Chen

by JC Hay

  She nodded, and he carefully opened her shirt, slid his hands up, and pushed the flannel off her shoulders. His gaze dipped to take in her breasts, the perfunctory white bra, and she could tell the exact moment he spotted her scars. She covered the worst one, the grenade shrapnel that should have killed her but instead left her with a maze of gnarled tissue, instead of smooth, pristine skin. “I’m sorry. I wanted to spare you.”

  “Stop.” He peeled her hands back from the old injury. “I don’t want you to be ashamed of yourself. Your scars are a part of who you are. They’re as much a part of your beauty as your spirit, or your eyes.”

  Heat bloomed under her skin that had nothing to do with arousal, and she blinked quickly even as she carved the words into her memory. She unhooked her bra and dropped it to the floor as she stepped back toward the bed.

  He pulled off his sweaters—her sweaters, really—and she took a moment to be thankful for the light in the room. Clearly the doctor took care of himself. He had a runner’s lean strength and narrow waist. She’d seen plenty of nude rangers of every gender, and their aggressive muscle didn’t appeal to her half as much as the confidence in how Priddy carried himself.

  She sat on the bed, and he knelt at her feet to tug off her socks and then help her out of her jeans. Chen laid back, expecting him to follow her, but instead his hands shaped over her calves. His lips trailed in their wake, leaving a blazing path to her inner thigh. Anticipation tightened in her belly like a spring, and she curved her fists into the bedclothes as his breath ghosted over the damp cloth of her underwear.

  “If you don’t want this,” he whispered against her skin, “just say so and I’ll stop.”

  Chen threaded her fingers into his hair, tilting her hips toward him in invitation, and that was all the assent he needed. He tugged aside her panties, tracing over her first with fingers and then his clever tongue. His lips closed over her clit, the pressure almost unbearable. He pressed one finger into her, and then a second, matching their rhythm to the pace of his mouth.

  Her climax came suddenly, the crash of pleasure and release rippling along her nerves and tearing a whimper from her throat. Priddy kissed the damp curls, and she could feel his grin against her too-sensitive skin. His thumb replaced his mouth, leaving her rocking between thumb and fingers along the curve of his hand.

  “I thought the wolfbond gave rangers more stamina.” The smug satisfaction in his voice dripped with delicious challenge.

  She hauled him up to the bed and rolled to pin him under her. “Who said I was done yet?”

  Eleven

  Stupid, Javad cursed himself in the early-morning dark. Selfish.

  He wondered how early it was, or how late—the cabin was far enough north that daylight was short—but he resisted the urge to reach for an omni to check the time. Chen pressed against his back, her arm thrown possessively around his waist, her skin a welcome furnace in the cold cabin. Sometime in the night, Nujalik had climbed up onto the bed, and the wolf’s heavy body had pinned his feet beneath the covers. The quiet rasp of the umbra wolf’s snores was the loudest sound in the bedroom, but the contentment the scene inspired didn’t match the squirm of fear in his belly.

  His family needed him, and he’d been indulging himself instead. He’d made plenty of excuses in his head, but even at the time, he’d known that’s all they were. He had to get to the port at Skyreach and get a shuttle to Khonsu first thing this morning. And pray it wasn’t too late.

  Chen’s arm tightened around him as she kissed a trail over his shoulder. “How long have you been awake?”

  “Not long,” he whispered. “I’d get up, but someone’s pinned my legs.”

  “Yeah. She does that. I think she forgets how big she is.” Chen’s amused chuckle skated along his nerves, laced with a delicious huskiness. Her palm skimmed along the planes of his stomach, dipping lower. “I wonder what we could do that doesn’t involve leaving the bed?”

  His cock stiffened in anticipation, and he arched into her touch. She nipped his shoulder, and languid pleasure coiled low in his belly. Before his willpower completely evaporated, he snagged her by the wrist and lifted her hand back to the middle of his chest. “This sounds horrible, but I have to go. It’s driving me crazy that I can’t reach my family. I need to know that they’re okay. I should have left last night, but...”

  “But I made you stay.” The hurt in her voice was guarded, and he hated that she tried to hide it from him.

  He rolled to face her, Nujalik grumbling as he shifted. “No. I stayed because I wanted to. I don’t regret it for a moment.” He kissed her, and wished he could push away her fear with the touch.

  She propped herself on her elbows to study him, as though she could read his mind as easily as her wolf’s. Even knowing the urgency, he couldn’t resist letting his gaze drift along the shadowed curves of her body. When he returned to her face, her smile verged on predatory. “You keep devouring me with your eyes and our trip is going to have another delay, just so you know.”

  “Our trip?”

  She nodded, then brushed her mouth over his quickly. “I just need to let Nujalik out, and then we’re out of here. I was going to call the Cry to send a shuttle, but they can pick us up down the valley as easily as up here.”

  No, no, no. He couldn’t go back to the constellation. He needed to get to his family, needed to find the people who’d set him up and try to fix this. “I’ll be okay.”

  She looked at him, suspicion blooming in her face. “Your car’s barely capable of making it through the pass. At least if I come, I can drive. Then I’ll know you’re safe.”

  Dammit. He was tempted. Having a ranger behind him would make helping his family easier, certainly. Javad picked up his glasses from the nightstand and settled them onto his face. “That’s better. Now I can appreciate the view at least.”

  “Don’t change the subject.” She pushed her chest out for him despite the admonition, smiling as he took it in. “I want to come down the mountain with you.”

  The best place down mountain for the shuttle to land would be the spaceport, and he was heading there anyway. It would get her away from the cabin in the woods, though they’d be trading the danger of seclusion for the threat of a crowded space. A place where anyone could be an enemy. At the spaceport, he could catch a ride to Khonsu as he’d planned. Possibly he could even convince her to come with him. After all, she had two weeks’ leave. She didn’t have to return to the constellation immediately.

  “Okay.”

  Chen sat all the way up and looked at him. “Okay?”

  “Yeah, but we still have to hurry. I’d rather we go sooner than later.”

  “All right then.” She slipped out of bed, wiggling her hips at him when she bent to grab her clothes from the floor. God, she was beautiful. He wanted her all over again, despite knowing time was short. She pulled on her bra and flannel shirt and glanced over her shoulder. “I thought you said we needed to go.”

  A paralytic agent couldn’t have stopped him from grinning. “What can I say, I like watching you.”

  Her smile turned devilish, voice husky with promises. “I’ll take advantage of that later. For now, up.” She ruffled her hand over Nujalik’s head. “You too, princess.”

  The wolf got up with another annoyed grumble and stretched languidly before jumping down to the floor. She padded to the door and looked back expectantly, and he could feel the irritation in her night-black stare. He sat up with a laugh. “Yes, well, the rest of us have to put clothes on. We’re not all able to wander about in the buff.”

  “Oh, trust me, she knows.” Chen tugged on her pants and socks and followed her wolf. “She’s just angry that I woke her up at all.”

  He yawned into his fist. “That much, I can understand. Do you need anything? I can load the hover while you two take care of business.”

  “My kit is in the closet. If you want to throw it in the trunk, that would be great.” She grabbed her omni, tucked it in her pocke
t, and headed out the door.

  Javad shook his head, thankful for her understanding, and started getting dressed.

  CHEN CHECKED THE TEMPERATURE from her omni as she headed to the door. Six below. Definitely too cold to go without a coat of some kind, though she could certainly keep herself warm with the memories of last night. She’d wanted something to chase the ghosts from the house, and Javad had provided it in spades. She pulled her coat on as she opened the door and followed her eager wolf out into the thin, dawn light.

  The cold was breath-stealing, but the wind was worse. It ripped between the trees, stirring up the ghostly howl she remembered from her childhood, and vicious enough to make her eyes tear up.

  Nujalik’s self-satisfaction poured along the bond like honey, overly sweet and endlessly amused. Her blurry shape padded out into the trees and began the critical task of sniffing around. Chen trailed along behind, her muscles exactly the right level of sore after the long and largely sleepless night.

  “Maybe don’t insist on the perfect spot this time, okay, girl?” Chen smiled when her wolf looked back at her, space-black orbs apparent despite her camouflage. “I still have to call the constellation and have them send a shuttle to meet us down below.”

  She’d also need to talk to May about the new complication in her life. As a civilian doctor, Javad wasn’t in the command structure of the ship, so there weren’t issues with seeing him from that standpoint. For some reason, it still felt wrong. Another issue loomed large in her awareness—she didn’t have successful long-term relationships with men. At the end of the day, the emotional shorthand having a female partner allowed her was too convenient, and men didn’t connect with her on that level. Javad Priddy was unequivocally male, ergo, it was best to chalk the whole experience up to a wonderful night and save them both the frustration and heartache to come.

  And yet...

  Despite her best interests, she liked him. More importantly, Nujalik liked him. Nujalik shared with him. In the last couple days she had a handful of examples where the doctor had understood her umbra wolf with an almost wolfbonded level of accuracy. Even if that was evidence of Priddy’s empathy and not the wolf’s, it still spoke volumes to the level of care and concern he focused on her wolf.

  And on her as well, if she was being honest. Careful about how he probed her past, and apologetic when he made mistakes. Quick to put himself in danger, if he thought it could keep her safe. Open about his own history and accepting of the mistakes he’d made.

  Getting him down the mountain so he could know his family was okay? That felt important to her. From the agreement that hummed in her veins, Nujalik shared that sentiment.

  Chen braced against a tree and looked for her wolf, stretching her awareness along the wolfbond to find Nujalik pacing near a small copse of trees, and started to walk in that direction. Without warning, her wolf stopped sniffing and raced over to sit in front of her. Nujalik gave a single sharp bark, then ran back to where she’d been and laid down. Exactly like she’d trained her to do when she found a...

  “Gun! Gun!”

  Chen had broken into a run even before she’d heard Priddy’s panicked yell from the cabin door, but his confirmation of her fear pumped extra fuel into her legs. She whistled a loud recall to her wolf. Nujalik looked up, confused, and stood to trot toward her.

  The crack of the gunshot yanked a scream of rage from her.

  She spotted a figure, reactive camouflage blending them into the tree they braced against, and she changed direction to charge them. The gun coughed. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nujalik tumble to the ground.

  “No!”

  The gunman focused on her too late, trusting in his suit to keep him hidden. He held up the rifle to block her, but Chen barreled into both it and him. The tree crunched as she drove him into it. Her fists and knees were on autopilot—years of hand-to-hand training converted her muscle memory into a single goal. Put the target down, quick and hard.

  He tried to bring the rifle to bear, and Chen broke his arm. Wrenching the weapon away, she may have dislocated his finger. She didn’t care. Two more strikes and the gunman slumped against the tree, unconscious.

  Chen turned to where Nujalik had fallen. A second gunman had crept out of cover toward the downed wolf. With an animal cry, Priddy launched himself from the vicinity of the cabin, his ridiculous trainers and summery clothes so out of place that it would be laughable, if the gunman weren’t carrying a pistol the size of Chen’s forearm.

  “Get away from her!” Priddy tugged the axe free of the woodpile as he charged past, and Chen’s heart went into her throat. Barehanded and in lightweight linens he hadn’t been a threat, but the axe changed the playing field. The gunman’s stance stabilized as he made the same assessment and brought the pistol to bear.

  Chen grabbed the rifle and shouldered it. At the far end of her sights, the gunman raised his pistol. They both fired at the same time. Priddy spun as he fell, crying out in pain. The gunman grunted from her hit, off-balance as he turned to face her. Chen shot him again, and he slumped to the ground.

  She could deal with the mess later.

  Chen rushed to Nujalik’s side. The wolf lay still, breathing rapid. She could feel the wolf’s concern reaching out through the wolfbond, and she wrapped it in all the love she could muster. Nujalik felt sleepy, not injured. A black blur lodged in the fur of the wolf’s shoulder turned out to be a ballistic syringe. Chen dropped it in her jacket pocket, in case the doctors needed to see it, then carried her partner back toward the cabin.

  As soon as she’d set the wolf on the bed, Chen ran back out to find Priddy. Blood had soaked through the arm of his shirt, but he was leveraging himself up with his good hand. She helped him to his feet, and he gritted his teeth against the pain. “How’s Nujalik?”

  “They hit her with a dart of some kind. I don’t know what it’s loaded with, but she’s fine.” For now. Chen helped him into the cabin, expecting at any moment that a third gunman would open fire, but the feared bullet didn’t come.

  She shut the door and helped Priddy into one of the dining room chairs. His eyes closed, and she was about to wake him up when he nodded. “She’s okay. At least she’s not acting like it’s poison.”

  Chen glared at him, unable to decide if she was angry or jealous of her wolf’s connection to him. At a better time, she’d need to digest how she wanted to respond to that fact, but for now she had to get him patched up enough to get down the mountain.

  “Help me get my shirt off.” Priddy had one-handed the buttons as well as he could and looked at her.

  She could read his pain in the tightness around his eyes, in the way his lips pressed together hard enough to blanch. “It will be easier to cut it off. It’s not like you’re going to want it back.”

  He managed a tight laugh. “True. But if you peel the sleeve back, it should leave less of itself in the wound. I’m going to need a first-aid kit. And your hands.”

  Chen winced reflexively. “I don’t know if the analgesic in the kit’s any good.” She kept meaning to replace it, but it had been one of those items she only remembered when she saw the old kit gathering dust in the pantry. She helped him slide his uninjured arm out of the sleeve, then carefully eased the cloth off the ragged flesh of his other shoulder. The exit wound was angry and torn, and blood seeped sluggishly out of the injury. “I hate bullets,” she whispered.

  “They’re still a really effective way to kill someone.” Priddy hissed as he poked at the edges of the hole. “Not everybody has access to a plasmacaster. Fortunately.”

  While he explored, Chen went to retrieve the kit from the pantry. “How is it?”

  “It looks like it’s through-and-through.” He grunted. “Might be a fragment in there if the bullet clipped the acromion or the top of the humerus.”

  After dusting it off, Chen set the med kit on the table in front of him. “I’m not going to pretend like I know what that is, but I’ll take your word for it. Are you ok
ay while I go and deal with our two uninvited guests?”

  He stopped and watched her. “Are you okay with going out on your own? What if more come?”

  Chen picked up the dart rifle that she’d dropped by the door, her pulse picking up at the idea of extracting additional vengeance. “Frankly, I hope they do.”

  Twelve

  The analgesic gel in the med kit had expired, but it maintained its effectiveness if he used enough of it. He changed the position of the tongue depressor between his teeth and bit down as he poked the probe into the wound again. He should have asked her to leave him a squirt bottle of some kind. The injury kept filling with blood, making it difficult to see and forcing him to rely on his sense of touch.

  At least his left hand was his dominant hand. Things could have been worse.

  Nothing seemed broken, miraculously. He’d need some time with a scanner to find out for certain, but as he dug around, it felt like the bullet had managed to miss anything serious on its way through. Stitches could close the entry easily enough, but he’d have to settle for patching over the exit wound in the back. Hopefully, Nujalik would be easier to treat.

  He needed the wolf to be okay. Had it not been for his selfishness, they could have been out and safe. Instead he’d delayed her getting to safety. And if Chen didn’t neutralize the whole team of wolf-nappers? Then his family was already in danger. Could already be gone.

  He forced himself to calm his mind, focusing to slow his breathing until his thoughts had settled. As he relaxed, he could feel Nujalik’s presence in the other room, breathing easily. He didn’t know much about the wolfbond, but from what little he’d been able to study, that shouldn’t happen—the level of connection should only be possible for someone who was bonded. To be fair, even after decades of rangers and wolves working together, science still wasn’t exactly sure how the wolfbond worked. Theories existed, but without a lot more research than had been done so far, the actual mechanisms remained elusive. For a moment, his pulse spiked, and he had to fight back a smile—he could do pioneering research, study aspects of the bond that had been halted by the limited availability of the umbra wolves themselves...