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 Yes.
She liked the idea even more than he did. He knew she was a naughty little female
and this proved it.  Then run, now. I will grant you a short head-start before I come to
capture you and lay all sorts of evil pleasures on your tempting little body.
Ooh, Dori liked his ideas.  No cheating. He could find her too easily with his
mind if she tried to hide from him. It would make this game far too easy for him.
 I will rely on what my senses alone tell me. Now run. He moved off her,
allowing her to close her bodice. He resisted his growl at being denied a continued look
at her there. The promise of a new game granted him the resistance he needed.
 There s a drindria outside my room s balcony wall. She fled after giving him
that one hint, managing to snag her comm box in passing.
Merrick shook his head with a smile. It had been far too long since he d chased a
SHADOW AND BETRAYAL H. M. Harrison Page 92
lover and enjoyed the thrill of it, then the satisfaction of the explosive play once he
caught them.
It had to be some sort of unwritten tradition. The female always chose a garden or
forested area for her first time with a new lover. An instinct left over from the Ferals,
though it was normally the male, not the female, who took their lover into the overgrown
areas for that first time. How it began and how it went from the female following the
male to the male chasing his female wasn t quite known. None really cared as it was too
enjoyable to be picked apart and explained away.
He d chased his first teacher all over King s Forest near Cymbaline Castle before
he caught her. The scream she d given when he d pounced on her, knocking her into a
pond had been well worth the chase. Their first games had been even better.
Merrick shook the memory out of his thoughts, focusing on this newest chase. He
thought up the route back to where the garden was as he eased from the bed to begin
hunting his mate. This would be a most enjoyable game.
Dori ran down the corridor, barely avoiding colliding with passing Hiroke. All of
who yelled for her to slow down.  I can t--I m sorry, she called back to each of them.
She had little time to make it to the garden and find a good hiding spot to await Merrick s
arrival to hunt her down. Even with her bit of trickery with him.
When she gave Merrick the warning about the drindria, she d done her own little
experiment with him. Distracted as he d been by her warning, she planted a small
suggestion in his mind. It surprised she managed to accomplish the feat as she had no
experience in doing so.
If he ran while seeking her, her suggestion would get him lost in the compound
and grant her a little more time. The suggestion would melt away, she hoped, as soon as
he figured out her little trick. If it didn t, she would be in a whole lot of trouble when he
found her at last.
It left her wondering how long her suggestion would last before he realized her
games and finally found her. And how angry he would be when he did?
After allowing Dori a good head-start, Merrick went in pursuit of her. He
chuckled his amusement as he rushed past already exasperated Hiroke, who roared out
orders for him to slow down, clearly having already been ignored by a running Zyan from
the look of them. Ignoring them as Dori had, Merrick headed for the garden he d made
note of earlier, following her scent.
A short time into his pursuit, Merrick paused and looked around. He growled
when he found himself once more outside of Dori s chambers.  Sneaky, my mate, he
purred, impressed. She had planted a suggestion in his mind to cause him to get lost.
Even following her scent as he had hadn t aided him in avoiding that. None a very easy
trick to accomplish. She must have done it when she warned him about the drindria,
distracting him at the same time.
Chuckling to himself at the impressive sneakiness of his mate, Merrick went back
into Dori s chambers and out onto the balcony. Sure enough, he saw the parasitic vines of
Kashee s tree coiling over the railing. He could also sense an energy field here meant to
keep the vines from endangering Dori in their growth pattern.
Moving to the railing, he leapt up onto it, crouching down to study the distance to
SHADOW AND BETRAYAL H. M. Harrison Page 93
the garden floor. The thorns of the vine crunched under his boots, spitting the potent,
anesthetic venom of the blood-feasting plant harmlessly away from him. He spied the tree
itself below and an open area just past it. The vines and distance made jumping up to the
balcony difficult, even by a Feral-born as they risked becoming a drindria s meal.
However, should the need arise, one could leap from the railing to the garden floor in
safety for a Zyan or Ganjan. Yet another sign of Etherson s protectiveness of his adopted
daughter. If she were in danger here, she could leap off the balcony and make a safe
landing on the grass below.
Merrick straightened and leapt off the railing, landing in a crouch before the
drindria. He turned to face the tree as he straightened studying it.  My apologies for your
lost thorns, Kashee plant, he said, then turned back to his pursuit of his wicked little
female. One who now faced a punishment for her trickery, then pleasure.
Closing his eyes, he drew in a breath of the scents here, letting it soak to soothe
his hungers somewhat before his passions took over entirely and turned him into a Feral
with his mate. His eyes opened again when he caught scent of female musk. He moaned
when she began to hum that lullaby again, the caressing touch of it on his mind granting
him the calm he needed, even as it stirred him that much more.
Before, it had coiled around him like a soothing balm when he d collapsed in the
rain, ready to give up before it called him back to life. Now, it proved a burning hot lure
meant only to destroy him if he didn t find Dori soon.
Hunger for her filled him to the brim as he let it guide him to her. His groin was a
focal point of heat and pain. He again felt the innate need to claim the owner of so tender
a voice as he d felt before when it lured him through the storm. The building had repelled
him then, but Dori s sweet voice, humming the lullaby had called to him, displacing
everything else. Even his instinctive distrust of the Hiroke building. He was glad for it
now. He knew he would have died in the storm and never would have found his way to
this naughty little female.
The fantasy of her humming the lullaby while her mouth wrapped itself around
his cock filled his mind. She played with fire now in what she did to him. He intended for
her to learn of the danger she dabbled in when he found her.
As he followed the sound of her voice, Merrick closed his mind to Dori so she
couldn t sense him or his intentions. He wanted to play with his little kazi and she had
chosen his means with her foolish notions that he wasn t her true mate.
Scents here would mask his approach as well as the breeze that kept his own scent
downwind of her. Kashee was being kind to him despite his injuring the drindria, or
Kashee s plant, as the Feral-borns called it to honor the god it was sacred to. Merrick
would honor the fertility god s aide with a very naughty offering to him with Dori. One
he knew would please Kashee, Trista, and Trey, all at once. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]