Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Don’t be ridiculous, he told himself uneasily. Commander Sylvan said it’s not like Yonnie Six. You’ll be fine.
“Actually, you will be in charge on this mission—at least, as far as the Delta Salacions are concerned. They won’t deal with equal partners—only with a dominant female who has a submissive male-wife,” Sylvan said seriously.
Andi’s grin turned into an outright laugh.
“I’m sorry—a what?” she exclaimed, leaning forward in her chair.
“That’s what the women who run Salacious Delta call their mates,” the Commander explained with a completely straight face. “Male-wives.”
“Do I have to wear a pain collar?” The words practically forced themselves out of Thrax’s mouth. He was still trying to appear calm and collected but he had to know where this mission was leading them—and what he might have to endure.
“A pain collar?” Commander Sylvan raised his eyebrows in surprise. “No, no—not at all. As I told you, Salacious Delta is nothing like Yonnie Six.”
“So I won’t have to be bound or tied or gagged?” Thrax persisted. “I mean, I don’t fucking mind pretending to submit to Andi—I’ll do it all day long. But I need to know now if I’m going to be restrained in any way.”
“I have never heard that the Delta Salacious restrain or bind their partners,” Commander Sylvan said mildly. “You seem…upset, Agent Thrax. Is there a problem I need to know about?”
“What? No—of course not. No problem,” Thrax growled defensively. “I just need to know what I can expect—that’s all.” He noticed that Andi was giving him a worried look and tried to shrug it off by slouching in his chair, as though he was completely relaxed. But inside he was still tight as a wire.
“Well, nothing like that, I assure you,” his boss said. “You’ll just be looking for a lost warrior—his name is Commander Kier and he’s a Wulven Kindred. His ship went down on Salacious Delta a solar week ago. He placed a call to the Mother Ship, which we picked up and traced to the southern continent, but then we lost touch. He’s no longer answering calls, so I’ve officially declared him missing.”
“That sounds more like a job for a search and rescue team than a WLA unit,” Andi pointed out. “What if he’s just wandering around lost in the wilderness out there? You said he’s a Wulven Kindred—does Salacious Delta have a moon or moons?”
It was a valid question, Thrax thought. Wulven Kindred were subject to a lunar cycle—they became bestial on the nights a full moon or moons appeared in the sky.
“It has several moons, which could cause problems for a Wulven like Commander Kier,” Sylvan acknowledged. “But we don’t think he’s wandering in the wilderness, as you put it, Agent Peterson. We have reason to believe that he was taken by someone on Salacious Delta. Here—listen to this—it’s the last message we got from him.”
He placed a round, flat, coin-shaped object on his desk which Thrax recognized as a holographic projector. As soon as Commander Sylvan pressed a button on its side, a 3-D image appeared above it.
It was a male with thick, dark hair tied at the back of his neck. He had a knife-blade nose, thin lips and pale blue eyes. His skin had a grayish tint which told Thrax that Kier was either a Hybrid like himself or he had some Giant Kindred blood somewhere far back in his ancestry, which made itself known in his pigmentation.
“Day three here on Salacious Delta,” he said. “The Smart-metal of my ship is almost done healing itself and I’ve finished making repairs to the hydrogen-scoop drive. I should be ready to take off for the Mother Ship by tonight—tomorrow at the latest.” He sighed and Thrax thought he looked fucking exhausted.
“Everyone here has been kind—if extremely condescending. “The females I encounter when I go out into the city for supplies keep asking me where my ‘Queen’ is. At first I didn’t understand, but it seems that’s what the males here call their mates.
“I’ve had a very difficult time making any kind of transactions, even though they accept standard credits here and I have plenty of them. It seems that males aren’t allowed to make major purchases here unless they have a female with them.
“They also aren’t allowed to have bank accounts or own domiciles, apparently. I’ve been asked several times where I was staying and if I had a female guardian like a mother or a sister to ‘look after me’ since I’m unmated. I don’t think they liked my answer when I told them I was on my own, in my ship. But it’s none of their damn business anyway.”
Commander Kier’s voice dipped to a growl.
“They’re just lucky I’m shut up tight and shielded from the moonlight since one of their three moons is almost always full at one time or another. If I didn’t have Giant blood in my ancestry, my Beast would have come out a dozen times over already.”