Bondmate by J.J. Lore Read Free Book Online

Bynton’s heart was racing as he contemplated how cold and footsore Avanelle must be
wherever she’d gone.
    “Did
we hurt her?” Mateen’s brow furrowed even as he began to don his outerwear,
collected from a storage bin. Bynton followed suit, already constructing a
search grid in his mind.
    “I
don’t think so. We just touched her. My tesak did not
descend.” Bynton had felt them bud when his crisis approached, but had clenched
his jaw to hold them in, mindful of her fear.
    “Mine
nearly did, but I kept them concealed. I licked her afterwards, just before she
slept. Perhaps she disliked it and was afraid to say so.” Mateen’s expression
shifted from dismayed to pensive.
    “My
understanding is humans prefer to kiss with the mouth. Would she leave because
we didn’t kiss her?” Bynton fastened his trousers and pulled on socks. His
armor was already stacked next to him thanks to his bondmate’s quick action.
    “I’ll
kiss her wherever she likes, however she wants me to, once we find her,” Mateen
growled as he strapped on his weapons harness, his hands automatically checking
over his blades and lash.
    Bynton
told himself to calm down as he did the same inspection of his gear. There
weren’t many hazards in the area, other than those of the human variety at the
camp a few kilometers away. He didn’t know what force had compelled her to
leave, and he was determined to defeat it to bring her back. A strange pain
built in his gut as images of Avanelle flashed disconcertingly through his mind.
Her wide eyes dark with pleasure, the careful way she ate her food, the
intoxicating beauty of her body.
    “ Byn , look.” Mateen leaned
down and retrieved one of their image recorders from the deck. She must have
dropped it there, for it had been on the table before. It was something they’d
planned on sharing with Avanelle this day, a record of images from his and
Mateen’s life together. Their home, some attractive scenes of
Alpha, all to ease her into the idea of leaving Earth with them and never
looking back. It was activated and glowed with several views. With a tap
of his finger against the top, it projected the last few images.
    The
first was one of Mateen in full battle gear, battered and triumphant after
their most recent engagement on Talus. He was covered with dust and Xyran blood, his eyes dark with victory, his teeth bared in
rage. The previous picture showed both of them, each holding a severed Xyran head aloft, the purplish blood of their enemies
coating their bare arms. That had been after the skirmish on the hidden moon of Dero , a quick and rough exchange in which they each
destroyed a score or more of the repellant enemy. Could it be she saw these
particular vids and was frightened of the sight they made when the fury of
battle was upon them? Her worry about them wanting to harm her, eat her, no
matter how ridiculous it had seemed to them, had to be
alive in her now, to have driven her away.
    “She
won’t want us now, Byn .” The ache in Mateen’s voice
matched the one in Byn’s heart.
    “I’m
not giving up that easily. We’ll find her and explain.”
    “She’s
too kind. She’ll never understand what we do or why we have to do it. We are
too alien to her.”
    Byn stared at his bondmate as he
reached for the hatch. “I need to try, Mat. Do you not?”
    He
waited an impossible second, the grief at losing Avanelle building as he waited
for his bondmate to join him in this quest. If Mateen declined, Byn didn’t know what he’d do. He’d never come close to
wanting to flout Mat’s decisions ever since they’d pledged themselves five
years ago. The need for Avanelle was so strong, pulled at him so deeply, he
worried he might strike out on his own.
    “We
go. What if she refuses?” Mateen’s question was a challenge to their
agreed-upon approach. Before, when they’d planned this journey, it had been
easy to say they wouldn’t impose themselves upon a woman, easy to say they’d
search