Trelon leaned his head back against the cold metal of the compartment he was working in and drew in a deep breath. His dragon was getting impatient for a mate. Unless he could find his true mate, the growing hunger and discomfort would continue to eat away at him from the inside out. Gritting his teeth, he tried to force his dragon to calm down. It wasn’t like there was a damn thing he could do about it. Out of all the women he had been with over the years not a damn one could satisfy all three parts of him. Hell, he was lucky he had ever gotten laid. He dragon really didn’t care so much what the female was like if he was in the mood for a good fuck, it would tolerate the female long enough to scratch the itch but it wouldn’t bite one of them no matter how much he tried to trick it into doing so. Then there was his symbiosis. He and his dragon had to practically beg it not to kill the females he had bedded. The only way he had been able to get any relief had been to demand it stay across the room from him. There had been a time or two when he had even had to send it off to play in the forest if it really didn’t like the female. He didn’t know what he was going to do if he didn’t find a woman soon. Perhaps he should take N’tasha up on her offer. Even though his symbiosis couldn’t stand her, his dragon was tolerant enough to let him bed her a few times a week. It was better than nothing even though the likelihood of their mating producing a child was very small, Trelon thought with a sigh of regret.
Cara hurried across the tarmac and squeezed through the gate she had seen Abby going through. She could feel her energy level escalating as she moved. A few hours sleep, the cool night air, being out of the plane, and the thought of having fun had her adrenaline pumping. She wanted to catch up with Abby so she could drill her about the brothers and see if there was a chance to cheer Ariel up a little. Cara frowned when she saw someone coming up behind Abby out of the shadows. The guy kept his face turned so she couldn’t really make out his features. A sense of unease ran down her spine. She hoped Abby knew the guy because she was definitely getting bad vibes off the way he was moving up behind her without calling out a greeting. Cara decided she better call out a warning when she noticed Abby jerk in surprise.
“Hey Abby! You okay?” Cara asked as she moved towards the truck. “Ariel and Trisha are on their way. It didn’t take…” Cara’s words died off as she saw Abby crumble against the man.
The man’s head jerked up when he heard Cara call out. Pulling a gun from behind him he aimed it at Cara pulling the trigger. Cara dropped her backpack and tool belt and was already hitting the pavement when a soft pop went off barely missing her. Within moments the man had picked Abby up and slung her over his shoulder letting off another round of gunfire as he moved. Cara rolled towards a golf cart parked nearby and hid behind the small front wheels for once glad that she was so small. Cara was breathing hard through her nose quickly thinking through one strategy after another when she felt a hand on her arm causing her to let out a small scream.
“Shush. It’s me, Carmen.” Carmen said kneeling next to Cara. She looked up when she saw Ariel and Trisha running towards them.
“Shit, what happened?” Trisha said breathing out a sigh of relief when she saw Cara turn and sit up. Before Cara could say anything, Carmen spoke up in a low voice.
“Some asshole waylaid Abby. From the little I was able to gather he isn’t too happy she didn’t choose him instead of this Zoran guy. He stuck her with something and has her cuffed. I’m going to follow him. Keep your line open, I might need some backup.” Carmen said before running towards a motorcycle hidden in the dark between two hangers.
“We need wheels.” Ariel muttered darkly watching as a truck peeled out from the airport. Carmen didn’t bother turning on the lights on her bike. She pulled the fast but quiet Yamaha YAF-R1 motorcycle after it popping up onto one wheel when she floored it.
“On it.” Cara said shakily moving towards Abby’s truck. Within seconds she had the engine running. Cara couldn’t help but wish she could tell her Uncle Wilfred that hot-wiring cars in her early teens had done her some good in life. She remembered when she was twelve and had taken the sheriff’s car for a spin. She had been pissed at the Sheriff for some reason she couldn’t even remember now. She had left it parked outside of old Widow Miller’s house. How was she supposed to know that he had been having an affair with Widow Miller and his wife would try to shoot him? She had only been twelve, for crying out loud! Of course, after that little incident everyone in town knew about Widow Miller and the Sheriff. Needless to say, the Sheriff didn’t get re-elected that fall. When her Uncle Wilfred found out what had happened, he had given her the third degree and made her work in the Sheriff’s garage after school for the remainder of the school year under the new Sheriff.
Cara was grinning like a fool when Ariel and Trisha jumped in the front seat and looked at her funny. She couldn’t help the silly grin on her face, “I used to have a problem with taking vehicles for a spin.”
Cara slid the truck into gear as soon as the two women had buckled up and tore off after Carmen and the truck. “Call Carmen, ask her which direction.”
Cara listened with one ear on the conversation between Ariel and Carmen and with the other ear on the revving of the truck’s engine trying to get a feel for how much power she could get out of it. It was important to know the vehicle you were driving, especially if you were going to be driving at a high rate of speed on unknown roads. She didn’t want to take a chance of taking a curve too fast or having the engine seize on her in the middle of a turn.
“Should we call the local authorities?” Cara asked as she turned the wheel sharply, punching the gas pedal as far as it would go. “Damn, I need to work on her truck. The acceleration on this thing sucks.” Cara wondered distractedly if Abby ever drove the poor thing over the speed limit. It was acting more like a granny-mobile than a pickup truck!
Trisha rolled her eyes. “Only you would be thinking about something like that while chasing down bad guys in the middle of nowhere.”
“Hey, I can work on more than one thing at a time.” Cara said as she took another turn sliding the truck around and fishtailing a little.
Oops, turn, turn, turn, straighten, don’t over-correct – that’s good.
Cara thoughts were all over the place as the adrenalin began pumping through her in high gear.
Tires are a little bald on the back, transmission could use a tune up,
and she thought she heard one of the cylinders miss slightly.
She could work with that.
Maybe if the brothers were really cute she could talk Ariel and Trish into staying an extra couple of days. It wasn’t like the Boswell’s were in a hurry to get their jet back since it was still in production and that would give her time to work on Abby’s truck.
Of course
, Cara inserted into her running commentary to herself,
we have to get Abby back first and kick some bad guy butt.
Cara felt confident that shouldn’t take too long between the four, five if you counted Abby, women.
Hell,
Cara thought with a rueful grin,
knowing what she did about Carmen, there might not even be anything left for them to kick!
Both Ariel and Trisha let out a string of expletives they had learned while in the Air Force when Cara made the next turn barely keeping all four tires on the pavement. Cara just laughed. She had taken more than one joy-ride in her life and never been caught by the police who had been chasing her.
Trelon had spent the previous night studying all the signals coming from the planet below them. He had to admit from space the planet was very beautiful and he was somewhat excited about learning more about it. What he really wanted to learn more about was the female who had not only captured his brother’s heart, but had been accepted by his symbiosis and his dragon. Trelon had a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that his brother had found a true mate with a female who was of a different species. When he had first gazed upon Abby, he had been taken in by her gentle beauty and grace. She seemed so delicate compared to their females but the symbol of the dragon’s mark on her neck showed she had the strength of a Valdire warrior. Now, as he gazed around the meadow where he and the others had transported he could appreciate some of the things Zoran had mentioned during their conversations.
Trelon had spent the day exploring and helping to prepare Zoran’s mother symbiosis for the journey back to their warship in space. Zoran, Kelan, and he were walking across the meadow when he noticed a change in Zoran.
“Zoran, all is well?” Trelon asked noticing his brother’s sudden stillness.
Zoran looked at Trelon as if coming out of a daze. “She has returned.”
Trelon and Kelan grinned at their brother noticing a difference in him already. Zoran was not the only one impatient for his mate’s return, they could practically hear Zoran’s dragon roar with the desire to see her as well. Trelon couldn’t help but feel a pang of envy and, he admitted, jealousy. He could feel his dragon demanding for him to go look for a female. Pushing down the impatient clawing inside him, he let his hand drift down to his symbiosis which was walking beside him, stroking his hand over the sleek head. He would not get his hopes up. The likelihood of finding another true mate on this primitive planet was probably smaller then a nanobot.
Zoran looked at both of his brothers with a grin. “Soon you will meet my true mate.”
Trelon couldn’t help but laugh and tease Zoran and his dragon with all the things he and Kelan would do to keep him occupied so he couldn’t be alone with his mate. Trelon playfully punched Kelan in the arm and motioned with his head for Kelan to grab Zoran so they could wrestle him to the ground. Trelon was just reaching for Zoran when he noticed him suddenly frowning.
“Abby will not be returning alone. There are three females with her.” Zoran said with a frown of discontent. Trelon bit back a grin. It was obvious his older brother did not want to share Abby with anyone right now.
Trelon couldn’t help the low chuckle that escaped as he responded to Zoran’s displeasure. “Perhaps she brings our true mate to us.” Trelon teased, pushing down the roar of hope that rushed out of his dragon at the mention of the females. “I, for one, am not ready but perhaps Kelan, Mandra, and Creon might appreciate having one. I still have much to taste before I settle for one female.”
Kelan laughed grabbing Trelon around the neck. “You believe yourself a bull dragon to satisfy so many females. It takes that many because none could ever put up with you for long.”
Zoran laughed as he watched his brothers joking around. Trelon twisted and pushed his brother off him. It had been a running joke among the brothers about Trelon’s fortitude among the women in the hopes of finding his true mate. Trelon reached around and just about had Kelan in a headlock when he heard Zoran’s roar of rage. Without thinking, he called forth his dragon. In the blink of an eye, he had changed forms and was lifting off the ground, his symbiosis transforming to gold armor around his dragon. He didn’t question Zoran. He had learned during the many battles they had fought against both the Curizans and the Sarafin to trust in his brother and in his own dragon’s instinct.
Calling out in dragon-speak, Trelon listened as Zoran explained how Abby was in danger.
“
Do you know who it is?”
Trelon asked as he flew up beside Zoran.
“
Yes. It is the same man who had been after Abby for years. He had become more aggressive over the past week. He wishes to claim Abby for his own. I will kill him.”
Zoran said with a growl. Trelon’s own thoughts flew back to the gentle memory of Abby held securely in his brother’s arms and blushing as she looked from his brother to the men on board the warship. He growled deeply, no one messed with his brother’s true mate and lived. No one.
Cara gripped the steering wheel with a determination that belied her tiny figure as she wrestled to make the turn off the highway onto the gravel road without rolling. Ariel and Trish were cussing up a blue-streak. The truck slid dangerously close to the trees that bordered each side. Cara had to admit even she was impressed with Carmen’s driving. Hell, she was having a hard time keeping a two-ton pickup on all four wheels; she was definitely going to grill Carmen on how she was able to keep upright on a motorcycle.
Cara bit back an expletive of her own when she hit a particularly deep pothole. The headlights of the truck bounced up and down wildly giving the already dark night a more sinister feel. Cara twisted the steering wheel sharply to the left to miss another hole than had to make sure she didn’t over-correct when the wheels hit a soft spot.
“Do you see her?” Trish asked anxiously. “I can barely see a thing. I would hate for Carmen to wreck in the middle of the road and not see her until too late.”
“She’s fine. I think I saw some break lights up ahead through the trees.” Ariel bit out between bumps. “God, Cara. Do you think you could hit any more ruts?” Ariel cried out after Cara hit a particularly bad one knocking her into Trish. Cara heard Trish groan as her head hit the passenger side window.
“I’m doing the best I can. It is darker than shit out here and I don’t think this road has ever been graded! You try driving over twenty miles an hour on it and see if you can do any better.” Cara said crossly as she swerved to miss a branch laying half in and half out of the road. The sound of metal being scraped was loud as another branch ran down the side of the truck.
“I can fix that.” Cara said loudly over the screeching. She had no sooner gotten past the fallen debris when a flash behind the truck drew her attention.
“Son-of-a-bitch! What was that?” Cara bit out seeing flames erupted behind the truck through the rearview mirror.
Ariel twisted around trying to see out the back window. “I don’t know. You didn’t hit the gas tank or anything did you?”