Bane: A SciFi Alien Romance (The Ladyships Book 2)

by Bex McLynn

  Maude waited for Seph to jump in, but her cousin said nothing. Seph had slunk over to the wall, and now rested her shoulder against the wall as she wrapped her arms about her middle. Maude knew this pose. Seph, when she was a child, would huddle in a corner, stewing in her bruised feelings and confusing thoughts. Time or a hard jolt from reality were the only remedies.

  Maude turned back to Arana. “Thank you for the assurances, but I won’t be going to the Academe.”

  Arana surprised her by addressing Gummy in a harsh, reprimanding tone. “Oh, Vedma, surely you’ve told her.”

  Gummy waved her hand. “You’re squeezing a rock, Arana. You know you ain’t gettin’ her.”

  “Tell me what?” Maude asked.

  Arana gave Gummy a disappointing look, then addressed Maude. “My dear, you must understand, your discovery has greatly impacted the Dominion. This is the first time that a race, outside of the Teras and the Athelasans themselves, has been gifted with technopathy. Such an astounding find cannot be limited to just one house. Plus, accounting for your child, well, you simply can’t stay with House Borac.”

  The room fell into silence, leaving only the sound of Maude’s heart pounding in her ears. What Arana proposed meant taking her away from Therion. Away from the future that she had started to envision with Seph and the Teras who would be her family.

  “That can’t be the only option,” she said to the entire room, but no one answered.

  Finally, Seph huffed pushed away from the wall. “I’m calling your bluff now, Arana. They can’t force you, Maude. Just like they couldn’t force me.”

  Maude shook her head in question.

  “I’ve got a battleship backing me up.” Seph gestured to her. “And you’ve got Kora. If they force you, just unleash hell on them, Maudie.”

  But she wouldn’t do that. Would she?

  She turned to Arana to assure her. Fighting over something that should be a basic right—her right to choose—would be madness.

  Arana’s hardened expression halted her. “May I see it?”

  Kora shifted under Maude’s clothes, rippling the fabric without emitting her usual clicks as she formed into armored scales.

  “Ech, show her the thingy, girly,” Gummy said.

  Maude held up her arm.

  “[I go].” Kora obliged her gesture by slithering out of her shirt cuff and encasing her hand in a demigauntlet of armored scales. A sleek, oblong dart nozzle formed on back of her hand.

  Arana, who had been leaning forward, eased back in her seat. “Truly, now?”

  “If it was gonna shoot you, it would’ve done it already. That thingy is ornery.” Gummy chuckled—one hard, dry bark of laughter. “I like it.”

  Arana held her breath, and Maude knew that she accessed her technopathy.

  Kora flared, her scales rattling, then she settled, sharing her smugness with Maude. Apparently, Kora had no interest in communicating with Arana. In fact, Maude believed that Kora had blocked her.

  Arana exhaled. “Where did it come from?”

  Maude shrugged. “I woke up with Kora already attached to me, so I don’t know.”

  Arana kept her eyes cautiously trained on Maude as she gestured to the young Teras woman behind her. “Hyva, dear, if you would?”

  Hyva walked forward with slow, measured steps. She also held her breath, her eyelids fluttering as she approached.

  Arana reached out, placing her hand on Hyva’s arm, stopping her. “That’s close enough.”

  Hyva exhaled a long breath and sagged her shoulders. She blinked and her eyes regained their focus.

  “Remarkable,” she said, then pivoted around, and walked away.

  Kora sent amusement teetering down their connection, and Maude didn’t know what to make of it? Was it delight or humoring? She couldn’t say.

  Arana turned to Gummy. “You were there. Did you find anything else like this?”

  “Ain’t never found nothin’ like that.”

  Arana frowned at Gummy and then flicked her gaze to Maude. “And it speaks with you? It has moya?”

  Kora rippled and a disconcerting feeling followed. Maude wished that she could communicate thoughts directly to Kora, because Maude would tell her that she got the same read on Lady Arana. Something shifted for the Teras woman. She’d changed her agenda in a matter of seconds, no longer pushing the Academe on her.

  “Yes,” Maude said cautiously.

  “Aye, now she does.” Gummy sounded irritated. “But she fought it. Just like that one did.” She flipped her hand at Seph, and it concerned Maude that Seph had no retort. Not even an eye roll or snort in response to Gummy’s criticism. “They’re both soft. Caroa.”

  Arana sighed. “Oh, for the love of—not those stones again.”

  “You can shove your stones up your butt, Vedma,” Seph said quietly as she strode for the door. “Are we done here? You know what, never mind. I’m calling it. We’re done here.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Therion sat on the deck, leaning against the bulkhead and humming to Prykimis. He dropped his voice to a low register that thrummed with the engines, ensuring that Maude rested peacefully. She’d insisted that Therion return junior officer what’s-his-ass to his quarters. Ech, it was easy enough to oblige her request. Nothing but a bit of juggling. He moved Gummy and Gappa into the Thane Hall and Chambers, shoved what’s-his-ass back into his shitty little cabin, and then escorted Maude to the commander’s cabin. His cabin.

  Everything took an unnecessarily long time because Gummy shuffled along like a geriatric snail, but it was worth it. Therion now had the extreme pleasure of watching Maude sleep in his bunk. Pride swelled in his chest that he could accommodate her request, to give her something that she wanted, especially after the day she had.

  Maude had simply described the meeting with the Trine as ‘interesting.’ Whereas Seph, with grouchy verboseness, had declared it ‘a complete crapfest that’d run outta toilet paper.’

  Therion hadn’t a clue what ‘toilet paper’ was, but he’d laughed anyway. Gods, he’d laughed so long and so hard that Zver nodded to Dius, and then Dius clamped his meaty hand to the base of Therion’s neck and had rammed his noggin into the bulkhead a few times.

  By Unholde, that had been worth it. His unchecked laughter masked his bone-deep relief that the Trine hadn’t snatched Maude up. That they hadn’t tried to muscle in with Fleet grunts and forcibly remand Maude into their custody. Not that they could have easily done that. Zver had Sacana Turris locked down tighter than his thanely clenched asshole.

  But still, Therion had worried.

  The door chime pinged softly. Glancing at his WristCune, he saw that Rannik hailed him. He pushed up from the floor and snagged a shirt. Despite how Maude reassured him the other night that he wasn’t a scrawny bastard, he wanted to cover up anyway.

  He heard the locks pop on the hatch as he approached. Pulling the hatch open, he scanned the corridor, dimly lit by the overnight-cycle lighting, and spotted his nephew.

  Rannik made his way down the corridor, walking on his hands like an acrobat. His legs were positioned perfectly straight into the air.

  “Look at this, Ther!” Rannik said without looking up. “Isn’t it the greatest? Kora let me run diagnostics on her logic gates and—”

  Therion’s heart spiked as he stepped into the corridor and hastened to close the hatch behind him, not wanting to wake Maude in his panic. But Unholde take him, if his gangly nephew padded down the corridor, balanced on only his hands, that meant Kora had wrapped herself around him.

  “Rannik,” Therion hissed at him. “Does your da know you’re playing with a UFO?”

  Gods, what an asinine question. Of course his brother knew. Zver knew everything that happened in his domain. Although, Therion couldn’t fathom why Zver didn’t interfere.

  Rannik lowered his feet to the deck and stood, his face flushed blue. “UFO?”

  “Uber feral organism.”

  Rannik rubbed his neck—some
thing he’d been doing since he was a tyke—and Therion saw bits of Kora coiled around his skin, peeking out from his cadet uniform jacket cuff and collar. “Um, Great-Gamma knew about it first?”

  Well, hell. “And what did I say about anything Gummy endorses?”

  “That it’s probably immoral?”

  “No ‘probably’ about it.” He ran his eyes over Rannik, taking in his bright eyes and even breathing. “Hey, Kora hasn’t darted you, has she?”

  Rannik’s brow furrowed. “No? Why would she?”

  “Because you’re not clade.”

  Rannik sighed and rolled his eyes. “Therion, I became clade, like, days ago.”

  “You’ve been mucking around with Kora for days?” He shook off his astonishment and stared suspiciously at Rannik. “And your da didn’t stop you?”

  “Seph told him Kora was cool.” He glanced down the hall, as if seeking someone. “Which I don’t quite know why temperature is an endorsement.”

  Therion, also dumbfounded, joined Rannik in gazing down the empty corridor. “Huh.”

  They stood in silence, and Therion knew his nephew shared his confusion toward Humans. But if cool meant good, then at least Therion had something working in his favor when it came to Maude. The Teras naturally ran cooler than other species.

  He turned back to his nephew. “Well, I’d let you show Maude your trick, but she’s sleeping.”

  Rannik waved him off. “Oh, I didn’t want to disturb her. Just wanted to show you. Kora is the greatest. External sensors make up most of her components.” He gestured to his entire body as he started to back up. “Look. I’m walking backward. Have no idea where I’m going, but I’m not gonna bump into—” He hit the corridor bulkhead and staggered. “I’m all right.”

  Therion sighed. This tyke about killed him with his adorableness.

  Rannik started again. “Watch, Therion!”

  With longer strides, Ran backed down the corridor and turned at the junction. Gone. Therion could hear his nephew’s retreating footsteps and enthusiastic one-sided chatter to Kora.

  Therion couldn’t stop the goofy smile from spreading across his face. Rannik, like Therion, wasn’t a technopath, and also like Therion, Ran managed to bond with the Athelasan tech.

  Therion stared a moment at the empty corridor as he shook his head. “Ech. Tykes and their bloodthirsty sentient weaponry.” He turned toward the direction from which Rannik originally arrived. “Ran doesn’t know that Zver has you shadowing him while he’s playing with Kora, right?”

  Dius rounded the junction and strode toward him, his heavy boots soundlessly covering the distance. With his eyes locked on the far end of the corridor, he snatched Therion by the throat.

  Therion squawked as his cousin dragged him forward. “No clue. You gonna tell him?”

  “No.” He wheezed.

  “Good. Don’t ruin the boy’s good time by being Fucking Therion.” Dius shoved him away and resumed walking.

  By the gods, his cousin excelled at being a brutish bastard. Therion thoroughly approved. Dius could tear down the whole Tendex if it stopped nasty shits from messing with Rannik.

  Rubbing his tender throat, he went back into his cabin.

  The rustling of sheets met his ears, and then he heard Maude’s sweet, chiming voice. “Therion?”

  “Aye, I’m here.”

  He could see an outline of her in the dim light. She rose up, propping herself on her elbow. “Was that Kora? I heard her say ‘I go.’”

  His legs twitched with the impulse to hustle back to the bunk. “She’s made fast friends with my nephew.”

  “Yeah, um, aye. I had wondered how they were getting along.” The sheets rustled more as she sat up fully.

  “Wait? You knew?”

  “Aye. Rannik was interested in her from the start, and Kora seemed, I don’t know, delighted with his attention. Are you sure he’s not technopathic too?”

  “Nah, he doesn’t have it.” Therion leaned against the bulkhead as an ache started in his chest.

  Almost every conversation about Rannik concluded like this. Someone would ask an innocently probing question about his nephew’s lack of technopathy. Nothing but a polite precursor to move the conversation along because the Dominion discounted Rannik.

  Maude rubbed at her eyes. “Really? Then he’s something else, Therion. I have technopathy and struggle with Kora, but Ran clicked with her right away. It was kinda amazing to watch. Like giving a boy his first doggie.”

  He had no idea what a ‘doggie’ was, but that didn’t matter. Maude, an Athela, had voiced genuine interest in Ran for being none other than his amazing self.

  A rush of affection swept through him. His legs and arms bunched and coiled, wanting to stride the two-paces across the cabin to snatch Maude up, hold her close, and whisper heartfelt gratitude into her ear.

  Rannik was the best fucking soul in House Borac, and all his nephew ever got was shit because being claimed by a thane wasn’t enough. The Dominion forever stamped him as a xero.

  “Ran.” His nephew’s name caught in his throat. Gods, he was a good kid. “Ran’s like your nephew. The one Seph told you about back home… Claudy? Zver isn’t Ran’s father by birth. He took him.”

  “Good for Zver.” He could hear the admiration in her voice and his heart swelled more. “I’m glad he adopted a child into his family.”

  Right. Zver. Adopt. He almost chuckled. “Oh, no. Zver didn’t adopt Ran. He took him. Didn’t go through the official procedures, at all.”

  The following silence stretched until the lighting in the cabin brightened. She must have used her technopathy to bring up the lights, which had advantages and disadvantages. Although he couldn’t stare like a lovesick pup into the shadows any longer, he did get to see her. Maude’s hair caught the light, becoming shimmering strands of gold and bronze. Her green eyes also sparkled. What a shame that she gazed at him with such glittering alarm.

  She shimmied to the edge of the bunk. “He kidnapped him?”

  “Kidnapped him.” Now he chuckled, because her question served as the answer. However, her astonished, wide eyes sobered him. “Sort of?”

  “Well,” her brows creased, “isn’t that… wrong?”

  Unholde drag him down, Maude was just so damn nice. Moments like this reinforced that she really came from a different world. Her flabbergasted and wary reaction to common Teras culture and practices spurred a protective response from him.

  He tamped down on the urge to snatch her up and cocoon her on his homeworld

  “Nah.” He waved her off, hoping his lack of concern offered her reassurances. “Rannik’s way better here than at his original house. Here, he’s a thane’s son.”

  “I don’t quite—?” Maude cut off, inhaling and holding her breath. On an exhale, she said miserably, “Oh. A xero.”

  Therion rapped his knuckles gently on the bulkhead, signaling to Kimis that he knew what she’d done. Prykimis had fed the definition of xero to Maude, and now Maude knew that Rannik was a clutch birth, thus not conceived as an heir, and because he’d failed to develop technopathy, his mother cast him aside.

  Maude turned her saddened gaze to him and a small wounded sigh escaped her lips. “Oh, poor Rannik.”

  Therion went to her. Crossed the tiny cabin in two strides and sank onto the bunk next to her. “Maude, Ran’s life is not entirely shit. House Borac is bursting with xeroes—who are all obnoxious arses, but deeply loved obnoxious arses. Our house is truly the best place for him.”

  “It is?”

  Therion shrugged. “Sure. No one in-house gives a damn. That, and Ran is fucking amazing. He captured my brother’s heart.”

  She flicked her eyes to her belly. “So, within your house, if my baby doesn’t develop technopathy—”

  “Maude, don’t think that way.” He softened his voice as he twined her fingers with his own over her belly. “Your daughter will always be cherished. I’ll make sure that your thane’ll promise the same and to keep
you two together.”

  Where he’d hoped to reassure her, she stiffened. “My thane?”

  Frantically he reviewed what he’d said, scouring it for anything that would cause this reaction from her. Surely, after meeting with the Trine today, she understood that thanes would begin sending their preliminary contracts for her to review.

  She leaned away from him. “What do you mean ‘my thane?’”

  He searched her face, seeing nothing but confusion. “Seph told you about her suitors, aye?”

  “Yeah, um, aye. And she also told each one ‘no.’”

  By Direis. Maude had been told, but that didn’t mean she understood. “Maude, Seph’s saying ‘no,’ but Zver’s the one making sure it’s unequivocally understood as ‘fuck off.’”

  She flicked her eyes away and then back to him. “But the Athela chooses. That’s all everyone has been telling me. That I get to choose.”

  “Choose a suitor.” Therion’s gut twisted as he realized he would be the one to tell her. “That’s what that archaic saying originally meant. An Athela got to choose the suitor or a suitor would be chosen for her.”

  An Athela choosing was an illusion of choice. It stopped house feuds while breeding more technopaths for the Dominion. Pick a bed, because sleeping on the floor wasn’t an option.

  Instead of her outrage, Maude perked up and smiled at him. Gods, he’d been as blunt as a cudgel, yet she’d misunderstood him.

  “That’s easy,” she beamed at him and broke him apart. “I choose you.”

  Her declaration hadn’t turned into the romantic moment Maude had envisioned. Once Therion mentioned suitors, she’d jumped at the chance. After the horrid meeting with the Trine, she needed him to know. Home, to her, was him. Only him.

  She wanted Therion.

  However, instead of Therion sweeping her up into his arms and plundering her with cool, refreshing kisses, he rose from the bunk with a fierce frown on his face and stalked to the other side of the cabin.

  “Maude, you don’t understand.” He rumbled at her. “You need a thane.”