Sarazen's Claim, Book One (12 page)

He paced in his quarters alongside Falken and Ga’rae, watching and listening to the hologram of the gathering of their mates and the other humans and how his Clary was attempting to democratically hear everyone’s fears and lay them to rest. On one hand he applauded her attempt to be diplomatic, but on the other his beast was snarling a vicious challenge to simply walk in there and take command of the worthless males who were bleating nonsense and upsetting his female. “Unless you were acting a fool, have any of us been harmed, threatened or mistreated?” Clary asked loudly, so gods be damned beautiful it took his breath away. “Did you have your memory wiped of the murder that took place, in this room?” One man guffawed incredulously, and Clary shot him such a look that Tarek couldn’t help but chuckle. “I said, any harm, threat or mistreatment to us, while not acting a fool.”

“And don’t pretend Ethan didn’t deserve what he got, Judah. You and I both treated several of his victims.” Ga’rae’s mate snapped, “Scariest shit I’ve ever seen in my life,” Gwen stated, and Ga’rae sighed wearily, clearly missing his mate and frustrated that she continued to refuse to see him. “But he deserved it,” She finished, shooting Clary a look before sinking down in her chair.

Clary sighed too and sat down, scooping her hair out of her face, staring at the table top hard while she gathered her thoughts. More than anything, he wanted to go to her, stand behind her, beside her, in front of her if need be and save her from this ill-fitting role she demanded she play. His mate studied flowers, and aside from being the strongest, most stubborn female he had encountered in many hundreds of years, his mate was not meant to lead such insubordinate, untrusting, undisciplined children. He tried to remind himself that the majority of these humans were in fact not soldiers at all, that they were scientists and engineers, and totally unskilled in the ways of combat. But it still didn’t make his desire to show them true command, any less. “I’m scared shitless.”

Falken groaned at Clary’s admission and slapped his hand to his face in agony. Ga’rae hissed, and he snarled, wanting to shake his fist at her and shout at her to never show fear to your subordinates! “So much has happened to me, to all of us, in the last week, and I’m surprised more of us haven’t gone completely nutters.” He saw something start to happen then, that he hadn’t expected. The humans were listening, raptly now. Some even leaned forward and fixed their eyes on his Clary. “Our parents and our grandparents left earth with no guarantee that there would be another viable planet for them to call home. Five ships, fifty thousand souls between them, with nothing but a prayer when they launched from our dying homeworld, and set out into the unknown. The first few years were rough, but apparently they were a bunch of hardy bastards, and they made it through. They had us, second and third generation survivors, and as far as we know, we’re the last thirty odd humans in the entire universe. We survived a bloody invasion of snake things, and we were scooped up and rescued by another race of aliens big enough to scare the piss out of Goliath. Clearly, we’re a bunch of hardy bastards too.”

A few chuckles came from around the table, and he marveled at what he was witnessing. At how for the second time, his mate proved him wrong. How strong and wise she was, without likely understanding or knowing what she was doing. “These Sarazens…they’re bloody terrifying.” He frowned, wondering if she truly felt that way about him, if truly she was frightened of him. “They’re creatures bred for battle, for war, and there’s so much about them we don’t know or understand.” A glance at Falken and Ga’rae told him they were both just as uneasy with the idea that their mates were frightened of them, that because they were bred for battle and war, that their gentle human females wouldn’t be able to accept them. Accept the depth of their bond, or the need they had of the lovely creatures. “But they took us in, they searched for us on the wreckage of our ship, at risk to their own lives. And you know, I just realized, I didn’t even bother to say thank you. Or ask if they lost any of their own.”

Pride. Never, had he known such pride. He wanted to roar, to jump on his men and pound their backs as he loudly claimed that female as his, but the breath was frozen in his lungs, unable to look away and miss a moment of this. “They had no cause to give us refuge, likely it would have been easier, more logical for them to simply stay here on their ship at a safe distance, and blow both the
Aria
and that other craft, right out of the sky. They had no reason at the time to bring aboard any useless baggage. Or, Judah, if all they wanted was us women, they could have at any time tossed you dickless lot back into space and had done with it.”

Blushes and coughing came from the male side of the table, and several of the women just smiled, “They’ve taken us in, offered us no violence except in justice that our own people refused to give. They’ve tended our wounds, fed us, treated us with far more deference and tolerance than our people would have done had the situation been reversed. And yes, there is much we don’t know, things we need to learn, but we’re being given a chance to live. To show our parents and our grandparents, our friends on the
Aria
, that we’re worthy of being called hardy fucking survivors. This was the goal of our race, to find a home among the stars, and flourish again. Have a second chance. And if I get a hot, scary, snarling alien man cat in the process, you know what? I think I’ll count myself damn lucky. I could be dead right now. But I’m not. Yes, I’m scared, but fuck me I will not let my fear keep me from being thankful that I get another day to smell the roses. Now,”

She stood up and smoothed imaginary wrinkles out of her dress, giving her scarlet hair a toss over her shoulder and sniffed, “You lot decide whether or not you want to give this generous opportunity a chance, or hope that our people will be found and that you can go back to your previous existence. I am going to go find my big, scary alien man cat, and ask a few more questions. It’s what I do, baggage that I am, and my last bit of advice to all of us, myself included? Don’t be an idiot.”

She nodded to the two massive males waiting to escort her back to Tarek’s quarters, doing her best to hide her trembling hands in the folds of her skirt. Adrenaline rocketed through her system, her nerves shot to hell, unable to believe she’d just ranted on and on like that! God she was embarrassed! She nodded in thanks to the warriors when they dropped her at her door, hissing and pressing her hands to her flaming red cheeks as she rushed inside, only to come up short to see Tarek, arms crossed over his bare chest, looking at her with narrow eyes and flanked by Falken and Ga’rae. “Um…did I interrupt some-“ Tarek crooked his finger at her and wordlessly pointed to the spot directly in front of him.

She could all but hear the unspoken, ‘Come,’ in his gruff expression, and found herself almost laughing on her way over to him. But it would have been one of those high pitched, obviously uncomfortable laughs, and Falken and Ga’rae already looked fit to spit nails. She licked her dry lips and looked up into Tarek’s golden eyes, her heartbeat leaping up into her throat when he spoke. “Am I truly, still, so terrifying?” She blinked, floundering for a moment wondering why he was asking, until she noticed the hologram to her left, still on and silently displaying in life size, the common room where her crew still sat at the table talking. “You were watching?” She gasped, her face so hot she worried her skin was going to melt clean off, “Of course I was. I require an answer, Clary.”

It was one of the rare times he had used her name, and not his very endearing, ‘my one’. It made her feel like she was in trouble. But she knew if she lied to spare his feelings, he would smell it anyway and then he’d probably think less of her for the lying. “Tarek? You’re a massive male, a warrior, an alien, and a shape shifter. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frightened by most of those things, but I think I’d also be insulting you to say that no, you’re not terrifying at all.” His lips quirked, just barely, but enough to know she was at the very least, speaking her way to the right direction. “I believe you called me a hot, scary, snarling alien man cat.” She rolled her lips under and bit down, utterly and completely mortified at this point. And there were witnesses. “I believe I did, yeah.”

“Do you fear me, in truth?”

“Yes and no.”

“Explain.” He ordered gruffly, but by some miracle, she could tell he was fighting to keep from smiling.

She glanced at the hologram again, at Falken, at Ga’rae, and figured that since they’d heard probably every word of her, hardy bastards speech, that there was nothing for it now. She just had to finish it. “Yes, because you’re a giant, shape shifting warrior cat, and I know seven days’ worth of your personality. Yes, because by circumstance I am reliant on you for my survival, and though I wish with all my heart I could just blindly accept that all you’ve offered is every bit of the truth, I can’t seem to do it. And no, because despite all the yammering in my head, all the doubts and fears, I feel safe with you.” He made a very animal like chuff and reached out with his rough, callused palm and gently cupped her scalding cheek. His touch settled all the butterflies rioting in her belly, almost immediately. The stroke of his thumb made her turn her face further into the comfort of his touch, and he purred softly. “Do you believe I intend to cause you harm?”

“Never on purpose.”

“That I would allow harm to come to you?”

“Not unless there was nothing to be done to stop it.”

“What is it most that you are afraid of now?”

That voice of his was dangerous. It just kept getting softer, gentler, deeper, until she wasn’t much more of a pile of goo, one quiver away from melting at his feet. She didn’t know how best to answer his question, but then she looked into his eyes, her mouth fell open, and out it all came. Everything she was afraid of. “I’m afraid because I’m not so afraid. I’m frightened by how manic I feel when I’m not near you. I’m afraid of how angry I get when my people question your motives, even though I’ve questioned them myself. I’m terrified that I hardly know you, and if suddenly all four remaining ships carrying my people showed up tomorrow, if my parents showed up alive, and I was asked to choose between you or my own, that I’d pick you without hesitation.”

His granite features softened with a soft huff of a laugh, and with a tiny shake of his head, he pulled her close and cradled her against his bare chest, bending to rub his cheeks over her hair. “Go,” He said, and she heard the boots of the other two warriors, leaving his quarters. “This is becoming an embarrassing habit,” He said with his lips on her brow, warming her when she hadn’t even realized how chilled she’d been, “What is?”

“Your mate, underestimating your strength. Come,” He murmured, “I wish to have you close for a while.”

He took her over to the long couch he favored while doing his work and took her with him when he sat. He braced one leg up against the curved back and drew her between to lie curled against his chest. She sighed at the incredible heat his body put off, how her muscles relaxed and some of her mortification started to bleed away. His one hand covered the back of her head, keeping her cheek pressed to his heart while he further melted her into a near purring state with the long strokes of his other hand up and down her spine. Swirled patterns over her low back, turned his lips to her brow, doing nothing to make her more aware of the fact that his arousal was pressing like a lead pipe into her stomach. “I have discussed extensively with Ga’rae, the differences occurring in our matings. The disturbance you feel when you are not near me, the surge in violence I feel when we are apart. I find myself taking offense to things I logically know are not meant as such. Falken, Ga’rae, the others too experience a rise in their territorial nature, their aggression, that fades and calms when our mates are near.”

His voice vibrated through her body, left her feeling drowsy, in a tremulous state of arousal and relaxation. She snuggled up closer to him, half smiling when he growled in answer, “You said differences? Are your matings usually not this way?”

“No,”

“How so?”

“I suppose part of it is that Sarazen females are every bit as primal as their male counterparts. They know their mate by scent too, and there is no question as to what follows. Your olfactory senses, your intuition is not as honed, thus it is Ga’rae’s theory that your kind must go through a period of doubt and many false starts until you believe in what is known as fact among my kind. He has counseled patience to us, to allow our fated ones to accept us fully by their own choice, but I admit I am finding it exceedingly difficult. To hold you this way…it is the most perfect torment. You are soft, my one. Your scent is intoxicating, distracting in the most debilitating way.”

He grabbed a handful of her hair and brought it to his face, their eyes meeting when she tilted her head back to look into his eyes. He watched her with his lashes having fallen to half mast, rubbing her hair against his mouth sensually. “What do your tattoos mean?” She blurted, and his lips curled in amusement. She pushed up onto her arm, braced against the rigid hardness of his chest and he tilted his head to the side when she stroked her fingers alongside his skull, tracing the unusual black marks. “They are birthmarks that identify my lineage.” Down the side of his neck they curled and coiled to the thick muscles of his shoulder, stopping just at his collar bone. “I like them. I thought you shaved your head, but your hair just naturally grows in this one stripe?”