3013: CLAIMED (3 page)

“Jax! Stop ignoring me. You can’t go in there,” his father growled.

“Watch me.”

“Damn it, have some sense! You have no authority in this!”

“Oh, but I will. Anything that has to do with Serra is our business, and therefore gives us the authority to act on her behalf.” Jax’s smile was feral. “She belongs to us. Consider her claimed.”

***

Chapter Two

Terror was a living, breathing entity inside of Serra.

Since she was young, she’d always had an issue with panic attacks whenever she felt stressed or anxious. Over the years, she’d learned how to stave them off a little better, but right now all of the training she had instilled in herself had disappeared like a puff of smoke.

Treason.

Just the word alone sent icy shivers of fear tingling down her spine. Seeing the watchful way
Regent Wyland-Ross and High Commander Newgate studied her from across the table had anxiety spiking through her system like a turbo-booster. They wanted answers she couldn’t give. Wanted explanations to things she didn’t know what to say in response to, because she simply didn’t know.

Her throat felt like the deserts of the badlands, and she tried to hide the shaking of her hands by gripping them together tight. She wanted to explain that the way High Commander Newgate was glaring at her was making it more difficult for her to speak, but she couldn’t. The ramifications to whatever response she gave were just too crucial.

If she said something wrong it could cost her everything…even her life.

She was a scientist for the Alliance, an inventor who created technology that helped protect the people of Earth, its allies and throughout space on stations and ships that traveled the galaxy. She had dedicated her life to keeping people safe. Why in god’s name would anyone think she had betrayed everything she believed in? And for what, credits? The mere thought was utterly insulting, and more than a little hurtful. She might have been able to stir up more outrage over everything if she wasn’t so fucking scared.

Serra had just arrived back on Earth after a long voyage from Alpha Station: X20 when she and her two guards had been taken into custody. Her first reaction had been a mixture of confusion and irritation, but after she had been shown into the interrogation room, that had turned to fear.

She’d been doing upgrades on the shielding of all the outposts between X20 to Earth, making sure that each station located in Alliance territory was well protected. She had built the system, and adding additional layers to the shield ensured that everyone remained safe.

It was a duty she took very seriously.

It was her technology, and no one knew the specs or algorithms like she did. Traveling so much was draining, but it was necessary for her to be onsite to do the calibrations, so she dealt with it. The good thing was that the upgrades took very little time to install, giving her time to work on her other projects during the long journey from station to station.

Serra knew she could get lost in her work, and she was grateful that her mother didn’t complain…too much. Since she’d begun traveling, Tania had insisted on accompanying Serra. At first, Serra had been too young to argue, but over the years they had fallen into a companionable understanding. Tania made sure Serra remembered to eat and took care of the day-to-day details that she didn’t want to be bothered with.

Due to her status, Serra was often treated like an honored guest wherever they went. She didn’t care about the pomp and fuss, but her mother enjoyed the benefits bestowed upon them wherever they went. At times having her mother with her was a strain on Serra’s nerves. They didn’t really see eye-to-eye on many issues, but Serra knew she needed someone to take care of the small things that allowed her to focus on her work. Sure, she could have simply hired an assistant to take care of those things, but Tania was basically her only family, so it was important to Serra to try and keep that connection, no matter how tenuous it was, and Tania’s own assistant took care of most of the details anyways.

When Serra had scheduled her trip back to Earth, she had felt a little guilty because she knew a part of her needed a break from her mother. Tania Lysander-Dobbs wouldn’t set foot back on Earth if there was any chance she would run into Serra’s fathers. Throughout the years, Serra had heard countless stories about how horrible it had been for Tania to be claimed by General
Cade Lysander and General Andrew Dobbs. Her mother had a tendency to exaggerate, but after neither man had come after her, Serra assumed that what Tania had said was true.

There was a price to pay for being a scroll.

When a woman was chosen, the two elite soldiers that claimed her would have their initials tattooed on the left side of her face, marking her as theirs for the world to see. In return, the men would have a similar tattoo placed on their left neck, shoulder and arm as a sign of pride to have claimed a woman. These markings took the place of archaic symbols such as wedding bands to declare them a bonded unit…if there was love within the pairing.

There was no love between Serra’s parents, and there never had been. Serra’s fathers had never gotten the bonding tattoos. Theirs had been an arranged bonding, an alliance of three powerful families that was more for political gain than anything else.
Growing up, Serra was never very close to either of her fathers. Even as a young girl, she knew that no one really understood her, and it became clear that her entire family saw her as an oddity.

After receiving the enhancements when she turned ten, Serra had known she was an anomaly. When she had scored perfect on her placement tests, the trainers had given her further testing as it became evident her intelligence was far more advanced than most elites. To everyone’s surprise, they had discovered that she was able to use more of her brain than others, even with their genetic enhancements. The change made her incredibly intelligence, but it had also made her even more different when all she wanted was to be like everyone else.

Serra had never gotten her wish, and it became painfully obvious that she would never be normal.
Doctors had diagnosed her with a rare disorder, similar to what used to be called autism back in the past before medical technology had removed such anomalies from genetic coding. The condition had been aggravated due to the genetic enhancements, and there was nothing they could do for her once she had gone through the change.

Her grandparents had cut her out of their lives when she had only been a child. At first they had been proud of her intelligence, but when they discovered she was socially awkward and prone to panic attacks, they had written her off as flawed.
Perhaps she was, but it was something she lived with, and had even come to enjoy.

She wasn’t like anyone else, and that uniqueness made her special.

But special didn’t mean accepted…

Her fathers had never been able to relate to her, not that they had ever really tried. She had simply faded away from them over the years. As she’d matured, they had made no move to reconnect to her. She had thought to try and bridge the gap between them two years ago, but when she had gotten their response saying that they had no place for her in their lives, she’d given up. Cade and Andrew seemed far too busy with their own lives, spending time with their mistress instead of worrying about their chosen or their daughter.

As a child, she’d been terrified that her parents would hand her over to the medical staff. She had heard some doctors say that they wanted to study her brain to find out how she was able to use a portion that they had previously been unable to stimulate. She’d had nightmares for weeks about doctors wanting to cut her open to study her like they had done with the Zyphir after the alien invaders had attacked Earth.

Serra had been relieved when she had been transferred into the Academy in the Capital, where they were better equipped to handle someone with her capabilities. It was there she finally found a place where she’d felt like she belonged, only it wasn’t the place…it was with Jax and Sully.

Jax Spartan and Sullivan Archer had been two of the older members at the training facility, and upon her arrival they’d made it clear to the others that she was to be left alone when other recruits wanted to mess with her because of her age. Although they had been tasked with looking out for the new recruits and everyone at that facility followed them without hesitation, it had taken Serra some time to understand she was truly safe with them.

They had become her protectors, her friends and confidants.

It had almost destroyed her when they’d been sent to a space station for their first assignment. Serra had started to write letters to them, forgoing vid messages to tell them of her days on Earth. They wrote back when they could, but Serra used her letters to them as a sort of diary, allowing her to write her feelings and thoughts down when she had such a difficult time expressing them to others. She’d liked knowing that Jax and Sully knew about her life and what she was doing. It made her feel closer to them, even though she was light years away, and it gave her the illusion that she wasn’t so alone.

When they had come back to Earth when she was sixteen, her feelings for them had changed. As a child she had never seen them as the young men they were, but when they came back she got her first taste of lust. Despite what her mother had told her about being claimed, seeing them again had allowed Serra to dream about what it could be like to be bonded with two men she truly cared for.

For one glorious year after they were back on Earth, it had been like they had never left. When they weren’t on duty they would visit her at the Academy. They would often bring her little gifts that she would hide away, and still cherished to this day. It had been almost comical how two of the strongest, most commanding elite soldiers had started to court her. To the outside world Jax and Sully were men to be feared, but they were gentle with her and never hesitated to show her how much they cared.

She had fallen in love with both Jax and Sully before she ever even knew what love really was, and when her mother had torn her away from them, she had been devastated. Because she was underage, she had to abide by her mother’s wishes when Tania had taken her off planet. She had always known she would make it back to Jax and Sully one day, but over the years it hadn’t happened.

Something had changed.

Serra wasn’t sure how it had happened, but Jax and Sully had faded from her life. She had tried to write to them for awhile, but after they had stopped responding, she had given up sending the messages and simply stored them in her data files. She enjoyed her life of traveling. Her work was challenging and kept her busy. Still, she’d wanted to reach out to them, but every time she thought about it, she felt a little sick. Her heart would race and her head would begin to throb with a massive headache.

Every year she arranged to have time away from her mother and her work to attend the Freedom Day Gala back on Earth for one simple reason. She wanted to go to Jax and Sully, to seek them out and tell them how much she missed them. But something always stopped her. For some reason she couldn’t do it.

Every time she thought about Jax and Archer, the panic would take over, and when she saw them, terror made her flee even as her heart sang at the sight of them. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, but she knew something was. Hell, she had even gone as far as getting a med-scan to see if there was some medical reason for her abnormal response to them, but the results hadn’t given her any answers. Despite her severe reaction every time she thought of them, she still loved them, even if she couldn’t have them.

But she wanted them now.

Desperately.

A hand slammed down on the table, jerking Serra from her thoughts and had fear surging through her. “Ms. Lysander. You have to give us something. If you keep stonewalling us, there will be nothing we can do to help you when official charges are filed,” High Commander Newgate ordered.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” Serra whispered. “I told you, I don’t know anything. I don’t know what else I can say.”

Whenever she got agitated to the point of having a panic attack, she knew she needed certain things to help her combat the fear. She needed to find a quiet place where she felt safe and could refocus herself. Even better would be to wrap herself in her gravity cloak and curl up in a corner somewhere until the dread faded.

She needed to get the hell out of that room before she completely lost her shit.

“I need a moment…”

“Ms. Lysander. This would all go quicker if you just answer our questions,”
Regent Wyland-Ross said, sympathy showing in her eyes.

“I can’t answer what I don’t know!”

“You know something!” High Commander Newgate accused. “You’re not leaving here until we find out what you’re hiding.”

Serra knew she was in trouble as her breath began coming in harsh gasps as the terror spiked through her. Buzzing sounded in her ears as her vision blurred. Damn it, damn it, she knew she was headed toward a full-blown attack, and if High Commander Newgate and Regent Wyland-Ross didn’t know about her condition they could see her breakdown as guilt.

Please, please god, don’t try to touch me.

When she was in full panic mode she couldn’t stand having people touch her. She was hypersensitive to most things, and it only got worse when she was in this type of condition. Wrapping her arms around herself tight, she tried to regain some semblance of control as she became light-headed. She began tapping the fingers of each hand to her thumbs in sequence, counting silently in an attempt to calm herself with the gesture she had learned as a child. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. If she couldn’t regain some control, soon she wouldn’t be aware of anything around her. She was dangerous if that happened and would react without thinking.

“Ms. Lysander?”

Regent Wyland-Ross stood and started around the table as the door burst open.

“Don’t touch her!”

Serra turned her head and blinked rapidly. As if they’d heard her silent plea, Jax and Sully stormed into the room. Ignoring the others, they came to her, and she knew they could see how precariously close she was to losing herself to the hysterical blindness that could consume her. She wanted to tell them how happy she was to see them, how much she needed them there with her, but the words were locked in her throat that had all but closed as the muscles of her body locked up.