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Torus had shaken his head.
“I don’t wear any artificial scents. Kindred have a very sensitive sense of smell—we don’t enjoy fake or non-natural odors,” he explained.
“Oh…” She’d looked confused. “Well…maybe it’s your shampoo?”
“Maybe,” Torus had allowed, shrugging. But he knew what she was really smelling—his Bonding Scent.
It was a special scent that a Kindred male’s body made when he was around a female he was particularly interested in—a female he wanted as his Mate.
Torus couldn’t smell it himself, which was why he hadn’t known he was making it. It was an automatic biological reaction—not something he could control. But it made him realize that things were going too far with Molly.
He was attracted to her, he admitted to himself—his body knew it even if his brain wished to deny it. And if he kept making his Bonding Scent around her, Molly was going to be attracted to him, too—which could only end in heartbreak. He couldn’t be with a female he couldn’t Bond to him because of their immense size difference. So, he needed to leave her alone from now on.
Despite his determination, however, the little Elite still stayed on his mind. He kept remembering how it had felt to hug her—how soft and curvy and delicate she felt in his arms. It was different than when he’d been holding her as she cried—then she’d been so distraught and he was so worried for her, he couldn’t really take in the experience.
But the extra-long embrace they had shared had been amazing. Her skin was so incredibly soft and her scent was warm and intensely feminine. Her?—
“Accept or Decline?” the tinny, mechanical voice of his holo-projector demanded and Torus realized this was the third time it had asked him to take the call.
“Accept,” he said and sat up straighter in his chair.
A moment later, a holo of Commander Sylvan’s head appeared, hovering just above the flat black disk of the projector. The Blood Kindred had a serious look on his face, which concerned Torus somewhat.
“Yes, Commander Sylvan? What can I do for you?” he asked.
“Commander Torus, did you go to Earth yesterday and beat a human male nearly to death?” his superior officer asked.
Torus lifted his chin.
“I did.” He wasn’t going to deny what he had done. “But I had just cause for doing it,” he added.
“Yes—something about one of your subordinates. Molly Byrne—correct?” Commander Sylvan asked.
Torus nodded again.
“Yes. He was harassing her. I made him stop.”
Commander Sylvan raised his eyebrows.
“Should I assume this has something to do with the gunshot wound you were treated for in the Med Center yesterday?”
“Yes, he shot me—but it went clean through my arm and it’s already healed.” Torus flexed his arm experimentally. It was a good thing that his kind of Kindred were extremely fast healers. He barely even had a scar. “I punished him for the attack,” he added.
“Well, you also stole a lot of his personal property—very expensive tech equipment,” Commander Sylvan pointed out.
“He had compromising vids and pictures of my subordinate which were stored on the tech I took,” Torus said. “I wanted to be sure he couldn’t distribute them to anyone else—as he has done in the past, multiple times.”
“Well…” Sylvan sighed and ran a hand over his spiky blond hair—an odd effect to watch over the holo-projector, since it looked like a disembodied hand touching a disembodied head.
“I did what I thought was right,” Torus said, frowning. “The male got what was coming to him.”
“I’m sure he did, but he happens to be quite rich and fairly famous,” Sylvan said. “What the humans call a VIP—a ‘very important person.’”
“That’s ridiculous—I don’t care how rich or famous he is, he got what he deserved,” Torus growled. “He’s lucky I let him live.”
“It might have been better if you hadn’t—then he couldn’t have caused such a commotion.” Sylvan shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to need you and your subordinate to come to my office to talk this over.”
“Right now?” Torus asked.
