Feral Series IV: Feral Fallout (16 page)

"The guards are young !Dakos warriors. Not many have proven they're ready for mating."

But I'm mated to one. “You're too young?"

He nodded. “According to many !Dakos warriors. But your eyes spoke to me. And I have proven myself enough to demand to have you as my mate. Or my father wouldn't have given you to me.” He pointed at the food on my tray. “I wouldn't recommend you eat the
Lox
,” he warned. “Maybe a small taste if you're adventurous."

Oh no. You don't get to change the subject. How did he make a killing machine forget her goal? “Flonn, how do you keep me from thinking about anything but you?"

He smiled, flashing those dimples at me. “Pheromones. Not my doing. Just a genetic aspect of being !Dakos that draws you to me and makes you mine."

"How? I'm almost a little embarrassed to admit this. But you even taste good!"

He chuckled slightly. “Eat something, and I will explain."

Easy exchange. Oh well. Might as well try the spicy food. I'm a huge fan of Indian dishes. I ate a bite of
Lox
.

Fire. Fire. Burning mouth. I leaned over and spat on the floor. And kept spitting.

Finally, the heat eased enough I could hear chuckling around me again.

Males. From across the room.

"Ignore them,
huv'ria
. One bite is enough to learn what is good and what is bad. Am I correct?"

Definitely a universal truth when one's mouth is numb from the burning. I nodded with my hand over mouth as if it worked to yank the last porcupine quills from my tongue.

Flonn's brow twisted with worry. “Try this, Theone. It's sweet.” He thrust a bit of something that looked like yellow cheese at me.

He'd been right before. Some sweet medicine couldn't hurt now. I bit down on the dense material.

Very sweet. Destroying all trace of the painful needles. Flonn definitely was my survival specialist here on Treusch. I'd have to loiter in his castle. An easy task given he tasted like the scrumptious steak. “Flonn?"

"Yes,
huv'ria
?"

That word was growing on me. “Why do you taste like a steak and baked potato?"

He chuckled. “I don't know what those are.” He leaned close enough to touch our noses together. “But it is said the female tastes her favorite foods in her mate. It's the pheromones."

Well, it couldn't hurt to just put everything on the table. “What else do I need to know to explain this scary attraction between us?"

He leaned very close again. Enough to ensure his whisper wasn't overheard by the cyborgs across the room. “My penis is augmented."

No. “You're kidding. I guess it wouldn't hurt if they did that early on in your life and you just forgot the pain. But, really?"

He nodded slowly. “Three choices beyond the standard form,” he said covertly avoiding choice words."

Gods, does it vibrate? A woman would never leave the bed. Ever.

He chuckled. “I can show you when we return to our quarters."

"Promise?” I joked.

He winked. “I'm good on my promises."

My quiet gut told me I could count on him to do just that. “Good because I've got these yearnings."

Flonn sat with his soul while she ate, knowing he needed to prove his
huv'ria's
innocence of participation in any sort of covert operation with M'yote to his father. More for love than her honor. Yet, once a !Dakos warrior's soul mate marked a warrior, there was no turning back.

Father would never just accept her innocence. Still she was ripe for reproduction. Something !Dakos desperately needed. And she is mine, marked, as I am. The subject was over. My nanites could make her yearnings cease.

Mine. The Council couldn't take her away. Although I had yet to reach the age to begin a Mate Quest, I'd worked my way up the ranks to earn the right to stay on this side of the Rift and assist in compound operations. To earn the right to claim a soul when I turned three hundred. And Father had granted that wish. Why? Whether to use Theone to attempt to fly
The Savior
through the Rift or to ensure others never crossed the inter-dimensional doorway is uncertain. Not because M'yote held himself to some ridiculous standard of ethics. Even though the Handler could cleanse our planet of the genetic kinks we created over a thousand years ago, repairing our mother world wouldn't matter once we'd found a way to transport females inter-dimensionally through the Rift. Every !Dakos warrior would probably depart for the New World.

Father had to want Theone to fly the spacecraft through the tear in space. Nothing more. Only the Crellon slavers knew of the colony's location through the Rift. And for Father to have a son as her mate, even better for him. It mattered little that Father meant well for all !Dakos warriors. I would not allow them to risk her safety. I slid my gaze to my
huv'ria
who chewed quietly beside me.

My soul is my responsibility.

She smiled. “You're watching me."

"It pleases me to watch you.” If all I needed to do was learn everything I could to fly her spacecraft, just to be able to pilot it myself and protect her from the stupidity of the Council, it was a small price to pay for a
huv'ria
.

A soul.

No man should have to live half a life.

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Cybernetics... “deals with all forms of behavior in so far as they are regular, or determinate, or reproducible.” ~W. Ross Ashby

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Flonn waved for me to sit in my pilot's seat on
The Savior
. Being here with him made my gut flop though. Intuition voicing a loud warning. I'd just have to take heed. “Yes?” I waited for him to explain why he'd brought me here. “Are we going somewhere? Maybe, you're taking me shopping for some new clothes? Right? I hate this outfit."

A smile stretched his ribeye lips into a wicked smile.

The wrong look for a country boy with Grecian hair. But I wasn't going to complain with enough distance between us to keep my thoughts on target.

"Tell me how you pilot this spacecraft,” he said.

How could I talk my way out of revealing anything significant? “Why do you want to know?"

"My father and the rest of the Council want to add the knowledge to our database."

Oh no! If there's anything about Earth's location in this ship, Earth is screwed. Literally, out of its women. I sighed and studied the console's buttons and switches a few seconds.

"Why don't you wish to cooperate?” he asked. “Do you owe someone else allegiance? Perhaps M'yote?"

I'd just tell him like it is. “Look, the !Dakos are a conquering culture. I can't allow you to find my home world and strip it of anything you find valuable. And I'm talking about souls, Flonn. My home world is like my mother. The origin of my soul. You strip the planet of its souls, and what does that do to my planet?"

He stared at me thoughtfully as if he processed the last statement.

"I'm here. With you, Flonn. Fine. I understand that is final. But I can't be the cause of another planet's...” Better not point fingers.

"So M'yote has told you many things? Perhaps he brought you here for more than the services you offered as a pilot.” He blinked even more thoughtfully.

I couldn't change anything. Especially now. “Look, we're bonded as mates. I am yours. But I can't betray the goddess who gave me life. Surely you can understand that much. Surely you can embrace my simple wish to protect something as sacred as your
huv'rias
."

"And what if my father and the Council decide to return you to Solvun because you refuse to cooperate?"

Something inside me ached at the thought.

Could I truly need Flonn on some cellular level because of those damned nanites? If so, I would have been bonded to him like I would be with blood to my were-mate. I studied Flonn's serious emerald eyes. “Flonn,” I draped a palm on the solid iron of his silver-cloaked thigh, “the thought of being separated from you makes me sick. Ill. Is this normal?"

He smacked his lips like he didn't want to reply. “It is part of the bonding. To keep us needing each other. Together."

Shit. Then again, I mated with a Prall who had nanites. “What about Solvun's nanites?"

He nodded, almost reluctantly. “I hope the separation will be easy for you."

Will I suffer? Geesh. The things a girl did for the greater good of something. I really needed to throw in the towel and become a stay-at-home wife.

"You will be ill, Theone. Maybe have stomach pains. Or vomiting. I will be there for you."

If he still wants me with him. Will he decide otherwise if I don't teach him about flying
The Savior
? I shoved out of the pilot's chair and walked toward the exterior hatch. “I can't do more. Not now.” I whirled.

He had to understand. Just to delay with any sort of foolishness he might be able to wrap his mind around. “I can't betray my goddess."

He rose slowly, the hunky mass of magnificent maleness, and nodded. “The Council has heard. They understand and will allow you more transitional time.” He strode wide steps toward me, his black boots snapping the space up in three steps before he halted to tilt my chin upward with the touch of a single finger.

My pulse kicked up a notch from his touch.

So much worry danced in his eyes. Those green gems that sparkled. For me. I could
see
that much. “Please don't ask me to betray my goddess, Flonn. It would be as horrible as betraying a mate. And I have known her my entire thirty-one years. She gave me life. I owe her more than I owe anyone."

"And life leads us down paths we never knew existed. To forks in the road. To new realities. To the singular destiny that would make our futures complete."

Like here where we stand? “Isn't that what I have with you?” Hopefully, his computer brain would take that tidbit and run. At least away from our discussion.

His palm slid around my waist to my lower back where he pulled me into his washboard abs. “Yes. But you cannot leave me,
huv'ria
. When you are ready, you will accept this and teach me to pilot this spacecraft."

So, he challenged me in testing my devotion to him.

Flonn caught himself drowning in the depths of his
huv'ria's
eyes where he held her curves against his beating heart beside
The Savior's
console. The future seemed clearly uncertain. My soul pulled me deeper and deeper into a void of confusion where I tried to grasp at some hair of reason to pull myself free from where I floundered with dealing with tradition and saving my soul. Was caring for her so different that I had to shake free of tradition? Did I truly wish to be free? She tempted me to release my grip on that fragile hair. To just fall into the joy of being part of something new. Experience. Wasn't life about experience beyond helping one's people survive? But this experience led me to question my soul.

She'd argued to protect her home world.

Her Goddess.

But would she understand I could protect her if only she'd provide me with the knowledge to fly her spacecraft? Or at least trust me enough to fly it
for me
through the Rift. That would obviously take time coming. She just needed to learn to trust me. To realize I wasn't the monster the Pralls made me out to be. And caring for her, adoring her, keeping her close to me would win her trust.

The way a mother earned the trust of her infant.

The way a son gained the respect of his father.

Even the way a warrior earned the respect of his superiors.

I would earn her trust. And the future would reward me with whatever I was intended to have.

The pains began two days later. Horrible stomach cramps. I couldn't even crawl off the bed without assistance. Albeit, Flonn happily assisted. He propped my back up against the side of the bed and left me sitting on the shaggy rug to find a barf container.

"Just a bowl,” I yelled as his black boot stepped through the doorway. “Big bowl!"

My gut began to roil again.

Gods. No. I shoved my palms against my abdomen to hold back the churning gas.

Like pressure would help. I'm going to die. Because Flonn took me away from Solvun. What did that matter? If I had stayed with Solvun, the same thing would have resulted. Damn them both. I was just a piece of ass to them.

Magma bubbled up my throat, warning of another eruption.

"I'm going to die,” I groaned. Like it mattered to anyone within earshot.

My body threw me on all fours, crawling to the edge of the rug.

Just. Need. To. Get. Out. Of. Here. I spewed stuff as vile as molten ore until the nausea passed and I could balance back on my ass.

Better.

Feel better.

For now.

Would the symptoms only worsen?

Was I coming down?

Would something kick in and wean me from the exposure to my narcotic Sol? Although, he was so entertaining. Finding a man like that wasn't easy. Maybe I'd just die and the nightmare would end. I wouldn't have to think about how to get these damn royals out of the bloody !Dakos pirate brig and off their proverbial ship.

Another wave of fire churned in my gut.

Why, universe? Why? I fight for good. For justice. Always have.

Acid clawed up my esophagus.

The door hissed.

But I heaved backward, contorted, then fell forward, on all fours, and erupted.

Flonn didn't know what to do standing there, holding the bucket, looking down at his heaving
huv'ria
. There was a time in !Dakos history when males shared a
huv'ria
. But rarely had those females sickened when one !Dakos warrior was called to serve away from her bed. Yet, this illness was far worse from what the databanks reported. Perhaps the level of intensity heightened due to her species of origin? Never had !Dakos nanites mingled with Prall nanites before. That had to be the source of the severity of her symptoms. Her fragile body couldn't withstand this type of abuse for long. I had to find a solution.

Something that allowed me to live with her and the Prall King.

The Council wouldn't approve of the idea. But my soul was jeopardized. I focused inward and accessed the central !Dakos node. Scanning through files.