Between Two Tiron (7 page)

formalized the bonding.

Lina leaned her head against the wall, trying to focus her thoughts. She had expected the

heat from the mating, the fierce passion. She‟d known that the need to join would be overriding

and irresistible. What she hadn‟t expected were the emotional ties she had felt falling into place

from the moment that she had discovered that they were her mates. She had thought that those

things would take time.

Testing the strength of the bond, she tried to think of leaving them. She wasn‟t prepared

for the pervasive wave of sadness and panic that swept over her. It was as if she were thinking of

leaving part of herself behind. She wasn‟t suddenly in love with them, but she was bound to

them. Their happiness was important to her.

Just that one test had been enough. She didn‟t need to try to run. The feelings were real

even if she couldn‟t understand them. Although she was nervous about living in an actual
thent
, she would give this mating a chance. She wouldn‟t try to deny the bond. Instinct, nature and fate

had bound them. She would abide by it and try to find happiness with them. At least until she

knew if she could live by their rules. It might be hard, but she wouldn‟t stay in a situation that

made her miserable.

“Regrets, Lina?” Kaleb‟s breath feathered over her ear as he slowly withdrew from her

pussy. “Why are you so sad?”

Lina‟s head came up at that hard edge, alert to the alpha lurking, waiting to pounce if he

even thought that he was being denied. “I wasn‟t having regrets. I was mostly just thinking about

how much I didn‟t know.” He definitely wasn‟t subtle.
At least not right now
, she qualified. Any hope for subtle had ended when she had pushed until Shard had reacted and pinned her.

With a small turn, initiated by Kaleb‟s hand on her shoulder, Shard stepped forward and

Lina found herself caged in their arms. “Tell us about what you didn‟t know. Anything that puts

that look on your face bears discussing.”

Lina allowed her head to fall to Shard‟s chest as she sighed. She tucked a strand of hair

behind her ear. “I knew that if I ever found my mate I would be physically attracted to him, that

my passion would rise fast and hard and the first joining was likely to be primitive and wild.

They taught us that much, although there were some in my group who didn‟t want the young told

anything about the males who weren‟t of our group.”

“As you were running free, we suspected that you were from a group that had been part

of those on the colony ship
Mekular
.” Kaleb brushed a kiss across her shoulder. “Will they miss you, send someone looking for you?”

“I haven‟t been with them in over ninety standard years. I was sent out with some others

to find a woman of our group who had gone missing when I was around twenty-five. We found

her. When we got back, everyone was gone. There were only six of us, but we kept in touch with

each other. We lived on our own because the risk of being found was greater if we were

together.”

“You weren‟t much more than a cub but it does explain some of your attitude. You‟re

talking about more than danger from other Santir.”

Something in her tone must have alerted him. Lina grimaced and closed her eyes. There

had been some problems with at least one anti-shifter group, but she had never intended to go

into specifics just now.

“We had a few problems with anti-shifter groups. I haven‟t had that problem in years

now.”

“So what was it that you didn‟t know?” Shard‟s hand brushed over her hair in soothing

strokes.

“I didn‟t realize how true this joining would be. I didn‟t know that my emotions would be

tied into my instincts,” Lina admitted. “I knew that sexually, I wouldn‟t want to resist you.

Nothing was ever said about the rest.”

Shard laughed. “Don‟t worry, Lina. It isn‟t mentioned that much to Santir who are reared

in a
thent
. I expected it because of the
Tierna
, the bond Kaleb and I share. That bond came with emotional ties, just as this did.”

“
Tierna
…” Lina arched a considering eyebrow and she grinned. She had heard stories

about the old magic, of how some warriors used it in areas of their life that had nothing to do

with battle. It was enough to catch her attention and start her imagination flying. “So you two

know the old magic?”

“We do and you‟ll be getting a taste of it as soon as we‟re formally wed.” Kaleb nibbled

on her ear and his hand roved down to her buttocks.

“Get dressed.” Shard turned Lina toward the spot where she had left her clothing. “We

have much to do.”

She dressed in her flight suit, knowing from the rustling sounds behind her that they were

dressing as well. Lina secured the clasps on her shoes and put on her belt. She raised her head

and her eyes clashed with two intense, feral stares. They were frowning darkly at her. She looked

around, behind her, even up, but could find nothing wrong.

“Something is troubling you?” Lina kept her tone light.

“Your clothing is hiding our marks. We want to see them.” Kaleb stalked forward and his

hand gripped her shoulder. “We want everyone to see them.”

“This is the only clothing I have with me.” Lina remained relaxed beneath Kaleb‟s hand.

“Just hold very still.” Shard appeared on her other side. He held a knife in his hand.

Shard cut away the collar of the flight suit and a good portion of the cloth at her

shoulders. When her hair kept falling around her shoulders and hiding their marks, they cut a

ribbon of cloth off the neckline. After securing her hair at the back of her neck, they were finally

satisfied with their view of the marks. Before they backed away from her, they took her belt and

searched her pockets, taking everything they found.

She felt no soreness from the bites, only a slight tingling sensation. She resisted the urge

to rub at them. Those two wounds, mating bites, would take some time to heal. Santir usually

healed very quickly, but mating bites were a different matter. Something in a male‟s saliva

during the mating bite slowed healing and encouraged the wound to leave a scar.

“Now we‟ll go. We won‟t walk back, as you came here. We have a skimmer that is more

than capable of taking all three of us back to our camp.” Shard brushed a hand over the soft swell

of her breasts. “We‟ll see how successful Jaksen was at finding your stashes and your ship before

we get to the serious questions.”

“The one certainty is that we‟re not letting you out of our sight.” Kaleb‟s hand slid over

her face in a lingering caress.

Lina had expected an attitude like that or worse. They probably felt as inclined to stay

here and mate again and again as she did, but they were also feeling the desire to know

everything about her and the alpha part of them wanted it now, immediately. They had their

priorities firmly in place. Mating, questions and then the formal bonding. The first mating had

been completed. As soon as they learned what they needed to know, they could seal the Joining

formally.

The ride to the camp was a new experience. Lina had been on plenty of skimmers in her

life, but she‟d never had a ride quite like that one. The two men turned a simple ride into an

erotic experience.

Shard took a seat at the front of the skimmer. Lina was urged into the middle position and

then Kaleb took his place behind her. Shard wouldn‟t start the skimmer until she laced her arms

around his waist. Kaleb‟s arm hooked around her waist and his hand slid down her stomach to

her crotch.

He began rubbing at her clit through her clothing even before Shard took the skimmer

above the treetops. Kaleb‟s lips tugged at her earlobe before he began sucking on it. She caught

her breath. The pulling tug of those lips seemed to be connected by a wire directly to her clit. She

moaned and shifted back against him, tilting her hips a little. She rocked her hips against his

tormenting fingers.

By the time Shard brought the skimmer to a halt at the edge of their camp, Lina was

almost ready to attack one of them. Her pussy was twitching and an empty ache burgeoned

within her. Desire raged through her. After Kaleb‟s work on the journey, she could feel the

wetness of the fabric at her crotch. She could only be thankful for the dark color of the flight suit.

Shard lifted her down from the skimmer. His eyes darkened to near black as his nostrils

twitched inhaling the scent of her arousal. She blushed, ducking her head, a little embarrassed.

She knew that it was a perfectly natural response to those teasing digits, but it had never

happened to her before.

Shard‟s fingers tipped up her chin and he looked her in the eyes. “You are beautiful and

you smell delicious, Lina. You‟ll get used to us touching you and being aroused at what some

might consider odd times.”

She smiled at the confident assertion that her being aroused at odd times would be a

regular occurrence. Normally she‟d roll her eyes and openly scoff at such an assertion, but she

could feel her own hunger rising just from being near them. She was fairly certain that his

prediction would come to pass. There were two of them and they were sexier than any other men

she‟d ever encountered.

Jaksen was waiting for the Ardin at the edge of the camp. He stood near the corner of one

of the rows of camouflaged Dura-tents. His search had obviously not gone as hoped. He looked

frustrated. His brow was furrowed and a frown curled his lips. Some of his straight hair stuck out

at odd angles, loose from the tie at the back of his neck.

“How did your search go, Jaksen?” Kaleb strode forward to hear the report, leaving Shard

to follow with Lina.

“We found only fifteen more packs, Ardin Kaleb.” The dark-haired, blue-eyed man

looked abashed in admitting his failure.

“And her ship, where is it?” Shard laced his fingers with Lina‟s. Kaleb saw it and

recognized the gesture. Possessiveness, the need to know where she was and that she wasn‟t

going to try to wander away from them ran through him as well.

The group began walking into the camp. Women watched with unabashed curiosity as

they towed Lina along with them. They knew she was their mate. Even if the men‟s attitude was

missed, the women couldn‟t miss the two bites on her shoulders.

“We can‟t find it, Ardin Shard.” Jaksen looked squarely at Lina, frowning as if he

couldn‟t understand just how that had happened.

His doubt was understandable.

“I can see why you‟re so confused over it.” She exhaled loudly as a blush rose on her

cheeks, tinting the gold with a rush of pink. “My lack of attention to my surroundings and the

sheer overconfidence I had as I approached that ruin weren‟t shining examples of my skills.” She

shook her head. “I never knew you were even in the area and I should have.”

“
Rah’ki
, regardless of your precautions and your best efforts, we weren‟t about to let you

leave this planet once we learned that you were here.” Kaleb chuckled, taking a step toward her

and brushing a hand over her face. “There are far too few females to let you just wander around

the universe and if not our mate, you would have been mate to some other Santir man.”

“Ardin, there‟s more,” Jaksen interrupted. “Vellis and some of the others found some

destruction at one of the sites we‟re searching. It was too old to carry any scent, but it was

recently done.”

Kaleb looked over at her and narrowed his eyes. He didn‟t want to think that she would

destroy Santir history, but they had just met. There was so much that he didn‟t know about her.

“Did you do that? Maybe as a distraction?”

Her eyes rounded and she shook her head. “I didn‟t want you to know I was here. I don‟t

destroy artifacts or old buildings. If I‟d wanted to take the chance of exposing my presence with

a distraction, believe me you would have been distracted, but I wouldn‟t have done it in that

way.”

“I‟m not going to ask how you‟d do it right now. There are more important things I want

to know, but we‟ll get back to it. I think you might just need the calming influence of a male or

two.” Shard chuckled and cupped the back of her head.

Lina narrowed her eyes and fought the urge to insist that she hadn‟t needed a man‟s

presence and had done fine on her own for many years. That wouldn‟t go over well. She had no

desire to enrage the
tiron
within them right now.

“That leaves nineteen packs for you to show us as you lead us to your ship. You can

answer a few questions on the way there.” Shard turned Lina‟s face toward his.

She nodded, still gritting her teeth. She focused on what they wanted her to do. “But how

do I know which packs they‟ve found? I know you found one before I even got to that old ruin. It

would take some time if I have to revisit all thirty-five stashes.”

“As we found the packs, we marked them on this.” Jaksen handed Lina a palm-sized

display showing the layout of the area.

“That helps.” Lina stepped forward to begin, but turned her eyes to Shard and Kaleb

when she noticed that they hadn‟t followed.

Setting off the beast in them would be very unwise at this point. That could very well

happen if they thought she was trying to leave them. Not that she would get far without them