Obsidian(58)

“No.”

Moon lifted his chin to stare at the sky. “Were you only bred with one female?”

“Yes. My mate.”

The other male looked at him then. “I know it was hard to keep track but was it for a short time or for quite a while?”

Flashbacks of his life emerged in Obsidian’s thoughts. “Forever,” he rasped, his chest tightening. “It seemed that long.”

“You miss her.”

He hesitated, testing his emotions. “I let her down. I am here but she is not.”

“Hate the ones who murdered her and stop beating yourself up.” Moon’s gaze held his. “It was out of your hands. You would have stopped them if you could have. I saw you when you were first rescued. You must have tried like hell to escape to save her and that’s all you could have done. You nearly died from your injuries. You need to let it go.”

“I won’t while they live.”

“That’s out of your hands too.” He paused, changing the subject. “What happened between you and the doctor?”

“She accused me of wanting to mount her to replace 46.”

Moon’s features twisted into a grimace. “Ouch. No wonder you two got into it. No female wants to feel as if a male wants to use her body to slake his passion for another.”

“I am not confused. 46 is dead. Alli is different. I had no thought of 46 when I wanted Alli.”

“Did you tell her that?”

“Yes.”

Silence stretched between them until Moon hiked his leg over the wall and stood, facing him. “I am your friend. I know you never had one before but it means you can tell me anything and I won’t repeat it. You need one right now that won’t bullshit you. That means I won’t tell you lies or judge you. What really happened between you and the doctor? Last we spoke, you wanted to mount her. Are you still worried you’d hurt her if you shared sex? I told you to just go slow and easy.”

Obsidian dropped his gaze, staring at the dark roof under his bare feet.

“What happened? Did you try it and she was afraid? Don’t growl, you need to hide your teeth from her as much as possible and be very gentle. Some of our traits can be frightening to human females. I know she’s into you big-time. I was assigned to guard you and saw the way she’d look at you while you were sleeping. Hell, she kidnapped you and put her ass on the line trying to save you. That speaks volumes. Then she agreed to stay with you while you recovered. That female is into you.”

“Into me?” Obsidian shot Moon a confused look.

“She cares. I believe she’s highly attracted to you.”

“She rejected me.”

“Did you scare her?”

His shoulders slumped, remembering her fear. “Yes.”

“Mystery solved. Just tell her you’re sorry, give her a puppy-dog look and tell her you will try harder not to do that. Females are pretty forgiving if they care about you.”

“Puppy look?”

Moon’s eyes widened and his lower lip jutted out a little while he lowered his head slightly. He blinked a few times, a sad emotion easily visible. “Like this.”

A laugh surprised Obsidian when it broke from his lips. The male’s expression was humorous. “I refuse.”

The male grinned. “I know it looks ridiculous but yeah, it totally works. It gets me out of hot water all the time.”

“Why would you go into hot water?”

“It’s a saying that means trouble. You really were kept secluded and your interaction with the technicians was limited if you don’t know that one. What did they do to you?”

“Tests. I was given pills and injections. Mostly they wanted 46 and me to breed.”

All humor disappeared from Moon’s features. “Did it work? Did she conceive?”

“No.”

The male sighed loudly. “Good. The thought of them getting a child from one of us is our worst fear. They probably wanted to segregate you and your mate from the rest of our population to see if that would get the results they wanted. One of the Mercile employees said there were rumors that some of the scientists believed a mated pair in love would be able to conceive.”

“In love?”

“You know, fiercely emotionally tied to each other.”

Obsidian looked away, feelings of guilt and sadness filling him.

“What is it?” Moon stepped closer.

He finally looked at the male. “We were not in love. 46 rejected a bond between us.”

Moon cursed softly. “Shit. She was forced?”

Obsidian straightened, his spine stiffening. “I never harmed her or mounted her without consent.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. We assumed you two wanted to be mated.”