Drakkal didn’t know if she’d been assigned this location for work or if she’d chosen it herself, but every time she was ignored or rebuked by a passerby, a spark of rage flared in Drakkal’s chest. Violence had been a part of his life in some fashion or another for almost as long as he could remember, but he’d never been so motivated toward it for so petty a reason. He wanted to attack everyone who glanced at her in a way that could be interpreted as even mildly rude.
But he held himself back. He’d made mistakes when it came to Shay, and he intended to keep them to a minimum going forward. That meant leaning on the patience he’d commanded before meeting her. It meant drawing on the skills he’d learned as a hunter long before Arthos was anything more to him than a distant, almost mythical city he had no desire to see.
Yet despite his considerable willpower, it was a unique sort of torture to be so close to her without being able to interact with her, especially given howgoodit felt to finally speak to her yesterday. Their conversation in her apartment had eased the stress that had built in Drakkal over the last three weeks—andhe wanted to capitalize on the progress they’d made. He wanted towooher, as Arcanthus had suggested.
And how would that go? Hello Shay, I was just stalking you and I found myself wondering if you wanted to get some lunch?
He’d been watching her for a few hours with his tail pinned against the wall behind him to keep it still when the sedhi approached her. Though Drakkal couldn’t see the entirety of their bodies—and therefore their interactions—through the constant flow of foot traffic, he knew Shay was not comfortable with the sedhi’s presence by her expression.
Keeping his eyes on Shay and the sedhi, Drakkal stalked closer, shifting his ears beneath his hood to focus his hearing forward.
“How much for you?” the sedhi asked.
Drakkal hadn’t wanted to punch a sedhi in the teeth that much since he’d seen Arcanthus that morning.
“I’m not for sale, so fuck off. And don’t touch me again,” Shay snapped. She turned away from the sedhi, her bright blue eyes spitting fire into the crowd as she raised a flyer. “Check out the Spectacular Skrudge Show!”
Drakkal’s brows fell low, his fur bristled, and a growl sounded from deep in his chest. The sedhi hadtouchedher? Instinct rapidly overpowered Drakkal’s rational thought. He increased his pace, eyes locked on the sedhi as a red haze flooded his vision.
The sedhi reached forward and grabbed Shay’s shoulder. As he spun her around, he said, “I’m talking to you?—”
Were he not so experienced a fighter himself, Drakkal might’ve missed what happened next—it was fast, much faster than he’d expected from a terran. Shay dropped the flyers in her left hand, lifting that arm and using the momentum created by the sedhi’s pull to bat away his hand. She hammered her right fist into the sedhi’s chin before he could react.
The sedhi’s head snapped back, and he staggered back a step, grating a curse. The crowd eased back from the terran and her foe, finally granting Drakkal a clear view.
Drakkal’s heart stilled when the sedhi recovered and swung his arm in a counterattack. Shay was too small, too delicate to take such a blow from a being so much bigger than her. Drakkal charged forward, but he wouldn’t get there in time.
Shay ducked beneath the sedhi’s swing. Having overextended himself, the sedhi was thrown off balance by his miss. Shay thrust a leg in front of his and twisted slightly to give him a shove on the shoulder. He toppled face first onto the ground.
By the time the sedhi flipped over and started to sit up—no more than a second or two, at most—Shay had thrown open her coat, drawn her blaster, and backed away from her opponent. She stared at him, her gaze as hard and unwavering as the gun in her hand.
The sedhi glared at her, fangs bared, his third eye dipping to the barrel of the blaster.
“Isaiddon’t touch me. Is it really that hard to listen?” Shay asked.
“Fuck you, you?—”
“I don’t know exactly where your dick is, but I have enough patience and ammunition to find out. So I want you to think very carefully about the next words coming out of your mouth.”
“You won’t shoot me.”
“How much you willing to bet?”
The sedhi pressed his lips together in a tight line, and a glimmer of uncertainty entered his eyes. Several people had stopped to watch the altercation. Drakkal halted at the edge of that crowd. Despite his fury, he’d maintained just enough control to know that his interference now had a chance of worsening the situation.
“Good,” Shay said, her expression surprisingly calm. Evenif she’d been shaken up, she was fully in control. “Now you’re going to get up very slowly, turn around, and walk away.”
Nostrils flaring with heavy breaths, the sedhi carefully stood up. His attention once again fell to the blaster as he retreated. Shay kept the weapon aimed at him even when he turned and sprinted away, his long tail trailing behind him.
With sighs and soft conversation—some of it relieved and some of it oddly disappointed—the crowd reverted to its typical state of motion.
Drakkal couldn’t take his eyes off Shay. The confidence and competence with which she’d handled the sedhi were startling, though they shouldn’t have been—he’d seen hints of it in all his interactions with her before now. It was yet more evidence of what Arcanthus had speculated regarding Shay’s past. This terran knew how to take care of herself.
And that fighting spirit, that warrior soul, called to Drakkal. It fanned those desirous flames she’d already woken in him, stoked them to new heights. That quickly, the fires of rage burning in Drakkal became an inferno of yearning.
Shay holstered the blaster and tugged her jacket closed to conceal it again. She looked down at the flyers on the ground, and her lips and nose scrunched endearingly.
“You know what? Fuck this,” she muttered and lifted her hand, yanking back her sleeve to reveal her holocom. She pulled up the control screen and flipped through the commands.