Truthbreaker

by Kelly Lucille

  "I am more likely to be interested in you that your Captain.” Something in her eyes had softened and he had the feeling she was tempering her expressions because of his reaction. And her words had both surprise and a strange warmth flooding his insides. "I was not..." she cleared her throat. "I mean," this time she licked her lips before continuing and the motion of her tongue wetting that soft pink had him losing the train of the conversation. She cleared her throat delicately again. "What I mean is I was not aware you had such plans for me. Or that you and your Captain were in the habit of sharing your... mates."

  "Well," he said. "You would be the first and only mate we shared. There are things about me that I need to explain to you, but you should know at least that I am like the Bruha and the Shakien in that my kind mate for life." He shrugged as if it meant nothing even as he fought the worry that she would react badly to his intentions when she found out how little experience he truly had. "If you would rather not consider me..."

  "I didn't say that." She said it fast and he caught the same look of surprise in her eyes that he knew had to be glowing in his. "I mean, that's not what I meant." She blew out a breath. "I also have never been with anyone else," she finally said, and he understood at last the color mounting her cheeks. She was no more experienced than he was.

  Something in that knowledge filled him with more than a little satisfaction. Before he could consider his intentions he leaned down and pressed his lips to her soft pink mouth and was almost shocked into stillness when instead of pushing him away as he expected she kissed him back.

  He had a moment of sheer pleasure when the heat and softness of her mouth became his to plunder, and new to mating he might be, but not stupid. He took what she gave and memorized every curve of her soft lips and mouth while he had the chance to do so. Before she came to her senses and pushed him away with a gasp.

  Her cheeks were a brighter red than before and her lips looked as plundered as he could make them. She breathed as deeply as he did, her eyes hot and her hands shaking just a bit in reaction. He did not need experience to know she had reacted to his kiss, nearly as powerfully as he had. "I'll think about...I need to think about this. I am not...That is." She stopped her stuttering words and with a final loud exhale she turned and fled. Leaving him alone on the beach. He fought the need to once again follow, but even he could see that this time she was running from him.

  In his head, Tyber was laughing. Probably because he could feel through their connection everything he did and knew just how muddled one kiss had made him.

  She is our mate, he thought toward the other man. We will see how well you can think when she kisses you. If she kisses you. The last stopped the laughing. They did not need to discuss the situation to finally understand just how badly they had hurt Trig with their actions on the Jezebel.

  He would just have to make it up to her, Lore thought, because he already wanted to kiss her again, and if she stayed mad at Tyber that could be difficult. But, Lore reasoned. If anyone could get through the armor Trig had erected it was Tyber Relian. Unlike Lore and apparently Trig herself he knew how to talk and did it well.

  Here is hoping you are as good at wooing Trig as you think you are.

  The only response across their link was a touch of determination. Yes, it might have come as a shock to Trig that the two of them were a package deal and both wanted her, but he could not see why. It all seemed more than obvious to him.

  Tyber was back to laughing at him so he ignored him. Since he felt he had given her more than enough time out of his sight already he turned and headed back to the compound, and Trig. He wondered as he did, how he was going to keep an eye on her now when she was not with him. Something he would have to figure out. Because already having her out of sight was like an itch of worry he could not shake. Tyber, he decided, would have to move fast. Or Lore would have to find his way into the security feed without Tuft or Lucan finding out about it. Something which might not go over well should he be caught. A thought for another time. He hurried after his mate.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Trig had no idea where she was going this time. She did feel slightly ridiculous. She could deal with bad situations without blinking but give her a taste of the good things and she fell apart. She blew out a breath and looked around, surprised to find that she had somehow traveled from the beach to a tropical garden, complete with a fishpond. If nothing else her new home was beautiful. Probably the most beautiful place she had ever visited, and she got to live here?

  A beautiful man just kissed her and asked her to be his forever mate. He cared. She did not need to be a truthsayer to understand he meant what he said. He never suspected her, and he had watched over her. When had anyone cared enough to do that? Even her mother had left her alone for long periods of time without caring about what she was doing, as long as she did it in hiding. Perhaps others would have been worried about the fact that he basically stalked her by com the entire time she was on the Jezebel, but for Trig, his words were a balm to her hurt feelings. As foolish as that was.

  "Completely foolish," Trig assured herself out loud. "One might even say borderline desperate."

  "What is?" The small voice had her turning and meeting the eyes of a small girl. Trig was not a good judge of age but the small golden-haired female with the most beautiful purple eyes she had ever seen was young. A child too young to be wandering alone on a "former" pirate moon.

  "Excuse me," Trig said looking around for the child’s caretaker, and seeing no one.

  "What is completely foolish and borderline desperate?"

  Oh, ouch. Her words sounded even worse, and totally wrong coming from the mouth of a child. That’s what she got for talking her thoughts out loud. "Nothing really. Are you here alone?"

  The child suddenly looked cagey. It was the only word that described that narrowed eye look on such an innocent looking face.

  "I came to see the fishes," she said and then thrust a stubborn chin into the air and walked around Trig to sit on the wide low wall of the pond with no regard for the bottom of her formerly white shorts. Her damp shorts and equally damp pink tank top had probably started out ridiculously cute what with the matching bows in the two long braids down her back. One of which drooped and the other was partially untied. "Are you supposed to be here?"

  Trig considered that and sat down beside the girl with enough space between them so that she did not scare the child. Though seeing that jutting chin and narrowed eyes, she wondered if anything scared this child. "Probably not," Trig finally answered. "I'm not even sure where I am to tell the truth."

  "Well, how did you get here? I know everyone on PortSea." There was enough pride in that statement that Trig did not doubt the child ran someone quite ragged with her wanderings.

  "I came with the Jezebel," she told her and watched those narrowed eyes widen with glee.

  "They're back?” She jumped up from the low wall and looked around as if she expected the Jezebel’s crew to pop out of the garden, then turned to look at Trig, a big smile on her face. "Are you new crew?"

  Trig snorted before she could stop herself. "That seems to be the consensus."

  The gild child clapped her hands in glee. "I'm going to be crew when I get older. Tyber said so. And Sera said she would teach me how to fix the ship, even if we aren't whisperers who can do it with a thought."

  That had Trig smiling, the tone suggested more than a little envy and she wondered if it was from the child or the ship mechanic that the original emotion had come from. The child was going on though, so she let that go, and the speculation that the "Jax" she had heard the name of a time or two was a Dainaree and a whisperer, in tech of all things, unheard of for her kind, a people who normally were allergic to metals. "...and Mac said he would teach me to fight, and Doc told me he could teach me medicine." Here she scrunched up her adorable nose. "But I don't like the lab so I think I will be Lore's assistant first mate to the Captain instead and learn to fly the ship."

 
"All of that sounds...handy." Trig finally settled on the word. Then the girl looked at her and her eyes went super squinty.

  "What are you going to do for the crew? You aren't going to be 'Lore's assistant to the Captain' are you?"

  Since she said that all in one go like it was a title and she took it very seriously, Trig did not laugh. Instead she solemnly looked the girl in the eyes. "I am a truthsayer, my job, I assume would be to help in brokering deals. I am sure that neither the Captain or Lore intend anyone but you for the position of 'Lore's assistant to the Captain.'"

  "Good," she said relaxing noticeably and smiling again, but speaking very firmly. "Because Thaos is going to be assistant to Captain Barnos and he cannot have a higher rank than me. He is too bossy as it is."

  "Is Thaos your brother?"

  Again with the nose scrunch. "He is my best friend. He has wings and can fly, and Lara saved him from the death games."

  Trig sucked in a breath. She had been with the Ambassador when he assisted in that fight and what she had seen of the survivors before they could get them back to their homes, or settled somewhere else, was devastation.

  She knew in abstract that children had been rescued as well, but that was in the abstract. To have such a young innocent looking child talking of her friend being in it hit home, like none of the other reports had. Then she remembered what Tryne had said about Lara and her newest strays. The ones she was apparently keeping.

  Before she could form questions to go with her thoughts two large beasts walked into sight, and if Trig had not remembered the story of the young Avian boy and the Baralians Lara had basically adopted, Trig might have been worried. She fought the need to put herself between them and the very fragile human that still had her back to the approaching giant felines.

  Trig cleared her throat and nodded her chin in their direction. "I believe these are more of your friends?"

  The girl turned and her small shoulders slumped before she stood up, turned, and started talking at the big cats fast. "I just came to see the fishes. I was going to come right back."

  Since Trig was not telepathic and she was not going to use her gift to "know" the hidden conversation that was taking place one sided between the silent Baralians and the talking child she had to guess at the gist from what she heard from the girls side.

  "I did take my nap, but then I woke up and Kira was busy, so I came to see the fishes. You said to stay away from the beach not the garden." Then she practically wailed. "I slept forever!"

  Before this could turn into a child rant, which Trig sensed was fast coming she spoke. "I am Trig Kelia former truthsayer of the Alliance.” Trig spoke with new formality to the little girl, bowing her head in respect as if she were meeting a head of state at a formal affair. "Maybe you could give me your name, and that of your friends?" That seemed to catch the Child’s attention, because immediately her little chin went up and she imperiously, and a bit overly dramatic, gestured to the Baralians.

  "This is Baen and Rala, and I am Dara of PortSea." She then gestured to Trig and looked at the Baralians and her voice went straight to child happy. "She came with the Jezebel; she is going to be crew like me."

  "Well, that is good to hear," That smooth deep voice sending shivers down her spine with just a few words could not be mistaken. And Trig almost groaned aloud when she looked up into the warm and teasing chocolate eyes of Tyber Relian. "Finding someone who can fit into my small family is always a pleasurable thing."

  Is it possible, she wondered. For the man to say anything without making it suggestive?

  Luckily, Dara was already squealing in glee at his approach and Trig did not have to say anything. After that kiss with Lore, and his stating of 'our' intentions she did not have any idea what to say. She had not forgotten the way the man was so quick to turn on her. She didn’t trust him, and while it was true she did not trust anyone, he was different.

  The rest she assumed would try to use her at the first knowledge of her abilities. Tyber Relian, could hurt her in other ways. She contemplated yet another head long flight from the area when he seemed to guess her thoughts and headed her off by taking her hand and holding it and her at his side even as he continued to listen to the child Dara ramble on about anything and everything Jezebel related.

  When had the man gotten that close? He wasn’t even looking at her, just standing so close beside her she could feel his heat along her side.

  He looked down with a true smile at the child looking up at him and gesticulating animatedly with each word. The Baralians had laid their big feline bodies across the cobblestones that surrounded the fountain. Close enough to listen and watch since clearly this child was not going back to nap any time soon. Trig looked down at the hand holding hers and wondered how she had come to this place. It was too far outside anything she had known previously. Aren't we supposed to be fighting, or at least ignoring each other? When did we graduate to hand holding?

  First Lore and his kiss, and now this. Where were her carefully constructed walls now? Had Lore and his words on the beach completely torn them down, along with her sense, she wondered. Was everything around her changing, or was that her? And what if anything did she want to do about it. Because for the life of her she could not make herself drop that hand holding hers and step away. It just felt too right.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Tyber wondered what was going through Trig's mind as she stood there letting him hold her hand. He hadn’t intended to make such a bold play so soon, but when he saw the thoughts of running from him cross her face he reacted instinctively. And now that he had her in his grasp, so to speak, he really did not want to let her go. It was the first time in his memory that he had held a woman's hand. It was...pleasant.

  Dara went silent and he realized he’d let his mind wander. Since she looked at him with such expectation he knew he was required to respond. Since he had no clue what she had asked he improvised.

  "I am going to have to give that some thought." Which satisfied the child since she went back to talking, and had Trig laughing at him, silently.

  "Dara." This time the new voice was soft and feminine and a touch on the timid side. Kira, a longtime resident of PortSea and almost like a family retainer. Like Tuft she worked for Lucan, but also like Tuft she seemed to be more family to Danika than anything else. And unfortunately she was only the first of many to find them.

  "I have been looking everywhere." Kira nodded at him and gave a small nervous smile to Trig, her eyes not missing the way they stood so close, or that her hand was in his. Tyber had to wonder how long it would be before every female of Port Sea was speculating on what it meant. They might not be malicious in their gossip like some female groups he had seen, but they were prolific and intent on being helpful.

  He wondered if Trig would welcome what was sure to be not so subtle match making help from this group. At least he hoped it was matchmaking and not all of them ganging up to warn her off.

  Well, Danika was a reader and Lara was an empath, so it was not likely that they would press Trig past her boundaries or mistake his intentions.

  Sera, if she ever forgave him for his orders about Trig on the ship, would probably be on his side. Nori and Jax, the two absentee members of what he had come to think of as the female pack would probably help him, well Nori could care less about his love life, and Jax was a friend but she was less inclined to meddle than most, unless you were an engine or a ship she was very much hands off. At least she had been before she got herself mated to a crazy Shakien warrior. After that, nothing she did could surprise him. But at least he assumed she would be on his side. So chances are the female pack would only help his suit where Trig was concerned.

  Having worked all that out quickly he smiled his most charming smile at Kira. "Kira, have you met my newest crew member?"

  When Trig immediately tried to shake off his hand he was not surprised. He also didn't let her go.

  "You are unbelievable," she all but hissed directly into his e
ar. Which she had to stand on bare tip toes to do. He liked the idea of her whispering there, so he ignored the tone and simply enjoyed the experience. She also had lovely feet, slender, small, and graceful, just like the rest of her.

  He turned so that his lips just touched her ear when he bent down. Completely accidental of course. "Are you going to tell Dara you don't want to be her future crew member?" he almost smiled when she full body shivered. She was not as immune to him as she would like to be. "Because she'll want to know why in the most insistent way possible. And how will you explain to the innocent child that you are too afraid of your feelings for me to take a chance on what you want."

  "My feelings for you?" She sputtered sweetly, still in that lovely whisper hiss thing she was doing and struggled just a little bit more to escape him. "A chance on what I want?" She tried to shove him off. Not enough to make a scene but enough that he was fighting getting hard at the idea of restraining her in a more private manner.

  He felt her try to pull away again and instead pulled her closer, so that she practically bounced off his side before settling.

  Wrestling with Trig Kelia, he mused, might be his new all-time favorite activity.

  She glared right into his face and then he watched her eyes narrow as she studied him, for weakness, if he was reading her right.

  He felt a small chill of foreboding right before her face fell into that serene mask she employed that drove him insane with the need to breach her defenses and find the real woman beneath. Tyber knew he was in trouble even before her delicate soft hand went to the small of his back and pressed on a nerve bundle there that had pain nearly bringing him to his knees.

  He dropped the hold he had on her and stepped away, so fast even Dara stopped talking and looked at him curiously. But it was either that or he would have been collapsing at their feet like an idiot.