Chapter 7
Rowan walked away, but Reyna didn’t go back to her room—at least, she didn’t enter it. She stood outside the door and thought over everything that happened. Something didn’t make sense here.
That red dragon looked exactly like the dragon she saw in her vision with Damen, except he was red instead of purple. No one could mistake the resemblance. Callan’s statements about the red dragon trying to help Asya made no sense at all. Still, she couldn’t deny he cared about his daughter. Whatever he did in that room behind closed doors certainly healed her injured head.
While she stood there contemplating it all, Rose came out of her own room next door. Reyna smiled at her sister. “Hi.”
Rose didn’t answer. She looked up and down the passage and blinked.
Reyna waited, but Rose took no notice of her. “Rose? Are you all right?”
Rose pushed the hair off her forehead and sighed. “Hmm?”
“Rose! I’m talking to you.”
Rose looked up at her for the first time. “Sorry. What?”
“Did you hear me speak to you just now? I asked if you’re all right.”
“Sure. I’m fine. Why do you ask?” She walked away without waiting for an answer.
Reyna started after her and fell in at her shoulder. “You don’t look fine. You look like something’s the matter with you.”
“Why do you say that? I feel fine.”
Reyna stopped her with a hand on Rose’s arm. “Look at me, Rose.”
Rose gazed up into her sister’s face, but she didn’t see a thing. A cloud misted over her eyes. “What?”
“Something happened to you since I saw you last. What was it?”
Rose started walking again. “Nothing happened. I’m going to find Moira. Have you seen her?”
“No, I haven’t. What do you want her for?”
“I want to talk to her about the argument we had with the Krataks during the meal. She should know about it.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it an argument. We disagreed on a few things, but I’m sure we’ll clear that up in the course of our stay.”
Rose shook her head, but she still wouldn’t look Reyna in the eye. Something was definitely wrong with her. “We could be starting things off the wrong way with the Krataks. Moira should know about it, one way or the other. She should know how things are going.”
Reyna took a different tack. “How did your medical examination of Rohn go?”
Rose stared straight in front of her. “Hmm? Oh, it went fine.”
Reyna touched her arm again, but Rose wouldn’t stop walking. “You keep saying everything is fine.”
Rose paid no attention. “I have to find Moira.”
“Moira will turn up eventually. You know how she is. She goes off by herself, but she always turns up.”
“It’s not like her to miss a meal like that, and we just got here. I must find her. She could be in danger.”
Reyna stopped walking. “What’s your obsession with Moira?”
“She’s the Allies representative. We can’t do anything without her.”
“What are you talking about? We’re scientists. There’s nothing stopping us from doing our work.”
Rose rounded on Reyna with flashing eyes. Now she really looked like the Rose Reyna knew so well. “Moira needs to know about every detail of our interactions with the Krataks. She’s responsible for representing the Allies to the Krataks and reporting all our movements to the Allied Command when we get home. You know that.”
“Of course, I know it, but she’s only been gone for a few hours, at the most. I don’t see why you’re getting so wound up about her being missing.”
“In those few hours, she missed what could turn out to be the pivotal interaction between us and the Krataks. She didn’t hear what we said or what they said in response. I should tell her what happened. Besides, I want to ask her about something.”
“Is it something about Rohn?”
Rose spun around. “Why do you ask about him?”
“I’m just wondering, since you took him back to your room to examine him. Did something happen during your examination? Was he hostile toward you, the way we suspected the men would be?”
Rose whirled away. “I don’t want to talk about Rohn or my examination of him.”
“I just wondered, since that’s the only thing that’s happened between that meal and now. You want to find Moira so bad, and your examination of Rohn is the only thing you could want to talk to her about.”
Rose snapped over her shoulder. “Will you shut up about Rohn? I just said I don’t want to talk about him. Nothing happened during my examination of him, and even if it had, Moira is the last person in the world I would want to talk to about it. I already told you. I want to talk to her about our conversation during the meal. Can’t you understand that?”
“You said you wanted to talk to her about the conversation during the meal. You said you wanted to report it to her in case it turned out to affect relations between Kratak and the Allies. Then you said you wanted to talk to her about something else. If it isn’t your examination of Rohn, what is it?”
Rose gritted her teeth and jabbed the air with her finger. “I swear to God, Reyna, if you say Rohn’s name one more time, I won’t be responsible for the consequences. Now, leave me alone. I have more important things to do than talk to you about this. I have to find Moira, and you’re making it impossible.”
Reyna stared at her sister. She barely recognized the level-headed commanding officer who spear-headed this mission from its very first moments. “What on Earth is the matter with you, Rose? I’ve never seen you like this. You’re out of your mind.”
Rose spun away without answering. Reyna watched her disappear down the passage. Rose’s behavior convinced her more than ever something happened during her examination of Rohn. What could it be? What could anyone do to Rose to throw her so far off balance? It must be something terrible.
Rose and Reyna stuck together growing up, and they worked together on countless research missions since joining the Allied Command. Whatever happened during that examination turned thirty years of friendship and trust on its head.
Reyna made her way back down toward the hall. What did Rowan want to talk to her about? That was the first indication any of the Krataks wanted to talk about anything. Every time anyone on the team asked them a question, they either ignored it or gave an indirect answer.
She came to a curve in the passage and spotted a figure standing in a recess set into the wall. A few more steps, and she came face to face with Whitney. “What are you doing lurking around here?”
“I’m waiting for you, Reyna. I had to see you.”
“What’s up? Are you getting some good sketches of the Keep?”
“I’m not working on sketches of the Keep until we sort out exactly what’s going on here.”
“Why? What’s going on here?”
“Something’s going on between you and Damen. That’s what’s going on here. You’ve completely ignored me and gone off with him. He even put his arm around you and shoved me away from you. If that doesn’t say it all, I don’t know what does.”
“Calm down, Whitney. You’re blowing this way out of proportion.”
“I’m not blowing anything out of proportion. We’ve been close for years, and you even said we’d get married when we got home from this mission. If that’s all over because you’re hooked on Damen, I need to know right now. I’m not leaving until I get a straight answer out of you.”
“Okay, Whitney. You want a straight answer, here it is. I care about you. I really do, and we’ve had a lot of good years together. I did say we would get married after we got home, but now I know I can’t do that. I feel differently about Damen than I do about you. I can’t explain it.”
“Try. You never had any trouble explaining anything to me before. We always communicated well until today.”
“Okay, here goes. I never knew men like these could exist, and if they did, I always thought they would be horrible, disgusting brutes. Now that I get here and I’m surrounded by them, I find I have a different reaction to them.”
“What reaction is that?”
Reyna saw her words hurting Whitney. They stabbed straight to his fragile heart. She would do anything to say this without hurting him, but that wouldn’t happen. The truth would come out one way or the other. He was right. The sooner they had this conversation, the better for both of them.
“It’s almost as if men and women are supposed to be this way, with men being bigger and stronger and more dominant while the women are smaller and weaker. I don’t understand it. It just seems more natural.”
“If that’s true, then the way we’re doing it among the Allies is all wrong—not natural. You don’t mean that, do you?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. I never experienced this before with any man, not even you. I’m falling under Damen’s spell. I can’t imagine being any other way. I don’t know how I survived all my years with the Allies.”
A dark cloud crossed Whitney’s face. “So, you don’t know how you survived all your years with me? All the years we spent together, and the times we spent together, were unnatural and wrong? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Of course not. I just said we had good years together. Don’t put words in my mouth.”
“I’m not putting words in your mouth. You said your years with the Allies, with men who are smaller and weaker than you, were unnatural and wrong. That can only mean me, unless you had some other men I don’t know about.”
“I never had another man you don’t know about. Damen is the first man I’ve been with since I met you.”
His eyes flashed, and the color mounted to his cheeks. “So, you’ve been with Damen? That’s just great. We haven’t been on this planet a single day, and already you’re going off with one of them. Just wait until the Command finds out. Does Rose know? Have you told her what you just told me?”
“Come on, Whitney. Don’t you see this is exactly what I’m telling you? I don’t belong with you, or any other man like you.”
“What kind of man is that? One smaller than you?’
“It’s not just the size thing, although I have to admit that has something to do with it. There’s something magnetic about a man bigger than me. I’ve never even met one until today.”
“If it’s not the size thing, what is it?”
“You’re just so cerebral, Whitney. You survive on your brains. If you weren’t a biologist with the Allies research team, you couldn’t survive. You couldn’t hunt your food or fend off dangerous creatures. You couldn’t dominate a woman if you tried.”
“Is that what this is all about? You want to be dominated now? That is what is unnatural and wrong if anything is, especially coming from a woman like you, Reyna.”
Reyna sighed. “I didn’t expect you to understand.”
She started to turn away when Whitney grabbed her. He spun her around and swept her into his arms. Before she could react, he kissed her and held her pressed against his lips.
Without unwrapping his arms from around her body, he gazed into her eyes. “It doesn’t make any difference, does it? I can’t be dominant like he can. You can’t feel anything for me anymore, can you?”
Before she could answer, Damen appeared around the corner. He took one look at Whitney with his arms around Reyna and let out a bellow that shivered the very walls. He charged at them and ripped Reyna out of Whitney’s arms. He slammed his meaty paw against Whitney’s chest and smashed him back against the stone wall. “I’ll destroy you, little man. I’ll tear you limb from limb if you ever lay a finger on her again.”
Reyna leapt at the two men. She knocked Damen’s arm aside and pushed her way between them to face Damen. “Leave him alone. Can’t you see he’s just trying to understand what’s happening between us?”
“You’re mine. He has no right to force himself on you that way. If I ever see him anywhere near you again, I’ll...”
“I don’t belong to you. I give myself to whom I choose, when I choose. You don’t own me. If you want to have anything to do with me in the future, you better get that into your thick head now. Leave Whitney alone. If you hurt him or threaten him, you’ll only turn me against you.”
“I saw him kiss you. He thinks he can take you whenever he wishes.”
“If you saw him kiss me, you must have heard him say it didn’t make any difference. Did you hear that?”
Damen frowned “I heard it.”
“Then back off. You’re not helping anything.”
Damen stepped back.
Reyna squared her shoulders. “Take another step back.”
He stepped back, but the black look on his face didn’t soften.
Reyna took a deep breath and faced Whitney. “You’re right, Whitney. It doesn’t make any difference. No matter what happens between me and Damen, it’s over between us. I don’t know how it happened and I’m very sorry, but even after this mission ends, I could never go back to a man like you. I’ve changed. I need something you can’t give me.”
Whitney turned away. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Reyna. I hope you don’t get yourself into something you can’t get out of.”
“You don’t have to worry about me, Whitney. I’m going to be just fine.”
He walked away without answering. Reyna let out a long breath and turned toward Damen. “You’re going to have to stop doing that sort of thing.”
“I won’t have him pushing his way between us all the time.”
“He did it once. That’s hardly all the time, and he had to know the truth. Now that he knows it, he’ll keep his distance.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Whitney is a sensible man. He wouldn’t come after me, now that I’ve told him it’s over. He’ll take me at my word.”
Damen humphed and turned away with a scowl.
Reyna held him back. “I know that was just your way of showing you care about me, and I appreciate it.”
“I never meant to say I owned you.”
“I know, but I’ll make my own decisions.”
“Very well.”
She came up close to him. “I never knew you thought of me as yours. I thought you were just enjoying yourself.”
“I wouldn’t enjoy myself with you if I didn’t want to make you mine. That’s not my idea of enjoying myself.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I wanted you from the first moment I met you. You know that.”
“You wanted me and I wanted you, but there’s a big difference between liking someone and liking them enough to marry them. Isn’t that what you said the gatherings were all about?”
“I never said anything about marrying you.”
“What else could you mean by saying I was yours?”
He scowled and turned away.
She darted around in front of him and blocked his path. “I asked you a question, Damen. If you’re just playing around and enjoying yourself with me, I need to know right now, just like Whitney. Tell me the truth, and don’t say I’m yours when you don’t really mean that.”
His scowl deepened. He glared at her with smoldering eyes. Then he pushed past her and stormed off down the passage.