by Zoe Blake
He leaped to the ground and gathered Rachel gently in his arms. She was so still. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. "I'm sorry, Rachel," he moaned. "I'm so, so sorry."
CHAPTER TWENTY
Rachel opened her eyes slowly. There was very little light for them to adjust to and the dim illumination was a deep, soothing blue. She closed her eyes again. It was nice wherever she was. She was weightless, gently supported in warmth and softness. It reminded her of floating on gentle waves.
Wait. Where was she? Her head felt so fuzzy. She couldn't quite reach her memories. The past felt like a foggy morning, with images just out of her reach. She opened her eyes again, but instead of marveling at the soothing light, she looked around...and yelped. She was naked and locked inside a box––no, it must be a coffin!––and suspended in a violet, viscous material.
She called out for help, smacking her palms against the metal surface inches from her face. Her pulse revved into overdrive. Her muscles seemed to have little strength, but she pushed as hard as she could against the top of the box, but to no avail.
The light inside the box winked off, and the lid unsealed with a hiss. As brightness assaulted her eyes, she threw her hands over her face. Momentarily blinded, she couldn't see who had come to release her. Maybe they weren't friendly, or on her side. She thrust out one hand and shielded her eyes with the other from that fiery light. The gel she floated in cooled. It drained away through the bottom leaving her skin chilled and wet.
"There now," said a gentle male voice. "You're safe. No one's going to hurt you."
"W-who are you?" she asked though chattering teeth.
"I'm Zade Baru-Nox, high physician of the Raplan-B and currently, your doctor." A fluffy blanket was tucked around her and strong arms lifted her from the box. "We're very glad you're awake."
He carried her from the box to a chair that molded to her form “What is that thing I was in?"
”It's a regeneration chamber. You were shot by a human soldier when Saar-king Drace tried to return you to Earth. He brought you back to the Raplan-B, summoned me, and we managed to revive you."
She blinked until she made out the form of her doctor. No doctor she had ever seen looked like this one. Zade Baru-something could’ve stepped out of a TV hospital drama. He had hair the color of the sun and bright aqua eyes. The rest of his look wouldn’t have made it to American TV, though. He wore a snug, utilitarian body suit that fastened at the neck, and exposed his soul markings through sheer panels. He had considerably more markings than Drace. They glowed all the way up his neck, nearly to his jaw.
Her mind, which had been running relatively blank since she'd awoken, slowly shifted to normal. Everything she'd experienced in the past handful of days came back. Aliens. Baylans. Spaceship. Running. Dept. 6. Escape.
Drace. Love.
God, yes, those were real. She remembered Drace bringing her back to Earth, his agonized goodbye, the moment she realized she didn't want to leave him, and the frightened soldiers facing her when she stepped off the shuttle. She did not remember how she was injured.
"Where's Drace?" Her mouth felt filled with cotton.
"Anxious to see you, I'm sure. He's been alerted that you've awoken and he’s on his way." Zade turned a vial in his hand. It contained a clear liquid. "Drink this first." He held out the vial.
Rachel eyed it but didn't take it. "What is it?"
"You've been floating in that regeneration chamber for a long time. This will clear the rest of the medicine from your body and cure the vertigo you'd feel if you tried to walk."
Her stomach dropped. “How long have I been in there?"
He glanced at one of the ten or so screens behind him. "Almost three of your months," he said. "Baylans usually need only a few hours, but human bodies take longer to heal. Especially with wounds as grave as yours."
Three months! Rachel shuddered and tugged the blanket closer around her. Fears flooded her mind. What state was Earth in? How were the people dealing with the Baylans? What would things be like between her and Drace?
He had no idea she'd been about to tell him she wanted to stay with him. What could she say to him? Her dry throat began to ache. Her stomach twisted and rolled in the unmistakable clench of nausea.
The doctor held out the clear vial again. "Drink this, please." He spoke in a sterner voice. "Unless you wish to become violently ill."
She drank the bitter liquid. Her stomach instantly quieted, but a throbbing ache began in her temples.
The door to the room clicked, and Zade checked the monitor. She tensed. What would Drace do? What would he say? The best she could hope for is a fresh start with him, but he could just as easily ship her straight back to Earth and be done with her.
The door opened and in strode not Drace, but Kana, his mother. Rachel's gut twisted all over again. Here she was, wrapped in only a blanket and sticky from whatever the hell that stuff was she floated in for the last three months. The last person she wanted to deal with at the moment was Drace’s mother. Zade made a light bow to Kana and left the room.
"Hello Rachel." Kana stopped in front of her. Drace's mother studied her with gentle eyes. "Drace wasn't able to come."
"Thank you." Rachel smoothed back her bedraggled hair. "You didn't have to...I mean, I––"
"I do have to." Kana's voice took an edge. "You are my son's mate, whether you wish to be or not, and that makes you my daughter as well. I'm greatly relieved to see you have healed. Drace has been beside himself with worry ever since bringing you here."
"I'm sorry." Rachel swallowed thickly. What was she supposed to say? She had zero experience dealing with mothers-in-law, and beyond that relationship, Kana was in a unique position of power.
"You have nothing to apologize for," the woman said. "You didn't anticipate being shot by your own people."
A gunshot? Rachel drew back in shock. Shot by her own people? They’d shot her? She peered under the blanket. Only the faintest of marks on her chest indicated where she'd been shot. A strange bruise twisted from the center of it. Adrenaline jolted her pulse, and her hand trembled as she touched it to the wound. That she almost died, or rather, had died and been brought back by these Baylan machines was only now sinking in. She trained her gaze on the floor, her thoughts scattered. "Perhaps they aren't my people, after all."
"Of course, they are. But perhaps you can call more than one people your own.”
“My grandmother.” Rachel closed her eyes. “Does she know I’m...”
“She knows you’re alive and has been updated regularly on your condition.” Kana smiled. “She’s looking forward to seeing you. She is not the only one.”
Drace. Rachel looked up at Kana. The older woman didn't bother to try to hide the hope in her face––hope that Rachel would choose Drace and the Raplan-B. "How did you know?" she asked. "When you met your...mate––I still dislike that term––did you have doubts?"
"I did," Kana replied, lips pursed. "I was deeply afraid, but mostly because things moved so quickly and I didn't understand that with the Baylan people, there is no courtship once a mate is found. It's a chemical, biological, and spiritual connection that is neither questioned nor resisted." Her lashes lowered for a moment as her eyes brightened. “I was younger than you, and I went with him despite my fear. As I mentioned, staying where I was had become intolerable. I’m glad I did. I love my sons, and I cherish the Baylan people, but when I am away from my Lasiter, there is an emptiness. It is what every mated Baylan feels when they are separated from their partner."
And that emptiness is what Rachel felt on Earth, at the prospect of leaving Drace. It must have been just as painful for him. Tears filled her eyes. "I was about to tell Drace that I'd changed my mind when, when..." She pressed a hand to the faint scar on her chest. "But if I tell him now I want to stay, I'm afraid he won't believe me. That he'll think I'm staying because of some misplaced debt for saving my life, or because I'm too afraid to return to Earth."
Kana
tipped up Rachel's chin so their eyes met. "Hold your head up, love. You have nothing to fear. You're the queen of a generational ship. Leader of a people who are right now cheering at the news of your awakening. As for your mate, if you speak to Drace from your heart, he will know it. He will know you. You were made by the stars, for each other, alone."
Rachel's shoulders drooped. "Those things you say terrify me. That I'm a queen. That I’m to be a leader to all those people."
“ Look." Kana took Rachel's hand and pulled her to her feet. She touched a fingertip to the faint bullet scar. “Look closely.”
Rachel forced her gaze to the scar and gasped when she realized what she’d thought was a bruise wasn’t a bruise at all, but the faint lines of a soul marking, forming there—her own soul marking. She looked up in surprise at the older woman.
Kana smiled. “You made your choice. Your soul knew.”
She pressed her palm to the mark as tears of happiness welled in her eyes. “Will there be more?”
Kana swept a hand over her chest and shoulders. Soul markings traced on her skin, not as bold as the full-blooded Baylans. “What do you think?”
Two Baylan guards entered the chamber. They stood, silent, at attention on either side of the door.
“Ah,” Kana said. “We need to go now. Let’s get you cleaned up and dressed.”
Securing the blanket tight around her, she allowed Drace’s mother to lead her to the door."Where are we going?"
“First, to your quarters. Then, to Drace.” Kana arched a brow. "I hope you are up to this task, Rachel.”
“What task?” she asked, breathlessly trying to keep up with the other woman’s quick gait.
“As a human woman with a Baylan mate, you have been called upon to act as an intermediary between Earth and Bayla. Although being an ambassador is a bit different from any job you’ve ever had.”
“Wait.” Rachel stopped dead in her tracks. “Ambassador?”
Kana turned warm, slightly amused eyes to Rachel. “You were the only choice both Baylan and human leaders could agree on. Both sides were very impatient for you to awaken, although none more so than your mate.”
Kana cupped her hand on Rachel’s slack jaw. “You wanted to help your people. Now you can help both your peoples.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It took willpower for Drace to not rush to Rachel's side. All of his willpower.
If he and the other Saar-kings were not meeting with leaders from Earth this day, he would be with her. It set his teeth on edge that he had to send his mother, but he’d been en route to Switzerland––apparently their global place of neutrality––for this infernal meeting when he received the news that Rachel had regained consciousness. Miserable timing.
He sat at the huge table, drumming his fingers and waiting for Arten to cease his endless monologue on how not interested the Baylans were in global takeover. In truth, it wasn't going very well. The humans listened to the speech, but did not appear convinced. He feared they would be enduring many, many more of these meetings before the humans were convinced of anything.
Leaders or representatives from about twenty powerful countries sat across from about the same number of Saar-kings and Saar-queens, with what felt like a thousand cameras broadcasting the entire exchange all over the world. It had taken tremendous effort to make this happen, but now that Rachel was awake, Drace wanted this finished. The people of Earth were largely terrified of the Baylans. Next to Drace, Harc Lassen-Roi of the Veska-3 lounged with the appearance of bored arrogance. Drace seriously doubted Harc was bored, but he was arrogance personified. The man was still on Drace's dark side for putting his ship in view of the humans without consulting the other Saar-commanders. Now, they were dealing with many consequences––such as this interminable meeting.
Rachel had been quite the controversy. News of her injury had caused an uproar. Humans had of course blamed the Baylans. The Americans had wanted her body returned for a proper burial, so when they were informed that Rachel was still alive, they wanted her back to treat her medically on Earth. An irritating back-and-forth ensued with Drace finally flatly refusing to return her. That did not sit well with the American diplomat he dealt with and he left Arten to clean up relations. As always, Arten had done fantastic damage control. His brother had spent considerable time on Earth and seemed to like it here.
This was Drace's first visit to the planet’s surface since being with Rachel. All he wanted was to be back on his ship. He knew exactly what he planned to say to convince her to stay with him. One of his many errors was not fully grasping how long most human courtships lasted. They didn’t trust their feelings, often for good reason, as they lacked the gift of the soul markings to tell them when they’d found their true mates. Of the many things he'd studied over the past three months, that wasn’t one of them. He was shocked to learn that some couples "dated" for years before committing to each other, and that splits occurred often. He pitied them.
He would not make the same mistake. He regularly spoke with Rachel’s grandmother, keeping her apprised of her granddaughter’s progress—while being monitored, of course—and found that he liked the fiery old woman very much. He’d learned a lot about Rachel during their talks, and promised that as soon as Rachel was able—and it was safe— he’d take her granddaughter to visit her. He hoped to bring Gram, as she’d insisted he call her, up to live on the Raplan-B, but everything hinged on whether Rachel accepted his ship as her home.
Arten and Kana had helped school him in human courtship rituals. It seemed a tedious process, but Drace was prepared to wait as long as necessary for Rachel to accept him as her mate. He'd even had a ring crafted for her of gold and a shimmering stone of Cyttalite, a rare gem once found on Bayla but nonexistent on Earth. Because rings were a human commitment custom, Rachel would have one from him. The delicate ring lay in a pocket of his uniform. He carried it always. Even now, he slid his fingers along the slim band through the fabric of his suit.
A commotion by the door drew the attention of everyone in the room. Murmurs twittered through the assembled, setting everyone on edge.
Harc scowled at the humans. "What is the meaning of this interruption?"
"A shuttle craft from the Raplan-B has arrived," said a guard with a hand pressed to an earpiece. "A Yana-queen by the name of Kana Dal-Allean and her attendant. She is on the approved list, although was not scheduled to attend this meeting." The guards turned to the room. "She requests admittance."
"Who is she?" asked one of the human leaders.
Harc's nostrils flared as he turned his astonished gaze to Drace. "Your mother interrupts our meeting?"
Drace shot his fellow Saar-king a withering look even as his heart raced. "I'm sure she has good reason.” If something had happened to Rachel, he’d return now to the Raplan and damn this meeting.
He kept his features serene even as hands fisted beneath the table. This must have to do with Rachel. His worst fears rose like bile––she’d died, or was dying, after coming out of the rejuvenation chamber. The Raplan’s high physician had been quite clear about not knowing if the restoration chamber was compatible with human physiology. He rose from his seat and gestured to the guard. "Let her in."
Kana Dal-Allean knew how to make an entrance. His mother swept into the room, long hair gleaming and a good amount of skin showing at the shoulder and back. If he was not so worried about Rachel, he would have been amused by how the Earth men stared in wonder. They had struggled not to gaze too long at the nine Saar-queens in attendance. It was apparent that the humans found Baylans attractive.
“Apologies for the interruption. This simply couldn't wait.” Kana’s expression was impossible to read. Her eyes glistened with emotion, coating Drace’s veins with ice.
“What is it? Is she––” He couldn't finish.
Kana signaled the guard, and the door opened again. “May I present the recently awakened Ambassador Harkett?”
Drace nearly lost the strength in
his legs. He could not prevent the gasp that fell from his lips. Rachel.
She stood there in a silver jumpsuit, cinched at her narrow waist. She was alive and healthy and biting her bottom lip around a smile. He fisted his hands to keep from running to her. He needn't have spent the effort because an instant later she darted across the room in a streak of shimmery fabric and hurled herself into his arms.
"Drace!" She drew his head down to hers and kissed him with the same fervor and desperation he'd built up over these long months.
He didn't feel the tears on his cheeks until she wiped them away with shaking fingers. As her own eyes overflowed, he did the same for her. The meeting, with all its serious important implications, melted away as he savored the joy of seeing his mate again, of holding her in his arms after so long.
"I love you," she said. “I’ll never leave you again. I was going to––"
He gathered her close and buried his face in her neck. Relief threatened to weaken his knees again. She was staying. It was all he needed to hear. “I love you, too.”
There would be time for a deep talk, but now was not it. Whatever the reason Rachel had decided to accept him as her mate was a discussion for later. What mattered now was that she had accepted him, and announced it in front of all these people. He knew it. He knew it on the deepest of levels as another new soul marking seared to existence on his collarbone.
∆∆∆
The room quieted. The leaders of Earth and the contingent of Baylan leaders and all the people glued to their screens watched as Drace Dal-Allean, Saar-king of the Raplan-B, got down on one knee and took a ring from a pocket of his suit. They watched as he gave it to the human woman in the silver bodysuit––the same woman they’d seen on the news many times and feared was being held there as a prisoner––and they watched her squeal her happiness as he slid the band over her finger. It was a very human thing for him to do, offering a ring like that. And that was genuine relief, genuine tears of joy brightening his eyes.
