Defiance (7 page)

The other two got up and frowned at the one speaking. “She will be yours? I don’t think so, Harkik.”

Teeny held her hand out to Sarnfra. “Let’s get you home so you can put down roots.”

The Hecate looked at her with wide eyes. “I am blooming?”

“Yes. Your parents didn’t want to worry you, but you need to get home.”

Sarnfra got to her feet and took Teeny’s hand. “Take me home.”

The three males paused and formed a block. “You aren’t taking her.”

Teeny moved between the men and the young woman. “Even by your current regulations you can’t hold her.”

She took a step forward, and the one of the men reached out to grab her arm. It was all she needed.

She struck the pressure points of the attacker, and he went down. His friends moved at her to avenge their companion, and they ended up in a heap.

Teeny turned to take Sarnfra’s hand again, but her companions were hustling her out the doors.

Sighing, she went around the pile of groaning males and followed the women. Sarnfra was resisting, trying to explain her need to leave, but the other girls wouldn’t hear of it.

Teeny ripped off her shoes and moved to cut them off. The grass was cool against her feet. “Stop or I will stop you.”

She grabbed the two lead girls and tripped them. They went down in a tumble of alcohol fumes and soft cries.

Sarnfra was shaking.

“Shit. Sarnfra, tell me. Have you been drinking?”

She nodded.

“Damn. Come with me.”

The hover cycle was where she had spotted it earlier. She hiked up her skirt and helped Sarnfra settle behind her.

The Hecate wrapped her arms around Teeny, and Teeny gunned the engine to take off.

Transformed, Gakkada beasts were running toward them across the green, so Teeny went straight up. Once they had altitude, she aimed the cycle for the spaceport and throttled it as fast as it would go.

Sarnfra’s arms were cool by the time they landed within the shuttle field. Hecate ships were distinctive. Teeny left the cycle and lifted Sarnfra in her arms, grunting a little.

Once she was within five feet of the shuttle, the door opened. Green arms extended to help Sarnfra in.

The captain of the vessel appeared in the doorway. “Why is she out?”

“She has consumed alcohol, she is sprouting and the flight here chilled her. I would keep her in a chilled state until you get home. Good journey.”

He reached out and caught her arm. “Thank you.”

She smiled and returned to the cycle. She lifted off before the security guards could get to her, and she headed back to the resort.

When she heard the shuttle taking off behind her, she sighed with relief. Sarnfra was with her own people, and they would take care of her.

She settled the cycle back where she found it and went for a walk on the beach path. The cool of the night surrounded her as she strolled barefoot down the walkway. Zhomos was either back at his home or in his office. She really wasn’t in the mood to hunt him down.

Chapter Ten

She felt the rush toward her and turned to meet it. Eight feet of muscle and fur rushed up to her and stopped.

“Hello, Zhomos. Did you finish dinner?” She reached out and stroked his jaw. The fur was smoother and silkier than anything she had ever touched.

He growled and lowered his head toward hers. He snuffled her hair, and she chuckled as it blew the strands around.

A low growl sounded behind her, and she turned to watch three of the beasts coming toward her.

Zhomos stepped between her and the approaching males, letting out low grunts of warning.

The three moved forward together, and Zhomos bared his fangs, causing one of the three to back away. When he roared long and low, she clapped her hands over her ears. She could hear the threatening tone in her teeth.

The left beast lowered his ears back, and he turned to slink away, leaving only one to challenge Zhomos.

They circled each other warily, but eventually, Zhomos tired of the game and swiped out with one of his claws. The other male went down and skittered to a halt on the edge of the walkway.

Zhomos leaned forward and roared again. The other male got to his feet and loped off into the darkness.

“So, that was the repercussion of my earlier actions?” She walked up next to him and ran a hand through his fur.

He chuffed and returned to sniffing her. He paused at her waist and scented between her thighs. Apparently satisfied with what his senses told him, he lifted her in his arms and loped through the shadows toward her accommodations.

She thought he would go past the doorman, but instead, he picked up speed, and in the next moment, they were flying through the air, landing on her balcony. She was about to tell him that the door was locked, but one push from his massive claw and the lock popped open.

“Remind me to talk to management about security.” She ran her hand through his fur again.

He shuddered and shifted back into skin and muscle, still holding her. “I am sure that I will be only too happy to hear whatever you have to say, as long as you are naked. Now, as we missed dinner, would you care for some room service?”

He let her legs slide down along him and held her against him.

His erection moved between them, and she inhaled sharply as memories of their first time together just that afternoon replayed in her mind.

She nipped at his lower lip with her teeth and then licked the spot she had bit. He growled low and lifted her so that they were face to face.

“Is she safe?”

Teeny nodded. “She is with her people. They know how to take care of her. She will be rooted a day.”

“They really root in?”

“Yes, for the first ten years of adulthood. It is never a sure thing when it will start, so most families keep a close eye on their young after age thirty.”

“She was thirty?” He was slowly running his hands up and down the silk covering her spine.

“Twenty-nine, there was a note in her file that her continent had experienced a few years of warmer-than-average weather. She matured early but no one wanted to tell her. It is a matter of delicacy for them.”

He nodded. “Her companions lodged a complaint against you.”

“Good. It will match the charge of kidnapping that the Hecate are going to file. If they ever return to Hecate space, they will be facing a death penalty.”

“Death?”

“The Hecate do not breed well. Every member of the species counts and the only place they can live during the first four decades is their home. To take them away is to kill them.”

His hands slowly removed her wrap and began to work on the fastenings of her gown. “Why is the rooting so important?”

“It completes their maturation cycle. The Hecate are born live and carried and educated in a pod and then live the next twenty years learning their civic duties. After they gain the basics, they root and bloom. The pollen they generate helps the breeding cycle of the previous generation, so if they lose one maturing adult, it has a catastrophic effect.”

The gown was hanging onto her shoulders by friction.

“I see. Does your species have any breeding specifics that I should know about?” He gently slid the left strap off her shoulder and then the right.

“No. My specifics are cultural. I have taken a supressing shot, so pregnancy is not something that will concern me for a while.”

Idly, he eased the straps off her arms with fingers hooked through them. “Can it be counteracted?”

“It could be, but it would mean a visit to a med facility.”

He paused as the gown caught on the swell of her breasts. “That will require some thought.”

She was going to ask him what there was to think about, but her gown hit the floor in a rush and nothing parted their bodies. It was a helluva distraction.

He lifted her and turned to sit on the bed, the nearly full moons lighting their bodies in a spectral glow. He settled her in his lap facing him, her legs around his hips.

She moaned as he leaned down to take one nipple after the other into his mouth. The hot tugging sent a ripple of reaction down into her channel and caused her clit to throb.

He stroked her shoulders with his thumbs, and she could feel his grin against his breast as he flicked her ticklish spot.

She gasped and shook violently as her body did not translate it the way it normally did. “What the hell?”

“Pheromones. They add a sensory level to intimacy that few folk bother looking into. Nine out of sixteen species in my ancestry pick their mates by scent. You smell amazing.” He pressed his nose between her breasts and inhaled sharply.

She shivered. “That was how you knew when I returned tonight. You could smell me.”

“I could. I could also smell those young men who were all attracted by the scent of flowers that the Hecate was giving off.”

He moved his mouth until it was over her ticklish spot, and he tongued the skin under his lips until she twisted in his arms. It had gone from ticklish to an erogenous zone, and she was ready to cum just from his mouth on her shoulder.

She moaned as her body surrendered to the strange mix of sensations and the heady scent of aroused male.

He moved one finger into her, breathing slowly and carefully as he tested her readiness. “Thank the moons.” He exhaled in relief and lifted her, setting her on the tip of his cock and letting her weight bring her down onto him.

Teeny gripped his shoulders for balance and held on as he lifted and dropped her over and over. They rocked together in the moonlight, sighing and sliding in unison.

She shuddered as another orgasm swept through her, groaning and resting her forehead against him.

He continued to thrust upward until his own release rushed in. Zhomos’s hands held her tightly to him while his neck arched and the corded muscles flexed.

His body was sheened with sweat. He lifted her chin and looked her in the eye. “Tomorrow night I can’t shift back. I will be trapped in my hunting form, and I will be unable to communicate.”

She smiled. “I knew you tonight, I will know you tomorrow. What is the drill for tomorrow night?”

“At sundown, the women have the choice to either gather on the green or you can stand on your balcony. The men come running and seek their female. If there is a dispute or conflicting claim on a woman, the men fight it out, and they take their female to a safe place, guarding her until dawn. At dawn, they shift and begin courtship.”

She chuckled. “What makes up the courtship?”

“They bring flowers, treats, jewellery, anything the woman might fancy.” He grinned.

Teeny sighed and thought of the things she would like. Clothing, weapons, a place to keep her stuff. It was doubtful that she would get any of the above.

She yawned and snuggled against him. “I think I need a bit of a rest. It has been an eventful day.”

He stood up with her still attached to him and flipped back the covers. He stretched out so that she was on top of him and stroked her back once he flicked the covers over them.

She was going to tell him that there was no way for her to fall asleep with him still inside her, but she fell asleep.

Chapter Eleven

Teeny spent the day at the pool, sunning herself with the group of giggling women and sipping at fruit cocktails. Her thighs ached and her nipples were still as hard as diamonds from the previous night, but she managed to absorb the relaxing heat offered by the Gakkada sun.

The two women from the night before came over and glowered at her.

“Yes?”

“Where is she?” The Nyal female scowled, her red eyes flashing.

“She went home.”

“She was going to find a mate here and live here with us.” The Azon woman nodded.

Teeny sat up and looked at both of the women blocking her sun. “She was dying. Hecate are plant born. They need their world to live. You may have been friends with her, but she would have been dead within the week. She was already throwing her anchoring buds.”

They looked at each other and shifted from foot to foot.

The Nyal was defensive. “She didn’t tell us that.”

“She didn’t know. There is a first time for everything, and this is her first time. She will be rooted and blooming by the end of the week. How much did you ask her about her species, or did you assume that because she looked like you, she was similar to you?”

The Azon shifted. “So, Sarnfra will be fine?”

“I hope so. I did my job and got her back to her people. They have to take it from there.”

The young ladies blushed and the Nyal scowled. “We apologize. I didn’t know why she was fighting us, so we just hauled her along.”

“I told her she was blooming, and she was eager to leave. Your apology is accepted.”

She nodded and waved the ladies away. “Please leave, you are in my light, and my job does not allow me much time in the sun.”

The ladies nodded and left her alone.

The sun was creeping across the sky and there was less speaking and more nervous ordering of drinks around the pool. Becoming irritated by the tension, Teeny got to her feet, slipped on a robe and walked back to her room.

She showered and ordered a meal in her quarters. A message was flashing on her com unit, and Neijish’s face appeared. “She’s rooted and doing fine. You got to her just in time and her family requested and was granted an in-system jump to get her home. Now, there is another matter. A request for your transfer to Gakkada.”

“A what?”

“A very high-up request has been processed, and you are now going to be dispatched out of Gakkada. I didn’t even know they were willing to host a retriever.”

A small smiled quirked her lips. “I think it is a recent decision. Are there any details of this transaction?”

“Sure. I will upload them to your mobile unit. I think there is a very nice shuttle in it for you, dressed up to look nasty. I don’t know how that works, but if you want it, you have it.”