Untamed Hunger

by Tiffany Roberts

Shay ducked beneath the sedhi’s swing. Having overextended himself, the sedhi was thrown off balance by his miss. Shay thrust a leg in front of his and twisted slightly to give him a shove on the shoulder. He toppled face first onto the ground.

  By the time the sedhi flipped over and started to sit up—no more than a second or two, at most—Shay had thrown open her coat, drawn her blaster, and backed away from her opponent. She stared at him, her gaze as hard and unwavering as the gun in her hand.

  The sedhi glared at her, fangs bared, his third eye dipping to the barrel of the blaster.

  “I said don’t touch me. Is it really that hard to listen?” Shay asked.

  “Fuck you, you—”

  “I don’t know exactly where your dick is, but I have enough patience and ammunition to find out. So I want you to think very carefully about the next words coming out of your mouth.”

  “You won’t shoot me.”

  “How much you willing to bet?”

  The sedhi pressed his lips together in a tight line, and a glimmer of uncertainty entered his eyes. Several people had stopped to watch the altercation. Drakkal halted at the edge of that crowd. Despite his fury, he’d maintained just enough control to know that his interference now had a chance of worsening the situation.

  “Good,” Shay said, her expression surprisingly calm. Even if she’d been shaken up, she was fully in control. “Now you’re going to get up very slowly, turn around, and walk away.”

  Nostrils flaring with heavy breaths, the sedhi carefully stood up. His attention once again fell to the blaster as he retreated. Shay kept the weapon aimed at him even when he turned and sprinted away, his long tail trailing behind him.

  With sighs and soft conversation—some of it relieved and some of it oddly disappointed—the crowd reverted to its typical state of motion.

  Drakkal couldn’t take his eyes off Shay. The confidence and competence with which she’d handled the sedhi were startling, though they shouldn’t have been—he’d seen hints of it in all his interactions with her before now. It was yet more evidence of what Arcanthus had speculated regarding Shay’s past. This terran knew how to take care of herself.

  And that fighting spirit, that warrior soul, called to Drakkal. It fanned those desirous flames she’d already woken in him, stoked them to new heights. That quickly, the fires of rage burning in Drakkal became an inferno of yearning.

  Shay holstered the blaster and tugged her jacket closed to conceal it again. She looked down at the flyers on the ground, and her lips and nose scrunched endearingly.

  “You know what? Fuck this,” she muttered and lifted her hand, yanking back her sleeve to reveal her holocom. She pulled up the control screen and flipped through the commands.

  The now lustful haze in Drakkal’s mind prevented him from realizing what she was doing until it was too late to react. She detached the earpiece from her holocom, slipped it in her ear, and selected an option on the menu.

  The holocom built into Drakkal’s prosthesis chimed—out loud. Were he even a few steps farther away from her, she likely wouldn’t have heard it over the din of the crowd, but he’d come within a couple meters during her scuffle with the sedhi.

  Shay’s head turned toward the sound—toward Drakkal—and her eyes skimmed over him briefly. Almost as soon as she looked away, she snapped her gaze back to Drakkal, eyes going wide.

  Of all the times to forget to silence this damned thing…

  He almost always wore the earpiece for his holocom, keeping its speaker silenced. That was part of his typical day, so much so that he rarely thought about it. But today, he’d been so focused on his task, so focused on her, that he’d not bothered with his earpiece. He’d wanted to keep his full attention on her.

  Shay ended the call and removed her earpiece. “For real? You’re stalking me?”

  If he should’ve been embarrassed, the feeling never came. He’d told Shay that he wanted her safe above all else. There was no shame in following through with that.

  He reached up, tugged down his hood, and shook out his mane as he approached her. “I am.”

  “Just like that? No excuses? No lies?” Her brows furrowed as she tilted her head. “You…you realize that doesn’t necessarily help your case, right? Just makes you creepy.”

  Drakkal shrugged. “Creepy but honest. You hungry?”

  Startled, she opened her mouth, closed it, and studied him with a furrowed brow.

  He could feel her gaze on him like a physical touch, and his skin tingled beneath it as though she were looking right through his clothing. There was something inexplicably exciting about that. “Doubt you have anything better to do, terran. I heard you just lost your job.”

  She looked down at the flyers littering the ground and kicked one with the toe of her boot. “Actually”—she lifted her gaze to meet his—“I quit. You buying?”

  One corner of Drakkal’s mouth rose in a smirk. “I don’t know. Heard you came into some money recently. Shouldn’t it be your treat?”

  “You asked. I can go eat on my—”

  “Yeah, it’s on me.”

  She grinned. “That’s what I thought. Let’s go. I’m starving.”

  As surreal as this turn of events had been, Drakkal didn’t dwell on it. The only thing that mattered was that he’d found his mate, and she was both surprising and extremely capable. His want for her grew by the second.

  They fell into step side-by-side, with Drakkal altering his gait to match her pace.

  “Anything you’re particular to?” he asked.

  She glanced up at him from the corner of her eye and shrugged. “Any recommendations?”

  Half a dozen options flitted through Drakkal’s mind. He knew the city well—at least chunks of it—but his knowledge of terrans wasn’t remotely as solid. Even living around Samantha for a year hadn’t taught him enough about their species, especially because he rarely thought of Sam as a terran anymore—she was just part of his crew, part of his family.

  What did Sam say? No…bugs? Nothing still alive? He wished he could remember for sure.

  He turned his head toward Shay and looked her over, as though that could somehow tell him her dietary necessities. “What do your kind eat?”

  She arched a brow at him. “Food.”

  His expression fell, and he fixed her with a droll look. “You don’t get to complain if you don’t like it.”

  “Kitty, as long as it tastes good, it’s not moving, and you don’t tell me what it actually is, I’ll eat it.”

  “You call me kitty again and I’ll eat you.” The words came out with an unintended hint of lust.

  “Promise?”

  Based on the surprise in her expression, Drakkal guessed she hadn’t intended her sultry tone, either.

  Oh yes, Shay. It’s a promise.

  Despite a thousand other scents on the air, hers was the fragrance he noticed, the fragrance that filled his nose and rushed to cloud his mind. He longed to touch her, to feel her warm, soft skin beneath his palm, to peel off her clothing and lick her from head to toe and back again. He wanted to taste every centimeter of her body.

  Just the thought of it had his mouth watering. Barely suppressing a growl, he forced himself to turn his attention ahead and keep walking. This was neither the time nor the place—though the way his body reacted to her, he knew in his heart there could be no wrong time or place. The only thing that would stop him was the audience. Shay was for Drakkal alone.

  Kraasz ka’val, we’re just sharing a meal, not rutting!

  …Not rutting yet.

  Drakkal led her to the closest place he could think of—a borian restaurant specializing in roasted meat. The aroma of fresh, hot, juicy meat slowly cooking in the kitchen struck him immediately when he entered, making him realize just how hungry he was. But it wasn’t quite enough to overpower Shay’s scent.

  Not that he wanted anything to overpower her scent.

  Shay slid into an open booth, folding her arms atop the table, and Dr
akkal seated himself across from her. For a few seconds, her eyes roamed the room, studying everything—and giving him an opportunity to study her.

  Though he’d seen her up close several times now, he found something new in her features each time he looked, and her beauty only grew as he became more familiar with her appearance. He’d always assumed his mate would be an azhera—a huntress, a strong, agile female with sharp senses and steely nerves. For a little while, he’d even thought he had that…

  But that had been nothing compared to what he felt now—and he hadn’t even claimed Shay yet. She was simultaneously exactly what he’d imagined and nothing like it at all, but he already couldn’t picture his mate as anyone other than her.

  Though the restaurant was dimly lit, Shay’s hair, which was pulled back into a tie at the back of her head and rested over her shoulder in a thick strand, glistened pale gold. She’d let him touch that hair when he was at her apartment; would she object now? How far could he push before she’d had enough? How fast would she be willing to move?

  She hasn’t agreed to anything more than lunch, stupid. Don’t get ahead of yourself.

  Hard advice to take when he’d already mated her in his mind.

  “Nice place,” she said, turning those bright blue eyes back to him. “A bit fancier than I’m used to. You trying to impress me?”

  “Only if you’re actually impressed,” Drakkal replied, unable to keep a small smile from tugging his lips up. He reached to the side and activated the menu. A holographic screen appeared over the table between them, displaying all the available dishes and drinks, each accompanied by three-dimensional representations. “Order whatever you want.”

  She scanned the items and huffed a laugh. “You loaded or what?”

  Her question made Drakkal think of Murgen Foltham and people of that ilk—the elite, the wealthy, the ones who looked down on everyone else simply because they could afford to. He’d never felt ashamed of the success he and Arcanthus had achieved, not until that moment.

  “I’m comfortable,” he grumbled.

  Shay met Drakkal’s gaze through the holo screen, positioning her face between two platters of steaming meat. She was, by far, the most delectable thing on the menu.

  “Didn’t mean to offend you,” she said. “You just seem to throw credits around left and right.”

  Drakkal frowned and leaned forward, settling his elbows on the table. “Not offended, and I don’t throw credits around. I only throw them straight ahead—lately at you.”

  One of her eyebrows rose, and her cheeks darkened faintly as she looked back at the menu. After a few seconds, she tapped her selections—roasted polovi meat with a side of fajetta, which was a flowering root native to the borians’ homeworld. Drakkal let his gaze linger on her a little longer before he made his own choices, foregoing the plants in favor of a variety of meats. He added an order of breaded and fried glehorn meat to the order for good measure; he knew Shay had been conserving her credits, and doubted she’d been eating as well as she should. She and her cub needed nutrition. They needed protein.

  Providing suitable food for her was amongst the simplest things he could do to satisfy his instinctual need to care for her.

  When the prompt screen came up, he took out a credit chip and let the system deduct the bill without checking the price. It didn’t matter.

  “So, terran, how was the passing out flyers on street corners business?” he asked once the holo-menu closed.

  “Shitty, as you already know.” She leaned closer to him. “What is it you do?”

  Drakkal inhaled slowly. “Private security.”

  “Which is how you hacked into the city’s surveillance system to find out where I lived, right?”

  He shrugged. “Something like that. I have a friend who’s good with computers.”

  “I’m calling bullshit.”

  Drakkal furrowed his brow and tilted his head. “Calling what shit?”

  Shay straightened in her seat, keeping her narrowed eyes locked with his. “You might have a friend who’s good with computers, but you’re not working for some standup security firm. You weren’t at Murgen’s talking about security, you were selling him an ID chip. If you want my trust, lies are not going to win it.”

  He leaned farther forward, settling more weight onto his elbows, and lowered his voice. “And I’m going to guess you weren’t exactly legitimate before you wound up in his basement.”

  She eased closer until their faces were only a handspan apart. “Yeah. Been there, done that, and I’m tired of being hurt and getting backstabbed. I’m not going down that road again.”

  “This isn’t like that, Shay.”

  “That’s what everyone says. I’m not getting involved in that life again, not when I have someone who’ll be depending on me.”

  She scooted across the seat as though to exit the booth.

  Drakkal extended a hand, catching her wrist before she could get up. She whipped her face toward him, lips pressed tight.

  “It’s not like that,” he said firmly. “This isn’t some street gang…bulkshit, or whatever shit you said before. I trust everyone there with my life. I won’t lie to you and say I haven’t done terrible things, Shay, but we’re not bad people.”

  The muscles in her arm relaxed as she lowered herself onto the seat. “Are you going to be truthful with me?”

  He couldn’t bring himself to release her arm, not yet; there seemed too great a chance of her running, and he didn’t want to chase her through the city again. “Yes, but not here. I think you know certain matters are best not discussed in public.”

  She searched his face before finally saying, “At my place then. After we leave here. But all I’m agreeing to is hearing you out, that clear?”

  Drakkal released her arm, but before he could answer, a tall, pointy-eared borian arrived at their table with a large tray full of food. When the borian let go of the tray, it hovered in the air beside him. He quickly transferred the plates of steaming food from the tray, along with a pitcher of water and two glasses, to the table.

  Shay’s attention shifted to the meal; she didn’t notice the borian staring at her, didn’t notice the hungry light in his eyes.

  Drakkal couldn’t notice anything but the light in the borian’s eyes.

  “Can I get you anything else?” the borian asked in accented Universal Speech. He didn’t look away from Shay.

  “No,” Drakkal growled.

  The borian swayed a little closer to Shay, brows falling low.

  Shay, oblivious, shoved one of the fried glehorn strips into her mouth and moaned as she leaned back in her seat, arms going slack at her sides. Closing her eyes, she chewed slowly. “So. Damn. Good.”

  The server bowed, his lips stretching into a wide grin. “I’m glad everything is to the female’s liking. If she would—”

  Utensils clattered as Drakkal closed his cybernetic hand around the blade of one of the knives, finally drawing the borian’s attention.

  Drakkal squeezed the blade between his metal fingers and snarled, “Go.” When he opened his hand, the knife—now twisted and warped into an unidentifiable shape—dropped to the table with a clatter.

  “Yes sir, sorry sir,” the borian said hurriedly before snatching the tray out of the air and quickly retreating.

  Once the server had vanished through the kitchen doors, Drakkal carefully settled his prosthetic hand on the table and turned his head to face Shay again.

  She was still chewing, but her eyes were upon him now, sparkling with humor that mirrored her crooked grin. She swallowed the food in her mouth. “Feisty kitty.”

  Despite the agitation of a moment ago, Drakkal smirked. “I broke the arm of the last person who called me feisty kitty.”

  Shay chuckled. “Yeah, but you didn’t threaten to break my arm. You threatened to eat me.”

  “It wasn’t a threat, terran. It was a promise.”

  She slid her plate closer and skewered a chunk of meat with a knif
e, lips curling into a teasing smile. Just before she took a bite, she said, “I know.”

  This female is going to drive me to madness.

  And madness had never been so appealing.

  Shay took another bite and shifted her attention to Drakkal’s prosthesis. She pushed the mouthful of food to one cheek. “So, what happened there?”

  Drakkal turned his head to follow her gaze, frowning when his eyes fell on his arm. Only his hand was visible thanks to his coat, but she’d seen the rest already—she’d even seen him without his prosthesis.

  “Someone from our past showed up unexpectedly and tried to murder me and my friend—the friend who’s good with computers,” he said after a brief silence. “Tried to murder my whole crew. I stopped to hold him back while everyone else escaped.”

  The corners of Shay’s mouth fell. “You’re alive, so I’m guessing you took care of the fucker.”

  With a humorless chuckle, Drakkal shook his head. “No, I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I got in a few good shots after he did this”—he lifted his cybernetic arm off the table for a moment—“but he knocked me out cold. Zhe’gaash was a cyborg. More machine under his skin than flesh and blood. Guess my hard head was all that saved me from brain damage. I got off with a concussion and a metal arm. My friend and his mate are the ones who killed him. She saved my life. He was about to finish me off before she intervened.”

  “Damn.” For a few moments, Shay stared at him, brows raised and eyes wide. “Look, I’m glad you made it out of that okay, Drakkal, and I admire that you were fighting to save the people you care for, but… That’s exactly the kind of shit I’m trying to get away from. I don’t want that life anymore.”

  “I’ve been in the Infinite City for a decade, Shay, running this operation with my partner. That was the first time anything like that happened. We’re not in a business that tends to garner that sort of attention.”

  She lifted another piece of meat. “So you say, Kitty.”

  Drakkal smirked. “Yeah, I do. You’ll be safe with us, Shay. You and your cub.”

  Shay tore off a chunk of meat with her teeth and leveled that thoughtful, inquisitive stare on him again as she chewed. When she’d finished, her little pink tongue slipped out to lick her lips clean. “We’ll see on that. Can that thing do any other cool shit?”