Tolan Lark was a little surprised when they made it all the way to Frian without an angry com call from Jax.  He had made a point of learning what ships would be left behind.  They were taking all but Warrung's ships, and those had been deployed for planetary defenses while Warrung was gone.  As tricky as Jax could be, even she would have a hard time making something out of nothing.  But why had she not contacted them at least to vent her spleen? 

It was hard enough being separated during the mating dance without this feeling of expectation eating at him.  If they had been together for any more of a length of time, he would not have been able to leave her behind, for any reason; it was the way of the Shakien mating that the connection between them would grow until they were bound so tightly they could not be separated, and they would have no secrets from each other.  It was a few of the many reasons he had fought himself so hard when the mating dance started with Jax.

Her silence was making him crazed.  He would swear she had not contacted the others either because he would have heard from them.  Lucan Warrung especially was not going to like that it was him and not Jax inside the skiff.  Barnos thought he was staying with Jax until the imminent rendezvous on New Frian, the outer moon of Frian, so again, he was not going to be happy Tolan had lied to him.  But then again, you would think he would know better by now than to trust him.

It would not have been so bad if his plan to catch Warrung was not so flimsy, but he was determined to find another way to help the child than to risk the life of his mate.

The first thing he saw when he stepped onto the spaceport of New Frian was Jax, who he thought he had left safely on Port Sea.  The first thing he felt when he saw her was relief, so much that he could not stop himself from striding forward and grabbing his mate, kissing her hard and deep before the fire of rage in her eyes could burn him.  Eventually she kissed him back, and something in his gut unclenched enough that he could breathe again.

When he finally let her go, she hauled back and punched him in the face with enough force to set his head back.  It lacked the power Barnos could put behind his fists but she was not weak, this mate of his.

Then his second reaction to her presence rose and met her anger head on with some of his own.  "What the hell are you doing here?"

She pulled herself forcefully out of his arms, something they both knew she would not have been able to do if he had not allowed it.  She shook her head at him, her lips swollen from his kiss, her eyes twin daggers directed right at him.

"When you didn't try to argue with the plans I had a feeling you might try something underhanded.  I had The Jezebel wait at Port Sea in case I needed a ride." Her glare went glacially cold.  "Turns out I was right to think you would try to leave me behind."

"This is not a game," he growled and then turned to look at Captain Relian, who stood just behind her with Lore and the ex-space marine Mac who was part of his crew.  Sera his mate was beside him, along with Lucan, Danika, Barnos and Lara.  But he had eyes only for Tyber.  "You came with him?"

"And when this is done, I will be leaving with him as well," his mate assured him icily.  At her words, he felt the world around him shift and knew that his eyes were now lavender and predatory.

"We don't have time for this," Lucan waded into the conversation, before Tolan could do more than glare at the man he most wanted to rend.

"If it was Danika?"  he spat back in answer to those words, shifting his eyes only briefly from Tyber.  The Captain of The Jezebel was very carefully making no aggressive moves, but he also did not look like he regretted helping to put Jax in danger, which was unacceptable to Tolan.  He would see he regretted those actions, in a most memorable and bloody way.

"It is Danika," Lucan shot back, looking almost as displeased as Tolan felt.  "Do you think I did not want to keep her safe on Port Sea?  But what if we needed her to get the information for Dara, and she was not here?  She would never forgive me."

"Probably couldn't keep her on the moon anyway, if she chose to leave," Tyber added helpfully.

Lucan glared at him for the reminder, then turned back to Tolan Lark, who everyone could see was a moment from losing all control and attacking the other man. 

At that moment, Tolan did not even care that this was out of character for a Shakien who had successfully managed to stay in control most of his life--the very control that his own father had labeled his weakness.

"We need her, and if you can't control your Shakien nature enough to let her do this, I will lock you down myself, and she will be one man down when every man counts."

At his words, Tolan lost all desire to remain in control and grew about a foot, bulking out with muscles his nanite shifted to accommodate.  He turned his eyes to the man who had just threatened to keep him from his mate while she went into danger and felt his teeth lengthen and sharpen along with the rest.  "Try to lock me down and away from my mate, Warrung, and you will find out just how feral a Shakien can be."

"Enough of this," Jax said.  Her voice was a cool whip of sound despite the fact that she did not bother to raise her voice.  She stepped closer to Tolan.  "If anyone needs to lock you down it will be me doing it, and I don't think even feral you would hurt your mate.  Disrespect her and treat her like a child," she added with a cold bite, "yes, but hurt?  No."

He ended the distance between them with two steps, standing close enough that his heat wrapped around her and she had to strain her head back to meet those lavender eyes.  "I will not allow Cor Warrung to get his hands on you.  I thought he had done so once, and it nearly destroyed me, and that was before I marked you."  He wrapped one big hand over her collarbone above her mate mark and felt her shudder at the claim.  "I have seen what you are capable of myself, but this?"  He shook his head.  "Too much could go wrong."

Jax took a deep breath and tried not to be moved by either his touch or his words, and failed.  She finally hissed out a breath in disgust at her own weakness.  "Don't ever try to take away my choices again, Shakien.  You won't like what happens."  She firmed her chin.  "Now are you going to stop trying to control me and help me so I don't fall into the hands of a maniac?"  She took another deep breath and let him see what she was feeling in her eyes.  "Because that's what I need in a mate.  A partner, not a dictator.  If you can't give me that then better we know now and part ways than find out when we are any more tied together."

He hissed out a breath but closed his eyes, a look of pain crossing his furred face.  Then the fur just melted away, and the man stood before her once more.  He opened eyes that fought to stay blue, rather than give into his nature.  Eventually he won.  "If you are doing this, I need to be closer than this moon."

She thought about protesting, but finally he watched the tension drop from her shoulders and she said, "If you can do it without giving yourself away with the first drunk space marine that hits on me, then fine."

His eyes flashed lavender, but just as quickly swirled back to blue when she said, "I can handle myself; you know I can.  I need you to show me the respect I have earned."

"I can let you handle the marines."  He was not happy about it, but he had seen her in action.  If she could drop him, she could handle most anyone.  If that turned out not to be the case he would be close enough to help if she needed it.  "But you will have multiple trackers, of my own design.  It's the first thing Warrung will look for, but he won't be able to detect these."

"Then why do I need two?"  she asked, not like she was arguing but with mild curiosity.

"We take no chances.  None."  He leaned down until they were nose to nose.  "You handle the marines, quickly.  Warrung will make a move we don't see coming and we have to be ready for that, not distracted by drunk idiots with too much firepower for their IQ."

"Hey," Mac said; apparently, he felt the need to defend the marines, a group he left in disgrace many years ago.  Everyone looked at him and he shrugged massive shoulders.  "Not every marine is a horny asshole."  When he got more than one look that clearly stated they all disagreed, he motioned to Jax.  "Everyone in the place is going to want to tap that," he said crudely with a long look over Jax.  "That doesn't make them assholes." 

His mate, the ship’s mechanic for The Jezebel, slapped his shoulder and shook her head.

"I didn't say I would," he said, giving her glare for glare.

"I know what you said," she sniped back at him.  "Everyone knows what you said and what you meant.  And you are not helping prove that space marines are not horny assholes by sounding like a horny asshole, so I suggest you stop speaking."

He glared at her, but stopped talking and pulled her into his side.  The pretty blonde just rolled her eyes, but stayed pressed to her mate.

Tolan didn't have time to think of the strange couple they made, the slender mechanic with the grease on her nose, and the crude ex-space marine who dwarfed her.  The only thing he really knew about the woman was that she was reported to be a good mechanic, not a mech as Jax was. She lacked the psychic gift to have that level of talent, but was good for a norm. He turned his attention back to his own mate, losing interest in the lot of them.  "I stand corrected.  Please take care of any drunken asshole quickly, whatever his affiliation, so that I don't have to."

Jax snorted and Barnos, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, spoke in his booming voice.  "So are we doing this now or do I get to beat the bloody hell out of the lying Shakien sack of shite so we can do it without him?"

Lara sighed beside him but she did not bother to slap him as Sera had done her mate. She just said, "I think we have established that Tolan Lark is prepared to help us now."

Her mate looked so disappointed that Lara patted his arm in consolation.

"How do you propose you stay close when your ship is almost as recognizable as The Jezebel?"  Lucan asked him, his own temper under tight control again.

"Barnos can captain The Fire. I'll go in the skiff with Jax and stay out of view until I'm needed."

His answer had more than one person looking at him doubtfully.  He didn't bother to assure them that he could be invisible when he wanted to be.  Years as an Alliance spy had given him some skills they were not aware of.  Frankly, he did not care if any of them agreed with him or not.  The only one he cared about stood before him, and the look in her eyes was not doubt but knowledge.  She must have seen more in her tinkering around his ship than he had realized.

"We do this now," Danika said softly, breaking her own silence.  "He speaks truth when he says he can stay out of sight.  And we have no time to argue this out longer."

Lucan nodded resolutely, giving them all a look that promised mayhem on anyone who argued.  "Agreed," he said.

After that look, even Tolan kept his comments to himself, and Jax turned from his arms with one last look he could not read and headed for the skiff.  He turned to follow her and was stopped briefly by a grip on his arm he would have been hard-pressed to shake.  He turned to find Warrung’s cold eyes on him.  He promised more than mayhem with that look.  "You fuck this up and Dara pays the price; you won't live long enough to regret it."

He had let go and turned away before Tolan could react to the threat.  Probably just as well.  His angry first response to a threat could have had serious consequences.  He was not fool enough to knowingly make an enemy of Lucan Warrung, not if he had time to curb his gut reaction.  Nobody was that stupid.

He watched the man glide away, his lady at his side, and wondered what the two of them were communicating silently, because it was obvious that they were.  It made him wonder what it would be like when his mating dance with Jax was far enough along for them to share the ability.  Then he wondered if Jax realized yet that the longer they stayed together the closer their connection would be, and how different a Dainaree mating was to a Shakien.  Either way, eventually there would be nowhere she could go that he could not find her, with a tracker or without. 

He found himself wishing for that connection now, no matter how hard it would make the small separation they needed to get the job done.  He would take a little pain if it meant he could find her when he needed to.  He was not, however, going to warn his mate of what was coming.  When it happened and she was beyond getting away from him would be soon enough for that conversation.  If that earned him another punch in the face, so be it.