Shasta grabbed Tylan’s arm and yanked him to his feet. They both lost their footing but stayed upright as they careened down the corridor away from the fighting. Blaster drawn, Shasta tried to keep her heart from exploding from her body. Fear, adrenaline and anger all combined to add speed to her movements.
“Com,” Tylan gasped. “We need a com.”
“Right.” This was an Ang ship, and she had been on one of those when she’d been twelve and captured by the bastards. Andev had helped her escape. It had been Tylan’s father that rescued them, and Andev had dragged her to a com to call him. Now, she had to do the same thing.
Wait. No she didn’t.
Suddenly, she understood why the Ang wanted her bonded with Andev. The psychic connection, the Anshallah bond. They wanted to keep that alive somehow. Their culture was dying. The Dormrela had the connection, but they didn’t understand it.
Shasta had studied enough with her mother to know the connection during mating was unique to the Ang and bred in the Dormrela. Were they breeding for something else entirely? What was the one thing the Ang had that was unique to them? Only one thing stood out like a blazing comet.
The Ang wanted to pass on the one thing that lead to their greatest power; the ability to see the future.
Things she’d heard and seen when she’d been kidnapped at twelve added to her new experiences all clicked into place.
“Shasta?” Tylan interrupted her thoughts.
She hadn’t realized she’d stopped dead in the corridor, but the shock of her realizations had frozen her. She gazed at Tylan. They wanted him to mate with her too. Why?
The Anshallah bond was only the first step toward the Ang’s ultimate goal. Her kidnappers had deliberately forced the bond in conjunction with something else, something that would give her even more than just a psychic connection with her mate.
With her new idea, she flexed her mental muscles. Exercises her father had taught her came back to her as she focused, like a laser, on her psyche. Now that her memories had returned, many psychic skills she’d dismissed, she’d ignored, were right within her grasp. She wove them. The sensation of Tylan’s hold, her feet on the floor of the ship, the sounds around her faded. This was what the Ang had bred for, searched for, stolen little children for. This ability, this…vision. Color exploded around her, reds, blues, and greens all swirling in vivid bits, like snow. Then, the color faded, and black space surrounded her.
Against the backdrop of stars, the universe expanded. Current events were clear, the way the Ang had given her something to change her mental abilities, the reasons Tylan had been chosen, his genetic profile carefully studied for years. The way Shasta had been led step by step to this momentous moment where she would see the future.
Threads of possibility flung far and wide. Do this action and this result occurred. Do something different and a different thread took over. She saw it all. Her death. Tylan’s death. Andev’s death. Beyond those threads were vast dark stretches that meant destruction of life and cultures.
Like a dream, she could visualize each path, her mental fingers picking among the different directions like braiding fine hair. Tied together were the life threads of her mate and Tylan, who was now human, who had been turned human along every single thread. Was it this inevitability that caused the Ang to become the instruments of this experiment?
Shasta saw the temptation. Control the future. Know the destiny of individuals. It would be hard to resist meddling in that. But she wasn’t going to do it. Those threads all led to death, mass death, for all. Over there, some threads faded away into velvet darkness. The unknown was the only way humanity might survive. It took an effort, but she dropped the threads, stepped back, allowed the future to fade before her. Let the path be dark.
The only thing she knew for sure was her survival, Tylan’s survival, and Andev’s survival were somehow intertwined with the Ang and the Dormrela. How ironic that the continuation of those two alien cultures depended on three hybrid humans. Their deaths, one or all, led to complete destruction of all three cultures. Others were vital too, but only her death or the death of her mates seemed to cause the destructive catalyst.
Their survival meant others would have to go through hell, but that had to be better than the end of their future. Anyway, it was a choice she had to make.
An explosion shook the corridor, and Shasta slammed into the wall. Electrical sparks glittered along the passageway as the metal walls were cracked. She grabbed Tylan’s hand. “We have to get off this ship.”
“What the hell is going on?”
With her new vision, her new knowledge, she answered. “The men that attacked this ship are more dangerous than the Ang that held us.” She tugged on him. “Move.”
“The com—”
“We don’t have time. This splinter group of the Sidharta have decided the Ang and everyone on this vessel have to die.”
“How do you know?” He stared at her, his brown eyes so different now that they were set in a human face.
“I know.” Grimly, she headed down the only path that made sense, the only thread that had no end point, no final destination. The unknown future was their direction. She dragged Tylan into a room she’d seen in her vision. “The Sidharta are not what you think. They know about the different paths. They’ve been told about the future. What they want is the destruction of the Ang, along a path that leaves the Dormrela intact, but decimates humanity and exterminates the Ang.” She didn’t mention that it was the one thread where two of the Pasquel sisters were killed and the third was turned, genetically altered to something monstrous.
“You’ve seen it,” Tylan stated, resisting her pull.
She met his hostile gaze. “The Ang have known we humans held the key and they’ve tried to manipulate the outcome. The results are their downfall. They won’t be wiped out, but they’re going to lose their hold over the future.”
“To you.”
She gazed at him steadily. “To us.”
He stared at her, the rumble of laser fire outside the ship vibrating the floor beneath their feet. “I’m not just human.”
Shasta shook her head. “You’re like Adonis Pasquel now. You’ve been turned into something…more.”
A muscle moved in Tylan’s jaw. “Shit.”
She shoved him toward a hidden passage in the Ang’s quarters. Her visions of the future had given her momentary control over the present, a certainty of the immediate circumstances. The things she knew, the things she’d seen, all had to be put aside. Once they entered the escape shuttle, the future would be fluid, their lives in the hands of the uncertain path she’d chosen. It was the only path where there was no certain outcome, no absolutes and a million unknowns. The rest had been so clear, so definite and the temptation to take them was almost overwhelming. She could know, without a doubt, what the future held. But it required a betrayal of everything her father had taught her and everything she’d come to believe in.
The Ang, the Dormrela and humans would have to learn to live together and find acceptance. She wasn’t going to allow the destruction of any of the three cultures. The Ang had forced them to this fulcrum, but she was going to undo it, choose the one direction that would disrupt the set future and set them all adrift.
The escape shuttle was tucked beneath the ship’s main floor and hidden from the rest of the crew. The two Ang had taken every precaution to provide themselves a quick escape if things went to hell. Why hadn’t they seen their failure? Their deaths?
But Shasta knew the answer before she formed the question. The unknown factor. In every thread, she’d seen it. Her mother had been the unknown factor. Elise Pasquel had destroyed the stones that held the precious super DNA that would have changed Dormrela forever. The Ang had struggled, fought, lied, killed to keep the stones hidden. What they hadn’t counted on was Elise Pasquel’s absolute belief in keeping the balance of power in the universe.
These thoughts ticked along while she automatically matched T
ylan’s motions, preparing the shuttle for flight. Once they released the magnetic couplings, the future was in flux. She could still choose a thread with a clear outcome. Would known death be more comfortable than the unknown ahead?
Her finger hovered over the button to release the shuttle into space. It would be easier to take the known path, to spare many deaths to come, to spare her sister Kinley the challenge that would face her soon. By living, Shasta consigned many to face pain, struggles. People she loved—Trista, Michael, even Donovan—would all become embedded in the road she laid out. It would be easier to choose the known thread already clear, but the end point was the destruction of the Ang and the dominance of the Dormrela. It was the path the Sidharta would accept, though their preferred future involved no humans.
That thread only required her death.
But it wasn’t the one she was willing to take. To save them all, she had to try and live. Her finger pressed the button firmly, and the shuttle lurched into the void.
* * * *
A firefight was lighting up space when Andev arrived on the scene where the Ang were hiding behind one of the Saraquin system’s small planets. A Dormrelian war ship fired on the Ang, but Andev wasn’t sure that these weren’t Dormrela military. His men moved in, and the Dormrelian vessel immediately turned on them.
The Ang ship seemed to teeter in its orbit, gaping holes in its massive hull. What the hell was going on? Wasn’t it the Sidharta that helped the Ang?
From the underside of the Ang ship, Andev noticed a speck. “What is that?” he asked his com. The Dormrelian immediately stared at the screen. “Two human life forms.”
“Two?” Andev didn’t understand, but he didn’t care. “Helm, move in and cover that shuttle.”
As his ship sped into place, covering the shuttle, the enemy war ship turned its lasers on the shuttle.
“Shasta!” His mental cry shattered the walls he’d built up, his emotions pouring over the broken shards.
“Andev!”
Tylan is human? It couldn’t be, but he immediately saw Shasta’s memories of how it happened, of how she killed Yerglan Juno, his grandfather. She had been worried how he’d feel about that. His only thought was anger at the man who had taken his mates. The mental pictures of Tylan’s torture, his…transformation from a Dormrelian warrior to a helpless, naked human hybrid were horrific and tinged with Shasta’s frustration that she’d had to stand by and watch it happen.
The connection was severed when her shuttle was blasted at its engines. Andev’s heart stopped when he noted the flare of fire from their thrusters immediately doused by the cold of space. “Get our tracer on them. Pull them in!”
“Got them, Commander.”
Andev turned his attention on the rebel ship. “Blow them into the next system,” he said harshly.
His ship fired two missiles, and Andev watched with supreme satisfaction as the ship exploded into a million fragments that shot toward the moon’s surface, incinerating as they hit it.
“Team One, board that Ang vessel. Take anyone alive if you can.”
Andev tried to calm his frayed nerves, his mind constantly trying to touch Shasta’s. Nothing. “What’s going on in the shuttle bay? Report,” he snapped.
“The shuttle door is frozen shut, sir. We’re using lasers to open it.”
Stars, he wasn’t cut out for loving people. This moment brought back all the horror of watching his entire company melt before his eyes, pooling on the floor in a green gooey mess. Were his mates dead?
Something major had happened on that damn ship. He clicked his com. “What did you find on the Ang ship?”
A crackle and then, “Looks like we bumped into some kind of power struggle within the Sidharta. There’s only two dead Ang, and the rest are all Dormrela.” The com spat static for a moment. “I’ve downloaded all the medical information, Commander.” Sergeant Feren was Andev’s best man for this. His discretion was impeccable.
“Any sign of my grandfather?”
“None, sir.”
Andev froze. Shasta had been sure she’d killed him. Could she have been wrong? “Okay. Get back here and let’s get the fuck out of here before the Ang send in reinforcements.”
“Yes, sir.”
One of his men from the shuttle bay spoke over the com. “Commander? We’ve entered the shuttle. Both Lady Shasta and…Commander Ryar are unconscious.” The voice of the soldier wavered. Shit! Were they that badly hurt?
“Get them to the med bay, then jettison that shuttle. I don’t want the Ang to know we rescued them.” He strode toward the tube. “Mitt, you’ve got the bridge.”
All the way to the med bay, Andev second guessed himself. Could he have moved sooner? No. He needed his passenger to prepare for the next job.
In Shasta’s memories, he’d seen the man, the one that forced them into the bond that was both a boon and a curse. Shasta hadn’t known the big warrior, but Andev knew him. His uncle. Kidak Juno.
Manipulated, forced to fuck a twelve-year-old girl, and finally mind-wiped, Andev wasn’t in a forgiving mood. Time to raid the new Barracks and eradicate the rebellion once and for all.
He contacted the bridge. “Set a course for Dormrela. We’re going to get rid of the Barracks.”
“Yes, sir,” Mitt said, his voice filled with satisfaction.
This was it. With Michael Tarune’s immunity to any biological weapon, they would be able to get rid of the cancer that was destroying his people. For good.
Chapter Eleven
Andev strode into the med bay and stared at his mates. Shasta’s blonde hair was matted with blood and dirt. There was blood on her skin, and Andev’s heart lodged in his throat. He knew she wasn’t dead, but the absence of her mental touch was making him crazy. If he went to sleep, would he find her there?
Then, he stared Tylan.
Tylan was human alright. His hair had grown out, black and thick. He had more scales than Andev did in his human form, but the stark reality of Tylan’s dark skin covered more area than the greenish plates. His features were the same, but different without the extra set of eyes and the scales. His limbs were muscular, and there were two healing scars just below his armpits where his other arms had been.
Stars, it was insane.
He woke up first, and Andev clapped him on the shoulder, relief making his knees wobble. “About time you woke up.”
“Shasta?”
“Still out. What happened?”
“Resonator.”
Andev nodded. When a vessel had full shields, a resonator would vibrate against them and cause the whole shuttle to toss whoever was in it around like an atom in hot water. “You’re human.”
“Why, thanks for telling me, Mr. Obvious,” Tylan said bitterly.
“Tylan—”
“Save it,” he snapped and turned his face away.
“No. I won’t ‘save it’. You’re my best friend. More than that, really,” Andev said carefully, seeking the right words. “I love you.”
The words felt awkward on his tongue, but right when they came out. Tylan stared at him, disbelief written all over his human features. “Sure you do. That’s why all those years we fucked you didn’t want to talk about it.”
“I was ashamed of who I was. Of being different. The council forbade it, and I didn’t want to make you choose.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t want to burden you. You were Dormrelian.”
“I was a fool.” The low despairing tone wrenched Andev’s heart.
“You saved me, Tylan. So many times, I can never repay you. I owe you—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Tylan blazed at him. “I never did it for that, for your fucking gratitude. I did it because…because…”
“Because you love him,” Shasta’s voice broke in.
Andev whipped around and confronted his mate, his bilana. “I love you, too. But you should know that.”
Her smile was faint. “Yes. I know it. We’re tied together, all three of us.”
&nb
sp; “Bullshit,” Tylan growled at them like an angry dog. “You’ve been bonded, psychically connected for years.”
“So?” Andev knew Shasta was right. Three of them. He’d always kept his distance from Tylan because he was Dormrelian and their culture wouldn’t allow them to be together. But now? Now, even if Tylan was a pure blood, Andev was not letting him go.
“So, I’m not bonded to you.”
“Yet,” Shasta said sharply.
Tylan’s gaze narrowed on her face. “You can still see the future?”
“Not anymore,” she said calmly. “We were supposed to die, but we didn’t.”
“Explain,” Tylan snapped. Andev was completely confused.
She smiled weakly at him. “For a brief instant, I could see our future, Asberek, Dormrela and the Ang.” Shasta frowned and stared at the ceiling. “The future is like seeing a map from the sky. You can see where all the roads go, see where they end up. On almost every path, one of us dead meant the Ang would be destroyed and humanity along with it.” She met Andev’s stare. “Your grandfather had obviously been told or shown by the Ang. He wanted everyone destroyed except the Dormrela. To make that happen, I had to die.”
Andev’s stomach clenched. He had almost lost her.
Tylan asked the question Andev couldn’t. “So, why didn’t he kill you on Dormrela?”
“Because the Dormrela needed one thing they didn’t have yet. You,” she said and kept her steady gaze on Tylan. “You’re the catalyst. Maybe the council realized it since they kept you in the loop about the kidnapping, about Andev. But it’s your blood, your DNA, that held the key to Dormrelian survival.” She glanced at Andev. “That’s why they wanted me to mate with him. My father’s DNA, passed to me and my sisters, was a healing agent. My blood mixed with Tylan’s was a weapon, poison. Control that and they controlled Dormrela’s future. ” She lay back on her pillow and smiled. “But they aren’t going to. We are.”
Andev raised his eyebrows. “We?”
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