“Thanks, Erin,” Ryen said. “I’ll think about what you’ve said.” She kissed him on the forehead and patted his cheek. “Go easy on Drekk. He’s having a hard time. Don’t tell Rafe, but I overheard most of their conversation while the cook was boring you. Drekk’s got something bottled up inside him that he’s afraid to let go. I think his feelings for you are getting in the way of his control and he’s frightened of hurting you. Then again, I could be mistaken. Maybe it’s all just about sex,” she teased.
Ryen muttered under his breath about nosey females, though he couldn’t fault her for telling him what she had. He understood so much more now. Thanks to Drekk, he’d filled that lonely void inside him with love, a connection to another. His mate. He left the rover and waved good-bye to his sister.
He grinned stupidly, then lost the smile worrying about what Drekk was doing at this moment. Entering the dwelling, he stopped abruptly at the sight that met his eyes.
Four men stood in the centre of the room while another two suddenly caged him on either side. They blinked, inner lids closing sideways before the outer ones did, and he noted the reptilian pupils. Ebrellions. Reacting on instinct, Ryen sent the two next to him into the wall. He drew his pistol on three of the remaining aliens charging him, but it was the fourth Ryen kept his eyes on. That was the same fucking alien who’d come back with Drekk and the female days ago.
“Wait,” the fourth Ebrellion, likely their leader, commanded, and the others froze. “We mean no harm,” he rasped, his hands held high. “I would like to converse with the other one,” he said to Ryen. Drekk.
“Well so would I,” Ryen snarled and clenched a fist. He braced for the next attack, realising that Drekk hadn’t fallen into enemy hands if said enemy was looking for him.
“You’re not like the others in this star system.” The leader cocked his head, as if in thought. “Yet you’re not like us, either.”
“But my friend is, right?”
“Correct.” The Ebrellion nodded. “I hadn’t meant to leave him so soon after finding him, but I had to return to my ship. Rebel scum needed tending.” The alien smiled, showcasing sharp white teeth. “Your friend,” he paused. “I scent him on you. Mated, yet not?”
“That seems to be the running question.” Ryen was having the oddest conversation with a creature he’d never thought to meet. For all the Ebrellion’s differences, he appeared very human. A large, muscular male. Short dark hair, normal Mardu clothing. Only his eyes and teeth looked alien.
“There is something. I can sense a psychic bond. Yet he has not performed the Rite.” The male frowned. “This is dangerous.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s nearing his Time. I sensed it when I saw him the other day. He’s nearing his Time and has only partially mated. Without taking from you what he needs, he’ll turn...not right.” The male said something Ryen didn’t understand.
“What the hell does he need? How can I give him what he wants? Does he even know what to do? Because I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know he’s Ebrellion.”
“As I suspected.” The leader spoke to his companions and one by one they departed. “I am Tarn. We will find the male and you will fix him.” Ryen was no one’s fool. “You want me to believe you want to help a guy who took down a dozen or more of your own kind.”
“He helped me take care of the rebels I was sent to dispatch. He’s a powerful male. And he’s of my brother’s line.”
Ryen blinked, not having expected that. “What?”
“It’s in his eyes. I saw it for a brief moment when our gazes collided. You’re not Ebrellion, so you can’t understand, but it’s something I know. Come here, Ryen.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Your male called for you several times in the warehouse. I followed his trace back here to you through the void. I carried him here. He wasn’t able to move once the threll toxin worked into his system.”
Ryen wanted badly to help Drekk, but he didn’t trust this Tarn as far as he could throw him.
“Every moment you tarry you put your mate in jeopardy.”
“Fine. But you try fucking me over and I’ll break your neck. You don’t want to know what I’ll do to you if you harm Drekk.”
“Drekk, hmm? An Ebrellion name.” Tarn smiled, and his teeth looked normal, like that of a human once more.
“Whatever.” Ryen stepped closer to Tarn and tucked his pistol back into its holster. If the Ebrellion made a wrong move he’d use brute force to take him down. Not as effective, but more satisfying. “Now what?”
“Think of your mate. I will take us there.” Tarn grabbed his arm just as Ryen reached for the pistol at his back, holding onto it.
Ryen concentrated on Drekk. On his ready smile when he teased Ryen, of his clear grey eyes that saw so much. His firm lips and the rough scar that only accentuated his danger.
Dark black hair over swarthy skin. A rugged frame and large hands with long fingers that could cause pleasure or pain. What struck Ryen most about his memories was the love they engendered. Every time he though of Drekk, he warmed with the need to just spend time around his lover. To hear him laugh or growl with passion.
“Enough,” Tarn muttered and dropped him into a dark wooded area. Ryen sensed another presence just as something wild leaped at Tarn. This threll was three times the size of a normal threll with an anger that stunned Ryen. He made a move to shoot the thing with his pistol when Tarn threw himself in Ryen’s sights.
“No. This is Drekk,” Tarn said as the giant threll threw him to the ground. The thing swiped two of his six claws over Tarn’s belly and snarled. The thin hide Tarn wore over his shirt like a vest deflected the venomous attack.
Stunned, Ryen called out Drekk’s name. The creature snarled once more, then ceased its attack on Tarn and jumped in Ryen’s direction.
“Do not move. Let him scent you,” Tarn said quietly.
Ryen released a torrent of pheromone.
“That’s very good,” Tarn said in a choked voice. “No wonder Drekk claimed you.” The threll snapped at Tarn but didn’t attack. Instead it focused on Ryen. Slowly, the threll began to shrink and change shape, until only Drekk remained on his hands and knees, his hair askew, his features still alien until they too evened out. Only his eyes remained like Tarn’s. Green and yellow with a slitted pupil.
“My brother’s line,” Tarn said proudly, sadly. “Drekk, you must finish claiming your mate in order to become whole.”
“Become whole?” Drekk rasped, his eyes glowing with anger and shame.
The shame tugged at Ryen’s heart.
“I would have killed him and any who stood between us. What good is becoming whole?” Drekk clutched his head. “I’ve kept it contained for years.”
“Too many years. It is your Time. In your cycles, you peaked many times, and all safely because you had no bond, no mate.”
“My Time? Peaked?” Drekk asked, his gaze glued to Ryen.
Stars, even naked and covered in sweat, Drekk mesmerised him.
“Your Time, like a female’s cycle when she goes into heat,” Tarn explained. “Ebrellion males feel it as well, but the unmated deal with it using certain herbs and rituals. When mated, the Rite is necessary to stimulate the trigger that allows control over the shifts.” Tarn softened his voice. “You controlled your peaks for so long, Drekk. An amazing feat. That you command the void—that you teleport,” he clarified, “is a testament to your power. Your strength, your healing, they are wonders that awe me. But now that you have a mate you will no longer be able to control yourself during your Time. You must finish what you started.” Tarn turned to Ryen. “Will you accept this?”