Of Another Dimension (30 page)

Not the voice!

I love the voice!

The voice makes me want to just gobble his blue eyed, ham hocked booty up and kiss him to bits.

Face it, Lil, you are just as much cock whipped, or whatever you wanna call it, as they are pussy whipped.

"I hate when you say it
like that
," I grumbled as he stood up, pulling at his forearms until he leaned down to kiss me.

"Thank you
, little mate. You have my heart," he said tenderly and brushed his hand over my cheek.

"Yeah, yeah. I love you too, ya big overbearing lug." I pulled him towards me for a
nother kiss. "Be careful," I said with one last peck.

"Always," he promised
, grinning at me.

"Be careful
, baby," Kieve teased, "You keep kissing him like that and I'm liable to get jealous!"

"You? Never!
" I teased back.

Teivel had been sitting quietly on his talanax off to the side and I didn't see him until Sieren and Kieve rode off.

"Lil," Teivel called as I walked back into the house.

I paused with the door open, holding it in my hands, turning enough to look at him from over my shoulder.

Before he could say anything, I said, "You keep them safe for me, okay?"

He st
ared at me for a moment, as if he wanted to say something, but he must have changed his mind, nodding at me in affirmation before he took off to catch up with the rest of them.

He had his pack of chomcharra trailing faithfully behind him.

I watched him for a moment, trying to squash the odd feeling I have whenever he's around.

I sighed heavily, unwilling to voice my thoughts out loud.

I know what it is... even if I'm not willing to admit it.

Isn't it fun how that works?

Don't want to deal with it?

Great!

Just squash it down and pretend you have no idea what you're talking about!

...works for me.
..

It was Sieren who'd told me the other day that Teivel was the one who raised and trained the chomcharra they breed, making them into the fierce little beasties that they are.

Apparently, people pay a pretty penny for a beastie trained by Teivel.

Who'd have thunk it?

I walked the rest of the way into the house, keeping the screen open a little, whistling for Chub, cooing at my baby as he toodled up the steps, his lumpy little ass wiggling in time with his forked tail as he ran inside.

"Come on
, my little Chubba bubba, let's go take a nap and you can slobber all over Sieren's bed!"

Chapter 22

"You shouldn't feed him food from the table, chomcharra," Sieren chastised me halfheartedly, smiling indulgently as I had Chub do tricks for pieces of meat.

"You eat at the table and I don't complain."

"Ha, ha,
very funny
. Are you calling me a mutt, mate?" Sieren mock grumbled as he set a plate of sandwiches down for everyone.

I picked my sandwich up off his plate and gave him a thank you kiss.

"Maybe," I teased.

I glanced at the little box, similar to a clock, with symbols on it that they use to tell time.

"Whoopsie, gotta go, I'm late," I said quickly, taking a huge bite.

"But you don't eat with me anymore," Sieren grumbled
, for real this time, pouting sullenly.

I swallowed my bite and washed it down with water.

"We could eat evening meal in bed," I said suggestively, waggling my brows at him.

"Not if
he's
going to be joining us," Sieren groused, hooking a thumb at Chub, "he drools on everything. Why didn't you let
him
sit on Kieve's bed and slobber everywhere while
you
took a nap in mine?"

"Oh," I cooed sympathetically.
"Did it bother you that much that you had to sleep with me last night? I can make your bed up for
you
when I get back, so
you
can sleep in it
all
by yourself tonight if
you
want."

I smiled at him innocently as he caught my drift.

"No," he said quickly, "that won't be necessary."

"You sure? It's no trouble at all."

I ran my finger over his thigh, up to his muscled rump, making little swirls over his mating mark through his pants.

"You play with fire, chomcharra," he rumbled.

He grunted and shivered.

"Didn't you get enough of me last night?" he growled huskily.

"Never!" I giggled as he tugged me towards him roughly, giving me one last good bye kiss.

"Do you think it really moved on?" I asked Sieren
a little worriedly, referring to the beast they'd been searching for yesterday.

"We found no trace of it. The chomcharra couldn't find anything either so that's our best guess. It might have found a better spot to feed."

"Ah. Well, I’m off then, I'll see you in a bit." I waved and took off, Kieve's sandwiches in a container, tucked under my arm.

I hurried down the hall, looking down quickly, grunting when I bumped into a wall of heat and meat.

Teivel steadied me, his hands on my shoulders as he helped me keep upright.

"Lil," he said quietly, his thumbs brushing over my shoulders briefly, almost in a light caress.

"Sorry," I mumbled and shrugged him off, hurrying around him as I rushed out the door.

****

"You're late, female!" Kieve taunted as he rode up to me.

He dismounted, tying his talanax's reigns to the tree across from the one I was sitting under.

"Mmmm," he groaned, bypassing the container of sandwiches to scoop me up and cuddle me to his chest.

He cradled my head in his hands and brought our lips together in a 'too brief for my liking' kiss.

"That's what I've been hungry for," he purred huskily, giving me that smile that still manages to make me all warm and mushy inside.

"Kieve!" Teivel called
urgently, riding hell bent for leather towards us.

"What's wrong?" Kieve asked
, getting up.

"The beast that was killing Gostach's animals attacked the livestock on the farm down the way from his cabin."

"Let's go, then. Maybe if we hurry we can catch it," Kieve called back, walking to mount his talanax.

He looked at me from over his shoulder.

"Do you want a ride back, baby? We might be gone a while."

"I'm okay, I want to sit here for a little
bit longer. I've got Chub here." I tickled the beastie in question’s tummy. "He'll protect me. Won't you, baby?"

"You spoil him," Kieve tease
d, laughing, amused at me fussing over my little chubby buddy.

"Pfft!" I sniffed haughtily.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Chub barked at Kieve as if he was saying 'yeah
, what she said' and wiggled up into my lap, long thick tongue lolling out as he chuffed at me and kicked his legs up in the air.

Kieve shook his head at us, chuckl
ing at the picture we presented- a supposedly vicious chomcharra giving me his belly to rub while he chuffs happily and pin wheels his legs in the air.

Teivel followed Kieve, giving me a slight nod as he rode past.

"Well," I sighed, glancing down at Chub, "at least he and I can be civil now."

****

Sitting on the porch swing later that night, waiting for my men to come back, I cradled a cup of Sieren's famous hot sludge, that's what I've dubbed the thick dark chocolaty, minty tasting and smelling concoction, and listened to the bugs chirp, animals baying somewhere off in the distance.

Eyes closed, I assumed it was Sieren who sat down next to me on the seat, rocking the swing slowly, gently.

"Did you catch it?" I asked him, smiling when he took my hand in his, my eyes still shut, rubbing lazy circles over my wrist and palm with his thumb.

"Did you
get on alright, or is Teivel still being a jerk to you?"

His hand tightened on me fractionally and I sighed.

"I don't care what cockamamie thing you come up with to explain yourself, I'm still irritated with you for what you did to him. So he thinks I'm a slutty bitch,
whatever
. That's
his
problem. You don't seem to mind me, so who cares. Fuck him," I said on a laugh, knowing he'd find it funny too.

"I don't think you're a slutty bitch, miquatka," Teivel said quietly.

My eyes popped wide open, probably bugging out of my head as I spluttered, unable to gather my wits.

I felt so side swiped.

Utterly dumbstruck, I stared, gob smacked, at him.

"My mother hated us, did I ever tell you that?"

Not quite ready for speech yet, I shook my head 'no'.

"Little deformed mutants,
she called us," he recalled, resuming his thumb's caress on my palm and wrist.

He looked up at the sky and stared off towards the stars.

"Father said when Sieren was born, mother wanted to take him back to the hospital and demand they give her another one. 'What was she to do with a yellow haired brat?' she'd said. Father, not realizing just how cold and calloused she really was, thought her problem was from all the stress of having a baby and father's work, so he let it slide, dismissing it."

He cleared his throat, lost in thought for a moment, just rocking us back and forth gently on the swing with his foot.

"Mother was the one who started dyeing Sieren's hair, telling him it was disgraceful.
An aberration
. So, when he got older, he kept it up, thinking it was just as loathsome as she'd made it out to be."

He chuckled bitterly and looked down at our hands, his much larger red one engulfing my smaller pale one as he let his fingers slowly glide across mine.

"He had it easy, though," he muttered awkwardly, "Mother never tried to chop his tail off."

"She what?!" I burst out.

He gave me a small cynical smile, his eyes overflowing with a life time of hidden hurts as he finally let it show.

Let me see his pain.

Let me see
him
.

"But... if she... and you..."

"It grew back," he said bitterly.

"How old were you?" I asked in shock.

"Fifteen. She was afraid to take me to have it removed. Afraid for someone to know her son was a freak. That she'd birthed anything so imperfect, so...
different
. So she drugged me and did it herself. I woke up in a pool of my own blood, my tail detached, still twitching next to me as she stood over me. She said I should thank her, that she'd done me a favor."

I gaped at him, my hand tightening over his in a show of support.

I ever meet the bitch and I'll kill her!
I seethed.

My gut clenched at the thought of the physical and mental pain that must have caused. The lasting scars...

"She did it because 'teenage boys are horny little beasts and what if someone saw my tail and realized I was her son'. This was the day before she'd tried to have Kieve..." he choked up as he tried talking about what had happened to his younger brother.

His love for his brother
came through as he struggled to get the words out.

"When she tried to get him euthanized, but had him sterilized instead," I finished for him.

He looked at me and I rubbed my thumb over his hand this time, his bright yellow eyes brimming with unshed tears as he tried to compose himself.

"Kieve told me," I said softly.

He nodded and tried to swallow past the lump in his throat.

I wanted to strangle his mother.

Who does that?

No wonder he is the way that he is!

Clearing his throat again, he continued.

"Father came home early, found out what had happened to Kieve, packed the three of us up and left. He was gone so much with work, traveling so often, he said he hadn't realized, or maybe he just hadn't wanted to see, how bad his mate had really gotten. The hateful, spiteful
thing
she'd become."

"If she didn't want anyone to associate someone who's different with her, then why let the medical center sterilize Kieve? They would see
, obviously," I asked, frowning at him.