Paige's Warriors (Bondmates Book 3) (15 page)

In all their years apart, Rell had sent Tren thousands of unread messages, but this was the only time he’d opened a single one.

The message was brief, but it sent a bolt of fear through Tren.

Paige stirred beneath him and he forced himself to calm as he thought about the letter and retrieved it from his mental database before reading the words again in his mind.

They were a coded jumble of phrases, developed in their own language. Rell, in addition to being a Negotiator, was a highly trained political spy. He knew codes better than anyone and Tren trusted that the other man had properly encoded the message, still, he double checked the security levels and read it again.

There are slavers on the ship who mean to do harm. We need to meet to discuss the situation.

He gently moved a heavily sleeping Paige off of him, instructing the computer with how to care for her in case he wasn’t back before she awoke. Where Kadothians needed only four hours of sleep a night, humans needed eight to ten and he was thankful for the time to take care of the threat before she woke up. If he had his way she would remain ignorant of the dangers around her and live in happiness. He knew it was foolish wish, but he would do his best to protect her from the harsh realities of the dangers of the world she was entering for as long as he could.

A quick message back to Rell had a response within seconds, along with directions of where to meet.

As he left his rooms he gave the guards specific instructions on Paige’s safety. He might have been a little harsh about it, both men had been sweating by the time he was done lecturing them, but his temper was on edge. For close to thirty years he’d managed to avoid Rell, determined to break their bond, but as he got closer to where he was meeting the other man, he could still feel him. True, Rell had his shields up so he couldn’t read much, but he felt the presence of his former blood brother in his soul and wanted to snarl.

As he entered a special lift that took him directly to Rell’s quarters, he mentally prepared himself for the meeting ahead. Being around Rell agitated his inner beast and Tren had to try and push away his anger at the other man, something that was usually next to impossible to do. Yet, right now, that all-consuming rage and guilt that came alive around Rell had died down enough for Tren to get ahold of himself. He would go in, find out what the threat was, and take care of it. Normally he’d think this was just a lure by Rell to get Tren to talk with him, but even Rell wouldn’t claim the ship was in danger if it wasn’t.

After all, she was potentially Rell’s bondmate as well.

The one thought he’d been trying to keep buried burst into his mind on a sick wave of guilt and fear.

How was he to share a Matriarch with a man he hated?

As he was still grappling with that thought he came to the door to Rell’s room, the hallway around him deserted.

The door opened and as he walked through he tried to pretend his heart wasn’t being torn in two at the mere hint of Rell’s scent.

There, standing before him with an impassive expression, dressed in a pair of loose black pants and a long, open red brocade shirt that hung to his thighs, stood Lord Rell Thantoh. His straight blond hair flowed down his back unbound and Tren had a visceral memory of that hair smoothing over his thighs as Rell took him into his mouth. The other man had aristocratic features, his mother was of a royal bloodline from a neighboring planet, and he still carried himself with an arrogant pride.

On the smooth, teal stone counter next to him sat Rell’s sheathed plasma sword, an ancient weapon that he was an expert at wielding.

Tren had spent many mornings watching his blood brother go through the ancient forms, often nude while he did it. This had always led to sex afterwards and Tren fought his cock getting hard-well, harder. Already his body was primed to mate because of the constant temptation his little bride presented, a temptation he didn’t dare give into until she’d grown enough to handle his much larger body. But Rell could handle him, could deal with his raw lust and passion, but he tried to shove that unwelcome thought from his mind.

The fact that he still found his former lover attractive irritated him like little knives slicing along his skin.

“Commander,” Rell said in an even voice, nothing about his body or face giving away his mood. “Thank you for joining me.”

If not for the still active blood brother bond between them, Tren would think Rell was unaffected, except traces of a desperate pain seeped through Tren’s shields from the other man. That only compounded his guilt and self-loathing, the only emotions he seemed capable of feeling around Rell now. He hated the way he felt about himself around the other man, but tonight was not as bad as usual.

In fact, he almost felt…normal. Like he used to with Rell, an ease with each other that came from being blood brothers, strengthened by their hundreds of years together. He paused, examining his emotions and tried to figure out why he wasn’t as angry as he used to be.

Paige.

She really had healed his soul, or somehow burned some of the darkness from his heart.

His love for her grew even stronger, as did his protective instincts.

“You said you had information about the slavers? Are they targeting my bride?”

“No, she is not
your
bride,” Rell said in a low voice. “And she never will be if you do not remove your head from your ass.”

Without thought Tren leaped across the room toward Rell, his fangs extended as he howled with rage at the thought of Rell trying to take Paige from him.

Instead of looking alarmed, Rell appeared bored and Tren thought he might have made a mistake. Even with the hard chemical surge of his rage, enhanced by the minute crystals embedded in his brain, he recognized a deadly adversary when he saw one. Rell arched one platinum brow as he watched Tren sail through the air with sneer of disdain.

Underestimating Rell was an easy mistake at first. The man seemed almost elegant, refined, and above such things as fighting. Everything about that carefully crafted image was bullshit. At his core Rell loved fighting, loved hand to hand combat, and spent his free time learning new moves as he traveled around the Bel’Tan Galaxy as a Negotiator for the Kadothian Empire. While they hadn’t sparred in almost a century, both men were just entering their prime years and even with his lighting quick reflexes Tren couldn’t avoid Rell’s counter attack.

The blond man merely rolled his eyes as his foot came up and met Tren’s stomach, kicking him back hard enough that he knocked over a table and crashed into the wall.

“Always so quick to attack. Have you learned nothing in our time apart? Though I must say I am surprised it took you as long as it did to lose your temper. You held on to your sanity for a surprisingly long time.”

Holding his ribs, wondering if any of them had snapped, Tren got to his feet. “She is mine.”

“No, she is ours.” Rell’s chest heaved with a deep breath as he said, “I true dream of her.”

Tren almost leapt at him again, but his aching side told him to stay put. He could activate the healing nanobots in his body to repair the damage and numb the pain, but he was man enough to take his punishment when he’d done something stupid. Like attack Rell. But that didn’t mean he was allowing the bastard anywhere near Paige.

Even though he knew the words were false, he couldn’t stop shouting, “Lies!”

“Just because my words are not the ones you want to hear, does not make them lies.” He reached into an inner pocket of the shirt, then pulled out a long blue ribbon. “Smell it.”

Tren stalked forward and snatched the smooth cloth from the other man. He didn’t even have to bring it to his nose to pick up Paige’s earthy and clean scent. Abruptly the strength went out of his legs and he sagged to his knees, clutching the damning piece of fabric.

True dreams were sent by the Lord of Life himself to bondmates before they met their match and if Rell had dreamed of Paige and touched her, her scent would have been on his hands. Saving the scent by wiping down their hands on a piece of cloth after a true dream was a common practice among Warriors. That scrap of cloth became their most treasured possession, proof that they had hope. It was the surest sign of potential bondmates—and Tren didn’t know what to do.

While he knew this day would come if either of them ever found bondmates, he’d imagined that his hatred for the other man would have snapped their bond by now. At the very least he’d hoped the distance he’d established between them would have done the job, but it looked like his efforts had failed. Staring down at the blue ribbon, almost the exact color of Paige’s eyes, he sighed.

“How do you expect this to work, Rell? She will know my feelings for you, she will know I have no wish to have you as a husband.”

Rell’s voice was cold, but he could feel the hurt coming from the other man and regretted his words. “This is not about
you
, Tren.”

Getting to his feet, he righted the table he’d overturned after being kicked then gently set the cloth atop it. “If you want Paige as a bondmate, it is most certainly about me.”

“Has she agreed to bond you?”

“Not yet.” He gritted his teeth as Rell gave a slight smirk. “I do not want to rush her. She deserves to be courted properly.”

In a rare display of nerves, Rell ran his hands through his hair, then strode over next to Tren and picked up the ribbon, winding it through his fingers before lifting it to his nose and taking in a deep inhalation. “You are correct; she deserves only the best. Her soul…it is so fragile, so beautiful. Innocent. There are those who will seek to destroy her.”

Remembering the reason he was there, and it wasn’t to suck in deep inhalations of Rell’s spicy scent mixed with Paige’s feminine musk from the ribbon, he straightened as much as he could with his ribs still throbbing from the kick. “What is the threat?”

“Word has spread far and wide that you have found your bondmate. You are the hottest gossip on Kadothia at the moment—hell, in most of the Universe. This has only brought more attention to Earth women, who have become the most sought after slaves anywhere for exotic collectors. After all, Earth women, and men, are only available for a limited time before the wormhole closes. And they are breeding compatible with many, many races.”

Tren grimaced. “How bad is it?”

“We have managed to stop most of the shipments, but a few have gotten through.” Rell gritted his teeth, then relaxed his jaw. “We are actively seeking the abducted Earth citizen and will do everything we can to both find them and help them heal. More slaver colonies have been found on Earth, and I fear we will need to deploy some surface crews to the planet to deal with the menace. It is hard enough as it is to keep our presence a secret, but with the slavers running amok on Earth it may be next to impossible.”

“The High Council is aware?”

“They are, but most of those fools are caught up in the political dramas of the Bel’Tan galaxy and are ignoring the real threats to our world in favor of petty shit.”

“So things are going as well as they usually do with the High Council.”

Rell’s lips twitched. “At least the fools voted down the amendment that would require Earth brides to be quarantined for two years on Kadothia before they were allowed to travel. Lady Yanush and Lady Elsin let it be known they would take it as a personal insult if the measure passed. You can imagine how eager everyone was to do a public vote on it after their announcement. Both have sons who have bonded with Earth females and from what I gather they are fond of their sons’ Matriarchs. Fond enough that they’ve been collecting new enemies among the ‘Earth Women are Evil’ crowd.”

Tren almost smiled as he imagined the trouble the two imposing Matriarchs, who held the highest political positions on Kadothia, could cause for those that offended them.

“You would do well to contact your Steward and have him double security around the Matriarch’s Palace. Also increase your foot patrols. The Tribes in my territory have already been alerted.”

“Minerva still running them?”

A spark of irritation came to Rell’s eye, along with a wry smile. “Yes. The Elder Battle Witch still heads up the Tribes.”

“I take it she is still a constant source of annoyance?”

Rell just glared at him, and Tren couldn’t help but grin. Minerva had petitioned Rell to occupy a portion of his territory as political refugees. Their planet had fallen to the Hive, and the Cliffs of Goeth were the closest thing to their home planet on Kadothia. Since the area they wanted was unoccupied, and the Tribes practiced ecological living that would protect the land, Rell agreed. Plus, Rell had fought at their side to save their home world, and his failure to do so weighed heavily on his friend. It wasn’t that he had let the Tribe settle there out of guilt, but because Rell felt he could protect them better than anyone else.

Tren had been expecting a battle shocked group of people with their spirits broken. Instead, Rell had welcomed what remained of the royal family, mostly children, and their personal guards along with the feisty dowager Queen to his territory. A right nasty woman with a temper who guarded her grandchildren like an angry
vole
with her kits. She was borderline rude, certainly crass, and had a tendency to become homicidal if someone threatened her kin.

“Irritation or not, Minerva does not like the idea of strangers on her land.” Rell arched a brow at Tren’s smirk. “Do not laugh. You know she includes your territory as being under her protection as well. After all, you saved three of her grandchildren’s lives from drowning in a tidal whirlpool. You are a hero in her eyes. Do not be a fool and deny her help due to pride.”

Abruptly Tren realized they were falling into the same easy rhythm that had always existed between them in private, the friendly arguing back and forth. Being here in Rell’s presence, it was hard to remember why he’d been so enraged at the other man. Instead of rage, good memories that had long been buried beneath his resentment for Rell began to surface, memories of the kinship he’d felt for the other man, for the love they’d shared.