“No!” Kyle shouted. “That’s not what I want. Not unless you come with me. ”
“You know that’s impossible. I have a child about to be born. My life is here on Tygeria, and I can’t leave it. I want you here with me, but we’re at war with the Alliance. It’s an ancient war and our scars are deep. The only role for you in my life—the only future we have—is for you to remain here as my nobyo. ”
“So I’m basically spoils of war? Just a prisoner?” He stopped pacing and glared at Taz. “If I’m only a prisoner of war, why am I not in one of your prison camps? Why did you come for me in the first place?”
Taz sighed and shook his head. “You know the answer to this, Nobyo. Why do you persist in being so stubborn? My brother thought I would like you. I did. I wanted you from the first moment I saw you. If I hadn’t taken you, then yes, you would now be in a prison camp. Do
you want me to put you aside? Let you go home?”
“No, of course not. I told you that you’re my mate. Once I saw you—touched you—I can no longer be without you. My family has a biological imperative to be with their mates. ”
“Then why are we always discussing this?” Taz snapped. “Damn it! Even if you asked to leave me, I don’t know if I could really let you go!” He stood up and crossed the room to catch Kyle up in his arms and drag him over to the bed to make love to him. Most of their arguments ended the same way, actually, with Taz exerting his dominance over Kyle and trying to prove to him that he was in charge. Taz actually believed that he had vanquished Kyle’s Lycan wolf in some way, deep inside him. Actually, nothing could have been further from the truth.
Kyle’s wolf was still there, still very aware of what was happening. He was willing to submit to his mate, though not necessarily pleased about it. Still, in some ways he responded to Taz’s extreme dominance. Did his wolf recognize a true alpha in Taz and wish to submit? It was the only possible explanation for why he mostly wanted to obey his mate, and why he responded with so much excitement to their lovemaking.
Though he still badly needed to complete the mating by biting and claiming him as well, his wolf had been pacified by the almost constant lovemaking they’d been engaged in, and that was unusual for a true alpha. His cousin Lucas or Blayde would have gone insane by now. Perhaps he really was a beta, and thus, while he sometimes balked at his mate’s domineering behavior, he mostly responded to his orders.
Taz had been careful so far never to allow Kyle to top him or be anywhere close enough to the back of his neck to bite him when they made love, but Kyle knew it was only a matter of time until he let down his guard. Until then, he was enjoying his mate and playing a kind of waiting game. The most he could hope for with the extremely dominant Tygerian would be a kind of partnership of equals. Kyle even thought he could allow him to be in charge, to a certain extent, but in order to accomplish either of those things, he had a lot more work to do.
Kyle needed to convince his lover that he was as brave and as strong as he was, and that he needed no protection. He’d be willing to submit to him, if that was what he needed, but he had to stop treating Kyle like some delicate, not-too-bright pet. And that was going to take a lot of persuasion.
In the meantime, Kyle was worried about his family back on Lycanus 3, and determined to let them know he was alive and not being tortured or mistreated in any way. They had to know Tarr Bonnet was involved and would naturally think the worst. They must all be frantic by now. He had to let them know that he’d found his mate, and wanted to stay with him.
That wasn’t even the only reason he needed to contact them. He was worried about their feelings, of course, and how worried they’d be, but most of all he wanted to prevent any ill-advised rescue attempts that would ultimately be unsuccessful and might even lead to some of them being hurt or even killed. He knew Lucas and Kyle’s own brother Nikolai—hells, the entire family— would never rest until they found him. Taz was equally unwilling to give him up. It could prove to be a dangerous situation.
Restlessly, he got up and walked to the door. When he tried the door knob, it opened for him right away, and he was a little surprised. Taz really had become complacent about him in the last few days. Kyle had no doubts the servants had been told to watch him, and if he tried to leave the house, he’d be quickly stopped, but he seemed to have freedom of movement within these walls.
He could hear some of the servants outside working on the grounds, and the others were in the kitchen from the sounds of it. He slipped as silently as he could down the hallway to Taz’s office and surprisingly found it unlocked. He knew Taz had a compnet, and worked on it most evenings. He wondered if he’d be lucky enough to be able to get on and send a message to his family.
Taz had promised he’d do it for him, but so far he’d never asked for their contact information, and Kyle thought he was still just putting him off, perhaps thinking they’d forget about Kyle eventually. If so, Taz had no idea how fiercely loyal Lycans were, especially to their families.
He found the compnet with no problem, and it wasn’t even password protected, so he was able to get on soon enough. The problem came when he tried to send a message to Lycanus 3 or anywhere else outside Tygeria. A warning of some kind popped up—in Tygerian, so Kyle had no idea what it said, but the red, flashing border around the message gave him a pretty good clue that the network wasn’t wishing him a good day.
An idea occurred to him and he quickly wrote a message to send to the embassy of the planet Jayron. He was able to look up its address on Tygeria and hit the send button before he could second guess himself. Jayron was the planet his brother-in-law, Jagger, came from and had diplomatic ties to both Tygeria and the Alliance. Kyle had met Jagger’s mother and father, the king and queen of Jayron, and he thought that maybe the embassy would at least recognize his name and pass on a message to his family for him—if the message wasn’t ignored or filed away by some bureaucrat as spam. All he could do was write the message and send it to through the diplomatic channel he found online and hope for the best.
He turned off the compnet and stole quietly back out of Taz’s office. On his way out, he stopped for a moment to look at Taz’s trophy case, near the door. Like most young Tygerian males, Taz competed in the Gladiator games, a popular, if bloodthirsty sport that took place in the arenas. The wealthy young men on the planet loved to fight in the Exhibition Games, arena-type games held from time to time, and usually fought by slaves or prisoners. Though it was forbidden by Tygerian law, young warriors like Taz would sometimes take part, with officials turning a blind eye to it in the name of higher television ratings.
The games were always performed in front of large crowds, and broadcast to a huge audience on Tygeria and its allied planets. A warlike people, the Tygerians liked nothing better than a good fight, and sometimes, especially when they were fighting condemned prisoners, the fight was to the death. If the prisoner showed exceptional courage, he might even win his freedom, as the crowd decided the outcome with a raised fist if they wanted to spare the prisoner’s life. They admired courage and bravery more than any other trait. However, if the prisoner showed fear by cowering or running away, the crowd would scorn him, and he would be dispatched quickly. Taz had shown Kyle his many trophies won in the games proudly, along with Tarr’s. He kept them in this special case by the door.
Because of his participation in the games, Taz liked to stay physically fit. He had a well-equipped gym in his home and Kyle headed that way now. He spent the next hour or so using the weights and Taz’s machines, then went and took a long hot soak in the bathing chamber. Later in the afternoon, he studied some of the Tygerian language books Taz had obtained for him, just trying to pass the time until Taz came home.
It was late in the afternoon when he finally heard the door open and Taz walked in, looking tired and a bit subdued. Kyle put down his book and smiled at him, knowing he liked it when he made a big deal of his arrival.
“What have you done today, Nobyo?” Taz asked, gazing at him somberly.
“Not much. I slept late. Exercised a while, then studied the language books after that. Did you have a good day?”
“It was…interesting. ” Taz slipped off his jacket and sat down at the table. The door opened within a minute or so and servants began bringing in the evening meal. Kyle sat down across from Taz, wondering if something had happened at work to make him upset.
In the meantime, the food smelled good and he filled his plate to begin eating. It was some kind of stew with a bit of a strange flavor, so Kyle decided not to even ask what it might be. He was hungry and concentrated on his food for a while before he noticed that Taz wasn’t eating, but just sitting there watching him.
He touched a napkin to his lips and leaned back in his chair. “Is everything all right?”
“Perhaps you should tell me. ”
Kyle cocked his head. “Sure, I guess so. I was bored all day, but whatever…” he shrugged.
“Really? So bored you had to ask the Jayronian ambassador for help?” Taz spoke quietly, staring across the table at him.