by Tasha Black
She blinked once and then realized.
Leo.
He stood, naked and magnificent in the center of the meadow.
“It was you,” she breathed.
He observed her warily.
“All of those animals. You… you can change yourself,” she realized out loud. “Into anything?”
He nodded.
“I didn’t know,” she said. “I don’t know why. It didn’t make any sense that you would look human.”
“I should have told you,” he said. “I would have told you.”
She could hear the regret in his voice. And the fear.
“I know that,” she said.
“I did what I did to protect you,” he told her, his voice breaking a little.
“That thing,” she said. “Is it…?”
“Dead?” Leo finished for her. “I doubt it. But I don’t think it will be bothering us again anytime soon.”
She thought of his fierceness as he shifted into the terrifying shape to battle the creature. She wouldn’t guess anything would want a second helping of that.
“Was that your natural form?” she asked. “What you turned into?”
He shook his head.
“I don’t have a natural form, or if I ever did, it was forgotten long ago. I am a barbarian.”
His expression told her that he expected a reaction to those words.
“Where I come from, that term would be considered offensive,” she said haltingly. “It would mean you were from a group of people whose traditions don’t match those of the ruling class.”
He laughed. It was a bitter sound.
“It means the same thing here,” he told her.
“But you have super powers,” she said.
“It’s hardly a super power to be the most hated group in the universe,” he said.
“But you can be anything you want,” she breathed.
“That’s what my grandmother used to say,” he said in a surprised way, his eyes crinkling with a warm smile. “She said we were shaped from the original matter.”
“What’s the original matter?” Anna asked.
“Well, it’s a creation myth,” he told her. “But when my grandmother was a child, the elders told her and the other children that the great Sky queen was in love with Ocean because he offered her own reflection, and Land because he blossomed under her suns. But one day she grew lonesome and called upon her lovers to bring her a child. Ocean reached into the depths of the sea and called forth the infants of life as we know it - tiny cells brimming with possibility. Land gathered up the life that sizzles even in the tiniest motes of dust. But neither could offer the Sky queen the child she craved. The heavens went gray and cold and Ocean had nothing to reflect, nor did Land have sun to feed his vegetation. At last, in despair, they pooled their resources to create what our kind calls original matter, and from that combination of land and sea came the building blocks of man. It is said that my people are made of the original matter, undiluted, and this is why we can transform into any living creature.”
“That’s beautiful,” Anna said.
He nodded, watching her appraisingly.
She bit her lip, uncertain what should come next.
“Well, most of the universe thinks it’s nonsense,” he told her. “We are seen as duplicitous by our very nature. How can you trust someone when their very form is a lie? My people are held in contempt.”
“Not by me,” she said.
“Not by you,” he echoed.
She took a step forward and his eyes flashed golden.
“You chose this form,” she said, taking in his golden hair and the long, lean muscular frame.
“I hoped it would suit you,” he said. “The fairy tale books in the library of this ship indicated a handsome prince might look this way. But if you are not satisfied, adjustments can be made...”
His muscles thickened. Before her eyes, his hair turned raven and his eyes went icy blue.
“I can be whatever you want me to be,” he said.
Anna gasped.
Leo shrunk downward and a thick red beard covered his cheeks.
“I can be whomever you would like,” he offered.
His voice went up an octave at the end of the sentence, as the hair on his face disappeared and he slid into the form of a stunning young woman with golden curls and eyes as green as grass. “Whatever your secret desires are, I can fulfill them.”
“I-I liked the way you were,” Anna stammered.
“I can do that,” he said, sliding up into the form she had met him in.
“I can even go a little older if you would like,” he said.
She watched as years seemingly passed in a heartbeat, laugh lines forming in the corners of his eyes and a touch of silver appearing at his temples.
“Or younger,” he laughed.
His hair went white blond and his muscles thinned until he looked like a teenager.
She shook her head wordlessly.
He smiled and by the time the smile reached his eyes he looked just as he had when she met him - tall, dark haired, brown-eyed and perfect.
Anna sighed in relief.
“You’re the sentimental type,” he offered.
She laughed.
“Did that frighten you?” he asked. “When I changed?”
His expression was serious now.
She nodded slowly. It was better to be honest.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“It’s who you are, there’s no need to be sorry,” she told him.
“The first time I did it was only to protect you and the baby,” he said.
“I know,” she nodded. “And this time it was to impress me.”
“Were you impressed?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.
“Yes,” she admitted. “And a little freaked out. But I still want to see you. Do you really not have a native form?”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t really work that way.”
“Well, what form do you relax in?” she asked.
He looked thoughtful for a moment.
“This one, I suppose,” he said at length.
“I thought you made that one just for me,” she said.
“I did,” he told her. “And I’ve never felt more at peace than when you slept on my chest.”
Anna felt her cheeks go hot.
“Does it make you feel embarrassed to remember the night we spent together?” he asked.
He stepped closer and she shook her head, her whole body quickening with desire.
“If you choose to become my mate, you will be reviled all over the universe,” he murmured.
Anna didn’t care. But she couldn’t muster the words, so she stepped forward, closer.
There was another flash of excitement in his amber eyes.
“Our young could inherit my form-changing,” he said, his voice stern. “They would be barbarians too.”
She moved closer still, so close they could touch if they wanted.
“You could take in some of my original matter, and change forms yourself,” he told her, his voice a throaty growl of restrained need.
“I could?” she asked, the possibilities opening up before her.
“So the legends say,” he told her. “No case has ever been recorded, but if you wouldn’t risk it, then you shouldn’t be my mate.”
“I want it all,” she said.
22
Leo
Leo clenched his fists, forcing himself to replay the moment, to be sure he understood.
His blood throbbed with lust in his veins and time dripped by like the thawing biodome as Anna’s words echoed slowly back in his head.
I want it all.
It couldn’t be true.
But she looked up at him with an indescribable expression. Hunger, fear and hope battled for the corners of her mouth.
“You will be my mate?” he asked, not recognizing his own voice in the deep growl.
“Yes,” she said at once.
“Please.”
And before his eyes her hope won out, lifting her lips into a tremulous, victorious smile.
He longed to cradle her in his arms, slow dance with her in the flowering meadow and whisper words of romance in her ears like the princes in the fairytales.
But she had invited the mate bond and his lust rolled like thunder, clouds of need blotting out everything but the desire that sizzled between them.
He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.
She moaned lightly as she kissed him back.
Every note of that sound played on his need like the keys of a melodisphere. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him, not caring if she felt him, rigid as iron between them.
Anna arched her back, pressing her breasts into his chest and he groaned at the feel of those warm, soft orbs flattening against him.
Her own pleasure at the pressure of his muscular chest on her delicate nipples was communicated to him through the bond, and he nearly staggered under the sensory assault.
She sank her nails into his arms and he caught her hands in his, forced them both to pause as he slid the straps of her pack over her shoulders and gently placed the pod in the hollow of a nearby stump.
The babe slept on, chubby fists clenched.
When Leo turned back Anna was stretching one of her beautiful fingers against the top fastener of her suit.
He froze, arrested by anticipation as the slide came slowly down and the next one, and the last.
Anna shrugged and the white jacket slipped down past her hips to the ground. Her auburn hair fell around her shoulders as she straightened and her beautiful breasts danced with the movement, her pink nipples stiff and eager for his touch.
He went to his knees before her, sliding the clasps of her pants down even as he thought of the storybook princes on their knees offering jewels and titles.
The only jewel he sought was the one between her legs.
She shivered with need as he eased her feet from the uniform and nuzzled her thighs.
His own body roared with lust, but he begged the Sky Queen to spare him a few minutes to pleasure his mate. He nudged Anna’s ankles.
Anna whimpered and moved her feet apart.
The light scent of her wafted to him on the spring breeze and the world went red before his eyes.
He grasped her hips and pressed his face to her heat.
Anna moaned and he slid his tongue against her, searching her velvety folds, raking his tongue back and forth against the tight little gem that brought her pleasure.
Her wild sounds of ecstasy sent him to the edge and he dragged himself from her before she could climax.
Anna moaned in despair, nearly breaking his heart, but her pleasure must happen when they were joined.
“We need to lie down now, my love,” he murmured with the last of his sanity as he stood and took her in his arms.
She allowed him to lift her as she gazed up at him, eyes hazy with lust.
He wished he could extend this moment somehow, make it last.
But the thunder was already in his ears, its drumbeat drowning out all rational thought.
See you on the other side, my mate.
23
Anna
Anna closed her eyes as Leo laid her down on the bed of clover.
She tried to focus on the scent of the flowers and the feel of the warming breeze against her bare skin, anything to drown out the screaming ache of an emptiness she had never known until this moment.
She could feel Leo’s own need, the twin to her own, longing for sanctuary with the same blinding joy and terror.
He could not lay her down fast enough, couldn’t cover her body with his own closely enough.
Though she knew he was falling on her with wild abandon, and that she was already lifting her hips, wrapping her ankles around his waist, it felt as if it were happening in slow motion.
He pressed against her, the heat of him sending her eyes back in her head.
She was so slick and ready. She felt herself stretch to accept him.
He moved with painful slowness, as if he were afraid to hurt her.
Anna was so lost in her lust she forgot how to beg for more. Instead she lay helpless beneath him, swallowing inch after inch of his rigid steel into her throbbing depths until at last he filled her and she was sated for a moment.
“Anna,” he groaned.
She jogged her hips up.
“Are you ready?” he asked, his voice raspy.
“Yes,” she managed to say.
He bent and kissed her gently, the eye of the storm.
Then he dragged himself out of her and slammed back in.
Fireworks went off behind her eyes.
On the next thrust he nuzzled her neck, moving her hair aside.
Anna sank her nails into his upper arms again.
He gave her another long, slow thrust and she felt only a low, honeyed pain as he sank his teeth into the tender place where her neck met her shoulder.
Leo roared and lapped at her neck as he thrust into her again and again, finally losing his restraint.
Anna could feel the instant the bond locked around her. The blurry echo of his feelings swam into focus and suddenly his desperate lust overwhelmed her.
She screamed and lifted her hips to him, screaming again when she felt her own pleasure and his all at once.
Leo lifted his head from her neck and gazed down into her eyes, his eyes blazing gold.
Anna had never seen anything as beautiful as her mate. The fervor in his expression unlocked fears she hadn’t known she had, and immediately dismissed them.
I will protect you. I will provide for you. I will never leave you.
She could hear his unspoken oaths even as promises of her own went from her heart into his.
He thrust inside her again and the pleasure became too acute. She cried out frantically for release.
Leo moved his hand between them and firmly stroked her swollen clitoris.
Anna screamed and felt herself tighten around him with an unearthly pleasure.
A cry was ripped from Leo’s throat and she felt him swell and throb inside her, filling her with rivers of his unrestrained lust.
She sailed, weightless with the ecstasy, until at last they exhaled together and their bodies relaxed into a pile of warm entwined limbs.
“Anna,” he murmured, his lips brushing the top of her head.
He lay beside her and she let him pull her close, her head against his chest, his hands trailing a soothing path up and down between her shoulder blades.
“That was… that was…” she searched for a way to articulate the wildness of what had just happened.
“We have a few minutes at best before it happens again,” he told her. “You should try to rest.”
“A few minutes?” she asked, incredulous.
“At best,” he repeated.
But she was already noticing the fullness of his lower lip, leaning forward on his chest to take it between her teeth and tug gently.
His excitement flashed through her and she snaked her tongue into his mouth in a rain of wild lust.
A loud sound assailed her ears.
She squeezed her eyes shut and kissed him harder, but the wail of the siren invaded her consciousness and she pulled away.
She scanned the meadow, wondering what could be happening.
Strobing lights at the stump drew her attention.
Suddenly her need was forgotten as she dragged herself to her feet and ran to Tolstoy’s little pod.
24
Anna
Anna held the little pod.
Flashing lights turned the liquid inside red and white in turn.
Inside the glass, Tolstoy turned his head back and forth, his little brow furrowed in consternation. He clearly didn’t like the blinking lights disturbing his slumber.
“What’s happening?” Leo asked, a note of panic in his voice.
“Something’s wrong with the
pod,” Anna said. “His life support is failing.”
“We have to get him out,” Leo said calmly.
“We can’t get him out here,” Anna said. “We have to get him to the Stargazer. They have a sick bay and a medic who can help him come out of stasis.”
“He’s not going to make it to the Stargazer,” Leo said.
“There has to be some buffer with the pod,” Anna said. “We can head to the cargo bay and hold off until he absolutely has to come out. Maybe BFF19 can get Mama back here before that happens.”
Her heart raced. She knew she was grasping at straws.
“Anna, we can do this,” Leo said, holding her shoulders loosely.
His soothing touch calmed her jangled nerves enough for her to think a little more clearly. But she still wasn’t ready to admit what they both knew needed to be done.
“What if something goes wrong?” she pleaded, fighting the inevitable. “This is supposed to happen with doctors and nurses around.”
“We are going to have this baby right here, right now,” Leo said. “He doesn’t need anyone but you and me. We’ve got this.”
A digital feed pinged on the glass of the pod.
10
“Is that…?” Anna began.
9
“It’s a countdown,” she answered her own question, nodding.
“Why don’t you sit down and get comfortable?” Leo suggested.
She allowed him to help her seat herself in the clover.
8
“I’m going to put the pod in your lap and we’ll figure out how to open it,” Leo said.
Anna held out her arms and hugged the little pod to her chest.
7
“I think we need to open this hatch,” Anna said, sliding a fingernail under a subtle indentation in the front of the pod.
“There should be a failsafe though,” Leo said, examining it. “So that you can’t open it by accident. Look for something on the top that you have to push down while the front piece is opening.”
