“She started to when she was worried about Lakan taking her,” supplied Zander. “I got glimpses of it when she’d strip to stand in the shower with me.”
“When we get her back, she won’t need them,” Paxton declared as he walked to her room. Emerging with a pair of panties, he sniffed them himself, closing his eyes in remembrance before giving them to Zander. “We will find her. We have no other choice.”
Ditsy was excited to smell his playmate’s scent. He looked to Zander as though asking a question. Zander spoke softly to the pup and the change was something to watch. Paxton shook his head in awe. He’d seen both men do amazing things with their gifts and he admired the hell out of them, but they needed to move. He placed his hand on Zander’s shoulder.
“Yes, we’re ready.”
Zander stood and harnessed his friend and their last hope. Driving to her last known location, Zander took the lead with Ditsy. After a few moments of sniffing in a circle and weaving in and out of the bushes, the dog took off in a determined gait. His nose sniffed occasionally but he never veered from his concentration and path.
It would have been easier to let the animal off his lead, but Ditsy was the only thing that stood between them and Maya. He couldn’t risk losing sight of him or worse, the dog becoming injured. Soon, the first sign that Ditsy was on the right track was a small chalk mark on a rock. ‘M’. If Ditsy hadn’t stopped and walked around the stone, they would never have noticed. Could that be her? It had to be. Sterling agreed. It was something she’d do given her upbringing and time she’d lived.
“Good girl,” murmured Paxton. “Give us more, baby.”
On another rock, were ‘M A’ and a partially formed ‘Y’. It was as though she had to hurry.
Paxton went to get the SUV to give the dog and themselves a rest. They fed their tracking miracle his own hamburger and fresh water. Zander wasn’t happy about the meal for the animal he saw as Maya’s pet but Ditsy had wolfed it down before anyone could object. Paxton, who wasn’t much for animals, told the men he’d decided this dog was moving in the house with them. Zander knew Sterling might complain but Maya would love it.
Ditsy led them through the green park areas, a farmer’s market, and into the dark alleyways of the city. In each place the dog stopped, Pax knew the guys were each trying to imagine what Lakan and their woman did while there. How was Maya when she was in this place and was she still relatively safe? They continued to find traces of her. Once they found a stiff piece of cloth that the dog became animated over.
“Stiff from her saliva, you think?” Zander recognized the handkerchief as one she used at the rodeo. He had gagged plenty of women over the years for sexual enhancement to their play. He saw the similarities.
“Likely,” agreed Sterling. “At least we know now she isn’t gagged.”
“Not with this, anyway.” Zander added it to the plastic bag with her panties.
The men wanted to go faster but they had to go at the pace the dog set. It was like they were following a maze they could see much of but had to follow it step by step without shortcuts. The searching was frustrating but necessary. They were nearing the end of another day without their woman.
“We’ve seen no sign for a while now. I think we’re at a stopping point today. Soon we won’t be able to see in the dark, and our friend here is dragging behind us. He is exhausted.” He reached over and patted the dog Maya loved. “Let’s mark our spot and return here at first light.”
“Well, I’m encouraged that he is still going in a direction even if there’s a lot of stopping and sniffing. I think they might have wandered some themselves.” Zander patted the dog as well.
Sterling stretched his body. “Lakan is egocentric. He wouldn’t have been able to admit he was lost even if he was. I don’t think he’d have been able to return to a place he had been maybe only once. He spent most of the time around the compound. He would have left to find Maya and only returned when she did. Even if he was going back to the center, he wouldn’t know how to get there, and neither would Maya.”
“But as a bear, once daylight hit, he wouldn’t have been able to come out of hiding, assuming he could find a place in this city that would conceal him. It’s big but there are too many people in it for a bear to stay hidden,” Zander observed.
“Remember, he can shift to other things,” Paxton pointed out.
“Yes, but Maya said he was too proud to ever shift into something helpless. The only way to hide well in the open is to be non-threatening,” Sterling reminded them.
“Like a man?” Paxton was energized. “He’ll have to change soon if he hasn’t already. His clothing will give him away.”
Deciding to go farther, they found a ripped shirt that had a logo on it. Maya’s sleepshirt. Damn. She was close and naked if she hadn’t put on other clothing before leaving the house. She never wore panties to bed. When they turned in the direction they thought she might be, the most miraculous thing happened—their watches bleeped. Maya.
“Maya!” yelled Zander. All three men watched as their portable computers identified where their woman was.
“She could have lost it, and someone has just found it,” Sterling, ever realistic, pointed out.
“Or,” countered Paxton, “She had it in the sun enough recently to get it powered up. Let’s go find out.”
The men rushed to their vehicle, stopping only to give Ditsy water before jumping in the car. Zander gave him a treat while Sterling drove and Paxton navigated. On the side of the road was a man, old, ragged, nearly naked. Lakan. He turned his head toward them as they parked on the side of the county road and approached him.
He was mumbling something. Sterling leaned in. “Something in his native tongue.” The hand translator automatically translated. There was never any doubt it was Lakan in front of them.
“Please forgive me, oh great Creator. Allow me to join my ancestors.” It was then they noticed the tendril of smoke and the scent of raw sage.
“Look, it isn’t the same but it’s close to what Maya has,” said Paxton.
“Where is Maya?” Zander and Sterling asked simultaneously. They turned up the translator and Lakan backed away from them in fear.
“You speak my words.”
“We’ve learned your words.” Sterling took the lead and the other two were silent.
“She’ll be on her journey now. Gone to the spirit world. Her ancestors will happily greet her.” He seemed to spit out the words in disgust and yet yearning.
“Where is she?”
“Gone.”
He pointed in the direction of the main road. “She has left this world, there, on the hard, black rock that winds like a river.” He lay on the ground and chanted in a near whisper and didn’t appear to hear anything else. The men stood, wondering if they should leave him or take him with them. The chanting stopped. Sterling reached down and put his hand in front of Lakan’s face. No breath. He found no pulse. He was dead, a complication they did not need. They had to call it. They agreed that Paxton would call and stay with the body even though they didn’t care about it. But if they found Maya and she was alive, they needed two physicians more than they needed a botanist.
Paxton turned to the other two as they climbed back into the truck. “Hey, look at this,” Paxton yelled.
“What the hell?”
“He went back into coyote form. I can’t explain it but that means we don’t need to stay.”
“I’ll call and have him transported to the compound for autopsy to keep him in our hands not theirs. We might learn something,” Zander said.
“I wouldn’t mind just leaving him, but it’s an animal and your call.” Paxton shook his head
“And a human. I agree with Zander.”
“Can we go get our girl now?” Zander called out. He was following Ditsy.
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” The marines hadn’t only given him good survival skills, it had given him a unique language to use when needed.
Sterling
sighed. “Please don’t teach our girl that word.”
The mood was lighter, expectant. If Sterling felt she was still alive, then she was. Pax grinned. “She can say anything she wants, so long as we have her home with us.”
Sterling nodded. “Agreed.”
Zander took a refreshed Ditsy through the small clearing to the highway. Sterling followed, and Paxton drove the road, finding his way to her position with his watch. The other two were already there. She wasn’t there on the road as he had feared, but the guys were staring at something. When he got out, he saw it. There, dug in the ground with a rock that was still there beside her communication on the grass, was “MA” and nothing else. MAYA.
The realization that she was there but gone leaving nothing but two meager letters identifying her resting spot almost destroyed them. After a look around, it was obvious she’d been picked up from this spot. Ditsy picked up no scent, no trace. Which meant she was not moving under her own power.
“We’re close enough to the hospitals and a neighborhood. Someone must have found her,” said Sterling.
“I’ve already put in a call to Ambrose for some help in locating her. I said she wandered off and we’re worried she’s hurt.”
“Then let’s call all the hospitals again, starting with the closest one.”
Almost immediately, Sterling got a call from a fellow Ambrose physician. He directed them to a certain hospital. Sterling’s reputation and familiarity with those in this field had gotten him a quick response to his query.
“But Dr. Remington,” the registrar warned, “she’s in bad shape. They think she’s an immigrant, but I can’t call the center until tomorrow morning when the offices open.”
“Well, you notified me and that’s enough. She is my patient and I am assimilating her.”
“You must have just gotten her because she speaks in delirious gibber. We can’t find the dialect anywhere.”
“Don’t worry. We have identified it and will take full responsibility for her. I have my standard complete authorization. I’ll bring it with me. We will be there in a few minutes.”
“Thanks for making this much easier,” gushed the woman.
“That was a stroke of genius. Once you promised the research steering committee to allow Maya to be part of their research at our discretion, they went to work.” Zander was smiling as he slapped Sterling on the back.
“I have to admit, even after I made a call to the local Ambrose board of directors and explained the situation, it surprised me when the center representatives offered to come to the hospital and declare her fully assimilated. Then to release her on the spot. She never needs to go to the center,” Paxton said. “Even if it came at some cost. It’s one we can pay.”
Zander smiled. “We have complete veto power over any experiments or observations they want to do. I know it isn’t ideal, but we’ll make sure nothing happens to her. Sterling or I will be with her at all times and we’ll try to take part in as many of the same projects she’s in. It helped that you are division lead and Sterling the research chair.”
“I agree, but it’s not true she won’t have to go to the center. Maya and I will need to overcome that fear because the center is part of my work and she will be my wife. That will make it necessary for her to attend certain functions held there.”
“What? No. You can tell them I’m sick because it will be the truth if I go back there,” Maya piped up. Her body might be in recovery, but her prideful independence was intact.
Paxton laughed. “There’s the girl I know. Home safe and happily sassy.”
Epilogue
“I was looking back on our last year and thinking how different we are now. Everything that has happened was for some further purpose. Maybe Maya has something with her ‘nothing is random’ philosophy,” said Paxton.
“That is not what I meant. Lakan served no purpose but to destroy.”
Sterling shook his head. “That’s not true. I believe because of him, you were in danger and reached out to me even if you didn’t know it. I was working on dream connection and you were reaching out in your dreams. It is the continuum of the universe.”
“It’s just that everything dominoed into something else none of us was expecting. I mean, you even went to Sterling’s gathering at the center last week.” Zander massaged her heavy breasts made heavier and achy by his tenderness.
“Right, you have your hologram family with you to make living here easier. You destroyed Lakan correctly. Crime is down. See, you can do anything you set your mind to if you pay attention to the signs and reason behind things. You’re amazing.” Paxton leaned down to kiss her cheek and rub her belly as if it was a Buddha doll.
“Thank you, but just in case my lapse in judgment confused you last week, I don’t intend on going to your convention next week. You can take all the credit for those peaches that are disease resistant.”
“But you brought them to me.”
“Yes, and are you willing to tell them where they came from? Where I came from?”
Paxton stared for a moment. “That isn’t something I’m willing to reveal but I do know when you have that bouncing baby boy and have recovered, I need to address a naughty ass.”
She smiled and leaned in to kiss her husband’s cheek. “Yes, dear.”
“That reminds me, stay away from my new arrival pens. You don’t know if they are dangerous or not.”
“Oh, Zander, don’t you know I calm them down?”
“Yes, and I also know sometimes I don’t have that intuition on some. There could be a rogue one in there that is impervious to your charms and my discernment.”
“And I’ll sense that.”
“I agree with Paxton, until our son is born, you don’t go anywhere near anything that could hurt you. His hand or my pens.”
“Or my new immigrants.”
“You don’t have one right now.”
“I’m deciding if this woman or man, is someone we can help. She is a hermaphrodite and evidently, never identified as one because she or he has never gone through unification.”
Maya said those words slowly as she did when she didn’t understand a concept. She had elected to keep the implant in for now for just these types of instances. “They have great powers. She could have refused this unification or whatever.”
Zander responded. “Who would refuse that? It makes you normal.”
“Our new immigrant is normal. Her normal. A herma—”
“Hermaphrodite?”
Maya nodded. “They are special.”
“Well, sweetheart, I don’t think this person feels being special is a good thing.”
“She. She’s a woman.”
“I see, well she is sullen and aggressive in her interaction with others.”
“Sounds like a woman I know when she isn’t getting her way.” Paxton lifted his eyebrows.
“I don’t know who you could be talking about.”
Zander laughed. “Well, we all do.”
“She is fighting for her right to exist as she sees fit. I don’t know about this world saying you have freedom and then pressuring you into being who they want you to be. You cannot trust the government.”
“Put the baby badger back. We’re on your side.” Pax addressed Sterling next, “Is this person fully functioning?”
Paxton leaned over and patted his wife’s bottom in warning when she reached for a third donut. Since she had become pregnant, junk food was her friend. She pouted but put it back. He handed her a banana from the fruit bowl.
“I don’t know. She may not either since she claimed not to know of the physical anomaly until she hit the center.”
“Because it isn’t unusual for her people,” said Maya.
“Maya, it is unusual for all humans.”
She shrugged. “How long has she been there?” Her experience at the immigration intake center was still a difficult thing for her to forget.
Sterling hesitated. “That’s a touchy subject.”
>
“Because she has been abused.” Maya was solemn.
“Yes. The commander wants her out before something even worse happens.”
“Bring her home.”
“Maya, we don’t know enough yet.”
“I feel it, Zander. She must come here. There are protectors for her, close, coming for her, but she has to come here to wait.”
“Well,” said Paxton, “I’ve enough on my plate right now. Do what you want, Sterling, so long as Maya and the baby are not in danger of being harmed. I have work to do myself. My resource book is in final edits and reviews, so I better finish it.” He kissed his wife.
“Me too. I have a lecture coming up next week. I’d better work on that and check on the new arrivals. Ditsy can keep you company, baby.”
“I won’t be back until tomorrow,” added Sterling as he grabbed his bag and hugged his very pregnant wife. “And no driving. You’re too big to be safe behind the wheel.”
“Can I at least go to the village?” Maya’s big brown eyes did the pouting and begging for her.
Her wonderful Zander had been as good as his word. After hours of work with the animals and his research, he would come home and create for several more hours. Maya had her hologram family with artificial intelligence now and she was happy to visit them as though she only lived in another village. She’d call up the program, put on her more traditional garb she had added to accommodate her expanding middle, grab Ditsy, and spend a content afternoon.
“Absolutely. See you tomorrow and stay out of trouble.”
Maya smiled. That was no fun and as she had learned, having fun was a main goal now with an enlarging belly and overprotective husbands. Life with her husbands would never be dull. Her reward was these men, this life. Here. As her dreams told her.
And last night she had two visions. One told her she had two children playing in her womb. One hid behind the other, their heart beat as one. Last night was the first time she sensed them in her mind with clarity. It was a secret she’d keep for as long as she could.
The second was a dream about a woman in men’s clothing. She didn’t doubt the hermaphrodite was female. She’d come home with Sterling and once things were decided, the woman would be with her own over protective men.
Captured Obedience Page 20
