by Joanna Wylde
He pushed the thought back. He had no right to keep Giselle with him, despite the fact that every instinct in his body cried out for him to take her back to Saurellia. Forcing her to go with him had been wrong—he could see that now. In his blind determination to have her, he had almost killed her. He should be ashamed of himself.
Mulling these dark thoughts, he put all the food together on a small tray and carried it into his cabin. She still slept, curled up in a little ball in one corner of his bed. He sat down beside her. Her long, wavy red hair snaked across the pillows like a living thing. He reached out, curling a bit of it around one finger. He’d never seen a woman on Saurellia with hair like this. She’d cause riots among the young men when she went out on the street, he thought, a smile stealing across his face. He’d have to watch her carefully, or some young buck might try to steal her away.
Of course, if she were his life mate she’d fight her way free and come back to him. He remembered the cool gleam in her eye as she’d threatened to kill Josiah. He might try to rescue her, but he’d have to move quickly. She was excellent at rescuing herself. He rubbed one finger across her cheek and she stirred. She looked up at him and gave a sleepy smile.
“What are thinking about?” she asked softly. “You seem too serious.”
“I was thinking about Saurellia,” he said slowly.
“Oh?”
“I can’t really explain it,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I brought you breakfast. Made it myself, straight from my mother’s recipe. Or rather, my mother’s cook’s recipe,” he added wryly.
She sat up, and his eye caught on the perky mounds of her breasts. The nipples were softened, reddish circles in the center of each generous swelling. Here and there those adorable little freckles dotted her. Without thinking, he licked his lips and reached one hand toward her.
She batted it away, grabbing for the food instead.
“Oh, no you don’t,” she said, laughter filling her voice. “I’m starving, and I need nourishment to keep up my strength. We can play later. Now, what’s this about your mother having a cook?”
“Well, my mother has a cook,” he said, confused.
“I heard that,” she replied around a mouthful of cake and syrup. She rolled her eyes at him in disgust and stabbed another forkful of food. She held it up in the air and gestured at him with it.
“I mean, why did she need a cook?”
“Well, because most of her time was spent running the estate,” Jerred said. “My father was away much of the time, so she was in charge of everything. It hardly seemed fair to ask her to cook, too.”
“You have an estate?” Giselle asked, her eyes popping.
“No, my parents do,” Jerred said, reaching out with one finger to wipe a droplet of syrup from her lip. He raised it to his own, and thought with some smugness that not even the sugary sauce tasted as good as she had the night before.
“I have this ship,” he said. “Family lands only pass to sons who have life mates on Saurellia, and I don’t have one.”
“So it’s true, then?” she asked thoughtfully. “Josiah told me that you wouldn’t stay with me, that you couldn’t even if you wanted to.”
Her tone was lighthearted, but a serious look had come into her eyes. He sighed, trying to think of what to say. Honesty was best.
“Yes, that’s true,” he said slowly. “I wish you could be my life mate, Giselle, but that’s just not possible. You’re not Saurellian.”
“You mean nobody on Saurellia has ever found a life mate outside his or her own race?” she asked softly.
“A few have,” he said slowly. “But even those women seem to have Saurellian DNA in them. It’s very rare even then, though.”
“Oh,” she said, falling silent. He felt uncomfortable watching her now, as if he were simply taking advantage of her. It was better not to talk about things like this, he thought in disgust. He didn’t want to ruin what time they did have together with maybes.
“I’m going to go and get cleaned up,” he said finally. “Just put the dishes and tray in the galley when you’re finished, and I’ll take care of it.”
“How long are we going to be traveling?” she asked as he stood to leave. “And where are we going from here?”
“We’ll be ready to make the jump out of normal space in a few hours,” he said. “From there we’ll go to Davidian, where the Saurellian military headquarters are located. I need to make my report.”
“What about me?” she asked softly.
“Don’t worry,” he replied, his heart clenching. “I’ll take care of you. I’m due for a long leave. From there we’ll go wherever you want and take a nice, long vacation together.”
“And after that? Are they going to send you out on another mission? Would I be able to go with you, or will that be it for us?”
He shook his head slowly, not wanting to think about it.
“Let’s deal with that question when the time comes.”
Chapter Twelve
Davidian Station was huge. Bigger than anything Giselle had seen before, and she’d done a fair amount of traveling in her life. It looked like a small moon orbiting the remote planet. In fact, it had once been a moon, according to Jerred. Hundreds of years of building and hollowing out its core had riddled it with tunnels and rooms; now it was little more than a shell for Saurellian military operations.
These were Jerred’s people, the men who dared challenge the might of the Empire.
It was a bit intimidating.
“We’ll be leaving this ship here,” Jerred said quietly as they docked in of many hangars. “They’ll need to go over it carefully for the information encrypted in the databanks, and to make sure Josiah didn’t leave any nasty little surprises on board. I’ll requisition another ship for my leave and we can take it wherever we want.”
She nodded, trying not to think about what would happen after that leave was over. It was pointless.
“How long will we be here?” she asked quietly.
“Hopefully not too long,” he said. “I’ll take three or four days to debrief and write up my reports. After that I’ll be free.”
“Will we be staying on the station?”
“Yes,” he replied with a smile. “This may surprise you, but I actually have an apartment here. It’s my home, at least as much as a home as I have. It may be a military station, but millions of people live here. You’ll find that there are hundreds of things to do in your free time. You’ll want to be careful, though. There aren’t many women, and those who are here are generally life mated. I’ll make sure you have an escort if you want to go out and I can’t be with you.”
“How dangerous is it?”
“Well, I don’t think any of them would deliberately hurt you,” he said slowly. “But Saurellian men tend to lose perspective sometimes when it comes to women. It’s better to be careful.”
When they left the ship an hour later she understood what he meant. All around here were tall, dark men with hungry eyes. Surprisingly, not all of them were Saurellians, and she cocked one brow at Jerred in question.
“Most of the maintenance functions are performed by off-worlders,” he explained.
“Why is that? Are Saurellians too good to do their own dirty work?” she asked jokingly.
He shook his head and grinned at her. “No, unmated Saurellian males tend to be unreliable in such positions,” he said softly. “Unless a Saurellian finds a mate, he tends to be a bit wild. Most of us won’t live past forty standard years. We need jobs where we can work off our aggression.”
“Like fighting?”
“Well, before the war most of us were mercenaries in the Empire,” Jerred said softly. “It was good work. And it gave us an edge when our people called us back to fight the war against the Empire.”
“So, did all of your people come back?” she asked softly.
His gaze grew distant for a moment, and then he shook his head. “No,” he said softly. “Quite a few didn’t com
e back.”
“Did they stay and work for the Empire?”
“Some of them did,” he said softly. He didn’t seem to want to talk any further, so she stayed silent. There was a lot more going on here than she cared to understand. She’d never been interested in politics, and it sounded like Saurellian politics were more confusing than most.
He guided her across the large hangar toward a low arch marked with a green sign.
“This is a transit station,” he said, nodding toward it. “You can catch a pod to anywhere on the station here. You can also catch a train along the main lines. Most of the time the trains are the best way to go, but I wouldn’t want you taking one alone. Pods are more private, but they’re more expensive. You’ll need a credit account, too. I’ll get one set up on your name.”
She opened her mouth to protest, and then realized how foolish that was. She had no money of her own—she was utterly dependent on him.
They stood in the station for several moments, waiting for the right train to arrive. Every few seconds a new one would slip into place, and men would get on and off. Many of them carried blasters, and she noted those who were armed were primarily Saurellian. Their faces were dark and brooding, and a memory of Jerred as she’d first met him popped into her brain. He seemed so different now, so much lighter and happier.
She liked him better that way.
Everywhere she turned, men watched her. She noticed one or two other women in the crowd, but they all seemed untouchable somehow, as if there was an invisible aura of protection over them. She noticed that the men watched them with just as much hunger, but they didn’t do it openly. These women were Saurellian. Tall, dark-haired goddesses with ivory skin and light green eyes. She stepped closer to Jerred, and he wrapped a protective arm around her.
“I don’t like this station,” she whispered softly. “I don’t feel safe here.”
“You’ll be safe with me,” he said, giving her a gentle squeeze. All around her, men stared with speculation in their eyes, stripping her mentally and laying her out before them. One caught her eye, and walked up to them slowly.
“Jerred,” he said in greeting, his expression cool.
“Xander,” Jerred replied, nodding his head. Giselle waited for an introduction, but one didn’t come. It was just as well, he decided. Xander didn’t seem like a particularly nice man. His cold eyes swept over her, taking in everything about her person in a way that seemed somehow dirty. She shivered.
“I’ve never known you to have a pet,” Xander said to Jerred, his tone conversational. “How long do you plan to keep her?”
Jerred bristled beside her. His tone of voice, though, was casual as he replied. “I can’t imagine you would be interested in the details,” he said lightly. “I’m certainly not interested in sharing them—or her—with you. You’d do well to stay away from me while I’m here.”
A flash of intense anger, even rage, blazed in Xander’s eyes, and he flushed a deep red. Giselle held her breath, terrified he might attack. She could feel an answering tension in Jerred, and he pushed her behind him. A loose ring of watchers had gathered around the three of them, their grins feral and menacing. Without thinking, she spoke.
“I don’t feel very well,” she said softly. All eyes turned to her, and some of the hostility left their gazes. Deciding to play it for all she was worth, she spoke again.
“Please, can’t we go to your apartment and rest?” she asked, turning to give Jerred a liquid look of concern. “There are so many people here, I really don’t feel well…”
She allowed herself to sway on her feet, clutching Jerred’s arm for support. It provoked a protective instinct, not only in Jerred but also in the men around her. Xander nodded his head tightly and backed away, and the ring of observers broke apart. Jerred took her arm and walked her toward one of the pods.
“We’ll skip the train for now,” he said. He helped her into the small vehicle, and she sat down gratefully. He knelt beside her, searching her face. “How sick are you?” he asked.
“Not sick at all,” she replied tartly. “I’m annoyed. You and that Xander were going to fight, weren’t you? Why? Are you enemies?”
“No,” Jerred said softly, a slightly confused expression coming across his face. “Actually, we grew up together. Normally I would consider him a friend.”
“So that’s how you treat your friends?” she asked.
He sat back on the seat across from her, and keyed something into the pod’s control pad. She felt a slight motion as the pod slid away from the station. He sat, silent for a moment, and then leaned forward
“I have no idea why we acted that way,” he said finally. “It doesn’t make sense to me at all. Xander and I have fought thousands of times, but never over a woman.”
She stayed silent, unsure of how to respond. She didn’t quite like the way he referred to her dismissively as “a woman,” any more than she had liked Xander’s tone earlier. She was getting pretty tired of everyone thinking she was Jerred’s pet, for love of the Goddess. On the other hand, in a way she was his pet. She was his toy, completely dependent on him for everything from food to affection and companionship.
The doors opened as the pod slid to stop. This transit station was much quieter, with only a few men around them. It was smaller, too. Jerred took her arm and guided her through the exit into an open gallery that stretched above and below them for hundreds of stories. Looking around, she could see bridges stretching from one side to the other, and walkways stretched along the walls to either side of them. Across the open gallery, there was another walkway and more doors. It was similar to many of the stations she’d seen in her life, but once again on a scale almost beyond her ability to comprehend. It was just so big. It reminded her of the descriptions she’d read of the Imperial warrens on Tyre, vast developments deep within the planet surface housing billions of people.
They walked down the gallery for twenty minutes before he stopped, sliding a keycard into a door that looked just like every other one on the corridor.
The door’s light blinked green, and slid open.
The apartment was good-sized, with a large kitchen and living area, fresher and a bedroom. Still, it looked as if no one lived there. The walls were bare of decoration and the furniture was plain and bland.
“How long have you had this place?” she asked, thinking of her own tiny apartment on Transit Three. Even though she’d only lived there a few months, she’d filled it with plants and cheap holo-posters of various planets she dreamed of visiting. This might as well be a room in a hostel.
“I’ve had it about six years,” he said, dropping the rucksack holding their clothing on the floor. She looked at it in distaste. All she had was her uniform from the bar and the two jumpsuits he’d gotten her on Transit Three. She’d recycled the dress from Josiah. Despite how lovely it was, there were too many bad memories associated with it to ever wear again.
“I think you need to go shopping,” Jerred said, breaking into her thoughts. “Your best bet would be to go on the Station’s ’net. The female population is pretty low here, and while there are stores, it’s probably more efficient to simply order something and have it delivered.”
“All right,” she said, sitting on the couch. It was nice and soft despite its utilitarian appearance, and a thought popped into her mind. She bounced up and down, testing it and looking at him speculatively. He ignored her.
“I have to go and make my report,” he said. “Just go ahead and use the terminal to shop if you like. It should bill me automatically for whatever you decide to get.”
With that he turned and walked out the door. It closed behind him with a hissing noise. So much for the soft couch, she thought wryly.
* * * * *
Nicolai Trasky, commander of Saurellian intelligence operations, searched Jerred’s face, trying to figure out what was different. He’d already heard rumors that one of his most reclusive scouts had returned with a woman in tow—that was unusual
enough in and of itself. But even stranger was Jerred’s demeanor.
If he wasn’t mistaken, the man was happy. Or at least content. And now he wanted leave to go and spend time with his new companion. Nicolai made a mental note to have one of his aides look into the situation. Unlikely as it seemed, perhaps Jerred had found a life mate. Thank the Goddess, it was something he was seeing more and more in his men. For some reason, for the first time in Saurellian history, men were finding mates outside their own people.
His own wife was one of them. Not, of course, that it was relevant to the task at hand.
“So, Josiah let you go,” he said thoughtfully. “Very wise of him. It doesn’t benefit either of us to upset the status quo at this point. I’m assuming he just meant to send us a message?”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Jerred said slowly. “I would have sworn he meant to kill me. I honestly think the only reason he changed his mind was because he got the information somewhere else.”
“Yes, well, that source was compromised a while back,” Nicolai said thoughtfully. “We’ve suspected she was a double agent for quite a while. I would imagine we won’t hear from her again.”
Their spy was almost certainly dead by now. Not that he felt sorry about that. She’d been feeding information to the Empire as well, and they were probably better off without her. Still, they’d have to find someone new, and Josiah’s organization wasn’t easy to penetrate. For some reason his people were alarmingly loyal to him.
“Our technicians will have the information out of your databanks soon,” Nicolai continued. “I’m assuming that everything will be in order, but I’ll want you to stay here until we’re sure we don’t have any questions. Preliminary reports are that Josiah didn’t break the sub-encryption shell, which means your information is safe.”
“He’d have a pretty hard time doing it in the amount of time he had,” Jerred replied. “He was angry enough about the schematics of his station that I doubt he looked much further. Not that any of this information would have interested him directly, anyway.”