Unexpected by J.J. Lore Read Free Book Online

to trust them enough for this simple outing, so to have it ruined in
such a vile way filled him with anger.
    “She’s
in the lander. Please go—”
    His
bondmate didn’t need to finish the sentence. Mikel was already loping toward
the open hatch of the hover. He slowed his pace so as to not startle her and
entered cautiously. She was sitting in the back, staring at him with wide eyes.
    He
wanted to ask how she was, but anyone with sense would know this had to be
upsetting. All the words he’d found so difficult to stop earlier were now stuck
in this throat. He didn’t know what to say.
    “Where
did you go?” Her voice was breathy, and she leaned forward to look at him as he
carefully took a seat near her. He could hear the other men speaking Alphan
outside, but didn’t make out their words.
    “To
look for the perpetrators and secure the area.”
    “You
were there and then you were gone.”
    “But
I’m back now.”
    She
smiled, and some of the anxiety over her mood lifted from his heart. “For a
large person, you move quickly. And quietly. You both
do.”
    “It’s
an asset in battle.”
    “Of course. I forget about
that.” With a little sigh she leaned back in her seat, and he wanted to follow.
There was a rattle from outside, and she jerked up, her shoulder and thigh
pressing against his. “What’s happening?”
    “Do
you want me to go and find out?”
    “No,
don’t leave again.” Her plea was accompanied by the press of her small, cool
hand against his, and he had to force himself not to grasp her tighter, not to
pull her onto his lap, not to press his mouth to her neck. Just the thought of
tasting her made his tesak throb and his staff stiffen .
    “The
vandalism, those words, I don’t know what they mean, but I assume they are
derogatory in some way.” Perhaps he shouldn’t have brought it up, but he needed
to know his enemy. Alisa shrugged her shoulders but didn’t pull away.
    “Most
of them had to do with me, disparaging my, ah, sexual morals.”
    Mikel
considered this. How could engaging in the delights of
sex ever be perceived as a negative character flaw? “Did any of them reference
Felix or me?”
    She
looked at him then, her bright eyes twinkling. “Yes. Some people call Alphans , well, goats.”
    “This
is a bad thing?” He knew it had to be since one of the scrawled slurs had been “dirty
goat cocksucker”, but he was curious about what she might say on the matter.
    She
nodded once and tightened her hand around his, as if to reassure him. Delightful . “It’s
because of your horns. Some humans are, ah, disgusted by them.”
    Mikel
noted she didn’t provide an explanation of cocksucker, which he hoped indicated
she didn’t consider this an unsavory activity. “And what is your opinion of our
horns? Do you find them unattractive?”
    She
glanced up at his head, and her cheeks pinked, a lovely contrast to her creamy
skin and bright brown hair. Before she could answer, there was a rustle at the
door and Felix hopped in, his face relaxing as soon as he saw them. Despite Felix’s
untroubled expression, Mikel could still pick up a tremendous amount of tension
emanating from his partner.
    “Alisa,
are you well? Did this one offer you something to drink? You must be thirsty
after our walk, and to be kept waiting like this…” Felix nattered as he
rummaged through drawers on the hover, finally locating a bottle of water and
handing it over to her. She pulled her hand from Mikel’s in order to take it,
and he wanted to touch some other part of her body immediately.
    “What’s
happening?”
    “Some disagreement over how to deal with
our dilemma. Apparently this isn’t the first such incident here. Our men want to increase
patrols and install more security at the settlement, but the diplomats don’t
want to antagonize the humans by overstepping our bounds.”
    “What
do you mean this isn’t the first incident?” Alisa clutched at her bottle of
water and glanced between