Page 11 of Bound to the Tiger Scout
“Indeed.” I led the way to the nearest monitor.
CHAPTER 6
SQUIRE
Mama was on camera weeping and wailing about how the Norlons had stolen her baby. Swear to god, she’d never called me her baby before in my life.
The monitor we were looking at showed five different news stations playing footage of her, and every single one of them had the wrong information on their banners. Stealing babies? Abducting children? Child sex trafficking? I covered my mouth and stared, at a complete loss over how willing some folks were to believe the worst without checking even one fact. No wonder the big black wolf guy had demanded to know how old I was.
Oh, and there was Halbert putting his arm around Mama—who wasn’t really crying because her face was totally dry. He started in on how the Norlons were brainwashing the innocent and stealing the young. I wanted to hit him when he referred to me as Mama’s baby boy, but other than that, I had no idea what to do.
I looked up at Ghosha beside me. I took a breath to ask him what I should do, but my brain stalled for a second when the scent of male musk hit me hard again. I was still sporting a semi so some of that scent might be me, but it was real strong when I got close to Ghosha. Did he just always smell like sex? Or was heas into me as I was into him? I had an easier time believing the first option.
Though if Ghosha was going to do the training he’d mentioned, I’d be a hundred percent into that.
“How would you feel about being interviewed,” Ghosha asked me, “by a member of the press?”
It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. “Somebody wants to interviewme?”
“We can get someone to interview you.”
“Oh, to like…set the record straight?”
He nodded and did a wiggle thing with his nose that made his white whiskers sort of wave at me. It was the most adorable thing! I had such an urge to pet him but stuffed my hands into my jeans pockets instead.
“Excellent,” the wolf guy said behind us. “Find Owen. I’m sure he can help with that.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Ghosha accepted the tablet-looking device that Layleen handed him.
She was nice. Motherly, like Mama used to be when I was young. Took no shit from Ghosha, that was for sure. I’d thought maybe they were a couple, but she’d mentioned murdering her husband for knocking her up, so I knew she didn’t mean Ghosha. I’d read about how something or other about their bodies only let them have kids with another of their exact kind. Which just meant there couldn’t be any tiger/bunny hybrid babies—though how fricking cute would that be?
I refocused when I heard Ghosha talking to someone on his tablet. A guy about my age or so with big blue eyes was saying to meet him in a conference room and he’d get in touch with PBS News. I’d secretly watched them during the assassination attempt and again when the bomb went off.
Wait a minute, was the wolf guy Prince Alam? And was Owen the son of the bomber? The prince was mated to a formercop, and Owen could destroy folks like Halbert with a single sentence. I suddenly felt like I was meeting the stars of my favorite TV show, and my palms got all sweaty.
Since I probably should’ve bowed or something to the prince, I turned around only to be spun back again by Ghosha. “This way,” he said and left his big hand gripping the base of my neck. Swear to god, I was pretty sure he could’ve ringed my throat like a collar with his long fingers. There went the scent of sex filling the air again. I greedily breathed it in and let Ghosha guide me down the corridors.
As the inside of a spaceship went, I guessed this one was pretty basic. Boring, really. Like more functional than fancy for sure since the walls were gray and the floors were a darker gray tile. Was there a slight squish to the tiles? They felt padded beneath my feet and?—
Shittin’ fuck, I wasn’t really distracting myself much at all from the sex on legs beside me by taking in the decor. The ship could be clear plastic letting me see Earth rotating below me and Ghosha would still be front and center in my awareness.
I was going to go on camera with a damn boner.
“Here we are,” Ghosha said before he opened a door for us.
We walked into a place that was set up like a little newsroom. In front of a navy blue wall was a curved gray desk like a reporter would sit behind with chairs on either side for guests. There were skinny little cameras on stands, all kinds of lights pointed toward the desk, and mics hanging from the ceiling like spiders. The one human and four Norlons in the room stopped what they were doing and looked our way.
I gulped. Maybe I couldn’t do this. Looking up at Ghosha, I was about to change my mind when his thumb brushed against the sensitive skin of my throat while he gazed back at me. I so wanted him to lean down and kiss me. I licked my lips and watched his golden eyes follow my tongue.
“Squire?”
I jumped about a foot and looked to find Owen coming over.
“Hi, I’m Owen,” he said with a hand out.
I shook his hand. “Hey. Hi.”
Ghosha’s grip on my neck fell away, and I watched with concern as he went to stand beside the doors like he was trying to get out of the way. I wanted him to hover instead, give me his strength and steadiness.
