by Mikayla Lane
“Thank you daddy! Thank you so much!” Dare threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly. He did the same until she complained that he held her too tight.
They spoke quietly together for a few minutes about things she wouldn’t want everyone who had been in the room to know, and he caught her up on Jess’s rescue and how they’d found Ivint and the Valendrans.
*****
Grai paced the room while he waited for Koda and Traze to come in from their meeting with the Valendrans. He’d been anxious and wound up since they had left, even more so since their transport had landed a few minutes ago.
“Grai! It went as you expected it would.” Traze volunteered before he finished coming into the room, Koda not far behind him.
“Except they had two Tezarian’s there.” Koda added, rolling his eyes at Traze when he threw himself into a chair and propped his legs on the table in front of him.
“I don’t know Grai; it looked to me like they were there to help the Valendran and the girl. I’m not sure why. Maybe they think the Tezarian can help with the child?” Koda suggested. He was also curious about why the Tezarian’s were there.
They were a curious race, a beast race, and he’d only heard tales about their abilities from their mother and others that they encountered through their travels. Everyone had always seemed to think of them in mythical proportions, and he was curious if any of what they could do was actually true or not.
“We definitely could sense the beast in him! He’s a very strong little beast in our child! I sensed a boy, didn’t you Koda?” Traze asked his brother with a grin. He was looking forward to holding his brother’s child and teaching him as he grew the way his brothers had raised him.
“Yes, I also sensed a boy. There was something else, but I’m not sure what it was… I think the Tezarian’s were blocking or distorting things a little. Something seemed off.” Koda admitted with a frown. He’d felt the difference when he’d try to connect more deeply with the child’s beast. It was like he’d hit an invisible barrier.
“What do you mean? Can you think of anything specific? Tell me everything that happened.” Grai demanded. If there was anything wrong with his child, he needed to know now! When he could do something about it. This child was far too important to him, and he refused to let anything happen to him until he served his purpose.
Grai listened intently to the replay of events that his brothers were telling him about. Once in a while he would ask questions or ask for them to elaborate on something, so he could get a clearer picture in his mind of what Koda thought might be wrong.
Without another word to his brothers, he picked up his cell phone and sent a text to someone he knew would get him answers. If it wasn’t life or death, he would never think of using her, potentially putting her at risk. However, he didn’t have a choice, and he knew she would understand. He added one last important comment, before putting his cell phone back in his pocket.
“Do you think it wise to send her in with so little information to go on other than my feelings that something was off?" Koda asked with concern.
“We don’t have a choice. Our time is running out. He will die if we don’t get the information we need from that child. If something is off, we need to know now. Not later. And I trust your instincts Koda. If you think something wasn’t right, then I believe you.” Grai gave his brother an affectionate squeeze on his shoulder and a small smile, a rare show of affection that told Koda just how much his brother had truly changed without them noticing. Even Traze looked a little surprised by his oldest brother’s rare display of affection.
“Still, if they find out they could kill her, Grai. There has to be another way.” Koda warned, afraid for the woman’s safety.
“No, they would never kill her, and I would never allow her to be harmed. Ever. Besides, the worst thing that could happen is that we begin phase two much sooner than we expected.” Grai tried to portray a lot more confidence than he felt at the moment. He was already regretting his rash decision to ask her to help them and didn’t want his brothers to see his indecision. It was more important than ever for them to see him as a competent leader.
*****
Lt. David Jacobs, ex-Navy seal, flitted between the crush of people outside of the conference room until he found Jax. Seeing nothing more than the back of her head, he waded through everyone until he reached her side.
“David! You’re back! How did everything go?” Jax asked when she saw him walk up beside her. It only took a moment for her to see the look on his face and realize it was important.
“Reven!” Jax yelled above the din of voices, looking between the bodies for Reven.
“What’s wrong?” Jax jumped a little, startled at Reven’s voice so close to her. Damn she hated when he did that! She could tell by his chuckle that he enjoyed it a little too much, and that irritated her more.
“David’s back, something is wrong. Let’s find another room for now.” Jax said as she led the two men away from the others and into a smaller room down the hall.
She was getting ready to shut the door when Ivint strode up to the door and smiled at her. “I figured this was going to be the better conversation to hear.”
“You would be right; I'm sure.” Jax answered with a smile and held the door until he came in, Risk and Niklosi quickly followed. The High Councilor was beginning to grow on Jax, and she would have notified him immediately of what came of the meeting, but the sick feeling in her stomach made her glad she wouldn’t have to.
Once everyone was seated, they didn’t have to wait long to find out why they were there.
“I spoke to my friends who had heard Dare calling for Baldy. They were being held at a cabin in the woods on top of a mountain not far from where you rescued them. I know you know that already.”
“We found the informant; she was meeting that day. Apparently, it was an actor who had been hired to pretend to be an informant in order to lure Dare to Market Square. She was set up. We bought her cell phone from her so that we could bring it here. I already ran the phone number that called the informant; I thought you would want the proof.” David said handing the unfamiliar cell phone to Jax.
David shook his head when Reven looked at him curiously and watched as Jax flipped through the call log on the phone.
“Oh my God! No! Hell no!” Jax’s face fell as she stared at the call log and the phone number of the calls placed to the informant/actor.
“What is it Jax?” Ivint asked her with concern. Although he thought, he might know where this was going.
“It’s here. Right freaking here. Whoever hired the actor to play the informant, called them and set it up from here. This warehouse. We’ve been compromised!” Jax said with shock and worry. It was one of their own. It had to be. The Valendrans hadn’t arrived when the calls were made. No one else would have known about the warehouse being one of their safe houses. Except one of them.
“Are you sure?” Ivint asked with grave concern evident in his voice.
“There’s no doubt. We keep a permanent phone hooked up in each safe house to make sure that if anyone comes that they have a way to contact the rest of us for help if they need it. This is the phone number for here. Most of us have the numbers memorized.” Jax said with anger as she handed the phone to Risk. If anyone could dissect it and find out if it was genuine, he could.
“Give me a few hours with this, and I’ll tell you if they spoofed the number or if it was actually called from here. Either way, if they have the phone number here, then they probably know where we are.” Risk added, taking the phone from Jax and flipping through the logs.
“Risk, find out everything you can and get back to us as soon as you know something. I’ll send Lagor to you and see if he can help.” Ivint told Risk, confident that the intelligent young man would have answers for them soon.
“We need to consider getting everyone out of here and to the ships. If this location is compromised, then they all could be compromised. And
with this drug they have that can neutralize the female’s gifts and render us immobile, we can’t take any chances with the children or the others.” Reven suggested sadly. He didn’t like the idea of uprooting the females from the only family and homes they have ever known, but it might be necessary to save their lives.
“No! We’re not going anywhere. I’m not leaving and hiding and leaving my world to fend for itself while I go save my own ass! That’s not how we do things here in case you hadn’t noticed by now!” Jax said fiercely, standing toe to toe with Reven.
“Wait! Wait! It was just a suggestion. And I have to agree that it may be wise to at least evacuate the children. Their host families will be arriving soon, and we could relocate them to the Adaria and get them settled into family quarters easily.” Ivint offered gently, hoping to calm Jax’s anger.
The one thing Ivint had learned very quickly was that the strength of these women was greater than anyone gave them credit for, and if they chose to fight for the only home and world, they had ever known; he would not be the one to take that away from them.
“What is it?” Dare asked with concern when she, Dread, Banatar and Balduen came into the room together. She had felt the fear and anger in the other conference room and had come right over with the others.
“Dare… they set you up. Someone… one of our own, set you up to be taken.” Jax said, her anger and frustration clearly evident in her tone of voice.
“What? How can that be? What are you talking about?” Dare looked between her brother Risk and Jax trying to understand what she was saying.
“Dare, someone hired the informant. She was an actress and not a real informant. David got her cell phone and whoever hired her, made the calls to her from here. The warehouse. It’s the phone number to here.” Risk answered his sister sadly. With all the security, he tried to put in place; he had never thought about checking the phone bills of the safe houses to see if anyone had discovered them and had been using them. He felt like a failure. His sister… damn… he failed his own sister.
“Hey! Risk, it wasn’t your fault or Jax’s fault. It happened. If it hadn’t been me, it would have been someone else. And to be honest, I wouldn’t have been happy at all if someone else had been trapped in that bedroom with my Baldy.” Dare tried to give her brother and her friend a smile when she joked with them, but they wouldn’t even look at her.
“We need the compound on high alert. Jax, start pulling in our girls. I want to know where everyone is. Anyone local, bring them here. I want no one out there alone until we know what is going on. We know they won’t do anything overt here in the city, so we should be safe for right now.” Banatar ordered, and he watched sadly as the room began to clear while everyone went to their tasks, the others going to help.
When it was just Ivint, Banatar, Reven, Dread, Viper and Dare in the room, Banatar turned to Balduen and held out his arm.
Balduen looked at it for only a moment before offering his own arm, and they clasped briefly in a warrior’s hold. A sign of respect from one warrior to another. Balduen was touched and grateful that the man was no longer upsetting his mate and child.
“They will be coming back for Dare. It may be wise to remove her from here until you can solve the dilemma of your traitor.” Dread suggested.
“What do you mean they will be coming back for her?” Banatar asked, fear of losing Dare again causing his voice to rise a bit too high.
Balduen and Dread explained the conversation through the Shengari’ that the Relian had said to them. How they assumed the surviving child belonged to the Relian leader’s son.
“They will not touch my child again!” Banatar swore as he slammed his fist onto the table.
“I’m not going to hide any more than Jax is going to hide. I stay. We already know that they killed their own and even Brak and left us, Tom and Rose alone to prevent harming the baby. They won’t do anything stupid here; they know I am here. It will buy us more time to find out who set me up.” Dare suggested, no matter what her father and Baldy may want, she wasn’t leaving. They wouldn’t be able to drag her out of there.
Chapter Nineteen
The atmosphere in the warehouse over the week since Dare had come back; she could only describe as cautious paranoia. Because it made as much sense to her as the description, she gave it.
Most of the Valendrans were paranoid about Balduen, her child, the Tezarian’s and even herself. Which really annoyed her because she didn’t even know them, and they were afraid of her. Ok, to be completely honest there had been that incident where her father had been pulled up a wall. And when Amun referred to the Relian beast as a ‘foreign parasite', and he’d been smacked in the head with his own comm.
However, they’d made great strides in blending and bonding their strange little family! The incident with Amun had proven that because it had been the baby and Thorn’s son, who'd telekinetically smacked Amun with the comm. Not that she hadn’t thought about it as well, but she still could not use her abilities.
That was one of the biggest reasons that she and Baldy had agreed to submit to Amun’s week of merciless testing and interrogation. She’d gotten so frustrated at the man; she almost physically smacked him. Who needed telekinesis when she had a perfectly good hand?
As she walked with Baldy downstairs to the dining hall at the warehouse, she really hoped that all of that aggravation had been worth it, and they would have some answers. Dread had worked tirelessly with Amun all week teaching him what he didn’t know about the species of beast clan they belonged to. They had sworn that between the two of them, they had real answers, for everyone.
Dare stopped outside the doors, listening to all the voices murmuring behind them. She pressed shaky fingers to her stomach and was grateful when Balduen put his arms around her, offering his strength and support.
He’d been so wonderful since they returned. He rarely left her side, even though she was already pretty heavily watched. They’d been honest with everyone at the compound and the new ones trickling in that were close by. Dare and Balduen thought the best way to dispel their fear and distrust was to be open and honest. It worked… sort of.
“I can go in alone, and you can go lay down.” Balduen suggested in her ear, hating that she was so afraid of what they would find out about their child and his beasts. About their own beasts. Even the Ator-Ma, why didn’t the other hybrid mates get them?
“No way, we’re a family; we go as a family.” Dare turned watery eyes up to Balduen and gave him a weak smile.
“Then you better wait for us! You didn’t think I’d let this ugly guy take all the attention did you? Man is already mated; I need these women to look at me!” Dare busted out laughing through her tears as she turned to the boisterous Niklosi Jevasari, self-confessed best friend and soul brother to Baldy, as he led a hallway full of people towards them.
Dare blinked through her tears as she spotted her father walking beside High Councilor Ivint Torenson, followed by her brother Risk, her sister True, Amun, Jess, Scaden and Cari and more until they swept her and Balduen into the room with them.
When they entered the room, there were only the new girls who had recently come in and the Tezarian’s waiting for them. Dare was shocked when it dawned on her that every single Valendran and her people were offering their support. She felt humbled and grateful, and she could see that Balduen did as well when Ivint sat next to him while Banatar sat next to Dare.
Amun went to stand with Dread at the makeshift stage that they’d set up earlier when Dare and Balduen decided that everyone should hear the test results with them.
“I know that Dare and Balduen are more curious about the welfare of their son. That is where we will begin.” Dread stated before stepping back for Amun.
“The child is Balduen and Dare’s child. However, Dread was right; the Relian beast survives within the child along with the rightful beast. Although the child has not yet developed complex brain function yet, he is old enough to have developed ba
sic ones. Survival being one of them. And he has proven his ability to manipulate the telekinetic ability inherited by his mother, in defense.” Amun paused to make sure Dare and Balduen understood what he was telling them. When they nodded, he continued.
“He is perfect in every way, there are no defects and his growth and brain functions are more advanced than normal for this stage of the pregnancy. I am expecting no problems in the pregnancy and a normal delivery in four more months. The rest has more to do with Dread’s expertise.” Amun waited to see if Dare and Balduen had questions before stepping back for Dread.
“The two beasts are surviving side by side in the child’s brain as any other beast would. Right now, through the acceptance of Dare, Balduen and their own beasts; they have bonded correctly with the child and no longer represent a danger to his life and his mind.” Dread didn’t even get a chance to continue when the place erupted with questions.
“Whoa! We’re not doing that here! Hell no! They are letting you be here because they care, about all of you, and they aren’t afraid for you to know the truth. But, this is for them right now, not you! Sit your asses down and show some respect! The questions are for them to ask.” Jax stood on her chair, her tiny frame barely being seen around the tall Valendrans in the room. When everyone settled back down she nodded to a grinning Dare and took her seat.
Dare didn’t miss the smile that lit up a certain Valendrans face when he watched Jax. The pride and respect actually made his chest puff out a bit. Dare didn’t think it would be much longer before her friend Jax and Reven announced their bonding, she thought, turning her attention back to the meeting.
“Are they any more dangerous than any other Valendran boy with a beast?” Dare asked, curious since no one really answered that question for her yet.
“No, they are not. In fact, they are less dangerous because they have already bonded into the brain properly, where in a Valendran that doesn’t happen until puberty. That is where the Valendrans have a problem with some of their children. Sometimes puberty may hit, but the area of the brain where the beast resides is still not fully developed enough for a full bonding.”