She didn’t believe that. Obsidian could have hit her instead of the wall.

Chapter Twelve

The door squeaking alerted Obsidian that he was no longer alone and he turned his head to shoot an intimidating glower at the guard who refused to stop checking on him. He wasn’t going to jump off the roof of the building in an attempt to escape. He just wanted fresh air to clear his head and be alone.

“Go away.”

“Hey.” Moon stepped out. “It’s me.”

The other male was out of the black uniform and instead wore human clothing. The small blue tank top hid little of his shoulders and none of his arms.

The material of his pants he’d seen before when the technicians had moved him to the new place where 46 had died. They’d called them jeans. His feet were bare.

“I heard you and the doctor hit a bit of a rough patch. I thought you might want to talk to someone.” He lifted something from behind his back. “I brought iced coffees. Have you tried them?”

Obsidian glanced at the two bottles held in the other male’s grasp. “Talk! Why is that what everyone wants?”

“Ah.” Moon cautiously approached. “Did they send the shrink to examine you?”

“The what?”

“Headshrinker. We have one who comes to speak to us and he asks how we feel about certain stuff. I guess Tiger wanted him to evaluate you.

Dr. Kregkor isn’t so bad.”

“No human male visited me.”

Moon lifted a leg and straddled the ledge of the building, firmly sitting on the wall. He held out one of the bottles. “Twist top. You just give it a twist and it comes off. Try it. They are good.”

He hesitated but accepted the cool drink, eyeing it warily.

“Trust me, it’s good. I grabbed us two from my refrigerator when I heard you were having a bad day. Not much goes on around here that remains private. I just didn’t get the details. What happened with your doctor?”

Obsidian tested the top of the drink and it came off in his palm when he exerted a little muscle.

The thing smelled good so he took a sip. “She always wants to talk.”

“That’s how females are. They all do that.”

“46 didn’t.”

“Your mate was a unique female then.” Moon opened his drink and took a long swallow, resting it in front of him between his thighs. “Females love to talk. I think it’s because we spent solitary lives and the silence is something they enjoy avoiding now that we’re free.”

“Alli is human.”

“They really talk. They don’t have our keener senses and can’t judge anything except by their vision and hearing words.” He sighed. “Consider how limited they are. It must be a bit frightening without the sense of smell to help figure things out.”

“What do you mean?” Obsidian relaxed slightly, leaning against the wall that overlooked Homeland.

“Most of us can pick up a lot using our noses.

Anger. Arousal. Hell, some of us can scent pain if it’s sharp enough. They sweat when they are afraid or nervous as their hearts race. We pick that up too.” He shrugged. “All they’ve got is the ability to guess while they watch us but we tend to be good at hiding our emotions when we feel the need. You know what I’m talking about. Mercile used any sign of weakness or emotion against us.”

Obsidian couldn’t disagree.

“So humans press us to talk. They want to know what we are thinking and feeling. They don’t understand a lot about us and are curious by nature. I take it that caused the argument? I asked Jericho but he refused to say what happened. He must like you.”

“The male and I fought.”

Dark eyebrows arched. “Really? Who won? I didn’t see damage on him.” He visually assessed Obsidian. “Or you. It must not have been too physical.”

“Alli got in the way and it stopped before she was harmed.”

“Tough little female, huh? Brave too. I’d hesitate to get between you and the primate. I’ve seen him fight and you don’t look easy to take down either.”

“He makes weird sounds.”

Moon chuckled. “We think he’s got gorilla DNA. It is a large primate species. You’ll learn about the different types of DNA we carry.”

“He has red eyes.”

“I wouldn’t comment on that to him. He’s touchy on the subject and to be fair, they are more brown than crimson.” The male took another drink. “Not too many primates survived and the ones who did tend to be chimpanzee mixed.

They are much mellower than Jericho. He’s had a rough time of it.”

Obsidian admitted to curiosity. “Why?”

“Have you seen him? He’s intimidating as hell and he’s weird about his territory. He had to move out of the men’s dorm because he beat on his neighbors for disturbing his sleep. The guy doesn’t have much of a sense of humor, probably because he doesn’t get laid often. The females tend to avoid him because they are afraid he’ll try to claim one of them if they end up in his bed.

He’s not exactly someone you want to say no to without feeling a bit of fear.”

“Laid?”

“Share sex. Laid. It’s a human term. I guess you weren’t exposed to much of their language in the facility?”

He shook his head. “They fed us and sometimes tested us. They didn’t talk much and 46 rarely did.”

“You were in another part of the facility than most of us. Do you know why?”

“No.”

Moon lifted his chin to stare at the sky. “Were you only bred with one female?”

“Yes. My mate.”

The other male looked at him then. “I know it was hard to keep track but was it for a short time or for quite a while?”

Flashbacks of his life emerged in Obsidian’s thoughts. “Forever,” he rasped, his chest tightening. “It seemed that long.”

“You miss her.”

He hesitated, testing his emotions. “I let her down. I am here but she is not.”

“Hate the ones who murdered her and stop beating yourself up.” Moon’s gaze held his. “It was out of your hands. You would have stopped them if you could have. I saw you when you were first rescued. You must have tried like hell to escape to save her and that’s all you could have done. You nearly died from your injuries. You need to let it go.”

“I won’t while they live.”

“That’s out of your hands too.” He paused, changing the subject. “What happened between you and the doctor?”

“She accused me of wanting to mount her to replace 46.”

Moon’s features twisted into a grimace. “Ouch.

No wonder you two got into it. No female wants to feel as if a male wants to use her body to slake his passion for another.”

“I am not confused. 46 is dead. Alli is different.

I had no thought of 46 when I wanted Alli.”

“Did you tell her that?”

“Yes.”

Silence stretched between them until Moon hiked his leg over the wall and stood, facing him.

“I am your friend. I know you never had one before but it means you can tell me anything and I won’t repeat it. You need one right now that won’t bullshit you. That means I won’t tell you lies or judge you. What really happened between you and the doctor? Last we spoke, you wanted to mount her. Are you still worried you’d hurt her if you shared sex? I told you to just go slow and easy.”

Obsidian dropped his gaze, staring at the dark roof under his bare feet.

“What happened? Did you try it and she was afraid? Don’t growl, you need to hide your teeth from her as much as possible and be very gentle.

Some of our traits can be frightening to human females. I know she’s into you big-time. I was assigned to guard you and saw the way she’d look at you while you were sleeping. Hell, she kidnapped you and put her ass on the line trying to save you. That speaks volumes. Then she agreed to stay with you while you recovered. That female is into you.”

“Into me?” Obsidian shot Moon a confused look.

“She cares. I believe she’s highly attracted to you.”

“She rejected me.”

“Did you scare her?”

His shoulders slumped, remembering her fear.