Unknotted

I couldn’t meet her eyes so looked at our entwined hands instead. “You know I can’t accept. I can’t—” I examined the mates hovering around their ultra. Varying degrees of anxiety were written on their faces. “I can’t live as you do. I love you and Stella. I love your people. But your culture isn’t for me. You understand?”

“I sacrificed to fulfill the prophecy and grow my territory. It has been better than I had hoped for. You might find you like it more than you anticipate too.” She smiled at her mates, reciting a line from the blasted prophecy. “Magic and blood. Repair the breaks.”

What in the Void did that line even mean? Was I just supposed to take Reynoka’s interpretation, that blood and magic meant offspring and Core-ordained weddings, as truth?

Each of Stella’s and Reynoka’s mates had been from dominant families in surrounding territories. They had seduced and bullied their mates into magical unions, which stretched the ultras’ cords of their coavani knots into their new mates’ territories. With each child that followed, the ultras claimed their magic grew, their knots strengthened.

That could be true; there was no way for me to know unless I tried it out myself. That wasn’t going to happen. But each pregnancy left them vulnerable to a challenge, and it took too long to bear a daughter, raise her, and plant her as a sub-dominant to further strengthen their hold over sub-territories.

Or did Namenites have the right interpretation? They skipped the whole magical union thing, usually ditching their mates and paying them off after the “deed” was done. Admon and his brother were proof that having children not only strengthened knots but tied them too. The brothers, both originally from a wealthy family in Keadan, seeded enough children in every Namenite sub-territory to bolster their magic and defeat the previous Namen ultras. But the territory, under the old or the new ultras, always seemed on the verge of collapse, their ultra’s hold tenuous as crime and violence escalated.

And Keadanians took the prophecy to mean expanding territory through slaughtering sub-dominates and warfare. An effective tactic, if more bloody than magical. But Keadan had been locked in a stalemate at the borders for years now. And only the death toll was expanding.

As for Ruani? Well, its ultras had claimed the eastern continent with a mixture of Core-ordained unions and planting mates as sub-dominants, bearing offspring and raising them to replace those mates, and war.

Honestly, after living or visiting each territory, I didn’t think any had it right.

“Family isn’t the burden you think it is, Georgie,” Reynoka said. “If you only give it a chance…”

How could I explain my thoughts on family without diving into the past or insulting Reynoka’s? In the years I had lived in Zalico, I had witnessed the inner workings of her family. Saw the jealousy and competition between mates and children. Uncomfortably watched Stella and Reynoka keep the peace through brute force and seductive manipulation—neither exactly my style. It was a precarious balance to manage and required delicate handling. Like juggling eggs, where if one fell, they all would.

Reynoka tucked a whisp of hair behind my ear. “Please, consider my offer.”

I pushed to my feet and paced. “The Core might not approve. We aren’t exactly on good terms, you know.”

“I can feel it will. Please, think it over.” Reynoka grabbed my hand, clung to it. She really did look very tired. Even her dominance seemed so.

It was hard to say no to the pleading in her eyes. I nodded, though my mind was firmly made up. “All right, I will. But it kind of depends on if I survive the bounty placed on my head.”

“You can stay here as long as you need.”

I was shaking my head before Reynoka finished the offer. “I won’t endanger you or your family. I’m only waiting until my pursuers are close enough to see me so I can draw them away.”

“Which would be about now,” Peth said from the doors of the lounge. “Jik’s spotted Stones and Whiskers”—Peth waggled her brows—“hopping into a black sedan at the portal station.”

I blew out a breath. Of course, Whiskers would come. Wasn’t he tired of chasing me yet?

“Who’s Whiskers?” Stella asked from the kitchen.

“A Keadanian minion who doesn’t know that no means no,” I grumbled.

“He loves Georgie,” Peth cooed.

“Loves to try to kill me.”

“The sedan stopped three blocks from here,” Jik shouted from the other room. “Time for you and my little custard cup to leave.”

Peth cringed and rounded back into the lounge, slamming the door so it muffled the heated words she threw at him.

“You know what would be really useful about now?” Reynoka tapped her chin in overexaggerated thoughtfulness. “Something that would give you a leg up?”

I laughed and kissed the top of Reynoka’s head. “Again. I appreciate the offer, but I’m a free spirit. Consider me forever unknotted.”

Stella plopped down at the table. “Have we told you that you’re a strange hybrid?”

I kissed Stella’s cheek. “A time or two. Take care of each other.”

“Always.” Stella smiled, but there was a sadness in it, as there was every time I left without accepting their offer.

I ignored the guilt Stella and Reynoka’s offer forced on me and knocked on the lounge’s door. “Peth, stop distracting Jik and get out here.”

The door whipped open and Peth stormed out, snapping her toolbelt in place. Jik was hunkering down behind his computers, but when he peeked over them, he was grinning like the sneaky vervet he was. In his book, any attention from Peth was better than none.

With a final goodbye, Peth and I moved to the back of the villa. The heat of the day was cooling, the wind off the ocean bringing a salty coolness that made me shiver. “Open his access, Jik.”

“Already done,” he grumbled. “Be careful, my crumb cake.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Peth hissed.

“Not right now though.” I pulled up my hood and mask. “We kind of need him. Remember the plan.”

Peth waved away the comment. “Of course. See you in a bit. Don’t get yourself caught.”

I chuckled. “That’s exactly what I intend to do.”

“You know what I mean. Unless it’s by Whiskers.” She moaned blissfully, biting her lip.

“Still gross.” I stepped out from under the eaves. As Peth slipped around the back, out of view of the camera Jik had given the Keadanians access to, I mumbled under my breath, “Take a suspicious glance around the yard, as if I’m up to no good. And finish with a glance at the camera.” I locked eyes with the lens. “That’s right, boys. Come and get me.”

I darted across the yard, scaled the concrete wall, and dropped into the streets of Port Teober. The sun was tucking beneath the horizon and, since it was a weekday, the streets were fairly deserted. I kept to the shadows mostly, though not being nearly as stealthy as I usually would. What was the good of being the lure if the predator lost my trail?

“Are they following?”

“Yeah. Moving fast,” Jik said. “Better pick up the pace a little.”

I moved into a light jog, darted across the street where I knew another camera was, and turned down a side street. I lifted my face enough so the next camera, fastened to a sign over a corner restaurant, could catch a glimpse of me.

“They split. Stones is behind you. Don’t look at him,” Jik hissed. I fixed my attention ahead. “Whiskers is running down the road parallel.”

So, he thought to intercept when I reached the end of the narrow road? How very creative of him. I rolled my eyes.

“I’m in position,” Peth said, sounding a little breathless. “Ready when you are, Georgie.”

“Jik?”

“Whiskers is rounding the corner to intercept,” he grumbled. “Now or never.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Stones was a dozen paces behind, his long strides covering ground fast. His face was pulled into a murderous scowl. Really, what had I done to make him so angry with me? Had I not shared the hostile sentiment I would have been hurt.

Releasing a gasp, which might have been a little over the top, I kicked into a sprint. Stones growled, a sound that somehow managed to sound both annoyed and excited. I darted across the one-way road toward a dark dumpster-lined alley that smelled less than stellar.

The alley ended in a dead end. I backed up, almost against the wall, but refrained from touching it and whatever that black stuff growing on it was. Stones’s shadow stretched down the alley.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he growled. I was starting to wonder if he knew how to communicate with the growling. Unsurprising, a challenge was rising in his dark eyes. What was it with him and his buddy and challenging random hybrids they met?

I forced myself to shake, which made him draw his shoulders back, confidence rising. Really, toying with dominants was too easy.

He was six paces away. He stretched a hand out. “Come. I won’t hurt you.”

I stopped the shaking and shot him a flat stare. “That’s sweet. Though, I can’t promise that my friend won’t hurt you.”