"Would it be that bad?" she murmured to herself.
"What?" Jax turned to her.
"Where are we going?" she asked, instead of answering his question.
"Three Bridges."
"Is that a town?"
He gave a bark of sharp laughter. "Some might call it that. It is my family's home." He turned back to the window.
"Why is it called Three Bridges?" She knew he didn't want to talk, but Waverly couldn't help asking the question.
"When my great-grandfather built the original house, he put in an elaborate set of gardens, with three bridges crossing the small stream there." He rubbed a hand across his face. "We'll be expected to stay for several days at least, but I'll think of a way for us to leave as soon as possible."
Waverly nodded, then turned back to the passing scenery, a knot of dread stealing into her at Jax's behavior. Something unpleasant waited for them.
A Mock125 flew out over a pasture, the pilot executing a clunky turn. Waverly's heart lifted. She could do better than that, she thought, imagining the pilot's struggle with the complicated flywheels and foot peddles. If they planned to stay here, she wanted to check on pilot positions immediately. She was already itching to get the controls of a transport under her hands again.
Then she saw the house.
Not a house, a castle.
In the distance, maybe five leagues away, a gray slate roofline came into view first, rising into peaks on the sides and in the middle. The House itself stood four stories. The first two levels had huge sweeping windows, two or three man-lengths high, although it was hard to tell from so far away. The hazy blue mountains behind it framed the house in all its glory. Arches sloped in leaps across the front.
The Ride turned into the long driveway, pausing as two uniformed men opened huge iron gates. Waverly caught her breath as they made their way between ancient trees towards the castle before them.
She glanced at Jax, but he still stared broodingly out the window.
The Modoride came to a halt, and Jax opened his door before the driver could run around to do it for him. Then he leaned in to help her out.
"What's wrong with you?" she whispered.
Jax shook his head, as if he fought his way up from the bottom of some internal pool. He smiled. "I'm sorry, Waverly love. Coming back here is harder than I thought."
"You want to tell me what's going on?"
He kissed her lightly on the mouth. Deep in her body, Waverly felt a response, an aching pull from her soul to his. She gasped. Jax hummed.
"Let's get this over so I can have you." He straightened and peered up the line of the house. "God, I hate this place," he said absently. "I hadn't realized how much until this moment."
The front doors, so big she could have driven a sandrail through them, opened, both at the same time. A woman stepped from the dark cavern that yawned at them, her tall, thin body held in rigid precision. Now Waverly knew where Del got his looks. The woman on the steps had long black hair and Del's same dead, black eyes
"Jaxon," she said, her voice carrying across the distance without her raising it. "You're home."
"Yes." Jax stepped forward, entwining his hand around Waverly's as he did. "Babbet, this is my mate." His lips thinned with dislike, putting Waverly instantly on guard. "Waverly, this is my mother, Babbet."
"You are mated?" His new-mother made a sound of disapproval in her throat. "Come inside where we can be properly introduced."
They followed her into the front hall. Ancient weapons covered the walls from floor to ceiling, and were accented against dark wood paneling. Below their feet lay a carpet woven with a crest. A tapestry hung at the end of the hall. It depicted men stabbing enraged beasts, blood shooting from the wounds, while other figures stood in the background, throwing their arms skyward in celebration.
Waverly couldn't hold back the snort of disgust that escaped her.
Jax's mother led them into the library, another dark-paneled room with one wall of books.
"Thank you," his mother said, giving the servant a twist of a smile as the man closed the doors behind them. She dropped the pleasant expression when she turned back to Jax. "You have chosen a mate?"
"Yes." Jax stood in a relaxed pose but his tone left no room for doubt.
The older woman gave Waverly a complete once-over. Waverly stepped away from Jax, shaking off his hand.
"What are you? Alterian?"
"Yes."
Babbet seemed to calculate how that would impact her family, pressing her lips together as she studied Waverly's clothes with obvious distaste. Waverly pushed down the urge to touch her hair when Babbet rested her gaze there for several moments.
"And you met where?"
"On Sector 12."
"Which is where?" Babbet's tone said clearly that if she didn't know where a planet was, it wasn't a planet Waverly should be living on.
"The Danthium quadrant of Galaxy Grid 219."
"The middle of nowhere then," she said with a flip of her hand, as she crossed to a trolley holding several bottles. She poured herself a drink, the liquid thick and blood-red.
Waverly pushed down the thought that Jax's mother was about to drink blood. "Yes."
Babbet turned, swirling the liquid in a cut crystal tumbler. "You were raised there?"
Waverly allowed a small, condescending smile to curl on her lips. She could do bitch, too. "Of course not. I lived on my home planet until a few years ago. I'm a pilot. I went to Sector 12 to fly."
Waverly didn't look at Jax when she felt him shift beside her. She couldn't be distracted, even though she felt Jax's need to join the conversation and protect her. Babbet made the earlier conversation between Jax and his father look like child's play.
"A female pilot?" his mother asked, her tone dripping with judgment. "I thought the Inter-world declared them ineffectual."
Ooh, good one. Direct hit. Waverly calmed herself with a deep breath and widened her smile. "And yet Jimlee has women in their pilot corps."
And I score! Waverly resisted the urge to smile, as the other woman's hand tightened on her glass of blood.
"Sometimes Jimlee takes longer to come around to the right conclusions."
Jax opened his mouth to reply but Waverly made a chopping motion with one hand. This was her fight. He could not interfere, or she would have a bigger problem on her hands. People like his mother understood power. If Waverly didn't stand up for herself right now, Babbet would only get worse.
"Jimlee is known for having some of the best pilots in the galaxies, male or female."
His mother took a small, dainty sip of her drink. "The staff is readying your rooms." She changed topics.
Waverly knew she had won the battle, but not the war she felt between them.
Jax spoke then, his tightened jaw telling her he was done watching. "We will only need one room, thank you mother."
"But you haven't had a linking ceremony yet, or am I mistaken?" She looked at Waverly, one well-shaped eyebrow raised.
"Actually, we did," Jax said smoothly.
Waverly tried to keep her face blank. Linking sounded serious, so she didn't think she'd missed it, but she couldn't be sure.
His mother gasped. "Without your family in attendance? That's unheard of!"
"We could not wait to celebrate our match. You are welcome to throw us a party but I will not be separated from my mate." Jax smiled, his frustration at having to keep silent earlier making it into a baring of teeth. "I'm sure you understand."
"Yes." Babbet took another sip, regrouping again after losing the last two skirmishes. Waverly didn't make the mistake of thinking she was defeated. "I'll tell the staff you will only need one room."
"Thank you. Since we have spent the last few days traveling here, Waverly and I need to take a walk to stretch our legs." He caught Waverly's hand in his and moved to the door.
"Dinner is at eight sharp, Jaxon. Please dress. I'll have Hester send up something appropriate since your current wardr
obe seems lacking." She took another sip. Viscous liquid clung to the sides of the glass. What was she drinking? "And something for your mate as well." This last was said with a sneer.
"Thank you, Mother," Jax said, his deep voice devoid of any real appreciation.
CHAPTER SIX FALLING
Jax strode through the house, balling his fists in fury at Babbet's behavior. He had wanted to step in, but Waverly warned him off. He trusted her instincts, even if he wasn't always sure what the hell she was up to. She'd held her own well enough. Babbet had been known to tear grown men to shreds. Maybe this time she'd been too surprised to inflict the full amount of damage he knew she was capable of.
His father had taken Babbet as his new mate three years after Jax's mother had died. It was almost unheard of for someone to link twice during their lifetime. For the majority of people on Jimlee, when their mate died, they were left alone, often dying soon after from the grief of having a piece of their soul torn from them.
But his father wasn't most people. He was the head of the Romely Corporation, one of the most powerful men on Jimlee.
Which is why being sentenced to exile had come as such a shock to Jax. It had never occurred to him that he would be punished, especially since he was innocent of the crime. Thinking about it still made Jax both angry and sad.
A servant whisked the doors open, allowing Jax and Waverly to walk through without having to pause.
Ignoring the beautiful scenery, Jax headed towards the woods, instead of the manicured gardens that covered the rear grounds. Three Bridges' Arboretum was famous throughout Jimlee, but he had never liked the fussy flowers and too-tidy pathways. He preferred instead to roam at will through the trees, and enjoy the view of the valley from his special place.
Jax suspected that Babbet wasn't his father's true mate, since he had always been told that love between mates increased as time went by. At first, his father and new-mother had been very close, especially in the months after their linking ceremony.
Now they were not. Or at least they hadn't been seven years ago. They barely spoke, although his father sided with her on the issue of Jax's guilt. Babbet had been coldly furious when Jax was accused of arms running.
"How dare you disgrace this family," she spat at him during dinner one evening.
Jax had stood and forcefully declared his innocence, then walked out. He hadn't bothered to speak of it again to his family. As far as he was concerned, he had defended himself all he would. They would have to believe him or not, it was their choice.
With the benefit of hindsight, he now thought that hadn't been the right decision. His father had believed him guilty and let him be punished. Maybe if Jax had talked it through with him, his father would have realized he had been framed.
Jax breathed deeply, the smells of the forest invaded his lungs, soothing his nerves. He had missed the crisp scent of the trees during his long stay in the desert.
His exile had made him into a different man than he'd been at eighteen. In fact, he would have grown up to become like every other leader of Romely before him, fully focused on power.
But he'd seen how the other half of the universe lived. And his time on Sector 12 had shaped him. Stronger now, he knew how to handle situations with a wide variety of people and varying degrees of danger.
And he'd found his mate. That alone made his exile worthwhile.
He stopped at an outcropping of rocks, which opened onto a ravine. The view here was spectacular. The beauty of his surroundings pressed upon his chest.
He had never had a special place on Sector 12. He'd spent his time surviving, learning how to function in a place totally foreign to everything he'd experienced in the first eighteen years of his life.
"It's beautiful," Waverly whispered beside him.
"Yes." He squeezed her hand. "Almost as beautiful as you are." Turning to kiss her, he closed the distance between them.
He felt the swoosh of the laser blast before he heard the retort.
Waverly pushed him forward to the ground. Too close to the edge of the cliff, her body weight sent him over. His hands clutched her in reflex, and they both hurtled off the side.
For a brief moment, they were falling. He had a split second to think, we're going to die, before he slammed onto a small rock ledge, the hard stone ripping his back to shreds. Waverly almost flew past him.
"Whoa, woman," Jax said, rolling them both away to safety. "Where in the hell are you going?"
Waverly gasped for breath, her eyes huge. "What was that?"
"Someone's shooting at us. We need to get out of sight." Behind them, a cave opened away from the ledge. Grabbing her hand, he slithered closer to it.
"Oh my God," Waverly said, as she peered down at the long fall and the rocks that would have greeted them if luck hadn't been on their side.
"Don't look." He worked his way over the lip of the cave entrance, dragging her back from the edge.
Above, gravel crunched beneath booted feet.
"Shhh." He covered her mouth.
"You see them?" someone asked.
"No. We'll need to go down there and make sure they're dead," another man answered.
"I don't think you hit them."
"I don't either, but they fell off anyway." A shower of pebbles flew past the cave entrance as their would-be assassins checked over the side. "Even better for us. Whoever finds them will think it was an accident."
"That's a long way down. It will take us hours to get there. No way could they survive that fall."
"Del said to make sure they're dead, so we make sure they're dead. Got it?"
"You don't have to get in my face, Frisco! Shanks! You say we go down and check, we go down and check."
"That's what I thought. Let's get going so we can make it there before dark."
Their footsteps faded off as they passed deeper into the trees.
For a long moment, Jax lay still, pinning Waverly to the cavern floor.
Then he sat up. "Well, that was interesting."
"Did they say your brother hired them to kill you?" Waverly sounded as confused as Jax felt.
"New-brother," he said, rolling a shoulder. His back flashed with pain. He wondered if he had any broken ribs. Taking a deep breath, he didn't feel the shooting ache he had last time ribs were broken.
"What?" Waverly sat up.
"He's my brother through Babbet's and my father's linking and yes, they did say he hired them to kill me." Jax scrubbed a hand down his face. Why? Why did Del want him dead? Jax knew they'd never been brothers or even really friends, for all Jax had wanted them to be. But there had never been anything between them that would have caused Del to want him dead. Sadly, he felt more curiosity than hurt. Except when he thought about the fact that Waverly might have died--when he thought of that, his body tightened with fury.
"Why would he do this?"
"I don't know. Something's going on I don't understand yet. Babbet was acting strangely as well." He tried to touch the wet spot he felt on the back his shirt. "We've stepped into a mass of secrets."
"What are you doing?" Waverly crawled around and sucked in her breath at the view. "You're bleeding." She pulled up his shirt. "Not badly but you're going to have some serious bruises."
"I figured as much. It stings a bit."
Waverly's hands skimmed along his skin. Instead of pain, he suddenly felt desire stir in his stomach, his cock growing hard. He wanted to turn around and push her down. He wanted to take her right there.
Lowering his head, he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get himself under control.
"Your back is just scratched. The bleeding has stopped already." She paused. "Does your head hurt?"
"One of them does," he mumbled, stifling a groan as she ran her hands through his hair to search for damage.
"I don't think you have any lumps."
Jax looked at the erection pressing the front of his pants and almost disagreed.
"We need to get out of here before they figur
e out we aren't in the valley below." Surveying the cavern, he noted that it was bigger than he'd first thought. In fact, they were sitting on the lip of a wide chamber the size of the ballroom at Three Bridges.
"Are we going back the way we came?" Waverly crawled to the ledge and stood up.
"Watch out, Waverly!" Jax yelled, his heart in his throat at the sight of her so close to the edge.
Waverly dropped in a crouch to smile at him. "The view is spectacular. You should come look."
"Thanks anyway. I'll pass. Come away from there," he growled. The woman loved to push it.
She stood, peering up, then crouched again. "It's going to be dangerous going back up the way we came. One tiny loss of balance and we'll be on a one-way ticket to the valley floor." She tipped her head, holding his gaze. "It must have been a one in a thousand chance that we landed on this ledge. We fell a good two man-lengths. No wonder you're all bruised."
Jax inspected the cavern. "There must be ten tunnels off this room. Maybe we can get out this way instead." He arched an eyebrow at her. "I'm not a huge fan of heights."
"I love them, actually."
"Hmmm, yeah, well, let's go this way first and see if anything looks promising."
Waverly gripped the top of the cave entrance and swung down into the room. "Too bad we don't have that stash of torches from your cave on Sector 12."
"Let's just hope we don't run into another beetle. All our blasters are back at the house."
Waverly grinned at him. "Not all." She pulled hers out from behind her back.
"Sometimes you're handy to have around." He grinned at her, glad she was his mate.
His. For as long as they both lived.
Unlike his father, Jax knew in his heart that he would only have one mate in his lifetime. And for all her protests, Waverly was it.
CHAPTER SEVEN THE LINK
Luckily, it turned out they didn't need torches. The cavern walls were porous in places, and shafts of light filtered down to create a murky, but not impenetrable, darkness. The floor, sandy and dry close to the entrance, turned to mud the deeper they traveled into the tunnels. Water dripped incessantly from the network of tree roots running along the ceiling. From the hack and slash marks trimming back the root system, it was clear someone kept these passageways passable.
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