Gabe

by Veronica Scott

  “I can see why you wanted to keep this meeting semi private,” Aydarr said to Gabe as the doctor moved on. “Wise precaution. After the medical issues are addressed, I want to hear the entire story, and then we can co-ordinate getting quarters for all of you, clothing, food—”

  “I’m on it.” Aydarr’s mate Jill flourished a com. “I’ve asked Nicolle to come on duty and help.” She smiled at Keshara. “Aydarr and I both have to get used to having an assistant.”

  Keshara looked to the Alpha again. “I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding between us. I lead this pack, small as it is, but I’m not alpha born. Now we’ve met, I know that. But we had to have a leader, and the others trust me.”

  “What generation are you?” Aydarr asked.

  Keshara could only shake her head and appeal wordlessly to Gabe for help.

  “My best guess was somewhere close to generation one,” Gabe said, realizing Keshara was at a loss on the question. “I saw, or at least I’m pretty sure I saw, the material the women were formed from. It’s a long story, and I’d like to get my mate and the others out of the cold night air. As you can see, when we escaped the Khagrish lab, we weren’t exactly dressed for the occasion.”

  “I’m honored beyond words to meet you all,” Aydarr said. “Unfortunately we don’t have ground transportation in the valley but if any are unable to walk we do have a few antigrav litters and I know my men would be more than happy to carry anyone in need.”

  “The hospital isn’t far though,” Jill said. “Nothing is too far from anything else in the valley.”

  “We can walk,” Keshara said. “It’s amazing to be completely free, outdoors. I think we’d like to savor it.” She heard the others echoing her sentiment. “Let me go see how your healer and doctor are doing with my two most injured ones.” Gabe escorted her into the flyer and she paused on the threshold, stunned by the sight of the healer bending over Jezari, green light pouring from his hands into her wasted body. “Such power! I can call only a fraction as much.”

  Megan, the human doctor smiled and said, “From what Gabe was saying, the male Badari have hundreds of years of forced evolution on you. Don’t give yourself a hard time. Also, Timtur hasn’t been in a Khagrish lab fighting for his life in a long time so he’s at full power.” She indicated Vyddyn. “I think she’ll be all right as her vital signs are all good. We need to get more nutrients into her as she’s dehydrated and hope she comes out of this coma-like state on her own.”

  “Thank you. Raeblin is a trained medic so she may be able to help you with the treatments once we reach your hospital.” Keshara moved past her to stand beside Jezari’s litter, touching her hair in a quiet caress. “She seems marginally better, more peaceful at any rate.”

  “It’s going to be touch and go with this one, I won’t lie to you.” Timtur closed his hands into fists and shut off the healing. “It’ll be as the goddess wills, but I’ll keep watch over her tonight in the hospital and continue to do my best. “

  Gabe touched her shoulder. “At least your sister is a free woman now, whether she realizes it or not.”

  Keshara reached to squeeze his hand. “That thought is helpful consolation.”

  He steered her toward the rear of the flyer again and the exit ramp. She was handed a warm coat by the Alpha’s mate and she saw her sisters were already bundled up in similar garb. The evening breeze off the lake she saw in the distance was cold and she was grateful for the gift as Gabe helped her slide her arms into the jacket, which was huge on her.

  As they moved toward the edge of the landing field, Aydarr walking next to her and Jill on his other side, the Alpha said, “We’ll need to introduce you and your sisters to the rest of the pack, not tonight or even tomorrow, but perhaps the day after. I know there’s much to be discussed, but I like to keep rumors and gossip to a minimum in the valley. I’m sure your arrival is going to generate a lot of both. Even with Gabe’s discretion in how he staged your arrival.”

  “Of course. You and I need to talk beyond the simple debriefing.” Keshara was glad Gabe had strategized with her in the flyer’s cockpit on the way to the valley or she might have felt overwhelmed indeed.

  “How soon can I send a manifestation of myself to the Khagrish lab in question?” The voice was emanating from the metallic ovoid, which had drifted close to Gabe and was apparently addressing him. Keshara gaped and nearly stumbled.

  Her mate gave her a laughing glance. “Sorry, we all forgot to introduce MARL. He’s an alien Artificial Intelligence Jill discovered here in the valley when she first arrived.”

  “He’s my sidekick now,” Jill said. “And the gatherer of all the data that can be found. Right, MARL?”

  Bouncing in the air, the AI flashed green and turquoise with bands of pink. “Yes. When can I send a unit to acquire the data? It will surely be significant and fascinating, if these women are from such an early generation. High priority should be assigned.”

  Keshara looked at the ovoid and said doubtfully, “The Retreat was destroyed in a volcanic explosion as we escaped.”

  MARL flashed a violent red and dropped to the ground as she gasped. “Did I hurt it? Or insult it?”

  Jill laughed as MARL began drifting aloft and going silvery again. “He’s merely disappointed and pouting a bit. We know so little about how the Khagrish created the Badari or what the early days of the program were like. If he could have gotten access to the computers in your lab, he might have learned much.”

  “I’ll submit to an interview in a few days,” Gabe said. “Let us get settled and then you can ask me for details. It’s not as good as scouring the databases, I realize, but it’s all the data there’ll be.” He gave Keshara’s hand a hard squeeze, and she wondered what message he was trying to convey to her, but fortunately the AI let the subject drop.

  Keshara and her sisters all spent the rest of the first night in the small hospital, which had obviously been constructed from bits and pieces of scrounged materials, including prefab walls probably taken from destroyed Khagrish installations. Certainly the medical devices and equipment were Khagrish, as were the motley furnishings. Gabe and Keshara were given a room together, and the other women doubled up in rooms nearby. Aydarr posted guards around the facility to ensure privacy. Food was brought to a nearby conference room. It felt like a party to Keshara, which was a term in the training aids she’d never understood properly before. Certainly such light hearted events were unheard of at Farahnnim’s lab.

  When they all retired, Gabe held her close in the narrow hospital bed, whispering to her in the dark.

  “What do you think so far?” he asked after grumbling about the size of the bed.

  “It’s as you promised, the people here are welcoming and kind. Aydarr is overwhelming, but I find I trust him.” Happy to have a chance to finally ask her question from hours earlier, she said, “Why did you squeeze my hand so hard when the AI was talking about data?”

  “Sweetheart, there were secrets in that lab I don’t think anyone should know, starting with the immortality elixir. I think we should be open and candid with Aydarr and Jill and no one else about what Farahnnim was doing there. I’ll insist MARL not attend that discussion. We can say it’s Alpha stuff, Badari mate stuff, whatever. He’s not as interested in the physical Badari elements of life so it shouldn’t cause a problem.” She felt him shrug. “Data’s data and he craves data, but we can fence off this one session. We owe the truth to Aydarr, but then we can all concoct a version of reality for general consumption. All the valley’s residents know what the Khagrish do in those damn labs so people will think they know what you and the others endured. Once they get used to the idea there was one rogue lab experimenting with Badari females, you’ll be a nine days wonder then curiosity will die down. We’ll have to tell the others in our pack what we want them to share and not to share for the good of all.”

  Keshara rubbed her hand across his arm where he held her close. “I hate beginning a new life here burden

ed with secrets.”

  “Lying to Aydarr would be a bad plan.” Gabe laughed. “I can’t even imagine trying. But certain things need to be kept only amongst ourselves. Not everyone can be trusted, as we’ve learned to our sorrow since escaping the labs. Information about you and your unique pack would be potentially highly valuable to the Khagrish. The knowledge you could be used somehow to render others immortal would put an astronomical price on your heads. Even a whisper of whatever poison Farahnnim brewed that was capable of killing a Badari is also a huge danger. I don’t want all the sensitive information going into MARL’s data banks. Trust me on this.”

  “I do trust you, of course—the idea of concealing truths makes me a little sad is all.” She was so happy about being part of a much larger whole, a member of the Badari pack, and the fact of a hard reality intruding on her joy was a small gray cloud.

  “And I love you for that.” He hugged her close and nibbled her ear lobe. “Do you think we’d end up on the floor if we got too, um, vigorous tonight?”

  Keshara giggled at the mental picture of the two of them contorting to try to make love on the narrow bed without falling off. “Maybe we should start on the floor and save ourselves from new bruises. Drag the mattress off the bed and lock the door.”

  “Or maybe I let you rest,” he said with regret, kissing her neck tenderly. “I was so worried for you, knowing you were in the lab annex. I could feel our mate bond but I wanted to see you for myself.”

  She rolled over with difficulty so they were no longer spooning, but pressed together front to front, his arousal resting in the vee of her legs, her breasts rubbing his chest. “I believed I’d never see you again and, when Slibb sealed me into the pod with the toxic gas to put me to sleep, I made sure my last thoughts were of you.”

  “I love you,” he said, staring into her eyes. “I wasn’t going to stand down until I’d rescued you or died trying.”

  “I know.” Her heart was so full of love and happiness, she thought it might burst.

  Gabe’s kiss left her breathless.

  “Seven hells,” Gaber said, one hand holding her securely on the bed and the other kneading her breast in a soft massage that had her arching in pleasure. “My quarters aren’t far away. The pack gave me a cave of my own when we first got here, tiny though it might be, in deference to my rank as a pilot and the fact I was Jill’s first ally. Helped her rescue her sister Lily and eventually all the Badari. I wish I’d said we’d go there tonight. I have a much bigger bed than this.”

  She kissed the strong column of his neck, loving the rasp of stubble against her lips, savoring the flavor of his skin. “Why didn’t you?”

  “I know you need to stay close to your sisters. Your friends need you and me close by for now. Aydarr’ll give us a cave suitable for mates and, since you’re an Alpha, I bet it’ll have its own pool. And I’m sure the others will be in a cave nearby.” He groaned as he flexed his body, pushing the hard evidence of his aroused state against her insistently. “This is killing me. I want you so badly.”

  Laughing, Keshara shifted until she was underneath him. “How quiet can you be?” She worked at the fastening on his pants until his manhood sprang free, and she could rub her hand along the hot, hard length.

  “Quiet as the proverbial Terran mouse,” he said, running his hand up her leg and under the edge of the nightgown she’d been given. “Oh, you are ready for me, which is hot as fuck.” Taking himself in hand, he pressed the weeping tip of his cock to her slick, wet folds and slid inside in one powerful thrust. Gabe kissed her long and hard as he pumped his hips, going deeper and deeper.

  As her nerve endings began signaling the cascade of pleasure, Keshara held him as tightly as she could, and they fell over the edge into climax together.

  Two nights later, the entire combined Badari pack was assembled in the giant stone circle deep in the forest as the three moons shone on the gathering and torches provided further illumination. Timtur sang a powerful song from the ancestral memory, thanking the goddess for her blessings.

  The song gave Keshara chills. The melody got under the skin, and the words spoke to emotions and feelings deep in her psyche she’d never experienced before. Glancing at her sisters, standing clustered around her, she saw they were equally rapt. Gabe squeezed her hand and leaned over to brush a kiss on her lips.

  When the last note of the song ended, Aydarr moved to the front of the stone dais where he and Jill stood. “Tonight we’re gathered for an unprecedented event in our history, to welcome the Badari Daughters into our community. Never did I dream of greeting Badari women, but the Great Mother has seen fit to show us this sign of her miraculous nature and give hope, such as previously we’d only felt over the impending birth of the child of Mateer and Megan. Now their daughter won’t stand alone as the only Badari female.”

  There was a cheer from the assembly.

  Aydarr turned to her and his voice carried effortlessly to the entire crowd “Keshara, Alpha of the Badari Daughters pack, are you ready to swear allegiance to me as your Alpha? For you and your sisters to become full-fledged members of my pack?”

  “I am.” She walked to the center of the open circle, Gabe at her back, since he was her enforcer and stood for her.

  Supported by Gabe, she’d had intense discussion with Aydarr and Jill the day before over how this ceremony should go. The Alpha didn’t feel it would be appropriate to have her kneel to him as male alphas or male pack members did, since the Daughters had no history with dominance challenges or fights to the death. He hadn’t been entirely comfortable with the customary symbolic bite of the neck either but apologetically said he had to insist.

  Blood is the magic of Badari agreements. Keshara recited the admonition to herself. She’d had to accept allegiance from her sisters in blood earlier in the day so her oath to Aydarr would bind them all. She and Gabe were already bound by their mating.

  The glade was hushed as Aydarr walked to where she stood, his enforcers flanking him slightly to the rear. When he was in front of her, she pulled her hair away from the right side of her neck, sweeping it all gracefully to her left shoulder and raised her chin to expose the spot he needed for the ceremony.

  His massive fangs barely grazed her skin, drawing a few beads of blood, not painful, in no way sensual as the mate claiming had been, but she felt a wave of his energy run through her nervous system, sparking and tingling as it spread.

  He extended his hand to her. “I welcome you and yours to my pack.”

  She rested her much smaller hand in his, and he clasped her fingers warmly as they spun in a slow circle so she could look at the faces of every other pack member. The Badari were yelling and cheering their approval, and Timtur launched into a new song, lively and catchy. Several of the men were pounding out a rhythm on the drums which had been brought out, and it became another party, this time with dancing.

  Eventually, she and Gabe made their way to the edge of the gathering. He put his arms around her and she leaned against him with a contented murmur. “I feel as if we’ve come home,” she said. “How ridiculous is that? This valley isn’t an ancestral place, this shrine to the goddess is only months old. So why am I so content?”

  “You were so isolated in the Retreat, and life there was so unnatural?”

  “Maybe.” She considered the suggestion. “Of course you’re here, which counts for everything to me.”

  “I accept the compliment. I was always a wanderer, never put roots down, not even when I got out of the service, but now my home is going to be wherever you are.” He kissed her before adding, “Aydarr and Jill and the others have invested a lot of energy into making this place a home for the Badari and the humans, even while we fight the war against the Khagrish. The pack wanted to have as much happiness and freedom as they could after escaping the labs.”

  “I think I’m basking in the effect of their love and caring,” she said, warmed by the acceptance her group had received.

  “You’ll have to tell the Alpha and his mate when you have the chance, later.”

  “And we have another party tomorrow, right?” She wished she had more enthusiasm for the upcoming event but, truth to tell, she was more than ready for quiet time to assimilate into the community and let the events she and her sisters had lived through sink in. And time to explore the mate bond with Gabe.

  “Yes, the human part of the community wants to welcome you, and of course the Badari will be there. Aydarr loses no opportunity to blend the two together, to build bonds.” Gabe shook his head and rubbed her arm as if he knew she was less than eager to attend another social event.

  “Wise move on his part. A bit overwhelming for the guests of honor, though.”

  He glanced across the heads of the crowd to where the other Daughters sat together, chatting with a cluster of Badari males. “Are your sisters experiencing anxiety?”

  “A little. None of them have a mate to stand at their side the way I do. I understand they’re already receiving a great deal of interest from Badari males.” Keshara tapped her temple. “I’m getting all kinds of questions and messages from them.”

  “Aydarr will make sure his men toe the line of what’s proper,” Gabe said. “And any human men brave enough to flirt with a Badari woman as well. But your sisters are strong individuals. Like you.”

  She sighed and leaned on her mate, voicing the one worry she still held. “I wish Jezari had been here with us.”

  “Timtur says he’s sure there’s been improvement in her condition in the last forty-eight hours, though.” Gabe’s reassurance was prompt. “Even if she has yet to regain consciousness. It’ll happen.”

  Keshara rubbed her arms as a night breeze wafted through the branches of the nearby trees. “I’ve told my sisters we two are leaving, although of course they’re free to stay.”

  Gabe’s knowing grin was broad as he turned to walk along the path with her. “Oh, leaving are we? Any particular thing we’re rushing off to do?”

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