Xav laughed. “Good luck. That’s what you’ll need dealing with a human female.”
“Better you than me,” Arghet said. “I’m never mating. Females are too much trouble.”
“So are males,” Xav muttered under his breath, but Talzec heard him.
“Something you had to add, beta?”
Arghet shook his head. “Exactly my point.”
Kahl snorted. “We’re too smart for that.”
As the others made fun of the mated in their group, Lore and Zehn stepped outside the meeting ground. “I think we need a new plan.”
Zehn studied him for a moment. “Perhaps we have been too distant. We must share more with the female. Our secrets, Lore. Mandy still has not confided in Skye or Lisa about her power. And she’s yet to unfold it to us. She’s scared.”
And with child. We need to tell her.
I know. But not yet. First we must win her love, so that she trusts us. Then we shall inform her about the babe.
Do we go to her together?
Zehn shook his head. “No. You see her first. Do what you need to to convince her to open her heart to you.”
“You’re better with words.” Nervous at the thought of screwing up, Lore almost wished Zehn would deal with her first. As much as he missed being a part of Mandy, he feared failing his bond-mate and Mandy by saying or doing the wrong thing.
“But you’re tied to her in a way I cannot be.” Zehn drew him in for a kiss. “You are special, and you share that bond that I think worries our female. Set her mind at ease. Get her to trust us, as a mate should. Ourtonanneeds more from us. And soon.” He closed his eyes, his chest patterns darkening and moving, then calming. When he opened his eyes, the golden orbs flared with energy. “I need you both.”
Lore rested his forehead against Zehn’s, feeling lost as he hadn’t been in a long time. “I don’t want to ruin us.”
“You won’t.” Zehn pulled back to smile at him. “You make us what we are. Invincible together. Now bring us ourtonan. I would join with you both this evening.”
Theirtonan—the mate “of their heart.” Said from a master to his submissive. Though Mandy hadn’t seemed submissive to Lore, and he and Zehn had shared an equal partnership, with the addition of a third, the dynamic took an interesting shift. He was excited to show Mandy all they could be. If she’d just release her fire into his keeping, he’d show her exactly how much power they had to grow into something altogether new. He could sense the potential inside him. He wished she’d trust him enough to feel it too.
***
Mandy was still in her dwelling staring at her prizes, minus one bone knife, when Lore stood at her doorway.
“May I enter?” he asked.
He and Zehn had been so careful with her lately. She hated it. She didn’t want gentlemen. She wanted barbarians to fill her up, share her energy, and talk about how much they wanted her.Gah. I’m such a moron. I want a choice? Then why do I want them to take it from me and screw me six ways to Sunday?
She forced a smile, aware Lore was frowning at her silence. “I’d rather take a walk with you, if that’s okay.”
“Yes.” He seemed pleased. He stood back to allow her to pass, and the scent of him settled that uneasiness inside her. For large men who sweated in the heat and didn’t wear deodorizing mist, Mandy would have assumed the barbarians would stink. Yet their scent glands functioned differently than a human’s. In order to be proficient hunters, their bodies shut down all but their basic senses, enhancing those.
They didn’t give off a scent she could detect, though Zehn had said their kind could sense another through smell. They walked with astonishing quietness for such large men. And they had keen eyesight and hearing. Which made her wonder, could they hear her shifting at night, hungry for the men she’d had too little a taste of?
Lore took her hand and put it over his forearm as they walked. Even here, in the village, he wore his arm-bracers. Men patrolled on the outskirts of the village, carrying axes, spears, and swords.
Seeing her gaze on one such warrior moving through the center of the commons, Lore put a hand over hers and squeezed. “Fear not, Mandy. We’ll protect you. Always. We just find it better to prepare for a raid than to sit idly and be surprised”
“I understand.” She missed his hand when he let her go.
They walked by a group of children wrestling, while nearby warriors encouraged their form and females made sure no one came to harm.
“Do you miss your world?” he asked, out of the blue.
She had to think about it. “Earth? Not really, no.” Surprising but true. “I grew up with a family that didn’t really care about me. They just wanted to use me to get the better things in life.”
