by Kate Rudolph
“What? Where am I?” It came out rusty, as if he hadn’t spoken in days, and when Doryan went to lift his hand it jerked and he saw he was cuffed to the bed. “What’s going on?”
Amy glared down at the cuff. “I tried to get them to take it off, but there are questions about what happened and I couldn’t convince them.”
Doryan tested it again, but the cuff wasn’t going anywhere without doing a lot of damage to him. “Is he dead?” His claws had done a lot of damage, but everything went blurry after that shot.
Amy scowled. “No, and he’s been spinning a story. Says you attacked him unprovoked and he was defending himself.”
That shouldn’t have made him laugh, and Doryan’s ribs didn’t like the huff that escaped his chest, but he was beyond anger. Or maybe that was whatever drugs they’d given him. He couldn’t be sure. “He had two friends ambush me at the entrance and locked me in that room. And then he shot me.”
“Is that so?” A Detyen that Doryan vaguely recognized walked in. Commander Kendryk, if he remembered correctly. He spoke with such an even tone that for a second Doryan forgot the man wasn’t soulless. Though he had to be getting close to thirty and the choice of whether or not to undergo the procedure.
If the legion planned to continue the soulless program.
Doryan leveled his gaze at the commander. “It is.”
Kendryk looked at Amy for a moment and then back to Doryan. “This is a conversation to be had alone.”
“She’s my denya,” Doryan responded. “That gives her the right to be here.”
“Raze and Sandon want to speak with her,” was Kendryk’s reply.
Amy squeezed his hand. “It’s your call,” she told him. “Say the word and we’re fused together. They’ll need heavy duty tools to pry me away.”
He wanted that. He wanted Amy to crawl into the bed beside him and stay pressed to him for good. But there were consequences to face, and she had her own issues to handle. “It will be alright,” he assured her. And maybe it would. Unless NaMasee’s views had completely infiltrated the Legion, in which case all hope was lost.
He didn’t like despair, and he hadn’t missed it in his six soulless years.
Amy kissed him and stood. She glared at Commander Kendryk and opened her mouth, but seemed to think better of making any threats to the man who could order Doryan dead with a word.
The door slid closed behind her as she left, and Doryan did his best to sink back into his soulless mindset, determined not to give the commander any indication about how he felt.
Kendryk sat in the second seat in the room and stared quietly at Doryan, his expression equally blank.
They could be here for awhile.
But after several minutes Kendryk finally relented. “We have surveillance footage of your arrival at the base, and of you being locked in that room. However, the cameras mysteriously cut out when you claim that Lieutenant NaMasee shot you. And there were no cameras in that closet.”
Of course not.
Doryan nodded. He couldn’t be that surprised.
“That being said, NaMasee was suspiciously absent from a meeting this morning and, given the reports of his attitude at the Detyen settlement, his story raises several questions.”
Doryan lifted his hand and let the cuff jingle against the bed.
“The questions don’t exactly exonerate you,” said Kendryk. “And our records still indicate that you’re supposed to be soulless. He claims you descended into madness and he was doing his duty.”
Doryan raised his eyebrows. “Do I appear mad?”
“You don’t appear soulless,” Kendryk shot back. “There have only been two reported cases of a soulless warrior regaining his emotions, and countless cases of fixation and madness. Why should I believe one over the other?”
He’d seen Amy. She hadn’t been a figment of Doryan’s imagination. “My mate is just outside,” he growled. His claws threatened to come out, but he kept them locked tightly in his skin. It would be the height of stupidity to threaten a commander, even if he was chained to the bed and wasn’t a real threat.
“You think she’s your mate,” said Kendryk.
Doryan growled again.
“Don’t blame me for my skepticism, NaVayn. There’s no way to test the bond and prove its existence outside of those bound by it. But I am willing to be persuaded. By all appearances NaMasee is in the wrong in this matter, but he has plenty of friends. You don’t. NaPyrsee spread enough rumors about you to sour whatever was left, and NaMasee finished the job. We need documentation. Proof that what you said happened actually happened. I want to help you. Will you let me?”
Could Doryan trust him? He’d been away from the Legion for more than two years and times had changed. But Kendryk was right. He didn’t have many friends, and Raze had already done what he could. Doryan had to take the help he could get.
“What do you need me to do?”
Chapter Twenty-One
THE APARTMENT WAS EMPTY without Doryan. How was that even possible? She’d had out of town visitors stay with her longer than he’d been there, and she’d been nothing but happy when they took off. But in a little more than a week Doryan had left his mark on her place.
And her.
That love bite and bruise had faded and the sheets no longer held his scent. If this went on much longer, the only proof of Doryan’s existence would be Amy’s memory.
She was next to useless at work, snapping in and out of focus and working at a tenth of her usual speed. Her siblings had invited her out to dinner, but she couldn’t be bothered to leave.
What if Doryan came back when she was out?
So she stayed at home or the office, afraid that if she missed him he’d go somewhere else. Somehow.
She’d called the NaZades, and Shayn promised he’d call if Doryan showed up there instead. That family was in its own kind of holding pattern. Vita and Brax were supposed to take off to retrieve Manda’s parents, but they didn’t want to leave without knowing what happened to Doryan. Though their window of opportunity would close in the next few days, Shayn had said, and they might be forced to leave without a goodbye.
She needed her mate back.
She could kill Commander Kendryk. The bastard hadn’t even let her say goodbye.
She didn’t know what he’d told Doryan or what he’d proposed. But when she got back from her meeting with Raze and Sandon, the hospital room had been empty and no one knew where Doryan was. There’d been a message from the commander on her comm, promising her that her mate would be returned to her when things were settled, and that was it.
And now it was a whole week later. She concentrated on the bond deep inside her chest and could feel the tug.
Was it closer? Was it pulling tighter?
She’d spent hours analyzing it, hoping it could give her answers, but she didn’t know. She couldn’t think straight with Doryan gone.
And then someone knocked at the door.
Amy didn’t dare to hope. The first knock after Doryan’s disappearance had been a local politician drumming up votes. The second was someone handing out flyers for their new business. Not Doryan. Never Doryan.
But she couldn’t just ignore it. And as she approached the door her heart beat faster. Please, please, please.
She took a deep breath before grasping the handle, and when the door swung she had to blink several times before her face bloomed into a smile and she jumped at her mate, wrapping her arms and legs around him, swearing never to let him go.
Doryan staggered back a step and then managed to get them back inside. After a minute Amy had to put her feet down, but she couldn’t stop touching him.
She pulled back enough to get a look at his face and it spiked her anger for the commander all over again. There was a hollowness in his cheeks and dark circles under his eyes. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in a month. Had he lost weight? It was possible. His clothes hung a little loose, but that could have just been the fact that they see
med to be borrowed.
“Please tell me you’re back for good,” she said. She didn’t care if she sounded desperate. She never wanted to be parted like that again.
Doryan smiled. “I am. I promise.”
Her body wanted to drag him to the bedroom so she could have her way with him, but her mind needed answers, still scared that someone would knock down the door and drag him away again. “What about NaMasee?”
Her mate scowled and she couldn’t resist kissing him. He answered when she pulled back. “He’s been put on probation and transferred. If he steps out of line again, there will be consequences. And no matter what, we never have to see him again.”
That was… unsatisfying. Of course, Amy wouldn’t be happy unless they threw NaMasee in a pit, never to be seen again. “He better hope he never sees me again,” she muttered. They sat on the couch and Amy didn’t exactly mean to, but she ended up straddling her mate’s legs. Why sit beside him when she could sit on him? “What else?”
“I’ll need to undergo monthly testing along with Raze and Kayde to study how all of us changed. The researchers are hopeful that with three subjects they can find more commonality, especially since I didn’t really know either of them. Apparently they were on the same team when they discovered their mates and there was some speculation about that. I’ll also be working with them in the soulless transition program. No one’s willing to say it plainly, but they’re hoping that more soulless find their mates now that we’re on Earth. I wouldn’t be shocked if they try to set up some sort of matchmaking program,” he mused. “For everyone. Not just the soulless.”
That was interesting. Amy was sure she’d be fascinated later. But she’d had enough talking and her body was taking over. She captured Doryan’s mouth and swallowed his groan as she kissed him soundly. His fingers gripped her hips, holding her over him as their bodies rubbed together.
It had been too long.
Never again.
Kissing turned to groping. And somehow their clothes came off, though Amy was too preoccupied with touching her mate to pay attention to how. And by the time he was pushing the blunt head of his cock into her all she could focus on was the things her mate made her feel.
Pleasure. Safety. Togetherness.
Love.
They came together like that on the couch, but there was an entire week of lost time to make up for and Amy wasn’t about to let that go.
They ended up in bed for another round, and with Doryan in her arms, she let herself believe that everything was going to be alright.
DORYAN AND AMY WOULD have stayed in bed forever if Naomi hadn’t called. Even though he hadn’t told them he was back, she seemed to know. One of the mysteries of her powers. And the urgency of her call had him and Amy rushing out of town to the NaZade house.
They arrived just in time to find Brax, Vita, and Deke standing beside a pile of luggage, waiting for a taxi to pick them up. Shayn and Naomi stood beside them, but Manda was nowhere to be seen.
“You’re leaving?” Doryan asked. In the midst of sorting things out with the Legion, he’d forgotten all about the news that Manda’s family had been found. But why was Deke packed?
“I think it’s best that I get away from Earth for awhile,” said Deke. “I need to sort some things out.”
Like figuring out if he’d found a mate years before anything could happen between them? Yeah, that might send a man running.
But Doryan didn’t like how they’d ended things at Amy’s apartment. His emotions had been so new that he hadn’t had the best control. It hadn’t been what Deke needed from a friend. “I’ll miss you,” he said. “Make sure to send vids.”
Deke smiled, but it wasn’t as broad as Doryan remembered. He hoped the distance would help.
“You think you’ve really found her parents?” he asked Vita. She had plenty of contacts from her days as a bounty hunter, but space was huge.
She nodded. “It looks that way. We’ve got eyes on them, at least, and they should be sticking around the Consortium long enough for us to get there.”
“Safe travels,” said Amy.
Vita nodded her thanks. It was several minutes of goodbyes before a taxi pulled up and the three of them were off to the shipyard to begin their journey, leaving Shayn, Naomi, Doryan, and Amy outside.
Manda stuck her head out from the front of the house. “They’re gone?” she asked.
Naomi walked up first and slung an arm around Manda’s shoulders. “They’ll be back before you know it. You ready for dinner?” Shayn’s mate looked over at them. “That invite is for you both as well.”
He grasped Amy’s hand and they walked into the house. And as he sat down to dinner with part of his newfound family, a sense of peace settled over him. He hadn’t expected anything out of life when he sacrificed himself for his people, and it had been a long journey to get here. But now he had his mate by his side and people who had saved him from the worst kind of hell, people he could count on no matter what.
A family.
A mate.
A home.
He leaned over to kiss Amy and then settled back into his seat, ready to enjoy his life.
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Zulir Warrior Mates
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Keep reading for a sneak peek at Soulless.
Preview Soulless: Detyen Warriors Book One
A SHOCK OF something ripped through Raze in that moment when their eyes locked. He faltered and pain scored his chest as if claws raked him from shoulder to hip. In a blink it was gone as the pirate woman flung grit at him with astonishing accuracy and was off running like an Oscavian hound was on her heels. He stumbled for a moment, heart pounding so hard it threatened to beat out of his chest.
He clenched his fists and for one crazy second his claws threatened to slide out of his hands as something they couldn’t define washed over him.
Find her, that foreign urge demanded. Protect her. Claim her.
He could almost feel it, could almost recognize what it was, but his mind rejected the impossibility even before his feet moved and the chase was on. He didn’t pull out his blaster. Though the pirate had quickly recovered from the stun, far more quickly than he’d thought possible, two shots in such a short amount of time might do permanent harm to her. Why he cared about that, he wasn’t sure, but his gun remained in its holster all the same.
She glanced back and that was her undoing. He had height on her, and endurance. He could run for days and not give in to exhaustion or pain. No pirate training was a match for a Detyen warrior.
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Though he wondered why she hadn’t cried out, hadn’t tried to raise an alarm. Surely she must have some allies in the nearby settlement. They were probably too far away to be heard, but didn’t creatures such as she rely on hope like that for survival? Or were her enemies too numerous that she doubted help would come?
He closed the distance between them in easy strides until he could almost reach her with a swipe of his arm. Just as he launched the final step, she dropped and rolled to the side, her hand coming up with a small knife he must have missed on her person.
“Fucking pirate scum,” she spat as she rolled to her feet, knife held confidently in her hand and absolute disgust written across her features.
Pirate scum? “You’re the pirate,” he replied without thought, keeping his distance. His claws should be out now, with her on her back at his mercy, her cheeks flushed and breath coming in hard as she panted under him. What that stirred froze him in place, his body rocking with sensation he hadn’t known in years, sensation he could barely remember.
The distraction cost him and she took advantage, swiping in with the knife in a move that showed practice and training to rival his own. His instincts took over and he rolled with her, taking her arm and flipping her as she cut a ragged wound across his shoulder. The hot flash of pain brought his focus back and they rolled together, neither able to take a position of advantage on the ground.
The woman—not a pirate?—sprang back up and jumped on the balls of her feet, those cheeks flushed like he’d imagined and her eyes glinting bright in the moonlight. “Of course a giant like you isn’t going to make it easy for me. What are you, anyway?” The run and the fight hadn’t winded her and as his subdermal translator worked, he realized she wasn’t speaking IC, interstellar common. His translator identified her language of origin as English, an Earth language. Strange.