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Then the realization struck. Of course, she thought I’d lied to her. She’d been kept prisoner by people who looked exactly like me. Her first experience of the Zaarn wasn’t one of rescue, as it had been for all the other Hyoo-mon females I’d interacted with so far. It was one of entrapment and experimentation that had clearly treated her poorly.
As the birds slowed from their initial panicked flight, the kreecat sprinted ahead, all four paws hitting the raised surface of a downed tree trunk. His muscles coiled, and he sprang, snatching a purple bird from the air before landing on the ground without breaking stride.
Vivv-Ee-Aan gasped, then gave a little chuckle. “Yes, youarea good hunter.” She grinned at me. “Now I know what he meant when he said he likes ‘food that moves.’”
I snorted in amusement, happy she could relax around me, even if only because of the animal. I kept running, my vision tunneled to the slice of forest visible between the sides of the fabric held open by her. My gaze ranged ahead as much as possible, mapping a route through the trunks and underbrush.
The kreecat paced me, ranging a little ahead or behind depending on the terrain, the bird clutched in its jaws.
I was just hitting my stride, my breaths growing even and deep, when my mate asked, “How long are we going to do this?”
“We have miles to go, yet.”
“Miles! You can’t carry me for miles!”
“Of course I can.” Did she not think I was strong? I might spend most of my time on a ship, but I trained every day with my crew. A good captain led from the front, and I’d never backed down from a fight yet.
“I want down.” Her small hands pushed at my shoulders. The fabric collapsed around her, exposing her head, and her touch made my heart pound harder than the running ever could.
“You’re too small. You won’t keep up.”
The glare she shot me was even sharper than the scalpel she’d buried in my thigh. My heart sang to see such spirit. A weak-willed female would never hold my interest for long, and the Goddess had seen fit to give me my perfect match.
I only needed to convince Vivv-Ee-Aan of it, and first I had to prove myself trustworthy, prove Zaarn could be Hyoo-mon allies.
“I can run,” she snapped.
“I do not doubt it,” I said. “But your shoes aren’t made for hard use. You’ll hurt your feet, which will only slow us down over the coming days.”
She kicked her lower leg up, bringing the thin slipper she wore into view. Then she let it drop with a huff and held the front edges of the fabric out again. “Fine.”
A smile twitched the edges of my lips, but I fought it down. There was no need to antagonize her further, much as I loved her fire. Instead, I tightened my arms around her, pulling her more firmly to my chest, reveling in the closeness our escape allowed me.
“God, this is endless!” Vivv-Ee-Aan muttered, even as her arms began to tremble. Holding the fabric taut with her arms straight out was no easy feat.
“We can take a bit of a break,” I said, slowing to a halt and crouching. I set her down on a soft bed of dried blue grivwood needles and pulled the stealth material forward to make a tent over us.
She shook out her hands, which much have pained her after being clenched into fists, holding the fabric.
I shrugged the pack from my back and pulled out the med kit. A wave of the scanner wand made her flinch, her eyes wary. Not usually a violent male for the sake of violence, I nonetheless wanted to return to the facility and punch someone. But my mate let me inject her with an anti-inflammatory once I explained the diagnosis.
“You should see to yourself, too.” Her hand hovered over my thigh, and her mouth pinched into a tight line as she muttered, “Sorry about that.”
I scanned the wound, impressed at the reading that came back. It was deeper than I’d expected for such a small blade. I didn’t tell her that. “It is nothing.”
Still, I ripped open the tear in the fabric to apply a healing ointment and bandage.
Her eyes roved over my bared skin, and my tail vibrated to life at the intensity of her gaze. “Your thigh’s purple!”
“That’s not all that’s purple,” I murmured. My swollen cock strained the front of my pants, and I pulled down my shirt to more fully cover it.
“What’d you say?”
“Nothing.”
I handed her a water can and let her drink her fill, then finished it off.
The sound of chewing came from nearby as the kreecat finally ate his prize. Just my frekking luck that I’d found heraftershe’d already bonded one of the telepathic animals. TheDaredevil’s zoo grew yet again.
