Free Lunar Lovers by Emma Abbiss Page A

crowding around him
didn’t even register—they were nothing more than ghosts, blurred obstacles that
stood between him and his mate.
    Her scent pounded through him now, rich and refined like
moonberry wine, delicate on the tongue and silky smooth as it slipped down his
throat.
    He found her around the full-heavy, slumped on a long bench,
hands folded in her lap, head down, her long blonde hair obscuring her
beautiful face. When he sat at on the opposite end of the bench, he heard her
quiet crying, tasted her salty tears on his tongue.
    Closing his eyes, he breathed past his self-loathing. Her
unhappiness, her despair were his fault. He’d pushed her too far, too fast—not
that he’d had any choice thanks to their Rane genetics. But if he’d just been
able to keep from coupling with her before they’d reached his brothers, if the
bonding ritual would have been explained to her and properly completed…things
might have been different. She might not have run from him.
    Now that he’d found her, he didn’t know what to do. Force
her to return home with him? He was not the captain, caring only for his own
wants and needs. Let her go? Allow his bonded mate to leave him to live a half
life as half a male? Every cell in his body revolted at that idea.
    A bonded Rane male without his mortal mate—was nothing. The
same could be said about a bonded Rane female but Achelle was half human. And
humans were notorious for breaking their mate bonds, their marriages, and
bonding with someone else.
     
    Achelle felt more than saw Samius sit on the opposite end of
the squat metal bench, his long legs making him look like an adult sitting in a
child’s seat. The moment she sensed him, she came alive and her heart leapt as
if trying to reach him.
    He doesn’t love you. How could he? He knows your body,
not your mind.
    She winced at the pain that accompanied her thoughts,
lancing her heart, matching the emotional with the physical pain.
    You love him. The thought sang, a ringing of ancient
Earth bells, the kind she’d read about being used in weddings.
    She laughed at the ridiculous thought and wiped at her
overflowing eyes, smearing away her tears.
    “Achelle?” Sam’s voice was thick with unnamed emotion, which
comforted her.
    At least she wasn’t alone in her bewilderment. And if his
presence here meant anything, it was that she didn’t have to be alone ever
again, not if she didn’t want to.
    Gods, she didn’t know what she wanted anymore. But really,
how could she say she wanted him and retain any self-respect after he’d backed
her against a wall. Yeah, she’d been foolish, running, falling into the hands
of Captain Grab-Ass again—a smile twisted her lips—but who would’ve thought that
all she’d had to do to get rid of the captain’s unwanted attention was to stop
running and face him… Well, that and awake before he boarded the ship so that
she could grab a handful of his junk and twist until his face turned purple and
he released her, whimpering like a little boy who’d lost his favorite toy.
    She glanced at Samius, peering through the long length of
hair that fell like a curtain around her face. What she saw stopped her breath
and broke her heart. He looked at her with such raw longing in his
square-jawed, masculine face that she winced. What were the chances of him
feeling the same way about her as she did about him? And could either of them
trust feelings apparently fueled by their Rane nature?
    “Will you talk to me?” He met her eyes, proving he was
paying far more attention to her than he had let on.
    “I don’t know what to say,” she replied, and it was the
truth.
    “Then will you hear me?”
    “Yes.” Her voice cracked on that one word, reflecting how
torn she felt inside.
    He slid down the bench until they sat hip to hip, close but
not touching. “I thought the natural drive to couple would supersede everything
else between us…or not yet between us. I know my arrogance now.” He closed