by Mikayla Lane
It took several minutes for him to realize that she was gently stroking his back and hair, her legs still wrapped around his waist holding him closely to her. He lay there for a couple of more minutes just enjoying the feel of her beneath him and touching him. He gently began to get up from her, worried that the weight of him would crush her.
Cari clutched him tighter to her body not wanting to let him go. “Don’t go.” She asked him, shy now that the intense emotions had passed.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I’m just going to take my boots off and get comfortable.” Now that the inner beast seemed to be appeased, for the moment, his brain was working again. He was charmed by her shyness and didn’t want her to feel that way around him.
He quickly got up and removed his pants and boots. Cari took that time to try to cover herself with the blankets on the bed. She looked gorgeous sitting there shyly with her hair tousled sexily, her lips slightly swollen and her hands clutching the thin blankets to her generous bosom. His cock twitched at the sexy sight she made.
He walked over to the other side of the bed and climbed under the covers. He could feel the heat of her body warming the bedding and scooted closer to her, needing to feel her softness against him.
He laid his head against the pillows and gently pulled her down to lay beside him. He smiled as she immediately cuddled into his side and threw a leg over his. He stroked her hair as he pulled her head into the curve of his neck.
“Are you ok?” He asked gently, knowing how rough they had become he knew she had to be sore. In lots of places, she probably would be too shy to tell him about. However, he had to know if she was in pain and needed Amun.
“Yes, I’m fine. Are you ok?” Cari wasn’t sure what the protocol for this was supposed to be. She’d never been in this situation before and none of the books she’d read had seemed to come close to what she had shared with Scaden. Not that she could really remember what any of them had done afterwards in the books anyway.
Scaden chuckled slightly at her question. He hadn’t really expected her to ask if he was ok. The small scratches she’d made on his back stung just a little, but it was so incredibly sexy when she’d done it, he’d happily ask her to do it again.
“I have never been better in my entire life, Amalaya.”
“What does that mean? You’ve called me that often, and I don’t know what it means.” Cari asked drowsily. The gentle stoking he was doing to her hair almost putting her to sleep.
“It means precious.” He smiled at the sleepy sound of her voice. He knew she must be tired. He was too. Maybe having a little nap with her wouldn’t be such a bad thing, besides it felt right to be next to her and holding her close. After a short nap, they could get up and talk about what had happened. And what it meant… to the both of them. At least, that was the plan.
*****
“Neither of them has the Ator-Ma.”
“I’m going to kill him!”
“Get him the hell out of here NOW!”
Scaden came awake quickly at the sound of angry voices. A little disoriented he tried to figure out why anyone was in his quarters. What the hell was going on?
A startled shriek and a sharp tug on the covers brought everything back to him with startling clarity. The beast in him rose immediately to protect Cari. He sat up quickly, and once he assured himself that she was completely covered from prying eyes; he looked at the assembled group.
Gracus was staring at him with, he could only describe as a mixture of pity and anger. Two of his tact team members were dragging Randor out of the room, and two more were standing silently with their hands on their weapons. And Amun was just staring at the lump under the covers where Cari was currently hiding.
Gracus waited until Randor was out of the room and the door shut again, before speaking.
“Scaden, we are going to have to place you in confinement in your quarters until the council can decide what we need to do about this. I’m sorry about my friend. We thought that if you were mates that it wouldn’t be so bad for you to have broken our laws. Even so, in light of the fact that you are obviously not mates, we have no choice but to allow the council to determine what will happen.”
“What the hell do you mean not mates? She damn sure DOES belong to me, and you aren’t taking her away from me either!”
Scaden stood up angrily, and began pulling on his pants and boots wondering what the hell Gracus was talking about. Of course, she was his!
“Scaden, neither one of you have the Ator-Ma.” Amun said quietly.
Scaden looked at his bare arm and saw Cari peek out from under the covers looking at her own arm. Both were bare. Maybe it was just late in coming? He knew she was his!
“Well maybe it takes a little longer with us than it did with Randor and his men! This doesn’t prove anything! You can’t just lock me in my room like I’m a misbehaving child! I have a ship to run, people to find and a mate to take care of!”
“Scaden, the council already determined our course of action in this matter. If the Ator-Ma appeared, you were to be allowed to stay with each other until her clan mother, and Randor’s father arrived. If it didn’t… they were clear that you were to be held until they arrive, and the council can convene to determine your sentence for violating not only our laws, but Cari. I’m sorry.”
Gracus felt so bad for his friend. He truly wished that he, and Amun had done something to stop this last night when they found out where Scaden was. They had listened to Randor and genuinely believed that their friend had found his mate. They should have been more wary.
“You can’t just take him away! I was just as much a part of what happened last night as he was! I begged him to take me! So lock me up with him!”
Scaden was so happy to hear Cari try to defend him, defend them. However, he knew if the council decided he was to be held that they wouldn’t allow him to be held with the person they thought he violated. By their laws, being intimate with a woman who was not your mate was punishable by death. And no matter what he felt towards Cari, the Ator-Ma had not come to them.
“Cari, we didn’t receive the Ator-Ma. It means we aren’t mates, and I had no right to touch you. According to our laws, what I did amounts to rape, and I need to be punished for that. I took, what didn’t belong to me. I am so sorry Amalaya, please forgive me.”
Scaden hugged her body to him, probably for the last time. He inhaled her scent deeply, not wanting to ever forget anything about her. He put his hand under her chin and gently made her look at him. The silent tears running down her face were almost his undoing.
“I don’t care about some stupid marking or what Uncle Randor, and the council think. I care about you and us. We both know that what we shared was more than anything they could ever imagine. We know we belong together. I don’t want to lose you. Please. Fight this with me.” Cari couldn’t figure out why he seemed to be giving up so easily just because they didn’t get a stupid mark.
Scaden couldn’t think of anything he wanted to do more than to fight with her. However, he knew it was impossible. He had to try to make this as easy on her as he could, he couldn’t bear to hurt her more than he had. He lied easily, hoping to protect her from shame or embarrassment.
“Cari, right now we need to do what they say. Having a physical fight will get us nowhere. You need to do what they want, and I’ll go along quietly with them. We’ll figure this out later.”
“You promise? We’re going to fight this? Together?” Cari wanted nothing more than to just stay with him. Her heart and mind were breaking over the thought of losing him even for a few days until they could figure this out.
There wasn’t a man in the room who didn’t feel her sorrow and pain. And the love she had for their commander. She was hurting inside and not making any attempts even to try and hide her feelings. All any of them wanted to do at that point was try to soothe her.
“Amalaya, I would do everything I can to keep my mate.” Sc
aden told her honestly. Unfortunately, with the lack of the Ator-Ma, it was proven she didn’t belong to him. Nevertheless, he would never admit his defeat to her right now when she hurt so much already.
Burying his pain deep, he kissed her gently on the lips. Giving her a smile, he allowed the tact team members to escort him from her quarters and to his own where they had the computer lock him in.
Once Scaden left the room Gracus and Amun tried their best to soothe Cari. Until she asked what the punishment was for what the council thought they had done wrong. Gracus immediately excused himself.
“Cari, since the council made me temporary commander until this is all figured out, I need to go and see to the ship. I’ll come and check on you later.”
Gracus tried his best to ignore the accusatory looks Amun was throwing at him and left the room as quickly as he could.
Cari looked questioningly at Amun, waiting for him to answer her question.
Amun was at a loss. He wasn’t sure after everything she had been through that telling her the truth was a good idea. At least not yet anyway. Possibly when a few days had passed, and she was over what had happened, perhaps then he could tell her the truth. Since she and Scaden weren’t truly mates maybe she would feel better in a few days.
“Well, this case is a whole lot different than anything we’ve ever had to deal with before. I think it’s safe to say that none of us are quite sure how the council will handle this. Until we know more why don’t we see how you’re doing? Do you hurt anywhere? How do you feel?” Amun did his best to hide his feelings from her behind his professional demeanor. He should have known better. Damn Gracus! He would have been much better at lying to her than he was!
“I know you’re lying, Amun. How did the council find out that Scaden and I were even together?”
Cari was becoming more suspicious of Amun the longer he was in the room. That’s probably why Gracus got out of there as fast as he could. Amun was hiding something from her, and not very well either.
“Cari, I need to do an exam first. The council needs to know that you haven’t been harmed in any way. Then we can talk.”
“Let’s try this Amun; no one is touching me or coming near me until my questions are answered!” Cari was getting angrier by the second. Obviously, everyone knew what was going on but her, and she wasn’t going to put up with that. This was her life, her mate, and she had every right to know what the hell was going on.
“Cari, I’m under orders from the council to ensure that no damage has been done, and that you aren’t injured. I need to do a full exam. I understand how upset you are, but we need to get this over with.”
Amun was getting frustrated. He just wanted to get this exam over with and get out of the room until she was able to think this through and calm down a bit.
“Amun, I’m telling you right now, that if you try to touch me, I will use everything my uncle taught me in an attempt to keep you away from me. If one or both of us get hurt in the process, then that will be your fault. So you can tell me what’s going on, leave, or prepare to fight me.” Cari was angry and had no problem projecting it. Although it may not be the smartest way to go to find out what was going on, it made her feel better to see Amun also getting mad. She knew he would never harm her, but she was hoping he’d get angry enough to tell her what was going on.
“Cari, I’ll be back later. And I will perform an exam on you.”
She watched as he stormed out of the door. There was no satisfaction in it though, since she still didn’t know what the council had planned for her and Scaden. The more they avoided telling her, the more worried she became.
Chapter Eleven
Scaden paced his quarters trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Why had the Ator-Ma not appeared? He looked at his left arm every few minutes for days now and still nothing. Why? Even Randor and the outpost crew received it, as well as their mates. Why hadn’t he and Cari?
He refused to accept the fact that she wasn’t his. He knew with everything in him that she belonged to him. There was no way that what he felt was nothing more than some form of lust. Their people didn’t feel lust or any sexual attraction to anyone but their mate. Even now the beast in him was clawing at his mind to go to his mate.
Turning at the sound of the door opening, he saw Amun and Gracus come in. He wasn’t in the mood for company right now. Unless they planned to let him go to Cari, and he knew that wasn’t going to happen either.
“Scaden, we need your help with Cari.” Amun said gently as he watched his friend pace his quarters. His hair was a mess, like he had run his fingers through it in frustration constantly for the last few days. His eyes looked red from lack of sleep and according to the computer; he hadn’t ordered any food either. They’d seen the same thing of Cari as well.
“What’s wrong with Cari?”
He stopped pacing at the mention of her name. Worry for her etched on his face. Was she feeling the same frustration he was? Did she ache to be with him the way he did her?
“She’s in much the same shape you are, my friend. She’s pacing her quarters, not eating or sleeping. And she’s figured out how to lock us out of her room.” Gracus told him with a hint of a smile and respect for her intelligence and determination.
“She won’t let me examine her until we tell her what the punishment is for… what’s happened. But I know if we tell her, she’s definitely not going to let me examine her. She’s demanding to see you, or she won’t allow any of us near her.”
“The council wants to ensure she wasn’t harmed. It could go easier on you if she isn’t, Scaden. If we open the comm’s can you please talk to her? Get her to let me do the exam and get the council off our back?” Amun hated the haunted look in Scaden’s eyes. It was almost as if a part of his friend was dying before them, and it tore him up to have to ask this of him.
They tried everything to get her to open her door and let them in. She wouldn’t even let Randor near her. He tried desperately to talk to her through the comm. He’d even gone on the vid comm and tried to talk to her, but she’d figured out how to disable it, telling them that she didn’t want to look at anyone who had betrayed her and Scaden to the council.
Security showed them the vid’s of Cari and Scaden pacing their quarters in the exact same fashion, almost step for step, as if in some silent sync that only they knew of. They stopped, seemingly in thought, at the same time, mumbled to themselves at the same time, and began again. It was starting to make the entire ship question, whether or not they were doing the right thing by keeping them apart. They asked themselves that same question for the past three days now.
Randor had even begun arguing with the council over their decision, begging his father to give it time that maybe the Ator-Ma would manifest itself differently with their children than it had with them. A was trying to help him figure out if that could be the case. However, with Cari and Scaden refusing to be examined, he could only go by the basic life-scans that the computers could perform on them while they were in their quarters. And the scans were just as strange as their movements. Their hearts beat in sync; they breathed the same breaths; they slept at the same time, and it was eerie.
Scaden was so tempted to do as they asked. The thought of hearing her voice again made his heart leap with joy. But he couldn’t. If this was what she felt she had to do to find out the truth and be together, then he would support her in this.
“No. If you want to examine her, do as she asks. Tell her the truth. If you can’t tell her the truth, then let me see her, and I’ll tell her the truth. But don’t come in here trying to get me to do what you can’t. Let me be with my mate, and you can examine the both of us all you want. Otherwise, leave both of us alone, because I think you’ve all done enough damage to us.”
“Scaden, that’s damn well not fair, and you know it! You were acting crazy! What were we supposed to think? What would you have done if it had been one of us?” Gracus demanded, becoming angry at Scaden’s accusation. More
so, because he knew his friend was right. He felt terrible about his part in what was going on and had no idea how to fix it.
“I would have given you time to figure out what was happening before I turned you over to the council! I would have locked the two of you in the MedLab with Amun until he could come up with an answer, any damn answer, but I wouldn’t have betrayed you to the council before we had an answer! Don’t you dare come in here and try to justify to me that you thought you were doing the right thing, when you didn’t even try to talk to me about it!”
“You went behind my back and Cari’s and talked to Randor about what he thought we were feeling or going through! You never once asked me or even Cari what we thought! I would have at least given our friendship the courtesy of asking you BEFORE I made a decision that could get you killed!”
“Get out! Get out, NOW!” Scaden was angry, a them, at himself and at the situation they were in. The longer they kept him apart from Cari, the more hopeless the situation seemed. The more hopeless he began to feel.
Gracus and Amun both hung their heads at Scaden’s outburst, knowing everything he said was true. They acted rashly and had listened to Randor instead of giving he and Cari the opportunity to try to explain themselves first. Nodding at Amun, Gracus left Scaden’s quarters with Amun following silently behind him. Without speaking, they both headed towards Cari’s quarters hoping that Randor had made some progress with her.
*****
“Cari, please open the door. I know we should have talked to you and Scaden first; I can’t ever express to you how sorry I am. I know you can feel how sorry I am. But the only way we might be able to fix this situation now is to do what the council wants. Maybe the exam will come up with something that will prove that you and Scaden are mates, and they’ll let him go. We have to try.”
Randor had been leaning against the door to her quarters for what seemed like hours. He had tried everything he could think of to get her to open the door and allow them to do the exam the council wanted done. His heart was breaking that he had hurt her so much without intending to, and he could feel her betrayal all the way to his bones.