“She’s yourpet,” Bralix corrected him softly.
“She’s mymate,” Phyrax insisted. “Will you please help me to implant the symbiote?”
Bralix sighed and stood to dim the light to almost nothing, then retrieved the small, opaque jar. He unscrewed the lid, and gently coaxing the tiny creature out of the dark container with index and middle fingers, he noticed something curious. Normally these symbiotes were only handled in little to no light in order not to injure the delicate creatures that lived their entire lives in the dark. Whoever had transferred this one from the breeding tank had accidentally transferred two instead of one into this jar.
Bonus.
He carefully closed the container with one symbiote still inside, careful not to pinch any of its tentacles in the screwthreadof the jar, then held the other tiny creature up to the human’s ear.
“What are you doing?” She asked nervously, but Phyrax flattened a palm on her skull and held her head immobile against his shoulder. “No, please, let me go.”
“Please hurry,” Phyrax said, his jaw tense.”
“No, please don’t. Please take it away.” She squirmed and struggled, but Phyrax’s grip was implacable. “Please! Let me go!No!”
Eager to escape to where it was dark and quiet, the photophobic symbiote reached out to the human’s ear and squeezed itself into the dark canal. The human screamed, a gut-clenching sound that unknowingly scared the symbiote into hastening its journey into her brain.
Seeing Phyrax’s expression as the human struggled and screamed in pain and fear gave Bralix pause. They’d grown up on a ranch, raising various species of animals, including humans. They’d tagged ears, branded hides, and other procedures that, while not pleasant, were necessary for their livestock’s welfare, and neither Bralix nor Phyrax had thought about it twice. But Phyrax wasn’t reacting as if this was just another heifer in his care; he acted as ifhewere the one in pain.
Finally, the fight left the little human in Phyrax’s arms, and she dissolved into weeping.
“I know,” Phyrax murmured, holding and rocking her. “I know it hurts. I’m sorry.” He glanced up at Bralix. “Don’t forget the gel—quickly.”
Bralix picked up the prepped syringe, and working as quickly as possible, he squirted the bio-gel into her ear then wiggled the base of the ear to work the gel as deeply into the ear as possible. This gel would promote healing, repair the perforated eardrum, and dull the pain, shortening the recovery from several weeks to just a few hours.
Bralix pocketed the spent syringe and the spare symbiote, then rubbed the human’s back in soothing circles. “Good girl,” he murmured, but she didn’t even look at him, lost in her weeping as he left.
In the hallway outside Phyrax’s quarters he paused, touching the hard outline of the jar with the spare symbiote through his pocket, and for the first time, Bralix felt a little uncertain about where the line between pet and mate really was.
CHAPTER ONE
Samulin sat on her seat at the bar, staring into the depths of her ginger ale on the rocks, pondering how completely her life had turned from normal to abysmal in just three days.
In vinu, veritas. In wine, there is truth.
Correction: Nothing reveals the truth quite like that little white plastic stick with the blue lines of doom. Peeing on that home pregnancy test had been like drinking the red pill in The Matrix.
Looking back, she couldn’t believe she’d thought that telling Devlin about the baby would change anything. The bastard had actually accused her of using the pregnancy to trap him into marriage. If she could give her younger self any dating advice, it would be: ‘If dating for three years isn’t enough reason to propose, a baby won’t be either’, and ‘don’t give in when the bastard begs to skip the condom’.
Instead, when she’d told him he was going to be a father, he’d gone white, and less than a minute later, he’d broken up with her. An hour later men in suits had shown up at her office door, one with a box, and they’d watched her pack her things then escorted her out of the building. She guessed that when Devlinhad told his father the CEO about the latest development, the old buzzard had decided to rescind her employment as well.
So here she was: Twenty-five, pregnant, orphaned, unemployed, in a truly panic-inducing amount of student debt, and as of the end of this month when she had no money for rent, probably homeless. Thank God she hadn’t pushed the issue when Devlin hadn’t seemed too enthusiastic to move in together, or she’d probably get home tonight to changed locks as well.
“Sammy.”
Samulin’s spin stiffened; she couldn’t believe Devlin had come to find her, especially since he’d gotten her fired. “Don’t call me that,” she growled, not lifting her head.
“Sammy, please be reasonable. All you have to do is go to the clinic. I’ll take care of everything.”
The bastard had the audacity to lean in and touch her arm, obviously trying to cop a feel of her breast. His face came close enough to nuzzle her neck and she was tempted to head-butt him in that perfect nose, but instead she just tried to shrug away from his touch. “Don’t touch me,” she snapped.
Moments later Devlin jostled into her and Samulin was about to give him a final piece of her mind, when Devlin stiffened. “Hey, back off, asshole!”
Samulin looked up, wanting to see what made the asshole uncomfortable, and froze at the sight of a tall, muscular stranger hemming Devlin in between her and the bar.
He wore nondescript black slacks and a plain grey shirt, his sandy hair cropped short, and he used his muscular bulk and height advantage to intimidate Devlin—to Samulin’s delight. Devlin, who’d always styled himself asthealpha male, quailing before the obviously more formidable stranger… now that was definitely worth the price of admission.
It was after dark, and the human settlement was brightly lit—even the flat-topped mountain that loomed over the bustling population was lit from below by coloured spot-lights.
