by Mikayla Lane
“Oh, I don’t! I wouldn’t dream of interfering in an issue between mates unless asked, and even then I would only facilitate something like a private getaway or—” Grai began before Nik cut him off.
“Get to the point,” Nik ground out, wondering what the hell Grai had done.
“Bess believes that you and Traze need a do over and has graciously invited you both to dinner tonight,” Grai said with such amusement that Nik knew there was more to it than that.
“What else?” Nik was almost afraid to ask.
Grai threw his hands up innocently, but Nik wasn’t fooled.
“I don’t know of anything. It’s not like Bess would confide in me. She didn’t appear to like me at all,” Grai added, unable to wipe the grin off of his face.
“Damn it, Grai!” Nik growled in frustration. “What aren’t you telling me?”
By now most of the crew had heard the conversation and were raptly listening to every word.
“OK, OK,” Grai gave up and decided to tell Nik everything he knew. “Bess also mentioned that she thought it would be a good idea for you and Traze to learn more of their people. She thinks it will help you both to understand them better.”
Nik closed his eyes and rubbed a hand down his tired face. He wasn’t sure if he should be happy that the woman was giving him another chance or concerned for his and Traze’s well-being. He dreaded the thought of BJ’s mother taking a “shine” to him like she had Traze. That gave him another thought.
“That kid isn’t going to go, and I can’t say I blame him. Even I had to pause a few times over the things we saw down there. I can’t imagine what he went through when I left him alone with Bess,” Nik argued.
He was hoping he wouldn’t have to take Traze again. Nik wasn’t sure if he could handle finding out more about the winged people, apologizing to BJ, walking on eggshells around her scary mother, and dealing with the man-child’s dramatics too. It would have been hard to do if he’d had any sleep; without sleep it was damn near an impossible task.
“He’s not making too much sense about what happened down there,” Grai admitted then paused to see if Nik would elaborate.
Nik shrugged and tried to convince himself he was helping Traze out if he was a little more dramatic in his account than necessary.
“I was a little shocked when the living house smacked him in the back of the head. Then Bess strangled him quiet and forced him to try the food. Granted, it was really good food and harmless, but poor Traze had a really rough time,” Nik said with a shake of his head, adding extra sympathy to his voice to convince Grai to let his brother sit this one out.
Grai tried to contain the laughter bubbling up but failed miserably.
“Even Traze didn’t put it that badly! Damn, are you that worried he’s going to cock block you? Because Bess assured me that she wasn’t allowing any shenanigans between you and BJ until you could fully accept who she was,” Grai said and chuckled at the stricken look on Nik’s face.
He put a hand on Nik’s shoulder and squeezed it in support.
“It won’t be that bad. Traze will come around and not be so . . . terrible to deal with, and it will do you and BJ good to learn more about one another,” Grai assured him.
“You really suck; you know that?” Nik accused before slumping into one of the chairs in defeat.
“It would be nice to know what exactly we’re dealing with here, Nik. Even you’ve noted the power they hold, and I’ve felt this power before,” Grai said, sitting beside Nik and confiding in him. “I think we need to know what we’re dealing with here. I have no bargaining chip, nothing that they want or need in order to negotiate a truce and an alliance. We need to know where we stand with them.”
Nik sighed and leaned back in his chair.
“You’re the leader, the diplomat, not me. So why aren’t you going down to talk to her?” Nik asked, even though he already knew the answer.
“Bess hasn’t taken a ‘shine’ to me the way she has you and Traze,” Grai said with a frustrated snort, “and I need you to ask the questions he’s going to be too preoccupied and scared to ask.”
“Grai, I’m not a diplomat. You need Dread or Scaden . . . damn anyone but me. I’ve already screwed this all to hell with her daughter! You need someone to fix this, not fuck it up even more and potentially end up in a war with them,” Nik warned him.
“Trust me, Nik,” Grai said with a snort. “You can’t make this any worse. Give yourself a little time between now and dinner to get some rest, and try to open your mind a little to what you may learn. You may find out that it’s not so unsettling after all.”
Nik nodded his head and headed back to the sleeping area. He hopped into an upper bunk and closed the privacy shield, sealing the bed in darkness. Not wanting any lights, Nik left them off and stared up into the darkness as he considered what Grai had said.
As exhaustion overtook him, the last thing he thought of was a pair of beautiful hazel eyes.
*****
BJ punched her pillow again, trying to find a comfortable position before giving up and flopping onto her back. She stared unseeing at the ceiling as her mind continued to replay her moments with Nik.
Why can’t I just forget the damn jerk? she wondered as she flopped back onto her side. I love my life just the way it is. I’m not ready to be a mate or leave here again any time soon. So why do I care so much that he doesn’t want me?
“Grrrr!” she growled to the empty room before she threw her pillow at the door in frustration.
Moments later, a small vine crept its way through the open window and slid along the floor towards the door. It wrapped itself around the pillow and pulled it back to the bed before plopping it by BJ’s side.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she pulled the pillow close.
The vine gently rubbed her shoulder then retreated back through the window as a sparkling light flew inside and alighted on the foot of the bed. BJ didn’t even flinch when the light flashed and there sat her cousin, Toritania.
“What are you doing here, Tori?” BJ asked tiredly, not wanting to socialize.
“I could feel your exhaustion and your pain,” Tori admitted and stood to her full seven-foot height.
Tori leaned down, brushed a hand over BJ’s head, and kissed her cheek as her eyes swirled with a myriad of colors.
“You must sleep so that you can see things more clearly,” Tori chastised. “You are worrying over nothing.”
“How do you know that?” BJ countered, sitting up and putting the pillow in front of her as she faced her beautiful cousin. “You aren’t mated yet, you don’t seem to miss it at all, and you’re a lot older than I am!”
“Wow, thanks,” Tori laughed, not taking offense at BJ’s words.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” BJ explained. “You know what I mean. You’re happy with our people and being here. You’re not pining for some man who’s going to wreck your life.”
Tori laughed and pushed BJ to move over so she could sit next to her on the bed.
“How do you know that I don’t pine for a mate? Or children?” Tori countered as she pulled the covers up around them both like they used to when they were children.
“Oh, please,” BJ said with a snort.
“You’re jealous. I understand,” Tori said, ignoring BJ’s indignant gasp. “But you can’t expect our paths to be the same. There is no shame in admitting that you want those things, especially not when the gods have brought your mate to you.”
BJ didn’t say anything because she knew she couldn’t lie to her cousin. Not because she didn’t want to try, but because she knew that Tori could sense it.
Tori only laughed at her cousin’s silence.
“So many things are going to change now, and you need to try and ride the energy instead of fighting it. I promise, things are going to be beautiful for you,” Tori’s voice held a hint of her own jealousy, and she quickly covered it with a smile for BJ.
“Sometimes change
isn’t a good thing,” BJ countered.
Tori put her arm around BJ and hugged her close to her side.
“But in this case, that won’t be true. I wouldn’t let you go if I didn’t know that you and Mojo would be happy,” Tori admitted.
“What about you? And all the others? I need to be here,” BJ said without conviction, knowing they’d be fine without her.
“Beeg, you know better than that. It’ll be no different than when you went to St. Louis, only you’ll get to come home more often because you and Mojo can borrow one of those ships,” Tori countered.
“You really see Mojo coming with me?” BJ asked, hoping Tori was right.
She hated the thought of being by herself if the other Valendrans and hybrids treated her the way that Nik did when they found out she was different.
“They are going to need both of you for the coming battles that face us all. We’ll be fine here, you know that,” Tori replied gently, hugging her cousin close.
Something isn’t right here, BJ thought suddenly and turned accusing eyes to her cousin.
“What has Momma done?” she asked as Tori laughed.
“Aunt Bess only invited Nik and the young one to dinner again. A chance to do it right this time,” Tori admitted with a grin.
“Oh no,” BJ said worriedly. “What is she planning?”
“Nothing but dinner that I know of,” Tori said until she saw BJ’s suspicious look. “I swear. I know of nothing but dinner.”
BJ continued to stare accusingly at her cousin until Tori finally looked away.
“OK, OK, she also mentioned something about introducing them to our people,” Tori added with a blush.
BJ erupted from the bed and stood at the side as she pointed her finger at Tori.
“And you agreed to this? The council agreed to this? What the hell are you thinking?” BJ asked as she began pacing the room in agitation. “And what of Nik and Traze? Why would any of you even consider this after how they’ve already reacted?”
Even without her abilities, BJ saw disaster written all over the plan. If what they’d learned already had frightened Nik and Traze, then what her mother had planned who ensure that Nik and the Valendrans would never return. Despite all her protestations to the contrary, she didn’t want Nik to fear them or her. She certainly didn’t want to push him away forever.
“Beeg,” Tori began as she stood and moved to the other side of the bed to hug her resistant cousin. “It’s not going to happen that way. Trust in yourself and in us. I would never be a part of anything that would hurt you or Mojo. Now rest.”
Tori waved her hand behind BJ’s back and propelled her towards the bed. She pushed her to sit and helped put her legs on the bed before pulling the covers up over BJ.
“Sleep, and when you awaken, you will see things more clearly,” Tori promised.
She laid a kiss on BJ’s cheek and watched as her cousin’s eyes fluttered closed. When she knew BJ was finally sleeping peacefully, she closed her eyes and disappeared in a flash of light.
*****
Kyle sighed in absolute relief that they were almost ready to leave without spending a third day in the god-forsaken place. If it wasn’t for the door handle, he’d be convinced the hillbillies never saw one of the aliens. Whether he believed they had been in that hellhole or not, he figured they were long gone.
He stood from the desk and stretched out his cramped back muscles as his men looked at him with desperate, hungry eyes. He couldn’t blame them. They’d spent another crowded night in the station, and he was hot, tired, and so hungry even the possum stew at the diner was starting to sound good. He knew it was time to go.
“Alright, men. Do one more pass around this place and make sure we’re leaving nothing behind,” Kyle ordered, and the men whooped and hollered as they scrambled outside.
He took one more look around the station, happy to see the last of it when he saw Greg sitting in a corner with ear buds in his ears.
Kyle headed over to him and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, surprised that the men running for the doors hadn’t pulled him from his music or whatever he was listening to.
“We’re getting ready to leave,” Kyle told him when Greg pulled the buds out of his ears.
“Oh?” Greg asked with a furrowed brow.
“Yeah. What’s the deal? I thought you’d be just as glad as everyone else to get out of here,” Kyle said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Greg sighed heavily and nodded his head as he stood.
“Yeah, I’m definitely interested in some real food and a real bed,” Greg said, not looking at the major.
Kyle couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
“What were you listening to?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing. Just the interviews we did with the cop and the others. For the report,” Greg answered as he continued to keep his eyes averted and headed for the door.
The captain’s evasiveness only peaked Kyle’s curiosity and his suspicions.
“What did you hear?” he demanded.
“Nothing you didn’t hear, sir,” Greg said without turning from the door.
“Captain, get back here now!” Kyle ordered, angry at the captain’s evasiveness.
Greg trudged over to him and stood at attention, still avoiding Kyle’s eyes.
“Tell me what you know,” Kyle said, and when Greg looked ready to lie again, he added, “that’s an order.”
“Sir, it’s probably nothing,” Kyle began. When he saw Kyle clench his fists he decided to tell him what he knew. “It’s just something strange I heard while listening to the interviews.”
“Go on,” Kyle ordered.
“Every time you talked to the cop, it was the same thing. Irritating accent, terrible dialect, and a seemingly barely functioning hillbilly,” Greg said, getting more animated now that he was explaining it. “Until today.”
Greg pulled the ear bud jack out of his hand held recorder and hit the rewind button. He pressed play and BJ’s voice came on loud and clear.
“What now?” BJ yelled out, then said, “I’m sorry. I’m just tired and need more coffee.”
“Yes, dear, you can go home and get some rest later,” Kyle heard Bess say.
“What did you ask?” Kyle remembered when the cop asked him that, as he heard it on the playback.
“Oh, I was wondering why you hadn’t taken any pictures of the suspects,” Kyle asked.
“I couldn’t get the camera to work. Mojo was supposed to fix it, but he’s not been himself lately,” BJ said.
Greg hit the stop button and looked up at the major.
“She spoke in perfect English, no accent. Just like her mother,” Greg explained.
Kyle’s eyes narrowed as he considered it, and he waved his hand at the captain.
“Play it again,” he ordered.
They both listened to it again, and Kyle grew angrier by the second.
“Play some of the first interview,” he ordered and watched as Greg grabbed a small case of tapes from his side pants pocket and flipped through them.
Just as Greg was getting ready to hit play, one of the other men came into the office.
“We’re ready and just waiting on you guys,” the lieutenant said, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice.
Kyle looked at the soldier and dearly wanted to call their time in Missouri’s fucked up center of hell done, but he had a duty, and he was livid at the thought that the hillbillies may have almost got one over on him.
“Lieutenant, I want your men to find out where the nearest grocery store is. I mean a real one that will take our government credit cards,” Kyle ordered. When the lieutenant just stared at him blankly, he added, “Now, damn it!”
He watched the man run from the office and slam the door behind him before he turned back to Greg.
“Play it,” he ordered as he sat down in one of the desk chairs and listened carefully to the butchered English of BJ Markson.
> Chapter Thirteen
BJ awakened to the chatter going through the shengari’ and she sat up quickly. She was out of her room and running down the hallway to the kitchen before sliding to a stop in the doorway.
“What happened?” she asked to anyone who would answer.
“Honey, it wasn’t your fault,” Irwin said with a sad shake of his head before Dennis sent him a glare.
“It’s nothing that can’t be fixed,” Bess assured her.
She took BJ’s hand, led her to an empty chair at the table, and sat her down.
“Someone tell me what happened!” BJ demanded.
“Beeg, they recorded the interviews, and that captain caught you talking normally. They know it was a ruse. They sent some of their men to Springfield for food and supplies, and they’re staying at the station,” Mojo told her.
“What? When did I do that?” BJ asked incredulously as her mind tried to remember when she’d screwed up.
“This morning. You were tired, honey. They got lucky catching it,” Bess reassured, confident that they’d still prevail over the military unit.
“Oh, no,” BJ whispered as she put her head in her hands.
“It’s fixable, BJ. We’ll just get to play a little longer,” Dennis said with a chuckle.
“It would be a good time to flex our claws,” Gibly offered with a grin as he jumped up into an empty chair beside Mojo.
A mischievous smile slowly came over Bess’s face, and those at the table who saw it grinned in anticipation at whatever she was thinking.
“I think Gibly is right,” Bess agreed. “We need to flex something.”
BJ slowly raised her head and looked at her mother a little nervously.
“What are you thinking, Momma?” she asked, wondering if it would be as bad as the last time.
“They want aliens. I think we should give them much more than they ever expected,” Bess suggested with a devilish twinkle in her eyes.
BJ sucked in a sharp breath and looked around the table to see if anyone else would protest. When she saw only grinning faces, she knew she had to be the sanity amongst the chaos getting ready to erupt.
“Momma, you know that’s not a good idea. The last time we did something like that . . . they were never the same again. Do we really want to take that chance with this group of people? They’re military; someone will notice something is wrong with them,” BJ said, imploring her mother to rethink this.