“And I take it one of those dreams has come to pass recently?”
Kiana felt her face heat up as a blush spread across her cheeks. “No, but I remembered one of them a few days ago.”
“At the briefing?”
“Yes.” She looked away, recalling the vision she’d had when she’d almost blacked out at the briefing.
“And I take it the three of you were ‘together’?”
Kiana whipped her head around and met her father’s gaze, shocked at his emphasis on together. “I…”
“Kiana, don’t look so surprised. I’ve been around a long time. I know things like that go on.”
She swallowed to wet her suddenly dry mouth. “Yes, we were…together.”
“And now you’re wondering if it was a dream or if it’s really something that’s supposed to happen. Am I right?”
She nodded. “When I thought about what Mom told me about them, I thought you might be able to shed some light on what she’d meant.”
“I’m so sorry, ku’uipo, she never said anything about them to me. I really wish I had some answers for you.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe there’s something in the files Tiaki uploaded to the archives that could help.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the trail leading back to the base. “If you do figure it out, please let me know. Although I have a feeling they may have something to do with this magic. The things you’ve asked about have stirred up a few questions in my mind too.”
Kiana stepped carefully over some rocks. “I will, Daddy. Have you heard…” She broke off as a sudden swell within her magic sent such a wave of intense lust racing through her, she doubled over. Her dad’s arms slipped around her waist, steadying her.
“Kiana, are you all right?”
She fought to regain control of the flood of emotions assailing her. She straightened and glanced around, trying to figure out when she’d bent over. “Yes, I’m fine. Still getting used to the magic is all. It seems to have a mind of its own sometimes.” She started moving forward again when the impression of sucking a cock vibrated across her magic. She gasped at the intensity of it and prayed to God her dad hadn’t heard her.
“I’m not sure I believe you. Let’s get you to Niki so she can check you out.”
“Really, Dad, I’m fine. I don’t need to go to Niki,” Kiana said, avoiding eye contact with him, afraid he’d see the feelings blazing in her.
“I order you to report to the Med Center, Lieutenant Grant.”
Kiana met his gaze at the command, surprised he would resort to pulling rank on her.
His eyes softened. She saw moisture gathering in them. “This could be the residual effects of the blast or the poison that could have taken you from me.”
Kiana felt her heart tighten at the sight of tears in his eyes. She had been so wrapped up in everything going on with Mateo and Tiaki and herself that she hadn’t thought about what her dad might be going through. Since her mother had passed, she was all he had left. Another influx of carnal hunger shot through her, and she forgot to breathe for a moment. “Dad, I told you I’m fine. Niki assured me that Tiaki and Mateo were able to get the poison out of my system before it could do any harm.”
“Please, Kiana. I can’t lose you,” he pleaded.
She struggled to suck in a breath without alerting him that she’d felt anything else. “All right.” She cupped his cheek and wiped away the single tear that escaped.
By the time they made it to the Med Center, Kiana was on fire. Not only was her link with Mateo on overload from the barrage of emotions racing through it, her magic was fast reaching a boiling point. She would have loved to tell her dad she could get to the clinic on her own, but he insisted on going with her in case she collapsed.
She breathed a sigh of relief when Niki made him leave the room. After a couple of deep breaths, she finally looked up to find her friend watching her.
Niki walked over and started gathering her instruments. “What’s going on, Kiana?”
“I really don’t need you to examine me, Niki. I think what I’m feeling has something to do with that soul bond I told you about.” She inhaled sharply when her senses were bombarded by more intense emotions. The most prominent in the mix were desire, anger, and most perplexing of all…a sense of completeness.
Kiana reached out with her censors to locate Mateo. She was shocked to find both him and Tiaki in the Rift Hunter training room. Mateo hadn’t set foot in the building other than to get his weapons before his watches. He was always careful to give the training room a wide berth so he wouldn’t encounter Tiaki.
“Is it the same as what you described before?”
Kiana shook her head. “No. This time it’s more overwhelming. What I feel right now is so strong I doubled over from the intensity.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. The training session should have been over a long time ago. But that didn’t explain why Mateo was there. She glanced up at Niki. “Did you go to the training session this morning?”
Niki froze as though considering her question. “Yes, I did. Why?”
“Did Mateo attend it?”
Niki toyed with the instruments on the cart she’d pulled over to the examination table. “Not exactly. Tiaki was showing us a more advanced spell, an invisibility one, when Mateo came out of the shadows behind the unused mats.”
“Shit! What the hell did he do?” She fought the urge to race over to the training room to give him a piece of her mind.
Niki continued to fidget with the items on the tray.
Kiana reached over and stilled her hand. “Please, just tell me what you know, Niki. Whatever the hell is going on between the three of us is extremely important. I can feel it.”
Niki took a deep breath. “Mateo hit Tiaki with an energy blast, but—”
Kiana jumped off the table. “Oh my God! Why the fuck did he go there when he knew there was a training session? I knew something like this—”
Niki reached out and grabbed her arm. “Kiana, let me finish.”
Kiana stilled and waited for her friend to explain.
“The blast Mateo hit Tiaki with didn’t hurt him. It burned through his shirt, but then seemed to hover over his stomach before seeping into his skin. I dismissed the rest of the recruits and forced Monte to leave with me. It was obvious Mateo wanted to talk with Tiaki.”
Kiana breathed a sigh of relief that Tiaki was unhurt. Anger at Mateo for doing something so reckless sparked and then died as another wave of emotions rushed through her. It was quickly followed by the feeling of a cock slowly being worked into her ass. She gasped, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. “Niki, can I get you to tell Dad your exam is going to take a while?” she asked through clenched teeth. “I need to get to the training center, but Dad isn’t going to leave me until he knows I’m okay.”
“Sure. I’ll go tell him now; then I’ll help you get to the armory.” Niki disappeared through the door.
Could Tiaki and Mateo still be together in the training center? If so, they sure weren’t talking. A thought struck her as she waited for Niki to give her the all clear. Tiaki had taught them during one of their first training sessions how to sense magic in others.
Closing her eyes, Kiana called her magic. It danced up her spine as it rushed to do her bidding. She commanded it to seek out her mates. Standing up straighter, she focused her power to a pinpoint and called to the memory of her magic joining with Tiaki’s. She sent out a pulse to locate him. She smiled as she felt the pulse soaring through the base, searching for him.
Her eyes flew wide at the endless flow of emotions she encountered in Tiaki. His magic rushed to greet her pulse, sending a dizzying wave of pleasure that permeated it. Before she could regain her equilibrium, she felt her pussy clench as an orgasm crashed over her that was so intense, she had to grab the edge of the exam table to keep from falling to her knees.
What the hell was happening in that room? She fought to breathe as Niki came back into the room. When
she could finally stand again, she glanced at her friend. “We have to go.” She needed to find out what was going on between Mateo and Tiaki.
* * * *
Kiana approached the training room, her heart pounding with uncertainty and anticipation of what she would find inside. She’d continued to receive bursts of intense emotion and pleasure as she’d raced to get there. Both were so strong, she’d been forced to stop several times on her trek to catch her breath as her arousal began to build anew. She’d tried to discern whose emotions she’d been feeling, but they’d been so entwined with the magic she’d been unable to. The only thing she knew for sure was that her magic had responded to her men with what she could only describe as euphoria.
She took a deep breath and pushed the door wide. Mateo leaned against the support beam closest to the door. Tiaki stood so close to him he wouldn’t have had to move much to kiss Mateo. His bare chest gleamed with sweat in the sunlight filtering into the room. Her gaze instantly flew to where his hand disappeared beneath the edge of Mateo’s shirt.
“How can you still deny this connection after what just happened, Mateo?”
“Nothing happened, Hunter. That was a mistake.”
“A mistake…” Tiaki fell silent. The words died on his lips when he caught sight of her standing in the doorway.
Mateo turned to see what had caught Tiaki’s attention and swore.
Kiana shook herself from the daze that had settled over her as she’d realized what Tiaki had said. She approached them. “What the hell is going on here?” She shifted her gaze between the two men, hoping to be able to read something in one of the gazes to give her a clue.
She felt her link with Mateo slam shut as though he’d just realized it was open. “Well?”
Mateo looked at Tiaki, his gaze dipping to his mouth and lingering for a long moment.
Tiaki licked his lips before Mateo broke the invisible thread strung tight between them. His eyes flashed with anger. He shoved away from Mateo and stalked over to his bag. He pulled a T-shirt out and jerked it over his head, his jaw clenched. “Mateo came to ask me something. I dismissed class so we could talk.” He turned around and met Mateo’s gaze, a dangerous glint sparking in the depths of his eyes.
Mateo spun around and started to push past her, but she wasn’t about to let him run away again. She wanted to know what the fuck had happened here. The tension was so thick between the two of them she could cut it with one of her sleek, black throwing daggers. Not to mention the strong scent of sex wafting through the room. She grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him to a stop.
She flicked her gaze between them. “Bullshit! I felt one hell of a lot of emotion flooding not only my cybernetic link with Mateo but also the connection between our magic.” She glared at them when they continued to remain silent.
Mateo flexed his jaw as he tried to control the anger she sensed roiling off him in waves despite their link being barred. “Drop it, Kiana. And get out of my way. I’ve got things to do,” he said through clenched teeth. Kiana caged the irritation spiking through her at Mateo’s continued refusal to open up to her.
“Oh, did I forget to mention that the physical sensations filtering through our link were so intense that I came at least twice as I made my way here?” she whispered.
Something flashed in Tiaki’s eyes before he looked away.
She glanced up to find Mateo watching her, though she couldn’t read the emotions in his eyes like she normally could. “Why won’t you tell me why you’re determined to deny what you feel for Tiaki?”
“You’ve never told her about him?”
Mateo snapped his head up to meet Tiaki’s eyes. “Don’t.”
“Him? Is this about the man named Remi that I’ve caught glimpses of recently?” Kiana asked.
Mateo turned and stared at the window high on the wall behind her. “I don’t—”
“Yes, it is,” Tiaki said, cutting him off.
Kiana cupped Mateo’s chin and forced him to look at her. “What are you afraid to tell me, ku’uipo?”
He held her gaze for a long moment before closing his eyes. A single tear escaped as he whispered, “Remi was my first and only male lover before I moved to Hawaii. Before I met you, Kiana. He’s dead, and I don’t want to talk about him.”
Kiana moved to hold his face between her hands. “I want to show you something.”
“No, Kiana. Let Mateo go.”
Her head snapped to Tiaki at the sharp command. “I need to…”
Tiaki walked over to them. “I know what you’re thinking of doing. I’m telling you, don’t.” He laid his hand over hers where she caressed Mateo’s cheek. “Let him go.”
She closed her eyes as her magic tingled, sparked wildly, and rushed to connect with Mateo and Tiaki. She shuddered, then felt it cry out when Tiaki eased her fingers away from Mateo’s jaw. She opened her eyes to look at Mateo, but he was gone. “Why did you stop me?”
Tiaki dropped his hand from hers. “You were going to try to show him some vision. Doing so might seem like the right course of action, Kiana, but trust me…now is not the time.” He retreated to his bag and started shoving stuff inside.
Kiana stalked over to him and jerked him around to face her. “How could you know what I was going to do? There are only two people who know about my visions, and one of them is no longer among us.”
Tiaki met her gaze. “One of the ways the magic can manifest itself in the natural capacity is to give the user visions. In other words, she or he would be a seer.”
“That still doesn’t explain—”
“I may not have the ability to do most of the things a psychic Rift Hunter can do,” he said, cutting her off, “but when my magic combined with yours and Mateo’s, something happened, and I can suddenly do some of those things, but only with the two of you.”
“But…”
“I’ve been inside your mind. And although I didn’t do it on purpose, I did see shadowy images of your strongest memories. I tried to push them away before they could solidify enough for me to understand them.” He raised his hand as though to cup her cheek but dropped it back to his side instead. “I only know what you were going to show him because those particular images struck me even though they weren’t fully formed.” Without waiting for her to reply, he turned and left the room.
Her mind was still whirling from this new development a few minutes later when she realized he was gone.
Chapter Seventeen
Kiana riffled blindly through the pareos in the chest beside her desk. She didn’t give a damn what the hell she wore to the luau tonight. If she’d had her say, she wouldn’t have allowed the luau to happen at all. But she understood the soldiers needed to have a little fun. Especially after everything that had been thrown at them the last few weeks.
All she could think about, though, was what she’d walked in on earlier when she’d entered the training room. She closed her eyes and let the memory replay in her mind.
“Earth to Kiana!”
Kiana shook off the memory to find Niki standing in front of her. “Sorry. What did you say?”
Niki wrinkled her forehead. “You okay? I’ve been trying to get your attention for a couple minutes now.”
Kiana dropped the pareo she held in her hand. “I don’t know, Niki. I’m trying to understand why Mateo and Tiaki both refused to tell me the truth about this afternoon.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
Kiana closed her eyes and released a heavy sigh as she sat down in the desk chair. “I know what happened. I practically felt every touch.”
“Every touch?”
She opened her eyes, looked at Niki, and nodded. “What the hell am I supposed to do, Niki? I love Mateo, but…I’m falling in love with Tiaki too.” She dropped her head into her hands.
“So you’ve decided you want to try for this soul bond you told me about?”
Her question was so quiet, Kiana almost didn’t hear her. Did she want to complete t
he soul bond with Mateo and Tiaki? Even as she asked herself the question, her magic stirred. The thought of being bound to both of them aroused something so hot and carnal inside her. Not just her body, but her heart and soul as well. The feeling terrified her as much as it thrilled her. “Yes, I do,” she said quietly.
A wicked smile curved Niki’s mouth. It was a smile Kiana knew well.
It was her ‘we’ll be paying for doing what I’m about to suggest later, but we’ll have fun doing it’ smile.
“I think the key here is to turn the tables on them. Use the connection you felt everything through to your advantage. Here’s what you should do.”
* * * *
Tiaki emerged from the barracks where he’d been staying into a brilliant late-afternoon sun that shone against the horizon. He would much rather have been with his mates. But since he still hadn’t been able to break down the barrier Mateo continued to hide his heart behind, that wasn’t an option. When his eyes finally grew accustomed to the light, he cast a glance around the clearing.
From the looks of it, the soldiers’ ohanas must have come for the celebration by whatever secret means they used to visit. The number of people he normally saw seemed to have doubled and included quite a few children. He could sense magic in more of the children than he expected.
He was a little surprised to be greeted by everyone as though he were an old friend. The soldiers thanked him for what he’d done for Kiana and Mateo. It was obvious they’d do anything for them. They respected them both as their commanders and loved them as members of their extended ohana. He didn’t miss the appreciative looks some of the single soldiers, both men and women, shot his way, either.
Deciding it best to pretend he hadn’t noticed, he walked to the area where tables had been set up. Most of them were piled high with an assortment of food. His magic began to tingle in anticipation before he felt an arm snake through his. Energy surged in his blood at the contact, and he didn’t have to look to know it was Kiana. Somehow the connection between his magic and hers continued to grow stronger, despite them not having completed the bonding ceremony.
Untamed Hawaiian Heat (Rift Hunters) Page 16