“Someone should help her,” the red-skinned Denarin said, clearly seeing the trouble I was having.
“Let her be, Kess,” the woman said. “We don’t know what she might be capable of.”
“She’s hurt.” Kess reached for me anyway.
“I’m okay,” I said quickly, putting up a hand to stop him as I finally found the waistband of my leggings and yanked them up. “I’m so sorry, I just—”
“What’s going on here? What are you doing to my female?”
Lucian suddenly appeared in my line of sight. When he saw me lying on the floor, wet and helpless with two other males bending over me, his face went rigid with anger.
“Get away from her!” he hissed. Moving almost faster than my eye could follow, he was suddenly in front of me, putting himself between me and the perceived threat. “Touch my female and you die,” he snarled, facing off the very surprised looking Porgy and Kess. (Their names would have made me giggle if I wasn’t so busy being wet and miserable and humiliated.)
“Look out—he’s Fang Clan!” the woman shouted.
“That’s right.” Lucian tore off the blue straw hat he was wearing for camouflage and bared his fangs in a hiss. “Come a step closer and you’ll find out the hard way. Now get back from my female!”
“How dare you come into my own store and threaten me?” Porgy demanded. “Who the fuck do you think you are, fanger?”
“Please!” I sat up, holding out a hand, wanting to explain. What a horrible mess—I’d only wanted to pee and instead it looked like I’d started World War Three in the bathroom! If things came to blows and Lucian got seriously hurt, I would never forgive myself. “Please,” I begged again. “This is all just a big misunderstanding!”
“Listen to the off-worlder female,” Kess urged, frowning at the other two. “I think she’s telling the truth.”
“She sprayed me full in the face with cleansing solution!” Porgy roared angrily. “That’s no fucking mistake! That’s an insult!”
“You always were quick to claim insult, older brother.” The new, familiar voice made my head whip around.
Drace came into view, his broad shoulders stiff with tension. It was really getting crowded in the cramped storeroom. Then my mind finally registered what he’d said—older brother? Did that mean that Porgy—
“Drace?” The big blue Denarin stared at Drace in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”
I saw a myriad of different emotions cross Drace’s strong features and felt them as they passed through our bond. Anger…dread…worry…and finally, resignation.
“I’m here because I felt that my bond-mate and our female were in trouble,” he said simply.
“Bond-mate?” The gray-skinned woman looked at him incredulously. “You claim this fanger as a bond-mate?”
“I do.” Drace came to stand beside Lucian, who was still standing in front of me protectively. “All right, bond-mate?” he asked Lucian in an undertone.
Lucian nodded briefly, his eyes never leaving the other two males. “You claim kinship with these two?”
“Yes.” Drace sighed. “Afraid so.”
“How can you call him bond-mate? He’s Fang Clan!” Porgy’s nose wrinkled and he inhaled briefly. “And an Alpha! What the fuck, little brother?”
“He is an Alpha!” The woman’s nose wrinkled too and she looked at us in obvious disgust. “Drace, what will your mother and your fathers say? This is unacceptable!”
“You think everything is unacceptable, Twyla,” Drace remarked. I could feel his shame through our link—the shame of being bonded to another Alpha and having his family find out about it—but he kept his chin high and his voice steady.
“It’s only a temporary bond,” I said, as I got shakily to my feet. “We’re trying to separate them. That’s why I’m here—to help.”
“Oh really?” Twyla eyed me sourly. “And here I thought your sole purpose was to trick honest people into using their facilities and then spray everything they own with cleansing solution.”
“I lost control of the hose,” I said desperately. “You have to know I didn’t mean to do it!”
“How should I know what you do for fun, off-worlder?” she snapped.
“Her name is Rylee,” Drace said, frowning at his sister-in-law, (I assumed that was what she was to him, anyway.) “And I’m certain she didn’t come in here looking to cause any harm or damage.”
“Drace is right,” I said quickly. “And I really am so sorry! I never would have done any of this on purpose!” I wanted to cry with embarrassment—what a way to meet Drace’s people! Knowing he was related to them made the whole incident about a thousand times more humiliating.
“It’s all right, baby,” Drace murmured to me and I knew he and Lucian both could feel my misery through our link. “We’ll get this straightened out.”
“Will we?” Lucian was still staring at Porgy, who had assumed a menacing air, his eyes narrowed and his hands balled into fists.
“Of course we will.” To my surprise, Kess, the red-skinned male stepped forward, smiling. “Hello, female of my mate’s sibling,” he said to me. “I’m Kess—it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Um…hi.” I wasn’t sure if I should offer to shake hands. In light of the fact that I still hadn’t gotten to wash mine, I decided not to.
“Well met,” Kess said before turning to Lucian. “Bond-mate of my bond-mate’s sibling, well met.”
“Well met,” Lucian echoed, looking a little less stiff and ready for a fight.
“Thank you, Kess.” Drace nodded to him gratefully. “Well met.”
“Well met indeed, sibling of my bond-mate.” Kess gave him an easy, open smile and I thought he was by far the nicest of the three. Was he the Beta to Porgy’s Alpha? It seemed likely. “So how long have the three of you been together?” he asked Drace.
“Stop pretending like this isn’t a big deal, Kess,” Porgy snarled, before Drace had a chance to answer. “This is wrong and you know it—my little brother can not be mated to another Alpha—especially not a fanger!”
“You’ll treat my mate with respect, Porgy.” Drace spoke to his older brother in a low, menacing voice and I felt his anger sizzle through our link. “I wouldn’t disrespect Kess or Twyla.”
“You don’t have any reason to because we’re in a normal relationship,” Twyla snapped. “Your brother didn’t go off and get himself mated to another Alpha and an off-worlder freak who plays in the personal relief area for fun!”
“Wow.” I shook my head. “That is just beyond rude.” I wasn’t going to explain again how the whole cleansing-spigot-getting-away-from-me thing had been an accident. I refused to dignify her mean-spirited insult with another word.
“How dare you speak to our female that way?” Lucian snarled. He turned to Drace. “I think it’s time we were leaving.”
“I think you’re right.” Drace nodded curtly. “Come on—I have the supplies all ready to go.”
“Go, then!” Porgy threw at him. “We’ll see what our parents have to say when I tell them what you’ve done! As if it wasn’t bad enough to have a mateless loner in the family, you had to go one better and find yourself these two to get bonded with!”
Twyla shook her head. “It’s going to break your mother’s poor heart, Drace.”
“Twyla is right.” Porgy sneered. “Wait until I tell her you’re playing Beta to a fanger and you found some weird off-worlder freak female to tie the two of you together! What do you think she’s going to do?”
Drace had been in the act of taking a step but now he staggered, as though his brother had physically hit him. I could feel his pain and the worry about how his parents—especially his mother—would grieve when they found out about us. Yet, he refused to reply to his brother’s remark.
I couldn’t stay silent, though. Swallowing my pride, I turned to the three faces—two angry and disgusted (Porgy and Twyla) and one sad (Kess).
“Look,” I said, spre
ading my hands in a gesture of peace. “I think we got off on the wrong foot here. Lucian and I are only Drace’s temporary mates and we’re working to get the situation resolved. So maybe you could hold off on giving your folks a heart-attack for a little while, huh?”
“Temporary?” Twyla spit out the word like it tasted bad. “How can a psy-bond be temporary?”
“It’s a pretty fucking permanent bond,” Porgy agreed.
“It is when it’s sealed,” Lucian spat. “But my bond with your brother is not sealed. Nor do we plan on sealing it.”
A little of the ugly hate cleared from Twyla and Porgy’s faces and Kess looked confused.
“Wait—you have both a bond-mate and a female but you haven’t yet sealed your bond?” he asked.
“We’ve been trying all this time to sever it,” Drace explained stiffly.
Twyla put her hands on her hips. “And just how do you expect to do that?”
“With this.” Drace out pulled the triangular stone Key and showed it to them.
Porgy leaned forward, a look of awe on his face. “Is that tanterine? That stuff’s fucking priceless!”
“Amazing,” Twyla murmured. She had a look on her face like Drace was showing her the Hope Diamond or maybe the Black Princess Ruby which is mounted on the British crown jewels.
“It is an extremely ancient and powerful artifact,” Lucian said tightly. “With its help, we are going to sever the bond between your brother and myself. We were bonded by accident at a clan gathering and have been working to be free of each other ever since.”
“Lucian is right—we’re about to go into the K’drin to visit the Temple of Ganth,” Drace said. “We were given a prophesy by Tanta Loro, the Sea Witch, that we would find something to help us sever our bond there.”
“Well…” Porgy gave Drace a look of grudging respect that I thought had more to do with the priceless artifact in his hand than any admiration he might have for his little brother’s determination.
“So you see,” I said smoothly. “This whole bond thing will be…will be over before you know it.”
My throat felt tight as I said the words but I didn’t know why. I had a sudden thought—what would I have done without the bond I had to my guys just now? Both of them had felt my distress and had come on the run to protect me. It was nice to have that kind of backup. And it would be sad to lose it.
Still, I only had to look at the expressions on Porgy and Twyla’s faces and remember Lucian’s mother’s reaction to understand why it was necessary. Drace and Lucian would never be able to stay together in peace. There would always be someone hating on them—someone saying they needed to be apart. Staying together would make their lives immeasurably difficult. Plus, it wasn’t like I could stay with them to personally keep the balance between them, which both of them seemed to think was so vital.
“This wouldn’t work without you,” Drace had said. Or something to that effect. Which was silly, I was sure. But it wasn’t like it mattered—it wasn’t like the three of us could stay together or even wanted to stay together.
We have to break apart and go our separate ways, I told myself. And wondered why it made me feel like crying.
“I suppose I can hold off on telling mom and our dads,” Porgy said grudgingly. “As long as you promise you’re taking care of this.”
Drace and Lucian exchanged a glance and I felt sadness, hurt, and grim determination flow between them. It was Lucian who answered.
“You have our word on it,” he said evenly. “Please do not shame my bond-mate before his parents. I have already had that unfortunate experience with my own mother—she was as upset as you are about our situation.”
“Well, it can be an upsetting situation if you don’t understand it.” Kess gave us a compassionate look. “Did you say you were going to the Temple of Ganth, Drace?”
“We are.” Drace nodded shortly. “And I think we should be leaving now.”
“Surely not yet!” Kess protested. “We haven’t seen you in over two solar years and now you have mates—even if they are only temporary ones. Come and have last meal with us and stay in our domicile tonight.”
“Umm…” Lucian and I exchanged a swift glance and I saw Porgy and Twyla doing the same thing.
“I thank you,” Drace began. “But—”
“I really don’t think—” Twyla started.
“I insist,” Kess said firmly, overriding both of them. “It would be a great shame on our Triumvirate if we didn’t follow the laws of hospitality and invite family into our domicile.” He gave both Porgy and Twyla meaningful looks. “Wouldn’t it?”
“Really, Kess? You’re going to invoke the law of hospitality?” Porgy growled.
“I don’t need to invoke it, bond-mate. It was invoked the moment your kin came within the borders of Renth,” Kess said quietly. “The only question is, will we honor it or violate it?”
“Fine,” Twyla sighed. “But they have to promise not to discuss their…situation with the children. I don’t need to be answering a lot of complicated questions.”
“I think we’re all of the opinion that the fewer people who know about our situation the better,” Drace said dryly. “We’ll keep it quiet in front of the kids.”
“Very good—the invitation has been tendered and accepted.” Kess clapped his hands together. “The only thing to do now is to gather the ingredients for my famous garro bean stew.”
I shot a slightly panicked look at Drace. A look that said—are we really going to do this? Talk about awkward—having dinner and staying the night at his bigoted brother’s house sounded like a freaking horrible way to spend the evening. I would rather be sweating in the jungle risking poisonous plants and ravenous animals than sit across from these people and break bread.
But Drace and Lucian both seemed resigned to it. Did it have anything to do with the “law of hospitality” Kess had mentioned? Maybe it was some kind of rule that if your family was in town you had to offer them a bed and some food?
It had to be something like that. Neither Porgy or Twyla looked at all happy to be having us as house guests but they had the same look of reluctant acceptance I saw on Drace and Lucian.
I guess this is happening, I thought unhappily, looking around the room at all the resigned faces. Look who’s coming to dinner.
Chapter Twenty-three
Lucian
“This is delicious stew, Kess.” Rylee smiled politely at the mate of my bond-mate’s sibling or as she called him, “Drace’s brother-in-law.” The Earth designation sounded strange but accurate and I wondered uneasily if by extension I was also related to these backwoods Claw Clan provincials. Of course, it wasn’t so much their social class that bothered me as their hostile attitude.
It’s the same attitude my mother had toward Drace, though, I couldn’t help thinking. Just because she was more refined about it didn’t mean she’d been any less hostile. The fact was, wherever Drace and Rylee and I went, we were going to face hostility, even from our own families. Especially from our own families.
“Thank you. I grew the garro beans myself,” Kess said, smiling. He was Porgy’s Beta and he was acting affable and accommodating as only a true Beta can be. He and Rylee were straining to make conversation because Porgy and Twyla, seated across the table from us, were stubbornly silent.
At either end of the long, oval table sat the children—two boys on one end and two girls on the other. Clearly Porgy and Twyla’s Triumvirate had been blessed by the Goddess although I was damned if I could see why—they certainly weren’t the kindest people. Kess tried hard to make up for them, though—I appreciated that.
“Father’s brother’s mate, Lucian?” piped up one of the children—a little girl from the end of the table farthest from me. “Are you from the Fang Clan?”
I cleared my throat, ignoring the glare that Twyla was giving me from across the table. “Yes, I am, little one.”
“Cool!” one of the boys exclaimed. “Can I see your fan
gs?”
I shot a glance at Drace who shrugged. Up to you, bond-mate, the gesture said.
With a shrug of my own, I opened my mouth and let my fangs extend fully.
There was a collective gasp of awe and admiration from the children.
“Wow!”
“They look so sharp!”
“Can you bite through solid plasti-steel?”
“Do you have poison in them?”
“One question at a time, please.” I had to smile despite myself at their unbridled enthusiasm. I have always liked children, although I never expected to be able to have any myself.
Rylee was grinning and Drace was smiling too—a reluctant curve of his lips that gladdened my heart. I knew how uncomfortable my bond-mate felt in the domicile of his brother. Though the laws of hospitality dictated that we must stay here at least for a night, none of us were comfortable with the situation. Still, last meal was progressing fairly well and no one had shouted at or threatened anyone else so far. I considered that progress.
“Well?” the boy who had first asked to see my fangs said. “Can you? Bite through plasti-steel?”
“No,” I said. “Although yes, my fangs are very sharp. And yes I have a fluid in them called ‘essence’ but it’s not any kind of poison.”
“It’s not?” The child looked disappointed. “What’s it good for then?”
I cleared my throat, beginning to feel uncomfortable.
“It’s good for healing his mates,” Rylee answered for me. “And…” she trailed off, biting her lip. Clearly she had just remembered the other purpose of my essence—to pleasure my bond-mates. “And other things,” she ended lamely.
“What other things?” one of the girls demanded.
“Well…” I started uncertainly.
“Did you ever bite father’s brother Drace with them?” the boy demanded.
“Uh…” I shot a guilty glance at Drace across the table but his face was like granite. Admit nothing.
“Excuse me, female of my father’s brother,” one of the little girls said politely to Rylee. “But where do you come from? You don’t look like anyone I’ve ever met before, ever.”