Epilogue
Beneath a shade tree in the courtyard, Trask sat with his back against the trunk, Lana lying between his spread legs. On her side, with her head resting on his chest, she relaxed in the strong arms wrapped around her. They were still, the only movement between them, Lana’s fingers idly stroking his chest. It was simple enough in his wrap-style tunic, the only thing holding it closed, the belted waist. This meant she could slip her hand inside and touch smooth skin, bulging pecs, and ridged abs. It would have been an idyllic, restful, perfect moment if she could only shut off her brain which was still trying to comprehend all he’d told her.
He’d come from a council meeting, where Mordrun had appeared to answer to the mounting list of charges piling up against him. But they hadn’t gotten far in the proceedings due to his bizarre behavior, cursing one moment, sobbing the next, and in between uttering off-the-wall and paranoid accusations against members of the council. But the real indication he wasn’t in touch with reality, more so than the crazed look in his eyes, was the way he kept referring to Kerr as Alvarr, his father. It was as if he thought him still alive, and he didn’t stand accused, implicated by his admission, of murdering him two decades earlier. That and the spurts of maniacal laughter. A physic had been called, and he was undergoing treatment even now, and according to Jarlan, would need to for a while because his mind had snapped.
Trask said Valkerr had been stunned one of his sons could plot the murders of three others—yes, three, Kerr, Ram, and Trask’s father’s all killed to clear a path for his rise to power—and appeared to age twenty years in the strain of the past week. He wasn’t the only one shocked by the news; the residents of the usually placid capital city were still reeling a killer—worse, a man who had enough evil in him to carry out fratricide three times over—had walked freely among them for decades.
This hadn’t even started to sink in when he hit her with more unbelievable and awful news.
“I can’t believe Betsy is dead,” she breathed. “The six months I lived on Terra Nova, there wasn’t so much as a barroom brawl. Now, to have four murders in only a few weeks, it’s awful.”
“Whether they were murders or otherwise hasn’t been determined yet.”
She tipped her head back until she could see his face. “You said the bodies were found outside the city, desiccated. Doesn’t that mean they bled out? How else could it have happened? Vampires?”
“Vamp-what?”
“Mythical characters who feed off their victims by sucking their blood.”
He grimaced. “Your myths are horrifying. Ours are quite the opposite.’
“You mean the ones about fated mates who live happily forever after, like you and me?”
His troubled expression eased, replaced by a warm glint in his eyes and a tender smile. “Yes, exactly like us.” The arm around her waist flexed, and he dragged her up his chest enough for his mouth to first brush her forehead then lightly touched the tip of her nose, and next, after he angled his head to the side, place a feather-soft, yet utterly tantalizing kiss on her lips.
When he released her, she didn’t slide back down but curled around him, her face in his neck and her fingers combing through his hair. She loved his hair, and his beard. She moved her hand to his jaw. He was growing it back because she’d asked him to. Already, it was filling in nicely, though he kept in trimmed and his neck smooth, just like the warrior barbarian she’d met in the jungle—gorgeous, slightly wild, and incredibly sexy.
The sweet moment wasn’t enough to wipe out her anxiety over his sister remaining on Terra Nova with the potential danger, and her concern for Beck’s safety. She didn’t mention the latter, knowing her friend was still a touchy subject.
“Is Adria safe?”
“I’m not taking any chances. I ordered her home with the next supply flight, and until then, I charged Remus and Tarus with keeping her safe. They have two warriors guarding her around the clock until her departure in two days.”
“Good, although I won’t be able to keep from worrying until she’s home. What about the others? Five thousand people are living there now, including women and a few children in the family residence. What’s being done to protect them?”
“My warriors are overseeing the investigation and will have answers soon. And in a few months, as more of your citizens arrive, a company of your military will be in place assisting with law and order.”
She nodded, wiggling until her front pressed against him from her breast to thigh, the latter which now straddled his hips. Close to him like this, with his strong arms surrounding her, holding her tight, she felt safe and could almost believe the world outside their small courtyard ceased to exist. Knowing this was only fantasy, she drew in a deep breath, blew it out slowly, and let everything except Trask disappear, if only for the afternoon.
“Comfortable, baby?” he asked, amusement in his voice.
“Mmhmm.” Her murmured response turned into a yawn. She couldn’t get enough sleep in these early days of her pregnancy, which the physic said was normal. It was preferable to other much worse side effects, like the morning, noon, and night sickness her friends complained about. She hadn’t been affected by it, quite the opposite in fact, and developed an appetite so robust she often challenged Trask for the last serving of green meat or went back for another slice of strawberry pie. He found it amusing, but also a relief since she was gaining back the weight she’d lost.
“If you need a nap, mate, wouldn’t you rather do it in bed?”
She inched up his chest and buried her face in his neck, snuggling closer. “You make the best pillow; I’m good here.”
His hands slid over her back, one going high and under her hair, the other down to her bottom, where it molded fingers splayed over both cheeks and remained there. She smiled sleepily, sighing once more.
Lana was relaxed and almost asleep when a shout from inside the house made her jump.
“Brother!”
Her head popped up, no longer sleepy. “I thought you said she wasn’t coming home for two days.”
“She wasn’t supposed to.”
Their gazes shifted to the doors when they slid open, revealing Adria, flushed, and agitated.
“Why are you here, sister? I wasn’t alerted to a change in schedule.”
“I couldn’t take it anymore.” Her aquamarine eyes sought out Lana. “Are all human males such obstinate brullas?”
Lana bit her lip. A brulla was a four-legged beast native to Primaria who looked a lot like a donkey and was even more stubborn. “I think all males tend to be obstinate, human or not.” She smiled up at her mate. “No offense.”
“None taken. But maybe Adria could be more specific about who she is talking about.”
“The most maddening, dictatorial, impossible man on the entire planet, that’s who. He thinks someone died and appointed him Princep of Terra Nova.”
“Whoever he is, is wrong. They will vote for a mayor soon and should have a town council in place within a year. When more cities are built and populated, a planetary government will be formed, but they will not have a Princep, and no leaders will be appointed, they will be elected.”
Lana patted his chest. “I think she was simply making a point, big guy.” And, she had already put two and two together and came up with Beckett Kincaid. “What did Beck do to make you so angry?”
“What didn’t he do, is more like it.”
Lana had to hang on or be toppled from her comfy perch as Trask bolted upright, in a blink becoming an irate, overprotective brother. “Did Kincaid hurt you? If he dared touch you, I’ll rip his head from his neck before I tear his limbs from his body.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Lana exclaimed while wriggling on his lap, trying to get up. “Beck wouldn’t—”
The hand on her bottom squeezed, keeping her in place. “I’ve seen how Kincaid is with females and don’t doubt he would. Now, hush, while I plot my revenge against my sister’s attacker.”
“No, please,” Adria interjected. “He didn’t touch me, and Lana is right, he wouldn’t—ever.”
From the look in her eyes and the downward curve of her lips, Lana got the impression she was disappointed he hadn’t.
“He had the nerve to question my judgment in front of Jarlan—as though a city engineer knows anything about healing. But being a man, of course, Jarlan agreed with him, and as punishment, I was sent home to retrain for three additional months. Can you believe it?”
Trask relaxed beneath her. “Jarlan is not known for rash decisions, Adri.”
She threw up her arms. “I knew you’d side with them.” Then, beyond livid, she stomped her foot, something she’d never seen from his usually collected sister, she muttered, “Oh to live on a planet without scores of illustrious males who always know what is best for us poor, helpless, stupid females.” She whirled and stormed back inside.
“Adria, wait!” Lana called after her. “Where are you going?”
“To find such a planet,” she shouted, from already deep in the house. “Then to pack because I’m moving there, immediately.”
She wiggled on Trask and braced her hands on his chest with the intention of getting up and going after her, but his long arms encircling her waist prevented her from going anywhere.
“She’s upset. I should find out what’s wrong.”
He cupped a hand around the back of her head, tightened the remaining arm around her middle then flipped them. She ended up on her back in the grass with Trask caging her with his big body.
“You mean you want to find out what’s going on between her and Beckett Kincaid.”
“Isn’t that what I just said?”
“I’d rather you didn’t revel in the exploits of your former boss. I prefer having you here where you belong, reveling with your mate.”
At his stilted tone, her head jerked back, as far as the cushions would allow. “You can’t possibly still be jealous of Beck. He’s like the brother I never had.”
“Can I help it the mention of the man’s name brings up images of him carrying my mate through the streets of Terra Nova cradled in his arms?”
“I was ill, and he was being considerate. Believe me, what Beck feels for me is purely friendship.”
“How can you be so sure? You’re a beautiful woman, and he is an unattached man.”
“Because we discussed it.”
His head reared back this time. “You have?”
“At length. He was hurt by a greedy, conniving shrew of a wife and has no interest in becoming entangled in another romance.”
He frowned, his eyes shooting toward the door. “Does Adria know that?”
“I don’t know, and you’re preventing me from finding out.”
“You can do so later.” He bent his head and brushed his mouth over hers. “My response to that man may seem foolish to you, but I can’t help that I’m very possessive when it comes to my beautiful mate.”
“No one is going to look at me twice when I have the general of the entire Primarian Army as my mate, especially when, in a couple of weeks, I’ll be so fat I’ll resemble a Thanksgiving Day parade float.”
He blinked down at her in confusion.
“It’s a…oh, never mind. Let’s just say you have nothing to worry about from Beck, or any other male for that matter.”
“I know,” he murmured, trailing kisses from her lips to her jaw, and down her throat. “I trust you implicitly, paulova, but it doesn’t change the fact I have an image of you with that man in my head.” His hand swept down her side, over her hip, and down her legs and under the hem of her dress. He retraced his path, moving back up her legs, except now skin to skin, and they stopped midway, his fingers seeking the tender skin of her inner thighs. They stroked there briefly before sliding higher. “That you quiver with my every touch and your female flesh drenches with arousal when I kiss you, makes it easier to cope, however.”
Her legs parted in invitation as she slid her hands into the dark silky hair at his temples. When his mouth closed over a taut nipple, and he caught it with his teeth even through the material of her lightweight dress, her back bowed off the cushions, and she pulled his head tighter against her.
“We should go to our room. Adria is home.”
“I recognize the mood she’s in. She’ll sulk the rest of the afternoon; we won’t see her until the supper meal.” His fingers parted her slick folds, one sliding inside while his thumb circled her clit, making her breath quicken with the intensity of the pleasure. “Besides, I want to make love to you here, with the sunshine on your fair skin and glinting off your midnight hair.”
“You don’t miss the blonde?”
“It was lovely, but the dark is equally beautiful and is a stunning contrast with your blue-green eyes.”
She opened her mouth to answer, but he added a second finger to her wetness, rotated his hand palm up, and proceeded to stroke the sensitive spot in the front of her channel until she forgot what she was going to say.
He slid lower, spreading kisses over her slightly rounded belly.
“But if I hear you call yourself fat again when it’s my child growing inside you, I will take you upstairs and introduce you to mate’s helper position number five.”
“You’d spank me for that?” Her protest was mild due to the distraction of his lips grazing her mound while his fingers moved in a slow glide.
He upped the stimulation by teasing her clit with the tip of his tongue before he answered. “There is no spanking involved in number five unless you give me cause, paulova. You’ll find yourself bound, knees spread wide, your sex open for my mouth to take its fill while your breasts dangle like ripe fruit, available for my hands to play, pluck, and tease. I will make you come over and over until you beg for my cock.”
For her breasts to dangle, she’d have to be facedown. An erotic picture formed in her mind of being suspended from his kinky sex and discipline machine while he did every wicked wonderful thing he’d just described. Maybe she needed to rethink her love-hate relationship with the mate’s helper, like now.
“So, to be clear, if I call myself fat, you’ll do that to me?”
His head came up and he stared at her, a dark brow arched. “You sound eager to be bound and sexually tormented, mate.”
“Uh, yeah… If you get off me, we can go upstairs and get to it right now.”
He whipped his gorgeous mane of black hair out of his face as he threw his head back and laughed—very loudly—so much that it reverberated through the courtyard.
Lana clamped her hand over his mouth, muffling the wonderful sound which at any other time she would have welcomed and savored. “Shh… Adria will hear and come to see what all the commotion is about.”
The wicked man wasn’t bothered in the least and promptly licked her palm. It tickled and she snatched it back, revealing his sexy grin. “Paulova, you never cease to amuse and arouse me.”
“Does that mean we can go upstairs?”
“Certainly.” He moved down the lounger but not off it. Instead, he slid his hands beneath her knees and pushed them up toward her chest. “After I make you scream with pleasure here a few times first.”
She had no problem with that, especially when he dove face first between her thighs, his lips and tongue homing in on all her tingling, achy spots and devoured her. And, when his mouth settled over her clit and sucked hard, she decided not to care if her cries echoed more loudly in the courtyard than his laughter and could be heard down every street and throughout every household in Ariad.
His big hands slid beneath her butt, and he lifted her to his mouth, getting comfortable as he rung two more from her. Only then did he grant her a reprieve, scoop her up in his arms, and carry her inside. As he climbed the stairs to the third floor, her weight despite her pregnancy as though it were nothing to him, she looked up at her handsome general through sated eyes and whispered, “I love you, Trask.”
His eyes cut to hers. “As I do you, paulova.”
“Even though I’m almost as wide as I am tall?”
His brows drew together in a frown. “For that little defiance, I get to play, but you do not get to come.”
“Trask!” Darn him; he’d changed the rules.
“Not until you are begging for it.”
The big tease wasn’t angry at all! But two could play his game.
“Oh, is that all?” she replied glibly. “General, you should know by now I have no qualms about surrendering all to you. In fact, I’ll do it on my knees if it pleases you.”
She saw the muscles work in his throat as he swallowed and didn’t even try to suppress her self-satisfied grin.
“You speak of position six, mate, and it will be my greatest pleasure to introduce it to you.”
Clutching at his shoulders, she squealed with delight as he took the rest of the stairs two at a time, and she didn’t care if her sister through her mate, knew what they were up to or not.