by Robyn Bachar
“Are you all right?” Andee asked as she hauled Galen to his feet.
“Yes, just startled.”
“I’ve got him,” Malcolm said. “Keep going.”
Malcolm helped Galen along as they stumbled toward freedom. Commander Soth lobbed the last of his grenades behind them as they exited the facility and made a dash for beta team’s shuttle.
“Hatch secured,” Soth announced once everyone had piled aboard.
“Everyone get down and hang on to something,” the pilot replied.
There weren’t enough seats for both teams. Galen and the others huddled on the shuttle’s floor and clung to the cargo netting webbed along the walls.
“Status of alpha team?” Captain Hawke asked over the comm.
“Alpha and beta teams are present and accounted for,” the pilot replied. “We’re rendezvousing with the Havana. We’ll be kept in quarantine there.”
Soth groaned. “Quarantine again?”
“Apologies, sir,” the pilot said. “We were all exposed to the live Lazarus virus, so quarantine is necessary. Think of it as a paid vacation.”
“Do you have the data?” Captain Hawke asked.
“Yes,” Malcolm replied. “Though it might take a while to upload if I’m in quarantine. Unless they have an uplink chair there. Do they?”
“Doubtful. The Alliance techs will work something out. Good work, alpha team. We’ll see you when you’re released from quarantine.”
The ship shuddered and rattled ominously a few times, but made it to the Havana without incident. Galen breathed a sigh of relief when the shuttle touched down in the bay, but he eyed the quarantine area dubiously. They would be spending the next forty-eight hours stuck in a transparent plastic box that could be jettisoned into space at a moment’s notice. It hardly seemed like a paid vacation.
The Alliance crew explained the decontamination process, and one by one each member of the two teams filed through the airlock into the small quarantine area. Andee stripped her armor without hesitation, though Malcolm looked from the rest of the team to her and back again a few times before following suit. Galen’s stomach turned at the idea of being nude in front of the team and the Alliance techs who monitored them.
“Come on, a’gra,” Andee encouraged Galen. “I want to take a look at your back.”
“The armor took most of the blast.” Galen cleared his throat and removed his armor. He blushed from head to foot when he was naked, but the only ones who paid him any mind were his mates.
Andee ran her fingers over his skin. “Looks good. It barely blistered. You won’t even have a scar.”
She herded Galen and Malcolm to the decontamination showers. Once they were clean and clothed in plain, Alliance-issued coveralls Galen studied the row of empty cots. He grabbed one by its frame and dragged it alongside another cot. The screech of metal-on-metal was loud in the empty shuttle bay, but that didn’t stop him from grabbing a second cot. When Galen finished his task three cots stood together.
“We should get some rest. It’s a long flight home,” Galen said.
Andee smiled and kissed him. “Good thinking, my lord.”
“Home,” Malcolm repeated. He drew the word out as though savoring its taste, and then he grinned. “I can’t wait.”
Epilogue
“It’s really not that bad,” Talena said. “The pain, I mean. This is more exhausting than anything else.”
It seemed true enough from what Andee read of her energy—she kept her shields strong, just in case, but Tali seemed to be taking the childbirth experience in stride. She even refused three different offers from Carmen to shoot Dack if it would make her feel better, before Dack was banished from the delivery room. The nervous new father had snarled at one of the med techs when she hadn’t moved quickly enough to tend to his mate for his liking. Carmen threatened to shoot him if his mood didn’t improve, and when it hadn’t, she hauled him out to the waiting area where the family gathered, doubtless to be scolded by his own mother, Natisha.
Carmen patted her mate’s hand. “Uh-huh. I’m not changing my mind. The childbearing thing is all you.”
“Malcolm could donate if you wanted to be artificially inseminated,” Andee offered. Carmen shot her a dry look.
“Because that wouldn’t be weird at all, being impregnated by my mate’s brother’s mate. This family is connected enough as it is.”
“You would have beautiful children, though,” Andee teased. “Strong, smart, good with technology…”
“That’s true,” Talena agreed. “I…oh!” Tali squeezed Andee’s hand, and the midwife shushed any further conversation.
Andee stood in for Sabine, who had wanted to be at her sister’s side for the birth but was unable to attend. Bryn had just entered what she referred to as “a very long overdue” phase, and so Jace, Bryn and Sabine were unavailable until it ended. Sabine had mentioned something about them being tied up at the moment when Andee commed with the news that Tali had gone into labor, and Andee was still trying to scrub that thought from her mind. The less she knew about her brother’s sex life, the happier Andee would be.
The room’s anticipation bubbled through Andee like the buzz of a sparkling wine, and she grinned when Talena’s baby girl was laid into her mother’s arms. She was a tiny, squalling pale blue bundle topped with a downy layer of the signature Sunsinger white hair. Carmen tenderly kissed Talena’s forehead.
“She’s beautiful,” Tali whispered reverently.
“You do good work, a’gra,” Carmen said.
“Will you tell us her name now?” Andee asked. “I can announce it.”
“Yes.” Talena nodded with a brilliant smile. “We decided on Magdalena, in honor of Carmen’s heritage and my adoptive family. Magdalena Spenser Hawke Loren.”
“It’s beautiful,” Andee said. Quite a mouthful, but Magdalena sounded like a Cy’ren name, which the Sunsingers would approve of. The house had become enamored of its long-lost daughters since their arrival on Cyprena. “I’ll fetch Dack for you.”
Andee was pounced upon the moment she entered the waiting room. “Mother and daughter are both fine and healthy,” she announced, and turned to Dack. “You’re allowed to return now.”
He didn’t wait for further explanation and darted off to rejoin his mates.
“Well?” Galen prompted. “Don’t keep us in suspense. What name did they choose?”
“Magdalena.”
Andee crossed to Galen and kissed him, and then motioned for Kylie, Galen’s assistant, to serve the refreshments chosen for the celebration. Kylie nodded and began pouring glasses of wine—the elderly female was still warming to Andee, as protective of Galen as his own mother would have been.
Tali’s adoptive mother wiped at her eyes. “Magdalena, like my grandmother.” Captain Spenser grinned and hugged his wife, and Admiral Hawke patted his friend on the back.
“It’s a lovely name,” the admiral declared. “And we’ll have plenty of time to be grandparents now that we’re retired.”
“Well you may be retired, abuelo, but some of us intend to keep busy,” Mrs. Hawke said. “Natisha and I are going to start our own business.”
“A grandfather…” Captain Spenser shook his head, his energy aglow with numb amazement. “We’re going to need more wine.”
“There is plenty of wine,” Andee assured him. She turned, looking for Malcolm in the crowd.
“He’s over there.” Galen nodded to a corner of the room where Malcolm hunched over a data pad.
Malcolm tugged at his shirt collar as he frowned at the screen—not to fidget, because the gesture had become a proud display of his mate marks. It had taken days to remove the Archivist’s ink from Malcolm’s skin, but once it was gone, Malcolm decided that he wanted mate marks after all—ink of his own choosing. Galen was the first lord to take a male mate in modern Cy’ren history. There had been grumbling from the temples, but they had plenty of other topics to focus on with the changes brought about by Cypren
a’s Alliance membership and the formation of the Cy’ren senate.
“Of course he is. I’ll fetch him.” Andee kissed Galen, picked up a glass of wine and approached Malcolm. She plucked the data pad from his hands and handed him the glass of wine as she perched atop his lap.
“Oh. Is it over?” Malcolm asked. His arm circled her waist and pulled her closer as he sipped the wine.
“It is. They chose Magdalena for the baby’s name.”
“That’s a nice name. It has Earth history behind it. In a good way. Well, it’s also a kind of controversial way, because…you don’t need to hear that now. This is very nice wine.”
“What were you working on?” Andee asked.
“I was reading an update from Commander Soth. He hasn’t found Kai yet. He keeps running into other people to save. The Eppes had a lot of slaves. Still do, I guess, since they’re not surrendering. But I got a vid mail from Alexi’s little sister. The family likes Athenia. Apparently she wants to attend the Alliance naval academy. Alexi would’ve gotten a kick out of that. His baby sister, an Alliance officer.”
“Good. I’m glad,” she said. Malcolm offered her a sip from his glass, and Andee smiled as she accepted. It was a very nice wine—light and sparkling, perfect for a joyful occasion.
“They still haven’t found Archivist de la Cruz,” he said, lowering his voice.
“Give it time. You’re safe here.”
“I know.” Malcolm smiled softly and blushed. “You’re the best bodyguard there is.”
“Thank you, a’gra.”
Galen joined them. “I’m confiscating your data pad for the next two hours,” he informed Malcolm. Galen took the pad in question, and then helped himself to the wine as well. “Come on, a’mhainen. Let’s celebrate.”
About the Author
Robyn Bachar enjoys writing stories with soul mates, swords, spaceships, and vampires. Her books have finaled twice in the PRISM Contest for Published Authors, twice in the Passionate Plume Contest, and twice in the EPIC eBook Awards. As a gamer, Robyn has spent many hours rolling dice, playing rock-paper-scissors, and slaying creatures in mmorpgs.
For the latest news about Robyn’s writing you can sign up for her newsletter at her website: www.robynbachar.com.
Find Robyn online at:
https://twitter.com/RobynBachar
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRobynBachar
http://robynbachar.com/home
Other titles by Robyn Bachar
The Galactic Cold War
Relaunch Mission
Contingency Plan
End Transmission
Just One Spell
The Sephra’s Tear
Bad Witch: The Emily Chronicles
The Importance of Being Emily
Poison in the Blood
Bad Witch
Blood, Smoke and Mirrors
Bewitched, Blooded and Bewildered
Fire in the Blood
Cy’ren Rising
Nightfall
Morningstar
Sunsinger
Bite Me
Acknowledgements
Many thanks go to my BFF Diana, who is my very favorite person to write, plot, game and geek out with. I’m so glad we were cloned from the same alien pod. I am also grateful to Devin Harnois, Keith Melton, Chandra Ryan and Jay Whelan for their input on this book. You all rock, and I am grateful for your input.
Again, I am grateful to my parents for their constant love and support.
And to Jennifer, who taught me something new with each book and challenged me to become a better author.
SUNSINGER
Copyright © 2014 by Robyn Bachar
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Robyn Bachar
P.O. Box 1692
Riverside IL 60546
Edited by Jennifer Miller
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews.