Page 28 of Possessed By the Leonid King

“You might like it on Leo Falls. You might like it aboard this vessel, or others.” Marcus’ eyes closed, and when he opened them, he swiped away the data on the screen and brought up an image of a delicate Felid Queen with giant ears and rich black stripes on bright golden fur. The stripes gave away to a riot of spots, all dots and dashes like someone had tossed paint on her canvas of fur without looking. Her eyes were enormous in a small pointed face. The effect was strikingly beautiful and lively.

“She’s beautiful.”

“That’s my—that was my wife. She was Servali. Before I met her, I could never imagine living anywhere but Leonid-One or Leonid-Two. After I met her and spent just a few days with her family, walking with her on the beaches, eating the food her mother made...I would never want to live anywhere else but with her.”

Layla had a feeling that Marcus had intended to make a point, something about how her part in this experiment was going to help people. He could be telling her not to waste chances others would never get. Or maybe he was not-so-subtly telling her happiness wasn’t attached to a place or a preconceived notion but a person.

Rupex. Her heart gave a guilty thump. Just sex. Not a relationship. Shut up and don’t let yourself get carried away.

Whatever Marcus’ point had been—he was no longer in any condition to make it. The graying male put his head on one paw and stared longingly at the image of the pretty Servali on the screen.

“Hm. Marcus? I’m going back to my quarters. Thanks for the info. If you think of anything else I ought to know, can you tell me?”

“What? Oh! Go to the Leonid Ministry of Health website and read up on Queen gestation symptoms and the side effects of heat cycles. I didn’t know for certain, but based on what you described, it seems likely that you’ll have to deal with both.”

Chapter Twelve

Rupex breathed out a sigh of relief, his paws shaking with exhaustion. He could put the ship back on autopilot and lock the course. Just ahead, he could see the soft pink and blue rings of planetary atmosphere.

Leonid-One. Home.

More specifically, a speck of rock, sand, and vegetation in the Northeast Sea on Leonid-One. Leo Falls.

“Course locked. Docking in approximately five hours and twenty minutes. Manual docking required. Confirm?”

Rupex nodded at the electronic voice that confirmed his course was locked. “Confirmed.”

“Warning. Non-Leonid citizens are not allowed to enter—”

Leo muted the machine. So. It’s happened. We’re in a quarantine situation again, if only for a short period.

A few days ago, that thought would have filled him with wracking, unspeakable grief that he couldn’t find words to describe.

Right now, he treasured the idea of hiding Layla away. Keeping her safe. Keeping her to himself.

“I brought you some actual food. The kind you have to chew.” Marcus entered the deck with a plate held in front of him. “Game hens in mushroom sauce. I think our guest would like to dine with you, too. Or at the very least, see you for five minutes.”

Rupex seized the plate and ate like a savage, uncaring for his manners. Marcus had seen worse. “I need to sleep.”

“Good luck. She’s going into heat.”

Rupex stopped lapping up the rich sauce, eyes looking up over the rim of the plate. “What do you mean? Humans don’t—”

“The chromosome booster didn’t just make her eggs receptive to Leonid sperm. They seem to be impacting the whole ‘monthly cycle’ human females endure.”

Rupex chomped into the small game hen, crunching bones and grinding them to a powder with his sharp teeth. “Is she at risk of contracting the fever?”

“I don’t believe so. She’s just going to have similar symptoms to a Queen in heat.” Marcus avoided his eye.

Damn him. Marcus knew this would happen—but he hadn’t known about the virus rearing its ugly head. No one could have foreseen that, not after so many precautions had been put in place.

While Rupex wished a million curses upon the wretched fever, he had to admit that he didn’t mind Layla desiring him as her mate.

Layla’s tight, willing body swam before his eyes.

Layla on his bed.

Layla on his island.

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