by Rena Marks
“Now the question…remove underwear or not?” she asked him. “If I leave them on, they’re going to get wet. And I’ll have to remove them anyway to put the dress back on. If I take them off”—she looked around—“well, it’s just you and me. Hopefully you’ll warn me if anyone comes?”
He growled softly, and unable to resist, licked her thigh. Her flavor was delicate—vanilla maybe? Balanced with something a bit more, like nutmeg.
“Okay, I’ll trust you,” she said and flicked the clasp of the bra at the front of her chest. The lace cups fell away and her gorgeous, strawberry-tipped mounds bounced free.
Fuck.
His bones ached, his muscles burned with the need to become a man. Or at least, as close as he used to be. But he wasn’t sure how to trigger the change, even if he was alone and she wasn’t watching. He couldn’t look away when her delicate fingers hooked into the lace at her hips and shimmied the panties down. She had the barest strip of hair that hid her delicious folds from his sight. She reached for the small bag she’d tossed down with her dress, bending over to give him a view of the hidden delights he couldn’t see from the front.
She pulled out a bottle of liquid soap and went to the edge of the water.
“Come on.”
He entered the water with her, brushing up against her.
“Now, hold still. I’m not going to hurt you,” she warned, flinging a leg over his back.
He froze. Her cunt—her wonderful, luscious, feminine cunt, was touching him.
“It’s okay,” she cooed, petting his head. Her slender thighs squeezed him, holding him still. “Just going to shampoo you. You’ll love it. You’ll smell pretty,” she coaxed.
Her fingers were sudsy, rubbing the soap into his fur, kneading his knotted muscles. Eventually she loosened her stance, leading him closer to the edge of the water so she could clean the undercarriage of his chest. His front legs. Even his paws.
He held still, almost afraid she’d sense his how much he wanted her. Instead he focused on the thing he hated. The fact that his sweet human was taken. She’d chosen Vien and Potierre simply because she was told they were the ones for her.
What if he’d been brave enough to come from the shadows and be in the running for her attentions?
Still, in this form, he was in the running for her affections.
After his bath, they moved from the water and he whined softly, aware of her exhaustion.
“It’s okay,” she murmured. “Just so tired. Probably did too much.”
She was incredibly delicate. That must be why Amanda was explaining they gave her to two mates. It would take two males to care for her.
He moved a safe distance from her to shake the droplets from his fur, and then nudged her legs toward a patch of green to lie down.
“I’ll just rest for a minute,” she said. “And then I have to get dressed. I can’t have someone coming across me naked as a jaybird. It simply isn’t done.”
He curled his body around her while they dried. It didn’t take long and then he watched the simple act of her redressing. He could hear her heart pounding with the exertion. It sounded as if it might burst from her chest. It wasn’t normal at all. He’d have to take better care not to exert her.
When she was safely dressed, he curled up beside her so she could sleep.
Chapter Five
“Alannah!” The voice calling her name seemed agitated.
She woke with a start, not really chilled yet despite the cooler air and lack of sun. The dog—he was gone, but her body was still warm from him. He’d just left then.
“Alannah!” The frantic voice called again.
“Here! I’m here.”
Vien and Potierre rounded the hill.
“My lady. What are you doing out here? We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
All three of Vien’s eyes blinked rapidly with worry.
“A dog,” she muttered, still half asleep. “I found a dog and wanted to wash him. But I was so tired I fell asleep.”
“Your anemia exhausts you, remember? You probably fell asleep in the garden and dreamed of a dog,” Vien said gently as he picked her up.
“No, I swear there was a dog,” she said. “He’s run off. He must have heard you approaching.”
She huddled a bit closer to Vien, aware the air was chilly when the wind blew. She looked around, but her dog was nowhere to be found. Vien tutted, obviously not really listening to her ramblings.
After a hot shower, she huddled in her thick robe as Potierre hustled her into the seating room. Vien was in the kitchen making tea and biscuits.
Crazy. She knew there was a dog out there. An intelligent one who fancied himself a wolf. But dogs—even wild ones—had been pets for centuries, so it made better sense that they would be intelligent enough to telepathically communicate with her. Though one day, she’d have to do some research on wolves. He was certainly large and proud of it. His paws were so huge he could knock her down easily if he placed two of them on her chest and pushed. He had dark brown fur as sleek as melted chocolate, but his eyes were oddly amber. A golden brown which contrasted beautifully with his coat. It was why she was so eager to wash him and see him shine.
“I’m really all right,” she insisted, as his strange hands tucked the blanket around her shoulders tighter. A week earlier and she might have flinched from those lobster claws, but Robyn had been right. It was just a matter of familiarizing oneself with someone and their differences became just that—different, not strange.
“I know you are, sweet,” he said. “But work with us here. How would it look if you grew tragically ill on our watch? We’d never be allowed to sponsor another human ever.”
“Potierre!” Vien reprimanded, having entered the room with a tea tray and catching the tail end of his statement.
Potierre winked at her and she burst into laughter.
“What are you laughing at?” Vien said. “You are supposed to be helping me teach him manners.”
“With our luck, we’ll learn all these superb manners for nothing,” Potierre said. “The next human batch of eligible females will be tobacco-spitting female prisoners from Earth-Ground.”
Alannah shuddered even as she giggled. “Oh, I hope not.”
She never had real friends before Vien and Potierre and she truly wished the best for her two guys. The wonderful men who took in a stranger.
“Come, tell us a story, princessa,” Potierre said. “You weave the best tales. And I shall like to re-tell them to Joseph Trask—Ava’s grandfather—and enthrall him with the stories.”
She smiled. They had no idea the stories were based on a real life. She scrambled through her memories to find one. “Once upon a time, a lord saw a lady and their love was inevitable. He was handsome, with hair so dark it was nearly black. She was beautiful, raised with the best upbringing and fair of face. She gave him a beautiful daughter, and then another, and for a while life was perfect. His career was going strong, he had plenty of money, his wife was a wonderful mother—and the two sweet little daughters, now three, wanted a third sister to play with. And so the lord, who was a geneticist, wanted to make sure his adorable darlings got their wish. He would make sure his next child was a girl by using science, not chance. Except something went wrong.”
“What went wrong, my lady?” Vien said, his eyes huge.
She smiled. “Nothing as tragic as you imagine,” she teased. “We learned the hard way that Mother Nature gets upset when human beings try to manipulate her. He got his wish and received a daughter, but his manipulations had other ramifications. This last child was just born different, is all. She wasn’t beautiful and didn’t blend in with the rest of society. Her eyes were too light and her hair—not one strand had brown. By then, the geneticist was world renowned and their family reputation was impeccable. So he did what any loving husband and father would do—he changed his baby daughter’s coloring so she would fit in. And he loved her anyway, and she tried to pretend she wasn�
��t as sick as she was so he wouldn’t be sad when he looked at her. She wanted his eyes happy. Those days were the good days, because the three sisters were his everything. And they played with each other, pretending to be fancy ladies and had tea parties, unaware that one day when they grew up, that would be their exact life. Sadly, the story doesn’t stay happy. He succumbed to an illness and passed away before he could see his three little girls grow up.”
But that Vien was a clever one. “The real story. Just this once?” he asked.
She leaned in. “It’s that third eye, isn’t it? It gives you a knowing sense?” She held back a giggle when he winked it at her.
They asked for it.
“The real story is I’m not sure why my own mother hates me, but she always has. Perhaps it was because my father manipulated my gene pool and failed? But once he died, my sisters were separated from me. I was home-schooled by the servants until my final year of school, and then I was sent off with my sisters to graduate. During the day I was treated as one of the help. I cooked and cleaned. When I was old enough, my mother sent me off to become the girlfriend of the man I’m now hiding from. The union wasn’t bad, even though we didn’t love each other. We were expected to marry within three years. My family name and his were strong together and my education enabled me to help him run his family hotel. We doubled the profits in the two years I was there. Truth is, I ran the hotel better than he did and he enjoyed being a figurehead. For me, it was rather freeing to be out on my own.” She leaned back, arms crossed.
“You never thought to refuse having an arranged union?” Potierre asked, his mouth agape.
“Refuse? No. My family—we weren’t raised to have any choices. Living on my own was quite different from being at home. It’s been…liberating, to say the least.”
“Did you love him?”
“Wilson? No. In his own way he cares for me…as much as he’s able, anyway. Wilson really loves himself above all others. If he was given a choice between saving me and saving himself, well, let’s just say I’m here, aren’t I? He knew he was in trouble and he saved himself by setting me up to take the fall for him.” She leaned in closer. “I just wonder what he’s going to do when he goes back to his old ways with the hotel and sales drop.”
“Your sisters?”
“Ana and Danielle live at home with mother. In some ways they have it worse than me. When I left home, I realized how limited our exposure to the world was. I don’t think they’ve been able to notice that limitation yet. They’re still in it and when you’re in the thick of things, you have blinders on.”
“We have a protection team watching your home to make sure they’re not harmed in your place. Maybe someday your sisters can be brought here for a visit. Maybe they’ll see the same limitation you do.”
She shrugged. “My sisters and I haven’t been close in a long, long time. We were close as children, but I was sickly. And then I was given higher doses and became even more ill. We grew apart, especially with them attending school. Naturally I don’t want to see any harm come to them…but they may refuse a visit here. It depends on how much they believe their safety is in jeopardy.”
“Robyn and Amanda can be convincing. I’d say you should prepare yourself to see your family again, just in case.”
Kieran’s stomach growled, forcing an answering growl from his throat. The sun shone brightly that next morning. A thought broke through his mind.
Are you there?
Her first thought upon waking was for him.
He sent her back images of sunshine and birds fluttering through the trees.
I’ll bring your breakfast.
He whined, sending the thought back at her. He didn’t need her wearing herself out for him the way she had yesterday. It would take one thought directed through his telepathic link and some of his other brethren would willingly leave him food at the edge of the woods if he needed it. No questions asked.
Oh, stop. It’s just breakfast. I want to see you today. I want to brush you. No one believes you exist, you know. And in a way…I kind of like that. Like you’re mine only. She ran her thoughts together like she was embarrassed suddenly.
And so he sent her an image of the gardens where he waited.
It wasn’t long before she came outside. She greeted him with a hug, which gave him a warm feeling inside. He already loved her and she didn’t even know what he really looked like. She sat on the ground and talked while he ate, about anything and everything that popped into her head.
“Vien and Potierre are at the main hub today, researching more about Iota Nine life. They love to do that. You should see how their eyes glow.” She stroked her hand down his back. “They’re hoping my sisters might come and visit me.” She sighed. “I tried to tell them my sisters aren’t very nice any more. Not after years of being exposed to my mom. The only reason I see we’re not a normal family is because I moved away. I learned life isn’t what we thought it was. Anyway, I have a lot of time to spend with you, handsome.” Her hands brushed through his fur again. She never even hesitated at touching him. And he reveled in her touch. He finished his food and took a long drink of water, then nudged her to a lounge chair, curling up beside her. He wanted her to finish her stories. He flashed her a thought of contented happiness.
“I wonder if, when I get my strength back, of course, if I’d be able to wander around the city on my own? You could come with me. Just a girl and her dog.” She laughed.
He huffed.
“Sorry. For a moment I’d forgotten your indignation.” She laughed. “Wolf. But it could be so fun. I wonder what’s on the other side?”
He sent her an image of the prison. Of the workers toiling in the fields.
“There’s a prison here?” Her eyes were huge.
He sent her another image of the prisoners fighting, ganging up on one. Of him having to pull them apart, but of course, she had no idea that was him.
“Wow. I feel sorry for the people who have to man that facility.” She winced.
He could hardly tell her it was all right, that it was satisfying work. She would know he was a man. And if she knew, she’d want to see him. Then she might reject him.
So he worked on sending her images of various things around the city. The man-made beach, filled with soft sand where they liked to play volleyball and have cookouts. Where the women brought their babies and sat under sun blocking shields.
“There are babies here?” Her tone was so wistful, he almost broke his promise of no speech and promised her dozens of pups of her own. “Show me more of what you’ve seen around the city,” she demanded.
He almost chuckled. Greedy little human.
Gladiator pits.
“Are they killing each other?”
He showed her a different image, one with a human training an other. Another image of a female Xeno Sapien, Tempest, fighting with Beast, taunting him so the male would get his aggression out.
Alannah was quick-witted. She understood what he was showing her. The pits were necessary, not frivolous.
He sent her an image of the two humans who came to visit, who Vien and Potierre were quite taken with. Someday she might meet the decrepit beings and she’d have a leg up if she recognized them. He showed them with Vien and Potierre while they watched a fight.
“They told me about that couple from Theta Eight,” she breathed. “I feel like I know them just from seeing your memories. It makes the stories they tell me more real.”
He couldn’t help but feel pumped that he’d pleased her.
An image of Jason and his mate, Lily.
“I know him!” she said excitedly. “He escorted me from Iota Nine. Along with Shawn.”
He showed a pairing of Shawn and Tempest.
Then he showed her Robyn and Steele. Their baby, Kaden. Amanda and Renegade. Blaze and Irina. Covet, Ava, and Baby.
She sighed on each pairing. But he had a purpose with what he was doing. He wanted her to know and get used to—these were inter
racial couplings. Pups were possible.
Would she want children? He couldn’t gleam the information from her thoughts. She shut down briefly after each image of a young one.
“I hope I’m here for the next beach function,” she said, stroking his fur idly.
He sent her the image of the wedding between Trance and Leah.
“What a beautiful wedding. Was that Potierre in the dashing tux?” She grinned.
He snapped out of her head before the wave of jealousy could hit.
“Hey,” she said softly. “Silly pup. How can you be jealous of Potierre? He’s a man. I’ll have a different relationship with him than I do with you, but that doesn’t mean I love you less.”
Fuck, it would kill him to see her in any kind of relationship with Potierre. She just didn’t know it.
Chapter Six
Iota Nine, the Ninth Floating City:
DR. AMANDA BECKER made sure she made a grand entrance when she arrived on Iota Nine in the extravagant hovercar she’d never normally use. Not that any of the neighbors would peer through their curtains. It wasn’t done. But yet, down in her bones, she knew she was watched.
She made sure to do her hair and wear a white gown instead of a medical jumpsuit, even attaching a kika around her face. The tiny facial kerchief that acted as decoration and disguised the purpose to keep germs at bay. Joke was on them. The lace and decorative fabrics used did nothing of the sort. Still, she wore it because she wanted the neighborhood to know she fit in. And the gown? It designated her as a Lady’s doctor.
The door was opened by Jason. She did a quick curtsied greeting right there on the porch before he let her in, and then the two joined Lily at the giant one-way window, where they could look out but no one could see in.
Just then the house computer spoke. “Hovercar approaching the front gates.”
“Well, someone neighborly took the bait,” Lily said, grinning as she hopped onto the sofa.
