Chapter Fifteen
Lana found herself in the same hard chair, at the same cold metal table, staring at the same council with the same frowning faces three days later. It was déjà vu all over again, except instead of five people determining her fate, there were six. That the new addition had a long white beard and wore the requisite robe of a Primarian elder did not shift things in her favor. Another human or a woman of either species would have increased her odds of a not guilty from zero to none at least. Of course, the council would be made up of all men; the colony was brimming with testosterone.
Her stomach felt sick. It had since the dour-faced warrior had come to her job site. “You will come with me, human female,” was all the explanation she’d gotten until Beck arrived an hour later.
According to her boss, news of her detainment was spreading quicker than a case of the snots in a one-room schoolhouse. Yeah, Beck sure knew how to turn a phrase, but it couldn’t be any clearer. By the end of the day, everyone on Terra Nova, and most likely Primaria, would know she was the prime suspect in the mine explosion although she didn’t have opportunity or motive.
“How bad is it?”
“It’s not good, darlin’. Some of us don’t believe for a minute you were involved; we’ve asked to let the investigation play out. But there were twenty-three men injured; one is still critical. And after months of work, the mine site is useless. Another location will have to be found and the process started again, from scratch, which puts us all behind schedule, including the Primarians who will be stuck protecting, feeding, and nurturing our dependent colony much longer than anyone anticipated. Therefore, the people don’t want answers as much as they want someone to pay.”
“Me?” she squeaked, tears flooding her eyes. “But I didn’t do it. I went there to help.”
“I believe you, Lana, but this is a small community and, in many ways, still a frontier. You’re a loner, mostly sticking to yourself since you got here. They don’t know you; many consider you an outsider. Barker is calling for your head, as is the mining contractor who’s out a small fortune. All of this lends itself to a lynch mob mentality.”
“What does this mean for me?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’ll do what I can to protect you, darlin’, but unfortunately, I disqualified myself the last time because I’m your friend. With the stakes higher, I won’t get a vote this time, either. The elders are still dealing with the pain of the mine blast on their planet a year ago. You’ll get no sympathy there.”
“And the others?”
“Mr. Pruitt seems to be siding with me, believing innocent until proven otherwise is still the way things should go even when we’re far away from home. Jonathan Thomas is the other councilman. I don’t know the man well enough to get a sense of what he’s thinking, which for a communications engineer is a bit ironic.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I have to hope he’ll side with old-fashioned Earth justice like Mr. Pruitt. And Trask can break the tie. He can’t possibly believe I’d do such a thing.”
“Lana, Trask won’t be voting either. Barker pressed for it, and everyone agreed, if I’m your friend and can’t be impartial, someone you were intimate with won’t be either, whether the bias is in your favor, or if he’s holding a grudge for the way things ended.”
“But that means it’s a hung jury. I’d have to be re-tried or set free, right?”
“No. According to the bylaws we adopted for the colony, a deadlock goes to a vote—by the people.”
She stared at him, dread building inside her. She’d been reclusive, except for her weekly bar nights with Beck. His crew knew her, and she’d been friendly enough toward the cashier at the general store, but her other interactions had been turning down men for dates.
Closing her eyes, she whispered, “I am so fucked.”
A knock on the door made her jump.
“Easy, darlin’,” he murmured as he went to answer it. She didn’t look to see who it was; did it matter?
“They’re ready to begin.”
When she looked up, a tear overflowed and rolled down her cheek. “I’m scared, Beck. What can they do to me? They punish criminals on Primaria with public floggings—twenty, sometimes, forty lashes. For the worst crimes, they send them into exile. My God, Beck. I’d take one hundred of the first over the last because, where would I go?”
Throughout her frenetic rant, images of being cast out of the city forced to live on her own somewhere, like in the jungle where she’d been captured that long-ago day. Hot, damp, unbearable conditions, with her only companions slimy, slithery, squishy things all around her; she couldn’t do it. Unable to sit still, and, at the same time, sick with dread over the unfair sentence she would undoubtedly face, she wrapped her arms around her belly and rocked while she sobbed uncontrollably.
Beck pulled her out of her chair and into his arms.
“Aw, darlin’, don’t cry. I won’t allow anything bad to happen to you. And no matter the history with your general, I can’t see him standing by and letting it happen, either.”
It sounded nice, but he was one man. And for all their talk of human autonomy on Terra Nova, the Primarian Warriors still called the shots. As for her general, considering how they left things a few days ago, she’d burned that bridge to ashes. Her hands clutched his work shirt as she continued to weep. “What am I going to do if they find me guilty?”
“Hush, now, we’ll figure it out.”
The door slid open behind her. She knew who it was without looking because the air went electric.
“What’s going on in here?” Trask demanded in a low growl.
“Nothing,” Beck answered for her. “She just needs a minute.”
“If nothing is wrong,” he persisted, his voice harsh and tight, “why is she crying?”
“Why do you think?” Beck snapped. “She’s frightened out of her mind. This is insane. You know she didn’t set those charges in the mine.”
Other than her ragged, tearful breathing, the room went quiet for a moment.
“Lana?”
She sniffled before she muttered miserably into Beck’s chest, “What?”
“Come here.”
She shook her head. Though she wanted nothing more than to go to him, he hadn’t agreed when Beck defended her. What if he thought she’d done it? It would kill her to look at him and see condemnation in his eyes, so she kept her face hidden in her friend’s shirt the fabric soaked through to the skin by her tears.
“Can you let her go?” he barked at Beck.
“I’m not keeping her from you. It’s her decision.”
Hands curled around her shoulders. “Let go of Kincaid and come to me, paulova.”
No fair; Trask fought dirty. Her resistance crumbled, and she went from the arms of one big man into another—but it was where she most wanted to be. She slid her arms around his waist and up his back and clung to him, pouring out all the loneliness and desolation that had weighed on her in the past year.
He scooped her up and moved to a chair where he sat with her in his lap, arms encompassing her as he rocked her back and forth. Minutes passed without a word spoken. Lana tried to calm herself, so she could absorb everything about this moment, his strength, the warmth of his body, always a degree or two above her own, and how good it felt to be held by him again. There was also his scent. Once, she could smell him on her skin, but that faded along with the color of his eyes in hers. While apart, she tried to find something like it. She’d gone to fifty different stores and tried every man’s cologne, soap, and even shaving cream, but nothing came close to the fresh, clean, masculine scent of her general.
“We need to go in, Lana. You must answer to the charges.”
“I don’t want to.”
His arms flexed. “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice.”
“I know,” she whispered as she rubbed her eyes and sat up, but that’s as far as he let her go.
“I have a solution to this mess, but you’re going to have to trust me.”
Turning bleary eyes on him, she read concern, but also determination in his beautiful, troubled eyes. “I trust you, Trask. I’ll do whatever you recommend.”
“Come back to Primaria with me—as my mate.”
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“Yes, you can, dammit!” he shot back. “They are demanding permanent exile—back to Earth.”
That was better than the slimy, creepy crawly, bug-infested jungle, but to have to leave her friends, Beck, Eryn, and Eva, although they were days away, and not have the chance to see the man she loved again, sounded like a cruel and inhumane sentence.
“Does that mean I wouldn’t be allowed to come back to the colony, ever?”
“That is what permanent means, Lana. And exile wouldn’t mean only Terra Nova, but Primaria, too.”
“But I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“They are looking for someone to blame because they are angry and afraid.”
“Beck said the same thing.”
Her situation was almost identical to what happened to Eryn. Fingers had pointed at her demanding justice for her part in the North Mine explosion. If she had set foot on Primarian soil, she would have faced what Lana did now—a trial and if guilty, a similar punishment. But her mate protected her, and arrests were made clearing her name. If found guilty, Lana didn’t have anyone to defend and protect her, unless she accepted Trask as her mate once more.
“This is crazy. We need answers, not a scapegoat for expediency sake.”
“Agreed, but they’ve found one in you. And, Lana, they have the votes.”
“I’d be stuck on a crumbling planet; they’d be sending me back to die. Oh my God!”
Someone knocked. “General, the council refuses to wait any longer.”
“A moment,” Trask answered sharply before he lowered his voice and demanded softly, “What’s it going to be, little one?”
“How does being mated to you save me from the same fate?”
“As your mate, I would be responsible for keeping you out of trouble. More importantly, if there is wrongdoing, it is my right to determine your punishment and no other. They are ready to hear testimony and vote. This needs to happen before the council rules and a sentence is handed down. I need your answer now.”
“Can they try and convict me when I’m not there?”
“Yes. What is your answer?”
“I don’t know,” she bit out, feeling the pressure. “I need time to think so you’re gonna have to cut me some slack.”
He tensed for an instant before exploding. “Being mated to me cannot be a worse fate than exile, dammit!”
Staring into his tormented eyes, she couldn’t let him believe it. “You’re right, Trask. It’s not, but this is all coming at me fast.”
“I know, and that’s where the trust comes in. I want to protect you, Lana, but if we do this, there’s no going back, no running away, and no fucking notes.” She flinched as if he’d slapped her. “We will be mates for real, in every way, for a lifetime.”
It was the answer to her prayers, except for one remaining unresolved issue. She had to tell him.
Another knock sounded, this time more insistent. “Trask, I can’t delay them any longer!”
“We are out of time. What is your answer?”
“Yes, except I need to tell you something first.”
He gazed at her for a split second, then, as if he knew what she had to tell him was momentous, he shook his head and set her on her feet. “Not now.”
“But, Trask—”
“Later,” he ordered. “We must get in there and stop this before they call for a vote.”
“Can they do that without me there?”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door. “Yes, which is why we must hurry.”
“This is the craziest justice system I’ve ever heard of.”
“Agreed, the bylaws adopted ended up in a convoluted mix of both our laws. But in the frontiers of Terra Nova where anything goes, I’m not at all surprised.”
In the hallway, she had to jog to keep up with his long strides.
“Trask, you have to know before you agree to this—”
He stopped so suddenly she slammed into his back. When he turned, he caught her in full rebound, but his firm grip on her upper arms kept her from falling flat on her ass.
“Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it, but not now when all I can think of is stopping the process that would take you away from me again. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
She nodded, not pushing further because she could read the raw emotion in his turbulent eyes.
They were off once more, at a faster pace which left Lana running to keep up.
***
A hush fell over the room as Trask entered. With Lana close by his side, he strode determinedly up the center aisle, drawing every eye as they passed until they stood before the long table on the raised dais. To make his announcement, he faced the council rather than taking his usual seat among them, Lana stood silently at his elbow, her chin raised bravely. To look at her, no one would guess a short while ago she’d been weeping in his arms. He wouldn’t suspect she wasn’t as calm as she outwardly appeared if it weren’t for the white-knuckled death grip she had on his hand.
“A hearing on this subject is no longer required,” he stated, his voice firm, though not raised, with the rapt attention of his audience who hung on his every word, it didn’t have to be. “I have been informed of the charges against my mate and will address them. I agree with the majority of the council that we wait until the investigation is complete before we start placing blame. Until that time, I will enforce the previous ruling of this panel and restrict Lana’s access to the mine site and anything and anyone involved with it. I can assure you, any future violation of the ruling will be dealt with promptly and firmly.”
“Your mate?” Aylan asked.
“Yes. Lana Hartman is my mate and therefore a citizen of Primaria and subject to our laws. As you know, Aylan”—his gaze shifted to the other elder—”and as do you, Tyordor, this gives me full authority over her actions, and any penalties are for me to impose.”
“You can’t mean this, Trask!”
“I do, Uncle.”
“Uncle?” Lana repeated in a surprised whisper.
He squeezed her hand in warning, and she was quiet again.
The two elders shared a glance while the humans on the panel and in the audience looked on in confusion.
“I was under the impression she requested dissolution,” Tyordor asked, his expression baffled.
“My mate made a request, but, under the law, both parties must agree to dissolve the match. I did not. Therefore, this order of dissolution must be declared invalid.”
“But it has been a full year, and you have made no protest before now,” the elder replied incredulously.
“There is no timeframe in which I must exert my rights or lose them that I am aware of. Other provisions of the law were ignored. My right to a formal appeal is one. An interventional waiting period for reconciliation is another. Thirty days is allowed, I believe, but I didn’t get one. She left a note one evening and was gone from Primaria the next morning.”
The audience reacted so loudly to this news Trask had to stop or shout to be heard. Beside him, Lana dropped her chin to her chest. Airing their personal business in public wasn’t something he relished either, but it was necessary to protect her.
“Other than the request to the council,” he continued when the murmurs had died down, “none of the requirements were met. You have no recourse except to nullify the order.”
“Being new to the council, I am not familiar with the rules on dissolution. I will have to defer to someone with more experience.” Tyordor, as well as the humans on the panel who had remained silent during the legal discussion, looked at Aylan for a decision.
“How should I know?” he replied. “You’re in the dark as much as me because, in my twenty years as an elder, this has never happened.”
Trask shrugged. “In my lifetime, that I recall. But being first does not negate my rights.”
The two elders looked at one another, and a heated discussion erupted between them, but in hushed tones.
Lana tugged on his sleeve, and when he bent, asked quietly in his ear, “Can they override your request?”
“No,” he whispered back. “And this was so badly bungled, they have no grounds if they could. But I want this ended, today, and came prepared to use the most powerful weapon in my arsenal.” He said this with another squeeze meant to reassure. “I have already notified Max Kerr of this glaring oversight,” he announced, silencing the room once more. “I also assured him the dispute between my mate and me has been resolved, not that I’ll go into detail about it because it is private. Being mated to a human, the Princep understands my challenges.” He ignored the narrow-eyed glance Lana sent his way and finished. “I am expecting his written ruling in my favor momentarily.”
This was a bluff. He had sent Lothar up to the Intrepid to transmit the request via an interplanetary relay. He left only a moment before they entered the council room. He hoped to have Kerr’s response in hand before the end of the hearing, but they didn’t need to know he’d embellished a bit on the details.
“What does this mean?” Betsy Barker called angrily from the front row.
Aylan sighed. “It means the general and Lana Hartman are still mates and we will await the results of the investigation.”
“You mean to let her go free without paying for what she did? These proceedings and this council are a mockery!”
“Miss Barker,” Aylan began with barely controlled irritation. “As I told you when you came to me, demanding action, this hearing was to address violations of the restriction already imposed, and to determine if her willful refusal to abide by the ruling rises to the level of further intervention. With this new development, General Trask will mete out whatever punishment he sees fit. It is not up to this council unless he requests intercession.”
“Which he won’t,” Trask replied curtly.
“These bizarre rules apply in your world, but this is an Earth colony. What are our rights? Even if we don’t have proof she set the explosives…yet, she was ordered to stay away and did not. I want her punished.” She faced Trask with a narrow-eyed glare when she added, “Under Earth law.”
Trask stated in a voice as hard as steel. “As my mate, she is Primarian and not subject to Earth law.”
“You orchestrated this drama to protect her,” Betsy accused.
“She is my mate. I will always protect her; that is our way.” Several male murmurs of approval came from the warriors in the audience. “But I assure you, Miss Barker, her involvement in this will be addressed.”
“What does that entail, a few swats on the ass like a naughty child, and that’s it? People were injured. A man lies close to death.”
“We have no proof of who is at fault yet.”
“She is! It’s obvious! Yet, you’ll let an attempted murderer loose to wreak more havoc.” Several of the humans surrounding her stood and shouted their support of her objections. “Your alien system of justice is fucked-up, and, believe me, the authorities back home are going to hear about it.”
Kincaid, who’d been silently observing, had apparently heard enough from the annoying redhead. He rose to his feet and said in a sharp voice that sliced through the clamor. “I refuse to listen to any more of these asinine accusations. You’re slandering a decent woman for a crime that was impossible for her to carry out. There are two types of explosives available on the colony. C4 and good old-fashioned TNT. The first would require several full-size shuttles loaded to capacity to do the amount of damage I saw from the sky yesterday. Dynamite would require drilling blast holes, running fuses and relays, and a remote detonation switch, none of which could have possibly been done by Ms. Hartman without being noticed. Hell, a warrior spotted her within ten minutes of passing the perimeter the first time. To get this set up would have taken days, perhaps weeks.”
“She could be working with others to sabotage our mining efforts.”
He leaned forward, his hands flat on the table, and he glowered at the woman. “And pigs could fly out your ass, Betsy. Nevertheless, until I see it, or others do who will swear to it, your accusations are conjecture and don’t mean jack squat.”
Guffaws came from the back of the room. Trask would have been amused, too, if he weren’t so worried about getting Lana out of this mess. As it was, he looked at Beckett Kincaid with a new appreciation. He wouldn’t go so far to admit liking the man since an image of him holding his mate and speaking low in her ear popped into his head every time he saw him. But he came to her defense today and had looked after her for months since her arrival, so he owed him for that.
“As the old saying goes,” Kincaid went on to say, still glaring at the lead scientist. “Put up or shut up, woman. Call your witness to this grand plot or be done with it.” He scanned the other members of the council, ending with Trask. “I move we adjourn and reschedule a closed-door session to discuss relevant matters, like who blew up the mine, for what reason, and with what.” He held up a sheet of paper. “Because this tracking log, brought to me before I came in here today, shows an accounting of all BRK’s explosives.”
“I second,” Mr. Pruitt shouted to be heard above the crowd who had resumed its loud chattering.
Trask looked at Aylan and raised a brow in challenge.
“Council is adjourned,” he called over the din then he and Tyordor rushed out.
“It’s over?” Lana asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.
“Yes, your friend should have been an advocate.” She frowned at his comment, so he explained. “You call them lawyers.”
“Oh, yes.” She nodded, glancing at the other man with a small smile. “Beck was brilliant, wasn’t he?”
This irritated him, and he decided it would be best not to bring him up in the future.
He laid a hand on her lower back, ready to escort her out, but she was saying something else. He had to dip his head to hear over the crowd noise.
“This seemed rather anticlimactic.” She looked down at her hands, which she held clasped together, tight. “Maybe we overreacted. You can change your mind if you want to.”
“Are you deliberately trying to anger me?”
Her head came up. “No, I just thought—”
“If we hadn’t acted as we did, there would have been a vote. Kincaid helped, but the outcome wasn’t guaranteed.” He cupped his hand beneath her chin and asked, “What did I say earlier?”
“No going back,” she whispered without hesitation.
“Yes, but I said something else.”
“That it’s real—for a lifetime, I remember.”
Her eyes were bright, but unguarded, something he hadn’t seen in a very long time. And he read trust in her expression—which was a welcome relief, although they were still a long way from being back where they once were. But he’d take it, gladly, because she was coming home, finally, his beautiful mate.
The thought of her in his house, his arms, his bed, stirred his body, sending a jolt straight to his neglected cock. This was hardly the time or place, although he had little chance of controlling his instinctive reaction to her. He started walking with her in tow. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll go to your apartment and get what you need. The Dauntless is due to arrive in a few hours with a supply shipment, and I intend for us to be on it for the return trip.”
As they moved toward the door, Lana pulled away. “Wait. I can’t leave without thanking him. I’ll be right back.”
He watched her thread her way through the crowd to the front of the room where Kincaid stood. Trask refrained from following until she tipped her head back and smiled at him. Then he moved, fighting the flow of onlookers heading for the door now that the show was over. He stopped at the end of the dais, far enough to give her space, but where he could see and hear, which wasn’t by coincidence.
“I guess this is goodbye, Beck.”
“Yeah, darlin’, I suppose it is.”
Trask saw her eyes shimmer with tears. In reaction, the human male’s face softened with an affectionate smile, transforming him for the angry, unyielding man Miss Barker had faced. He didn’t like it but forced himself to stand silently by and wait.
“Thank you for everything. Not only for coming to my defense today but for taking a chance on me with a job, playing the role of my surrogate big brother, and being there for me since the day I arrived.”
The tears clinging to her long silky lashes overflowed. Crying—something he noticed she did more of now than before. Another thing he didn’t like.
“You were right that day about friends, Beck. Whenever I look back on this time, I’ll remember you, the best friend I’ve ever had.” She threw her arms around his waist and hugged him, hard. “I’ll miss you.”
“As I will you, Lana.”
His hand rose to her back, his work-scarred hand stroking her long hair. It was an overtly friendly gesture, no more, but, still, it set Trask’s teeth on edge.
“Who else will I sucker into playing 9-ball with me at The Watering Hole?”
Trask didn’t understand what Kincaid meant by that, but Lana apparently did.
With a laugh, she tipped her head back and gave her friend a watery grin. “No one, because you’re a shark, Beckett Kincaid. Something which you failed to tell me. I had to hear from the other guys you’d played professionally.”
“How do you think I got start-up money for BRK, Inc.? And a rich bimbo bride on my arm?”
She smacked his arm lightly. “Don’t say, bimbo, Beck. It’s degrading to women.”
“And your description of her was any nicer?”
“Touché.” She giggled, a sound Trask hadn’t heard in almost a year. That another man was responsible, and she still had her arms around him, was testing his control.
“Grab yourself some happy, darlin’.”
“I’ll try, but under the circumstances...”
Kincaid’s eyes rose and met his over the top of her head. “Yeah, things might not be starting out the best way, but your general cares for you, darlin’. You’ve got to believe that because no man would come to the defense of an ex-lover and agree to take her back after she jilted him to save her from exile if he didn’t.”
“Trask is an honorable man.”
“It’s more than that, Lana, trust me. Because he’s also staring at me like he’s contemplating the best way to separate my head from my shoulders if I don’t quit touching you.”
She twisted, looking at him where he stood, no more than five feet behind her. His patience ended, he outstretched his hand to her. “We have things to do before we depart for home, mate.”
When Kincaid released her, Lana’s arms fell away. He didn’t wait for her to come to him, he immediately moved up behind her, slid his hand around her waist, and drew her back against him.
“General, I’ve been playing the protector role these past few months. I now bequeath those duties to you.”
“Thank you for looking out for her, Mr. Kincaid. I’ve been in those shoes and am well aware she doesn’t always make it easy.”
“Excuse me. You two know I can hear you, don’t you?”
Her saucy remark earned a chuckle from Beck and a warning squeeze from Trask.
The human extended his hand, a gesture the two worlds had in common. He took it but slid his higher, clasping his wrist firmly in the Primarian manner which showed camaraderie and respect.
“You’ll take care of our girl, won’t you, General?”
“Don’t ever doubt it; you have my word.”
He nodded, and his gaze went to Lana again. “I should go. I’m losing my best painter and need to get right on recruiting another.”
Her soft laugh rippled in the air. “You’re confusing me with someone else; I’m your messiest painter, remember? Take care of yourself, Beck.”
“You, too, darlin’. And since I have faith you’ll soon be cleared of these bogus charges, maybe you can come back for the ribbon cutting and dedication of the courthouse and town hall.”
“I’d like that.”
Kincaid’s eyes rose one last time and locked with his for a three-count before he walked away.
“He’s an interesting man.” This observation came from Adria who had joined them at some point.
“He is and one of the best men I’ve ever known.”
“And he is large for a human, quite handsome, with the most unusual blue eyes.”
“Adria,” Trask drawled. “You have studies to attend to, and you live three days away by space flight.”
“What? I can’t admire a man’s extraordinary eyes.”
“A second ago they were unusual, which is it?”
“Both, what does it matter?”
Lana gave her an assessing look. “You’d like him if you got to know him.”
“No!” His denial rang out along with his sister’s.
She stiffened as though offended on her friend’s behalf. “But you’d be perfect for him.”
“I’m not interested in a mate,” Adria said flatly.
Lana rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “I was thinking more along the lines of meeting for a cinnamon roll and a chat, not an instantaneous proposal.”
“Please,” he groaned, shuddering at the thought of his youngest sister mated, let alone to a human on another planet. “Let me resolve an issue with one troublesome charge before I must deal with another.”
“Trask!” they both said in unison.
He took Lana’s hand while he glanced at his sibling. “We leave in three hours. Wait at the clinic until I come to get you.”
“Dr. Juna is delayed, and with the injured still coming in for follow-up treatment, I am needed here.”
“You could stay at my apartment,” Lana proposed.
Adria look expectantly at Trask. “An excellent solution, don’t you think, brother?”
“I don’t know. I won’t be here; who will look out for you?”
“I’m not a child. I can look after myself.”
“No, this isn’t Primaria, Adri.”
“We could ask Beck—”
He cut off his mate’s suggestion, one of many, with a firm, “No.”
“Why? We just established he is a good man.”
“Who my sister finds attractive, so that isn’t happening.” With the crowd thinning, he guided both women to the exit. “I’ll assign one of my warriors as a guard.”
“Is that really necessary?” Adria protested.
“If you want to remain here, yes. No further arguments.”
“Yes, brother,” she muttered.
When he paused at the door to let the women precede him, he caught the wide-eyed look his mate gave his sister.
“I see he’s bossy and overprotective with more than just a mate,” she observed under her breath, but not under enough for him not to hear.
“You have no idea,” Adria grumbled.
Lana’s eyes shot to his. Upon seeing the challenging look aimed her way, she quickly corrected his sister. “I think I have a pretty good one.”
His lips twitched as he shook his head and did some muttering of his own. “Females.”
***
Escorted to a shuttle, then to a stateroom aboard the Reliant, the man at her side remained stoic and silent. He left her with a muttered, “We’ll talk later.”
His definition of later was broader than her own because she didn’t see him the rest of the day.
At lunchtime, a silent warrior escorted her to the dining room. She sat alone, picking at her food, fully aware of the condemning stares and angry glares of those around her. She didn’t stay long, and when another noncommunicative warrior arrived at dinner time, she declined and remained in her quarters.
Alone and feeling sorry for herself, she went to bed, although sleep escaped her, and she tossed and turned for hours. Sometime during the night, she fell into an exhausted sleep because she awakened to the daytime lights the next morning. She sat up, twisted, and stared sadly at the bed beside her, untouched.
“So much for mates in every way.” She flopped back onto her pillows, her arms across her face, blocking out the light.
Sometime later, an hour, perhaps two—she didn’t know, nor did she care—someone entered the outer room, but they didn’t stay. She smelled food but didn’t get up. With no appetite, what was the point? Instead, she lay on her side and stared at the wall, thinking exile to Earth may have been better than this or, at least, not as lonely.
“Are you ill?”
Her whole body jerked in surprise, and she rolled onto her back. Trask was standing inside the open door, his shoulder propped against the wall, his features composed, apparently unfazed about this new path their lives had taken while she was tied up in knots.
“It’s not polite to sneak up on someone.”
“I didn’t sneak; I walked. I also asked you a question. Are you unwell?”
“No, why?” she asked him.
“You haven’t eaten anything brought to you for the last three meals, and you had practically nothing in the dining hall yesterday. Do you need the physic?”
She rolled again, her back to him “Don’t bother. There isn’t anything wrong. You can go back to pretending I don’t exist.”
Footsteps thudded on the floor. “I know you exist. I’ve tried forgetting you did for a year but couldn’t. I stayed away for fear you would have a resurgence of your aversion sickness. I thought the loss of appetite might be due to me.”
“You probably should have let them ship me home, Trask.”
“I considered it, but I can’t. I’d rather have you close where I can watch over you and keep you safe, than wondering your fate on some crumbling planet galaxies away from here. It sounds selfish, but there you have it.”
She rolled back to find him standing next to the bed, towering over her. “Why didn’t you move on? In all this time, you should have taken another mate.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and picked up a lock of her hair, rubbing it between his fingers. “How could I, when you haunt me? You were my mate, and I’ve never been able to stop thinking of you that way.”
She closed her eyes, swallowing hard as she fought back her tears, her heart aching.
His hand moved to cup her cheek, his touch light and so very welcome. Although she tried hard to resist the urge, she couldn’t and turned her face into the caress, nuzzling her cheek in his palm. A whimper of longing broke unbidden from her lips.
What followed happened fast and instinctively. His fingers threaded through her hair and slid around to cradle the back of her head. She reached for him, her hands curling around his biceps as he pulled her toward him. His head came down as hers moved up, his open mouth covering her parted lips. Then, like a flash-fire, their bodies ignited with passion. While their tongues swirled and tangled, and they moaned their need down one another’s throat, their fingers tore the other’s clothes off.
Trask moved on top of her, and she didn’t hesitate to open her thighs.
“By the Maker, I have missed you,” he growled as he curled a hand behind her knee, bent her leg, and hooked it over his hip. He was inside her the next moment, sinking into her copious wetness. He cried out hoarsely, and her breathless moans rose in the air as they started to move. Rolling his hips, he plunged, again and again, as she arched into him. Taking what he gave her while offering all she had to give, it went fast, becoming explosive as she came with a scream of unadulterated bliss the likes of which she’d never expected to find again. Trask followed in seconds, growling his pleasure into the side of her neck as he splashed hot and deep inside her.
Chest heaving and skin damp with sweat, they clung to one another in the aftermath. His weight pressed her into the bed while her skin tingled wherever he touched both inside and out.
He rose onto his forearms. “Forgive me for using one of your vulgar Earth phrases, but the situation seems to warrant it.”
“What?” she asked, dazedly.
“You are so full of shit.”
She blinked up at him. “Pardon me?”
“You don’t want me...” His tone was heavily sarcastic. “You want to go home, to your people, and your career?” One brow arched as he went on to state succinctly and quite crudely, “What a load of shit.”
Uncomfortable with not only his antagonizing words, but the flicker of anger in his eyes, she tried to move out from underneath him, a near impossible feat.
“You’re ticked off,” she accused while shoving at his shoulder. “What was this? Angry, revenge sex?”
“The sex was because my body has craved you ceaselessly for far too many torturous days. That I’m infuriated you did this to us is irrelevant.”
“Trask, maybe we shouldn’t have—”
“Shut up.”
Her mouth gaped open. He’d never spoken to her this way, and she didn’t like it one bit. “Don’t tell me to shut up!”
“I will, repeatedly, whenever you are about to spew ridiculous drivel about how we aren’t mates, or how you don’t want me, and why we don’t belong together. The dissolution is nullified; you saw the decree when we arrived, signed by Kerr who is your leader now. It’s done and will not be undone. You are mine, Lana. You vowed no going back, no running, and I refuse to accept any more of your bullshit about it.”
“You’re wearing out that particular vulgar Earth term pretty darn quick, don’t you think, General?”
His face darkened as he scowled down at her. “I don’t recall you being this impertinent before.”
“And I don’t recall you having such a foul mouth or being such a jerk.”
“In the year apart, I imagine we’ve changed in many ways.” His eyes searched hers a moment before they trailed down her face to her chest, which had reduced a whole cup size less than before. With her weight loss, the fullness of her breasts was the first thing to go. “Some of which I intend to fix.”
She squirmed beneath him, shoving at his shoulders. “Let me up.”
“No.” He caught her hands and pinned them to the bed on either side of her head. Gazing down at her, his glorious eyes as changeable as ever, were bluer than green now, and dark with desire. His lips had softened, parting slightly as his tongue came out to wet them. All signs of his anger were gone, replaced by desire as he shifted his hips. He was hard inside her again—or was it still?
“We should talk,” she suggested.
“I’m done talking. It only serves to piss me off. We communicate better in other ways.”
She frowned. “How many of these vulgar Earth terms have you picked up?”
“Shut up and kiss me, mate.”
“That’s another one. Well, not so much vulgar, but rude.”
“Lana?” His voice dipped to a husky growl, stirring the hunger in her body once more.
“Yes?” she answered in a whisper.
“Stop talking, mate, so I can fuck you. How’s that for a vulgar Earth term?”
She swallowed hard as his tongue licked the fullness of her lower lip. As he began to thrust, his incredible cock gliding out then sinking slowly and deliciously back in, filling and stretching her as only Trask ever had, her resistance melted away, and she answered raggedly, “Okay.”