Paige's Warriors (Bondmates Book 3) (26 page)

“He is correct,” Nosa said as he pulled his pants back on, his semi-hard cock bobbing before it disappeared from sight. “There are those who would slay their mothers for a chance at being healed, at increasing their psychic powers. And they are not good and honorable men who would take no for an answer.”

“I have never heard of anyone healing the madness before,” Cormac said with something akin to awe in his voice. “What is it like?”

“Well, it’s hard to explain. The best way I can describe it is, I can see your soul, like…like a vase with cracks in it. I just kinda…fill those cracks up.”

All the men stared at her, and she rolled off of Tren’s chest. “Would you stop looking at me like I’m a freak?”

“No, beloved, you are amazing,” Rell whispered as he took her hand in his and kissed it.

Nosa knelt at the edge of the couch, his dark face serious. “For however brief my service is to you, I am honored to carry your partial bond, Matriarch Grant.”

Embarrassed by his thanks, she looked away. “It was my privilege. And not exactly a hardship.”

This broke the tension and Nosa rose to his feet, Cormac at his side. The men looked better, less tense than when she’d first seen them, and their faces were more…animated somehow. As if they’d gone from being robots to men.

A sense of pride filled her, and she realized it was coming from her husbands, and it felt wonderful.

Later that night, after her men had fed and fucked her once again, Paige cuddled between her amazing husbands in their unusual bed, beneath a simulated sky on an alien ship, and couldn’t imagine being any happier. Both men had fallen asleep, and before she dozed, she sent up a prayer to God, or the Lord of Life or whoever was listening, saying thanks for all of her blessings.

As she was about to slip into her dreams, she sent up one more prayer, asking God to help Roxie get over her hurt, and accept Nosa and Cormac into her heart.

Paige resisted the nervous urge to pat her hair, adjust her dress, and hide behind her men. They were big enough. Surely if she had Tren in front and Rell behind her, walking close, no one would even see her. But that would defeat the purpose of making their ‘grand statement’, and Paige knew they needed to do this. Too bad she had no idea how extreme the reaction would be.

Tren, looking like royalty in his shiny black dress armor, held her right hand in the crook of his arm. A crimson red cape was attached to his armor at the shoulders and flowed out behind him, sometimes overlapping the long train of her black gown. It fit her perfectly and swept down low over the shoulders before flowing into full sleeves. The dress had to dip in order to show off the entirety of her bondmark, and she wanted everyone to get a good look at it.

The eyes of everyone who saw them grew comically wide, at least from what she saw. They were surrounded by black armored Warriors that had a small, silver handprint on each shoulder, her handprint. This morning, after a quick breakfast where they strategized their next move, she’d dipped her hand into some kind of silver paint that felt like sticky sand, then placed her hands on the broad shoulders of each Warrior who swore himself to the service of House Grant. They all wore helmets now, and were indistinguishable from each other—at least to her untrained eye, but she remembered each of their faces.

After all, it wasn’t every day a man pledged his life to you, and meant it.

On her left Rell stared out at the world from a mask of pure ice, his reaction a little warier than Tren’s. While her Warrior husband was sure he could destroy any threat that came their way, her beloved spy trusted no one other than his bondmates. They’d have to work on his paranoia, and hopefully it would get better once they were on Kadothia, but for right now she was glad he was at her side.

Their progress was slow, hindered by the growing crowd, but not even the most zealous gossip dared to get in her guards’ way. 

Rell murmured, “Be sure to not pick your nose right now, you are being recorded for posterity.”

Despite her nerves, she couldn’t help but give her blond husband a small smile.

Right, just what she needed, a reminder that pretty much everyone who saw them were recording a live feed and sending it back to Kadothia via relay bots at the wormhole. Their only job was to travel in and out of the wormhole, delivering messages from one galaxy to another and constantly monitoring the distortion in space. If Kadothia had a trending topic counter of any kind, it was no doubt ‘Lord Rell, Commander Trenzent, and Matriarch Grant’ was among the top five interests of the Bel’Tan galaxy at the moment. The journey from the Reaping ship to Kadothia took six hours, so they were hoping that would give Kadothia time to digest the news and calm down.

Paige could have searched the Kadothian version of the Internet for information, but she couldn’t use her crystal implants and multitask yet. If she tried, she’d end up walking into a wall, which had happened more than once, or tripping over something, which had also happened more than once. Tren and Rell assured her she’d get better at it, but right then she was afraid to read the mean things being said about her. Oh, she knew there were people who would be nice, and people who would be mean, but for a small-town girl who’d avoided…well, life over the past few years it was a lot to take in.

By the time they reached the terminal the guards were grouped tight around them, an outer perimeter group of Negotiators in their navy blue armor moving the crowd back.

As they neared the sleek, deep black ship that would take them through the wormhole, her unease faded a bit. The slavers were still out there, somewhere on either Earth or on the Reaping ship, and they would still use any chance they could to strike out at Trenzent. Her husbands assured her that no one would dare try something right then. It would make them into martyrs if the Kadothian Empire spun the story right—which they would. Still, when the door dropped down, sealing Paige into the bay with her husbands, the crew, and her guards, she let out a low sigh.

“That was terrifying.”

Tren and Rell laughed while her guards checked her ship over.

“
Alyah
,” Tren said with a smile, “you were very brave.”

“Oh, shut up.” She put her hands on her hips and glared up at him, ignoring the fact that they had an audience. “I’m shy, okay? And all those people looking at me…if it wasn’t for the bond, I would have made you hide me in a suitcase and wheel me through the ship.”

A man behind her cleared his throat in a manner that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle, and she whirled around, glaring at one of the guards who had his helmet off. He had long, deep eggplant purple hair streaked with robin’s egg blue, and she struggled to recall his name, but was coming up blank. His eyes were a pretty teal blue and his skin a golden tan, overall a good-looking man in a rather exotic way. As he stared at her, and she stared back at him, she started to get nervous.

“Matriarch,” Rell whispered, “you must greet him before he can speak with you. His name is Captain Holt.”

Crap, there were so many rules of engagement for dealing with Kadothians, all based on political structure, region, and how traditional or modern they were. She had a file on it somewhere, but after another few seconds of silence on her part, she gave up and went with her gut. Holding out her hand, she smiled.

“Nice to meet you, Captain Holt. Feel free to call me Paige.”

He jerked back as if startled, and her smile wilted as her hand hung in the air.

“She did not invite you to court her by giving her first name. On Earth it is considered a sign of respect, not an indication that she wishes to consider you as a husband.”

“No, absolutely not,” Paige squeaked out, then blushed hard at Captain Holt’s raised brow. “Not that you’re not good-looking or anything. I mean, you’re really hot and you have killer hair and you look like the kind of guy who can show a girl a good time in bed, but…shit…I’m not making this better, am I? I’m sorry, I’m so nervous. I don’t know what to do, and I’m just, you know, winging it.”

She trailed off as everyone around them tried to hide their amusement at her babble.

“I understand, Matriarch,” Captain Holt said while giving her a devilish smile. “My good looks often cause women to lose their minds.”

That was totally the last thing she expected him to say, and she gaped at him as he winked, and her husbands burst out laughing.

“You’re trouble,” she decided as she peered at the tall man.

Captain Holt took a step closer and lowered his voice. “In truth, Matriarch, I am honored to meet you and proud to serve you. Your husbands and I have known each other for hundreds of years and it makes me delighted, and gives me hope, to see them rewarded with such a beautiful and kind Matriarch.”

“I-I, thank you. I feel weird saying thank you because I feel like they’re my gift, like they’re my reward. You know what I mean?”

His gaze softened, and he nodded. “I do, and someday I hope to find the woman who will feel the same for me.”

Before she could respond, they boarded the transport, Paige and her husbands up front in a really nice, small suite, and the rest of the men in the back.

The cabin was decorated in pink and silver hues, with a large bed, bathroom, and a four-person dining table along with a small kitchen. The silence of the room made her ears ring and for a moment all she did was stand there with her eyes closed, absorbing the moment. Warmth soaked into her, and she relaxed back into Rell’s arms, his clean scent comforting her as she tried to get over her growing nerves. A brief mental scan of the news channels on Kadothia showed that they were the number one topic of conversation, and everyone had an opinion on their mating.

Especially the fact that Tren and Rell were obviously blood brothers before Tren met Paige.

A lot of people were happy for them, and a lot felt betrayed.

“Where’s Tren?”

“In a meeting with our guards,” Rell murmured against her hair. “You need to relax. You are too tense and need to sleep during the journey since we did not allow you much sleep last night.”

“I’m trying to relax.”

“I know how to help you.”

She caught his mood right away and pushed at his arms. “I am not going to meet my people stinking like sex.”

“But—”

“No.”

“What about letting me lick your sweet pussy? Does it count if I come all over the bed while I feast on you? Your sex with all its extra pieces of skin is the most arousing.”

She laughed. “Okay, don’t ever refer to my pussy as having ‘extra pieces of skin’. It’s not sexy.”

“Oh, I disagree. It is very sexy. Let me prove it to you.”

He did, repeatedly, and when Tren returned from his meeting he insisted on ‘wearing the perfume of her delicious cunt’ on his face as well.

And afterward, exhausted by a series of fantastic orgasms, she slept well.

***

Grasping Rell’s hand on one side and Tren’s hand in her other, she stood before the huge deck of the small transport ship that had just landed on Kadothia at her new home.

Her heart raced, and she squeezed their hands harder, grateful when they sent a sense of calm to her through their bonds. In an effort to center herself and not babble like an idiot when she met the people she was supposed to freaking
rule
—her brain couldn’t even get a handle on that one—she’d cut herself off from her husbands, but now she opened her side of the bond more with both of them and took solace in their strength. Right away her mood lifted as their happiness at bringing her home flooded her with positive vibes.

The hatch opened and a small walkway slid down to the soft bluish green grass. It was a partly cloudy morning on Kadothia and as the sunlight hit her skin she tried to ignore the fact that she glittered even more now. She wore a traditional Matriarch’s robe, in her case black for Tren since he converted her from human to a Kadothian, and blue piping around the edges for Rell’s Negotiator class. The sleeves were long and flowy with tiny black crystals had been sewn into the bodice and hem of the light gown, little bits of darkness that caught the light. The gown was shoulder less and fully exposed the extent of her rather large bondmark.

Casey had been surprised at the size of the mark, but Jaz had just grinned then said Paige’s husbands had wanted to be extra sure she was their Matriarch.

On either side of the walkway stood over five thousand Kadothian Warriors, all lined up straight and in three perfect rows. These men were hand selected by her husbands to be part of her personal guard, a high honor that had been fiercely sought after. Not only did they have the prestige of guarding the Matriarch of a Lead High Council member, they also got to guard a woman who was a representation of all they fought and sacrificed for, a visible and living reward for the former Supreme Commander, a promise of their future—if they could live long enough to fulfill their destiny.

With her hair swept up and held back in a pearl headband of sorts, Paige followed her husbands’ lead as they led her out into the light, her eyes burning a bit as they adjusted.

The Matriarch’s Palace towered above them, a beautiful series of spires and odd, elevated buildings that were round in nature with massive patios. Plants dripped down from a variety of windows and balconies, a profusion of color that took her breath away. The grass gave off a faint scent of crushed spices as they walked, and she smiled when she saw the two men waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp. Cormac and Nosa were in full military regalia, wearing cloaks similar to the ones her husbands had pinned to their armors. Because they were the only men she’d partially bonded, they got to escort her around. This was a very formal, big deal event and if her husbands weren’t pumping her full of calming mental waves she’d be freaking out that she was going to mess up somehow, like trip on her gown and bust her face open on the pretty teal-ish grass.

“Matriarch,” Cormac said in a loud, commanding voice, which was very different from his usual carefree tone. “On behalf of your new people, welcome to Kadothia.”

Tren and Rell had tried to prepare her for the noise level of a thousand Warriors roaring in welcome, but she still jerked at their hands as she tried to instinctively cover her ears.

Her eyes were probably huge as she took in the sight of all these massive men snarling and roaring like proud lions, her whole body reverberating with their cries.

Beside her Tren and Rell stood with their faces almost grim, but their chests puffed out with so much pride it practically radiated off of them.

She couldn’t help but smile then lean up and give first Rell, and then Tren a brief kiss on the lips.

This led to more roaring from the men, making her blush and turn to her husbands, hiding her face in their bulk as they laughed.

“My Matriarch.” Nosa’s amused and deep voice cut through her attempts to burrow into Tren’s chest. “If you will follow us, we would like to show you your new home.”

With Rell and Tren holding her hands once again, she tried to listen to Cormac and Nosa’s running commentary on the different places and people they passed, but she could barely do more than breathe and walk at the same time as her senses drowned in over stimulation. Kadothia, at least the Cliffs of Goeth region, was astonishingly beautiful. Her emotions trembled close to the surface as they paused at a wide, cream stone balcony big enough to hold a house, and looked over the edge. Far, far below spread a colorful forest that narrowed to a point before it reached the sea. Cliffs rose on all sides of the valley below and several rivers glinted an odd, golden purple as they wound through the land.