Not only that, but she had done it in a way that allowed Treffon to save face – and, if Lukan had to admit it, himself as well. For the two warring packs to sit down face to face and talk about joining together…it was not something that either Reginar would have considered. They were so hostile to each other that Lukan and Treffon had offices on different floors of the Anders building on Earth, so they would not even have to scent each other. During the meet-and-greets with the human women, the packs stayed on different sides of the room.
Treffon cleared his throat and looked over at Lukan. “It is late. I invite you to spend the night here as my guest, under my protection, and we will speak in the morning over breakfast. That is my price.” He glanced at Tristao. “Spread the word. Anyone who insults or threatens Lukan while he is my guest will pay the price.” Nobody needed to ask what that price would be.
As they headed into the castle, Talia walked over to Lukan and looked up at him, a sudden shyness on her face. “I’m falling asleep on my feet right now, but in the morning, maybe we can talk,” she said.
Lukan felt his heart swell with joy, and relief, and gratitude.
“Yes, we must talk,” he agreed. He took her hands in his and pressed her palms against his chest. “I mean to earn your pardon and make you love me even if I must tear out my heart and lay it at your feet.”
Chapter Nine
Lukan reclined on the overstuffed chair in a room right next to Talia’s. The room was luxuriously decorated, with a canopied bed spread with soft, silky blankets. There was a fireplace stoked with a roaring fire, with the fur of a white flaar-beast spread on the stone floor before it. His clothing was scattered on the floor by his bed, and he was downing a third vessel of tharfaberry wine, but it did nothing to dull the burning need inside him.
He was having a fight with his beast.Take Talia. Now. Our heart-mate. Must have her.
Patience,he replied to his beast, forcing it down beneath his skin.She will be with us when the sun rises. She is worth the wait.
His beast responded with a howl of fury, a painful cracking of Lukan’s bones, and a suggestion that Lukan do something that was anatomically impossible. There was no way Lukan’s head would fit through that orifice.
He craved her with every fiber of his being. He wanted her so much that he was surely hallucinating, because he thought that he smelled her now. He thought he heard her walking towards him. But surely he had begun his descent into madness; he had been yearning for her for too long, and thevar-hoolhad poisoned his brain.
She could not be standing there like that, wearing a silken robe, barefoot and smelling like the sweetest meadow of flowers, with Mar-ee hovering beside her, scowling at him.
“Begone, evil vision!” he groaned.
“What?”Talia snapped at him, and he leaped to his feet.
“Talia! Is it really you? Have you come to me at last?”
She stared at him as if he’d gone mad. “Of course it’s really me. Who did you think I was?”
He buried his face in his hands. “A vision come to mock me.”
Mar-ee shook her head. “You are a flarfloop-headed snarflebutt.”
Lukan let out a low snarl. Now was not the time to mess with him. Not when he was clinging to sanity by a thread. Not when his whole body pulsed and hurt because he was being denied what he needed more than oxygen. “Don’t forget, I am the flarfloop-headed snarflebutt who can take your hard drive out and reprogram you,” he threatened her.
“But you will not, because it would upset Talia.”
Curse the robot! He had programmed her to be far too intelligent. Also, she was smirking at him. Why had he given her the ability to smirk? She was right, hewasa snarflebutt. A creature so stupid that it had gone extinct because it had always walked into trees and knocked itself unconscious, leaving it vulnerable to predators.
Talia crossed the room and looked at him with concern. “You look pale. You’re sweating.” She placed her hand on his forehead, and he groaned with desire. Her hand was cool and comforting.
“Is it thevar-hool?” she asked him. “Cora Lee just told me about that. It’s why I came here. She said that it could make you ill, or you could go mad.”
“Yes,” he groaned.
“And yet you were willing to wait. You didn’t force yourself on me.”
“I would never.” His voice came out between pants of breath. “I would wait for you…until you wanted me…or until I died…”
She sank down onto his lap, and he groaned with pleasure. His Talia. Pressing herself against him, with only a wisp of cloth between the sweetness of her sex and his throbbing cock.
Talia glanced up at Mar-ee. “You can leave now,” she said.
“Are you sure? It is important for me to study human customs if I am going to—”
“Get out!” Talia and Lukan shouted at the exact same time.
