by Laurie Roma
Emotions swam in Arik’s iridescent blue eyes. “Skylar, please forgive me. I didn’t mean to cause you so much pain. I—”
She reached up and placed her finger over Arik’s lips to silence him. “I don’t blame you. It was past time I dealt what had happened to me. I’m glad I remember, even if it hurts me. I felt you with me, trying to shield me. I’m glad I had you with me when I remembered.”
“Can you talk about it?” Dom said. He brushed her hair back from her face.
She raised a brow at that, glad she could still feel amusement even though her emotions were in turmoil. “Don’t pretend that Arik didn’t tell you everything.”
Dom and Arik had done a lot of talking while she’d slept. He had been filled in on Skylar’s history in full detail, but he wanted to hear it from her. He wanted her to tell him almost as much as he figured she needed to say the words out loud. “I want to hear it from you. Will you tell me?”
After a slight hesitation, she nodded. “Give me a few minutes first.”
She got out of bed and headed into the bathroom. Dom stared at the closed door, his heart aching. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight for a single moment, but he knew she needed privacy. Tearing his gaze away from the door he turned to look at his friend. “Stop beating yourself up about this. I’ve told you a million times now, she is better off knowing.”
“I know she is, but that doesn’t make it any easier to bear the fact that I am the one who caused her pain.” Arik let out a weary sigh. “This information changes things.”
“It doesn’t,” Dom growled. “I don’t care who her father is...no one is taking her away from us.”
“She is going to want to meet with him. What happens if she wants to stay on Tartarus?”
“We’ve been over this, damn it—”
“I don’t.” Skylar said from the doorway. “We need to go to Tartarus for this mission, but I don’t want to stay there. Why would I? My life is on Earth...with both of you.”
“Come here, love.” Arik held out his hand and some of his tension eased as she walked over to him and slid onto his lap.
Skylar pressed a kiss to his lips then turned her head and beckoned Dom forward. She leaned in and kissed him as well before saying, “Knowing what happened doesn’t change what was. There is nothing for me there.”
Dom shared a look with Arik before he spoke. “Skylar, we have information to share with you, but first, I’d like you to tell me what you remembered.”
“I don’t know where to begin.”
“Tell us about your parents,” Arik encouraged.
She took a deep breath then began. “My father was a young man when he met my mother. He had just turned eighteen when his father gave him his first slave. She had been a human woman, so she was very rare on Tartarus and a highly coveted prize. She was a few years younger than he was, and my father didn’t follow the tradition of wanting to own slaves, but he kept her and cared for her. A few years later I was born. I remember spending time with him when I was a child, but when his father died, he took over as lord. I saw less of him then as his duties took up most of his time.”
Dom cupped her face in his hands so he could look into her eyes. “Say his name, Sky. Tell us who he is.”
She shuddered then said, “Tor. My father was...is Lord Jaden Tor.”
“Now we know why you were so upset after your conversation with Deidre on Avox,” Arik added. “You didn’t know it at the time, but I think you were reacting to hearing about him.”
“You’re probably right. I remember that he offered to release my mother. She was happy there even though they weren’t in love, but then she got sick. She wasn’t an Elite and caught a fever that she never recovered from right after I turned twelve. She had been asking my father to take me to the Hades Outpost to get the enhancements for years, but he refused. Besides my mother, he didn’t care for humans. I remember him saying that the Alliance shouldn’t be interfering in Tarin business.”
“It is a well known fact he often argues with his friend, Lord Malik Rego, about having the Alliance base on his land,” Dom told her.
“It doesn’t surprise me.” Her breath hitched, and she cleared her throat to try and mask it even though she knew both of her bonded could tell she was upset. “A few days after my mother died he got rid of me...sent me away. I had gotten sick, too. My father had even allowed an Alliance doctor to come and treat me, but I just got sicker. I guess he didn’t want to have to deal with another death so he told my mother’s friend, Nula, to take me to the Hades Outpost. On our way to the outpost we were attacked. Everyone in our entourage was killed except me, and the men who took me brought me to Lord Fen Varo. Why do I have to tell you this when you already know?”
“Because you need to say it,” Dom snapped back. “You know you do, so finish it.”
Skylar pushed up from Arik’s hold and started pacing the room. She felt dizzy from lack of food, but that didn’t stop her. “When I arrived, I was told I was now property of Lord Fen Varo. I knew he was an enemy of my father’s, but since my father didn’t want me anymore I didn’t know if he would even care that Lord Varo had captured me.”
She paused as she wrapped her arms around her waist and stared out at the big black through the window. “I was scared, so fucking scared I didn’t know what to do. I was taken to see Lord Varo that night even though I was so sick I could barely stand on my own. He was...the man was a fucking monster. I didn’t understand it at first, why a man older than my father would want a little girl, but I found out. He tried to...he attacked me, tried to rape me, but I fought back. I fought and—”
Looking down at her hands, she whispered. “I killed him. I used my abilities to kill for the first time when I was twelve.”
She gasped as she was spun around. Dom’s eyes were fierce as he glared down at her, his hands on her arms like vices. “Don’t feel bad about what you had to do or feel sorry for that sick fuck. You protected yourself, nothing more.”
“Okay...okay.”
She wrapped her arms around him, taking the comfort he offered as she remembered the horror of realizing what she’d done. Because she had still been sick, using her abilities for the first time had been a complete shock to her system. She hadn’t understood it at the time, but she had acted on instinct, taking all of Lord Varo’s energy to cure herself and allow her to escape. Somehow, she had managed to leave the palace, hiding in the back of a cart as it left the holding. She had fallen out of the cart when she had been too weak to hold on any longer, and had crawled into a small cave where she’d passed out.
When she had woken, she’d had no memory of how she had gotten there or who she was. The only thing she remembered was the name of the Alliance outpost. Luck was on her side when she had stumbled upon a family traveling to their home after visiting friends. They had taken pity on her and offered to take her to the Hades Outpost, but when they dropped her off she’d found the outpost in chaos. There had been an attack there a few days before she’d arrived and they had been evacuating people a ship that was waiting in the planet’s orbit. Because she didn’t know who she was and due to the condition she arrived in, she was taken on the next shuttle off the surface since she was so obviously human.
“They lied to you.”
Skylar pulled back from Dom to look over at Arik. She could see the pain and regret in his eyes, but didn’t understand what he meant. Dom lifted her in his arms, carrying her back over to the bed where he sat her down on his lap facing Arik, who reached out to take hold of both her hands. “What do you mean? Who lied?”
“After we discovered what had happened to you, we did a little research while you were sleeping,” Arik began softly. “Nula lied to you. Your father never sent you away, he was sending you to the outpost to get treatment because he was worried you weren’t getting better.”
“But...”
“Your father would have gone with you himself, but he had been called away to war. He sent some of his
best warriors to keep you safe, but they were ambushed and outnumbered. Nula survived the attack on the convoy escorting you to the outpost, and returned to your father’s palace where she told them what had happened. She knew you had been taken, but she told your father that you had been killed along with the others.”
“No,” she whispered. “That can’t be true.”
“It is,” Dom assured her. “Our information says your father went crazy when he returned to the palace and was told about your death. He scoured the area where the attack had taken place, but by then the bodies had been moved. He blamed himself for not taking you, and blamed the Alliance since he had been sending you to them. Over the years he has never taken a consort, never allowed himself to have a family since he lost you. Some people have said that the biggest reason he fights to free all women on Tartarus is because it is what you would have wanted.”
Tears clouded her vision as she stared at them. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her breathing shallow and rapid. Most of the pain she had felt upon remembering her past had been centered on the fact that her father had thrown her away. But knowing that he hadn’t sent her away changed everything.
“We have limited resources when it comes to information about people on Tartarus, but I contacted Deidre on Avox. She was reluctant to speak with me, but after I told her a little bit about what we discovered about your past, she agreed to ask the others for more information that could help us. Last night she made contact and told us one of the females knew Nula back when they were children.” Arik paused. “It seems that Nula was Lord Fen Varo’s distant cousin. She helped plan the attack on your convoy.”
“Why would she have done that? What the hell would she have had to gain?”
“Your father,” Dom explained. “She wanted your father and she knew about her cousin’s deviant predilections. It was a win-win for both of them, or so she thought.”
An icy rage settled over Skylar. “Is she still alive?”
Dom nodded. “She is, and still living at your father’s palace. He never took her as his consort like she wanted, but she is there helping run the palace.”
“Son of a bitch!”
“We’ll get her,” Dom promised. “We’ll make her pay for what she did to you. I swear it.”
“Okay,” Skylar said, trying to calm herself. “I need to think. We need to focus. We have to track down Khan and—”
“Sky, stop.”
“No, we need to—”
“What you need to do is give yourself a fucking break!” Dom barked. “Let yourself feel for one damn moment.”
“This doesn’t change anything.”
“It changes everything,” Arik countered. “Your father never wanted to give you up, Sky. He has thought you dead all these years.”
“Haven’t I been? He doesn’t know me. I’m a different person now. I can’t change the past.”
“But you can rebuild, starting now.”
“I have a life with both of you. I don’t want to lose—”
“You are our chosen, Sky. The fucking love of our lives. We’d walk through the damn fires of Tartarus for you. You will never lose us,” Dom swore.
A sob escaped and the strong arms that wrapped around her gave her the strength to let go completely. For the first time in longer than she could remember, she broke. She let the tears come freely, violent and hot, weeping with grief over what she’d lost. She hated crying. Hated the weakness it represented. Crying always made her feel even more lonely for some reason, but knowing that she now had someone—or two someones—to hold her made all the difference.
****
“It’s been nearly two damn days. What the fuck is the hold up?”
Dom paced the confines of the sitting room in their quarters on the Hades Outpost where everyone had gathered. They had arrived on Tartarus a day and a half ago and were still waiting for permission from Lord Malik Rego to leave the base so they could talk to Lord Jaden Tor.
It was a smart move by the Tarin male. By having the outpost located on his land, Lord Rego was able to control who was allowed off the base and it also gave him access to knowledge of what the Alliance was doing.
Dom, Skylar, Arik, Reva and Jax had made the trip down to the planet surface along with a small contingent of Commander Malloy’s strike force team. Archer had stayed behind with Serra since Tartarus held so many nightmares for her from her past. They had asked to speak to Lord Rego immediately after landing, but were told he was away on business and that they should wait.
Fuck that. Dom was getting damn tired of waiting.
He stopped pacing to glance out the window at the landscape and thought it suited his mood perfectly. The sky was pitch-black now that the sun had set, but an electrical storm had rolled in. Thunder boomed out and lightning sizzled through the sky, turning it a hot red that reminded him of hell. Off in the distance, he could see the outline of Rego Palace, but that wasn’t where they wanted to go. No, they wanted to go to Lord Jaden Tor’s palace to the north.
To see Skylar’s father.
Just thinking about all Skylar had been through had Dom’s fists clenching again. She had been robbed of her childhood, and had to do the unthinkable to survive. It had scarred her in ways she thought had left her broken, but she didn’t see the truth. What she was...who she was now was a miracle.
Finding out about her past had done nothing but make him love her more. She was strength personified, a true survivor with a warrior’s soul. Dom was tired of her having to be so strong. Facing the betrayals of those closest to her had cost her. First her father—even if unknowingly done—then Nula, her mother’s closest friend, and even the Council of Regents. Dom would personally gut the next person to do so, no matter the consequences.
All that she had been through hadn’t hardened her like it could have. Okay, she was a little jaded, but she was also kind, sweet, and fiercely loyal to those she loved. Dom counted himself lucky to be one of those people. Her love was like the sun, vibrant and filling him with a warmth he didn’t even know he needed until he thought about losing it.
Fuck that, he thought. No one would ever take her away from him.
He simple wouldn’t allow it.
Not that it was going to be easy. Lord Tor was one of the most powerful lords on Tartarus and was a vital part of why the more volatile inhabitants of the planet hadn’t won their civil war. Despite his animosity towards the Alliance, Lord Tor wanted what was best for his planet, and that was ending slavery. Dom knew that facing Lord Tor as a member of the Alliance was going to be rough, but meeting him as one of his daughter’s bonded was going to be...hazardous to his health.
Skylar and Reva had gotten tired of being stuck in the same room with all the men so they’d left about an hour ago. Everyone was on edge and ready for action. Having so many alpha personalities in one room was like putting too many animals in one cage.
Dom knew he was part of the problem. The night after she’d woken he had stayed with her, giving and taking comfort as they had made love into the early morning hours. But last night he’d taken a step back and let Arik have his turn sleeping with her. It wasn’t the ideal situation, but he and Arik were still learning how to deal with sharing.
The three of them had a lot of issues to work out, but they had more important matters to handle first.
“We need to do something,” Jax bitched from where he was sprawled out in an oversized chair. “The Tarins are stalling. This is bullshit.”
Dom turned to stare at his friend. “What the hell do you suggest?”
“I don’t know. Something. We’re just wasting time.”
“There are protocols we have to follow,” Arik reminded them. “We must gain Lord Rego’s permission to cross his lands.”
“I know that, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. The longer we’re on this godforsaken planet, the longer I’m away from Serra, and that irritates me.”
“You didn’t have to come,” Dom pointed out.
“And let you have all the fun without me? I don’t think so.”
Commander Matt Malloy let out an exaggerated sigh. “Life was so much easier before we took over your detail. Why can’t you just fucking stay put on the Stargazer like Roman Newgate did when he was High Commander?”
“I have to make sure you’re working for your credits, don’t I?”
“Shit.”
Jax laughed, easing some of the tension in the room, but it was only temporary. The door to the room slid open and Skylar and Reva walked in wearing skin-tight black suits made of a shiny material that looked like it was painted on. Both women had on utility belts with blasters strapped to their thighs.
They looked like the epitome of dangerous, walking, talking, wet dreams.
Arik choked, lust clouding his senses. “What in the worlds are you wearing?”
“Riding uniforms. Here,” Skylar said as she tossed a bunch of black uniforms on the couch beside him on the couch. “These are made of special material with ions that repel electricity and blah blah. I don’t know exactly how it does it, and I really don’t care. The officer that gave them to me assured me they will protect us from getting struck by lightning. Now put them on, I’m done waiting.”
“We can’t. Lord Rego’s men won’t—”
Skylar seared Jax with a look. “I’d like to see them try to tell Lord Tor’s daughter that she can’t go home.”
Jax froze, then slowly stood up. “What the fuck did you just say?”
Her eyes widened as she looked over at Dom, then at Arik. “I thought you told them.”
“It wasn’t our information to share, Sky,” Arik explained quietly.
She put her hands on her hip and huffed out a breath. “Well, shit. I thought they already knew. Everyone’s been tip-toeing around me like I’m a bomb waiting to go off.”