Pairing with the Protector Read online

  Mama Tusker was coming and she was trapped.

  Fourteen

  “Quick! Get back to your cage!” Rafe exclaimed, but even as he said it, he knew there was no way for Whitney to get back in time. The way was too narrow and dangerous for her to run it and even if she did, the mother alien’s monstrous strides were eating up the ground between them—she would doubtless see Whitney attempting to escape and snatch her up before she could get to any kind of safety.

  “No, don’t run,” Dood hissed from the next cage. “I think I have an idea—we might be able to work this to your advantage.”

  “What are you talking about?” Rafe demanded, keeping his voice low. At any moment the huge blue alien would appear and they could not be seen communicating when she did.

  “Listen quickly.” The other male’s eyes were wide and earnest. “The Mindless Ones match for life and when they do, if you take one away from the other, they pine for each other.”

  “So?” Whitney was keeping a nervous eye on the bottom of the ramp as Mama Tusker descended. “What does that mean to us?”

  “It means you have to pine for your man,” Dood told her. “Look, she already knows that cage she put you in can be gotten out of by a “smart” tweedle. So if she sees that you got out, she’ll just think you’re really intelligent. And if you act like you’re missing the big guy over here…” He jabbed a thumb in Rafe’s direction. “Then she’ll probably assume you’re a matched pair after all.”

  “Do you really think so?” Whitney asked eagerly.

  Dood nodded. “Yeah, I do. But you two have got to play the part this time—you’ve got to act like a matched pair.”

  “How in the Seven Hells are we supposed to do that?” Rafe demanded in a low, frustrated growl. The idiot kept forgetting they were not from his home planet and didn’t know the customs of his people. “How do we—?”

  But just at that moment, the Mama alien came into view, her mountain-sized head bending down to peer at the cages.

  Whitney gave a muted gasp and reached through the bars to clutch at Rafe. He seized her back, putting his arms around her as well as the thick bars between them would allow and drawing her as close as he could.

  Let me keep her safe. Please, let me somehow keep her safe! he thought desperately. It wasn’t exactly a prayer—but it wasn’t far from one either, though he doubted there was anyone to hear it.

  Mama Tusker’s broad, lipless mouth turned down into a frown as she saw Whitney out of her cage and reaching through the bars to cling to Rafe.

  “Well, well—aren’t you a smart little tweedle?” she rumbled, reaching out to pluck Whitney from his grasp with her trunk. “Almost as smart as my sweet little Silky.”

  Whitney made inarticulate noises of grief and terror and held onto Rafe as long as she could. He, in turn, reached for her desperately. It was no act—he needed to hold onto her and keep her safe. He was driven almost mad by the feeling of having her torn from his arms.

  “My, my…” Their display was not lost on the mother alien. Her vast brow furrowed as she watched the two of them. “Maybe the two of you are a matched pair after all. Should I give you one more chance to prove it?”

  Rafe wanted to shout, “Yes!” at the top of his voice, but of course he couldn’t do that. He could only continue to reach for Whitney while she, in turn, reached longingly for him.

  After watching them for a moment, the mother alien seemed to make a decision.

  “All right—one more chance then,” she said and put Whitney back into the large middle cage which she had called the matching pen. Then, just as quickly, she opened the door to Rafe’s cage and plucked him out as well, setting him carefully in the cage beside Whitney.

  “All right now,” she rumbled, watching them closely. “Let’s see if the two of you are a matched pair or not.”

  Fifteen

  Whitney rushed into Rafe’s arms, not caring a bit that she was naked this time. His hard, broad chest felt like safety as she pressed herself against him and the warm, spicy scent of his skin which always reminded her of leather and the forest at night, along with some exotic but completely masculine scent she couldn’t name, filled her senses.

  His arms came around her like iron bands, crushing her to him and he buried his face in her hair, murmuring her name.

  “Whitney…oh gods, mon’dalla. I thought I’d lost you. Oh Gods…”

  “Rafe.” She pressed against him, quivering. “Oh Rafe, I never want to be separated from you again!”

  “And you won’t, if I have anything to say about it.” His voice was a low, dangerous growl and she saw that he was looking over her head at the vast blue face of Mama Tusker as she looked into the matching cage.

  “Well, it’s clear you’re glad to see each other,” she rumbled in that deep bounders-crashing-downhill voice of hers. “But that doesn’t really prove anything—you might just be siblings of some kind, for all your coloring is so different.”

  “Oh no!” Fear made Whitney’s throat tight. “She thinks we’re siblings, not a matched pair,” she whispered urgently to Rafe. “Quick—we have to prove her wrong!”

  “But how?” he muttered back, frowning down at her. “How do we convince her that we’re mates instead of siblings? That idiot Dood never told us.”

  Because he hadn’t gotten a chance before Mama Tusker had come down to the lower level, Whitney remembered. But suddenly a little voice spoke up in her head.

  Maybe he didn’t tell you, but he did show you. Think about it, Whitney—what did he try to do when she first put him in the cage with you?

  Suddenly she understood what they had to do.

  “Quickly,” she whispered to Rafe, who was still looking down at her in uncertainty. “Suck my nipples.”

  “What?” It was a whispered shout and his golden eyes went wide, as though he wasn’t certain he’d heard her right.

  “I said, suck my nipples!” Whitney hissed at him. “It’s what Dood tried to do when she put him in the cage with me. And it was what that feral male did to the feral female out by the ship,” she pointed out. Of course, the feral male and female had done a hell of a lot more than just that together, but she was hoping none of the rest of it would be necessary.

  “I should not…” Rafe growled uncertainly. “I am sworn to protect you and never molest you.”

  “Well, if you want to protect me you’re going to have to molest me—at least a little,” Whitney insisted softly. Then the improbability of the situation tickled her funny bone and she had to push down a fit of hysterical giggles that rose in her throat like bubbles in champagne. Instead, she reached up on tiptoes and grabbed for his wild black hair. Tugging on it, she urged him down. “Come on—she’s watching. There’s no time to lose!”

  Rafe took one last look at the frowning alien face hovering like an anxious moon outside the cage and appeared to decide she was right.

  “Very well,” he growled. “But only because there is no other way—this is not proper. You know it is not.”

  Slowly, stiffly, he sank to his knees before her and wrapped his arms around her waist. This position put his mouth just on the level of her bare breasts and before Whitney could say anything else to urge him on, he had sucked her right nipple into his hot mouth and was drawing urgently on her sensitive tip.

  Whitney gasped and arched her back, burying her fingers in his hair. Before, when Dood had tried this on her, she’d felt violated and terrified. But the experience was completely different with Rafe.

  Instead of feeling frightened and attacked, she felt safety in the big Kindred’s arms—but more than that, she also felt desire.

  Maybe it was his warm, wild scent in her nose or maybe it was the feeling of being in the arms of her Protector—a male who she knew would die to keep her safe if need be.

  Or maybe it’s just that you’ve been horny for him from the first minute you met him, whispered a naughty little voice in her head. Because let’s be honest girl—tell the tru