With the kind of smile kids wear when they get everything they wanted for Christmas, he spoke with unadulterated confidence. “I can barely believe it myself, but it has finally happened. There is no easy translation.” He paused as he seemed to search for the right words. “I believe the closest term is ‘consort.’ You are my
tahren
, my one true mate.”
He said the last sentence so matter-of-factly it took a moment to sink into her stupefied brain. Once it did, she shoved him away and scrambled to the corner, at the same time pulling the sheet off the bed and wrapping it around her body.
“There is no need to cover yourself. You are a beautiful woman.”
She clutched the sheet tighter around her, and then pointed at him. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. What did you do to me? Was it drugs? An aphrodisiac of some kind?”
The pilot looked at Sienna strangely. He sat up, and she dove for her cargo pants and grabbed the Swiss Army Knife in the leg pocket.
He held up his hands in truce. “No drugs. I swear. I will not harm you. Like I said, you are my
tahren
.”
She didn’t lower the blade. “And before?”
“I do not understand.”
“Before I became your ‘tahren.’” She took the blade off him to make air quotes with her fingers. “You seemed to have no qualms about shooting me before.”
He sighed as he ran a hand through his dark hair. “You could have been aligned with the Draeken. Besides, if I let you go, you would have told others what you had seen.”
“Well, I happen to like my life. So, Houston, we have a problem here.”
“Who is Houston?” He shook his head. “Never mind. I swear to you that I will never harm you. You must believe that. In the same way I believe you cannot harm me. Even now you must feel me inside you. Just as I can feel you. We are one now.” He brought a fist to his heart.
For a minute she didn’t respond.
Damn, damn, double damn
. The guy was right. Jammed right alongside her emotions, she could feel something more. She could feel his emotions. No, it was more than that. It was as if his very essence was embedded in her brain. Her heart pounded, and it felt like there was something there, right alongside it, trying to tamp down the terror.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied, which on second thought was probably a pretty silly thing to do with a guy who said he could read her emotions.
“Yes, you do,” he scolded. “I never dreamed I would find my
tahren
, but the gods have blessed us. Lower the blade. We will talk — ”
“Uh, uh. I don’t think so. You will talk. The blade stays. And you stay where you are,” she commanded when he started to stand.
“As you wish.” He sat back down in all his natural glory and leaned against the wall, showing not the least bit of shyness. Then again, they did just have sex.
Already, her body betrayed her as it yearned for his touch. His lips curved upward. The bastard knew exactly what she was feeling. Her hands shook, and she nearly dropped the blade. Willing her brain to overpower her body’s bizarre draw to him, she steadied herself, keeping the blade pointed directly at his chest.
“The
tahren
bond is never wrong. It is futile to fight it.”
“And if I don’t want to accept it?”
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion before he shook his head. “It is irresistible and irreversible. The bond is the greatest gift of my people. It makes no sense why you would not want this.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Let’s see, maybe because I didn’t choose this. And maybe because I have no idea who you are. I don’t even know your name.”
“I am Legian.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Sienna. Sienna Wolfe,” she replied politely while not so politely keeping the blade pointed at him.
“Sienna.” He spoke her name like he tasted a new flavor and found it delicious. “I cannot help our different heritages, but the bond selects true mates. We fit together in all ways. In fact, your
soullare
is already beginning to appear.”
“My soul — what?”
“See for yourself,” he replied, biting back a smile as he motioned toward the bathroom.
Never taking her eyes off him, she pulled the sheet around her and sidestepped to the bathroom mirror. The knife clanged onto the sink. Sienna stared back at her, except tattoos were beginning to form across her skin. Tattoos that were a perfect match to the marks she’d seen on Legian’s skin.
“Impossible,” she whispered.
“Not impossible.”
She jumped at the voice behind her. She hadn’t noticed him move, but the heat against her back was undeniable. She dropped the sheet in surprise, and in the mirror she noticed his eyes drop to her breasts. With a jolt, she bent over and reached for the fabric, only to have her butt bump into his pelvis. Like an electric charge, she jerked straight up, the back of her head colliding with his face.
She snapped around to see him holding a hand over a bloodied nose. “Sorry,” she muttered.
“I am O-K.” He watched her as he lowered his hand from his nose, which surprisingly looked unbroken considering how hard she’d smacked him. He reached out, pulling her to him before she could sidestep him.
Her heart raced. “I’ve contacted the police. They’ll be here any minute.” The words came out in a rush.
“I will not harm you, but if you speak the truth we must hurry.”
“Better plan,” she said pushing against him and grabbing the knife like it was her security blanket. “You hurry, and I’ll stay.”
He sighed as he ran a hand through dark hair. “I cannot leave you. My people are not yet prepared to be known.”
She held the blade between them. “I don’t know who you think I am. But I’m the one with the weapon here. So I’ll be the one giving orders.”
He moved, and in the next instant he had the blade, and she was sandwiched between him and the wall.
How the hell did he do that?
After a moment of staring her down, she shoved him, and he took a couple steps back.
“I may have been born in a different land. That I cannot change. Second …” a step closer “it was you who were the aggressor by imprisoning me. And third …” he pressed a brutal kiss before she had a chance to react “coming with me is the only way you’ll survive.”
She struggled in his arms before finally giving up. The guy was right. She was way out of her league. Unable to think of a witty response, she yanked away from him. “So you’ll kill me if I don’t go with you.”
“Killing you would be like killing myself.” A gentle touch to her arm. “What is done is done. There was nothing either of us could have done. We need each other. We must look to what is next. I know not what lies ahead. But I do know that I’m not willing to sacrifice an opportunity given to me — to us — by the gods.”
“One God,” she corrected, turned, and found herself looking up into another pair of alien eyes.
A second man, dressed head to toe exactly how Legian had been dressed, sans mask, stepped into the bedroom. This man was holding the same kind of weapon Legian had used to kill the other man, and it was pointed directly at her sheet-covered chest.
Then the man lowered the weapon slightly, as if he were shocked at her appearance.
“Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” she muttered before taking tiny steps to stand behind Legian.
The man spoke to Legian in that same strange language, who responded in a similar manner. They conversed for several minutes. The only words she could make out were
Draeken
and
tahren
.
Finally, she interrupted. “How’d he find us?”
Legian paused to face her and then walked over to his flight suit, lifting it up to show her something. All she could see was black cloth.
“Tracking beacon. This is Bente. A friend,” Legian said, gesturing to the newcomer as he pulled his flight suit on. “He will give us a lift back to our temporary base. It is not far from here.”
Sienna looked at Legian, then at the other man tearing the remaining bloody sheets off her bed, and tensed. “What do you think you’re doing?” she scolded, and the newcomer smirked.
“We cannot allow our presence to be known,” Legian replied quickly, maintaining a stance between Sienna and the other man.
Her stomach sank. She was screwed the moment she brought the pilot into her home.
“You cannot stay here. It isn’t safe,” Legian continued. “I give you my word. You are my
tahren
and will not be harmed.”
Not that she believed him for a second. She knew the truth. There’s no way she’d be set free. And so she’d bide her time. Until the moment she could escape. Or reach Jax. She had no clue how she’d manage that, but something would pop up. She’d grown up in war zones. She could handle this.
I hope.
She looked up into dark eyes with no white.
What kind of Alice-in-fucking-Wonderland rabbit hole have I fallen into?
Texarkana, Texas, Three months later
Just like an old western movie, Sienna walked into the small country bar, half expecting bullets to start flying. Instead, the music kept playing, and people continued their talking, drinking, and dancing. It was loud, crowded, annoying. She looked over the horde of partygoers for the man she’d come to see, nearly missing him for the ten-gallon hat he wore. He had bellied up to the bar, nursing a frosty draught.
He was a man she’d hoped to never see again. Some memories were better left in the past. But she hadn’t sneaked off base tonight for a drink with an old friend. She needed to warn someone before it was too late. Just this week, a Draeken scout ship had been spotted flying over the base. If the Sephian base hadn’t been discovered yet, it would be soon. It would be just a matter of time now.
She’d never heard back from Kat. So, if anyone could help the Sephians, it was Jax. Taking a deep breath, Sienna gave her late husband’s best friend a quick smile, and hoped that her clothes and makeup covered the
soullare
enough to not raise suspicion.
Before taking a step closer, she scanned the bar for anyone else from Jax’s unit, anyone she’d recognize from when she worked with them. In her email, she’d pleaded for Jax to come alone, but he was a soldier first. Just like Bobby.
As soon as she saw the man sitting in the booth at the other end of the bar, she knew Jax’s unit was here. Sporting a buzz cut and sitting too uptight for a night out, the fifty-something man didn’t fit. The Army’s 51st Division, a Black Ops team of specialized Rangers was here. The F-bomb popped into mind, and she gritted her teeth. Seeing the man in the booth verified her suspicions. It was a setup. And Sienna had just opened up the Sephians to a risk greater than the Draeken threat.
No thanks to her, the U.S. military was onto them. Well, at least the military knew something was up. There was no way they’d be as tolerant as she was of the Sephians. Even for her, it hadn’t been easy. It took more than three weeks before she finally accepted that Legian had spoken the truth, and that she was not a prisoner. And a full month before she could stomach their food without spending the next hour in the bathroom. The next two months had been packed learning foreign traditions, coming to grips with the ins and outs of a freakish soul bond … and falling in love.
Sienna never thought she’d find love again. She’d never
wanted
to find love again. But Legian changed all that with the force of an asteroid storm. The
tahren
bond may have brought them together, but it was all Legian why she stayed. It was the little things he did, like the time he surprised her with an Xbox and several of her favorite RPGs to make life on base feel a bit more like home. How he’d acquired it, she was afraid to ask. Or, like the time he painted her toenails as they talked about her dreams of flying and his dreams of mountain climbing.
She sighed. Unfortunately, the U.S. military didn’t have the benefit of the
tahren
bond to start a relationship. It didn’t matter if the Sephians said they’d followed the Draeken — a far more violent race — here. Having not one but two alien races on American soil would be the last straw. There’d be violence, hate, murder, and suicide, and that would be day one alone.
Armageddon 101.
Straightening her posture, Sienna spun on her heel to walk right back out the way she came in before this turned into a cluster fuck. Then
wham.
She came to a hard stop against a cowboy who filled out all ten gallons of that hat of his. She tried to get around him, but a large hand latched onto her bicep, and she looked up into Jax’s eyes as he pulled her onto the dance floor.
He brushed a finger across her neck as if he were disgusted. “Nice ink,” he muttered.
Guess I need more makeup.
Her hands latched onto his unyielding biceps. He was about the same height as Legian and similar in build. “I told you to come alone, Jax,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
“Couldn’t risk it.”
She lifted her brows. “You saying
I’m
a security risk?”
His hands fell to her lower back, pulling her tighter against him. “Are you?”
To others, they likely looked nothing more than dance partners. Their feet crunched on broken peanut shells littered across the hardwood floors. But inside, she was seething.
“You’re on a Missing Persons poster in Hot Springs. Talk to me, Sienna.”
Just like Jax to cut to the chase. Not that she could blame him. Hearing from his best friend’s widow for the first time in years had to set off a red flag. She’d never even thought what the police would have done when they found her cabin empty. “You said to contact you if I ever needed something.”
“What’s happened?” he demanded, his voice cutting.
“You know the improbable events your unit prepares for?”
Silence.
“Well, they’ve started.”
He pulled back slightly, enough for her to see a look of knowing and disappointment all balled up in one tight expression.
He already knew.
“Whatever you know, it’s not what you think. That’s what I wanted to talk with you about,” she said in a rush.