Stephanie's Challenge

by M. K. Eidem

  It made no sense, as Nuga's defenses had been destroyed, but Ethan wasn't going to question their good fortune. That was for Captain Zafar and the Coalition. He was going to dispute the fact that they'd pulled him off planet before others with serious injuries. That wasn't right, Prince or not, but between his Guard and those from the Guardian, he'd had no choice.

  "Ethan!" Kasmira's exclamation pulled him from his thoughts to find the tear-streaked images of his wife and boys filling the screen before him.

  "I'm fine," were the first words out of his mouth, knowing how his battered face must look to them. When Burk had shoved him against the mine wall, protecting Ethan with his own body, he hadn't realized his face had hit the rough surface. It was only once they were on the Guardian that he'd seen the damage. "It's just bumps and bruises. It looks a lot worse than it is." His gaze went to his boys. "Hey, guys."

  "Hi, Daddy," they replied much more subdued than usual.

  "Hey, what's that I see in the corners of your mouths?" he asked trying to distract them. "Have you been eating fudge chip wafers without me again?"

  "No, Daddy," Roland told him. "It's Fudge Torta."

  "Fudge Torta?" Ethan's gaze finally went past his family and saw his sister standing behind them. "You're at the Palace?"

  "Yes," Kasmira told him. "Jotham wanted to have a family dinner. We arrived mid-afternoon."

  "Oh my Ancestors, you must have been worried sick," he said, hating that thought.

  "Actually we weren't," Kasmira told him quietly. "Jotham didn't tell us what was going on until just a few minutes ago."

  "What?" Ethan gave his wife a disbelieving look. "And Mom went along with that?"

  "He didn't tell her either," Kasmira told him. "Only Stephanie knew."

  "Stephanie," his gaze shifted to his sister, his anger apparent. "My family had the right to know."

  "I agree, Ethan, but it wasn't my call. As Commander, I have to follow my King's orders, but I believe right now Jotham is learning the error of his ways. I haven't seen Mom this mad since Dad took you cliff climbing instead of to that factory tour like he told her and you broke your arm."

  "Ancestors, was she ever mad," he agreed, his anger fading just as Stephanie had hoped.

  "Especially since she'd already told both of you that you couldn't until you took more lessons. Lessons she'd gone to a great deal of trouble to arrange."

  "She didn't speak to Dad for days."

  "It was only one day," Stephanie corrected. "It just felt longer because we'd never seen them fight like that."

  "True."

  "And eventually she got over it," Stephanie reminded him.

  "Yeah, but I never did get those lessons."

  "Because the specialized instructor she'd arranged for your birthday had to return to Goryn before your arm healed. Let that be a lesson to you, boys." She looked down to her nephews. "When your mother says 'no' it means 'no.' Now, I'll give you guys some time alone."

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Stephanie leaned against the wall as the door closed behind her. Ancestors, while the High Admiral had assured her that her brother was okay, she hadn't really believed it until she saw him for herself.

  "Deffand," was the immediate reply when she entered a code on her portable comm.

  "He's fine," she said.

  "Thank the Ancestors," he replied, but his real concern was for his life mate. "Are you?"

  "I don't know," she admitted. "The High Admiral contacted us just as dessert was being served. He informed us Ethan was safe and that once he had access to a comm, he would be contacting us. When we returned, Jotham finally informed the rest of the family what was going on."

  "And how did they take it?" It'd been on his mind all day.

  "Not well, especially Mom," Stephanie admitted.

  "Do you need me there?"

  "No, but I'd like you here anyway. Ethan's call just came in, and Kasmira and the boys are talking to him on Jotham's secure comm. I'm not sure what I'm going to be walking back into."

  "On my way."

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Jotham sat back in his chair trying to get some type of control on the multitude of emotions swirling through him. Why was Jacinda acting this way? Didn't she understand he'd only been trying to protect her? It had nearly destroyed him to see how distraught she'd been while Stephanie had been recovering. She'd lost weight, barely ate, and hardly ever smiled unless it was around her daughter. It hadn't been until Stephanie had been well enough to come home that the fear he saw in his life mate's eyes began to fade. He never wanted to see it there again.

  "Will you excuse us?" he asked quietly looking to Barek and Danton.

  "Stay," Jacinda countered, her gaze never leaving Jotham's. "You were the one who wanted them here to witness your deceit so they can remain for the consequences."

  "Consequences?" Jotham asked.

  "Yes." And without another word, she rose and walked out of the room.

  "I wouldn't," Danton quietly told Jotham when he rose to follow her.

  "What?" Jotham turned confused, emotion-filled eyes to Jacinda's first son. "I can't just let her leave like that. I have to talk to her."

  "That's exactly what you can't do right now. Not until Mom calms down. She's not going to listen to anything you say right now." Danton picked up his wine glass and took a long sip. "All I can say is that when you screw up, Jotham, you do it royally."

  "I was only..." Jotham began.

  "Lying to her by omission," Danton finished for him. "That doesn't fly in our family, Jotham. Not when it concerns family. Trust me, we've all learned that the hard way."

  "I only..."

  "Wanted to protect her. Yeah, I get that but haven't you figured out by now that my mother doesn't want or need protection. Not from her family. She wants to love and protect us. She considers it not only her right, but her duty, and she takes that duty as seriously as you do yours to the House of Protection."

  "You never saw how Stephanie's injury affected her," Jotham told Danton angrily. "Not really. She kept up a brave face in front of all of you."

  "And we all knew that, Jotham," Danton quietly informed him. "Even Stephanie."

  "Especially me," Stephanie said as she walked into the room. When she saw her mother's empty chair, she asked, "Mom went to walk in the garden?"

  "Yeah," Danton told her frowning slightly when he saw Deffand was with her.

  Stephanie took her mother's seat next to Jotham and looked at the man, not the King. She could see his confusion at her mom's reaction, could understand his belief that he'd done the right thing, and could see his fear that he might have just lost his life mate. Again. She couldn't let him believe that her mother would want that.

  Reaching out she put her hand over his fisted one. "She will get over it, Jotham, just give her a little time. You haven't lost her. She still loves you."

  "You're sure?" The quiet question that escaped Jotham's lips surprised everyone, especially Barek, who'd never seen his father doubt himself like this.

  "Of course," she reassured him. "Look, Jotham, right now Mom's furious, but it's more than that, she's hurt. Hurt that you would keep something like this from her." Stephanie held up her hand to keep him from speaking. "Yes, yes, I know you didn't want her to worry, but you two are life mates." She glanced at Nick who had taken the seat next to her. "You're supposed to share your worries with one another, supposed to support the other with your strength when the other one is weak. Ease the burden. What you just did, told her you don't think she can do that for you."

  "That was never my intention," Jotham murmured.

  "I know that. We," she looked across the table to her brother, "know that, and Mom will too, once she calms down. Ancestors, Jotham, didn't you and Lata ever fight?"

  "Of course we did, but not like this," he admitted. "We were so young and had so little real time together, what with the way our duties were thrust upon us, and then Barek was born." He looked to his first son and smile
d. "Ancestors, she loved you, Barek. She would have spent every moment with you if she could have. When she couldn't, she made sure to read every report on what you had done that day, where you'd gone, and what you ate. She once walked out of a meeting of the Assembly because she'd been notified you were running a fever. It turned out you were only teething, but she insisted on staying with you all night, rocking you, rubbing ice on your gums."

  "She did?" Barek asked quietly.

  "Yes." Jotham frowned at him. "Didn't I ever tell you that?"

  "No."

  "I'm sorry. I should have. Caring for you, worrying about you... was one of your mother's greatest joys."

  "So you do understand," Stephanie interjected quietly, "and still you took that 'joy' away from our mother by not telling her about Ethan."

  "You didn't see how she suffered when you were injured," Jotham repeated.

  "I did, not as much as you did, but I knew and do you know why?"

  "Why?"

  "Because we all saw it when Dad met the ancestors," Danton told him quietly. "She was devastated. She hardly ate and barely slept. She lost her smile, and for a while, we thought we might lose her too." Danton's voice hitched, and his gaze locked with his sister's for a moment. It was something none of them had ever admitted before. "The only reason we didn't was that she knew we needed and loved her. Slowly, she came back to us."

  "That's what you have to do, Jotham," Stephanie told him. "Let her know that you love and need her."

  "I already know that."

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Jacinda moved through the garden, ignoring the beauty of the night-blooming flowers. Tonight they didn't soothe her. How could Jotham have done that? How could he have kept something like this from her? Ethan was her son, her second born, her little boy. Of all her children, he was the one she worried the least about. Not because there weren't hazards in his job, Nuga had proven that but because he was the methodical one.

  Ethan thought before he acted, took into consideration how his actions would affect others, especially his family. It's why he never came to Stephan when Pajari had blackballed his father-in-law's company from the lucrative mining contracts, giving them to Sokol instead. Because Ethan knew if he did, he'd get no contracts at all, and his employees would suffer for it.

  That was her Ethan, but Jotham...

  He was her life mate. They were supposed to share everything. There were supposed to be no secrets between them. That was the only way this was ever going to work. Didn't he know that? Or did he just not care?

  She found herself standing in front of the Tausendjahriger Rosenstock that had been transplanted from her house to Jotham's private garden. It continued to bloom the violet and gold roses that represented both the House of Protection and the House of Healing, but now, as the Union drew nearer the colors were beginning to comingle. Some were gold with violet tips while others were the reverse. They were magnificent, just as her and Jotham's love was, or at least she thought it was.

  Until this.

  Taking a deep breath, she looked up at Carina's moon and searched for the serenity it always brought her. How many times had she sat next to the Tausendjahriger Rosenstock in her own garden and stared up at that moon after Stephan had died? A thousand? There were times Myesha would come out and beg her to go inside. When she wouldn’t, Myesha settled for wrapping a blanket around her shoulders.

  Tonight there would be no comforting blanket, but then tonight Jacinda wasn't mourning the loss of her life mate. Tonight she was angry. Angry at her life mate, and hurt by him. Moving to the bench Jotham had specifically placed there for her, she sat and tried to calm her reeling emotions.

  She and Jotham had come a long way in the last moon cycles. They had discussed the many challenges of their relationship. The duties, expectations, and criticisms. All those things they'd talked about and decided how to handle together. But never once had she thought they'd need to discuss how to handle incidents that involved their children. Perhaps she'd thought it was a given because she and Stephan had always addressed those things together.

  But Jotham hadn't had that support, not after Lata had died. He'd had to deal with those things by himself, had to make those decisions without anyone else's input. It was what he was used to. Even with Dadrian and all the things Jotham told her his second son had done and also having William and Cassandra's support, Jotham had ultimately had to deal with and carry that burden alone. At least until he'd shared it with her.

  Knowing all that, could she really fault Jotham for how he'd handled this? It was as much her fault as his. Well, that ended now.

  Rising, she turned and walked back to her life mate and their family.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Slipping into the room unnoticed, Jacinda listened to her daughter reassuring her life mate and couldn't believe what a remarkable woman she'd grown up to be.

  "That's what you have to do, Jotham," Stephanie said. "Let her know that you love and need her."

  "I already know that," Jacinda said quietly and everyone turned to her.

  "Jacinda..." Jotham would have stood and gone to her, but she waved him off.

  "I know you love me, Jotham," she gave him a small smile, "that's never been our problem. We've come a long way in getting to know and understand one another, in getting to know and understand how to deal with all the changes in our lives." She looked around the table. "In all our lives, but this is something we haven't discussed, and apparently we need to."

  Just then Kasmira came into the room with a huge smile on her face, her boys’ were just as large. She went directly to Jotham and leaning down kissed his cheek.

  "Thank you," she said, her eyes watering slightly. "I know you were only trying to protect us, to keep us from worrying."

  "I was,” Jotham agreed.

  "Don't do it again," she ordered as she straightened, her gaze clearing. "Ethan is my life mate and no one, not even you, has the right to interfere in that relationship."

  "That was never my intention," he told her.

  "Which is why you get a pass. This time." She turned to Jacinda who had retaken her seat when Stephanie moved to sit on Nick's other side. "You have your work cut out for you with this one," she told Jacinda.

  "Not as much as you might think." Jacinda reached up to grip her daughter-in-law's hand. "Now tell us. How is Ethan? Really?"

  Kasmira didn't even hesitate which told Jacinda she wasn't editing for her boys’ sake. "He's good, bumped and bruised, but good. He said he'd contact us again when he was on his way home."

  Jacinda nodded then looked to Stephanie's life mate. “I'm glad you're finally here, Nicholas. I assume you were made aware of the situation.”

  “I was, and I can’t express how relieved I am that Ethan is safe.” His gaze went to Kasmira. “I reached out to some of my contacts in the Coalition. The citizens of Nuga have Ethan and the Zhao Corporation to thank for so many of them being alive. The mine would have collapsed without the repairs Ethan had insisted on being done immediately, even though it drastically increased the cost."

  Kasmira's hand covered her gasp. "It was really that bad?"

  "It could have been." Nick's gaze went to Eliron and Roland. "Your father and those that work for your grandfather's company are heroes. They saved a great many lives today."

  The boys’ eyes widened at Nick's words, and Stephanie smiled as she leaned into him slightly. The move wasn't missed by either Barek, Danton, or Kasmira.

  "It seems our family has been blessed with heroes." Jacinda's gaze went to Stephanie before turning back to focus on Jotham. "Now, let’s talk about what happened here tonight and how it will never happen again."

  "Jacinda, I don't think this is a conversation the boys need to be involved in," Kasmira interjected quietly.

  "Of course not," Jacinda looked to her grandsons. "I'm sorry, Kasmira, I wasn't thinking."

  "I'll have Turk come and take them to your quarters, if that's alright with you, Kasmira."
Stephanie's finger hovered over her portable comm.

  "That will be fine," Kasmira told her.

  It didn't take long for Turk to arrive along with several of the boys’ Guard, and as they waited, they all moved into the sitting area where a servant appeared to pour them all a glass of wine. After hugs and kisses goodnight from all, the boys left taking the two remaining pieces of Torta with them.

  "I don't believe Captain Deffand needs to be involved in this conversation," Danton said glaring at the man sitting next to his sister on one of the couches.

  Jacinda sighed. Ever since Stephan's death, Danton felt he needed to fill the role of protector, not only with her but Stephanie, even though his sister obviously didn't need it. She wasn't sure how he was going to handle this. Looking to her daughter, she raised an eyebrow. "Stephanie?"

  Stephanie looked to Nick and at his slight nod let her gaze travel around her family, settling on Kasmira.

  "This wasn't how we were planning on announcing this. We wanted the entire family to be here," she glanced at Kasmira, "but I guess now is as good a time as any to let you know that Nick has moved in with me and that we're life mates."

  "Oh, Stephanie, that's wonderful," Kasmira exclaimed, rising from her chair she gave her sister-in-law a big hug and then Nick. "Welcome to the family, Nick."

  "Thank you, Kasmira," Nick said returning her hug.

  "You already knew about this?" Danton asked looking at his mother.

  "Of course. Stephanie informed us about it right before Ethan left for Nuga."

  "And you're okay with this?"

  "With what? My daughter finding her life mate?"

  "No! With them living together without a Union! Dad wouldn't allow this."

  "Of course he would. He'd be thrilled not only because his daughter had grown into a smart, beautiful woman who is more than capable of making her own decisions, but because he knew and greatly respected Nicholas."

  That seemed to take the wind out of Danton's sails, but he still muttered. "Not without a Union."

  "Who says we're not planning on having a Union?" Nick interjected quietly, and all eyes turned to him, including Stephanie's.