“I smell fear and blood.” Ivar jumped more than ran down the tower stairs so fast he needed to brace his hand against the wall to redirect his descent.
Rafe did the same. He too smelled blood. It was faint and the amount too little to be more than a cut, but combined with the tinge of fear it was enough. He had never felt so scared in all his days. He imagined he heard her in his head calling to him, crying out his name.
Ivar stopped at the bottom. Rafe nearly crashed into him. His brother motioned for silence as he reached for the stone.
The smell of blood became more intense as the entrance opened. Low chants sounded. Ivar grabbed Rafe’s arm before he surged forward into danger. Rafe snuck through the cave to peer through the vines. He focused his senses. The sound of dripping liquid reverberated off the forest floor. When he leaned to the side, he detected Jenna’s bloody foot. She didn’t move. His heart stopped beating.
“Don’t leave me,” he whispered.
Her foot twitched.
Rafe growled, charging to face whoever held her. It didn’t matter that a dozen Nutef followers surrounded her. It could have been a hundred soldiers, and he would have run into battle. Rafe hit his first target, breaking the man’s limb before launching his body at a robed tiger shifter. His claw snagged a mask, and he whipped a shifter around by his face right into a tree.
“Rafe, knife,” Ivar shouted. His brother fought three of Jenna’s attackers. Rafe saw a flash of silver and dodged the blade. The scent of Jenna’s blood followed the knife, and he grabbed the wrist. Bringing his knee up he slammed the blade hand down hard.
“I hate the tower steps. I can never find the door stone,” the queen’s voice came from inside the cave. She emerged only to yell, “To ground!”
Rafe and Ivar instantly dove onto the ground. The attackers looked confused as they turned defensively toward the queen. Intense heat radiated from their angry mother. Rafe glanced up in time to seek her skin ignite with red flames. The fire shot from her body, spreading over the attackers. Catshifters screamed as they burned. The queen turned her body, hitting the man on the outcropping. The Nutef leader tried to jump out of the way, but the queen followed him, concentrating her heat until he stopped screaming.
Rafe felt his skin sizzle. Queen Lassairfhina pulled the flames back into her body and convulsed. She dropped to her knees. Rafe rolled to tamp out any fire burning his clothes from his back. When he stood, Ivar had pulled his shirt off and was draping it over their naked mother. She’d burned off her clothes.
Rafe found the bloody ceremonial knife in a charred hand. He took the hot blade, not caring that the hilt burned his skin. He cut Jenna’s legs free.
“Help him,” the queen ordered.
“Rafe, the blade,” Ivar commanded.
Rafe tossed the knife to his brother. As Ivar cut the rope holding Jenna’s arms, Rafe reached up to catch her as she fell. Ivar quickly moved to cut the last limb free. Jenna’s eyelids drooped as she tried to focus on him.
“Don’t try to talk,” Rafe whispered. He wasn’t sure if she could hear him or understand what he was saying. “You’re safe now. I felt you. They can’t hurt you. Not anymore.” He cradled her in his arms.
“She really is your mate,” the queen said.
“The medical bed,” Ivar ordered. “I will stay here and make sure the flames don’t reignite to burn down the forest.”
“Of course she’s my mate,” Rafe whispered. “It’s what I’ve been telling everyone all along.”
He rushed Jenna into the cave.
“Ivar, you’ll have to help me up the stairs to the dining hall. This just won’t do,” the queen complained to her oldest son, flapping her arms as she drowned in the material of Ivar’s tunic shirt. She’d become a bony slip of a thing, the round plumpness of her figure having melted away. “I lost all my fuel.”
“We could have taken them ourselves,” Ivar answered, clearly not feeling sorry for her. The sound of tapping punctuated his words as he put out residual fires.
“What fun is that for me?” the queen returned. “Besides, no one threatens a child of mine without getting a taste of my wrath. All I know is Rafe better officially claim that girl soon, or I’m going to show him what a real fire—”
The sound of the tower entrance opening drowned out the rest of their conversation.
Chapter 22
She is safe. She is safe.
Rafe’s mind repeated the same phrase over and over as if the thought would somehow make it all the more true. She’d been so limp in his arms when he carried her to the medical bed. As the machine worked, Rafe became all the more convinced that the gods had a hand in his life. They brought him to Jenna. She injured herself, and they brought the Reticulans to heal her. Ivar witnessed the technology and had the forethought to negotiate for equipment. That equipment was saving her.
Rafe was meant to meet her.
He was meant to love her.
They were fate.
Rafe looked at his clothing tainted with her blood. And he’d failed to protect her. He did not deserve to have her. Perhaps that is why she’d continually resisted marrying him. She knew from the very beginning what he didn’t. He was not worthy of her.
For that, he must let her go.
* * *
Jenna jerked awake, trying to sit up. She bumped her head and then her hands on a low barrier. Struggling in her prison of plastic and bright light, she slid her arms and legs around trying to find a way out.
“Easy, Jenna.” Rafe’s voice sounded muffled.
“My feet burn,” she answered, trying to kick away the heat and unable to. She managed to pull her arms over her chest and banged them on the plastic dome. “Get me out of this tanning bed.”
“Not yet, it’s healing you,” Rafe answered.
“Healing?” Jenna gasped as the rush of what happened came over her. “Oh, no, Rafe, be careful Hector is one of them. He took me. And there was another, a man they called Myrddin with black hair. He has a son named Myrddin and his dad is named Myrddin.”
“Yes. They’re not a very imaginative bunch when it comes to names, the Myrddin men,” Rafe said.
“Rafe, be serious!” Jenna found a seam in the bed and tried to wiggle her fingers into it in the hopes of prying it open.
“I am very serious. We got him,” Rafe assured her. “Now let the medical bed work. The panel says you are to stop moving.”
“There are more. I tried to remember. Gold fur, black fur, stripes, orange—” Her fingers met cooler air. “They wear wooden masks with metal tips on the bottom edge.”
“You are safe. Everyone is safe. Those who threatened you are dead. The queen burned off all her clothes trying to save you and… Jenna, the panel says that you—sacred cats, woman, are you trying to escape?” Rafe touched her hand. She knew it was him because her body recognized his. Instead of holding her, he tried to stuff her fingers back inside. “Stop that, woman. You’re not coming out until you’re done.”
“You make me sound like a cinnamon roll baking,” she grumbled.
“I don’t know what that is, but if it keeps you in there, that is exactly what you are. A cinnamon roll.”
“Don’t you dare start calling me that,” Jenna warned.
“Now I want to,” he playfully answered. Then, sounding more serious, he said, “I will make you a deal. If you stay in there, I will call you whatever you like.”
The burning in her feet began to lessen, and she was starting to feel much better. Her neck muscles unclenched like the end of a fabulous massage. Jenna moaned with the relief of it.
“Jenna?” Rafe asked.
“I said deal,” she answered, closing her eyes. “Let this cinnamon roll bake.”
Jenna drifted in and out of sleep, pretty sure she’d discovered nirvana. The medical bed fixed things she didn’t even know was wrong. Her eyeballs felt massaged. A slightly irritating ingrown toenail that barely bothered her went away.
“Stupid humans kept a
sking for anal probing,” she mumbled. “They should have held out for this.”
“Jenna?” Rafe asked. “How do you feel?”
“I’m never coming out,” she answered, smiling and moaning in contentment.
“You have been in there for hours. It says it has finished.”
The lid began to lift, and she tried to stop it. “No, I’m going to live in here.”
“Jenna, come on, let me carry you to bed.” Rafe pulled the lid up.
Jenna pouted her lip. “No. Tog-tog messed up my room, and it smells like stale bread in there.” She started to reach for the lid and then paused. “I might have misheard, but did you say the queen burned off her clothes? Is she hurt?”
Rafe reached in to cup her cheek. “Yes, she did. No, she is not injured. I will explain it all later.”
“So, ah, did the queen burn off my clothes too?” Jenna glanced down at her naked body and gave a small laugh.
“That is how the bed works. You must—”
Jenna’s smile faded as she saw the blood on his shirt. “You’re hurt. Get in here.” She pushed out of the bed and pulled on his shirt. “Get naked and get in that bed. Now.”
“It’s your blood.” He put his hands on hers to stop her.
“Even better. Get naked and get in this bed with me.” She grinned and nodded slowly. “This is a great idea.”
His eyes turned down. Holding her hands in his, he ran his thumb over her knuckles. “I need you to forgive me.”
“Forgive you?” Jenna leaned over, trying to see his face. “What’s going on here? Usually, I’m the one who is serious.”
“I’m taking you back to Earth.” He squeezed her hands gently and stood. “I’ll have the servants bring you clothes.” He made a move for the door.
Jenna pushed to her feet and wobbled on her overly relaxed muscles. “Don’t you dare open that door. You can’t just say vague things like that and then walk away. I will stumble after you naked if I have to.”
Rafe faced her. The expression on his face broke her heart a little bit. “I didn’t keep you safe. I said no harm would come to you here. I failed you. You deserve better.”
“Give me your shirt,” Jenna said, feeling vulnerable. She’d never seen him like this. He obeyed, handing her the shirt. Jenna slipped it over her head, not caring that it was stained with her blood. The material was infused with his heat and his smell. “Are you trying to break up with me?”
“Break you up?” When he walked his legs were spread a little too far apart, and he tried not to wince.
“What is this really about? You see your old girlfriends and decide marriage isn’t for you, after all?” Jenna hugged her arms to her chest.
“Girlfriends?”
“The Syog women,” Jenna stated, not sure if she wanted to yell at him, or cry, or maybe punch him in the nose and chase down a couple alien supermodels and punch them as well. “You spent some time with them and decided they were less trouble than I am?”
“You are a confusing woman,” Rafe said. “I am trying to do the right thing by you.”
“Is that what you call this? I can’t believe you got me out of the medical tanning bed for this.” She paced the small room.
“I did not enjoy my time with the Syog today. You called for a negotiation.” He shifted his weight uncomfortably. “You didn’t even stay to watch. You ran away, and I couldn’t go after you because… It doesn’t matter. I am still at fault. I did not keep you safe.”
“I wasn’t going to stand by to be laughed at,” she said. “Or watch you grope each other.”
“No one groped me,” Rafe paused. “At least I don’t think they did.”
“Oh, they groped. They groped the hell out of you,” Jenna quipped. “I think that’s the real reason you want to get rid of me.”
“I don’t want to get rid of you.”
“Well, you aren’t trying to keep me. So what would you call this? One minute you’re laughing at me and the next you want to throw me through the portal.” Jenna tried not to breathe too deeply. The shirt smelled of him, and their arguing was heating her blood.
“No one laughed at you.”
“Don’t lie. You introduced me, and they started gossiping and whispering and laughing at me. You’re embarrassed by me.”
“Jenna,” Rafe insisted. “No one laughed at you. They were laughing at me. I told them I had found love. They thought it was amusing since they had—”
“So you didn’t sleep with them?”
“Only long before I met you,” he said. “There is no one else for me, not since you walked into my life. Trust me when I say I did not enjoy being with the Syog today.”
“Then why are you moving funny?” She glanced down at his crotch to emphasize her meaning.
“Negotiations.” Rafe grimaced. “The Syog are brutal. They call it ball racking. Whoever can take the most kicks wins.”
“You negotiated by kicking each other in the balls?” Jenna flinched. “What kind of meathead frat boy nonsense is that?”
“That is why no one mentions negotiating when they are here,” Rafe said. “They make good allies despite their customs. Those customs make them unlikable so if we can deal with them we guarantee a friendship. As of now no one wants to hurt us, but the idea of an alien attack is a real problem that must be planned for. Also, they could lead us to other aliens who will become our allies.”
“I got you kicked in the balls?” Jenna pointed at the medical bed. “Get in the bed, Rafe.”
“But—”
“This isn’t up for discussion.” She flicked her hand. “I said get in the bed.”
Even as he reached for his waistband to undress, he said, “I don’t want to fight with you.”
“Then stop trying to get rid of me and get in the medical bed.” Jenna gasped to see his bruised thighs. She grabbed his arms and helped him to lie down. “If you ever do something so stupid again I’ll negotiate you myself.”
“It looks worse than it is.”
“I’m marrying an idiot,” Jenna said as she pushed the lid down on top of him. It sealed shut, but she heard him bumping around on the inside.
“Jenna? What did you say?” he yelled.
“I said you’re an idiot,” Jenna answered loudly.
The monitor lit up and showed a blinking panel with different types of handprints. Seeing one with five fingers, she placed her hand on it. A light scanned her, and the panel said, “Human Earth welcome. Please wait. Scanning subject.”
“Jenna?”
“I said I love you.” She couldn’t help but smile at the unit’s lid as she imagined him inside.
“I marry you, too,” he yelled. “And I love you, too.”
A tiny shiver worked over her, and she felt heat running up and down her skin as if she felt what he was feeling on the inside. The sensation was so strong she placed her hand on the lid and felt that he did the same on the other side.
“What is that?”
“It is done. We have declared. You are my life mate, my wife. You can’t be rid of me now.”
“Wait a minute, that’s it? We just say it? What about a wedding story? I take it back.” She marched to the door. “Nope. Not happening now. I can’t tell people I married you while you were getting your balls fixed after being stupid.”
“Jenna, where are you going? Come back here, woman. Sacred cats, you are frustrating. When the medical bed finishes and let’s me out, we’re going to speak about this.”
“That’s if you can find me, pied piper.” Jenna smiled, shutting the door behind her, knowing as soon as he was free from the bed the hunter would be coming for his prey.
Epilogue
“Oh, my goodness, what are you wearing?” Jenna’s eyes widened as she looked at her husband.
“A bet is a bet,” Prince Finn stated. “And Rafe lost.”
“My first trip back to Earth and you’re going dressed as a prima ballerina?” Jenna covered her mouth and tried very hard not to
laugh. The man really had no sense of modesty. “In a pink tutu and tights, no less.”
Jenna wore the clothes she’d had on the day they met. Oddly, she had gotten used to dresses while living at the palace—after she’d became more vocal about how her dresses were made. No more Christmas colors and elaborate embroidery.
Rafe winked at her and turned to show his ass. “It looks good, right?”
“It looks something,” Eve said, laughing. She stood next to her husband, the Draig heir prince, Kyran. The man gazed lovingly at his wife as if mesmerized by everything she said.
“At least your legs look—” Jenna began.
“Pink!” Eve interrupted. The women laughed harder.
“You are lucky your brother isn’t here.” Finn was the only single man going on the journey though he was mainly there to help carry whatever Jenna decided to take home.
Ivar was busy overseeing alien representatives who claimed to have invented a magical box that created food from molecules or some such science fiction nonsense, though they couldn’t provide the actual box and merely wanted to gather recipes and food samples. For some reason, the king didn’t want them telling the Draig about the frequency of alien visitors.
Rafe grinned at her. “You know I wear this because of you. Had you not been desperate to marry me at the diner I wouldn’t have lost the bet.”
“I thought she married you when you were getting your balls fixed,” Finn said. Jenna groaned. Everyone else laughed.
“You know, Finn, you should let us buy you some clothes while we’re there tonight.” Eve threaded her arm into Jenna’s.
“We’ll make sure everyone knows you’re drag queen royalty,” Jenna said, smiling. With men as sexy and confident—and a little too arrogant at times—as these shifters were, it was kind of a poetic justice that they kept telling Earth women they were “draqueens”. Plus, it was funny. Eve and Jenna had no intention of correcting them.
“I’m not sure you’ll feel so generous after you see the second half of the bet,” Finn said.
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