By the time the horses were rounded up, Sara heard a humming sound in the distance and glanced up at the sky. “Looks like your ride’s here, Nate.”
The Trackers landed in a hoverpod, the large, bug-like vehicle sprouting legs as it settled on the ground nearby. After Sara relinquished guard duty to one of the officers, she and Jerden gave their statements to a young Levitian with cropped blond hair and jaw ridges even sharper than Vladen’s. Nate, for once, had the good sense to keep his mouth shut.
“There’s just one problem,” the tall Levitian said after scanning the dead woman’s implant. “This isn’t Chantal Benzowitz. Her name is Treanna Hwerthen.”
Sara frowned. “But I distinctly heard him call her Chantal, and Jerden recognized her—didn’t you?” She glanced down at Jerden, whose eyes were already heavy-lidded as he sagged against her.
“Definitely Chantal.” His voice was a faint whisper.
“Jerden!” Kneeling beside him, she cradled his head in her arms as his eyes drifted shut. Even though she’d known he would lose consciousness eventually, it still frightened her. “Where the hell is Vladen?”
“He’ll be here soon,” the officer said. “We flew over his speeder on the way.”
There was nothing to do now but wait for him to arrive. She sat down behind Jerden, resting his shoulders on her outstretched thighs, his head pillowed on her stomach. She traced the line of his brow with a fingertip and stroked the curve of a pointed ear. Zetithians were a strong, beautiful race, but so vulnerable while they healed themselves. She remembered Ulla telling her that she would get used to it eventually, but Sara wasn’t so sure about that. Even knowing he would awaken completely healed, it was still tough to see him so helpless.
When the whine of a speeder heralded the doctor’s arrival, Sara heaved a sigh of relief. Vladen greeted the young Levitian with a pat on the back. “My nephew,” he explained to Sara as he stooped to examine Jerden’s leg. “Hmph. Don’t need a scanner to see what’s wrong with him, now, do we?”
His hearty tone was undoubtedly meant to be encouraging, but Sara wasn’t buying it. “Better scan him anyway,” she said. “He landed on those rocks pretty hard.”
“Don’t worry, Sara. He can probably heal any other injuries without a bit of help from me, and I promise to give him a good going-over, but right now, setting the leg is far more critical.” Vladen reached into one of his many pockets and pulled out the scanner, took a quick reading on the leg, then knelt by Jerden’s foot and placed a leather loop around his ankle. “Good thing he’s not wearing boots—or pants for that matter. Makes my job much easier. Wish all of my patients wore nothing but loincloths.”
Sara was only grateful Jerden was unconscious. Vladen manipulated the bones back into place, pulled the leg straight, and sprayed it with a clear fluid, which hardened instantly.
“There you go, Sara,” he said, getting to his feet. “Call me when he wakes up and I’ll remove the cast. Shouldn’t take more than a day or two.”
“You’re forgetting the full scan,” Sara reminded him.
“Oh, right.” Running the beam of the scanner over the length of Jerden’s body, he glanced at the results. “Perfectly healthy, with the exception of the fracture and a few bruises. You, however, are pregnant with triplets.” Vladen grinned. “But I’m guessing you already knew that.”
“Yes, I did. But thanks for confirming it.”
“My pleasure,” Vladen said. “Well, must be off. I was on my way to deal with an inflamed appendix over at Bonnie’s.”
“Oh, no!” Sara exclaimed. “Whose appendix is it?”
“One of the younger ones. Karsyn, I believe.” Vladen rubbed a hand along his bony jaw. “Might be nothing but a tummy ache, but she’s been fussy for a while, which is unusual for a Zetithian child. Better have a look at her.”
“She seemed fine yesterday,” Sara said, frowning.
“Yes, I’m sure she was, Sara. But then, so was he—and the day before that, you weren’t pregnant.” With that parting shot, he waved good-bye to his nephew, climbed into his speeder, and took off.
He had a point. Things had a way of changing drastically in the space of a heartbeat. How much time had passed since Sara’s world had turned upside down? An hour, maybe two? Perhaps not even that long. Nate had already been taken aboard the hoverpod. As Sara watched, two of the Trackers carried Chantal’s body into the pod. The men returned a few minutes later, offering to fly Jerden back to the house.
Sara didn’t want him on the same pod as Nate and Chantal. It just seemed wrong. “No, but if you’ll help us get him into my speeder, Reutal and I can take it from there. We’ve carried him into the house before, we can do it again.”
Once Jerden was settled in the back of the speeder, the Trackers took off. Within moments, Sara couldn’t even hear the humming of the pod anymore, only the wind whispering through the oat stalks. She nodded at Zatlen, who stood nearby with the horses. “Go ahead and take them back to the barn. Reutal and I will fly back in the speeder.”
Zatlen mounted Yusuf and cantered off, leading Danuban. Sara watched until they disappeared over the low rise of the oat field. “Why don’t you fly the speeder, Reutal? I’ll ride in back with Jerden.”
Reutal frowned. “Are you okay, Sara?”
She shook her head. “No. Not really.” Glancing in the direction Zatlen had taken with the horses, she almost wished she’d gone with him. A gallop across the fields would have helped to banish the terrors she’d faced that morning. Cria leaped gracefully into the front seat of the speeder, almost as though she knew Sara intended to ride in the back with Jerden. “But I’ll be better soon enough—and so will Jerden.”
***
Later that evening, Sara received a call from the regional magistrate. A Mordrial by the name of Suharken, his ability to read emotions enabled him to spot a liar quicker than anyone on the planet. Sara didn’t have to be able to read minds to know he hadn’t believed a word of Nate’s statement. The look on his face was quite enough.
“We ran a DNA test on the deceased, comparing it with the police records on Rhylos. She’s Chantal Benzowitz all right, but her identchip identifies her as Treanna Hwerthen—and her implant matches it.” Suharken’s swarthy skin and piercing black eyes made him a forbidding presence, but his smile was apologetic. “Our friend Nate obviously has connections with some pretty shady characters. Chantal landed here with a fake ID—a damn good one, by the way—and was married to him at the spaceport.”
“Married?” Sara could hardly believe her ears. “After all that crap about him wanting to marry me?”
He nodded. “And as the spouse of a current resident, she was automatically granted permanent status.”
Sara took a moment to put the pieces together. “Oh God, that was brilliant! Single men advertise offworld for wives all the time. Nate would’ve looked as though he’d been duped into bringing her here to find Jerden—and with her dead, she couldn’t say otherwise. He’d be a widower and free to try again with me.”
“Possibly.” Suharken scratched the back of his neck, tugging at his collar as though it choked him. “For the record, at the time of her arrival, we had no reports of the escape of Chantal Benzowitz and therefore had no reason to question her identity. It wasn’t as though she’d escaped from jail here, and Rhylos is a long way from Terra Minor.”
He was either explaining or making excuses, Sara wasn’t sure which, but she wasn’t interested in that. She had other questions. “What I want to know is if Nate was broke, who paid her passage? Space travel isn’t cheap and neither are fake identchips.”
“He isn’t saying,” Suharken replied. He leaned back in his chair. “My guess is he borrowed the money from someone, promising a big payoff after he gained access to your fortune.”
Sara’s face grew hot with anger. “He would never have gotten a single credit out of me. I w
ould never have married him. Ever.”
The magistrate shrugged. “Maybe someone owed him a favor. You never know with those types. His record was clean, or he couldn’t have immigrated here to begin with, but there’s no way of knowing who his friends are. We can’t screen everyone for everything.”
Sara heaved a sigh. “I know that, and right now, I’m not sure I care. I’m just glad it’s over.”
She was letting him off the hook, and Suharken obviously knew it. He seemed relieved now, his smile almost genial. “I’m afraid the formalities will take a while, but it’s nothing you need to worry about. We’ll keep you posted.”
Sara thanked him and terminated the link. She sat for a moment, only then realizing how exhausted she was. It had been a very long day. She got ready for bed and went into the bedroom, just as she had done the first night Jerden ever spent in her house. Cria lay beside him and several of the cats were curled up at the foot of the bed. As before, Cria relinquished her post when Sara approached.
She stroked the big cat’s broad black head. “Thank you for saving his life, Cria. And don’t look so modest. You saved him, and you know it.”
Cria purred, nudging Sara’s hand.
“And now it’s up to me to keep him safe.” Her other hand slid across her stomach where Jerden’s children were growing. “I’ve got to keep them safe, too.”
Cria blinked slowly, as though promising her assistance.
“Thanks. I’ll need all the help I can get.” Sara shut off the lights, pulled back the covers, and slid in beside Jerden. Unlike that first night, she didn’t hesitate to draw close to him, resting her head on his chest. His heartbeat was slow, but steady. He would sleep a while longer yet.
And so would she.
Chapter 26
“He’s gorgeous!” Bonnie exclaimed as Sara trotted out Ajax, Jerden’s new Friesian stallion.
Sara nodded her agreement. “Too bad Jerden hasn’t seen him yet.”
Contrary to Vladen’s prediction, broken bones did not heal in “a day or two” even when said bones belonged to a Zetithian. Jerden had already been out for three days and counting when the stallion arrived at the spaceport. Sara had barely gotten Ajax settled in his new home when Bonnie dropped by for a visit, along with Ulla, Trent, and Karsyn, whose “inflamed appendix” turned out to be nothing more than a stomachache from eating too much at the wedding.
Unable to drag the kids away from the horses, she and Bonnie returned to the house without them. “I’m surprised that a Zetithian child would even have an appendix,” Sara said, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
“They don’t, actually,” Bonnie explained. “Vladen was just being melodramatic—probably so he could have an excuse to spread the news about Nate and—what’s her name?”
“Chantal,” Sara replied. “Isn’t that a breach of etiquette or confidentiality or something?”
“On some worlds, perhaps,” Bonnie replied. “But not around here. It’s impossible to keep anything quiet.”
“Which makes me wonder how in the world Nate married Chantal without it becoming common knowledge overnight.”
“You have a point,” Bonnie conceded. “He must’ve paid somebody off.”
“Yeah,” Sara said with a snort. “But with what? One of his horses?”
“Maybe. I had no idea he was in such bad financial shape. He obviously managed to keep that quiet too.”
Ulla and Karsyn came dashing in through the back door. “Can we see Jerden now?”
Bonnie laughed. “If anyone could wake a sick Zetithian, it would be those two.”
Sara was anxious for him to recover but wasn’t sure the timing was right. “Is that a good idea? I mean, can you wake them up too soon?”
“They get better anyway,” Bonnie said. “Sometimes I think they just like having an excuse to sleep.”
Assuming that Bonnie knew what she was talking about, Sara nodded and the two girls raced off. Moments later, Trent came inside, followed by Salan.
“She was afraid you wouldn’t let her in,” Trent said, nodding at Salan. “I told her you wouldn’t mind. She says she’s been trying to get up the nerve to talk to you for days and days.”
Salan did seem distraught. Her long blonde hair had lost its shine and there were lines on her face Sara hadn’t noticed before.
“It’s all my fault,” she wailed. “I told Nate about Chantal weeks ago. I’d heard the story from Bonnie. He was so upset about losing you to Jerden, I had to tell him I knew exactly how he felt, and I… Oh, Sara, I’m so sorry.”
“No need to feel bad about it. You couldn’t have known what he’d do.” Sara took a deep breath. “But please tell me I’m not going to have trouble with you over Jerden.”
“You won’t. I promise.” Salan smiled shyly. “Besides, I’ll be going on an extended trip pretty soon.”
Sara raised an eyebrow. “With Waroun?”
Salan nodded. “I can’t explain it. He’s, well, he’s as ugly as any other Norludian, but at the same time, he’s… different.”
“I know the feeling,” Bonnie said. “Just when you’ve given up and think you’ll never find the one, you do—and when you least expect it.”
“You do understand, don’t you, Sara?” Salan pleaded.
“Of course I do!” Sara replied. “I never thought I’d ever fall in love with any man, let alone one that wasn’t even human. But Jerden is the most humane being I’ve ever met. He’s everything I could possibly want in a man, and I love him with all my heart.” Sara registered Salan’s wry smile with one of her own. “He’s standing right behind me, isn’t he?”
“Uh, yes, he is.”
A moment later, Jerden’s arms were around her, his lips pressed against her neck and his hair tickling her cheek. A surge of excitement rose to a peak, sending thrills cascading over her like a wave. “Nice to have you up and about again.”
“It’s good to be up,” he said. “And I plan to stay that way.”
“Guess I’d better call Vladen to take that cast off—I assume you’re completely healed?”
“Never better,” Jerden asserted. “How about you?”
“I’ve been a little lost without you.”
“It’s ridiculously easy to get hooked on them,” Bonnie confided.
Sara glanced at Salan, who gave Jerden a hasty, “Glad you’re better” and left as quickly as she’d arrived. Karsyn and Trent went out to play with the dogs, but Ulla took a seat at the table beside her mother. She was growing up so fast. I guess it’ll seem that way with our children, too.
Sara waited until the door closed behind them before she told Jerden the news. “Guess what? Salan is going on vacation with Waroun!”
“That has got to be a first,” Bonnie declared. “A Davordian woman giving up a Zetithian for a Norludian?” She chuckled, shaking her head. “No one will ever believe it.”
“That’s because it isn’t true,” Jerden said. “She couldn’t give me up because she never had me to begin with.”
As he kissed her cheek, Sara blushed clear to her toes. She could hardly wait to be alone with him again, but she had other news to report. “Someone else dropped by while you were laid up. After Jack heard what happened with Nate and Chantal, she turned the ship around and came right back.”
“Oh, let me guess,” Jerden said, chuckling. “She brought us another Nedwut pulse pistol, right?”
“Close. She brought us a rifle.”
Jerden rolled his eyes. “Why am I not surprised?”
“She brought a scabbard for it, too,” Sara went on. “She thought it would be easier to carry while on horseback—though I’m not sure she knows you never use a saddle. Guess I’ll be the one who carries it. Anyway, she said she’d bring us a security system the next time she visits.”
“That’s Jack for you,” said Bonnie. “She
is one dedicated woman.”
“She sure is,” Jerden said. “Without her help, we’d have all been hunted down like animals by now.”
Sara grinned. “Guess I’d better give her a present—though I can’t imagine what anyone could give Jack that she doesn’t already have. Makes me glad I don’t have to buy Christmas gifts for her.”
“You’re already carrying the best presents anyone could ever give her.” Taking her hand, Jerden pulled her to her feet and into his arms. “And the best presents anyone could ever give me.”
Sara gazed up at her husband, thanking God or fate or destiny for saving her for this one special man. Being the mother of his children would undoubtedly give her as much joy as being his wife, perhaps even more. “I’m glad you think so. But until they’re born, I’ve got this fabulous Friesian stallion out in the barn. Want to see him?”
Jerden’s lips curled as he began to purr. “I’d much rather see you swoon—which, as I recall, you promised to do when he arrived.”
Sara faked her best swoon and was instantly scooped up into Jerden’s arms.
“Excuse me, ladies,” he said, nodding at Bonnie and Ulla. “Must go revive my wife now.”
“I didn’t really faint,” Sara muttered against his chest.
“Of course you didn’t.” His purr became a growl as Jerden threaded his fingers through her hair, tilting her head back, his blazing eyes locked on hers. “But you will.”
As their lips met, Bonnie pushed back her chair and got to her feet. “That’s our cue, Ulla.”
Sara waved good-bye to her friends, unable to take her eyes off Jerden. He was handsome, yes, but she’d seen handsome men before and had never been tempted by any of them—had never even considered loving them.
He’d been called so many names—savage, loner, wildcat, hunk. He was all of those and more, but in the best possible way—and he was hers, forever. Crushed in his embrace with his purr roaring in her ears, she barely heard the back door close behind Bonnie and Ulla.
Jerden nuzzled her neck. “Did you miss me, Sara?”
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