I was going to need a vacation from this vacation. Like two weeks locked in my bedroom, alone, to try to recoup everything I’d lost to the energy vampires constantly talking to me. There was a big gathering tonight, matter of fact. World leaders and shit like that coming to Max’s house to peek at the circus freaks, the identical twins from Earth.
God. Even the thought made me shudder. Introvert 101? I could teach that class with my eyes closed, my mouth taped shut and both hands behind my back so I didn’t have tohuganyone.
“No.”
Startled back to the present, I looked up at my beast. “No, what?”
“No stop.” He looked at my hand where it lay still and forgotten on his chest. I laughed.
“You don’t want me to stop petting you, huh?”
“No stop.”
Man—alien—of few words. This basic form of communication was growing on me.
As requested, I resumed stroking his warm chest, but dared a peek at the clock. Three hours had passed. I had one hour left to figure out what to do next. Step one, have sex with the beast and get his mating cuffs on my wrists? Complete.
Step two?
I hadn’t worked all the kinks out of that one yet. I had thought to leave with my sister when she arrived, get ready for tonight’s event and plead Kovo’s case to the Atlan council members who would be at Max’s house. They were the elected leaders of the whole planet, right? Surely one of them could grant a pardon, or at least a stay of execution to buy us some time.
I didn’t knowexactlywhat Kovo was accused of. Frankly, I didn’t care. Scary, but true. I firmly believed that if he’d killed someone, they must have needed killing. Facts were facts. Someone had to take out the bad guys. Besides, Kovo had a mate now—me—so no more possibility of a crazed, homicidal beast tearing down the walls because he was so consumed with mating fever.
I needed details. I needed Maxus, my rich, famous, Atlan stepfather to get involved. I needed help. This wasn’t my world. I had no idea how things like trials and juries and police investigations worked. I had no idea what Kovo’s rights were, or mine.
Based on the way he was staring at me, holding me, petting me—he wasn’t going to be too happy when I told him I had to leave him here to go take care of some business.
“Kovo?”
“No.”
Oh, yeah. He didn’t want me to call him that when he was like this. “Beast?”
“Mate.”
I took a deep breath. “That clock in the corner has less than seven hours left.”
He did not respond. Great.
“I, uh, I am going to have to go home when my sister arrives.”
“No. Mine. Stay.” The hand stroking my back remained gentle, but the arm he had wrapped around my body tightened, pulling me closer.
Oh, shit. This beast was not going to allow me to walk out of here. I’dassumedthat after the sexy times, the man side of him would come back out. I could talk tohim. Reason with him. Explain that I wanted to help and maybe even get some ideas from him about how to proceed. Some help with the plan I didn’t really have.
Was my sister coming soon? Was she okay? I hoped she hadn’t been caught. What was I going to do if she didn’t come back at all? What if she was in a stupid jail cell somewhere? Or in an interrogation room refusing to tell them where I was? What if some beast had decided she washismate and she had her back against another wall, somewhere else, with a huge beast’s cock pounding her into bliss? Talk about bad timing.
“No stop.”
I blinked and realized my thoughts had wandered away from here. Again. “Sorry.” I petted him some more. Trying to think and touch him at the same time was basically impossible.
“Aren’t you going to shift back to your regular size?”
He snorted as if I’d insulted him. “No. This my size.”
“You aren’t going to change back?”
“No.”
