Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Brux went to her at once, just as he used to in his primal form. But now, he could hold her and it was the best feeling in the world.
He gathered her close, curling around her with all the instinctive care of his species, one arm under her shoulders and the other around her waist. She tucked herself against him as though she belonged there, fitting her soft curves to his harder, larger body with a sleepy little sound of contentment.
The living mattress adjusted beneath them and the dome lights dimmed to their nighttime glow. Outside, the sanctuary settled into evening quiet.
Brux pressed a kiss to the top of Kiera’s head and breathed in the sweet scent of her hair.
She hadn’t Bonded with him–not yet. But she had given him trust as well as warmth and comfort and a glimpse of what a future with her might be if the Goddess was kind and Kiera, in time, chose him fully.
It was enough to make Brux dare hope.
And so he held her all night in his arms, listening to her breathe and letting the steady warmth of her body soothe all the ragged places inside him that had once seemed beyond healing.
For the first time in far too long, he slept with hope in his heart.
25
KIERA
Kiera was happier than she had ever been in her life.
It was such a strange, wonderful feeling that every now and then she caught herself smiling for no reason at all–just because she could. Just because Brux was here and safe and himself and with her.
Well…mostly himself.
He still had moments when his eyes went gold or his face began to lose some of its human shape, but ever since they had finally crossed that last line and made love, he seemed so much more stable. The slide into his primal side still threatened now and then, but it wasn’t nearly as immediate or terrifying as it had been before.
Kiera felt like she had crossed some line too–not in a bad way, though–not at all. It was more like she had finally acknowledged the truth she had been circling for days without wanting to admit it.
She loved him.
Loved the huge, protective Monstrum with his awkward tenderness and his fierce loyalty…loved the way he looked at her as though she was the center of his universe. Loved the way he still sometimes seemed stunned by his own good fortune when she touched him or smiled at him or pulled him into bed at night.
She didn’t care that anyone else looking at Brux would have seen an enormous, frightening predator–an alien warrior who was, at times, more beast than man. Brux was her beast and that was all that mattered.
That morning, as she checked on the jhorra mother and her wobbly newborn—who was already trying to gallop on his too—long legs—Kiera found herself wishing she could tell someone. She was so overflowing with happiness, she wanted to share it with someone–Iyanna, maybe.
She wished she could call her friend and let her know that the alien rescue wolf she’d found wasn’t a wolf after all but a Lykan Monstrum and that she was in love with him. Such happy news shouldn’t be kept to herself.
The problem was, in the excitement and strain of the last few days, she had found her Think-Me but then managed to knock it into the bathing pool and fry the poor thing completely. She had fished it out after the fact and tried drying it off, but the thin golden circlet which fit around the user’s temples and helped send and receive telepathic messages across vast distances remained stubbornly dead no matter what she did.
So there had been no easy way to call Iyanna and explain–not that Kiera would have known exactly where to begin.
Hi, remember the giant wolf I adopted? Funny story…
She huffed a little laugh under her breath at the thought and bent to make a note on her wrist—screen about the jhorra calf’s feeding schedule. Eventually she’d get back in touch with her friend and in the meantime, life was beautiful.
The morning was cool and bright. The sky over Plo’nix was its usual soft lavender, with Had’lor Prime hanging fat and beautiful in the heavens above. The chiming trees whispered in the breeze and somewhere nearby a theeble was cheerfully yelling, “Good boy! Good boy!” at the top of its tiny lungs.
Brux had gone to help a work—bot reinforce one of the lower enclosure gates, and the very thought of him—shirtless, probably, because he still hated wearing one unless Kiera insisted, all seven feet of him working in the sun while he did something strong and useful—sent a warm little pulse through her.
She was just smiling to herself at the image when she felt it–a brush at the edge of her mind and the unmistakable feeling that someone really wanted to talk to her.