If that was the case, why hadn’t he suggested that from the start when they were on my arm?
“Just…tell them to move?”
Fer’ro isn’t focused on me. His gaze is still roving over the blank ink that’s all over me now.
“Move,” I say, but my brow furrows when nothing happens.
There’s a soft sound. A soft trill that comes from Fer’ro and when I look back at him, his ears twitch a little.
“With your mind. Tell them to move.”
I’m frowning at him now. Surely, that won’t work, but I do it anyway.
Move.
Nothing happens.
“I don’t think they work with me the same way they do with you.”
“They have bonded with you. To have formed a brand-new colony…” His gaze travels over me some more. “Tell them to move again. Do not say the thought,” he meets my gaze, “instead…think of them moving away.”
I nod at him a little as I try to understand what he’s trying to tell me to do.
Think of them moving away.
Like…imagine them?
I’m so nervous, it’s a conscious effort to calm myself.
I imagine the ba’clan moving away from my privates in much the same way I see them move like water across Fer’ro’s skin.
I don’t even feel it as they move away but my eyes widen as I see my skin being revealed.
I realize, belatedly, that I’ve just bared my privates in front of him once more.
Fer’ro growls and the seal closes, covering me again.
My heart slams against my chest.
I do not know what to think.
I just controlled an alien lifeform.
Fer’ro’s pupils are growing thinner as he rises and takes a step away from me.
He growls again and I barely see the tip of his tongue as he swipes it against the line of his lip.
I gulp, my heart slamming against my chest for a whole other reason now.
“I must fetch He’rox,” he says.
“No!”
I slip off the bed and almost stumble when my foot touches the floor.
Standing feels different. My weight feels different.
It almost feels like I’m floating a little.
I’m filing all this away in the back of my mind as I face Fer’ro.
“He’rox needs to tend to Mina. I can go to him. I don’t want him to leave the med bay for non-emergencies.”
“That is unwise.” Fer’ro isn’t looking at me and as I take a step closer I notice the most curious thing.
Within his nose is a membrane. I only see it now because he is using it to block his nostrils.
“My brethren have not seen you yet. They may be…alarmed.”
I glance down at myself then. Maybe I can tell the ba’clan to disappear like Fer’ro does, but when I try, nothing happens.
“They cannot seep into your skin the way they do for us. They have existed with my people for eons. We have evolved together. Our skin is thicker than yours. With you, they have no place to go.”
Makes sense.
Instead, I imagine them forming a narrow column along my spine and I’m amazed when they disappear from over my skin.
“How are they doing that? How do they know what I’m thinking?”
But I am naked again and Fer’ro doesn’t seem to have heard what I just asked.
Instead, he thrums.
It’s a sexy sound that makes my gaze dart to his and I can feel my center throb as images of what we did possibly only hours ago flood my mind.
“I do not wish for my brethren to cast their eyes on you when you are bare either.”
His voice is so low, almost possessive, and I have to strain to hear him.
But he is right.
It’s not like I want to walk outside this room naked either.
At that thought, the ba’clan spread over me again, covering me in a split second.
Fer’ro turns to face the door and I see his ba’clan ripple across his broad back.
“I will get He’rox.”
I don’t even protest this time.
Chapter Twenty-Six
FER’RO
There are many strange scents surrounding Adee’ra and one by one, I am noting what they mean.
That strange scent that had been faint before, the one Ga’Var had scented while in that forest, it is here again.
I know what it is now.
Need.
I scented it distinctly when she became bare and looked at me.
My chest puffs at the thought that maybe, just maybe, this small hyu’man being wants me as much as I now know that I want her.
But first, I must determine what is happening to her with the ba’clan.
No other beings in star systems close to ours have been able to bond with our ba’clan.
What makes the hyu’mans so special?
But then again, it is not all the hyu’mans that have this ability.
Only Adee’ra.
Sa’am and Mee’na did not attract any ba’clan.
As I pass some of my brethren along the corridors, they glance my way and click greetings low in their throats.
Their faces appear composed but I do not miss the way their ears twitch or the discreet sniffing that occurs as I pass.
They should be busy getting things ready so we can head to a location we found on this planet’s surface.
A place to create a base.
A place to hide while we gather resources to build enough weapons to take down the Gryken.
Our ship is cloaked. The Gryken cannot detect us yet and scans show there are none nearby.
But all is not as it seems. There is no time to become complacent.
They should not be concerned with where I’ve had my face recently, or what I do with my tongue.
But even as they walk away, clicks communicating curiosity low in their throats, I cannot deny that I…enjoy this.
I enjoyed sharing that time with Adee’ra.
I hope she wishes for me to lick her wounds again.
Soon.
As soon as I reach the med bay and activate the door, I am greeted with the serious, unfriendly face of He’rox.
Behind him, the med bay is back to normal. Nothing is out of place to signal the chaos that had been unleashed within it and the dead Gryken is nowhere to be seen.
He’rox is probably responsible for that.
He possibly has the body preserved somewhere.
For…studying.
“I have been waiting for you,” he says and my ears twitch a little.
He says nothing more, but I know exactly what he means.
He’d seen Adee’ra’s arm earlier.
I am sure of it.
Nothing ever seems to pass him.
“Where is the female?” He glances behind me and realizes Adee’ra is not there.
“Come.” I turn and the only indication that the male is following me is the almost inaudible hiss of the door as it slips back into place behind him.
“Have the others seen…the anomaly?” he asks.
“I am not sure.”
If Ga’Var and San’ten noticed, they haven’t commented on it. That in itself is curious.
“What do you make of it?”
My ba’clan writhe a little, sending a tickle up the back of my neck.
There is a certain tone in his clicks and I stop in the middle of the corridor to turn and look at him.
“She will not be one of your little experiments, He’rox.” My gaze slips down his pale body. “We already know what happens when you get…overzealous.”
I see the moment his pupils narrow and immediately regret my words.
But they need to be said, lest he’s forgotten the past.
His jaw clenches as his teeth bare a little as he clicks a response through them.