Page 13 of Spectacle

She arrives at the entrance to the den as another roar echoes loudly through the habitat. Maxsim has arrived, and with his size and experience, it won’t take him long to find us. She shivers with delight and considers hiding inside the dens, but instead, she leaps up the rock wall, jumping from surface to surface until she’s high up, then she enters a small cutout at the very top of the rock face. I didn’t even know this was here. You certainly can’t see it from the ground.

She belly crawls down a tight tunnel, but it eventually opens into a cave. It’s a large, open space slightly taller than head height, and there is a pile of furs and nothing else. Our nose itches, and we sneeze a couple of times as Echo’s and Maxsim’s scents tickle my senses. She pads over to the furs and stretches out on them, rolling around and spreading our scent. Theirs is old and faded, and they obviously haven’t been here in a while, but I can smell that when they were here, they fucked. Maybe this was where they came to be safe from Natalia.

We start to purr and place our chin on our paws as we wait. My cat wants to fuck in this form, and I don’t need to be here for that. Instead, I close my eyes and allow myself to shut off like I do when my kraken takes charge.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Maxsim

Asnarl escapes my mouth as I bolt upright in bed. The smell of antiseptic and sadness bombard my senses, causing unease to coil in my stomach as I look around. It is quickly replaced with Echo’s frost and crisp apple scent, and some of the panic wanes.

“Hey, easy. You’re safe and healed. You’re back on the ship.” My pregnant omega runs a hand through the fur on my arm, and his touch settles me a little more, but I’m missing my other omega, and when I lost consciousness, she was missing while we were battling a hoard of Madovian reptile bitches. I won’t feel completely secure until I see her with my own eyes.

“Lila?” I shove back the sheet covering me and swing my legs to the side. My vision wavers slightly, and I close my eyes, but it soon settles, and I peel them open to look around the med bay. Link is standing over another patient in a bed, and my heart starts to race as a growl rumbles in my chest. I go to push off, but Echo shoves me back firmly. I blink in surprise at the aggression from my omega.

“Calm yourself,” he snaps. “That is not Lila. She is fine. She went to our suite to get some rest. She was exhausted after switching forms a few times and healing you.” My usually unshakeable omega looks flustered, and I feel slightly guilty, but it doesn’t calm me down.

“I need to see her,” I tell him, unable to control the snarl that follows. He has the audacity to roll his eyes at me, and I growl at him.

“Of course you do, but are you just going to wander through the hallways naked?” He waves a hand at me, and I look down. I shifted, so of course I’m naked.

“Yes,” I reply, not caring about my naked state. There is no one else on the ship to look apart from family anyway. I’m a shifter, so being naked is natural. He chuckles and steps back. I push off the bed, pausing as my paws touch the ground, but unlike my dizzy spell before, this time, I’m fine.

Before I get any farther, Link approaches me.

“Good, you’re awake. I’ve monitored you all night, and all you needed to do was rest. Lila healed everything else.” He looks me up and down like he’s marveling at Lila’s healing abilities, and I only just stop myself from preening under his admiring gaze. What the hell?

He pauses on the side I was attacked, puts out a hand, and brushes it over the healed injury. I almost jump when my body reacts to his touch. It doesn’t recoil but leans into it. I frown, confused by my reaction. I inhale and smell my mate all over the cyborg. Maybe that’s why I’m having such an intense reaction to him. I hadn’t noticed before how much he smells like Lila now that they are mated. We’ve been so busy, I don’t think we’ve been around each other without everyone else’s scents muddling the air. I feel my cock twitch, and my eyes widen with surprise. Am I attracted to the cyborg? I know he and Lila’s other mates play with one another occasionally, but I haven’t been interested in that before. I’m happy with both my omegas, and I don’t need anyone else—not to mention other races aren’t necessarily compatible with alpha lightning cats because of our knots. They will do damage to someone not designed to take them.

Before I can speak, he continues. “You can head back to our suite now if you want. No need to hang around here.”

“You should go get some rest too, Link.”

I startle and snarl in the direction of the voice. I hadn’t even noticed Eric Adams sitting in a chair on the other side of the form on the bed. That must be his wife. Why is she still asleep, and why is he so sad? I would have thought it would be an occasion for celebration.

Echo must see my confused look, because he leans forward and whispers, “I’ll explain later.” I give him an almost imperceivable nod.

“I think I might. Liliana has been stable all night, and there is no sign of change. I haven’t slept in days, and I’m starting to worry I’ll make a mistake with my fatigue.”

Before anyone can respond to him, the doors open and the god of earth appears in the doorway. I freeze for a moment. Lightning cats still worship the old gods, but Tito, the god of water, is our deity. Although he hasn’t been seen for hundreds of years, we still give thanks to him during special occasions and ritual holidays. Seeing evidence that he may still be alive was shocking to say the least. For Zeydan to announce that our mate is his as well is something I still need to adjust to. Despite him claiming to be diminished of power, if he ever gets them back, what’s to stop him from getting rid of the rest of us so he would have Lila to himself? The gods are known for being ruthless. Look at what they did to both the Aaz’axians and the Carevasta bears—cursed them to face extinction and persecution.

He looks around the room, his gaze stopping on me, and he studies me like I’m an experiment he doesn’t know what to do with.

“Contrary to your thoughts, I would not dispose of you if I got my full powers back. Lila loves you all, and losing you would destroy her. I want my mate’s happiness more than I want to keep her to myself. I am not that selfish, and I am perfectly capable and content to share. If my true powers ever return to me, and I reunite with my fellow gods, then we will need to decide if we wish to retake our control of the galaxy, but to be honest, I’m not interested. The council has things well in hand. I don’t need to be worshiped.”

I snarl, annoyed that he read my mind, or maybe I was just projecting loudly. Either way, at least I know where he stands, and I feel my muscles relax ever so slightly.

“Poor alpha. You’re not having the best of times since you woke up, are you?” My omega murmurs behind me, and I can’t miss the amusement in his voice. Did he smell my reaction to the cyborg?

“I will watch over Lilessa… Liliana, so that you may get some rest. I will summon you if her condition changes.” Zeydan takes the seat next to Eric, giving him a nod in greeting. “You should go too. You will be no good to her if you make yourself sick with worry. She’s going to need her mates when she wakes.”

Lilessa and Liliana? The goddess of life and Lila’s grandma. I look to my omega for help. I must have missed something while I was injured.

“I’ll explain it on our way to the suite. Come on,” he tells me, tugging my hand, and we don’t wait for Eric’s response to the god. I feel Link follow us out, my body very much attuned to his presence.

Between the two of them, they tell me what they know about what happened after I lost consciousness and Saxon returned to the ship with me.

“So Brannock and Lila are mated now?” I ask, trying to get everything straight. Apparently they both went into berserker mode and made quick work of the rest of the Madovians then fucked in the aftermath of the carnage. How very primal. I approve.

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