by Kim Knox
“Now he’ll get what he deserves.” Kajetan bit out the words.
Scar reacted without thought. Her fist slammed back into his face and her boot stamped hard at his foot. As he lurched forward, she barrelled him back through the loose knot of Caraniae standing with him. He slammed back into the wall. Scar jammed her arm hard against his windpipe. “Don’t you dare, say that.” She glared at him. “Why did you do this?”
His voice croaked out, “Your fate is mine to decide.”
“It is fuck your decision.” Scar forced her forearm tight against his throat, feeling him swallow against the increasing pressure. “You gave up that right when I was three weeks old. So.” She paused, enjoying the suffocating heat in his face. “Why did you do this?”
He twisted his neck. “I couldn’t lose.”
She released her arm. “What?”
“I knew you would fight this. You would fight this mating, fight your mate for your freedom. Defeated, his House would owe me a portion of his estate. You die and I received a bride price. Accept it and I’m allied to one of the foremost Houses. But you…”
He tried to grab her, but she palm-struck his arm, her foot kicking out at his groin. She watched him crumple to the floor and didn’t bother with a headlock. “Me, what?”
“You…” he looked up and anger burned in his green eyes, “…somehow bonded yourself to a mongrel. But then he is hardly any match for a Caraniae Lord.”
She thought about kicking him in the gut, hard and repeatedly.
“Sheehan.”
She ignored her mother. This man deserved to be beaten to a pulp.
“Scar!”
Something in Andra’s voice made her stagger back and she wiped at her mouth. She willed the rush of wild adrenalin through her body to ease. “Mother…”
Andra put her hand on her arm. “It’s over,” she murmured.
Scar blinked, her eyes darting back to her father, but then she realised that she meant… A fist tightened around her heart. Her mother was talking about Tyler.
She turned back to the arena on slow feet.
Did she feel different? Had the bond between them dissolved into nothing? Would she look into Rilean’s eyes and feel that sudden burst of betraying lust?
The Caraniae parted before her.
Two bodies lay on the sand. Rilean lay on his back, his eyes closed, his chest lifting and falling. He was alive. That meant…
Scar willed herself to cross the turned sand. She had to see him, hold him, say her goodbyes before she betrayed him with the man who had murdered him.
She dropped to her knees. Her throat tightened. Her hand wouldn’t move to touch his bruised, blood-streaked skin. Scar gritted her teeth. She was being a coward and he deserved better than that. Her palm rested against his warm, damp skin. Silent tears ran down her cheeks. I’m yours. Always. But the words wouldn’t leave her mouth.
“Scar…”
Her palm dropped as air escaped his body. Shocked, she snatched her hand back. “Tyler?”
A crusted eyelid lifted and a smile tugged at his mouth. “Maybe?”
Her gaze shot to the obviously alive Rilean and then back to Tyler. “How…” A hysterical laugh burst out of her. “How are you alive?”
“Commander Tyler killed my brother.” Rilean’s voice was soft, tired. “For that he deserves my respect. Acktan was vicious and cruel and dishonoured our House. For the Commander’s actions at Vistern Ridge, I spare him.” Clear green eyes held hers. “I no longer challenge the bond.”
Rilean rolled to his feet and offered his hand to Tyler. He accepted, and allowed Rilean to haul him up. Scar’s hand snaked around his waist to keep him upright. She watched the Caraniae stalk from the arena, his bloodied tail held high. His contingent fell in behind him and they marched out past the guards, who hastily opened the doors. “What the hell’s Vistern Ridge?” She stared up at Tyler. His file had blanked out most of his time in the Corps. She only knew of his seven-month prison sentence and dishonourable discharge.
Tyler lifted his arm and winced. “Can I heal before the questions start?”
Scar’s insides twisted. There was a room straight off the arena. She had often patched herself up in it. “This way.”
She was aware of her mother following her into the small room. Lights flashed on and she helped Tyler to the medical bed. The sharp odour of sterilising fluid cut the air. Low cupboards lined one wall, an initiator set at their centre.
She brought the long screen down low over his body and switched it on. It bathed him in warm, orange light. He sighed and closed his eyes. The low drone and the soft light eased him into unconsciousness.
Dialling up for healing packs from the initiator, Scar turned to her mother. “What now?”
Andra closed the door and palm-locked it.
Scar’s eyes narrowed, but she turned back to Tyler and pressed the cool, clear packs to his arm.
“This bond…”
“I know, it may not last.” Scar fixed her gaze on Tyler. The light glowed over his skin, and she watched the tension slip free from his face as the pain faded. “But while it does, I want to be with him.”
“Scar.”
Her gaze flicked back to her mother. Andra’s face looked…well…unsure and that wasn’t like her mother at all. “What?”
Andra rubbed her palms together and the dry sound rose above the drone of the medical equipment. “He’s not human.”
Scar blinked. “Of course he’s human. Look at him.” Her gaze slid over Tyler’s long, lean body. Every inch of him was human. She should know. She’d examined him…thoroughly. “I did the test myself.”
“On the surface yes,” Andra said. She moved to the console and tapped out commands. The familiar human double helix twisted on the thin synthetic screen. Another joined it. Scar recognised her own, the Caraniae genes stained red. No red stained Tyler’s DNA. “Whoever masked this did a bloody good job.” Andra’s fingers ran over more pads, until Tyler’s DNA changed. Flashes of red mirrored her own. “From what my people have been able to work out, his paternal great-grandmother was Caraniae.”
Scar stared at the screen, her heart in her throat. Words squeaked out, but not the ones she intended. “You had him investigated?”
Andra laughed. “Of course I had him investigated. He was trying to run off with my daughter.” Andra cleared the screen. “His family is military and very wealthy, they pride themselves on their pure-human lineage.”
The last scar on his spine, the one that didn’t fit with the pattern of the others, finally made sense. “He had a tail, didn’t he?”
Andra smirked. “He had a tail.” She stared at the man lying supine on the medical bed. Scar moved until she blocked her mother’s view. Andra’s smile deepened. “Yes, sorry.” She looked back to the blank screen. “We think that they performed the surgery when he was only a few days old and then reprogrammed his neural pathways to pervert his instincts. His family obviously wanted no trace of his Caraniae self left.” There was a hard edge to her voice. Scar shared that anger. Those who should have cared for him had mutilated his body and his mind. “I don’t think… He can’t know his heritage.”
“No, he doesn’t.” Scar turned back to stare at Tyler’s peaceful, sleeping face. He would’ve been aware of the risk, known that the bonding between them would be…permanent. Tears burned her eyes. Permanent.
“Yes.” Her mother squeezed her shoulder and humour danced in her eyes. “You’re stuck with him. Of course, I did suspect something…that’s what started the dig into his DNA.”
“You did?”
“He growled at me, warned me off.” She drew Scar into a tight hug, rubbing her hands over her spine. “That’s a strong bond. Very strong. It couldn’t happen to someone fully human.” She let her go and stood back. “I’ll have clothes sent down for him.” She smirked and patted Scar’s cheek. “Can’t have my son-in-law running around the house more-than-half naked.”
“Funny, Mother.�
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“I thought so.” The door closed quietly behind her.
Scar turned back to the bed, resisting the urge to press her palm to his cheek and feel his warmth, to find reassurance that he was alive.
Her stomach knotted. He’d said that he would regret their ending…but how would someone who thought that he was fully human, who had fought and killed the Caraniae for years, react to the idea that he had always been one of the enemy?
Chapter Nine
Tyler groaned and tried to turn over on the medical bed. Scar put a hand on his hip, keeping him still. “Careful,” she murmured. “Narrow bed, long drop.”
A smile curved his mouth. “So, I’m not dead.”
“Looks that way.” She rubbed her hand over the golden warmth of his skin, the healing rays soaking through her. “How do you feel?”
“Considering I just got beaten to a pulp by a senior Caraniae…actually not too bad.”
Scar laughed and almost winced at how strained she sounded. She caught Tyler’s narrowed look and decided that the truth would serve her best. “My mother had you investigated.”
A blankness slid down over his face. She hurriedly raised the medical canopy as he sat up. He gripped the edge of his bed and stared down at the white-tiled floor. “I suppose you know everything?”
She blinked, confused. They were obviously talking at cross-purposes. “About…?”
Tyler looked up. “Vistern Ridge.” He rubbed at his jaw. “I wanted to explain, rather than have you read the official version first.”
“Tyler, that’s not—”
“No.” The word cut through hers. “You should know what I did.” A smile pulled at his mouth. “That’s why Rilean spared me. In a way, it ended the war.” He dropped down to the floor, and stretched his legs. “I need…ah.” He opened a travel pack sitting on one of the shelves. He hunted through it and pulled out something with a glittering blade.
“What are you…?” She snorted as he sliced through the thin leather cutting across his hips and tugged the leather free of his body. “Well that’s one way to get rid of it.” Her eyebrow arched. “So I’ll never get to see you wiggle?”
Tyler glared at her and pulled on the clothes one of her mother’s aides had brought. “No.”
“Shame.”
Dressed, he straightened, his hand smoothing over the front of his black shirt. “All right, to put it simply…I led a mutiny.”
“A mutiny?” Scar stared at him. “But you’re a commander. You just don’t do that sort of thing.”
Tyler laughed. “Yes, that was Central Command’s reaction too.” He ran a hand over his hair and his expression softened. She had lost him to the past. “But they had ordered the destruction of a settlement. I’d always followed orders and I’ve committed atrocities.” His mouth hardened. “But nursing women and their babies? There was no way in hell I was going through with that order. Every soldier was with me.
“We protected the settlement from our own weapons and attack craft until the Caraniae forces arrived.”
“You fired on your own men?”
Tyler’s face was bleak. “Yes.” He let out a slow breath. “I was lucky to escape execution.”
Scar knew the rumours of the Corps’ harshness. “Yes. How did you?”
“I have a very influential family. They wanted to avoid the shame. Anyway, the action divided the Caraniae, with one half baying for blood over the Corps’ battle plan and the other half honouring us for our actions. It opened a dialogue.” He shrugged. “There was a cessation of hostilities. Mostly. And two months after that, we achieved peace. I served a seven-month sentence in prison and they buried all knowledge of Vistern Ridge.”
“So Rilean was on the honouring side?”
Tyler’s laugh was bitter. “No. He wanted to carry on the war. But he spared me today because his sister was one of the women in the settlement.”
Scar rubbed her hands together. She’d never wondered over the reason for Tyler’s imprisonment. The Corps was brutal; he could’ve served time for a sloppy uniform. Her tongue wet her dry lips. “It wasn’t that.”
“What’s worse than a Corps officer firing on his own men?”
“A Corps officer who has Caraniae ancestry?”
Tyler stared at her. “That’s impossible.” He turned to his reflection caught in the silvered trim of the medical canopy. He leaned in close and pulled at his cheek. “Of course I’m human. I was in the Corps.”
“A paternal great-grandmother.” Scar flicked on the images her mother had shown her, pointing out the red flaring through his DNA. “Your family hasn’t been human for quite some time.”
She didn’t know what she’d expected as his reaction, but it hadn’t been a burst of loud laughter. “You mean my father is a quarter Caraniae? And he knows this?”
“Yes.”
“He knows? You’re sure?”
Scar slid her arm around his waist and pushed her fingers over his spine. Through the smooth fabric, she traced over the scar at the end of his tailbone. Tyler’s hands slipped over her waist. “You had a tail when you were born.”
He blinked. “I had a tail?” He spluttered a laugh. “This is… I’m part Caraniae.” His eyes held hers and she saw realisation settle in his thoughts. She pushed down the surge of panic. “I’m part Caraniae.”
“Yes.”
A delicious smile curled his mouth and made Scar’s heart pound. “I’m stuck with you?” His hands slid lower, curving over her buttocks. He squeezed and she glared at him. “All mine,” he said.
“Maybe.”
The dark shine to his eyes had her grinning. “Are you going to start that again, Scar?”
“Did we ever stop?”
“Well…no.”
He lifted her and positioned her on the soft padding of the medical bed. Parting her legs, he leaned in close. “But I do think I promised that we would have words about your laughing at me.”
His mouth moved over hers, his words burning against her lips. Scar closed her eyes and let the relief sink through her. He had accepted her…accepted them. “You laughed at me.”
“Yes, but I had to watch others slaver over you.”
Scar smiled innocently. “Did they?”
Tyler’s eyes narrowed and he traced his tongue along the edge of her jaw. He nipped her skin and she hissed. “No, not tasting anyone else. Good girl.”
His patronising tone burst a rush of anger through her gut. “They didn’t get that far up my body…”
The fury in his gaze almost stopped her heart. “You know I’ll have to punish any indiscretion.”
His low, smooth voice pulsed through her pelvis and instinct pushed her hard against him. His erection rubbed against her tight flesh. “I doubt you could—”
His mouth took hers, hard and sweet and… Scar groaned as the kiss softened, his hand running slow over her spine. Tyler’s fingers slid over the front of her shirt, parting the soft fabric and cupping her breast. His calloused thumb tip circled her nipple, a gentle yet relentless pressure that had her body on fire.
His light touch stroked down over her ribs, pushing away more of her shirt. “How much are you mine, Scar?”
His breath brushed her lips and already her flesh flickered with the first pulse of orgasm. “Body…” She swallowed and held his liquid-black gaze. Her heart hammered. “Body and soul.”
Tyler’s smile dropped heat through her body. Her thighs tightened against his hips, and she rubbed herself hard against him. “Just as you should be,” he murmured and his searching fingers slid lower until he dipped a finger through her wetness and found her clitoris. He flicked and her whole body bucked. “For a moment on the sand, I thought I’d lost you.” Another finger slipped into her and she clenched around him. A wave of sweetness surged through her flesh and she gasped. “Thought I’d lost everything.”
“Tyler…”
But his fingers ignored her interruption, slipping, sliding with increasing pressure until l
ight sparked behind her eyes.
“I belong to you, Scar. I will always belong to you.”
The honesty in his eyes had her heart pattering. Her mouth dried. Tenderness was still new and rare…and then Scar had to remind herself that their relationship was little more than twenty-four hours old. It seemed odd. Her body felt as if it had known him forever. He would be hers for the rest of her life. A lump formed in her throat. That surety tightened her chest.
Her head tilted. “Prove it.” A smile curved and she watched Tyler’s pupils dilate. Scar pushed her hand between them, deftly working his cock free. She rubbed her thumb over its head.
Tyler’s hand covered hers and guided his penis slowly, so slowly over her slick pussy, pushing, pushing until he slid deep within her. He tilted his hips and the frisson bled heat up her body. His hands framed her face. “Enough for you?”
With a grin, she squeezed her muscles around him and he let out a low, satisfied groan that ran a shiver over her skin. “Maybe.”
Tyler pressed a kiss to her mouth. “Maybe?” His hands returned to her buttocks and urged her hard against him. Scar gasped and he grinned. “Still maybe?”
“I may need—”
Tyler growled and nipped at her neck, the sudden attack curling tension low in her belly. “Lean back.”
She dropped her hands back on the bed and arched her spine. The change of position… She sighed. Oh, that was nice. Tyler grabbed the edge of the bed and thrust hard. Her legs gripped him, urged him. She held his gaze, revelling in the predatory gleam, the need and satisfaction surging through him. She was his. Always.
The edge of orgasm tightened her flesh. He just had to… Harder. His eyes had closed, crushed tight. Faster. There. A wave of heat and ecstasy smashed over her. Tyler’s body pressed against hers and she met his ferocious mouth as he found his own release. The kiss eased into a tender tasting, nibbling, and Scar sighed.
She ran a hand through his short hair. “Rochester’s going to be annoyed.”
Tyler pulled back. He blinked. “Iain?”
“Well, we’re going to be annoying.”
He laughed and helped her to sit up. Absently, he rearranged her clothes, fastening the open shirt of her suit. The attention was strangely endearing. “Yes, we are.”