“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she whispered. Her
head lowered to hide her eyes.
Dasks had never smelled this
new scent either. It was something he knew when it assailed his senses. She was
lying to him, and she was not only sad, but afraid.
* * * *
Dasks waved his hand over the
control panel. A series of clicks and a small whistle sounded. The noise was
his imprint. No other hand over the door panel could make the same sound, all
were unique. It was how Talsk could identify him as his warrior mate. The door
was solid for privacy. A person’s emotions were their own in the sanctity of their
rooms.
Talsk looked disheveled when
his door slid open. Dasks looked past him. Meg was sound asleep in Talsk’s bed.
Dasks could scent a different odor to his warrior mate. It was as though Meg
were a part of him, as though her blood flowed through him. And because Talsk’s
blood flowed through Dasks, he felt a sudden rush of protectiveness toward the
woman. If the woman died, so would Talsk.
“You mated,” Dasks said with
surprise. “Already?”
Talsk dragged him into the
room and the door slid shut. “It—was—amazing.”
Dasks’ eyes widened. Talsk
sounded like he wanted to jump up and down. Dasks sniffed the air and grew concerned.
He moved quickly to Meg. There was blood on the bed.
“She’s hurt.”
Talsk was beside him,
shushing him. “I marked her. Look.”
With a great deal of
tenderness, Talsk turned Meg partially so Dasks could see her back. On her left
shoulder blade was the mark Talsk wore on his face on his armor. The mark was
already healed and glowed green. It was perfect.
“You did that?” Dasks asked.
“With my fangs.”
“Didn’t it hurt her?”
“At first. Remember to bite
Amy before you mark her. There will be no pain if you bite her and she will
hold completely still.”
“Why the blood though? She’s
healed.”
“Meg said Castian males have
more stamina than human males. She was too tired to go to the healing waters a
second time after she cleansed so I brought back a piece of the sheet and
washed her while she slept. I didn’t have the heart to wake her so the bed
could change its sheets. She looks so perfect while she’s sleeping.”
Dasks’ eyes widened further.
His warrior mate was downright smitten!
Talsk ran a careful hand over
Meg’s bouncy riot of clean red curls. Dasks noted the woman still sported a
spatter of tiny brown dots across her nose and cheeks. They were cute. Castians
had no such markings and Dasks very gently trailed a finger across her skin.
“Meg calls them freckles.”
When Talsk looked at Dasks
his eyes were shining with happiness. An astonishing amount of fondness for the
woman oozed from Talsk. No, it was much more than just fondness. The emotion
was…invincible bonding. Dasks felt his guts clench. He wanted to feel the same
way about his female.
“Give her some time,” Talsk
said.
Dasks knew his emotions were
in high scent. Talsk was picking them up easily.
“Meg said you killed human
males in front of your female and scared her.”
“I saved her,” Dasks raged.
Meg stirred and frowned in
her sleep, she muttered something a bit fearfully.
Talsk jumped from the bed to
grab Dasks’ arm, hauling him away. Talsk growled at him.
“Your anger is scaring her,”
Talsk snapped.
“I’m not mad at her. You know
I would never ever harm her—she is you, you are one.”
“Why are you here anyway?
Shouldn’t you be trying to mate with Amy?”
“Cobra wants us to bring the
mother of the three children to him, with her little ones. The tiny females
like you. It would be best if you came.”
Talsk’s entire demeanor
changed and he smiled. “Meg has promised to give me a little female of my own.
I want to be a father. I can’t wait to see how a child that size comes into the
world.”
“I think babes are smaller,”
Dasks said, though he had never seen one.
“Smaller?” Talsk said with
surprise. “I can’t imagine anything being smaller than Lisa.”
Dasks shrugged. “Come on,
Cobra is waiting.”
They left Meg sleeping and
went to collect the woman and her children. It wasn’t long before they stood in
the large cabin where Cobra conducted business.
The woman standing before
Dasks was thin but taller than Amy. Long blond hair flowed almost to her waist.
She was a beauty. Leah stood ramrod straight in front of Cobra. Eyes the color
of her son’s centered onto their leader.
Dasks admired the woman’s
spirit. Cobra was three thousand years old, never mated but had one son, Rask.
Rask had been left in charge of Dargon while his father was away. Cobra wasn’t
leader of the Castian army for nothing. Their commander was fair but tough.
“I gave my word that if you
lived your son could stay aboard with you. It’s only fair to tell you that he
has no protection,” Cobra said.
Leah paled and Dasks scented
her worry.
“Will your men hurt him?” she
asked quietly.
“No. My warriors will not
harm him. They have his scent and have been reminded of children.”
“Reminded?” Leah asked,
looking confused.
“Our memories of scent go
back hundreds of thousands of years. Because we are all connected emotionally,
if one Castian male has ever had the scent of something all Castian males would
remember the smell as well after being reminded. Such as lying. Most Castians
have never been lied to, but some have. One smell of deception or something
unfamiliar and we search for the scent. It’s very important that you never lie
to me,” Cobra warned.
Annoyance oozed from the
woman.
“I’m no liar. I just want to
make certain my son will not be harmed,” she snapped.
“A Castian warrior would
never kill a child. By having no protection I mean we will be unable to shield
him if we are ever under attack. We are at war with the Tonans, who are without
honor and would kill a child—male or female. A warrior can shield a female
child, but not a male. My men are mating with the women they have brought
aboard for their own protection. Only a mate, his male relatives and his
warrior mate can shield a grown female. They bind with blood.”
Dasks shifted his feet and
Cobra gave him a sharp look. Dasks nodded in understanding. For Amy’s sake he
needed to mate with her. It was her only real way of being safe from harm. Once
mated, their connection would warn him if she were ever under any duress. No
matter where she was or how far away, he would be able to sense her emotional
and physical state.
“Why won’t you shield him?”
Leah asked.
Dasks heard the pleading
tremor in her voice.
Cobra lifted his hand to the
woman’s face. The backs of his fingers glistened when he touched her. Oddly
enough the woman didn’t calm. Cobra frowned. It was apparent he wasn’t
expecting that.
“It isn’t a matter of won’t
but can’t,” Cobra explained. “A Castian male has his own protective armor. We’re
born with it. A warrior has never needed to shield a Castian male—there are no
memories of it.”
“But my son isn’t Castian.”
“Exactly.”
“You say that like it’s an
important factor when the real importance is he’s aboard your ship and you are
responsible for him,” Leah raged. “Now stop telling me
why
you can’t
keep him safe and start telling me
how
you will keep him safe.”
She has guts.
The last person to snap at Cobra almost went through a
steel wall.
“Talsk, take the female
children to a familiar person,” Cobra said.
Leah grabbed her girls and
son and pulled all three children to her. “They are my children. All of them.
You either take all four of us or let all four of us leave, together,” she
demanded.
Cobra sighed heavily when the
woman’s eyes flashed at him.
Dasks felt amused at his
leader’s apparent frustration and also Cobra’s attraction to her. The females
were too important to release. Leah was obviously fertile and too great a prize
to leave behind. The mother would never leave her son alone on a dying planet.
It was no wonder Cobra’s touch hadn’t settled Leah; her love for the child was
like a burning star of emotion, glowing too bright to be overshadowed by mere
secretions.
Cobra looked down at the male
child. He squatted down to his eye level. The little male stood as straight as
his mother.
“I was told it was you who
stopped my warrior from taking his prize,” Cobra said.
Dasks stiffened.
“She’s a woman not a prize
and yes I cut her loose,” Craig answered.
Dasks was impressed with his
response.
“There are creatures we battle
the likes of which you’ve never seen,” Cobra said.
“I’ve never seen the likes of
you before and I’m not dead,” Craig replied.
“My armor can’t protect you,”
Cobra warned.
“Then teach me to be a
warrior like you,” Craig said hopefully, his eyes lit with eager enthusiasm.
Dasks scented the little male
wasn’t afraid of Cobra but enthralled with him.
Craig’s request startled
Dasks; the child could never really be any kind of decent warrior. The appeal
didn’t seem to faze Cobra. The child was serious. The idea was amusing; he was
so tiny and defenseless. But Dasks could sense Cobra’s shrewdness—he too would
sense the little male’s awe of him. Their leader had found an obvious way to
handle the mother through her child.
“If I teach you to fight like
a Castian that will mean you’ll be my warrior. You’ll have to listen to me
above anyone else, including your mother,” Cobra said.
Craig looked up at his mom,
smiled sheepishly and shrugged. “Sorry, Mom.”
Talsk and Dasks chuckled.
The little male was as spirited
as his mother. Perhaps the warriors couldn’t shield him, but Dasks decided if
he needed to he would help defend him. It was a shame the little male could
never have a warrior mate to watch his back. No Castian could take the risk.
Cobra stood. He leveled a look onto Dasks.
“Take them to my cabin,”
Cobra said.
Dasks was startled but said
nothing. Cobra’s scent of high attraction to the female was prominent. He and
Talsk led the woman and her children away.
Chapter 4
“Why can’t I leave your
cabin?” Amy asked Dasks.
Amy had been aboard the
vessel for one week. Dasks had kept her sequestered away the entire time. She
most decidedly had cabin fever. The intrigue of holographic games had worn off
fast. Dasks had introduced her to an eerie-looking thing he called a Glosh and
informed her its name was Ebbie. He had apparently reactivated it. He claimed
Ebbie was his old pet and thought she might like it. She didn’t. It looked like
an Ewok with fangs that walked on all fours. Red eyes glowed in the dark and
never closed. It gave her the creeps when it growled and snarled. She admitted
she was afraid to be alone with it—hologram or not. Dasks had deactivated it.
Amy had slept a lot. She
supposed her tired body needed the rest. The healing waters drew her to them
twice a day. Each time the lump in her breast shrunk just a tiny bit but never
went away. In her heart Amy knew the water wouldn’t cure her, but perhaps it
would prolong her life for a bit longer.
Both Amy and Dasks were
sitting on flat mats on the floor at a small table. The ground was soft; they
had no need for pillows or stuffing. Amy had eaten more than she had in a very
long time. Her belly was rolling from being so full. The Castians had come
prepared. Their replicator had been programmed with Earth cuisine as well as
Castian foodstuff. The gauntness was beginning to leave her sunken cheeks as
she indulged. There wasn’t much else to do but eat. Amy was beginning to feel
like Gretel and wondered if she were being fattened up. Dasks had been right.
Since coming aboard the vessel, she had not been hungry or cold. Just bored to
tears. She didn’t like being left alone with her thoughts. The good the bad or
the ugly.
Dasks was busy aboard ship
and was away from her often. His first attempt at seducing her had failed
miserably and she wondered if that was part of it. Dasks seemed to have a
limited knowledge of sex and women. He wanted her to explain her body parts but
she had been embarrassed with his endless and intrusive questions. He informed
her that he knew her sex was up inside her—like it was some kind of conspiracy
need-to-know basis. That made Amy wonder even further about this race of male
warriors. It appeared only recently that Dasks had learned how a male and
female joined. His innocence was sweet after dealing with the lusty deranged
hounds on Earth.
Amy liked the thought of
another chance at life, even if it was only for a little while. She had decided
she would let Dasks mate with her. What would be the harm? He was handsome and
genuinely cared for her well-being. With just a touch from him, she felt
compelled to feel more. He knew when she was feeling afraid in the night and
held her close. When feeling alone, he offered comfort. It was so strange how
he just knew what her emotions were. Dasks had explained it was the way of his
people—to sense and scent emotion. That was how they could work side-by-side
without much talk—it was thought, or rather sensing the others’ needs. Dasks
had awoken Amy from a few nightmares. When she couldn’t sleep at night after
these horrible dreams, he spoke to her of his beloved planet. Amy learned the
waters there were still poisonous and he was taking her to a planet called
Dargon where he had spent some time in exile after Cobra had been briefly
overthrown from the government.