Marcun

by Sadie Carter

  “Got it. You’re the big chief cheese.”

  “Is cheese not food?”

  “Can you keep going? I’m starting to get bored.”

  His gaze narrowed. Yep, she was being rude. No, she wasn’t about to stop.

  “We share everything. Including our females.”

  Her eyes widened. “What do you mean? Like all six of you share one woman?”

  “Yes. And we recently learned that humans are compatible breeding partners.”

  Breeding partners, was he for real?

  “You want a human mate so you can fuck her and make babies?”

  “The race must be continued.”

  “Wow, that’s cold.”

  “Marcun seems to like you and you are pleasant enough to look at. Would you like to be our mate?”

  Did he just ask her to mate with them? All of them? Just like that? With no passion, no love. The idea made her feel ill.

  “No. Thank you.” Why the hell had she just thanked him? Damn it, Eden. “I want to go home.” She stiffened. Would they let her go? Or would they keep her here now that she knew what they were?

  “You can do that.”

  Relief flooded her. Along with a sliver of disappointment. What was wrong with her? She didn’t want to go anywhere with them. Yes, she loved Marcun. But right now she hated him as well.

  He’d used her. Just like everyone else.

  It was time that Eden started sticking up for herself. Looking out for her.

  “But there is one thing.”

  “What?” she snapped. He looked slightly taken aback.

  Too bad. So sad. Welcome to the new Eden, asshole. This Eden wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her.

  “You will contact me when the package arrives.”

  She tilted her head to one side. Why didn’t one of them go back and wait in her apartment for this mysterious package? They didn’t need her. Or did they?

  “The package has to be given to me, doesn’t it?”

  He glanced away. Got him.

  “All right, I’ll contact you when it arrives.”

  His shoulders loosened.

  “On two conditions.”

  “What are those?” he asked suspiciously.

  “One, I want fifty thousand dollars. Twenty now, thirty when I give you the package.”

  He grimaced then nodded.

  Oh. She quickly tried to hide her shock. She’d deliberately gone high, expecting him to barter with her.

  Drat. Maybe she should have asked for more. But that didn’t seem right. God, okay, she wasn’t doing so well at this being selfish thing. Never mind, what was done was done. Fifty thousand would keep the IRS off her back for a few more weeks and after that, well, she didn’t know what she would do. Something.

  Whatever she did it would be without him.

  “And I want your promise that as soon as you have the package, you will leave. And I won’t have to see any of you ever again.”

  “That I can easily promise you.”

  “Then we have a deal. Take me home. Now.”

  “Where is she?” Marcun stormed into medical, looking around. It was empty except from Ioin. “Where did you put her? Is she in another room?”

  He’d meant to be back hours ago. But after he had returned with her nightdress, he kept getting delayed. First Nax had all these questions about human females and taking a mate, then Brogan had decided to challenge him. He would have walked away, but there were witnesses and to turn down the challenge would make him look weak.

  Brogan limped in after him. Tecan and Sacaren followed him.

  “The next time you want him challenged, do it yourself,” Brogan said to Ioin.

  “What?” Marcun spun to his leader. Former leader. He was leaving the pack now. There was a hole in his stomach, as though a part of him had been wrenched away when he’d told them he was leaving. But it was worth it. For Eden. “You had Brogan challenge me?”

  “I wished to speak to the female.”

  He strode closer to Ioin, his body vibrating with anger. “Where. Is. She?”

  “She wished to go home. Nax took her.” Ioin’s voice was calm. Cool. “She knows it all, Marcun.”

  Marcun’s head snapped back, as though he’d been dealt a blow. “What do you mean?”

  “I told her who we were. That you were watching her and why.”

  “Why would you do that?” He’d been going to tell her. To ease her into it.

  “Because she was owed the truth and because I thought it best to start with honesty with our mate.”

  Our mate?

  “She is not our mate.” He stepped forward, violence on his mind. “She is mine.”

  “I thought since you seemed to like her so much that she might suit all of us. She turned me down.”

  He lunged for Ioin, only to find himself held back. He turned with a snarl. Tecan held one arm, Sacaren the other.

  “Let. Me. Go.”

  “Think before you act,” Tecan whispered to him. “He is doing this for a reason.”

  The red veil of fury was hard to think through, but as he strained against their hold, Tecan’s words sunk in. Ioin never did anything without a plan.

  He eased back. They held onto him a moment longer, watching him warily before letting him go.

  “Why did you ask her that? You knew that she is mine. Mine alone.”

  Ioin watched him through a narrowed gaze. “My reasons are my own. This is for the best.”

  Marcun roared, his wings snapping in challenge.

  “Easy, Marcun,” Sacaren warned this time.

  “She is mine.”

  “She does not wish to be yours. After the jewel arrives, she wishes us all to leave and not return. Even you.”

  Marcun let out a savage scream of pain. Turning, he slammed his fist into the wall of the medical room. Once. Twice. Three times until the wall was dented and blood bled from his scraped knuckles and still the rage filled him. He stormed out. As he left, he heard Tecan speak.

  “You can be a real unfeeling bastard sometimes, Ioin.”

  “I had to do it,” Ioin told him. “For the good of the pack.”

  Marcun screamed again.

  She stared down at the small box. It was plain brown. Made of something heavy. Wood? Wood was scarce on Earth and worth a lot of money. All of their trees were protected. Pollution had killed off most plant life. There were places in the country where apparently you could still find trees in the wild. Hundreds of them. But here in the city, the only plants that lived were under the dome in Central Park.

  Such a small package to cause so much grief. Pain.

  She looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were nearly swollen shut, her face blotchy and drawn. It seemed like she’d lost five pounds in the last twenty-four hours. Her hands shook. She felt ill and off-balance.

  Marcun had betrayed her. Used her. He was even worse than Barry. At least he’d been more upfront. She’d never seen it coming from Marcun.

  Idiot. Such an idiot.

  She waited for a knock on the door. The courier had arrived ten minutes ago and she knew her escort had to be close by. He wasn’t much of a talker, which had suited her just fine on the ride home. Another time, she would have been fascinated at finding herself on an actual spaceship. But all she’d felt was grief and anger.

  The Sky Warrior who’d escorted her home had flown them in a small spaceship down to a field outside the city. Then without saying anything, he’d just picked her up in his arms and flapping his wings had flown her back here. It had been terrifying, exhilarating and the whole time she’d wished it was Marcun holding her in his arms. With Marcun, she wouldn’t have been so scared. She trusted him.

  Or she had.

  They’d landed on the top of her apartment building. Thankfully, the door to the stairs wasn’t locked. But then, she guessed her escort wouldn’t have let a little thing like a lock get in his way. Just as well it had been the deep of night or they might have had more proble
ms sneaking back here. Not every day someone saw a flying man carry a woman through the skies.

  She stared down at the box. She’d promised to give it to Ioin, but she hadn’t said how quickly. And she hadn’t promised not to open it. She knew she shouldn’t, but she felt this burning need to look. Before she could think better of it, she opened the lid. She cried out as a bright light stung her eyes. She couldn’t even see what was inside, it hurt so bad to look at it. She strained, trying to force the lid shut. It felt as though her eyeballs were being seared from the inside out. And then something happened. The light shifted and instead of coming from the box, it almost seemed to be coming from her. Something stung her throat and then the light was gone. She took deep, gulping breaths, her eyes streaming. And she’d thought she had no tears left.

  Moving to the bathroom, she ran the water, scooping up water she splashed it on her face. Then she looked in the mirror and nearly fainted dead away.

  No. No! It wasn’t possible. She stared at the jewel glinting back at her under the dim light. Oval and multifaceted, it was a deep, deep red in color, so dark it almost looked black. And it was settled into the base of her throat. How had it got there? What was holding it there? She reached for it tentatively, trying to pull it away.

  Stuck. It was stuck.

  Her breath came in ragged gasps. What did that mean? Was it stuck there forever? What the hell was it? What would it do? Every horror and sci-fi movie she’d ever watched played back at her. What if it changed her? Turned her into a killer?

  On the verge of a panic attack, she barely heard the knock on the door, the sound of her name being yelled in a familiar voice. She moved from the bathroom, feeling like she was looking on from a great distance as Marcun broke the door and strode into her apartment. His wings were hidden, but his skin was silver, almost glowing. He looked powerful. Strong. And she longed to run to him. To feel the safety of his arms surround her.

  He betrayed you.

  Yeah, right at the moment she wasn’t worried about that.

  “Eden.” Relief filled his face and for a moment he looked like her Marcun. “You are here. I thought you might have gone …” his voice trailed off and his eyes widened in horror. He pointed at her throat. “What is that?”

  “I opened the package,” she said, her mouth dry. She barely took note of her earlier escort back to Earth as he stepped in behind Marcun. “It-it shone so bright it hurt and then it-it attached myself to me. Marcun, I can’t get it off.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get it off.” He stepped closer and drew her into his arms. And she let him. Just for a moment. “I promise.”

  15

  “What do you mean it is stuck on her until we get her to you?” Marcun half-yelled.

  He saw the way Lighton narrowed his gaze, his face growing tight. Cold. Around him, his pack mates stiffened and Eden sent him a worried look.

  Yes, he understood. Angering one of the most powerful war lords in the universe was not his best idea. Ioin had been thrilled when they had gotten this job, knowing if they were successful many more jobs would be open to them.

  But only if the Lighton did not kill them all first in a fit of anger.

  “It likes her. It attaches itself to people or things it likes. It is why I keep it in that box,” he explained slowly. “When you bring her here, it will come to me. It might like her, but it likes me more.” He smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant look and Eden shivered. Marcun drew her closer.

  “Will it hurt me?” she asked.

  Lighton turned to look at her and Marcun didn’t like the speculative look on the other male’s face. He scowled at him.

  Mine.

  Instead of looked angry, Lighton appeared amused. He raised one eyebrow in acknowledgment.

  “No, dear, it will not harm you in anyway. It belonged to my mother, which is why it is so precious to me. There are some benefits to wearing it, though.”

  “Like what?” Marcun snarled.

  Eden reached behind him and pinched his ass. Hard. He turned his head to glare down at her. She frowned up at him. What was wrong with her?

  “My mother never aged while she wore it. She was as young as the day she put it on. Unfortunately, one day it decided it no longer wished to be with her and attached itself to someone else. She aged ninety years in one day.”

  “I am sorry,” Eden told him.

  He shrugged. “I decided it would be best to keep it contained and had a special box crafted for it. I had to search far and wide to find a spell caster to enchant the box, and to create a spell that would force it into the box. The spell can only be used by me and both the box and the jewel have to be within my sight.”

  “You should have told us not to open it,” Ioin said.

  “I did not think I had to,” Lighton replied. “I thought I was paying enough to be assured my privacy. Bring her to me.”

  Marcun turned to her, his face cut into harsh lines of fury. She had to fight the urge to step back. “Why did you pinch me?”

  “Because you were making him angry. I was trying to get you to shut up.”

  “This is unacceptable,” Marcun said. He spun away from her and started pacing.

  “Sorry that being stuck with me for a while yet upsets you so much.” Eden tried to keep the pain from bleeding into her voice.

  He turned to her. “It is not that. Never that.”

  “No? Then why are you so angry?”

  “Because that thing is stuck on you!” He pointed at the jewel. “Because I now have to take you to one of the most dangerous males in the universe to remove it. Because you think I betrayed you and you’re staring at me as though you do not know me.”

  “I do not know you. I thought I did. I even thought I loved you. Until I realized it was all an act. A job to you.” Part of her was horrified that they were having this fight in front of others, but then he’d started this.

  “You were not a job to me!” he roared. The walls of the ship seemed to rattle and around her everyone stood tense, ready, as though they expected him to attack at any moment.

  “I don’t know why you’re the one who’s so angry. I was the one who was used! You slept with me, you made me think …”

  She couldn’t say it.

  “That I loved you?”

  She gasped in a breath. “Y-yes.” She felt raw, exposed, as though all her secrets were on display to the world. “I don’t want to talk about this now.”

  “I do,” he shot back at her. “Because I did not betray you. I did not join with you because of some mission. You think I had to sleep with you in order to keep watch over you? I did not.”

  “You put cameras in my apartment. Did you have fun watching me undress, watching my pathetic life?”

  “I only used the cameras when I had to leave you,” he told her quietly. “I did not watch you all the time. You were almost always asleep.”

  She half-turned away from as a tear dripped down her cheek. He hadn’t watched her, perved at her, laughed at her.

  “I followed you, even took up your offer of a job because of my mission. But at some stage you stopped being the female. And you started being Eden. And Eden is not some mission. Eden is not someone to be used and discarded. Eden is the female I love. My mate. Forever.”

  She wiped at her streaming cheeks. “You don’t get to just decide that.”

  “I do. I am not letting you leave me.”

  “You have no choice.”

  “It will take weeks to get to Lighton. We will be stuck on this ship together. I will have plenty of time to show you, convince you.”

  Oh God, he’d do it too.

  “Never before have I felt what I feel for you. Do you really think I would have gone to your mother’s with you if I did not care for you?”

  “You wanted to watch me.”

  “I could have followed you.”

  “I might have seen you.”

  “Unlikely,” he told her. “You do not keep watch of your surroundings. It is uns
afe, especially since you insist on wandering the streets at night.”

  “I don’t wander the streets,” she muttered.

  “But that does not matter now,” he told her.

  “Why? Because you think I’m going to fly away with you on this ship and live happily ever after? And where do they fit in?” She waved her hand at his pack mates. “Do you think I’m really going to be their mate as well? To welcome them into my bed? News flash, I’m a one-man woman.”

  “You are not their mate. You are mine.” His eyes almost glowed. “Mine. I do not share.”

  “That’s not what he said.” She pointed at Ioin. Well, she thought it was Ioin. Other than Marcun, she had difficulty telling them apart.

  “Brogan?”

  The male she pointed at, took a step back, raising his hands. “I told her nothing.”

  Another male stepped forward. “She means me.”

  “Did he also tell you that I am leaving the pack?” Marcun asked her.

  She froze, staring at him. “What?”

  “I have no wish to share you. Ever. You are mine. I get jealous when another male touches you, there is no way I could ever share you.”

  “I’m not yours to share anyway.”

  “You are. Even if you are denying it. You know you are mine. As I am yours. We are meant to be. Yes, I kept things from you. But I had a mission. When I first started following you, I thought you were as guilty as Barry. But as I got to know you, I realized who you really are. You are kind. Sweet. Gentle. A little naïve. You need a protector. A champion. Someone to have your back while still watching your front. I am that male. You have a right to your anger. You can yell, hit, do whatever you need to make me suffer for lying to you. But just do not walk away from me. Do not leave.”

  There was such a rawness in his words that it hurt her. It dug away at the thin shell she’d erected to protect herself.

  “Marcun, you cannot leave the pack for me.”

  “I can.” He straightened his shoulders. “After we have taken you to Lighton, I will return to Earth with you. I will live out my days as a human. And even if you cannot forgive me, I will watch over you.”