Unfortunately, he was also her commanding officer.
Temporal Enforcement didn’t forbid sexual liaisons between a superior and a subordinate—as a rule. However, the agency took a very dim view of sexual coercion. The regs were clear: a superior could not pursue a subordinate who had walked away.
Alerio’s own sense of ethics agreed. He didn’t want Dona to feel he was pushing her into a relationship she didn’t want. Especially since he wanted everything she was willing to give him. Her heart. Her soul . . .
He needed to think this through.
Twenty minutes later, Alerio had showered and dressed in his dark blue duty uniform. The heels of his low boots clicked sharply on the deck as he stalked back to his quarters, his mood spectacularly foul.
“Hey, Chief!” A familiar gruff rumble made him break step and look around just as Frieka trotted up. The wolf gapped his jaws in his signature fang-filled grin. “Up for a drink?”
Alerio hesitated a beat before surrendering. “Why not?” Frieka made a good sounding board, wise old beast that he was. And I need all the help with Dona I can get.
CHAPTER FOUR
Knowing his audience, Alerio gave the wolf a grin. “I’ve got one last bottle of Vardonese ale stashed in my quarters.”
Frieka’s blue eyes lit until they damn near glowed. “Gods, I haven’t had Vardonese ale since the last time the kid took leave.”
“Where is Riane, anyway?” Alerio asked as they turned down the corridor and headed for his quarters. “You two are usually attached at the hip.”
The wolf snorted in lupine disgust. “Where she always is every minute we’re not on duty. In our quarters, mating with Wyatt.”
Alerio almost choked on his tongue. “Ah.”
“I can’t sleep for all the yowling,” the cyborg beast continued gloomily. “I need my own place, Chief. They’re driving me buggier than a flea festival.”
Somehow Alerio managed not to laugh. “I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”
The doors to his quarters slid open at their approach, and he paused to let the wolf enter first. “I think there’s a couple of vacant rooms near the main lift. Make a formal request and I’ll sign off on it.”
The wolf sighed in relief as he trotted inside. “You may have just saved my sanity.”
“Such as it is.”
“Ha. Ha.” Frieka watched with obvious impatience—and more than a hint of greed—as Alerio walked over to one of the gleaming black cabinets that lined his quarters. He reached into one and extracted a glass and a shallow bowl, then turned to gesture the wolf toward the leather love seat. Alerio collapsed into the grip of the matching well-upholstered couch. Both faced the room’s single window; Alerio never tired of those glorious Outpost views. Today the Blue Ridge Mountains rolled in mist-shrouded violet waves to a brilliant blue horizon, the sun riding above it in cloudless splendor.
Leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees, the chief sent a mental order to the long, low cocktail table that sat in front of the couches. A drawer slid open in the smooth, black lacquer surface, revealing a single bottle. As he lifted it out, sunlight danced over the expensive cut glass and shimmered in the golden depths of its contents.
“Ohhhh,” Frieka breathed in admiration, catching sight of the bottle’s label. “You buy the good stuff.”
“No point in settling for less.” As Alerio poured each of them a generous portion of the potent liquor, the wolf jumped up on the love seat. The short couch creaked and writhed as it sought to accommodate his lupine haunches. Finally arriving at a comfortable grip, the seat quieted.
Alerio slid the bowl down the length of the table. Frieka stuck out a paw to catch it, then leaned down to lap noisily.
Smiling at his guest’s enthusiasm, the chief took a warily careful sip from his own glass. Even a Warlord had to treat Vardonese ale with respect.
The liquor tasted sweet and fruity for about a tenth of a second before it detonated like ancient napalm and seared its way down his throat. Tense muscles promptly began to relax in the ale’s heat. Alerio sank into the couch’s grip and sighed in appreciation.
“So.” Frieka glanced up from his bowl. “You and Dona finally mated. Took you long enough.”
Alerio, in the midst of a second sip, damn near spewed ale across the table. “By the Goddess’s sweet tits, Frieka! Did anybody ever teach you tact?”
“They tried.” The wolf flicked a disdainful ear. “Didn’t take.”
“You might have tried.”
“Why? So I could tell pretty lies like you humans? You’d be better off hearing the truth.” Frieka grunted in ripe disgust. “Humans. You’d rather pretend you don’t smell the Soji shit instead of grabbing a shovel and taking care of the problem. Annoys the hell out of me.”
Alerio considered the point before risking another sip. “Okay, you may be right.”
“Of course I’m right.” With a regal sniff, the cyborg returned his attention to his bowl.
“How did you know? About Dona and me.”
Frieka rolled blue eyes up at him. “Same way I know the kid is banging Wyatt like a kettledrum. There’s this smell . . .”
Alerio threw up a warding hand. “Enough. I don’t want to know any more.”
“So don’t ask, Warlord.”
“Oh, I won’t. Ever again. And if I ever forget, I’m sure the psychic scars will remind me.”
Silence fell, broken only by the sound of Frieka’s enthusiastic tongue sucking up ale. Until there was enough of the liquor in Alerio’s bloodstream to let him voice a few uncomfortable truths. “I’ve wanted Dona for the past two years. Damned if I know why. Yeah, she is lovely . . .”
“Genetically engineered,” Frieka pointed out. “Those girls don’t come in ‘ugly.’”
“Well, no.” Alerio swallowed another mouthful of fire and meditated on its potent blaze. “But it’s not her looks. There’s something about Dona that . . . Well, it fits me. And the longer I know her, the more convinced I am that’s true.” Cradling the glass between his palms, he began to roll it back and forth, staring down into the shining amber liquid. “My sensors tell me she feels the same attraction . . .”
The wolf snorted. “No shit. Chief, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s this pheromone fog bank that surrounds you two whenever you’re together.”
Ignoring the wolf’s habitual sarcasm, Alerio continued, “But the thing is, she’s never said anything about how she feels . . .”
“Like, oh, ‘Fuck me hard, big boy’?”
Alerio snorted in lieu of a laugh. “Smart-ass.”
“See, this is exactly what I was talking about.” Frieka tilted his muzzle to the left. “Here we have a big pile of Soji shit.” He turned his head right. “Here we have a shovel. The problem’s so simple, a cat could solve it. First you kick Ivar’s cyborg ass, then you tell the girl how you feel. Voila: your basic happily ever after. All you need now is a fairy godmother and a magic glass dildo.”
Alerio’s swallow of ale slid down his windpipe. Once he stopped coughing, he wheezed, “Glass slipper, not glass dildo.”
“You’ve got your version, I’ve got mine.”
The chief swallowed and blinked the tears out of his eyes. “And I definitely do not want to know your version.”
“Pussy.”
“Seriously, about Dona . . .”
“I thought we were being serious.”
“I’m her superior officer. If I make a move before she does, it’s an abuse of my rank.”