by Ann Mayburn
“Lacey…may I call you Lacey?” Chel asked in his warm, soothing voice.
“Sure.” She sighed as she looked up at him.
“I have a proposition for you. It does not require bonding.” He knelt before her quickly as she frowned. “I will modify the crystal implant to the best of my ability so that we will find a balance between the flow of information and your still human brain. But I ask that you supplement any knowledge you receive by letting us train you. We are both very skilled Warriors and have experience with battling many of your potential opponents. We ask you this boon as a fellow Warrior, not as our alyah.”
Too tired to argue with him that she wasn’t their alyah, she nodded. “I can agree to that. But no bonding. I don’t mean to sound like a bitch, but—uh, you seem like really nice guys, and I don’t want you to get your feelings hurt. I just—I can’t bond you. I have to return to Earth. I hope you understand.”
Thoughts of her mom and daughter tried to intrude, but she pushed them away.
She’d cry later, when she didn’t have an audience of men who might not be her enemies, but who weren’t quite her allies, either.
Gwarnon seemed to vibrate with tension and looked like he wanted to argue with her, but his voice was empty as he said, “As you wish.”
“You are tired.” Chel reached out his hand, hesitating before he touched her cheek. “May I scan you?”
Unwanted tingles of pleasurable anticipation filled her belly, but she whispered, “Sure.”
Warmth flowed from Chel as he placed his rough fingertips on her jawbone. His gaze grew distant for a moment before he focused on her again. “You need food and sleep. It appears the modifications done to you are all functioning properly, thank the Lord of Life for that. If it pleases you, we would be humbled if you would stay on our ship with us. We believe you will find it more comfortable.”
“Is that allowed? Won’t the NevShoo worry that I’ll get on your ship and flee?”
“No,” Gwarnon gave a humorless smirk. “Even the Lord of Life would not try to challenge the Baladium’s defenses. Once we entered their territory, we fall under their jurisdiction. It is one of the reasons Kadothians are forbidden from competing in the Baladium.”
Chel took a step back then offered her his hand to help her off the couch. She ignored it, scooting off the edge and trying to sidle past them. Warmth stirred in her belly as neither moved out of her way, electric lust snapping in the mere inches between their bodies. Just a little sway on her part would lead to her falling into their arms.
Firming her spine, she lifted her chin and said, “I would appreciate a room aboard your ship, if you have one. A private room.”
“Of course, you can have our quarters,” Chel said quickly, Gwarnon having gone back to his glowering silence.
“You don’t need to do that. I can sleep with Roxy. She’s going to be on your ship as well, right?”
“That will not be possible,” Chel said with a faint hint of pink to his cheeks. “She and her bondmates are celebraiting their reunion. I do not believe they would like to be disturbed.”
Her own blush warmed her cheeks as she mentally chastised herself for acting, literally, like a blushing virgin fresh out of bootcamp. “Understood.”
“Follow me,” Gwarnon said, walking away from her without a backward glance. “We will show you to your quarters.”
Chapter 2
Gwarnon
The door to their temporary rooms sealed shut behind him with a hiss, and Gwarnon fought with all of his might to keep from crumpling right there. Against all odds, he’d found his alyah, but she’d rejected them. Repeatedly, and with great vehemence. His heart had shattered into so many pieces, he feared he would never be able to retrieve them all from the dark pit of his depression.
Chel gripped him by his shoulders and spun him around so they faced each other. Reaching up, he gently traced his thumb over Gwarnon’s cheek then down to his jaw in a gentle stroke. He could feel the other man’s worry pouring through their bond, but couldn’t find the strength to reassure Chel. Not when he was barely holding on. He sank deeper into himself, shielding his emotions from the world, shielding himself from the relentless pain of living.
“No!” Chel suddenly shouted in his face. “Do not close off from me. Not now, not when there is finally hope.”
“Hope?” Gwarnon could barely speak as a hint of the seething emotions beneath the surface of his calm leaked through in that one word. “There is no hope. She rejected us.”
“No, she didn’t. Well, not entirely.” Chel gave him a gentle push in the direction of the couch. “Sit before you fall down.”
Gwarnon wanted to argue that he was fine, but Chel no doubt felt his weakness through their bond. “How can you say that? She was clear in her desire to not accept our bond.”
“I spoke at length with Lady Casey about the culture of her home world. She told me that Earth woman from the United States tend to be very guarded with their hearts. They usually like to be courted and prefer their regard earned rather than given. She emphasized that, as hard as it would be, we would need to give our Earth bride some time to get used to us. To earn her trust.” Chel began to unbraid his hair as he said, “Casey told me that it is not always safe to be a woman on their primitive home world. The Earth females are typically physically smaller than the males and untrained in battle. Without access to their dormant psychic powers, they are easy prey to the criminals of their planet.”
Gwarnon grunted in anger, but he held his tongue.
Chel sighed as he continued to stroke Gwarnon’s face, his touch soothing them both. “Because of their vulnerability, the females are careful about who they let into their lives and may not feel comfortable having a man declare his love the first instant they meet. In fact, Lady Casey said any woman with a brain in her head would run the other way if a hot guy claimed to be her soulmate on their first date. Which, in essence, is exactly what we did. Instead of being patient and taking into account our bride being traumatized by her kidnapping, we both tried to push her into giving us our kiss within minutes of meeting her—something that would be considered an aggressive and unsavory act on her world.”
Gripping his still white hair in his fists, Gwarnon let out a tortured groan. “Forgive me, Chel. I ruined everything.”
The loose brown shirt Chel wore gaped open slightly as he leaned forward, forcing Gwarnon to maintain eye contact. “Yes, you could have handled that better, but nothing is ruined beyond repair. If I have to be honest, it was rather entertaining to watch the High Congress’s best spy fumble with a woman like that. You are normally so charming, so polished—when you wish to be. This fumbling adolescent phase of yours is entertaining to witness.”
He grunted, wanting to refute his brother’s words, but it was true. “I was…taken aback.”
“That is one way to put it.” Chel was silent for a moment, then he began to rub Gwarnon’s neck in a way that forced his tight muscles to unclench. “Do not give up so quickly, my mate. Our bride is here, on this ship, mere rooms away. Do you know how amazing that is? How lucky we are? How blessed?”
“I do feel blessed and it is amazing. Other than the not wanting anything to do with us part.”
This time a soft laugh did escape, and he sent another prayer of thanks to the Lord of Life for bringing Chel into his world. They’d met when they were both young Warriors, eager to make their mark in the world. For Gwarnon, the military offered him freedom from his vile mother. Waking up every morning, knowing that he didn’t have to endure another day witnessing her cruelty, had been an incredible relief. Two weeks into bootcamp, Gwarnon met Chel and knew at the first brush of the other man’s soul that they were meant to someday be husbands to the same Matriarch.
Leaning into Chel’s soothing touch, Gwarnon allowed himself to think about his late blood brother. How he wished Jerit was still alive to see this moment. He would have loved Chel, and together the three of them would have been the family the
y were meant to be with Lacey. Except Jerit was long dead. Although Gwarnon had no proof, he knew his mother was behind Jerit’s death. She was the one who told Gwarnon that Jerit had died right after he found their Matriarch. His mother was the one who convinced him that his Matriarch was dead when she’d known all along it was a lie. And, though she’d pretended empathy and compassion of the world’s best mother to her cherished only son, he knew she fed off his grief, reveled in his misery.
His stomach clenched as he stared up at Chel. “When my mother finds out about Lacey, she will either try to manipulate her or kill her.”
“You mother,” Chel snarled, an intense hatred darkening his face, “Is an abomination. We will discuss her later. Right now, we must focus on our alyah and helping her survive the upcoming battle.”
Gwarnon gave a harsh laugh. “Yes, let us focus on that instead. On how she hates me and will never bond with us. Let us weigh the odds for how difficult it will be for her to survive with only the basic crystal you devised for her.”
Leaning his head on Chel’s shoulder, he shared his feelings with Chel, and his brother turned to hold him tight. “I’m telling you, we still have a chance with Lacey. Instead of focusing on the past, let’s look toward the future and how to make this work. Put your brilliant mind to solving the puzzle of how to win an Earth female’s trust.”
Gwarnon began to absently play with a long strand of Chel’s dark hair. “She will be forced to spend time with us for training, so we can use that time to reassure her that we’re not a threat.”
Chel snorted. “If we train her properly, she will hate us as surely as any new recruit hates their commanding officer.”
“This is true, but maybe that will help convince her that we can be trusted. As a Warrior, she will know and respect that we treat her as an equal. By touching her, we will be able to help establish a bond.”
“Her skin was so soft.” Chel rubbed his head against Gwarnon’s. “And when she wasn’t furious or sad, the scent of her arousal was decadent. I wanted to shove my head between her legs and take in a long inhalation of that rich, earthy perfume of her musk. To see if she tastes as tangy and sweet as she smells.”
“I doubt she will feel aroused by us anytime soon.”
Chel let out a huff of laughter. “This is true. My point is, her body responds to us even if her mind refuses to let us in. If there is one thing I know we are both good at, it is giving pleasure. We just need to give her time to adjust to us and to her situation. I am sure if we were to encounter Lacey on her home planet, in her environment, we would have met a much different woman than the one we faced today. She has been kidnapped and sold by aliens she didn’t even know existed. That would be a traumatizing experience for anyone. Now, throw in a battle to the death, and two men claiming to be her eternal beloved, and her mind may not be able to take much more.”
Gwarnon’s battle scarred hands clenched into fists. “I agree that she has been through much, and I wish we had the luxury of slowly courting her, but we do not. Every day she rejects us is another day lost in her training that could mean the difference between her life and death.”
“Easy,” Chel soothed as he ran his hand up and down Gwarnon’s arm. His touch helped Gwarnon push back the hurt and helpless rage that seethed inside of him. “The Lord of Life brought us here for a reason. I doubt it is to watch our alyah die. I refuse to believe he is that cruel.”
Gwarnon almost said aloud that Chel was wrong, that the Lord of Life could be incredibly cruel, but he bit his tongue. His blood brother was a man of deep faith, and it hurt him when Gwarnon questioned the will of the Lord of Life. But Gwarnon couldn’t help it. He’d seen far too much misery in his young life, too many atrocities that went unreported, too many deaths, to have complete faith in the Lord of Life. It shamed him to admit it, but he figured if the Lord of Life was always listening, like the priests said, he’d forgive Gwarnon for his silent doubts.
Standing, Gwarnon smoothed his white hair back then scrunched his face beneath the prosthetics that changed his features. “I could probably remove this now. The NevShoo now know who I am, and while they’re irritated at our deception, they are also intensely grateful that we will be able to aid their fighters.”
Chel grimaced, his gaze distant as he accessed his crystal implant. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Orushel says your mother is looking for you.”
“Hezper tits!” Gwarnon swore viciously, his troubles compounding by the second. “What does she want with me now?”
“I don’t know, but she has put out the call that you are to be found.”
“The last thing we need is for my mother to figure out where we are before Lacey and Roxy compete. Who knows what kind of havoc she would expect me to cause on her behalf? And if she figured out our attachment to Lacey before we can bond her…” He swallowed hard as a lifetime of his mother’s inventive brutality raced through is thoughts.
“That would be unhelpful,” Chel, always steady and strong enough to weather Gwarnon’s emotional storms, said in a soothing, but firm voice. “However, like we told our alyah, we must first focus all our attentions and efforts toward surviving the fight to come.”
Slowly, drawing strength from Chel through their bond, he steadied himself until his thoughts were once again a still, deep ocean within his mind, not a raging maelstrom. “As always, my brother, you are right.”
Chel stood and clasped Gwarnon’s shoulder, the small lines around his eyes deepening as he smiled. “She is incredibly beautiful, is she not? And fierce, like a Warrior Goddess from the old Kadothia sagas.”
“She is indeed.” He leaned his forehead onto Chel’s shoulder, letting his wounded soul soak up the love his brother easily offered through their bond. “I know you smelled her arousal, as did I, but do you think she found us attractive as well? You know more about the tastes of Earth women than I do, thanks to your bond with Lady Casey. Do they become easily aroused?”
Laughing softly, Chel nudged him in the direction of the cleaning chambers attached to the second-mate’s room. He felt bad that he’d forced his second-mate to bunk with the rest of the men, but space was at a premium on the small, sleek ship. It was built for speed and had been modified for comfort. If he had known they were going to host their alyah on it, he would have brought his most luxurious cruiser, but that wasn’t what the Lord of Life had in mind.
As Gwarnon removed his disguise and washed up, Chel leaned against the wall with his head tipped back, his unfocused gaze on the ceiling. “From what I can tell, Earth women tend to find physically fit and healthy men attractive. Like most breeding species, they are driven by the biological impulse to look for the strongest mate to father their children. Other than that, it is difficult to say. Once, another Earth Matriarch was visiting Lady Casey and they were having ‘girl talk.’”
“What is that?” Gwarnon asked as he ran the special brush through his hair, removing the white dye.
“Female gossip.” Chel looked at him with a grin. “It is very informative, especially when the Matriarchs forget how good a Kadothian male can hear. I was on guard duty for Lady Casey that day, and I overheard much of their conversation.”
“Well,” Gwarnon looked up from undoing the fastenings on his tight red pants, “what did they say?”
Looking a little mystified, Chel said, “Much of it, I didn’t understand. They referred to Kadothian men as ‘eye candy’ and to the other Matriarch’s bondmates as DILFS.”
Gwarnon briefly closed his eyes as the cleansing powder coated his body, then was blown away by an intense wind. His black and bright blue streaked hair was a wild mass before another wind smoothed it out. Blinking a couple times, Gwarnon strode past Chel to their clothing. Now that the NevShoo knew who he really was, there was no point in dressing the part of a flamboyant smuggler.
A pang of worry hit him as he considered some of the possible repercussions of their involvement. Without a doubt, word would eventually reach Kadothia that
two of their Warriors were involved in the Baladium—something strictly forbidden. It could get them, and Lacey, banished to exile on an isolated island on Kadothia, their Territory and people lost to them forever.
Chel got a sweet juice drink from the tiny kitchen area and sipped it before saying, “Are we going to tell the men?”
Gwarnon paused in the act of braiding his hair, relinquishing the task to Chel as he said, “I wish we had more time to court her in private, but I’m afraid the men would soon figure out what is happening. Plus, you know as well as I do, we have some of the best fighters in the Universe on our team, all personally trained by Lord Rell himself. We should tell them and ask for their help training Lacey. It will give them a chance to get to know each other. When our Matriarch begins building her court, she’ll need loyal men at her side. None are more loyal than the men on this ship.”
Chel blew out a slow breath. “How long do you think we have before someone lets something slip and the High Congress finds out?”
“I believe we’ll have at least a few days. The Baladium’s security is spectacular, the terms of the contest requires it.”
Chel handed Gwarnon the remaining half of his glass of juice, and he downed it quickly before saying, “We need to contact Lord Rell and Commander Trenzent to update them with the situation.”
Not looking forward to the conversation ahead, Gwarnon went to look for something more bracing than juice. “This should be fun.”
Chapter 3
Chel
Closing his eyes and praying, Chel asked the Lord of Life to give him patience and keep him from throttling both his alyah and his blood brother.
They were arguing, again, instead of doing the training Lacey so desperately needed.
Gwarnon, Chel, and two members of their crew, Orushel and Maoru, sat on a bench behind Chel at the edge of the large packed dirt pit. At least it looked and felt like a pit. They were actually in the training arena on the NevShoo ship, in a simulation chamber whose effects were enhanced by the skintight suits they all wore. The chamber itself was massive, and the floor could drop or rise to simulate mountains or deep oceans.