Found

by Reagan Woods

  “It burns the meat and ruins the hide,” Bram answered, scraping a valuable section of hide. “It would make the work faster and easier, but I’d have to hunt three times as many beasts to net the same amount of meat.”

  “Your mother,” Tivio began haltingly, as he viciously pulled his blade beneath the beast’s skin. “She never spoke of me?”

  Bram didn’t want to talk about Sesk’aa with this male. He’d seen enough abuse heaped on her over the years. The only thing that had saved many of her clients was Sesk’aa herself. He kind of liked Tivio and didn’t want to feel obligated to harm him.

  He went to rub a hand over the back of his neck before catching himself. His hands were covered in gore. “No.”

  “That’s disappointing,” Tivio grunted, eyes firmly on his work. “I met Sesk’aa on a good will tour of Doranos Prime in my sixteenth year. She was my age and the daughter of a diplomat. Her mother and mine were friendly. We attended a few of the same events and I was besotted. Not only was Sesk’aa exotic and beautiful, she had a mind the likes of which I’d never encountered. Nothing came of my fascination that year and we returned to Corian Space.

  “A few years later, Sesk’aa and I reconnected. She was in Corian Space, and I invited her on a tour of Cor I. We had an enjoyable visit and she suggested I look her up the next time I went to Prime. This back and forth, friendly flirting and casual relationship turned into a love affair. I put off selecting a bond-mate and quietly sought a way to mate Sesk’aa. My mother caught wind of my intentions and announced that my bonding contract with Miska was finalized and the ceremony was imminent. I bonded with Miska out of a sense of duty. Sesk’aa never attempted to contact me nor did she respond to any of my attempts to reach her. I was heartbroken, but I eventually came to love my mate very much. It was several years before I found out about you.”

  Bram found himself tugging uncertainly at his ear. Part of him wanted to be angry at both Sesk’aa and Tivio. However, this was all in the past and he had someone who loved him unconditionally now. Neither Tivio nor Sesk’aa could claim that. “I’m not sure why you’re telling me this,” he finally admitted as he stepped away from the hide he worked.

  Halting mid-slice, Tivio looked up. The muscles in his jaw worked visibly beneath the striped skin that was so different from Bram’s own unrelieved white pigment. “When I realized who you were, I sent Vank here for a holiday. He obviously doesn’t know you’re his brother,” Tivio hurried to add. “He called you the finest hunter he’d ever seen and wanted to recruit you to the Warriors. Vank is a fine judge of a male’s mettle.”

  “Er – you have my thanks,” Bram said awkwardly. Perhaps acknowledgement was what the elder male sought. Why else tell him all this? “If Vank hadn’t mentioned the Warriors, I would never have made it off this little world.”

  Tivio’s coppery eyes shone with pleasure. “My sons are fine males – all of you.”

  Palms out, Bram motioned for Tivio to slow down. “Let’s not complicate things with such talk. I have spent my entire life without a family, no House, no name. I’ve made peace with all that. Lacy and I are about to start our own family. I’m not interested in jeopardizing her safety or that of our child by taking up your cause. No offense.”

  “I didn’t realize…” Tivio’s slow smile was genuine and he didn’t comment on Bram’s rebuff. “Congratulations. How does Lacy feel about being a mother?”

  Scowling, Bram’s fists clenched as he asked in a dangerous tone, “You mean how does she feel about having a half-breed’s child?”

  “No,” Tivio denied as he carefully sat his work aside and braced his hands on the metal table before him, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “I mean how does she feel about a baby with an alien Warrior on a strange planet?”

  Heat engulfed Bram’s ears as shame slammed through his body. “I apologize for my outburst,” he said stiffly, picking up his work. He needed to get his emotions under control. Tivio wasn’t his friend but he also wasn’t the enemy. “To answer your question, I believe she is…content.”

  “Things weren’t easy for you here.” Tivio’s coppery eyes were assessing. “You appear Doranos, but your build, your bone structure is certainly Corian,” he continued thoughtfully. “I suppose Sesk’aa brought you here out of a desire to avoid the rampant racism on Doranos Prime. It appears you didn’t escape completely unscathed. This is exactly why Miska and I have worked to bring about change. It’s time to stop suffering for outdated pride.”

  Bram had no idea what Tivio was going on about. “Er – what?” He kept the Corian in his peripheral vision and returned to scrape the hide to dry and trade.

  “Most of the problems we face as humanoids, like low birth rate, can be directly attributed to our desire to keep blood lines pure,” he answered matter-of-factly. “That’s why we were ecstatic to discover the Earthers, their DNA is much closer to the original humanoids - flaws and all.”

  “What?” In shock, Bram spun toward Tivio, inadvertently flinging gore from the edge of his scraper across the other male’s torso. He cringed at the mess. “Sorry.”

  Tivio looked down and shrugged resignedly. “Yes,” he continued. “Our ancestors were more like Earthers than what we are today. We Corians altered our DNA to blend with the rocks and deserts of our system – it was easier to make war undetected. From what I understand, Doranos people made changes for aesthetic purposes. We all remain slaves to millennia old ideals and it holds us back. It’s time for real change.”

  Like a boulder rolling down hill, change was coming – Tivio’s predicament was proof of that. How that change would affect Doranos and Corian people beyond today was anyone’s guess. Though he didn’t say it aloud, Bram realized the wrong people had seized power. Could anyone stop what was in motion now?

  Chapter 53

  “I don’t want you to go,” Lacy told Bram fiercely as she sucked in a lungful of the humid night air. “It’s a stupid idea.” She stomped her foot on the tile of their private balcony for emphasis. No way was she going to sit around wringing her hands while she waited for news of her man. Waiting and worrying weren’t her thing.

  The rain had stopped, and they were taking advantage of the blessed evening cool. A clean scent floated on the balmy breeze. Tomorrow, the blazing sun would heat the upper atmosphere again and the air would return to the consistency of thick soup.

  Hours ago, Sesk’aa had sent word that Vank’s last known location was aboard a ship belonging to his uncle, Councilor Darkan. The news had launched Miska into a genteel tailspin of worry and self-recrimination complete with lady-like tears. Through pretty sobs, the Corian Queen explained how she blamed herself for endorsing her brother’s powerful position. Now, Darkan paid her back by having her hunted while holding her beloved son hostage. She dabbed the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief as she told her tale of woe.

  Personally, Lacy thought the Queen laid on the heartbreak a bit thick. Bram swallowed her act hook, line and sinker, though.

  “Look at it this way,” Bram had advised, clearly shaken by the sight of the strong woman’s tears. “If they have Vank, they’ve probably stopped searching for you and Tivio.”

  That had been cold comfort, apparently. “I’d die a thousand times to prevent one of my children from being used like this,” Miska had declared dramatically.

  Those words set Bram into motion. Not that his plan was new. Lacy knew he’d intended to go after Vank and do what he could to free him once he discovered their blood relationship. He’d said as much. Tomorrow, he intended to implement his plan and Lacy was beyond pissed. She knew a set-up when she saw it. Luckily, two could play the manipulation game.

  Miska was funding Bram’s trip to snatch Vank from his Uncle Darkan’s clutches - of course. So, Lacy had sidled up to the Corian woman multiple times over the last days and bemoaned the lack of information coming from Earth. Playing the angle that neither of them knew anything about their loved ones, Lacy had secured a promise of funds for a mission to
Earth, too. She hadn’t told Bram yet.

  These infuriating Corians and their self-righteous certainty that they had a right to safety and security while they sent Warriors out to wreak havoc on the rest of the universe chapped her ass. Her disgust with the situation wouldn’t stop Lacy from using the Corian Queen’s money to her own ends, though.

  Bram was indoctrinated into the CORANOS way of thinking and wouldn’t even consider that the little family he and Lacy were building was more important than these rich people and their problems.

  She and Bram should be looking forward to the birth of their child. Instead, he was telling her excitedly about how his mother’s sources had located Vank. Tears stung her eyes as she prepared to deliver her ultimatum.

  “Lacy, Sesk’aa says Councilor Darkan is petitioning Governor Doriak for a meeting.” His frown as he stepped close didn’t intimidate her. If anything, his insistence on caring about this drove home how different they were.

  Lacy ignored the fact that he was shirtless, his marble-like muscles glowing under the low lights of their suite. Focusing on his eyes, she asked, “What does it matter if Darkan meets with Doriak?” He needed to give her a satisfactory explanation for abandoning her here with these strangers – not that she intended to let anything he said qualify as satisfactory. She wanted her man here with her – or she was leaving.

  Bram’s fingers tunneled into her hair as he tilted her head back and made eye contact. “With Vank as a figurehead, the Corian usurpers are powerful enough to march into Doriak’s realm uninvited and unwanted. Where do you think they’ll stop?” He rumbled, pink eyes burning with a fierce light. “Do you think they’ll leave this backward little jungle planet alone? They won’t. They’ll come here and take our land, they’ll rape our daughters and slaughter our sons. Darkan’s power lust is insatiable.”

  “When you put it like that, you sound so reasonable,” she grumbled, twisting out of his grasp. “But we both know you’ve got some sort of hero complex where Vank is concerned.”

  He ignored that and moved closer, slowly backing her against the door to their room. “Leaving you here isn’t what my heart wants, either.”

  Lacy pushed up to her toes, the small bump of her belly pressing between them. She stared up at him imploringly. “Then, don’t. Take me with you. I can be a badass, too.”

  “Lacy, you know I can’t do that.” He picked her up and pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. “It’s just not safe,” he murmured, nuzzling his nose to hers.

  She hated to do this, but he wasn’t leaving her any choice. It was time to use the threat of leaving to make Bram re-think his plans. All’s fair in love and war, right? “You know Miska will pay for me to return to Earth.”

  He growled low in his throat and squeezed her tighter. “I thought you put that foolish notion from your head.”

  “No more than you’ve put your plans aside,” she rebutted softly. “Please don’t do this. I don’t want anything to come between us, but I’m not going to sit here and watch you walk away from me.”

  “I’m not walking away,” he gritted, frustration in every syllable. “I’m doing the right thing.”

  “No, you’re- what the hell was that?” Lacy broke off, mid-argument to shield her eyes as blinding light flashed through the darkness. The glare became bright to the point of washing the color out of the world around them and she had to close her eyes against it.

  Bram propelled her through the door, pushing her onto the bed with his big body covering her from head to toe. He pulled her hands next to her ears and pressed in. Lacy got the gist, muffling her ears as he pulled back to cover his own ears. The sonic boom rattled her teeth but didn’t take her hearing thanks to Bram’s quick thinking.

  “We have to get out of here!” He shouted in the eerie silence. “Get to the slaughterhouse. I’ll be a few minutes behind you.”

  Lacy didn’t argue, she ran. Her shoes were next to the back door, but she didn’t stop to put them on, just scooped them up and sloshed out into water-logged night. Heartbeat thundering in her ears, she hit the slaughterhouse door at a dead run, sending the old-fashioned swinging door crashing to the metal siding.

  Here, she paused to slip her shoes on before fumbling for the touch pad that controlled the lights. “Lacy, move! To the basement!” She heard Bram’s pounding footsteps behind her.

  Moving fast, she jerked on the metal door that rose to reveal the stairs and let it drop with a thud. Then she was air born. Bram bundled her beneath his arm like a rugby player, sprinting down the steps three at a time, the Corians right on his heels. It seemed like they descended for hours on an endless spiral of metal stairs.

  “Bram?” Her voice squeaked, rising and falling with his every step. “What’s going on?”

  “The escape plan,” he panted. “Didn’t you ever look down here?”

  “Um…nope.” Stupid didn’t begin to cover how Lacy felt just then. She didn’t have time to dwell on it as he sat her on her feet in the cold, drafty basement.

  No, it was a hangar, she realized. An underground hangar for a ship so dark it seemed to suck the light from the overheads. The thing stretched the length of two football fields and Lacy didn’t know how Bram intended to get it out of here.

  “Get in,” Bram commanded with an indecipherable hand signal.

  Tivio understood and slid his hands along the fuselage. A huge flexible tube that reminded her of a dryer vent hose, sprang toward them. Miska put an arm around Lacy and dragged her to the tube. “This is a boarding tube,” Miska explained as a floor spiraled into place beneath their feet. “It’s loud and uncomfortable,” she yelled over the whooshing noise. “But it gets the job done,” she finished dryly as the tube spit them out on a small bridge.

  Chapter 54

  Lacy stood and dusted her backside off, hesitantly moving for the pilot’s chair. Unlike the last two ships she’d been on, this one was all sleek lines with an unmistakably expensive feel to it. “No, dear,” Miska pulled her to a jump seat. “Tivio will want to fly. He’s quite something when it comes to evasion.”

  “Evasion?” Automatically, Lacy’s safety harness adjusted to her size and she watched as Miska strapped in next to her. “I’m sorry…what just happened?”

  “Someone bombed Heza,” Miska answered, pressing a hand to either side of her face as though she couldn’t believe what she said. Her eyes squeezed shut, tears leaking from the lash line. “It was probably Darkan. My Vank, my baby,” her voice caught on a sob and she visibly worked to contain her emotions. “Is either dead or he has escaped. I guess Darkan managed to track Tiv and I to Sesk’aa.”

  “We’ll go with Vank’s escape until we hear different,” Tivio grunted as he and Bram joined them. “Now, strap in.” The hulking Corian sat behind the controls, his rough clothing stretched awkwardly over his seven-foot frame as he reached to adjust the instruments.

  Bram spouted off information about Cuva’s gravitation pull, the current lunar phase and a slew of other data required to exit the atmosphere. Lacy didn’t know why the king was flying the sleek ship, but if Bram ceded the pilot’s seat to him, he must be good.

  “This is going to be rough.” Tivio turned to check on Miska. “Hold tight, my love.”

  She visibly braced against the seat, a determined angle to her head. “I’m ready.”

  “Lacy?” He checked.

  “Good to go.” The seat arms were solid with a squishy coating beneath her white knuckled grip as their ship rumbled to life.

  Bram looked over his shoulder before turning his attention to the three-dimensional screen materializing in the air before him. “A warship has broken from the pod. It’s coming toward Cuva.”

  Tivio ran his fingers through several shining runes hanging in the air. “Systems check is complete.”

  “The vertical launch sequence will open the hangar from above,” Bram pointed out. “The slaughterhouse won’t interfere.”

  Lacy had never experienced the sensation of breaking aw
ay from a planet’s gravitational pull before. She was pretty sure she never wanted to do it again. Her stomach felt like it might make a permanent move to her nose.

  As soon as they cleared the planet, they went weightless for the briefest moment before the artificial gravity kicked in. The little life in her stomach did not approve of the acrobatics, and she spent a tense few minutes fighting the urge to vomit.

  “Do you think they saw us?” Tivio asked.

  Bram studied the holoscreen. “I don’t see how they could miss us, but I haven’t detected a tail.”

  “Are you alright?” She met Miska’s concerned gaze across the cabin. The older woman looked a bit pale, but she held it together.

  “I’ve been better,” Lacy admitted, putting a steadying hand to her perspiring forehead. “It’s really nice we have a ship and we can run, but where can we possibly go?”

  The D’Corian’s fidgeted uncomfortably in their seats. The fleeing monarchs were running out of safe places, she surmised. Going to Sesk’aa had to have been a last resort. Why else would you go to your former lover with your current mate?

  Thoughts of Sesk’aa had her biting her lower lip. Lacy didn’t know how Bram remained so calm. He’d been focused and organized as he herded his wards, all of them, from the house to the shuttle.

  Tivio surprised her by putting his hand on Bram’s shoulder. “Do you want to hail your mother’s ship?”

  “We can’t,” he spoke plainly, not a trace of indecision on his handsome face. “If she’s alive out there, I don’t want to draw attention to her.” His pink eyes landed on her momentarily. “Besides, she knew the risks of the game she played. My priority is this ship’s successful escape. Now, we need to lay in a course and put some distance between us and whatever is happening back there.”

  “We have to go to Darvan,” Miska finally said, projecting her voice at Tivio. “It’s the only place left. You saw what hiding got us. We need to find allies and fight.”