Page 5 of All for the Beast

“Of course I do,” he said, his jaw tight. “But I’m not getting into all that bullshit right now. Like I told you, I have to focus on this right now, and everything else will have to come afterward. You can tell my father that when you report back to him.”

Tarvos pursued his lips at his friend jokingly.

“He didn’t send me, and you know it,” Tarvos said.

He gave his friend sarcastic finger guns, then finally, Tarvos walked away. He placed his hands in his pockets and moved along the pier, his head lowered like an animal in defeat.

V felt a rush of guilt move through him, the way it normally did after such emotionally charged conversations. Tarvos meant well, but he had been hearing about taking up the role of the king and getting a fucking mate like a mockingbird stuck on repeat.

He needed to get the vessel finished by the end of the month, so they could start taking on customers wanting to tour the town, hell, even the planet. They could really use the money, especially during the winter months.

V was able to compartmentalize and focus on finishing the assessment of the cruise liner. He made his notes and would see the engineer later in the day. He was heading out of the private pier to have breakfast when something strange caught his eye.

A woman was walking in the area of the pier where there were tea shops and cafés. It was clear to V instantly that she wasn’t a shifter and was likely a human visiting from Earth. She was significantly shorter than the average shifter on Nova Aurora, standing at about five foot three. But she had curves for days which made V’s mouth water in the same way a dog salivated at the sound of a bell.

V didn’t know what was coming over him. Her bright blonde hair swayed in the sun as she strolled in her sandals, button-up white T-shirt, and floral skirt. She was also wearing sunglasses and a wide sun hat that she held onto with every gust of wind.

V’s heart trembled like a bird in a cage. Sweat in his armpits and crotch area felt strange for a person used to the double suns emanating heat. It was only when he passed the woman, who was gazing with a confused scowl at the pink waters rushing against the shore, that he figured out what was going on.

Her scent pounded into him like a fifty-foot wave. It was vanilla, along with something fruity like a peach. It didn’t really matter what it was, though, because the realization of who this woman was made his bones shake like he had been possessed by a demon.

She didn’t look at him when he walked by. She gazed continuously into the water. He wanted to say something to her, but his mouth had run dry, and all of his natural confidence had drained away.

He could barely admit it to himself, but he knew once they had passed each other and her scent ceased choking him, one thing was without a doubt. The stranger was his mate.

THREE

KATY

With Gerri at the helm, Katy traveled through a wormhole to get to Nova Aurora, which was an experience within itself. She knew there were alien planets and creatures like shifters who had been exposed due to the falling of the veil. Though she had never really interacted with a shifter, or at least thought she hadn’t, she was open to new experiences. Adventure to her was simply a yes waiting to be said.

Gerri escorted Katy to a quaint, small town called Siborim, one which looked an awful lot like a seaside town in Maine or San Francisco. Except, on Nova Aurora, the ocean was a sparkling pink, and two suns soared in the ashy blue sky.

She gazed out the window in the hover car as Gerri spoke about the task they had previously discussed, of how Katy could aid the town in gaining attention for the new cruise line due to her experience as a cruise manager. She was positively transfixed by the bright lilac shades of the trees that flashed by and the pale-yellow sand in the distance.

“Did you hear me, Katy?”

Katy had to shake herself into the present. Gerri sat with her legs crossed in the luxury car, sipping on something that looked like champagne. Katy wondered if it had a different name on Nova Aurora.

“Sorry,” she said, smiling. “Everything here is just so distracting. Like a painting with colors that were inverted.”

Gerri chuckled, her gentle look resting upon Katy’s stare.

“I think you’ll be happy to find that there is a lot to be distracted by on this planet,” Gerri said confidently.

Katy turned from the window, resting her arms on her lap, and nodded. “Go on, I’m listening.”

Gerri’s smooth, velvety voice filled the car the way smoke fills a jazz club.

“This town relies completely on tourism. All of the shops that we drive by thrive only when people are visiting. Like people from the planet and people from our planet,” she said with a smile. “But that has been falling short as of late. There is very little reason for people to want to visit Siborim, which is where you come in.”

Katy thought about taking out her notebook to make notes, but she decided otherwise. Something about Gerri was definitely hypnotic, and she had a feeling she wasn’t going to forget a single word that poured out of her mouth.

“Yes,” Katy said, nodding. “That is why they started having a cruise ship built?”

Gerri nodded.

“The head of operations is who you will be meeting with today. You will then have time for sightseeing so you can begin to plan the itinerary for the cruise guests.”

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