by Siren Allen
Lark whirled around, eyes blazing. “I can’t let him go,” she said before rushing from the craft in search of her mate. On the loading dock, Lark looked left and right, seeking out Raynor. She found him, heading toward the main corridor.
“Raynor.” She raced across the dock, not carrying that her people were staring at her like she’d lost her mind. His speed increased. “Where are you going?” She shouted once she made it to the corridor.
“Away from you,” was his response.
“Let me explain.”
“Why?” He whirled around and Lark stopped, too nervous to come closer. She stared down the hall at her mate. “Why should I let you explain? I heard you, loud and clear.”
“You should’ve told me what I would have to do in order to be your mate.”
“I thought you knew. You seemed to know so much about my kind.”
“Well I didn’t know. I was shocked. I don’t know if I want to bear your curse.” Would it hurt? Would it make her hurt others? She wasn’t ready. She had so many questions.
“Don’t worry, you don’t have to bear my curse.”
“So you’re just going to leave? Just like that?”
“No,” Raynor shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ve seen what being apart from one’s mate can do to a vampire. I’m not walking down that path. And I’ve made a promise to your people that I plan to keep. I will remain here, with you and you will keep the title of my mate. But I will never turn you. I will never touch you. I will never claim you.”
She could feel the tears streaming down her cheeks and didn’t have the energy to wipe them away. “Raynor, you should’ve told me.”
“If you loved me it wouldn’t matter. Mates will bear anything to be together.”
“But you know of my past, of my fears.”
“And you know I would never add to them,” he yelled. “You know I would protect you from anything, even myself.”
“But…”
“Silence,” he roared. “I am done with you.” He turned, stalking away to only the stars knew where.
“Raynor,” she called out. “Raynor!” She dropped to her knees as he rounded the corner, leaving her alone, crying in the corridor.
She’d done it again, ruined two more lives, Raynor’s and hers.
Chapter Twenty Four
Twenty wanings later.
The process of rebuilding Ishtar Terra was coming along as scheduled.
Unfortunately the process of rebuilding her relationship with Raynor was going nowhere. Lark stared at the door her mate had just exited. He hadn’t said a word to her before he left.
Living with him was slowly killing her. Each day he came and went as if she didn’t exist; only talking to her when it was necessary. To the outside world, they appeared happy. No one knew their relationship was a sham.
But they would continue to pretend they were happy. They had to. Her people were thrilled to have a vampire guarding their planet. They felt safer knowing he was there. She couldn’t take that security from them.
Still, each day she suffered in silence, because though he smiled and chatted with her people, he no longer had a desire to smile at or chat with her. Even in public he avoided her unless others were looking. Soon people would notice and began to talk.
Lark shoved the covers off and climbed out of bed. He even refused to sleep with her, even though she’d asked him to, twice. Each time he snorted and said he’d rather sleep in the sun.
How rude!
So the idiot would rather die than sleep with her? He’d rather sleep on the floor on the other side of the room than share her bed. Stars, he was stubborn. Lark stalked over to her bathroom. Could she really call it hers anymore? Half of the room was now Raynor’s.
He’d moved all of her stuff to the other half and asked her not too kindly to stay away from his things. His things! The idiot stored his weapons in her bathroom. Weapons he’d taken from his brethrens’ trading ship. Lark picked up a spear, knowing he would get angry when he smelled her scent on it.
She didn’t care. He only talked to her when he was angry. Lark placed the spear back on its holder. She was pathetic, craving his attention, even if it involved him yelling at her to stay away from his things, to stay away from him.
Tears welled in her eyes. She blinked them back. No more crying over shit she couldn’t change. She was slowly mending from the fears of her past. It would be unwise for her to allow Raynor’s treatment of her to send her back crashing down into despair.
She would endure this, for her people. But as soon as Luna returned, Lark would leave here. She didn’t care if Raynor stayed or not. She needed to go to Earth and search for Lola. She’d heard from the others at Area 51, and they would be returning home soon.
Yet, she’d had no word from Lola. Her sister’s pod had never made it to Area 51. The scientists there believed she may have landed elsewhere on Earth. Lark would find her sister and once she did she would send Lola home, but Lark would remain behind, on Earth.
She would make a new life for herself, one away from Raynor Batiste. Of course time away from him would lead to her losing her mind and slowly going crazy. But, if she stayed here, the same thing would happen.
She was in a lose-lose situation. She’d never been one to give up, but she was tired of fighting by herself. Damn tears, Lark wiped her eyes, not giving the tears a chance to fall. No more crying, she reminded herself.
Stripping out of her clothes, she stormed over to the shower and closed the glass door behind her. She pressed the button and waited on the water to fall. Their shipment of water had arrived yesterday. Thank the stars. She was tired of using the sterilization mist to cleanse herself.
Hot water cascaded over her. Closing her eyes, she allowed it to temporarily wash away all of her troubles. Well, she tried to, but tensed the moment the bathroom door opened.
“Lark,” Raynor yelled.
He was speaking to her. He must be angry.
“Lark,” he roared and stormed out of the bathroom.
“I’m in here,” she called. How many times did she have to tell him that just because he couldn’t hear the shower, didn’t mean it wasn’t on? The closed door of the stall kept the sound inside.
He’d walked in on her three times since they moved in together. Each time he screamed at her, telling her to put some damn clothes on, like it was her fault that he’d opened the shower door while she was in it.
She heard him reenter the room.
“Why are you in the shower, again?”
“Uh, because I need to bathe.”
“You bathe too much.”
“I bathe twice a day.”
“Once would suffice.”
“Whatever, what do you want?” She shouldn’t be so excited by the sound of his voice.
“You touched my spear.”
Lark smiled. It was a good thing he couldn’t see through the glass door. It was made of glass, but it was the frosted kind that allowed no peeking. “And?” she said, being defiant.
“And I have asked you not to touch my things.”
“And.” Her smile deepened when he growled. Stars, she loved the sounds he made.
“And, don’t touch my things.”
“Is that all you wanted?”
“I came for my spear then scented you on it.”
“Now you have your spear, is there anything else you wanted?”
He paused. “Don’t touch my things.” And with that said, he stormed out of the bathroom and slammed the door.
She laughed once he was gone. She couldn’t help it. Making him angry was the only way to get his attention. And she needed his attention, especially since she wanted another kiss, before she said goodbye to him for good.
In order to get another kiss they had to at least be willing to talk for longer than five minutes. She’d resigned herself to the truth that they would never be what she wanted them to be.
The damage was already done. He would never want her
that way again. But a kiss, that wasn’t asking for too much. She hoped. Finishing her shower, she turned the water off and opened the glass door.
After stepping from the shower she grabbed a cloth off the rotating rack and dried herself. Instead of dirtying another towel, she used the same one to dry her hair as she exited the bathroom.
She’d made it half way across the room when a low growl reached her ears. Raynor. Damn it. She turned around slowly to find him standing near the closet they shared, eyes fastened on her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he roared.
“Why do you curse so much?”
His chuckle held no humor. “That’s quite the question coming from you.”
“Let me rephrase it then, why do you curse at me so much?”
Ignoring her question he turned away from her. “I have asked you numerous times to wear clothing.”
“I do wear clothing. I just don’t wear them when I shower.”
“You should.”
“That would defeat the purpose of showering and it would also be stupid.”
“No, what’s stupid is you constantly subjecting me to your nakedness and trying to get me to share your bed.”
Ouch. “This is my room. If you don’t like seeing me naked you can get your own.” Please don’t.
“I will not live separate from you,” he told her, still rummaging through the closet.
“And why not? It’s obvious that you don’t want me.”
He found what he was looking for then faced her once more, eyes not straying from her face. A pity.
“I reside in this room because your people, who are now my people, expect me to. I neither enjoy this, nor enjoy being in your presence. It’s an unfortunate necessity.”
Hurtful. And with that said, he stormed past her, carrying something in his hand.
“What is that?”
“Not yours.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the harem.”
The harem! “Why?” Damn she could hear the pain in her voice.
“Why do males go to harems?” He asked, but didn’t wait for a response.
Lark stared at the closed door, wishing for the thousandth time that things were different between them, that she’d done things differently. Now he was visiting the harem, enjoying other females.
She’d seen the way the succubus from Uranus looked at him. She knew they wanted him. And now they had him. Forget not crying. Standing alone once again, she let the tears fall.
***
Stars, why couldn’t he control his body?
His heart was one thing. Making it forget his love for Lark was impossible. However, he was a warrior. Controlling his body shouldn’t be this hard. He stomped down the corridor, barely noticing the people who spoke to him as he passed.
Why did she have to parade her nakedness before him? Hadn’t she hurt him enough? Raynor didn’t know how much more of this he could stand. He’d promised her people he would remain here.
A vampire always kept his vows. But he was dying a slow death and the beast inside of him was clawing at him, wanting to escape, to be shared with Lark. The shadow roared constantly for him to claim her, to share his burden with her, before the beast broke free and destroyed the people he’d vowed to protect. But he couldn’t do what his shadow asked.
Lark didn’t want to share his burden. Sure, she wanted him. He’d seen her desire for him in her eyes. When she’d asked him to share her bed, he’d damn near come in his pants. She wanted him, his body.
But she didn’t want all of him. There was no picking and choosing which parts of your mate you were willing to accept and which parts you wanted to discard. It was all or nothing when it came to mating.
He couldn’t give her half of himself. The crazy thing was, he would if he could. He would give her whatever she wanted if she would just love him, be with him. So deep in his thoughts he didn’t hear the footsteps approaching.
When a hand touched his shoulder, he whirled around, growling loudly, his fangs punching through his gums. Kill, kill, kill, the beast, who was closer to the surface than it had ever been, began to chant.
“Whoa, Raynor, what’s wrong?”
Manuel. Raynor reigned in his anger, but it didn’t vanish. “I apologize.”
“No worries, we’re all kind of on edge around here. I have good news though. The council has finally decided to investigate King Stonar.”
“I thought they believed the King’s story that he knew nothing of what his son planned and that he didn’t condone it.”
“They did. But, we managed to salvage one of the recording devices and on it you can clearly hear the Prince talking to his father about killing you. The King was the one who told the Prince to Ice you and take Lark. It was enough evidence to make the council reopen the case. This is great news.”
“True, my mate will be pleased. Any word yet from her sisters?”
“No, we’re trying to communicate through your brethrens’ ship, but we haven’t received a response. Other than the missive we got stating Luna was fine and would return soon, we haven’t had word. And Lola is still off the radar. I promise we won’t give up until we get our girls home.”
“Thank you Manuel. I must go. I will find you soon to talk more.”
“Are you going to the harem?”
There was no point in trying to hide it. Manuel already knew about his daily visits.
“Yes.”
Manuel nodded and Raynor continued on his way. It was time to partake in his daily harem visit. Raynor smiled.
This was the only way to take his mind off of Lark.
.
Chapter Twenty Five
“You saw him where?” Lark was furious.
And though Isabella was trying to calm her down, it wasn’t working. She wanted to punch her fist through something, preferably Raynor’s handsome face. Raynor had told her he was going to the harem.
And yes it had hurt her feelings. But part of her believed he was only saying that to get her riled up, that he was truly going somewhere else. Part of her was wrong. And now her friend knew of her and Raynor’s problems. How embarrassing.
“Listen, Lark, you need to calm down.”
“Why? Why the hell should I calm down?”
“Because I don’t know what he was doing in the harem, I just saw him go into one of the pleasure rooms.”
One of the pleasure rooms! “Ugh.” Groaning, she knocked over one of the vases from her dresser.
“I always liked that vase,” Isabella told her.
“Who did he enter with?”
“What?”
“Who did he enter the harem with?”
“He was alone.”
Oh, so the bitch was already there, waiting for him. She would kill them both.
“Again, Lark, I don’t know what went on inside the room.”
“It’s a harem, Isabella. What do you think went on inside the room?”
He was having sex with someone, apparently for free since he didn’t have any currency or did he? She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything anymore. Well, there was one thing she now knew, her mate had lost his virginity. She was going to kill him.
“They could’ve been talking about the weather. I mean, it’s night now. Now that the flares have calmed, we won’t see day again for forty more wanings. Maybe she’s explaining to him how True Days and True Nights work here.”
If he wanted to know how things worked he could’ve asked her. She’d tried three times to explain things to him and he’d always ignored her or told her he didn’t care. But she’d seen his face once he realized he could walk outside the dome with no protective gear.
She’d seen how excited he was to simply lie on the back deck and stare up at the night sky. He missed home. That was to be expected. But he wouldn’t share his thoughts and concerns with her. Why the hell wouldn’t he talk to her?
“Maybe one of the concubines is chatting with him about his home plan
et.”
Lark rubbed her forehead as she listened to Isabella talk.
“Or,” her friend continued. “Maybe they’re discussing how awesome the harem looks now that it’s been renovated. I love the new décor. Or they could be talking about how wonderful it was that Uranus stepped up and delivered some currency and some of their architects to help us rebuild seeing as how one of their own tried to destroy us. Sorry, I know you don’t like us talking about Ana. Or…” Isabella began.
“Or maybe one of the concubines is putting her filthy mouth on his filthy cock. Or maybe one of the Uranian females is seducing him with her succubus charms.”
“Or, yeah, they could be doing that. But why would he do that with a concubine or a succubus when he has you. This just makes no sense. Mates don’t cheat. Not True Mates. And you and Raynor are True Mates. I see the way he looks at you and your eyes glow whenever you look at him. There’s no way he’s cheating on you. Nope,” Isabella shook her head. “I refuse to believe it.”
Should she tell her friend the truth about her and Raynor’s relationship? So far she’d been too embarrassed to say anything. She was the stand-in ruler of Venus. If she couldn’t keep a handle on her private life, how the hell was she going to be able to handle a whole world? But if she didn’t confide in somebody she would lose her mind.
“Look uh, Isabella, things aren’t as… kosher between Raynor and I as they may appear.”
Isabella’s eyes narrowed, zeroing in on Lark. “Clarify.”
“Well, uh, we haven’t claimed each other.”
“Why not?”
Why not? Because he no longer wanted her. She was so not saying that. “We’re not sure if we want to be together forever yet. Forever is a very long time.” Lark began to pace. “What if we decide we don’t like each other? What if I decide I don’t want to share my bed with just one male? What if I decide I’d rather have a female? There are so many what ifs to examine. And that’s why we’re taking things slow.”
“There is no taking things slow when you’ve found your mate. From the moment you meet it’s an intense ride that never ends. You won’t crave anyone else, just him. He’s the only one you’ll want to touch, Lark. There’s no need to wonder what if. There are no what ifs. When you meet your mate, the past seems to melt away. All of your past lovers pale in comparison to the one that fate has declared yours.”
