“I’m not surprised that your mother retained power. The people don’t see her reforms as wrong. They see her as some type of hero trying to maintain their way of life.”
“I’m just sorry that you were caught in the crosshairs of our fight,” Cali squeezed her hand.
Jaden interrupted their discussion. “I think Vareen has been through enough for one day.” He had a stern look on his face.
“I’m not sure how long you’ll be kept here, but I’ll come back and visit as much as possible.” Cali hugged her tightly and left the room. The tall male followed her and Vareen felt a pang of something when he squeezed Cali’s shoulder reassuringly. Her friend and the male were obviously close, but who was he?
With the door closed again, Vareen looked around uncertainly, “Am I to stay here in the hospital? I meant to ask earlier but got sidetracked. Where exactly am I? What ship is this?”
“You aren’t on a ship. You are in Takari, at the main medical facility,” Jaden spoke softly. “The planet is Titus.”
“I’m on Titus?” Vareen tilted her head, her senses reeling. “Isn’t that a planet of barbarians?”
Realizing that what she’d said was highly insulting her fingers flew to cover her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”
“It’s okay,” Jaden assured her. “As for where you’ll be staying, for now, this is home sweet home. Until we make sure you’re able to handle the outside world at least.”
Vareen couldn’t see any logical reason to argue against staying. She was on a strange planet, in an unknown city, with memory and emotional problems. “That’s probably for the best.”
Jaden stood up and gently grabbed her shoulder. “We’re going to have to explore the limits of what you can handle. Are you up for that?”
“Yes,” Vareen nodded. “I just want to try to get as much of my life back as possible. When do we start?”
“Tomorrow. I’ll see you first thing. Until then you need to get some rest.” Jaden moved to the door. “Doctor’s orders,” he smiled kindly.
Vareen found herself smiling back. As if the doctor could order her to rest. Tapping two fingers to her forehead in a salute she quipped, “Yes Sir.”
The doctor left the room laughing.
Chapter Eleven
“I don’t like it,” Mica was pacing in front of the mirrored window to Vareen’s room. Drake and Cali stood impassively watching the doctor and Vareen talking. “Does he have to flirt with her?”
“He’s not flirting with her,” Drake defended the doctor. “He’s explaining her condition without explaining everything. It’s a fine line he’s trying to walk.”
“Tomorrow. I’ll see you first thing. Until then try to get some rest.” The words came through the intercom system where they were listening.
Mica was relieved. The doctor was going to leave.
“Doctor’s orders.”
Mica looked furiously at Drake, one eyebrow raised.
“That was just being friendly.”
Mica was even more enraged when Vareen smiled back. His heart constricted painfully when she tapped two fingers to her forehead in a salute. “Yes, Sir.”
The doctor left the room laughing and Mica saw red.
It only took a moment for Jaden to enter the observation room and Mica forced himself to remain calm. Drake had moved to place himself between the two men.
Sensing the anger emanating from Mica, the doctor eyed him cautiously. “Do we have a problem?”
“Yes,” Mica spat the word. “You need to replace yourself as Vareen’s doctor.”
“Why would I do that?” Jaden asked, shocked. “I think with the rapport I have with her, I’m the best chance at getting her recovered fully.”
“It’s this rapport that I find unacceptable.” Mica wasn’t backing down. “To flirt openly with a chosen mate—”
“Let me stop you there,” Jaden held up his hand. “I have no interest in Vareen as a chosen mate. As her doctor, it is my sole purpose to see to her health and well-being.” Jaden eyed him critically. “If I were to take an interest in Vareen as a mate she is available. From what I’ve read in the reports, Vareen didn’t accept you as her chosen. There would be no dishonor in any male taking an interest in her.”
Mica could feel the haze coming over him, “I’ve claimed her.”
“Which she denied. Then you let her leave, placing her in extreme danger. The results of which I am cleaning up.”
Mica lost his tenuous grasp on his temper and charged at the doctor. Before he could get his hands on Jaden, Drake stopped him.
“Mica,” his friend was trying to keep Cali out of the way in the enclosed space as he and Jaden faced off against each other. “Now is not the time or place.”
“Mica,” Cali put her hand on his arm. “We need to think about what’s best for Vareen. She obviously feels comfortable with Jaden. Let him try to help her.”
“How can you ask that?” Mica couldn’t let a single male, one who was potentially interested in his mate, to have daily contact with her.
“I ask it because she is my best friend.” Cali worked her way around Drake and faced him. “Vareen sacrificed herself for my happiness. I know that you have a bond with her, that even though she wanted to take time before giving you her answer that you already had it. Fighting with Jaden is pointless and deep down you know it. You’re letting your guilt make you act irrationally.”
“You don’t know—” Mica took a shuddering breath. Guilt had been eating at him since he’d found Vareen strapped in the medical chair. Guilt and a horrible rage.
“I do know because I feel it too.” Cali’s eyes were brimming with tears. “I should have been there with my friends.”
“Maybe you both need therapy,” Jaden broke into their recriminations.
“Cali, you are to stop feeling guilt.” Drake obviously wasn’t happy that his mate was back to crying.
“That’s like Jaden ordering Vareen to rest,” Cali laughed weakly.
“In my case, you will obey me.” Drake pulled her close. “Vareen holds no anger toward you for what happened to her. She has forgiven you, why can’t you forgive yourself?”
“Because Vareen hasn’t remembered everything yet and I can’t accept her forgiveness until she does.” Cali remained adamant and Mica silently agreed. Nothing would be right until Vareen was better.
Jaden moved toward the mirror. Mica matched his stance and watched Vareen sleeping in the bed. If Jaden thought he was the best doctor to help his mate, then he’d let the man live.
“I’ll allow you to stay as Vareen’s doctor but you will remain professional at all times. It is as Cali stated. Vareen asked for time to give me her answer, but I already know we are meant to be mates. I will kill any man who gets in my way.”
Jaden nodded his head slightly. “I’ll begin working to assess her cognitive abilities in the morning. You can watch from here if you’d like.”
Mica inclined his head in agreement. He would be here watching every day until Vareen was released. The doctor wouldn’t be free of him until Vareen walked out of this hospital on his arm.
*****
Jaden dragged a chair closer to Vareen. Mica noted that he had the tablet and was ready to take notes on Vareen’s reactions.
“How did you sleep last night?”
“I was restless,” Vareen admitted. “I feel like I need to catch up on so many things. How long do you think it will take before I’m able to function outside of the hospital?”
“We’ll see,” the doctor seemed intent. “I won’t lie to you. There isn’t’ any way to know what you’ve lost in cognisance until we test you.”
Mica saw him tap the tablet and smile. Gritting his teeth Mica forced himself to watch Vareen and ignore the doctor.
“Okay. Let’s do this then.”
Mica’s heart swelled with pride at Vareen’s determination and strength. Anyone who’d been through what she had would be allowed some time for self
-pity. Vareen jumped into what was required without moaning about her circumstances.
“Can you tell me what level of higher learning you achieved?” Jaden asked and his finger hovered over the tablet.
“I attended the Academy on Cestori for eight years after primary school. My field of study was engineering, biological science, physical science, and mathematics. Those were required to get into the Cestori space program. From there I took classes in advanced caterpillar drive theory, diplomacy, self-defense, alien biology—”
Jaden laughed and Vareen smiled with him. On the other side of the mirror, Mica’s hands clenched.
“It doesn’t sound like you’ve lost any of your logical learning. Perhaps the damage is only on the emotional sections of your brain. I’ll ask you something that should bring an emotional response. Do you know where Calinae Edal is?”
Mica saw her frown faintly, “Cali is here on Titus. I saw her yesterday.”
“Do you know who she is mated to?”
This time, there was a more pronounced reaction. Mica saw Vareen’s eyes water and she grabbed her head. “What is that term? Is that like a partnership? Is that why Cali wasn’t on The Reliant? It makes sense. She left the ship because of her feelings for that male. The one that was in here with her. Does she love him?”
Mica saw Vareen’s back arch and her hands grab her head. Jaden seeing her distress depressed medicine against her neck. Mica was already heading out the door. He would be damned if he wasn’t going to hold Vareen after seeing that level of pain on her face.
Coming around the doorway into the medical room he was stopped by Jaden.
“You shouldn’t be in here.”
“I have to see her,” Mica argued. “To make sure she’s okay.”
“I’ve given her a heavy dose of pain medicine. Depending on her metabolism she could be out for a long time—”
“Then there isn’t any worry that she’ll wake up and see me.” Mica pushed past the doctor and made his way to Vareen’s bedside. His hands reached for her of their own accord and he relaxed instantly at the connection.
“Contrary to what you seem to think, I’m not trying to interfere with your claim to her,” Jaden snapped behind him. “If you don’t take my advice how am I to help?”
Mica didn’t bother to look at the doctor, he was too happy to finally be touching Vareen again.
“From my short time working with her, it’s obvious she has very strong reactions when emotional responses are involved. If Vareen wakes up and sees you, I don’t know how her brain will process your presence if she has the depth of feelings for you as you claim.”
Mica fingered Vareen’s pale cheek. He would never do anything to harm her recovery. Quickly before the doctor could stop him he brushed his lips against hers and then stepped back. “I’ll allow you time to help her.”
“I know it’s difficult Mica. I wish there was another way that didn’t involve keeping you from her.”
“I believe you.” Mica took another reluctant step back. “I won’t allow anything or anyone to harm her ever again. Even myself.” Turning with a sick feeling at leaving Vareen helpless Mica stormed from the room.
Chapter Twelve
“Vareen, I would like to introduce you to Mica. We talked about him, do you remember?”
“Yes, you told me he was one of the males from the stasis pods. Why does he want to meet me?”
“You saved his life.” Jaden bit his lip and Vareen knew he only did that when he was prevaricating. Before she could ask what he was hiding another male walked in.
He was taller even than Jaden, his clothing was all black. She remembered the clothing color differed by clans, so he wasn’t from the Takari. He is Jataci a part of her brain whispered the answer. The Jataci were in charge of judgment, defenses, and punishment.
This male looked more than capable of handing out punishment. He was huge in stature. Heavily muscled with wide shoulders that tapered to an indented waist. The stance he took before her had his thighs flexing against his black pants. His face was chiseled and masculine, with faint scars that didn’t detract from his good looks. His eyes an eerie blue, but she remembered them being different somehow. The blue was familiar but then so was brown. An exotic, warm, seductive brown. His face was incredibly handsome, his mouth wickedly lush. She’d never been much of a fan of facial hair, but on this man, the slight growth of beard made him even more attractive.
“Var. I’m so happy to finally get to see you.” His voice was husky, the timbre of it slid down her spine, causing gooseflesh to rise all over her body. So, he was the one that called her Var. She recalled a male saying that name when she’d been in hydro-isolation.
The now familiar pain shot through her head and pulsed behind her eyelids. Closing her eyes, Vareen drew in deep breaths and managed to get her reaction under control. The breathing helped, along with visualizing a peaceful place.
Opening her eyes, she was able to watch Mica as he towered over her, with only minimal pain.
“I warned you about this Mica.” Jaden snapped and pressed the painkiller device against her neck before she could protest. The pain was relieved instantly. “She needs more time to adjust. This is too early.”
“Thank you.” Vareen wiped her eyes and tried to smile. “It wasn’t so bad. I had it under control—”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to stay with you.” Jaden was rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“What do you mean? Stay with him?” Vareen asked confused.
“I have a separate guest house on my property. She doesn’t have to live with me but at least I’ll be close in case she has an emergency. She needs to be exposed to me or I’ll never reach her.”
“I don’t need to be exposed to anybody.” Vareen went to argue but the males were ignoring her. “When I leave the hospital—”
“I want you to realize that if she were to be pushed too hard, her psyche could snap completely, we have no way of knowing. She’s able to talk about almost everything now.”
Jaden thought she wasn’t ready to leave, but she was.
“My psyche isn’t going to snap, Jaden.” Vareen couldn’t believe how rude they were both being, especially her doctor. He’d been nothing but kind the last week. She wouldn’t have made such great strides toward healing if it weren’t for him.
She recalled everything except for the short time span between seeing the four stasis pods of Mica and his friends and waking up in the hospital. About this time period, Jaden had only told her about the realignment center and the procedure she’d undergone. He only told her because she had extreme episodes of pain when trying to recall that time period. Jaden felt she needed to know so she could avoid pushing for those memories since she would have to relive the torture she’d endured. Vareen didn’t want to do that, so didn’t push to recall the events she’d blocked. Otherwise, she was able to hold the flashes of pain back almost every time they happened now.
“Can someone tell me what’s going on?” she’d missed some conversation that passed between Mica and Jaden while she’d daydreamed. The men continued to ignore her.
“I understand and I’ll do everything in my power to help her. I would never jeopardize her health by pushing her too hard. You know that.” Mica was adamant, conviction rang in his words. “I won’t take no for an answer.”
Jaden seemed uncertain but finally capitulated. “I’ll release her to you, but I’m putting it in her case file that it’s against my better judgment.” The doctor handed Mica a medical device similar to the one he’d been using to stop her headaches. “Take this in the case of an emergency. It’s much stronger than the one I just used, so be very careful in administering it. Notify me immediately if she has any change in behavior or other symptoms. I mean it Mica. The smallest thing can be important.”
“I will. I promise.” Mica took her hand and gently pulled her forward. At his touch, her head pulsed, but she forced her mind to calm and the pain eased. It must have
been the stress of leaving the hospital that had her mind overworked.
Vareen attempted to pull her hand back. “Jaden, what’s going on?” she asked the doctor. At this point, she was exasperated with both men.
“We have done everything we can for you here. We talked about you being released and Mica has offered to let you stay with him.” Jaden waved his hand to indicate the male holding her hand.
Turning to the handsome giant she asked, “What if I don’t want to stay with you?”
“I would arrange for other quarters for you.” Mica insisted at once. “However, with your recent injury, I thought you might need someone close at hand. Your friend Cali, is busy as well as Vathral. I agreed to watch over you.”
“Vathral is here too?” Vareen was nonplussed. Nobody had bothered to tell her that. What else didn’t she know?
“Yes. He is with Cali in Renari. You can visit them when you feel up to it.” Jaden smiled comfortingly at her. It had the desired effect and she calmed at the look.
“Jaden,” Vareen hurried to hug the doctor who’d helped her so much. “Thank you for everything.”
“Vareen,” Jaden went to say more but Mica pulled her away from the embrace.
Rather gruffly he said, “Doctor. Thank you.”
Mica was so large that he got her moving, even when she dug in her heels.
Vareen broke down and stopped trying to pull her hand out of his. The walls of the hospital still went past her quickly and before long they’d reached the exit. Taking in her new surroundings she was taken aback by what she saw. The buildings were all very modern and sleek. There were different sized tear-drop shaped pods traveling in different directions, and as far as she could see nobody was controlling them.
“Why would you do that? Offer to take care of me…help me with a place to stay?” Vareen suddenly felt a wave of uncertainty wash over her.
“We are…” he seemed to search for a word that fit, “friends. You saved my life and I owe you a debt. Think of your time here as a well-earned vacation.”
“I see.” Vareen could believe an emotional race like those on Titus having a reaction of gratitude to being saved. “I don’t want you to be burdened with thinking you owe me something. What you are doing is a lot to ask. Even for friends.”
Vareen & Mica (The Alliance Book 2) Page 7