Kiera was happier than she had ever been in her life.
It was such a strange, wonderful feeling that every now and then she caught herself smiling for no reason at all–just because she could. Just because Brux was here and safe and himself and with her.
Well…mostly himself.
He still had moments when his eyes went gold or his face began to lose some of its human shape, but ever since they had finally crossed that last line and made love, he seemed so much more stable. The slide into his primal side still threatened now and then, but it wasn’t nearly as immediate or terrifying as it had been before.
Kiera felt like she had crossed some line too–not in a bad way, though–not at all. It was more like she had finally acknowledged the truth she had been circling for days without wanting to admit it.
She loved him.
Loved the huge, protective Monstrum with his awkward tenderness and his fierce loyalty…loved the way he looked at her as though she was the center of his universe. Loved the way he still sometimes seemed stunned by his own good fortune when she touched him or smiled at him or pulled him into bed at night.
She didn’t care that anyone else looking at Brux would have seen an enormous, frightening predator–an alien warrior who was, at times, more beast than man. Brux was her beast and that was all that mattered.
That morning, as she checked on the jhorra mother and her wobbly newborn—who was already trying to gallop on his too—long legs—Kiera found herself wishing she could tell someone. She was so overflowing with happiness, she wanted to share it with someone–Iyanna, maybe.
She wished she could call her friend and let her know that the alien rescue wolf she’d found wasn’t a wolf after all but a Lykan Monstrum and that she was in love with him. Such happy news shouldn’t be kept to herself.
The problem was, in the excitement and strain of the last few days, she had found her Think-Me but then managed to knock it into the bathing pool and fry the poor thing completely. She had fished it out after the fact and tried drying it off, but the thin golden circlet which fit around the user’s temples and helped send and receive telepathic messages across vast distances remained stubbornly dead no matter what she did.
So there had been no easy way to call Iyanna and explain–not that Kiera would have known exactly where to begin.
Hi, remember the giant wolf I adopted? Funny story…
She huffed a little laugh under her breath at the thought and bent to make a note on her wrist—screen about the jhorra calf’s feeding schedule. Eventually she’d get back in touch with her friend and in the meantime, life was beautiful.
The morning was cool and bright. The sky over Plo’nix was its usual soft lavender, with Had’lor Prime hanging fat and beautiful in the heavens above. The chiming trees whispered in the breeze and somewhere nearby a theeble was cheerfully yelling, “Good boy! Good boy!” at the top of its tiny lungs.
Brux had gone to help a work—bot reinforce one of the lower enclosure gates, and the very thought of him—shirtless, probably, because he still hated wearing one unless Kiera insisted, all seven feet of him working in the sun while he did something strong and useful—sent a warm little pulse through her.
She was just smiling to herself at the image when she felt it–a brush at the edge of her mind and the unmistakable feeling that someone really wanted to talk to her.
Kiera straightened so abruptly she nearly banged her head on the low overhang of the jhorra enclosure–this was exactly what she had been hoping for. Closing her eyes, she opened her mind.
“Hello?” she asked aloud, answering the incoming Think-Me call without hesitation. “Iyanna? Is that you?”
At once, the mental connection sharpened and she heard a familiar voice in her head. It was lucky that both parties didn’t have to have a Think-Me on to communicate—the fact that Iyanna was wearing one was enough for her to get the call.
“Kiera? There you are! Thank God—I’ve been trying to reach you for ages! I was getting worried about you.”
Kiera felt a surge of remorse.
“I’m sorry—I dropped my Think-Me in the bathing pool and it’s dead.”
“You would do something like that,” Iyanna thought back, and Kiera could feel the affection and exasperation blended together in her friend’s mental voice which was as warm as her physical one. “Only you would manage to drown your communication device in the bath!”
Kiera laughed aloud.
“I know, I know. I’m an idiot.”
“Are you all right? You feel…different somehow.”
Kiera bit her lip. Then all at once the words came tumbling out of her at once.
“Oh my God, Iyanna, so much has happened. So much. The wolf I rescued—Buck—he isn’t really a wolf. He’s a Lykan Monstrum named Brux, and he was trapped in his animal form and then the Vorn got out after Higgs sabotaged the fence grid and Brux shifted to save me and?—”
She stopped because Iyanna’s shock came through the mental link so strongly it almost knocked her sideways.
