Light of Kaska

by Michelle O'Leary

  "No, it’s too big. Won’t do me any good, and you’ll be without. Can you go get help?"

  "And leave you here? Unless you let me kill him, shithead’s still a problem and you won’t get any warmer."

  "You can tie him up. I’ll sit on him. My butt will be nice and warm and if he wakes up, I can get my blood pumping by kicking him a few times. It’ll be fun."

  He snorted, arms tightening around her. Grim humor tugged at his mouth for a second before fading away. "I don’t want to leave you. Not alone with him."

  "It’s not my first choice either," she whispered, tucking her face against his throat so he wouldn’t see how she dreaded his departure and another stretch of time alone with her captor. "Did you bring some way to communicate with the House?"

  He made a sound of disgust in his throat. "No, was in too big a hurry to get to you."

  "For which I am profoundly grateful," she responded, shuddering when she remembered Clavis licking his lips. "No choice, then. If you make sure he can’t go anywhere, I’ll be fine."

  She felt rather than heard his growl, the rumble communicating through his chest into hers. His hold tensed before he muttered something incomprehensible and scooped her gently off his lap. Bereft of his warmth and comfort, the chill returned to her bones with a vengeance and she locked her arms around her waist, watching Chase as he leaned over Clavis’s reclined form.

  "Could drag him outta here with me."

  "He’d drown."

  "So?"

  She sighed. "Please, just tie him."

  Chase grunted and muttered something under his breath before he began ripping the other man’s shirt off.

  Keza raised curious eyebrows. "Um…"

  "Need something to tie him down. No cuffs, belt, suspenders, or neck nooses. Gotta go with this." Using twisted pieces of torn cloth, he tied a series of intricate loops and knots around the unconscious man’s wrists and ankles, bringing his four limbs together in an awkward bow over his back.

  Keza bit the inside of her lip to keep from snickering at the sight, amazed by Chase’s many talents. "Well, just as long as he’s comfortable," Keza commented dryly.

  Chase paused and stared down at the man, his hard face unreadable. But Keza knew a thing or two about her panther by this time and sobered in a hurry.

  "I’ll be fine. He won’t get free. If he even tries, I’ll hit him over the head with a rock."

  "I don’t like it," Chase said in a low, musing, blood-thirsty tone.

  Keza winced. "I don’t blame you for wanting to, but you can’t kill him."

  He turned his head to meet her gaze, his black and glittering stare saying clearly that he could and would, if he thought it necessary.

  "Chase," she hissed in warning, but movement caught her attention. A selkie crept into view, its soft grey pelt turned black by the dim lighting. "Meerie," Keza whispered, recognizing the female. The selkie didn’t look away from the trussed up body of Clavis, sidling up to Keza’s side with a quiver of instinctual fear. "Brave girl," Keza crooned, running a soothing hand over the creature’s silky, round head and tense back.

  "What’s it doing?" Chase asked, his brows twitching together as he eyed Meerie.

  "She’ll keep me warm and if Clavis tries anything, she can swim me out of here. Go, Chase."

  The water churned with sleek bodies and another selkie eased out of the water, mewling softly—Meerie’s son, Donl. Chase watched the male wiggle over and snuggle his head in Keza’s lap. With a low rumble in his chest, Chase glanced down at Clavis with cold speculation in the tilt of his head. Then to Keza’s relief, he stood and stepped close, crouching in front of her. Neither selkie moved.

  "Wow, they really aren’t afraid of you," she murmured, stroking each of them with deep affection and pride.

  Chase looked at the animals with a quirk of his lips and flicked a finger at Donl. "This one does most of the tool stealing." Face sobering, he studied her then cupped the bruised side of her face with a tenderness that nearly stopped her heart. "They’re lightning fast swimmers. They’ll tow me to shore and back before you even miss me."

  Keza forced a smile on her lips and blinked away the sting of tears. "If you really want to impress me, bring back a hot shower."

  "I’ll see what I can do," he said and leaned forward to brush his lips against hers with such gentle care that she had to swallow a sob.

  Thankfully, he turned away and slipped into the water before he could see the desolation on her face. The dark swallowed him as if he’d never existed. Keza wrapped her arms tight around her knees, rocking to give herself meager comfort. Both selkies pressed against her, little moans shivering out of their throats.

  "It’s okay, we’ll be okay," she whispered, turning to them gratefully. If she kept herself occupied with the need to soothe them, she wouldn’t think about her situation too much. About the cold reaching icy fingers to her bones, about the light that seemed to be growing dimmer, about the crazy man lying much too close, so silent and still. The quiet was oppressive, filled with expectation of violence like the stillness before a freak storm.

  "We’ll be okay," she murmured again to banish the silence, curling on her side in a fetal position and urging the selkies to join her. "Let’s huddle like we used to do. Remember? We’d play until I couldn’t swim anymore and you’d drag me to shore. We’d curl up in the sand and the sun, sleep until supper. Warm and happy," she mumbled, snuggling her face into Donl’s coat. With Meerie at her back and her arms around Donl, bodies pressed together, she could feel warmth seeping back into her by degrees.

  Lulled by returning heat and fond memories, Keza did something totally unexpected. She fell asleep.

  Voices and sounds roused her, though she couldn’t seem to focus. Her arms felt empty and her body too cold. "Meerie?" she whispered for no reason she could understand—why would Meerie be in her bed? Wait, where was her bed? And what were all these people doing in her room?

  "What’s going on?" she mumbled, struggling to prop open her strangely heavy eyelids.

  "Didn’t have to go all the way to shore," Chase answered, lifting and cradling her. "Found a Patrol boat. We’ll get you out of here, Sunshine."

  His words didn’t make any sense to her, but his arms were more welcome than her bed, so she relaxed with a sigh. There was too much noise, light, and jostling to fall back to sleep, but she dosed, comforted by his presence and safe in his arms.

  Chapter 19

  Stryker paced through Keza’s living quarters, resisting the gnawing urge to check on her again and trying to ignore her family.

  "She’ll be fine," Myelle said, though her voice held a trace of strain. "The doctor said she’ll be fine and the med system agreed. She just needs to sleep off the shock and physical stress."

  He stalked by her position on Keza’s sofa and didn’t answer. His mind agreed with her but the rest of him wouldn’t believe it until she opened her eyes. Until she smiled. Something crashed in the kitchenette and everyone in the room flinched. Nade stuck her head around the corner and whispered, "Sorry," amber eyes enormous in her pale face. Stryker sent her a low growl but didn’t stop moving.

  With a chuckle, Harle straightened away from where he’d been leaning against the wall and went to his lifemate, taking her in his arms. "Never thought I’d see you trash a kitchen, babe."

  "My hands are so clumsy. I can’t seem to make them work right. What will happen to that man?"

  Stryker growled again but didn’t say what he wanted to have happen to the fat bastard. Clavis had come ashore raving, utterly insane. Kaskan security had had to drug him to haul him away. That had been of secondary interest, though, as Keza was rushed to the medical clinic.

  "He’ll be tested, figure out what’s wrong with his head."

  "You should’ve killed him," Rogue stated in a grim voice, stepping directly into Stryker’s path.

  Stryker planted a hand in his chest and shoved him back into his chair with a snarl of impatience, barely slowin
g. "Knock it off with the guilt and quit asking for a beating."

  Rogue sighed, slumping into his chair. "I deserve it for letting that man in our house."

  "Maybe later."

  "Promise?" Rogue muttered with a dark trace of his usual humor.

  "The selkies really led you to Keza?" Liss asked from her corner of the sofa, hugging her knees and watching Stryker with a dewy expression he was having trouble interpreting.

  "Yeah," he muttered for the hundredth time, scrubbing his fingers ruthlessly through his hair.

  "That’s so romantic," she sighed and he shot her a disgusted look tinged with horror.

  Harle choked on a laugh. "Kaska’s tits, first the statue and now the selkies. What’s next, big hero? Pullin’ the Goddess outta your ass?"

  "I’ll beat you later, too," Stryker notified him with a black stare but didn’t stop moving.

  "Sure, sure," Harle responded with easy agreement and a chuckle.

  "Chase," Myelle murmured, straightening to watch him with a strangely determined set to her mouth. "Thank you again for saving Keza and bringing her home. I don’t know what your plans are…" She paused, studying him with a crease between her eyes. "But I want you to know that you have a home here, no matter what you decide. I consider you part of our family now."

  That stopped him. He froze, staring at her with a peculiar leap in his chest that could have been terror. "You don’t have to do that."

  She lifted her eyebrows, lips curving ever so slightly. "I’m well aware of that. But I want to, Chase. You’re not what I would have chosen for my daughter, but she obviously knows better than I what she needs. Though you’re a difficult man to like, I am getting used to you. You’re welcome in our family."

  Mind blank and heart thundering, he stared at her and said nothing.

  "I think you scared him, Mom," Rogue said with a muffled snicker.

  Stryker wanted to tell Keza’s brother to shut up, but he had a sneaking suspicion Rogue was right.

  "Well, I am pretty scary," Myelle said with a smirk, rising to her feet and heading for the door to Keza’s bedroom. "I think she’s awake."

  Stryker followed with a baffled crease in his brow. There hadn’t been any sound—how could she know Keza was awake? And why the hell would she welcome a convicted criminal into her family?

  But the moment he looked into the bedroom he forgot his questions. Keza was awake, up on one elbow and blinking around the room as if she couldn’t understand how she’d gotten there.

  "Keza!" one of her sisters called and there was a mad rush into the room, pushing Stryker in before jostling him aside.

  She smiled.

  The strength seemed to run out of his legs and he gingerly sat on the end of the bed while her family crowded around her, babbling greetings, explanations, and questions while they smothered her with affection. He watched her reassure them, watched the light on her face and in her eyes with a soul-deep longing. Her eye was no longer swollen shut, but the area around it and the curve of her cheekbone was turning several different shades of blue and purple. The sight made it hard for him to breathe.

  "Hell of a shiner, little sister," Harle teased and Keza batted at him with a feigned growl, eyes flicking to Stryker and away.

  Rogue oozed guilt until Keza laughed at him and started listing all the things he could do to make it up to her. "You can bring me flowers every day, and room service, and clean my toilet for a month, be at my beck and call for a week, promise you won’t tease for at least a day—I don’t think you could go longer than that—and perform the rite of contrition—"

  Rogue made a strangled sound and wheezed, "Celibacy?" Then he did a very fine imitation of a heart attack and fell onto her bed while his family laughed. Rolling over, he stretched out a hand to Stryker and gasped, "Mercy! Just beat me bloody and get it over with."

  Stryker felt his lips twitch. "Hell, no. I like her idea of torture better."

  Rogue moaned and clapped a hand over his eyes. "I’ll never survive."

  "All right, your sister needs peace and quiet, not dramatics," Myelle said with a roll of her eyes. Leaning down, she kissed Keza on the forehead. "We’re so happy to have you home safe, baby. Get some rest now."

  "Thanks, Mom," Keza said with a smile like sunshine.

  Myelle straightened and shooed Harle and Keza’s siblings toward the door. As she passed Stryker, she gave him a light pat on his shoulder and startled him into tearing his gaze from Keza. "Take care of her for us," Keza’s mother said too low for her daughter to hear, a smile flickering across her face before she marched out.

  "Huh. I think she’s starting to like you," Keza said with a note of surprise in her voice.

  Stryker turned back to look at her. "I think that scares me," he confessed, just to see if she would smile again.

  She did, a quick flash of humor that dissipated too soon. She studied his face for a moment, amber eyes intent, before dropping her gaze to where her fingers plucked at the bedcover. "So…thanks for rescuing me."

  He drew in a deep breath, let it out carefully. "No more candidates, Sukeza bet Marish."

  She made a sound in her throat and nodded without looking up at him. "No problem." Then she lifted hesitant fingers to her bruised cheekbone. "Am I hideous?"

  "No," he answered, hands fisting involuntarily against his thighs. "Colorful, not hideous."

  She flashed him a quick look. "Are you sure?"

  "Yes."

  "Than why are you way over there instead of in bed next to me?" she whispered.

  He was next to her in a heartbeat, putting careful arms around her. "How do you feel?"

  "Much better now," she said with a sigh, pressing against him with hands splaying on his back.

  Stryker gritted his teeth against his body’s inevitable response to her softness, her sunshine smell and irresistible touch. Trying to distract himself, he muttered, "Med scan was clean, but you didn’t wake up."

  "Being kidnapped takes a toll on a body," she murmured, rubbing her face against him. He felt her eyelashes brush the hollow of his throat and closed his eyes, swallowing hard. "So my little passenger is okay?"

  He tightened his arms, startled by the term. It struck a strange cord in him, thinking of a little creature growing inside her, hitching a ride. "Uh, yeah, all that’s fine."

  She tensed a little. "No…no toxins or weird chemicals built up in my body?"

  "What?"

  "Clavis said there was something in the air or water on his home world that caused them to go crazy. I was there for five years."

  "Doc said you checked out, but we can get another med workup on you." He started to lift her in his arms, but she resisted with an exasperated snort.

  "Not now, Chase. Besides, the guy was nuts. He thought I owed him a child for living there so long. He probably has no idea what he’s talking about."

  His arms tightened again possessively and he forced his muscles to relax, to hold her with care.

  "What’s the matter, Chase?"

  He looked down at her and she tilted her head back to meet his gaze. Her amber eyes gleamed with tears. He froze with a combination of fear and pain. "Why are you crying?" he husked.

  "Because you’re holding me very kindly. Holding yourself back. You haven’t kissed me and you’re touching me like you would my niece. Chase…"