“It’s hard to understand if you haven’t been born into it,” I admitted grudgingly.
“I’m trying to wrap my head around it.” She stared at us. “So is this why everyone on the beach was giving us such nasty looks? Because they could smell that both of you were Alphas and they thought you were doing things together that only an Alpha and a Beta should do?”
“That and the fact that they were probably wondering which of us played the role of Beta,” Lucian said dryly.
“But why does either of you have to play that role?” Rylee asked.
“We don’t and we don’t want anyone thinking we do,” I growled. “Why do you think we need to be separated?”
“But—”
“Drace is right—we can’t go on like this.” Lucian sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Tomorrow I’ll contact Lord Mandrex and ask for a private meeting to see if he’ll sell or loan me the key.”
“Fuck tomorrow—call him tonight,” I snapped. “The sooner we get free of each other the better.”
“All right.” Lucian’s face went cold. “I’ll place the call. But I’d ask that the two of you remain out of sight of the viewscreen.”
“Why is that, bond-mate—are you ashamed of us? Afraid the rest of the city will find out your dirty secret?” It was a fucking low blow and I knew it but I was still so angry with him for treating me like a Beta the words came out before I could stop them. Hell—I didn’t even try.
“No,” Lucian said stiffly. “I am not ashamed. But Mandrex has a sharp business sense. If he gets even an inkling of our desperation to get the key from him the price will be more than any of us can afford.”
“I think Lucian is right—we should let him do the talking.” Rylee crossed her arms over her chest. “But first I want the two of you to make up.”
“Make up?” I frowned at her. “What are you saying? You want me to forgive what he did?”
“In light of the fact that he saved your life? That’s exactly what I want.”
“You’re wasting your time,” Lucian said coldly. “Any Alpha—especially one from a primitive group like the Claw Clan—would hate another Alpha who penetrated and injected him.”
“You think I’m primitive?” I snarled. “Why? Because I used my second nature to save your sorry ass? Or because your mother doesn’t approve of me?”
“Pick one,” Lucian snapped. “And leave my mother out of it. She just wants what’s right for me.”
“Like condemning you to a life of loneliness and desperation because none of the available Betas was good enough for your family?” I asked. “Yeah, Lucian, sounds like she really gives a huge fuck about you. Congratulations.”
The minute the words left my mouth, I knew I had gone too far. Lucian’s face went pale with rage and his lips thinned down to a narrow line.
“That,” he said in a voice colder than a night on the dark side of the farthest moon, “Is none of your fucking business.” He stepped up to me and poked one hard finger in my chest. “Don’t talk about my mother or my family and stay out of my life!”
“I’m trying!” I roared, leaning in towards him to get right in his face. “Trying like hell to get out of your fucking life, you Fang Clan bastard!”
I think we would have come to blows if it wasn’t for Rylee.
“Guys…guys!” She stepped between us again, putting a hand on each of our chests. Immediately, I felt a current of peace and love flowing from her. The feeling that I wanted to forgive Lucian—that I had to forgive him—suffused me like a drug.
No—it’s a trick—a trap! She’s a Binder, I reminded myself. Lucian offered me the greatest insult one Alpha can give another—it can never be forgiven.
I stepped away from her touch, breaking the current and all my rage returned. Across from me, Lucian stepped away too.
“Guys…” Rylee sounded near tears now. I hated to make her so upset—it tore me up inside. But I couldn’t let go of my wounded pride.
Apparently, neither could Lucian.
“There are guest rooms along the central hallway,” he said, still using that voice that could freeze boiling mercury. “Please feel free to make yourselves at home—both of you.”
“So…” Rylee bit her lip, a look of uncertainty coming over her face. “So we’re not all going to, uh, sleep together tonight?”
“I don’t think that would be advisable,” Lucian said. “After all, we want to be free of each other. Every time we have any kind of intimacy between us, it only binds us closer together.”
“He’s right,” I made myself say, even though the thought of sleeping by myself instead of across from my bond-mate with our female between us gave me a bleak, empty feeling inside. “The closer we get, the more we bond. We need some distance,” I said.
“Fine.” Rylee swiped at her eyes which looked suspiciously bright. Her normally vibrant feminine scent was muted and sad. “Fine,” she said again. “I guess I’ll go find myself a room and take a hot bath.”
“There’s a clothing sim in the utility room,” Lucian told her. “Perhaps Drace can show you how to use it while I’m placing the call to Mandrex.”
Then he turned away, leaving Rylee and me to stand alone, looking at each other. Only Rylee wouldn’t look at me—she just turned her face away and swiped at her eyes.
“Come on,” her voice was muffled. “Show me how to make something to sleep in. I need some rest.”
I privately agreed with her and I noticed, even as we wandered down the long central hallway of the apartment that Lucian was already calling up the coordinates for Lord Mandrex.
Soon, I thought to myself. We’ll be free of each other soon.
And wondered why the thought didn’t bring me any joy.
* * * * *
Lucian
“Ah, Mr. Nx’xis. Of the Fang Clan, isn’t it?” Lord Mandrex asked when his personal attendant ushered him to the viewer and he appeared on my screen.
“It is.” I struggled to keep my demeanor calm, despite what I’d just been through. I could still hear my bond-mate’s voice ringing in my ears, “I’m trying—trying like hell to get out of your life, you Fang Clan bastard!”
Of course, what had I expected Drace to do? Thank me for treating him like a Beta? In the time we’d been together, despite our mutual distrust and dislike, neither of us had offered such a serious affront to the other.
Rylee, of course, didn’t understand—she thought Drace ought to be grateful that I’d saved his life and not worry about anything else. But I had known what a grave insult I was offering my bond-mate, had known that he would hate me for penetrating and injecting him, and yet I had done it anyway. Even though, as my mother had so coldly pointed out, allowing him to die would have severed our bond and taken care of all my problems.
But I couldn’t do that—couldn’t let him die. It wasn’t just my sense of honor that prevented me, either. There was…something else.
What? Why? Why had I saved Drace, even knowing he would hate me for it and that it would complicate my life even more? Why—
“…asked why you called me so late, Mr. Nx’xis. Is there a bad connection on your end?” Lord Mandrex’s voice cut into my private misery and I jerked my head up to see he was watching me with a quizzical look on his face.
Like all Cantors he had sharp, aquiline features, bronze-sheened skin, and wide, jewel-like blue eyes that seemed to spin and shift. Some said they had hypnotic powers but I had never cared to stare long enough into a Cantor’s eyes to find out for myself. Unlike most of the rest of his people, Mandrex had long black hair. Most Cantors had fine blond tresses like spun gold.
Mandrex did have the most important attribute of the Cantors though—a set of huge, feathery wings, vast enough to support a male and, some said, a female as well, the rumor being that Cantors mated in flight. The feathers of Lord Mandrex’s wings were black instead of white or silver—another anomaly—and he kept them folded neatly at his back, wearing them rather like a
black cape that rose above his shoulder and enfolded his body in darkness.
I wondered why he chose to live here, on Denaris, rather than on his home planet. Our planet’s gravity was too heavy to allow a Cantor to take flight so he was stuck on the ground, unable to soar like the rest of his kind. Still, he seemed to like it fairly well—he’d even immersed himself in Denarin culture enough to become interested in buying artifacts from our past. I just hoped he’d be willing to sell them as well.
“My apologies,” I said quickly. “There was a bit of static on my end for a moment. I’m sorry for calling you so late but I was hoping to catch you in time to set up a business meeting for tomorrow.”
“A business meeting, is it?” He looked at me quizzically. “But what business can you and I have to conduct? You’re a litigator—you facilitate deals between the different clans, do you not? But as a Cantor, I am a neutral party—I have no need of litigation with any of my clients or business partners.”
“That isn’t exactly the kind of business I had in mind,” I said, frowning. “You recently acquired an artifact—the Tanterine Key.”
“Ah, yes…” He steepled his fingers and stared at me thoughtfully from those whirling, crystalline blue eyes. “The prize of my collection. And that’s saying something—I’ve quite a number of antiquities from my adopted world’s past.”
“Yes, I know,” I said evenly. “I wondered…” I took a deep breath. “Wondered if you would meet with me to discuss selling it. Selling the Key.”
Mandrex frowned. “Out of the question.”
“What about allowing me to lease it for a while, then?” I asked, trying not to sound desperate.
“You want to lease it? Lease it and do what with it?” A look of curiosity passed over Mandrex’s dark face.
“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that,” I said evenly. “But I could swear that the Key would be returned in the exact condition you leased it to me.”
“You intrigue me, Mr. Nx’xis.” He steepled his fingers under his chin again. “But I’m afraid I still won’t meet with you.”
“May I ask why not?” I said, keeping my voice calm though inside I was raging. “On what grounds do you deny me?”
“Oh, I’m not denying you,” he said mildly. “Not at all.”
“What? You just said you wouldn’t meet with me!”
“I said I wouldn’t meet with you as in you alone.” He gave me a white smile which was somehow predatory. “I also want to meet your new bond-mate and the female the two of you have chosen together.”
“What?” It felt as though all the blood had been drained from my body at once. “What did you say?”
“Your bond-mates,” he said, crossing one leg casually over the other. “Bring them with you and I’ll meet. Without them, my door is closed to you.”
“But how…how did you know…” I couldn’t even get the question out.
“Let’s just say I have eyes and ears all over this city.” Mandrex gave me his predatory grin again. “The hover-transport operator who drove you to your apartment is one of those in my employ. He thought two bonded Alphas and an obviously wounded off-world female staggering out of the desert might be of interest to me so he snapped a few images.”
“Images?” I choked out, my blood turning to ice water in my veins. My mother’s relentless harping on preserving the family status leapt immediately to my mind and wouldn’t leave.
“Of course he had no idea who you were,” Mandrex went on, oblivious to my reaction. “But imagine my surprise when I saw your face in those images, Mr. Nx’xis—you, a prominent business leader and a member of the most important family in all of Y’brith.”
“Are you planning to blackmail me?” I asked stiffly, my stomach clenching like a fist. “Is that what you’re leading up to?”
“Not as such.” He looked thoughtful. “I think you can answer some questions for me…help assuage my curiosity on some matters of, shall we say, Denarin intimate relations.”
“I don’t—”
“Come tomorrow evening. My domicile, just an hour after sunset,” he directed. “And bring your bond-mates with you. Both of them.”
“But the images,” I said urgently. “What about the images?”
“Ah yes, those.” He smiled mockingly. “Don’t worry, Mr. Nx’xis. I can keep your secret…for a time.”
Then the viewscreen flickered and his image was gone.
Chapter Nineteen
Rylee
“What the fuck does he want with all three of us?” Drace growled as we stood in the wide marble entry hall of Lord Mandrex’s private mansion and waited for him to make an appearance.
The marble was pure black shot through with streaks of copper and there were thick marble pillars that matched—a row of them on either side of us. Standing between the tall black columns stretching up to the vaulted ceiling above made me feel like a child lost in a strange, alien forest.
At least I was dressed for the occasion. I was wearing a low-cut red gown which brought out my creamy skin-tones and some heels to match which I’d made in the clothing simulator at Lucian’s place. I had my hair just right and I was looking pretty damn hot, if I did say so myself. Lucian and Drace were also wearing dark, formal suits, much like the one Lucian had had on when they first got me from the Alien Mate Index—they were both looking extra spiffy tonight. But even though the three of us were dressed to the nines, I couldn’t help feeling intimidated by the huge house we were in.
“It does seem strange that he wanted to see all of us,” I said tentatively.
“I don’t know what he wants,” Lucian said stiffly.
He’d been cold and withdrawn all day as we waited for our audience with Lord Mandrex. And Drace had been angry and growly. Neither of them was speaking to the other. It was enough to make me want to shake them both—only I knew it wouldn’t do any good.
Last night I had slept in a bed alone and had been surprised by how much I missed them. Not just the dream sex, even though it was nice—I missed having their two big, warm bodies on either side of me. Missed the feeling of closeness, of being cherished and protected. It made me sad to see them so angry with each other, especially since it seemed like they had no real reason to be. So what if Lucian had penetrated Drace with his fangs? The two of them were acting like homophobic idiots and there was no need for it.
“Maybe the reason Mandrex wants to see all of us has something to do with you, Rylee,” Drace speculated. “Something to do with you being a Pure One? Your kind is incredibly rare—he might want to know where we got you.”
“Well I hope you’re not going to tell him! It’s bad enough the Commercians are selling unsuspecting Earth girls without you two advertising for them,” I said, frowning.
“It’s doesn’t matter what he wants—I don't like the fact that he knows about the three of us at all,” Lucian snapped before Drace could reply.
“You said he got the information from the taxi driver…er, the transport driver, I mean?” I said. “And that he has lots of people like that reporting to him?”
“Apparently,” Lucian said shortly.
I frowned. “But that’s so weird. Why would he have a whole network of spies spread out over the city?”
“You never can tell about Cantors and Mandrex is shifty even for one of his kind,” Drace growled. “There have been rumors about him…rumors about why he lives here instead of his home planet of Cantor…reasons his own people don’t want him—”
“Ah, Mr. Nx’xis, Mr. Gr’nez, and Ms. Hale, I presume.” A deep, melodious voice which filled the entire entryway with echoes and interrupted Drace’s words.
We all looked up and saw Lord Mandrex standing at the top of a long flight of black marble steps. He was dressed in a dark, fitted suit with a black feathery cape to match. The cape rose higher than his head and rustled when he moved. I wondered what it was made of but then I remembered what Lucian had said about Cantors—they could fly. So it wasn’t a cape at a
ll—the black feathery mantle around his broad shoulders was a pair of wings.
As he walked down the long flight of steps to greet us, I wished he would spread them out so we could see them—they had to be huge if they could lift a man his size into the air. He was every bit as tall and muscular as Drace and Lucian but with coal black hair and blazing, electric-blue eyes that seemed to swirl hypnotically. His skin was coppery—and I don’t mean just dark tan—it literally had a coppery, metallic sheen to it.
“Lord Mandrex,” Lucian said, answering our host’s greeting. “I’ve come and brought both of my temporary bond-mates with me, as you requested. Can we please discuss business now?”
“Certainly.” Mandrex nodded genially. “But would you care to join me for dinner first? I always find I’m in a better mood for business after I eat rather than trying to deal on an empty stomach.”
We all glanced at each other, although it was mainly Lucian and Drace glancing at me and me looking back. I found I missed the way they’d communicated silently with each other back before they started fighting. The rift between them still seemed silly to me—Lucian had saved Drace’s life just as Drace had saved his in the desert. They ought to be thick as thieves. Instead, there was a cold wall of ice growing between them and nothing I did or said seemed to be able to thaw it.
“Of course we’d love to have dinner with you,” I said, when neither of the guys answered. “I’m from Earth so I’m still getting used to Denarin food. It will be a pleasure to try Cantor cuisine as well.”
“Oh, I’m afraid I eschew all things from my home world—even the food,” Mandrex said, shifting so that his black wings rustled. “But my chef has prepared some delicious dishes from both the desert and the jungle regions of Denaris that you may not have tried yet.”
Food from both Drace’s home region and Lucian’s, I thought. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Was he trying to prove exactly how much he knew about us? And if so, why?
“Would you care to take my arm? The dining chamber is this way.” Lord Mandrex held out a black-clad arm to me.