Katieran Prime 4 - Kiljorn Prime (12 page)

“Lindsey, there is something I must speak with you about.”

“Later, I need more sleep. Someone kept me up all night,” she told him as she closed her eyes and willed herself to go back to sleep. She didn’t want to talk about what happened. Actions showed so much more than words ever could. As many times as they had made love, he never once spilled his seed within her.

Kat and Jaxon had told her that their men could not control themselves when it came to their true mates or as they called it, bond mates. Their men spilled their seed inside their mates’ bodies every time. For KadEN to withhold that part of himself was a clear statement. He didn’t want her. He still planned to mate AriELa. She fought to keep the tears from pouring out of her.

KadEN pulled Lindsey into his arms. He could smell her pain. What had he done to hurt her? She refused to talk to him about it. Last night had been the best night of his existence. To be with the one female he cherished most. He would do anything for her. He’d tear out his own heart if it would heal the hurt she felt. He needed to get them back to the City of Kiljor and call off the mating ceremony plans with AriELa. Then he would mate Lindsey fully and officially. He would do anything to make her happy.

Chapter Thirteen

She avoided talking to him. She would answer questions he asked, but she wouldn’t carry on a conversation. Whenever he asked what was bothering her, she would brush it off and say ‘
nothing.
’ It was driving him crazy.

He heated the breakfast food that was left for them in the kitchenette. His people would be back in less than an hour and they would have to head back to the City of Kiljor. The closer the time came to leaving, the less she would say to him. Instead, she would go outside and sit on the sand staring out over the calm water. She ignored him when he sat beside her. He wanted to reach out and touch her with his hand, but he felt the distance between them. They both looked up when they heard the shuttle approaching.

“Time to go back,” he told her as he stood. Before he could offer his assistance, she scrambled to get herself up to her feet. She walked toward the shuttle without looking back at him.

Kitana!
The blasted female was pulling away from him. He didn’t know what he should do. He couldn’t force her to be with him if she did not feel the same for him that he felt for her. It ate at his insides that she would not return his feelings. What did a male have to do to prove his worth? He stomped after her.

Lindsey was withdrawing within herself. She recognized the signs. She had done this many times in her life. Whenever life got too complicated, whenever someone disappointed her, whenever she thought someone was going to hurt her; she would say nothing to them. She would show no emotion, no sign of caring.

The worst example was when her mother had left them to run off with her lover. Lindsey had shut down. She stopped eating. She became dehydrated. She had to be hospitalized. She pulled through it because her father and sister needed her. But she would never forget the pain of betrayal she felt.
Why didn’t her mother love her enough to stay?

After that, Lindsey swore she would never let anyone get close enough to hurt her like that again. If she suspected a boyfriend was losing interest, Lindsey would break off the relationship before he did. If she didn’t advance as she wanted at a job, she would find another one.

She sat down in one of the seats near the back of the shuttle. KadEN frowned but didn’t try to get her to move. Maybe once they got underway, he could convince her to move up to the co-pilot’s seat. Then, they could discuss whatever was bothering her. He was confused, being with her was everything he had hoped it would be and more. He didn’t want to lose what they shared, he didn’t want to lose her.

He fired up the shuttle and lifted it up off the ground. He programmed the coordinates for the City of Kiljor. He glanced back at Lindsey but she wouldn’t look at him. She had her head tilted back and her eyes closed. But he knew she wasn’t sleeping. He needed to know what she was thinking. He set the coordinates and put the autopilot on.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

Lindsey jumped in her seat. She opened her eyes and looked in KadEN’s direction. He turned so that he could look back at her. She saw such concern in his eyes.

“Talk about what?”

“Let’s talk about why you haven’t spoken to me in hours except to answer yes or no questions.”

“There isn’t anything to say.”

“Does this have anything to do with our lovemaking last night?”

“You mean our meaningless fuck? No, why would you think that?” She turned her head so she wouldn’t see his reaction.

KadEN was furious. He stood and stomped his way back to where she was sitting. “What do you mean by meaningless fuck?”

Oh, shit!
He was mad. “Uh … shouldn’t you be piloting the shuttle?”

“It is on autopilot.” He bent down and unbuckled Lindsey’s seat strap.

“KadEN, what the hell are you doing?” Lindsey was lifted from her seat and put in his lap as he sat down.

“What we shared was special, not meaningless. Did you not feel our connection?”
Please Goddess KatieRI, let her feel something for me.
He prayed.

“It doesn’t matter if I felt something or not. You are going to have a mating ceremony with Prima AriELa. So it doesn’t matter what I feel.”

KadEN looked at her strangely, and then he grabbed the back of her head pulling her forward to kiss her. He didn’t let her go until he got a response from her. She moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck. Once she responded, he released her from the kiss.

“KadEN … we can’t …” she was interrupted when he kissed her again. She felt slightly dizzy when he pulled away the second time.

“I do not plan to mate with AriELa. How could I when my bond mate is in my arms?” He suspected what he felt was a bond mate pull, but after they had shared sex, he knew it for sure. She was his bond mate.

Bond mate? “But, you withdrew before you … came.”

He leaned forward to press his forehead against hers. “I still have some honor in me. I must officially call off the mating ceremony with AriELa. She deserves to be told in person and our two nations deserve to know why this match with her can never be.”

“I … I thought that you still planned to mate her. It tore me up to think …”

“Shhh, my Lindsey. I have you and I won’t be letting you go. I thought I had shown you that with all things I did to you with my mouth, hands, and body?”

Lindsey shivered remembering all the things he had done. “I …”

“No, don’t say anything. You’d just mess it up anyway. Just listen. You are it for me. But I have people that need to be told this before I complete my mating with you. Can you understand this?”

Lindsey nodded. She was still in shock.
He wanted her.
He thought she was his bond mate.
Deep down, she knew she felt a connection to him that she couldn’t explain. How could she fault him for trying to do the right thing by AriELa and his people.
Damn it!
AriELa was her friend and she just …

“What is that look you have?” He looked at her worriedly.

A tear escaped. “AriELa is my friend. I can’t believe I slept with her sort of fiancé.”

“I do not understand what a fiancé is. Didn’t you say that AriELa noticed that we had a connection and encouraged you to return to Kiljor to figure out what was there between us?” he asked already knowing the answer.

Lindsey nodded. “She had, but I still feel guilty.”

KadEN looked deeply into her eyes. “You wouldn’t feel guilt if you did not care for her as your friend. She will understand. She is a very intelligent female.”

“She is, but I worry about her. She seems so alone. Even when she is surrounded by a ton of people or just her family, she seems lonely.”

He nodded. “I have noticed. We will speak with her first to make sure she is okay with everything, then I plan to announce our mating plans to the High Council for Kiljor and Katiera. We will make plans to move your father and sister here so that they will be close by.”

“Well, I don’t know if moving them here is what they will want,” Lindsey said with a half-smile.

“That’s right, your father and RendEL’s mother are sharing sex.”

Lindsey groaned. “Please don’t say the word sex when talking about my father. It was bad enough walking in on it, I don’t want to talk about it.”

KadEN laughed. The tension eased between them. He brushed a stray strand of hair off her face that had fallen from her tight bun. “I love it when you wear your hair down.”

Lindsey reached up with her right hand and unhooked her hair clip. Her long golden brown locks fell down past her shoulders. She loved to see the look of adoration cross his face.

“Mine.”

She just nodded her head. She became acutely aware that she was sitting in his lap. She felt his arousal against her backside. “KadEN.”

He claimed her lips in a passionate kiss. She moved her body against his hating that they were both dressed. It wouldn’t take much effort to change that though. She started to undo his buttons when they felt their ship lurch forward sharply.

KadEN lifted her off his lap and made his way to the pilot’s seat quickly. “Oh Kitana. Lindsey, buckle up!”

Lindsey came to sit in the co-pilot’s seat. “What’s happening?”

“We are under attack.”

“Attack? By whom?” Lindsey asked looking at the viewing screen.

He looked at her with worried eyes. “The Morins.”

“Oh shit!”

Chapter Fourteen

“Commander RichIS, we are under attack. Repeat, we are under attack.”

“Prime Leader KadEN, we have issued several warships and a rescue shuttle. Use evasive maneuvers until help arrives.”

“Lindsey hold on!”

KadEN turned the shuttle a sharp right then another sharp left. The shuttles didn’t have as much maneuverability as their warships and they did not have the weaponry to fire back. KadEN knew their best chance of survival would be to find somewhere that would provide them cover.

“What can I do to help?” Lindsey was shaky but she pushed back her fears so that she could keep a level head.

“Help me look for someplace that we can land the shuttle. It needs to be a place that will provide protection. There should be rocks and trees that will aid us.”

Lindsey leaned forward to look over the viewing screen. She clutched the seat when they took another small hit. “Do you think they know that you are on this shuttle?”

“Yes, they want to capture me. Otherwise, we would have already been killed,” KadEN told her the truth. They were in serious trouble.

“There! Over there, KadEN! There’s a large crop of trees and next to it are large rocks spread out.” Lindsey pointed to the viewing screen.

KadEN had just turned the shuttle in the direction Lindsey pointed when they took another hit. The engine must have been damaged because the shuttle seemed to be stuttering as it made its way down to the trees.

“Hold on to your seat, it’s going to get bumpy.” KadEN told her.

Lindsey tried desperately to get her seat belt buckled but it wasn’t cooperating. “Damn it!”

“Lindsey!” KadEN tried to reach over to help her with her straps but he was thrown back into his seat at the first contact of the ship with the ground.

The shuttle bumped down on the hard ground a couple of times. It started a tilting roll. Then it slid until it slammed into a tree. It rested on its side.

The crash had taken its toll on KadEN. It took him a few minutes to clear the fuzziness from his head. His first thought wasn’t for himself. “Lindsey!”

She wasn’t in the co-pilot’s seat anymore. He pulled and tugged to get his straps off. He fell down out of his seat. He saw that Lindsey had been thrown toward the back of the shuttle. He made his way to her.

“Lindsey?” He gently turned her over in his arms so that he could check for injuries. She had a pulse that gave him some relief. There were bruises on the exposed areas of her arms and a huge bump on her forehead.

“Lindsey, sweetness, open your eyes,” his voice cracked with emotion. His mate was hurt and he had no way to get her to a medic.

How did this happen? How did the Morins escape detection from both the Kiljorns and the Katierans? How in Kitana did they get past Kiljorn’s defenses to attack them? He and Commander TylOR had always boasted that their defenses were impenetrable. Somehow, they were wrong.

He had no way to treat Lindsey’s injuries. The other shuttles that were used to go back and forth between the planet and the transport ship usually carried a medic kit on board. This shuttle was used mainly for local trips on Kiljor. It did not have a medic kit. He hoped that help would arrive soon.

KadEN needed to check their surroundings. He lifted Lindsey and placed her on a more flat surface in the shuttle. He made sure he had a laser gun with him as he left the confines of the shuttle. He could hear the Morin ship flying overhead, searching for them. Luckily, the shuttle had landed by the trees he had flown them to. He looked at the damaged shuttle. He thought he had hit a tree; it was a huge rock instead. The crash had dented the front of the shuttle badly. It was unserviceable.

He watched the sky for the Morin ship. It was still circling around trying to determine exactly where the shuttle had gone down. He wasn’t going to stand by waiting for the enemy to hunt them down. He made his way closer to the edge of the crop of trees. He waited for the Morin warship to make another pass. It got closer and closer each time.

When it was about to pass over KadEN’s location again, he stepped out from the trees and used his laser gun to shoot out both thrusters. The ship was out of control and started to spiral down. It hit a grouping of rocks and blew up into tiny pieces. There was nothing left.