Page 56 of Tamed By Her Touch

Once down on the ground, Kaelus took a moment to study their surroundings before opening the shuttle hatch. Titus Four had looked green from orbit, but that description hardly did it justice.

The landing platform was set on a high plateau overlooking a wide valley filled with enormous trees with pale silver trunks and spreading crowns of blue-green leaves. Long vines covered in clusters of brilliant yellow flowers wound between the trees and hung from their branches, while in the distance, jagged mountains rose against a lavender sky. Twin suns hung low on the horizon, one larger and golden and the other smaller and almost white, bathing the entire landscape in warm, shimmering light.

There were buildings scattered among the trees, but unlike the gleaming metal structures of the Kindred Mother Ship, the structures here appeared to have been built from some kind of smooth, cream-colored stone that blended naturally into the landscape. Their roofs were curved and covered with living vegetation, and wide terraces spilled over with flowering plants and trees, making the entire settlement look as though it had grown organically from the surrounding forest.

“It’s beautiful,” Clair breathed from behind him.

Kaelus glanced back at her and felt the usual uncomfortable tightening in his chest. She was looking out through the front viewscreen with wide brown eyes, her face filled with the same wonder she always showed when confronted with something new.

That expression was one of the things he had admitted he liked about her during their ridiculous questionnaire, though he wished now that he hadn’t told her so. Ever since their conversation on the way to Titus Four, things between them had felt subtly different.

Too much had been said aloud—things Kaelus had been perfectly content to keep locked inside himself. He had told her he admired her intelligence and kindness, admitted that her scent drove him to distraction, and even told her that if she were truly his mate, mating twice a day would be insufficient and that he wanted to taste her!

He still couldn’t believe he had said that.

“We should proceed cautiously,” he told her, forcing his thoughts back to the mission. “We know very little about the inhabitants or their customs beyond what Commander Sylvan was able to tell us.”

“Oh, come on, big fella,” Clair said, giving him a smile. “They call Savage Syndrome ‘the Love Virus.’ How bad can they be?”

“That kind of reasoning is precisely why you nearly dissolved your own skin with molecular solvent,” Kaelus growled.

“And there he is,” she said brightly. “I was beginning to wonder if Titus Four had somehow replaced my grumpy lab partner with somebody pleasant.”

Kaelus chose not to dignify that with an answer. Instead, he rose from the pilot’s seat and moved toward the shuttle hatch. He had every intention of going out first and making certain there was no danger before allowing Clair to follow.

Though the male who had contacted them had sounded friendly enough, they were still on an unfamiliar planet populated almost entirely by males infected with a virus known to cause violent sexual aggression. Commander Sylvan had assured them that none of the Titus Four males displayed those symptoms, but Kaelus preferred direct observation to assurances.

“Stay behind me,” he told Clair as the hatch slid open.

She sighed.

“I’m not made of glass.”

“I am aware.”

She put a hand on her hip.

“Then stop treating me like I’m going to shatter if somebody looks at me sideways.”

“I will stop treating you as though you are in danger when you stop repeatedly placing yourself in danger,” Kaelus told her.

“That could take a while,” Clair admitted and gave him an impish grin.

Kaelus gave her a pointed look in return before stepping through the hatch and descending the ramp.

The warm air struck him immediately. It was humid but pleasant and carried the scents of rich soil, unfamiliar flowers, and something spicy he could not identify. Kaelus inhaled deeply, allowing his heightened Kindred senses to sample the environment as he scanned the landing area. There were three people waiting for them near the edge of the platform—two males and a female—and though all three were humanoid, there was no mistaking them for humans or Kindred.

The people of Titus Four were tall and slender, though not as tall as most Kindred. Their skin was a pale, luminous shade of blue-gray which seemed almost silver beneath the light of the twin suns.

Faint iridescent patterns traced their temples and cheekbones like natural tattoos and their eyes were unusually large and slightly tilted, with no visible whites—only jewel-bright irises that ranged from copper to deep violet to emerald green. Each of them had pointed but delicate ears and thick hair in unusual metallic shades. The male standing in front had hair the color of polished pewter, while the female beside him had long, flowing hair of deep midnight blue streaked with silver.

But it was the way the older male stood with the female that caught Kaelus’s attention.

His arm was wrapped comfortably around her waist and her hand rested on his chest as though it had been there a thousand times before. They were both smiling warmly, and the affection between them was so obvious that Kaelus felt oddly intrusive merely looking at them.

The second male stood several feet away. He was younger than the first—perhaps the Titus Four equivalent of middle age—with dark copper hair pulled neatly back from his angular face and gleaming copper eyes to match. Unlike the other two, he stood alone with his hands clasped behind his back. His expression was courteous, but something about it struck Kaelus as cold.

Kaelus descended the ramp completely before turning toward Clair. Unfortunately, she had already followed him. She was carrying her scientific case in one hand and her personal satchel over her shoulder.