Reede took the seat at the head of the table. “Skyl is right, we appreciate your sharing this information but given the situation, I don’t have time for politeness and niceties. There are lives at stake. So. Walk me through the events, including all the details.”
Bettira took a sip of the tea, grateful for it and for Skyl standing behind her chair as if guarding her from the enforcer. He was a warm, comforting presence. Yonn sat next to her and she appreciated his company as well. Jamokan took the chair next to Reede and drummed his fingers on the table. Skyl squeezed her shoulder reassuringly and she began talking, starting with the remarks Connal made in the cave at lunchtime and then going over the episode in the forest for the second time. Reede had questions, which he fired at her.
“All right,” he said finally, exchanging glances with Jamokan. “Thank you.”
“She must be protected,” Skyl said. “We don’t know who else in the valley may be an ally of Harker and it will be known she came to us. There might be retribution.”
“I’m afraid of Connal,” she said. “He’s a bully. He’s threatened me before.”
“He won’t be allowed to do so again, my word on it.” Skyl’s voice was firm and a thrill ran through her. He faced Reede. “Where can we place Bettira to keep her safe and guarded until the situation resolves?”
“We’re a little busy to be guarding non-mated humans,” Reede said in a heavily sarcastic tone but Bettira thought he was studying Skyl with extra interest. She hoped she hadn’t placed Skyl in an awkward position with the pack by seeking him out.
“I’ve linked to Sarl, the guard with Nicolle, to ask her if Bettira can stay with her,” Yonn said, defusing the tension yet again. “Her mate Darik is with Aydarr and the others hunting for Megan, but we’re guarding Nicolle’s cave already today so no extra resources are required.”
“Very kind of you,” Bettira said, relieved not to have to go to the dorm cave and worry whether anyone there was a Harker supporter. She was also glad the enforcer didn’t appear to be regarding her as a suspect in the kidnapping or a conspirator. The Badari made the law in this valley and the kidnapping had put them all on edge. Reede could order anything done to her he decided was necessary. “And sweet of Nicolle.”
“She told Sarl she’d love the company and we’re to bring you over right away,” the alpha-born said. “I can escort you.”
Reede gestured to Skyl. “You have permission to accompany the human to Darik and Nicolle’s residence cave but then you’ll return here immediately.” He brushed off the soldier’s stammered thanks and exited the conference room, along with Jamokan.
Escorted by Skyl and Yonn, Bettira left the barracks cave and took the path leading to Nicolle’s home. Yonn played rearguard, allowing Skyl to walk next to her. His presence had a calming effect on her shattered nerves. “I really should go to my stepfather instead, don’t you think? He’ll be shocked when the pack arrests Connal—I worry about his health under such a blow.”
“Your sense of filial duty does you credit,” Skyl said, “But I must disagree. For now your safety is more important and if anything were to happen to you as a result of your courageous act tonight, I’d never forgive myself.”
“I can’t believe there are others in the valley who believe in what those men have done,” she said, fighting a wave of nausea as she imagined the violence the poor pregnant doctor might have been subjected to. “Maybe a few more hotheads like my stepbrother and his friend, but most people like it here and are grateful to you Badari for rescuing us and keeping us safe. I don’t even understand what Harker’s point was in wanting to go establish his own settlement. We’re fighting a war for goodness sake, and this valley is the only safe place.”
Skyl shrugged. “My impression is he doesn’t take being a subordinate well. He wants to be the alpha male and in a world where there are Badari, he never can be. And he arrogantly thinks he can defend himself and others against the Khagrish, which is patently ridiculous. He doesn’t know them as we do and so he underestimates their capabilities while inflating his own. But his life is forfeit now. Mateer won’t let him live once Megan has been rescued.”
“Not much further,” Yonn said from behind them.
Bettira puzzled over why the cub was telling them such an obvious fact, unless he was warning the other Badari he was running out of time for personal conversation. Skyl cleared his throat and took her elbow, leaning close enough to speak into her ear, an intimacy which made her knees go weak with hope and cautious joy. The Badari were notoriously reluctant to make skin to skin contact with a woman unless their feelings were deeply engaged. “When this crisis is over,” he said for her hearing alone, “I’d like to work on this friendship we have. I think we have much to say to each other and I’ve been too shy about asking to know you better.”
“I’ve been kinda timid too,” she said, heart beating faster.
“Yet you knew you could come to me and I’d protect you, which gives me great happiness.” He brushed a kiss on her cheek and stepped back, the perfect Badari soldier once more.
Bettira crossed the threshold into Darik and Nicolle’s residence a bit disoriented, unable to believe the way the night had turned out. Thank you, she said to the Badari goddess in her mind. I’m so glad I trusted my instincts to go to Skyl.
CHAPTER FOUR
The door hissed open and Harker strutted in, followed by two men with pulse rifles, who took positions at the open doorway. “Rejoined the land of the wide awake, eh, doc?”
“I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” Megan said, striving to keep her voice level as her heart hammered and her temper flared. “But this is crazy. You need to release Walt and me and maybe we can talk Aydarr into letting you go.”
Her captor laughed. “I’ll do my own negotiating with that prick, thank you very much. I’m after a lot more than saving my own skin but I appreciate the thought.”
He pointed at Walt. “Check his bonds,” he said to his henchmen. “Damn Special Forces guys know a million tricks for getting themselves loose.” As one of them hurried to obey the order, Harker stepped to the side of the litter where Megan was restrained. “How ya doing? Comfortable? I hope the sedative I gave you didn’t leave you with a headache.”
Megan wanted to scream at him and pummel him for putting her and the baby at risk but she bit her lip. Trying to block the sounds of Walt being mistreated by the guard, she said, “I’m not happy obviously, but I’m good. Listen, I need to get off this stretcher and walk. Use the bathroom. And something to eat would be nice.” She forced herself to smile. “We pregnant ladies have to eat all the time.”
He studied her and she tried to remember life in the colony, before the aliens kidnapped them all, when he’d seemed like a basically nice guy, if a bit full of himself. Now his face was gaunt and his sunken eyes appeared feverishly bright.
“The baby weight is making it hard to breathe,” she added, exaggerating her discomfort but not by much. “I can’t lie on my back unsupported this way for long.”
“I’m not real sure you understand the gravity of the situation here, doc,” he said, patting her hand in an avuncular way. “If Aydarr doesn’t do what I want, I’m gonna have to hurt you.”
Contact with her kidnapper made her skin crawl but she fought to keep her expression pleasant. “We can face the choices you feel forced to make when we have to.” Megan took a deep breath to center herself and slow her heart rate, although her position and the baby’s weight made it hard. “For now you have no reason to mistreat me more than you already have, right? What am I going to do? Grab a gun and waddle my way out of here?” Laughing as if she had no cares, she shook her head as if inviting him to share a joke. Meanwhile her mind was going a mile a minute, considering all angles of the situation, trying to find a way out. If I got my hands on one of the pulse rifles I’d blast a hole right through you. “Even I can’t imagine me successfully overpowering all of you.” She stopped short of batting her eyes at h
To her relief, he laughed uproariously before patting her on the shoulder. “Good points, doc. I admire your spirit. All right, we’ll let you get off the litter and I’ll send one of the guys down here with ration bars and nutrient drink. There’s a tiny bathroom in the corner of this cell. And one more thing.” He gestured toward Walt with his thumb. “Stay away from him, understand? He’s not your concern.”
“Got it. Thank you.” Megan would agree to pretty much anything right now to be allowed off the antigrav litter.
As soon as the restraints were retracted, she took Harker’s hand although her stomach clenched at the idea of touching him. She assumed what she thought of as her professional doctor expression and allowed him to assist her in standing up, steadying her as she swayed. “Out of idle curiosity, what did you dose me with?”
He named the drug, a heavy duty tranquilizer. “Stole it from the clinic’s stores one day when I was there filling a legit request for other things.” Harker grinned with pride in his own cleverness.
She was livid she and her baby had been subjected to the risks inherent in the medication but berating her captor wouldn’t do any good now and might lead him to take away the few privileges he was granting her. Eventually her vertigo subsided. “I’ll be fine now, thank you.”
“All right then. I’ll send the food and drink along shortly.” Harker left, his two henchmen on his heels and she heard the lock click shut.
“Smooth, doc,” Walt said. “You did a good job of getting him to do what you wanted. You almost overdid the old friends’ jolliness routine but not quite. He’s sure high on himself.”
She made her way to where he lay, wincing at the bruises on his face and the blood on his shirt and utility pants. With a lot of effort, she knelt next to him. “What can I do to get you free? And after we get these cuffs off, I need to check your injuries.”
“I’ll survive,” Walt said. “If you can roll me over and describe the force binders to me, maybe I can tell you how to open them. So far everything I’ve tried on my own has failed.”
Carefully she shifted him onto his side, although Walt was another big man. When he was leaning against the wall she peered at the cuffs locked onto his wrists. “I see Khagrish markings.”
Before Walt could say anything, there was a noise at the door. Walt wriggled away from her, falling onto his back again and Megan braced herself on the wall to rise. She took a few steps toward the partially concealed bathroom and pivoted as the portal opened.
A man she vaguely remembered from the Amarcae Seven colony, Mik Turrin, came inside, carrying the promised ration bars and nutrient. He shuffled his feet, unable to meet her eyes as she thanked him and accepted the food.
“I’m real sorry we had to do this to get the freaks’ attention,” he said. “You need anything else, doc, just let out a yell, bang on the door and one of us will come to check up.”
“Thank you. Any change in status?” she asked, tearing open a ration bar and acting as if she didn’t care about the answer. She ignored his verbal jab at the ‘freaks,’ one of whom was her own mate.
“Still waiting on the damn Alpha to agree to let people leave the valley and join us. He hasn’t got much time left before Harker said he’d have to—” Apparently thinking better of whatever he was going to say, the man abruptly closed his mouth and hemmed and hawed a bit. “Well, we’ll have to take next steps.” Then he hastened out the door, which slammed behind him.
“Doesn’t sound good, does it?” she asked Walt. “Shall we try opening the force binders again?”
“I think we’d better. Harker’s acting like a real psychopath right now and clearly none of his rabid followers is going to try to bring him to his senses.”
Megan took a moment to communicate with Mateer. One of the kidnappers has been making vague threats just now—what am I facing?
Better if you don’t know. We’ve had a break in the valley, an informant came forward, which may help. We’re on our way to you now, landing in the vicinity soon. How are you? How’s the baby?
She heard the stress and worry in his mental voice. Doing okay. I got Harker to let me out of the litter and I’m going to pace here in the cell, see if my back hurts less. Right now we’re trying to undo Walt’s restraints. He’s hiding it but I can tell he’s hurt pretty badly.
About your back. Mateer hesitated, odd behavior for him and she wondered what he had in mind to say. Dr. Madarian says you may already be in labor.
Oh. With a flash of embarrassment she absorbed the information. Well of course she might be in labor, she was a doctor, she ought to have considered the possibility.
“What?” Walt was watching her face.
“Gemma thinks I might be in labor,” she said, going weak in the knees at the scale of the announcement. Fear and fierce determination churned in a dizzying mix in her mind. I won’t have my baby here, under these conditions. Instinctively she placed her hands protectively on her stomach. You have to stay safe, baby.
Walt obviously shared her opinion about the urgency of their predicament. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“What do you know?” She hoped Walt would tell her what Mateer was trying to shield her from. The soldier was a no nonsense straight shooter.
“Harker’s negotiating a deal with the Khagrish to give them your baby,” Walt said, watching her face carefully as he revealed the truth. “He called Gahzhing while we were in the flyer and the two of them had quite the cozy chat.”
She thought she was going to faint and fell out of her kneeling position to sit on the floor with a thump hard enough to bruise her tailbone. Bracing herself on the wall with one hand as the room spun around her, she said, “No, no, no! I’ll kill him if he tries.”
What just happened? Mateer’s voice in her head barely penetrated the fog of horror and anger. The baby is broadcasting distress to me and our mate bond flashed your pain to my heart—you have to calm down for your own sake and hers. Are you hurt?
“Megan, take deep breaths,” Walt said, his instruction cutting across Mateer’s. “Count to ten, inhale and then exhale. Whether you’re in labor or nor, you need to be in control. And get me out of these damn binders so I can try to help you.”
Walt told me the truth about Harker’s plan for the baby. She could hardly formulate the message.
I love you and I will get you and our baby out of there safely. Mateer’s voice held the deep calm which she loved so much about him. We’re landing now and will be formulating our attack strategy. Soon, I’ll hold you in my arms again and take you home.
“Please,” she said, out loud and in her head.
“Don’t cry, doc. I can handle anything but tears,” Walt said. “Take a look at the binders again. Let’s keep moving in a positive direction.”
She swiped the tears off her cheeks and sniffed. “Mateer says he’s landed.”
“Tell him to keep us posted so we can react when the time comes.” Walt’s request sounded like an order but Megan didn’t take offense at his tone because he was certainly making sense.
She gasped and doubled over as a pain rippled through her abdomen, worse than any cramp she’d ever experienced before. “I’m having contractions.”
“We need to time them.” Walt laughed. “Which is about all I know about the subject of birthing babies.”
I’m having contractions, she said to her mate as the first one eased and faded. Walt says to time them.
Gemma says not to worry too much yet. She asks if your water has broken?
Despite her anxiety, Megan had to grin at the question, because Mateer sounded so appalled to be asking it. He’d sat through a class on childbirth with her and the other doctor but had been incredulous about what was going to happen in the process of delivering their daughter into the world. Deadly warrior he might be, but his fangs, talons and muscles didn’t prepare him for this.
Tell her no, not yet. Hey, we women are tough. Having tried to encourage Mateer, she moved closer to Walt and fumbled with the control to the force binders. A short time later, she’d found a way to unlock the Khagrish restraints and Walt was able to stand gingerly. Forcing herself to focus on her friend rather than on her own condition, she didn’t like his color or the way he was moving. “You’re hurt worse than you’re admitting, soldier. Describe your symptoms.”
Walt shook his head. “Concentrate on yourself, doc, not me. If our friends get here soon enough, they can patch me up.” He helped her to rise and frowned. “You’re wound up tight, understandably of course, a lot of tension in your shoulders. With your permission?” Raising his hands he gestured. Willing to try anything, she nodded. Walt gave her shoulders a quick massage and worked on a knot just below one shoulder blade.
“What you’re doing feels so helpful, such a relief,” she said, rotating her arms and sighing at her improved condition after his attentions. “But now I’m going to walk.” Pressing her hands awkwardly to the small of her back Megan took a few steps, evaluating how the activity affected her ability to handle the contractions. “I think it might help.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll check out this cell for anything useful.” Walt prowled the space, but even Megan with her total lack of military training could see it was empty of anything to make into a weapon, much less any way to escape. Not giving up, he went to the door and fiddled with the locking mechanism. “I might be able to do something here. This isn’t a regular cell, seems to be a store room or vacant office space, not meant to hold prisoners.”
As her pacing brought her close to him, she paused to lay her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry you’re here for your sake, but I’m glad you’re here for my sake. I appreciate not being alone. I mean, of course Mateer’s in my head but it’s not the same as having a friend in the room.”
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