter now, but there was no hint of gold, except when she shifted fully and her pupils elongated, that black slit surrounded with the thinnest sparkling line of gold. But now, he looked there in her eyes and imagined he could swim in that beautiful green color. “What happened?” He told her everything, all of it, because if he was forced to challenge his brother, he would win. He would win, and in so doing drag her into the role of his Asho’na, and it would be years before they truly could rest in the knowledge that they were surrounded by those they could trust.
She sat up and raked her hand through her hair, her discomfort plain, and he wanted to drag her back into h
is arms and promise her nothing would happen to her. He sat up too, smirking just a little to see how for a moment she grew distracted by his nudity. But she gave herself a shake and gnawed on her thumbnail. “I could just, do what I did to Mr’awl and make anyone you suspect of playing you, talk. And I could take Niora down, I know I could.” He sighed and reached out to cup her hips, lifting her to straddle his lap, needing his hands on her. “You can compel the truth from anyone, your beast has given you that ability, and we may yet need it. But it only further will settle our place as pride rulers, which is not a bad thing. And yes, you could best Niora, but you will not, my one.”
“Niora is a bitch, I don’t even know her, but my cat gets her hackles up and starts drooling with the desire to rip her face off for even thinking about her. I have no feelings for your brother, but she touched him and it was all I could do not to shred the skin off her arm. I could take her.”
He huffed his amusement, pretending to wince when she punched his shoulder and hissed her displeasure, thinking that he was laughing at her. He kissed the corner of her mouth, gripping her tighter when she went to wiggle away, “Your cat reacts strongly towards her most likely because she is in fact your rival, the beast knows it, knows she is weak and that her mating to T’mai is not strong enough to protect the pride. Perhaps she even can scent treachery, you could destroy her, my one. I have no doubts of this.”
“Then why can’t I?”
He was mildly surprised that she couldn’t tell yet. That her cat hadn’t made her aware. But maybe her mind just hadn’t reconciled with the fact that it was possible. He smoothed his hands up the softness of her thighs, her hips, his hands big enough to almost completely circle her waist. He rubbed his nose along hers, murmuring softly to her with his thumbs sweeping back and forth over the softness of her belly. “Your scent has changed,” He rasped out, and she huffed again, “I’m covered in you, sticky, sweaty, I was waiting for you to come back to have a bath. Figured I’d get dirty again,”
“You are covered in me, but that isn’t what I meant.”
“If I smell gross, you can just tell me.”
“Your scent is intoxicating,”
“You said that this morning. Why are you so fixated on the way I smell?”
“Because, it is not just the way you smell.”
“What’s gotten into you? You’re acting really strange, more so than usual.”
She was so focused on him, that she didn’t understand what he was trying to say to her, and perversely he was enjoying the game, leading her, making her guess why he was acting strange. He took little kisses from her, little sips that enticed her to lean forward and wrap her arms around his shoulders, scooting forward to press her soft breasts against his chest. “It is not what’s gotten into me, so much as what’s gotten into you.” It took her a few minutes to understand his meaning, and when she did, he heard, felt the ragged gasp she took in, saw the tears that welled in her eyes. “You’re not teasing me, right?” His chest tightened with the nearly painful twist his heart gave. He had heard it, the yearning in her voice when she’d spoken of the young ones she’d had cause to encounter aboard her starship, the sadness when she’d spoken of not making high enough marks to be allowed breeding rights.
He considered it the fate of the gods that she hadn’t, because she belonged to him alone, but it tore at him that she’d had to suffer through the acceptance of never having a cub of her own. She had wariness in her eyes now, afraid to hope, but the need for his reassurance that it was truth, he could see it in those tears in her eyes. “I would never. I told you, my one, I would give you as many cubs,”
“Babies,” She corrected breathlessly, and got him to laugh, “You’re Sarazen now, my one. Sarazens have cubs, and this one you carry now, will be the first of many. As many as you want.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, I can smell the changes in you, I can hear it, a tiny little flutter, here beneath your skin.”
He rubbed his thumbs in circles over her belly, holding back the wince when her fingernails dug into his skin hard enough to cut, feeling the tension that wracked her body and drew it tight. “You went to sleep with your ear to my stomach last night.” He grinned at her and brushed the tear that slipped down her cheek away with his knuckles, “I imagined that I could hear the little cells coming together, imagined I could see it happening.”
“See it,” She murmured, suddenly leaping out of his arms, swinging around the door frame to bolt for the chest of her dresses. He followed her, watching her tear the first one she could get her hands on off it hook and yank it on, hopping around in circles on one foot while she tried to put on one of her slippers, grabbing another one that didn’t match, “Clary, what are you doing?” He chuckled, catching her with one arm, earning a hiss when he tugged the mismatched shoe from her hand and retrieved the correct one, “Where’s Ga’rae? He has awesome equipment, Gwen said so.”
He understood immediately what she wanted and kissed her until she quit struggling to get away. Until she melted against him, the taste of her tears mingling with the taste of her happiness, her eagerness. “You wish an examination,” She bounced in his arms and nodded, rolling her lips together while she practically vibrated with pent up energy. “I want to see it,” This feeling, it overwhelmed him, so strong it made his knees feel weak. Made his beast surge inside him and roar loud enough inside him to rattle his bones. Clary stilled, tilting her head to search his face, her teeth biting into her lip to keep the grin from splitting her face. “I think I heard that.” She murmured, her small, powerful hands that held his heart, curling on his chest, “You’re happy,” He shook his head, combing his hands through her hair again and again to feel the silken weight of it flowing through his hands. “Happiness is to tame a word, my one. Far to tame.”
Thirty
Ga’rae was waiting for them in the private healing suite in his wing, unable to hide the thrill on his face when he ushered Clary inside and lifted her up onto the table himself, brushing his knuckles along her cheek while she practically vibrated with tension. “I want no one to have access to her medical scans.” He told his medical officer, his friend, and Ga’rae grunted like he’d insulted him. “Of course no one will have access. You know this isn’t necessary though, even I can smell the changes in her scent.” He shrugged and let Clary squeeze his hand hard enough to make his bones grate together. “She wishes to see,”
“She is not deaf,” His mate snapped out testily, and got his mountain of a medic to chuckle while he activated the scanner.
He watched her face, not the scan, heard her suck in a breath and hold it while the green light of the scanner ran up and down her body. He watched her face as the holographic rendering of her body shimmered above her, saw her eyes fill again and how she struggled to keep them from falling. She jumped when Ga’rae chuckled, demanding to know what was funny, and Ga’rae reached forward to enlarge the focused area of the scan, “You, small one continue to amaze. You are incapable of doing anything by halves, aren’t you?” Clary shook her head in confusion, looking to him for clarification. “What?” He continued to chuckle, using his finger to outline the odd images they saw nestled in her laser rendered womb. “I can count on one hand, how many known cases there are of multiple births among the Sarazens.”
“What?” She asked again, coming up on her elbows and Ga’rae enlarged the image further, “It is early yet, by the computers analysis perhaps only ten revs, but there are clearly two cubs being formed.”
Clary burst into tears and threw herself at him. He hugged her as tight as he dared, still staring at the pulsating images floating in the air between he and Ga’rae, who was still grinning like a fool. He blinked when the other male dismissed the image and rocked back on his heels, clearing his throat softly. “I will be silent until you give formal announcement,” He nodded mutely, “Asha’na? While I have you here, may I take a sample of your blood? The scans picked up nothing abnormal, but as the first of o
ur hybrid mates to carry, I would like to carefully document everything. It will be secure, on my own data pad.”
Still crying, Clary nodded and peeled one arm from around him to thrust back at the medic. His beast reacted almost violently to the idea of another male touching what was his, and if not for the fact that she was in his arms, he might have lost control of his change in an effort to ensure the medic didn’t touch her. Didn’t even breathe on her. Luckily Ga’rae was familiar enough to know not to even think of it. He pulled a pressure syringe from a sterile tube and lay it on the table, lifting his chin at Clary, “From the large vein in her neck is easiest.” He instructed, and with a shaking hand, he took the syringe, pressing a kiss to her cheek, nuzzling it to the side and murmuring to her to warn her before setting the syringe to her neck to withdraw the necessary blood. “Contact me if there are any issues.”
“Of course. Ah, no full shifts. I cannot say with confidence the cubs could withstand the shifting of her organs as she makes the change, unless it’s a life or death emergency, I wouldn’t risk it.”
“Neither will we. My thanks.”
“My congratulations, to both of you.”
He carried her all the way back to their suite, shaking his head to discourage them from speaking, when Te’sha and Ne’tare materialized out of nowhere. Almost a thousand of Clary’s earth years, and he still had no idea how they were able to do that. “All is well,” He assured them, grateful when Te’sha hustled ahead to get the door to his suite and closed it behind them, the sound of the biometric lock clicking was a relief. Te’sha knew he wanted no interruptions now.