Fenturi Fate (Spacestalker Saga Book 1) (21 page)

She frowned.
She didn’t understand the changes in herself lately and wished she’d never gotten involved with the warrior before her.
Things had been so much simpler with her crew on the
SpaceStalker
.

She bumped into Ren when he stopped suddenly, and he turned to glare at her.
T
he door to the Green room stood open. Was Mra—

“Will you cease this?” he snapped and clasped her shoulders to keep her from him.

“Cease what?” she snapped back, confused and angry that she had to be here in the first place.
“I’m here because I’ve been kidnapped and ordered to be here.
I’m not the Mari.
I know very little about my own past save what Mra has told me over the years.
And if you keep shoving me around and telling me what to do, Legionnaire or not, I’ll make you sorry you ever set eyes on me.” She ripped herself out of his hold and would have hissed were she a cat.

Ren stared down at her, and a small grin curled his firm lips.
He gave a small chuckle, and she wanted to slap and claw that smile off his face. Heat coiled within her
.

A warm, purring body broke her concentration, and she unconsciously sought Mra’s comforting presence.

Let it go, Dare.
Mra weaved around her taut body.
This is not the way
.

Dare realized what she’d been calling forth and eased the tight energy from her, slowly releasing it.
Except she must have released it into Ren, because his
eyes turned a neon green and his pupils thinned and elongated. He stepped toward her, seemingly unmindful of anything that had just transpired, and stared at her mouth with a deep hunger.

Mra stood on her hind legs and pressed her paws against his chest—just as Dare would have moved into his waiting arms.

Not yet, Garen
, the feline warned.
The time will come when you will finish this.
But not here, and not now.
Leave her with me before the Starfire builds again.

Ren blinked and stepped back, a comical expression of both wonder and confusion on his face.
“Stay with Mra,” he barked the order and took off.

She would have argued with his tone, but had he not left when he did, she feared she might have done something awkward. Like jumped the man and pinned him to the wall while she had, as Shea would have said, her “wicked way” with the man. Whatever that might be.

I am in so much trouble with that man.

She stroked Mra, and they sat in silence and watched for Nexios to come into view.

Ren could still see Dare’s face in his mind’s eye as he left the scent and
feel
of her behind. He forced himself to move away, when he really wanted to go back up and feed the unspoken hunger building between them.

By the Dark World
.
He needed to get her to Nexios then back to Zebram before he did something royally stupid, like take her to bed.

He didn’t like the possessive feelings that had overcome him during the breakfast session.
He’d seen the raw desire on the Hams’ faces as they’d watched her.
Hell, he’d felt it as well.
But to see it in another man had almost driven him to bloodlust.

He returned to the galley, centering himself. The Legionnaire captain, not the Fenturi, needed to be in charge. Once inside the galley, he nodded to the Hams and felt no hostility.  

He requested another cup of java and took a deep breath, then let it out, determined to carry on like usual.

“It’s all right now, Captain.”
Phin smiled.
“You do know you can’t blame the female for this, don’t you?”

“You’re telling me not to blame that woman for instigating mass jealousy and confusion on my ship?
I saw the way she stared at those two.”

The Hams didn’t react, still eating. Good night, but they sure could put away roasted
rollak
.

“No, you don’t see.
Good thing I’m aboard.”
Phin sighed.
“You’re half Fenturi, Captain.
Do you know nothing about your own people?”

Ren’s felt everything inside him shut down and clenched his fists, trying to calm his ingrained disdain of anything Fenturi.

Phin continued. “A prime Fenturi female emits a certain pheromone that attracts prime males to her.
And you have to admit the Hams are prime.”
Phin chortled.

“So you agree. Like I said, she instigated this.”

“No.
In fact,” Phin paused, frowning in thought, “considering how ignorant Dare is about her role as the Mari and how surprised she looked when the Hams really glanced her way, I’d say she has no idea of what she’s doing.”

Pheromones? “So she’s, in heat?” The idea sounded ridiculous, but it made an odd kind of sense.

“Not necessarily,” Phin said in a comfortable voice, happiest when imparting knowledge.
The Informa loved to share information almost as much as they loved gathering it.

“In Dare’s case, I’d say she hasn’t been around the Fenturi much.
I
t’s a natural Fenturi response to revel in sensuality.
Come now, Captain. You’re no stranger to pleasures of the flesh.
The Hams don’t seem to have a problem getting willing participants either.
It’s in your blood.”

Perhaps Ren had been wrong in assuming Dare meant to bewitch him.
The more he reflected upon it, she had seemed almost as bewildered and out of control around him as he seemed to be around her.

“Sometimes she seems to be exceptionally…attractive,” he admitted.
“I assumed she purposefully sought to beguile the crew to get out of here.
But you’re saying she’s having a hard time adjusting to other Fenturi?
That somehow the twins are affecting her, even though they don’t mean to?”

Phin nodded. “Yes.
I believe
you
and the twins are stirring her mating instincts.
It’s a natural cycle, you know.
All life seeks to replenish itself by producing stronger offspring.
Bei
ng the strongest Fenturi here, you must offer her the biggest temptation, though the Hams are powerful men as well. Poor Dare doesn’t understand this. You should go easy on her, is all I’m saying.”

Ren sat for a while, pondering Phin’s words after the alien left.
The twins finally finished eating and joined Ren at the table.

“We’re sorry,” Ned started.

“For whatever we did to the female,” Nesh finished.

“But it’s been so long since we’ve seen anyone like her and it’s—”

“—arousing as well as confusing.”
Nesh shook his head.

“I’m beginning to understand that,” Ren murmured.
“Didn’t you two get it all out of your systems last night?”

Nesh sighed.
“You’d think so, but there’s not a male alive that can resist a beautiful Fenturi, especially one like the Mari.”

Ned agreed.
“We’re not trying to be offensive, Ren.
But if you knew more about your Fenturi side—”

“—you wouldn’t be asking these questions.
You’d simply accept what is,” Nesh explained.
“We’ll keep our distance, if that helps.”

Ren sighed, knowing the twins had validity in their words.
“No.
I’m beginning to realize how much I don’t understand about the Fenturi.”
He asked them a question he’d long wanted to ask.
“How is it that you two are so accepting of your Fenturi heritage?
You were both raised on Bylar outside the kingdom.” Close enough the Zedrax’s bigotry and hatred should have infected them as well.

Ned and Nesh looked at each other in understanding.
“Because we cannot change who we are,” Nesh said.

“No matter how much the Bylarans wish we did not exist,” Ned added.

“—we do.
W
e’re stronger and faster, but we acknowledge we aren’t better,” Nesh said solemnly.

“Well, I’m better,” Ned joked.
“Better looking, better dressing…”

“Oh please. The Vembites come to me first. You’re a leftover Legionnaire.” Nesh snorted.

Ren shook his head, smiling, and watched the twins leave, still arguing.

When he’d selected them to join the Stalkers years ago, he’d been unaware of their Fenturi blood. Yet he’d been drawn to them both.
Their strength and agility had naturally made them two of the finest fighters in the Legion.
But now he realized he’d been attracted to their Fenturi nature.

How could they be so comfortable knowing they held enemy blood within them? But then, they had not been taught to hate themselves.
He knew their mother had died in their youth. Their father, a Bylaran soldier, had obviously raised them to be proud of themselves and their heritage.

It no doubt helped that they had fought their tormenters together, relying on each other for support through the dark times.

Ren stared into his now empty cup.
He looked out the galley portal and noted Nexios clearly in view.
The
y’d be docking soon.

He hated remembering the past, bringing up darker times and acknowledging he wasn’t the pureblooded soldier he should have been. Sun and stars, he was tired. His body still ached, and now his heart felt uncomfortable in his chest, beating with the blood of an enemy that no longer felt so terribly wrong.

For years he’d been taught to revile anything Fenturi.
Yet weeks after learning of the twins’ bloodline he’d turned a blind eye and had taken them on as his crew, both in defiance of Zedrax and to assuage his own feelings of isolation and guilt.

Castor was his closest friend, yet Ren had never felt comfortable talking to him about his early years with Zedrax or his Fenturi heritage.
S
peaking with the Hams made Ren feel like a part of something more, something better. So…strange, when he’d been dreading anything Fenturi-related for what felt like forever.

“Nexios ahead.”
Primo’s voice interrupted his musings.

Ren strode from the galley to join the others in the control room.
He’d spent enough time dwelling on the past. Now, on to their future. That’s if they’d even have one. Time to stop the Horde with the stubborn Mari’s unwilling help.

***

Dare stroked Mra’s soft fur and stared out the portal of the Green room, watching Nexios as they approached.

“I wonder how Methan is doing,” she said, though her thoughts raced along completely different lines.
She’d been practicing what Mra had told her about muting her Fenturi instincts.
It added more of a strain than just toning down her skin color or dimming the brightness of her eyes, but she didn’t want to feel so sexually aware of Ren anymore.

You need him
, Mra repeated, as she’d
been
saying.
And you need to stop looking at a whole race as the enemy.
That’s an unintelligent mindset common of the Bylaran,
she added in a dismissive tone. Her long tail swept over the ground in irritation.

And you have never hated an entire race?
Dare asked wryly.
What about the Olm?

They aren’t a race. They’re vermin not worthy of my bite
.
Mra playfully smacked Dare with a large forepaw.
Now focus on your inner senses.
You’ll need them for your visit with Methan.
 

Aren’t you coming? I thought you’d love to get offship.
I know the Nexians don’t have many trees near the main city, but still…

No.
I want to be here, without so many men afoot.
Besides,
I want to explore the ship, so make sure to leave some space by the door so I can slip out undetected when they come for you.