“Good ones, I hope.”

“Yes, very good.”

“So when do I leave?”

“Never.” Taz tightened his arms around Kyle, and he was careful not to touch any of the bruises on Kyle’s back. “I told them you weren’t for sale at any price.” Kyle smiled until Taz’s next remark. “Even though you are too much trouble.” He smiled down at Kyle’s frown. “I’ve decided to let you contact your family,” he said.

“What? But I lost the bet. I thought you said…”

“I know, I said a lot of things because I was angry. But I don’t want you to be unhappy. If contacting your family means so much to you, then it’s a small enough thing to do for you. I’d planned to let you speak to them anyway at some point, but I wanted you to settle in first, and begin to think of me as your family.”

Kyle swung his leg over Taz’s hips to get in close and grind his cock against Taz’s. “I do think of you as my family. You’re my mate, and the closest person in the world to me. But I have to reassure them that I’m happy. That I’m okay, or else they’ll come to rescue me.”

He put a finger on Taz’s lips to stop his outraged reply. “I know—I don’t need rescuing, but they don’t know that.”

Taz nodded. “We’ll contact them then, if you want to.” He pulled Kyle back down on the pillows as he tried to get up. “I’ll make the arrangements after you take a nap. And stop rubbing against me like that, or neither of us will get any sleep.”

Kyle settled back beside his mate, knowing he wouldn’t be able to talk him into contacting them any sooner. Taz’s cock was still rigid as it lay alongside his own, and he moved restlessly against Kyle. With a little smile, Kyle slid out of his arms and down to kneel between Taz’s legs, licking Taz’s cock from base to tip. Taz raised up on his elbows and drew in a rough breath as he gazed down at him.

Kyle smiled and licked him again. “Sleep really is highly overrated, don’t you think?”

Now, a few days later, Taz was sitting rather impatiently beside him as the servants set the focus and fooled around with the camera interminably. Finally, they had it ready and signaled to Taz.

Sitting in his chair behind a gleaming, massive desk, Taz fixed the camera with an imperious glare and began to speak.

“I am Taz Bonnet, of Tygeria, Imperial Senator of the Tygerian Ruling Council. Beside me…” He held out a hand, and Kyle stepped up beside him to take it. “Beside me is my nobyo. He wishes to give you a personal message.”

Kyle cleared his throat nervously. “I wanted to let you know that I’m alive and doing well. I’m happy here with Taz—he’s my mate.” Kyle tried to give as much emphasis as he could to the word, so they would understand. “Don’t try to come for me. I don’t need rescuing.” He glanced down at Taz as he squeezed his hand. “Please understand, Lucas. And Nikolai, don’t worry about me. I’ll explain everything later when I see you again, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon. Things are tricky now with the war, but this thing can’t last forever, can it? I know this will be hard for you to understand, but please try.”

“That’s enough, Nobyo,” Taz said, and the servants pointed the camera back over at him. “As you see, he has no need of any assistance from you. Any foolish attempts to come for him would only be the cause of your destruction. If you have any emergency messages for him, you may send them through official channels.”

He nodded at the servants and they ended the filming. Kyle hoped the message would be enough. His family could be a bit…intractable at times. At least the message would let them see he was still alive and unharmed. He’d told them Taz was his mate, so maybe they’d understand. It was all he could do. Taz stood up and pulled him into his arms. “There, Nobyo, I hope this will ease your mind a bit. They’ll be able to see that you’re well and happy, yes?”

Kyle shrugged and smiled back at him. Really, Taz had no frame of reference when it came to his family. Taz and his brother Tarr were close, but it wasn’t the same kind of thing at all. Maybe it had to do with their beasts—tigers were, by nature, social but solitary animals, whereas Lycan wolves naturally organized themselves into packs to maintain stability and assist each other. The hierarchy in a pack was of primary importance, one reason why Kyle had slowly but surely been adjusting to Taz as the more alpha male in their relationship. He was thinking and acting more and more like a beta every day, and he was surprised at how natural it felt to him.

Though he still needed to claim his mate, he was much more content than he had been in the early days. When he first came back from the fight in the arena, he’d expected Taz to treat him more or less like a slave. Instead, the show of dominance and Kyle’s acceptance of it had soothed his need to prove himself over and over. As a result, their relationship had become more loving and even closer.

“You know the baby will be coming soon, Nobyo. Are you ready to be a father?” Taz’s fingers drifted over the skin on his back, coming to rest over his hips.

Kyle shook his head. “Not really, seeing as how I know nothing about babies. It’s kind of terrifying.”

“We’ll care for the child together, and of course, the servants will help. You know, I’ve decided to name the baby Kylon, after my father. I also like it because it’s a little like your name,” he said off-handedly, his hand still teasing around his crease.

Kyle’s mouth fell open a little as he stared at his mate. “I didn’t even think you knew my name. You never use it.”

Taz rolled his eyes. “Of course I know the name of my own nobyo,” he said dismissively. “But in Tygeria, we never use our nobyo’s names.”

“Why is that, anyway, Taz-lan?” Kyle asked, in an irritated tone. “It makes me feel…almost generic. Like I could be anybody.”

Taz lifted one shoulder. “That’s the point.”

At Kyle’s sharp gaze, Taz smiled. “No, I can see you don’t understand. Let me try to explain. The gods of our religion can be a bit jealous. If you love something too much, the gods may try to take it from you, so it’s best if they don’t know your children or your nobyo’s names too well. When the baby gets here, you may call him by his name, of course, because the gods take little notice of aliens.” He kissed away the little frown on Kyle’s mouth. “However, I will call him son, just as I call you simply Nobyo, in the hope that the gods will become confused with so many and leave me the dearest things in my life.”

Kyle nodded, a little overcome with the unexpected emotion he felt at Taz’s words and slipped his hand inside Taz’s, who gave him a sweet smile. “So I’ll record the baby’s new name on his papers.”

“About these papers. What are they exactly? You said the same thing to me when I first got here.”

“Your birth papers. We don’t consider you to have been properly born until you arrived here on Tygeria to join the people.”

“Oh, so that makes you way too old for me, right?”

“Very funny. I hope you manage to curb this unseemly sarcasm when you’re around our child.”

“I’ll see what I can do. So we’ll do his room together?”

“Yes. What color do you think we should have the servants paint his room?”

Kyle shrugged. The sum total of his knowledge about babies was very small, limited mostly to the sparse contact he’d had with Lucas’s child. “I don’t know—blue, maybe?”

Taz frowned. “Blue? What a silly color for a warrior-child. No, it must be bold and strong. Perhaps red—a shade like your beautiful eyes.”

A knock on the door of Taz’s office interrupted them, and Taz called out impatiently for whoever was outside to enter. It was one of the older servants, all of whom had learned at their peril to always knock on any closed door since Kyle had arrived. The poor man, stooped a little with age, looked frightened and upset.

Taz straightened in his chair. “What is it, Wyn? Has something happened?”

“A message for you, sir. Very urgent, about your brother.”

“My brother?” Taz was already on his feet and reaching for the paper the servant held in a trembling hand. He scanned it quickly and turned an incredulous and shocked gaze on Kyle.

“Y-your family has my brother. They’ve taken him prisoner and are holding him on your home planet. They say that I have only a few days to contact them with a decision.”

Kyle shook his head, still trying to understand. “But why? A decision about what? Are they angry because he kidnapped me? What do they hope to accomplish by it? What do they want?”

Taz looked up at him, his face drained of color, so that the tiger stripes under his normally golden skin had never before looked so striking. His eyes turned more gold in color and took on a feral glow. His voice was shocked and harsh. “You, of course. They want to trade my brother for you. They say if I refuse to make the exchange, they’ll send him back to one piece at a time. Gods, they’re monsters!”

“Taz, listen to me,” Kyle said softly. “We’ll have to contact them right away. I can talk to them.”

Taz shook his head. “They’d never believe it,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “They’d think I coerced you. Forced you to say you don’t want this exchange.” He looked up sharply at Kyle. “You don’t want this, do you?”

“No! How can you even ask me that question? I told you I never want to leave you.” Kyle took his hand and gazed into his eyes, trying to show him how sincere he was. Taz glared back at him for moment before his eyes softened, and he drew Kyle close to him, holding him tightly in his arms. “I’ll never give you up! No one can make me!”

Kyle allowed himself to be held for a moment, trying to soothe his mate, but then pulled gently away. “Taz-lan, there’s a simple solution to this. I have to go see them. Agree to the exchange to get Tarr back unharmed, and then once I explain things to them, I’ll come back.”