by Kate Rudolph
A commotion from the entrance to the squat building behind them seized the attention of everyone around them. She tried to gauge Kayde’s reaction to the newcomers, but he was almost impossible to read in his survival suit. He had one hell of a poker face, but it was even worse when she couldn’t see his face at all. At some point in the past weeks she’d learned to read him, and she wanted to rip his helmet off his head just to make sure he still thought everything would be okay. Though, clearly, they had much different levels of ‘okay’ if he was fine with half a dozen blast rifles being pointed at them.
“Stand down, Commander,” the man at the center of the trio said. He had a calm voice and was half a head shorter than all the warriors around him, but he wore authority like a second skin and even Quinn found herself standing up straighter at his command.
The head warrior lowered his weapon and the rest of his people followed suit. “Sir?”
“Take your team to the debriefing room. You’ll be met shortly.”
The commander took a second or two longer than Quinn thought he was supposed to and the air was charged with the possibility of disobedience, but after a moment he led his people away, leaving Kayde and Quinn alone with the three newcomers.
“Let’s all get inside,” the speaker said. He beckoned them forward with a wave of his hand and Kayde started moving as if he were on a leash. Quinn trailed behind, unsure that she really wanted inside, but sure that it was too cold to wait outside much longer.
They were led by the trio through dark gray corridors which were brightened by colorful artwork hanging on the walls. It depicted a planet that looked almost like Earth, but Quinn was almost certain it was Detya. The planet Yormas of Wreet had destroyed for some reason. The home that Kayde would never see.
At one small room, they were instructed to change out of their survival suits and given thick jackets. Their escorts also changed, but they wore hooded cowls once they were done and Quinn still couldn’t get a good look at them. It disturbed her that they were working so hard to keep their identities hidden, but since Kayde didn’t say anything about it she kept her mouth shut. This was his planet, and he knew the customs. If he thought it was weird, she hoped he would have said something. Then again, it occurred to her that he might keep it to himself if he thought she might freak out.
Quinn’s feet started to hurt as they moved, the discomfort climbing up her legs as they trudged on. Just how big was this building? It hadn’t looked that imposing from the outside, but the snow flurries might have been hiding a lot, and she suspected most of the building was underground. The distance and quick pace combined with her adjustment to real gravity had her almost wincing with each step, but she tried to put on a strong face so she didn’t make Kayde look bad.
Just as she was about to break and complain, the trio leading them stopped and a door beside them slid open revealing a conference room that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Earth. Quinn almost did a double take. But when the hoods came off their guides, it was clear that they were a long way from home. The alien in the center was greenish, his skin holding a silvery tint. One of his companions was gold and the other red. They bore dark markings similar to Kayde’s clan markings on their necks and one even had them climbing up his cheek. It was hard to determine their ages, but the red one was clearly older, with graying hair at his temples and wrinkle lines near his eyes. The gold one had the same expression on his face that Kayde used to wear. Soulless, Quinn would bet a hundred dollars. The greenish one in the center seemed younger than the rest, but he also seemed to be their leader.
“Sandon,” Kayde finally greeted as they took their seats.
The leader smiled at him. “This is a surprise.” He and his companions sat across the table from Kayde and Quinn and suddenly this felt more like an interrogation than a greeting. “I am Sandon,” he said to Quinn. “My companions are Tyann,” he nodded to the soulless gold Detyen, “and Gren,” that was the older red one. “It is our pleasure to meet you.”
Meet her and judge her? Quinn asked silently, but she tried to keep a lid on the instinctive negativity. Now that Kayde was no longer wearing his survival suit, she could read him like a book. He was cautious, unsure of what was coming next, but he wasn’t tense. Whoever these men were, she and her mate weren’t in any immediate danger.
Immediate being the key word.
“I was not expecting a full contingent to be fielded upon my arrival,” said Kayde, bypassing any small talk. “Are things really so dire?”
“It has been a... trying few months,” Sandon replied. “And you are an unexpected complication.”
Quinn did her best to keep her lips tightly shut. She knew that ‘complication’ was just another word for problem. Something, maybe everything, about their presence bothered Sandon and she had no clue how this was going to be resolved.
“Things have settled down on Earth,” Kayde reported. “Raze and his denya are happily bonded, and Toran has found his own mate among the humans. We have also found a suspect in the matter of our home’s destruction. Unfortunately that investigation has hit a stalling point. In light of that, it was decided to send me here to determine what happened to HQ. Our messages have gone unanswered and there was a concern as to whether or not the Legion survived.”
Quinn noticed that Kayde hadn’t spoken at all of his own thoughts. His expression remained hard and emotionless, and the pit in her stomach opened up as she feared her greatest worry was coming to life. He had called her his mate in front of all of those soldiers, but now he was slipping away, sloughing off his emotions as if they’d been an uncomfortable second skin.
And then he looked at her and smiled and her fears scattered as if they’d simply been made of smoke. “In addition to all that,” he continued, “I am happy to report that I have discovered my own denya among the survivors from Fenryr 1. I did not expect to be blessed like Raze, but this development gives me hope for all of our people.”
Tyann, the soulless Detyen, didn’t move an inch, but something about the way he wasn’t moving drew Quinn’s attention. She looked over at him and their eyes met, his dark and completely empty, broken. Fear pulsed in her as he examined her like she was a particularly boring rock, but she was prey caught in his gaze. After a second he looked away, but the knowledge that he’d let her go, that she hadn’t escaped, settled into her bones. She didn’t want to encounter Tyann alone. She didn’t know what he would do and she didn’t want to find out.
Sandon breathed deep, almost sighing. Gren leaned in, placing his elbows on the table in front of them to get a better look. “In light of Raze’s departure from the Legion, we decided that it was better to keep news of his mating confidential, said Sandon.
“He didn’t leave the Legion,” Kayde said in his friend’s defense. “He followed an order to evacuate with more than a dozen non-combatants.”
Sandon nodded, acknowledging the point. “True. But as we could not offer him as an example, we deemed it best to keep his development quiet. We didn’t want to upset the...” he glanced at Quinn. “I take it you’ve told her?”
“She’s my mate,” was Kayde’s confirmation.
Every time he said that Quinn’s stomach grew a dozen butterflies and she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. She felt she should be saying something, but with tensions running high, she didn’t want to make things worse. Kayde seemed to be doing just fine.
Sandon sat back and the trio conferred in whispers for a moment. Rather, Sandon and Gren conferred while Tyann sat silently and observed. It went on for so long that Quinn was ready to burst, but Sandon finally turned back to them. “The tribunals need to convene to discuss this development. So right now you have a choice.” He looked at Kayde, challenge in his eyes.
Kayde looked back silently.
“We will place you and your... Quinn in quarters for the time being and see to your needs as they arise. Or we can place only you in quarters until a decision is made regarding your clai
ms. The vote to keep quiet about Raze’s mating was nearly three to one in favor of silence. We cannot simply ignore the spirit of that ruling right now. Not when things are so volatile.” Sandon actually seemed regretful of the things he was offering them, but Quinn’s anger was starting to burble again and she couldn’t bring it in herself to care.
“So our choices are prison together or prison apart?” she snapped.
Kayde placed a hand on her thigh under the table and out of view from the other Detyens, but it certainly didn’t go unnoticed.
“How did the vote fall?” he asked.
This time it wasn’t Sandon who answered. “The soulless thought the news of the mating should be shared,” said Tyann flatly. “Most of the others disagreed.”
Kayde’s gaze snapped to Sandon and Gren, but neither man revealed anything about his personal opinion. “I gave my denya my word that no harm would come to her here and she would safely be returned to Earth.” There was a request in there somewhere, but Kayde didn’t state it explicitly.
Sandon nodded. “No matter what, that will be arranged.”
“No matter what, what?” Quinn demanded. She would have shot out of the chair if Kayde still hadn’t had his hand on her leg. As it was, she leaned forward, practically sprawling across the table. “Why would—?” She didn’t know how to finish the question and stumbled over her words.
“What will it be?” Sandon asked when she settled back down.
Kayde opened his mouth, but Quinn spoke first. “Together. We stay together.”
THEY WERE BACK IN PRISON. And this one wasn’t even as nice as where Quinn had been kept on Beznifa. The fact that she now had enough experience to rank her stays in captivity made her gnash her teeth. It didn’t look like a prison cell, but neither had her room on Beznifa, and this one even had a door, an upgrade from her previous accommodations. The room was smaller, but the bed was big enough for her, Kayde, and a few of their friends, if they’d been into something like that.
Which she wasn’t. No, thank you. She still wasn’t sure she could handle her mate alone, and she would get violent with anyone else who tried to take what was hers. The place looked like a simple room that could have belonged to anyone on the base. There was an entertainment console on the wall, a communications hub where they could request anything they needed, and a bathroom tucked away in the corner with a large shower that made Quinn feel a bit experimental.
But it was still a prison. There wasn’t a guard at the door, the door wasn’t even locked, but they weren’t allowed to leave. She’d call it the worst vacation ever, but it wasn’t technically a vacation, and she had Kayde by her side, which made the whole thing almost tolerable. Almost.
“Do they have cameras in here?” She shuddered as she thought about it. She’d been under constant surveillance on Beznifa and if she found out the Detyens were no different she’d scream.
Kayde stood by the room’s single window looking out at the frozen tundra of his home. “No, the inside of all quarters are private except for the detainment cells.”
Detainment cells were not what she wanted to think about at the moment. She flopped back onto the bed and bounced up once before landing with a huff. It startled a laugh out of her and once she started, she couldn’t quite stop. Her hysterics got Kayde to turn away from the window and he studied her for several long seconds, his expression blank, as if he couldn’t understand why she had gone crazy.
Fair enough, he was still new to this whole emotion thing.
He was haloed in the bright light coming in from outside and Quinn’s breath caught. She could almost forget how handsome he was sometimes. She spent so much time looking at him that he became another constant in her life, but then there were moments like this where the light hit him right and her heart started beating hard as she remembered that he was hers, that she was the only one who got to see him in these unguarded moments. The only one on the receiving end of the faint smile that graced his lips.
She should probably be grilling him, asking him exactly what he thought what was going to happen once the tribunals convened. But Quinn had spent the last weeks ricocheting between anxiety and hope, and she was learning when to worry about the future and when to seize the present. They were confined to this room for the next little while and there was nothing they could do to make the situation better. If they tried to leave, it would surely only make things worse.
So seizing the moment was the only option, really. That, or go crazy.
Kayde’s eyes flashed red as Quinn started to unzip her jacket. As she cast it aside and reached for the hem of her shirt he crossed the room and loomed over her, standing at the edge of the bed. A few days ago that would have sent her into a panic, but now her heart beat hard from excitement, not fear. She was still figuring out how to get all of her actions under control, but it wasn’t Kayde who caused her to fear, it never had been.
“What are you doing,” he growled, his fingers grazing her wrist and sending goose bumps racing up her arm.
Quinn shivered and grinned at him. “I told you what I wanted before we got off the ship.” She worked her shirt up centimeter by centimeter, teasing him with a growing naked band of skin. Kayde’s fingers remained on her wrist, but he didn’t try and stop her from removing her top. He only let go for a moment when she managed to get the fabric over her head, but once that was done and the shirt lay on the floor, he laced their fingers together. She still wore a bra, but she might as well have been naked from the way his eyes raked over her skin.
She sucked in a deep breath as her stomach clenched in desire and she tugged on his hand until he was forced forward, placing one knee on the bed beside her and leaving one foot stubbornly on the floor. That wouldn’t do at all. Quinn reached up with her free hand and looped it behind Kayde’s neck, pulling him closer for a scorching kiss. They ended up with her flat on her back, his free hand propping him up beside her, their two hands connected, and still he held himself off of her in some feat of strength and coordination that Quinn would have admired if she hadn’t yearned for the press of his flesh against hers.
She tugged at him again and Kayde resisted. “What’s wrong?” she finally asked, forcing her lips to the side even as her body protested. She could taste the memory of him with every word, but she didn’t want the memory when the real thing was right there.
“The last time I was on top of you didn’t go so well,” he said. “I don’t want to do anything to hurt you.”
Sweet, caring, stupid man. Quinn knew her smile was a bit dopey, heart-struck and helplessly falling for him. “This,” she said, pulling on his hand, “is me saying that I want to try again. I’m not letting those bastards take you from me.” She wasn’t sure which bastards she was talking about, but she wasn’t going to dwell on it for the moment. It was only her and Kayde in this room, in this bed, and she was determined that it would stay that way. She wanted to make love to her mate, and nothing was going to stop her. Not tonight. Not as long as he was with her every step of the way.
Any other man would have taken her invitation and run with it, but Kayde was still her caring gentleman warrior. He crowded her slowly, leaning forward and giving her plenty of time to escape. By the time his second knee came up and he straddled her, Quinn was breathless with anticipation. She wanted this, wanted him, more than her next breath, and right now the worry of apprehension was only a tiny whisper buried deep in her mind, easily set aside and ignored.
Their lips met and it was nothing like the first time. Then they’d been high on the heat of battle, celebrating survival and falling towards one another in a fit of excited passion. There was passion here, excitement too, but the way Kayde’s lips moved against hers, and the way his tongue dipped into her mouth to taste her held nothing of the desperate edge they’d first come together on. Now this was a dance they’d both learned, they were still learning it and always would be, but the first steps flowed easily, the way he touched her side, the way she yielded under him and a
rched against him, the way his eyes would snap open to watch her, as if he couldn’t believe that they were really here together.
It wasn’t a perfect kiss. Their noses bumped together, and for a few seconds Quinn forgot to breathe, but the kiss was perfect for them, a perfect expression of the connection they were building. There was still trial and error, but no room for judgment, only pleasure and fun.
Need built hot within her and soon Quinn was tugging at Kayde’s shirt, needing skin, needing contact, needing him. They wrestled it off and he cursed at the fabric when he momentarily got tangled in it. He startled a laugh out of her when he took his claws to the material and cut it off like it was a vine trying to suffocate him.
“That’s better,” he said with an air of satisfaction. He was on his knees, towering over her, and that whisper of fear grew a little louder, even as her desire mounted. He was straining against his pants and Quinn wanted to touch the hard length of him, but the part of herself that had been holding her back all this time urged caution.
If she opened herself up to him, it whispered its vile poison directly into her psyche, then he could do anything he wanted to her. He could hurt her like no one before had managed.
She knew the doubt was showing on her face and she didn’t know how to make it go away. But Kayde sensed her shift in mood before she could make a sound. He swooped in and flipped her over until he was on his back and she was the one kneeling over him. Now she could feel the hard ridge of him pressed against her abdomen and she couldn’t stop herself from writhing against him until they were both groaning. It was too much. It wasn’t enough.
