TAKEN: Journey to a New Home (17 page)

  She listened to him whisper and it soothed her soul somehow. She listened to him tell her how much he needed her, wanted her and already loved her. He whispered how he would never leave her or live without her. He told her without her he wouldn’t be able to breathe or think.  He whispered the pledges over and over until she drifted to sleep in his arms. When he felt her drift off, he closed his eyes and said a prayer to the heavens that she could find a way to be happy with him and her new home.

  Axon found Holly on the observation deck watching the stars go by he thought. But as he stood in the door of the observation deck and wondered what she was doing here, he realized she was sleeping. The space wasn’t forbidden by any means but he’d never seen anyone fall asleep here. The babies had been whispering to him again. He walked in and sat beside her. Her honey blond curls were in slight disarray. Her lids were closed over her eyes but he knew that they were a brilliant blue like the Laration sea. Her lips were bright red and he knew Tabitha sometimes teased her about looking like someone they referred to as Sleeping Beauty. He wondered if Tabitha knew just how fitting the description actually was in this moment.

  He watched her sleep and recalled the first time he’d seen her. It seemed like more than two days ago but in reality that’s all it was: two days. He’d been moving like a man on fire to get all of the cargo safely situated and cursing his leader under his breath since they had left the port on Katowia without securing anything which was always a risky thing to do. Fazon just shoving everything in without any type of order or safety telling him they were under orders and leaving several days early. Of course at the time Axon hadn’t known about the women being rescued. He’d only learned that later in the evening and understood the need for urgency and speed. Dezek had asked for one of the crates of clothing the next morning so he had gone hunting for it. The women had come aboard with only the set of clothing they were wearing. He had been delivering the crate containing clothing to the lounge on Deck Eighteen as requested. He’d entered the lounge to find Fazon was there arguing with the black haired girl he now knew was named Blanca. He ignored the argument while he opened the crate. He placed the top to the side and bumped into the most beautiful being he ever seen. Her eyes were bright blue flames of irritation. He apologized and she turned back to smile at him then. It was over right then. He knew he’d never look at another female and want. This one was the only one for him. Then he heard the babies and had been distracted from the conversation by her and the babies until Blanca stepped into his space demanding he camouflage into gold and become her valet.

  He’d still been thinking about Holly and the babies when the alarms had gone off. His first thought had been to locate Holly. It should’ve been for the ship but it wasn’t. It was the safety of the beautiful woman whose lovely laughter at his plight with Blanca’s demands that had him running an immediate life scan from his station on the bridge for the deck where the fire had broken out. He’d been relieved to discover most of the women were safely on the Hydro deck helping Moz. He knew he was selfish to thank the heavens that her previous male had turned out to be worthless. It made him angry she’d been hurt but he was glad she didn’t appear to still be in love with the man.

  The little women, as he called the babies, seemed to quiet while he sat with her, thinking about the first meeting. He laid a gentle hand on her stomach. He promised them he would always be there for her and them. He debated simply moving her but decided if she woke it might upset her.

  “Holly. Holly, wake up,” he called her softly. She blinked at him. “It’s late. Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in your bed?” Her face told him the answer before her voice did.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think so. Talk to me, Holly.”

  “It’s stupid.”

  He stood and lifted her into his arms. He felt her tense. She relaxed slightly when he sat down with her in lap. “Will you tell me anyway,” he asked, his deep voice taking on a gentle tone.

  “There are no windows,” she whispered through her tears. “I know it’s stupid but I can’t breathe without windows.”

  “You’re claustrophobic.”

  “Yes.”

  He laughed then as she pulled away jumping off his lap. “It’s not funny,” she said angrily starting to leave. He caught her and lifted her into his arms. “Put me down damn it. If you’re going to laugh, I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “Remember last night when I told you I couldn’t fix everything but I was a good listener? This one I can fix,” he told her and carried her out of the room to the lift. “Deck sixteen.”

 
“Would you put me down please?”

  “No. I don’t want you attempting to escape. You’re still mad. I can feel it.”

  She huffed and was silent. He exited the lift and walked down to the door labeled 16-20. The door opened, he walked into the space and Holly gasped. The room was filled with plants. The ceiling above her looked like the open view of the Observation Deck. The wall opposite the bed looked like you could walk right out into the forest showing there. He deposited her gently on the bed and removed his boots and shirt then stretched out beside her. She had turned to look out at the swaying trees depicted in the view so he spooned his body against hers. Listening she heard the soft breeze, somewhere water flowed and something like crickets sang. “I’m not crazy about being confined in small spaces myself,” he whispered in her ear. “I told you I could fix this one.”

  “Thank you,” her voice was a watery whisper.

  “You’re welcome. Sleep, my beauty,” he told her softly. He smiled as he felt her start to drift off to sleep. At least in the morning he wouldn’t have to stare down Sienna to head to his duty station.

***

Sienna woke and realized something wasn’t right immediately. She was alone. Why had that suddenly become something that felt so wrong. Dezek wasn’t with her. She took a deep breath and shook herself. How could he have become so necessary in such a short space of time? She’d only known him three days. She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep but it plagued her that he had left in the middle of the night.

  She heard the door open before Dezek slid back into the bed.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “It’s fine. I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to sleep,” he told her as he kissed her forehead and pulled her close. She was still.

  “You just lied to me. Don’t ask me how I know that but I do,” Sienna told him quietly in the dark. She felt him smile against her forehead. “Please be honest with me. I can probably handle just about anything but lies.”

  “Gval picked up a ship shadowing us. It veered off a while later so it didn’t turn out to be anything but it pays to be cautious,” he told her and kissed her gently.

  “Would someone have a reason to follow you?”

  “The Trusky we bought you from may not have been completely happy with the price we paid.”

  “Why?”

  “I did something a little shady. Vax has the ability to influence people. He can’t make you commit murder or anything like that but he can influence an opinion or persuade someone to his way of thinking. We call it a ‘push’. We don’t use it very often. Most of the time it’s used to prevent skirmishes, or prevent someone from cheating us and things like that. But when I heard the Trusky’s story at the bar, I had Vax meet us. Vax ‘pushed’ the trader’s concern over government confiscation so that he would sell your group to me at a price that he never would’ve accepted otherwise. Humans are very rare out here. When I heard there were eleven of you together it caught my interest. Then we heard the tale about one of you being green and having spots briefly after a confrontation that was definitely a heads up. The only thing it could’ve been was a Zargazian losing control of camouflage from the description of the spot pattern.” He paused briefly. “Once we arrived and you looked up at me, I knew I couldn’t leave without you. I knew I’d found my mate but I also knew looking into those beautiful defiant green eyes that you would never rest if I left anyone behind. So Vax ‘pushed’ a little harder than usual. Between finding you and finding Ashaa, I couldn’t walk away.”

  “And does he know you did this?”

  “It’s possible he suspects something occurred. Once Vax is no longer ‘pushing’ that person their original opinions resurface. That’s one of the reasons why we left in such a hurry. Truskies don’t mind cheating the rest of the universe but they get testy if they think someone turned the tables,” he told her with a sigh.

  “So he’ll come after you?”

  “No,” he said with a smile in his voice. “A Trusky would never get his hands dirty or commit violence. They hire others for that purpose.”

  “Should I be worried?”

  “No. No matter what raider he hired they will never take you from me. I am fairly certain that Rev, Vax, Moz and Axon will definitely side with me on this,” he said laughing softly. “We’re ready for trouble if it comes.”

  “Axon?”

  “Have you seen the way he looks at Holly?”

  She giggled. “I caught him coming out of her room yesterday morning. He looked like a kid caught stealing cookies. While I was staring him down Moz tried to sneak out of Taylor’s room and I nailed him too.” She was laughing out right now.

  “And I caught Wendy coming out of Fazon’s at the same time.”

  “They’re worse than teenagers,” she said laughing.

  “Does it bother you that we did something slightly shady?” Dezek sounded troubled.

  “Twenty percent lighting,” she said. She propped herself on one elbow and looked down at him. “No. You saved us from being split up and who knows what other horrors. I know first-hand at least one of those and I’d rather not face that again,” she told him as she stroked his face.

  He reached up, took her hand and placed a gentle kiss on the palm of her hand. “You never will.” She leaned down, placed her lips against his and kissed him for everything she was worth. He flipped them so that she lay under him. She loved the feel of his weight against her. He was hot and hard and made her feel very feminine. At 5’10” not many men made her feel small or delicate but he did. He pulled back from the kiss and buried his face in her throat. “There’s something else you need to know.”

  “It’s not going to make me mad, is it?”

  “I hope not.”

  “Well then let’s get it out there and be done with it. I’d like to go back to that kissing,” she whispered to him. He lifted his head and watched her for a moment. She was surprised when he left the bed.

“Please remember I would never hurt you. You became part of me the moment our eyes met.” She cocked her head puzzled as he started stripping. She blushed when he was completely without clothing. He was beautiful. He was six and half feet of sculpted muscles covered by smooth pale green skin and the patterns of the dark green spots were beautiful and flowing. As her eyes scanned down him she blushed, he was one very well endowed alien. His penis was like the rest of him, thick and long. She shivered thinking about him inside her. His skin shimmered and he dropped his hands to the floor. She watched as bone and muscle shifted form and suddenly she was looking in the eyes of a dragon. The creature had the same coloring as Dezek with gold highlights added in. She stared uncertain if she dared move. She blinked several times.

  “Sixty percent lighting,” she increased the illumination. The dragon still stood there. She rose from bed and slowly crossed to it. Somehow she just knew it was Dezek and she understood that even if she hadn’t seen him change, she would still know it was him. It bent its head toward her. She ran her fingers across the jaw following the spots. The dragon growled softly and she smiled. She circled him and was impressed by his size. Nearly fifteen feet in length and six feet at his shoulder, he made the room seem very small. His eyes were faceted shades of gold and bronze with a soft glow. She was mesmerized. That was the only word she had for how she felt. He radiated heat that drew her. She noticed his back and shoulders, “Are they wings?”

  He unfolded the wings partially. There wasn’t enough room to fully extend them. She laughed and went back to stand in front of him. “Will our child be able to do this?”

  He blinked, “
You’re planning our child?
”

  “Oh, wow. I just said that, didn’t I?” she covered her mouth with a hand. She wasn’t sure when she started thinking thoughts of children with him. It was difficult for her this sudden and deep attachment to him. She was more practical than that. If someone had told her a month ago that within three days of meeting a man she would accept and plan a life with him, she would’ve had them committed. It went against her independent nature and her logical brain.

  “
You did,
” came the reply in her head. He rumbled and she had the distinct feeling he was laughing at her. “
But yes our child will be able to shift to a Gazian form when he reaches puberty.
”

  “What if it’s a girl?”

  He shook his head and she could see the sadness in the features of the dragon face. “
No females have been born to our race for over five hundred years.
”

  “What about Ashaa?”

  “
Ashaa is an unknown. I do not know how the humans created her. I also don’t know if she can shift. She can camouflage so it would make sense that she can shift but we really won’t know until she tries.
”

  “Does Rose know about this?” She waved her hand at his bulk and sat on the bed.

  “
She does. Considering how quickly her mind is evolving it will be difficult to keep anything fromVax’s little pixie, don’t you agree? Taylor and Wendy also know. It is forbidden for us to be intimate without having told our mate. There are some who simply cannot accept what we are.
”