“What?” she whispered, staring back into its eyes. “Did…did you say something? And how did you say it?”
“I’m speaking through our bond.” His jewel-like eyes blinked slowly. “The bond that all Kindred males have with their mates.”
“You…we… what?”
“We are bonded.” The dr’gin looked away. “For that I am sorry. I know how you must feel about it.”
“How I must…” Tess shook her head. “I still don’t understand. What does bonded mean—besides you being able to speak inside my head, I mean?”
“It means we are tied together…permanently.” The voice in her head didn’t sound very happy about it.
“How…how did that happen?” Tess demanded.
“When I took you last night…when I bred you…” The dr’gin gave her a look from the corner of its eye. No, not the dr’gin—this was Garron in his dr’gin form. The two of them were one now, Tess suddenly understood.
“When you…bred me?” she asked.
“You need only to look at the marks I left on your flesh to know what I’m talking about.”
Tess looked down at herself—really looked—for the first time and sucked in her breath. There were bruises on her pale skin—mostly around her hips—but a few in other places as well. Not only that but the skin had been erased from her knees and elbows and the palms of her hands. Just looking at the raw, red flesh made the wounds she hadn’t noticed earlier sting.
How in the world…? Then it began to come back. Dimly she remembered kneeling on the hard stone floor of the cave as Garron plowed into her from behind.
Probably happened then. She shivered at the vivid memory—the rough pleasure of letting him take her completely—the overwhelming feeling of being utterly owned by him.
“You have bite marks on your back as well,” Garron informed her. “I wanted to heal them but I didn’t feel I had the right without your permission. I had to keep you warm, however which is why I curled around you. Though I know how you must feel about being in close proximity to me in any form right now. I hope you understand.”
Tess shook her head. “I don’t understand anything. Why would I not want to be in close proximity to you?”
“How can you ask that after seeing what I did?”
Garron shimmered and changed form. In an instant he was sitting there beside her on the hard stone floor of the cave completely naked. The change made Tess jump.
“Oh, you’re back! You really can change back and forth now.” She wanted to throw her arms around him but something stopped her—maybe it was the dark expression on his face. Or maybe the fact that she was still completely naked. She crossed her legs and draped an arm across her bare breasts as unobtrusively as she could.
“Yes, I’m back—thanks to you.” Garron gave her a long, searching look. “You saved me from being D’fex, Tess. Or rather, I used you to save myself from it. For that I must beg you to forgive me.”
“There’s nothing to forgive.” Tess put a hand over his lightly. “Really.”
“That’s not true,” he said in a low voice. “There is much to forgive. Much I did to wrong you.”
She drew her hand away uncertainly. “Is this you giving me the “it’s not you it’s me” speech again? Because I have to be honest, Garron, if that’s it, then I will never forgive you.”
“But it is me—I’m the one who hurt you. You did nothing but come and seek me out, even when you knew it might mean your death. And look how I repaid you.”
“How you…? Wait a minute…” Tess frowned. “Is this really about last night? Or it is about you wanting to break up with me because I’m not Nella and you’re regretting the whole ‘bonded for life’ thing?”
“How could I regret bonding myself to you?” Garron looked at her, holding her eyes with his own. “I told you that Nella—as much as I loved her—is in the past. You are my present. And…my future. At least, I once hoped you were.”
“I can be.” Tess looked at him uncertainly. “If…if you still want me.”
“Of course I still want you!” Garron reached for her hand, entwining their fingers. “But I wouldn’t blame you a bit if you didn’t want me. Not after…after last night.”
“Last night was…intense.” Her face was suddenly hot with a blush as she remembered the incredible sex they’d shared. “But I’m not upset about it. Not unless you are.”
“I am upset—deeply disturbed at the way I behaved. At the way I treated you.” Garron looked away. “I vowed to loved and cherish you and never treat you roughly and then I…” He seemed to have difficulty getting the words out. “I treated you no better than your ex-mate. I wouldn’t blame you if you never forgave me for that.”
He started to draw his hand away from her but Tess wouldn’t let him.
“That’s not true,” she said fiercely, holding his hand tightly in her much smaller one. “Garron, look at me.”
Reluctantly, he met her eyes again.
“You’re nothing like Pierce was. Nothing. Not even after you first, uh, ate him and took on a few of his personality traits. You came after me at first but then you stopped when I asked you to. Even though you knew you had to mate or turn D’fex. Pierce would never have stopped. He took what he wanted and didn’t give a damn about me.”
“That is not the only way I mirrored him,” Garron pointed out. “He hurt you—marked you. I did the same last night.”
“Pierce liked to hurt me and scar me for his own sadistic amusement,” Tess said. “You marked me out of passion. Not on purpose—not because you got off on it—but because you were still in a kind of in-between state. You were channeling your dr’gin.”
He frowned. “How do you know that?”
“It was pretty obvious the way you kept flipping back and forth until I finally managed to keep you in one form. Also, you were probably having what Yipper called the ‘three-fold reaction’ because the emotion damper failed. Remember when all the emotions you were having at the time the damper was implanted come back three times as strong?” She frowned. “What happened to the implant anyway? Is it still in you?”
Garron ran a hand over the back of his neck. “No, it’s gone—my body must have either expelled or engulfed it during my first transition.”
“Like it did with Pierce’s gun.” Tess shivered. “You know, I understand the clothes and even the shoes but how in the hell did you digest a gun?”
Garron shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling.
“The acid in the stomach of a dr’gin is one of the strongest in the known universe. I could eat anything in that form—even rocks—and digest them.”
“Ugh.” Tess shook her head. “Well, I guess you can never complain about my cooking then…”
“Don’t try to make jokes and change the subject,” he said severely. “We were talking about how I wronged you.”
“No, we were talking about why you got a little out of control. And don’t forget, I did tell you I didn’t mind when you said you couldn’t be gentle,” Tess reminded him. “Which was understandable—you were having the three-fold reaction and fighting with your dr’gin at the same time.”
“I do remember many strong emotions—feelings of guilt and shame and a lust so strong I felt I could barely control it.” His face darkened. “Clearly, I could not control it.”
“So?” Tess leaned forward. “You can’t make love to a tiger and expect to come away without a few scratches and scrapes. You were wild last night—literally. You couldn’t help yourself.”
“That’s not an excuse,” Garron said stubbornly. “None of this is.”
“I’m not trying to excuse anything,” Tess murmured. She stroked along the inside of his wrist gently with her fingertips. “I’m trying to tell you how I feel. I didn’t feel abused or attacked last night. I knew what I was getting myself into when I came after you in the first place—I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But Garron, nothing worth having comes easily. And you’re worth it. Worth the
trauma of seeing my ex-husband eaten alive, worth being scared to death when I came looking for you…and certainly worth a few bumps and bruises and bites.”
Finally she began to see hope dawning in his eyes.
“You really feel that way?”
“Absolutely,” Tess assured him. At last she dared to lean forward and put her arms around his neck. Her bare breasts pressed against his hard chest making her bite back a moan.
“Tess…lin’del…” Garron held her tight. “After all I’ve put you though, I can’t believe you’re finally, truly mine.”
“I am,” she assured him. “And that’s not going to change no matter what.”
“I love you,” he sent through their new link and Tess felt the sincerity of his words right down to the tips of her toes.
“I love you, too,” she sent back, nuzzling closer to him. “So much, Garron. And I—”
“Teeeeeeessssss? Tess, are you here? Teeeeesssss?”
The call was distant but clear, floating up on the morning air currents from outside the cave.
“Becca!” Tess breathed. She jumped up, meaning to go to the cave mouth and shout back but then she realized she was completely naked. “Oh…” She looked around, wondering where the baggy sweat suit she’d been wearing the night before had gone to.
“Your clothing is over there.” Garron had turned back into his dr’gin form. He nodded his huge head to a far corner of the cave. “Put it on and I will take you down to meet them.”
“They’re probably looking for you, too,” Tess said, grabbing her clothes and beginning to pull them on.
“I have no doubt they are but they do not expect to find me. Not as a rational, thinking being that is.”
“Then we have a surprise for them. A happy one. Truth will be so glad—he was crying over you yesterday. He—” Just then she heard a deeper, masculine voice calling her name as well. Becca must have one or both of her husbands searching too.
“Come,” Garron said, shaking himself so that the white feather-fur rippled like silk. “Get on my back and let’s go meet them.”
“All right…” But for some reason Tess hesitated.
“What is it?” The dr’gin blinked at her questioningly.
“I don’t know—it’s silly.” She looked around and sighed. “I guess…I guess part of me just wishes we didn’t have to leave this cave. Which is ridiculous because it’s chilly and the stone floor is really hard. But I guess I just feel like…like we finally really connected in here.”
“Tess…” The dr’gin shimmered and Garron was there again, holding out his arms. She went to them willingly, loving the warmth and safety she felt in his embrace.
“I know it’s silly,” she said. “It’s just a feeling.”
“It’s not silly but you should know that it’s not just the cave. I’ve felt a connection to you from the first time I saw you. From the second I smelled your sweet scent in the Pairing House, I knew I had to have you.” He looked into her eyes and spoke softly. “I might not have admitted it to myself or to you right away, but I knew in that moment you were the only female for me. The only one I could ever love.”
“Oh, Garron…” She pressed her cheek to his chest and stood there holding and being held by him, feeling complete for the first time in her life.
“If this cave means so much to you, I can always fly you up here again,” he pointed out, stroking her hair. “We can make it a regular destination if you want.”
“That’s right.” She laughed softly. “I’m bonded to a man who can fly. I feel like Mrs. Superman or something.”
“I have no idea who that is…” Garron shimmered again and the dr’gin reappeared. “But I do know we need to go down and let our friends and my brother know that we’re not dead.”
“All right.” Tess got on his back and took a double handful of the white fur. “But I reserve the right to come back here any time, just like you said. Only next time I’m bringing a blanket or a roll of memory foam or something. This stone floor is hard on a girl!”
There was a soft sound of what might have been dr’ginish laughter and then they were sweeping out of the cave, sliding through the rising air currents and the morning sunshine to find the forest floor below.
Chapter Forty-three
“I still can’t believe you’re okay!” Becca gave her a spontaneous hug and Tess hugged her back, glad to be alive and back with her new friend. “I mean it’s amazing. Just…amazing!”
“I guess it is.” Tess smiled. When she had come floating down from the side of the mountain, riding on Garron’s back, she’d thought Becca’s eyes would pop out of her head. But now that they were all cleaned up and comfortably seated at a table in the HKR building in Asheville, Becca seemed to be getting over her shock.
Tess was feeling much better herself. They’d had lunch and a shower and Becca had given her a change of clothes which looked much better than the worse-for-wear oversized sweat suit. Now she and Garron were comfortably installed in one of the guest suites for visiting Kindred here at the HKR building which was good, because she couldn’t face going back to the cabin. Not after all the awful things she’d witnessed there.
She wasn’t sure what she was going to tell Di about what had happened at her uncle’s cabin, but she would think of something. After all, she was going to see her friend tomorrow. She and Garron were taking another road trip from Asheville back to Tampa. And this time she didn’t have to worry about Pierce following her.
Thinking of her ex-husband still gave her a little chill. She supposed there might be questions about his disappearance but since he was gone and there was no body to use for evidence, she didn’t anticipate too much trouble. Truth and Far had promised to pull up the stained carpet and burn it so she was hopeful she could keep mostly out of any investigation that might occur.
“And you’re feeling all right?” Becca asked and Tess realized she’d been spacing out for a moment, thinking of her future plans.
“We’re fine—both of us,” Tess assured her.
“More than fine.” Garron spoke to Becca but his eyes were on Tess and their turquoise depths were hot. Tess blushed and looked away.
“Uh, yes. I can see that,” Becca said, smiling at him. “And it’s good to see you in your right mind.”
Garron nodded solemnly at her. “Actually, since Tess brought me back to myself, I am in my ‘right mind’ as you say in either form.”
“That’s amazing!” Becca gushed. “And to think I thought Tess was crazy to go after you.”
“I knew Garron was in there, just waiting to be let out,” Tess said, smiling and squeezing her lover’s hand.
“Actually, his name is now G’ron,” Truth said, nodding at his brother. “According to the Rai’ku traditions after a male’s first turning, he takes his adult name.”
“Um, okay—G’ron it is,” Becca said. “It looks like you guys have had a hell of a night,” she said to Tess. “But considering you’re still alive, I’d say it all worked out for the best.”
“Obviously.” Truth frowned. “But I must know—how is it you didn’t devour Tess in your D’fex state, Brother? How did she pull you back from the brink of madness?”
“Oh, well…” Tess could feel her face getting hot and Garron’s cheeks were also dull red with embarrassment. Luckily, he didn’t have to answer the question.
“How do you think, silly?” Becca demanded, looking at Truth. “They’re bonded. Aren’t you?” she asked Tess, who nodded.
“We are,” Garron—or G’ron as Tess supposed she ought to start calling him—said. “I am proud to claim Tess as my mate and my bride. She is part of me.” He put a fist to his heart. “I owe her everything and I love her with my entire being.”
“Oh, honey…” It was all Tess could do to stop herself from jumping in his lap. She tried to restrain herself, however, and just squeezed his hand instead.
He studied her palm, tracing the scrapes she still had gently with one finger
tip.
“It occurs to me, lin’del, that while I apologized for the injuries I inflicted on you, I never healed them.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Tess sent back quickly. But she couldn’t suppress a shiver of excitement when she remembered how pleasurable his healing could be. The soft feel of his mouth, the warmth of his tongue as it glided over her flesh… “I’ll be fine,” she sent, trying to push the forbidden images away while they were still sitting at the table in mixed company.
“You’ll be fine after I heal you.” To her surprise, Garron pulled her into his lap and started kissing her right there at the table.
“Garron, er, G’ron,” she protested, half laughing, half embarrassed. “We’re in public here.”
“You think I care about that?” he growled through their link. “And don’t worry about calling me G’ron. Only on Pax do males change their names when they make a first transition. I left that behind and I never want to go back to it. I am content to stay here with you.”
“Mmm, I’m feeling pretty content myself right now…” Tess admitted, kissing him back.
“A-hem.”
The sudden sound reminded her that they weren’t the only people in the room and she looked up to see Becca laughing at her.
“Come on, boys,” she said to Truth and Far, taking their hands and rising from the table. “It looks to me like the honeymoon period is still going on for these two. Let’s let them go back to their suite and have a little more bonding time.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Tess exclaimed, even as Garron got up from the table, holding her as easily as if she was a doll. “We didn’t mean to be rude!”
“That’s okay.” Becca’s lovely eyes gleamed with laughter. “I know how it is. After all, we’re still kind of in the honeymoon phase ourselves, aren’t we, boys?” She gave Truth and Far a smile which Far returned while Truth answered with a hungry growl.
“Well, if you’re sure…” Tess said, even as Garron was starting to walk away with her. He paused for a moment, impatiently, for her to talk to her friend.