I bond my mouth to hers, pick her up and press her back against a tree. I cannot get enough of her. My claws extend like my teeth. My skin ripples with every hot wave of lust.
“Shit, Zorin…” Kren whines and tries to tug me off of Tessi.
I bite a hand into the tree and pull myself back to her.
Tessi giggles. “Zorin.”
Davarok growls. “Orders, Zorin! Focus! Besides, it’s time for the formal dinner. Lieutennant Vrasler is expecting you there to represent MTF withhonor.”
The compulsion to bury myself in her grows until it pulses through me like blood. My heart slams in my ribs.
“Just…need…one…more…touch…”
Tessi wraps herself around me and plunges her tongue into my mouth as cameradrones hover around us. For the first time in years, I feel alive, truly, deep in my chest. My Shifter binds her to us and takes in the softness of her neck, the perfect scent that tells me she’s ready. I don’t care who’s watching. Tessi is everything I need and want, and she feels the same way about me.
Esrynne’s scent breaks up Tessi’s. I open my eyes and see her reach around Tessi’s middle. Carnas and Spike each take one of my arms. Kren and back them up. Marne’s arms wrap around my waist. My kind, my own M-pack, myteamtears us apart. It happens so fast.
“Stand down!” Marne shouts.
I jerk and writhe, snarl and snap, trying to free myself from their arms. Claws bite into my shoulder.
“Ah, shit, sorry!” Davarok growls.
“Zorin! Stand down!” Marne gets angry. He never gets angry.
I watch as Esrynne escorts Tessi away from me, pressing her hand to a spot that’s bloody on the back of Tessi’s shoulder.
“Brother, please.” Marne grabs me and shakes me. “Zorin!”
I tear my eyes from Tessi’s curvy hips the ones that beg me closer and snap at him. When I try to retort, I can’t talk, and realize just how out of control my Shifter has become.
Marne sighs. “I didn’t want to do this.”
An injector taps the back of my neck, and my knees buckle. My heart stutters. Rorsar gives me a pained glance as he retracts the needle.
“Denying a rut is agonizing, I know.” Marne takes a knee beside me. “I promise, you will sync with her during her next heat. But this is not the time to lose your head.”
I am falling apart, losing control of myself, and crumbling in front of my team in a way I never have before.
I hang from Carnas and Davarok’s arms as my hormonal surge shatters, and deep rejection fills me.
“It’s not you. It’s the meds. Okay?” Marne glances at Rorsar who nods. “They’re going to chill you out, bring you back to who you normally are.”
“I…argh!” I shake my head. “I don’t want that. I wanther. But I also know that’s not right.”
“It is right when we’re in a rut. But the other species don’t understand it.” Marne sighs and checks my eyes as my body shifts back to humanoid form. “That’s better. It’s just not the right time, got it?”
They all help me up, but the portal generator shifts in my armor. Ignus notices it and pulls it out. “What the hell is this?”
“Blood?” Rorsar scours me. “Are you injured?”
“Took it off Geist after I slit his throat with my claws. I didn’t bother washing it when I was in the creek.”
Ignust looks it over. “I’ll clean it and run it through a scanner for trackers.”
I muster a nod.
Marne helps me up. He leads me past cameradrones and Tessi, who’s claiming the ruby egg prize with Ohni. We walk back to the ABR complex and to the room I have yet to set foot inside.
