Megan went to bed two nights later with a dog on either side of her.  They were protecting her as much as seeking comfort from her closeness.  Unfortunately, that comfort did not mean she slept.  Somewhere in the small hours of ship board night she gave up and got out of bed.  Pulling on her tunic and grey trousers she skipped shoes.  The dogs bounded up with her and she did not even think about leaving them behind, just accepted their place at her side while she walked the short distance to the green.  Like the rest of the ship it was on a Tellos night cycle, so right now it was as dark as the rest of the ship.  She walked in with the dogs shooting out on either side of her into the dark of the gardens.  She of course tripped after a few feet inside.  So much for superpowers, she thought lifting herself up enough to sit rather than sprawl across the grass.  It was not completely dark since there were little robot bugs that looked like fire flies in the night, the robot gardeners had shiny reflecting lights as well.  Above her were two glowing orbs looked like two moons in the sky.  She was looking up at that sky above her, surprised at the stars that shown as if it really was sky and not the high distant ceiling of the ship’s hull.  It was lovely, and with the grass cut back to its normal height and no pirates anywhere in sight the buzz of energy felt sleepy and welcoming.

Almost as good as being back in her garden at home.

She heard the dogs rustling through the underbrush and trees in the distance, and past them she could feel the sleeping presence of the carnivorous garden, but here in the grass that felt cool under her fingers and a foreign night sky spread around her, she felt soothed.  Megan relaxed.  Even the strange flittering of the alien lightning bugs did not detract from the cool welcome of the night garden.  Megan took the cool trill of energy and all the feelings that had bombarded her for too long and released them in the only way she knew how.  She sang.  To the night.  To the garden, and to the Tellox who stood so quiet among the trees she did not even know he was there.

Morax bowed his head, his eyes closed as the song drifted to him.  He understood then why the pirate had assumed she was a siren.  There was power in that voice.  And so many emotions he felt bombarded by them.  Megan finished her song and he looked up to see that both of her beasts were flanking her, and she lay down, her back against the cool grass, and her eyes on the computer-generated stars above her.  He heard her give a sigh, and then nothing but the occasional rustlings of her simple tunic and trousers, or the grass under her.  Even the dogs settled in after only a short jockeying for position.  And before long Morax could hear the change of her heart beat and realized that she was asleep.  He wanted nothing more in his long life than he wanted at that moment to lie down beside her and bask in the peace she radiated. The dogs, he knew, would wake her long before he made it to her side so he stayed where he was.  For that reason, and because he knew he would do nothing but frighten her if he tried such a thing.

So Morax stayed where he was, watching over the little Earth flower as she slept with her useless guard dogs beside her.  He really had no choice.  If the dogs of hers had any ability to sense a threat they would have recognized the danger to their mistress long since and they would not be sleeping so soundly, not while he haunted the wood beside them.

It was lucky for the little human that he recognized the danger and was determined to keep her safe.  Even if it was from himself. 

Every moment he was around her he fell a little more under her siren spell.  So, for her sake he would watch over her while she slept, and he would keep his distance otherwise.  It was the only way to keep her safe, and to insure he did not do something she would never forgive him for, and for which he did not deserve.

***

The repairs on the ship were finally done, they were restocked and ready.  In the fourteen ship standard days that had passed, they had heard nothing from Brax, so they were all in waiting mode.

Morax was avoiding her.  Megan knew it as sure as she knew the feel of his eyes whenever they chanced to be in the same room together for the seconds he would allow it.  Right before he disappeared again to work on repairs, or stock.  She could not explain even to herself how much his absence hurt.  Nor could she explain why it did.  If she considered it logically she barely knew Morax.  But that did not seem to make a difference to her heart.  Somehow in the small scope of time they had known each other she had developed true feelings for the silent Tellox with the Spanish gold eyes.  He had become for her a constant place of safety in an ever-changing universe.

Between her worry for her sister, and that hollow feeling in her belly from missing an alien warrior she met mere weeks ago, was it any wonder she was nightly sleeping in the green?  At least the time there had allowed her to get used to the feelings of the plants, and what she had done there to protect herself. 

Now, it was the only place she was able to fall asleep, at least it was after her nightly serenade to the bug bots and robot farmers.

And she was the lucky one.   At least she was sleeping.  Megan knew from the worry in Creeg’s stony face and her sister’s haggard appearance, that Sara was having a harder time than she was.  It added another level to her worry and made even the soothing energy of the green not quite enough to calm her runaway thoughts enough to rest, at least not well.

Megan woke up with a gasp from fitful sleep, hearing in her mind her sister's scream.  She jumped to her feet and turned to run, determined to get to Sara and help her.  A long arm she recognized instantly wrapped around her middle and stopped her forward progress with an ‘oomph’.  So much for guard dogs, she thought as Lucky and Penny had not stopped when she did, running full out across the valley for the door to the green.  They had no idea she was not right behind them until they got there and the door did not open as it would have for her.  Megan had no time to worry if the dogs stopped before they ran into it or not, she was too busy trying to free herself from Morax’s arm.

“Let me go, Sara is in trouble.”  Now, he picks to show up?  Now?  “I have to get to her.”

“Easy little flower,” he said, and if she had not been so upset about the danger to her sister, she would admit, at least to herself that she had missed being called that.  “Sara is with Creeg, he would not allow harm to come to her, and the ship is in lock down for the night.  No one can transport in or out, and anyone attempting to dock would have long since been warned away or destroyed.”

“I don’t care if it makes absolutely no sense,” she yelled in his face.  “I need to get to my sister.”

He must have finally understood she was serious because he let her go.  Megan knew he was following her, but she paid him not one more ounce of attention.  But she was not surprised to arrive at Sara and Creeg’s rooms with two dogs and one Tellox at her back.  She did not slow down until she was catching herself on the portal to their quarters and slamming her fists against the portal.  But it was Morax who was close behind her who reached over and pressed the code for override.  Megan would have tumbled through the doors with the excited dogs if Morax had not grabbed her once again around the waist to stop her forward progress.

He only held her long enough for them both to see that neither Creeg or Sara looked surprised to see them. 

Sara held out her hand and Megan rushed to take it, while Creeg reluctantly stepped back from his mate.  Megan swept her eyes over Sara until her sister shook her head and assured her sadly.  “It isn’t me.”

“I heard you scream,” Megan said even as Sara was shaking her head again.

“I heard it too,” she said pain evident in her voice.

Megan knew she looked as confused as she felt, the adrenaline from hearing her sisters fearful scream still ricocheted through her blood.  Then she felt the blood drain from her face as she realized whose scream they had heard.  “Ariel,” she said knowing it was the truth even as she recognized the impossibility of hearing her sister from across the solar system.  “What are they doing to her?” she whispered in horror still hearing that scream.  If the bed had not been there she would have hit the floor because her legs refused to hold her up in that moment.

She immediately felt her sister’s arms wrap around her and tighten as she reciprocated until they were both wrapped as tightly together as they could get.  “Oh, Sara,” she whispered into her sister’s hair.  “What are they doing to her?”

“I don’t know,” was her haggard reply.  And that was the worst part of all of it.  They had no idea what Ariel was going through, and no way to get to her in time to make a difference in any case.

“Brax will get her,” Creeg growled above them, and they both turned their heads to look at him and Morax looking grim above them.

They must have seen the doubt in their eyes, because Morax added his voice to Creeg’s.  “He swore he would get her, Tellox do not break their words, and general Brax would be the one of us least likely to change that.  He will get your sister.”

“Right,” Sara said, echoing Megan’s thoughts exactly.  “But will it be in time?”

No one had an answer that was at all comforting, so they ignored the question.  Creeg shifting gears as he kept his hard eyes glued to his mate.  “Sara is having dreams of the guardians.  They seem to be sending an invitation.”

There was silence as Morax and Megan absorbed that.  Megan had only a general idea of who the guardians were.  Sara had told her about the meeting they had with one of them who she somehow helped.  So, she knew they were beings of energy who could power up as it were with other people’s emotions, at least that was how it was described to her.    But that did not really tell her why the Tellox looked so stoic about it.  She pushed her worry for her little sister to the back of her mind, because there was nothing she could do for her right now anyway.

“An invitation is a bad thing?” she asked moving finally pulling back from her sister to look at the towering unhappy males.

Sara shrugged.  “I didn’t think so,” she said.  Looking inquiringly at her mate.  Megan got the feeling they were having another conversation when neither of them spoke for a minute.  You could never tell with Creeg because he seemed to have two expressions.  He always looked cold and brutal, unless he was looking at Sara, then his look changed, softened and heated at the same time.  It was a little embarrassing to watch so Megan usually looked away when it happened.  This time when she did her eyes were caught in Spanish gold, and she suddenly wished she could talk to him privately in the same way.  If she could maybe she could ask him why he was keeping such distance between them now.

Instead she asked.  “Why do you not like the idea of the guardians invite?”

He was silent so long she wondered if he was going to ignore her question, finally he said.  “Guardians are things of legend, and beings of great power.  No one knows all that they are capable of doing, or how old they really are.” He paused a heartbeat and his eyes went over her head and Megan turned to see that Creeg and Sara had rejoined them and were listening again.  “No one knows where they reside, I have never heard of anyone visiting.  That they have issued an invitation, and given us the way to find them is…” he paused as if searching for the right word.  “Inconceivable.”

Megan looked at Morax. “So, you don’t want to go there?”

This time it was Creeg who spoke again.  “None of us want to go there,” he muttered.

“Except me,” Sara shot the words in.

Creeg continued with a swift glare in her direction.  “But we have few options.  It will not be long before we have more than pirates to deal with.  Even with the conquering of Earth to distract him, Rygan will not wait long before he sends ships after us, and if he did hire outside mercenaries to kill Brax as we suspect from the little Brax would reveal, I don’t think he will hesitate to do the same to us.”

“In other words,” Sara said giving Megan an exasperated look.  “He can’t think of anywhere else to go so he is being forced to consider my idea.”  She turned to look at her mate again.  “I truly don’t think they mean us harm.”

“No,” he growled.  “But I remember what just one of them felt like in my mate’s head.  I do not like knowing that if they did want to harm us, there is very little we could do to stop them.”

Morax finally spoke up.  “I do not think they would need us close to do harm if that was their intention.”

“Besides,” Logaan’s voice interjected so that they all turned to see him, Benak and Crogan just outside the open portal.  “When a guardian offers an invite, not sure you can really turn it down.”

They must have seen or heard the commotion and come to see what was happening.

Creeg chuffed out an annoyed breath either at the invasion of his quarters, or the truth in those words.  “Fine,” he finally said, his eyes on Sara.  “We will visit with the oldest and most powerful beings in the known galaxies, and hope,” he added with another growl.  “That they continue to feel welcoming once we get there.”

Sara smiled at him, and then turned to look at the warriors filling her doorway.  “I already fed the coordinates into the com under Guardians.”

That made Creeg growl and Megan smile.

Crogan pulled up his comp handheld and went right to the screen for navigation.  It was clear curiosity was eating him as much as it was the others because they all waited silently with expectation saturating he air.  A moment later Crogan’s face shot up and he growled a little.

“This can’t be the correct coordinates,” he said confused.

“Why?” Sara asked tilting her head to study him.

“It’s only a few standard ship days away from where we are now.”

“And?”

Crogan looked at her exasperated.  “I hardly think they would have kept their secret for this long if they were that close to standard shipping lines.  Besides,” he finished.  “We have been in this area of space before.  There is nothing there.”

Sara raised a brow at him and shrugged.  “That is the coordinates they gave me, I hardly think they would give us the wrong directions when they invited us.”

Crogan did not look convinced but he did not have a chance to argue.

“Plot the course,” Creeg said gruffly.  “If it’s that close it won’t hurt us to look.”

“It’s not as if we have somewhere else to be,” Logaan added helpfully.

But Creeg was done because before anyone could start an argument in his bedchamber he grunted and glared them to silence.

“Everybody out,” Creeg grouched with enough force that the warriors disappeared.  Morax took her arm to lead her away and she gave him a questioning look he ignored. The others were long gone to their duties by the time they made it out of the room.

When they were outside the portal and it had closed with a swoosh and snap behind them she gave him her best narrow eyed look.  “I wanted to make sue Sara was alright.”

“Creeg will see to his mate,” was his only answer as he continued to lead her away by his hold on her arm.

His dismissive words and the fact that she just knew he intended to lead her back to her room and disappear had her usually slow to rile temper simmering.  “While you see to me?” she asked harshly, yanking her arm away. 

He let her go rather than wrestle her for her arm, but his eyes sharpened on her face but he said nothing.

“I can get myself to my room Morax.” She said when he failed to speak.  “I would as soon have you disappear now, if it’s all the same to you.”

Again, the silence had her grinding her teeth.  Then he bowed and turned with an almost angry snap to leave her, as she suggested.

Only she didn’t like that anymore than the other.  “Why do you do it?” she called, her anger making her words loud and snappish.  “Why do you pretend you care only to pretend I don’t exist a minute later?”  She raised her chin and met his cold eyes when he turned back to look at her.  “Did you finally realize I wasn’t mate material?”

Still that cold silence.

“Sara told me how you can’t have a relationship with anyone but your blood mate,” she went on feeling the tears prick her eyes and hating it. “I understand that you don’t see me as a potential mate, I’m not like my sister who can do anything, but I thought we would at least be friends.”

At those words, she watched a transformation occur on his face.  The non-expression gave way to hot rage as he stalked quickly down the corridor back to her, in fact he came so fast that she was forced to back up or be trampled.  Her back hit the wall, and he stopped just shy of hitting her front. 

He leaned down until those molten gold eyes seared into hers as he spoke directly into her face.  “We are not friends.”

He said the words hard and to make a point, then he turned and stalked away, rage in every step.  It might have devastated her.  To be so coldly dismissed after he said those words to her, but she had seen his eyes when he said them.  She had seen the rage and hunger he hid so well at that moment and she understood what he would not say.  Why they could not be friends.  Why he stayed away from her.  He wanted her, she did not think such need as he felt was possible.  But it was there in his eyes, along with the rage, because somehow he had convinced himself he could not have her.  That he was undeserving.

Megan sank back against the wall while she took a deep breath and watched long after he had turned to corner and disappeared.  Was he so convinced they weren’t mates, or was something else behind that conviction?

Of course, she told herself, the real question was: Did she have the guts to find out?  Because she had a really good idea of how she might go about finding out.

It was only after she made it back to her room, deciding to try sleeping in her bed that night that she thought to wonder what Morax had been doing in the green, and how long exactly had he been there without her knowing.