I smiled and held out my hands, just as I’d done when we’d been in our physical forms. “Take my hands and find out.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off her trembling fingers as they inched toward mine. Just a little farther, and our union as mates would be complete. Sparks winked between our fingers, and after one last searching look at me, she lowered her hands until our skin met.
And the universe exploded.
18
ARLYNN
Purple spirals of light swirled around flashes of orange lightning as I tumbled upside down, inside out, and every other way possible, until the warmth of Thrane’s rough hands brought me back to him. Before me stood my lover, my alpha, my mate. I nearly went spinning off into eternity at the realization, but Thrane grounded me — as grounded as we could be in our minds.
“You knew?” I asked, returning his goofy grin. “You knew all this time, and didn’t tell me?”
“I only realized it myself when we made love last night. Before that, I was as oblivious as you.”
“Thanks a lot!” I slapped his arm gently, then snuggled into his embrace and rested my cheek against his impossibly ripped chest. “I love you so much it hurts. Is that normal?”
“I don’t know, but I feel the same.” He wrapped his arms tight around me, and I hoped he’d never let go.
My body thrummed against his, silently begging him to take me right there in our minds. I had no idea how that would work — us not having real bodies and all — but I wanted it nonetheless.
“Claim me,” I whispered, my voice hoarse with desire.
“May the gods have mercy on me,” he replied, pushing me away, while still holding tight to my arms. His fangs had elongated slightly, which only made my core throb harder. “You have no idea how much I want that, my darling Arlynn, but we have a mission, and we must not fail our tribemates.”
A bucket of cold water couldn’t have switched off my desire any quicker. The idea of seeing a Terran general face-to-face — even if he couldn’t see me — drove any sexual thought from my brain.
“I’m scared, Thrane.” Never in a million years, would I have imagined voicing my deepest fear to him, but instinct knew better than my brain, it seemed.
“Shh, my love,” he whispered, stroking my hair until my trembling subsided. “I will never allow harm to come to you. Never.”
I craned my neck back and gazed into his flaming eyes. “Nor I you. And I have a feeling we’ll be ten times stronger together than apart. No, make that a thousand times.”
“Are you ready to put that to the test?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I pulled back and grasped both of his hands. “Let’s do this.”
The words had barely left my lips, before we were standing in Thrane’s old command center, watching as a burly, middle-aged Terran ordered his troops to prepare for a nighttime raid on the Valley village. Thrane tensed next to me, pissed off knowing a Terran sat in his chair.
Strange how I didn’t think that’s how he felt…I simply knew how he felt. This fated mate thing was proving to be very interesting.
“What do you want us to do with the women and children, General Hawking?” A subordinate stood before the general, head bowed, as if the man was his king.
“How many times do I have to tell you morons!” Hawking shouted. “Kill them all!”
“Even…even the children, sir? You want—”
“Out!” Hawking jabbed a finger at the door. “Get out of my sight and don’t come back until you understand what we’re doing here!”
“Yessir!”
After the man and his aides scurried out of the very hut Thrane had changed me into a Warg, General Hawking turned to a tall, older man standing guard next to his seat. “Where do these jackasses come from, Martin?”
“Tooibas, mostly. Would you like me to have him executed, sir?”
I gasped at the comment, but neither man looked our way. As I suspected, they couldn’t see or hear us. I breathed a sigh of relief…quietly.
The general thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “No, we’ll need every man we can spare. By all accounts, the mutants are vicious in hand-to-hand combat and we’ll need an expendable front line. Make sure that idiot and all his men are on it.”
“Yessir. Anything else?” Hawking’s second sounded almost robotic, as if none of this mattered to him in the slightest.
“Make sure everyone gets a photogram of Penelope so they know what she looks like. If one of our men so much as touches her, the grumpuses will eat well tonight. I’ll even flay the man myself!”
“And the other two, sir?”
Hawking shrugged his indifference about their fate.
“Who’s Penelope?” Thrane asked quietly, even though we both knew no one could hear us.
“I’m not sure, but it has to be one of our friends from the Center.”
“Why does he want one alive, but not the others?”
“I have no idea, but it can’t be good.”
Martin whispered a command to a young soldier standing next to him, who then hurried out of the hut. Thrane shot me a questioning look, and I knew exactly what he was silently asking. Oh hell yeah! I definitely wanted to try to read that motherfucker’s mind. If anyone would be able to, it was the two of us.
Instinct took over, and I allowed my eyes to fall shut. Thrane’s fingers clasped mine and squeezed. I squeezed back even harder, until the pain of our cracking knuckles pushed us into the general’s mind like a strong gust of wind. The moment I opened my eyes, I wished I hadn’t.
I was assaulted by horrifying images flashing through our collective mind, but I could do nothing to stop them: the severed heads of Warg beasts jammed onto spikes; men and women lying motionless in the dirt, blood pooling around them; whelps running to their dead parents, screaming for them to wake up, only to be cut down by the orange flash of a laser gun.
Sobs wracked my body as I witnessed the brutality General Hawking fantasized about. Thrane’s fingers tightened around mine, and I focused on that, on our eternal and unbreakable love. His strength was my strength, and I greedily drank in as much as I could. One day soon, he would do the same, and the thought comforted me.
Together, we prowled around Hawking’s brain, sniffing out every facet of his plan of attack, even the secret details he’d told no one else. Ouma had told the alphas their new powers wouldn’t allow them to read minds, yet here we were.
Earlier, Markon had related to us his conversation with the old woman, who’d told him more about his and Nat’s feelings than either of them consciously knew. How? Because she had the power Thrane and I could only harness when linked together. I held no illusions we were as powerful as the ancient prophetess, but pride swelled in me that my mate and I shared such an amazing talent.
But now, bile rose in my throat at the onslaught of murderous fantasies bouncing around in Hawking’s brain, and in the blink of an eye, we found ourselves standing in front of him, his horrifying thoughts hidden from us again. Thrane must have sensed my distress and shielded me as soon as we’d found all the information we needed to protect the tribe. I couldn’t wait to get out of there, but before we could return to our bodies, Martin leaned in close to the general.
“Sir, I have but one request.”
Hawking narrowed his eyes with suspicion. “Spit it out, man.”
“Allow me the honor of devouring the heart of the beast who killed my nephew.”
Hawking’s expression softened, and he patted his second’s shoulder. “That I promise you, Martin. If anyone should avenge him, it should be you. Hank was a good man.”
Bubblyflesh would have sprouted all over my body, if I’d had a real body in that place. I’d witnessed Hank’s gory death at the hands — or rather, claws — of my sister, Sienna. He’d been trying to abduct Natalie, and had looked as if he’d had every intention of raping her as soon as he could. Sienna had shown no mercy in protecting one of her own, and though I’d turned my head
away from the violence, I couldn’t have been prouder of her.
“Let’s go back,” Thrane said, tugging on my hand.
“Wait,” I whispered back. “One more thing.”
I gathered up every ounce of focus I had, plus some from Thrane, and shot it at Hawking. Almost before I could finish sending the command, the general’s finger was buried so far up his nose, he probably found what little remained of his brain. Martin looked disgusted; Thrane looked thrilled.
“I love you with the power of all the stars in the galaxy,” he said, grinning at me.
I grinned back. “Ditto”
19
THRANE
“So we’re agreed?” Solan asked. “Markon and I will stay behind to protect the village, just in case you…?”
He didn’t need to finish. Ignoring Solan’s implication, I turned to the group of seers.
“I need four volunteers to come with me. I can’t promise all of us will return; I can’t promise any of us will return. This is a dangerous assignment, and we must be prepared to die for our people.”
“I’ll go.” Arlynn stepped forward with a confidence I never saw in her before. It filled me with pride, and chilled me to the bone at the same time.
“No. You’ll remain in the village.” I turned to the others. “Who else?”
Arlynn moved directly in front of me and jammed her fists onto her lovely, curvy, delicious hips. “Don’t you dare dismiss me like that, Thrane. I’m your mate, and I won’t stand for it!”
When Arlynn and I had returned to our bodies after tapping into the general’s mind, we’d both had to struggle to maintain our cool. I had sensed the heated urgency mixing with confusion inside her, and I knew she could smell my own need for her.
Despite her words during our mission, she needed time to adjust and accept her new reality. She’d been fighting fate ever since I’d given her the transformational bite. After believing she’d never find a mate — and blaming me for it all the while — she’d suddenly not only discovered her fated, but he’d turned out to be the last man on Thracos she’d expected…or wanted.
I accepted my part in that — antagonizing her had seemed fun at the time, but now, I cursed myself for giving her so many reasons to hate me. As we’d sat next to each other and reported what we’d seen, I’d vowed to let her take all the time she needed to fully accept me as her mate, but she made it tough.
In a moment when all eyes had been on Markon, she’d leaned in toward me, a fraction of an inch, and drove me nearly insane with lust. My body had yearned to take her right there — audience be damned! — and prove to her once again I was her fated, but the survival of our entire tribe depended on defeating the Terrans.
So I’d fought my own instincts, wondering how long it would take her to fall head over heels in love with me. Now, as she stood before me — a red-and-purple-headed spitfire, claiming me as her mate for the world to hear — my beast growled to be set free to show her what her mate could really do for her.
At Arlynn’s admission, several gasps rose up from the small crowd, and Solan and Markon exchanged amused smiles as if they’d somehow known all along. How could they possibly have known before we did?
Because you’re an idiot who made your own woman hate you. I couldn’t argue with that, but I could argue with Arlynn.
“Arlynn,” I said, leveling a cool and commanding gaze at her, “I’m not dismissing you. I’m dismissing your ridiculous idea. Now, who else?”
“Why is it so ridiculous?” she insisted, moving to remain the center of my attention. “Next to you, I’m the strongest seer here.”
I shook my head and avoided meeting her eyes. “Too risky.”
“This isn’t the old days, Thrane. You can’t just lock away the women to protect them. You know as well as I do, General Hawking has no intention of leaving any survivors.”
Fuck! I felt no satisfaction or release from using the word this time.
“She’s right, big brother.” Great, now Markon was siding against me…again! “You agreed to train the females to fight, not just defend themselves, in case we all needed to join in a battle against the Terrans.”
“Exactly!” Arlynn continued, pink passion spots forming high on her pretty, round face. “Maybe I was a slow learner, but you convinced me there are times we must fight. After discovering what the general has planned, I know that time is now. Furthermore, you know it too.”
I raked a hand through my unruly hair. No leader liked to be contradicted, especially by his mate, but it was all the more painful when she used your own words against you.
“Arlynn, listen—”
“No, you listen, love of my life, life of my love. We’re stronger together, and you know it. Could your plan be successful without me? Quite possibly. But with me, it’s almost a certainty. What idiot wouldn’t take those odds?”
I gaped at her for a moment, utterly speechless, which was so unlike me. But she brought out a different part of me, one I’d never known existed. I found myself pulling her into my arms and smiling down at her.
“You make a compelling case,” I said, before dropping a kiss on her forehead. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, I looked around the room as if I hadn’t just kissed a woman in front of them.
“Who else will join us in defeating the Terrans? I need three more.”
Six hands shot up.
Ten minutes later, I briefed my hand-picked squad of bad-ass seers. “Arlynn and I saw what the Terran general has planned, which is useful for Solan and Markon, in the unlikely event we fail. But we saw something else while we were poking around his mind.”
Arlynn took over. “Every evening after sundown, right at twilight, Hawking walks the perimeter of the Hill village.”
“He’s expecting us to attack?” asked Simpar, the young guard I’d been personally training. “We didn’t even know he was up there.”
“No, I didn’t get that vibe,” Arlynn explained. “I think he simply likes to gloat. He struts around like he’s king of the Hill or something.”
A couple of seers glanced at me nervously, and I realized I was grinding my teeth. I hated Terrans enough as it was, but to have one sitting in a Warg seat of power? My seat of power? No. That I couldn’t abide.
“So we’re going to kill him on his nightly walk?”
“No!”
I cast a surprised glance at Arlynn’s outburst. “We aren’t?”
“No,” she said more calmly. “The idea is to capture him, so we can negotiate a more permanent truce. Right, Thrane? Thrane?”
I gave a noncommittal shrug and let her continue explaining the plan to the new recruits, but if that asshole lifted a finger toward my mate, he’d find himself missing his entire arm…and probably his head.
“He won’t be alone,” Arlynn continued. “He usually takes two guards with him, in case a grumpus or some forest rats are prowling around. Regardless, we should be able to easily take them down — without killing them — before they sound the alarm.”
Simpar looked worried. “Do you think they’ll have those laser blaster things again?”
He’d been in the meadow during the battle with the Terrans, and had watched several of his tribemates be cut down by the wicked orange beam. Even as worried as he looked, I refused to coddle him. We all lost friends that day.
“Yes.”
He sat silent for a moment, then took a bracing lungful of air and nodded. “Okay.”
I couldn’t have been prouder of my little squad than if we’d already captured the asshole. “Good, then let’s go.”
“Now?” Simpar asked in surprise.
Arlynn gave him a soft, yet penetrating look. “They’re planning to raid the village an hour before dawn. It’s today or never.”
He nodded somberly. They all nodded somberly, as if their fates were sealed. I refused to believe that, and they needed to as well. I pulled myself to my full height and roared into the rafters of the meeting hall, startling everyone in the
room…and probably anyone else within a mile.
“Let’s go kick some Terran ass!”
My team roared back.
20
ARLYNN
Never had the purple of the forest looked so…purple. Even the black and dark greens were brighter. Orange widow spiders stood out like orangefruit in the trees, and their hideous yellow eyes blazed like the sun. Since discovering Thrane was my fated, the world had seemed almost neon. I felt like a young girl experiencing her first crush, only my feelings ran so much deeper than that. They ran through my very essence.
I practically skipped along as we passed the Grandmother Tree, then Ouma’s moss-covered log cabin. She stood in the doorway, grinning that toothless grin of hers, and called out, “Elders be with you!”
“Thank you, Ouma!” I waved merrily, and caught Thrane shaking his head in disapproval. “What?”
“Nothing, my love,” he said carefully.
My heart ached for him a little. The poor guy had spent so long making my life hell — and making me hate him in the process — that he now seemed to be swinging too hard the other way and treating me like a delicate flower. If there was one thing I wasn’t, it was a delicate flower.
Pulling him back as the others moved ahead of us, I looked up at him. “Thrane, stop.”
“Stop what?” He pretended to be confused, but I knew exactly how smart he was.
“Stop deferring to me like that. You’ve been doing it since I insisted on coming along, and don’t for a minute think I don’t know why. You may be smart, but so am I…if only in a different way. I know you’re trying to give me reasons to love you, but you can also tell me what’s bugging you.”
His eyes flashed, but he wouldn’t admit the truth I saw in them. Pulling his arms around me, I snuggled into him and gazed up into his rugged face. “I already love you. I’ve always loved you, even when I tried to tell myself I didn’t. We don’t have to agree on everything for me to love you. I will always love you. No matter what.”
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