by Celia Kyle
She tipped her head back, face turned up to the ship’s sun, and bathed in the gentle heat. A soft breeze caressed her skin, carefully tugging on her xina clothing. The fabric was silky soft but stronger than anything known to man.
Zadri wanted her protected from any war blade and he would not allow her to deny him. When he’d first presented her with the soft clothing, she’d been appreciative. Then came his demand. But now, after they’d shared their bodies and she knew what was in his heart… she understood what drove him to be so vigilant.
Yes, now she understood why she—and the baby—were so important to him. She rubbed her stomach, the heat of his hand still embedded in the fabric, and the baby slowly shifted inside her.
“Hello, sweetheart,” she murmured to her baby. “Are you almost ready to come see everyone? Your new—“ No, Zadri wasn’t a new daddy. He was just Daddy. “Your daddy can’t wait to meet you.”
And probably stress over every moment of every day. She wondered if Preors got gray hair with age. If not, she didn’t doubt a feisty two-year-old would take care of that.
A smile teased her lips when her mind drifted to the future. A time when the three of them would be a happy family. Not happy all the time—life could be a pain in the ass—but she was sure they’d find their own measure of joy in the years to come. She could imagine relaxing on the cool grass and watching dragons soar through the skies while their son played.
Assuming they’d stay on the ship. In truth, she had no idea what the years held for them. Would they return to Preor? Would they continue living on the ship in Earth’s orbit?
Did it matter? She looked inside herself, questioning her own heart. Did it matter? No, it didn’t. Delaney knew what Zadri needed to heal and hopefully, someday, he could help her put the pieces of her own heart back together.
Her chest tightened, a measure of anxiety drifting into her when she thought of her heart and the emotional wounds that plagued her. Her parents were still trying—trying to get in touch with her. Were they trying to get her back?
No. Never. She was a blight on the Cole name.
Shaking her head, she returned to her path, moving toward the airlock. She wound around bushes and trees, trailing her fingers through the soft leaves as she passed.
By the time she stopped beside the exit, no further sounds came from outside. No shouts from warriors or growls from their inner dragons. The heavy pounding of booted feet didn’t fill the air or shake the ground. It was as if all had returned to normal. Even the siren had fallen silent and no longer pierced her eardrums.
Delaney remained in place, waiting. And waiting. And… waiting. She didn’t want to think Zadri hadn’t sent someone to escort her, but… she was still alone.
And, hey, there wasn’t anything wrong with just taking a step into the hall, right? She could wait for her escort in the hallway. This way, he wouldn’t have to come in and hunt for her and blah, blah, blah…
She was just rationalizing ignoring his request and she didn’t care. What if she fell or passed out in the aerie with no one around? At least if she was in the corridor, someone would trip over her at some point.
Right. Still rationalizing.
But she’d be rationalizing while she pressed the button for the airlock to open. She stepped through the doorway, holding on to one of the bars embedded in the frame, and pressed the button for the doors to close once again. She held the handle tightly, needing it to keep her balance as her world shifted—when up became sideways. Her stomach lurched with the change, sweat suddenly peppering her brow.
Okay, yeah, she’d need that escort after all. Especially when she exited the aerie and swayed on her feet and she clutched the wall to keep herself upright. Dizziness assaulted her and she shook her head, trying to clear the fog from her mind.
She leaned against the metal wall, back pressed into the hard surface while she breathed through the wooziness. Slow and steady. It wasn’t the first time she’d experienced the sensations and it sure wouldn’t be the last.
Vibrations traveled up from the grating beneath her feet, the tremors shaking her inside and out as someone approached. Soon a massive orange warrior rounded the corner, his imposing presence filling the space—Luzan. He wasn’t any larger than the other Preor, but the way he carried himself and the attitude that surrounded him made him seem… more.
Luzan’s eyes met hers, his dark orbs holding an emotion and thoughts she couldn’t quite identify. The only thing she recognized was that coil of unease that wrapped around her chest. Vertigo made her sway once more, the dappling of sweat on her brow increasing until a droplet snaked down her neck.
Maybe she was getting sick? Had the Knowing and her connection to Zadri somehow made her ill? The Knowing was quick to assure her that mating a Preor was not harmful nor tainted by disease.
Okay, that was great, but it didn’t explain what the hell was wrong with her.
Her stomach growled, grumbling and squirming, and she realized it’d been a while since she’d eaten. There. That was her problem. A good snack and she’d be fine.
It was just getting to that snack haven that troubled her. Part of her wanted to draft Luzan as her escort, but something made her pause. Something made her hesitate to stop him—call out to him. It wasn’t the look in his eyes… exactly. Or the set of his shoulders… exactly. Or even the set of his jaw… exactly. It was all of the above and then some.
Now she was hating the fact that she didn’t have more patience. Like, any at all. She should have just listened and stayed put instead of…
“Delaney joi Zadri Cole. Where is your mate?” Luzan stopped when he drew near, his gaze traveling over her in a single glance. One that had the hairs on her neck standing on end.
She didn’t know why. Luzan hadn’t done anything to her. But the feeling still existed. She still… felt the odd need to put distance between them. She took a shuffling step back, still using the wall for support. Even one extra foot allowed her to breathe a bit easier.
It also gave her a chance to look the larger Preor over. To see his disheveled hair, the raw edge of his katoth pants and the dark stain on one of the straps of his uniform. Preors wore two that crossed their chests as part of their uniforms, one showing rank and the other honors they’d received during their time as warriors. To have one stained…
The Knowing assured her it was disgraceful.
“Delaney joi Zadri Cole?” He spoke again, voice rising, tone hard and flat.
Delaney licked her lips and rubbed her brow, wiping away the drops of sweat. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you.” Her heartbeat stuttered, the rhythm a rough pounding through her veins. “I’m assuming Zadri is on the command deck. We were in the aerie,” she waved at the airlock, “when the drills began and he was called away. He was supposed to send a warrior to escort—“
“I shall escort you.” He rushed the words out, speaking over her and drowning out her voice. He seemed eager to stay with her. Too eager?
No. She mentally shook her head. She’d been around her parents too long and they’d made her jaded. Sometimes people did things just because they cared. Not because they had an ulterior motive.
“Oh,” nausea assaulted her and she breathed past the need to vomit. “Great.” She forced her lips to part in a wide—if fake—smile. “Lead the way.”
An emotion she couldn’t identify passed over his features, one similar to what he’d expressed the last time he’d been her escort. Regret. Sadness. Determination. Yes, it was those same three emotions, but this time, they were accompanied by a sense of desperation. A crazed need she didn’t think would be easily banished.
Or she was reading too much into Preor behavior. She was human. Maybe…
Luzan grunted, lip curling into a slight sneer, and then he turned. “No, we shall walk together.”
Goosebumps slithered over her skin, the unease inside her growing with those five words. Innocuous, meaningless, inconsequential words. That sent a spear of terro
r down her spine.
What the hell was wrong with her? Being pregnant had turned her into an anxiety driven crazy person.
“Sure, sounds good.” Her smile was a little less fake and a hint more real. Not much, but it was something.
He turned on his heel, pulling his wing back and out of the way so she could move to his side. She padded forward slowly, taking each step carefully while she tried to determine if she was about to fall and eat metal. She’d done that once already and wasn’t looking forward to doing it again.
Luzan curled his wing around her, a swath of orange bracketing her right side while his body was on her left. She was cut off, captured, held prisoner by…
She was held prisoner by the anxiety train she was obviously riding. Preor cherished women—bearing women even more. He wasn’t going to hurt her. She was just… a hormonal ball of weird.
They passed warrior after warrior, a rainbow of colored Preors striding through the halls and giving Luzan hardly a glance. But her? They stared at her as if she was an oddity. Then again, considering they needed women so badly and she was heavily pregnant, she couldn’t blame them. She was, at her core, what they all wanted most.
Luzan led her through the maze of the ship and she happily let him decide what path they’d take. As long as she ended up in her rooms as quickly as possible, she didn’t care.
Although, when yet another rush of heat filled her blood and a wave of dizziness immediately followed, she kinda did care.
Her stomach rebelled, gut clenching and she stumbled to a stop, moving from beneath Luzan’s wing until she could lean against the wall. The cool metal wall whose temperature soothed some of the flush of warmth.
“Delaney joi—“
She held up her hand with his shout, silencing him. She didn’t have the strength to listen to his yells. Especially considering every sound in the ship pounded through her head in an ever increasing rhythm. “Just Delaney.”
Black spots danced in and out of her vision while the pain continued to grow. It enveloped her head like a vice, squeezing harder and harder with each passing second. She clutched at the wall, palms flat on the cool surface while she absorbed the lower temperature. She was so hot and her stomach was uneasy and her head…
She just needed to eat and she’d be—
But the mere thought of food almost had her gagging. Oh God, if morning sickness came back she was going to murder someone.
“Delaney?”
“Sick,” she rasped.
Yes, she was sick with… something. She didn’t know what was wrong, but whatever plagued her was enough to stress the baby—her baby, their baby. Her son’s movements were sluggish inside her, the press and shift not nearly as strong as normal. This was just wrong. Wrong and she didn’t know why but she needed…
“Medical,” she pushed the words past her lips.
His new expression chilled her, a dash of triumph joining his regret, and now she wished she’d never said a word. She could have made it to medical on her own, right? She could have—
“Prepare for the pain.” The words left his mouth a split-second before he scooped her into his arms, and she was truly thankful she’d solidified her mating with Zadri. Otherwise, she could have added agony to her list of symptoms.
“We… this afternoon.” She hardly recognized her own voice, the darkness pressing in on her harder and harder. She thought her head would explode, the pressure growing with each of Luzan’s steps. “My head…”
Luzan grunted and then mumbled beneath his breath. “I understand why your sire desires your return. You cannot care for yourself and your mate cannot either. Ikpor son of Syh.”
Yes, he mumbled, but she was close enough to his mouth to hear every word. If only she wasn’t battling so much pain at the same moment. If only she could push the aches away long enough to figure out what the hell he was talking about.
Delaney lifted her head, unsure exactly when she’d rested it on Luzan’s shoulder, and looked around. Shouldn’t they have arrived at medical already? She scanned the walls, spying different signs and reading each one with the help of the Knowing. And she read enough to realize that when he went right, they should have gone left.
“Wrong way.” Her voice was strange even to her, soft and thread. “Should have gone left.” But he kept going. “Wrong… way.” She tried again. He kept striding down the hall, Delaney in his arms, while going away from medical. “Luzan,” she raised her voice, ignoring the other males that passed them. “Medical is the other way.”
“Zadri’s female requires medical attention?” Argan spoke from her right, the familiar male soon coming into sight. “Delaney?”
“Just a little dizzy. I…”
Argan ignored her. “Come, Luzan. Quickly. I shall comm Zad…”
Luzan’s hold tightened, his grip nearly painful while he remained in place for one moment and then two. The glare he shot Argan’s back had her tensing, more fear pouring into her blood.
That was when the throbbing in her head doubled in strength until she could hear nothing but the rhythmic thud of her own heart. It muted Argan’s words, making her deaf to every sound.
Yes, she was deaf to everything… but the echo of Zadri’s bellowing roar.
14
Zadri would not, as humans said, “kill the messenger.” He would merely wound Tyff and Choler. Tyff more than Choler as Choler—the ship’s primary negotiate master—was merely present to ensure he did not injure Tyff. Choler was praised as being one of the brightest and best, rivaling even Zurer joi Sobol—mate to the emperor’s daughter. No amount of negotiating by Choler would banish Zadri’s fiery rage.
“Explain, once more, why my mate was rushed to medical in the arms of another, Warrior Tyff.” Zadri growled, pushing against Choler’s restraining hold. “Ex. Plain.”
To his credit, Tyff did not cower beneath his rage. He straightened his back, wings tucked close, while he met Zadri’s stare. “I would not say unkind words about a female.”
Nine words he’d repeated more than once since Zadri had summoned the male to medical. Or rather, the corridor outside medical. Healing Master Whelon had banished their group from his sanctuary for the benefit of Delaney.
Delaney. His Delaney. His mate.
His mate who was carried into medical by Luzan, led by Argan. His mate who was unconscious when she was laid on the medical platform for repair. Though this was not first-hand knowledge. It was a story told to him by others.
Because Zadri had not been present when his mate had needed him. Self-loathing squeezed his heart before moving to his lungs, pushing the air from his body. He had failed her. He had not had Delaney for long and already he’d failed her.
And their dragonlet. By all the power of Syh, he hoped the dragonlet did not suffer because of him—because of his error and devotion to duty over his mate. He should not have trusted another to go to Delaney and escort her to their rooms. He should have kept her at his side until he personally located another to oversee her care while he responded to Taulan’s drills.
But he’d done none of that and instead had grabbed the first, male he knew by name—Tyff sen Ozar. He was a good warrior by all accounts, but he was young.
Young, easily distracted, and eager to please. So when the war master asked Tyff to perform a task, he did not mention Zadri’s request and need to fulfill his duty. Tyff simply ran off to do his war master’s bidding. Then eventually he’d gone in search for Zadri’s mate.
This was all knowledge Zadri held, but he wanted to hear the words from Tyff’s mouth. The warrior needed to acknowledge his errors and take ownership of his faults. He could not learn from mistakes if he did not recognize them first. Because this mistake had resulted in Delaney’s extended wait, which led to her eventual need for medical. If he’d gotten her to their rooms earlier, she wouldn’t have been so stressed about the ongoing sounds of the drills. She wouldn’t…
Zadri growled and stepped forward, shoving Choler and forcing
the male to back up a single, stumbling step. “Warrior Tyff sen Ozar, you will—“
“Zadri,” Choler grunted and pushed back, but Zadri did not move. He was a male filled with fire and rage and he would not be controlled by the negotiate master. “Perhaps it is best if you walk the halls for a moment.”
Zadri curled his lip, baring a fang at Tyff while releasing a growl in response to Choler.
“Okay, obviously that isn’t happening,” Choler grumbled, his tone and words more human than Preor. The male had spent too much time with the war mistress.
“I want Tyff’s words,” he pushed the words past gritted teeth. His gums throbbed, his dragon’s teeth threatening to break free. They would lengthen and sharpen, prepared to sink into Preor flesh. “I want to know why he felt it best to neglect a female in favor of the war master. Why Luzan carried my unconscious mate into medical with Argan at his side.”
Luzan who no longer remained near, returning to his duties. Argan had taken Zadri’s place on the command deck after informing Zadri of the recent happenings.
Tyff finally snapped. “You know of the events so you do not need my explanation. If the female had remained where she was placed, as you ordered, she would not—“
“A female’s desires are greater than any male’s potential inconvenience. A bearing female’s are even more so. She desired to—“
Medical’s doors quietly whooshed open, parting to reveal Primary Healer Yazen in the doorway. The large male’s wings twitched and his red scales slithered over his tanned flesh, the hue growing more obvious with every passing moment.
“Silence,” the healer hissed, yellowed eyes flaring with his dragon’s sight. His chest expanded, shoulders broadening. “You will all be silent.”
Zadri was not afraid of Yazen—a male more healer than warrior—but he also knew that healers knew how to kill in ways that eluded the average male. So he snapped his jaws closed and eased his struggles against Choler. Zadri stepped back, giving the negotiate master space while also ending his attempt to get to Tyff.