Page 36 of Benet

“What is it? What do I have?” Marushka demanded anxiously. “Turn so I can see your shoulder.”

As soon as he did so she traced a circle on his skin with her fingertip. “I never saw this here before.”

“Mine matches yours,” Benet said. The Badari goddess places them on mates when the couple Claims each other as we did today. Well not exactly the way we did it since I’m not a lab created Badari but evidently what we did was enough to trigger the mate bond.”

“I’m so happy,” Marushka said, brushing away tears. “Being marked as your woman.”

“You don’t mind?” he asked anxiously.

“How could I object to a visible sign of our love? And this bond we now share is incredible.”

“I wish I could marry you right now,” he said, expressing the deep longing in his heart. The Badari ritual was uncanny and he was well and truly committed to Marushka and knew she was all in with him, but he wanted the human ceremony to seal the relationship in the manner he was used to.

“No one here would do it,” Marushka said sadly. “And there isn’t time anyway.: She pointed at the chrono on the bureau. “I’m already late—I must rush. One of my friends is covering for me but I can’t push the deception too far.”

He held her close for one last kiss and then he had to let her go. She dressed quickly and he escorted her to the door, where they exchanged a final caress. Before he could process her departure from his life Marushka was gone and the door closed in his face. He concentrated on the mate bond and tried to push his love for her through the link in one big surge of emotion. Maybe he got a pulse of her love in return but couldn’t be positive,. Neither of them was a natural telepath and all of this Badari development was foreign to him.

In a daze he showered and got dressed himself, heading to his apartment in the athletes’ village for the last time, heart heavy.

* * *

He was at Dmitri’s a few hours later, for the farewell dinner the Badari was hosting. All four men tried their best to be upbeat and cheerful but the conversation kept lapsing. Dmitri’s dishes were tasteless to Benet tonight and he was drinking too much of the wine. The Five Systems contingent was scheduled to leave for the spaceport at midnight when the departure window for Kyden’s spaceship to leave orbit opened up. None of them wanted to linger. Better to cut the ties and go their separate ways.

Benet pitied Dmitri who’d been so happy to be part of a pack again. His pack bond would snap fairly soon after Kyden departed from Throne but the Badari swore he had no regrets.

“Even a brief time as a member of a pack of brothers has been a blessing,” Dmitri had said during one of their many toasts.

Restless, Benet kept rubbing his chest over his heart. The mate bond was putting him on edge tonight. He wondered if it was because he was leaving Marushka behind soon. The longer he sat over dinner, the worse his anxiety got.

Kyden finally remarked on it. “I’ve never seen you so unsettled, brother. You’re one of the coolest heads in the arena. Whatever is bothering you is roiling the pack bond too.”

Talinn and Dmitri nodded their agreement with the Alpha’s statement.

Benet was regretful to have caused the others discomfort. “I don’t know what it is but something’s wrong. I feel it, here, where the bond anchors.”

“Marushka?” Dmitri asked, a growl in his voice. “Are you sensing she’s in trouble? Or ill?”

Spreading his hands in a helpless gesture of puzzlement, Benet grimaced. “I’m not facile enough with the mate bond to know.”

Suddenly his com chimed. The men exchanged glances as Benet pulled his handheld from his pocket, dread cold in his gut. Other than Dmitri he only knew one person in Outlier who would com him. “Marushka,” he said, rising from the table and accepting the call.

He could hardly hear her. She was weeping and her voice shook.

“Calm down, sweetheart, take a deep breath. Tell me what’s wrong and where you are.” He wasn’t leaving the planet with his beloved in this frantic state. “Are you hurt?”

“No, not too much.” She lowered her voice. “I think I killed him. There’s so much blood. Can you come?”

The other three men were standing around him in a half circle now, listening to the conversation with their keen Badari hearing.

“Of course but you have to tell me where you are,” Benet said patiently, although inside he was terrified for her and raging to be in action, on his way to her side. As if he did possess an inner beast like the others.

She gave him an address and Dmitri snapped his fingers in recognition “I know where that is. It’s one of Prince Vasili’s town apartments which he uses to tryst with his mistresses. I’ll get the groundcar.”

Marushka cut the connection on a fresh bout of sobbing and Benet’s field of vision literally flashed red with his anger and concern for her. Kyden put a hand on his shoulder and he staggered a step from the push of the Alpha power, which cooled his rage enough to think rationally. “I have to get to her.”

“Dmitri went for the car,” Kyden said. “We’ll be going in a minute but you have to get a grip if you’re going to be of any use to her. Take the excellent advice you gave her and calm down. Breathe.” He turned to Talinn. “I want you to go to the ship.”

“You don’t need me with you?” the gladiator asked in surprise.

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