by Kate Rudolph
Jacinta was unmoved. “I’m not taking two untrained civilians into unfamiliar territory to fight dangerous criminals.” She held up a hand to cut either of them off before they could object. “Believe it or not, I know how this feels. I’ve had to sit out on fights that I was dying to take on. But that’s how you’d end up if you went out there. Dead. From the sounds of what I’ve heard, you’ve used up all of your luck and then some in your various scrapes with these assholes. We’re not going out to fight them on your behalf. They landed in my territory and that makes them a threat to my people. The best help you could be is to give us all of the information you know and let us do the heavy lifting. It’s not cowardice to know when to back down.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Tessa spotted a tic in Kayleb’s jaw and she was pretty sure he was trying hard not to say anything he’d regret. Something a little like disappointment churned in her guts. They’d made it this far and were supposed to just sit out the fight? She’d survived for days with them right on her ass! She could take them. But... Tessa sighed. “Jacinta’s right,” she told her mate. “We’re not soldiers.”
Kayleb nodded. “If staying back keeps you from danger,” he told her, “then we stay back.”
She might have called him out for doing the macho protector thing, but she’d just spent days with him and never once had he doubted her capabilities. She’d held his life in her hands back on the Kella when she healed him and again when she shot that blaster at the pirates. “I don’t want you in danger either.” There’d been enough of that for both of them. “I think we could use a vacation.” Between the stress of her capture and escape and his journey to certain death on his birthday, the two of them were balls of anxiety running on adrenaline and not much else.
“Save your plans for later,” Jacinta interrupted before they could do anything more than think and agree with her. “I have one of my guys coming over. You’ll need to tell us everything and this will all be over soon.”
Tessa nodded and leaned against Kayleb. She couldn’t wait to get home.
AN EERIE CALM SETTLED over the compound. After briefing Jacinta and her lieutenant on what they’d encountered on the pirate ship, Kayleb and Tessa were left to their own devices, instructed not to leave the inner circle of houses that made up the central part of the compound but otherwise free to roam. Kayleb put in a call to his brother while Tessa used a secondary communications device to call her sister.
When the screen resolved and Krayter appeared, the look on his face would have been comical if not for the fact that Kayleb had suffered too many brushes with death in the last week.
“You’re not Jacinta,” was what his brother finally said after gaping at him for several long seconds.
Kayleb huffed out a small laugh. “No, I’m not. But apparently her compound is the best to call from when one is fleeing imminent danger.” Months ago Krayter had been standing in this same place, making a call to Kayleb after he disappeared deep into the upstate wilderness. Then, it had been humans with a distaste for aliens hot on his trail. Kayleb wasn’t certain which of them had faced the more dangerous foe.
“What happened?” Krayter demanded. He gestured wildly over his shoulder and Penny came into view in front of the screen as well. She waved hello instead of speaking.
Kayleb gave them the shortest recounting possible. Before his brother could offer help, Kayleb cut him off, explaining that Jacinta already had the matter in hand. This, at least, wasn’t as dire as last time. Neither he nor Tessa were being held any longer and people with a lot of training were handling the danger. Penny looked a bit worried at the mention of her mother going into battle, but she agreed that it was best that he and Tessa stayed behind.
“Tessa and I should be home tomorrow, if things go to plan,” he said, unable and unwilling to stop the smile that bloomed when he said his mate’s name. She’d chosen him, chosen the life they could have together, despite the pain they’d already endured. She believed that they were stronger than that hurt and he’d spend the rest of forever showing her that she’d made the right choice.
“Home?” Both Penny and Krayter were smiling the conspiratorial grins they smiled whenever they started to get ideas about him.
But today Kayleb didn’t have any room in his heart for even the mildest irritation. He nodded. “I can’t wait for you to meet her. She’s...” He stumbled over his thoughts, a dozen words for everything that Tessa was and meant to him vying for supremacy. “She’s amazing,” he finally said, though even that wasn’t quite right. He knew that Krayter and Tessa had met before, but this time it was different. This time there was no holding back, only honesty and love.
“I’m happy for you, brother. Now stay safe and get back here. I think it’s time we relay a call back home to tell our family the good news.”
Kayleb agreed, though he was trying not to think of the danger that lurked in the woods outside the compound. He disconnected from Krayter and Penny and left the communications room in search of his mate, who he found standing in the hall studying a piece of art hanging on one of the walls.
She smiled when she saw him and his heart squeezed with joy. “All good?”
He nodded and took her hand. “And you?”
Tessa shook her head and sighed. “I think Tam is happy I’m alive. It means she can kill me herself.” She grinned so he could tell she was joking, but he understood the impulse. No one wanted their younger siblings to put themselves in danger. “I need some air.” She nodded her head towards the stairs. “Walk with me?”
Kayleb took her hand. “Anywhere.”
The silence outside was even heavier than the one indoors. After a moment Kayleb realized that Jacinta and her crew of mercenaries must have already left on their mission. He could see a few people patrolling the edge of the settlement, but there was no hint of anyone else. “I guess they didn’t want to delay.”
“Hmm?” Tessa’s mind seemed to be wandering. She came back to herself with a slight jolt and looked around. “Oh. They’re already gone?”
“It appears so.” Though Kayleb wasn’t a fighter in the same way of Jacinta and her mercenaries, it rankled a bit to be dismissed. He’d been part of the fight to defend his brother. His cousin Ruwen’s ship had been instrumental in turning the tide of that skirmish. But here he could offer nothing.
“Waiting like this feels wrong, doesn’t it?” Tessa asked, reading his thoughts. She tugged on his hand and led him between two of the houses circling the inner courtyard to a picnic table hidden by a grouping of trees. Jacinta had told them to stick to the inner courtyard, but Kayleb thought they were close enough to remain safe, so long as they were in shouting distance of the guards. “I mean, every time that I’ve thought it was over, the pirates seem to one up me. That’s probably all this is, right? Nerves?” She sat down on the wooden bench and laid her free arm on the table.
Kayleb slid in beside her and tugged her close, holding her against his side as if he could shield her from any harm. “Jacinta does not strike me as the type to leave survivors behind.” There was nothing of a doting mother in her, she was solid warrior, except for when she mentioned her daughters. If he had to rely on any human general, he thought that she was not a bad choice.
Tessa laid her head on his shoulder. Their thighs pressed together, but this wasn’t sexual. Now his mate needed comfort. Of course, if she wanted anything else, he’d be happy to give it.
“Do you think we should have locked ourselves in our room and waited until the coast was clear?” Tessa muttered.
“Might have been boring.”
Her hand dropped to his thigh and Kayleb’s cock twitched. “I think we could find a way to entertain ourselves.”
“That’s certainly safer than charging into battle.” His voice had gone a little ragged as her fingers danced up his thigh, teasing him, just out of reach of his cock.
Wood snapped in the distance and a bird took off from its perch with an angry squawk. Both Kayleb and Tessa
jumped in their seats before turning to each other and dissolving in a fit of laughter.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to relax again,” Tessa muttered. “How does a desert isle sound?” She looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes, a grin tugging at her mouth. “Just you, me, and the coconuts. No pirates, no explosions.”
“And we’ll sleep all day in those...” He trailed off, trying to find the right word, his translator struggling. “Hammocks?”
“We wouldn’t want sand to get anywhere unpleasant,” she agreed.
“Sand’ll be the least of your worries when we’re done with you.” Kayleb heard the click of a blaster as the shot ripped through him, and then everything went black.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
DON’T PANIC. DON’TPANICDON’TPANICDON’TPANICDON’TPANIC.
She was panicking.
Tessa woke to darkness with a warm, still form slumped over beside her. As her eyes adjusted to the dimness, she made out a faint sliver of light coming in from between the slats in the ceiling and she got the idea that she was being held in some sort of building made of wood, rather than back on the space ship.
But Kayleb was so still beside her that she couldn’t spare any more of her attention. Not until she was sure he was breathing. She moved carefully in case he had any injuries that she might disturb. Judging from the thrumming pain in her own bones, she was pretty sure they’d both been stunned by a blaster. Her teeth ached and her head threatened to explode if she moved too fast, but it meant she wasn’t bleeding and none of her bones were broken.
Kayleb’s chest rose and fell under her fingers and his heartbeat was strong. With featherlight touches she examined him for anything worse than a bruise from the blaster and found nothing. A small mercy.
Satisfied that her mate wasn’t about to keel over, her mind spun. Were these more pirates? Had Jacinta’s men turned on them? Was this a completely unknown threat? Why were they in what looked like a storage shed? If she busted down the door, would she be immediately shot? Or was there no one out there to guard them?
She sucked in a deep breath and counted to ten, and then twenty, and then thirty when ten wasn’t enough to make her calm down. Her nerves were on fire, screaming at her to take her mate and get out of wherever they’d been stashed. She forced herself to remain still and listen. Somewhere in the distance wood groaned like the creaking of a floorboard in an old house. Only the fanciest of space ships had any sort of wood embellishments; the material was too expensive and easy to damage for workaday vessels. So if she could hear something that sounded like wood, that probably meant that they weren’t on a ship. And judging from the state of her clothes and the pull in her muscles, she hadn’t been out too long.
They were on Earth, probably near Jacinta’s compound or in one of the outbuildings. That made sense, she supposed. If the pirates had come for them one last time, they couldn’t get back to a ship that was under attack by a band of mercenaries.
She hoped Jacinta’s people were winning. She hoped they’d been stolen by cowards who didn’t stick around to fight, not that the fight had gone wrong and Jacinta and her people were injured... or worse.
No. She wouldn’t allow herself to think that, not until she didn’t have another choice.
Kayleb groaned and rolled to his side, hissing in a breath as something pulled unpleasantly. He cursed under his breath and Tessa’s heart flipped over. She reached over and placed a hand on his arm. “I’m here, I’m alright,” she said.
He cursed again as he sat up, the sound ending with a pained hiss and groan, but he didn’t seem to have a problem moving. “Desert isle,” he said, “as soon as we’re done with this.”
It took Tessa a minute to make sense of what he was saying, and when she did she couldn’t help but grin. A worry she hadn’t realized she’d been harboring dissolved as he immediately recalled the last minute of their conversation from before. She squeezed his arm. “Vacation,” she promised. “Beach, cocktails. Lots of sex.”
Kayleb eased up to his knees and pressed her back towards one of the walls. He crawled carefully towards the door and pressed his ear up against it, straining to hear. Tessa took the other side of the room, feeling around the floor and walls to see if there was any convenient exit or makeshift weapon they could use. By the time Kayleb eased back, she hadn’t found anything more dangerous than a roll of tape.
He crouched beside her and whispered. “I can hear one person out there walking around. He might be waiting for someone else. Or multiple people. And he’s probably armed.”
“You got that from listening for a minute?”
He kissed her cheek. “No, that would be from the bruises on my chest. Blaster shot.”
“Rushing at a weapon doesn’t sound like a great idea.” Even if they could bust down the door and take out the guard, at least one of them was sure to go down.
“I’ve got an idea.”
THERE WAS NO WAY THIS was going to work. But Tessa didn’t have anything better to offer, so she kept her doubt to herself and did as her mate suggested. She didn’t see how things could get worse, even if this all did go wrong.
Kayleb grabbed her hand and kissed her palm. “Have faith,” he said and got into position.
She rubbed her fingers lightly against his cheek and nodded. “I do. In you.”
“Ready?”
She nodded. Tessa had never considered herself much of an actress before now, but with her mate’s and her own life at stake, she couldn’t afford to be anything but convincing. She took a deep breath, leaned down, and kissed Kayleb’s forehead for luck and got up.
She slammed against the door with all the force she could muster, banging so hard that her fists threatened to bleed and she was sure there’d be bruises. “Help!” she screamed. “Please help. I think he’s dead! Oh, god, I need help.” Some distant part of her wanted to pause to see if anyone was coming, but she had to keep up the act or they’d never buy it.
Her knuckle scraped against something and the skin broke, but she hissed through the pain and kept yelling, desperate to draw attention to their position.
A shuddering knock on the other side of the door almost sent her sprawling back. Instead, Tessa yelled again. “Please! You have to help him!” Her voice croaked out the last word, breaking as she remembered the fear and the pain of six months ago when she’d truly thought pirates had killed Kayleb. Tears pricked at her eyes and she had to suck in a deep breath before she could yell again.
“Shut the fuck up!” The pirate pounded against the door again. “I’ll do worse than kill you.”
Kayleb growled where he lay on the floor and Tessa spared him a glance and a jerk of her head. She held up a hand to her lips, urging him to keep quiet. “Please, I think he’s dead. Why? Oh god, please you have to help him.”
It was quiet on the other side of the door and Tessa was afraid that the plan wasn’t working. If they just planned to kill them anyway, the pirates wouldn’t care if one of them was already dead. But, Kayleb had argued, if they just planned to kill them, why weren’t they already dead?
And his theory paid off. “Back up,” the pirate grumbled. “All the way against the wall with your hands up. I see you move and I kill you quick. Got it?”
“Yes.” Tessa backed up, stepping over Kayleb’s prone form and keeping her eyes glued to the door. Light escaped through the crack under it and she saw the shadows move as the pirate approached. Even better, it looked like there was only the one shadow. If he had a friend, he wasn’t there to act as back up for the moment.
The door swung open and a human man stood, haloed in light, holding a blaster pointed straight at her.
He was the human who’d been chasing her with his tentacled friend back in the city, and he looked a bit worse for wear. His left eye was swollen and bruised and his lip split by a nasty cut. But the blaster in his hand didn’t waver at all as it pointed straight at her.
“Turn around,” he growled, glaring at her. “Face th
e wall.”
Tessa wanted to protest. She didn’t want this guy at her back, but he had the blaster and Kayleb needed her to be strong, to play her part. Keeping her hands in the air, she turned slowly, stopping when she had her back completely to the pirate.
The light coming in from outside gave her a better idea of the room they were in. It was little more than a shed that wasn’t being used at the moment. The smell of cut grass tickled her nose, so she figured the door opened to the outside, not into a hallway. She hadn’t had enough time to see when the pirate walked in.
Her heart beat madly as his cautious footsteps came closer. “What happened?” he demanded. She expected to feel the blaster pressed against her back, but all she felt was empty air.
She swallowed and her hands unconsciously clenched into fists before she released them. They were getting cold, the blood struggling to pump up as she held them high, and her arms ached. “He just started convulsing,” she forced out, doing her best not to imagine it actually happening. “Then he stopped and I couldn’t find a pulse.”
“You’re the doc, bitch. Why you need my help?” His breath tickled the back of her neck and she shivered. He wouldn’t do anything to her on top of the supposedly dead body at their feet. Right?
“She doesn’t.”
Kayleb surged up, forcing the pirate’s hands up so the blaster shot uselessly towards the wooden roof where it couldn’t do much damage. Tessa jumped to the side to get out of their way. Kayleb was the hand to hand fighter, not her.
The scuffle didn’t last long and when it was done, the pirate’s other eye was swollen shut and he cradled his wrist close to his chest. He crumpled to the floor, holding his legs up to his chest to protect his more sensitive organs. Kayleb held the blaster and gave him a stun. The man went limp.
