by Tasha Black
Liberty tried to envision what life here would be like as Colton grew older. She could picture him, a scarlet-skinned, dark-haired boy, playing with the other children in the park across the street, or moving shay-puzzle pieces on one of the hologram boards.
“Lovely family,” a woman with waving tentacles instead of hair said kindly as she passed them.
“Thank you,” Liberty replied, not having the heart to correct her.
The truth was, she wanted them to be a family. She had thought they would be. As much as the idea of the mate bond scared her, and in spite of the love she still felt for Wyn, it had felt right.
But feelings could be deceiving. Clearly the desire to mate for life had been fleeting for Odin.
Why would he be mad at himself? For wanting her?
She was beginning to realize how foolish she had been - so hung up on her own doubts that she hadn’t stopped to think that Odin might have doubts of his own.
Maybe his desire for the bond was real, but it was ingrained in him - not something he had chosen.
That was an awful thought. Being forced to bond to another without love, without knowing each other well enough to have mutual respect… What a loss of freedom.
Her heart went out to him, even as she realized that the mate bond had done the same to her.
Would she ever have been willing to betray her love for Wyn if not for that undeniable bond?
“We probably shouldn’t walk right up to the back,” Odin said, interrupting her dark thoughts.
“Good point,” Liberty said, pulling her transmitter out and punching in a few buttons before replacing it in her pocket. “Follow my lead. We’re going to head into the saloon.”
30
Odin
Odin followed, wondering what her plan was.
Just as they were about to enter the saloon, her transmitter gave out a beep.
“Oh darn,” she said, slipping it out and glancing at the screen. “I have to take this. Hello?”
He watched in awe as she pretended to take the fake call, pacing expertly in front of the saloon.
He trailed her, like any well-behaved husband, paying attention to their surroundings in the hopes that he could keep her out of trouble.
“No, no, no,” she said, finally turning the corner around the back of the building. “No, I tried to tell Rydyx that we weren’t interested in the blue.”
She gave him a look and he grabbed the scanner from his satchel and followed her closer to the crates.
He waited until she was talking again before activating it.
There was a low beep as it turned on, but the feed was inactive after that.
He moved closer to the crates, still nothing.
“What are you doing back here?” a man demanded from the loading dock.
“She’s on a call,” Odin said, rolling his eyes and sliding the scanner up his sleeve.
“I hear you, buddy,” the worker said, giving him a knowing smile. “But you can’t be back here. The trucks deliver back here.”
“Understood,” Odin agreed. “We have to go, love.”
Liberty marched toward the front of the saloon, still apparently deep in her conversation.
“You too,” she said, ending the call as they reached the street.
“Wow, that was impressive,” he said.
She shrugged but looked pleased. “No sign of the sheep back there?”
“None,” he said, shaking his head.
“Wow,” she said. “I was really hoping that was it. I guess we just take a walk around town and use that thing every couple of minutes.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he said.
The morning warmed up as they walked. Odin found himself wanting to pretend they were mated and content, strolling around town, looking for something fun to do with their day.
The other residents of the little town were preoccupied with their shopping and greeting each other. It felt like he and Liberty were in a private bubble.
The scanner gave out periodic beeps to let them know it was working, but it didn’t go off in front of the library, the café, the dry goods store, or the hardware supplier.
They reached the end of the main thoroughfare, and even zigzagged back through the smaller side streets before he finally slid the device back into his pocket.
He’d assumed that whoever had taken the sheep would be trying to get them off-moon as quickly as possible to turn a profit and avoid getting caught. But if the sheep weren’t in the town, then someone must be planning to hang onto them for a while. Which meant they would need a farm.
“Is it possible to scan all the farms?” Liberty asked, as if reading his thoughts.
“It’s possible, in theory,” he told her. “But look around.”
The town was set in the valley. The mountains above them were dotted with farmhouses in every direction. It could take a year to fully search each one.
“I guess we’d better get back to our own farm,” she said, resignation clear in her voice. “There’s plenty to do there.”
He nodded and they headed over to where they’d left the mare.
She whickered her greeting and snuffled in Liberty’s pockets for a treat.
Liberty laughed and offered her a lump of sweet-flavv.
Odin’s heart twinged. Liberty had even thought of the mare when she was getting ready this morning. She was a good woman.
She deserves better than me, he reminded himself.
He helped her onto the mount, steeling himself against the siren song of her heartbeat and the softness of her small body against his.
31
Odin
Hours later, Odin finished mucking out the barn and laying down fresh straw, just as the last of the murky sunlight disappeared over the mountains.
He had lost himself in work all day, as if wearing out his body might silence his mind.
But he was no better off than he had been this morning. He was still lost in love with Liberty. And he still knew that to be with her was to betray the boy whose life he had not been able to save.
Odin didn’t see any other choice. He had to leave.
It would hurt him, maybe even kill him. Every hour apart from his mate and child would be torture.
But at the end of the day, this life was not his to live. And he couldn’t believe that a woman as beautiful as Liberty, inside and out, and a baby as special as Colton, wouldn’t find another love to treasure and protect them.
“I have a plan,” Liberty’s voice cut through the hay-sweetened air of the barn.
He had been replaying her voice in his head so constantly all day that it took him a second to realize she was actually there.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I’ve called Cora in to watch the baby tonight,” she said. “We’re going to stage a stake-out.”
“I slept in the grove last night and no one came,” he pointed out.
“Yes, you slept out in the open,” she said. “We’re going to make it seem like we left, then hide, and then ambush these good for nothing rustlers when they come. It’s the only way.”
Ambush…
Suddenly he was back on Nygall-X in the inky darkness, waiting for the enemy to arrive. Adyxx was beside him, the young dragon almost shivering with excitement about his first big mission.
Odin had felt he wasn’t ready, but the commanding officer reminded him that no one could ever be fully ready. And that Odin had trained him well…
“Odin?” Liberty said, dragging him back to the present.
“I don’t like it,” he said.
“I’m not surprised,” she told him. “But unless you have a better idea, I’m doing it, whether you go or not.”
He froze.
“I know you’re thinking about leaving,” she said. “It’s written all over your face. You won’t be the only important person in my life to leave me. But I’m asking you to help me with this before you do - for Colton.”
“Liberty,” he said
helplessly.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” she said.
But he couldn’t tell her that. She was right, she had read his intentions before he had fully known them himself.
He didn’t like her plan one bit. Everything about it was wrong.
But just like before, it felt inevitable, as if the universe was pushing him to an awful conclusion, one he couldn’t extricate himself from.
“I’m going to get ready and meet Cora,” she said. “Either I’ll see you back here in an hour, or I won’t.”
“Liberty,” he managed.
She stopped and turned back to him.
“Please don’t do this,” he said softly. “It’s a bad idea, believe me.”
“There are a lot of things you don’t want to do,” she told him. “You don’t want to stay, you don’t want to help, you don’t even want to explain yourself. Well, I don’t have that luxury. I have a farm to protect and a son to raise. So like I said - meet me back here or don’t. It’s your choice.”
Odin called to her again, but this time when she walked away, she didn’t stop.
32
Odin
Odin woke up on the ground for the second morning in a row.
No.
Not in the morning…
“I have to get home, your honor,” Cora was whispering loudly. “Remember, I told you before, I have axe training at dawn with the volunteer cadet program of the Lachesis emergency service squad.”
Gods above.
They had fallen asleep after many silent hours waiting for an enemy that had never come.
“Your honor?” Cora repeated, nudging his thigh with her shoe.
“Yes, yes, I’ll take you home,” he told her, getting to his feet.
“Cora?” Liberty whispered from beside him.
“Seems like this was kind of a weird way to go camping,” Cora observed, handing Colton over to Liberty.
“We were just… enjoying some fresh night air,” Liberty said, putting on her sling and taking the baby to slide him into it before he could wake up.
“Yeah,” Cora said dubiously. “That’s nice. Just seems like you could have done that in the meadow, not hidden in the trees. It took me a while to find you back here.”
A sound emerged from out on the path, soft footsteps, barely audible - the sound of someone trying not to make a sound.
“Quiet,” Odin hissed, reaching out with his heightened senses.
Cora gave him an odd look, but Liberty’s eyes went wide with fear. She thought she knew what he was hearing.
But there was no way she really understood. His senses were picking up more than just the signs of one or two cattle rustlers.
There had to be at least half a dozen men out there, creeping closer. And they smelled like trouble.
Odin could taste the tang of gunmetal and powder on the air. It was the scent of evil, the scent of menace, the scent of memory…
“Listen to me,” he whispered to Liberty and Cora. “There’s no time to explain, but there are a lot of people coming - bad people. Take the baby and run.”
“But—” Cora began.
“I’ll teach you how to use an axe myself,” Odin hissed. “But right now, you need to run.”
Liberty grabbed Cora’s hand and dragged her deeper into the forest.
Odin watched after them. They were moving quickly, but they were making a ton of noise.
He was going to have to distract the enemy if he wanted to give them the best head start possible.
Determined, he stalked through the trees toward the meadow.
But before he reached open ground, his senses told him the last thing he was hoping for.
The men had heard Liberty and Cora.
Even now they were pursuing them through the trees.
There was no distracting them. Odin had to follow. And if he followed too quickly or closely, he could spook them into attacking the women.
Run, Liberty, he begged her through the bond.
But he had failed to claim her, and he had no idea if his words would reach her.
So he set off into the trees, willing his body to move silently and as quickly as he dared.
But a sinking feeling threatened to drown him. He had been here before - lying in ambush, surprised by the enemy, cut off from his men…
Please don’t let me fail again, he begged all the gods he could name, and some that he couldn’t. Please let me reach them in time.
33
Liberty
Liberty ran with one hand wrapped around Colton’s sling and the other grasping Cora’s hand - the tiny screen hovering over her bracelet the only light in the darkened forest, and the only reason they could see where they were going.
They were making a ton of noise, crashing through the undergrowth and snapping sticks under their feet. But they were moving as quickly as they could, and that felt like the most important thing right now.
She wasn’t entirely sure what had spooked Odin, but the expression of horror on his handsome face had been enough for her to obey his command, even if she didn’t understand it.
“You guys weren’t really on a date night camp out, were you?” Cora whispered. “Is this some kind of game?”
“We were trying to catch the rustlers who have been stealing our sheep,” Liberty confessed, panting.
“Seems like that’s a job for the marshals,” Cora said. “You’re not trained for apprehending criminals.”
“Yeah, hindsight is twenty-twenty,” Liberty agreed.
“But why are they chasing us?” Cora asked. “Rustlers don’t like being seen, as a rule.”
“Maybe they think we already saw them,” Liberty realized out loud. “Less talking, more running.”
Maybe Cora was right. Maybe Odin had told them to run without really believing the rustlers would follow.
Maybe they would be just fine.
But then moment the thought was formed, she could hear footsteps behind them.
She yanked Cora’s hand, pulling them hard to the left and hoping their pursuer wouldn’t notice they had changed directions.
But the footsteps only grew closer.
“Turn off the screen on my bracelet,” she hissed to Cora.
“But we won’t be able to see,” Cora gasped back.
“And he won’t be able to see us,” Liberty said. If there was a chance the man was following the light rather than the sound, they had to try.
Cora turned off the screen, plunging them into total darkness.
Liberty turned again and sprinted forward. Her cloak almost immediately caught on a branch.
She stumbled, desperate not to fall with the baby on her chest.
A big hand closed around her shoulder and wrenched her painfully backward.
Cora’s hand slipped from hers.
“Take Colton,” Liberty cried.
But before the brave babysitter could recover her charge, an earsplitting roar pierced the silence of the forest.
“Odin,” Liberty murmured.
The hand around her shoulder released instantly and she fell on her bottom on the ground.
“Holy crap,” Cora yelled.
Liberty scrambled to her feet and frantically checked the baby.
True to form, her little dormouse hadn’t even woken up.
She glanced up, expecting to see Odin in dragon form. She had always wanted to see him that way.
But it wasn’t Odin.
Cora was brandishing a flashlight. In its beam, Liberty could see a massive cat chasing the man who had grabbed her. The sleek, beautiful creature was moving fast, pursuing the villain deep into the forest.
“That… that was a jaguarootte,” Cora yelled, turning back to Liberty. “Did you see that? A freaking jaguarootte just saved your life!”
“I think I might know that particular jaguarootte,” Liberty said. “Shine your flashlight this way.”
Cora did as she was told, revealing the den Liberty and Odin had found earlier.
“Babies,” Cora breathed.
If Liberty had saved the jaguarootte and her babies from Odin, the big cat had certainly paid her back in kind.
Suddenly, the woods were alive with the sound of something else approaching.
No, not something. Many somethings…
“Cora,” Liberty whispered, he voice shaky from the rush of adrenaline coursing through her.
“I know,” Cora replied. “Run.”
34
Odin
Odin heard the menacing roar of the jaguarootte, and his heart sank.
Abandoning any pretense at staying quiet, he let loose, dashing through the dense foliage as fast as his legs would carry him.
A decidedly masculine yelp of terror cut through the night air followed by another furious roar from the big cat.
Odin felt a slight relief, but continued to pound through the trees.
There was light up ahead, faint but the dragon latched onto it easily, since his mate’s scent was near it. The scent of several others was mingled in, which made him worried.
He emerged from the trees to find Liberty, Colton and Cora standing in the center of the clearing, with the men surrounding them.
He had been wrong about these men being rough cattle rustlers.
There was something about them that felt more organized, more dangerous. For one thing, they were dressed as if they were heading out for a night of carousing, not like men intending to pen up sheep and ship them out to their own farm.
And they smelled wrong too. They didn’t smell like timothy hay or manure or sweat.
They smelled like hoverbike grease.
Fury boiled up in his chest.
Odin had read the intergalactic warning posts before entering Lachesis. The Sons of Sirius were a hoverbike gang out of the city center. Though they were mostly known for violent bar fights and disorderly conduct, they aspired to much more than that. Local law enforcement had a sharp eye on them.