Relief flooded him. She was going to be okay. “Come on.” He walked her to the ferns where she retrieved Noah, cradled him, kissed his head. Joy surged through his beaten body at the sight of his son, alive and well and with little awkward limbs moving randomly in his momma’s arms.
But this wasn’t reunion time. “We have to cross before FerlyMor—”
Rustling leaves drew his attention to the Hyborean aiming his tranquilizer gun.
“Duck, Addy.” Max dove and rolled to Regan, yanked the Flesheater from his lifeless body and heaved it.
Ferly Mor pulled the trigger an instant before the knife penetrated his hand. The dart embedded in Addy’s neck.
Dammit, why hadn’t he pushed her out of the way?
The gun fell on the ground...too late.
Ferly Mor’s target was textbook. Head and neck hits resulted in almost instantaneous unconsciousness. She had thirty seconds before her entire body shut down. He could already see that drowsy, clouded look filling her eyes.
Stumbling forward, she reached for a low hanging branch. The branch snapped, but before she could fall, Max was at her side, easing her and Noah to the ground. “Don’t be afraid.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re just going to sleep now. It’ll be okay. Trust me.”
“I do.”
Ferly Mor moved toward them. He had pulled the knife from his hand and retrieved the tranquilizer gun.
Max grabbed Addy’s broken branch, cocked it at his shoulder, and jumped between her and the alien. “You’re not taking her back, you bastard.”
Ferly Mor sent him calming thoughts as he fiddled with his tranquilizer gun. He seemed to be having a hard time of it since he still held the knife in his other hand. What was the alien doing? Recalibrating the drug for a heavier body?
Fuck that.
Max charged. Each swing of the club connected with the Hyborean’s legs, gut, arms. The gun sailed out of his leathery fingers.
With knife clutched in front of him, Ferly Mor backed away. The stupid alien should have kept the weapon moving, but he wasn’t a fighter. He was a doctor.
Soon he’d be a dead doctor.
One swing knocked the knife to his feet. Another swing shattered the Hyborean’s knee. Ferly Mor buckled and fell, but Max didn’t stop. He clubbed him again and again, beating the fucking life out of the Hyborean.
Behind him a trigger snapped. A needle pricked his calf. He pivoted around and saw Duncan’s gun hand, extended in front of him, shaking uncontrollably. “I’m sorry, lad. But I canna allow ye to kill my master.”
Max plucked the dart from his calf. He snatched up the Flesheater and slashed his leg, hoping some of the drug would drain out with his blood. He had one minute, tops.
Shit.
Abandoning the Hyborean, he ran to Addy and carried her and Noah to the bank. He yanked the vine rope from the sapling, tied it around his chest and, holding tight the only two people who gave his life meaning, plunged into the cold river.
He struggled to keep three heads above water as the rushing current swept them all downriver and across.
On the verge of white water, fierce undercurrents sucked at his legs. Pins and needles anesthetized his body, whether from the cold water or the tranquilizer, he wasn’t sure and didn’t give a damn.
Duncan called out to him from the opposite bank, but he couldn’t comprehend the words. A fog seeped into his head.
Don’t black out, now. You’re an arm’s length from freedom.
With Noah in his bad arm, he reached out and half-placed, half-tossed him into the mud.
There was no pain now. Max was floating into a dark abyss.
He clawed his way up the bank with his bad arm.
He kicked his legs.
With his last gram of strength, he pulled his hips from the river and collapsed with Addy on the muddy bank of the refuge.
S
omewhere in the dark, Max heard an angel singing. It was a lullaby. His eyes opened. A curtain of red and green lights gyrated between him and the two moons in the starry black sky. The Southern Lights. A visual effect from the refuge's electromagnetic fields. They'd made it to Pele. He filled his lungs, and tasted freedom.
Pain pulsated in his head. His nose. His mouth. His shoulder. His—. Oh hell. Where wasn’t there pain?
Rocking and softly singing to Noah, Addy sat to his left in front of a small fire. Its soft glow lit her face and shone on her tear-streaked cheek. Light danced in her hair, highlighting the red strands. If he had thought she was beautiful before when her hair was matted and stringy, her face tired and dirty, body smelling of sweat and blood, then she appeared a goddess now, clean and pure with a golden firelight aura.
She turned in his direction. “You’re awake. Oh, thank God.” She practically jumped on him, throwing her arm around him, kissing his face, hugging him tight with the arm not cradling Noah. It hurt like hell, but he wasn’t about to complain.
“How long?” he croaked.
“You were out three days.”
Sitting up made his head spin and he fell back.
“Careful.”
“Three days?”
She nodded. “I was scared you weren’t going to make it. You had a fever and the chills. That’s why you’re covered in leaves. I had to keep you warm after using your shirt to bandage your shoulder. There’s a hot spring right over there. You can clean yourself up when you get your strength back. Are you hungry? I found berries and caught a squirrel, or whatever they’re called here.”
“No.” He coughed to clear paste from his throat.
“You need water.” With Noah on her hip, she took a clean piece of rag that had probably been part of his shirt, dunked it into the river and brought it back. “Drink this.” She placed it on his lips and squeezed.
Cool water trickled over his tongue and down his gullet revitalizing him.
“I made spears. In case Regan or Ferly Mor returns.”
It had been three days yet no one had come after them? Ferly Mor must have seen that Addy had only managed to drag Max’s unconscious body to the tree line. Why then hadn’t he reawakened Regan and sent him to retrieve them? Perhaps the alien was in worse shape than he thought. Had he needed medical treatment he couldn’t administer himself? Had he returned to HuBReC?
“Speaking of spears,” Max said. “I—I’m sorry. Can you forgive me for killing you, again.”
Her fingers on his lips silenced him. “If anyone should ask forgiveness, it’s me. I shouldn’t have gone after Regan with the bat. I should have stuck to our plan. Maybe then you wouldn’t have lost so much blood.” Her voice cracked as she talked while crying. He reached out and wiped away her tears, but more replaced them. “You’d think I’d be dehydrated after three days of this, yet the tears still come.” She didn’t quite manage a smile.
Max sat up, leaves falling from him. “Don’t cry. Everything is going to be okay, now. We’re safe. We’re free.”
Her head fell onto his chest as she wept.
He wrapped his arms around her, held her against him, wishing he could eliminate her pain. “I was so scared you wouldn’t make it,” she said, and he tightened his grip but not too tight that he’d squish their beautiful son in her arms. His chest contracted against her with inward sobs for their freedom and their new life.
“Let it out, Max. Crying is a human emotion.”
He peeled her from him to show the tears spilling from his eyes. Her jaw quivered as she smiled through her own tears then hugged him again.
Having her in his arms felt wonderful. Warm. Safe. Like home. He squeezed his eyes shut and tightened his grip, wanting to feel her pressed against him, her breath on his skin and her heart beating against his.
The fire popped and crackled. The wind rustled leaves and carried to him a sweet fragrance of some flower he recognized but didn’t know the name. Above them, the red and green Southern Lights moved, intertwined, separated, and moved again. And still he held her until his senses filled completely with the night, the woman and child in his arms, and hope for their future.
“Addy.” He managed to get her name past the lump in his throat. “You’ve found my soul and reawakened it. You’ve made me feel something I haven’t in fifteen years—human. Yet you make me feel more primal than anything else on this planet. I can’t stop wanting you. Wanting to protect you, provide for you...possess you.”
Blood rushed to his groin, making him hard. His penis pressed against the restraint of his tight pants. He leaned in to take her mouth, feral desire demanding he strip off her clothes, sheath himself deep inside her, and claim her as his.
With lips a half inch from hers, he stopped and hung his head. There was no way he could kiss her without rolling her onto her back and dominating her. “I’m sorry, Addy. I want to be a man for you, but I’m still a beast.”
“If you’re a beast, then so am I, because I want all those things, too.”
“You do?”
“Of course. That’s how you feel when you’re in love.”
Light and shadow danced across her smile and in her warm eyes. He wasn’t worthy of her love. He knew that. But damn if he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life learning how to love her the way she deserved.
“So now what happens?” she asked in a shy, vulnerable voice he’s never heard her use before.
Max shifted so that he knelt facing her. He put two fingers to his lips. “My vow,” his fingers moved to his chest, “my heart and my soul I devote to only you, Addy.” He placed his hand on her chest. “Do you accept my promise?”
She covered his hand with hers. “I do. My vow, my heart, and my soul I devote to only you, Max. Do you accept
my
promise?”
He covered her small hand with his, pressing it tight to him. “I do.” Holding her hand in place, he leaned into her, tasting her soft, sweet lips. He deepened the kiss, and she opened her mouth to him.
Fire coursed through his blood, challenging him to ravage her on the spot. But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. She needed—no,
deserved
—tenderness, and that was what he’d give her no matter how much his body ached. He’d take it slow. It would kill him, dammit, but he would take it slow.
* * *
Wrapping her free arm around him, wishing she could hug him with both, Addy allowed his mouth to explore hers. His kiss was gentle, sensual. He asked for nothing in return. He simply surrendered his heart.
And she surrendered hers.
“Where’s that hot spring you mentioned?” he asked when he broke the kiss.
“Right over there.”
She helped him to his feet, though he really didn’t need it, and together they kicked dirt on the fire until it was out. She took his hand and, with both Luna Major and Luna Minor casting a silvery light, led him through the woods.
Steam rose and curled on the surface of the dark pool like hands waving in invitation.
Addy watched him undress and slip naked into the pool, disappearing beneath the water. He emerged and scrubbed himself from hair to toenails. “You didn’t happen to make soap, did you?” Before she could shake her head no, he drew in a sharp breath.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s my shoulder. I can’t reach my back.” His mouth turned down and sad, puppy eyes gazed up at her.
Addy’s belly flipped. Her heart pounded. She could do this. After all, it wasn’t the first, or second, or even third time he had seen her naked. But it was the first time she had
wanted
him to see her naked.
Peering down at the sleeping baby in her arms, hoping she could place him down without waking him, Addy slowly lowered him to the soft moss-covered ground. Certain he would not wake, she moved closer to the bathing pool and removed her shirt, letting it fall to the ground.
Very aware of Max’s sleek cat eyes watching her, she pulled off her pants and carefully stepped down the warm, smooth rocks lining the spring. Liquid heat rose above her calves, her thighs, her hips, and arms. Tiny ripples lapped the swell of her breasts when she moved to stand in front of Max.
Though desire was evident in his eyes, he made no move, so she drew her arms around him and lightly, tentatively, slid her palms up his wet back, over his shoulders, and down again.
His breath came out ragged. His chest expanded and grazed against her nipples, making them tighten. Still he made no advances.
Heat from the pool seeped into her muscles, relaxing her, soothing her, daring her brazenness. Pressing her breasts against him, she sought his lips with hers, kissing him hard and long, taking comfort in him and hopefully giving comfort as well.
How tender he was. How gentle. How...deliberately cautious.
Was he afraid he’d scare her? Didn’t he realize she didn’t fear him? That she hadn’t in a long time?
Addy slid her hands down his back and cupped his cheeks, kneading the taut muscles. Max only wrapped his arms around her shoulders as he thoroughly explored her mouth.
Perhaps he needed a more obvious signal? She flattened her breasts against his chest. On cue, his fingertips brushed her shoulders and down the sides of her soft flesh. His kisses strolled down her neck to her breasts, and slowly, leisurely, he pleasured them, and she trembled.
She pressed her hips against him, trapping his erection between them. “Take me,” she said and felt his arms tense.
He stepped back.
What happened? What did she do wrong? Did he not love her after all? Did he regret the vow he had made? Tears burned behind her eyes. “Don’t you want me?”
“Hell yes, I want you. I want you more than anything. But I won’t
take
you, Addy.”
“Why not?”
“Because the only sex you’ve experienced comes from being pinned beneath beasts.” In the moonslight, she saw regret in his eyes. “That won’t happen again. Whatever we do tonight will be by your choice.
You’re
the alpha.”
He wasn’t rejecting her. He was submitting to her. He had backed himself against the rocky wall of the pool with arms open and palms up waiting for her to take the lead.
Her heart swelled with love. She half-walked, half-floated into his arms. “Kiss me,” she said, and he did. She wrapped her arms around him, careful of his wounds and took her sweet time exploring every inch of him, hands and mouth touching, squeezing, kissing. He felt incredible.