Free Chasing Mayhem by Cynthia Sax

Imee dashed toward the door for the second time that planet rotation, seeking to escape him, escape her lie.
    “You smell like me.” Mayhem followed her, not allowing the distance, either emotional or physical. “Every male will know you’re mine.”
    “I don’t have time to utilize the cleansing chamber.” That was another untruth. She wanted to smell of him, to keep their connection for a little bit longer. “I have to speak with Kralj before he leaves his working chamber.” She ran in that direction.
    Mayhem matched her quick pace, showing no signs of exertion. “We’ll speak with the male.” He clasped her hand, his palm firm against hers. “He won’t touch you.”
    His possessive tone sent a tremor down her spine.
    “Kralj isn’t interested in me that way.” They passed Orol. The winged male stood with his hands clenched behind his back, gazing out the window, yet Imee knew he heard and saw everything. His senses were almost as finely honed as his boss’s were. “And we aren’t speaking with him. I am.”
    She needed space to think, to regain control.
    “Where you go, I go.”
    He must have been serious about that. “Mayhem.” Imee glanced at him, unable to hide the panic swelling within her. She’d been alone for so long and now he was by her side, caring, overwhelming her with emotion.
    She couldn’t handle it, didn’t know how. Kralj had never trained her how to handle a target who cared for her. She required quiet to figure out this problem.
    Mayhem gazed at her and his eyes softened. “I’ll wait outside his chamber,” he relented. “If he touches you or damages you in any way, I’ll know and he’ll die.”
    How would he know? The door would be closed. Could he see through solid surfaces? Did every being around her have powers?
    “He won’t touch me.” She slipped through the door, putting that barrier between them, hoping it would be enough.
    “Sit.” Kralj waved at a chair. “It is enough.” He had known she was coming, that she’d given seeing him as an excuse, was using his chamber as a sanctuary.
    She slumped in a chair, ashamed of her weakness.
    The scarred male continued to peruse the personal viewscreen set on the horizontal support before him. He was too grim to be considered handsome, even if his face hadn’t been horribly burned, but some females found him sexy, getting off on the undeniable aura of power clinging to his leather-clad shoulders.
    Imee wasn’t attracted to him. She’d seen too much pain to find his intensity appealing. She preferred Mayhem’s laughing eyes, his always-smiling lips, the way he joked about inappropriate things.
    “You don’t know who he is.” Kralj read her thoughts.
    “He’s my target.” That sounded unconvincing even to her ears.
    “He’s your chance at happiness.” The Refuge’s leader gazed at her with his dark all-seeing, all-knowing eyes. “You’d be a fool not to take it.”
    How could he say that? “You know what I risk.”
    “I know what you believe you risk.”
    What did that mean? “What is he? What should I know about him?”
    “That’s not my information to share.” Kralj returned his focus to his personal viewscreen. The responsibility for the welfare, for the lives of every being within the settlement rested with him. He decided who lived and who died.
    “Why did you save me?” She suddenly needed to know. “When I arrived at the Refuge, I was young, inexperienced, weak. I hunted within the walls without your permission, disrespecting the rules, disrespecting you. You’ve killed beings for less.”
    “I know everything.”
    That was no answer. “Instead, you trained me, slowed my early targets so I could capture them.” He’d inflicted wounds upon them until their strength was drained and their heads spun. She’d seen him wield all of the weapons hanging on his walls. “That allowed me to meet quota, to survive. Why would you do that?”
    “You’re one of us.”
    She tilted her head.