by Viola Grace
She nodded and turned toward the others.
Rand cleared his throat. “Come and sit with us. We are watching a documentary about your species.”
Toyo looked at him. “There is a vid on the Terrans?”
Drovin nodded enthusiastically. “It is about the first Terran Champions. All women.”
Loesh smiled, “Join us, we can restart it.”
Toyo stretched. “No, go ahead without me. I need to do some sparring.”
Bebe took the seat on the couch a few cushions away from Rand, and he resumed play on the vid.
As she watched them, she could see that they were fascinated by the stories being told, especially about the Admar inheritor, Sarah Marks. Bebe couldn’t imagine an entire planet at her disposal, but she could clearly see the fixation that the Guardians had on the Champion and her mate.
They remained fixated until the end of the vid, and then, they turned to Bebe.
Drovin asked. “Do all Terran females have talents?”
“No. The first round of Volunteers had quite a few because that’s what the recruiters were screening for. The second round is more aptitude for adaptation, like me.”
Loesh narrowed his eyes. “How did you learn you had an aptitude?”
“I didn’t. When I was little, my father would bring home details from his cases that no one had solved, and he let me look into the puzzles until I was able to point him in the right investigative direction. When my brother entered law enforcement, I continued with the puzzles.”
Drovin looked impressed. “How did you come to be a Volunteer?”
“My brother volunteered me. He put forward my plan to find the terrorists attacking the Volunteer Centres and that got him attention, which he passed on to me. At home, I always had to go through someone to solve anything or make a difference. Here, I file my reports and they are acted on. It is a little bit gratifying.”
Her stomach rumbled and they looked at her in surprise. She bit her lip. “Can I get something to eat? When everything hit the fan this morning, I was out shopping and I never did get breakfast.”
Rand got to his feet. “And of course the holding cells don’t provide food to aliens. Come with me.”
She made a face and followed him into the huge kitchen.
The other two trailed after them, still curious.
Loesh asked baldly, “So your species doesn’t have sex outside of life mates?”
She paused. “Some folks do, some folks don’t.”
Drovin grinned. “Which category are you?”
Her jaw should have hit the counter, but she calmly said, “I assess it on a case-by-case basis. To date, there has been no reason to exert myself in that arena.”
Rand turned and looked at her in shock. “What?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t get out much.”
Celibacy was the one thing guaranteed to stop a W’lyn Guardian in his tracks. They just didn’t know how to process it.
She cleared her throat. “If you just step aside, Rand, I can find my own food.”
He shook himself back to his obligation. “Nonsense. You just surprised me. Have a seat and I will have something ready in no time.”
Bebe perched on a tall chair near the counter and waited. By the time she had food in front of her, Toyo was back, sweaty with a few slices taken out of his hide.
He saw her taking a few bites, and he smacked himself in the forehead. “I am sorry that I forgot to get you something to eat.”
She smiled and kept chewing the flatbread, cheese and fruit sandwich. “It is fine. Rand has taken care of my appetite.”
Bebe winced as Drovin and Loesh hooted with laughter, but the laughing preceded Toyo tackling Rand by only a second.
She kept eating her sandwich until it was gone, drank her water and got to her feet. The two Guardians were pummelling at each other and rolling across the floor.
She analyzed the situation, caught the rhythm of the fight and moved in, yanking at the hair at the base of Toyo’s neck. “Enough!”
Toyo reluctantly backed away from Rand. The other Guardian looked a little scruffy, but not really the worse for wear.
As Toyo stood, she had to stretch up on her toes to keep her grip. As he grabbed her and pulled her around in front of him, she smiled innocently.
“Yes?”
He bent his head to hers, and his lips coaxed her into losing her train of thought.
Chapter Five
Whatever was in the W’lyn biochemistry, they needed to bottle it and inject it into human males.
Bebe forgot that there were three other half-dressed men in the room; she just wanted to continue to be in the arms of the one that was holding her. His teeth lengthened and so did his cock pressed against her waist, but she wanted to keep kissing him until they both exploded with the flames that were burning in her blood.
A slight nick on the inside of her lip and he began to shake. She tasted her blood and his grip on her became iron as his kiss took on a savage element that sent a curl of hesitation down her spine.
“Toyo. Toyo! Let her go.”
She didn’t know which one said it, but she was both grateful and filled with hate. Toyo was pulled away from her and the cold air between them snapped her out of her stupor.
Toyo was just as disoriented as she was, but the men were careful not to touch her when she staggered.
Loesh whispered, “Beryl, your suit is open.”
She looked down and slammed the fabric together. He had opened the closure to her suit, and she hadn’t felt a thing but the heat from their brief contact.
A look at Toyo and her heart plummeted. “Damn.”
Drovin was holding his friend back. “What?”
“He is looking at me like I am a snack.” She sniffled. “I must smell like food.”
Rand cackled. “No, you smell like sex. He wants to consume you, but you would both be alive when he was done, if a little sore.”
She couldn’t hold in her shriek. “What?”
Loesh winced, his enhanced senses heard her loud and clear. “He isn’t wrong. You are radiating every hot pheromone that our species is sensitive to. How do you not know this?”
She bit her lip and Toyo lunged again with them holding him back. She backed further away and shrugged. “I don’t think any of my kind have been exposed to any of your kind. They took the predatory nature of the Admaryn and the reaction to Terran blood from the Vimpyr and drew an average. They guessed.”
The Guardians stood silent for a moment and then dissolved into laughter. Even Toyo cracked a smile.
“Why is he like that?” Bebe wanted to know why he was watching her so intently.
Loesh chuckled. “We just have to wait until his blood can get to his brain again. Why don’t you go and watch a vid while we calm him down.”
She nodded and headed back to the vid room, finding her slug documentary and starting it.
Bebe glanced over her shoulder and looked at the three men who were calming Toyo. Drovin and Loesh were obviously brothers with the same features and slightly different colouring. The shades of blue in their hair was the biggest difference between the siblings; Drovin’s darker blue gave him a sinister look while Loesh’s paler blue caused an air of innocence to hang around him and his wicked pewter gaze.
Rand’s metallic gold hair, copper eyes and pearl grey skin made him look like a semi-precious statue. His good nature was evident in his gaze and his smile, but he had a smouldering intensity that could quite easily charm anyone within his radius. She didn’t know if it was his bioelectric field, but he was very attractive.
When she thought it was safe, she looked to Toyo, but he was staring at her with his bronze gaze still hot. She scowled and he blinked, cooling it a little. To her surprise, the more she made a point of being calm, the more he cycled down until Drovin and Loesh let him go.
She ran through the information she had on
the W’lyn. They were not reactive breeders. They chose when and where to have sex and could proceed to the next partner without thinking too much about it. There was no reason for her mood to affect Toyo, especially since they were not having sex.
“Rand, I think Toyo needs a trip to medical. He is acting weird.” She went on the defensive.
Toyo jolted at that. “You are not interested in me?”
She kept her expression calm. “Women all over W’lyn are panting over you. I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Now I know.”
Drovin and Loesh winced. Rand’s mouth literally opened in surprise.
Toyo stiffened and stalked from the room.
Bebe sighed and breathed a little easier without him sizing her up.
Drovin stalked over to her. “Why did you do that?”
She blinked. “Do what?”
“Lie about your attraction to him. Toyo is very selective in the women he considers as lovers. He is not simply a piece of meat to toy with.”
She winced at the anger directed at her from Rand and Drovin. Loesh was the only one with an introspective look. Bebe got to her feet and said, “I will stay outside so I am out of the way.”
Night was falling and dawn would appear in a few hours. She may have botched her chance to get a waiver for her attack on a citizen, but at least she wasn’t Toyo’s latest plaything.
Close to midnight, she was curled up on a bench overlooking the ocean when Loesh came to her with a blanket and pillow. “Why did you say that?”
She blinked sleepily. “What?”
“Why did you reject him when every signal your body has was flashing in invitation?”
Bebe sighed and accepted the blanket. He sat next to her on the bench. She stuffed the pillow behind her.
“Do you remember that psycho stalker three months ago? She wanted Toyo and she was willing to hurt three other women to get close to him. I had to analyze her, and I not only provided the peacekeepers with her identity and address, but also the name of her next four targets, including a woman who claims her child is Toyo’s.”
Loesh’s eyes lit with understanding. “That claim is unlikely. We have been sterilized for our time as Guardians just to avoid that particular issue, though it is not out of the realm of possibility if the woman has a healing talent. The testing is still underway.”
“Right. Well, until that is ratified, I don’t want to go anywhere near him. Yes, I want him and, apparently, he wants me, but if there is a child in the mix, what we want doesn’t matter. I have seen too many human families completely screwed because a woman tried to pretend that the children of the previous relationship didn’t exist.”
He laughed softly. “That is almost sensible. So, after he is found not to be the father, would you consider him then?”
“I really don’t think that he is going to bark up this particular tree again. Not after what I said.”
Toyo’s voice came from the bushes to her left. “That is up to me, not you, Beryl.”
He came out and Loesh left them alone.
“I should have suspected something. Most guys aren’t that empathetic.” She shivered and pulled her blanket around herself a little tighter, stuffing the pillow against the arm of the bench.
“So, you are going to hold yourself away from me until we find out whether or not I am the father of Liona’s child?”
She nodded miserably. “It is the only plan of attack I could come up with on short notice.”
He sat next to her and took her hand. He looked at her in shock. “You are freezing.”
Her jaw chattered. “Only a little. I will get better when the sun comes up.”
He pulled her onto his lap and held her against his chest. He pried the blanket out of her hands, and to her shock, he opened her suit, reaching inside it to press his warm palm to her cold ribs.
“Your face turns the funniest colours. All of your emotions are written on your skin, if I know where to look.” He nuzzled his lips against her neck, exhaling warm air over her skin.
His hand trailed upward to her collarbone. “Arousal is written here, for example. I couldn’t tell until I opened your suit, but your blush creeps down your chest and across your breasts when you are aroused. I know I did not miss that signal. The nipples as hard as diamonds were also a clue. I could feel them against my chest through that ridiculous suit you are wearing.”
She chattered. “It isn’t ridiculous. I tried to not wear it one day and I had a freaking crowd following me around the marketplace, all with vacant, staring eyes that spoke of hunger.”
He began a slow massage of her skin. “I wish you could know what happens when I smell your skin. My body aches and I want to be inside you so badly that it causes physical pain. When we part, I want to tear anyone between us into shreds with my hands and teeth.”
She shuddered and her body began to warm up rapidly. Who knew that conversation could be a cure for hypothermia?
When she was warm, aching and wet, he wrapped the blanket around her again and whispered, “You can sleep on the couch in the vid room.”
She nodded and grabbed the pillow, leaving his lap and following him into the base, curling up on the couch in a haze of heat and falling asleep in a minute.
* * * *
Loesh was the first one up, and he went to check on their guest. When he saw her on the couch, shock went through him. She had kicked the blanket away and her suit was open to beyond the navel, displaying one breast and her entire creamy torso. The tip of that breast was soft and pink, and he couldn’t help licking his lips as he took in the view.
With the suit wide open, she was back to smelling like sex again. He fought his reaction, picked up the blanket he had taken from Toyo’s room and delicately covered her again.
She frowned and pushed at the blanket, but he kept it in place until she stilled.
Breathing a little easier, he went about making breakfast for five.
* * * *
The scent of a decent breakfast woke her, and she sat up, catching the blanket when she realised that her suit was splayed wide open. She burrowed down and tucked herself back in, closing the suit and making sure it covered everything before she flipped the blanket back and ran her hands through her hair.
“Morning, Loesh.”
He glanced over at her, and there was wistful relief in his gaze. “Morning, Beryl.”
“You can call me Bebe. It stands for Beryl Beatrice. It was a nickname my brother called me and most of my friends use it as well.”
He shoved a plate of toasted bread and spread at her. “Here, make yourself useful.”
She dutifully washed her hands and then set to work. After the toast, there was a bacony thing and eggs that were never that colour back on Earth.
By the time she was done, the other three were up, the table was set and Loesh had told her where the lav was. She nodded and took off.
Five minutes later, she was relieved and refreshed. A quick sonic shower had done wonders for her mood.
They sat around the table, and Toyo sat next to her, but he was on his best behaviour. They weren’t acting like strangers, but they weren’t yet friends. It was a weird place to be.
After breakfast, he suited up and flew her back to the city, filing the waiver for her so that she was within her rights to protect herself at any cost while on W’lyn. It was basically Guardian authorization to kick ass, and she hugged him quickly for it.
“Thank you. That was…that is a comfort.”
He stroked her cheek with the back of one hand. “Are you planning to get into more trouble?”
She shook her head. “No, but sometimes what I plan not to do happens anyway.”
He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “As soon as the case is ratified, you will find me at your door.”
She turned to whisper against his lips. “I look forward to it.”
He shivered and left her on the steps of the peacekeeper b
uilding.
Bebe turned and walked home.
Two weeks later, she took a skimmer out to the mountain lake and she was enjoying an afternoon of picking wildflowers in the meadow when a shadow moved across the sun.
She looked up and saw the incoming meteor and winced. “You have to be kidding me.”
There was no way to get to her skimmer and nowhere to run, but she tried anyway.
She heard a mechanical sound, and an invisible fist grabbed her and pulled her to one side. As she was hauled rapidly through the air, she turned to watch the incoming projectile and the larger figure approaching it on a collision course.
Toyo squared off and slammed his fist into rock, dropping it into the lake instead of the meadow. Drovin caught her in his arms and quickly set her on the ground. “Nice to see you again, Bebe.”
She grimaced. “This is not the circumstance that I would have enjoyed it be in.”
Toyo landed next to them and he stepped toward her then paused. “I have the results. I am not the father.”
Bebe looked to Loesh and he nodded.
“True. The baby isn’t even W’lyn. The scans say she is pregnant by one of the shapeshifter races, so it could be that they were role playing as Guardian and damsel in distress and she got pregnant.”
Bebe frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. Her statement said she was sure it was Toyo. If she had known they were playing, she would have known it wasn’t a W’lyn and that it would show up on the scans. Could someone be masquerading as a Guardian?”
The three around her looked at her in surprise.
She sighed. “A woman can get pregnant in a dark room and not know who the father is. It doesn’t have to be a calculation on her part, just naivety.”
Toyo cocked his head. “How are you so familiar with the case?”
She ignored her blush. “With a little manipulation, I was able to get my hands on the files, working backward from it affecting a Guardian and therefore being a matter of criminal accusation. Don’t worry. The family court analyst still did their work on it. I just looked at it from the angle of if the guy wasn’t who he said he was, who was impersonating a Guardian?”
