Shifter Planet: The Return

by Reynolds, D. B.

  Rachel raised her head in surprise. “Your Ardrigh?”

  Aidan nodded, still not looking at her. “His family has an old hunting lodge out there.”

  “Will he be there now?”

  “Doubtful. I’ve never known him to use it. His grandfather only built it to piss off the clans.”

  “If he’s there, will he be alone?”

  “Hell, no. He’ll have a whole hunting party with him. All shifters.”

  She frowned. “Wolfrum wouldn’t be stupid enough to go after the Ardrigh, would he?”

  “Fuck if I know. He’s your guy, not mine.”

  She glared, eyes flashing and cheeks flushed hotly. “Fuck you. I’m trying to help.”

  “If you were really trying—”

  “I explained why I didn’t tell you about the second ship. I was trying to save lives, including yours. And it’s not as if you’ve been forthcoming. You had a big fucking secret of your own.”

  “I had a damn good reason for keeping the existence of shifters a secret, which is proved by the fact that your people are here trying to cage us like animals!”

  “They are not my people!” She jumped to her feet, matching his glare. “I did everything I could to sabotage their mission. And if you’d told me the truth about your people,” she added, her voice rising along with her anger, “I’d have told you the truth about the other ship from the very beginning!”

  Aidan stared at her, breathing hard. He was furious…and more turned on by this woman than he’d ever been in his life. She was beautiful. Forget the weight she’d lost over the days of their trek through the swamp, forget the dirt on her cheek, and the blood on her arm. She was fierce and determined and spitting mad. And she had a point.

  He closed the distance between them with a single step, slipped an arm around her waist and tugged her against his chest. Her eyes widened in alarm and then heated with a desire that matched his own. They’d been building toward this for a long time, longer than she even knew. He lowered his head and kissed her.

  …

  Rachel didn’t know what to think. When he’d slung an arm around her and yanked her forward, she’d been alarmed. He was so much bigger than she was. He could easily overpower her, and even though she had a knife, she wasn’t sure she could use it on him. They’d been through too much together. But when her body collided with his, when her breasts were crushed against his hard chest…she looked up and saw the desire in his eyes and every sexual instinct she possessed came alive. The simmering hunger that had been building between them for days, stoked by every casual touch, every comforting embrace, burst into a raging flame.

  Aidan bent his head to kiss her, his mouth unexpectedly gentle, barely touching at first, a soft brush of lips. But when she rose up to meet him, his arm tightened, pulling her onto her toes as he claimed her mouth for his own, his lips firm and demanding, his tongue sliding between her teeth to explore every inch, twisting sensuously around her tongue and then pulling out to stab in and out in a way that caused an ache between her thighs. She lifted her arms around his neck, wanting more, feeling the firm press of his erection behind the thin fabric of his pants, wrapping one leg around his thigh to better rub herself against him, putting the hard length of him between her legs, right where she needed him.

  Aidan groaned against her mouth, his fingers digging into her lower back as he held her in place, his cock stroking between her thighs. Rachel grabbed the back of his tunic and pulled, wanting bare skin—

  Something heavy crashed onto the forest floor right next to them, so close that its fur brushed against Rachel’s bare arm. Aidan acted before she had a chance to figure out what it was, whipping her around and into the curve of his body, dropping them both to the ground as the trees above them shook as if a violent wind had dipped out of the sky. Debris rained down all around, dead leaves and branches, rock-hard berries that were stinging pellets against her hands where they clutched Aidan close.

  “What the fuck?” she asked, breathlessly.

  “Cebas,” Aidan said, laughter in his voice. “Paying us back for hunting and killing them these last few days.”

  “Fuckers.”

  He kissed her briefly, then sighed. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… This isn’t the time or place, sweetheart. We need to get out of this fucking swamp.”

  She echoed his sigh and brushed something wiggly from his shoulder, wondering what the hell she’d been thinking. Had she actually expected to have sex on this slimy, swampy hillside? “Hell,” she said grumpily, “one look at your naked butt and the swamp monster would climb this fucking hill to take a bite.”

  He laughed, his eyes more gold than blue as they caught a stray streak of sunshine. “Come on,” he said, jumping to his feet with a catlike grace that made a lot more sense now that she knew what he was. “Let’s climb this last bit of hillside and get some fresh air and real sunshine for a change. There’s a lively stream not too far from the top. The water’s cold, but there’s a good-sized pool that’s shallow enough to warm up a bit in the sunlight. We can get naked and wash off the muck.” He pulled her to her feet, yanked her against his body, and growled, “And finish what we started.” He kissed her hard and fast then set her on her feet, not letting go of her until she was steady. “You ready?” he asked.

  She snorted at the stupid question, patted his cheek, then grabbed her pack and started climbing.

  …

  It took the better part of the day to finally climb out of the rift, leaving the swamp and its treacherous slopes behind. Aidan would have liked another hour or two of sunshine before they stopped for the night. They were back in the Green itself, which meant the foliage was increasingly thick and the canopy similarly dense. It also meant that before long he’d be able to send a warning to Rhodry and the other cousins using the trees’ song. The song wasn’t a message line. He wouldn’t be able to go into detail. But he could alert them to the existence of danger, and they were smart enough to make the connection between the invaders and a new threat. Especially since he was the one ringing the alarm. They all knew he was with Rachel, the woman from the ship.

  His thoughts were interrupted by Rachel’s curse when her foot caught on something in the nearly lightless night. He could operate just fine with the minimal glow from Banba, the smallest and most distant of Harp’s moons. But Rachel couldn’t. Even with him taking the lead, forging a trail through the thick brush and cutting away thick vines that blocked their path, her steps had grown slower and more cautious as the sky darkened. In the end, there was no point in pushing it. They were both exhausted after more than a week of daily fights with swamp dwellers, tasteless meals, and too little sleep. It made more sense to stop early enough to have a decent meal and make a comfortable camp.

  “Can you smell it, Rachel?” he asked, turning his head slightly so she could hear him without the need to raise his voice. The Green might be better than the swamp, but it was still a dangerous place. If he’d been alone, he’d have climbed a tree and fuck anyone or anything that tried to stop him. But he wasn’t taking any chances with Rachel along. It was better not to draw unnecessary attention to two weary travelers.

  She inhaled softly in response to his question and surprised him by saying, “Moving water.”

  He grinned, oddly proud of her skill in the wild. As if he’d had anything at all to do with it. “It’s a very small branch of the Leeward Stream,” he confirmed.

  “Is that the main east/west river?”

  “‘Main’ is a relative term. It’s not all that big. Nothing like the rivers you have on Earth, but it doesn’t need to be. There aren’t that many of us. It’s run-off from the glacier, as much underground as not. By the time it hits the center of the Green, it runs as low as two feet and as high as eight, depending on the season, until it’s finally swallowed up by the southern desert. What you’re smelling now is one of the irregular creeks that feed the swamp. It’s running high right now, which is good for us. Within a
month, it’ll be mostly mud.”

  “Will we reach it in time to wash up before sunset?”

  For the first time, he caught a tired note in her question. Despite his misgivings about Rachel’s fitness for travel through the Green, he had to admit she’d done better than most Harp natives. She couldn’t match his skill, but she didn’t have his inborn advantages. It helped to be able to turn into a giant hunting cat. And then there was the Green, which was once again a steady and soothing song in his head, now that they’d climbed out of that damn rift. Someday, not in his lifetime, the Green would conquer the swamp, and even the swamp monster would be happier.

  “With luck, we’ll not only wash up, but we should be able to catch our dinner. There’s always a stray silver or five who gets confused and ends up in the wrong creek. How good are you at cleaning fish?”

  She snorted. “I’m assuming silvers are fish, or fish-like. As long as I get to eat it, I can clean and cook anything.”

  “You cook?”

  She laughed. “Don’t sound so excited. I cook over a campfire. Back home, my parents’ cook fixes care packages for me. All I have to do is heat them up.”

  “It’s not so different here. When I’m in Clanhome, I eat mostly in Devlin house. We shifters provide the meat, others prepare the meals.”

  “Devlin house?”

  “Our clan house. Devlin is the largest of the clans, but we’re sworn to de Mendoza, which is our oldest clan. The head of de Mendoza is the leader of all Clanhome. My cousin Rhodry is the current de Mendoza. He comes to it from his mother’s side. His father was a Devlin.”

  “His father’s dead?”

  “Aye. An accident when Rhodry was just a lad. He and his mother moved into Devlin house after that, even though her father was still the de Mendoza and still alive. Mean bastard of an old man.”

  “And your parents?”

  “Alive and well, as are my five sisters, two brothers, and more cousins than I can count. No one crosses the Devlins. We’re a tight bunch, and there’s a lot of us.”

  “Are you all shifters?”

  “Most of the lads.”

  She caught up and pulled him to a stop. “None of the women?” she asked, looking up at him curiously.

  He tipped his head to one side, thinking. Since she knew shifters existed, which was Harp’s biggest secret, was there any reason not to tell her that the trait was sex-linked? Rachel wasn’t stupid. She’d figure it out for herself once she reached Clanhome, where she’d be surrounded by shifters. She was bound to notice they were all male, so he might as well tell her. He scowled at the sudden image of Rachel surrounded by his many alpha male cousins.

  “The trait is sex-linked,” he told her. “A shifter’s sons will always be shifters. His daughters won’t even carry the gene.”

  “Really?” She turned and started walking again. “I wonder how the founding colonists worked that out.”

  “I don’t think anyone knows. The records were destroyed.”

  “So you said. I’m not sure I believe you, but that’s all right. Harp’s entitled to her secrets.”

  He caught up and wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting her off her feet a moment before she would have kicked a zillah nest, nearly invisible in the twilight of dusk.

  “What?” she asked, then looked down. “What the hell is that?”

  “Zillah lizard. They burrow into the ground for their nests. Our footsteps stirred them up.”

  “Are they poisonous?”

  “No, just disgusting once they reproduce.”

  “Huh. You can put me down now.”

  Aidan blinked in surprise and set her on her feet, carefully away from the zillah. He hadn’t been consciously aware that he was still holding her. “There’s a good spot about thirty feet that way,” he said, guiding her to the left of their path. “You can’t see it from here, but the bathing pool I told you about is there, and at the bend in the creek, you can usually snag some silvers. Use your flashlight.”

  “It won’t hurt your night vision?”

  “I’m not that delicate.”

  She gave a breathy laugh as if she didn’t believe him, but dug out her small LED light and turned it on, aiming it just ahead of her feet. Aidan followed slowly, drinking in the song of the trees like a man who’d been dying of thirst. It was something he’d never been without, a call he’d first heard in his mother’s womb. He listened now, reaching far beyond their current location, searching for any hint that the second ship had attacked the Green, certain the trees’ agony would carry to every shifter on the planet.

  He found nothing, which meant there was still time to stop Wolfrum from carrying out his sick plans. He glanced ahead to where Rachel had found the camping spot he’d indicated. She’d already dropped her pack and was sitting on the ground untying her boots. His awareness already mingled with that of the trees, he reached out, searching for some sign of his cousins, or any shifter, really. He found no one, but sent the warning anyway, hoping someone would be close enough to hear it.

  “God, that feels good.”

  He turned his head at the sound of Rachel’s quiet exclamation, watching as she tugged off her socks and began rubbing her feet.

  “I hope you’re right about this place,” she called softly, without looking up. “If I wake up with disgusting bugs in my boots, I’m dumping them on your head.”

  Aidan laughed as he walked closer to where she sat. “I’ll be your—” The breath ran out of him as she pulled her shirt off over her head then stood and shimmied out her pants and panties in a single move. Her bra followed, joining the pile of clothes on top of her pack. She was gorgeous—her body long and sleek with muscle, her ass a round temptation, her full breasts tipped with dark nipples that puckered in the night air like rosy berries waiting to be bitten. He stared wordlessly until she shot him a glance over her shoulder.

  “I thought shifters didn’t have a problem with nudity.”

  Aidan’s heart kicked back into action at the challenge in her words. “We don’t.” He stripped off his tunic and reached for the tie on his pants, only to pause again as he watched her step slowly into the bathing pool, his shifter eyes seeing every delicious detail as the water lapped over her legs, her ass, dripping off her breasts as she ducked under and then sat on a rocky ledge beneath the water and gave a pleasured sigh.

  Aidan cleared his throat softly and reminded himself that he was the charming cousin, the one who had plenty of experience with women. Dropping his pants and kicking off the soft boots, he closed the distance to the pool. His vanity demanded he hesitate on the edge long enough to catch Rachel’s admiring scan of his body, her gaze sliding up over his hips and chest, then dropping back down to where his penis jutted hard and heavy between his legs. His cock jerked to attention, reacting to the hunger in her face. Her gaze shot up to meet his, and he had to fight back a groan when she licked her lips nervously.

  “Fuck me,” he whispered and stepped down into the pool

  Rachel’s gaze was still locked on his face. “Okay,” she whispered back.

  Aidan dropped to the deepest part of the pool then reached out and snagged her around the waist, pulling her off the ledge and into his arms. “You weren’t supposed to hear that,” he grumbled.

  She laughed. “Does that mean the invitation doesn’t stand?”

  “Hell, no.” He kissed her then. Not a promise for the future kind of a kiss, like he’d given her before. This was passion and lust and demand. He crushed her lips against his, feeling her breasts against his naked chest, those lushly hard nipples scraping his skin like twin pebbles. He dropped a hand down to the swell of her ass and pressed her naked body against him, rubbing his cock between her legs, feeling the heat of her pussy despite the cool water. “Rachel…” It was the last warning he was going to give her.

  “Yes,” she whispered. She slid her arms around his neck, and her thighs opened as she wrapped her legs around his hips.

  “Damn.” Aidan had fuck
ed a lot of women. Sex was accepted on Harp, even encouraged among young people. But it had never felt like this. He slid his cock into Rachel’s body and couldn’t hold back a groan of pleasure. She was hot and slick and tight, her sheath gripping his length, caressing it with intimate ripples. He pushed deep inside her, not stopping until he was fully buried in her delicious heat. He held there a moment, relishing the sensation, and then began to move, one hand palming her firm ass, holding her in place as his cock glided in and out on the satiny cream of her arousal. He bit hard on her lower lip, drinking in her small cry of desire as his lips traveled over her jaw and down to her neck. He bit her again, branding her, sucking her skin between his lips until he was certain he’d leave a mark, and then licking his way back to her mouth.

  “Bastard,” she muttered, biting his lips before he could kiss her.

  “What?” he asked, pretending innocence as his cock continued to thrust in and out, never stopping its rhythm.

  She smiled against his lips, then shifted one of her legs higher on his hips, holding him more tightly, meeting every thrust of his cock with one of her own, their bodies grinding against each other with every hungry plunge. Her sweet mouth trailed over his jaw with tiny bites, her teeth closing teasingly over the lobe of his ear, then gliding down to his neck where she licked and kissed in time with the press of her hips, lulling him into a sensuous rhythm until her teeth closed down hard over the pulse point in his neck.

  Several things happened at once.

  His cock bucked hard at the erotic pain, feeling the pulsing pleasure of his climax building in his balls, even as Rachel moaned softly.

  “Aidan,” she whispered and pressed herself against him as her pussy flooded with juices. Her whisper became a desperate cry as her body clamped down hard, squeezing and releasing his cock, like a thousand tiny fingers massaging him, caressing him, pulling him deeper into the seductive heat of her body. Her cries became more frantic as his thrusts sped up, his own climax an overwhelming pressure as he continued to fuck her, loving the feel of her slick tissues, not wanting it to end.