Violet was his true mate. He just had so much emotional scar tissue around his heart, he hadn’t realized it.
“By the stars, you’re right,” Zura breathed. “I am going to go tell him immediately, so he can stop her from leaving the planet.”
With Allison and Kroi and Voljaki at her heels, she raced out of the castle and to the training grounds. Frantically, she waved Treffon off the field.
He ran over to her. “What happened to Violet? Why is she not with you? I sense she is upset,” Treffon said angrily.
“You sense she is upset because she is your true mate, you fool!” Zura cried out.
Every Vulfan within earshot gasped in horror and took a step back.
Zura glared at her uncle. “Before you eviscerate me, listen. You have been suppressing your feelings for so long that you could not even sense the Var-hool when you met her, but she is your true mate, and you know it. You could not sense her feelings if that were not true. I don’t have time to argue with you – she went to Madok and asked him to take her off the planet. Go! You must go now!”
“What? She can’t leave! She’s mine! Mine!” Treffon shouted in fury, sending out a wave of rage that had everyone within fifty paces wincing in pain. He frantically pawed at the comm on his wrist. Violet didn’t answer, so he called Madok.
“I must speak to Violet at once,” he said.
Madok’s reply shocked him, as did his cold, defiant tone. “I think not.”
“You dare disobey an order from your Reginar?” Treffon howled in fury.
Violet is leaving. She must not leave. She is mine.
“You will not be my Reginar much longer.” The insolence in Madok’s voice sent ice rushing through Treffon’s veins.
“Madok.” He bit the word out savagely. “What have you done?”
* * * * *
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Violet shouted as Madok’s men dragged her and Dorcas onto the deck of Madok’s hovercraft.
The Eeplings, running alongside them, sent up a shrill chorus of protest. They had insisted on following her onto the ship, clutching their weird wooden crafts. Madok had shrugged and promised to return them to Allison’s care, but now she was afraid that she’d let them follow her to their doom.
She should have suspected something was up when Madok had brought her and Dorcas to his extra-orbital hovercraft.
She’d been so grief-stricken at the thought of leaving Treffon that she hadn’t been thinking straight. It should have occurred to her that they didn’t need a full-size hovercraft to take them to the Starcrossed tower. This hovercraft was too big to even land in the city; they used much smaller craft to travel from Donnelle to pack lands.
Now they were hovering in space, above Ilyria’s atmosphere.
“Stand here in front of the vid-screen,” Madok snapped at her. His eyes gleamed with a mad, triumphant light.
She looked at the screen and saw Treffon’s face, flushed with rage, glaring at Madok.
“She was your true mate all along,” Madok gloated to Treffon. “I sensed it when she walked into Starcrossed with her friend, months ago. It was too perfect. There she was, the instrument of my revenge against you for betraying our pack. But of course, I needed her to meet you so you could start to bond – so you could experience what it feels like to lose your own mate. I all but begged her to sign up along with Allison, but she insisted she needed to finish school first.”
“You were the one who kept trying to kill me on Earth.” Violet shook her head in confusion. “But that makes no sense. You just said you couldn’t kill me until after I met Treffon.”
He shot her a scornful glance. “If I had wanted to kill you on Earth, I would have done so. I only wanted to scare you so you’d be forced to flee the planet. That was why I kept sending you those invitations to Starcrossed.”
“Mangy, flea-bitten pile of trash!” Dorcas spat at him.
“Madok, you have gone insane. I will kill you and everyone who helped you.” Treffon’s eyes blazed with rage and the bones under his skin rippled and shifted as his beast struggled to be free.
“You’ll never get the chance. Once you’ve witnessed what I am going to do to your mate, it will drive you insane. You’re already so close,” Madok sneered.
“No he isn’t!” Zura shoved her way in next to Treffon. “Violet’s presence has pulled him back from the brink! He is stronger than he ever was!”
A flicker of uncertainty flashed over Madok’s face, but then the ugly look of contempt took over again.
“You betrayed our people,” he raged. “You made my true mate’s death meaningless when you made truce with the Wor-Lans! You let our people mate with those filth! I will kill your woman, and you will go mad, and then I will be the Reginar!”
“You manipulated Reznik to help you,” Zura said furiously. “Your own son. And then you stood there and let him take the blame for you.”
“My son was weak and unfit. The only reason I didn’t kill him as a cub was because your mother begged me not to,” Madok sneered. “And he was a willing accomplice. I ordered him to poison Violet so she would die in front of Treffon, and he failed. Now let us begin. I am going to take a very, very long time with Violet.” He grinned. “Oh, and I have been notified that your security forces are trying to transport onto the ship. There will be no rescue. I have disabled the transporter on my end.”
“Get away from my great-niece, you monster!” Dorcas shouted. She tried to attack him with her cane, but one of his men shot the cane with his photon gun, disabling it.
Madok lunged for Violet – and cried out in pain as a wooden shaft landed in his arm.
The Eeplings were waving their wooden contraptions around – and apparently they weren’t arts and crafts after all. They were weapons.
Wooden darts shot through the air. Several of Treffon’s men fell to the ground, screaming in agony. Apparently, when the Eeplings had chewed on their wooden crafts, they’d been coating their darts with their toxic saliva. That must be why they’d never let Violet handle them.
Madok’s face turned a sickly greenish-white. “Poison!” he howled. One of his men rushed over to support him. “Sick bay…sick bay…” Madok whined, and the man helped Madok make it as far as the door. Then more poison darts from the Eeplings felled the man, and Madok left him behind, staggering down the passageway. The rest of his men lay slumped on the floor, gasping and dying.
“Violet, stay strong,” Treffon shouted through the vid-screen. “Go sit in the command chair, quickly. I’m going to talk you through repairing the transporter.”
Several tense minutes went by as he directed her to push various buttons and punch in certain codes.
Then two of Madok’s men raced through the door, wearing plated body armor. The Eeplings shot at them with their arrows, but the arrows bounced off the armor. Dorcas tried to block them with her body, shrieking curses.
They easily shoved her out of the way, grabbed Violet by the arms, and dragged her through the door.
Chapter Nineteen
Violet kicked and spat curses at them as they hauled her down the corridor to the sick bay. The men barely noticed. She had no chance against them, but she wasn’t going to go quietly.
Unfortunately, Madok wasn’t dead. The Reginar gene, with its superior healing powers, had kept him alive, and his medic had apparently been able to counteract the poison. The treacherous Vulfan stood by one of the treatment beds, pale and sweaty and very angry.
“I’m going to skin those furry little beasts and wear their pelts for a cape,” he spat at Violet. She struggled not to weep at the thought. She would not let him see her cry, damn him. The poor Eeplings…she’d promised to protect them, and failed miserably. They would die because of her.
Madok called Treffon on his comm bracelet, but there was no answer.
“Guess he got bored,” Madok sneered at her as the guards held her arms with grips like iron. “That’s okay – I’ll just record what I do
to you and send it to him.” He grabbed a laser scalpel. “First I’m going to burn my name into your face.”
Then he paused. “What are you smirking at, human whore?” he shouted.
“Treffon is my true mate.” Violet met his gaze fearlessly. “And I am his. Whatever you do to me, you can never take that away from me. All my life, I waited for the one, and I met him, and we love each other.”
“You crazy bitch!” Madok’s voice rose to a high-pitched scream. “None of that matters!”
“Oh, it matters, all right,” Treffon’s voice rang out from the doorway.
She had repaired the transporter after all!
Treffon rushed through the door, with Kroi and Tristao and a whole squadron of guards at his heels.
The guards surged forward. Madok’s remaining half-dozen men wore plate armor to protect them from the Eeplings’ barbs, and even a Vulfan’s teeth couldn’t bite through steel, but the armor made them slow and cumbersome. Treffon waded into the fray like a Vulfan possessed, the guards behind him, striking down any man who came between him and his true mate. When one of Madok’s men turned and made a break towards Violet, hoping to take her hostage, Treffon literally tore him limb from limb, ripping his arm from its socket with a sickening gristly sound.
The Thorolf and Wor-Lan guards had little to do except keep his bruised and bleeding victims from crawling away to lick their wounds.
And finally he stood face to face with Madok. The miserable, spineless cur who had tried to poison his true mate. To kill in such a cowardly way was shameful – a Vulfan warrior did not skulk in the dark. He fought his battles in the light, like a man. That was bad enough. But when he’d tried to kill Violet – beautiful, fierce, sweet, clumsy Violet – he had signed his own death warrant.
Tristao gestured the guards back, but there was no need. They all knew Treffon was the only one who had the right to fight Madok to the death. They ranged themselves around the circling pair, staring straight forward, their faces expressionless, ritual witnesses to a death match that honor demanded.
Madok didn’t shift. Instead he lunged at Treffon in human form, trying to knock him to the ground. Though they were evenly matched, both with the strength and endurance of the Reginar bloodline, Treffon was younger and heavier, and he stood his ground. They grappled, and Treffon hooked his his leg around Madok’s pulling him off-balance and crashing down on top of him. Madok used his hips to flip Treffon, slamming him onto his spine and knocking all the wind from him. Treffon barely managed to get his forearm up between them.
Then, with his nephew at a disadvantage, he shifted. His fingers retracted into paws, tipped with vicious black claws that tore through the fabric of Treffon’s tunic and bloodied his chest. Fur sprouted and his ears grew into points. His nose and mouth pushed forward into a snout, and he snapped and slathered, pushing against Treffon’s arm in an attempt to tear out his throat. It was a cowardly move…but Treffon had been ready for it. He’d known that Reznik had learned his dirty fighting from somewhere.
Treffon had been holding his beast leashed just beneath his skin. As soon as Madok shifted, he released it, letting it roar to the surface. His transformation was swift and brutal, and enraged by what Madok had tried to do to its true mate, his beast threw off the older man as if he weighed no more than a pup.
Treffon placed his teeth against Madok’s furry throat. The older wolf whimpered and waved his paws, directing a sharp yelp for aid at first one of the Thorolf guards, then another. And one by one, lips curling in disgust or eyes full of contempt, they turned their backs. At the last, he rolled his eyes imploringly at the Wor-Lan guards. He found no quarter there.
Treffon tore out Madok’s jugular vein, leaving him sodden with gore, lying in a spreading pool of dark blood.
Violet had crouched in the corner as they all fought.
Kroi fell groaning at her feet, splattered with blood, his face pale. “Tell Allison I love her,” he moaned, clutching his abdomen. “Tell her she should find a new mate. I will not mind.”
“But Kroi, you’re—”
“No, I insist! She must be happy, and she must have someone to protect her! Tell her I felt no pain towards the end.”
“Kroi, seriously, you—”
Kroi roused himself a little, sitting up halfway. “Never let her forget I love her! Our short time together was the happiest I have ever been!”
Violet tried again. “Kroi, you’re not even—”
He flopped back down, staring at the ceiling. “Farewell, my love!” he cried out dramatically.
“…injured,” Violet finished.
“Yes, I know, I am mortally injured, but it was worth it to die a hero, so my beloved could be proud of me and mmpphh…” Violet put her hand over his mouth.
“You are not injured, is what I said. Not in the slightest. You just tripped and fell. That’s it.”
Kroi sat up, an expression of bewilderment on his face. “No. That is not possible. I am bleeding, look. I’m covered with blood.” He plucked at his tunic, looking at her plaintively.
“Yeah, when Treffon ripped that dude’s arm off, blood splattered everywhere.”
“Oh.” Kroi looked down at the blood on his tunic. “You are right. I am not injured at all. Violet, I am not a very good warrior, am I?”
Violet considered being polite and lying, but what was the point? “Honestly, no. But there are other jobs in the pack, right?”
“I would prefer to be a teacher, like Allison. I love working with cubs. But my father wanted me to be a warrior. He said that was the only way to be worthy of a mate.”
Violet snorted. “Allison loves you, and since you’re a pretty lousy fighter, I’m sure she would rather have you be a live teacher than a dead warrior.”
Treffon walked over to them and nudged Kroi with his foot. “You have redeemed yourself in my eyes, not because you did a good job, but because you were brave and tried your best. I accept your resignation from the guard. Now get up – you look ridiculous.”
Then he held his hand out to Violet and pulled her to her feet. “Excuse me,” he said. “If you could spare a moment for a man who has been a terrible fool?”
Violet looked up at him. “Well, hello. Fancy meeting you here.”
“I came to rescue you. Where else would I be?”
He pulled her into his embrace. In between passionate kisses, he was saying something about how stupid he’d been, how he’d forced his real feelings down and hadn’t let himself sense that she was his true mate, but she definitely was, he was an idiot for not admitting it sooner, and he’d spend the rest of his life making it up to her…
“Treffon,” Violet said, putting a finger on his lips to shush him.
“Yes, my beloved?”
“Could you please just shut up and kiss me some more?”
* * * * *
Zura and Voljaki and Allison were waiting by the landing pad when Treffon landed Madok’s ship later that afternoon.
“It took you a long time to return,” Zura chided them as they walked down the ship’s ramp. “I was worried. What were you doing?”
Violet blushed red as she glanced at Treffon. “Talking,” she muttered.
“Oh, the human’s face is changing color. That means she is embarrassed because she was having sex with my cousin,” Zura explained to Voljaki.
“Why would that embarrass her? She is his true mate.” Voljaki looked confused. “She should be embarrassed if she is not having sex him.” He stroked Zura’s arm. “For instance, I have not heard your cries of pleasure since early this morning, and I am very…embarrassed.”
“Aieee! I can’t hear you! La la la la…” Violet covered her ears.
“Of course you can hear us, otherwise you would not be turning the color of a snarfleberry,” Zura said. “Humans say strange things all the time. Oh, by the way, where are the Eeplings? We have someone who wants to meet them.”
Dorcas came barreling down the ramp, followed by the Eeplings and
the rest of Treffon’s men.
“They locked me in a room for two hours,” Dorcas said indignantly to Zura. “So rude! Why, I’ve half a mind— My goodness, what is that?”
A group of Eeplings were hurrying towards them. To Violet’s shock, they were half the size of the Eeplings from the resettlement center. They were accompanied by a slender, purple-skinned woman with antennae, and a half a dozen squat, bumpy-skinned aliens who wore uniforms and blasters. They hurled themselves at the Eeplings who were with Violet, and there were hugs and shrill cries of joy.
“We had the grownup Eeplings with us all along!” Violet exclaimed in shock. “That’s why they were travelling without a teacher or guards! But how did they get separated from their children?”
The purple-skinned woman walked up to Violet. A voice hummed inside her head. They were evacuating their colony when their ship was attacked by cyborgs, so the parents put the children on a separate ship and sent them away. Then they fled directly through the cyborg fleet, to draw the attackers after them.
Violet blanched. “I can hear you in my head, but your lips aren’t moving. How are you doing that?”
I am a telepath. You can call me Su. I work for the Eeplings. Her lips still weren’t moving.
“I’m so glad they’ve been reunited. It must have been terrible for them to be separated from their families.”
Su nodded. The Eeplings are telling me that they had faith that I would bring their children to them safely, and also they kept busy by protecting the good but clumsy human.
“Who? Oh, me.” Violet laughed. “I’ll be darned. I thought I was protecting them, but now that I think of it, it really was the other way around. And now they can go home at last,” she said with relief. One of the Eeplings held out its baby to her proudly, and she took it in her arms and stroked its fur. “Man, I’m going to miss these ridiculous little balls of eep.”
Su’s expression turned somber. We have nowhere to go. The cyborgs destroyed their planet. They have no home now.
Treffon cleared his throat. “I have a suggestion. It was inspired by my pair-bond.” He put his arm around Violet’s shoulders. “We have an empty village at the edge of the pack lands. We only used it for war games, but Violet pointed out to me that there is more to life than constant training and sparring. We will interview the aliens at the resettlement center, and all those who are law-abiding and peaceful can move to the village if they so desire. They can farm and harvest fruit on our land, and take it to market in Donnelle. I will govern the village and maintain order.”
The Vulfan's Dark Desires (Starcrossed Dating Agency Book 3) Page 12