CHAPTER THREE
Raze swallowed hard staring at Affina. She hadn't aged at all, but then on Aurora it had only been a little over a year. Years before he'd fallen in love with her beauty and strength but had never dared to think that one day he might be with her. With him seventeen and her twenty, she'd never looked at him as anything more than a young friend. But now... Now she was twenty-one and he twenty-seven and she looked like the young one. His saber paced back and forth, his tail swishing. He purred and mewled and made the strangest noises Raze had ever encountered.
Her eyes took in every inch of his face. Her fingers traced every line as he rested his hands on her hips. She'd lost the youthful roundness in her cheeks but her lean muscles had been shaped and sculpted more than ever.
Back on Aurora they'd been the same height but he'd been thinner than she. As a young man he'd found her so imposing. At six foot two she barely came up to his shoulder now, and her curves gave just the right amount of girth to be good for birthing babies. His saber purred with delight at the sight and feel of her.
Raze swallowed down his rising excitement. Easy boy, she's been through a lot.
"Come," said Gerri. "Let's have some tea. We have much to discuss."
"We do?" he asked.
Gerri snorted and shook her short white-haired head as she walked to the kitchen. "Okay, not that much maybe but as you two seem to be having trouble figuring this out, I think it might be better if you hear what I have to say over a cup of tea."
Raze ran his hand over Affina's bare arm, tattooed with her position and family crest. His thumb stopped at a series of small scars on the back of her arm. Scars symbolizing the clan members that she'd loved, and lost. There were more than a dozen, but two of them stood larger than the others, symbolizing great loss. Raze's gut clenched thinking of who those might be for.
Affina sniffed his shoulder and rubbed her fingers over the fabric of his wool suit making his pants suddenly feel two sizes too small. Her scent invaded him and he removed his hands from her waist and pressed his palms into his thighs. His saber roared in his chest to take her and make her his. Raze shifted his stance and cleared his throat.
What the hell? He'd never reacted like this before. The sensations running through him were all together unsettling.
The sounds of water pouring caught Raze's attention. He concentrated on it, trying to ignore the fact that Affina stood before him in nothing more than a deerskin jerkin that barely covered her. He scanned her full hourglass figure that few human women could achieve without waist-cinchers. A wide round rear, held firm by long sculpted legs.
"Tea." Gerri called.
Grateful for the interruption Raze sat stiffly on the large couch. Affina sat next to him, curling her body next to his and laying her head on his shoulder. After so many years apart, the feel of her body next to his was still as normal as if they'd been together the day before.
Memories of them laying in the grass, looking up at the stars, flooded back to him. The feel of her head on his shoulder, her skin brushing his. How many times he'd wanted to feel the weight of her body on his as he kissed her? To spread her silky thighs and bury himself inside her as they made love. But sabers didn't hit their prime until nineteen. So to her, he'd still been nothing more than an adolescent.
Her ample breasts pushed out the fabric of her dress and brushed against his arm. Even through his suit he could imagine what they felt like.
Raze breathed in deeply and tried to arrange his suit pants so they didn't pinch so much.
Five minutes. That's all it had taken for twelve years as an alpha male to be wiped away by her and reducing him back to the teenager who'd loved her so deeply.
Gerri sat in her overstuffed chair and observed him and Affina – who continued to stroke his cheek and rub her face on his shoulder.
Gerri finally sipped her tea and then sat it on her lap.
"This isn't customary and isn't the way I normally operate but let's be honest, I've never had the only two of a species sitting before me. Nor has anyone just shown up at the power plant without a purpose. Or direction. Or family."
She sipped her tea again and then looked at Raze. He snagged a cookie off the table and stuffed it into his mouth. The room suddenly felt too stuffy and his suit too warm. A niggling of anxiety crept up his neck and his heart began to thump.
"Are you all right?" Affina asked. "Your heart is racing and you're sweating."
Gerri stared at Raze and it finally clicked. Why she had called him there. Why he'd not found a mate before. There was only one reason. It was Affina.
He blew out a slow breath and Gerri nodded slightly.
Oh shit!
The women stared at him, waiting for him to say something, but words wouldn't come. He pleaded silently with Gerri to say something. Do something. How was he supposed to tell Affina that she was his one? The one he wanted? The one his saber had chosen?
Gerri rolled her eyes in exasperation. "As I see it there is only one thing for me to do here and that is to turn Affina's care over to you,"
"You... you want me to take the princess home with me?"
Gerri shrugged. "Would you rather I ask the other clans if they want to take her?"
"No!" both Affina and Razor said together. His saber grumbled at the idea of Affina being care for by a pack of wolves, or dragons, or lions, or... whatever.
"Wait, but I need to go back to Aurora. I need to find my father. My clan."
Gerri shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Why not?" Affina demanded.
"Because your father sent you here to save you. I cannot in good conscious just send you back when there is a very real reality that you could be slaughtered within minutes."
"She's right," said Raze. "It was always your father's intention that the clan come to earth. Sending you back would be to defy his wishes."
Affina looked up at him, anger streaking her eyes. "Is that why you never returned? Never told me where you were?"
It was a punch to the kidneys. Raze had no idea that Affina's father hadn't told her where he'd sent Raze.
"Then it's settled." Gerri set down her teacup and rose from her seat. "She is your responsibility. You must teach her the ways of Earth and be willing to provide for her. For as long as she is here."
Raze's throat dried like he'd eaten sand. Gerri's words sounded an awful lot like human marriage vows. And to his saber that’s exactly what they were. A vow to look after her, provide for her and love her for as long as they both lived. It was no longer a choice, his saber had chosen. As long as he lived, there would never be another for him.
He could barely make the words leave his mouth. He glanced over at Affina and his gut clenched. He'd never seen her look vulnerable before. "I will."
Affina stared out the window at the city as they rolled by. "It's so crowded here."
They stopped at a light and she watched the people rushing across the street.
"Is everyone so small?"
Raze nodded. "Humans with shifter blood are larger."
She sat forward and set her arm on the headrest in front of her. The arm hole opened wide on her jerkin and he caught the outline of a heavy peachy breast.
His body sprang to life again. Dammit! It had taken him thirty minutes to get his prick to calm down initially.
"I think we should get you back to my apartment," he said. "You can bathe. I'll get you some food and you can rest." That wasn't exactly why he wanted to get her back to his apartment. His desire to take her home to his large bed and make love to her increased with every moment he was in her presence.
"The days here are so short. It feels like only a few hours ago it was mid day."
Raze nodded. "It takes some getting used to. I still find it hard to get on a schedule sometimes."
"Thank you," she said. "For offering to take me in. I know that it's been a long time for you but..." Her eyes filled with sadness. "I never forgot about you."
Raze smiled and squeezed her hand. Neither had he.
"Do you... live with anyone else?" she asked.
"No." Though he did have frequent guests. Though that would stop now.
"That has to be different. I'm so used to sleeping with the entire clan- Those of us that were left anyway." Affina stared at him for a moment. "Do you think there is any chance my father and the others survived?"
How did he answer that? If he gave her hope, she'd still want to go back. If he told her no, she'd be devastated.
"The best thing we can do is pray to the gods that they join us soon."
She nodded. "My father is a strong man. If he lives, he will join us here." She turned and looked out the window again. "I just wish I could go back and help."
The thought of Affina's father arriving now brought him a sense of dread he'd never before experienced. Her father would never allow them to mate.
"Your father wanted you to live. Going back would be to go against his command. How well do you think that would be received?"
She turned to him once more. "Is that why you never came back? Never sent me any sign that you lived?"
"I sent yearly reports to your father from here. I assume now that he didn't get any if you've been in hiding. I can't imagine why he didn't tell you."
Raze bit his tongue at the lie. He had a pretty good idea exactly why her father hadn't told her he was alive.
****
Razor took Affina's hand and helped her from his car. Her saber pushed her forward into his chest, wanting to feel his body next to hers. He looked down at her and she backed up a pace.
"Sorry." Damn cat. What was with her today?
Razor stared at her and warmth spread through her. Something was off with him. She'd felt it ever since Gerri had told them that she needed to stay with him. The way he looked at her since their moments on the couch was completely different from how he'd looked at her when he'd arrived. Her gut clenched. Was it possible he didn't want her there?
Razor nodded to the man at the door and led her inside a tall building like Gerri's. The lobby floor shone with white stone. People in expensive looking clothing stared at her as Raze led her toward the elevator. Affina looked down at her outfit and crossed her arms over her chest trying to hide as much of her stained jerkin as she was able.
Embarrassment flooded her. Everyone looked like they belonged to some sort of human high court. Whereas she looked like she'd just run out of the jungle. Which technically she had. She swallowed hard. How far she'd fallen from her days as a princess.
Razor placed his hand on the small of her back and ushered her into the elevator. She stared at her worn sandaled feet as the doors closed. He inserted a card into a slot and then pushed the number twenty four on the panel.
"I feel so out of place," she said.
He gave her a tight smile. "We'll get you some proper clothing and you'll feel like your royal self in no time."
The doors to the elevator opened into a spacious apartment. Razor showed her into the front room where he laid down his bag and loosened the colorful cloth around his neck.
"Welcome home," he said.
The large front room sported an entire wall of windows. Affina walked over to them and gasped. From her vantage point she could see the entirety of the city. The cars looked like small toys from so far up.
"I feel like I can see the whole world from up here."
Razor chuckled. "It seems that way sometimes."
"It makes me feel so small."
"You could never be small."
She turned to see if he was teasing.
He untucked his shirt and then undid the buttons, revealing hard packed abs that rippled beneath the fabric. Affina crossed to him and pushed his shirt to the side. She ran her fingers over a scar on his left shoulder.
"I remember giving you this."
He sucked in a breath and held it for a moment. "A lesson I never forgot."
"It only took three times of me teaching it to you."
He smiled. "Yes, but I've never dropped my gaze since."
She ran her fingers down his chest to his abdomen making his muscles quake. He grabbed her hand. A rush of heat washed through her at his gaze. The sudden desire to push her lips to his overwhelmed her.
"I... I'm sorry," she managed. "I didn't mean to-"
"No," he said. "It's just been so long since-" He cleared his throat. They stood staring at each other for a moment, his hand squeezing tight around hers. He scanned her face as if memorizing it and then he released her and stepped away.
"Let me show you to your room."
Affina nodded and tried to calm her pounding heart. It was hard for her to get a hold of the fact that he wasn't just a teen now. It'd been more than a decade to him. Touching him was obviously now something she should no longer do- no matter how much she and her saber wanted to.
He walked down a small hallway to the left and pushed open the first door.
"This room is yours. There is a bathroom for you to take a shower and there should be a toothbrush and hair brush in the drawer."
Affina looked around the stark white room with the dark wooden bed. "Do you have many guests you let sleep in here?"
"No," he said.
She turned to him. "Where do you sleep?"
He pointed the other way. "My room is on the other side. You go ahead and clean up and I'll order us something to eat."
She nodded. "All right."
Razor licked his lips and looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he turned and closed the door.
Affina's saber grumbled making her rub her chest again. Emotions mixed inside her. She was so happy to see Razor alive, but she'd lost her father, her clan and her home all in one day. She was the last saber of the Saber Mountain clan. Even Razor wasn't a true member. He'd been a slave- though he'd eventually have been adopted in by his years of servitude. Tears formed in her eyes as the weight of those words pressed her down.
Affina stripped her jerkin off and walked naked to the bathroom. She turned on the water to the shower and stepped inside. Curling in a ball on the tile floor, she let the tears flow. As happy as she was that she had Razor, he was so different. Everything between them was different. Even on a new planet with her best friend- she was completely alone.