Nevin raised a quizzical eyebrow. "What was it you reported, Lieutenant Haven? That Medic Tyler located him in the midst of a .. . 'beer brawl'?"
"The retrieval is going as planned, gentlemen," Thea told them sharply, although she couldn't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been wiser to send a squadron to reclaim Scott Dillon's future self. She knew what a stubborn fool the man could be.
"With this new intelligence, I believe reinforcements are in order." Jared turned to face Marco. "I'd like you to intercept them in Texas. Get them back to base straight away."
Thea lifted an eyebrow. "For a moment, I thought you had a full battalion in mind, sir." She laughed softly despite herself. Dillon—in any form—was always quite the handful.
Jared glanced sideways at Marco, a glimmer of pride in his eyes as he studied his Madjin protector. "Marco will do. And perfectly well," he said, then tapped the classified folder open before him. "Yes, this latest report raises the ante. Makes it all the more critical that we retrieve Jake from Texas." Jared pushed back from the table. "With the threat in the White House … it is time."
"Time for what?" Thea stood, facing her cousin and king.
Jared reached for the briefing folder and clasped it to his chest. "Time to solidly join forces with the human realm. We have to let the task force know about this latest development, even though it means greater risk. Marco, go. Go and make sure that Jake returns. Thea, you stay here, and remain in close contact with your source. Report to me if anything—anything—changes in terms of the current status quo."
Marco sank back into his chair at the table, trying to block the assault of emotions and anxiety that the meeting had caused. Some days were harder than others as an empath, and highly charged situations were never much fun. Back home on Refaria, his kind went insane or worse from their gift in young adulthood. Including his own mother, although she'd been a bit older before her empathy had splintered her mind. But long ago he'd mastered his ability, learned how to battle it into the background, to use it whenever safely possible—and necessary. Still, in just that brief meeting with Jared and his advisers, a slight migraine had begun squarely behind his eyes.
Being with Thea was a different matter altogether: He was so deeply attuned to his wife and mate that none of her unsettled emotions had the capacity to weaken him. But Jared had a wholly unique impact on Marco's psyche. Between his role as the man's Madjin, and—as he'd recently learned—his brother, the powerful emotions the monarch tended to exude had the capacity to drain him for days if he wasn't careful.
Reading his thoughts, Thea whispered, "You've got to tell him," and slid into the chair next to his.
"When the time is right." Marco reached for her hand, rubbing his brow with the other.
"Blocking him … being so connected to him without his knowing the truth about who you are … it's killing you! I sense it. How many more meetings can you go through and come out like you are now?"
Marco gritted his teeth. They'd been over this ground repeatedly, and somehow Thea could never get why he didn't want Jared to know. The migraine swelled harder and faster behind his eyes.
"You're the only brother Jared has."
"Half-brother," he corrected with a growl. "Not something he'll be particularly proud of, not if he learns the details about our father's affair."
"How can you be so thickheaded? If I didn't know you were brothers, I'd surely guess at it because the two of you are so much alike. Stubborn, proud. Sometimes to the point of stupidity."
Marco gave her a grudging grin. "I love it when you talk dirty to me."
Thea tilted her head sideways, and he could practically hear her counting to ten in his own head.
"Think about what family means to that man." She squeezed his hand tightly within her own. "He'd be furious with you for not telling him."
He jerked backward in his chair. "Tell him what? That he has a bastard for a brother? That his sworn servant—his very own Madjin protector—was given to him as … as what, Thea? As his bondservant? I live to serve that man." He gestured toward the closed meeting room door. "Following him is all I ever trained for. If he learns the truth"—he shook his head remorsefully—"then I am no more. All that I am crumbles to dust."
She took hold of his face, cupping it in her hands. "What are you so afraid of? Tell me. Please just tell me."
Marco pressed his eyes shut, fighting the throbbing headache that battered his senses. "That he will forbid me to serve him. That he will cast me away."
"Cast you away?" Thea cried. "What sort of man do you take him for? Don't you know him at all? His kindness and fairness?"
Marco dropped his head, burying it in his hands. "No, baby, not that he'll reject me … that he won't accept my service. And I have to serve him." He cut his eyes, determined to make her understand his heart. "Don't you see that if I'm not his Madjin protector, then I have nothing? I am nothing."
She pressed her face close to his, drawing in a long inhalation of his scent, then kissed him softly on the cheek. "You've sworn your life to our king, but now you need to trust him—at least just a little."
Oh, trust, such a beguiling thing, Marco thought, as the migraine reached a maddening crescendo inside his mind and spirit. Such an easy word, but with so many difficult and far-reaching complications.
"Let me think on it," he whispered, but in his heart he knew that he could never breach the barriers of class and service that Thea was suggesting.
Chapter Three
Kelsey Wells lay naked in the king-sized bed that she shared with her king-sized husband—a thought that made her giggle despite the seriousness of the day ahead. In the five months since she'd bonded with, and married, J'Areshkadau B'net D'Aravni, exiled king of Refaria, she'd often found her new lot in life more than slightly amusing. Twenty-eight years old, she was now carrying Jareshk's unborn child within her womb; and at slightly more than four months into the five-month Refarian gestational cycle, she had begun to realize that the surreal quality of her new life had only just begun.
Jared moved about their quarters, a master suite in a lodge nestled high in the Tetons of Wyoming. Today was perhaps the most important day in their shared lives—at least since that first day they'd met as teenagers some fifteen years earlier. That was if you didn't count their soul-bonding, or the creation of the unborn baby girl who kicked and moved within her belly.
Today her father would meet her alien husband for the very first time. Today she would share all the facts of this strange alien war with him as well.
"Fliishki," Jared muttered from deep within their walk-in closet.
"What's wrong?" She wrestled to sit up in bed, holding one palm against her swollen belly. Five months, my ass, she thought, feeling the skin across her abdomen itch and the baby give another tumultuous roll. This baby's coming any day now.
"It's been far too long since I've had my dress uniform on." Jared appeared in the connecting doorway to their large bath area. "It looks ill fitting on me. I've gained muscle since last I wore it." Jared grimaced, casting a glance at the floor-length mirror on the far wall. "And I dare say I've gained weight since mating with you, sweet love."
Funny, all she could think was that he looked absolutely stunning in the formal uniform of all black, what with his ebony eyes and gleaming dark head of hair. He'd grown it some since they'd mated, allowed it to fall loose about his shoulders, except on days like this one. Today he'd pulled it into a short ponytail, a smooth sheen of raven black hair streaked with silver.
He tugged at the jacket in irritation, adjusting it where it fell along his hips. "Why I couldn't simply wear my usual uniform, I am not even sure."
"Because this is probably the single most important day since you landed on Earth." Kelsey propped herself against a swath of overstuffed pillows, cupping both of her hands about her stomach, needing to feel Erica's movements just beneath her fingertips. A future princess! The thought that she carried someone so powerful—possessing the ability
to become a pure sphere of energy just like her father—boggled Kelsey's mind when she thought about it too hard.
"Do I seem heavier to you?" Jared tossed a vulnerable glance over his shoulder.
"And you're asking me that—right now?" She laughed, waving a hand over her large belly.
"You've never been more beautiful, whereas I am—"
"A nervous wreck about meeting my dad. Besides, how often have you been working out lately?"
He bowed his head, putting his back to her. "Daily."
"If you've gained weight, it's just like you said—it's all muscle." The fact was there wasn't one ounce of wasted weight on her husband's body. For months he'd been driving himself harder and harder, it seemed. Honing himself, making his body into a weapon in its own right. When she'd questioned him, asking why he kept pushing his physical boundaries so hard, Jared never had an answer.
But Kelsey understood his heart well enough and had intuited one simple fact, one that perhaps even her husband hadn't realized yet: He was anticipating something. Some dark thing on the horizon that he couldn't name, but nonetheless felt the need to prepare himself for, both spiritually and physically. Because just as he'd been punishing his body with relentless physical trials, he'd also spent increasing amounts of time in private meditation.
"Jared, look"—she beckoned him toward the side of their bed—"just come over here. I need to talk to you."
As he turned to face her, she saw thinly veiled anxiety in his black eyes. "We don't have much time, love. Your father arrives at eleven hundred—"
"I mean really talk to you. Okay?"
With a nervous glance at his communicator's time display, he crossed the room, settling on the bed beside her.
For long moments he stared into her eyes, and she felt the swirling cauldron of emotions vying for control within her mate. Anxiety, anticipation, even fear for her—at least somehow.
"I'll be all right," she whispered, reaching a hand to his cheek. He was fiery warm to the touch, whereas her own hand was chilled by the early May temperature within their lodge.
Jared grimaced, bowing his head, then reached a tentative hand to her abdomen. "How fares Erica today?" She could hear the fatherly concern, the protective note in his voice.
"She's doing great. You worry about us both way too much."
He struggled with something, his almond-shaped eyes narrowing to slits. "I have never felt so vulnerable in all my life. Not as I do now, loving you like this, Kelse. Loving our baby girl." His palm tensed against her abdomen, cupping the rounded fullness protectively.
"That doesn't mean anything bad will happen."
"I can't help but fear it." His voice was soft, electric, but he averted his gaze. None of this was about the uniform, or about meeting her father for the first time; something much bigger was going on.
"Tell me the real issue, then."
His fingertips flexed against her warm belly. "I've been plagued by bad visions lately."
"Yes, about Jake, I know." He'd had numerous dark premonitions about Scott's future self, about Texas.
Jared lifted his gaze, locking with her own. "It's more than Jakob." His hand tensed against her warm skin once more, hovering protectively over their unborn baby. "It's … all of us."
Kelsey's heart skipped a beat, then hammered frantically within her chest. "What are you saying?"
His long-lashed eyes drifted slowly shut. "I don't know yet. I just feel this darkness coming, something dangerous—and here we are about to step into your world, into the human world, more firmly than we've ever done before."
"We aren't going anywhere. My dad's coming here. Are you saying you think this meeting with him is a bad idea?" If it was, she wanted to know his premonitions now, not later, once her father had arrived.
"It's our work with the FBI, the task force, everything. I can't lay hold of it exactly, can't get a clear picture. If only I could, I'd know why I'm so anxious."
She lifted her fingertips to the scars along his cheek. "You know my dad is going to love you."
"Once he gets past the fact that I'm alien. That you're carrying an alien child, and that I've changed everything he ever knew about you."
Kelsey couldn't help smiling, and felt an answering gyration within her belly. "You did change me. But that's a beautiful thing."
"And what about the mitres? What would he say about that?"
Kelsey pushed back against the pillows. This was familiar ground between them: Jared's fears that the operational codes to their greatest weapon, the mitres, were lodged deep within her psyche—and had been ever since he'd made a temporary link with her to keep the codes from falling into enemies' hands. His anxieties weren't entirely unfounded, either; the mitres allowed them to alter time itself, and their enemies would kill to gain control of the weapon. "My dad won't know anything about the mitres."
"I'm a father now, and if some man—an alien—had done to our daughter"—he pressed his hand firmly against her stomach—"what I did to you? I'd have his head. I'd take his life for endangering her like that."
She frowned. "Are you talking about Erica? That I'm pregnant with your child?"
"How could I ever regret anything about our baby?" He shook his head adamantly. "I'm talking about the mitres codes, that you're the only one of us who can operate the weapon."
She slid sideways on the bed. "So that's what this is really all about, huh? You still don't think I'm strong enough to handle what you put inside of me."
He reached for her, but she ducked out of his grasp. "You're the strongest woman I've ever known—of any species."
"Woman. Strongest woman."
Jared shook his head ruefully. "Strongest person, Kelsey. Please don't play my words against me. Don't act as my interrogator."
She glared at him and slid toward the end of the bed, planting both feet on the floor. Quickly, she moved toward their bathroom. "I'm gonna take my shower. Then we can get moving."
"If our enemies ever learned that you're the one who can control the mitres …" His voice trailed off.
She turned to face him, pulling her bathrobe tight over her belly. "And how would they know? They don't have a clue about the mitres—they've never even found the freaking thing. How would they figure out the truth about me?"
"You've never been to my home world, haven't seen what they did to my people."
"Our people, Jared," she corrected softly, planting a palm over her heart. "Your people are my people now—I'm their queen. I may not have seen the devastation, but I feel it all around me every day. I've seen what they've done here on Earth … the attack at Warren. Of course I understand who we're dealing with."
He raised both hands. "My point precisely. So if they ever did learn of your true identity"—he shook his head, crossing the small distance that separated them—"I couldn't live with what they might do to you."
She wrapped both arms about his torso, resting her cheek against his chest. His heart was racing frantically beneath his uniform, and all her frustration melted away completely. "Jared, I'm right here, and I'm safe. You know what's been prophesied. I'm key to this revolution, and I love that fact."
He blew out a heavy sigh, stroking her hair. "How can I argue with the Beloved of Refaria?" That's what the prophets had called her, a fact that had been confirmed by the intuitives in their midst. "I should spend all my days worshipping you and keeping you deeply satisfied."
He slipped a palm beneath her bathrobe, sliding it suggestively along her thigh, then inward, stroking the silky curls between her legs.
"Well, when you put it that way"—she tipped her face upward, kissing him full on the mouth—"I get all turned on and want to take you back to bed."
"Then we could forget everything." He sighed, drawing her mouth back to his. "The war, our enemies."
The kiss deepened between them, Kelsey's robe falling completely open. Fear clawed at the edge of her mind, but she brushed it away, losing herself in this pure moment with her mate. Th
e need to make love with him had been overwhelming since she'd become pregnant, and now was no exception.
"Do we have time?" She panted, tugging at the zipper of his uniform pants.
Jared slid her robe to the floor. "I don't care if we do or not." He growled in her ear, working her back toward the bed. "We only have now, and I want to mate."
Fully naked, Kelsey sat on the end of the bed, opening her legs to him. She worked at his belt and the fastenings of his pants, which quickly pooled about his ankles, revealing his fully erect cock, long and thick and ready for her. She never ceased to marvel at Jared's beautiful body, the darkness of it, the exquisite lines of muscle. She circled her fingertips around his erection, taking hold of his hip with her other hand. There was a slight indentation where his hip met his muscled abdomen, and she always loved to touch that place. Valley of Kelsey, he'd jokingly named it because it turned her on so much.
A shuddered breath passed from his lips as she tightened her hold about his shaft; he slid both hands atop her head, pulling her against his abdomen. With a flick of her tongue, she laved his belly button, all the while increasing the friction of her hand against his quivering length.
Jared slid both hands along Kelsey's shoulders, then back, needing desperately—as if his very life depended upon it—to feel physically closer to her. To take her within himself and hide her there. Opening their connection, he allowed his soul to reach toward hers, the feather-light touch of their deep bond opening. Without warning, an explosion of their shared power and light jolted into him, causing him to stagger slightly.
"Easy, there," Kelsey murmured, lowering her mouth until he felt the warm wetness of her tongue encircling his hard cock.
"Didn't you … feel that?" Warm rays of light filtered through his mind, his spirit. It was always like this when they mated, yet something felt different this time, too.
Something dark accompanied the light.
Kelsey smiled up at him, caressing his abdomen. "I only feel you."
Parallel Desire Page 4
