by Isabel Wroth
Funny how horrible her morning had started, and now she languished in their bath with the certainty she would never feel alone or disconnected again. She wanted to hold onto that feeling, the completeness of this bond she had so ridiculously fought against with her mistrust. It seemed stupid, feeling how powerful the bond was, how right, that she had ever fought at all. But beneath the happiness and the completeness of the mate bond was sorrow. Unease for how Falken would react to the information she held. Not that he wouldn’t believe her, but how he would feel to know just how close to home the threat really was.
“I can feel your disquiet. What troubles you, my one?” Falken whispered the words across the tender spot at her neck where his passionate bite still throbbed.
“I need to tell you something.”
Despite her cautious tone, Falken didn’t stop his massage or attempt to close his side of their bond in preparation. The beam of is presence and his adoration continued to buzz steadily along their link, comforting her. Steadying her as she faltered.
“Alright.”
“Ne’tare’s son, Setar, approached me last night.”
Falken stepped closer to her back, sloshing water around them in gentle waves, the heat and pressure fighting to soothe her battered feeling body.
“I can feel how this upset you. Which leads me to wonder how Setar was able to approach you at all.”
“You’re going to be mad.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. I, um, was hoping he would. They would.”
There was a beat of silence, then like never before, Cassie heard the deadly snarl of Falken’s beast inside her own mind. A rattling yeowl of warning along their bond accompanied by the image of that beast, huge and black, fur standing on end with his teeth bared viciously.
Falken gripped her shoulders and turned her around, towering over her. It was plain to see it was his beast looking out from behind his yellow-gold eyes. Cassie wrinkled her nose in preparation for what he was going to say, struggling to follow the rapid-fire emotions jangling from his side of the bond.
Anger.
Worry.
Uncertainty.
Fear for her and what could have happened.
“By ‘they’, I can only assume you are speaking of the traitors who eagerly await any opportunity to take a hybrid mate and do unspeakable things to her.” he bit from between clenched teeth, his fangs so big in his mouth it was idly a wonder he wasn’t lisping.
“Y-eah.” Cassie drew the word out slowly, cautiously.
The breath he sucked in through his nose made his nostrils flare, his lips jumping back from his teeth in a furious grimace. Falken wasn’t just a little bit mad. He was enraged.
Cassie swallowed thickly, aware to her bones he would never hurt her on purpose, but there was no mistaking his level of fury. Supernovas didn’t burn even close to hot enough, and she got it all loud and clear through their bond.
Though his voice echoed his anger, he didn’t speak above a conversational tone, his hands held firmly but steadily on her shoulders. Not hurting, but definitely holding her still.
“Did you alert Brennaugh or Tarek to your foolish plan?”
“No,” she admitted softly, “They would have stopped me.”
She felt the physical tremor that shook his body in reaction to the flare of heat. Saw the muscle above his left eyebrow twitch from how hard he was clenching his jaw.
“From doing what, exactly?”
Despite her absolute belief that Falken wouldn’t hurt her, she was still cautious when she set her hands on his belly, hoping her touch might keep him calm for a few more minutes. Just long enough to explain.
“I made myself available in the fortress late at night, walking the hallways alone like I have been for the last couple of months. It stood to reason if I didn’t deviate from my previous habits, sooner or later someone would feel comfortable in approaching me.”
Falken’s ribs expanded and contracted with the three deep breaths he took before speaking.
“And that person was Setar?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me.” he clipped out, and as fast and concisely as she could, Cassie told him everything. From the first words Setar had spoken to the moment she had slid into the central chamber and seen Ne’tare cradling the mutilated remains of his son’s body. When she came to the end of her explanation, she held her breath and waited for his response.
“No one witnessed this conversation save for this being you call Ilaria?”
The doubt in his tone, the feeling of it made her roll her lips together and glare back at him. Even with the bond, he clearly still didn’t believe Ilaria to be a real person. An ugly little bubble of resentment made her huff, wondering what it was she would have to do to make her own mate believe in her.
“Ahem?”
Locking down her disappointment, Cassie glanced over Falken’s shoulder to see Ilaria having just walked through the stone walls of the bathroom. Cassie made to speak, but Falken whipped around and crouched protectively in front of her. She didn’t need to see his face to feel his shock when Ilaria stepped closer to the edge of the bath, or to feel his confusion when he tried to catch Ilaria’s scent and couldn’t.
“Forgive my intrusion,” Ilaria murmured politely, “but when you are ready to hear it, I have gleaned further information that may be of use.”
Cassie cleared her throat and peeked around Falken’s shoulder while trying to keep the smile from her voice. “Thanks, Ilaria. Um, did you get an energy upgrade or something that he can see you?”
Ilaria’s brow lifted as she gave a little rock up and down on her toes as she regarded Falken thoughtfully.
“No. It was my hypothesis that once you had completed your bonding process, it would affect your mate and allow him to see me as you do. I must admit, in my wanderings through the fortress and citadel, I have studied your males in varying stages of undress. Yours is decidedly among the finest.”
Falken straightened and immediately reached for the large dish that held Cassie’s preferred soaps. He dumped the cakes out to thrust the scalloped plate beneath the water in order to cover his crotch, clearing his throat uncomfortably. Cassie coughed to cover a giggle, but it wasn’t any use as Falken could sense her amusement. Evident by how he shot a hot glare over his shoulder at her.
“Thanks, Ilaria.”
“My pleasure.” The incorporeal being went up on her toes again and looked down as though trying to catch a peek of Falken’s assets below the water.
Falken’s hands pressed the dish closer. The plate just barely big enough to contain him, which made his attempt at modesty that much more hilarious.
“I am…glad to meet you. I apologize for my previous doubt regarding your presence.”
The Matavei woman gave a little nod of her head. “I am glad to meet you as well, warrior. But I am not the one you need be apologizing to.” Having delivered the gentle rebuke, Ilaria looked to Cassie and smiled slightly. “I will continue to move around the fortress. Call for me when you are ready for me to make a complete report.”
Cassie watched Falken following Ilaria’s exit through the solid stone with a look of open-mouthed astonishment. She waited for a moment before reaching under the water for her soap dish, giggling when she had to tug to get him to let go of it.
“She’s gone, right?”
“Yes, Falken. Ilaria is gone.” Cassie shook with laughter when Falken hauled himself out of their bath to examine the walls. Pressing his hands against the stone as though seeking a secret door. She sank down to her chin in the water to watch.
It didn’t take him long to assure himself the wall was solid, or for him to turn and look at her with an inscrutable expression. Thankfully, his emotions were filtering down to her loud and clear. When he opened his mouth to express the apology she could sense through their bond, Cassie shook her head.
“Forgiven and done.”
He shook his head in wonderment, standing above her comple
tely nude, his body on sensual display for her viewing pleasure. He was saying something to her, but how he could stand here like that, his hands on his hips with his cock out on display, framed by all his beautiful muscles and long limbs and expect her to listen…pfft! He was dreaming if he thought she was concentrating on anything other than how beautiful he was.
“Cassie!”
Falken’s sharp bark got her to drag her attention from his body to his face. He was scowling at her, but his eyes were shining bright and another quick peek to his groin revealed his cock was rising to its full height. Thick and pulsating under her appreciative scrutiny.
“Sorry. What?”
He tried to sound stern, but each time she glanced down, his shaft jumped to attention for her. “I said, if you think the interruption of your friend will save you from punishment, you are sorely mistaken.”
Cassie’s butt cheeks clenched and quivered, remembering the early days of their relationship and his ‘punishments’ when she had lashed out with rude defiance. Falken had hands of ass destruction and, as it caused her no irreparable damage, Sarazens did not count disciplinary spankings as abuse or harm.
Incredulously, Cassie scoffed, “Punishment? For what?”
He stepped down into the bath and loomed over her, leaning forward to brace his hands on the stone to either side of her. There was no teasing or sensuality to his gaze as he searched her face.
“You deliberately placed yourself in a situation you knew was extremely dangerous. Evident by the fact you not only did it while I was gone and you didn’t tell anyone but a being who has no ability to protect you.”
Cassie hummed, rolling her lips together while she attempted to turn this into a reasonable, logical argument and save her backside.
“What I did was continue a habitual behavior in an environment I knew was relatively safe—”
“I believe you just recounted to me how you came upon Setar’s corpse. In the previously believed safety of this fortress.”
“Valid point, however no one else in our small circle of knowledge had the ability to make the Original Council doubt our loyalty to the pride. Because of the discord between you and me, that opportunity presented itself and I did not waste it.
“It was total coincidence the encounter happened while you were gone, again, because I have been walking the hallways late at night for months now and nothing happened. I didn’t tell anyone, because that would have defeated the purpose, and I gained valuable intelligence. Yes, Setar is dead. I would wager his people shredded him like so much meat to keep him silent and not run the risk of me being able to glean any more information from him. But I’m perfectly fine. They gave him orders not to hurt me.”
Once again, Falken’s enormous hand circled her throat to tip her head back. Only this time there wasn’t so much eroticism in the gesture as there was total dominance.
“Had the fate of our pride rested in your hands, I would not have sent you forth and allowed you to be used as bait for our enemies. Tempting and capable as I know you are, you, my mate, are not trained in the art of subterfuge. As you saw this morning in the central chamber, the cost of failure is too high.”
“I don’t think I failed, Falken.”
“You are foolish to assume so.” Falken warned, squeezing her throat gently. “This…Original Council cannot take the risk of Setar having shared information regarding their identities. Without revealing themselves, they have no way of knowing what you were told. You are a risk, my heart. A liability to their agenda and you have made it all the more difficult for me to protect you. We are bonded now, Cassie. Feel what I feel knowing, because of the risk you took last night, it could have been your body found this morning. You and not Setar.”
She didn’t have to search very deep to find the source of Falken’s rage. The asteroid shower of emotions battering at his insides. She could feel the pain that knifed through him, the rabid threat of insanity that floated just beyond such agony. Cassie had no trouble at all imagining the sounds of soul-tearing grief Ne’tare had made coming from Falken if it had been her body and not Setar’s all over the central chamber.
Cassie’s lips trembled as her eyes filled, having only to brush at his arm to get him to release the hold around her neck so she could hug her arms around his waist. Her stomach felt raw and hollow, because Falken felt raw and hollow inside. His arm banded around her, his palm curving over her head to press her cheek to his neck. The sound of his throat working loud in the quiet between them.
“The cost is too high.” he rasped thickly. Kneading at her hair even has he rubbed his cheeks over her throat and shoulder to press his scent to her skin.
“I’ll be more careful. I won’t take dumb risks like last night again.”
“No,” he growled, his tone turning hard and cold. “You will not.”
*****
Falken stood beside his mate as she recounted her reckless behavior to Tarek and Brennaugh. It was intensely gratifying to see both of his brother warriors stiffen and snarl with outrage when Cassie explained how she had made herself available to the enemy. Both Brennaugh and the Asho bellowing almost in tandem-
“YOU DID WHAT?”
Falken warred with the horror he himself felt, knowing what Cassie had done, and pride for his female when she stood before such powerfully enraged males and simply wrinkled her nose with an embarrassed blush. She did not cower or shrink from their ire. She admitted it was not only foolish, but dangerous.
“I’m not sorry that I did it. I’m also not sorry for the information I got from Setar.” she said, shooting Falken a look when he growled softly at her. He struggled to quell his desire to smile when she rubbed discretely at her backside. The throbbing burn of her flesh where he had paddled her ass with his bare hand, filtered through their bond.
It was unlikely she was going to forget the sensation anytime soon, or the fact that he punished them both by not easing her need after her punishment. He wondered idly if the mortification he sensed from her was due to the fact that she reeked of arousal and not so much the fact he had spanked her ass a bright red.
His growl only made her face pinken and her nipples rise up to pebble under her gown. “I knew it was dangerous, but the opportunity was there and I didn’t waste it.”
Falken waited patiently while Brennaugh and Tarek visibly vibrated with their combined fury, their eyes yellowed with the presence of their beasts. The weight of their stares finally made Cassie squirm, and Tarek slanted him a look.
“I assume she burns as a result of your reprimand?” the Asho hissed. Falken inclined his head, the scent of Cassie’s arousal being the burn Tarek was referring to and not the burn of her ass cheeks.
“Burns? I won’t sit right for a year.” Cassie grumbled, embarrassment making the skin of her cheeks almost as red as the cheeks of her backside. Brennaugh’s lips twitched, while Tarek looked slightly mollified by her admission.
“You are lucky, little one, that the cost of your foolishness was not higher.” The gravity in Tarek’s tone and the flash of grief he allowed to pass over his features caused Cassie to duck her head.
The jangle of true distress and pain Falken felt from her left him unable to stand there and not offer her comfort. She curled to his side and fisted her hand in the material of his tunic, her voice having lost its grudgingly defiant tone.
“Has the rest of Ne’tare’s family arrived?”
In the face of Tarek’s furious silence, Brennaugh answered,
“His mate is with him now. Their remaining offspring are stationed aboard warship nine and have been notified.”
“Can I be there when you tell him?” Cassie asked, looking at each of them in turn.
“To what purpose?” Tarek grunted harshly.
“We are a family now. Pride.” she answered simply.
Falken watched Brennaugh visibly soften in reaction to Cassie’s answer, while Tarek continued to stand there and glare at her. For a long time there was silence between the
four of them, then Tarek finally grunted and looked at Falken with a slow shake of his head.
“I pity the day she gives you daughters.”
Falken grinned in answer, eager for that day.
Cassie snorted, unable to hide the sadness she felt from him, even as she snorted and answered Tarek with a wry drawl.
“Unlikely at this point.”
It was the second time Falken had heard her admit her fear of never having offspring. As she turned to nuzzle deeper into his shirt, seeking solace from the sorrow eating at her, she missed the questioning quirk of Tarek’s eyebrow.
Falken touched a kiss to her hair, rubbing his cheeks against the soft strands. “Talk for later, my one.”
Tarek cleared his throat and reformed his stone-faced expression. “Your kindness is commendable, Cassie. But at this time I have no intention of adding to Ne’tare’s grief by telling him his son was a traitor and had plotted to kill him. I am certain of Ne’tare’s loyalty and have no desire to repay that loyalty by suggesting otherwise.”
“Of course.” she agreed softly.
“For now, this information you have gathered, recklessly,” Tarek pressed, unwilling to allow Cassie to think for a moment any of them approved of her methods. “Will be kept between the four of us. Is there anything else you wish to share?”
Falken cleared his throat, “Ilaria.” Speaking the strange female’s name to the room acted as an immediate summons. The slender, gray-haired female appeared out of thin air to stand between him and Brennaugh.
“The alien female we have yet to confirm the presence of?” Brennaugh asked with a frown.
Ilaria said nothing, but raised her brows as though challenging Falken to deny her existence. Cassie also remained silent.
“Upon completion of our bond, I am able to see this female.” His admission caused both males opposite him to lift their brows in surprise, yet said nothing. “Cassie asked her to continue to move around the fortress to seek out any further information and she claims to have more to report.”
