Page 39 of Stealing Mercury (Arena Dogs #1)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Mercury walked beside Samantha as she navigated through the warren of lanes with ease.

He’d liked her mother’s home. Textures and colors filled the space like a sensory feast. The cloth walls blocked the heat of the sun but were easily pushed aside.

Any wall could become an exit. He found the freedom of that appealing.

The large building ahead of them had to be where she was taking them. It dwarfed the much smaller structures crowded into the area around it and the homes beyond it looked hastily built with many types of building materials, all in bad repair.

He didn’t recognize the hard material that formed the walls of the larger building, but he didn’t like that it only had one way in and out.

A half dozen bright red symbols hung over the solitary doorway.

Samantha led them into the cool and well lit interior.

The smell of the place raised the fine hairs on the back of his neck.

He wrapped a hand around Samantha’s arm to still her movements. She looked at him with concern. “Something wrong?”

“This is a medical facility.”

“Yes,” she said. “Oh.” Her face fell. “I didn’t think. I should have explained.”

Behind him, Lo and Carnage had gone on alert. He could tell without looking that Lo had gone up on his toes and his claws had slipped free.

“If this is where we must be to remove the trackers, then this is where we must be.”

He made the words loud and firm for Carn and Lo, but he knew he wasn’t on firm ground here. He was on edge. They needed to do this and have it over.

While Samantha spoke with the Cerrillian female that seemed to be in charge, Mercury studied the colorless cloth drapes that hung from the ceiling to divide the space.

The place looked too much like the staging area at the arena.

If the medics were going to drug them before a match, it always happened there.

Instinct urged him to put as much distance as possible between them and this place, but he had to trust Samantha.

So, he let Samantha walk away to speak with Felzaf and followed as the female led them to a three-meter square section where they were to wait.

Whispery voices came from all directions.

They swirled around them and wound him tighter and tighter.

When Samantha walked into the room with a human male, Lo lunged for the man.

Mercury had to hold him back, and it was that need alone that saved him from being the one to tear the man apart.

If it hadn’t been for Lo, Samantha would have seen a demonstration of his true nature—primitive, animal, barbaric.

To his credit, the brown haired man with the round features atop a slender frame held his ground.

Samantha jumped between them. “This is Felzaf.”

“My patients don’t normally want to kill me before their treatment.” Felzaf tried to chuckle at his own joke, but the man’s voice shuddered as he tried to breathe normally.

“Everybody calm down,” Samantha urged.

Lo snarled, but let Mercury push him back. His eyes flashed as he spoke. “You expect me to allow this human to cut into me?”

“We must trust Samantha.” He believed the words, but his instincts roared in complaint.

“I’ve known him for years,” Samantha supplied instantly.

Felzaf stepped out from behind Samantha’s protection and this time Mercury couldn’t hold in his growl.

Felzaf kept his hands open and carefully out to the side in plain view.

“Samantha told me about your situation. I’m not like the other humans you’ve known.

My ancestors were some of the first to leave Old Earth and settle the new worlds.

We tried to live in harmony with the indigenous people we found, but that meant we weren’t well fortified generations later when the Earthers came out to settle the galaxy in the name of the allied corporations.

They drove us out just like they drove out the other races. ”

“Please,” urged Samantha. “Give him a chance.”

Mercury fought his impulses, but what would happen when she finally did see his instincts get the best of him?

She stepped closer and rested a hand over his heart. It thudded hard beneath her palm.

“Please,” she said again. “Trust me.”

Mercury calmed, backing away, and the others followed his example. “Forgive us. We haven’t had the best experiences with human medics.”

“I understand.” Felzaf crossed the room to a cot at one side.

“I’ve worked with other refugees that went through some bad things.

We humans like to pretend we’re civilized and above petty cruelty, but the truth is, we can be some of the biggest bastards in the universe.

” He stood less than a meter from Mercury.

“All I can say is I’m willing to help. Whether you want my assistance or not is up to you. You let me know what you decide.”

Mercury looked to Lo and Carn then turned back to the medic. “We would be grateful for your help.”

“Good.” Felzaf smiled broadly and patted the cot. “I’ll need one of you up here.”

As leader it was his choice who would go first, but there were no good options. Carn was weak and mated. Lo, despite his outward calming, was terrified.

Mercury climbed up on to the cot and sat quiet as the man pulled a scanning device out of his pocket.

***

Felzaf had no trouble identifying the trackers Roma had used on the three men. Unfortunately, it was in their blood stream and the only way to neutralize the signal was a dangerous chemical cocktail.

Samantha hadn’t been surprised when Mercury had insisted on going first to make sure it was safe for the others. The cocktail had done its job but left him weak. He and Carn were both sleeping off the effects. Lo had insisted on going last.

He lay on a medical cot with an intravenous line in his arm feeding him a simple nutrient rich, immune boosting fluid.

Felzaf had insisted on treating their malnutrition before giving them the chemical that would scrub the tracers from their blood.

Samantha had given Lo her hand and he still gripped it in a death grip.

“I’m sorry I didn’t think to explain about Felzaf before we came here.”

Lo huffed. “The human arena medics couldn’t be trusted. They would drug us often. Aggression drugs to make us fight more viciously. The crowds had to be entertained.” He snarled the last sentence.

“This bothers you more than Mercury or Carn.”

He looked away. “From the first year I began to fight in the arena, I was often selected to service the human females who paid for the privilege of fucking one of our kind—the females who wanted a dangerous Dog from the arena instead of one of the submissive males available in the pleasure suites. They gave me drugs that made my body react as they wished and clouded my mind so I couldn’t think clearly enough to fight them.

The drugs didn’t work as well on Mercury and Carn. They weren’t drugged as often.”

Samantha stroked the length of his arm, her heart breaking over the awful things he’d been through. “I’m sorry, Lo. They should all be punished for what they did to you.”

He released her hand to reach for the multicolored strands of her hair. He gave a little tug. “I see now where you get this. Moira is even more colorful.”

She understood that he wanted to change the subject. “Her mother, my grandmother, was full blooded Cerrillian.”

“She changes color,” said Lo.

“Yes. It changes with emotion.” She tried to smile for him, but all she could think of was the past. Moira had always been at her most golden when her father was around. “Lo, why did Mercury act so... deferential toward her?”

He slipped his hand back to hers. “We never had true mothers. He considers her special. And she’s important to you.” He hesitated. “You should’ve told her Mercury is your mate. It hurt him that you didn’t claim him when you introduced us.”

Samantha’s heart thudded heavily. That sluggish organ already belonged to Mercury, but that didn’t make them mates.

There were too many obstacles standing between them.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him. It’s just that.

.. none of us know what the future holds.

I’m not sure I can be what he needs and when you have Hera back.

..” And she wasn’t sure he’d want her once it sunk in that he could find a more suitable mate on any block in Haverlee.

Her throat squeezed shut as if a slither-constrictor had coiled around her neck, making it difficult to breathe.

Confronting what she might or might not mean to Mercury invariably left her heartsick.

“I don’t know how to explain things to my mom. ”

Lo squeezed her hand, stopping the flow of words. “Because of me?”

“That’s part of it. It hurt her so much that my father had other lovers. But that isn’t all of it.”

“She’ll see the truth of things.” He rubbed his thumb across the inside of her wrist. “Will not claiming Mercury make it any better in her eyes?”

She shook her head. A week ago she would never have dreamed he could be so wise. “You always surprise me, Lo.”

“It’s fair then.”

“Fair?”

“You’re also a surprise to me.” His voice dropped to an awe filled rumble. “A prize I never imagined.”

“Lo—”

“When Carn took Hera as mate, I refused the bond.” His muscles tensed as if he’d confessed a terrible sin... or a dangerous truth.

“Why?” But she wasn’t asking why he’d refused. She knew he had a terrible past where women were concerned. And she knew he’d bonded to her because he was the only one left of Mercury’s pack brothers who could. “Why tell me?”

His ears flicked. “Go to Mercury now. I hear him getting up.”

She stroked one of the velvet triangles and watched him tremble with pleasure. “I’ll get Felzaf. Then I’ll be back. Mercury wouldn’t want me to let you face this alone.”

He closed his eyes as if her words wearied him.

It sent shards of doubt through her. She had never been good at relationships and she’d never let it bother her, but this time she was navigating the trickiest of waters and she was afraid she’d tip the boat in the wrong direction and all of them would drown.