3013: SALVATION (3013: The Series Book 5)

by Laurie Roma

  Talk about a fucking uncomfortable discussion to be having with three male superior officers. “I didn’t realize that my abilities were becoming stronger since I...well, if that’s the case, I can just take care of that issue and be fine again.”

  “I’m sorry, Officer Aris. Your abilities are becoming unstable. You can no longer afford to go on without bonding partners to ground you. We still don' t know much about the Tarin, but from what we've discovered so far is that most Tarin who are in a steady relationships have the best control over their energy levels. Without someone to help counter the effects of the energy you seem to draw to you, it is likely you won’t be able to control your gifts soon. You’ll become a danger to yourself and everyone around you if that happens.”

  Regent Spartan blew out a breath. “I know this isn’t the best situation, but the council has voted. Roman and I fought to keep you on this current mission when the others wanted to pull you from active duty immediately. That was the best we could do. You’ll need to choose a bonding pair by the end of this investigation, or you will be removed from duty until you do.”

  “I understand.”

  Although, she didn’t. Not really. It was one thing to be told that her powers were getting more volatile because of the Tarin blood running through her veins. She knew better than anyone how unpredictable that part of her could be, but to be forced to choose two men to be with for the rest of her life because she needed to have sex to regulate her gift was just unthinkable.

  “If that is all.” Skylar rose from the table, surprised that her legs were steady under her. She had to get out of there. She needed to get away from the three men looking at her with kind, quiet eyes. She didn’t want or need their fucking sympathy.

  “I’m sorry for this, Skylar.” Regent Spartan’s voice was soft with sincerity, but it did nothing to decrease the burning rage that simmered inside of her. “We must also warn you, High Commander Spartan is under orders to take you off this mission if he sees that your judgment is compromised due to your background.”

  “Understood, sir.” Her voice was clipped, her eyes hot. She clenched her hands into fists, fighting back the surge of dark energy she could feel building inside of her. “May I ask a question?”

  “You may speak freely.”

  “All right then. Out of all the Class-A Conduits, I’m the only female, correct?”

  “Yes. You are.”

  “And did the council demand that any of the men claim a chosen?”

  She saw Jax’s mouth tightened as both regents shook their head, but she wasn’t surprised. She had expected that response. “I see.”

  “You’re important to the Alliance, Skylar. This is for your protection as well as everyone around you.”

  Skylar struggled to hold onto her temper, but it was a losing battle. Fuck it, she thought. They were already taking everything away from her, what more damage could they do to her if she spoke her mind?

  “Speaking freely, sir, that is a bunch of bullshit. If I were such an asset, you would let me do my job instead of pulling me from active duty. The other conduits are allowed to be active members of strike force teams. I know that the energy I store can be used through bloodlust, released during fighting, but I have been kept caged because I’m a fertile female. Now, you are forcing me to choose partners that will ensure that I'll be kept out of the fighting, despite the promise given to me that I wouldn’t be forced to bond with anyone. You could have told me all of this before it was too late, but you chose not to.”

  “That’s enough, Sky,” Jax ordered softly. “Remember, you are addressing two Regents.”

  “Yes, sir. It is enough. I will abide by the council’s order, but I won't be forced into giving you an answer until I am ready. Now, I need to go pack and prepare for the upcoming mission.” Skylar stalked to the door, but turned back when Regent Spartan spoke.

  “Skylar, we are trying to help you, whether you believe it or not. It’s the only way.”

  She pierced them all with a stony stare. “This isn’t for my sake, this is because the council has decreed I need to be controlled...because I’m female. Regent Spartan, High Commander Spartan, I wonder if your chosens would agree with you that this is the only way this matter could have been handled.”

  She felt a brief tingle of satisfaction at seeing both men’s faces pale before she stalked from the room.

  Damn them. Damn them all to hell.

  They had taken her freedom away with one command. Had changed the course of her life in the blink of an eye.

  And now her future was not her own.

  ****

  Director Dominic Stryker entered the training center on one of the lower levels of the Stargazer as two elite soldiers exited the room. The men passed each other with a silent nod, and Dom was pleased to see that they were the last people in the room except for the one he was there to see.

  The room was large and well equipped to suit the strike force team that accompanied the high commander during his travels through Alliance controlled space. The equipment was well used, telling him that the team trained often, but everything was in good condition, making it clear they were also disciplined. Dom made his way to the back of the room where the individual training areas were sectioned off.

  He’d had a feeling she’d be there...and he was right.

  So far, Dom had what could only be described as a pisser of a day, but just seeing Skylar helped ease a little of the tension he was feeling.

  Stars, she was fucking beautiful.

  He’d had another restless night of sleep dreaming about her, then finally woke to have his own workout in the facilities that New Vega provided to visitors. Dom had been doing his kata on the mats to cool down, when some cocky gym-rat that was on vacation had started picking on a young elite officer. The other man was an off-planet cargo runner who had just wanted to show off a little to friends that he was better than an elite.

  Well, the fucker had chosen the wrong place and the wrong time.

  Dom normally wouldn’t have interfered, but he couldn’t stomach bullies of any kind. Unable to ignore the drama, he'd stopped what he was doing and stalked over to the cargo runner, standing in front of the young officer. He knew that he could shut most people down simply by staring at them with his piercing black eyes, but that wasn’t enough.

  Not after the shit the idiot had been spouting about elite officers while he’d been trying to get the young man to fight him.

  Dom had accepted the cargo runner’s challenge, and could see by the other man’s jittery expression that he really hadn’t expected to go up against someone with Dom’s strength, which was why he had originally chosen such an easy mark.

  But the man hadn’t backed down, not with his friends watching.

  It hadn’t taken long to teach the stupid man a lesson using superior skill and meticulous precision. Dom knew what could happen when he let go, so he always tried to maintain control of himself, even when fighting. His self-control was one of his greatest strengths since he worked so damn hard at it, although lately something had been fucking with that.

  No, not a thing.

  It was one person...Skylar.

  Dom came to a stop and watched as the woman he wanted more than his next breath waged war with a sparring droid. She was sweaty, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a few damp tendrils plastered against her temples, but her beauty still took his breath away. He held back a wince as Skylar was thrown to the mats hard enough to rattle her bones, but she deftly swept the droid’s feet out, flipped back onto her feet and continued the battle.

  Skylar was fearless.

  It was one of the things that attracted him to her, but it also scared the shit out of him.

  By the time Dom had showered and changed in his suite after his workout that morning, Arik had informed him that Skylar had left New Vega. Dom knew that it annoyed her that he kept tabs on her whereabouts, but the damn woman always seemed to get herself in trouble whenever he wasn�
�t there to watch over her.

  Stars, she seemed to find trouble even when he was there with her.

  Finding out that two idiot generals had tried to claim her while she had been on X7 had made Dom crazy. When Jax had ordered him and Arik to the space station, Dom had been furious that he hadn’t been able to check on Skylar to make sure she was okay with his own eyes, but there had been a deep sense of pleasure dealing with the two assholes personally while they waited for the replacements to arrive.

  As he watched her fight, Dom thought back to the first time Skylar walked into his office. He had heard the rumors about her before she was transferred into his division. As the director of the Security and Investigation Division, Dom made sure that he knew about everyone that would be working under him. He’d read her file before he’d approved the transfer, and had been intrigued at having someone with her abilities on staff. But there were also concerns that came with having an unclaimed scroll with exempt status among all the unbonded males.

  He just never thought the man he would have the biggest problem with would be himself.

  Instead of simply assigning her to one of the units under his command and forgetting about her, he was constantly checking up on her. When the two generals in charge of her unit had tried to claim her against her will, Dom had stepped in and had transferred them to the other side of the galaxy. He kept her close and knew she resented the way he hovered, but he simply couldn’t help himself.

  There had been several other instances where Skylar had been accosted, and each time Dom had a harder time controlling his temper. Even if she had taken care of the matter herself, Dom made sure the perpetrators knew that breathing the same air as her would end badly for them. Over time, his reactions to men approaching her had gotten even more violent.

  But those instances were nothing compared to what happened last week.

  When he’d woken from whatever drug they had been given and found that she, Serra and Reva had been kidnapped, Dom had simply lost his shit. Jax and Archer had been more vocal about their fear and rage that their chosen had been taken, but Dom had let the fury build inside him until he had been a living, breathing weapon of mass destruction.

  He had destroyed every single mercenary that had gotten in the way of his finding her. Nothing could have stopped him from getting to Skylar on the mercenaries’ ship, and the relief he’d felt when he saw she was alive and well had almost been euphoric.

  Dom knew of the curse that plagued the men in his family. It was said that it only took one look for the Stryker men to fall in love. He had avoided going down that particular path by not choosing a partner even though he had been granted leave to pick a chosen, but everything had changed the moment Skylar had walked through his door.

  He’d wanted her from the moment he met her, but had tried to write it off as basic lust. Except when she’d been kidnapped he knew there was no way to deny that what he felt for her was love. He fucking loved her...and it totally and completely sucked.

  Unlike his father, Evan Stryker, who had given up his position as commander of one of the strike force teams when he had bonded with Dom’s mother, Jeanette, Dom knew he was a career elite. The Strykers had a long history of service. The men in the family has served in the military dating all the way back to the twenty-first century. Dom knew that a relationship was possible when all the individuals were dedicated to making it work, but he would never be able to walk away from active duty the way his fathers had.

  Dom’s fathers, Evan Stryker and his partner Lochlan McCain, had been on leave in the Capital when they had walked into the restaurant that had been passed down to Jeanette after her parents had passed away. It had only taken one look at her, and Evan had known she had been the one for him. It didn’t take Lochlan long to fall in love with Jeanette as well, and they soon realized that staying on active duty wouldn’t be possible if they wanted to claim her. Without hesitation, both men had resigned, claiming Jeanette and staying in the Capital to help run her business. Jeanette had been struggling to keep the doors to her family’s restaurant open when she had met Evan and Lochlan, but with the help of the Strykers, they were able to turn things around and make it a success.

  While Evan’s parents had been career elites, choosing to explore the big black after his entry into the academy, Evan had always been close to his grandparents. Evan’s grandmother, Cathica, had been one of the few Tarin females that had escaped the civil war that raged on Tartarus. When she has sought sanctuary on one of the Alliance space stations, she had met General Adam Stryker. There had been an instant connection between them, and Adam hadn’t hesitated making the pretty Tarin female his.

  While most of the Tarin females just wanted an escort to the planet Avox where they could live their lives in peace, Adam had been forced to petition the Council of Regents to grant Alliance status to Cathica as his chosen, or consort as it was called in Tarin culture. When her status was granted the couple had come back to Earth, living their lives in seclusion, afraid of the backlash that would come from her being Tarin.

  It wasn’t until their only grandson Evan had fallen in love with Jeanette that both Adam and Cathica were brought out of their self-imposed exile. Cathica and Jeanette had immediately liked one another, and with hard work and some drastic changes they were able to re-launch the restaurant. Evan, Jeanette and Lochlan had chosen to rename the place Cathica, after Evan’s grandmother, since they used her recipes to offer a menu spicy Tarin cuisine. The food was something humans had never had access to before, and the place had become an overnight success.

  Dom was close to his great-grandparents and had learned a lot about the Tarins from Cathica. When he was young, it had been fun and interesting to learn about the world that so few humans had ever visited, but he’d never realized that what he had learned would one day help him with the woman who had captured his heart.

  Skylar was not an easy woman. She was surly, combative and snarky as hell...and that was on a good day. However, there was also an innate kindness within her that she hesitated to let anyone see, but he saw it. No matter how much she tried to run from her past, whatever she had suffered had made her into the woman she was, even if she couldn’t remember it.

  And he loved the woman she was...flaws and all.

  On Tartarus, there had always been a shortage of females born on the planet. It was a natural occurrence that no one had ever been able to explain and still couldn’t to this day. For that reason, many of the males had started amassing harems as a show of their strength and power. Over the years, females had become a commodity, but the truth was, it hadn’t always been that way. Female Tarins had once been formidable warriors, just like the males.

  Watching Skylar fight was like seeing a glimpse in to that past.

  Dom crossed his arms over his chest and watched as a surge of energy made Skylar’s hands glow. A second later the sparring droid was a mass of sparking metal heaped at her feet. It always gave him a jolt to see what she was capable of. He might be bigger and stronger than she was, but he didn’t doubt she could put him on his ass.

  Damn, he must be one sick bastard, because there was something exciting about that.

  Skylar wiped the sweat from her brow and heaved out a breath. Without turning, she asked, “Are you here to gloat?”

  “Those units weren’t made to sustain that kind of damage.”

  “Jax can bill me.”

  She turned so their eyes met and he could see barely banked anger burning in her icy blue eyes. He wondered what had her so twisted up. He was glad he had taken the time to change before seeking her out. His casual black shirt and loose fitting pants made their meeting far more relaxed then if he had remained in his uniform. Going for a casual response, he uncrossed his arms and leaned against the low wall that separated the individual training area they were in from the rest of the room. “You want to explain what your comment meant, Sky?”

  “As if you don’t know.”

  Rage all but radiated from h
er, but he wasn’t afraid. He raised an eyebrow at that, his confusion clear. “Would I ask if I knew?”

  That seemed to give her pause. “You don’t know about my meeting with the regents?”

  Dom straightened, instantly going on alert. “You had a meeting with them? When? About what? I thought the mission brief was scheduled for tomorrow.”

  “You really don’t know, do you?”

  Irritation made him scowl. “I said I didn’t. You know I don’t lie.”

  She slowly nodded as her body seemed to relax. “Yeah, I do know that.”

  “Obviously the meeting was bad enough for you to come here and beat the shit out of that droid. Tell me what happened.”

  Her eyes narrowed at him. “I’m not on duty, Director. Don’t give me orders.”

  “Fuck that, Sky,” Dom snapped. “Stop trying to pick a fight and just tell me why you’re upset.”

  She let out an impatient breath. “You’re so damn bossy.”

  He grunted as he took a step toward her. “So you are always telling me. Now, quit stalling.”

  She ignored him as she walked over to the low wall to pick up the hoodie she had left hanging there and put it on, pulling up the zipper as she turned back to him. “The regents have decided that I need to choose a bonding pair or else I will be taken off active duty.”

  “No.”

  Her brows raised at that. “No? What do you mean, no?”

  Skylar watched as his expression hardened as if were made of stone. His dark eyes gleaming with banked fury as he glared back at her. “It means, fuck no, they can’t do that.”

  A weight lifted off her chest at the words he practically snarled at her. It was true that he didn’t lie, but she had needed to see his reaction in order to really believe it.

  “It’s done, Dom,” she said quietly. “I have until the end of this mission, then I will be relieved of my position if I don’t choose. Even so, I was informed that Jax could take me off the investigation if my past gets in the way.”