by Laney Kaye
I rubbed my face, knowing I’d have to compartmentalize my grief. Pull it out when I was alone later and could truly break down. Right now, I needed to be strong. For both me and my sister.
Rushing into my tiny bathroom—really, it was just a sink and a toilet, since the four residents of this small building shared a single shower room down the hall—I did my teeth, combed my hair and pulled it up in a hasty ponytail. Then dressed in clean clothing.
Herc waited for me by the door. Before he opened it, he leaned down and kissed me.
I wrapped my arms around him. “I wish we had more time.” What would it be like to get naked and tumble onto the bed with Herc? Despite my overwhelming sorrow, my spine tingled, and heat coiled inside me.
“All I need is for you to tell me when you’re ready.”
His voice was slow and serious, his eyes boring into me, as though his words held a double meaning, but I couldn’t figure it out. Didn’t have time to figure it out, either. My com buzzed, reminding me the medical staff needed me. I snatched up my medical bag so I could refill it at the center later, and then pulled open the door.
I stepped outside, running into Commander Smithton.
His face contorted with instant anger but cleared when he saw it was me. “Ah, Maya. I was looking for you.”
“I don’t have time to talk.” Tapping my com, I tried to walk around him, but he blocked my way.
“I believe I have something that might persuade…” His gaze traveled over my shoulder, to where Herc must’ve appeared in the doorway. The C.O. scowled. “I see,” he said with utter distaste. “So that’s how things are for you, now? You taint your body by fucking a creature like that?”
I wasn’t fucking Herc—yet—but that was none of Smithton’s damn business. If I had claws like a shifter, I’d rip the C.O. apart.
I shoved him, making him stumble away from me. Wished he’d landed in the dirt.
Murderer.
“At least Herc doesn’t need to dope me with moodar,” I shouted. “I give myself willingly to him.”
Chapter Nine
Herc
I watched as Maya strode along the alley. Any other woman might’ve run to escape the commander, but not my Maya. Instead, she’d shoved past Smithton, showing no fear, only disdain.
Neither of those were the emotions I intended to show him, though.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Something you need, Commander?” Damn, but I wanted to shove the bastard, too. Right through the sirdar wall on the opposite side of the narrow alley. But I’d have to play it cool, for now. Before I showed my hand, I needed to find out exactly what was going on here, what the full story was with the Regime and the Resistance.
Just because I loved—yeah, I totally went there. No point denying it, that kiss had formed the second bond and meshed our hearts, though I’d already been halfway there. But just because I loved Maya, didn’t mean I had to blindly believe her. Experiences and beliefs differ and, no matter how closely someone tries to stick to the facts, perception is king and a lie is often only a tiny distortion of the truth.
I owed it to my guys to make sure we had possession of all the facts before we made a move. Not that I for one second regretted helping the prisoners escape. There’d been women and children in those cells, for fuck’s sake.
Maya’s twin sister.
The hair along my forearms prickled, warning that I was allowing emotion to get the better of me, which would spiral me into an uncontrolled shift. I could do with Jag here, to talk some sense into me and calm me down a bit.
Because this slimy piece of Median filth was beginning to look pretty damn tasty.
Smithton moved from one foot to the other, licking at his lips nervously. “Get your team out in the desert to search for those filthy rebels. There have to be some that are injured, so there’ll be a trail for you to follow. Thought you were supposed to be so damn good at this stuff? Can’t say I’m seeing any kind of return for our money. You should’ve been out last night not…not…” he gestured at the room behind me, then flapped a hand at my naked chest.
“Spike’s already on it. He’ll report in later.” Lucky Spike’d had the foresight to head out with the escapees.
No, that wasn’t right. With Spike, it wouldn’t have been a calculated plan that drew him into the desert. He’d have been caught up in the moment, lusting for excitement and adventure. Normally I’d have to tear strips off him, bring him back into line, but this time his irresponsibility had done me a solid.
“Why only one of you? I tell you, my hide’s on the line. How the hell am I supposed to explain to General Tennant that the Regime’s sampl—prisoners have escaped? Every last goddamn one.”
“Samples?”
Smithton pursed his lips tightly, as though he could hold in any more inadvertent slips.
“What the hell do you mean, ‘samples’? Just what is going on over in the eastern quadrant?”
“That’s hardly any of your concern, mercenary. You get paid for your job. How about you bloody well do it?”
“Yeah, I get paid for my job, Commander. But you’d better believe I’m going to be checking the fine print on that contract today. Chasing down insurgents is one thing, but you had women and children in those cells.”
Smithton straightened, his bulbous eyes flickering with interest. “Ah, yes, women and children. I hear you weren’t too picky about which you dined on last night, though, were you? Have a bit of a taste for the soft flesh, do you?”
The gorge rose in my throat at the memory of what I’d been forced to do. To hide my weakness, I growled. “You know, once a Ligerkin gets a taste of an off-worlder, it’s like a drug. Doesn’t matter whether it was a Glian, a Harangan, whatever. We start craving. What’ll be next, where will we get a new fix?” I knocked my knuckles against my head, deliberately making my eyes huge. “It’s in our heads, driving us wild. The blood calls to us, and we need something different, a harder hit. Something new, something to feed that insatiable desire we’ve woken. Perhaps a morsel of Median would take the edge off my hunger?” I stalked toward him as I spoke. Smithton backed away, his throat bobbing frantically as he came up hard against the sirdar wall. Idiot. If he’d done his research he’d know that, although the bloodlust and the urge to hunt could never be bred out, Felidaekin hadn’t eaten any form of humanoid for three generations.
Right on cue, my gut rumbled, though it was more a response to the smell of fried beetric steaks coming from the sleaze-easy down the street, than because of Smithton’s presence. I’d slept little the previous night, excruciatingly aware of Maya’s soft, slight form curled against me, the occasional whimper or moan as she relived her waking nightmare. Now my stomach decided it’d waited long enough to be fed.
A door banged open further up the alley, and Smithton seemed to collect himself, braver in company. He straightened and tugged the bottom of his tunic into place.
Before he tried to gain the upper hand, which would necessitate me swatting him back into place, I thrust my face into his. “In answer to your question, Commander, yes I do have a taste for the sweet meat. Which reminds me, in light of our conversation on your balcony yesterday, exactly what in the seven hells are you doing at Maya’s door?”
“She’s my employee. I have a right to be here.”
“She’s mine.” I snarled the word, allowing my incisors to show. He’d have no doubt what I meant. Maya was completely mine.
He feigned unconcern, though the hand he flapped at me trembled. “I wanted her at the med center. And now she’s there.”
Seriously, the dick was trying to make it sound as though Maya had obeyed him? Oh, hells, no. I slammed one hand onto the wall above his head.
My com blipped. I pressed it to allow the connection.
“Herc?” Jag’s voice. Had to hand it to him, even without being present, he had an uncanny ability to stop me going off the deep end.
“Yeah. What’s up?”
“Khal’s got
breakfast on. If you’re planning on surfacing at all today, that is. We should talk. Work out—”
“Be right there.” I cut him off before Smithton could listen in. But Jag’s interruption gave me a second to think, to regain control of myself before I could do any further damage to our position here. What had happened to my plan to hear out the details of both sides of this war?
Oh, yeah, right.
The kiss had happened. Or, more importantly, Maya had happened.
I could tell myself that I’d be mature and impartial and objective and whatever the hell else I should be, but in truth, all I wanted was to protect my woman.
And if that meant killing this bastard without hearing his side, I couldn’t give an armatote’s ass.
Curling my fingers into a fist, I reluctantly stepped back, my shadow moving from Smithton’s face. “I’ll let you know when Spike reports in.” Let him know whatever beetric shit I cared to make up, that was.
Smithton adjusted the silver lariat around his throat. The two ends threaded through a trio of concentric circles that represented Media, Harang and the largest planet, Glia. The emblem was embossed on our uniforms, yet I’d never seen it for what it was; a map of the Regime’s conquests. “See that you do.”
My fingers twitched, but I turned back into the housing block to grab my shirt, rather than help him tighten the lariat.
Khal loaded up the plate I held out, filling it with scrambled turgurken eggs and beetric sliced so thin it was transparent, then fried to crisp saltiness.
Jag and Leo already sat at the table in our communal kitchen area. As I took my seat, Khal also dropped down. Then all three of the jerks stared at me. Not eating. Not talking. Just staring.
“What?” I growled as I shoveled the eggs into my mouth.
Khal grinned. Bastard had been waiting for an in. “We took bets on how much you’d eat.”
“Why’s that?”
“Figured you’d have worked up an appetite.”
I’d kind of hoped they’d let the subject of Maya drop, but it wasn’t going to happen. “You figured wrong.” I pushed my plate away to prove my point, then rethought the move. No reason I should starve.
Jag shook his head solemnly. “You might want to take it easy there, Cap.”
Leo snorted, swiped a hand across his mouth to hide a smirk, and then started on his own food.
Obviously, I was being set up. My fork smacked against the table. “Okay. I’ll bite. Why would I want to take it easy?”
Jag waved his knife at my plate, then up and down my form. “Just that you’re already…not small. And we kind of noticed that Maya’s…not big. So, you probably don’t want to be doing any…uh…growing, Cap.”
Leo spluttered into his cup of cava coffee. “Reckon he’s going to be growing, all right.”
Aw, hell no. “Even you, Leo?”
He shook his head, not looking the least repentant. “Sorry, man. When an opportunity’s that much in your face, it’s too good to miss.”
“Reckon that’s the principle Herc’s operating on, right Cap?” Khal sniggered.
No amount of shit stirring could bring me down, today. “You’ve got until I finish my cava, then I’m out of here.” None of the guys had ever bonded, so it figured they were going to be all up in my business.
“What’s the rush? The little she-cat waiting for you?”
“That the best you’ve got, Jag? Actually, she’s at work, but I need to head over to the eastern quadrant.”
Khal topped up my mug. “I just bet you do.”
Sure, it didn’t hurt that the med center, and Maya, were on that side of the compound, but I did have a pressing reason for going there. “I counted the heartbeats in the prison complex last night. When the rebels fled, there were two unaccounted for.” I’d been up all night stewing on it. Well, I’d been up all night, anyway, but puzzling at it had helped keep my mind—and paws—off the warm body spooned in against mine. Interrupted my wishes that Maya would wake and initiate the third bond I desperately craved. “I didn’t have time to search the area, because the Glian troops mobbed the place.”
“Yeah, once they knew it was safe,” Leo cut in. “Legends in their own lunchtime.”
“Pretty much. Anyway, if I’d sniffed out the rebels then, I’d have been signing their death warrants.”
Jag stirred a bucket load of sweet into his cava. “Do we know for sure that there’s a reason we shouldn’t be doing that?”
“What, you need more than the fact that the Regime had women and kids in there?” The image of the dead boy, Brand, flashed before my eyes, and my words came out on a snarl.
Leo stood, put his plate on the counter, and dropped a heavy hand on my shoulder. “No one’s doubting your call, Cap. Just fill us in on what you want us to do.”
I took a deep breath. Desertion wasn’t something to be taken lightly, and I owed it to the guys to be balanced. If we walked away from this contract, we walked away from our home planet. There’d be a warrant out for our arrest and worse, a bounty on our heads that’d send hunters across the void searching for us. “Look, I’m leaning toward believing Maya, but obviously my loyalty could be skewed.”
Khal opened his mouth, no doubt to say something smart, but Jag held up one hand to silence him as I continued. “Leo, I want you to pull up some data on the history of Media and Harang. Maya says the Regime basically raped those planets and intends to do the same here. Do a search on the last queen of Glia, too. See if you can find anything about a hostile coup.” Our techie, Leo would know how to access locked files via his vidcom.
I pushed my chair back from the table. “I’ll try to get a trace on the rebels that disappeared. Most likely they were injured and died before the escape.” In which case, I wanted to find them before Maya did. And I needed to make sure her sister’s body had been removed from the scene.
When I reached the eastern quadrant a few minutes later, there was no trace of the missing rebels. No heartbeats, no surreptitious breaths.
As there was also no sign of the bodies I’d dismembered—or of Brand’s blanket-covered form—the missing prisoners must’ve died and been carted off. Crews were already at work shoring-up the prison, so I headed over to the med center.
Maya’s eyes lit up when she saw me, but, other than that, she looked exhausted. I recognized the guilt in her gaze, too. Hell, every merc knows remorse. We live with it. But could she?
I pulled her to one side as a couple of white-uniformed guys pushed a wheeled stretcher down the brightly-lit corridor. My hands on her arms, I ran my palms lightly across her skin, trying to warm and reassure her at the same time.
The low-cut neck of her uniform had me plenty warm, despite the chill air-conditioning in the facility. “Sweetheart, you look about done in.”
“Suggesting I should go to bed already, are you?” She flashed me a teasing grin.
“You took the words right out of my mouth. But maybe you need some sleep, first. What time will you be done here?”
She puffed out her cheeks. “Probably another three or so hours, I guess. Luckily, there’s nothing serious. Minor burns, some contusions from flying debris. A crush injury from falling rubble. The bulk of the injuries—” She stopped herself. Because the worst of the injuries, and the only deaths, had been to her people. “Anyway, we don’t get to treat rebels, here.”
I bent to murmur in her ear. “Don’t worry. They’re well on their way to the caves by now.”
She drew a deep, shuddering breath. “Gods willing.”
Neither of us mentioned those who hadn’t made it through the fence.
Her brow furrowed in concern. “They have to get across the desert, though, Herc. The vipers—”
“Spike’ll keep your people safe.” Every second I spent with Maya cemented the course I’d take. I was done with my contract, and I didn’t need Leo’s research to validate my decision. But, as the guys didn’t get to look in Maya’s beautiful eyes, to see the light of integrity
that battled the weariness, it was important they discover the truth for themselves. I wanted them on my side, but, for Maya, I’d leave them if I had to.
I pressed my lips to her hair, breathing in her scent. Gods, I wanted to kiss her again, to drink her in, to lose myself in her taste. But it’d be as earth-shattering as the first time, so this wasn’t the place for it.
I’d need to find us somewhere soon, though. We only had seventy-two hours before the third bond had to be initiated. “I’ll come back for you in three hours, then?”
Maya shook her head. “No. I’ll meet you back at my place. Give me an extra half hour, though, okay?” She flushed a little. “I want to shower and…stuff…first.”
The thought of her in the shower about did for me. My cock surged to life, and I closed my teeth on her earlobe and tugged gently. “Or I could get there early, and we’ll share the water.”
“I thought cats didn’t like water?”
“I’m sure I can find a pussy that likes to be wet.”
She mewled, just like a cat, sagging against me. I sniffed deep, taking in the heady womanly aroma that instantly wreathed her.
Wearing a similar uniform to Maya’s, a woman with short, curly, dark hair appeared from a side room, and Maya pulled back. “The original appointment time will do fine, thank you.” She cut her eyes up at me teasingly, the tip of her tongue toying with her top lip.
If she stepped any further away from me right now, I was gonna be in trouble. Camo pants don’t do much to hold a guy in place.
Maya glanced down, her cheeks coloring as she saw my problem. She lifted an eyebrow. “I’ll give you something to relieve that swelling, captain.” Lust made her voice breathy.
“I figured you’d be able to take care of it.” She wasn’t helping the damn thing subside, but this teasing, basically public foreplay with the other nurse within earshot, was so damn hot, all I could think about was getting her hands on my cock again. I swayed against her, my erection nudging her belly.
She laughed, but stepped back, pulling her tunic straight. Which, of course, exposed more of the full globes of her breasts.
