Chapter 3

“I’m sorry I lost it earlier.” Jain blurted out an apology to Kesuk as soon as he made it through the doorway, her cheeks flushing hotly. She had blubbered all over the man, and he hadn’t even turned a hair, just tucked her in like a child. She was furious with herself for the lapse.

“What did you lose?”

Did she have to spell it out for him? Her face heated further. “I’m sorry I cried in front of you.”

He raised a brow. “Are you sorry you cried or just that you cried in front of me?”

“Both.” She glanced away, not meeting his eyes. “I’m just sorry. Can we talk about something else?”

“If you wish.”

“What was that man going to trade me for? Five of something?”

“Five of my people they’ve taken as slaves.”

“Slaves! That’s awful. Barbaric.”

He growled, his eyes narrowing. “Beware of passing judgment, little bear. Slavery is common practice here for those captured in raids or battles.”

“You have slaves?” Something in his face made her swallow hard. Damn. She’d just insulted the big, scary man who’d saved her bacon and kept her from black bear rapists.

He returned a tight smile. “We need to discuss what to do with you now. I saved you, so your life is now mine, according to the customs of the Bear Clans.”

Her eyes popped wide in shock. He thought he owned her? She bristled. No one, but no one, controlled her. “I don’t live by those laws.”

“You do now.”

“So you saved me and I have to serve you forever?”

He shook his head. “No, slavery is not permanent. You work until your debt to me is paid.”

“And who decides when my debt is paid?”

“I do.”

She scoffed. “Oh, that’s fair.”

A deep growl rumbled up from his chest. His eyes flashed as he leaned close, getting right into her face, their noses almost touching. “You are not of the Bear, so I will forgive that insult. Once. Do not make the mistake again, and do not ever question my honor. You will be released when your debt is paid.”

She bobbed her head in a nod, fear and adrenaline making her heart race. The man was enormous and he had fangs. He could kill her with both hands behind his back. She licked her parched lips and cleared her throat. “And where will I go then? As you said, I’m not a Bear. I have no clan to return to. From what I’ve experienced so far, I doubt I would survive on this planet without protection.”

“There are far greater dangers than rival clans and the cold. We will negotiate your position here when the time comes, little bear. Rest now.”

“Wait. Please. How will I work off my debt? I can’t cook or sew or do anything domestic. We had machines to do that for us in my time. I taught history to children on Earth.” She struggled upward again, and the furs slipped down, baring her breasts. Squeaking, she hauled the covers back up while he watched, his gaze lingering on the edge of the pelt. A hot blush flooded her cheeks again, but she set her jaw and ignored her embarrassment. After the incident with the black bear, she wasn’t taking any chances. “I assume the work won’t include servicing any of the men on this planet.”

A dimple tucked into his cheek as his white teeth flashed. “That isn’t work, little bear. That’s pure pleasure.”

Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. Her mind replayed the dream she’d had of them together. Pleasure didn’t even begin to describe it. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was as good in real life as she imagined. Squeezing her legs together, she tried to quell the sudden ache between them. She’d just met him—how could he do this to her?

“Perhaps you need a demonstration.”

His gaze heated and he leaned toward her, his lips touching hers. She caressed his jaw as her mouth moved under his. His hands caught hers, forcing them behind her back, holding them so she couldn’t move. He tilted his head to deepen the kiss, sliding his tongue along her bottom lip.

“Open for me.”

Obeying, she stroked his tongue with her own. Goose bumps erupted over her flesh, and her heart rate kicked into warp speed. Her skin felt too hot and too tight. Wetness flooded her sex, made her moan and press closer to him. She tugged at her arms, wanting to touch him, but he shifted her wrists into one big hand, using the other to thrust the furs down. His fingertips closed over her breast, his rough skin abrading her nipple.

“Oh, God.” Her breath rushed in and out, but she still couldn’t suck in enough oxygen to satisfy her lungs. She arched into his caress, pushing her breasts forward.

Nothing had ever felt this good. His steely hold almost made it better for her. Sexier. It was wrong to be so turned on by this, but she couldn’t remember why just now. A low rumble sounded in his throat as he swooped down to capture her nipple in his teeth, worrying the peaked flesh. He flicked his tongue over the tip, exciting her further, making her cry out.

A light knock sounded on the door. “Lord Kesuk.”

Kesuk jerked back, panting hard as he stood and tugged the cover up over her chest. He stalked to the door and flung it open to glare at the intruder. “Imnek.”

A gangly young man stood beyond the threshold, his gaze darting from Kesuk’s glower to Jain’s flushed face and back again. Shifting nervously under Kesuk’s glare, he cleared his throat.

“Speak, boy,” Kesuk demanded.

Snapping his gaze away from Jain, Imnek focused on the hulking man in front of him. “M-my lord. The weretigers have landed and will visit High Den before traveling to Sea Den.”

“Hmph. Leave us.” Kesuk shut the door in the boy’s face.

Jain cleared her throat, struggling to come to grips with what had just happened. No man had ever made her want so much, so quickly. Not even her husband. Just thinking about Kesuk made her body throb—having him near pushed her past anything she’d ever experienced. All the feelings rushing through her scared her to death. Feelings weren’t logical, weren’t controllable. She needed to step back and think, and she couldn’t do that with him touching her and confusing her. When he swung to face her, his gaze hard with lust, she grasped at the first thing she could think of to distract him. “Um…weretigers?”

“Yes.”

“They landed? They have a spaceship?”

Hope fluttered in her chest. There was technology somewhere. Not everywhere was like this, where they had slaves and bartered with human lives and kissed people without asking. She pressed her tingling lips together. The man had actually held her down to kiss her! Her sex clenched at the mere thought of what he’d done. She shook herself. She was not excited about some backwoods barbarian sticking his tongue down her throat. She was not.

“Yes.”

“And…?” Could she have another word please? She wanted to know about the other wereanimals. Was he allowed to tell her more? Did he even know? Maybe the weretigers were better. Maybe she could go with them.

“And they will trade with the Browns before they come here.”

“Browns? Not the Blacks?”

“No. Meadow Den is too remote; they will meet with the Blacks in the borderlands.”

“I see.” Only she didn’t see. Browns? Borderlands? “So, where do the weretigers live?”

“Vesperi.”

“Is that a planet? Or is it a country on a planet?”

“A planet in a neighboring solar system.”

“Are there any other people in this solar system?”

“Aquatilis.”

Realization slapped her straight in the face. Oh, shit. She knew what planet she was on now. Icy dread slid down her spine. Only one other planet in Aquatilis’s solar system could support human life, and she didn’t even want to remember the stories about what happened to the humans who settled there—here. She shuddered, her stomach roiling because she had to ask and she really didn’t want to. This should not have happened. She should be safe on Aquatilis five hundred years ago. Licking her lips, she forced the question out. “This…this is Alysius, isn’t it?”

Please say no. Please say no. Please say no. For once, she actually wanted to be dead wrong.

“Yes.”

Again with the one-word answers. She wanted to shake him. “Yes?”

His eyebrow hiked up. “Yes, this is Sea Den on Alysius. Home of the Arctic Bear Clan. I am Lord Kesuk, leader of the clan. Are there any more questions?”

She shook her head, mute. Entire settlements had been wiped out on this planet, the first ever to be colonized. Large animals had attacked and killed the unprepared settlers. When they’d founded the colony on Aquatilis, they’d abandoned the failed attempt on Alysius until they could develop a way to eradicate the animals without damaging the planet’s ecosystem. Colonization had still been in its infancy when she left Earth. “In my time, scientists said adapting to Aquatilis and becoming merpeople would prove easier for humans than staying on this planet.”

He sucked his teeth at the mention of merpeople. “It takes a predator to kill a predator. The first bear-shifters settled here just before the sun failed. We had to learn to survive with the means at our disposal. Or die with those who came before us.”

“My brother said—”

“You journeyed to Aquatilis to join him, yes? What of the rest of your family?” He switched topics, turning the focus on her. She hated that. She didn’t like to talk about herself or her past. Especially not her family.

“They were dead. After my divorce—”

He interrupted again. “What is dee-vorce?”

“My husband and I—”

“You are mated?” His eyes narrowed, his shoulders tensing.

A frisson of panic slipped up her spine, sweat breaking out on her forehead. It was the same look he’d worn before he mentioned his precious honor. What had she said? She raked her mind for what she might have done to piss him off now. “Divorce is when you get unmated.”

“There is no unmating. Mating is for life.”

She threw her hands up. “Fine, then. I’m a widow. He’s been dead half a millennium. Oh, darn. Happy now?”

He growled but made no further response.

“Anyway. My husband and I divorced, and I was at loose ends, so I decided to stay with the one family member I had left. The Aquatilis colony was looking for teachers for the growing merchildren, and I hoped my brother and I would become closer if I moved near.”

Now, why had she said that? He didn’t need to know that “distant” was a good way to describe her relationship with her family. She’d been the misfit non-genius in her logical, rational, scientific family. She sighed, her mood darkening. Any opportunity she had to try developing a relationship with her brother was gone now, and she ached for the loss. Her eyes smarted, but she resolutely pushed the tears away. There was nothing she could do about it. She shouldn’t cry over something that never was.

“Your marriage was unhappy?”

“To put it mildly.”

“He beat you?” Kesuk’s fangs popped out, his face reddening.

“No!”

He relaxed a little, fangs retracting.

How could she say this in a nice way? “He just didn’t want me.”

“Fool. Who would not want you?” He snorted.

There was a loaded question. “Um. Well, he wanted other women.”

And there came the fangs again. “He was unfaithful to you, his mate? Did the man have no honor?”

“Look, buddy. Honor wasn’t a big deal back then. Neither was infidelity, really. I just got tired of dealing with it, so I bitched at him and he left me for his girlfriend. We divorced. End of story.” And end of discussion. She didn’t want to talk about this. Time to go back to her questions about Alysius.

His eyes lost focus for a moment, and his head cocked to the side as though he were listening to something. How powerful was a bear’s hearing? She didn’t know.

When his gaze sharpened and fixed on her, she shivered under his stare. If just a look did that to her, she didn’t stand a chance if he touched her again. That terrified her. She controlled everything about her life, and he was not the kind of man to let her run things. That much she knew already. And he thought she was a slave. Nothing about him should turn her on. He was pushy, peremptory, and rude.

“I am needed elsewhere. I will return later.”

She opened her mouth to ask another question, but he issued a sharp nod, then turned and left the room, leaving her mouth flapping over an outraged response.

“Well, I was just dismissed, huh?” She stuck her tongue out at the now-closed door.

Yep. Definitely rude, crude, and socially unacceptable. At least in her society. So why had she stared at his tight ass in those leather pants while he walked away from her?

She sighed, wondering where he’d needed to go. Whether she liked it or not, she was bored and lonely without him.