Chapter Ten

Aidan cursed as he held Rachel’s shivering body, sweat soaking her face and into her hair, her shirt already drenched. He wished for a cool cloth to wipe her forehead, like his mother had done for him when he’d been small. But their supply of drinking water was already low, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to use swamp water on her. Besides, while it might have soothed for a minute or two, it wouldn’t have done much good. She didn’t have a fever or an infection. He’d given her another dose of antibiotics to make sure of that, just because the rizer’s mouth was filthy. But what was making her sick was a reaction to the poison itself, her body rejecting the alien venom. And it was alien. Rizer was the one venom that no one and nothing on Harp had managed to develop a resistance to, not even shifters.

Rachel’s eyes opened as another wave of tremors shook her hard enough that he had to tighten his hold to keep her securely against his chest.

“You lied,” she rasped. “You said I’d be better after lunch.” She licked dry lips, and he offered her the bottle of water for a tiny sip, then smeared her lips with a moisturizing salve he’d found in her pack.

“I said you’d be better by the time we headed out. I didn’t say when.”

Her eyes closed as she drifted back to sleep, but there was the slightest smile curving her lips.

…

Rachel stifled a groan when she woke the next morning. Everything ached. Everything. She hadn’t felt this bad in… Fuck that. She’d never felt this bad. It was as if a herd of something with big feet had stomped over her body and left her in a bog. Because it wasn’t enough that she felt like shit, she also stank. It had to be pretty bad when she could smell herself, given her present surroundings. She refused to open her eyes, hoping she was still dreaming, that they were actually out of the swamp and back in the leafy sunshine of the Green itself.

“Nope, it’s not a dream. You really are waking up to the most charming man on Harp, who’s already hunted and cooked breakfast.”

She gave in and started to sit up, fighting the urge to bat away his hands when Aidan reached out to help her. She had to admit she wasn’t at her best, and his arm did feel good around her, comforting in its solid strength. She had a vague memory of him holding her through the worst of the night, too.

“Thank you,” she said.

“You should taste the breakfast first.”

She smiled. “That’s not what I’m thanking you for.”

He hugged her gently. “I know. Here.” He handed her more of the antibiotics and water.

Rachel was thirsty, but she drank only the minimum necessary, knowing their water supply was still short. Taking back the canteen, he then offered her a piece of what she recognized as ceba meat. She wrinkled her nose. “I should probably stick with one of my energy bars.”

He grunted. “Nice try. You need protein first—real energy, not sugar. You can have one of your dry-as-dust bars for dessert.”

“Who put you in charge?” she grumbled, but took the small piece of meat, knowing he was right. She ate doggedly, ignoring the unfamiliar taste. It was energy, nothing more. But she still declined a second slice. “I’m full. Honest.”

Aidan laughed. “You want dessert?” He held out the energy bar.

She shook her head. “I’ll save that for later. I need to—” She rolled to her knees, hoping she wouldn’t embarrass herself if she tried to stand, pretending not to see his outstretched hand, ready to catch her if she fell. Not likely. She’d survived worse than a giant bug bite in the past, and she was sure Harp had even worse to offer in the future.

“Don’t go too far,” Aidan cautioned. “I’ve seen women pee before, you know.”

Rachel nodded. She was sure he had. In fact, she was sure there was very little about a woman that Aidan hadn’t seen. Once the necessities were taken care of and her clothes restored to their proper order, Rachel returned to what passed for a campsite in the swamp.

He looked up, his gold-flecked eyes searching her face. “Are you good to head out?”

“I’m ready. It was a bad night,” she acknowledged, “but the clock is ticking, and I don’t give up that easily. Let’s go.”

He studied her for a moment, then said, “You set the pace.”

Rachel agreed. She’d have done the same thing—hell, she had done the same thing when a member of her party had been injured. You either traveled as a team, or you didn’t travel. She reached for her pack, looked up when Aidan would have taken it from her.

“That thing weighs a ton,” he said dryly. “I’ll carry it today.”

She shook her head. “And if we were on a stroll in paradise, I might let you. But you’re the one who insisted there’s always some new threat lurking on Harp. I’ll carry the pack. You can be the muscle.”

He muttered something about a “stubborn woman” but handed over the pack and didn’t even try to help her put it on, which she perversely appreciated.

“The air will get fresher the higher we go today,” he said from behind her as she started climbing.

She dug her toe in and pushed herself high enough to scramble for the next handhold. “It sure as hell can’t get worse.”

Almost before the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back. The universe was a trickster with an infinite playbook. It was never a good idea to tempt its imagination.

…

Aidan reached overhead and gripped a low-hanging branch, pulling himself up the damn slope with pure muscle power. Rachel was ahead of him, setting the pace. They had to keep going at least until they left the swamp behind. After that. Well, he knew she wanted to reach the city and whoever it was that had hired her. He was anxious to find the asshole, too. But as remarkable as she was, and as determined, she risked more by pushing too hard. In fact, he intended for them to head for Clanhome. She could rest there while Aidan and the others tracked down the traitor. Assuming she’d tell him the traitor’s name. She hadn’t yet because she was convinced he’d go after asshole without her. Which he would. He and his cousins could shift and get there in half the time it would take her.

He growled low in his throat, loud enough that ahead of him, Rachel froze, moving only to give him a questioning look over her shoulder. He shook his head. “Just me,” he said, smiling. “I missed a branch and nearly fell.”

She studied him with hazel eyes that saw too much, before giving him a silent nod and continuing her climb. He had no doubt that she understood there was more to Harp than he was telling her, but she hadn’t worked out what yet. She never would. There might be several forms of genetically modified humans out there—mostly created to deal with the unfriendly conditions in space—but he could guarantee she’d never seen a shifter among them. He and his shifter brethren were one of a kind. The scientific records of their genetic mods and births had been destroyed, lest anyone, like Earth fleet, think to breed up a shifter crop of their own. Harp’s shifters remembered their own history. They knew how easily norms dismissed anything other than perfectly human as less than. Less than human, less than worthy of life and freedom. And shifters were not about to become the fleet’s newest super-soldier slaves.

His thoughts slammed to a halt as he caught a wisp of unease among the trees. The closer they drew to the upper edge of the rift, the stronger the link between the local trees and the Green beyond, and what they were whispering wasn’t good. It was the same as he’d sensed earlier, before they’d hit the swamp bottom, that feeling of something wrong, something big, that even the trees couldn’t explain.

He threw his head back and scented the air, wishing he could shift. Every one of his senses was sharper in his animal form, not to mention he could have climbed into the treetops to search out whoever was on their trail. Because he had no doubt that the invader the trees were sensing was after him and Rachel.

Shaking his head in disgust, he looked up and realized she had gotten at least twenty yards ahead of him, which was too far. He’d taken his first, hurried step to catch up with her when the swamp went dead silent. Animals large and small had gone quiet, hiding in their nests and burrows, while the trees’ confusing song had become a litany of warning.

Damn it.

“Rachel.” That was all he said, just her name. And that’s all it took. In an instant, her crossbow was in her hand and she was nocking a pair of bolts, her head turning left and right as she searched for the threat.

“What is it?” she murmured, eyes straining to see in the twilight dimness of the swamp’s upslope.

His nostrils flared, and his eyes changed, becoming catlike, enhancing his vision. If the danger was close enough to make the swamp dwellers hide, it was close enough for him to scent. He blinked in surprise. “Pongo,” he murmured, half in disbelief. He’d never heard of a pongo descending into the swamp for any reason. It was the reason they’d taken this route in the first place.

“The same one?” she asked in a tight whisper.

He shook his head but said, “It has to be. Keep going.”

“No!” she said immediately. “I’m not leaving you—”

“No one’s leaving anyone. We’re both getting the hell off this slope. We can’t fight it here.” It was a lie, but he needed her safe…and far enough away that he could shift and deal with this fucking pongo on his own terms.

“Fine,” she said, stubborn as ever. “You lead the way.”

“Rachel, damn it—”

Three hundred pounds of pongo swung through the air from twenty feet away to land on Aidan in a whirlwind of sharp teeth and deadly intent. Claws raked his back, and the animal’s fetid breath, reeking of dead flesh, overwhelmed his senses, making his eyes water and his gorge rise. “Rachel, leave your pack and go!” he shouted as he reached overhead and dug his fingers into the thick pelt, feeling claws dig deep gouges into his flesh as he tossed the pongo over his head and to the ground in front of him. It was a big monster, old and wily enough to have followed them through the swamp, to wait until the conditions favored its victory, with Rachel sick and Aidan stuck in his human form. The beast couldn’t have understood why, but he’d have scented out the fact that Aidan hadn’t shifted in days.

He glanced up to see Rachel had dropped her pack, but the infernal woman wasn’t leaving. She didn’t understand that she put him in more danger by staying. As long as she was there, he couldn’t shift.

“Go!” he bellowed, putting into it all the dominance of his shifter nature, the force of will that made him one of the most powerful of his generation.

The pongo leaped into the air, deadly clawed hands and feet all reaching for him, when suddenly it gave Aidan a look of raw animal cunning and twisted about in midair. Hitting the ground, it raced upslope, heading for Rachel.

Aidan threw back his head and roared, and then with a roll of sensation that encompassed every cell in his body, he shifted.

…

Rachel jerked as a tremendous roar vibrated through the thick air. It was a terrifying sound, the challenge of an enraged beast. She spun in a circle, fearing some new threat had emerged from the swamp. But what she saw made her forget everything else.

One moment Aidan was facing off against the enraged pongo, and the next he’d vanished in a spinning storm of golden sparks. And what emerged from the storm was…her eyes went wide…her cat.

The pongo, which had been charging uphill, reversed course, jumped ten yards through the air, and landed on her cat’s back, its teeth buried in the cat’s neck. She gave an enraged yell and lifted her bow.

…

Aidan heard Rachel’s scream, but he couldn’t help her if he didn’t stay alive. Understanding its danger as soon as he shifted, the huge pongo had spun away from Rachel and closed on him instead, reaching out to wrap powerful arms around him, digging in its claws as if to anchor itself to his body. Aidan yowled in rage and pain, but he finally had the only weapons he needed to win—his teeth, his claws, and his experience. He twisted and rolled, using his weight as a weapon, slamming the beast to the ground. With a loud grunt, the pongo released its hold as Aidan’s move crushed the air out of its lungs. But only for an instant. The animal jumped back to its feet and leaped for the trees, but Aidan anticipated the move and jumped faster. Landing on the pongo’s back, he sank vicious fangs into its neck and hung on, burying his foreclaws into the beast like hooks, while the deadly claws on his back feet dug in, over and over, ripping out great, bloody chunks of flesh and guts, finding vital organs and tearing at those with equal fervor.

And that quickly, the tide of battle shifted, with the pongo fighting for its life, its deep howl of defiance becoming a high-pitched bark of fear that was music to Aidan’s ears. He bit down harder into the ruin of the pongo’s neck, tearing through flesh until his jaws closed around the hard ridge of its spine. The vertebrae shattered with a satisfying crunch as the pongo went limp, and Aidan raised his head in a bloody roar of victory. The triumphant howl echoed through a swamp, traveling to the depths of the rift, terrifying prey who had never heard the sound before. Finally kicking aside the lifeless body as the red haze of battle lust receded from his vision, he remembered Rachel. He turned and saw her standing strong, crossbow in hand, staring at him in wonder, but with a fine dose of anger mixed in.

“Aidan?” she asked, as if testing the concept.

He dropped to the ground with a groan of pain. He’d won the battle, but the damn pongo had done some damage. Several ribs were broken and there were deep wounds all along his left side and flank. He knew he should shift to jumpstart the healing, but first he was going to lie there for a moment and catch his breath.

“Aidan,” Rachel said again, softer and from much closer, he realized as he felt her gentle hand on his injured side. “You’ve been keeping secrets,” she murmured, already digging into her pack for first aid supplies.

He could have told her it wasn’t necessary, that shifters were resistant to pretty much everything on Harp, and that all he really had to do was shift a few times to heal most of his injuries. But he was enjoying the attention too much. Plus, as soon as he took on his human form, he’d have to answer questions. Right now, he could simply lie there and be petted.

“I can’t believe you let me treat you like a big kitty cat,” she scolded as she poured water over his bloody flank. “Oh, baby,” she said softly.

There was so much tenderness, so much empathy in those two words, that Aidan wanted to roll in the scent of her.

“You have some broken ribs here,” she murmured, pressing gently.

He lifted his head to snarl at her. That hurt. He wanted to go back to the gentle strokes and soft words.

“Don’t you snarl at me,” she snapped. “I’m trying to help you again, even though you’ve been lying to me this whole time.”

Aidan needed to shift to accelerate his healing. He couldn’t keep her safe when he couldn’t even breathe without pain. On the other hand, if he shifted to human, he’d have to explain everything to Rachel, and he wasn’t ready to have that conversation. That left only one option. Taking the coward’s way out, he closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, and shifted in a whirlwind of golden sparks, taking on his human form just briefly, before shifting back once more to his cat.

…

“Shit!” Rachel froze, staring down at the giant cat. No, this wasn’t a cat, it was Aidan. Part of her was pissed and a little wounded that he’d kept such an enormous secret from her after all they’d been through. She’d taken care of him when he’d been drugged and abused on the ship. She’d gone against her own crew to get him out of that cage and… She struggled for breath as the true enormity of Wolfrum’s crime hit her. He knew about this. He had to. She’d wondered why he’d go to such lengths to capture an animal for some perverted collector’s private zoo. Why he’d risk his reputation, his entire life’s work!

But this. My God, the military would pay a damn fortune for a soldier like Aidan. A shifter, for fuck’s sake! The scientist in her shoved to the forefront, demanding to know how it was even possible. It couldn’t be a spontaneous adaption. It was too huge.

She looked down at the sleeping cat and wanted to shake him awake and demand answers. But this was Aidan, and he’d risked his life to defend her. She sighed and settled in next to him, stroking her hand over his flank. She pressed gently on his injured ribs, wanting to know if—

She jerked her hand up when the big cat grumbled at her touch and shoved his head into her lap, demanding attention. Rachel froze with her hand in midair, then smiled. There was no doubt this was Aidan. She shifted her hand to his big head, rubbing around his ears and stroking down over his neck and shoulders in a careful, repetitive pattern. He sighed lustily and relaxed beneath her hand, his breathing deep and regular.

Rachel shrugged. He’d watched over her last night, and now it was her turn. He could sleep and heal while she kept watch. As she sat there, every sense finely tuned, hyperalert to any sign of danger, she thought about Wolfrum. How did that kind of man—a decorated fleet officer, one of the most highly regarded scientists in his field, given award after award for research and discovery—how did such a man fall so low as to contemplate capturing human beings for slavery and experimentation? Because she knew what the fleet would do if they got their hands on someone like Aidan. They wouldn’t see the beauty of the animal or the magnificent human adaptability—they’d see a super soldier, a weapon. They’d break him down to his DNA, figure out a way to breed a new crop of shifters with all the aggression and fearlessness but without the alpha characteristics that would make them too hard to control. And they wouldn’t stop with one shifter. They’d take over the planet. There’d be no more closed status for Harp. Oh, it would be closed, but not for anyone’s protection. The military would want its secrets all for themselves.

She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking miserably. She had to tell Aidan about the second ship now. No more lies about heading to the city to meet Wolfrum. She’d kept silent for fear of what Wolfrum and the second crew might do if they were cornered, the people they’d kill, the animals they’d butcher. But now she understood what she’d seen when the cats had attacked her ship. She’d thought it had been wild cats against a wounded and unprepared ship’s crew. And afterward, when Aidan had claimed the entire crew had been killed, she hadn’t been convinced. There was simply no way a bunch of wild animals could defeat her heavily-armed shipmates. But now, after witnessing the fight she’d just seen between Aidan and the enormous apelike pongo, the viciousness of the battle he’d won… She imagined a dozen or more Aidans against her Earther crewmates. They wouldn’t have known what was hitting them. They’d have been torn apart. It was obvious that Harp and its shifters could take care of themselves, but now they needed to know the face of their enemy. And she had to tell them.