WarDog: Book Twelve in the Galaxy Gladiators Alien Abduction Romance Series by Alana Khan (large screen ebook reader txt) 📗

can shift back to my canine form and sleep with you that way. I won’t ask to share pleasure with you again.”

I scan his face, looking for the telltale signs that he’s teasing me, but he’s so freaking sincere it squeezes my heart.

“Nope. Separate cabins. I just realized you have no clothes. Wait right here and I’ll borrow some for you. I’ll be back.”

I scurry out, palm the door closed, and lean against it as I take deep breaths. My life has spiraled out of control in the span of a few hours.

After borrowing clean clothes from one of the males and getting Bayne a cabin assignment from Callista, I return to find him sitting where I left him. It strikes me that he’s been a dog for a long time, forced to sit and wait when ordered to do so.

In fact, I used to do that to him. He’d happily sit and wait for me when I told him to. Until this moment, I’ve felt guilty for kicking him out of my cabin. Now I realize it’s a kindness. He needs to figure out who he is, and he’ll never be able to do that living in this room with me.

Chapter Four

One month later . . .

Bayne

“Nice job today,” Stryker tells me as I gulp a bottle of water.

I’ve figured out my body temperature runs hotter than most others on this vessel, perhaps that’s why I’m sweating more than my sparring partner. I don’t care how uncomfortable I am, though, I work out every day, most days twice.

I like sparring with Stryker, he’s an excellent fighter, and patient as can be with me. All the males have pitched in to teach me different skills: the trident, the gladius sword, even chainsticks. I like the broadsword best, though. It feels good in my hands. I like the heft of it, and it’s reassuring to sheathe it behind my back when I’m done.

I’ve taken to walking through the halls of the ship with it, enjoying the weight of it on my back and the feeling of being at the ready. I even shifted with it on once, to make sure I could step out of the sheath and be in shape to fight in my canine form if necessary.

Having fought for so long as a canine, I like owning and carrying metal. It reminds me of all the power I have at my disposal as a humanoid. None of the weapons nor the fighting skills feel familiar to me except for the bow and arrow. The males speculate that I must come from a tribe that were hunters, not warriors. I still don’t have any memories of that time but I assume they are correct.

“Are you coming to the party tonight?” Stryker asks as he returns his gladius to the weapons room.

“I . . .” All the power I felt over the last hoara as I fought with Stryker drains out of me and WarDog whimpers like a pup. I feel like a youngling again.

“I see how you look at Willa. A blind male could see it, Bayne. Come tonight. Ask her to dance. Hold her in your arms. Who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky.” He winks at me. His big red body and scarred face could scare a stranger when he does this, but I know he wouldn’t hurt anyone unless he’s in the arena or in the line of duty as security.

Yes, take her, hold her, make her ours. WarDog encourages as he sits up straighter, ears pricked.

“She wants nothing to do with me. I’ll be in my cabin studying my people’s history and looking at pictures of my planet. Maybe I’ll get my memories back.”

“I’ve watched her, too. She ignores you when you’re watching, but her eyes follow every move you make when you’re occupied. Every. Move. I smell her arousal. I’m surprised you can’t since you have a canine nose. You don’t smell it bloom whenever you’re around?”

“She told me that’s not what it is.”

Stryker’s bark of laughter is so loud it could probably be heard at the other end of the ship. “Just because you find her soft and kind and beautiful doesn’t mean she can’t lie, Bayne. Her lips might tell you she’s not interested, but her body is shouting its desire.”

“Really?” Yes, yes, yes, agrees WarDog.

I figure I’m in my late twenties, but much of the time I feel at least a decade younger. My annums in my shifted shape were lost in many ways. I didn’t grow up. Stryker’s female, Maddie, tells me this last lunar has been an ‘emotional growth spurt’ for me. She’s befriended me in many ways including cooking special dishes for me.

Perhaps I should have known Willa was lying when she denied her interest, or maybe Stryker doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

“Come tonight my friend, or Maddie and I will show up at your door and drag you. Wear the black leather kilt Dax helped you make. The females seem to love when we wear them. See you tonight.”

He strides out of the ludus where we’ve been sparring, leaving me alone in here. My thoughts stray to the morning in Willa’s cabin before we went to Aeon II. I replay the moments when her hand furiously circled her sex under the covers. The scent of her pleasure was so rich it’s as if I can still smell it. Even now, my ears ring with every remembered pant and moan.

I want that again. No. Not that. I don’t want to be covered in fur and lurking on the sidelines. I want to be a Skylosian male whose cock brings her pleasure. I want her wrists securely bound in my hand so she has to rely on me and only me to make her come.

The only way to do that is