“No, I am not all right,” Talia said, clearing her throat and blinking hard. She felt as if her heart might swell and burst in her chest. “Can I go home with you?”
“Of course.” Cora Lee put her arm around her. “I’m sorry I left you before – I was just so excited to see my sweetie. You stay with us as long as you like.”
“No!” Lukan shouted, and instantly he was covered with fur. “She is my true mate. I have waited too long for her. Nobody will take her from me!”
“Are you saying that I’m not allowed to leave?” Talia asked icily.
“Of…course not.” That had taken him aback. “Do you want to leave me?”
The plea in his voice stabbed at her. Do you want to leaveme, he’d said.
“No,” she said, softening. “That’s not what I mean. I mean, I don’t know what I want. But I’m leaving now, because I’m pretty angry with you, and I need time to think.”
Without another word, she hurried off with Cora Lee and Tristao. Mar-ee glided along behind them.
The door had barely shut behind her before Lukan let out a bellow of rage and shifted.
Fur washed over his skin, and his bones cracked and reformed. He dropped onto all fours, his back arching and hackles bristling down his spine. His fingers contorted into twisted claws, before the shift took over and they became paws. A wolfish snout pushed forward from his face and rows of vicious teeth curved from his gums as he threw back his head and let loose a howl half of pain and half of anguish.
Most of his pack members shifted too, and piled on top of him as he bayed furiously.
One of them, his brother Fangor, stayed humanoid, and shouted at Lukan. His voice barely penetrated through Lukan’s thick fog of rage and need.
“Lukan! We do not force a woman to stay with us against her will! We are not Thorolfs, Lukan! You must let her go!”
Chapter Six
Lukan paced the floor of his meeting hall in wolf form, head hanging low, snarling.
Alexandra had lied to him, and he’d been stupid enough to believe her. It had kept him from his true mate for a long, agonizing year…and now that Talia knew he’d believed the worst of her, perhaps she would never want him. He ignored the pain from the cracked ribs where his brothers had taken him down. Bones would heal. His heart would not – not if he had lost his Talia forever.
Chairs were scattered on the floor, some broken to pieces. There were patches of torn tapestry on the floor, and the curtains were shredded. A thousand scents assaulted his nostrils. He smelled the worry and anger of his men pacing outside the massive wooden doors, andshaarmeet and vegetables roasting in the kitchen, and the sharp scent of woodsmoke. Normally the smells of home were a comfort, but today they just added to the swirl of emotions that stabbed at him with sharp knives.
One of the doors flew open, and his brother Fangor walked in, along with Asmund. Asmund had been on a mining expedition several years ago, on a small moon that was the only other place known to be colonized by purebred humans. He had found his true mate there and entered into the pair-bond ceremony, believing they would never be able to have children.
Then – a miracle had happened. She’d become pregnant, and her genes had begun to change. By the time she’d given birth to their twins, she had mutated to Vulfan form.
That was how the Vulfan had been able to approach the Federation and convince them to contract with the Earth dating agency. The mining moon where Asmund had met his mate was too small; there weren’t enough single females. Although the Federation had a rule against interfering with developing planets before they achieved interstellar travel, they had waived the rule rather than see the Vulfan race die out.
“Brother! We must speak to you!” Fangor snapped his fingers at him. “Change back, now, please.”
With a shudder, and with supreme effort, Lukan drew his wolf back into him. His bones cracked and shifted, his fur melted into his skin, and his claws sank into his fingers. The world changed, colors becoming more vibrant but the thousands of scents becoming a little fainter. He could still smell much more vividly than any humanoid could, but his senses of smell and hearing were most acute when he was in Vulfan form. Or wolf form, as the Earthers called it.
He stood up, glowering at his brother.
“Have you prepared the troops for war?” he demanded. He’d barked out the orders at his brother several hours earlier, when they’d arrived back at the castle, then stormed into the meeting room. Wisely, his men had left him alone.
“First, a word,” Fangor said.
“No, first we fight and rescue my mate,” he snarled furiously.
“Your mate is not in any danger, you know that,” his brother said. “You saw her leave with them. She asked to go with them.”
Lukan could not argue with him. The memory of her leaving him burned through his body.
However, his frantic need for Talia was clouding his brain. He had managed to survive the past year only with the greatest of effort, and only because he knew his mission on earth was vital to the survival and propagation of his species. The Leerian weed pills had helped to dull his rage and pain, but just barely.
Now his need for her was overpowering.
