Feral Series IV: Feral Fallout (21 page)

"
Stop, Solvun. She's here to save you. To return you to your rightful throne so our people will stop bickering. I don't think there's anything we can do about her and Flonn
.
Accept they are part of our clan now
."

"
I do. We'll kill him though
."

"
Why am I not surprised that's your solution
?"

I just glared at my brother's arched blue brow through the shadows. Sleeping with him would have been nicer if Theone had been wedged between us. Instead, I get to wake to my annoyingly asinine brother's face.

"
You know you can't do that
,” M'yote snapped.
"She defended him before you shared your plan with either of us. We know now she will protect him as much as she protects us. And you know it's her choice to defend Flonn. You must prepare yourself to accept your D'ena's choice
."

"
The Prall King will not take a !Dakos warrior as a bed mate
."

"
Think, brother
.
What could be more perfect than accepting a token member from our enemy's culture into our clan
?
With this singular boon, we could change the future of our planet. Bring peace to Prall by uniting the clans and ending the war between Treusch and Prall
."

"
You're such a humanist. Why don't you just heal both worlds and let us be done with the matter
?
I've spent three-hundred Gods-be-damned years buried beneath this planet's surface hoping you'd finally change your mind. Now is an excellent time. We can save our D'ena from !Dakos pheromones in the process
."

"
There is no saving her from pheromones, Solvun. Flonn's nanites have marked her. Stop dreaming about changing the impossible
.
Embrace the embraceable
."

"
Easy to say. We've despised !Dakos for over a millennium. Sought ways to destroy them for just as long. We can't just throw our arms wide and hug them. They'd slice off our balls and cram them down our throats. Look what they did to Prall in the early days when we refused to hand over our women
?"

"
I look at Flonn with Theo and wonder if the younger !Dakos warriors have changed
."

"
You've lost your ability to reason
."

"
He's so careful with her. It's as if the younger warriors think like a !Dakos warrior living without nanites giving him immortality. Maybe the answer for any cyborg is to find a way to live free of nanite intervention? And what if Theo wants to be with him, Solvun
?
Can you tell her no
?
She's the most sacred thing to us. E'na incarnate. Can you refuse your Goddess’ wishes
?"

If the answer meant saving Prall over one !Dakos warrior, yes. “
I don't need to answer that question
."

"
Since she can't read your mind, know you'll have to soon
."

Wearing my new pants and shirt fashioned from !Dakos silver fabric would have one lovely benefit. I could kick butt if any of the prisoners got a wild hair to bother me. But kicking butt wasn't going to do anything to liberate my mates and I from this hellhole. Time to pretend to be sick. To convince Flonn some medicine existed out there. But what? I shook out the pants and thrust a foot into one leg.

Just purge, Theo. Stick a finger down your throat and puke your guts out. Or lose all the hard work already invested in escape up to this point. M'yote using taunts to get Sol off me after sex like their bitter sibling rival raged was good. But wouldn't get us out of the prison walls. I thrust my other foot inside the smooth silver pants and wriggled the stretchy fabric up to my waist.

M'yote proved as accommodating as the !Dakos fabric. He badgered Sol into a fist fight, then explained to me in the shower how they were working from a territorialism angle to maintain the sibling rivalry effect. Priceless. Truly amazing they'd just jumped right in and helped me on our escape plan without my knowing.

But I found poor Flonn staring. Calculating. My poor almost-innocent Flonn. Did !Dakos warriors fight among themselves like he'd witnessed the Pralls do? Probably not given the way he'd watched M'yote and Sol go at it. Maybe Flonn's childhood had things about it that we all needed to cozy up to. Like rational thought? I squirmed into my stretchy silver long-sleeved shirt.

Warmth. Thank the stars and my big !Dakos warrior. He really was starting to look adorable when I wasn't sucked into his kiss by those delectable pheromones. So, I had to keep my three mates bickering. And I had to make myself puke. What a girl did to survive...

"Let's go, D'ena,” Sol called.

Dinner. Yes. Food. The way they worked me sexually in sharing, I would need to eat what a man ate to keep up my strength. I followed Sol's broad bare shoulders through the door.

Flonn looked like an odd one-winged guardian angel with his sword jutting out from behind his shoulder where he walked at my heels. I wasn't certain where M'yote was. But I doubted he'd be left behind. He'd grown a little territorial of me. In a way I almost missed. Like he really thought I had to have his touch often. The poor guy remained two steps away.

And he was so sweet when we nestled in each other's arms within that starry cloud. The way the light made his blue skin glow. Skin-to-skin with him was like a day at the spa. All my worries slipped away. And there was nothing but his soft lips and gentle voice. No problem with his watchdog attitude. I liked having him nearby.

We cleared the mess hall's doorway.

Not the disgusting smell of food.

My stomach churned.

Please, universe. Please! Make my body kick in, and spare me sticking a finger down my throat to feign illness.

M'yote stepped to my side. “Why have you stopped, Theo?"

Sol turned to stare at me. Flonn halted at my other elbow. All my mates wore big creases in their brows.

"I'm just not feeling well.” No lie. Saved by the universe and my good old genes when I was forced to feign illness. Geesh. Nobody back home would believe I welcomed morning sickness.

M'yote pressed a glove-cloaked hand against my lower back. “Come. Sit. I'll wait with you while the others eat."

"Lead the way.” I flicked a weak smile. After all, the more people who witnessed my bad reaction to food, the better. Surely the inability to keep food down would convince Flonn he had to go to extreme measures to save his soul. That's if his true intent was to save me. And nothing he'd done had suggested otherwise.

M'yote led me to a seat at a table and descended beside me to block anyone from casually claiming a spot at my side. Still, the extraterrestrial wolves pushed in, shoving the cool air away, leaving their heated moist breath to swim around my head.

Or was that the room spinning?

"D'ena?” M'yote asked, wrapping a supportive arm around my back.

A male yelled for Flonn.

The crowd pressed in closer.

Eyes. Blurring eyes. Big grins. Another round of
here's my penis
. No more. Please, no more!

The room spun the other way.

"Theo, what is it?” M'yote begged.

Morning sickness of another kind? Alien-induced. Maybe the problem
was
something caused by a mixture of their damned nanites? All I could do was hold my roiling gut.

"Take her back to the room."

Swung into the air, I landed in a mass of supple iron. But dared not open my eyes.

Vertigo? Maybe. Puking vertigo. Yep. This is Satan's Hell with a bloody plank. The sharks are fighting over who gets the juiciest bite. And I'm just whirling around in an insane whirlpool heading for the biggest set of teeth.

"What happened,
huv'ria
?"

My Flonn. “Sick. The smells of food made me sick.” Most likely.

"You are breeding. You must have nourishment."

Nice reasoning. Not the sick girl's fault. “I didn't tell my body to react this way."

The clack of running boots caught up to us. “What happened, Theo?” M'yote demanded.

"Sick. The room spun. Not good.” I so don't want to repeat everything for Sol. “Explain to Sol."

"He's bringing food,” M'yote added.

My gut heaved.

I slammed a hand over my mouth and gulped.

Miraculously, my clothing and !Dakos transport were spared a bile shower. But I'd die if I couldn't eat.

At the room, M'yote drew the covers back on the bed. Flonn carefully placed me on the sheets. Each yanked off a boot.

They worked together well. “So, my health helps you both find common ground?"

They shot each other a wary gaze.

Together to save me. “Is it so bad you both can find similarities in your lives?” Because both of them made me happy. Really. They did. And I intended on taking all three mates with me when we left. Sol could rule Prall. And Flonn and M'yote could keep me company. After all, they got along well.

The door squeaked, producing Sol and a stack of covered trays.

The faintest odor along the line of fried eggs found my nose.

My gut began curling.

More like somersaulting with four-inch stiletto heels. Oh no. “No food,” I groaned. “Not here.” And I slammed down onto the bed, burying my head with a pillow.

Sol waited outside his personal quarters with the trays of food as the other warriors attempted to join him.
This illness is anything but healed
, he thought. Why?

The door fell inward.

M'yote and Flonn stepped into the corridor.

"We must do something,” M'yote said. “She couldn't even sit up. And she hadn't vomited at all.” He shot a disturbed glance at Flonn and I, then stared at the food. “The odor of food set her symptoms off in the mess hall."

"As it did when Solvun entered with more. No food in the room with my
huv'ria
,” Flonn blurted.

"Well,
my
D'ena needs to eat,” I snarled up the few inches at the stoic !Dakos warrior.

"Do not treat me like a machine when I can think like both of you.” He grabbed the trays and glared at me. “We eat in the mess hall. We should try bringing her something simple and odorless to eat to help her find nourishment."

"Flonn is correct,” M'yote agreed. “Let us think more carefully. Think, Solvun. We must do what is best for Theone. Not pounce at each other when we should be helping her recover from her illness."

My gaze met my brother's and slid to his hand. “You can heal her."

"I don't know enough about her species to even know she's ill, Solvun. Both of you eat in the mess hall while I discuss her condition with her. I'm not about to heal a woman who has no need of it. I could do something far worse to her in the process. I wouldn't want to be responsible for ending her pregnancy. Now go.” M'yote thrust his chin down the corridor.

If he did anything to hurt my child... “Don't do anything foolish, little brother.” Like injure my Goddess. Death wouldn't come quickly enough for any fool who did. I opened the door for M'yote and walked off with a !Dakos warrior guarding my ass.

M'yote settled on the bed beside the mounded blankets and pillow under which Theo laid quietly. “They've gone to eat with the inmates, Theo."

The blankets rustled, and the pillow shifted, producing the palest white crinkled mass of hair swirling around a face full of harmonious starkissed features and her silver shirt. Her pale-blue eyes resonated with the poise she always had as if she'd regained the composure she'd lost from her bouts with illness.

My D'ena exuded tranquility. Except for what ailed her. Now to help her. “Tell me about these symptoms. What is normal for Earth women during pregnancy?"

"Some get nauseous. But this.” She looked down at her abdomen. “I don't know. My head was spinning. If you hadn't been there...” she sighed the rest of her words away.

A mate will always be there. I placed a gloved hand on her forehead and petted her smooth skin.

She smiled. “Take off that glove. Make me feel better. With a touch of your skin."

Maybe therein lay the answer. I played with the fingertips of my black glove and studied the exhaustion in her eyes. “D'ena, maybe this has something to do with Wrank. Can you think of other Marshal pregnancies with Earth females impregnated by Luvk males and any resulting symptoms?"

She wagged her head and watched me with worry. “They all seemed normal. What if this is caused by somebody's nanites?"

An issue with conflicting nanites is possible. But no need for her to worry about such things when the problem could result from the Tiger male's chromosome donation. “Let me worry about what is toying with your biorhythms.” I placed my palm across her warm brow.

Her body sank in a grand exhalation, fret erasing from her silvered features, and her eyes closed.

"You like my touch?” I leaned forward to catch every trace of her response like food of the Gods.

Her eyes popped open. Her lips but a few inches away. Her breath warming the space between us. “Oh yes, M'yote. I'm sorry I seemed so angry in the ship before. It was more of a job then."

Perhaps she began to see me as more than her executioner. “More?"

She barely nodded. “I think of you as my friend. And know you'll always be there for me."

Friendships are good when it comes to mates. But I want my D'ena to love me. As long as I kept her alive and well, we had an eternity for love to grow between us. I slid my hand down to cup her velvet cheek and traced the silver spray of stardust with my thumb. She was so like water and so like sky. Perfection. Serenity. “We are mates, Theo."

"I know that very well,” she whispered. “And I have every intention of keeping all my mates with me. You're all special to me. But...” Her gaze slid across the room.

My touch proved every bit a truth serum. She probably wouldn't say these things if there were no skin-to-skin contact here allowing my essence to ease her apprehension about her future. Still, I wanted to know what else fluttered in the pale-blue sky behind those eyes. “Yes, D'ena. But what?” I ran my thumb across her silken lower lip.

She wouldn't look at me.

What could bother her so much she dwelled upon it while a Handler caressed her skin? She should be in a state of bliss now. “Theo?” I cut into her gaze with my own, demanding she return the stare. “Tell me."