She’d fucking run away from him…
Jay dragged himself out of the shower and got dressed. Every part of him felt like he’d gone ten rounds with a snarling leopard and lost. A wave of dizziness came over him, and he forced a couple of protein-pack meals down his throat. He could track her through their telepathic link. He also knew where she was going, and his strength would soon return.
He refused to think about what he’d do when he caught up with her—either fuck her brains out, or murder her. Maybe both. She’d probably like that. He also tried not to think about what Kaiden was going to say when he heard what had happened. If he reconnected with Rain and completed his mission, maybe he’d be forgiven.
Jay grabbed his backpack, laced up his boots, and moved out. God knew what the staff would make of the ripped, bloodstained sheets and damaged furniture, but maybe they were used to that kind of shit, being near Neveks. She’d joined with him. They’d shared an unforgettable experience, and, whatever happened, they needed to talk about it. He’d keep his shields high and hope she didn’t detect his presence, but he’d find her.
He had no choice.
As Rain headed into the forests surrounding the walls of Neveks, it began to pour, making the terrain even more difficult to traverse and her temper more uncertain. She’d morphed. There was no getting away from it. She’d been told she couldn’t morph because she was impure and that she couldn’t mate in the traditional way with a Nevek male because her blood was tainted. Yet she’d gone into the deep mating state, albeit with a male from another planet.
The Neveks Queen had some explaining to do, that was certain—if Rain got a chance to see the Goddess on earth. She might settle for just killing the woman rather than bothering to get an answer. At eighteen her world had ended, and she’d been cut off from everything and everyone she knew and loved. Ten years had passed, and it still cut like a knife.
A bird called somewhere deep in the steamy forest, and Rain raised her head. She was getting close to the outer defenses and had probably been picked up on the sensors. Not that she cared if they knew she was coming. She’d been invited.
Even as the thought entered her head, another bird sounded off, this time right above her head. She barely had time to look up before a net dropped, and she fell to the ground, enmeshed in its coils. A man knelt over her and grinned.
“Welcome home, Princess.”
It was the last thing she saw before he knocked her out cold.
Breathing hard, Jay entered the clearing to see a group of hunters gathered around a net. He considered his options. He was fairly certain they had Rain, which meant he could simply follow them and work out how to get into Neveks. Or he could unleash the unexpected torrent of rage he was currently experiencing because they had dared to touch his female. He wanted to kill every single one of them—
“Don’t move or I’ll gut you.”
Jay briefly closed his eyes as a knife pricked his throat. The mating thing was messing with his internal sensors. He had to calm down. One of the males tossed Rain over his shoulder and jogged off into the forest toward the walls.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Jay said evenly.
Even as the man laughed, Jay was in motion, his hand coming up to break his captor’s wrist and force him to the ground.
A sudden shout had him whirling around to see the rest of the hunting party advancing on him. He hesitated, unwilling to kill, but ready to do whatever it took to get to Rain.
“Foreigner,” one of the men spat at him, his golden eyes narrowed. “What do you want here? Go home.”
“You took my woman.” The words tore from his throat. Hell, he had nothing to lose, they could kill him right now, or he could massacre all six of them before they even knew what was happening.
The tallest man jerked a thumb toward where Rain had been carried off. “That woman? She’s Neveks.”
“She’s mine.”
A blitz of telepathic activity battered against Jay’s shields, and the man bowed. “Then, you will accompany us.”
Jay nodded as the male behind him grabbed his arm and shoved him forward. He had a sense that he was in for a rough journey. If it got him inside Neveks, and he was still alive, he’d accept any punishment they meted out to him.
Rain regained consciousness, slowly opening her eyes. She was in the women’s quarters of the temple. Her clothes, weapons, and backpack had disappeared. Her head hurt, and she wanted to throw up. Rolling onto her side, she leaned over the edge of the bed to find a bucket ready and waiting for her use.
Exhausted, she lay back, and someone placed a cold cloth over her brow. After another long moment, she pushed the cloth away and forced herself to sit up.
“I want to see my mother.”
“Of course.” The female who wore the yellow silk of a junior priestess and healer bowed her head. “As soon as you are recovered, I will take you to her.”
“Thank you.” Rain looked around the lavishly furnished room. She’d once lived on the temple grounds with her mother and was familiar with its layout. If she was correct, she was currently lodged within the Royal House itself.
“Is the Queen Goddess here?”
“I am not at liberty to share that information with you,” the priestess said. “I will fetch you some sustenance and then take you to your mother.” She hesitated. “She does not have long to live.”
“So I understand.”
At this point, Rain was just glad that her mother was still alive to see her. When her mother died, she was the last of Rain’s kin. No consequences would befall her family if she decided to put an end to the Queen Goddess.
She dutifully ate the food put in front of her and enjoyed the juice of the local quor fruit she’d helped her mother pick when she was a child.
After washing her hands and face in the bowl of scented water the priestess offered her, Rain smiled at the woman. There was no harm in trying to disarm the opposition and make them think she was harmless.
“May I see my mother now?”
“I will call the guard.” The priestess nodded. “Remember that you are a guest in our temple, and thus will behave accordingly.”
“Trust me, I have no desire to stay here at all,” Rain said sweetly.
Before the guard entered, Rain was offered her choice of silks to wrap herself in. She chose blue, the color of the warrior guild. It felt weird not to have on underwear. Her skin was marked from her mating with Jay, but she was neither ashamed of that, nor worried that anyone would notice. She’d been banished at eighteen for being impure. No one would suspect she had morphed and mated or even care if she had. She was a nothing, her name erased from the records, her image deleted…
The guard came in, and she recognized him as one of the hunting party from the forest. He bowed to the priestess, and then nodded to Rain.
“Please come with me.”
He took hold of her elbow and marched her between the all-too-familiar honey-colored pillars of the temple. The smell of incense and the murmur of prayer floated around Rain, calming her raging thoughts.
Where was Jay? Had he recovered from their mating? She suspected he’d be mad as hell about her leaving him again. But maybe not—maybe he’d run screaming in the other direction because she’d morphed into a monster.
The guard took her through to the healing wing, where the soft incense was replaced by the harsher smells of medicines, cleanliness, and the sharp metallic taste of death. She steadied herself at the entrance, deliberately shutting down all her emotions, and consolidated all her power into her shields. If the Queen Goddess did turn up, she would get nothing from Rain except death.
She only faltered when she reached her mother Alaya’s room, fighting feelings she could not afford to show.
“Mother.”
The guard positioned himself at the door and let her go forward alone. She knelt by the side of the low pallet and stared down at her mother. Even at rest, Alaya’s skin was tight, flat, and yellow, not reacting at all to her environment. Pain radiated from her emaciated frame and her lank, dark hair was streaked with silver
“She has the wasting sickness. She will soon pass over to a better world.”
Rain looked up to see a nurse sitting quietly in the corner of the room, her face sympathetic and her tone firm, as if daring Rain to argue with her. She didn’t need to protest. Her mother’s condition was obvious. Even her telepathic shields were gone, which for a person from Neveks was the ultimate humiliation.
“Rain?”
A whisper drew her attention back to her mother.
“Mother.”
“You came back.”
She found a smile from somewhere. “Yes. The Queen Goddess gave me permission to visit you.”
Alaya grabbed her wrist and whispered, “She is not to be trusted.”
She kissed her mother’s fingers. “I will do my best not to enrage her.”
“She will kill you this time.”
“I’m a trained soldier and much harder to frighten than my eighteen-year-old self.” Rain tried to sound more confident than she felt.
“I begged her not to banish you.”
Rain swallowed hard. “That is in the past. I survived my banishment, and I’m here with you now.”
“To watch me die.”
There was no point in offering false hope, but it was hard for Rain not to try. It was not the Neveks way. Her mother had her faith and would not regret passing to a better world.
“You will perform my funeral rites, Daughter?”
“Of course.” Rain gathered her courage. “I will be with you right up until the moment the Supreme Being takes your hand and walks with you into paradise.”
“Thank you. That is all I ask.” Alaya closed her eyes. “Will you stay with me now?”
Rain glanced up at the nurse, who nodded.
“Yes. I will be here until the end.”
Her mother gave a relieved sigh. “Now tell me everything you have been doing since I saw you last.”
By the time they threw him into the cell, Jay was bloody and bruised but not quite broken. It had been hard not to fight back to his full capacity, but he didn’t want them to know they’d captured an enhanced soldier quite yet. They were already suspicious of him. He set his back against the wall opposite the door and settled in to wait. At some point he’d either be fed or interrogated, and his gut wasn’t expecting a meal any time soon.
He wasn’t sure if it was something in the walls that surrounded him, but he could hardly sense Rain. Her shields were at one hundred percent and nothing he had tried so far had penetrated them. He knew she was somewhere within the complex, but that was about it.
“YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE ENGAGED IN COMBAT IN YOUR CURRENT WEAKENED STATE.”
Hell, even his A.I. was nagging him now.
Had Rain’s mother died yet? He leaned back and closed his eyes, needing to regain his strength, but wary of letting his guard down. Inside him was a conflicting mess of raging emotions fighting against his installed A.I. It was crucifying him. Was Rain okay? Surely he’d know if she was dead. He’d feel it in his soul…
He must have dozed off because the crash of the door being unlocked and opened woke him. He peered through the gloom as the guard came in with a lantern.
“Visitor for you, foreigner.”
Jay stayed where he was and looked up at the huge male who’d entered behind the guard. He was a head taller than Jay and possibly twice as wide, with rippling muscles that flexed and flowed beneath the reddish brown of his kaleidoscope skin. He wore some kind of checked garment that bared one shoulder—it reminded Jay of a Scottish plaid—and carried a dagger at his side.
Jay braced himself as the male attempted to breach his shields and then abruptly stopped.
“You are something of an anomaly, aren’t you?” Despite his warrior-like appearance, his voice was surprisingly melodious and calm. “I cannot read your mind at all.” The huge man crouched in front of Jay, his head tipped to one side. “Why is that?”
Jay shrugged and then gasped as the male’s hand shot out and wrapped around his throat.
“My name is Asar. I am in charge here. You will answer me.”
As his vision blurred, Jay’s A.I. calculated his odds of survival. He decided to cooperate.
“I’m from Earth,” he wheezed.
Asar’s grip eased a fraction. “Earth? Where is that?”
“It’s another planet in a different galaxy.”
“With telepaths?”
Jay nodded as best he could.
“Yet you laid claim to a woman of Neveks.”
“One cannot lay claim to another person,” Jay objected.
The male released his grip on Jay’s throat. “One can, if one is part of a bonded Triad, yes?”
“We don’t have those on Earth.”
“Then what is your interest in this female?”
“We traveled together. I was worried when your thugs in the wood captured her. I thought if I said she was with me then I’d be able to find out why she’d been taken.”
“Worried…” Asar regarded him with an unconvinced smile. “You injured one of my men and demanded we release your woman. Surely that implies ownership?”
“Not in my world. I said what I needed to get in here, and it worked, didn’t it?”
“You wanted to come into Neveks?”
“No, I wanted to make sure Rain got here safely before I continued my journey to the Temple at Quoxor, where I am expected by Captain O’Neill, the First Mate of the Oracle’s heir.”
“You have friends in high places.”
“Who will come looking for me if I don’t turn up soon.” Jay met the male’s piercing amber gaze. “Once I’ve made sure Rain is safe, and determined whether she wishes to continue on to the temple or remain here, I promise I will leave quietly.”
“That decision is not up to you.” Asar rose from his crouch and loomed over Jay again. “It is in the hands of the Queen Goddess, as is the fate of Rain.”
“Rain’s fate is her own.”
Asar’s mouth quirked up at the corner. “She is certainly an outlier.”
“You know her?” Jay risked the question, but the male’s face closed up. “Just let me see her and then I’ll leave or do whatever is necessary to get out of your way.”
Asar was almost by the door and looked back over his shoulder. “I will consult with the Queen Goddess.”
“Great.”
“When she returns.”
“And when will that be?”
Asar shrugged. “Who knows the plans of the sacred ones?”
Jay frowned. “Then let me see Rain. I’ll leave before the Queen Goddess needs to even be bothered by my petty presence.”
“No one leaves or enters without the Queen’s permission,” Asar said flatly.
Jay tried another tack. “Will you just confirm that Rain is here?”
“If you’re a telepath of some kind, you must know if she is.”
“And is she still in good health?”
Asar raised an eyebrow. “You fear she will be harmed by her own people while she prepares her mother for death?”
Jay didn’t answer but continued to stare right into Asar’s eyes. He was beginning to get a sense of the immense telepathic power behind the male’s sturdy defenses.
“Be very careful, foreigner. We respect the rituals of death in Neveks,” Asar murmured. “And remember the Queen Goddess can kill you with a thought.”
With a final nod, he exited the cell, and the door was locked behind him. Jay let out his breath.
Whoever the man was, he emanated power and, in his weakened state, Jay had struggled to keep him out of his head. He wanted to find Rain now and get out. After the ferocious mating and the recent beating, his body refused to comply. His A.I. calculated his odds of survival were low if he attempted a breakout. Everything was off, and he had no energy.
He’d sleep, regenerate, and be ready to fight the next day.