Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Taurex had already learned enough about her former mate, Jackson, to know that attempting to push Terra into another relationship before she was ready would be the worst possible thing he could do. So he had been careful. He had kept their interactions professional, had resisted the almost constant urge to touch her whenever they worked side by side and had deliberately ignored the way her scent changed whenever they stood too close together.
That last part had been considerably more difficult than he wanted to admit.
For the past two weeks, however, something else had begun happening–he had been dreaming.
The dreams themselves weren’t unusual. In fact, among his particular kind of Monstrum they were considered one of the strongest signs that a true mate bond was beginning to form. Once a warrior encountered the female meant for him, the Goddess often sent dreams—not merely of the female herself but of the people closest to her. Her immediate family…her younglings. The ones whose lives were so tightly woven into hers that accepting her meant accepting them as well.
Taurex had begun dreaming of Terra’s children only a few nights after she started working for him.
He had seen the little boy first–Cody. He was dark-haired and serious, with an intelligent face and a stubborn set to his jaw that reminded Taurex very much of his mother. In the dream, the boy had been standing beside a wide silver river, throwing stones into the water, and asking questions about stars.
Then came the little girl–Lisa. She was smaller, with enormous curious eyes and a cloud of brown hair around her face. She laughed constantly in Taurex’s dreams and seemed to possess absolutely no fear of him. In one particularly vivid dream, she had climbed onto his lap, grabbed both of his horns and announced that she was riding him like an Earth animal called a pony.
Taurex had awakened laughing.
Even Terra’s mother had appeared to him—an older female with kind eyes and a worried expression, always looking toward Terra as though she wanted to protect her daughter from every hardship but knew she couldn’t.
The dreams had only strengthened his certainty that Terra was meant for him. And now he was going to meet the people he had already seen so many times in his sleep.
You must not frighten them, Taurex told himself as he turned onto Terra’s street. And do not say anything foolish.
He had already learned that human children were considerably more direct than adults, which he liked. Adult humans often said one thing while thinking another. Younglings had not yet acquired the habit.
His shuttle glided silently along the residential street, attracting several curious looks as he passed. In its terrestrial configuration, the vehicle resembled one of the sleek human automobiles he saw frequently downtown, though the similarities ended on close inspection.
It was longer and lower than most Earth vehicles, with smooth metallic panels that reflected the sunlight in shades of deep gold, and there were no visible wheels because the shuttle hovered several inches above the pavement. The propulsion system had been modified to mimic the movement of a ground vehicle while within populated areas, but if necessary Taurex could retract the terrestrial shell, engage atmospheric flight and be halfway to orbit within minutes.
Terra’s neighborhood was very different from the district surrounding the Montana Building.
Here, the streets were narrower and lined with old oak trees whose branches spread across the road like interlocking arms, trailing gray Spanish moss that stirred lazily in the humid breeze. The houses were close together, mostly small bungalows with broad porches, low roofs and little patches of lawn separated by cracked driveways and chain-link fences. Some were freshly painted and carefully maintained while others showed their age with peeling shutters or sagging porch steps.
Terra’s house was somewhere in between.
The bungalow sat slightly back from the road beneath an enormous oak tree, its pale-yellow paint faded by years of Florida sun. White trim framed the front windows, and a narrow porch stretched across part of the house, shaded by a low roof supported by square columns.
There were pots of flowers arranged along the porch railing—bright red geraniums and purple petunias, though several looked as though the August heat was winning the battle—and a child’s pink bicycle leaned against one side of the house. A basketball hoop stood over the cracked driveway and a battered blue ball lay in the grass beneath it.
It was small–very small compared to his penthouse. And yet there was something about it that struck Taurex immediately–it felt lived in.
There were curtains in the windows, brightly colored cushions on the porch chairs and a hand-painted wooden sign near the door that read WELCOME, Y’ALL in cheerful blue letters. A child’s drawing had been taped inside one of the front windows and Taurex could just make out several stick figures standing beside what appeared to be a badly proportioned dog.