Chapter Nineteen

Piotr froze in place. An instinct called to him, and the pull of it engulfed him in an unexpected wave of heat. Taking a deep breath, he clenched his fists and, shaking, glanced around his cabin on the Firewalker.

After Vivie had kicked him out, declaring that unless he could come to her with his senses fully his own, she couldn’t bond with him. Wouldn’t. He didn’t blame her. After he’d called her vile names and told her to spread her legs, she’d looked at him like he was a stranger.

He had been.

Now, he didn’t know what rocked through his body, but the need to follow a tendril of electrical charge that scented as if Anna were in the room with him. It didn’t matter. He’d fall if he had to. Still bound in human form by the silver shackles, he sat on his cot, closed his eyes, and sent his mind out, seeking, hunting, needing.

There.

A whisper.

In the darkness of a vast space between them, a shimmer of light.

His consciousness curled around it and warmed the cold little star.

“Speak to me, love,” he whispered into the softness of her pulsing light.

“Piotr?”

The relief and aching loneliness of Anna engulfed him and he took the emotions as she gave them, with a need to share, to be as one, to be what she needed.

They spoke as if they stood in the same room, arms around each other, sharing heat and a simple touch. He could almost feel her hand brushing his hair from his face. He felt her need for him to stay calm. To listen. To accept.

And he did.

She told him of the time she’d been held before. She told him of being locked in a room.

“My lihting glows. Tell me how to shift.”

Lihting. The old word. A word Koschei used.

Inside her mind, he understood. They were one. They were bonded. She could not endure another life inside a lab as a test subject. It wasn’t a matter of saving her over their child because she would fade. She already did.

If he wanted them both, he had to trust her to shift and come to him.

Piotr took a deep breath. His eyes opened and he stared around the room without seeing.

“It’s the only way,” Anna spoke into his ear. He shivered, almost feeling her breath on his neck though she wasn’t here.

“Close your eyes.”

She did. This dual sense of being here, separate from her while reading her senses came naturally to him. It must confuse her. Yet it would be what he’d use to help her.

“Feel me. Feel where I am. Feel how much I want you here with me. I need you beside me. Listen to me and only me. Float out of your body and follow me.”

A weightlessness overtook him and his head spun.

“Keep following me. Don’t look at anything else. Come to me. Today, I’m your sun. Your energy. I’ll refill you.”

“Yes,” she called. “I need the light.”

“To me. With me, love. Follow me.”

The lure of the supernova tugged at her. He sensed her want and need. Fear tried to distract him. She flitted away, leaving him. The allure of the large energy source had mesmerized her, so unused to the magic of it. Batting away the distracting near-terror, he crooned to her over the distance, through their bond and mind-link. “You need me. Let me show you the light. Don’t go without me.”

She surged toward him after she’d paused, torn, wanting to fall into the star. “It’s so pretty. I want to share it with you.”

“Yes, love. Share it with me,” he urged while the clamp of fear around his heart loosened.

Closer, closer.

She didn’t need help flying and zeroing in on his location.

The room burst with light and a gorgeous but small bird dissolved, flaring before he could feed his hunger for her shifted form.

A nude, exhausted Anna fell into his arms.

Hugging her to him, he collapsed into a chair, bundling her against him and shoving his nose into her hair. Taking deep breaths of her scent, he let himself calm as his shaking limbs finally stilled.

“Thank you for coming to me.”

“I changed,” she croaked.

“Let me see,” he urged. His mind practically spun with the ramifications. She’d gotten through the Firewalker’s shields that only a phoenix could traverse. She’d shifted forms. She’d bonded with him.

Gently, he stood with her in his arms and strode to the bed. Grabbing a blanket folded at the foot, he wrapped it around her shoulders, sat her on the edge of the bed, and knelt in front of her. He whispered again, as she shivered and shook. Her eyes remained closed, as if she didn’t want to face reality, but he made himself carefully open the blanket.

“Beautiful,” he breathed.

She blinked and stared at him. Her red-rimmed eyes caught his and he smiled. “Beautiful.”

Glancing down at herself, she winced. He gripped her shoulders and squeezed. She tried to shrug him off and close the blanket.

“Don’t hide from me,” he cajoled. He wanted to order her. To tell her to never hide. To get in his bed and let him celebrate with passion, but she needed care, and his rougher urges could wait.

“I’m wrong. Like Ritter.”

“You’re not wrong,” he insisted and let a hand slide from her shoulder to the markings on her chest. He traced a finger over the lines. Where he had an ornate tree-like form to his energy lines, hers were interrupted in spots, and the glowing energy weak in others. Finally, he had to admit to himself and to her, the sudden truth he knew to the depth of his being. “He’s not wrong, either. A scientist had a hand in changing you, and creating Ritter, but you’re both as you were meant to be.”

She nodded and finally, after long, painful moments, a small smile curved her lips.

Closing his eyes and breathing out in relief, he tugged her into another hug.

They had much to discuss. How she’d managed to capture energy in her markings when she hadn’t before. How she’d gotten away from the Stealth. And, as he now confirmed from her scent while she nuzzled against his chest, how she now carried his child.

A smile tugged at him and he let it take him.

They had a lot to face. He had to make amends to Vivie and her family. They had to find a way to integrate her crew with the Firewalker.

And they still had the Stealth out there, even though the energy of all the mimics had disappeared. They were gone. But for how long?

As much as he wanted to curl around her and sleep, they had to report in and though he could contact Leader Torrin with mindspeak, he’d want to see Anna in person. “Come. We have to let our friends know you’re safe.”

Anna mumbled a sleepy denial.

“There is a battle being fought and we have intelligence that impacts it.”

“You’re right.” She sat up and pushed her hair from her face.

So lovely. So his.

And tired. So tired.

“I could take you to a re-gen chamber and report in, but I think you should rest. Wait here.”

Piotr contacted Leader Torrin and filled him in on his latest intel and as expected, the commander of the Firewalker ordered them to rest before reporting in. By the time Piotr joined Anna in bed, she appeared warm and sleepy. Inviting.

“I think I started changing when Belusi first captured me.” Her sleep roughened voice cleared and her sudden wakefulness, back to that time that had hurt her, made him want to go back in time and strangle that man instead of allow him to be captured.

He brought her against his side and brushed his fingers through her hair. “When I saw you then, you were a girl to me. Someone to save. I had no idea what you’d become.”

Anna curled against him but brought her face back to gaze at him. Her changed eyes still amazed him and his heart seemed to swell in his chest. “It was horrible, what they did, but I can’t regret it. I think I started mating to you then. All those erotic dreams of you.”

She gave a small little laugh and an adorable blush highlighted her cheeks.

“Erotic dreams?” His voice deepened in a way he didn’t recognize.

“You didn’t have them?”

“Tell me about them. Every detail. I’ll let you know,” he teased.

Her hand trailed up his arm until she cupped his cheek. “We’ll re-live every one of them. Later.”

She stretched toward him and he met her halfway to a soft, comforting kiss that made him groan of the sheer ache of love and connection that flowed between them but before they lingered in the physical, they both leashed the passion. For now, they had to understand what had happened to them. He murmured against her lips, “I didn’t have those dreams, but it does happen. When a couple begin to dance together but do not join physically until they are more sure. Usually it happens with the very young, before they’re more experienced and learn to manage the mating instincts. Now, couples usually agree they’re compatible before they allow the mating instincts to engage.”

Pulling back, she stared up at him. He missed her lips.

“I had more of the serum than the others. A lot more. My crew may not change.” She gave a huge yawn to punctuate her conjecture. As much as she cared for the women in her command, the exhaustion had started to take her.

“They may not change.” Piotr didn’t know what that would mean or if they could reverse whatever Belusi had done but they’d find a way to help Anna’s crew.

For now, Anna needed him and the rest could wait.

“Rest now. Your crew is safe. We’ll do everything we can for them.”

She nodded and then gave a sleepy grin. “Wait until I tell Len I can fly.”

“Indeed you can.” Piotr’s chest began to vibrate and his intincts led him to croon to his mate, to soothe her to sleep. “And I can’t wait to fly with you. Rest. We’ll fly together later.”

“Together?” she murmured, already half asleep in his arms.

“Always.”