Chapter Nine
General Seonaid buzzed his aide. Three quick stabs of his finger before the skinny Palito man scuttled through the door connecting their offices. His off-white eyes protruded and he couldn’t stand still or maintain a gaze. Buggy in appearance and behavior. Imbecile.
“Yes sir?” He saluted in the respectful way the general expected from his subordinates.
“Have you located Captain Seonaid?”
“No sir.”
The general tapped his fingers on his desktop and frowned. “Why not?”
“She’s not answering her com-circle, sir. No one has seen her on Dalcon, and she’s not at the resort where she was booked during her leave.”
The general tapped his fingers again, a loud drumroll of impatience. Damn the woman. She’d always been trouble, never did what was required of her. She always had to ask questions. Questions, questions, questions, until he lost patience.
“Take steps to track her via her chip,” the general barked.
“But sir, Captain Seonaid has been discharged from the military. It would be against the law to track her.”
“I’ll authorize it,” the general snarled.
“Sir, the reconnaissance department won’t do it straight away. They are working on the space pirates plaguing the north sector of the galaxy.”
The general picked up a glossy black-and-red stone, one mined on the planet Dalcon. He tossed it from hand to hand even as he narrowed his gaze on his aide. “You tell them to give this priority. Captain Seonaid must be found. She has a health condition and must enter the medical facility immediately.”
“Her records don’t state she suffers from a medical condition.”
Annoying bug. “She caught a virus during her last mission but refuses to accept she’s dying. We—my wife and sons—are worried about her.” The general lied without a qualm, even managed to squeeze his features into sadness.
“I’m sorry to hear that, sir. I’ll contact reconnaissance right now.”
The general sighed and set the black-and-red rock down on his desktop. It clicked loudly in the silence. “Thank you.”
The general waited until his aide exited the office and shut the connecting door behind him. He stood and made his way to the window, which overlooked the city and the palace in the distance. Only then did he allow a slow smile to curl his lips.
They would find Casey, and when they did, he’d get his way. He’d lose a daughter and gain a son, and that promotion would bear his name.
* * * * *
“We should go,” Casey said.
“Soon,” Felix replied with a lazy yawn. He rolled, pinning her beneath his weight. “I think we have time for a bit of canoodling.”
“Exactly what is canoodling?”
He grinned. No, it was more of a smirk.
“It means I get to kiss you some more and make love to you again.”
“But I need to get back to the resort.”
“Wrong answer,” he said and trailed a line of kisses down her jawline, down her throat, down to the spot where he’d bitten her at the height of passion last night. She expected pain because he’d bitten hard, but instead a surge of sensual energy flashed through her body.
She gulped and shuddered when his fingers traced across the same spot. Sensations ripped through her, too fast, too many to catalogue. Startled, she glanced at him, saw the way his eyes widened.
“What?”
“I…ah…” He gestured at her neck. “There’s a mark where I bit you. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“Of course there are teeth marks. You bit me. It doesn’t hurt though.”
Felix’s brows drew together, confusion and wonder combining on his face. “Can you see it?”
“No, not properly. Tell me, what is it?”
“There’s a…a tattoo where I bit you—a small black cat.” He fingered the spot, and a groan burst from her throat.
“Scurvy sky pirates,” she muttered. “Every time you stroke me there, I feel it down here.” She cupped her sex.
“Works for me,” he said, his slow smile making her want to grin in return.
He linked their fingers and nuzzled her neck, taking tiny bites from her throat. The instant his mouth came into contact with the spot, she sucked in a wildly excited breath. The seductive stroke of his tongue forced another cry from her, desire kicking her in the belly.
No longer did she want to leave. No, she was weak. A few kisses, a few touches, and she wanted to linger to enjoy every minute. A heavy pulsating sensation filled her pussy as he kissed her again.
“Spread your legs for me, sweetheart.”
The endearment had her obeying. His finger lightly circled her clit and her heart thundered as if she were running a race. He traced her slit with a gentle finger then lifted her to his mouth to give her a pleasuring stroke across her swollen flesh. Talk about sweet agony. No, she didn’t want to leave now.
She gripped his hair, holding his face in place.
“More, more, more,” she chanted.
His tongue was rough against her clit. It was abrasive and sexy and pushed her into a place of raw need.
“Let go, sweetheart.”
“No, I want…I need…” She tugged his hair harder, lifted her hips to gain more pressure from his mouth.
“I’m not going to stop. Promise. I’m going to fill you, give us both pleasure.”
She released her grip enough for him to move over her. He manacled her wrists with his hands and licked around one nipple.
“You promised,” she said. “Please. Please put your cock inside me.”
Felix laughed and continued to tease her, driving her higher, faster, harder. She felt the slickness of her pussy, felt the throb of her clitoris, felt the surge of heat when he licked across the tattoo.
Her channel gave a spasm, and she groaned with disappointment.
Felix smiled, pressed a lingering kiss to her lips and then put his cock exactly where she wanted it. He drove into her and shoved her past the point of no return.
Gods, how would she ever walk away with her heart intact?
She gasped for air, cradled his big body against hers and tried not to cry. She already knew the answer.
She wouldn’t.
When she walked away to keep Felix and his family safe from the general’s ire, she’d leave her heart behind.
* * * * *
A day later, Felix was pleased to note someone had taken care of repairs to the fence. He also picked up the subtle hum of the silent alarm, doing its job of protecting the perimeter. No more blaring sirens throughout the resort in the middle of the night.
“We’ll go via the rear entrance and head straight to my suite. That way we can clean up before we meet anyone.”
Casey gave an abrupt nod. “Okay.”
Felix’s feline stirred with a cranky snarl. He shot a glance at Casey, noting her unhappiness. The closer they’d gotten to the resort, the quieter she’d become. And she was still insisting she was returning to Dalcon on the next available shuttle.
He begged to differ.
No way. No how. Not in his lifetime.
She wasn’t going anywhere without him at her side.
They made it to his suite without bumping into anyone. Felix pressed his palm against the door pad and the locks disengaged. He opened the door and stood back for Casey to enter.
“I’m going to check in with Ma and my brothers,” he said. “You use the sanitizer room first.”
She gave another clipped nod and disappeared. For a nanosecond, he was tempted to follow her and demand answers, to tell her how their future would work. Together. He didn’t. Instead, he left his suite and went to find his mother.
He found her in the resort office, in the center of a ring of male employees. Everyone was talking at once. Scarlett watched warily from her desk on the far side of the room, and their secretary-receptionist looked as if she wanted to flee the melee.
“It’s no
t fair,” Laurence said. “Justin gets to work in the holo room. He gets all the women. I’m stuck at the shuttle port.”
“It’s not my fault,” Justin said and shoved Laurence.
Laurence shoved back.
“I don’t want to work in the back office,” another man protested.
“The roster isn’t fair,” a younger male shouted.
Felix waded through the crowd and halted by his mother. “That’s enough,” he snapped. “You will give your name to Scarlett, give her a brief description of your complaint, and she will organize a time for each of you to speak with me and air your grievances. Once I have a full picture, I will take action to sort out this mess. Understand?”
When no one said a word, he nodded. “Right. Form a line, give your details to Scarlett and return to your assigned posts.”
Laurence stalked over to Scarlett’s desk and murmured a few words before wheeling around. “If things don’t improve around here there’s gonna be trouble.”
Felix scowled after the retreating man. “I really don’t like him.”
“Shush, son. He’s still grieving his sister’s death.”
“Sure, Ma, but how long do we tiptoe around his feelings? Lots of us lost friends and family after the virus outbreak. He doesn’t have an exclusive on grief,” Felix said.
“I’m glad you arrived when you did.” Anna patted his arm. “Things were getting nasty.”
“Anything else I should know about?”
“I have a list,” she said drily. “Someone is still cutting holes in the perimeter fence. One of the holo rooms is out of action because someone vandalized the control center. Also we seem to have a thief. I don’t know if it’s a guest or a staff member, but either way, it’s not good publicity. Oh, and someone from the military is trying to contact Casey. I told them she wasn’t here, but they were very insistent.”
Foreboding went through Felix, but he bit it back. Casey was safe in his suite. “Okay, Ma. Let’s go through the problems one at a time and try to make sense of them.” He urged his mother into Saber’s office and closed the door.
They were halfway through the list when his com-circle buzzed.
“Felix,” he said, his mind on the thefts. He and his brothers worked long hours now. They didn’t need to spend half their nights prowling the resort under the guise of security.
“It’s Saber. Can you meet me at the shuttle port and fuel up another shuttle for me to fly to Dalcon? I’ll be there in half an hour.”
“But what—” The com cut off before he could get out his question. “Saber’s back.”
“Oh good,” Anna said. “I can’t wait to see him.”
“It doesn’t sound as if he intends to stay,” Felix said. “I’d better go make sure a shuttle is fueled.”
* * * * *
When Saber landed the craft on the shuttle pad, Felix was waiting for him.
“Where the hell have you been?” Felix demanded. “Are you both okay?” His gaze went from Eva to a plump blue bird that was letting out anxious squawks. “What the hell is that?”
“Is the shuttle fueled?”
“Yeah,” Felix said. “I got Laurence to take care of that for you.”
“Thanks. We’d better go. I need someone to return this shuttle.” Saber plucked the bird from Eva’s arms and handed the honking thing to Felix. “This is Bluebird. Give him to Scarlett to look after.”
“It’s not dinner?” Felix asked.
“Bluebird is not dinner,” Eva snapped. “And if I come back and discover Bluebird missing, I’ll hunt you down.”
A spurt of humor made his lips quirk upward, quickly controlled when he saw the promise to follow through glittering in her eyes. “Yes ma’am. When will you be back?”
“I’m not sure,” Saber said. “A few days, maybe longer.”
Great. In the past, he’d resented Saber, felt a bit like a useless spare wheel while his older brother plowed through life’s challenges. Now that he was standing in Saber’s shoes, he realized the hard and challenging line Saber walked. Yet his brother took everything in his stride.
It made Felix appreciate his big brother. Right then, he made a promise to himself that instead of fanning his resentment, he’d get off his backside and offer to take up some of the slack. “Contact Ma, will you? She’s been worried about— What the fuck?”
The shuttle Saber and Eva had arrived in shimmered before his eyes and, bit by bit, faded away until nothing stood on the shuttle pad.
Saber strode to the pad and walked straight through the empty air. “Fuck, that’s all kinds of disturbing.”
Felix stared, wondering if he’d imagined the entire vessel.
“It’s lucky we flew straight here,” Eva said, her cheeks bleached of color. “What if it had disappeared while we were in flight? We could have d-died.”
Saber went to her and pulled her against his chest. “We made it here in one piece, kitten.” He stared over her head, his gaze connecting with Felix’s before he closed his eyes.
Felix could tell what his brother was thinking. Hell, he felt the same way about Casey.
Eva pulled away from Saber and ran her hands down her body, patting the clothes she wore. Her expression was one of horror. “Do you think our clothes will vanish too?”
Felix barked out a laugh and did a quick visual sweep of his brother’s mate even as he stroked the bird he was holding in an effort to calm the creature. “Could be quite a show.” His gaze rose and snagged on a tiny tattoo on her upper shoulder, near her neck.
What the hell? That was the same as Casey’s.
Saber let out a feral snarl and Felix straightened, wiping his expression clean. Obviously not the time to ask questions. Understanding the urge to protect a mate, Felix moved back half a step to show Saber he meant no harm to Eva.
Saber’s growls subsided. “Your call,” he said to Eva. “We can grab fresh clothes, but we’ll lose time because my mother will want to meet you and feed us.”
She swallowed. “Let’s risk the clothes. Can’t be worse than a cooking pot.”
Wondering what the heck that meant, Felix stood back while Saber hustled Eva into the shuttle. He saw the way Saber placed a solicitous hand at the small of her back. Felix also noticed a softness to his brother’s features that hadn’t been present for a long time, as if he’d found what he was looking for after a long search. He saw contentment, and was pleased for Saber.
It made him even more determined to get to the bottom of the reasons why Casey was resisting him so hard.
Felix waited until the shuttle took off. The ridiculous blue bird, which looked like the offspring of the long-extinct dodo and a goose, didn’t struggle but when he stopped stroking the bird’s back, it let out anxious honk.
Laurence sidled closer, and Felix got a whiff of shuttle fuel. “Who was the woman with Saber?”
“Eva, Saber’s mate.” Felix shot Laurence a hard look. “Don’t make trouble for him. He deserves some happiness.”
“What about Lori?” Laurence snarled and his eyes shifted.
Felix snarled back and advanced on him. Bluebird gave an anxious honk, but Felix didn’t stop until his face was right in Laurence’s. “You stay away from Saber. It wasn’t his fault Lori died. We’ve all lost friends, loved ones. If I hear you mouthing off about his mate, you’ll have me to deal with.”
Laurence took a rapid step back, shifted his gaze and drooped into a submissive pose. Asshole. When Laurence didn’t look at him again, Felix relaxed. He stroked the bird, waited a beat.
“I’ll look into your complaints, along with the others.”
Laurence gave a stiff nod and retreated.
Felix smoothed his hand over the bird’s head and hurried off to find Scarlett and pass off his responsibility.
“Hey, Ma. Where’s Scarlett?”
Anna grinned at the bird he carried under his arm. “She probably saw you coming. I take it you want her to look after the bird?”
“Yeah.
Saber left it before he took off for Dalcon. He had Eva with him, and she threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t look after the bird.”
“I like her already,” Anna said. “Did Saber look happy?”
“Yeah, he did. I’ve never seen him look like this—not even with Lori.” Felix paused. “Ma, do you know anything about a male biting a female and leaving a mark?”
Anna’s eyes narrowed. “A mating mark? Why?”
“Tell me what you know. Please.”
“Centuries ago, male shifters would bite their mates high on the shoulder. If a couple was compatible mates, the urge to bite would become so overwhelming the male didn’t have any choice but to mark his mate. At least that’s what I’ve learned from my research. I believe the original feline shifters who lived in New Zealand all mated this way, but somehow during the passing years, the urge has been lost. It didn’t seem to make any difference to the way couples paired up, so the medical types didn’t worry too much about the loss of the tradition. Now tell me why you want to know.”
“Eva has one of these mating marks. It’s not very big, but it’s shaped like a black cat.”
“Really?” Interest sparked in Anna’s eyes. “Did you ask Saber about it?”
Felix snorted. “He got a bit edgy when I got too close to Eva. I made a joke and he snarled at me, so I backed off and figured I’d talk to you.”
“Interesting.” Anna pursed her lips, obviously deep in thought.
“How long has it been since the marks were evident?”
“I’ll have to do some research, but my grandmother didn’t have one. I don’t know if David’s mother had one. A cat, you say? Very interesting. Let me research my books.” She picked her reader off the corner of her desk, and started tapping to bring up copies of her research books.
Felix rolled his eyes. And he’d lost her already. His mother kept the Mitchell genealogical records and had a vast collection of historical treatises that related to their settlement in New Zealand from Scotland. “Ma. Ma!”
“Yes, Felix?” she asked in an absent voice.
“There’s something else. I bit Casey…and she has the same mark as Eva.”
His mother’s attention jerked from her reader, her eyes wide and full of wonder. Her lips curled into a teary smile. “Oh Felix. You too?”
Favored by Felix Page 12
