by Mikayla Lane
Lara leaned against the back of the chair she had sat in while her mind tried to process what Drago was saying. “So, I was like his wife when I was Kinara?” She asked trying to clarify what mate meant to them.
“Yes like the human term wife. Only between the beast species it’s a little more intense than that from what we’ve learned. It’s a much deeper bond than humans can achieve.” Drago explained, feeling better about telling her since she seemed to be strangely calm so far.
“I was a beast species?” Lara asked curiously, much more interested in the beast thing now.
“You were a Tezarian, like we are. Come, let’s sit away from the view for a while.” Drago suggested, holding his hand out to her.
Lara didn’t hesitate to place her hand in his, and she let him take her down the short hall to what was obviously a dining area. She took the nearest seat while Drago dug around in a cabinet. When he got to the table, he set a piping hot mug of something in front of her before sitting down next to her with a mug of his own.
Lara stared into the oddly smelling mug curiously. She knew she had smelled the fragrance before, but she didn’t recall where. It was some kind of tea, that much she remembered.
“It’s Sawanata tea, made from the flowers of the Sawanata tree. It’s a tree native only to Tezaria. It was your favorite. I guess I was hoping that maybe drinking it would help you remember.” Drago blushed and looked down at his own mug of tea.
Lara appreciated the effort he was making, knowing his brothers were going to be furious with him. She reached next to her and squeezed his large hand.
“Thank you. It’s a good idea. Science has proven that humans have better memory recall from smells and taste.” Lara said with a gentle smile before taking a deep breath and taking a sip of the tea. Her mouth exploded with the strange, yet familiar taste.
There was a distinct floral flavor and a sweet earthy one that kind of popped in your mouth. She took a bigger sip this time and was a little surprised when she saw a flash in her mind of a small girl playing tea with four patient boys. The image was gone as quickly as it came.
“You remembered something.” Drago said it as a statement, not a question. The glazed look that had come into her eyes told him that she had.
Lara knew that she couldn’t reward what he was doing for her with lies. If she wanted the truth, she knew she would have to give it as well.
“I don’t know. It was a brief picture of a small girl playing tea with four older boys. I’m not sure what it was, but I’ve seen the same children before. In other visions, nightmares or whatever they are.” Lara watched his reaction carefully, more to see if he thought she was crazy.
She felt kind of crazy, sitting in the kitchen of a spaceship orbiting the planets around Earth like it was a taxi ride. Yeah, definitely a crazy kind of day, she thought. She wasn’t too surprised when Drago roared with laughter.
When he finally got a hold of himself, he wiped the tears from his eyes and explained. “Those were some of the most humiliating times for us. You used to make us play dress up and tea with you because there were no other little girls around for you to play with. You have no idea, in hindsight, how much we wished you’d stayed in that phase.”
“Instead, the older you got the more you found our ‘male’ activities to your liking. It didn’t surprise me when Dread told me you had become a soldier on Earth. You were better than most of us in the forest and with traps.” Lara felt a rush of warmth from his kind words and gentle smile.
“Thank you. This doesn’t seem so bad with you telling it.” Lara admitted.
Drago sighed and nodded his head. He’d finally silenced his brothers and their fury and now felt a little more of the weight of this responsibility. He was grateful that Ratoka was watching and listening, along with his brothers and was giving him advice on how to help Lara remember. He just hoped she didn’t find out that he’d turned on the vids in the room and was streaming it to the ship his brothers were on.
“You were born as Kinara fle’ te’ Brondle.” Drago began when Lara interrupted.
“House of Stealth?” Lara said, surprised that the words popped out of her mouth. She had no idea where they came from.
Drago grinned. “Yes! That’s exactly what it means. You remember much more than you realize, Nara.”
Lara tilted her head to the side and looked at Drago. “Nara. That’s what you used to call me isn’t it? Strange that it’s so close to my name now.”
“Yes, that is what we called you. Our families lived next to each other and were very close friends. We grew up together like siblings. You were our baby sister. Viper’s mate. We practically raised you.” Drago said, a sad smile on his face.
Lara saw quick flashes of different images pop in and out of her mind as Drago spoke of their families. She saw dozens of images of the little girl and the boys making sure she was fed, bathed and clothed. They had even played with her and comforted her when she was sick or had nightmares.
“What happened?” Lara asked, feeling a sense of impending doom.
“You grew into a beautiful and intelligent woman, who was also a stubborn adventure seeking hellion. You and Viper butted heads all the time. He wanted to keep you safe, and you wanted to explore with us in space.”
“Rather than have you sneak off and possibly get hurt on your own, Jacordan, Dread and I would help you go behind Viper’s back and take you on mini adventures that we felt would be safe but fun for you.” Drago said, keeping his eyes trained on the contents of his mug on the table in front of him.
The images flashing through her mind were of a much older girl, and the boys had grown into strong, handsome men. In the images, they were always in various and strange situations though. Some of the pictures even included interesting and sometimes scary aliens. Lara knew that something must have gone wrong on one of those mini adventures, by Drago’s body language.
“Something went wrong didn’t it?” She asked bluntly.
“We had a comet passing by; one that only came around every century. You wanted to see it from space. So, Dread and I took Viper to another quadrant for some training and while we were gone, Jacordan took you up there.”
“We had a deal between us. We never spoke of the adventures we had with you among ourselves. It was a secret we kept only between the two people on the adventure. That way, it would be harder for Viper to ever find out about it. So none of us knew where you were going that night, other than you and your brother Jacordan.”
“When we came back you were gone. There was one message from you, telling us that you and Jacordan had made a bad mistake. Not to come looking for you, or we’d die as well. That you loved us all. There was more, but I’m sure you understand what I mean without hearing it all.” Drago paused as if it was hard to remember while Lara’s mind reeled with the image she’d had when she was in the MedLab.
“They crashed. On the comet didn’t they?” Lara asked, somehow knowing that the words that had popped into her head were true. The image of the smoke, the burning in her throat, watching Jacordan die like she watched John die; she could see it all in her mind.
Drago nodded his head slowly. “We didn’t know where you were, just that last message. We spent more than twenty years searching for you. By the time we realized there had been the comet that night, it took us another ten years to catch up to it and another two to get your bodies from the surface without getting sucked into its gravitational pull. Which is what we knew must have happened to you, and Jacordan.”
Lara could see the girl’s body collapsed on the floor of the ship, the tear in the outer wall allowing her to see the strange mist and rocky terrain. What sounded like alarms screamed, in the distance, as if in a tunnel.
“Hey! That’s not a memory I want you stuck in.” Drago said shaking Lara’s hand and bringing her attention back to him.
They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment, each in their own thoughts. Lara sipped the tea, not just because she really li
ked it, but she hoped that it was helping her to remember.
“Are you doing all right?” Drago asked gently as he stood and took her empty mug from her and moved to one of the cabinets.
Lara thought for a moment and then burst out laughing. Drago looked over at her with concern, causing her to laugh even harder. When he moved over to her as if to comfort her, she jumped up and walked to the other side of the room, crossing her arms across her chest.
Drago couldn’t define the energy he felt coming from Lara; it was more like a huge mass of undefinable confusion. He tried to see this from her point of view and couldn’t begin to imagine how she was feeling right now. So that’s where he started.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you are thinking or feeling right now. To spend your life thinking that your world was one way, only to have us come along and tear that apart on you. It has to be hard for you.” Drago sighed when Lara just snorted at him as she paced the small length of the room.
What the hell! Lara thought as she tried to figure out all this crazy shit. If she hadn’t been crazy before this situation, she was sure as hell was going to be now.
God, it seemed to make so much sense now, a scary kind of sense. How she always felt like she didn’t belong, why she was so different. And John! Oh God, Lara thought clutching her stomach as the pain lanced through her.
She’d gotten her brother killed. Twice! Lara leaned against the wall as the pain wracked her. “Oh God… oh God… I killed him. I killed my brother. I killed him twice!”
Drago was stunned by the pain flowing from her before she slid to the floor and curled in a ball. The deep sobs that were coming from her tortured soul nearly causing a mutiny among his brothers and Ratoka on the other ship, who were listening through the open comm.
Ratoka had thought Drago the best one to go through this with her because Lara seemed to be more comfortable with his easy-going manner, than with Viper and Dread. So he wasn’t going to let her down now.
Drago ignored their arguing in his mind and sat down on the floor beside Lara and pulled her into his arms. “Shh, hush little sister. You did not kill him. He made a miscalculation. He made a mistake, Nara. You had nothing to do with that.”
He struggled with his own memories and pain, unable to hide the sheen of unshed tears in his eyes when Lara turned her tear-stained face to his.
Lara was stunned that the huge man still hurt so badly after all these years. She could feel the pull of her heart for all of the brothers. She knew, without a doubt that she cared for them, even though she didn’t really understand any of this.
Laying her head on his shoulder, she tried to calm her pain and tears while giving him some privacy to grieve as well. She hated that she was the reason he was reliving this pain with her.
“So what are we supposed to do here? How do we move on? You can’t expect me to just jump back into this mate business do you? Cuz in this case, death did us part and having a few… flashbacks don’t make this fully real for me.” Lara said nervously.
Drago chuckled. “No one is expecting you to jump into anything. We just want to help you with your memories and be there for you. We have missed our little sister very much.”
Drago gave Lara a gentle squeeze and pulled her back into another hug. Lara wasn’t much of a hugger, but he really did help to comfort her and clear her mind, so she allowed it. Making up her mind, she leaned away from him.
“I have something I need to do. When I finish it, then I’ll be able to concentrate more on… this. This whole situation. Maybe we can try to start over again, as friends. Maybe I’ll remember more…” Lara said pushing to stand. She moved back to the table and sat down in the chair while Drago stood as well.
Drago sighed, trying not to let his frustration grow. She was just as stubborn as he remembered and in this situation, she needed to listen and let them help.
“Nara, you can’t do this alone. You can’t fix this until you find out who is behind it. We can help you do that. Traze and Risk are still going through your discs. With Grai’s contacts, he’ll have it figured out in no time.”
“Let us help you. We have an army of people fighting the same fight, willing and more than able to help.” Drago had ignored the warning by Viper not to say anything about the information Lara had hidden and knew it was a mistake when Lara erupted in anger.
“How do you know what information I have?” Lara demanded, she already guessed but needed to hear it.
“Viper wanted to make sure your pack stayed with you, in case it was something you needed with you…” Drago began before Lara cut him off.
“That’s a damn lie, and you know it! Your freaking nose is twitching, and you know damn well you’re lying when that happens!” Lara was taken aback by what she had just said and held her breath waiting to see if Drago would confirm or deny that she was right.
“Look…” Drago didn’t get far before Lara held up her hand to him to be quiet, and he sighed. Following a lie with another lie obviously wasn’t going to make her happy. He couldn’t blame her.
Making up his mind, Drago held his hands out in front of him before looking her right in the eyes. “I have no excuse for why he did it other than he was being his normal over bearing self in trying to fix everything for you.” Drago ignored Viper’s raging in his mind and continued.
“The only thing he’s ever wanted was to protect you, and he feels like he failed you in the past and wanted to make sure he didn’t lose you again. I’m not sure he could survive your loss again. What he did was wrong, even if he did it for the right reasons.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive him for it; I'm asking you to let the people who have been fighting these animals for hundreds of years, to help you. Grai and the Valendrans have people all over the world. I’ll go back down with you and show you around their setup. You’ll be impressed; I promise.” Drago ignored the screaming of both his brothers and Ratoka now.
Apparently, they didn’t think he should have told her so much, but they weren’t with her right now, and they had no idea how close they were to losing her. Drago didn’t feel like he had a choice but to tell her the truth or lose her to the betrayal she felt at Viper stealing her pack and going through it.
Lara’s mind whirled with so many thoughts and feelings that she wasn’t sure what to concentrate on. So she focused on John and her promise to him. This… strangeness, that she felt around these brothers, around the handsome but lying Viper, didn’t matter.
She had kept her promise to Viper, now she would keep her promise to John. That was real for her. So was the fact that she was up in space right now, and she would feel a whole lot better if she were back on good old planet Earth, she thought.
“I want to go back to Earth now. Please.” Lara said flatly, hoping there would be no argument, and that they weren’t planning on keeping her out here. She felt incredibly stupid for even trusting Viper enough to go through that damn mirror now.
Drago knew they had lost her. Ignoring his brothers who were raging at him, he went behind their back and contacted Grai. They were going to kick his ass, but it would be worth it; he thought looking at the now frightened Lara. She had done an admirable job of trying to hide it, but he could still feel it.
When he got his response from Grai, he turned to Lara. “How about we do that and lose those guys for a little while?” He offered, motioning outside where his brother's ship was.
Lara looked at him curiously. So far, he was the only one who had been honest with her and other than getting to know her again he didn’t seem to want anything from her. She nodded her head slowly. A little peace and quiet would be really nice right now.
Drago grinned and held out his hand to her, praying she would trust him enough to take it. His heart leapt when she did. He pulled her gently to her feet and led her back to her seat in the cockpit area.
While he sat in his own seat, Lara tightened her straps and prepared for the huge jolt that she had felt the last time. Lara
looked over at him while he pressed buttons and swiped the screen in front of him.
“Be prepared, we’re going back the direct route this time, from here to the office in Dillon, Texas. Is that all right?” Drago asked, waiting for her answer.
Lara was confused. “How does that get rid of them and how will you avoid the government air defenses?” Lara could almost envision the fighter jets surrounding them and shuddered.
“This ship is the only one cleared to land there. They will have to land back on the Adaria and use the portal to get back.” Drago said turning to her with a huge smile that made Lara smile with him.
Lara liked the way the man was thinking. She remembered how long it took just to get to Drago’s ship from the portal on the Adaria and relished Viper walking it alone this time. Drago still didn’t answer all of her questions though.
“What about our air defenses and satellites?” Lara asked suspiciously, thinking he must not have answered that one for a bad reason.
“Oh! Damn, I’m sorry. We have cloaking built into the ship. It was one of the first modifications I made to her when we got her on the Adaria. We can see each other on our view screens, but we can prevent anyone else from seeing us.”
“All of the ships are cloaked to make sure we’re not seen from the space station, Mars rover, satellites, deep-space probes… you guys send a lot of crap up here.” Drago said shaking his head in wonder. The humans just didn’t make sense to him.
It was why he had been content to stay on the ship and make an endless amount of repairs to it, and anything else needing repair on the Adaria. Or one of Koda’s ships, he was Grai’s brother and leader of the fleet of ships they had backing up the Adaria and other Valendran and Tezarian vessels in the area. For Lara and his asshole brother Viper, he would stay on the stupid planet until this was resolved. Because right now he seemed to be the only one, she was trusting even a little bit.
He turned to Lara when she responded. “We can get through all that right?” Lara turned quizzical, narrowed eyes on him.
She was still a brave little thing; Drago thought, feeling her nervousness and curiosity. “We will get through it like it isn’t even there. Hold on!”