He went to the cave’s door and considered walking into the storm for a few minutes, to battle the elements and banish the remnants of the dream or vision. Glancing at the sleeping mat, he shook his head. There was no way he’d leave his mate alone and unprotected. Determined to think about other things, he returned to the mat, pulling her into his arms as she drowsily protested, not fully awake, and then, breathing in her scent, he grew calmer and sleep claimed him.
* * *
HE AND HIS men had never done a work detail like this before but with the mountain fever taking its toll on the Khagrish staff, the scientists had decided to use the Badari as free labor. Severe threats had been made about anyone stepping out of line. The first man to try it would be force whipped to death while the others watched, or so the guards threatened.
Aydarr stepped into the huge cargo chamber on the Shemdylann transport behind the security officer in charge and did a double take. Literally hundreds of humans floated in the air, suspended in clear specimen stasis envelopes.
What the hells is going on? The voice of Mateer, his senior enforcer, rang in his head, using the secret telepathic link.
Kidnapped for experiments maybe?
His guess was quickly confirmed as he overheard the lab techs discussing what protocols might be run first, once the customer transmitted the full set of orders.
“In the meantime we’ll store them in holding pens in the lab complex,” the senior tech said, snickering. “Those empty storerooms will do fine. The humans won’t care about a total lack of amenities.”
“I don’t care what you do with them, just get them off my ship,” said the Shemdylann captain, clicking his mandibles. “Too much trouble for the effort needed. Kidnapping an entire colony—except the children—with no ransom to be had, little of worth to loot there, not even able to eat any of them on the voyage here—I tell you, my crew is unhappy.”
“All right.” The officer pivoted to look at Aydarr. “Each of your men takes five envelopes at a time and transports them to the loading dock at the lab. Damned inefficient but there’s no other choice right now.”
“How do we—?” Aydarr studied the way the envelopes floated in the air, the slightest breeze sending them tumbling, bumping into others and setting off a chaotic chain reaction.
The Shemdylann pirate demonstrated. “Catch the lower corner here, at the reinforced tab, and drag them along. The envelope structure is quite durable.”
With a lot of swearing and difficulty, Aydarr and his men managed to collect a group of the envelopes and head toward the lab, Khagrish guards with drawn pulse guns and neurocontrollers at the ready marching alongside. The whole scene struck Aydarr as unreal. This never happened. We had no idea they’d kidnapped the colonists. And the mountain fever only appeared after Darik and Nicole escaped the lab where they were held. What the seven hells is going on? He wondered if he was dreaming, or if the strange thoughts in his head were the results of a dream and this was reality. How did one wrench oneself out of a terrible dream? Experimentally he drew one sharp talon across his other hand, creating a slash which stung but healed immediately. No use, he was still walking under guard in the hot sunshine, dragging a group of doomed human prisoners along with him.
And on his right wrist he wore the hated black neurocontroller bracelet, symbol of his status as a prisoner and subject for horrific experiments. Gritting his teeth, he made himself keep walking.
On his second trip, he entered the Shemdylann hold and moved to snag five more of the poor human victims. A bright color caught his eye and he pushed his way among the swirling envelopes until he stood before the one he wanted to see. Reaching out with one hand, he snagged the tab and stared up at the woman caught inside. Her eyes were wide open and he knew she was awake, another feature of the capture method the Khagrish enjoyed, because it was a form of mental torture. She wore a bright pink nightgown which barely covered her body but his attention was riveted on her face.
This woman was his mate. He was as sure of the fact as if the goddess herself stood there to tell him the news. Heart thumping, he hung onto the all-important envelope as he grabbed four others at random and left the Shemdylann ship, heading for the lab. The discipline of the first transfers had broken down as the wind caught the envelopes and Badari had to sprint to recapture several of them. Also, a number of the guards were sickening with the virus this week and felt so unwell most weren’t paying much attention. One man was off to the side throwing up while his comrades watched him with a mix of sympathy and fear.
He was dizzy from confusion, knowing he held Jill, who was indeed his mate, but in this dream they obviously didn’t know each other. But he believed with every fiber of his being she was meant for him. I’d really like to wake up now. The two realities fighting in his head gave him a raging headache.
Stuck in the moment, Aydarr summoned one of his men telepathically and handed off the four packets in which he had no special interest, retaining his tight control over the one with his mate. Unfurling his full set of talons on his left hand, he tore through one side of the stasis envelope as if it were paper. The material fell apart and the woman collapsed into his waiting arms. “Mine!” he said, glaring at the Khagrish who were now surrounding him, weapons drawn. The guards were unsure what to do and had no orders for this unprecedented situation, which Aydarr was counting on.
The woman clung to him but was barely conscious.
“I claim this human as my mate,” Aydarr said. “You’ll have to kill me first before you touch her.”
“Interesting,” said a new voice from behind him.
Aydarr stood motionless as Dr. Sheyall came to stand in front of him. She was in charge of the Badari experiment now, ever since Dr. Cwamla died of the mountain fever. She wasn’t quite as ruthless as the other Khagrish at the lab but he didn’t trust her. She was too friendly and easy going, in marked contrast to every other Khagrish he’d ever met and he feared it was an act, to gain the confidence of the Badari and ultimately betray them.
There was a Chimmer with her and since the gray aliens were the ultimate customer for all the experiments conducted on this hellhole planet, Aydarr suspected he might die in the next minute or two, but at least he and his mate would be together and spared further torture.
If we die in this fucking dream do we die in reality too?
Ignoring Aydarr’s inner struggles, the Chimmer’s voice emerged as if the alien was speaking through a filter of mucous. “He bonded with the human in an instant or so it seems. This could be an interesting wrinkle in our experiment design.”
“Would you like me to set up a protocol with the two of them? Rather than terminating them today?” Sheyall’s voice had a tiny tremor in it.
Aydarr was contemptuous of her. Either she hadn’t steeled herself yet to conduct the horrific ‘research’ her peers demanded or she was afraid of the Chimmer or both. Advantage to him for sure because he was nothing but steel will power augmented by hatred through and through. He felt the woman in his arms gathering herself as if she was going to attempt to speak and he shook his head a fraction, glancing down at her. Was Jill now in the dream with him? How dangerous was this for them? He sent the Great Mother a prayer to extricate them both from this altered reality.
“I think, yes,” the Chimmer said. “There might be new avenues of strategic advantage for my masters in this situation. The two of them will be sufficient. Prime specimens of their respective species.” The alien waved one sucker-tipped hand at Aydarr and Jill. “Allow him to keep the woman but continue in the pack for now. See if the couple breeds. See how the other males react to her. I’ll want detailed notes.”
“Of course.” Sheyall gestured at the guards. “Take 801 and the human to the pack cell. The others will continue working.” She wheeled to address the other guards and the Badari prisoners. “Anyone who makes a similar move will be executed immediately and the human involved will also be terminated. Am I clear on this?”
She found h
“Thank you, stranger,” Jill whispered, her voice audible only to him. “Enemy of my enemy, right?”
“Exactly.” He gave her a smile and held her closer.
* * *
“ENEMY OF MY ENEMY,” Jill said, sitting bolt upright on the sleeping mat. She grabbed at Aydarr, who was also rising, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“You were dreaming too?” he asked, taking her hand and pulling her to him.
“The lab, we were back at the lab, but it was all different and Sheyall of all people was in charge—”
“And I cut you loose from the stasis envelope and declared you my mate,” he said, cutting across her tremulous words.
“What in the seven hells is going on tonight?” she asked, eyes wide. “How—how could we possibly be having the same dream?”
He stared around the faux cave, took in the storm blowing outside and heaved a deep breath of relief to be safe in his own life. “The Great Mother must have sent it to us.” Now he looked more closely at Jill. “I had another dream as well, earlier.”
“I did too,” she said. “Just as impossible as the last one. We were at the colony—”
Shaking his head, he wrapped her in her jacket because she was shaking and her skin was chilled to his touch. “I dreamt I was an ancestor, on the original home world. You weren’t in that dream but I—the person I was, because I wasn’t myself, not Aydarr of the Badari—I longed for you. I’d seen you in my dreams.”
“Listen to us, we aren’t making any sense,” she said with a shaky laugh. Poking the pillow with disgust, she said, “I know I’m not going back to sleep tonight.”
“Me either.” He folded her in his arms and rocked her a little, gathering strength from holding her close. “I think we should tell each other what we dreamt, before we forget. We need to put together the pieces and try to figure out what the goddess was trying to tell us.”
“All right. I’d like some tea.” Jill held out one hand, which shook slightly. “Takes a hell of a lot to rattle me but these dreams did it.”
He gave her a kiss, lingering over the sweetness of her lips and allowing her scent to soothe his own jangled nerves. “I’ll make us both tea.”
“I’ll encourage the fire,” she said, sounding more like herself. “And then we’ll talk.”
As soon as the tea was ready and the fire was blazing high, they took their mugs and returned to the sleeping mat, sitting hip to hip, as close together as possible.
“You first,” Jill said. “Since your dream about the ancestor would be the first in the timeline. Then I’ll tell you mine, about Amarcae Seven. You won’t like it much, I warn you. But you were doing your best to save my life, mine and my sisters.”
“We knew each other?”
She shook her head. “Not really. I mean, I did know you and I didn’t. It was so weird. We kissed though. You said I was your mate.” She rested her fingers on her lips. “No, you tell me about the ancestor dream before I get too deeply into what I dreamt. Or lived through.”
“I was sharpening a spear,” he said, “Using a whetstone.” He spread out his fingers on his free hand and deployed the lethal talons. “I—he—had none of this. He was an ordinary man. It felt so strange.”
“I can imagine it would.”
“He was happy when the dream began, thinking about a gathering, and contests and becoming chief over all the clans. And then a woman entered his hut.” Aydarr took a big swallow of the tea and met Jill’s gaze. “I think it must have been a few days before the Shemdylann came from the skies to accomplish their despicable task.” Reaching out, he ran his hand through her hair and Jill leaned into his touch. “He’d been dreaming of you.” Details coming to him in a rush, he related the rest of the dream.
When he was finished, they sat silently for a few moments.
“Could it have been the ancestral memory, like Landon tapped into?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, I was this man. And I was myself too. It was disorienting. But the goddess was crystal clear about what was ahead. She did say I’d be given the mate I needed, at the right time.” With a shrug, he drained the last of his tea and set the mug on the cave floor beside the mat. “Your turn. So we were on Amarcae Seven?”
“Even in the dream I was sure the location was wrong. And the first person I saw was Harker!” She shuddered as she named the late troublemaker who’d once kidnapped her pregnant sister. “Lords of Space, it was all so real. But you were right about us knowing each other to some extent. I was so attracted to you.”
“So far I approve,” he said, trying to lighten the atmosphere. He remembered what she’d said earlier, her expectation he wouldn’t be happy about his role in the dream. “You can tell me anything, you know. It wasn’t real.” Giving her a hug, he lifted her onto his lap. “This, here, us right now is the reality.”
With a nod, Jill launched into her story. “I was in my tech repair shop…”
When she finished Aydarr was at a loss for words. Could it all have happened that way? The Khagrish would have been holding his pack’s cubs and cadets hostage here on this planet, to ensure his compliance and dedication to duty. Could he and his men have participated in a massacre such as Jill said he’d warned her about? Thank the Great Mother the situation never arose in reality. Their deployments had all been training exercises and a few combat missions against other soldiers, except for the final one, and he was proud of how he and his men conducted themselves, helping the targeted civilians to escape. He’d paid a personal price for it, but then Jill engineered their breakout. Emotions raw, he rubbed one hand over his face and resisted the urge to snarl. There was no enemy here to fight. The question of what he would have done when the attack started would always remain unanswered.
“Hey,” she said softly, giving him a hug. “I know you would have done your best to help the humans, you and the pack. But it was only a dream. Speaking of which, one more dream to go. The one we shared. I only endured part of it so you’ll have to go first.”
Bringing her up to speed didn’t take long and she interrupted when he got to the part about finding her trapped in the stasis envelope.
“That’s where the dream began for me. I couldn’t breathe and I was terrified but then I saw you and I knew I’d be all right.”
He recited the events leading up to his releasing her from the stasis and they alternated telling each other the rest of the dream, the words tumbling over each other.
“I couldn’t believe it when I realized Dr. Sheyall was in charge,” Jill said. “I wondered what happened to her.”
“She didn’t help us, not in real life or in the dream,” Aydarr said.
“Well to be fair, in real life she did give us one night alone together, where we claimed each other.”
With a snort, he said, “Yes, because she wanted you to breed, as the Chimmer inelegantly phrased it. Not to do us a favor.”
“I’ll take the end result however I arrived at it.” Jill kissed the golden circle that was his mate mark. “So what does it all mean then?”
Rubbing his thumb over her mate mark, enjoying the feel of her soft skin, he said, “I think the goddess was showing us how we’re the right people at the right time, to fight this fight.”
“So maybe the dreams were an alternate reality or a parallel universe? And no matter what the enemy threw at us, we were fated to be together? To be in this war together?”
“I think the answer is yes. We can’t fail,” he said, excitement rising in his heart. “The road may be long and hard but together we’ll see it through to the end.”
Jill snuggled tight against him. “A reassuring thought.”
They sat together for a while as the storm eased, becoming intermittent showers.
“It’ll be dawn soon,” Aydarr said.
“I think it’s time for us to be on our way to the Great Mother’s circle.”
“You knew I wanted to go there today?” He was surprised although he shouldn’t have been—his mate understood him so well.
Obviously pleased with herself, Jill grinned. “Once I figured out where we were, of course. I know how much you miss being able to worship there. The stone circle you and the pack built in the valley is impressive and suitably solemn but not the same.”
“The goddess blesses us by being willing to accept the stone circle for a sacred place, but no, it isn’t the same.” Rubbing his jaw, he said, “If you’re willing, I’d like to leave immediately. We can eat breakfast as we go. The cave bothers me now, even more than when we first arrived. I was wrong to bring us to this spot, even if we did need shelter from the storm. I should have tried to find another place to go.” But keeping Jill safe from the elements had been uppermost in his mind and this place was the best option for a human. The cave itself had nothing to do with their unsettling dreams but now he wanted to be outside, in the fresh air and sunshine and move on.
CHAPTER FIVE
Packing up their possessions, dousing the fire and leaving the cave took very little time. Jill and Aydarr walked hand in hand in the direction of the Great Mother’s circle and munched on trail rations.
“If you sent Mateer and Timtur to get my sisters,” she said, “They would have recognized their mates just like you did.”
Aydarr laughed ruefully. “I wasn’t sharing your dream so I can’t answer the question.”
“You know I would have gotten them to safety, like you said to do, but then I’d have been back. I would have found you and we would have fought the enemy.”
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