“Negative,” Marne replies. “We can’t assist down there. You have to stay topside.”
A familiar rushed sound of panting under strain makes me grab Tessi and pull her back to me, just as a Luna Mindoran smashes through her position.
“Oh… What the heck?” Tessi reaches back and grabs my thighs. The plump mounds of her ass press against my hips, sending my Shifter jumping at the chance to pull her close and grind into her just once.
Tessi moans and arches and I nearly lose control.
I puff out a breath and blink slowly. “They want you gone because they think you’re my mate, and Lunas hate Aegeris.”
The sweet scented clouds are getting to me. Someone shoots at Tessi. I spin her around, shielding her body with my own, then fire back at our attacker—a Ginarigon with two women under his arms.
You’re not getting my female.
I urge her down a different path. Carnas and Spike hold back the Lunas behind us.
Paint splatters on my face. I look up to see Carnas tackle another Luna. The moment the liquid gets in my mouth, I taste the enhancers. They warm my tongue like alcohol and flare my desire for Tessi into something feral.
I curl forward.Stay put. It’s drugs. It’s not Tessi. It’s not us. We’ve been drugged. Calm down. We can’t take her. We can’t risk losing her because we lose control.
“Zorin?”
The moment she touches my face, my teeth lengthen and the desire to claim her from behind in the wild way of Shifters grows until I’m shaking. Tessi lifts my chin so she can inspect my eyes, even when I try to pull away.
“Stay away from me, Tessi. Now’s not a good time.” My Shifter thrashes at my insides, and I stumble away from her. He wants out. Now.
Her gaze narrows with lust. She laughs a dark, husky note. “I am not afraid of you.”
She should be.
I can’t take it anymore. My claws are out. My skin darkens. My Shifter is taking control. He’s too hopped-up on the enhancers. And the more control he gains, the less I have.
I clutch Tessi in my arms, pick her up, and rush her to the tightest corner of the hedges I can find, where I bond my mouth to hers with all the passion I have been holding back.
She hums in bliss. “Is this how you really feel?”
“Yes,” I growl, my voice now overlaid with the deeper rumble of my Shifter.
I grind my erection into her hips, and hate that there’s so much fabric and armor between us. Her scent draws my nose to her neck where I drink in her musk and feel her pulse beneath my lips.
“Okay, you two,” Spike grabs one of my arms, Carnas the other, and they tear me away from her. But I’m not ready to let her go.
“She’s mine!” I resist them. I shouldn’t but I do. “Why can’t I just be left in peace?”
Carnas rubs paint from an eye. “At least you have a bond. Fucking hell this shit is hard to tolerate when you don’t get release. But hold it together, brother!”
I snarl as I wrestle my Shifter back a step.
Then in a puff of pink powder behind Tessi’s back, arms reach out, surround her, and pull her into the haze.
Spike swears.
“Tessi?” I call out. I don’t hear her answer.
Carnas and Spike release me, and we plow through the narrow opening in the hedge into a chamber with a hatch in the ground. The lid is up. By the way the pink dust snakes into the opening, I’m certain that’s where she’s been taken.
I tap my earcom. “Someone took Tessi. Pink cloud. Human. They took her into the labyrinth!”
“Probably Geist.” Ignus replies. “He is local. Still on station. He won’t teleport far. He can only do small and short distance jumps. I’ve been tracking him. But I can’t see him underground.”
