He pulled her into a tight embrace. “Oh, Rick, thank God you’re all right.”
“Thank God you’re all right. What happened? Where’s Leonora?” He had been on edge since he found out of the army’s plan to storm his beach home. The thought of his little sister and wife being taken prisoners by people who did not know the meaning of mercy brought a chill to his soul like no other.
“She’s gone,” Carol Ann softly answered.
Rick’s heart stopped. His blood turned cold. “Gone? What do you mean…gone?” He stood rooted to the ground, waiting for her answer.
“Her brother, Challen, arrived yesterday morning. He had decided to wait for your return. We were all sleeping when he received a warning signal from his ship. The person stated that we were about to receive unwelcome visitors. Challen ordered his crew to transport all of us aboard his ship. But I ran out before I was transported.” She paused. “They left, Rick. But Leonora is safe.”
Rick said nothing. He could not. Too many thoughts were racing through his mind at once. He turned without a word. Walking a few yards away from his sister and friend, he stopped, facing the darkness.
Gone? Leonora is gone? She can’t be. Dear God, she can’t be. His head shook negatively. Not my Nora. His eyes watered. Not Nora, dear God. “No. NOOOO!”
“Rick!” Carol Ann was about to run to him but was halted by Lance who grabbed her arm. “Rick!”
Rick did not hear her. His gaze turned upward. “God, no! Don’t take her from me! Not Nora, too!” he hollered. He swayed on his feet then fell to his knees.
All the precious moments he had shared with his new wife flickered across his mind. Leonora’s smiling face appeared before him. Her pale eyes gazed adoringly at him. His soul tore from his body and soared into her image. A dark, ominous curtain draped over him, ending his will to live.
They stared at each other for what seemed like forever, but in reality it was only a few seconds. Her features began to fade. Rick instinctively knew it was the end.
His grief-stricken eyes fluttered shut. Both hands balled up in tight fists. He threw his head back and howled, “NORA!!!” He sat back on his haunches and crossed his arms across his belly. Rocking back and forth, he cried pitiably for his lost love.
It pained Carol Ann and Lance to see their tall, strong brother reduced to such a state. Unable to continue looking at him, Carol Ann buried her face in Lance’s chest, while Lance closed his eyes and bowed his head.
Aboard the invisible warship, Challen, Jugar, and Leonora entered the bridge. They tried to come up with a way to find out if Carol Ann was all right without letting the enemy know they were hovering above the ocean. But they had no success.
They knew why the humans were there. In an attempt to erase all signs of alien life forms, Challen instructed the Seacats to use their search-and-destroy (SAD) scanners to erase all imprints, blood, and hair follicles left behind by the humans and the aliens. That way the enemy would remain clueless as to who had helped them escape.
The Seacats were not concern about the enemy discovering what they were doing, because SAD also stood for silent and deadly. The SAD scanners would scan a designated area and execute any performance specified with a beam of light, with the effectiveness of not being heard, or seen. It was how the Seacats disintegrated Star Cruiser 9 at the bottom of the ocean.
For an hour, Challen stood hunched over the main control panel, deep in thought. Leonora and Jugar wandered a few feet away from him. A sudden gasp drew his attention. Glancing up from the panel, he saw Leonora lose all color. A painful look fell over her face.
“What is wrong?” he asked irritably. Leonora stared into space and did not answer him. Challen grew angrier. He stomped toward her. He was beyond compassion when he grabbed her shoulders. Forcing her to face him, he shook her. “Leonora, I asked what is wrong?”
“Challen?” came her low, dazed reply.
She was trying to come up with a way to outsmart the humans, so that she could return to Earth and properly say good-bye to her husband, when out of nowhere she was besieged by a sense of loss. She stared ahead as if in a trance.
Challen shook her again. “Blast it! What is wrong with you?”
Leonora blinked rapidly. “I…I just felt an enormous amount of pain and the greatest sense of loss. It was so powerful. I…I cannot imagine anyone living through it.” She shielded her eyes from his cold, insensitive ones.
Tears welled up behind her closed lids. She feared what she sensed involved her husband. Perhaps he was informed that she was no longer around. Or worse, he had not returned home because the enemy had discovered his involvement with her escape, which would explain how they found her location, and had just killed him, which, in turn, killed her.
“That is it?” Challen released her shoulders and headed back to the control panel. “Leonora, you are a warrior. Act like one.”
Leonora ran off, nearly knocking him down as she passed.
“Leonora!” Challen chased after her, only reaching her when she slowed down. {Leonora, what in the blazes was that about? Can you not see that I am trying to save your friend’s life?}
{Get me out of here, Challen, please. Get me away from this place.} She flung herself into his arms. {I want to leave this place. I want to go home.} She cried, unable to hold back the pain and fear of living her life without her soul mate.
{What about Carol Ann? I cannot leave her.}
“Challen, please,” she verbally pleaded, before fainting in his arms.
“Nora!” Challen lifted his sister gently into his arms and rushed her to her quarters. He lowered her onto her bed. Almost as soon as her head touched the pillow, her eyes fluttered open. {Are you all right?} Challen sat beside her. He smoothed back a strand of hair from her forehead.
Leonora noted the concern in his eyes. {I want to go home.} She mentally spoke to him.
{But your friend is in danger.}
{No, she is not. Rick is there. He will protect her.} She was sure of it. She had to be, for the idea of Rick being dead only made her ordeal harder to endure.
The only sound in the room was Challen’s deep-throat growl. {How can you be so sure? Besides, Rick McCall is not there.}
{Because she is his sister, and he took care of me, did he not? Please, Challen, take me home.} She had to get out of there. If she did not, she felt certain she would never leave. Damn the consequences.
{I cannot leave her.}
Leonora heard the strain in his voice. She felt sorry for him. Challen was a devoted, loyal male. It went against his nature to abandon someone in need of help. Nonetheless, she had to leave. Her sanity depended on it.
{Challen—}
{No!}
Before she could say another word, Challen stormed out of her chambers. Leonora remained alone in her quarters willing her tears to go away. She failed.
Later in her brother’s chamber, Leonora badgered Challen for several hours without a break.
“All right!” he snapped. He was no closer to finding a solution to help Carol Ann anyway. “Krey?” he spoke into his wristguard.
“Krey here.”
“Take us home.”
“But what about the human female?”
“Just do it!”
“Yes sir!” came Krey’s happy voice.
Star Gazer was two tides into its six tides voyage home. Every crew member was on edge, because of Challen’s foul mood. They had all decided it was best to stay out of his way. They turned to his second in command whenever possible. Even Jugar limited his time around his old friend. It was either that or have his head chopped off for just breathing too loud.
Leonora, however, had no problems staying away. She had locked herself in her chambers. She refused to see anyone for any reason. She was mourning the loss of the only male she could ever love. Alone in her quarters, she not only cherished the incredible memories they had created together but also the life no one else knew she carried within her.
Tigif, on the
other hand, thought time was of the essence. He decided there was no better time than the present to come clean with the one male who could make all his dreams come true. He rang the doorbell to Challen’s quarters.
“Enter,” spoke Challen.
Tigif entered the room. “I need to speak with you.”
Challen was sitting behind his desk with a pile of papers in front of him. “What do you want?” he clipped. He looked like he was not happy to be interrupted.
Tigif was not going to be dissuaded. He was a cat on a mission. “I want to talk to you about Leonora.”
“What about her?”
“You are not going to like this, but—”
“Get to the point.”
“Very well then. I am in love with her.”
Challen hesitated for only a second. “What…did…you…just… say?” He angrily pronounced each word slowly as he stood up from behind his desk.
Standing his ground, Tigif refused to be intimidated by Challen’s height, build, or strength. He held his head high and declared, “I am in love with your sister Leonora.”
The towering lion made his way around the desk. “You better start explaining.”
“I only started talking to Karla because Leonora would not give me the time of day when I tried to get close to her. I noticed she was very close to Karla, so I thought what better way to get to the female I love than to get close to someone who can help me get my foot through the door? Shortly after, I noticed that Karla’s way of thinking was worse than Leonora’s. I had to come up with a plan and fast before I failed completely. Therefore, I allowed Karla and everyone to believe that she and I were going to be legally joined. But in truth, I only needed enough time alone with Leonora to enchant her. So, now I am here with the intentions of coming clean and asking for Leonora’s hand in union. We are in love and wish to be legally joined.”
“Oh really?” Challen’s eyebrow had been stuck in its favorite position since Tigif began explaining. “So now you are hoping that I am both understanding and a romantic—that I would see your actions as purely innocent and done purely out of love for the female you wish to make your lifemate.”
Challen paused long enough to give the cat a false sense of victory. “Instead of the malicious, conniving, calculative way that it really is.” He released a dry chuckle. “Do not hold your breath. These past two tides you have been following me, trying to get on my good side. Had me wondering why, but now I see clearly.”
Challen covered the remaining space between them in two long strides. “Now let me make you see clearly.” He grabbed the six-foot-three tiger by his shirt collar and easily raised him off the floor until he was looking into a pair of gray ice crystals. “If I ever see you near Karla or Leonora again, I will kill you!” He stressed the last four words before literally throwing the annoying feline out of his chambers.
Leonora sat in a chair, staring out at the billions of twinkling little stars that streaked past her window. She contemplated for the umpteenth time about how she was going to live without her soul mate. She recalled every moment shared with him.
She unconsciously caressed her belly while she cried. Oh Rick. Rick. She covered her face with her hands. The pain was proving to be too much for her to handle. The thought of Rick possibly being dead refused to stop entering her distraught mind.
“Nora? Sweetheart, do not cry anymore.”
Leonora’s head snapped up. Tigif seemed to have appeared from nowhere as he knelt before her. “It has been two tides. Forget him.”
“How did you get my access code?” She scowled at him. “How dare you enter my chambers! Go away and never enter here again!”
“Leonora, I love you. I want you for my lifemate. I would take care of you. I would give you all that you need.”
“I need Rick,” she bitterly snapped. “Can you give him to me?”
“I am twice the male that human will ever be!”
Leonora jumped from her seat. “You will never be like Rick McCall! Nor will you ever take his place!” She pointed to the door. “Now get out!”
Tigif slowly stood from the floor. “Oh, really? I have just spoken to your brother. I have asked for your hand.”
Leonora’s glower remained. She was not surprised by what Tigif said, but she was surprised that he did not ask Challen sooner.
“You must know he did not take it as I had hoped he would.”
“What did you expect? Karla is his sister, you mongrel.”
“That is why you must go to him and tell him that you have agreed to join with me.”
“Wha…What?”
Tigif’s lip curled in a sneer. “You heard me.”
Leonora pointed to herself. “You expect me to do that?” She began to laugh, the first time in two tides. “You are out of your cat’s meow.”
“If you do not, then I will be forced to tell him that you and I are already lovers.”
His words quickly sobered her. “He will immediately think that you raped me and will kill you where you stand. You are promised to Karla, remember? He knows I would die before I would betray my sister.” She was not bluffing.
“Fine then! I will tell him you lost your virginity to a human. Let us see how he will respond to that.” He stormed out of her bedroom.
If Tigif had expected Leonora to stop him, he was in for a shock. Leonora returned to looking out the window. She pressed her lips together. It does not matter if you tell Challen about Rick. In a few more weeks, everyone will know. As the stars streaked by her window, Leonora caressed her barely swollen belly and unborn cub.
“Do you have a death wish, cat?” Challen blocked the entranceway. He was not allowing Tigif to enter his chambers.
“No. But I do have something to tell you that might be of interest to you.”
“What can possibly be of more interest to me than finding out how long it would take me to snuff the life out of you?”
“The loss of Leonora’s virtue to the human who saved her life.”
Challen jolted to attention as if being struck. He quickly rebounded by punching Tigif squarely in the jaw. Tigif landed on his back, skidded across the floor, and banged into the opposing wall. Oblivious to how the cat landed, Challen stomped down the corridors in search of the one who could confirm the tiger’s accusations.
He stormed into his sister’s quarters unannounced. “Leonora!”
Here it comes. {Yes, brother.} She did not bother turning away from the window.
“Tigif was in my quarters, informing me of an improbable dalliance between you and a certain Predator.”
Leonora braced herself. Her brother was speaking verbally, which meant he was enraged and needed to vent. Well, it was going to get worse. “Why do you say that?”
“Because for the last two tides he has been on my tail for your hand in union, after I have already promised Karla’s to him,” he angrily spat “He is only trying to get me to agree to a union between the two of you.”
“What did you say to him?”
“I punched him in his face and sent him reeling onto the floor.”
“Good,” she replied, with a firm nod.
“I take it you approve.”
“Of course.” Leonora turned around and met her brother’s angry stare. “He deserves no less after what he has done to Karla.”
“I agree.” Challen regarded her carefully. “He said you were in love with him. I said he was crazy. Which one is it? Do you love him?”
“There is only one male that I am in love with.” Lifting her head high, Leonora pushed her shoulders back and met her brother’s eyes. “I am in love with Rick McCall.”
At first, Challen’s features showed no reaction. Then his handsome face contorted with rage. “Then it is true! You mated with him!”
“Yes,” she proudly acknowledged.
“How could you mate with him? He is not an Oceanan! He is a human! The race that killed our friends!” He pointed to her. “Your colleagues!”
“Rick is of the same race, but not of the same make.”
“Your virtue was for your soul mate or lifemate, not for some human, blast it!”
“I love him, Challen. Rick was, is, and will always be my soul mate,” she calmly stated.
“Wrong,” Challen said with finality. “ Tigif will be your lifemate.”
Leonora anxiously said, “You cannot tie me off to Tigif.” She was determined not to allow another male to touch her.
Challen yelled as he headed for the door. “The blazes I cannot! You just watch me!”
Leonora was waiting for this moment. She quickly reached for her skirt. “Challen, look!”
Challen stopped, turned, and watched his sister, who, with a triumphant smile on her face, parted her skirt, displaying the cluster of scars on her left thigh. Challen’s features transformed into a hideous mask of rage. His eyes lit up. Beyond the ability of speech, he expelled a loud, ferocious roar at Leonora. Whirling on his heels, he left her quarters.
As he charged into the bridge, Challen bellowed, “Turn this ship around!”
Everyone on duty froze in his or her place. They all stared at him openmouthed, hoping they had misunderstood.
“What did you say?” asked Jugar who was in the middle of giving an order.
“You heard me. Turn this blasted ship around!”
Jugar was afraid to ask, but he had to know. “Where are we going?”
Challen stopped in front of the captain’s seat and faced the giant monitor. His lips pulled back, tight over his white teeth. “Back to planet Earth.”
Everyone on the bridge exclaimed their surprise and displeasure, except for Jugar. He had expected Challen to one day return to Earth—but not this soon.
“Am I speaking Alturiun?” Challen glowered at everyone in turn. “If this ship is not turned around in five seconds…”
There was no need for him to continue. The moment he started his threat, the crew jumped to complete his command. He spun around and plopped into his seat.
Jugar casually sat down next to him. “Why, may I ask, are we returning to planet Earth?”
“To retrieve the newest member of my family,” grumbled Challen.
A Seacat's Love (Oceanan Trilogy Book 1) Page 21