by Bethany Aan
Shaking herself to keep the spiral of grief from beginning, she dropped the blanket on the couch and looked down at the cushions.
The restlessness that had made sleep impossible for him still lingered on Sean’s pillow. Caressing the indentation there, Arianna shook her head with regret. She knew that she was the cause of his turmoil, but wasn’t sure what to do about it.
Well, that was a lie. She did know. She just didn’t want to admit it, either to him or to herself. The simplest answer was the most obvious. She could just take him as her lover, as her third mate. His brothers would welcome him, since the five brothers had been a team long before Arianna had crash landed on Hunter’s world. Two of the brothers, Siae and Kale, had been lost in a Solvari attack shortly before Hunter’s transport had settled on Ishira. Sean had been thought dead for several years before the Thorsani had been forced to flee their home planet.
But once the humans had come, Ri had touched Sean’s mind far out into space, guiding him home, to Ishira. To his family.
Ri, Hunter, and Sean were Readers, psychics by another name. Readers were highly empathic and had special skills to help understand their populace, to know when action was needed to prevent disaster.
Sean was an aberration, though a welcome one to his people, with the ability to see far more clearly into another person’s heart and soul, help them break down barriers and come to terms with traumatic events. He was a Counselor and beloved by his people. But even as powerful as he was, being able to reach into space just enough to beckon to Ri’s mind, he was only a fraction as powerful as Arianna.
Ri’s abilities were above and beyond anything the Thorsani had ever experienced. Jace had tried to measure her energy while she was Reading, but his equipment was not able to record her peaks. By accident, she had discovered that when she combined her energy with Hunter’s, she was able to soar out into the cosmos. She had done just that, finding and touching Sean’s mind.
She hadn’t known that the man she’d been sensing was brother to her mates until the second time she’d contacted him. Through their mental connection, Ri and Sean had talked several times before the Adelphae, the ship carrying him and his parents, landed on Ishira. Their family was now as reunited as it could be, with two brothers lost in battle and their younger sisters commanding ships of their own, possibly wandering in the black of space.
But Arianna had a plan brewing that might change that.
She smiled to herself, thinking how happy they would all be if she could find another ship and bring it home.
Hunter didn’t know about her idea. She was reluctant to tell any of them, in case it didn’t work. Being able to find Sean might just have been a stroke of incredible luck, something that she couldn’t hope to duplicate for distances outside of this star system. And perhaps her ability to touch his mind was solely because of their unique mental bond. She had no idea if she’d be able to duplicate such a feat with anyone else.
She called his name again, stepping further onto the balcony and around the small stand of trees that grew near the railing, just in case he was trying to hide from her. She snorted to herself. As if he could. Neither of them could hide from the other, even if they wanted to. That was the crux of their problem. That connection had saved her life several days ago, but most of the time it was a bit disconcerting. Especially since the attack. Something fundamental had changed between them that day, and Ri had trouble allowing herself to analyze it too closely. For some reason, she was holding herself from embracing what he offered her. Perhaps in the deepest reaches of her mind, hidden even from herself, the reason waited, watching for the right moment to make itself known. She wondered if she would be able to handle it when that happened, or if she’d deny it, turn away, and continue being a coward.
But for now… she opened her mind and reached out, scanning further from the suite.
I am here, kimi, Sean’s mental voice was soft and amused. She followed his energy until her eyes lit on him beneath the tree several stories below the balcony. He was surrounded by kimis. Ri grinned helplessly, leaning on the balcony railing to watch him. He looked up at her, his smile sheepish. Her heart melted a little bit more with each of those dimple-framed smiles, every warm glance from his deep green eyes. So like Hunter’s, but so different, as well.
In Hunter’s eyes, Ri could see herself reflected, only better than she’d ever thought she could be. Hunter took her as she was, saw in her the strengths that she hesitated to acknowledge. He might prod her to more responsibility than she thought she was capable of, but he knew she could do it, and his confidence in her had changed the way she thought of herself.
Jace was the same, accepting who and what she was without conditions or reservation. He was very curious about her inner workings, as any good doctor would be when presented with an alien species. But he also respected her mind and adored her creativity, the delight she took in her new world, the curiosity she exhibited when faced with a new creature, plant, or piece of Thorsani history. The researcher in Jace loved that his mate was just as much of a student of life as he was, just as enamored of what made each living thing different from those around it.
But Sean… perhaps part of her hesitance to accept his suit was that she couldn’t completely hide from him, shield her thoughts when he was around. Her mates allowed her to hold parts of herself back from them, but Sean wanted more than that from her. He wanted her secrets, wanted to light every dark corner of her mind. She blinked at the realization. Below her, Sean’s brow furrowed as he sensed her growing dismay. Reinforcing the walls around the darker parts of herself against his gentle probing, Ri sighed.
Would you like some company? she asked tentatively, hoping to distract him. He hesitated, but then nodded. She could see the warmth in his eyes from here, feel his longing for her.
With you, sweet Arianna, always. He chuckled again, shaking his head. Though you should know by now… if you can’t yet shield from Hunter, how do you hope to shield from me? And why would you wish to? There is nothing about you that I would use against you, nothing that you cannot tell me. Besides, if you keep having those heated thoughts about my dimples, there will not be a need to hide for much longer…
Stop that! She chuckled mentally, though she blushed at his tender words. His grin turned a little wicked and his eyes sparked up at her.
Come down here and make me! he taunted.
She laughed aloud, turned and hurried into the suite. Hunter and Jace, always attuned to her, looked up from their breakfast. They hadn’t waited for the grain mash that reminded her so much of oatmeal.
“Sean wasn’t out there,” Jace said, shaking his head.
“You might have mentioned that when we passed at the door,” she retorted. “He’s down in the courtyard, covered in kimis again.”
“Ah,” Hunter smiled at her. “And you are going to go rescue him from the fierce little beasts?”
“I feel it is my duty, as lady of the house,” she sighed dramatically, hand over her heart. Then she scowled at them both. “And eat your grains. They’re good for your digestion and cholesterol.”
Grabbing an empty basket and another kimi comb, Ri blew kisses at her grumbling mates and hurried down to the courtyard.
“She will be his soon,” Jace murmured, once their mate shut the door behind her. Hunter nodded, not looking at his brother.
“If that is what she wishes,” Hunter said. “It is our way.”
“But how can you-“
“Jace,” Hunter snapped, planting his hands on the kitchen island with enough force to quiet the room. His parents, who had been talking on the couch, blinked up at him in surprise. “It is our way. Isn’t that what you continually told me when Sean first arrived?”
He twitched his shoulders, shrugging his tunic back into place, and forced himself to relax. He went on in a measured tone.
“Besides, had Sean been with us when we found Ri, he would be her mate now, as well, and neither of us would have thought twice a
bout it. In fact we would have used his talents to our advantage, used her attraction to him to help cement our collective claim to her. If she wants him, she will have him. It is her choice. Always.”
Jace stared at his older brother for a long moment, but finally nodded and went back to his breakfast, frustrated to have had his own logic used against him.
“That doesn’t mean I look forward to sharing her with yet another of my annoying brothers,” Jace muttered. Hunter chuckled at that. Jace sighed. “I need to check on him when I am done here.”
“I think I will join you.” When Jace looked at him in surprise, Hunter snorted then grinned a bit mischievously.
“I agree that it is our way. I did not say we had to make it easy for him.”
Jace’s smile was slow but filled with glee as he started contemplating all the ways they could thwart Sean’s courtship.
Hunter was right. Ri and Sean’s coming together was inevitable. But why make it easy for their brother to win their mate? Never mind that it hadn’t been particularly hard for either of them to win her heart… this was their brother, their oldest brother, they were talking about. Certain unwritten formalities must be followed when dealing with older siblings, after all.
Making life difficult was first on the list.
** *
“There you are,” Ri sighed, settling beside Sean on the bench. Happy chirrings greeted her and half of the kimi immediately swarmed over, begging for a combing. Ri’s delighted laughter rang through the courtyard, clear and bright and echoing off the walls of the buildings and cliffs. The sound brought several of her friends to their balconies to call greetings down to Ri and Sean. He watched her as she returned their calls. She didn’t seem to realize that when she laughed like that, she broadcast her joy and love, which is what drew people to her. Sean was a victim of her sweet song, himself, but a perfectly willing one.
“What a lovely morning,” she said once she’d settled down to combing a kimi.
“It is that,” Sean murmured, watching her as she lavished affection on the ‘critters’, as she called them. She cut her gaze up to his then rolled her eyes at his open admiration of her.
She would never get used to the way these Thorsani warriors made her feel. She was thirty-five Earth years and some days she felt like a veritable frump compared to the college co-eds that had been captured with her. Ri knew she looked her age, but to her immense frustration, the men did not. Hunter, Jace, and Sean all looked to be in their late twenties or early thirties, though she knew very well that Sean was nearly one hundred-eighty years old. They considered her to be quite a young woman, but she could not get used to their frankly admiring glances and their overt sexual advances. What a Thorsani felt, he acted on, as far as matters of the heart were concerned. Realizing that she hadn’t answered Sean’s comment, she gathered herself and smiled at him.
“Are we still talking about our surroundings?” she asked pertly. Sean’s slow smile revealed the dimples on either side of his mouth and the crinkles at the edges of his eyes. Her breath caught softly. She was such a sucker for dimples and laugh lines.
Sean’s eyes narrowed as she let out a shaky breath and he caught the faintest scent of her sudden arousal, barely restraining a pained groan as his body tightened in response.
She liked his lines and dimples that much, did she? He filed the knowledge away for future use. He’d use anything he could to get to her, and smiles were free.
“I am,” he shrugged, winking at her. “My view is beautiful.”
His pointed stare assured her that he was talking about her. She chuckled and shook her head, feeling a blush creeping up her neck and into her cheeks.
“You are a shameless flirt,” she told him. He laughed, the sound rich and deep. It moved through Ri like a wave. When it passed, she felt oddly rearranged, different than she had been only a moment before. She was in trouble, here.
“I am that,” he sighed. Realizing how much he was unsettling her, he decided to relent for now. Resting against the bench’s slatted back he took in the brightening morning and changed the subject. “My brothers have found a lovely place for our people to rebuild our lives.”
“They have,” Ri agreed happily, looking around the familiar area, trying to see it through Sean’s eyes. “Has Hunter told you his reasoning for settling in this valley?”
“Not in so many words,” Sean shrugged then smiled at her. “But I have had much of the same training he has. I have seen the topographical, geological, mining, and weather maps for this hemisphere. I probably would have made the same decision for settlement, as well as a number of the choices he has made in placement and direction of the buildings and gardens. Many of them follow the suggestions in our colonization directives and the way we set up our communities back home, on Thorsan.”
“Really?” she asked, absently combing the ecstatically thrumming kimi in her lap as she looked at Sean. She was so used to grooming the creatures that the motions were automatic now. Comb, swipe the tuft of fur from the teeth, comb, swipe, repeat. When her hand was too full to empty the comb, she dropped the fiber into her basket. She kept that up as he nodded in answer to her question. He squinted against the morning sun over the eastern ridge and pointed toward the residential building.
“Aye. For instance, our balconies face the rising sun, taking full advantage of every moment of daylight. Being situated against the cliffs allows for less weather damage and uses the constant temperature of the ground for heating and cooling. Personally, I would have built further into the cliffs, instead of just against them. I have seen the reports of extreme heat and cold that our men have weathered here, and I think that building alternate gathering halls inside the cliffs would go a long way toward alleviating the ailments that come with both extremes.”
“You think so?” Hunter asked, amused, from behind them. They turned at Hunter and Jace’s approach. Sean shrugged at his brother’s words and Hunter went on. “To be honest, that was the plan for the winter months, now that we have so many more people to house. What else would you have done differently, oh venerable elder?”
Ri barely suppressed a laugh at the good-natured teasing. God, she’d missed having siblings around to bicker at each other. Hunter, Jace, and Sean reminded her almost painfully of her own brothers when they were like this. Hunter stood beside Ri, planting one booted foot on the bench beside her, leaning casually on his knee with his crossed arms, watching Sean with genuine interest. While his pose was relaxed and he wasn’t touching her, his place by her side was clear, as was the low hum of energy that he was broadcasting, subtly warning Sean away from her.
Ri wondered if Hunter even knew he was doing so.
Jace joined them as well, but knelt in front of Sean. He gently shooed the kimis aside so he could pull back the bandage from Sean’s belly and inspect his wound. Sean hissed with pain and glared at Jace when the crusted blood on the bandage opened the wound along the edges, but he straightened his torso and spoke to Hunter while Jace worked.
“Interior chambers,” Sean repeated what he’d said to Arianna, glad to have a distraction while Jace worked on him. “Utilizing geothermal heating and cooling.”
Hunter nodded and rolled his hand at the wrist in a silent gesture for Sean to continue.
“Wind turbines on the cliffs and solar collectors all around. Roof-top gardens would allow for cooler buildings without any additional power sources, as well as provide possible habitats for local creatures. Egg layers, perhaps? The kimis?”
“Go on,” Hunter said, taking mental notes, though some of Sean’s suggestions were already on the duty roster for winter and spring construction projects. Hunter needed to create spaces for the humans to use during the hottest parts of the summer. The temperature had simply been too brutal for them, and they had been miserable, which in turn had meant their men were miserable. He did not wish to go through that again, though the visits to the waterfall had proved fulfilling for all involved, in several different ways.
His body stirred in sleepy memory, but he was still too sated from Ri’s wake-up call to be too distracted by the recollection.
“In deference to the women’s issues with the heat, I think that a swimming and fishing pond nearby would be a good idea. If it is big enough, perhaps stock it with aquatic animals for food, if that’s an option.” Sean’s eyes were narrowed in thought as he listed the ideas he’d had so far.
“It is,” Jace put in, frowning as he gently cleaned Sean’s wound and spread a salve over it. “We’ve tested a number of the local species of water-dwellers and they could easily be transplanted and farmed closer to home. We just happen to enjoy the trips through the woods to get to our favorite fishing spots so much that we have been reluctant to give them up. However, it will be problematic to try to transport enough fish now, when we could just install a small farming operation here.”
“I know that the rider beasts are sentient and that you’ve been able to collect milk from them,” Sean went on, his brow furrowing with thought, “But what non-sentient animals are there that could possibly be domesticated for food sources? I, for one, don’t like the idea of eating something that can converse with me.”
“We’ve been hunting various non-sentient animals in the forest,” Hunter said, his furrowed brow so like Sean’s that Ri gulped. She ducked her head to hide her flaming cheeks and continued combing the kimis, hoping that none of the men noticed her attraction. Hunter went on, “Until now, we have not needed to think about corralling and keeping them, but we will obviously need to advance to level-two colonization directives.”
“I was surprised that you weren’t already at level four,” Sean admitted. “You’ve been here more than ten years.”
Hunter shook his head, grinning a bit ruefully.
“I held off because we were initially a small colony and I wanted to keep our environmental impact low, especially since there was a good chance we would die without progeny. It’s one of the reasons we didn’t burrow into the cliffs. Until recently, once we were dead and dust, the buildings could crumble and decompose naturally, with little impact. However, with the influx of the women I have already set a number of level two plans into motion. Now that your ship has arrived, I will need to add even more to the duty rosters and implement new plans. But we can talk about all that at the next officers meeting.”
