CourtesanTales Masterfile (6 page)

The Centaurian spoke first. “You’re
angry that I touched her?”

Delsin’s feelings confused him.
Instead of doing what he did best—quickly turn over a captured quarry to his
client and collect his huge fee, he found himself considering alternatives that
would allow him to claim her as his and get his fee. Each plan he deliberated
over, left him longing to rush back to his quarters to hold the courtesan who
slumbered in his bed.

“Why did you return?” he asked.

“I couldn’t find anyone I wanted to
mate with,” Renas said. “Now answer my question. Are you angry that I touched
her?”

Delsin shrugged. Given the feelings
the courtesan aroused in him, sharing her with anyone should have been out of
the question. But strangely, sharing her with Renas had heightened his arousal.
He inhaled slowly. Perhaps being back in the Blue Desert during a full moon had
an adverse effect on him—making him behave more like his brethren than he’d
thought possible.

“It’s not like she and I are bond
mates,” he said slowly. ”She’s our quarry.”

“We don’t usually fuck our quarries,”
Renas pointed out.

Maybe that was because none of them
had ever inspired the feeling of hunger in him she had. “What’s your point,
Renas?”

“She’s obviously important to you.”

“You’re assuming a lot, Renas.”

“I’m assuming nothing. You gave her
your knot. That’s not something I’ve ever seen you do with any other woman.”

Most shifters of his clan viewed
their knot as a treasure to be shared only with the woman they planned to take
as a bond mate. He shrugged. “Don’t concern yourself with my knot.”

Renas arched a brow. “Since when do
we keep secrets from each other?”

“We’re not!” he snapped. “What’s your
point again?”

“That it’s time we get back on
track.”

He stiffened. “Meaning what?”

Renas glanced over his shoulder
before responding. “Meaning we need to turn her over, collect our fee, and get
out of here.”

The strain in Renas’ voice mirrored
the tension Delsin felt. He ran a hand through his hair. He and Renas had been
nearly inseparable since they’d met years earlier as Delsin had finally been
given permission to leave the Blue Desert. During the ensuing years, they’d
shared everything from their individual fears to the women they mated with. The
friendship he shared with Renas was now as close as the one he’d shared with
Daylon and Daria so long ago.

“You feel it too?” he asked.

Renas nodded slowly. “Yes. Part of me
feels like coming back here was a mistake.”

“While another part feels that doing
anything else would have been foolish?” Delsin prodded.

“Yes. This is home. Here is where we
need to be to discover who I am.”

“I know who you are.”

Delsin tensed, bared his teeth, and
swung around as Markes sailed onto the observation deck. 

Renas placed a hand on his shoulder.
“He was only protecting her.”

After a grudging acceptance of that
fact, Delsin exhaled slowly and remained still and silent.

Renas rose and looked at Markes.
“What makes you think you know who I am when I don’t even know?”

“I served briefly with your
father, Delatorious Adar. He carried a holograph of his family. If memory
serves, and it always does, you are his youngest offspring, Senturenas Adar.”

“Adar. Senturenas Adar,” Renas
repeated the name slowly before he turned to look at Delsin.

Delsin could see a look of belief in
his friend’s gaze. “Renas?”

He nodded. “It feels right. It is
right.” He swallowed several times before he looked at Markes. “Where is my
father?”

“Regretfully, he is dead.”

Renas released a breath and slumped
back against the chair. “Dead? He’s dead?”

“He died in battle with honor
surrendering his life to save others who went on to win the battle in his
honor.”

Delsin watched as tears filled Renas
eyes and spilled down his cheeks. “And my brothers? Marracon? Blenden? Kayden?
Sardona?”

“I have no knowledge of any of
them except one.”

Renas bolted out of his seat. “My
mother? Where is my mother?”

“I fear she died many years past.”

“No! I’m alone?”

Delsin placed a hand on Renas
shoulder. “You’re not alone. You’ll never be alone as long as I’m alive.”

“And as long as I am, Sentus.”

At the sound of the voice, Delsin and
Renas swung around.

A tall male with long, thick dark hair and huge shoulders
stood smiling at Renas. He bore a regal air. The resemblance between him and
Renas was immediate and unmistakable.

“Kayden!” Renas rushed across the observation deck and into
the open embrace of the other male who was clearly one of the brothers he’d
forgotten.

As the two embraced, Delsin left the observation deck for
his quarters.

Rather to his annoyance, Markes followed—as if he didn’t
trust him to be alone with her. Parmia. Outside his quarters, he swung around
to face the sentient side arm. “That was your doing. Wasn’t it?”

“Contacting his brother? Yes. I contacted him and the
other one. He needed to know who he was and they needed to be reunited.”

Delsin sighed. He couldn’t deny any of what Markes said.
Besides, he was happy Renas now knew who he was. At least one of them would
have a happy homecoming.

He leaned against the wall outside
his quarters. Homecoming? The full moon’s effects were more pervasive than he’d
imagined. The lure of the Blue Desert for one born there could no longer be
denied. Denhari was beginning to feel like home because it was home.

His thoughts turned to Daylon and
Daria. Leaving without seeing them no longer seemed reasonable or desirable.
When he left, he had a feeling it would be without Renas—which would leave him
alone in the world again. Traveling the galaxy solo no longer held any appeal.

But why should he travel alone?
Admittedly, Renas’ companionship would be hard to replace by anyone—except the
woman sleeping just beyond the doors of his quarters. Why turn her over to be
another woman’s slave when she moved him as no other woman had? And, unless he
was gravely mistaken, he’d managed to move her as well.

If he could convince her to give up
her life as a courtesan, he’d gladly return his fee and spend the rest of his
life ensuring she had no regrets for choosing to stay with him. He
frowned—giving her sentient side arm a cool stare. “Don’t make the mistake of
attacking me again.”

“Don’t make the mistake of hurting
her again and I’ll have no reason to kill you!”

About to reach for his side arm,
Delsin felt a familiar brush along his mind. The years of avoiding the desert
where he was born faded away and joy filled him. Tossing his head back, he
howled while pulling off is clothes. Then he quickly shifted to his natural
form and then swung around to race through the cruiser.

Outside he raced into the desert
until he saw two large gray wolves standing on one of the sand hills in the
distance. 

His heart welled with emotions as he
raced across the distance and up the hill. Unable to control himself and
unmindful of the protocol the occasion demanded, he rushed forward to greet the
smaller of the two wolves.
Daria!

Delsin!
She lifted her head
and howled with joy as he buried his muzzle against her neck.

The word for the traditional pledge
of affection his clan used and which he hadn’t heard in years trembled from his
lips the same moment she spoke it.

Te’amous.

Te’amous.

Te’amous, my cub mate. You’ve been
well missed, Delsin.

She turned her head and they muzzled
and licked at each other for several moments before he stepped back to face the
other male.

The wolf who had been his cub mate
now led their clan. The familiarity he’d shared with Daria had been
disrespectful given her position. Such a display of affection with Daylon would
border on the irreverent. After briefly meeting the gaze of the other male, he
put his tail between his legs and bowed his head in submission.
“Alpha, I
live to serve.”

Daylon butted his muzzle against his.
“A show of submission isn’t necessary when we’re alone. Welcome home,
Delsin. Te’amous, my cub mate.”

Delsin felt a swell of emotion that
made speech impossible.

“Come. Run with us and share the
joy that only cub mates such as the three of us can fully appreciate, Delsin,” Daylon
invited.

Daylon Adar, Alpha Supreme of their
clan, spun around and loped down the hill. Daria quickly followed. Feeling a
joy and freedom he’d never expected to feel again, Delsin rushed after them and
the three of them ran through the desert, glorying in the feel of the full moon
on their natural bodies.

They ran for miles before taking a
rest break in Daylon’s personal cruiser that had shadowed them across the
desert. Inside the plush interior, they shifted to their human forms and sat
naked on the observation deck, enjoying the effects of the full moon on their
bare skins.

He listened in amazement as Daylon
told him of taking a sexual empath as a bond mate who carried the foaling of a
Centaurian Stallion. “I expected you to settle down with a more traditional
bond mate,” he said.

Daylon shrugged. “Tiny blondes have
never really generated any real lust in me. I fell hard for Tanari the moment I
saw her.”

“And you don’t mind that someone
else’s seed is swelling her belly?”

“I wished it were mine, but I’ll take
her anyway I can.”

Delsin glanced at Daria. “And you?
Are you bonded?”

“Not yet—even though Daylon is
insisting it’s time I took a mate.” She grimaced at Daylon before smiling at
Delsin. “And you?”

He thought of Parmia. After a brief
hesitation, he told her of his bounty and of his desire to bond with her.

Daria and Daylon exchanged a long
look before Daylon looked at him. “There’s something you should know about
her.”

He tensed. “You know of her?”

Daylon nodded.

He clenched a fist. “Are you one of
her clients?”

“No. She’s actually doing a job for
me.”

“What type of job?”

“It’s time you knew how you came to
be home, Delsin.”

He listened in silence until Daylon
stopped speaking. Before he could digest Daylon’s confession, Daria suggested
another run across the sands. They all shifted and ran across the desert with
the cruiser following overhead.

* * *

Parmia woke alone in Adarinas’s bedchamber
just before sunrise. Her first thoughts were of the hunter. No. Not the hunter.
Delsin. The longing she felt for him made her pathway clear.

“Where is he?” she asked Markes.

“He went out last night and hasn’t
yet returned.”

Parmia felt an unfamiliar stab of jealousy.
Had he gone in search of pleasure in another woman’s arms? The thought
infuriated her. The desert would freeze before she allowed another woman to
take him from her.

“And the Centaurian?”

Markes told her what had transpired
in the observation deck after she fell asleep.

“So he’s reunited with his surviving
brother?”

“Yes. It was an emotional reunion.
His older brother thought him dead. He would have been had his mother not
ensured his safety by having his memory blocked before she bravely went to face
the enemy soldiers sent to kill them both.”

Parmia shook her head. “What a
tragedy. I’m glad he’s been reunited with his brother.” She hesitated before
she turned to face him. “I can’t do this, Markes.”

“What can’t you do?”

“I can’t turn him over to his clan.
We’re going to have to return the credits.”

He greeted her words with silence.

“But don’t worry. I’m still going to
give you the credits you’ve earned and need for the upgrade,” she assured him.

“You won’t have enough to survive
comfortably on if you return this fee and give me credits for the upgrade.”

“I’ll manage, but I can’t betray him
and I won’t ask you to wait any longer for the upgrade you need to compete for
a position in the sentient side arm brigade.”

“What if they’ve already been
notified?”

Parmia felt a stab of anger. “Markes!
You didn’t!”

“I did,”
he said without any
sign of regret.
“We need the credits we’ve already earned.”

“Markes! How could you do that without
consulting with me?”

“If I had, you would have said
no.”

“Yes, I would have!”

“So I didn’t ask you. We need
those credits.”

“Oh, Markes! He’ll think I betrayed
him!”

“Why do you care what he thinks?”

“I don’t know! I just know I do care.
I don’t want him to think I betrayed him after what we shared.”

“If his opinion matters, I’ll tell
him I was the one who betrayed him.”

She closed her eyes. By the Goddess,
that had to be enough, she thought as she went to take a long, sonic shower.
Tears of frustration streamed down her cheeks. Why had the Goddess forsaken her
to such an extent that she fell so hard for the man she’d taken money to
betray? What would he think of her when he learned she’d conspired with his
clan to trick him back to a planet she’d been determined to leave herself?

When she emerged nude from the
shower, a naked and gloriously aroused Delsin stretched out on the bed.

Without conscious thought, she let
out a happy cry and rushed across the room to the bed and to the man who owned
her heart.

He reached up to pull her down beside
him before he quickly rolled his big, hard body on top of hers.

Feeling his cock pressing against her
belly, she slid her palms down his back to cup his ass.