Born of Defiance

It was.

Breathing a small sigh of relief, she quickly e-mailed her broker and told him that she was no longer a virgin. A slight lie, but it would help to make sure they didn’t offer her to someone else.

Once the probationary period was over, it would be harder to break their contract. She just had to make it four more months.

Four months.

Felicia refused to think about what could happen during that time. Talyn was a fighter and for him, she would be one, too. No one would take her male from her. Not without blood being shed. Her passivity did have its limits, and while she didn’t like to fight, it didn’t mean she didn’t know how.

She froze as she caught a whiff of his scent on the pillow. Smiling, she buried her face against it and inhaled. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine the future she wanted. One spent with a sweet, thoughtful male who treasured her.

With her finger, she switched the screen on her link and texted him. When will I see you again?

It was several minutes before he responded. Soon as I can. Promise.

A highly unsatisfactory answer. Fine. But we miss you already.

We?

Biting her lip, she pulled her shirt off and snapped a quick photo of herself in her lacy bra before sending it to him. The three of us.

He sent back a picture of himself smiling so widely, she saw his fangs. I have training tomorrow after my shift. I won’t really have any free time, but if you swing by the gym, I can catch a quick bite with you.

While it wasn’t what she wanted, at least it would give her a few minutes with him. I’ll bring you something to eat. Just send me the time and place, and I’ll see you then.

He sent it over. Remember, I need lean white meat with nothing on it. 175 grams of protein. Min.

Wow, but then that made sense given that he was a fighter and a soldier with a large, muscled build. Will do. Can’t wait to see you. Oh, can I ask a favor?

Anything.

Bring me your undershirt. Don’t wash it.

Why?

She felt heat creep over her face and hoped he didn’t think her weird for the request. I want to sleep in it.



Talyn’s throat tightened as he read Felicia’s response, and his body hardened even more. Really?

You don’t think I’m gross for asking, do you?

He smiled at her question. No. I think you’re beautiful. As soon as he hit Send, his link buzzed. He switched it over to answer. “Major Batur.”

“Where are you?”

He checked the time as he heard the shift captain’s agitated voice. “En route to base from my condo. You can check my tracker. I’m stuck in traffic, but I still should make check-in.”

“Check-in was five minutes ago.”

Talyn bit his temper back. “My curfew’s ten. My band just went off fifteen minutes ago.”

“According to the schedule, your curfew was nine. Your band must be malfunctioning.”

You son of a whore. Yet again, Anatole must have changed the time after Talyn left base and then purposefully not updated the alarm on his band. “I’ll have my band checked on arrival.”

“I’ll have to report you tardy.”

Of course you will. Anyone else, they’d cover for. “I’ll report to Provost on my return.” Which would be a mark against him that would cause his current application for a command position and transfer to be kicked back again.

Beautiful.

“I’ll notify them immediately to expect you.” The captain hung up.

Talyn clenched his teeth as furious hatred tore through him. He was so tired of this shit. Just once, he wanted to be treated like a normal Andarion. His father was one of the famed and adored War Hauks. Theirs was a lineage that rivaled the tadara’s for prestige. And in the military, it ranked above even the royal lineage. Hell, there was even a national holiday that celebrated his father’s family.

By Andarion law, Anatole should be his bitch.

But because his father had turned his back on his Andarion family and married a human, it was a lineage Talyn could never lay legal claim to.

Thanks, Fain. Appreciate your kindness in humiliating my mother and abandoning her. His actions had been so egregious in the eyes of Andarion society that no member of the Warring Blood Clan of Hauk would acknowledge Talyn as one of them.

At all.

Neither of his grandmothers could look at him without sneering. And none of them had ever deigned to speak to him. Only his Gre Yaya Hauk had ever made any kind of effort to acknowledge to him. But even she’d stopped once her husband learned what she was doing behind his back.

Since then, Talyn had been completely dead to all his Hauk relatives.

Which was fine by him. He didn’t need any of those selfish assholes.

His link buzzed. Talyn glanced down to see another message from Felicia. In spite of his misery, he smiled. Just the sight of her playful kitten avatar made him feel better. How stupid was that?