Meeting Brax in person proved it had not just been the view screen that made him appear bigger.  He just was bigger.  Well over seven feet tall he towered over everyone else.  Megan had never felt so small and insignificant in her life, and she had sat through the tactics meeting where she had absolutely nothing to contribute so that was saying something.  Her plan to join in and start acting like she belonged with the rest of them, while avoiding her sister and Morax had gone a little off kilter when she realized what they were strategizing was on how much to tell Brax about his brother and the fact that they intended to kill the King if they could. 

Since she did not have the ability to read his thoughts and emotions, and she had not been with them when the things they were discussing happened, she really had nothing to say.  She did feel that it would be a bad idea to tell Brax they wanted to kill his brother, but since Sara said that very thing before she could she had nothing.  In the end Creeg had decreed that they tell the man everything.  He would find out eventually and they needed to know if they had a friend or foe on their hands, sooner rather than later.  Besides, if anyone could go to Earth and rescue Ariel without getting themselves or her killed it would be Brax and his men.

She could believe looking at them that they were legendary warriors, even among their own.  The elite of the Tellox forces.  While Brax was over seven feet of sheer muscle and meanness, his men were not far behind.  All over six feet, the four of them spaced across the war generals back like the soldiers they were. 

In appearance, they were much as the Tellox she knew, including the gold hair, gold skin and many shades of gold in their eyes.  That was where the similarities differed though.  These men had lost the ability to laugh that the Tellox she had come to know had not.  The closest she could come to what was in their eyes, was what she sometimes saw in Morax’s when he was not looking at her.  As if they had gone through hell and come back the other side with bits of their soul left behind in payment. 

With Morax she had seen the softness in his eyes when he looked at her, felt the tender touch of his fingers on her face.  These males? Well, she didn’t know them.

The meeting place was a moon, that according to her new memory banks had once been colonized, but as it was prone to natural disasters every hundred years or so, it was now mostly deserted and used primarily as a way stop for travelers to resupply in water, make repairs and other limited things.  The being who owned the moon and supplied the water and oversaw the trading of goods had strict rules about no one staying overnight, as in, he caught you overstaying your welcome and you disappeared, as in, he ate you.  Megan and Sara seemed to be the only ones who showed any concern about that, since they were only stopping on the planet long enough to talk with Brax.  The repairs could be done while they slept on board the ship.  Very reassuring. 

The clearing where the two ships landed was wide and cut back for just this purpose.  All the Tellox met in the middle, with the women relegated to the ship, an order which started a huge argument that ended with Creeg asking Sara if he wanted her sister in that clearing while they told Brax they planned on killing his brother.  To which she replied, “Of course not…”

There would have been more but he cut off the names she would have called him with his next question.  “And would you leave your sister alone in the ship should something happen to the rest of us outside?”

That was an argument she could not disagree with, but from the length of teeth showing and the way her fists clenched around sharp claws, she really wanted to.  “I can read him and tell you exactly what he is thinking.”

“Which would be helpful, but it is not worth putting you or your sister in danger to get.”

They were still arguing about it when Sara got the last laugh because Brax insisted on seeing the females and verifying himself all that he was told. Not that it did them any good.  Brax seemed to be one of the few that Sara could not read.  So, Sara and Megan were there when he told them that his brother the king had betrayed him and had to take his reaction for the truth when he finally gave them one.  He would not get into specifics but from the rage hollowing out his cheeks and making those clear eyes appear almost demonic Megan got the feeling that it was bad.

“I no longer call him brother,” Brax said the clenching of his teeth a testament to his control.

All things considered, Brax took the news his brother was insane and marked for death rather better than they had hoped.

Since Sara had stuck to Megan like glue, they were standing close together when Brax was just suddenly before them, looking down at them with unreadable eyes like ice shards.  Both Creeg and Morax crowded at their backs with warning rumbling through bared teeth.  Megan had blinked and missed him moving so she gasped, while Sara gave a small embarrassed yip at his sudden move at them.

Brax ignored them all and looked at the two women.  “Now that I know Rygan is traveling to Earth I will follow him and kill him.”  The words were deep dark and scary, and he wasn’t even done.  There was a long moment while he studied both.  Megan could feel the tension of everyone in the room escalating as they waited for whatever Brax would so next.  “Your sister, what does she look like?”  he was looking at Megan when he spoke so she looked at Sara then when she shrugged back at the hulking Tellox with the cold cold eyes.

Finally, she answered.  “She has hair like mine, long and brown, but darker, her skin is lighter and her eyes are not all brown but have gold and copper highlights in them.  She is taller than me and slenderer.”  Megan took a breath.  Realizing something else. “She will be a just turned eighteen by now.”

He stood their soaking in their words with a light of almost fanatic absorption.  Something passing across his face she did not understand.

“General,” Sara added, a hitch to her voice.  Then resolve.  “She is smarter than every person in this room.  She may not need your help.”

His jaw clenched at that.  “I will find her.”  He said it with no inflection in that dark voice, but everyone who heard it recognized it for the promise it was.

“Wonderful,” she heard Sara say.  And Megan knew her well enough to know she was not entirely pleased by this turn of events.  She could not blame her.  It was good that someone was going after Ariel and she would have protection from the crazy king.  But Megan had never met the nefarious King Rygan, and she had a hard time believing he was that much scarier than the cold eyed general before her.  So, she would bet money the unhappy look on Sara’s face meant she was thinking the same thing Megan was.  Great that Ariel would be saved from the crazy king, but who would protect her from his brother?

After that meeting finally broke up and Brax and his men left as quickly as they had appeared Creeg started to separate the men into different tasks for the needed repairs, which left Sara and Megan standing in a space of quiet alone on an alien moon.  Megan could no longer ignore the feel of the plant life energy all around her.  The longer she was in the clearing the worse it seemed to get.  Here with the jungle plants and animals all around it revved so high it made the green feel like a small trickle of stream compared to this raging ocean of power.  Once everyone else stopped talking around her the buzz of it could no longer be ignored.  Megan took a deep breath and was suddenly very happy they would be spending their nights on the ship.

“What is it?” Sara asked her in a quiet little growl, as if she had sensed her tension and her beast was reacting to it.

Megan sighed, realizing the time had come to explain what had been happening to her since she woke up after the teacher had scrambled her brain.  “I think the Teacher did something to me besides imparting knowledge.”

Sara blinked, clearly not expecting that.  A moment later Megan felt a shadow over her thoughts and her eyes widened.  “Are you in my head?”

It was Sara’s turn to look surprised.  “You can feel that?”

“Yes,” and since she did not care for the intrusion. Megan reacted automatically and cast her sister out, slamming the doors of her mind closed as soon as she did so.

Sara teetered and then fell back on her ass in the soft loam of the valley.  She looked stunned, her mouth opening and closing for a full minute before she snapped her lips closed.  Closer to the ship there was a roar that shook the ground around them and a moment later Creeg was there, moving so fast Megan barely saw him move as he picked up his mate and looked around, clearly enraged, for the threat.

“I’m fine,” Sara said.  “There is no attack!”

“What happened?” Creeg asked.  Already the other four Tellox had them surrounded.  Their backs to them while they watched for an attack from all sides.

“It was nothing.  I tried to read Megan’s head and she kicked me out.  I’m fine.”

Creeg glared at Megan even as he spoke to his mate.  “It was not nothing.  I felt your pain.”

Megan winced, her eyes going from the enraged Tellox to her sister.  “I hurt you?”

“No,” Sara assured her, even as her mate snapped out “yes!”

She saw the truth in the paleness of her sister’s face, and the fact that she was not insisting her mate put her down on her own feet.  “I hurt you,” she whispered and just the thought of hurting her sister was enough to make her hands shake.  After everything that had happened, it seemed that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.  “Sara, I’m so sorry.”

“I know you didn’t mean to,” Sara hurried to reassure her.  “I should not have tried to read your thoughts.  I have restrained myself until now but…well…”  She was pushing at her mate’s chest to try to get him to let her down but he was ignoring her less than subtle pushes.  She glared at him, and the non-argument between them almost made Megan smile.  Or it would have if she was not about to have a nervous breakdown.

She took a long shaky breath.  “Something happened to me when the Teacher scrambled my brain.  It’s more than sensing you in my head, and pushing you out.  I think you may not be the only one with super powers in the family.  Not anymore.”

“What does that mean?” Creeg growled.  Megan tried to think of how to say it without sounding insane but it was Morax who finally spoke.

“She has an affinity for plants.”

The low dark words dropped into the silence like a knell.  Everyone stilled utterly except Sara who blinked and said, “Well, she always has had an affinity for plants, what does that have to do with this?”

“No, Sara,” Megan said and thought to the strange alien jungle around the outside of the clearing they stood within.  “This is definitely new.”  Then the jungle around them came alive, growing and twisting until a wall of green twisting vines surrounded the entire valley, as if a wall had been built out of the foliage.  Everyone looked around them in amazement, even Megan who had expected something to happen, but not something quite so impressive, and scary.

There was more than one foreign sounding curse as the Tellox moved around each other to see what she had created.  Finally, Sara looked away from the wall of green and back to Megan.  “I stand corrected. You are right.  This is definitely new.”

Looking out at what she had wrought with just her thoughts Megan was suddenly having a hard time breathing.

Morax grabbed the back of her neck in a manner forceful enough to shock her, he did not hurt her, but he got her attention and fast.  “Breathe little flower.”

“In my mind, I’m pretty sure I wanted flowers to bloom around the outside of the circle,” she explained her panic, while she tried to do as he ordered and breathe.  The lump of fear in her throat was making it difficult.  She grabbed his wrist and held on, her eyes beseeching him.  ‘I could hurt someone.  There is so much…more here.”

Morax nodded his head once at her and then raised his eyes to Creeg.  “She needs to get back to the ship.”

“Take her,” he said not releasing his mate, even though she very obviously wanted to go to her sister.  “Logaan go with him.  Once you have her secured on the ship Logaan can return with the shuttle.”

“I can secure her on the ship,” his mate snarled out at him, struggling in earnest now.

Creeg ignored her, holding her easily while his soldiers raced to do his bidding.  Megan gave her sister one last sympathetic look, but did not argue, she suspected he did not want Sara near her unless he was around to protect her.  She was an unknown who had hurt his mate once, he was not about to give her another chance, not when proof of her power was all around them.

On one hand, it gave Megan a sense of relief, on the other…she needed her sister right now, and her sister was not liking having her choices taken away from her, she especially did not like that Morax was going with her and that she was not.  That last look was enough to assure Megan that Creeg was going to get an earful as soon as they were alone.  She almost felt bad for the big alien, but then she remembered he was the one who took her sister from her family and claimed her against her will, and her sympathy kind of just melted away.

Besides, she just really wanted off this jungle moon.  The power might be buzzing now, and answering her when she called it, but the plants here did not welcome her as the grasses and trees in the green had, it felt more like an extremely revved up version of the carnivorous garden on the ship.  It had answered her when she asked for help, but she got the distinct feeling that it could go another way at a whim of its own.  Even with her new-found power, or perhaps because of it, the thought of sentient plants made her more than a little frightened.

When the shuttle doors swished shut behind them Megan let out her first real breath.  Logaan winked at her, a decidedly un-alien like move that had her blinking at his back when he immediately turned and headed for the shuttle controls.  Morax still had her arm and he released that slowly.  She looked up into his searching eyes, wondering as she did how Sara could think they were cold.

“Do you think he will ever allow me around my sister again?” 

Morax’s brow went up while Logaan barked out a laugh letting her know he heard her whispered question from clear across the shuttle.

“What you need to be asking is if Creeg will still have his balls by the time your sister if finished chewing on him for keeping you apart,” Logaan practically shouted his laughing statement and she looked up at Morax for confirmation.

He nodded.  “Creeg might have let his worry for his mate make him forget who he was dealing with,” Morax assured her with his usual lack of inflection.  “But rest assured Sara will remind him before they return to the ship.  He has learned long past that she will only be pushed so far before she pushes back.”

“Take your seats,” Logaan shouted again, just as they felt the engines purr to life.  Megan sat, buckling her shuttle belt while Morax did the same across from her.  The shuttle, unlike the ship, was small and apparently one of four that existed in the ship for planet excursions where the ship could not go, or in case of emergency.  Like the rest of the ship it was made of some shiny metal that reminded Megan of silver more than anything else she was familiar with.  It was limited to a command chair, two rows of six seats and a small storage area that contained emergency supplies and extra weapons.  Even knowing as much as she did from her episode with the teacher, or maybe because of it, she felt more alien than ever.  Like an unwelcome tourist in a foreign land, and after what she had felt and done on the moon, it was only getting worse.

“What are you thinking little flower?” Morax asked quietly just above the hum of the engine taking off.

She blew out a breath and met his warm Spanish gold eyes that studied her so completely, for some reason she always felt compelled to tell him the truth, rather than fob him off with generalities.  “I feel as though I am never going to find a place to call home, and I know with everything that has changed in me already, I can never go back to the old one again, even if I wanted to, which I am not sure I do anymore.”  She huffed out a laugh and fell back in her seat feeling the wetness hit her eyes.  She sniffed it back, not wanting to cry in front of Morax, or any of the Tellox for that matter.   She looked away from him, laughing a little without humor. “I’m a mess, and my intention to be strong and start living my life rather hiding from it seems to have petered out.”  She stopped laughing because it wasn’t funny anyway.  Her hand went to her head to try and relieve the pressure behind her eyes.  “I want my garden, but that’s out for obvious reasons.  I want to play my guitar, or the piano but I don’t have any of my instruments to get lost in.  So, right now the only thing that sounds remotely comfortable is curling up with my dogs in a dark room,” she thought for a moment.  “And eating chocolate.”  She added as an afterthought.  “Which you probably don’t have.”  She finally looked at him again, wiping the few tears that had managed to escape during her pity party.  “You must think I’m pretty pathetic.  Nothing like my sister.”

“No,” Morax said, his eyes as usual on hers, seeing everything.  “That is not what I am thinking.”

Something in his eyes caught her, made her breath catch in her chest and her heart pound fast.  Megan was incapable of looking away.  She knew quite clearly that he was not thinking she was pathetic, but before she could decipher exactly what she was seeing in those warm Spanish gold eyes Logaan called from the pilot seat.

“Prepare for docking.”  His call broke whatever spell Morax was weaving over her and allowed her to look away.  Megan knew she was blushing, and that he could see far more in her reaction than she was comfortable showing, which also embarrassed her.  It did do one good thing though. She was no longer worrying about the things she could not change.  The only thing she was capable of thinking about as they docked and she made her escape from those eyes, was Morax, and what it might mean if she really was his mate.