Lore’s focus narrowed on Yuri in suspicion. “You feel her?”
“Yes, my lord. As I said, it is not like your connection. It is a different thing. Now that she is learning how to handle it, she is becoming stronger. Have you not found it so?”
“Yes,” Lore agreed grimly. He turned to the bedroom door.
As he entered, Lore was a bit surprised at his relief. Thomas was nowhere near Kenna and it soothed some small part of him. Needing other males to keep a certain distance from his woman was a primitive feeling he’d never encountered before. A territorial awareness he was not comfortable with because it was threaded with deadly intent.
Nodding to Thomas, Lore held the door for him to leave.
Kenna opened her eyes as soon as she felt Lore in the room. They stared at each other a long moment after Thomas left. Complete privacy was a shock. It had come so abruptly and been so long awaited. Lore felt unprepared for the relief of it but harshly aware of his urgent need to touch her. Unable to quiet that craving, he was at the same moment determined not to rush her.
He’d closed the conversation with Gregory in response to the spike of fear he’d felt in her. She wasn’t ready for what he needed, but there was no escaping it either. Lore looked away. Glancing at the closet then back at her, he smiled. “I see you made yourself comfortable,” his low voice growled. She was in his clothes. He liked that. In the past, he’d never liked it when a woman put on his clothes. Everything about Kenna was different.
“It felt like the right thing to do, your highness,” she answered softly.
Lore’s eyebrows rose at her use of his title. “Feeling the need for distance?” As he spoke, he moved away from her to the bed and started removing his period costume.
“Feeling a lot of things and all of them are insane. I’m a mess,” she answered honestly, but didn’t look away from him as a stranger might as he began removing clothes.
He concentrated on getting out of the costume for a few seconds. When he’d managed to remove all except the tights, he glanced at her before turning to the closet. “I’ll be right back.”
This intimate connection was a bastard to deal with. Not strangers, not lovers, so wrapped around each other it was hard to tell where he ended and she started.
Undressing with her in the room underlined the intimate relationship. Moving away from her to do it, letting her feel that she had choices was all the space he could give her. She wasn’t ready to plunge into a physical relationship. He wasn’t able to let her stay out of one. Beyond that, he suspected the nature of her needs wouldn’t allow her that freedom either. The converging pressures were immense and unrelenting.
In the closet, Lore hissed a curse, pausing to gather control. He was driven to establish his claim on her. She felt the same pull but fought it hard. Her morals, her lifelong views of self-respect and the intimacy of a sexual relationship not being casual were wearing her out. Knowing she was tired of the battle and yet unable to give it up made him ache. His recurring urge to remove her pain was difficult to contain.
Going in the closet was supposed to help him resist the impulse to free her of her internal battles by simply taking charge again. She wouldn’t have resisted him but nor would he be able to say she had chosen to be with him. She could never doubt that her body had been surrounded willingly.
He’d always been a dominant male in his personal life, but this was more. He wasn’t sure if it was more because she was incapable of hiding her struggles from him or because of the rapid changes they were experiencing. His natural instinct to manage her pain and fear was not comfortable for either of them.
Kenna closed her eyes as his fine backside disappeared. Have mercy. The man was handsome and built like living rock. All hard muscles and flexing strength, though if he clenched his jaw any tighter, it’d break. What did he do? Spend all his free time in a gym?
“I train what little military we have,” he answered calmly, reappearing in jeans and pulling on a t-shirt. “Three times a week. You’re not really interested in this, are you?”
“I didn’t send the question. I thought it to myself.” Kenna didn’t move as she voiced the disturbing fact.
Lore stopped in front of her, hands resting on lean hips as he regarded her half-reclining form on the couch. “We’ve been getting better at communication.” He frowned slightly as he tried to be nonchalant about hearing her thoughts.
“Better is not the term I’d use for it.” A surreal cold enveloped her.
Now that she knew others could feel her, she wasn’t sure how much they could know of her thoughts. Lore had just answered her mental musing. She hadn’t directed the thoughts to him. Nor had she actively tried to block them. What if all those others were getting a clearer channel into her brain? What the hell would that mean? How did she turn it off?
Was it only this morning that she’d been a nearly normal person? Okay, maybe not all that normal to begin with, but clearly not a perpetually paranormal, mind-reading freak of nature! She’d only been a part-time freak of nature back then.
Lore dropped to his knees beside her. She was curled into the arm of the couch. The instinct to shield her was overwhelming. His long body bent over hers as he gathered her into his arms without disturbing her position.
“Not a freak, little one,” he whispered, his mouth in her hair as he surrounded her with his large body, offering comfort in its most basic form. His instinctual male beast would give her the safety she craved in any form he could.
Thick arms encircled her as she turned her face into his neck. They needed this contact. The firm but tender embrace gave them both some relief. She knew what he was doing and was grateful.
“Oh yeah? How did you know that’s what I thought? Because it was just a thought, Lore, and you answered it. Can you read every thought I have?” Kenna questioned shakily.
“I don’t think so. I guess, well, I don’t know. You’re right. This is different and strange. But whatever is happening to us is happening to both of us. We can handle this together. What we need is more information. If I were a really smart guy, I’d call Yuri in here and question him about that shit he told us in the car. Being alone with you is such a luxury that I can’t bring myself to do it.”
She pulled her face out of his neck and looked up at him. “Do you feel the others too?”
“Others? What others?” Lore demanded.
Her brow wrinkled. “When I sat down, I tried being quiet and finding the connection, the ones to Yuri, Julianna and Thomas, it worked. But they’re not the only ones I feel. There are others, many others. I asked Thomas if there were more than the three of them and he said there was. He was so calm about it. I asked who they are and why I feel them. He told me not to ask questions I don’t want answers to. That’s when you felt me panic.”
Kenna was panting as she finished her explanation. Clutching him tightly while her eyes darted back and forth between his, her agitation rose as his shock flowed through her. Lore didn’t bother to repress a frown as he grasped the quantum leap this convoluted mess had taken. Whatever switch had been flipped, its ripple of power was spreading way beyond the two of them and the few people surrounding them.
It took concentration to control a brutal defensive reaction as he held her trembling body. She was exhausted, both mentally and emotionally. The way this kept spreading and twisting, along with the male-female chaos churning between them, had her completely drained.
Her resources had been stretched thin an hour ago. The woman in his arms now felt exposed and vulnerable. Even in his arms she wasn’t safe and that was fucking wrong. He couldn’t defend her from some strangers invading her mind and that offended him on every level. Even the new ones he was developing through this constantly changing experience.
First, he wasn’t going to share her with anyone, much less with a mass of strangers who could slither into her head. Second, he wasn’t going to share her with anyone! If he counted down past the top-ten items of unacceptable crap he was willing to kill to correct, he might get past the not sharing part and get on with a list of what was fucked up about this.
Still kneeling beside the couch, holding her tightly, he bellowed, “Yuri, get your ass in here!”
The commander opened the door immediately and stepped into the room.
“What the fuck is happening to Kenna?” Lore demanded. “And don’t tell me you don’t know.” Rising slowly, Lore shifted to settle Kenna on his lap. A fierce urge to shield her beat at him, requiring he wrap his body around hers.
“My lady is in a difficult position, sir. It would be better if Julianna explained,” Yuri calmly replied.
“Why?” Lore demanded. “Why can’t you explain it?”
“I am not a first daughter. The first daughters have held the knowledge while our royal first daughter has been absent from our homeland. Julianna will be here any minute. I have called her.”
Just then Julianna entered the room. After bowing deeply to them, she smiled in her regal way. “How may I help, my lord and lady?” she asked calmly.
“What’s happening to Kenna? Yuri says you can explain the others she feels. What is this connection between us and why is it growing?” Lore demanded.
“Indeed,” Julianna agreed cheerfully. “It grows when the royal first daughter connects with her One. The only One.” Julianna paused as if that should be evident. The blank stares meeting her gaze prompted more explanation. “You, my lord, are the One for our royal first daughter. The One makes the royal first daughter whole, and that is very good.”
“What does that mean, Julianna?” Lore questioned, trying not to frown. “We already know we’re connected in ways that are different from regular couples. Tell us why. We need to know how to turn it off.”
“Off? There is no off. She can’t quit being who she was born to be. You can’t quit being who you were born to be.” Julianna’s brow wrinkled.
“Start at the beginning. Explain it. Explain it like you would to a child,” Lore repeated calmly.
“Of course, my lord. The beginning. There isn’t time for all of it, just some. The dinner is soon and we must dress my lady,” Julianna dithered.
“Fine, start now,” Lore made it a command.
“Yes, yes. Before this time, um…before, there were more than one type of people. Many types of people lived among us. Many who were different from humans. Those differences made regular humans afraid. Regular-type people hunted and killed the different ones. But here, in this place, the regular people did not hunt their friends. However it could not be stopped. There came the inquisition, witch hunts, regular people sent by that age’s Christian church just looking for a reason to kill.
“The people you feel, my lady, are all blood relatives of yours or mine, most very distant relatives now. We have been called Keepers, Children of the Gods,” Julianna shrugged. “We are different and that means we always hide our differences from regular humans.
“You are the Royal First Daughter of the Keepers. The bearer of, oh what is the word? Perhaps the beacon…no, not exactly that, ah…antenna? Descendent of the queen we lost, you returning completes the children of the Keepers,” Julianna ended, and smiled at both of them as if that were supposed to explain everything.
After a frozen pause, Kenna asked carefully, “Julianna, how do I complete those people?”
“You have found your One,” Julianna enthused. “The One with whom you are complete so you complete us all. We can hear. We are united. We are whole once again. Only a royal first daughter brings this joyful freedom. She connects us all. We have been mostly silent since your ancestor lost her One to death.”
“How many? How many of these people are there and can every one of them hear my thoughts?” Kenna’s voice shook as she asked the question. Julianna’s explanation created more questions than answers, but this one was paramount.
Julianna’s hands flew to her cheeks in shock. “No. No. Only the royal first daughter makes us able to hear each other’s hearts again. We do not, cannot…ah, come to her heart uninvited. My family is bound to your family in the old ways. We can feel you but not listen to your thoughts. Others cannot enter your mind, my lady. I don’t know how many of us there are. We will find out through you.”
Lore and Kenna stared at Julianna, stunned at the enormity of what she said. “So you’re saying,” Kenna started carefully, trying to grasp the huge concepts involved, “that we are humans who are not as human as everyone else?”
“Yes, that’s a good way to put it,” Julianna smiled.
“I am some sort of enabler?” Kenna questioned.
“You are the Royal First Daughter of the Gods. You are much more. You let us become what we were born to be,” Julianna explained.
“Is something weird going to happen? Am I going to grow scales or glowing eyes?” Kenna wanted to know.
Julianna laughed softly. “My lady, you are very funny. It grows late and we must dress you for the feast.”
“Answer me, Julianna. What do you think is going to happen to me?” Kenna demanded.
Clasping her hands in front of her and turning a serious expression on Kenna, Julianna answered, “You will find much joy with my lord. You will make beautiful babes. You will gift us all with understanding and joy by joining with him. You bring the sun to shine on your people. Since we have not had your family with us for so many difficult years, we no longer know more than that.”