Cloaked in her new wrap, Kal watched the scenery. Occasionally she asked what certain buildings were or where they were in relation to his house. In no time at all, he ran out of town and turned the vehicle to the Watchtower.
“Do you like it here?”
“Most days,” he replied. When the gap between his ideal to protect and serve and the provincial government’s budget was minimal, he enjoyed his position immensely. That gap had grown in recent years and continued to grow. Someone was lining their pockets. He did not suspect anyone on his team. None of his males had a sudden influx of unexplained wealth. The embezzlement had to be happening higher up in the food chain, by someone who thought that Merit would never notice that half his supplies went missing or that he wouldn’t care. Someone who didn’t know him at all, basically.
He found himself stealing glances at her. The wrap fluttered in the wind, the deep teal color complimenting her tan complexion. She caught him looking, and a faint blush rose in her cheeks.
The lack of an expressive tail or ears baffled him. How could he discern Kal’s mood if he couldn’t read her expressions? Looking at her face was like looking at a blank wall. He’d have to learn but currently, stealing a glance at her, he had no idea what went on in her head.
He didn’t expect to find her so attractive. This complicated things.
When he filled out the Celestial Mates application, he specifically requested a human. He didn’t need physical attraction to his mate, and he found nothing appealing in flat human faces. Not that he had no desire for a physical relationship with whatever female arrived, but a lack of physical desire meant he could retain his control. When hormone levels rose in his body, he found himself less in command of certain instincts that he liked.
No control, basically.
An adult Tal male grew claws and had a compulsion to mark his partner on the back of the neck, holding them in place. Even now, not touching Kal and not even looking in her direction, his nailbeds ached to release his claws.
Shameful, immature behavior for a male his age.
Instead of a homely, flat-faced human, with pale, colorless skin, he found himself with a golden-skinned, dark-eyed beauty. Her long, dark hair peeked out from under the wrap’s fabric. She wore it in a braid yesterday and today. He longed to shake the plaits loose and sink his fingers into the strands. He bet it would feel soft and silky, like her lips.
Merit growled, unhappy with the direction of his thoughts.
“Is something wrong?”
He glanced down at the control panel, desperate to find an excuse for his displeasure and not confess the conflict he felt about her physical beauty. “I will have the windshield installed when we arrive at the Watchtower. It may take longer than I like.”
Pathetic. He gritted his teeth to keep from flinching at his own weak excuse.
“Oh. I don’t mind a wait.”
Perhaps their extended communications and games of King’s Table were to blame. The idea of her grew in his mind, as did his regard. He admired how quickly she learned a game that took him years to master. He enjoyed seeing her mind turn as she developed her strategy. Her wit and compassion attracted him, as well as her intellect. By the time Kal arrived, her flat face and lack of a tail didn’t matter, because he already liked her.
He had to reorganize his strategy and Merit hated to be without a strategy.
Stationed at the Drac mines, the Watchtower had, in fact, no tower. Constructed of the same modular units as the rest of the town, the building flanked the entrance to the mine. The Watchtower was a cluster of buildings that included barracks, a medical center open to the community, an armory and, of course, operations control. The barracks housed some of his team, those newly arrived or those who preferred to live in barracks. Additional outposts created a perimeter around Drac and the surrounding environs. It was a common setup employed all over Corra to ensure public safety. Some outposts’ Watchtowers were nothing more than single home on an empty prairie or on the fringes of a town. He liked to think that his was particularly impressive. After all, he had a valuable resource to protect.
His ears twitched forward as a Hunter waved his vehicle through the security checkpoint.
That should not be.
He stopped the vehicle and climbed out.
“Is something wrong?” Kal asked.
“Sir?” The Hunter, a new recruit, stood taller. He was Corravian with a tawny complexion and a pair of twisting horns sprouting from his forehead. The horns were short, marking him as an unmated male.
Merit’s gaze swept over him. “Where is your weapon?”
The young male paled. His eyes darted toward the guard booth. “In there, sir.”
“Why did you not stop and check my vehicle?”
“Sir, I recognized you.”
“And her? Do you recognize her?” Merit pointed to Kal, who shifted nervously inside the vehicle’s cabin.
“No, sir. Everyone knows you have a new mate. I assumed—”
“Assume nothing. She could have had her claws digging into my side, forcing me to bring her in,” Merit said. Humans didn’t have claws, but the point remained. “And your weapon? If you needed it, what good would it do you over there?”
“None, sir.” The male’s shoulders slumped. So sloppy. So young. This male’s trusting nature would get him killed.
“Don’t just stand there. Get it,” Merit snapped. The male dashed off to retrieve his rifle.
When he returned, he stood at attention and held it correctly. That was something.
Merit sniffed dramatically for effect. “Guard duty at the base is boring. I remember fighting to keep my eyes open during my shift. Do not let boredom tempt you into dropping your guard. When you are in the field, there is no room for error and no second chances.”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
He dismissed the guard with a wave and climbed back into the vehicle. He hoped he instilled the correct amount of fear in the young male to shape up his act. He made a mental note to follow up in a week to see if the male fell back into his sloppy habits.
Kal stared at him with her large, dark eyes. “I have to confess, that was crazy hot, you going all alpha on him. Do you outrank him?”
“I outrank everyone here,” he said. “I’m the boss.”
He dropped the vehicle off with the mechanics. One crew unloaded the supplies in the back, and another prepped the vehicle for repairs. A windshield would be nice, but it was a luxury. The durable, impact-resistant glass never seemed to last long.
He gave Kal a tour of the facility. It didn’t take long. Merit soon realized that Kal smiled when introduced to the other Hunters, sometimes even asked them small questions, and he did not like that all. She had already met Sigald, his second-in-command. Apparently, the male had cornered her in the general store that morning and overwhelmed her with his enthusiasm for humans. In an effort to keep all her attention to himself, he took her to the canteen for a cup of hot tea. He had not had his morning cup yet and found he grew irritated without the mild stimulant.
His claws inched under his fingernails, begging to be released.
Then again, more stimulation might not be the best idea.
Brave—or foolhardy—Hunters approached him with the overnight reports. They stammered introductions, as if they had never seen a female before, and Kal answered politely. Merit growled a warning for the males to back off.
He hated this. He hated all their eyes on her. He hated that he wanted her so much that he acted more like a monster than a man.
“Enough. The vehicle is repaired,” he announced, standing up so quickly that he knocked back the chair.
In the mechanic bay, the situation grew worse. The Hunters lost their shyness. Perhaps their curiosity won out, or perhaps Sigald bragged about how he had already met his mate, but the Hunters spoke to Kal. They ignored his growls and the agitated lashing of his tail with bewitched smiles and vied for her attention. They showed her every inconsequential thing
“Once, after a storm, the boss went missing for four days. Four days! We thought he was a goner,” Sigald said, voice booming. “I know sometimes he goes into the red—”
Merit growled and snapped his teeth in a message so unsubtle that even a tailless blue idiot like Sigald would understand.
The male gulped and nodded. “Anyways, he comes back wearing nothing but his boots, covered in bug guts. I think he was more bug than male. He walked into the canteen, poured himself a cup of tea, and set his boots on the table like it was a perfectly ordinary day.” Kal joined the Hunters as they laughed.
He hated this. He should be the one to make her laugh. He should have thought to share this with her.
Merit did not notice Ulmer until the male jabbed him with a data tablet. “All set, boss,” Ulmer said. He watched Kal for a moment until Merit could no longer stand the idea of his eyes on his mate. His Hunters clustered around her, all competing for her attention. Merit took note of the males and vowed to send them out on very long patrols soon.
“I’m surprised you’re not over there showing off for the female,” Merit said, tone sharp.
“Honestly, sir, I’m a bit surprised you went for someone like her.”
Ulmer’s lack of adoration for Kal did not satisfy Merit. Why did Ulmer not admire his mate? She was intelligent, quick-witted, humorous, and visually appealing.
“What is wrong with my mate?” He grabbed the data tablet and signed. He knew his irritation arose as a by-product of hormones in his body. The bloodlust threatened to rise and drag him into the red. He was not normally so unreasonable.
“She just seems a bit too fancy is all. Impractical.” Ulmer took the tablet back.
Merit acted on instinct, vision turning red. He grabbed the Corravian male by the throat and squeezed, forcing the male to his knees. “Do not disrespect my mate,” he snarled.
Ulmer’s fingers scrambled, helpless at Merit’s grip. Someone shouted for him to look away. To play meek. Merit felt his anger rising again. Why would he play meek? He felt far from meek.
The Corravian male looked down, averting his gaze. His body went limp.
Merit huffed, placated at the male’s submission.
“Anyone else have something to say about my mate?” he shouted.
The Hunters standing near Kal scattered quickly. She fidgeted with the edge of her wrap, like a nervous habit, but her eyes did not leave his. She saw him. She saw the monster barely kept under the surface and she smiled.
He smiled back, and his calm returned.
“Fucking hell, twice in one day. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen you smile this much,” Sigald said loudly across the bay, breaking the tension.
Shit. He had it bad.
Chapter Six
Kalini
Three weeks passed faster than Kal could have ever believed possible. Back on Earth, her days blurred together with an endless cycle of work, food, sleep, but she felt every hour. No one needed her. No one saw her. The days were the same and the time endless. Here, on Corra, the world felt vibrant and new. She felt vibrant. Every day held the opportunity for a new experience or to learn something new.
Time spent with Merit was, honestly, fleeting. In the evenings, after homework and dinner, they played King’s Table.
Playing in person was different than over the network, and he trounced her in the first few games. He could distract her too easily with a sigh and the brush of his tail against her leg.
Much like chess, the strategy game had pieces with specialized moves that traveled on a grid. The game appealed to her love of numbers and patterns, but it was a game of negotiation. Every move offered potential openings to the opponent. Each move had to be weighed with how much she wanted to gain and how much she was willing to concede.
Merit, however, was not the most logical of players and often made moves she had not anticipated because they gave up too much. She’d grumble in frustration, and he’d grin, tail playfully batting at her ankles. Unsettling his opponent was worth the loss of a few pieces, especially if emotions rather than logic directed the next move.
Often Clarity climbed into his lap, and they whispered plans of attack.
Kal enjoyed watching him play and learning how his mind worked. The unexpected move was often the best move because it threw off her own predictable strategy. His erratic plays prompted her to take bolder actions. Before long, she captured his tokens and won her first game. By the end of the week, they were evenly matched.
Between his work and the children, they had very little time alone apart from the few moments they lay side-by-side before falling asleep. Other than a few soft touches, his hand in the small of her back or a chaste kiss on the cheek, the topic of sex had not come up, which both reassured and frustrated her. How safe she felt knowing that Merit would not pressure her for a physical relationship until she was ready for one.
How completely maddening to lay a hair’s breadth away from a genuinely kind, patient, and handsome man and not touch him. Sure, she snuggled up to him, and his hand rested on her hip, sometimes his tail wrapped around her wrist, but their touches never went beyond that. She never doubted their mutual attraction, that wasn’t the issue. His hard cock poking her in the back at night told her that. He waited, which was sweet, but she felt ready for more.
The children challenged her in a way that, while completely different from her previous experiences, she embraced. She helped them nightly with homework, despite the written language barrier. While the symbols were different, math was math. The more she exposed herself to the written language, she more she comprehended.
Dare and Clarity wanted her attention on everything and argued over who got to show her a new thing first. Once Kal mentioned that she used to garden with her mum, they presented her with native flowers and plants, often with roots intact and clumps of dirt, for her garden.
And that explained how they ended up in the back of the house with bags of dirt, rocks, containers, a flat of plants, and a fountain to be assembled. Once the children planted the idea of a garden in her head, she itched to get her fingers in the dirt. She ran the idea for a garden past Merit, and he said to do whatever she pleased. His invitation warmed her, but while he said his house was her house, it wasn’t really her house. She didn’t want to be the kind of demanding person who made sweeping changes just to scrub away any hint that Merit had a life before her.
She also didn’t want to forever be a guest in his house. The time had come to carve out a piece for herself, and a garden seemed as good a place as any to start.
She decided to start with a container garden on the patio while she learned the rhythm of the seasons. Summer had arrived, and she had no idea how much rain or sun to expect.
Belith drove her and the kits to the local nursery, peppering her with questions about how she was getting on. “Quite good,” she said. “Merit’s work keeps him busy.” She tried to keep the frustration out of her voice.
“The mine is expanding, and there’s a lot of pressure to clear the area of mornclaws. My Sigald tells me as much.”
“It’d be nice if he were home more. I adore the kits, and Amity is, well, Amity, but—”
“You miss your male.” Belith nodded.
“I see him maybe an hour or two a day. We eat dinner, play King’s Table, but that’s it. He comes home late and leaves early. I know he’s busy on this expansion, but we’re newlyweds. Shouldn’t he be at least a little interested in me?” She whined. She heard it in her voice and felt the twinge of shame. “Change is stressful. We’re still finding our feet,” she said.
It would get better. Whatever kept him away from home would not last forever. When they were together, they felt natural, like they had been a couple for ages. She needed to remember that.
The nursery had a small selection of flowering plants but a huge variety of herbs and vegetables. Rather than go a decorative route, she decided on a practical kitchen garden. She picked out the supplies and the children helped her select the plants, sticking to names she recognized and had seen prepared for dinner.
Currently, she sat on her bottom, assembling the solar-powered fountain. She splurged on the small fountain that bubbled up from a center spout and cascaded down, the ripples in the water causing chimes to bump into each other. It wasn’t what she intended to buy, but the gentle ringing sound enchanted her. Money well spent, in her opinion. She even knew where to put it: the empty flower bed that ran along one side of the patio.
She tasked the kits with arranging the flat, smooth stones in the flower bed. Perhaps in time, she’d plant succulents or some type of ground cover. For now, the stones would help prevent weeds and would give a Zen-like feel to the small display. Dare kept fussing with the stones, moving them to form a pattern. Clarity dashed around and periodically returned with a pretty rock she found in the yard. Dare added the rocks to his masterpiece.
“How are you making out, Dare?” She stood, brushing dirt from the back of her trousers.
“The bag didn’t have an equal number of dark and light stones,” he said with a frown.
“No?” Kal inspected his work. He had arranged the stones in a circular pattern that seemed far too orderly for someone so capable of chaos. “I like what you’ve done.”
The back door slid open. Amity said nothing as she surveyed the work-in-progress on the patio.
Clarity dropped the watering can at Amity’s feet, sloshing water haphazardly, and pulled out a dirt-covered rock from a pocket. “Aunt Amity! Look at the pretty stone I found.” Clarity held up her treasure.
“What are you doing? You are filthy,” Amity said, recoiling.
“I’m helping.”
“And you’re a marvelous helper,” Kal said, speaking over whatever criticism Amity had opened her mouth to deliver.
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