He stroked her back, murmuring endearments in reilendeer. His true mate. His bright female with an aura radiant enough to blind. He had the only thing he ever desired in his arms.
At last.
Odessa
Mads was staring.
“What?” She sat at the edge of the bed, holding a glass of water. Somehow, they stumbled into the massive bed and her back thanked her. Thirty wasn’t too old but she wasn’t so young that she could sleep on the floor without feeling the repercussions the next morning.
His eyes shifted to a wintry blue and a slow, satisfied grin spread across his face. She had no idea what he saw but it made her feel naked. Okay, poor word choice as she was currently naked. Exposed. His smile made her feel exposed.
“Just admiring the view,” he said. “You’re glowing.”
“Mmm, I am enjoying the afterglow.”
“No, actually glowing.”
She held up a hand, examining it. “Is that part of the mate bond? Or is your spunk radioactive like Spiderman?” Radioactive sperm seemed, in retrospect, a responsible sort of question she should have asked before making love with Mads, but it also seemed irresponsible for him not to mention it. She didn’t want to die from cancer like Mary Jane Watson.
“Partly. Your aura is glowing.” He shifted on the bed, moving closer to her. His hand brushed the back of her neck. “Gold. Buttery yellows.” Gently he kissed the curve where her neck and shoulder joined, where he bit her. “Honey here.” His hands moved down her arms. “Pineapple, if you can believe that. It’s very bright and almost sweet.” Hot breath wafted against her skin, eliciting a shiver.
She didn’t want to deny his claim about her aura. Part of her wanted to denounce auras as new age spiritual hokum, but yesterday she’d have said that about shapeshifting aliens. “Is that good or bad?” she asked.
“It’s stunning. You’ve always been bright, but now—”
Odessa twisted to face him. “So how does that work?”
“Your aura is a type of energy you emit. I can see more spectra than you, allowing me to detect it.” He held up her hand to the window. Moonlight wrapped it in silvery light. “Humans are colorful, I find. Very vivid and shifting rapidly. It’s fascinating to watch the mood move through a crowd.”
“Is that why you like people-watching?” Memories of sitting on the sidelines, watching the crowds at the lake, swimming in the summer or ice skating in winter, came to mind.
He nodded. “Yes. It was… educational to study humans.”
“How did I never notice you were from another planet when you talk like that?” Odessa said.
“Stunned by my staggering good looks, I’d wager.” He grinned, the tips of his fangs showing, and yes, her heart fluttered. He was too damn sexy, like way out of her league. “Oh, violet. What were you thinking just then?”
“Oh my gosh, none of your business.” She fell back and tossed a pillow over her face to cover her blush. “You’re not allowed to read my thoughts.”
Mads remained silent for a moment. “I can’t actually read your mind,” he said at length. “I can see the fluctuations in your mood. The mate bond allows me to detect more nuance now, so I know that violet means you’re aroused, but I can’t actually know your thoughts.”
“Whatever. Just don’t be all ‘ooh, I know you’re horny,’ because it’s too much. Too much, Mads.”
“Don’t hide.” He removed the pillow.
“No! Give that back.”
He planted a hand on either side of her and leaned down. Her hips rose of their own accord, wanting his weight and his heat. “A bit green now but still violet.”
“That’s not funny.” She would never have a private thought again.
Not that she ever had them to begin with.
Oh. Oh no.
“You could see my, whatsit, my aura, this whole time?” she asked.
“Odessa, I swore I wouldn’t keep secrets from you, but I feel the answer will make you uneasy.”
Cheese and crackers. When they were teens, he knew about her crush. He literally saw it. All the desperate longing, fantasizing, the quick glances away, the willingness to do anything just to be with him—
“I think it’s best if we just abandon this topic before I die of embarrassment,” she said.
He rolled to the side, then pulled her to him. “Your colors have always been the most vivid.”
“I can’t even imagine what puberty looks like,” she said. So many mood swings and hormones.
But that could be useful from a parenting perspective. She’d know when Ruby fibbed. Well, Mads could tell when she was being deceitful and he’d tell her. Teamwork.
She huffed with amusement at her mercenary attitude. She had little doubt where Ruby got that aspect of her personality.
“Murky,” he said.
“Sounds about right.”
“When we first met, I had never seen an aura so bright or so golden. I told my father that you were going to be my mate.”
“You were ten,” she said.
“I knew.”
“Shenanigans. No one knows who they want to marry when they’re a kid. When I was ten, I was pretty positive I was going to marry Batman.” She had a serious crush on the animated cartoon Batman. Well, the voice. That deep voice still had the power to make her feel fluttery.
“I’m experiencing jealousy about your regard for the Batman,” he said.
“I prefer my men three dimensional.” To illustrate her point, her hand appreciated all the contours of his abdomen. A thought tickled the back of her mind. “Let’s not tell Ruby about the whole alien thing.”
“Secrets are not healthy,” he said, voice lowered.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m a hypocrite, all right? But she’s seven. If she goes around saying her mom’s new boyfriend can shift into a reindeer, everyone will say, ‘Oh, what an imagination you have.’” Odessa pitched her voice higher as she said the last line. “But I know my goblin and she gets really upset if she thinks you don’t believe her. When she insists you really can shift, she goes from being a precocious kid with an active imagination to the kid who can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy. So, can we wait until she’s a bit older?”
“It will be a hard secret to keep.”
“You kept it from me just fine.” Odessa shrugged one shoulder.
“But this is our family,” he said.
A warm, soft sensation unfurled inside her as he called them a family. “Really? All of us?”
“You have always been my family.” He pushed back her hair, exposing her shoulder and bite mark. “Does it hurt?”
“Not really.” She could feel it, burning and pulsing, but it did not hurt. “I’m aware of it.”
“You’re brighter here.” He brushed his fingers against the mark, and she shivered in response. “I don’t know how that’s possible. You’ve always been mine, Dessa, and now you’re finally mine.”
His warm hands stroked her back and she drifted back to sleep, content to finally be where she belonged.
Chapter 17
Mads
Awareness pricked across his back. A pair of brown eyes topped by red curls peeked over the edge of the stone wall surrounding the patio.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“I’m wearing a scarf. Does your mother know you are here?” He set aside his tools and wiped his dusty hands on a cloth.
“Mommy sent me to ask if you want to come to dinner, and your front door was open but you weren’t inside, so I went around looking for you, and do you? We’re having spaghetti.” Ruby hauled herself over the stone partition—it was only knee-high—rather than walk around.
“Spaghetti is my favorite. Thank you. Why didn’t you walk through?” The patio could literally be seen from the front door. He was hardly hiding.
Ruby shrugged. “I dunno. What are you doing? Why are you outside? It’s cold.” She climbed onto a chair and peered closely at the chisels and hammers on the table.
“I don’t want to make a mess inside,” he answered. Dust got everywhere, no matter how carefully he swept.
“Are you building a robot?”
“Um, no.”
“Good, because I don’t think you can make a robot from rocks. Not a good one.” She reached for a piece of chipped stone, but he snatched it away. Some fragments had razor-sharp edges, depending on how cleanly they sheared.
“I’m carving a doe.” He held up the figure of a seated doe, legs tucked neatly underneath. The figure lifted her chin, stretching out her long, slender neck. Antlers flowed gracefully like leaves tumbling in the wind.
He had been etching in a geometric design across the body. Thin lines barely scratched the surface but added texture to the smooth stone.
The figurine was stylized, of course, and carved from a soft, nearly alabaster stone he collected on a mission. Over the years, he had amassed a small collection of interesting stones. Geology and mineralogy had never particularly intrigued him, but he had a cabin with a male who did. He gathered seemingly ordinary stones and polished and carved them into miniature wonders.
At first, Mads picked up a chisel and a stone to pass the time. Missions often involved extended periods of travel and inactivity. He could only spar or clean his weapons so often before he was willing to do anything else, even play with rocks.
He would never claim to have much in the way of artistic talent, but he enjoyed the challenge of the craft, learning to wield the necessary strength with a precise, almost delicate, touch. His first attempts were monstrosities as he learned how to use the tools. Eventually, his chisels would carve the rocks into some resemblance of the images in his mind.
“She’s pretty,” Ruby said.
The doe was far from perfect, but the imperfections added warmth, he felt. “This is fire pearl. It’s hard to make it anything but pretty,” he said.
Fire pearl was not the actual name of the stone, but it translated close enough. He found it in a dried-up riverbed on a colony planet. Years of drought brought about famine and the colonists fought amongst themselves to control the little bit of available water. He was surprised Reilen intervened. Peacekeeping among colonials was typically viewed as pointless as there were plenty of other planets with abundant resources, minus the civil strife. It was uncharacteristically charitable for his homeworld.
“Would you like to hold it?”
Ruby nodded enthusiastically. He placed it carefully in her hands and instructed her not to grip it by the neck of the antlers.
“Now the cool part,” he said, shining a flashlight on the doe. The white stone of the figurine glowed with a soft light, revealing the golden heart. “Mineral formation allows for striation of color. I have other samples where the stripes run through the entire stone, but I like this one. It is like the secret heart of a stone.”
Ruby murmured appreciation before handing the doe back. “Is it hard?”
“It takes practice. Would you like to learn?” The stone was soft and forgiving, but due to his limited supply—it was an alien rock, after all—he’d have to find the Earth equivalent. Soapstone? Did he remember that name or did he make that up?
She nodded. “Yes, please. Mommy’s always telling me to do something besides watch TV.”
“We could look for suitable stones.”
Her eyes lit up and, for a moment, her resemblance to Odessa became apparent. Even her aura, a pale light still forming, held the same tones of love and devotion. The child only resembled her father in the most superficial of ways. In every way that mattered, she had been made in Odessa’s image.
“Okay. I want to make a robot or a pony. My favorite pony is Bubblegum because she tries to be nice to everyone. Are you dating my mom now?”
Mads rolled up his tools and cleaned the table of dust and stone chips, using the activity to hide his smile. Ruby’s mind moved swiftly from topic to topic, another trait she shared with Odessa. “I would like that very much. Is that okay with you?”
“I guess, but you’ll have to give me lots of presents.”
“I will?”
She nodded. “Sally Jean, my friend from school, her mom has a boyfriend and he buys her toys so she’ll like him.”
“The mom or Sally Jean?”
Ruby shrugged. “Both, I guess.”
“You want me to buy you toys so I can date your mom?” He pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.
“Mommy said I couldn’t tell you that, but I think you should know all the facts.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “I appreciate that.”
“When are you going to marry Mommy? I saw you kiss and that means you have to get married. You should ask her on Christmas, then it’ll be just like those movies she likes to watch.”
“What movies?” Her prattle deeply amused Mads and he feared interrupting her.
“Boring kissing movies.” Ruby pulled a face of disgust. “They’re all ‘I hate you but I made you cookies,’ and then they kiss and get married.” She blew an exaggerated kiss. “Adults are weird.”
“I agree.” He had watched so many romantic comedies with Odessa when they were growing up that he felt Ruby accurately summarized the films. Good to know Odessa still had a soft spot for the stories. “Now, tell me more about this spaghetti. Are there meatballs?”
Ruby happily blathered about garlic bread and meatballs while he cleaned for dinner. He could do this, every day, with joy. Contentment settled on him and he welcomed it.
His phone vibrated with an incoming message.
Svallin.
“What’s up?” Odessa asked.
“Work,” he replied, the message leaving him cold.
Time’s up. We’ll find the rogue together since you can’t find him on your own.
Odessa
The shifting of the mattress woke Odessa. Warm and content under her down comforter, Odessa pressed her face into the pillow. “It’s not morning yet.”
“Dessa.” Lips pressed against the back of her neck. Mads slid under the comforter and pressed against her, skin on skin.
“Tell me you did not climb through my window for early morning nookie.” Of course, he did. Old habits and all that.
His hand rested against her stomach. “I missed you.”
“You saw me a few hours ago.” They had spaghetti, sat at the table and everything, before sending Ruby to bed. Shortly thereafter, he kissed her goodnight. The entire evening had been frustratingly chaste. She probably wouldn’t have invited him upstairs to her bedroom—thin walls and a sleeping child—but kissing and cuddling on the couch remained an option.
“You should be in my bed.” He ground his hips against her, pressing evidence of his intentions.
Or he could sneak in through a window. That worked too.
Something sharp jabbed her shoulder.
“Ow! What is that.”
“Apologies. My antlers.”
Odessa rolled over, the fabric of her nightgown twisting up her legs. Mads sported a full rack. “Is that a hat rack on your head or are you happy to see me?”
He grabbed her by the waist and rolled onto his back. “Very happy.” He bucked his hips up, grinding against her panties. “You are wearing too many clothes.”
She hadn’t slept nude in years, in case Ruby crawled into bed after she had bad dreams but explaining that seemed incredibly unsexy. Also, time-consuming. They had thirty minutes before the alarm went off. “Stay there.”
She jumped off the bed, the bedsprings squeaking, and wiggled out of her panties. “We have to be quiet,” she said, resuming her position.
“Still too many clothes. I want to see you.” He lifted the nightgown and pulled it off quickly.
She lined up his cock at her entrance and carefully sank down, biting her lower lip. He stretched her in a welcome burn and filled her. This was the best way to start the day.
The bed squeaked as she moved, at first cautiously, then with a steady pace. Ruby had trouble fal
ling asleep but once she did, she was dead to the world. At first, Odessa gripped the headboard but that made the rattle and thump worse. She planted her hands on the pillow, but Mads’ antler took up too much room. Finally, she gripped him at the base of his horns. Immediately, he bucked up, like she touched a live wire.
“You like that?” Her breath came out in ragged pants.
“Don’t stop.”
She couldn’t. Her body hungered for his. She had always missed him but now it took on a fevered intensity, a desperate yearning to be closer even as she had him within her. They had been apart for too long. She had been starved.
He whispered for her to be quiet, to stifle her moans, but the moans came. Roughly, Mads pulled her down and crushed their mouths together. He kissed with an unrefined, wild fervor that set her aflame. She moaned and gasped and he took everything she offered.
He flipped her onto her back and pistoned his hips, losing the rhythm as he lost himself. Rapidly, his eyes changed from brown to blue and back again. He hit a sensitive spot and her body tensed, her breath caught as her back arched off the mattress.
She came in a fierce rush, legs clamped around him tight and squeezing. He followed, growling his release, flooding her with the hot seed her body craved, and the base of his cock swelled, locking them together.
The pleasure of the swelling faded from an overwhelming rush of sensation to a soft bliss. The warmth spread and she relaxed, drifting away in a haze. It was like that first rush of nicotine—back when she smoked—that eased the tension and let her clear her head. No stress. No worries. Just them, their bodies joined but their spirits forever entwined.
He rolled onto his back, pulling her with him. Gently he rubbed circles on her, whispering soft words in a language she did not understand.
“What you do to me,” she said with wonder. Sex had never felt like that. No one had ever made her feel so intensely or feel so treasured.
“That is the mate bond. Our bodies are attuned to one another,” he said, like mind-blowing sex with the person you loved was a given and not something people struggled to find.
The Alien Reindeer’s Bounty Page 15
