Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga)

by Bethany Aan

  “I am ten years his elder,” Hunter admitted. He watched for her reaction. “You do not mind older men? In some societies, the older men are more respected and sought after…”

  “I never really thought about it,” she admitted, looking at his face wonderingly. “You don’t look more than thirty. You look younger than me, to be honest.”

  “I am sixty-seven of our years,” he told her with a wry smile. “My brother is closer to your age, I suppose, but still older than you, I believe... your time in space notwithstanding.”

  He revealed his age as though it was significant. Perhaps it was, on their world, as it was on hers.

  “But,” he went on. “We live much longer than your people, perhaps? Maybe that is why I do not appear ‘old’ to you? I am the youngest battalion commander ever to receive his commission.”

  “It’s possible,” she allowed, “At your age, our people are usually ending their careers and retiring, not starting them. I’m thirty-five in Earth years.”

  They talked for awhile longer, trying to figure out their equivalent ages, then joked about the trials of being the eldest of their siblings. Arianna found herself talking easily about her younger brothers and sisters, only feeling a bit of the pang that usually hit her when she spoke of them.

  Hunter picked up on it, but didn’t ask her about the grief. There was a shadow within her, something dark and immeasurably sad. He wanted to ask her about it, to find out what it was and do what he could to make it better, to take some of the pain from her. But he’d have to wait. He had known her less than a week. It was too soon to be dragging deep, dark secrets from her soul. His mental voice snorted at that thought. Less than a week was enough to decide he wanted to keep her, but not long enough to find out more about her? Perhaps a bit of her concussion was affecting his thought processes.

  Before they could start another subject, Jace returned with a meal that smelled divine, and Arianna was much more comfortable with Hunter. She’d learned that their food, though it appeared very different from what she was used to, was rather tasty and satisfying. And she was starving. She’d been too distracted with her new surroundings to think of food earlier. Not the smartest decision on her part, but she couldn’t really regret it, when she’d ended up sharing dinner with two of the most handsome beings she’d ever seen.

  And charming! They vied for her attention, telling stories of each other’s mishaps and mistakes through the years, making her laugh more than she had in a very long time.

  The sun had been down for an hour before nature’s call became an urgent demand. Blushing, Arianna told them that she needed to use the facilities. Instantly they stood, reprimanding one another for not thinking to offer to help her until then. Jace swept the blanket from her and Hunter scooped her into his arms, carrying her to the bathroom.

  She looked around while she did what she had to do.

  The bathroom was made completely of stone. There was a toilet of sorts, though it was a bit different from the ones she was used to. It was much shallower, with very little water. It still served its purpose, for which she was literally relieved. There was also a vanity with a sink and a fairly large counter. It was all neat and orderly, as she would only expect from a military commander. The tub made her drool, though. It was huge, probably because Hunter was huge. She could practically swim in the thing!

  The thought of a real bath made her shiver. She had been making do with sponge baths, as had the other girls, since their quick showers the day they arrived. While it kept the stink at bay, she knew that her hair had to be getting stringy by now, and that she’d surely start smelling quite ripe very soon. But she figured she shouldn’t get her wound wet.

  Sighing with regret that she couldn’t have that bath yet, she called for help to get back to the balcony. Jace appeared but carried her to the wide island in the kitchen, instead, depositing her on a high-backed stool at the counter. After situating, he excused himself and went into a room off the kitchen, which she saw was another bedroom.

  That was when she realized that the brothers shared the suite. Each had his own room and bathroom, and they shared the lounging area, kitchen, and the garden balcony. She asked them about it as the men cleaned up from the meal.

  “Each ‘team’ has their own suite,” Hunter told her. “Since most teams are made up of brothers or cousins, they tend to want to stay in those family units. It is a far more efficient use of our space and materials to continue that tradition here, than to try to provide everyone with their own living space. Some of the suites have three or four bedrooms and the shared kitchen and living areas.”

  “But you only have two,” she said softly.

  “This building was built after our brothers died,” Jace said simply, quietly. “We did not feel the need to replace our team members, though we actually had a team of five back home. Sean, Siae, and Kale cannot be replaced.”

  “And as Commander and SIC/Chief Medical Officer, we aren’t required to be part of a team, as we have all of the warriors under our command at any time.” Hunter affirmed what she’d thought. “So we are a team of two, and that is how it shall remain until and unless our mother decides to have more children.”

  She decided that was just a figure of speech. She could understand their decision to not fill the gaps in their family team. They chatted easily as the brothers finished cleaning up from their meal. The men seemed genuinely pleased by her curiosity and were gracious about answering her questions as they occurred to her.

  Unlike in the modern American military, she learned, the Thorsani believed that warriors would fight harder to protect their fellow soldiers if their brothers, sons, fathers, and cousins were among them. It was also, the men informed her grimly, easier on the families, since their loved ones were not scattered in ten different battle zones, but could be accounted for easily. Arianna’s heart twisted when they told the sad tale of their brother’s lost battalion, and how the women and children from their province had been stripped of almost every male relative at one time. The only men left were the old, the infirm or recovering injured, or those not currently on a service rotation. The psychological benefit to the arrangement, though, appeared to be that the women and children were able to grieve together, all at once, and decide as a family when they were ready to mate again, if ever.

  The conversation touched off a spark of grief within her once more, which Hunter sensed, even if she quickly tamped it down. Jace noticed the darkening of her expression as well. Flicking a glance at his brother and shaking his head, Hunter changed the subject. He had to wonder, though, at the intensity of the grief that had threatened to overtake her when they spoke of losing so many in one family, all at once. He knew that empaths often tended to feel even a stranger’s loss of life more deeply, but the loss had been too real to her, to simply be her empathy for the lost ship.

  Arianna accepted the change of subject gratefully. She did not wish to remember. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Now that she was on a different planet, she might try to pretend that her family lived on, though far away. It eased a bit of her grief, but not all. She was afraid nothing would ever take it all.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  While she had been in the bathroom, one of the men had brought her basket of fluff into the sitting room and set it on the low table situated between a couch and several padded chairs sized perfectly for the warriors’ tall, broad forms. Short as she was, the couch was more like a small bed than just a sofa. When they adjourned from the kitchen stools to the large, stuffed couch, she took the spinning back up as they continued talking. The conversation changed from their military to various aspects of their respective cultures. The men watched her spin, like Earth men and children had for years, seemingly fascinated by the quick creation of fine yarn from the cloudy bits of fluff.

  “I really need my niddy-noddy and nostepinne,” Arianna murmured when the yarn broke from the spindle a third time and one of the guys had to retrieve the tool for her.

  “What are
‘niddy-noddies’?” Hunter asked curiously. “They do not translate.

  She explained the simple devices and why she needed them… the nostepinne to create a center-pull ball when she needed to wind the yarn from the spindle then ply it, the niddy-noddy to stretch and set the yarn once it had been plied. Suddenly eager, he got up and rummaged around in what appeared to be an old chest. Jace rolled his eyes.

  “You have done it now,” he murmured to her, smiling.

  “What have I done?” she asked, watching Hunter take several tools and go out to the balcony.

  “He has long wished for a reason to create such things for his woman, but until now, he has not had that.”

  “I’m not his woman,” she murmured, looking down at the spindle of fluffy yarn. “I’m not anyone’s woman.”

  “Not even back on your world?” Jace asked gently. She blinked, startled.

  When had he moved to the couch, and how had he managed to get so close without her realizing it? Her heart began beating wildly in her chest. He was so close that she could smell him, could see the candle light shimmering on the sleek tawny fur of his shoulders and back, the way he was twisted. Yellow tabby. Hunter was gray tabby, olive skinned and tanned. Jace was all gold and cream. The long hair on his head was a deep, burnished gold, as well, which should have told her he’d have gold in his fur. She shook herself from her perusal of him, forcing her libido to settle down. She had no future with these men. Either of them. She needed to calm the hell down, accept that, and attempt to relegate them to the ‘strictly friends’ category in her head. Flushing, she frantically recalled what they’d been talking about.

  “Especially not there,” she finally said. “On Earth, in my culture, I am of little use.”

  “Why do you feel that way?” he asked, and she sensed that he was truly bewildered.”It is obvious you have skill with a spindle and other ways of producing fabric than the weaving that we know. I would think that those would be valuable skills. And you are obviously very bright and a seeker of knowledge. I cannot understand why you would be deemed useless.”

  “Because in my world, if you don’t have a marketable skill, you don’t matter as much.” She shrugged self-deprecatingly. “Machines do most of what I can do, much cheaper. I can do lots of neat stuff, but little of it generates much of an income.”

  Jace snorted derisively, though she sensed that it was aimed at her world, not her.

  “The men of your world must truly be inferior, then,” he said, “First, because they have allowed you to be taken by the slavers, and second, because they apparently do not see value beyond coin. That is the downfall of many a society, when money becomes more important than people.

  “On Thorsan, men are trained from birth to protect and care for their women and families, provide for them. Women are trained from birth to take care of their families, bear and raise the young with the men’s help, and provide the peaceful, safe harbor for warriors to return to once the fighting is done. The women are treasured for this. To be able to keep a nice, welcoming home and raise intelligent, bright children with courage, skills, and most importantly, values, the woman must be bright, intelligent, educated, and talented as well.” He smiled at her wistfully, running a long finger down the side of her cheek admiringly.

  “Were you on our world, you would have been claimed already, many years ago, and the courtship would have been long, with many warriors fighting for the honor.”

  She laughed at the thought of that, but knowing that her previously under-valued skills were no longer a detriment, she brightened. Maybe she truly had a chance to make a new life here, the one she’d always longed for. Maybe she could not have children, but obviously she still had value to these people. She was smiling brightly at Jace when Hunter came back in.

  “I have no wood that is suitable for your needs here,” he told her, frustrated.

  Her slightly tipsy, very naughty mind kicked in and she desperately wanted to tell him that she thought he was misinformed, then blushed at her wayward thoughts and tried to pay attention. He noted her blush and the lascivious thought, but went on. “I will search tomorrow. I know that we have cured pieces in the wood shop. Surely we will have enough scraps for something so small as you are describing. Perhaps you would like to accompany me there in the morning, and pick out your own pieces?””

  She nodded, her face still a little flushed at the thought of having her choice of ‘wood’. A giggle escaped with a hiccup, horrifying her. Jace looked at her quizzically, but Hunter’s eyes heated as he allowed himself to sense what she was thinking. Frustrated with herself, she narrowed her eyes on the glass of juice Jace had handed her after dinner. She thought it might be freshly gathered juice from the fruit she had enjoyed earlier.

  “What is this stuff?” she asked. “It is definitely making me a bit drunk.”

  “Drunk? Brother, I believe it is past your bed-time,” Hunter growled softly, holding Arianna’s gaze. Jace blinked, then looked from his brother to her and back again. His smile faded and he stood up to face Hunter, arms folded across his chest.

  “She is still injured,” he said quietly. Hunter flicked an irritated glance at him.

  “I know this.”

  “You are not to take advantage of her injury and temporary immobility.”

  “I will not.”

  “You want to.”

  “Of course, I do!” Hunter exploded, snarling at his brother. Arianna blinked, watching them. What the hell…? Hunter went on. “She is everything I’ve ever looked for in a woman, and beautiful as well. Of course, I want her.”

  “Well, so do I!” Jace revealed. Her mouth dropped open. He was the other man Hunter had been talking about. She felt the color flooding her face as she listened to them. “The courtship may start, but no physical seduction while she is recuperating. It is too much pressure on her until she is well.”

  “She would like very much to know what’s going on here!”

  The men stopped and turned twin looks of chagrin on her. She glared at them both. They gave each other angry stares then sat in the chairs opposite her. Arianna gave them her sternest expression, which usually only made people think she was cute, and crossed her arms over her overly ample bosom.

  “Now, would you boys care to explain what the problem is here?” she said in her best ‘mom’ voice. It never failed to get people to take her seriously.

  The men were silent for a moment, then finally, Jace ran a hand through his hair, tearing out the thongs holding it back, and allowed it to shift and shimmer in the candle light as it fell over his shoulders. Her heart picked up a bit at the look of desire he shot her. In that one movement, releasing his hair and dropping his professional mien, he had gone from chief medical officer and warrior to a sex god bent on her seduction. Lord help her!

  “On our world, when men desire the same woman and wish to claim her, they agree to a challenge. The one to win the challenge will be allowed to claim her, if that is her choice. But they must first prove to her their worth as mates,” Jace told her.

  “When they have proved what they feel they must, they stand before her and she is allowed to choose between them,” Hunter bit out.

  She looked at them for a long time, two warriors, brothers so beautiful and earnest that it took her breath away. Her eyes narrowed. There was something else, something they weren’t telling her. Hunter was trying to block it, but he was thinking something that would be very unorthodox on her world … but intriguing. With a bit of insight, she straightened, her face heating with color and surprise. She realized that neither man would bring it up, though she sensed that both were thinking about it. Then she thought about some of her naughtier romance/erotica books.

  Was it possible? Could she possibly be living one of her deepest, most erotic fantasies? Both men wanted her, and there were far more men than women in the group. She didn’t want to be the cause of a rift between these two brothers, who obviously loved each other so much. And she truly desired and
liked each of them. She could see falling in love with them both, easily, if she let herself. Should she do it? Should she open her heart to two men at once, knowing that it was okay by their standards?

  It was a good solution, but… did she dare? Only one way to find out…

  “What happens if she finds herself wanting them both?” she finally manage to ask softly. They started and stared at one another, then at her.

  “This happens on your world?” Hunter asked carefully. She felt his mind lock onto hers, probing for the truth.

  “Yes, but not often,” she admitted, then shook her head. “But we are not on my world, or yours. We are on a new world, and we can make our own rules here. And I’m not asking just for myself,” she hastened to explain, in case she had just turned them both off with her curiosity. Was she seriously considering offering a threesome, because she liked them both so much? And was it her thought or Hunter’s? Was the excitement building within her completely her own, or was it heightened by Hunter and Jace’s emotions as well? “My girls will want to know, too.”

  “Well, on our world, if the woman desires both, they can both claim her,” Jace said slowly. “We had thought… When we talked the first night, you said that ‘marriage’ was usually between one man and one woman. This is the ’norm’ for the people from your region, from what we understood.”

  “In our culture, yes. In other cultures on our world, it can be different,” she admitted. Seeing their hesitant looks, she felt the blood flood her face. Looking away, mortified, she focused on the blanket over her lap. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she chastised herself.

  “So you would not be… averse… to such an arrangement?” Hunter asked after a long moment of tense silence. She froze and slowly looked up at them once more then shyly shook her head.

  “I… I mean, I’d want to get to know you both better,” she stammered, her heart racing at the thought of what she was about to agree to. Her fingers tingled with anxiety. She really didn’t want to screw this up! “You might discover you don’t want me, after you get to know me. But… well, I like you both. A lot. And I’m… um… very attracted to you both, as you well know. And I know that it can’’t be permanent, but still… Does that make you think I’m loose or a slut or something?” she asked in a whisper. She hunched her shoulders, miserable for even asking.