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  “No.” Baird shook his head. “I can’t. I mean, I couldn’t go on. I, uh, stopped it before we went too far.”

  “What?” Sylvan gave him an incredulous look. “I thought you wanted Olivia more than life itself. You said you’ve been dream-sharing for six months. Why did you stop?”

  “Because she wasn’t really ready, damn it.” Baird banged his fist on the bar in front of them, making the other Kindred males sitting along its length stare at him. “It was just my mating scent working on her, making her crazy. But she didn’t really want me—not the way I want her.”

  “But she responded to you?” Sylvan took another sip of his drink.

  “Her body did but it wasn’t really what she wanted.” Baird ran a hand through his thick black hair. “I don’t want to take her against her will, Sylvan. I need her to be all in. To be as crazy for me as I am for her. You know?”

  His half-brother nodded after a moment. “I understand. You don’t want a bond with an unwilling female. If she’s not committed to you heart and soul, the bond between you would be incomplete. Not to mention unhappy.”

  “Unhappy’s an understatement,” Baird growled. “She fuckin’ hates me. If anything I’m further from bonding her to me now than I was when I first claimed her.”

  “Give it time,” Sylvan patted his arm. “I think I understand the problem—she doesn’t want to be parted from her sister, Sophia. Did you know they were twins?”

  Baird looked at him apprehensively. “Are human twins like the Twin Kindred? Do they have to share a mate? Because I have to tell you, Sylvan, I don’t think I can handle more than one like Olivia. And she’s the only one I want, anyway.”

  “No, no. Don’t worry about that.” Sylvan shook his head. “But the bond between them is extraordinarily strong. I spent some time talking to Sophia and she told me they had never been parted even for a single day.”

  Baird frowned. “That is like the Twin Kindred. Do you suppose they feel actual physical pain while they’re separated?”

  Sylvan looked thoughtful. “I don’t think it’s physical so much but certainly the pain is a very real thing. Sophia was very concerned about Olivia. She was, ah, worried that you might hurt her.”

  “Hurt her? How?”

  “Well…” Sylvan took another drink from his mug before answering. “I told her about your past—how you’d spent the last six months as a prisoner of the Scourge before you made your escape. I just wanted to make her understand that you needed Olivia as much as she did,” he added when Baird gave him a black look. “Anyway, she thought you might, I don’t know, have a bad dream and mistake Olivia for one of the enemy and hurt her.”

  “What?” Baird couldn’t believe his ears. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. Olivia doesn’t smell anything like those bastards!” Just the memory of Scourge ship’s sickening sour stench turned his stomach.

  “I know.” Sylvan nodded. “I told her that but she didn’t seem to understand. I don’t think humans have a very keen sense of smell. Or else they don’t rely on it much.”

  “Well, it’s keen enough to make them react to our mating scents,” Baird pointed out. “So I guess that’s all they need.” He sighed. “If you talk to the sister again, tell her I would never hurt Olivia. I love her, damn it. I just…can’t seem to make her realize that.”

  “You will, just give it time. Remember, you just claimed her this morning.” Sylvan patted his arm again and stood.

  “I know.” Baird finished his drink and rose as well. “It’s just that we’ve been dream-sharing already for six months—that’s almost three times as long as most Kindred have to connect with their brides. Even you Tranqs with your damn cold hearts claim your brides after a month or two at most.”

  Sylvan raised an eyebrow at him. “And your point is?”

  “That it ought to be enough, damn it! We’ve been inside each other’s heads for months now. I know her inside and out—what she wants, what she needs, the way she likes to be touched. Why can’t she just admit we have a connection?”

  “Maybe because she’s scared to,” Sylvan told him gently. “Scared to lose her sister and everything she loves. You have to give her a reason to give that up, Baird. Be patient with her.”

  Baird sighed. “I’ll try but you know patience isn’t exactly one of my virtues.”

  “I know but you waited for six months and went through hell to escape from the Scourge ship to be with her. You can wait a little longer.” Sylvan smiled. “Come on, you’d better get going. I’m sure your new bride is waiting for her things from home.” He nudged the cardboard box with his foot.

  “You’re right.” Baird reached for the box and the bags of human food he’d bought at the Human Relations market in the Earth brides section. “I’d better go attend to her needs.”

  “See that you do.” Sylvan smiled at him, showing a hint of fang. Baird nodded and turned toward the lifts that would take him back to his suite. He just hoped his new bride would be in a better mood when he got home than she had been when he left.

  Chapter Ten

  “Oh my God!” Liv straightened up abruptly, snatching back her hand. The not-milk container dropped from her suddenly nerveless fingers and its round red cap came off. As white liquid gurgled quietly out onto the floor, Liv backed away from the weird blue teddy bear creature, her heart pounding.

  For a moment the creature went to all fours and sniffed at the white alien beverage, making Liv hope that it would forget all about her and get drunk on the stuff. She herself was suddenly perfectly sober—a blinding flash of fear was as good as a strong cup of coffee any day, she decided.

  Unfortunately after a few sniffs and one tentative lick of its dark green tongue, the blue animal shuffled forward, obviously more interested in Liv than the happy hour happening on the kitchen floor.

  “N-nice teddy,” Liv heard herself saying in a trembling voice as she backed away. “Don’t bite me, just stay away.”

  But the bear thing seemed to be attracted to the sound of her voice rather than put off by it. With an interested sounding huffing noise it came closer and Liv backed further away.

  She found herself backing down the dim hallway, blinking to see since her eyes had grown accustomed to the light in the kitchen. Still the alien teddy bear followed her making huffing sounds in a hoarse voice and snuffling the air as though trying to identify her scent. Walking on all fours as it now was, Liv estimated that it was probably just a little smaller than a Pomeranian but about a hundred times scarier because A—it was clearly an alien creature with unknowable intentions and B—it had teeth like a freaking shark.

  “Nice teddy,” she whispered again, fumbling around for the door to the bathroom. Maybe she could lock herself inside somehow until Baird came back. She didn’t know how the weird bear creature had gotten into the suite in the first place—maybe it was some kind of parasite that needed to be exterminated like a really huge cockroach—but at least Baird was big enough to take it out of commission. If he would ever freaking get back. Where was the human food store located on this ship anyway? And what the hell was taking him so long?

  Finally she felt the bathroom entrance and backed slowly into it. But as she went her foot caught on something on the floor and she lost her balance. Windmilling her arms desperately, she shrieked in surprise as she tried to keep from landing flat on her ass.

  Unfortunately her big arm gestures and ear-splitting screams seemed to have a bad effect on the creature. Previously it had appeared to be simply curious about her but now it reared up on its hind legs again and let out a hoarse and awful roar that chilled Liv’s blood. Dear God I’m about to be eaten by a blue alien teddy bear, she thought wildly as it came toward her. What the hell are they going to put on my tombstone?

  Here lies Liv,

  Without a care

  She died from the bite

  Of a teddy bear.

  Okay, so maybe she wasn’t completely sober yet but she was completely terrifi