Once I’m done, I use the drying function as I normally would, enjoying the experience and, over the sound of the dryer, I think I hear something else.
I think I hear him groan.
But I ignore him, washing my hands and walking back out past him to pull on my clothes, yet again, not bothering about his looming presence.
“So?” I turn back to face my new shadow…the one with the tail and wings. “When do we leave?”
Driok’s jaw is somewhat slack.
Perhaps I broke him.
I tap my foot. His eyes are drawn down to my boot then they trail back up me to my face.
“I need to comm my crew. They will meet us by the outer exit,” he says slowly, as if waking up from a dream.
“Outer exit? You mean we’re not flying out?”
“We aren’t staying on Vorostor, my mate. I need to be…elsewhere.”
The glaze in his eyes has gone and Driok, the big arrogant one, with the ego, is back in the room, clearly reveling in the mystery he’s still choosing not to tell me.
He is such an arsehole.
But, it appears, he is my arsehole, and it looks like, at some point, he’s going to do a big reveal.
Which means I need to be there in order to be entirely unimpressed.
DRIOK
I’m still internally cursing the comm I received while my little mate slumbered. I did not want to bring our arrangement to an end so abruptly after it started. Nor do I want to take Maggie off world with me but then, if she’s not safe with me and my fleet out in the galaxy, I would not be a member of the High Bask and a Sarkarnii warlord.
I certainly couldn’t leave her behind. My original rut may have abated, but the desire I have for her is worse than ever. Being out of her presence for one moment causes me physical pain. It’s mostly in my groin, but there’s something around my heart too.
And the display she put on for me in the bathroom has not assisted with my cock at all. My sweet little mate is far more of a match for me than I ever thought any female would be.
I suck in her scent as she exits the quarters in front of me and raise my eyes to the waterfall outside, silently thanking Deus for creating this place and for deigning to show it to me before he started firing on less than two star engines.
I doubt we’ll ever find him. He was legendary as a warrior, far better than Darax. If he doesn’t want to be found, he will not be.
Shame the same couldn’t be said for me. But then I have responsibilities. And Maggie.
A scout ship roars somewhere nearby. I direct Maggie through the vegetation until we reach the edge of the forbidden sector which is cut off from the rest of Vorostor by way of a forcefield I know we can pass through. The ship waits perched on the dune above us.
Maggie looks over her shoulder at me and steps through the forcefield before I can stop her. She appears on the other side unscathed. I walk through to see her climbing the dune, which runs in a wave of red sand down into the jungle below, unconcerned about the barrier which delineates the lush forest from the barren desert. Just as Deus would have liked it. Maybe he still does.
I see two of my warriors exit the scout craft and make a move towards my mate. I’m instantly in the air and landing between her and them, snarling loudly over the sound of the engines.
“Driok, really?” Maggie toils past me and into the scout ship as the two warriors stare after her.
“Look again and I will have your eyes,” I rasp.
“You are mated, my lord?” The first warrior turns his gaze on me.
I pull myself up to my full height. “I am mated. That is my mate. If anyone touches her, they will lose a limb and spend the rest of their miserable lives cleaning the air ducts.” I grin at my warriors.
“Of course, my lord.” The pair of them bow but keep their eyes fixed on me, as they have been taught.
I am the Butcher of Haldane, and it would be an unhinged warrior who would turn his back on me, especially now I am a mated male.
