by K. D. Jones
“Prime Leader RendEL does not need my help.”
Lucy frowned. He sounded like he had no purpose in life. She knew people, soldiers that thought and spoke that way. It was common among those that had been prisoners of war. When they returned to their families and their old lives, they had a hard time adjusting to being free and finding a place where they fit in. She had personal experience with that.
“Will you be taking time to spend with your son and daughter then?”
“They are both better off without me.”
“Prime…” Lucy didn’t finish as another male warrior approached them.
“Excuse me, Lieutenant Daniels. May I have this dance,” a tall male with a deep voice asked.
Lucy looked between ConEL and the new male. She wanted to stay and talk to ConEL. He didn’t look too willing to talk though. “I don’t think…”
“Go and dance. I am going to take a walk around. Maybe I will get some fresh air.” ConEL practically shoved Lucy into the other male’s arms. He had to get away from the female. She was prying into things he would rather she not. He knew he was closed off to people, but had no desire to do anything about it. He simply wanted to be left alone.
He watched as Lucy reluctantly accepted the other male’s hand and led her out onto where all the others were dancing. It bothered him for some reason to see another male touching her. He didn’t understand it. He barely knew the female. Their eyes locked briefly and he felt his whole body freeze, as if waiting for her to say something. Then the male leaned forward and said something that made her laugh and their connection was broken.
ConEL had to move quickly, he noticed his dead brother’s mate, Prima SandELa, moving toward him. He didn’t want to speak with her. He walked quickly out onto the balcony and frowned. His daughter and her mate were there. Luckily, they were too caught up in each other to notice him.
He slipped past them and made his way down to the sandy shore in front of the green Waters of Katiera. The Luna shined down making the water a much darker green. His home world was truly beautiful. He had never believed that he would get a chance to see it again. He only wished MariELa had lived long enough to come home. Home. This was his home world, but he did not feel that this was his home any longer. He did not belong anywhere.
*****
Lucy was worried. She could feel ConEL watching her as she danced with Lieutenant AtOM. AtOM had told her about a recent incident where Captain Jaxon Malone from Earth had told her mate, Prime Commander KydEL, to go screw himself in an argument they had during a training session. Lucy laughed because she could hear her friend’s voice saying it. When she looked back, she couldn’t find ConEL in the ballroom at all. He just disappeared.
“Is something wrong?” AtOM asked with concern.
“I’m not sure. Did you see where Prime ConEL went to?”
AtOM frowned down at her. “That male would not be a good mate for you.”
Lucy pulled out of AtOM’s arms. “That’s not what I asked. Did you see where he went?”
He sighed. “I saw him go out onto the balcony.”
Lucy turned on her heels and stormed toward the balcony. Men! She danced one dance and already AtOM was acting possessive. This proved her point of why she insisted on not coming to the ball. Jaxon overruled her by threatening to use her new status as a Prima to force her there. If the other woman wasn’t her friend, she’d shoot her in the ass. Lucy wasn’t looking for a relationship. She just wanted to live her life the way she wanted to and to be allowed to do her job.
Once out on the balcony she looked around but didn’t see anything. Where could he have gone? Maybe he retired to his suite. But every instinct inside of her was telling her something was wrong. She searched the darkness seeing nothing. Sounds of the ocean waves crashing against the shore came to her. She glanced out and thought she saw a figure standing by the water’s edge.
She could feel AtOM behind her following her. Damn it! Why couldn’t the man take a hint?
“Lieutenant Daniels, he has probably gone to his suite.”
“I just need to make sure. I think there may be someone by the water.”
She proceeded down the steps and made her way across the soft sand. The figure, clearly a man the closer she came, started to enter the water. That was really strange because the Katierans have strict laws against contaminating their natural resources and no one swam in the water. She doubted anyone even knew how to swim.
Oh God no! She took off at a run. ConEL was heading into the dark water and everything inside her screamed to get to him, to stop him.
“Lucy!” AtOM was calling after her, but she didn’t stop.
“ConEL!” she yelled, but he didn’t hear her or he didn’t want to hear her. She should have known he might do something like this. He showed all the signs. Either no one was able to see it or wanted to see that he was struggling to fit in, that he might be damaged emotionally or mentally. Katierans were nearly perfect in every way, so when someone not as perfect shows up, they had a tendency to ignore it instead of embracing it.
ConEL didn’t look back even though he heard Lucy calling out his name. He could hear the distress in her voice and fought a strange urge to answer her, to seek her out, and to protect her. He shook his head. He shouldn’t have those thoughts over a complete stranger. His mate was dead. His children were safe and no longer needed him. He was simply too damaged to come back to his people the way they expected him to.
The water slowly rose up his body as he walked out into the water. This was the first time anyone from Katiera had submerged his or her body in the water. He knew this would be the best way to end things. He did not intend to go back and he knew that his people would be unable to come in after him. He kept going until his feet no longer touched the bottom of the ocean floor.
The water rose over his head. He bobbed up and down at first. Water started to enter his nose and mouth. He sputtered. It was a natural reaction, his body fighting off the drowning water. Eventually, his struggles ceased and he faded into darkness.
*****
“NO!” She had to get to him. She kicked off her heels and plunged into the dark waters.
“Lucy!” AtOM stood by the water’s edge. He used him comm link to communicate with security what was happening. Not only did the Prime go against the laws of Katiera and enter the water but so had Lucy in order to get to the other male. He didn’t understand what was happening, but he worried for Lucy. He would not be able to reach her if she was in trouble.
Lucy swam as fast as she could to where she last spotted ConEL. Then she dove down into the water. It took four tries before her hand snagged onto a shirt. She pulled with all her might. She got him up to the surface, but she couldn’t do CPR until she got him to shore. She was already really, really tired. She worried that she might not make it back.
“Report!” Prime Commander KydEL yelled as he ran up to AtOM. His Earth mate, Jaxon, followed shortly behind him wearing a blue dress.
“Sir, Prime ConEL went into the water. He did it on purpose. Lieutenant Daniels went out to save him.”
“Why didn’t you help?” Jaxon asked.
“I can’t swim,” AtOM admitted.
Jaxon looked between both KydEL and AtOM. Neither of them would be able to help Lucy. She kicked off her shoes despite Kyd’s protests and went into the water.
“Let me help,” she told Lucy when she got close enough to them.
Lucy didn’t want to let him go, but she was already using the last of her reserves. She released ConEL to Jaxon, who hooked one arm under his chin and used her other hand and her legs to swim them to the shore.
When they got close enough they reached Kyd and AtOM, who were wading toward them where the water was about waist deep on them, the men pulled ConEL the rest of the way up on the shore.
“Where are the medics?!” Kyd yelled.
“Move out of my way!” Lucy pushed the two men to move as she went to her knees by ConEL.
She tilted his h
ead back with shaking hands and covered his mouth with her own. She blew into his mouth. Please God, please don’t let him die. Not him, too. Her hands still shook as she pumped his chest.
“Here, let me do the chest pumps, you blow,” Jaxon offered, sitting on the other side.
Lucy nodded gratefully. She kept blowing and blowing. Just when she thought she had been too late to save him, he sputtered, spitting out the water that had been in his lungs.
ConEL opened his eyes only to be trapped in the worried gaze of Lucy’s. Her dark eyes stared straight to his soul and that’s when he knew—he would live.
*****
The medics arrived moving Lucy and Jaxon out of the way. She was shivering but didn’t notice it until AtOM wrapped his arms around her to warm her. The temperature wasn’t cold nor had the water been. It was the adrenaline and the fear of not being able to get to him in time.
“What in Kitana is going on?!” Prime Leader RendEL yelled, walking out to meet them as the medics carried ConEL’s body back toward the Prime Building.
KydEL stopped his brother and whispered to him what was happening so no one else overhead. RendEL’s face turned a pale shade of white. He ran a hand through his dark hair.
“Is he still alive?” RendEL asked.
“Yes, thanks to Jaxon and Lieutenant Daniels.”
“It was more Lucy than me,” Jaxon said, coming to wrap her arms around KydEL.
Lucy didn’t say anything. She kept her eyes on ConEL as he was carried away. She tried to follow him but AtOM held her close to him not letting her go. She frowned up at him.
“Let the medics take care of him. You need to get out of these wet clothes. You are trembling,” AtOM said with concern.
“He’s right,” Jaxon had come up to her. She was now wearing her mate’s shirt.
“But…” She wanted to go with ConEL. She felt responsible for him for some reason.
Prime Leader RendEL stepped up to her. “Lieutenant Daniels, I request that you meet with me and my family at my suite in the morning to discuss what happened here this evening. For now go back to your suite and get some rest. I will have someone escort you there. Lieutenant AtOM, will you take Lieutenant Daniels back to her suite?”
AtOM nodded his head. “Yes, Prime Leader.”
“I don’t need someone to take me back to my suite. I know how to get there on my own,” Lucy protested but none of the males paid any attention.
Jaxon patted her on the back. “These males are bossy, they don’t get it when it comes to equal treatment for women. We are their females and therefore must be protected at all costs.”
Lucy snorted. “I’m not anyone’s female.”
Jaxon looked between Lucy and AtOM who stood behind her holding her. “Are you sure about that?”
Lucy didn’t look back at AtOM. She walked off toward the Prime Building. She was on the third floor. Tomorrow morning she would be going to the eighth floor, which was reserved for the Prime family only. She stopped and turned back to Jaxon knowing that her friend was the only one who would listen to her at that point. “He needs to be kept under watch for his own safety.”
Jaxon nodded her understanding. “I’ll tell Kyd and Syd. Get some rest, we’ll see you in the morning.”
Lucy continued on her way. She hoped the medics gave ConEL something strong to knock him out because he was going to be pissed that he didn’t succeed in killing himself.
* * *
Chapter Two
ConEL woke the next morning furious. He was still alive because Lucy had interfered. He was tired of being here and wanted to be reunited with his dead mate, MariELa, on the other side, if an afterlife actually existed. He had his doubts.
Instead, he woke with a headache in in the Medic Wing. He had security at his bedside that stared at him as if he was some strange specimen they had never seen before. He knew the feeling. The Morin medics looked at him the same way for years. ConEL may have been freed from the Morins, but he was still their prisoner in his mind. Why had the blasted female kept him alive?
He watched as two more people entered his room. It was his nephew, Prime Medic SydEL, and his mate, an Earth female, Medic Kat Morris. It was a strange thing to see a female as a Medic, but no more strange than meeting a female that was a warrior. This Earth must be a remarkable place. Personally he felt the males there were foolish not to keep their females more protected.
“Uncle, are you feeling okay this morning?” Prime Medic SydEL asked. He used his medical scope to check for any damages from the water that had gotten into ConEL’s lungs. His lungs were clear.
“It looks like the only physical ailment is that you are severely malnourished,” Medic Kat commented.
ConEL looked down at his body. “I think there is plenty ailing me.”
“Because the Morins kept you in a weakened state for years, it will take many Nano insertions to help build up your muscle mass again,” SydEL told him. He worried whether they would be able to keep ConEL alive that long. The depression thing Kat claims that ConEL suffers from was a mystery to him. No, Kat called it something else. A post-traumatic syndrome or something. He was reading up on it but was clueless as to what to do about it.
ConEL watched warily as his nephew’s mate approached him. She was unusually beautiful. She had very short blond hair that framed her delicate face. However, what drew his attention the most was the gentle swell of her belly. She was breeding.
He turned on his nephew. “Why would you allow your breeding mate anywhere near me?”
Kat reached out her hand to ConEL, who stared at it as if it was a deadly bug from the outer Lunas. ”Hi, I’m Medic Morris, or Kat.”
“You are Prima Katrina,” Syd corrected her.
She ignored him and continued to speak with ConEL. “Technically, I am Prima Medic Katrina. However, since you are family, you can just call me Kat.”
He wanted to laugh at the expression his nephew had on his face as he sighed. He still refused to accept the female’s hand. What was she thinking? A hand clasping was a welcome of intimacy or forgiveness. Normally males greeted one another by clasping forearms. This Earth female had very strange customs.
Would Lucy want to clasp his hand? He wasn’t sure if he was disturbed that she would or more disturbed that he would welcome it. This delicate female still waited on him to introduce himself. He would have ignored her except, it looked as if tears were forming in her eyes. She lowered her hand and sniffled.
No, not tears! Kitana! “I am ConEL,” he said gruffly.
She wiped away a stray tear and smiled at him. “Sorry, I am very emotional right now. This baby is really playing havoc on my hormones.”
ConEL looked at his nephew accusingly. “She is not well, you must take better care of her. Will these hormones be harmful to the young?”
Kat laughed. “No, the hormones are what are making me so emotional and I have extra hormones because of the pregnancy. I am perfectly healthy.”
Syd approached his uncle. “We are more concerned with what happened last night. I hear what Lieutenant Daniels is claiming, but I find it hard to believe. I want you to tell us what happened.”
ConEL said nothing. He turned his head and looked away from them.
*****
Lucy really wished Prime Leader RendEL had sent someone else to escort her to his suite on the eighth floor. Anyone else would have been preferable than the one he sent, AtOM.
The male was gorgeous. All the Katieran people were extremely beautiful. They were tall, darker in skin color, similar to the Native Americans on Earth. There was a great deal more males than females. The one feature they all possessed that made them different from her people was their gold pupils. They were strange and exotic looking. She could feel AtOM’s eyes watching her the whole way.
“You look beautiful this morning,” he told her.
She looked down at her brown leather pants and white halter-top. It wasn’t anything special. She usually wore her uniform, but sh
e was off duty today.
“Thanks.”
She knew the male had been attracted to her for a while. He would flirt with her during training and always showed up wherever she was after work. However, lately, he had been more aggressive in his pursuit of her. He would find excuses to come by her suite to visit. It was annoying as hell because the other women she lived with all flirted and drooled over him. None of them understood why AtOM would waste his time with her.
She knew what they said about her behind her back. That she was frigid and cold. That she had no sense of humor. That she was stuck up and a bitch. It was partly true. She could be all those things sometimes. Most times she felt that she had a hardened heart. But it hadn’t always been like that.
Once she had been married to her childhood sweetheart. She had a bright future in the Earth World Military. She was planning to start a family. Then after one mission had gone wrong, her life turned upside down. If it had not been for Jaxon, she may have quit the military or worse. She owed Jaxon, but that was not why she wanted to help ConEL. She could understand what he was going through and she felt a need to help him in any way that she could.
She stood at the door with AtOM at her side and rang the doorbell to Prime Leader RendEL’s suite. Neither of them saying anything. Talk about an awkward moment. She was grateful when the door finally opened.
“Thank you for coming.” Prime Leader RendEL let her in. She was surprised when AtOM followed her inside too.
Jaxon and her mate, Prime Commander KydEL, were sitting on one of the couches. ConEL’s daughter, Prima AriELa, and her mate, TarAK, were standing to the side holding hands. Prime Leader RendEL walked to a bedroom door and went inside. She could hear two little girls crying. RendEL’s deep voice hummed a tune she had never heard before. Then there was no more crying. RendEL returned with his mate, Cassie, beside him.
“We’re waiting for SydEL and Kat to come,” AriELa explained.
Lucy smiled at AriELa. She had gotten close to the Prima when she spent time helping to guard her while on Kiljor. Then she had helped AriELa escape when the Morins had taken them. She had always thought of the Prima as a delicate beauty. Something Lucy envied. However, AriELa had proven herself strong and capable.