Page 26 of Taming Chaos

“Hey, Torin,” Persephone said, turning to face him. Her husky voice resonated deep within his bones. She clung to the wall, her legs crossed, the edges of her cloak rippling lazily around her. Torin caught a view of her toned calves. Encased in high black boots that formed a second skin, they were round and powerful, tapering to shapely ankles.

He’d never seen anything quite so erotic in his life.

That tantalizing glimpse was a promise of what lay beneath her voluminous cloak.

“What is it, Persephone?”

“Seph,” she corrected. “That’s what everyone calls me… everyone who knows me, anyway.” The fear melted from her face just a little bit more, softening her sharp edges. Torin got the feeling this invitation to call her by her short name was important somehow.

“Ah. Seph.” He liked both forms of her name.

“It’s getting ridiculously cold in here. I hope whoever’s coming to get us arrives soon.” A puff of mist escaped her pink lips.

Of course. Humans are sensitive to cold. Torin recalled how the temperature on Earth could drop fast after the sun disappeared over the horizon. The humans would quickly don a thick outer layer of clothing, much in the manner of the various slave-races that resided on Kythia.

“We’re in space now.” He drifted across to her, grabbing one of the wall-hooks. “It’s probably going to get a lot colder before we’re picked up. Do you have adequate thermal protection?”

“For now.” She shrugged. “I’m just going to hang here and hibernate.”

Absurdly, he wanted to wrap himself around her and lend her some of his own warmth.

Kordolians were impervious to the cold, and Torin was no different to his brethren in that he liked near-freezing temperatures.

That was why he’d failed to immediately recognize Seph’s predicament. For Torin, the more the temperature dropped, the more it felt like home.

You have a lot to learn about humans yet, fool.

Was this how it had been for General Tarak and the other mated warriors when they had met their mates?

He moved closer to Seph, angling his body so they were almost touching, but not quite. “We wait,” he agreed, trying to ignore the insistent, almost painful pressure of his arousal. “And when they come, no matter what happens, just remember that I am on your side.”

There was a pause as she studied him, taking a moment to digest his words.

“I think I understand, and I’m grateful,” Seph said at last, tiny wisps of vapor escaping her nose and mouth with each breath.

No, my dear human, I don’t think you really understand. Not yet.

Oh, but the Goddess could be cruel indeed. Torin had finally met the woman of his wildest dreams, and all he wanted to do was get to know her better.

Instead, he’d been thrust into a situation where he might have to show her a side of him not many humans knew about.

He was First Division, and from time to time, he was forced to do some pretty terrible things.

Chapter Six

Seph glanced at her link-band. “Time,” she said softly, activating the holo-display.

Bright blue-green numbers appeared in the space above her wrist, materializing out of thin air. The power indicator told her she had a month’s worth of charge left and absolutely no communication signal.

She was entirely cut off from her people.

03:46. That was the time in Cayenne, Republic of the Guianas, Earth, Ninth Sector, the Universe. She kept her main time set to Earth-time, not space-time, because she needed something to remind her of the verdant vert-garden towers of her adopted city.

Three hours had passed since they’d been ejected into space, and it was absolutely freezing.

“I h-hate the f-fucckking c-cold,” she grumbled, grateful for her thermoregulating travel suit and cloak.

The cloak was a gift from her sister, a peace-offering of sorts. “Why the hell would you want to go out there? What are you trying to prove? You need to get over that fucking impostor syndrome of yours or the same thing’s going to keep happening over and over again.” Julia Winters had initially been scornful of Seph’s space-travel plans. They’d fought bitterly—admittedly, Seph had said some nasty things… what the hell; she’d had a few too many glasses of wine—before the elder Winters had subjected her to the dreaded silent treatment.

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