The word “ordered” was said with emphasis and I could just imagine Curtis’s face turning red, his eyes bulging. I couldn’t see him, not over the hulking mass of muscle blocking my view. Roark was so big, so handsome, so… everything. I’d forgotten how much larger than life he was. My heart pounded in my ears and I began to shake. My feet were going numb from the cold, but I didn’t care. Noah, however, started to fuss, and I knew he must be getting cold. With Roark here, I didn’t need to stand outside anymore. I didn’t need to worry about Curtis or his slimy intentions.
“Go inside, gara. I will take care of this fool.”
Nodding, I rushed into my house and headed for the study just inside the door. Inside, a cozy gas fireplace heated the room to toasty perfection and Noah’s playpen and toys were already set out on the floor. Two short sofas made an L shape opposite the playpen, the soft navy suede a recent purchase I’d quickly grown to love. The cold leather I remembered from my childhood had been replaced with soft, squishy warmth. The room was cozy now, and mine.
Mine and Noah’s.
I placed my son in his playpen and stood watching over him, my hands shaking. I ignored the sounds of confrontation outside. Ignored Curtis’s shout of pain, his ranting and cursing as he walked to his car and sped out of the driveway. I felt like I was in a dream, a fuzzy dream. When my mate stood in the doorway, looking down on me like a conquering god, the dream faded and he was all too real.
“Roark,” I whispered. I couldn’t make it any louder than that and I couldn’t move.
“Do I need to be concerned about that Earth male?”
Roark’s voice was all dark and possessive and I had to laugh. “Curtis? No. He’s not a problem.”
He wasn’t. Never had been. And with Roark here, Curtis who?
Roark’s eyes found mine. Held. Yes, that was the look I’d craved. Desperation. Need. Hunger. Love.
In three steps, he crossed to me, stood so close I had to tilt my chin back.
“You’re not dead.” It was a stupid statement, but that one thought consumed me as I drank him in with my eyes, afraid to touch him, afraid he’d vanish like a ghost. “The doctor told me you were dead.”
Roark shook his head and gathered me close. His scent, god, his scent was fabulous. One that triggered every happy memory of the short time with him. His voice rumbled through his chest and into me as he explained. “I was captured. They held me for nine days before I could escape. Everyone at Outpost Two was gone. I transported to another outpost and they told there were no survivors. They told me you were dead.” His grip was tight, too tight. My ribs felt like they might snap, but I welcomed the pain. It was real. He was real.
“You thought I was dead?” My voice was high, tight.
“Yes, gara.” He breathed deep. “Gods help me, yes.”
I shoved at his chest, fighting back the anger rising in my stomach, churning its way up my throat, into my head, leaking out my eyes. I would not cry, but these tears fell unbidden. “Nine days?”
He groaned “Ten now, love.”
“Ten days?” I nearly shouted. “Ten fucking days? Is that supposed to be funny?”
Roark lifted a hand to my face and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. How could he be so calm as he lied to me? “What is wrong?”
I shoved at his chest and stepped away, putting Noah’s playpen between us. “You thought I was dead?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you here now? This is what, light years away? Why now?” How had he found me? Why was he here? Ten days? Hardly. I’d been alone and miserable for thirteen fucking months. I’d been pregnant, alone and scared. I cried myself to sleep every night for months. I’d grieved him for over a year.
Ten days? No. Not even close.
“You activated the medallion’s emergency signal, mate. I don’t know how you did it, but I was never so relieved as when that ping came through the transport center on Trion. I came at once.”
What. The. Hell? “What ping?”
He stepped around the playpen, where Noah had rolled onto his side, busy shoving a crackling golden bear into his mouth. Was Roark really so dense? So confused? How could he not see that Noah was his son? He had not really looked at our son, at the small replica of the giant man before me. I wanted him to look. I wanted him to see.
“The medallion I gave you, gara. The one I put on your chain that night. When I claimed you, made you mine forever. It can only be activated by—” His voice faded and his attention focused wholly and completely on Noah for the first time. I’d wanted Roark to acknowledge his son, to know. To grasp the significance of that sweet, little face. But now that Roark’s full attention was on the baby, I suddenly felt nervous.
I’d longed for this moment, wished it. Dreamed it. But now that it was happening, I was worried Roark wouldn’t want Noah, wouldn’t want me again. Us.
Roark’s eyes clouded with wonder, with awe, and I watched the riot of emotions cross his face like a storm. “Gara?”
“It’s been more than ten days, Roark,” I whispered, the tears falling again. “A lot more.”
He shook his head slowly. The truth was before him, but he couldn’t seem to fathom it. “How… how is this possible?” By the way his fingers twitched, I could sense that Roark wanted to touch him, to hold him, yet was afraid. Shifting, I lifted Noah up so Roark could take him.
With wide eyes and big hands, he took Noah from me, pulled his son into his chest, snuggled him close. A groan escaped Roark’s body, part joy, part pain, and the baby squealed in delight, smacking at his father’s chest with his toy.
“Gara.” Tears gathered in Roark’s eyes when he lifted his glittering gaze to mine and the sight made my heart split in two. All the anger drained from me in an instant. I didn’t know how or why Roark was here, or why it had taken him so long to find us. But he’d kept his promise. He’d come across the galaxy to find me, to find us. And the violent wrenching in my heart meant I loved him still.
“His name is Noah. He’s your son.”
Chapter Eleven
Roark
Natalie was curled into my side. A fire burned in the strange hearth before us. But there was no fuel, no tree or brush feeding the flames. Still, it heated the room, and the little one who slept on my chest.
My son.
Just thinking the word caused my eyes to burn, my heart to ache. My son. And I’d missed so much already. My mate’s rounded belly, the swell of her breasts. I’d missed his birth, his first smile.
My son did not know my face, my touch, my voice.
But his mother did. My mate melted into my side, soft and sweet and more beautiful than I remembered and it had only been ten days. Her face was slightly rounder, her luscious curves more pronounced. I could not wait to strip her naked and claim her once more, remind her that I was her master, just as she’d vowed. And yet, the small body resting with such trust, such vulnerability against my chest exerted his own influence, and I remained locked between them, powerless to resist.
“What took you so long, Roark?” My mate’s arm draped over my body, just below our son.
“They held me prisoner, gara.” The pain of those days felt distant now, as distant as Trion was from Earth, my new reality so overwhelming and vibrant that the time spent chained in that tent felt hazy. “I came for you, mate.”
She tilted her chin up so her eyes met mine. “It’s been thirteen months, Roark. More than a year.”
A year? I shook my head. “I don’t know how that is possible, Natalie. But we will get answers. For me, it has been just ten days. Eight days of torture. My escape. Half a day in the ReGeneration Pod. And then the medallion. You.”
A soft sound escaped her throat and I turned my attention from the sleeping perfection of our son’s round face to hers. “ReGeneration pod? They tortured you?”
“My apologies. I do not wish to cause you upset. It is over now. Of no consequence.”
“Of no consequence?” Her fingers gripped
I should have kept my mouth shut, for I was a universe away from the danger on Trion. The Drovers couldn’t harm either of us here. Noah, either. I wished my words hadn’t made my little mate’s fair face flush pink with outrage. Not only did she get up, moving away from me, she took my son from me and walked to the door. She called for a woman and asked her to take Noah to his crib and watch over him for a few hours. She was of similar age to Natalie and seemed to be a maid or childcare giver.
I stood then, ready to tell Natalie no, that I didn’t want my son to go with anyone. I just had him in my arms and he was mine. I didn’t want to ever let him go.
The woman, though, had a kind smile, and Noah nestled in her arms without waking. Natalie seemed to trust her and I must as well. It didn’t make it any easier.
I could see the woman carrying Noah up the stairs through the open doorway. With Noah out of my sight, a small growl escaped.
Natalie closed the door and turned to face me. “Don’t worry, she’s just taking him to his room for his nap. She’ll stay with him.”
I nodded, knowing she was right, and relaxed my hands from the fists I hadn’t realized I’d made. Noah would be fine while he slept.
She crossed her arms over the full swell of her breasts, eyed my body. “In the meantime, take off your clothes, mate. Now.”
I arched a brow at her demands. I was not used to her being so commanding, so in control. I liked it. So did my cock.
I had no wish to argue. This was her world and she knew it better than I. She knew our son was safe and I would trust in her on that. She also knew we needed to settle some confusion between us. For her, a year’s worth of confusion. If she wanted to do it while I was naked, I would not deny her.
The room was warm and comfortable, the rug on the floor before the hearth soft and thick, the perfect place to spread my mate wide and fill her with my cock. But I would let her have her way. For now.
I undressed quickly, not caring if she had meant for me to remove everything or not. My reward was there, in the quickening of her breath, the dark lust rising in her eyes as she inspected my body. Remembered.
She walked around me slowly, her fingers tracing the new, pink scars on my back, the wounds still not completely healed on my chest and thighs. My muscles flexed and I could barely breathe as she touched me gently. Reverently. “Why aren’t you healed? I thought you guys had technology that could heal almost anything. God, were you hurt that badly?”
A shudder raced down my spine and my cock thickened, growing impossibly large. When she came around from behind me, she’d see it almost touched my navel. My balls were heavy, aching to fill her again. If fucking her for just one night made Noah, we could certainly do it again. “Now you sound like the doctors, mate.” My voice was deep, rough with need.
“Answer the question.”
“There was no time.”
“No time?” Natalie walked to stand before me and I looked down into her upturned face, trapped by the need I saw burning in her bright blue eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“It would have taken long hours to heal completely.” I raised my hand to her lovely face and traced her cheek with my fingertips. Her skin was as soft as I remembered. “But I refused.”
“This is crazy, Roark. Why? Why wouldn’t you let them heal you?”
“It had been ten days, mate. Ten days and they said you were dead. I was frantic. I had to find you, to know for sure. If you were out there, I had to get to you. And I did.”
Natalie leapt into my arms and I caught her, tucked my hands under her ripe ass as she wrapped her legs around my hips. Her fingers threaded through my hair and pulled, hard, demanding I lower my head and kiss her. Her mouth was soft, her kiss hot and she was so responsive. She opened to me and I tasted her, my tongue tangling with hers.
She pulled back, her breath ragged. “God, it’s been over a year.”
I looked into her pale eyes, saw the passion and the need. The truth. “I don’t understand. It’s been ten days and that was long enough. How could it be a year? I see proof of it in our son, but it makes no sense.”
“Warden Egara said time isn’t the same. I’d only spent just one night with you, but when I was transported back, it had been eleven weeks since I’d left Earth. Eleven!”
The reality of what happened settled heavily, like a nox had sat on my chest. “I’m sorry, mate. Fark.”
What she must have felt to arrive back on Earth, alone, thinking me dead.
“I’m so glad you’re here, but I’m so mad at you.”
I brushed her wild hair back from her face. “Mad?”
She stepped away, looked down at the magical flames. “You left me to go to your parents.” I heard the way her voice broke. “You chose them over me.”
I went to her, spun her to face me. “Left you? I saw to your safety first.” Didn’t she know I would take care of her above anything else? By the hurt, angry look in her eyes, the answer was no.
She shook her head. “No. You sent me off with the doctor. You cared more about your parents. You worried for them, saw to their safety.”
I closed my eyes, exhaled. “Fark. Gara, I didn’t want you with me during the ambush because I couldn’t guarantee your safety if you were by my side. I knew if you went with the doctor, you would be safe, protected.”
She shook her head again, this time with lines of anguish on her face. “I wasn’t safe. They died, Roark. The guards, the doctor. God, they died right in front of me. She put me on the transport pad just in case, then the Drovers came. It was the doctor who saved me.”
She shuddered and I pulled her into my arms, held her tightly, her cheek pressed into my chest. I’d almost lost her. Because of the doctor’s smart planning, the guards that protected her, she was alive.
I spread my hand over her head, holding her to me so she would hear the words as they rumbled through my chest. “I vowed to protect you, Natalie. I sent you to the safest location in the Outpost. The one place I believed you would be safe.”
She shook her head and I felt the hot sting of her tears on my bare chest. I lifted both hands to her cheeks and angled her head up, forced her to look into my eyes. “You are my mate, Natalie. I know you do not yet understand what you mean to me, but know this, I will always put you first. I will always protect you. I will always come for you.”
Natalie bit her lip, her eyes clouded with doubt. “What about your parents?”
I lowered my forehead and pressed it to hers. “They are my family, gara, and important to me. But you are my heart.”
“And Noah? What about him?” She sniffed and looked hopeful, cautious, and very protective of our son. All things a mother should be. I found I liked her fire, the intensity of her devotion to Noah. Seeing her as a fierce, loving mother only made me want her more. I could not wait to fill her with my seed, see her grow round with a second child. I wanted a girl next, with her mother’s eyes. “What do you think about having a son?”
“He is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me, mate. I will love him and protect him with my life, as I will love and protect you. Always.”
My mate studied me and I held her gaze, stood naked and vulnerable before her. For eight days I’d been tortured, but I knew my suffering was nothing compared to hers. I’d believed her dead for but a single day. She’d believed me dead for more than a year, gone through a pregnancy unprotected and alone. Raised our son on her own. Fought off unwanted male attention…
At least, I wanted to think she had not given her body to another. But with her beauty, her luscious curves, I had no doubt the sniveling fool here when I arrived was not the first man to want my mate.
“I want to take you home, Natalie.”
“Back to Trion?”
“Yes. I want you home with me. There is so much I didn’t get to show you, and Noah. The capital, Xalia, is a beautiful city, with gardens and markets, so much life. And the medallion I gave you is a key that unlocks a vault deep below the city.”
“What?” She looked at me wide eyed. “You gave that to me?”
I nodded. “You are my mate. Of course you would have it. That’s how I found you. The medallion. It only opens for my DNA. Noah touched it, didn’t he?”
She thought for a moment and nodded.
“While you hold the key to the southern continent on your chain, Noah has the power to open it. He helped me find you again.”
Warm air escaped her parted lips with a hint of a shudder. “What’s in it?”
“Knowledge. Wealth. Power. The planet at your feet, mate. I gave you everything, love.” I traced her bottom lip with my thumb, hungry to taste her. But I would not take her without her consent. “Come home with me.”
***
Natalie
All the months of anguish, of mourning, of anger, somehow seeped away, like water down the drain. Time hadn’t been on our side. We’d only had a day together before we were ripped apart. While I’d known since I first transported back to Earth that time was different on Trion, I hadn’t considered it might be the reason Roark had never come, why it had taken him so long. The doctor told me he was dead. I’d hoped, but I’d thought him dead, believed I’d never see him again. Time meant nothing when death was involved.
But for Roark, he’d come as soon as he could. God, he’d been captured, tortured and hurt enough to need the fancy pod medicine. I wanted to cry over what he’d gone through, but he was here and didn’t seem to think it was important. As soon as he found out I was alive, he’d done exactly as promised. It had only been ten days for him. Ten! He’d rushed across the galaxy to me and discovered a sleazy man wearing lobsters in my entry and a baby on my hip. While I’d had plenty of time to adjust to having a baby, he’d only had a mate for eleven days. He’d been a father for an hour.
In such a short time, he’d gained a mate and a baby. I had to assume no other Trion male could make a baby in such a short time.
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