Thorn's Bondmate (Zarronian Warriors Book 2) (3 page)

Feeling better she showered, washed her hair, and towel dried it before she dropped onto the nearest bed. Her last thought before sleep took her was I made it.

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"Commander Valanson, your sons are summoning you," the communications officer, Hugh Angusson, said as he swiveled around from his duty station.

Thorn Valanson frowned at the interruption then stalked to his chair on the bridge of his starship, the Invincible. His parents had forced him to bring his sons, Dane and Dev, on this journey. The boys were five and harder to handle than a wet wolfen. Working together, they were slowly, but surely, destroying his command—just as their mother, Naline, had destroyed his life. Earlier, after finding them in engineering, where he'd specifically forbidden them to explore, he'd confined them to his quarters.

He and his sons were strangers. After their birth and naming ceremony, he'd taken them to his parents then he'd left Zarronia on a three annual journey to explore the Almar Galaxy. One moon phase after he began his voyage, their mother had been executed for her crime of treason against the Zarronians. The news of her death had been a relief as it had freed him from their mating, and he'd sworn to never again trust a female or risk his heart.

He and his twin brother, Soren, had grown up with Naline even though she'd been a couple annuals older than them. She'd been Wrothian and the adopted daughter of their father's friend, Hugh Elofson. She'd been ravishingly beautiful but it had been a disguise that hid the treachery in her dark soul. After accepting him, she'd used his family's position and wealth to gather information and purchase weapons for their enemy, the Wrothians.

As bad as her betrayal had been for him, it paled in comparison to the concerns it had raised for his people. The knowledge he'd impregnated her without a true bonding taking place had every scientist on the planet scrambling for an answer. They first discovered that the mixing of the Zarronian and Wrothian DNA had changed them and there were now levels of mating with the Earth females.

The first four levels depended on the female’s DNA. At level one, a female could relieve a warrior's fever but she couldn’t bond with him or conceive. This was a female only a warrior on the verge of death would choose as fatherhood was coveted by every warrior. A level two female could relieve a warrior's fever and carry his sons but they did not bond. A level three female could share a warrior's fever, carry his children and bond with him but the bond was nearly non-existent. The mates could be away from each other and the fever could be controlled with ZL3 and meditation. Level four females were the most coveted as they were comparable to the old bonding between Zarronian warriors and females. The female could take a warrior's fever, bond with him and have his children. They needed to be together and could only be away from each other for one to two moon phases.

Level fives depended on the warrior's and the female's DNA. It occurred when a warrior with the right DNA, Thorn’s DNA in fact, met a level five female. This is what the scientists called a True Mate. The female triggered an intense mating response in the warrior and the bonding was so strong the mates were unable to be without each other for more than two cycles. There were three level five bonded couples on Zarronia.

Level six was the only ranking based solely on a warrior's DNA and it was a death sentence. The warrior could relieve his fever only with a level six female but one had never been found. Rumor had it there was at least one level six warrior on Zarronia.

Thorn was thankful Naline had been a level two and had relieved him of the worst of the fever. The symptoms he suffered now were manageable and with any luck at all he'd never meet a level five female. His True Mate.

He pushed the dark thoughts away, activated the communicator and sighed when Dane answered. Dane was the leader and anything he did, Dev did, as well.

"Father?" Dane's young voice sounded frightened and unsure.

"Yes, Dane."

"Father, we heard someone in the corridor. You said we were the only ones on this level." His voice was accusing.

"Our quarters are the only ones occupied, Dane" he said, impatiently. "It was probably a maintenance worker."

"Oh. Are you returning soon?" he asked.

The question was asked too casually and he knew they were up to another one of their tricks. For a fleeting moment, he regretted the time he'd missed with his sons. He hadn't been present when they'd learned to walk or talk. For the last two annuals, he'd visited them only when his father forced him to do so. "Dane, I want you and Dev to begin preparing lunch. I'll be there in five micro-units."

"Alright, Father." Dane spoke then deactivated the communicator abruptly

His parents wanted him to find a mate and provide a mother for his sons. He wasn't willing to do that but he wasn't sure what else he could do. He could hire someone to take care of them but even Soren had harassed him about doing something like that. The last time he'd seen his brother they'd gone to the gymnasium for a friendly training session that had turned into a battle. Soren had badgered him about his indifference towards Dane and Dev. He'd ignored him until he'd taken a swing at him and even then he'd ducked the punch and tried to walk away. Soren hadn't let him and it had ended with both of them lying on the floor, exhausted, bloody, and him admitting that he'd messed up where his sons were concerned.

Thorn pulled his attention back to the present and motioned for his first-in-command, Dag Cameronson, to join him.

"Those two still giving you hell, Thorn?" Dag asked.

Thorn nodded. "They're worse now than when the journey began." Thorn realized Dag knew his sons better than he did as he was one of their mentors. He'd also stood by him when Naline was caught and he'd had been accused of conspiring with her. At first, he'd refused to accept her betrayal. Only after he'd been proven innocent, and she'd been proven guilty, had he accepted the truth and begun to hate her.

"Your sons remind me of you and Soren at that age," Dag said. "The two of you were constantly getting me into trouble."

One of Thorn's rare grins appeared on his face. "Not me, old friend. That was Soren."

Dag chuckled. It was an old joke between them. The brothers were both almost seven feet tall and massively built, with black hair and identical faces. Only their eyes were different. Thorn's eyes were a light grey while Soren's were the aqua color of their mother.

"They're only five. You can't expect them to obey your orders like the warriors do."

"I won't allow them to ignore my orders either." Rising, Thorn turned the bridge over to Dag and stalked away.

He ignored the warriors he passed as he strode to his quarters. Upon his arrival, two identical faces turned to stare at him as he entered and sat down at the table. A glass of stinkgoat milk sat next to a food tray piled high with stinkgoat cheese. He detested the food they'd chosen for him and they knew it.

"Don't you like the food, Father?" Dane asked, as Dev leaned forward, eagerly awaiting his response.

"No. You must have gotten me confused with your Uncle Soren. He's the one who likes milk and cheese." He kept his voice calm, puzzled when they frowned in disappointment as they silently communicated, What had they expected him to do? Throw them in the brig and torture them?

Sighing, he prepared another tray and the three of them ate in silence until Dev mentioned the noise they'd heard in the corridor.

"What kind of noise was it?"

"A big thump. Like someone hit the wall." Dev's grey eyes widened with excitement as his overlong black hair fell into his eyes.

Absently, Thorn reached over and brushed the unruly lock of hair away. Dev always looked excited and disheveled while Dane always appeared calm and well-groomed. Thorn looked into Dev's grey eyes then looked into an identical pair of grey eyes. Until that moment it never occurred to him his sons were smaller versions of himself. In the past they'd only been a painful reminder of Naline's treachery. He watched them for a moment then asked, "What did you hear, Dane?"

Dane looked him square in the eyes. "The same sound Dev heard. It was a thump, as if someone fell against the wall. When I looked the corridor was empty."

"I'll check into it. Alright?" They both nodded. "Now, before I return to the bridge, I want to see the lessons you were assigned this morning."

While they retrieved their tablets he cleared the table then checked the work their teacher had assigned them earlier. Only a few of the answers were incorrect. He helped Dane correct a math problem then gave them each several more problems to solve. Before he left, he reminded them they were confined to their quarters.

As soon as he arrived on the bridge Dag informed him that all of the Earth females had been transferred aboard and escorted to their quarters.

"Good. I'll take command, now." He lowered himself into his chair and studied the chart his navigator, Ronin Hughson, handed him. He made a minor adjustment, then returned them to him. "Have the trade goods been transferred to the ship?"

"Yes, Commander."

Thorn nodded at his new security officer, Jarek Aulunson. The younger warrior was eager to please and ambitious. "Dag, inform the docking station we're ready to disengage."

Dag activated his communicator. "We're cleared to depart, Commander."

"Disengage." Thorn turned to Dag while the navigator and the pilot began the process. "I want to see how the new engines perform if we push them a little. Tell engineering to monitor them closely."

"Alright, Commander." Dag carried out the order, then took the vacant seat next to him.

Thorn slouched in his seat and allowed himself to brood. Lunch with his sons brought back a lot of bad memories. The Zarronians had known a group of Wrothians were trying to regain control of the planet Zhang and release the Wrothian warriors imprisoned there. Those warriors were incarcerated for their war crimes against not only the Zarronians, but against the other inhabitants of the Xenti Galaxy. Over the annuals, many of them had been rehabilitated and freed. Only those warriors who refused to change had been left on the dark side of Zhang. Naline's father had been one of them and he'd managed to contact her and she'd willingly helped him. When she'd been caught, she smugly confessed to treason. He'd tried to resign his commission, but the Council refused to accept it. Instead, they'd given him command of his father's starship, the Invincible.

The clearing of a throat interrupted his thoughts. Dag informed him they were ready to enter hyperspace. He nodded, then gave the order to begin the long journey home. In two moon phases, his life would return to normal. He'd take the first assignment the Council offered him, as long as it didn't involve returning to earth.

He'd spent a moon phase on the strange blue planet. Everywhere he and his warriors went the female inhabitants approached them and several of his warriors had ended up bonded. He'd adamantly refused their attempts at seduction, although being around them kept him in a constant state of arousal.

"Thank, Tor, that's over," Ronin Hughson said as he joined them. "Another month on Earth and I would have ended up bonded to one of those long-legged beauties."

Thorn shifted in his seat. The journey was just beginning and he had over ten-thousand Earth females on board. It was a starship commander's nightmare. "You'd better stay away from the second level. Unlike Dag here you haven't met your mate yet."

Dag smiled. "Lisa is all I've ever wanted in a mate."

"Have you set a date for the bonding ceremony?"

"We've decided to do it two moon phases after I return to Zarronia. I'd like you to be there, Thorn."

"I can attend before I leave again."

"You could stay. The Council has offered to give you a post closer to home," Dag said. "Why don't you accept it for a while to see how it works out?"

"I can't, Dag."

"You have to stop blaming yourself for what she did," Dag said. "Sooner or later you're going to have to come home."

Thorn frowned. "Not yet."

Dag nodded and changed the subject. "If those Earth females ever find out about our mating fever and how susceptible we are we'll be in big trouble. Can you imagine what they'd do?" He laughed, then continued, "I've had nightmares about being abducted and held hostage until I'm forced to bond with one of them."

Ronin chuckled. "Sounds interesting to me."

"Yes. But, in the nightmare the female always starts out as a tall, leggy blond then turns into a four foot tall Witvian troll."

Thorn grinned and Ronin laughed.

"Now, that would be a real nightmare." Ronin settled onto a nearby seat. "I've spent most of my credits on the fourth level. Sometimes, I think it would be easier to choose a bondmate."

When Ronin and several of the other warriors began comparing the various talents of the pleasure-givers Thorn tuned them out. The mating fever they carried was a well-guarded secret. It began when a Zarronian warrior turned twenty, and grew stronger as he aged. By the time he was thirty-two he was forced to choose a female and share his fever with her or die as the fever grew in intensity. During his father's time, after the Wrothians attacked Zarronia and killed all of the Zarronian females, many warriors had been unable to find compatible females and had died from the fever. His father and many other starship commanders had searched the Universe for mates and found the Wrothians and later the Earthlings. His mother Lia was a Wrothian.

Thinking about his parents, Valan Eirickson and Madami Lia, reminded him that his fever had grown worse in the last six moon phases, ever since his father had commandeered his starship and traveled to Earth. Since their return he'd transported them on several ambassadorial visits and whenever he entered their quarters he sensed a lingering scent that made his fever flare.

Between the unidentifiable scent and exposure to the Earth females on this mission he'd had to visit the pleasure givers frequently to keep his fever at a manageable level. He'd even been tempted to use ZL3 which he usually avoided as the drug left him feeling hyper-alert and raging the next day.