He looked over at Trig, and Lore on the other side of her. She was standing with them beside Lore’s bed as if she had never seen it before. "Cor Warrung dies tomorrow." He knew without looking that Lore agreed with what he was thinking. He caught Trig's eyes and made sure she understood the gravity of what he was saying. "You will hide with the children."
She was already shaking her head before he finished. "I will hide, as I have few defensive skills that are good against what Cor Warrung will send against us, but not with the children. I won't take the chance that he has ways to find me and it puts the children in danger."
Tyber gritted his teeth, wanting to say they would be after Dara and they would be safer guarding all the high-profile targets together. But as far as he could tell, everyone on the damn ocean moon was a target. And if she was a Truthbreaker she probably knew more than he did. Which she verified a moment later, before he could come up with a compelling argument.
"If he came here to kill me I'm going to be the focus to begin with. If I am away from them and he finds me, it should at least give everyone else extra time to keep the children safe. If they are with me when I am found…”
“Fine,” he muttered, not liking it at all, but feeling as if he has little or no control over what happened next. “I’m going to the bridge to call the others and get the ship ready for tomorrow.” Do not let her out of your sight, he practically snarled in his mind.
Lore never took his eyes off their mate, and he did not need to open himself to the bond to know the man was thinking about more important things than he was. Tyber gritted his teeth but said not one more word and left quickly. Trig looking after him with a searching look on her face.
***
Trig watched Tyber leave. He was feeling his lack of control of the situation acutely.
Lore was broadcasting just as strongly. Only he was not thinking of war. She searched his eyes as she delved into the bond between them and found that she was the only thing on his mind. He brushed his hand down her back, intense black eyes searching hers.
The bond, she realized, they had started the bond, and he was compelled by his nature to cement it. To claim her, and nothing else was going to touch his thoughts until he did.
“Lore,” she started in a whisper, only to have her lips claimed and her words swallowed. His hands hot on her skin he started to untwist the sarong from her body, and with a moan she started to help him, consumed by the same need that drove him with one kiss.
His clothes came off nearly as fast as hers had, his boots crashing against something she was too mindless with need to note. Then he had her down on that cloud of a bed, and he was running his fingers and lips over every inch of her, until she thought she would lose her mind in pleasure. She touched as much of his hard warrior body as she could reach but it was like he was memorizing her. The look of her, the taste, the feel of her skin, and then warmer places.
She lost her mind to pleasure more than once before he finally found his way back up her body and plunged inside of her, holding her eyes the whole time. The bond between them did not just snap closed as he took her to even higher heights of pleasure, it melded them, one soul to another until she screamed his name at the completion of it.
And in the recesses of her mind she felt Tyber with them, giving them time but yearning, and feeling everything that they felt along the way.
When she woke up some time later she was draped over Lore’s chest as he slept. So deeply she thought, wondering when the last time was that he had. Something hard and warm pressed along her back in that cloud bed, and she did not need to look to know Tyber had finally joined them.
“Go to sleep, little secret eater,” he whispered with a kiss on her ear. “There is not much time until morning and tomorrow is a big day.”
Cocooned in warmth and surrounded by bond mates she almost drifted back to sleep. She shifted instead turning to face Tyber and met heated chocolate eyes. “Will you sleep?” she whispered back, knowing that we would not. He was watching over them, she realized, while Lore was exhausted, and she was distracted.
“Why didn’t you join us?” she asked when he just watched her without answering, which was answer enough she supposed.
“Your first time, the cementing of Lore’s bond needed to be special for the both of you. You both deserve that.”
“And you?” she asked, feeling warmth flood her at both his words and the feelings he could no longer hide from her. “You don’t deserve pleasure too? Love?” because that was what it had been, an expression of love so deep she never thought she would get to the bottom of it. And it had not just been Lore in that bond.
Tyber verified that when he gave her a wicked smile. “Don’t worry about me, Trig Kelia, I felt everything that you and Lore did, and once this battle is done and you are safe I’m going to show you all the ways two men can love the same woman.” He leaned down until his lips hovered just over hers. “And I’ll keep doing it until you either beg me to stop, or we are all too exhausted to go on.”
Trig tried not to smile, but she was happy, even with everything that was coming that day she was genuinely happy for the first time she could remember. “That could take a while,” she said her eyes lit and shining at him.
Tyber kissed her then tucked her head into his shoulder in clear command for her to sleep. “I’m counting on it,” he finally said as she was once again drifting off. Trig smiled and kissed the warm skin of his neck because it was right there.
Lore shifted in his sleep and wrapped himself around her again, this time at her back, while Tyber warmed her front.
She really did love this bed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
"Menelaus and I will take Trig on," Nori said beside her barbarian mate. "As far as I know we are the only ones who are not on Warrung’s list for acquisition."
"You'll be in the thick of battle," Tyber growled. Not liking that at all.
"Lucan is going to have more than one safe room if I know him at all. We will find one and put her in it, then keep our battle close so we can watch out for her."
"What about Danika?" Trig asked. "She has to be high on his list."
"Danika stays with me," Lucan said grimly. And Tyber had only to look the man in the eye to know Danika was going to be fine. "If what Dara said was true when I questioned her, he will not want to face me until the Truthbreaker is dead."
He would have liked to keep Trig with him and Lore, but he had a feeling that the Jezebel would be busy, and he did not want her behind only those defenses when she was the primary target. If Dara was right, she was the priority target. Now they just needed to figure out why. Or just kill Warrung and be done with it.
Lucan looked around at everyone. "Does everyone understand their jobs? We use the long-range weapons and the ships to take down as many as we can and then the fighters among you transport down to PortSea to handle the ground forces that get through." He pulled Dannika closer to his side and looked at everyone, last of all Trig. "Try not to get dead. We end this today, one way or another."
Meaning either Warrung would be dead or every one of them would be.
Tyber grabbed Trig and dragged her back to the corner away from the rest of them, it did not give them much personal space, but it was something. Lore came at her back and they sandwiched her in. He pulled her as close as possible and looked into her eyes. "Stay alive, and when this is over the three of us are going to finish what we started last night."
She opened her mouth to say something, something he knew would make it impossible for him to leave her side. He knew it so he slammed his lips down on hers before she could. The gasp that followed his near assault was enough to have him slipping inside to taste that mouth and pulling her closer so that she was firmly held between him and Lore.
After he had thoroughly tasted her, and she had thoroughly melted into his arms and kissed him back, he pulled back.
"Stay alive," he repeated, wanting nothing more than to strip and take her here
against the damn wall no matter who was there or how little time they had. "No matter what."
Her breathless "Fine," was enough to make him think twice about all the reasons he could not claim her now. Then she was whipped out of his arms and Lore was kissing her with the same ferocity he felt. Trig immediately forgot where they were and melted into him.
Tyber bent his head and bit down on her neck right where it met her shoulder. She gasped and shivered between them and he trailed his lips to her ear even as Lore continued to kiss her.
"You are ours," he said, letting the heat he was suppressing flow out in his words. "Take the coming battle to think about that and leave the fighting to the professionals. We will be back for you. And if you don't stay safe I'm going to paddle your ass."
That had her yanking herself away from Lore and glaring over her shoulder right into Tyber’s eyes. "And if you don't stay safe?"
That made him grin, even as he was pulling away and starting to think of the battle. "You want to spank me lie eater? Now that I didn't expect."
She opened her mouth to blast him, her cheeks flashing to red. Then she snapped her mouth closed and looked around them, finally remembering they had an audience. No one was looking their way but still. She shook her head and mumbled. "That is not what I meant."
"Tell me all your kinky ideas later," he said. placing one last kiss on those lush lips. "Right now we have to go to work." He was tempted to smack her on the ass as he left just to see her lose her mind, but again, they didn't have the time so play could wait. He refused to allow any other outcome but victory.
He looked at Lore who hugged her once more before looking her over as if he would memorize her, and then he turned to follow Tyber. The last look he sent her spoke more than any words he could have said. Tyber was not the only one who could see only one ending to this day, and that was the three of them safe, their enemy dead, with Trig unharmed between them. He met the eyes of Menelaus and the giant of a man nodded once in reply to the look he sent him. He would die protecting Trig.
That was all they could ask for. Between that and locking her in a safe room she would be as safe as they could make her, while they did the killing that needed to be done.
They had barely made it onto the bridge when Jax's defense grid lit up like a sun flare.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The safe room where she was placed was as comfortable as the rest of the pirate moon. And she had the added benefit of a whole wall of screens that showed the entirety of Lucan's compound. She could not see what was happening in space however, and so had to wonder how the space battle was progressing, and whether the Jezebel was still safe. Well, as safe as it could be in a battle.
She did have a screen of the hall outside her room. And most of the others. She saw Nori and Menelaus outside her door, though she could not hear them. Another screened showed the other safe room where the children were with Lara and Kira looked as keyed up as she was. Barnos bristling with weapons guarded the hall outside their safe room with the Baralians at his side.
Lucan and Danika she could not see so she assumed the command center was not among the coms she had access to, but there was a tide of dangerous looking individuals guarding the space port and what looked like the beach where she had landed.
The first hint she had that the battle above them had spilled down to Port Sea was there. An explosion of light across the sky rocked the beach, nearly knocking over Lucan’s men. The planetary shield had fallen. And whatever Cor Warrung used, it sent shock waves across the ocean.
The lights of transporters flashed as Cyborg after cyborgs suddenly showed up across most of her screen as the ground battle began in earnest. It was clear immediately that Lucan's security knew what they were doing. And it might have mattered if they had not been so suddenly and completely overrun by the numbers transporting in.
She tried not to think about what that might mean about the ships fighting in space. Or what was happening to the Jezebel. If she started thinking about Tyber and Lore in battles like what she was seeing on the screen she would be unable to function.
Then she no longer had to wonder because she saw them. She had missed their transport in, but it was clear from the bodies falling all around them that they were wasting no time.
She forgot everything else and just watched them fight. She had never seen anything as beautiful as Tyber and Lore fighting together with swords in their hands.
Even if they had never met before she would have known watching them fight that they were connected by a mind bond. There was no other way they could have moved so in sync, and with such equal fluidity. It was like water moving over rocks, the way they moved, and every time they did someone died.
Trig heard and felt an explosion and tore her eyes away from her mate’s deadly dance to see that the battle had come to her part of the compound. Outside, Nori and her barbarian mate were doing their own dance of death. Not as choreographed as her men but with serious skill, and so fast did they move they were nearly a blur to her eyes, and the dozen or so interlopers died.
The clear skill that she could see on every screen told her whatever Cor Warrung hoped to gain, it was not going to be an easy win, no matter how many he brought with him. He was going to pay a high price to make it happen.
He must know that. Everyone said that it was likely Warrung had a seer, if not more than one working for him, so what could he have been told that would make this seem like a good idea to him? He wanted her dead, but how could her death be worth all of this?
Her power surged inside her, and this time she let it fly. Searching for the answer that could end this war.
By the time she had taken those thoughts to a conclusion and realized what the truth had to be she looked up and the hall outside her door was filled with bodies. Nori and Menelaus were standing and looked relatively unscathed. That battle, at least for now was over. She could no longer see Tyber and Lore, but they were not among the fallen that she could see. And she could feel inside her that they were safe and coming her way. Though she had a little time.
On screen a large force of cyborgs was heading toward Barnos and the Baralians who fought an already sizable force, with fierce joy. The three of them battled like they were born to rip into their enemies, Barnos seemed to be enjoying the battle as much as the giant felines. But how long would they last against the odds creeping steadily toward them?
She sucked in a breath with new resolve. She might not know what truths Cor Warrung was afraid she would uncover, but there were other truths about him she had gleaned from the others. She could work with that. One thing she did know, a truth that shined in her mind, was that if she did nothing people she cared about were going to die, if not today then soon. Because Cor Warrung would not chance himself by coming into the battle until she was dead. So even if they won this battle the war would go on because Warrung would slip away as he had so many times before. She hit the com that linked her to the one outside the safe room.
"One of you needs to head over to where the children are and help them before they are overrun. From what I see on the monitors the force heading that way is more than even they can handle."
Nori and Menelaus looked at each other for a long moment. Neither of them looked happy about the choice. Nori however just shrugged. "Either I go alone, or you go, and I stay here alone. But we both know I can take care of myself."
Menelaus' growl said quite clearly that he did not like the choices before him. "I will help them clear out what is coming and then be back. Do not do anything foolish while I am away."
As soon as Menelaus was far enough away and the screens stayed clear, at least in their area Trig opened the door. A surprised Nori turned to give her a raised brow and a questioning look.
"Nori," Trig said. "I have an idea."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Sneaking on board Warrung’s ship was easier than she expected. Accompanied by Nori and with all eyes away from them they beamed aboard the closest ene
my shuttle and from there beamed directly to Warrung’s ship.
“Do I want to know how you knew there was no one at either transport pad?” Nori asked, her sword at the ready, but as yet had not been needed.
“I am a truthbreaker,” Trig said mildly. In a way she was enjoying the full use of her power after stifling it for so long. “More than one of those cyborgs fighting in the halls came from those ships. I simply looked for the truth I wanted before you and Menelaus finished them.”
“You looked,” Nori muttered. “Whatever that means. You do realize that if this doesn't work we are giving him exactly what he wants?"
Nori, Trig had learned was not what one would call overly optimistic. That she left for Lara.
"If we can get me close enough I have a feeling Warrung will want to talk before he kills me." She shrugged, "So we have a chance anyway."
"That's heartening.” She continued to mutter. “There’s a chance he will want to talk, even though he has brought all these big bad cyborgs here just to kill you. No wonder you sent Menelaus off before you suggested this. He is going to lose his barbarian mind."
“In truth I believe that Warrung will have seen us as soon as we transported on board, but he would not see two women as a true threat, so we have a better chance than if Menelaus had come along. I doubt we would have made it this far with him.”
She stilled at that and then growled. “You could have mentioned the little quirks like that in your plan before you led me here.”
"You should have let me come alone like I said."
"Then you would probably die long before you managed to reach Warrung.” She grabbed Trig’s arms and yanked her away from one hall and into another. “For someone who sees the truth you have a terrible sense of direction.”
“Not all of us have a Shakien nose to follow.”
“Please tell me there is more to your plan that Warrung will want to see you because he’s not afraid of girls. They have orders to kill you remember?"
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