Chapter One
Not now.
Treffon, the Reginar of the Thorolf pack, felt the stirring of the beast under his skin. It was angry. Impatient. It wanted to tear out of his body and bathe in a sea of blood.
Not today.
Treffon briefly closed his eyes and concentrated, forcing hisVulfanback down. The humans called it a wolf – a massive, snarling creature with fangs that tore and claws that shredded.
What he really needed was a brutal, hours-long, close-quarters sparring session, him against half a dozen of his pack members, no holds barred, to bleed off some of the dark energy that was raging through his veins.
Or a mate. If only he could find his true mate, he’d be pulled back from the madness, but that was never going to happen. So he’d have to settle for breaking some bones. It was a good thing that the Vulfan race healed within hours – otherwise he wouldn’t have anyone left to train with him.
“A tenth-credit for your thoughts,” said his young cousin Zura.
He looked around with a scowl. The sun was shining in the pale purple sky, and the day was peaceful. Under the watchful eye of the Federation Peacemakers, several hundred displaced aliens were slowly filing through the enormous double doors at the resettlement center just north of the capital city of Donnelle. There were the huge but gentle Krevangii, a full head taller than Treffon, with their curving horns; there were short, squat, blue-scaled Faa, the lizardoid Zamborians; there were half a dozen other species at least. There were no fights, there were no ambushes, no-one needed rescue.
“My thoughts? I am thinking what I would not give for a good cyborg attack right now,” Treffon growled. “I mean, it does not even have to be cyborgs. Any hostile race would do. Anything to break up the monotony of this blasted peace and quiet.”
Zura, Captain of the Guard for the Thorolf Pack’s 10thDivision, flicked an amused glance at him. She was tall and solidly muscled, her skin bronzed by the sun, her thick black hair wrapped up in braids that swirled in a bun on the back of her head. She was on duty today, so she wore her black-and-blue military tunic, leggings, and leather boots, with a photon blaster at her waist and a laser rifle slung over her shoulder in case any of the aliens decided to act up. Her ears were pointed and tufted with dark, silky fur that matched the color of her hair.
“I am sorry, honored Reginar, is it too peaceful for you?” she said in a mock-sympathetic voice. “Can’t you go one solar circle without making someone bleed?” She took a long sip from the flask that she carried with her these days, drinking some odd-smelling liquid that was supposed to increase her strength, as if she needed the help.
Treffon looked at her in confusion. His cousin baffled him sometimes. “Why would I want to do that?”
She shrugged. “There are other pleasures in life besides fighting and war.” At his questioning glance, she snorted and said, “Really, cousin?” She held up her hand and began ticking off examples on her fingers one by one. “Feasting, traveling for enjoyment rather than annihilation, reading, watching holovids, petting fleedlefurrs…”
Treffon regarded her through narrowed eyes. “Petting fleedlefurrs?”
“Yes, they make a most delightful sound when you stroke their fur.”
Treffon stifled a gagging noise. “Remind me to test your ancestry. You do not look very much like any of us, and I believe you may have been switched as a cub.”
She ignored him. She was the only one in the entire Thorolf pack who could do so and survive to speak of it. She continued ticking examples off on her fingers, folding them one by one. “Listening to music, swimming in the crystalline lakes, and, of course…”
She flicked a glance at a couple who were strolling by the line. The male, Kroi, was one of the newer Pack Guards. He was holding hands with Allison, who had recently come to Ilyria seeking a mate. And she’d found one, on her first night there, at a party thrown by the Starcrossed Dating Agency in central Donnelle.
Kroi was on duty, working with the Peacemakers to keep a lookout for cyborg infiltrators, but he was letting himself be thoroughly distracted by his lovely new pair-bond.
They were walking hand in hand, grinning at each other. They reeked of sex and happiness. They were in theVar-hool, the mating frenzy that happened when two true mates first found each other. Their Var-hool seemed to be lasting a long time; they’d met several months ago.
And they were clearly happy. So, so happy.
“Reginar? Who are you planning to kill?” Zura’s voice sliced through the haze of his anger and frustration.
Treffon glanced down at his hands; thick, cruel claws had curved from his fingers, and dark fur covered his arms. With an impatient snarl, he forced his beast back down. Again. He rarely let him out these days; the beast was too hard to control.
“Nobody,” he growled. He wouldn’t kill a couple just because they’d found their true mates and he hadn’t.
Probably.
As if reading his thoughts, Zura added, “Just because you haven’t found your true mate doesn’t mean that you must be forever alone. You could pair-bond with a female whom you found attractive. There are many who would be willing. They approach me and tell me this all the time. All. The. Time.” She rolled her eyes. “And there is the party coming up – Starcrossed is holding them every week now. There will be many single human females there. You could meet someone.”
Starcrossed Dating Agency had a secret undercover operation on Earth, recruiting eligible human women to visit Ilyria to mate with males from the Wor-Lan and Thorolf packs. They brought single women of child-bearing age to Ilyria, and introduced them to single Vulfan males.
They’d been forced to do this out of necessity. Both packs had been devastated by a cyborg-made virus thirty years before, and ninety percent of their women had been killed off. The subsequent war between the two packs had lowered their population even more – but now there was a truce. And since human women were capable of bearing Vulfan cubs, the Starcrossed Dating Agency’s program had been a huge success, and the packs were coming back from the brink of extinction.
Still, Thorolf would not bother to go to any of their meet-and-greets. There was no point.Shewouldn’t be there.
