The Tellox as a whole were an intimidating people.  Her sister's mate Creeg was nearly seven feet of metallic gold skin over bulging muscles and rippling power.  His long mane of hair was also gold and his eyes flashed gold fire at his mate when she entered the bridge.  The other three she met when they got the all clear and rejoined the bridge were nearly as daunting.  The one called Logaan had a subtle tiger stripe to his skin.  Crogan was a lot like Creeg, nearly as big with the same gold coloring as the rest of them.  Benak had a strange discoloration across half his face that reminded her of a black and white cat she saw once.  It gave him a sinister vibe the others did not have, but from what Sara had told her they were all good men, or good warriors, since they did not consider themselves men, so much as male.  And they were that.  So, it was strange that the one she could not keep her eyes away from, was the one that seemed to find every shadow and, well, fade for want of a better word.  He seemed able to disappear in plain sight as her sister had warned her.  But unlike her sister, Megan had the feeling she would never forget Morax was in the room.  She was too aware of him, and his eyes on her.

So much so that she found herself caught in those Spanish gold eyes more often than was comfortable for her to admit.  All the Tellox seemed to have eyes in shades of gold that glowed from within.  Except for Benak whose eyes gleamed amber.  But Morax was the only one whose eyes seemed to burn whenever they touched her, which seemed a constant thing.  She might have said something but she had never been good at talking to strangers, especially men, and well, the truth was the feel of his eyes was energizing and strangely compelling.  If she was honest with herself she wanted his eyes on her.  It made her feel safe in a reality that was changing rapidly.  She could not explain it, she had never liked the idea that people were looking at her. She never had the confidence of her younger sister that dared the world to think what it would.  She always assumed they were looking and finding every flaw or mistake she made.  But there was no judgment in Morax’s eyes.  Just a constant regard that made Megan feel as if no threat could get to her that he would not see and face first.  Plus, the Tellox male was seriously sexy, and having the attention of such a man was waking up every dormant nerve ending she never knew she had.

“We’ll resupply on Aa-ryal and hopefully find a crew willing and able to slip back to Earth and find your missing female.  After that?”  Creeg shrugged.  “That I cannot say.  We will need to find somewhere we can hide from Rygan. As soon as he is finished on Earth he will come for us.  He has to, one because he’s paranoid and would never leave an enemy alive to come at his back, and two because he is insane and won’t let such an insult stand.”

“One of those reasons was plenty,” Logaan mused, a look of dark amusement lurking in his words.

“He needs to be put down,” Benak said with a growl in his hard voice.  There was absolutely no amusement in him.  He looked ready to do the job right then, with his teeth.

Then Logaan said something in a language other than Earth English and it seemed to start a small word war between the two men.  Though Logaan never lost his taunting smile, from the growls and snarls that punctuated their sentences Megan got the feeling it was getting intense.  She looked at Sara but she stood with her mate just watching the argument as if she understood every word and there was nothing to worry about.  It made Megan feel very out of place and alone.

Megan backed up just a little when the snarling seemed to escalate with the feral glowing of their eyes.  Hoping no one would notice her reaction to all the growling and snapping she backed up a little more, giving herself space between them and her.  The next thing she knew she felt a heat at her back.  She turned to look behind her and Morax stood there, watching her.  She got the feeling he came out of the shadows to check if she was alright so she smiled at him in reassurance that she was fine.  He seemed to accept that because his eyes went back to the rest of the room and Megan turned back as well.  Strangely enough, knowing that the alien male was watching out for her did make her feel better.  Well enough anyway that the panic that had begun to rise melted away, and she could watch the proceedings with a feeling that no matter what happened she was safe.

Sara, Megan noticed, had turned her eyes from the loud snarling argument and was looking at Megan from her place at Creeg’s side.  Before Megan could try to decipher the look in her sister’s strange new eyes Creeg stepped toward the arguers and roared, catching everyone’s attention. 

Megan felt the heart that had just started to calm shoot into her throat at the sound, and she backed up so fast her back was plastered to Morax before she realized she was going to move.  When she would have stepped away with a loud blush staining her cheeks he grabbed her hips and held her in place.

Megan swallowed hard knowing that if she turned to look at him he would see the mortification on her face so she did not look at him.  But she also didn’t try to move away again either.

“If anyone goes after Rygan it will be me,” Creeg was saying, in a loud impatient growl, his words in English punctuated by a pointed look in Megan’s direction.  “But we are not doing that when he is surrounded by the entire Tellox army.  So, this argument is pointless and tells me only that we need to find a planet so you can run sooner rather than later.”

“Or a battle,” Crogan added.  He caught Creeg’s eye.  “We will be at Aa-ryal in a few hours.  We cannot run there, as we would like, but we might find other ways to work off aggression.”  He smirked.  “We always have in the past.”

Creeg showed him a fang, which looked to Megan like he liked the idea but then he spoke again, disabusing them.  “We are not going to start a bar brawl with females under our protection.”

“I do not think we will have to look for trouble,” Crogan answered him his tone dry.  “We are escorting two beautiful alien females.  The trouble will find us.”

It took Megan a moment to realize he was talking about her and Sara.  Sara she could understand, but being described as a beautiful alien nearly made her snort at the absurdity.  It was only at that moment that she realized that to them she was the alien.  Strange to consider that, even stranger to think they might see her as beautiful.  Her garden was beautiful, her music she knew could be beautiful, but Megan herself?  Beautiful?  That was almost as strange to consider as the title alien applied to her.  But then she looked up and realized every eye in the place was fixed on her and her mind stuttered to a stop at the attention.

Then one by one they all seemed to still, their eyes sharpening and looking from her to the man at her back, his hands on her hips.  She expected Morax to move away and let her go under the weight of all those predatory stares, especially as her sister was outright glaring at him over her shoulder, but he didn’t move and Megan quickly grew even more uncomfortable under so much attention, especially since there seemed to be more than one conversation happening in the silence around them. 

She would have tried to move away again but she had the feeling he would not allow it until he was ready and she didn’t want to start a fight when it became obvious he was holding her against her wishes.  She had a bad feeling things would get ugly if that happened.  Besides, with all those eyes on her she needed the support he offered.

Finally, Sara stepped forward and took Megan’s arm, pulling her out of Morax’s hold slowly.  “Why don’t we get you some other clothes to wear before we arrive at Aa-ryal.  The jeans will attract too much attention and you have dirt smeared on your t-shirt.”

Morax released her, but Megan felt the reluctance in the tightening of his fingers just before he let go.  She looked back only once before she let her sister pull her from the room.  Morax’s eyes were a hot molten gold in a face that looked as if it was made of granite.  Megan caught her breath at the sight and wondered that she was not so much afraid of that feral possessive gleam in his eyes, as aroused by it.  And that scared her more than anything else that had happened yet.  The other Tellox were walking toward him slowly when the port closed behind them once again cutting them off from something dangerous about to happen on the bridge.  Last time it was evading an army of super soldiers in star ships.  Why did she have the feeling what was happening with Morax on the bridge now could be just as dangerous.

“What will they do to him?” she asked her sister as she was hauled away.

Sara snorted.  “They are just going to ask him some questions.  They aren’t going to hurt him.”  Her voice dropped so Megan almost didn’t hear her last mumble.  “As if they could.”

But Megan heard it and was reassured.  The others were big and scary, but there was just something about Morax that assured her he could handle anything that came at him.  She turned and followed her sister.

“They are warning him away from me, aren’t they?” she finally asked when Sara stopped before another port and it opened to show a storage room. 

Sara blew out a breath.  Examining her sisters face for answers to questions she did not seem inclined to ask.  Finally she said.  “Don’t you want them to?”

Megan met her eyes and gave her steady regard to show that she was telling the truth, though she could do nothing about the blush that insisted on suffusing her cheeks.  She raised her chin, ignoring it and what it could tell her sister about her feelings.  “He doesn’t scare me.”

Sara studied her sister a moment before finally saying quietly, “I worry that he might be seeing you as a potential mate.”

Megan blushed harder.  “You would know.  You always knew exactly what people’s intentions were, but I feel safe with him.” 

Then Sara continued with less worry behind her eyes.  “Well if it’s not that he wants to claim you for his mate, what is it?”

Megan shrugged, feeling a pang of disappointment, she tried to put what she felt from the warrior into words.  “I think he just wants to protect me.”

“Protect you?” Sara asked doubt creeping back into her voice.  “And that’s all?”

Megan really wished the new color she could feel heating her cheeks was not as obvious as it felt.  “Well,” she said clearing her throat.  “He does like to touch me.”  And that was all she would say, turning and entering the stock room, hoping her sister would follow and let it go.

“Right,” her sister muttered behind her.

How could she explain something to her sister even she did not understand?  She barely knew him, but she had told the truth.  She felt safe with Morax, and feeling safe was something she had experienced very little of lately.  The big Tellox warrior was no threat to her, and in her opinion, that was really all the rest of them needed, or had a right, to know.

***

Morax watched the small Earth female being pulled away from him until the door once again separated them, it seemed each time that happened it was worse than the time before.  He did not like when he could not keep an eye on the little flower.  She was too soft to be left unprotected, and unlike her sister, she did not have new Tellox genetics to protect her. 

He liked it less when he saw a flash of fear in her eyes right before she was blocked from his view.  It took a great deal to keep from following the female, and the feeling seemed to be getting stronger every time they were separated. 

He had no patience for the looks and questions from his commander and crew.  None.  Until Creeg asked the question and Morax felt a hit to his gut like a laser blast.

“Is she your mate Morax?”  Creeg was carefully positioning himself between Morax and the door, and if the question had not distracted him so completely, Morax would have taken immediate exception to that.  Immediate exception that might have ended with the spilling of blood, he liked it so little.  But his mate?

Was she his mate? It didn’t seem possible.  Since finding Sara most of the men had begun to think of finding a mate, but not Morax, he knew that if fate was handing out such gifts he would not be one of the worthy ones.  Not with everything that he had done during the great war, and since.  He alone among the crew had been not a soldier, but an assassin.  Unlike the others who had fought in honorable battle, he had used stealth and trickery to get to his targets any way he could.  Megan Bird, sister to Sara, with her velvet brown eyes and shiny dark hair would have been the last female he was gifted with.  He knew it as well as he knew all the faces of the men he had killed, the families he had destroyed, because it had not been possession that he felt when he saw her for the first time among all the other flowers, it was peace.  Of all the men in this room, he was the least worthy of such a gift as that.

“No,” he finally answered coldly.  His eyes finding each of his brothers and glaring hard, telling them without more words needed that the conversation was over.

Creeg was not the only one who looked like he would argue the point but Morax turned and headed back to his post at operations.  He gave the rest of them his back while he sat and took the controls with barely suppressed violence.  The little flower was not his mate, but he wanted her just the same.  She was the only thing he did want, could ever remember wanting for himself, and he knew to the bottom of his black soul that she was not for the likes of him.