Casey's Warriors (Bondmates) (36 page)

“Matriarch, where is your bondmate? Why are you out here alone?”

Anger sizzled along her nerves and she forced herself not to lower her shields in the slightest. “I’m sorry, but that is between Lady Elsin and myself.”

That seemed to ease his anxiety and he gave her a rough smile. “Of course, begging your pardon, Matriarch.”

The ball of fur approached her and she swallowed hard. “Is it dangerous?”

“Bofus?” He looked down at the ball of fluff then back at her. “To you? Not at all. He helps me hunt for shellfish. Got a good nose on him he does, can find anything he has a scent lock on. Hold out your hand. I’m sure he’ll find you’re no threat.”

She stared at the furball and tried to detect any kind of face…or anything. It rubbed against her skirts and let loose a soft trilling whistle that was rather pleasant to hear. “Can I touch him?”

“Matriarch, I don’t want you getting your hands dirty. He likes to roll around in the sands.”

She looked down at her dirt-covered hands from scrambling for rocks and back up at him with a wry grin. “Maybe you should worry about me getting you dirty.”

He stared at her for a moment, then smiled with a low chuckle. “Now I know you’re an Earth Matriarch. I’m sure Bofus would enjoy your touch.”

Kneeling she held out her hand and from somewhere in all that fur came a snuffling sound followed by a hot puff of air. Its fur was incredibly soft and she pressed her hand a good four inches in before she felt a round and warm body. It skin was slightly bumpy and as she dug into its fur to gently stroke the animal it emitted a lovely whistled tune. Turning rapidly it shook and shivered, making excited little whistles. She laughed and gave it a good rub before standing. The creature’s obvious affection helped clear her mind a bit and she stared up into the sky, astounded by the sight of what had to be hundreds of moons. Somewhere up there they had a moon that was being converted to resemble Earth. If they wouldn’t let her go home maybe they would let her stay there.

A few seconds later two more fuzz balls came scampering out of the darkness, one black with red-tipped fur and the other a pale grey with green-tipped fur.

She giggled, delighted as Bofus ran over to them, whistling and chirping while they talked back to him.

“There’re more of them?”

Cint nodded and whistled a complex tune. The other two fur balls moved off into the darkness beyond the lantern. “Aye. Those two are Bofus’ brother and sister. There are a few more out there but you won’t see them. The main pack moves ahead of us to make sure the trails is clear.”

“Clear of what?”

He glanced at her, then looked away and pursed his lips. “Nothing for you to worry about, Matriarch. Just night creatures.”

The tone of voice he used reminded her of her father’s when he didn’t want to discuss something with her, but she let it go. “Excuse me…what is your name?”

“Cint, Matriarch.”

“Cint, do you think you could help me get to Lady Elsin? I’m afraid I don’t have any money but I can give you this.” She pulled the silver barrette out of her hair Lorn had given her early this morning and tried to still the pang of hurt at the reminder of his smile, his touch, his warmth.

God, she was pathetic.

“I cannot take that.” He shook his head and stepped back with a small frown. “My Lady, why don’t you ask your bondmate to take you? Does he know you’re here? He must be worried.”

Not wanting to say Lorn’s name for fear that this man might know him, she shook her head. “No. I’m never speaking to him again.”

“I see. May I ask why?”

“I’d rather not discuss it.” Tears threatened again so she lifted her chin and fought them back. “Can you just take me to Lady Elsin please?”

Giving her a shrewd look he nodded. “Of course. Follow me.”

As they made their way down the shore she smiled in delight at the different kinds of tiny glowing fish swimming at the edges of the river. They seemed attracted to the light of the man’s lantern, and followed them along the edges of the fast moving water. The fluff ball stood between them and the water, keeping pace with Cint and occasionally running a circle around them while whistling. “Those fish are so pretty.”

“I thought so as well when I first came here.”

He held his lantern closer to the water and she swore she saw something massive moving beneath the fast flowing water further out into the river but the brief gleam of scales was there and gone and before she could really make sense of it.

“Where are you from?”

A sad look overcame his face looked into the sky, nodding his head to the right. “My world fell to the Hive and I took refuge on Kadothia hundreds of cycles ago when I was a young man with my wife. Lord of Life guide her on her journey to the next life.”

“Is she…did she pass?”

“Long ago, though it seems like yesterday.” He gave her a small smile. “While my people don’t bond like yours, I still loved her with all of my heart and that’s the truth.”

“I believe you.” Depression made her shoulders slump as they walked further down the shore, the fur ball bounding ahead of them then racing back. “People on Earth don’t bond either.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We don’t have all that mind reading stuff like the people of your galaxy do.”

“Not all of us have the psychic gifts. Take myself. I can’t read your mind or move objects with my thoughts. The gifts of my people run more along the lines of being able to communicate with animals.”

Intrigued she looked over at Bofus then back to Cint. “You can talk to them?”

“Not like you and I are talking, animals think different than people, but we understand each other. More like images and emotions.”

“That is so awesome. I wish I could do that. I don’t have any powers or anything like that.”

He glanced down at her chest and for a moment she thought he was staring at her breasts, but then he looked back up at her face. “But you managed to bond a Warrior, right?”

Her lower lip quivered as she glanced down at her bondmark, the contrasting memories of her bonding ceremony and seeing the whores on her bed blending together. “I wish I hadn’t.”

“Why?” His voice hardened. “Is he cruel to you? I’ve never heard of it happening but who knows how things may differ with Earth brides.”

“No.” Tears threatened and she swallowed hard. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Does he love you?”

“He said he did, but he lied.”

“Why do you say that?”

Anger heated her blood and she clung to it, preferring her resentment over sorrow. “He promised me he would be faithful to me, that he wouldn’t have any other women. Him and his blood brother.”

“How did they betray you?”

“I just arrived on your planet today and I found two whores waiting for them in our bed.”

He frowned and looked out in the distance as the came to a narrow pale wood bridge arching over a small creek that fed into the river. “Do you mean pleasure servants?”

“Yes,” she seethed.

“But all Warriors have them.”

“Why the hell would their wives allow that?”

He flushed bright red and cleared his throat a couple of times. “Because of the discomfort.”

“The what?”

“You know…the swelling.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He stopped and stared at her. “The swelling of your woman parts after you’re intimate with your husband. Where you seal tight to hold onto his seed.”

“Um, what?”

He rubbed his face with his hand and started to walk again. “I’m too old for this.”

“Wait, I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Forgive me for being blunt, Matriarch, but do the women of your world not swell shut after you’ve made love? Does the entrance to your body not close off after a man spills his seed in you?”

She was so shocked she almost walked into a tree as they exited the other side of the bridge. “No.”

“You mean you don’t swell? You can service your husband more than once in half a day’s time?”

“Well, yes. Do you mean that Kadothian women can’t?”

He laughed. “No. No women in the Bel’Tan galaxy can. Kadothian males are a highly sexual race. They need to release on a regular basis or they will get overly aggressive and become a danger. Those who can afford pleasure servants have them, those that don’t…I’m sure you can figure that out.”

She crossed her arms and ducked beneath a dripping strand of what looked like glowing pink moss. “Well on my planet only a man who has no respect or love for his wife has sex with another woman.”

“Did your bondmate know this?”

“Yes, and he promised me he’d gotten rid of his pleasure servants before he ever came to Earth. I know Nas…the other man didn’t, but there’s no way he couldn’t have known how I would react.” She took in a hitched breath at the memory of how good she’d felt with Nast, how connected to him all while he’d had two whores waiting for him when he got home. Fuck them both for manipulating her like this. “Well he can forget ever bonding with me. In fact if I never see either of them again it will be too soon.”

“Seeing those women hurt you?”

“They were in my bed!” she practically shouted and the fur ball made a startled whistle. “Sorry, fuzzy wuzzy, didn’t mean to freak you out.”

She bent and held out her hand to the fur ball. “Can I carry Bofus?”

“I wouldn’t suggest it. He’ll shed all over your robe.”

With a snort she lifted the warm and cuddly creature close and continued to follow them man. “Wouldn’t you be upset if your wife had two men waiting for you in your bed on the first night in your new home?”

He gave her a considering look and nodded. “I would.”

She buried her face in the creature’s fur, soothed by its soft whistles of pleasure. “I left my world for him, left my family and friends, everything I know because I thought he loved me.”

“Do you love him?”

Her lower lip trembled and she shook her head. “Not anymore.”

He made a noncommittal noise and soon they approached the small village she had seen earlier. The streets were paved in some kind of dark brown stone and there were huge circular planters filled with what looked like stunning flowers in front of every store. Bright curtains hung in all the windows of pale cream buildings, and the streetlights illuminated a busy street filled with people and more of those egg-shaped vehicles. Here, on the outskirts, she caught glimpses of families going about their lives inside of their homes through their windows and the ache in her heart deepened. She wanted that, a simple life with a husband who loved her with all her heart.

“Is there any way to break a bond?”

Cint jerked to a stop and stared at her. “Why would you want to do that?”

“Maybe if I broke our bond they’d let me return home and Lor…that bastard could find another woman who’d put up with his cheating ass.”

Slowly shaking his head, Cint took a step closer, then ducked down, making sure she was looking up at him in the eye before he spoke. “If you break your bond you will kill your husband, Matriarch.”

“What?”

“His soul is tied to yours now. Without you to anchor him he will quickly fall to his beast.”

“And he would die?”

“He would be sent to one of the feral moons where he would live among others like him, animals in the shape of men that have no one to turn their blood lust on but each other.”

The thought of that happening to Lorn horrified her, even if he was a cheating bastard he didn’t deserve that fate. “Can’t he bond someone else?”

Cint began to walk again, leading her around the edge of the village. “No, Matriarch, you are his soul mate.”

Oh, how she wanted to believe that. “If I was his soul mate he wouldn’t have lied to me.”

“Did you ask him about the women?”

She chewed her lower lip and switched the fuzzy-wuzzy to her other arm. “No, I mean, what was there to ask? They were naked in his bed, saying they loved him and he loved them. You can’t get clearer than that.”

He didn’t say anything more and when they reached a small two-story building with a blue tile roof, the creature in her arms wiggled out with an excited whistle. From the darkness more fuzz balls swarmed around them until she couldn’t help but laugh at the way they bounced up at her, each trying to gain her attention. Cint let out a piercing whistle and the creatures ran off to a small building to left of the main house with only Bofus remaining with them.

“Come inside and I’ll get you something to eat and drink. Then we can contact Lady Elsin and arrange for transportation to her home.”

Despite its rustic exterior, the inside of the home was as clean and modern as Lorn’s manor. Anguish flooded her again at the thought of Nast pressed between those two women, or Lorn and Nast taking one of them together. She could all too easily imagine having to feel them having sex with those women through their bond and the thought made her want to puke. Thankfully, she couldn’t sense either of them right now and that was just how she liked it. She was going to totally ignore the fact that even imagining them touching those women made it feel like a knife was being twisted in her heart and salt rubbed into the wound. Cint led her to a worn green chair made of some kind of material that reminded her of cotton, but was much softer. She gratefully curled up in it and was thankful for once that everything on this planet was made for larger people.

A few minutes later, Cint returned with a dark red mug full of some kind of steaming liquid and a plate of some squiggly green things that reminded her of oblong blobs of Jello. She took the mug and eyed the plate with a dubious smile. “Thank you.”

He looked at her expectantly and she took a sip of the drink, surprised to find it tasted like a combination of butterscotch and honey mixed with cream. Taking another big drink she sighed as it warmed her from the inside out. Looking around the room she spotted a picture of a younger Cint with his arm around a pretty blonde woman with a joyful smile.

“Your wife?”

The corners of his lips lifted as he glanced at the picture. “Beautiful, wasn’t she?”

“Very.”

Draining the rest of the drink she hesitated before poking at the green stuff with her finger, not wanting to be rude but at the same time not wanting to eat anything that moved. “What is this?”