Inseparable

by D. M. Mortier

  It was during this time, when his guard was down, that he heard the laser being fired behind him and Andre. They turned with their weapons drown, only to see Saina leaning nonchalantly against the wall, her now silent laser at her side and a Lokede soldier wounded on the floor. Thorne thought that as the soldier was still dressed in his aircraft gear, he looked as though he’d only just recently arrived back to the Camden. That was the only way he could’ve avoided the chemicals. The man whimpered and held his wounded hand to his chest. Saina had shot him in the hand and severed a few fingers.

  “What the hell?” Thorne muttered.

  “Our queen is a bad-ass.” Andre smiled proudly at her.

  Saina shrugged.

  “You’re not here!” Thorne growled.

  She grinned. “I will leave as soon as you finish up.”

  “You’re not here,” Thorne repeated through clenched teeth. He made a step toward her.

  She held her palms up and frowned at him. “Okay, I’m leaving. You’d better not get hurt again.”

  Thorne made to come at her again, and she teleported before he reached her side.

  “Damn,” Andre breathed in admiration.

  “Stop encouraging her nonsense,” Thorne warned him.

  “Man, I’m just grateful to still be breathing. If not for her…”

  Thorne gritted his teeth in frustration. “Let’s get my mother and get the hell out of here.”

  He turned to look down at his mother again and sighed in relief. He, too, was glad for Saina’s intervention, but he’d never tell her that. Damn woman was putting her life at risk and I’d never encourage that.

  His mother, for her part, seemed healthy and unharmed despite all the years in captivity. He gently picked his mother up and held her.

  Thorne was pleased that he’d removed his family from Lokede without bloodshed, except for the one wounded soldier, once he arrived back in Kenton. He immediately called Saina on the success of their mission once he returned and again told her to stay with Tarik until they gave the all clear. Gunner was also with them for added security. Thorne wasn’t taking any chances with her safety.

  He now stood in his parents’ bedroom, waiting for his mother to wake from her sleep.

  His sisters were in their old bedrooms, their children lying in makeshift beds in the same room and armed guards stationed outside the bedroom doors. Thorne was more than concerned, as he had no idea what to expect from his sisters, who had seemed to assimilate into life in Lokede without much trauma. How would the children, who were now teenagers, react to being taken away from their fathers and from the only home and family that they knew?

  “Stephen?” a soft, confused voice whispered behind him.

  Thorne turned slowly and faced his mother.

  She stared back at him with her eyes wide with shock, and her palm covering her mouth was visibly shaking.

  “No, Mother, it’s me, Thorne.” He kept his voice gentle and moved slowly toward her, wanting more than ever to kill the King of Lokede for putting that haunted look in his mother’s eyes.

  “Is that really you, my son?” Her voice was clogged with tears. She stretched her arms out to reach for him.

  Thorne sat on the edge of the bed and let his mother pull him into her embrace.

  She gasped, and her arms tightened like a vise around his neck as she rained kisses all over his face. “Oh my God!” She whimpered, and tears streamed down her cheeks. “My God, you’re real! How can it be?”

  “Mom, it’s all right,” he said soothingly. He pulled her into his arms and rocked her against him. “It’s all right.”

  She cried even more loudly then. Her tears soaked his shirt.

  It broke Thorne’s heart to hear the deep pain in his mother’s sobs. He felt as though he’d failed her, failed his father. Admitting to himself now that if it hadn’t been for the ingenuity of Saina, his mother would probably still be held captive by the King of Lokede. “I’m sorry, Mama,” he whispered against her hair.

  “No,” she protested weakly. She lifted her head, and her hazel eyes captured his. “This was not your fault.”

  “I should’ve come for you sooner.” Thorne swallowed hard as her eyes became wet with fresh tears.

  She bent her head, trying to hide from him. She shook her head no and wiped the fresh tears from her cheeks.

  Thorne couldn’t prevent the tears from coming to his eyes. Seeing the naked pain in her eyes and in every line of her body emasculated him. He should’ve been there.

  “How? What day is it?” She again looked at him in confusion.

  “I took you from your bed a few hours ago,” he told her softly. He watched as realization dawned, as the trepidation about what he must have seen entered her eyes.

  She pulled away from him, inched some space away from him, and wrapped her arms around her stomach and waist.

  “Mom, it’ll be all right.”

  She shook her head but refused to meet his gaze.

  He reached out to touch her, but she shied away, inching out of range from his touch. Thorne had no idea how to handle this situation. He was dying to ask how she felt about being home, but it was clear he wouldn’t get any further answers from her now.

  Just then a chorus of screams filled the air and all hell broke loose. He sprinted from the room knowing that his sisters were now awake. He came to a standstill in the massive entrance hall of the castle at the sight of all two women fighting, yelling, kicking, and biting to get away from the guards, who were trying to prevent them from leaving. Their six children were also making their voices of displeasure heard, and the men were having a difficult time restraining them without hurting them.

  Andre looked as though he was ready to kill someone.

  “Stop!” Thorne bellowed. Now he was really pissed. This reunion wasn’t going in any way that he’d envisaged. Where the fuck did they think they were running to?

  The women looked at him, and all two had varying degrees of reaction. His youngest sister, Sharma, ran toward him with a huge smile on her face, and Marisol, the older sister, came toward him much more slowly, but she was visibly angry.

  Sharma reached him, wrapped her arms around his neck, wept, and kept moaning, “Oh my God! Oh my God,” repeatedly.

  Thorne held her as she wept, getting more and more confused as she shyly clung to him.

  “What have you done?” Marisol demanded.

  Thorne looked into her furious face and wished Saina was here to deal with them. The thought of Saina telling his sisters off made him smile.

  “What the hell are you smiling about?” Marisol came closer to him and looked as though she would attack him too. “I asked you a question. Why did you bring us here?”

  “Hi, Marisol, it’s nice to see you too,” Thorne smirked.

  “Cut your bullshit! Take us back this instant!”

  Thorne raised an eyebrow and put Sharma away from him. He felt his anger rising with each second that ticked by. For years, he’d been consumed with the need to rescue these women. For eighteen years, their captivity had dictated his life. And now that he had accomplished what he’d set out to do and was on the precipice of setting himself free, it was nothing like he’d anticipated.

  “Perhaps we should take this some place that would afford us some privacy,” he told his sisters quietly. He looked over to where two teenage boys, who looked about sixteen years old, continued fighting with his men and shook his head in disgust.

  Andre grabbed both boys by the backs of their necks and dragged them over to where Thorne and his sisters stood. “Can you get your children to act civilized please?” Andre glared at the women. “I wouldn’t want any of them to get hurt,” he drawled in a hard voice. There was little doubt that it wouldn’t take much to push Andre to knock the teenagers’ heads together.

  Just then Anastasia strolled into the hall. She took one look at the scene before her and started laughing.

 
Thorne tightened his lips and waited. Based on what he’d witness already, he obviously didn’t know shit about what his sisters wanted. Perhaps Anastasia did.

  “So, it’s you who have my father and brothers out of their minds with worry,” she smirked. It was clear that she found the whole situation vastly amusing.

  Marisol grabbed Anastasia by the throat and started shaking her. “Did you put him up to this?” Marisol yelled.

  Anastasia started laughing again, which made Marisol only more furious. She started choking Anastasia, to the point the other woman was clawing at the fingers at her throat and fighting for breath. Her face went ghostly white and then red with fear.

  “Look, if you two want to kill each other, I don’t really care.” Thorne pulled Marisol off Anastasia. “However, it seems I’m going to be visited by the men of Lokede, and I need to know who wants to stay here and who wants to go back with them. Come,” Thorne commanded. He turned and walked into a dining hall of the castle. Sitting in his usual seat at the table, he watched disquietly as servants ran around bringing his usual breakfast and his prodigal family file into the room to take seats as well. As Marisol was about to lay into him again, he held his hand up for her to be quiet and calmly started eating the food placed before him. He glared at her, letting her know that he was not in the mood for any more of her bullshit.

  Almost five minutes went by with no one brave enough to voice a word, and then Thorne’s mother walked into the room.

  “Mama!” Sharma and Marisol jumped from their seats. They laughed, they cried, they kissed, and they hugged their mother.

  Thorne watched the interaction through his lashes, no longer shocked by any of their reactions. The women introduced their children to their grandmother for what seemed like the first time. There was some more hugging, kissing, and laughter. He wondered dispassionately why he hadn’t been greeted in the same manner. He was wishing like hell Saina was there. Thorne frowned. His reaction really gave him pause. When did I become so dependent on her?

  “Now aren’t we one big happy family,” Anastasia snickered.

  Marisol gave her a hard stare, and Anastasia immediately removed the mocking look from her face.

  “Have something to eat, Mother,” Thorne told her gently. “It seems you all have a lot of explaining to do.”

  “It’s not just us, big brother,” Marisol muttered. “You need to tell us what you’ve done to our husbands.”

  “Really? I need to tell you what I did to men who came into this castle eighteen years ago, killed our men, and raped our women?” Thorne asked her scornfully.

  “That was a very long time ago,” Marisol scoffed. “What are we supposed to tell our children?”

  “I really don’t give a shit what you tell them. I simply want my life back.”

  “Ah, so this is about your little slut,” Anastasia laughed. “You’ve hidden her well, but then you can’t keep her hidden forever. Tell me, Thorne, how do you propose to keep her here? I’m your wife, the rightful Queen of Calison.”

  Andre grunted, and his dislike and anger toward Anastasia were etched in every line of his face.

  “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Anastasia, but our marriage was annulled this morning,” Thorne said with chilling cool. “You’re welcome to get on your broom and leave.”

  “I will kill her if you do this,” Anastasia screamed in outrage.

  “You and all your minions will be leaving shortly, Anastasia,” Thorne said coldly. “If I even hear you’ve been a mile close to Calison afterwards, I will hunt your ass down and kill you myself. Just fuckin’ give me an excuse, Anastasia.”

  The teenagers all looked at him nervously and kept looking around as if they wanted to escape the scene. His mother sat quietly eating her breakfast and ignoring all of them. She seemed in a world of her own and not quite ready to face reality.

  Marisol glared at Thorne. “You’ve become a barbarian, brother,” she spat. “Children, go up to your rooms. Your fathers will be here shortly to get us.” She held Thorne’s gaze, daring him to contradict her.

  Thorne raised an eyebrow, realizing that he’d never liked Marisol and was now wondering how he’d ever forgotten that fact. Something in her eyes and attitude had always rubbed him the wrong way. She’d been a cruel and mean child, and it seemed she’d become an even more vicious woman. He breathed a sigh of relief that she wanted to return to Lokede.

  “You’re not prisoners here, Marisol. You can leave whenever you want.” Thorne stood to leave. He wanted Saina in the worst way. He briefly wondered what she and Tarik were doing at Tarik’s apartment now. They’d been expecting trouble from King Anders and his men once the sleeping agent wore off. The people of Lokede would all be awake now, and Thorne knew it was only a matter of time before they responded.

  “What about me?” Anastasia asked. “You can’t send me away as though I mean nothing.”

  “Why not? There’s nothing left for you here. And quite frankly I’m tired of watching my back.” Thorne wasn’t sympathetic to her crocodile pleas in anyway.

  “You can’t do this to me,” Anastasia sputtered.

  “It’s already done. Now get the fuck out of Calison!”

  “You would do that to your wife of eighteen years?” Sharma asked in a hushed voice. She looked at him in horror.

  “Without a mudderfuckin’ doubt I’d do it. She’s not my wife.” Thorne left them then. He’d had all he could stomach from these women for the day.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “You and your baby are both in great health,” Tarik assured Saina.

  “Did you check how many pounds the baby has grown since last week?” Thorne asked anxiously.

  “You know damn well the machines you have in here cover everything,” Tarik teased. “Shit, if that kid blinks, this machine picks it up.” He left the in-house examination room that Thorne had installed, muttering something about finding nourishment for the baby.

  Saina laughed at Thorne’s disgruntled expression. Both men were already competing over who could take care of the baby better. Thorne, however, had been almost frantic about the baby since he came from talking to his family about an hour ago. Saina wondered if he was worried about the lack of action from the Lokede king and his sons.

  “Why don’t you just contact them to ensure everything is over and we don’t have World War III erupting in Calison?”

  “By them, I take it you mean the Lokede men?” Thorne asked drily.

  “Yes. I know you’re worried about when they will retaliate,” Saina told him. She slid off the cot and started getting dressed.

  “I’m not worried about them. I’ve finally realized that I wasted eighteen years of my life to protect people who don’t seem to need protecting.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come.” Thorne grabbed her hand and led her into a large sitting room. He sat in a loveseat and held her against his chest as he stretched her legs out. Now that she was almost seven months pregnant, her svelte figure was a thing of the past. Almost overnight, her belly had ballooned. Although he was a doctor, Thorne acted as though he’d never seen a pregnant woman before. Every change in her figure seemed to fascinate him. And as soon as it became impossible to disguise her baby bump under her doctor’s coat, they’d made the decision for her to take a leave of absence from the hospital. Despite her and Tarik’s efforts to make everyone believe that they were together, Anastasia had refused to back off her belief that Thorne was interested in Saina. And given the lack of success in finding her on Earth, they were aware of the growing questions on who she was. It was best that she disappeared until Thorne removed Anastasia from Calison. Saina and her android servants had moved into Tarik’s apartment a few weeks ago.

  “Ah, here we go,” Tarik cried out cheerfully as he entered the room with a bowl in his hand. “I have some mangifera for the little baby.”

  Thorne muttered under his breath.

  Saina giggle
d. Ever since Tarik had found out that she was pregnant, he’d insisted on getting fruits flown in from Europon. She soon realized that most of the fruit was the same found in the Caribbean, although they were significantly bigger. One mangifera, or mango as they called it in Turks and Caicos, was almost the size of a watermelon.

  Tarik lifted her legs and sat in the loveseat with them, placing her feet on his lap.

  “Just because he’s your brother doesn’t mean I won’t still beat his ass,” Thorne said tightly.

  Tarik ignored him, picked up a slice of mango, and fed it to her.

  Saina felt Thorne’s stiffening beneath her as Tarik continued to feed her the fruit and talk gibberish to the baby bump. “Don’t mind your mean old daddy. He’s just jealous that Uncle T is better looking and smarter than him.”

  “Doesn’t he have a life of his own?” Thorne asked. He slapped Tarik’s hand off her belly and covered it with his fingers and palm.

  “Uncle T will make sure you have a proper childhood, none of that palace, rich-kid stuff,” Tarik continued.

  Thorne gritted his teeth.

  “Tell me what happened with your sisters.” Saina was determined to distract them from their usual fight. Most nights, since she’d found out that Tarik was her brother, they ended it in varying degrees of this same scene. Usually the teasing would continue until Thorne got pissed and threw Tarik out.

  “My sisters?” Thorne laughed bitterly. “Yeah, well, my sisters didn’t seem very happy to see me. I wouldn’t be surprised if I went home and met their husbands eating my food and drinking my wine.”

  “Maybe they’re suffering from Stockholm syndrome.” Saina started getting a bad feeling about the possible outcome of this. After all this time, their alliance to the Lokede men could destroy Thorne.

  “Stockholm syndrome?” Thorne frowned.

  “That’s what they call it on Earth when someone who’s kidnapped develops a psychological alliance with their captor as a way to survive their captivity,” Saina explained.

  “Well, that’s fuckin’ convenient.” Thorne grabbed the bowl of fruit from Tarik’s hand and pulled Saina more fully into his lap. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”