Turning around, he found Benny rolling his eyes. “What?” he asked, walking them both toward the exit. Outside, a highly secure tram waited to take them back to St. George. From there, they would take an m-jet to San Francisco and be back in their postage stamp-sized territory before dinnertime.
Benny held the glass door to the tram platform open for him. Hot, dry air hit them like the heat from an oven, but they both breathed a sigh of relief to be out of the carefully maintained atmosphere of the hyper-secure building.
“I don’t know how you charm them so fast,” his second said, scowling. “If I tried winking at a woman like that, I’d get my eyes clawed out.”
Viktor stopped by the open door of the tram for just a moment. Scanning the horizon, he let his animal closer to the surface of his mind as he savored the view.
It was wild, stark country. Craggy cliffs of burnt umber and deep, rusty red sloped down in a thin blue river. Patches of scrubby green clung to the places where moisture managed, against all odds, to accumulate.
Thesky,though.
The sky was vast and almost unnaturally blue. Mountains faded into lavender ridges against its awe inspiring expanse, and huge, rolling clouds drifted overhead, dwarfing the canyon and every being below.
A coyote could have a good life in a place like Alliance Landing. But then again, they could have a good life just about anywhere. His people were adaptable in the extreme. All they needed was space to stretch their legs and they would flourish.
“It’s not about charm,” he finally replied, tearing his eyes away from the scenery. They settled on a faintly etched circle carved into the white, solar-conductive material of the platform. A cold chill briefly settled into his bones.
How many challenges had been met there? How many good shifters died in the center of that circle? Viktor had only ever fought in one circle, and he never wanted to enter another one if he could help it.
Shaking off the bloody memory, he stepped into the sleek tram and took a seat by an oval window. Closing the door behind them, Benny strode down the empty aisle to take the seat across from him. His big body, padded with generous muscle in a way that made him seem like more of a human boxer than a lean, long-legged coyote, folded into the seat.
“Is it your boy-next-door good looks that does it, then?” his second teased, legs spreading and big body relaxing. No longer on high alert around the other alphas and their seconds, his hard-edged face lost some of its tension.
The intercom system dinged, letting them know that the door had been locked, before the tram hummed and lifted seamlessly off the platform to drift down the canyon. It picked up speed almost immediately. Infused with m-tech, it went well beyond the speed of sound but muffled its sonic boom so effectively that even acute shifter hearing only picked up the faintestpop.
Viktor played with the sleek edges of his deactivated phone, familiar urgency making it difficult to follow the rules and wait until he left Alliance Landing completely to turn it on.
What is she doing? Has she eaten today? When was the last time she stretched her legs? Got some fresh air? Is she grieving all by herself now that her brother is gone? Has anyone checked on her today?
“No,” he answered, almost absently, “it’s my lack of intent.”
“Lack of intent? Like, they don’t get the feeling that you’re going to tie them up in a basement or something?” He made a face. “DoIgive off that impression?”
Benny’s brow wrinkled, his lips turning down with alarm as he considered the possibility. With his glossy chestnut hair, golden brown skin, and watchful, hooded eyes, Viktor wouldn’t say he was unattractive. Perhaps he wasn’t conventionally pretty — he was a scrapper and it showed in his crooked nose and scarred knuckles — but he wasn’t ugly. With the gossip mill of the pack churning constantly, Viktor knew for a fact that he managed to get enough lovers to never betoolonely.
Though, perhaps he was feeling his single status more keenly than usual, since his fledgling pursuit of Healer Goode had crashed and burned before it could even get off the ground. Viktor wasn’t even sure that Margot knew his second was interested before her life went up in flames — literally.
Poor bastard had the bad luck to moon after Teddy’s mate,he thought, wincing on his second’s behalf.That is a fight even I couldn’t win.
“No, I mean that I’m harmless,” he explained, waving away Benny’s doubtful look. “Iam.Women can feel it when someone is really trying to get something from them — sex, companionship, whatever.” He shrugged. “I’m safe because I don’t actually want anything they could give me. Even when Idowant sex, they know I’m not going to ask them for more.”
And shifter women were notoriously reticent about that sort of thing. There was a reason they took courtship so seriously. Coaxing a woman into a permanent monogamous relationship could be a Herculean trial. It was worth it, though.
When the mating fever hit and two people decided to take the bite, nothing could tear them apart. There was no higher loyalty than what existed between mates.
“Not even that pretty fox?” Benny shook his head. His dark eyes took on a dreamy cast. Seeing that look on his bruiser’s face might have been comical if Viktor wasn’t feeling his own terrible longing at that moment. “Can’t imagine. I’m tired of dancing with women who only want me for a night. I want to sink my claws into a soft, pretty woman and never let her go.” He paused, considering, before he added, “I’d like her to sink her claws into me too, honestly.”
Viktor eyed his friend critically. “You feeling the fever already?”
Benny rubbed absently at his chest, as if he could soothe an ache that was not physical, but deep in the heart of his inner animal. “Yeah, I’m starting to feel it.” His hard mouth twisted into a self-deprecating smile. “Damn, man, I even found myself in a homegoods store the other day, thinking about getting all new furniture. Just got up one day and thought my den needed to be completely overhauled. Shit’s crazy.”
Viktor laughed, shaking his head, but he didn’t feel any mirth. He knew what the fever did to a person. It was a clawing need that tore at every inch of one’s life and drove all peace out the window. The desire todecoratewas the least of what it could do to Benny’s mental health.
Trying for cautiously concerned nonchalance, he asked, “You don’t even have a mate yet and you’re already going den-crazy?”
“Shut up.” Benny flashed his fangs, but there was no real heat in it. “You watch out. Someday you’re gonna find a mate, and then you’re gonna wish you’d made a den as nice as minebeforeyou met her.”
Viktor’s smile thinned.
