Drakkal lifted his hands and curled them into impotent firsts as he gritted his teeth.
The terran has had me out of sorts for weeks. Normally I wouldn’t let Arc get to me so easily… Normally, I’m the one getting under his skin.
Though that thought didn’t eliminate the emotional torrentwithin Drakkal—it didn’t even slightly diminish the storm—it restored a bit of his self-control.
“Let me correct myself, sedhi—I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. You’re helping me.”
“Why should I, if that’s the attitude you’re going to take?” Arcanthus asked with a shrug. He turned his chair back toward his desk. His lingering smirk suggested he was taking far too much pleasure in this.
“Samantha,” Drakkal replied through his teeth.
Arcanthus snapped his head to the side to glare at Drakkal, his expression instantly darker. “Even in jest, I won’t tolerate any threats to her, azhera.”
“Vrek’osh, I’m not threatening her. I’d never harm Samantha. Do you remember how you acted when you first found her? When you realized what she was to you?”
Arcanthus frowned. “I acted like a damned fool.”
Drakkal nodded. “More so than usual. But once you told me what she was to you, what did I do?”
“You called me stupid.”
“After that, damn it.”
“You helped. Which, for the record, is what I was about to do for you. I just can’t resist a chance to get your fur in a tangle.”
“Only thing that’s going to get tangled here is my hands around your neck, sedhi.”
Waving a hand dismissively, Arcanthus turned his chair forward again. “You’re sure about this terran, Drak?”
“Yes.”
“What are the odds? First that zenturi, then me, and now you. Terrans are one of the smallest alien populations in this city, and yet all of us are finding them as mates. Who do you suppose will be next?Thargen?”
Drakkal grunted; the thought of Thargen with a terranmate almost made the corner of his mouth twitch upward, but it wasn’t quite enough to break through his current mood.
“It’s just that you’ve been down this road before,” Arcanthus continued. “I only saw the aftermath of that a few years after it happened, but you were in a bad place because of it for a long, long time.”
Drakkal caught his lower lip between his teeth and bit down, breathing out slowly to keep himself from making an angry retort. “This is different.”
“How do you know? Clearly, this female isn’t interested.”
“Because itis, Arc. It just is. It smells different, feels different…Ifeel different. She’s roused instincts in me that I’ve never experienced before. There’s no comparison between what I had back then and what I feel now. You ready to shut up and help yet?”
“Fine, fine.” Arcanthus shifted his attention to the many displays on his desk. “What do you want me to do?”
Drakkal moved to stand behind Arc and watch over the sedhi’s shoulder. “Hack the city surveillance system again.”
Arcanthus snickered. “We tried that the night you came home bare-assed. Lost her less than a minute after she left that alleyway.”
“This time will be different.”
“How can you know that?”
Drakkal clamped his jaw shut for a second. “I don’t. But ithasto be. I ran into her on Orcus Street in the Viraxis sector about four hours ago.”
“That can be a rough part of town.”
“They can all be rough. You going to do it or not?”