Page 302 of Hunters and Prey

Chapter 7

Chiara

Chiara’s Bedroom

Planet Anarr

The Hai System

Chiara stretched and her hand hit something warm. Groggy and confused she cracked open an eye. Where was she?

Something dark covered her, but she could see light through it, causing a sort of reddish glow that was soothing. Chiara reached out and touched it. It was soft and warm and…someone’s wing.

Shooting straight up she cursed when her head hit something rock hard.

Male curses from behind her had Chiara whirling around, a plasma scalpel raised in defense.

“Good morning to you too, velika,” Roman muttered, rubbing his chin and pulling his wing back.

Chiara was frozen as she realized she was in her bed – that she didn’t remember getting into it. And somehow Roman was in the bed with her.

Panic started filtering in as she tried to put the pieces together. Scrambling away from him she nearly fell off the bed before her feet found the floor. “What in the cula’ting shikta happened? Why are you here?”

“Nothing happened,” Roman said soothingly, moving slowly out of the bed. “We are both fully clothed in what we wore yesterday. I only removed your boots.”

Glancing down she saw that he was indeed right. The clothes she’d worn for two days stuck to her and suddenly Chiara felt like she needed to rip them off her body and shower. But first, she wanted to figure out how this male was even in her bed in the first place.

“You brought me here?” she asked, still holding the scalpel like a weapon.

He nodded, slipping his hands in his pockets like his brother Alexei did. Chiara realized he did it to make himself appear less threatening. “You were asleep at your desk so I brought you here to sleep. When I tried to leave, you wouldn’t let me.”

She deactivated the scalpel and slipped it back into its holster on her belt. That sounded like something she would do. Chiara had noticed when she was tired or drunk her inhibitions lowered to embarrassing levels.

“Why were you in my office?”

Roman readjusted his wings and rolled his shoulders back, but he held her gaze. “I wanted to talk with you. When you didn’t respond to my request to come in, I, uh…panicked.” Somehow he managed to look sheepish and defiant simultaneously.

Chiara crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. “You thought I was in danger?” Why did that somehow make him more attractive?

He shrugged. “We haven’t found whoever reported Adelina’s presence to the Neprijat. That person got my brother killed. I couldn’t live with myself if he hurt my mate as well.”

They stared at each other in silence for a minute. Roman waited for her to come to terms with the situation and decide what to do next.

She considered the facts.

It had been the best sleep she’d gotten since they’d left Draga Terra. That was certainly something to consider. Chiara hadn’t felt this well rested in a very long time.

And she trusted him to tell her the truth. She could even see marks on his shoulders where her claws had pricked him. Glancing down at her hands ruefully she realized they were indeed still extended. It was something she’d been hiding for a long time. Instantly the claws retracted.

Not all dominants possessed the trait. It usually indicated one’s dominance more clearly and Chiara had always tried to live under the radar. She just wanted to do her work. That was it. Surprisingly the claws had affected her relationships with males the most.

She took out the medpack and walked around the bed between them slowly. He eyed her warily, but didn’t move. Then she sprayed the marks and they healed in a matter of seconds.

“I kind of liked them,” he told her, deep voice rumbling.

Chiara looked up into his blue eyes – so bright against his brown skin. There were so many thoughts she could see there, but too many to decipher. All she knew was he felt hunger for her, but he would hold back until she told him otherwise.

That made her respect him more than anything. Chiara knew she could trust him with her body, but she was still finding out if she could trust him with her mind and heart.

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