A Seacat's Love (Oceanan Trilogy Book 1) (33 page)

Challen threw his hand off and bared his teeth. “Do not touch me,
human
, or I will kill you.”

Rick raised his hands up and took a step back. “Whoa. I won’t fight you, Challen. You’re Nora’s brother. I know how much she adores you. I won’t hurt her in that manner.” He turned to look at the ocean. “I still want to know why you’re here, though.”

“Very well then.” Challen took a deep breath. “Tigif has asked for Leonora’s hand in union.” He jumped back at Rick’s sudden movement in his direction.

“What? I’ll kill him if he ever touches her!”

Observing Rick’s reactions very closely, Challen asked, “You are against this pairing?”

“You’re bloody hell right I am!”

“Why? Tigif is a male of prestigious influence on my planet. He is a well-suited mate for my sister. The best who has asked for her hand thus far.”

Rick felt like he was about to kill someone. “Nora is not going to marry anyone! Not your influential Tigif! Not anyone!” he hissed with a deadly gleam to his eyes.

Challen’s eyes narrowed in return. “I returned to make sure Carol Ann was all right. I had tried to get her away from here before the enemy attacked. But she escaped my grasp.” He paused for a moment. His attention was glued to Rick’s face. “Perhaps you would be interested in knowing that I have given Tigif my consent to join with my sister.”

Without thought, Rick went for Challen’s throat, knocking the taller man onto the ground. Straddling him, Rick squeezed tight. “You bastard! You couldn’t have given her to him!”

Challen managed to throw Rick off. He quickly got into a fighting stance, in case Rick attacked him again. “Why not?”

Rick crouched low, preparing for another attack. He held back at Challen’s question. “Because she’s mine!” he shouted, banging his right fist against his chest. “I made her mine!”

“Then it was you who marked her!”

“Yes!”
Rick vehemently admitted. “I marked her mine! I will never let her go!”

“And why is that?”

“Because I love her!” Rick admitted to another living soul.

Challen nodded. He stood up tall. “Then return with us.”

Taken off guard, Rick blinked for a few seconds. “What?”

“Return with us. Or do you not love my sister enough to give up everything you possess.”

“Return with you. Where? Back to your planet?”

“Correct.”

“Why?”

Challen’s eyebrows arched all the way up as he stared at Rick. “Because Leonora is in love with you,” he answered with a snicker.

Rick’s heart stopped. His attention dropped to the sand. He remained silent as his mind relived each precious moment with Leonora.

Challen drew in a long breath. “I
said
Leonora is in love with you, and she refuses to join with another.”

Challen’s last words yanked Rick out of his memories. “That’s because she already is married,” he stated firmly. The glint in his eyes challenged Challen to disagree.

“Then you know the significance of the—”

“Yes!”

“And you acknowledge it?”

“In my heart and in my soul,
yes!”

Challen’s face showed how much Rick had shocked him. He gave Rick half a smile and nodded. “Then return with us as Nora’s soul mate and my brother and acknowledge it publicly.” His eyes grew cold and narrowed when Rick did not answer.

Rick did not know what to say. Every fiber in him screamed yes, but he had a responsibility to his baby sister. “What about Carol Ann? I can’t just leave her here.”

“I have no intentions of leaving her behind again.”

This time Rick’s eyebrow went up. Indeed he and Challen resembled each other when they did that habit of theirs. “What do you mean?” he asked suspiciously.

“She may come as well, if she wishes.”

“I can’t force my sister to leave this planet behind, nor can I go with you and leave her.”

The young man shrugged his right shoulder indifferently. “The choice is yours.”

Rick stared at him. “Are you telling me that I must choose between my wife and my sister?”

Challen had a hooded expression. He did not answer him.

“You son of a bitch.”

It was Challen’s turn with his eyebrow. “Your sister will come with us. I am sure of it.”

“How the bloody hell can you be so sure?”

“Nora said your relationship with your sister is the same as that of mine with Nora. In that case, Carol Ann will not allow you to part from her side. She will come with us.”

“If only I could be so sure. You don’t know Carol Ann as I do. She can be real stubborn sometimes.”

“No different than Leonora. Do not worry. She will come.”

“How? She’s not even here.”

Challen frowned so severely his eyebrows connected in the middle. He grinded his teeth while he glowered at Rick. Balling up his fists, he hissed in a low, barely audible whisper, “Then we will go for her.”

“How?”

“You will see,
only
if you have decided to part with your world and your way of life.”

Rick surveyed the beauty Earth had to offer its inhabitants. He compared how he would feel never to see his beloved planet again to how he felt—and would feel again—about living without Leonora. He faced another life-altering decision. This time, he was positive it was the right choice.

“I need to see her.” His voice held a silent plea.

“Then you have decided?”

“Yes.”

“I am glad.” Challen held out his hand with a genuine smile. “Welcome to the family, my brother.” Rick extended his hand. They clasped each other’s forearms. Without letting go of Rick’s forearm, Challen ordered, “Transport.” They both disappeared.

Once aboard the ship’s Transporter Room, Challen impatiently demanded, “Give me Carol Ann’s location. Now!”

Up went that eyebrow again. “You seem extremely anxious in finding my sister. Why?”

“Because I have been away from
my
planet for over two seasons, and I am quite tired of it.” He growled. “Now if you do not mind,” he said, taking a menacing step toward his new brother-in-law, “give me the information that I require so that we can retrieve your sibling and leave this insufferable planet!”

Challen did not know, but Rick was not one to take orders well, least of all from strangers. He challenged the taller feline, gesture for gesture. “Who the bloody hell do you think you are? Have I given you a reason to think that you can speak to me in such a tone?”

“That does it!” Challen lunged for Rick.

Rick and Challen engaged in fisticuffs. Each intended to vent his own frustrations out on the other. Neither saw Jugar rush into the transporter room.

“Challen!
Challen!”
Jugar stopped beside the two fighting males. “I just saw Tigif in the corridors. He seemed to be headed to Leonora’s chambers.”

Both males stopped in midswing of their next move. Their heads whipped toward the Seacat. “What?” they injected together. Rick and Challen stared at each other.

“Tigif is headed to Leonora’s bedchambers. I do not like the look he had in his eyes.”

A warning signal went off in Rick’s head.

“I will take care of you later,” Challen sneered. He was the first to run toward his sister’s quarters.

“I’ll be looking forward to it,” replied Rick. He was one step behind Challen, and Jugar was close behind him.

Exiting the bathroom, wrapped only in a towel, Leonora entered her dark bedroom. She went to the opposite end of the room. Switching on the small wall light located beside her bed, she then opened the sliding door to the closet and searched for something to wear.

She was unaware that Tigif had blackmailed a feline on board into getting her access code from the ship’s computers—again. The tiger stood silently in the dark corner next to the main doors, watching her.

Tigif had not seen Leonora in two tides. Leonora had kept her doors locked and had allowed no one but her brother to enter. He
missed the sight of her. He loved the glow a hot shower placed on her features. He would have to strike fast before she detected his scent.

Tigif noticed she chose an outfit. It was time. He carefully approached her. “There is no need for you to dress up.”

Startled, Leonora gasped, turned, and glared at him.

“I prefer you just this way.”

“How in the blazes did you get in here? Get out!” She grabbed the towel around the top edge, pulling it more securely around her. The clothes she held covered her swollen belly from Tigif’s view.

Tigif shook his head. “There is no need for shyness, my pet. We will soon be sharing quarters.”

“The blazes you say!”

“Challen has returned from Earth. And as I had predicted, that
human
has chosen his planet and career over you.” He laughed. “I told you he would get tired of you. It seems that you overmated with him. He has had his fill of you and desires you no more.” He inched closer to her. “So now to save your honor, Challen has given you to me. And I am anxious to brand you mine.” Tigif seized her upper arms and pulled her close. His mouth slammed against hers.

Leonora had no chance to respond. Tigif quickly pushed her onto the bed and did away with her clothes and towel. Once she was naked beneath him, Leonora felt his arousal. His hands firmly touched her breasts. They slid down her stomach to her thighs and back up.

He growled in her ear. “I have wanted you for so long.” He went still. Tigif glanced down to where his hands were.

Leonora read the shock on his face. She snatched her chance to escape him. “Get off me!” She shoved Tigif off her body. She tried to hurry off the bed, but her belly made it awkward for her to move quickly. Tigif grabbed her arm and flung her back unto her back. He stopped her protest with another brutal kiss.

He swiftly positioned himself on top of Leonora. He forced his legs between her thighs. “I have watched you with him. Each time I swore to myself that you would regret the day you laid with that
human
. Now I will make you pay for your betrayal. I will make you pay for hosting that cur’s kittens!”

Planting another of his hurtful kisses, Tigif’s hands scanned Leonora’s thighs, searching for the perfect place to place his mark. He came across the unevenness of her otherwise smooth skin. Breaking the kiss, he examined where his right hand froze. He saw Leonora’s soulscar for the first time.

His face transformed before her eyes. “Who?” was all he could get out.

“The Predator,” she declared proudly with a grin. “Now get the blazes off of me!” She pushed against his chest.

Tigif’s eyes ignited. He smacked Leonora hard against her left cheek. “Blast you!” He back smacked her on her right. “Blast you, you wretch!” He hit her again. “I will make you pay for this.” And again. “I will make your life a living nightmare for giving yourself to another male!” Tigif continued to beat Leonora, ignoring the blood that poured from her nose and mouth.

Leonora’s thoughts were solely on her unborn litter. She worried about them being maimed, or killed. She managed to fling Tigif off her. As quick as she could, she got off the bed and ran awkwardly toward the front door, uncaring of her state of undress.

Tigif ran after her. He grabbed her by the hair, spun her around, and banged her head into the wall. Leonora lost consciousness for a few moments. When she awoke, Tigif was leaning over her, opening the front of his pants.

“You
will
be mine.”

Feeling the cat’s naked hips settle between her legs snapped Leonora out of her daze. She fought with renewed vigor. “No!” She felt Tigif’s manhood seeking entrance.
“No!”
Her hips jolted away as she released a blood-curdling scream. She extended her claws and made a grab for his erection with the intentions of cutting it off. Tigif evaded her attempts and stilled her hands over her head. Leonora closed her eyes tight and screamed from the top of her lungs.

Outside Leonora’s chambers, Challen, Jugar, and Rick arrived from the transporter room.

Challen looked at Rick. “For a human you run fairly quickly.”

“You’re not too bad yourself,” replied Rick.

They heard her scream from within the room. It paralyzed the men. Rick regained his senses first. He burst into Leonora’s chambers, followed by a pale-looking Challen and a concerned Jugar. What greeted Rick was the one thing he had swore he would never allow: another man was trying to take his Leonora from him.

The gates of hell opened. Challen’s eyes ignited. He reached out with his right hand, and Tigif went flying across the room, crashing into the far wall by invisible hands.

Rick raced up to the fallen cat and lifted him by the neck. With every punch and kick, Rick recalled each time Tigif had made a pass on his wife. He remembered the mutilated aliens he could not save. He thought of how Leonora was experimented on, how close she had come to dying like the others. All of it happened because of Tigif. Tigif was also responsible for the army storming his beach house, jeopardizing Carol Ann’s life. Rick was going to make the tiger pay with his life.

Challen also wanted to kill Tigif, but since the Predator had reached the cat before he could continue, he instead directed his attention to his little sister. Leonora was on the floor—naked, bleeding, and still. With a swing of his left hand, the bedsheet flew off the mattress and onto Leonora. Challen carefully covered his sister’s body. He then gently lifted Leonora into his arms. In a soothing voice, he telepathically told her everything was going to be all right.