“We,” she said firmly. “All three of us.”
“It’s too complicated,” Tylan said through tight lips.
“Only if you make it that way.” Shasta closed her eyes. “Tell Michael to come see me, okay?”
Andev wanted to take her in his arms and hold her. Instead, he leaned down and scored his teeth over her neck, reveling in the way her body jumped. “Are you giving me orders? Tsk tsk. When you’re recovered, I’m going to have to remind you of your place. Perhaps Tylan will assist me.”
“Gladly,” his friend said in a deep voice.
If anything, his mate’s smile widened. She sighed and dropped off to sleep. Andev kissed her cheek gently.
Then, he turned to Tylan. “We have some details to work out.”
“I don’t believe in a set future, Andev. We can stay friends.” He refused to meet Andev’s gaze.
Andev put his hand under his friend’s chin. “We will. But you will be Shasta’s mate and mine. I should have defied the council and done it years ago, despite their objections to our genetic differences.”
Tylan’s brown eyes turned black. “I won’t let you—”
Andev reached around and gripped the nape of Tylan’s neck. Quick and hard, he kissed Tylan. Shasta was right. They were tied together with unseen strands no one could break.
“Rest. I have one more job to do, and then, we’ll inform the council that we’re going to mate.”
Tylan gritted his teeth and stared at the wall. “I’m a freak,” he muttered.
Outrage ripped through Andev. “No, you’re not.” An idea struck him. “Would you like to have this reversed, Tylan? We have all the data. I’m sure we could do it.”
Surprisingly, Tylan said, “No.” He turned to look at Andev. “No. It can’t be reversed.”
“You can’t know that.”
“If I had been pure Dormrelian, maybe. But I wasn’t.” Tylan turned away again.
The light dawned. “It’s been done before.” Shit.
Tylan nodded. “I’m not the only one the Ang have done this to. The others died.”
“Shasta.”
“Right. Her DNA saved me, as the Ang knew it would.”
Andev forced Tylan to face him. “We will help you adjust. We love you.”
“Andev—”
“Rest.” Andev didn’t want to hear Tylan’s arguments. They wouldn’t change his mind anyway.
* * * *
When Shasta started awake, her mind sought Andev’s immediately. The bastard shielded his thoughts, but she caught a bit of them. Terror shot through her.
She scrambled from the bed and frantically searched for something to cover her naked body.
“What’s wrong?” Tylan strode through the door. He’d obviously woken up sooner than Shasta. He was dressed in a flight suit and seemed fully recovered.
“He’s going to the Barracks. He’s going to fight his uncle.” She stamped her foot. “I want my clothes. I want my mate back here, and I’m going to kick his fucking ass if he dies on me.”
Tylan’s face lost color, and his eyes narrowed. “The Barracks? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“He and Michael are going to destroy the Barracks on Dormrela. They’ve already disembarked.” She sat on the bed, stunned, her face in her hands. Was it all for nothing? Andev couldn’t die. He couldn’t, not because of what threads that would effect—she couldn’t quite remember which threads his death were tied to—but because she couldn’t live without him.
“Here,” Tylan said and held out another flight suit. “Let’s go.”
The two of them broke into the armory, setting off alarms, but they avoided the few men remaining on the ship and made it to the shuttle bay. Luckily, there was one left. Together, Shasta and Tylan worked to override the ship’s security and open the bay doors.
Shasta mentally pounded on the wall Andev had erected to hide how bad it was on the surface. Bits and pieces filtered through. Dead Dormrela, killed by the bio weapons Andev had been sure they had. Michael, Andev and three others the only survivors out of ten men. “Hurry.”
Tylan pushed the shuttle to the limit. They reached the Barracks, and as they touched down, Shasta lost contact with Andev. “Shit! I can’t feel him.” Panic ripped through her as she reached out and felt nothing.
They ran to the nearest supply trunk and crouched, armed, ready. Silence. It was eerie. A familiar pool of green goo stained the ground as they approached the large maze.
The Barracks was a one story building with complicated, confusing, interconnected hallways and rooms. A Dormrelian warrior with a gas mask covering his face stepped out and fired.
Tylan returned fire as he and Shasta hit the ground. When the warrior fell, they rushed the door. No one stopped them.
They found another dead Dormrelian with Andev’s battalion signature on his shoulder. The sight of the familiar red rope coiled around the shoulder of the dead soldier made Shasta’s heart stutter. “Andev? Answer me!”
Weakly, Andev’s thoughts finally touched hers. “It was a trap. Someone knew…”
“Where’s Michael?”
“Don’t know.” His thoughts were fading, and she mentally gripped him.
“Stay with me, damn it.”
“I love you, Shasta. I always have. In our dreams, in everything. You and Tylan.” He was drifting away.
Damn him. She flared her nostrils and picked up his scent. It was odd, but all her senses were sharpened, enhanced. Had the Ang done something to her? It didn’t matter. All that mattered was saving Andev.
Two more dead bodies marked the trail of the battle. She and Tylan crept along the corridor until they reached a huge auditorium. In the center was a table with Andev strapped down by several straps. Blood oozed from several wounds all over his body. He was dying.
Michael was hung on a device Shasta had never seen before. Needles dug into the man’s skin, and an expression of pain radiated from his face.
“Welcome back, Shasta,” a familiar voice said, and her insides trembled with fear. It was him. The one who’d threatened her twelve-year-old self with his big cock. For a moment, she was back there, helpless, young.
But she wasn’t twelve anymore. And she wasn’t helpless. “Kidak Juno. Still trying to fuck little girls?” she sneered at him.
The man didn’t seem disturbed at all. Still bald and still big, he smiled, and Shasta suppressed the urge to shiver. “If I have to.”
Disgust curled her lip. “Killing you will be like putting down a mad dog.”
“I doubt a dog would hold a knife to your mate’s throat.” Sure enough, the man had a knife at Andev’s throat.
“You’re right. A dog has more class than you do.” She stepped forward, and he tightened his hold. She froze.
“No closer, Ms. Pasquel, or he’s dead.”
“Stalemate?”
“Oh no,” Kidak said softly. “I win. You see, he’s dying. I just have to stand by and watch it. And I get to watch you see it.”
“Who did you pay on the council, Kidak?” she demanded. “Someone besides the obvious ones.”
“Why should I answer you?”
“Why not?”
His smile was razor thin. “Some secrets should be kept, Shasta Pasquel.”
“Some. But not yours.” Shasta tried not to panic. Beneath her skin a power gathered, something new that rose like adrenaline in a crisis. Could she access this new thing inside her? The Ang had given her something, enhanced her somehow. The question was whether she could, without understanding it, make it work. Focusing, she stared at Kidak’s hand. Sweat broke out on his skin, and the smug look dropped away from his face. His hand shook, and the knife wobbled.
“How—” The man tried to slice through Andev’s neck, but Shasta tightened her mental hold. Agonizingly slow, his arm lifted and the knife point aimed at Kidak’s pulse pounding in his throat. Her head ached and felt like it was going to explode, but she held on, forcing Kidak to her will.
>
“You see, being a Pasquel has advantages, Kidak. Drop the knife and I won’t kill you.” She pressed him. The point dug into his scaled throat, and an ooze of blood dribbled down. He swallowed.
His hand relaxed, and he let the knife fall.
Tylan sprinted to Andev and cut though the restraints with his laser rifle. Shasta kept her focus on Kidak. The man remained still, hatred burning from his coal black eyes. “You will lose. My father—”
“Is dead,” she said. “I killed him.” Deliberately, she let that sink in and waited for Kidak to make his move.
It disconcerted her that he smiled. “You will pay, Shasta Pasquel.” An evil shine lit up his face. “You can’t protect them all.”
“I know the path I chose,” she said calmly. “The future you think you knew isn’t on smug Ang tracks anymore. I got to put my pretty hands all over it. Now none of us knows the outcome.”
“You can’t do that!” he screamed. “The unknown may mean our destruction. You’ve condemned us all.”
“No. Just like everyone else, you’ll have to adapt, compromise.”
“Never!” he shouted and dove for a blaster.
She never had a chance to get a psychic hold on him. He lifted his arm, but he jerked, the shot hitting the ceiling harmlessly. Blood streamed down his shocked face and a knife protruded from his forehead.
Tylan stood over him and kicked him. “I always wanted to kill that bastard.”
* * * *
“We never found out who Kidak had paid on the council.” Andev sat up on the bed in the med bay and gazed at the two people who’d saved his sorry ass.
Michael spoke. “Not your job. Kinley has some contacts. Let her ferret it out.”
“How is it her job?” Tylan asked.
“She’s a lot more than just an Asberek council member.” Michael smiled humorlessly. “She’s dangerous. It’s best to remember that.”
“I still don’t get how you got sucked into this,” Shasta said, and Andev stared at the ceiling.
“Andev needed my…expertise.”
“Which expertise is this?” Shasta demanded.
Andev met Michael’s gaze and held it while he answered. “I had a unique knowledge of the Barracks.”
“Because?”
“Because Earth Central was interested in it. I did some covert work here.” Michael glanced at Shasta. “Drop it, little bud. This isn’t yours to deal with.”
“For now,” Shasta said, and shot Andev a hard look that said he was going to have to distract her. He looked forward to doing just that.
“How many council members resigned?” Andev glanced at the silent figure in the corner. Councilwoman Patel hadn’t said much, but there wasn’t much to say. The plan had worked, but not the way anyone had anticipated. Her presence was a statement of support Andev hadn’t expected, but he was glad she was there.
“Five. Out of twelve,” she said quietly.
Andev stared at her. “Five. We thought three. Who—”
The grief in the woman’s gaze made him snap him mouth shut. Only one answer to that. Connyer Pao. He and the Councilwoman had been an item for years, unable to mate due to constraints on council mating. Or was it more than that?
“How many on the council are human?”
The woman jerked as if he’d struck her. “Of the seven that are left, three of us are human hybrids.”
“Did Pao know?” he asked softly.
She rose abruptly and ran her hands over her thighs. “No. I never told him.”
“I’m sorry, my lady,” he said softly.
Shasta crossed the room and put her hands on the councilwoman’s shoulders. “It shouldn’t have mattered. If it was real.”
A faint smile lifted the politician’s lips. “It was politics, but I was too blind to see it. Not everyone can have a happy ending, Shasta Pasquel.”
“Why not?” Shasta demanded. “I wasn’t supposed to have one. I’d resigned myself to being miserable. I got more than I ever hoped for.”
The councilwoman patted her arm. “And you earned it, my dear. Don’t ever take it for granted.” She turned to Andev. “I want you to know that I had nothing to do with the kidnapping. There were some on the council who were involved, and they have all resigned.”
“But you knew. You brought Tylan into the whole thing.”
“Yes, I did. He was your friend, he knew you were human, and he loved you. I explained what had happened to you after the Hadaji when you and Tylan became lovers.” She glanced at Tylan. “We knew the Ang would try again. What I didn’t know was that Tylan himself was part of the Ang plan.”
“They deliberately hid it,” Shasta answered. “In fact, the two Ang that made the deal with Yerglan and Kidak were members of a fringe group.” Her smile held no humor. “The Ang government is furious that some of their people interfered this way.”
The councilwoman cocked her head to the side. “What did you see? And can you see anytime you want to?”
Shasta shook her head. “No. The geneticist Dad sent says the Ang injected me with a genetic enhancement that wore off.”
Andev couldn’t help feeling some of the tension ooze out of his body. Seeing the future was too much responsibility. “Tell her, Shasta.”
His mate met his gaze and then glanced at Councilwoman Patel. “I saw several threads, paths really, that revealed multiple futures, all of them turning on the fulcrum of the confrontation on the Ang ship.” She drifted to Andev’s side and took his hand. “All of them had an end point, a clearly defined direction. Except for one.”
“And that’s the one you chose.” The politician smiled. “No need to worry about the unknown factors if it’s all unknown.”
“The only clear thing along the path I chose is that Andev, Tylan and I are…connected.”
“The fate of one determines the fate of all?” The councilwoman smiled. “A mirror image of the overall destiny of all our people.” She reached up and brushed her lips over Shasta’s cheek. Andev grinned at Shasta’s shocked expression. Councilwoman Patel held Shasta’s gaze. “I underestimated you, Shasta Pasquel. I think too many people did. For that, I am truly sorry.”
Shasta’s tremulous smile warmed Andev’s heart. “I didn’t give anyone a reason to think highly of me, my lady. I’d like to think I have accomplished something to earn the respect of my people.”
“You’ve earned the respect of many people,” the politician said. “And I’d like to think we are your people.”
Shasta shot a grin at Andev and Tylan. “I’d like to think so, too.”
“What now?” Tylan asked the councilwoman. “There’s the Barracks and the leak on the council—”
“Councilwoman Patel has asked for our help,” Michael interrupted Tylan. “Kinley is going to investigate this her way. And that’s strictly confidential. I know you want to know more, but it’s better if you don’t.” He limped to the door. “Right now, we’re going to leave it alone. We have the Ang at a diplomatic disadvantage. We’ve managed to avoid a war, but things are tense. We’re going to wait until they feel safe again.”
“But there will be no more prophecy vids,” the councilwoman said. “They have announced the future is in permanent flux.” She gave Shasta a friendly glance. “They’re calling it the Shasta Paradigm.”
“Finally. My name is used in something respectable.” She laughed, but Andev heard a little residual bitterness underneath.
He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. “You never had a choice. When you did, you chose to live. For us.” He kissed her, and she clung to him.
Their minds melded, thoughts tumbling together like raindrops. “What about Tylan?” Her worry for him was palpable.
“I told him he would be our mate.” He sensed her doubt. “You said we are connected.”
“We are. But I don’t want to limit him, keep him from finding another.”
“He loves us both.”
“He loves you.”
Her thoughts were clear. She loved Tylan, had become connected to him, but didn’t think he cared for her except as an extension of Andev. There was only one way to make sure. There was another seven days of the Hadaji, and he intended to make full use of them.
* * * *
Nerves. Shasta’s fingers trembled as she wound her hair into the complicated braids she’d come to love. The last time she’d been this anxious was just before she arrived on Dormrela. Andev had come home after only twenty-four hours in the med unit, but he’d blocked her from his thoughts. Not in a cruel way, as he had before, but in a wicked, sexy way, only revealing occasional arousing thoughts that drove her insane.
Tylan brooded in his room, silent since they’d arrived back on Andev’s ranch. He’d wanted to pack up and leave, but Andev nipped that one in the bud. It bothered Shasta that Tylan wanted to go away so badly. Bothered? Okay, it hurt like hell. Yes, she was bonded to Andev, but Tylan had a huge role in that. Plus, she wanted her mate whole, all of him and Tylan’s love was an integral part of Andev. To separate them meant Andev would lose something by loving her, and she didn’t want that.
Not to mention that her feelings about Tylan were intense and confusing in themselves.
She stared at her reflection. Perhaps it was her upbringing on Asberek that made her accepting of the idea that Tylan and Andev could both be hers. Maybe it was selfish.
If Tylan didn’t love her, then she needed to let him go.
Andev’s comments on the subject were cryptic. “We’ll see.”
Shasta shook her head. Andev had told her to dress for a special occasion, and she didn’t argue. Her dress was a shimmering gold that reached just below her knees, and her blonde hair gleamed with the gold wire-like strands she’d intertwined in her hair. On her feet, she wore simple gold sandals since Andev had told her not to wear anything to impede her in any way. The dark promise behind that order made her shiver with anticipation.
If only she could put aside her worries about Tylan.
The clock in the hallway chimed, and Shasta turned to the door of her room. Whatever happened, she’d make it work. She wasn’t the same woman who had come to Dormrela to find some elusive partner. She was a hero, a figure famous for something other than naked vids and had a complicated scientific event named after her.
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