“Consider my interest piqued, love,” Slade said with a grin. “I didn’t think you were keen on that, but it would take some preparation…”
“Shut up, Slade,” Finn and I said.
“But none of that would mean anything, it’s just physical. I can’t do this, Finn, I can’t. Tell them I can’t.”
“OK
, OK,” he said, holding up his hands. “I understand what you’re saying. It’s just a tradition, but I’m sure there’s a way around it. People tend to bond during the honeymoon period. I know it feels like it’s all sex, sex, sex, but often it starts to turn into something more tender. Complaints were made that guys who weren’t initially picked never got a chance to make a connection, so a formal petitioning was created, to try and alleviate some of those tensions. I’ll have a talk with Kelly and see if there’s another way.”
“Please…” the guy at my feet said.
“No,” I say, “not you. You are meat.”
The guys all went very still, so still I looked around to see what the hell was wrong. The eyes of the man on the floor lost their green tinge and he got to his feet, eyes on the floor. “Sorry about that,” he said, in a much more measured tone. “Name’s John.”
“Hi, John,” I said, waving awkwardly. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what I just said but…”
He shook his head and gave me a strained smile, “It’s OK. I’ll send in the next guy. See you around.”
There was another knock at the door, but Slade crossed the room, putting a hand on it to keep it closed. “I don’t think it’s as hard as you are assuming it is,” he said. “Maybe it is, for your human brain. You would normally date a guy, get to know him and then make a call whether to take a chance on a relationship, but your Tirian brain...” He poked his finger at my head. “I think it knows exactly what it wants, you’ve just got to get out of its way.”
At his words, I was transported to the night I shifted, the horde of males surrounding me in a mob, thinking they could take me down, force themselves upon me. A wide smile spread across my face, I could feel the cool air against my teeth. I moved Slade to one side, then opened the door. Slade and Finn looked on approvingly, right up until I slipped through it and into what appeared to be a big waiting room beyond.
It was just like the first day of my “honeymoon”, with sixty or seventy men sitting or standing around, waiting for their chance. The aircon felt cold against my bare skin, pulling my nipples tight, as I took a step forward, every eye trained on me, no one moving a muscle.
“Jesus fuck, Jules!” Slade snapped, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me back through the doorway. I planted my feet, I wasn’t going anywhere, which probably wasn’t a bad thing right now. Everyone’s gaze fell to where Slade’s hand gripped me, and the closest guys began to move forward.
“Everyone stop where you are,” I said in an echoey growl. It felt like my voice filled the room, reaching every corner. I noted the twitches of muscles, the quiver in limbs as they all obeyed, willingly or not.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Finn hissed. “You’re much stronger now, but there’s more than enough of them here to take you down. We use the receiving room for a reason!”
I shook my head. “I’m not sitting here, waiting for everyone to drop to my feet. You reckon I’m going to ‘just know’ if there’s anyone else I’m compatible with? Well, I’m about to go and find out.” I turned to the group, “Don’t touch me, approach me or do anything regarding me without my permission within this room. Actually, make that anywhere. I’m going to walk around, see if I get anything from any of you. If I do, you can come back to the house and we’ll take it from there. If I don’t, that doesn’t mean the end of this, I’m willing to look at other possible contenders another time, when my head is clearer. But if I say no, that means no until I say otherwise. Don’t hit on me again. If I decide later I’m interested, I’ll chase you. Are we clear?” A round of nods and mumbled or grumbled yeses went around the room. I nodded then moved further in.
Coming closer, I could start to see the trees from the forest, or in this case, the individual guys from the crowd, and it was both an awe-inspiring and slightly intimidating sight. Some were in work clothes, some in casual wear and a whole lot wore only the minimum amount required for polite company. Bare calves and well-muscled chests abounded, framed by bulging biceps. I swallowed a lump in my throat as I drew closer, hit by a wave of heady, smoky, male scent.
Now I wasn’t arguing with Slade, I could see his point. I would never have walked into such a large group of guys before, let alone ones that looked like this. Men seemed to take all the air in the room, fill it with loud voices and big gestures, so that I felt compelled to keep quiet or draw that raucous attention on me. I’d had plenty experience of that in the diner. Apparently approaching a table full of truckers, just doing my job and taking their order, was cause for blunt conversations about my attractiveness, about what they wanted to do to me and how willing they predicted I’d be. You always seemed trapped in a catch-22. If I tossed my order book over my shoulder and spread myself out on the table for their delectation, I was a slut deserving of no respect, but if I asked for the basic courtesy you gave any human being, I was a joke. I wasn’t a joke anymore. I felt the hungry gazes on my skin, the internal thrum inside my body, and realised I was something that was completely alien: a powerful woman.
“You’re all so good looking,” I said to Finn and Slade as they trailed behind me. “This is some kind of peacock thing, isn’t it?”
“That’s Doc Hobbes’s theory, though you’re hardly a drab peahen,” Finn said.
“Perhaps the peacocks feel the same way, enraptured by the shades of brown in their mate’s plumage,” I said. I stopped for a moment, scenting the air. There was something…something familiar there. I wove between bodies, letting my fingers trail across chests as I went, them standing as still as trees, until I came to a stop in front of a group of guys in olive drab. They weren’t toting weapons but the close-cut hair and their alert yet relaxed stances suggested military. Where have they come from? I thought as my nostrils flared, then I saw him, the guy who’d tried to teach me to shoot. I flicked a hand and the group parted for me so I could stalk right up to him, tall with broad shoulders, arms crossed over his chest, hips thrown forward as he looked down at me. The arms dropped to hang loosely by his sides as I drew closer, and he shifted ever so slightly into my space, a small smile on his face.
“Good to see you, Aaron. I was hoping you’d be applying,” Slade said. “We missed you on the hunt.”
His eyes, a strangely amber shade of hazel, didn’t move from mine for a second. “We got caught up subduing the unfriendlies trying to come through. There was a surge of them, feeling her call, I guess. I know I was.” His eyes dropped to my lips, lingering as a murmur from the group made it clear the others had done the same. “Nothing other than Sanctuary security would have kept me away,” he said, answering Slade, but talking to me. Finally, his gaze flicked up again. “We’ve been down to a skeleton crew since then, mostly married guys looking after the gate. The rest of us have been camped out here for days, waiting for a look at her.”
“Looks like you’re taking your fill now,” I said.
His smile widened, his teeth a sharp white against the deep bronze of his skin, his stance shifting as he edged as close as he could before the boys started to growl. “I’m not even close to having my fill.” He leaned down slightly, breathing in deep. “And by the smell of you, neither have you.” He straightened up, falling back into his previous stance, “What do you reckon, sweetheart? You wanna see if it’s good between us?”
Did I? He was big, almost Pete the Mountain big, and I admit a lifetime of chick flicks made something inside me quiver every time a bloke gave me a cocky smile. But did that mean I wanted to sleep with him? Possibly have a relationship with him? Obviously, Slade approved of the match, but would Shaun? Brandon? How did I negotiate this?
“Stop overthinking,” Finn said, whispering into my ear. I leant against him, arching my back slightly so as to fit the hard length of him against my arse. Aaron’s smile dropped at that, his eyes raking over me hungrily. “Touch him,” Finn said, “you’ll soon work out if there’s something there.”
I looked at Aaron with a cocked eyebrow, asking permission, and he just nodded, dropping his hands down to pull up the hem of his tight t-shirt. I watched every inch of the big brown body that appeared, mouth hanging open. It took a little nudge from Slade for me to reach out and place my hand against his skin. I felt a zing, shooting from my nipples to my clit in a split second, forcing a gasp out from between my lips. My hand slipped lower as a result, his abs clenching into a hard wall. “I’m sorry,” I said, “that took me by surprise.”
He placed his hand over mine and gently pushed it down lower, to his waistband. “My control’s rock solid. You can touch me wherever you like,” he said, his voice a low rasp, “and I won’t move unless you tell me to.”