What was she supposed to say? She’d gone and gotten herself quasi-married to a crazy man who thought he was from outer space? “I’ve met a man who can hear my thoughts, and he can talk to me without speaking.”
“Hmmm. And you think Morgaine can help you?”
She nodded. “She has to. I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t.” Brianna was desperate.
Larin paused, appeared to concentrate on something for a minute before his expression cleared. “Morgaine has decreed, to fulfill your destiny you must go with him.” He looked at her when she gasped, then frowned, took a step toward her and stopped, fisting his hands at his sides.
“What? I can’t go with him. He says that he’s from another planet.” She stood so quickly the chair behind her shuddered a bit and almost fell over.
Larin gave her a sardonic look and stepped away from the window. “What makes you think he is not? You believe in faeries, but not people from other planets?” He stopped in front of her.
“You can’t mean—I don’t believe that—” Brianna’s eyes widened incredulously. “Are you telling me that he was telling the
truth
?” She threw her arms into the air. “This is just too much!”
Larin smiled, took her hand and bowed over it. “Have you need of me again, mistress, just call. I live only to do your bidding,” he said as he straightened, putting his right hand over his heart.
“Oh, shut up,” Brianna shouted too late. He had already disappeared. Now what was she supposed to do? Go crawling back to Niklas? Say she was sorry she didn’t believe his fantastic tale?
No way!
She plopped down on her bed and crossed her arms over of her chest. She wasn’t going anywhere. If she left, Amber would have no one. She refused to leave Amber alone. No how, no way.
But did she really want to live without Niklas? Leave it to her to fall in love with an alien. Well, her dreams
had
been warning her of this very thing her entire life. She jumped when the doorbell rang. “Oh, it’s you,” she said when she opened the door. Shaking her head, she repeated, “What do you want?” She snorted. Like she cared what he wanted. Not!
You do care,
Laharra
. That is why you hurt so.
“Stay out of my head.” Brianna poked him in the chest, emphasizing each word. “When I want you rattling around inside there, I’ll invite you,” she shouted. “What do you want anyway?” she repeated, before she turned away from him and walked into the living room.
“I wanted to talk. To tell you I love you.” He cast his gaze around the room before looking into her eyes. “I know you do not believe me. I can hardly believe it myself. Yet, it makes it no less true.” Niklas held his arms out in a placating manner.
“Yeah, right.” She snorted her disbelief, then shot him a glance out of the corner of her eye. Even though she was angry with him, she couldn’t help but admire his physique.
Stop ogling him, Bri. You’re mad at him, remember?
She glared at him, then shifted her gaze to look over his shoulder. If she kept looking at him, she may weaken and change her mind. She just couldn’t do that to Amber.
“Why do you fight me? I have told you that I love you. Can you not feel it?” He stuck his hands into his pockets, leaned a hip against the wall and crossed his legs.
Shifting her gaze back to him, Brianna looked down the long, lean length of him and had to stop herself from licking her lips. “That’s not the point, Niklas, and you know it.” She turned away, her back ramrod straight, wanting to hide the turbulent emotions racing through her. She blinked back the tears she felt burning her eyes. She was
not
going to cry again. He wasn’t worth it.
“What
is
the point then, Brianna?” Niklas asked as he stepped around her. “I told you the truth, and you chose to ignore it.”
He ran a hand through his hair impatiently, obviously unaware how adorable it made him look. His hair stood up on end, attesting to the fact that he’d spent some time thinking about what he’d done, but that didn’t matter. She still wasn’t about to forgive him for misleading her.
“The truth is, you refused to deal with it. Tell me. Did you even want to try?” His voice was filled with resignation. He watched as she walked toward the kitchen.
Brianna turned to face him, her voice filled with contempt. “You had to know something like that was going to be impossible for me to believe. You told me you’re from another planet, for crying out loud.” She paced back and forth between the recliner and the kitchen, repeatedly following the same path.
Niklas watched her with his beautiful, expressive eyes. “And that makes you love me less?” He straightened and walked over to the window. He gazed out at her groomed lawn and colorful flowerbeds.
Brianna let out an exasperated sigh. She pressed her hands over her face, then shook her head with denial. “You know it doesn’t. I don’t even think that was a fair question. I don’t know what to think anymore. You come to me with this fantastic tale and expect—” She paced back and forth for a moment, looking for the right words. She threw her hands into the air. The whole situation was absurd. They should be in each other’s arms talking of picket fences, growing vegetables, having children.
Instead they stood here arguing about whether or not she really loved him because she didn’t want to follow him to his planet and become its savior. She shook her head. The entire situation was ludicrous.
She turned to him and scowled. “Well, I guess I don’t know what
you
expected. But I’m damn sure not going home with you. You can’t expect me to just give up everything I’ve ever worked for, everything I have ever dreamed of, to pick up and fly across the Galaxy with you.” The last was said with a little giggle that bordered on hysterics.
When Niklas would have replied, she held up her hand to stop him. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t think there’s anything you could say that would make me even consider walking across the street with you right now.”
“What if I were to tell you that you are the descendant of a great sorcerer? One who predicted the death of my world and also predicted the savior. According to his prophecy, there is but one person in the universe with the power to fight a great evil.”
“Who would that be, you?” Brianna laughed. It was just like a guy to come up with a story like that, to try to win a girl over. He was going to be the big hero and save his people. Yeah, right!
“No,
Laharra
.” He shook his head sadly. “I wish it were me, as it would have been easier. I could have stayed home and fought the evil myself, but that was not to be.
You
are the savior of my people. That is why you must return with me. I am asking…no, begging. Please come with me.” He held his hand out, inviting her to take it.
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t think so, Niklas. Don’t you understand? I don’t even know you. How can I choose to go anywhere with you? Especially when part of me keeps saying you’re crazy, that this can’t possibly be real.” She stopped pacing in front of him, her eyes filled with unshed tears. Part of her wanted to go to him, to beg him to take it all back. She wanted nothing more than to believe him.
“I want to believe you,” she said through her tears. “I need to know you’re not some nut job, but I just can’t.” She shrugged. “And even if I did believe.” She looked around her home, at all of the familiar things surrounding her. “I don’t know that I’d want to leave. I love my house, my things. I love Amber like a sister and she has no one, Niklas. I can’t just leave her alone.” She walked into the kitchen, grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. His shoulders sagged. Brianna watched him and almost slumped with relief. He was listening, maybe he even understood.
“I know I will regret this, but…”
You give me no choice.
He reached out to touch her.
She wasn’t alarmed, at first, but when the tingling spread throughout her body and she began to collapse, she had time for only one thought.
Niklas, what have you done to us?
* * * *
His heart ached that she would not choose to go with him. That she didn’t love him enough to want to help him save his world. Worse, that he was compelled to take her by force since she didn’t choose to go. He knew his expression was blank, his eyes unreadable. It didn’t’ matter. She couldn’t see them anyway. She was unconscious and would be for some time. He reached out, catching her as she fell. After he held her safe in his arms, he radioed Cholo. The crew knew what to do. They would empty Brianna’s home and then begin their journey back to
Terrna
. They must bring everything with them to be sure they didn’t leave anything behind. He had no idea where she kept the
Heart of Terrna,
and they couldn’t risk leaving it here on Earth. They wouldn’t have time to return for it.
He held her still form in his arms. Gazing down at her face, she looked so peaceful. Taking advantage, Niklas looked his fill while he could. In a few hours, she would be raging. In a few hours, she would wake hating him, and he couldn’t blame her.
“I wish there was another way,
Laharra
. If I had time, I would court you in the ways of your people.” He held her close, pressing his cheek to hers. “I would have earned your trust, even given you a choice.” He leaned down, pressing his lips against her forehead, inhaling her intoxicating scent. “Neither of us has a choice, Brianna. Our choices were taken from us the minute we both were born. This is our destiny.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Is there nothing we can do about that incessant yapping?” Minra asked, holding her hands to her ears. She looked over her shoulder at Killer and scowled.
Niklas heaved a sigh. “Short of throwing him out of a decompression tube, I have no idea how to get that animal to stop making that constant noise.” He shook his head and looked down. The dog was chasing one of the crewmembers.
Killer nipped at his feet. The man half-ran, half-walked, while occasionally picking up his foot to shake him off when the dog’s teeth caught on material of his pants and was dragged along.
“Shona said the next time she catches him in the kitchens, she’s going to dice him up for supper,” Minra announced.
Niklas frowned, cast one last look over his shoulder as Killer found another crewmember to attack, and turned back to Minra. “You tell Shona she will not touch a hair on his annoying little head. Or has she forgotten that annoying lump of fur belongs to her Queen?” He checked the security console briefly. “I need to go check on her. She should be waking soon.” He stood and walked from the bridge.
Niklas hated the way he’d kidnapped Brianna. That was what it was, plain and simple. He’d kidnapped her from her world to save his own. Did that make him the monster he knew she would think him? She was going to hate him for it, but what else could he have done? At least he’d brought Killer and the rest of her things. Perhaps she could forgive him one day. Niklas knew she would never have forgiven him for the loss of her pet, which was the only reason he hadn’t thrown the annoying animal out a decompression tube. Yet.
When he reached the door to his room, he punched the security code onto the keypad and entered. Brianna lay on his bed, her hair spilled across the satiny pillow like a treasure of spun gold surrounding her. Sitting on the bed, Niklas realized she wasn’t sleeping. She was in fact, trying to make him believe she was still unconscious and was thinking of escape. His heart couldn’t take much more of this mistrust she had of him. He needed her love, not her fear and distrust.
He watched her silently for a moment, hoping she would gain the courage to open her eyes and face him without coercion. She lay as still and as quiet as she’d been for the last few days. He sighed deeply. Could nothing ever be easy for him?
“
Laharra,
look at me. I know you no longer sleep,” he spoke softly. He didn’t want to remind her of their mind link. He knew it distressed her. Niklas placed his hand on her back and felt her stiffen beneath it. “You must eat. You have been asleep for two days. In that time, you have not had sustenance.” She’d had no food or water for two days. No one could have known her body would have reacted this way to the
tronesa
. Most people only slept for an hour, perhaps two.
Sarcha, the ship’s physician, had hypothesized since her body was not accustomed to the molecular transport perhaps the combination of the
tronesa
and the transport had been too much for her system to bear.
“Her body has been through a series of shocks, Majesty. It would have been far better if you hadn’t used the tronesa.”
“I had no choice. She was being unreasonable. She wouldn’t listen to me. She had no intention of coming with us.” He waved his hand in a gesture of dismissal.
“Still, it would have been more appropriate…”
Sarcha had left off at that, leaving Niklas with the feeling of being reprimanded.