Chapter Fourteen
Natalie
Interplanetary transport gave a whole new meaning to “jet lag”. My head felt heavy and cloudy as I fought my way out of slumber. The chair I sat in was pressed to the side of Roark’s healing pod, and I lifted my head quickly to make sure he was still all right, still healing. But the transparent screen must have had another layer because I couldn’t see him anymore. The window into the pod was covered in a thick black screen. I couldn’t even tell if he was still in there. The machine still hummed beneath my arms though.
I leaned back and tried to look at the controls I’d seen the doctor using earlier. They looked all right, but I had no idea what any of it meant. It wasn’t like on Earth, with a heartbeat monitor and a blood pressure reading up in one corner, beeping to indicate some change. This was so far past advanced, I was lost. Their symbols were strange and I didn’t understand any of it. And, I realized, I had no idea about Trion physiology anyway. What was normal for a human might not be normal for them.
Fortunately, Noah was a healthy baby, no reasons to visit a doctor other than a simple well check. No one had questioned the possibility of him being half Trion. Of course, he had been the only half-alien baby on Earth. It wasn’t like the doctors asked, and I never volunteered the information.
With nothing better to do, I shifted and leaned back, bracing my bent elbow on the arm of the chair. I settled my chin in my hand and took a deep breath. I wondered if Noah was all right, if he was awake and cranky. Hungry.
A heavy stillness seemed to have settled in the air and I recognized the quiet. Many times I’d been up in the middle of the night, when the rest of the world slept, to care for my son. There was a certain peaceful solitude that almost soaked the very air with quiet attention. Seton told me we were in a city, but I felt like a solitary figure alone in the night.
Soft snoring came from my left and I turned to find Seton lying on the floor not far from me, asleep. He’d rolled out a basic blanket of some sort, and now slept. I turned to the closed door, a sliver of dread making its way down my back like a drop of icy water sliding over my skin. No one else was in the room. No doctors, no technicians. The door was closed, but no guards stood at attention.
Where were the guards?
I uncurled from the chair, placing my feet on the floor just as the door slid open on silent hinges. I recognized Commander Loris from earlier and I sighed in relief.
“Commander. Thank you. I was worried when I didn’t see the guards,” I murmured, trying to keep my voice low.
He closed the door quietly behind him and turned to study Seton’s sleeping form. “My lady, I’m sorry if I startled you. It appears Seton is a victim of the long day.”
“Yes.” I smiled. “He’s very loyal to Roark.”
He nodded. “Yes, he is.” Taking a step forward, he approached the healing pod. “How is the councilor doing in there?”
I turned away from him with a shrug. “I have no idea. I don’t know how to read the control panel and the doctor isn’t here.”
The commander tucked his arms behind his back and strolled around to the edge of the room, leaning to the side to look behind a partition where the doctor and other medical staff had frequently disappeared and reappeared earlier. “Ah, yes. Doctor Brax. He is there, on his cot, sound asleep as well.”
“Well, it is the middle of the night.” It did seem odd though. Even on Earth, there was at least one nurse awake, even in the middle of the night.
“Yes.” He walked back toward me. “And why are you awake, my lady? Did you not eat the stew?”
“Yes, I had two bowls—” My voice trailed off as his words sank in. Why would it matter whether or not I ate the stew? How did he even know I had stew?
“Ah, strange Earth physiology. Hadn’t counted on that.” The commander walked to the control panel of Roark’s pod and started pushing buttons.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing for you to worry about.”
I didn’t believe him and unease prickled my skin. “Stop it.”
He ignored me and the pod powered down, the lights faded, the low humming ceased. I expected the top to slide open, but nothing happened. It was like the pod was dead, as if he’d pulled the plug. “What are you doing?”
Commander Loris pulled a gun of some kind from his pocket and pointed it at me. “Give me the medallion.”
I felt my eyes widen and I took an instinctive step back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Turn the pod back on.”
He rushed me, pulling my shirt free of my jeans, his grubby hand reaching up beneath my shirt to look for the chain that would have been dangling low over my stomach had I not tucked the gold links up into my bra.
His look was wild and angry when he didn’t find it. “Where is it?”
I shrank back, his stubby fingers repulsive against my skin. I was thankful for his lack of knowledge about Earth underwear. Clearly, he’d never encountered a woman in a bra before. “Get your hands off me.”
“Give me the medallion.” He was the one that wanted it? He was the one that sent the encrypted message to Earth? He was the one that had tried to have me killed? Have Noah and Roark killed, too?
“Turn the pod back on!” I shouted. Could Roark die inside? Was he trapped? Was he going to suffocate in there?
Commander Loris lifted his hand to my hair and yanked my head back with cruel fingers. Tears welled up in my eyes at the sharp pain and he shoved the weapon right up under my chin. Hard. It didn’t look like an Earth gun, but a gun was a gun when it was pressed against your head. “You can give it to me, or I can kill you and take it off your corpse.”
“You’re insane. You can’t use it anyway.”
“Oh, I know. But you solved that problem for me.” His hot breath fanned my face and I cringed.
“What?”
“Your son, Natalie. At this very moment, my friends are making sure we have him.” He lowered his head until his lips hovered over mine in a revolting corruption of a kiss. “Don’t worry. I’ll be a good daddy. He won’t even remember you.”
What? Him touch Noah? Never. It was one thing to try to kill me, but no one messed with a mother. Fuck him. I’d gotten the family I’d always wanted. A mate who found me light years across the universe. A son made from our love. Even in-laws who were loving and kind. This asshole wanted to ruin all that? Not a chance in hell.
I lifted my leg and reached into my sock, grabbing the small dagger with my right hand. I came up swinging, aiming for his throat.
I managed to cut under his chin, to slice his jaw to the bone as blood poured down his neck. I’d hurt him, but it wasn’t a killing blow.
With a shout, he shoved me forward, over the pod, his hand still in my hair. He slammed the hand holding the knife into the side of the pod over and over until I couldn’t maintain my grip. I screamed at the pain, the ruthlessness of his actions. My wrist was broken, and several bones in my hand. I felt—and heard—them snap like twigs and the gold dagger clattered to the floor by my foot.
“Let her go, Loris. It’s over.” I froze. Roark’s voice? What? The commander was holding me against the pod. Roark was still trapped inside. Then how?
“Roark.” Commander Loris pressed the end of his gun to my temple and pulled me up off the pod until my back was to his chest, a hostage. The blood seeped down his neck and into his shirt. I could feel it hot and sticky on my shirt from when he’d loomed over me and it dripped.
“Put down your weapon, Councilor, or your mate is dead.”
In my periphery, I saw Roark. He was holding a gun similar to the commander’s. Every line in Roark’s body was tense. Rigid. He lowered the weapon to the floor and stood, his hands in the air. “Let her go.”
“Give me the medallion and I’ll let her live.”
“Let her go, Loris. You can’t win. The moment I give you the medallion, the vault codes will be updated. We’d deactivate the current codes before you could use th
em.”
The commander laughed in my ear, the spittle from his mouth landing on the side of my cheek in a sick wet dollop that almost made me gag. “Not if you’re all dead. All but the baby.”
I watched the horror of Loris’s statement spread across Roark’s face, sink into his mind. All of his family, murdered tonight, except his son. My son. The boy kept alive so this insane freak could use his DNA as the medallion’s key. And for what? What purpose was all this hatred, all this evil?
I had no idea, but I no longer wanted the damn thing dangling between my breasts. It was more trouble than it was worth. If it was going to represent cruelty and ruthlessness, I didn’t want it mixed so intimately with the bond Roark and I shared.
Commander Loris kept one hand to my temple. The other, he plunged down the collar of my shirt, looking for the chain. I twisted in his grip, the touch of his hands repulsive. “No!”
“Let her go,” Roark repeated. “Take me.”
Loris groped me and laughed when Roark’s eyes darkened with fury. “I don’t want you. If I were going to keep one of you alive, it’d be her. Breasts like these, with the key to the planet between them?” He grinned viciously.
Asshole.
I lowered my head and bit his wrist like a wild animal, trying not to gag at the flavor of his skin, the dark metallic taste of his blood as it filled my mouth.
With a screech, he yelled and pulled his hand back.
I kicked the gold dagger so it slid across the floor to Roark and yelled his name. I dropped to my knees to give him a clear shot.
Roark yelled, knelt, grabbed the knife, and threw it so quickly I couldn’t track his actions. The dagger imbedded in Loris’s right eye socket with a disgusting, thunking sound I never wanted to hear again. Turning my head, I looked away. Bile filled my mouth and I swallowed it down.
The commander toppled and I crawled away from his body, awkwardly and quickly, toward Roark, toward my mate. “Why aren’t you in the pod? I don’t understand.”
My heart was beating so hard I worried it would come out of my chest. My breathing was as ragged as if I had just run a marathon, not taken down a space-gun-wielding crazy man.
Roark pulled me into his arms, inspecting me for injury. His hands and gaze raking over me. “Fark, your wrist.”
I shook my head, but held it carefully to my chest. “It hurts like a bitch, but I just need the ReGen wand. But, you. You! Explain to me what is going on. You’re supposed to be in that damn pod!”
Roark tucked me to his side and picked up the gun he’d dropped moments ago. “I knew the traitor would make his move before I woke from the pod. The doctor, Seton and I agreed prior to my transport to Earth that, upon my return, we would use the pod to lure the traitor out into the open. The wounds I received on Earth weren’t part of the plan, but I was healed in a couple of hours. The doctor released me, as agreed, and we set the trap.”
I was shaking. Adrenaline was great and all, but the aftereffects were a bitch.
“Noah. He said they were going after Noah.” I struggled to break free of his arms, but he hushed me, holding me tighter.
I fought him, but he spoke. “Noah is safe, my love. I swear it.” He stroked my back, tried to soothe me. “My parents did not take him, or Miranda, to their home. They used a decoy to lure the commander’s friends to invade. But my father had a dozen men waiting to capture them. They are all in detention cells deep beneath the city awaiting interrogation. Noah is safe.”
I looked over at the commander, dead, the gold dagger protruding from his face, blood dripping onto the sterile floor of the medical facility. I cringed, turned my face into Roark’s chest. I could hear his heart beating, steady and even. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m sorry, love. I needed your reactions to be real, sincere.”
“But he got in. He could have killed us both.”
“I underestimated him, mate, and for that I’m sorry. I did not wish to put you in harm’s way, only me.”
“What?” I said, trying to move off his lap, angry. How dare he put himself in danger?
“We needed to find the traitor so we didn’t have to worry, to fear for our safety. I had to eliminate the threat so I could focus on being with you and Noah. I did not count on him lacing the meal with a sedative. It was very clever.” He lifted a hand to my cheek, cupping my face. “But not clever enough, for it did not work on you.”
No, it hadn’t. I ate like a stupid pig and it had barely knocked me out.
“Strange Earth physiology.” I quoted a dead man, and grinned as I did it. I must be losing my mind. All humor faded as I stared into my mate’s eyes. “Don’t ever do that to me again. I can still taste his blood.” I’d bitten the commander, torn the flesh from his hand, and the taste of him lingered like ashes in my mouth.
“No. No. No. That won’t do at all.” Roark’s eyes blazed and he pulled me to him, claiming my mouth in a kiss meant to wipe away the taste of danger and fear. I wrapped my uninjured arm around him, ignoring the flood of soldiers that stormed the room.
Roark lifted his head, checked with the guards about the safety of the rest of our family. When one communicated with the guards watching over Noah and Roark’s parents, and we learned that everyone was indeed safe, I slumped in Roark’s arms and he took that moment of weakness to kiss me again. I gave over to the kiss, needing the love and reassurance I felt in it. I didn’t care about the guards in the room. My son was safe. I was safe. And Roark was kissing me, loving me, reminding me what home felt like.
Behind us, someone cleared his throat. I turned to find Seton sitting on the floor as one of the soldiers ran a ReGen wand over him. “You two all right?”
He looked like he’d just woken up from a wild night of partying and drinking, all ruffled and messy, like he’d just gotten out of bed. He was handsome. Perhaps I could set him up with Miranda…
“Give me that damn wand,” Roark snarled, grabbing it hastily from the man's fingers and waving it over my wrist. Amazingly, I could feel the bones knitting, healing. His head was lowered to tend to the task, but then his gaze lifted and met mine, watching me until it was completely healed.
“Better?” he asked and I nodded. God, I loved space technology.
Once satisfied I was whole again, Roark tucked me under his chin. “The traitor is dead.”
“I can see that.” Seton shoved at the medical officer who’d come in with a number of others now that the traitor had been uncovered. She was waving a wand of her own over him. He forced her to stop her ministrations, frustrated probably more by the fact that he’d been drugged than by her attentions, and I hid a grin. These Trion guys all thought they were super-human. Not unlike a lot of alpha cavemen on Earth.
But once again, my smile faded. “He’s dead, but what about the man who attacked us on Earth?”
Roark’s arms came around me and he nuzzled the top of my head. “We don’t know, mate. But Warden Egara is on her guard. She knows to watch for any more encrypted messages, to remain vigilant. We’ve done all we can do from here. We will interrogate the men we captured tonight and hope we discover his identity, although I doubt they will know anything. Earth is very far away, another planet.”
“But someone must know,” I countered.
“Yes. Warden Egara is an intelligent and formidable opponent. She will discover the truth.”
I nodded and tore my gaze from the commander’s corpse. Looking at the soldier nearest him, I cleared my throat. “That gold dagger is mine. I want it back.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Roark looked down at me. “I’ll give you a new one, mate. Leave that one be.”
I shook my head. “No way. That’s the one you gave me. That is the one that saved my life, twice now. I want it back. Cleaned, of course. I might never go anywhere without it, ever again.”
“Then you shall have it.” He looked to the soldier. “Remove it, once we are gone. Clean the blade thoroughly and return it to my lady first thin
g in the morning.”
“Yes, Councilor.”
Roark tugged me up to tuck me into his hold. After nodding to Seton, who was finally letting the woman heal him with the wand, Roark led me from the room, and I let him, eager to be away from the tension and blood. To leave it all behind. “Where are we going?”
“Home.”
Chapter Fifteen
Roark
I held Natalie in my arms as we gazed down on our sleeping son. My parents and Miranda were safe below, surrounded by two dozen guards. Commander Loris’ men were locked away, awaiting judgment. I would deal with them later, much later. Right now, I needed to stand silent in the peace and safety of my home, our home, and hold my mate.
Traveling from outpost to outpost the last few months had taken its toll on my body and my spirit. Home wasn’t a physical place. It was the people you loved. Seeing Noah asleep, his arms bent with his hands up by his ears, soothed my soul in a way I’d never expected.
This moment, with Natalie safe in my arms, looking down at the child we’d made, was a gift I would never take for granted. My mother would be pleased. My wanderlust was gone. There was nowhere on this planet, or any other, I wanted to be other than in my own home with my mate and son safely under my care.
It was time to settle in Xalia, to allow Natalie and Noah to know my parents, to become close. Noah deserved to know his grandparents, to be smothered by my mother’s adoration and taught about the world by my father. There would be no more outposts for any of us. If the tribal leaders wanted to see me, from now on, they could make the trek to Xalia or meet with one of my commanders in the field.
Natalie pulled away from me to reach down and stroke Noah’s perfect cheek with her hand. “He’s so beautiful. He looks like you.” She whispered the words into the quiet, careful not to disturb him. Her hand froze and she shook her head, her voice clogging with tears. “I have blood on my hands, Roark. Look at me. I shouldn’t touch him. Not like this.”
“Come, mate. Our son is safe and protected. Let me take care of you.”
Her Mate's Secret Baby (Interstellar Brides Book 9) Page 14
