He breathed in deep, filling his lungs with air redolent with the perfume of a dozen alien flowers, and turned onto the foot path that would take him toward his hovercar.
His gaze locked with a pair of sickeningly familiar golden eyes set in a brown-furred, feminine face, and Drakkal’s good mood perished in an avalanche of hatred and bitterness.
Vanya smiled that old, sultry smile he’d once found so enticing and sauntered toward him, hips swaying seductively and tail swinging languidly. Drakkal tightened his right fist around the straps of the bag he was carrying. He wasn’t sure whether he should’ve been grateful or angry that his blaster hand was full—he might’ve drawn the weapon otherwise.
And gunning someone down in public tended to cause problems in this part of town.
“Hello, Drakkal,” Vanya said, stopping in front of him.
Drakkal released a low growl. “Following me now?”
She sidled a little closer and placed her hand on his flesh and blood forearm, slowly sliding it upward. “I’ve missed you. I got tired of waiting for you to come find me, so I took matters into my own hands.”
Hetugged his arm away from her and very nearly formed the hardlight claws on the tips of his cybernetic fingers. It would’ve been easy to slash them across her throat. “Fuck off, Vanya.”
Her features tightened into a scowl for an instant before they fell into an exaggerated pout. “I was wrong, Drakkal. Is that what you want to hear?”
Drakkal’s nostrils flared with a heavy exhalation; if it were possible to breathe fire, he would’ve been singing her fur that very moment. “Wrong? You threw in with slavers and fucking handed me over to them. We lived together for years. We shared a bed. But you werewrong? Did you suffer a traumatic headwound sometime after you sold me out?”
“What do you think would have happened to me if I hadn’t helped them? I’m female, Drakkal. My life would have been infinitely worse than yours. But I knewyouwould have a chance. You were always strong.” She eased a little closer. “I wish it hadn’t come to that. I wish things could have been different. ThatIhad been different. I just didn’t realize what I had until you were gone.”
He squeezed his fists tight enough to make his arms tremble—even the metal one. “Too little, too fucking late.Kraasz ka’val, Vanya, you really think I’m going to buy that you were in any danger? You helped them round up everyone within two hundred kilometers of us!”
Her brows fell. “I wasn’t given much of a choice, Drakkal. But they didn’t kill you. Isn’t that enough?” She reached for him again, placing her palm on his chest. “You loved me once. I want that again. I want to try again, with you. You were such a worthy mate, and I was wrong not to see it. I want to make amends, to earn your trust, your forgiveness. I want cubs?—”
“Take your hand off me,” Drakkal said in a lowvoice, glaring at her, “or I will tear it off and shove it down your traitorous throat.”
Vanya’s eyes flared and her ears perked. She dropped her hand.
Pulses of heat swept throughout Drakkal’s body, flowing just beneath the surface. His ears were flat, his fur bristling, his tail lashing in agitation. “I would have done anything for you back then. I would have died for you—I was ready to. But I never loved you. I cared for the person Ithoughtyou were. The person youneverwere. We talked about honoring the old ways before we left home. Do you remember any of that?” He took a step toward her, and she took one back. “Do you remember who you pretended to be?
“If your life was in danger, you should’ve told me. But it wasn’t. You’re just giving me another fucking lie. You were meeting with them for weeks before they took me—that’s where you were disappearing to. If it was a matter of your life against the lives of all our neighbors, you should’ve done the honorable thing, the noble thing. But that was never you, was it? Every choice you’ve ever made has been foryou. You’re not going to find forgiveness, you’re not going to make amends. You’re going to scurry back to whatever sewer you crawled out of and never come near me or my family again, or I will show you what it means to be azheran. I will avenge the wrong you have done me.”
All traces of softness left Vanya’s features as she bared her teeth in a snarl. “This is because of thatji’tasterran, isn’t it? Your newly acquired pet?”
“Mymate,” Drakkal growled. “And you don’t fucking speak of her. You’re not worthy to.”
“I wanted things to go differently for us this time.” The corner of her mouth quirked. “You don’t know the mistake you just made, but you will soon.”
“I’m going to kill you the next time I see you, Vanya.”
She smiled, sparking a wicked light in her eyes, turned, and walked away from him.
As Drakkal watched her go, the thundering of his heart drowned out the sounds of the mall around him. He maintained his tight hold on the bag’s handles; even now, his fingers itched to draw his blaster and fire a few plasma bolts into her back. It was a cowardly way to end things, but it was no more than Vanya deserved for what she’d done.
The wisdom of hindsight had made Vanya’s nature apparent to him over the long years since she’d betrayed him, but now it was clearer than ever. How had he ever been so foolish as to not see it? How had he ever believed she possessed the qualities that had drawn him in?
He'd dealt with enough criminals to understand now that she’d been manipulating him from the beginning. She’d only ever seen him as a means to an end, and as soon as she’d decided he was no longer useful for achieving her goals, she’d turned on him. He didn’t doubt that she was jealous of his mate—he’d practically worshipped Vanya when he was young. It wasn’t likely that her ego could handle the blow he’d dealt it now. In her mind, Drakkal was supposed to always worship her, because shewasideal. She was everything he should’ve wanted.
But even back then, he’d never taken her as a full mate. He’d never filled her with his seed—some instinctual part had known it wasn’t right, thatshewas wrong.
“Fuck,” he grumbled. He forced himself to walk.
The day had been so good.
Drakkal carefully monitored his surroundings as he left the Ventrillian Mall, searching for any sign of pursuit, for any sign of Vanya. If she’d followed him here, where else had she tailedhim to? Did she know about the building he and Shay called home?
Pulled an Arcanthus and got careless.