Prime Imperative (The Prime Chronicles Book 3) (31 page)

“Ah, I see Iolyn has spoken of me. If I make you uncomfortable, I’ll leave and speak with another doctor on the team. I wanted to help by giving samples of my blood and tissue for your research project before I leave the planet.”

“No, please stay, Susa. Thank you for coming.” Bria waved a hand at the chair next to the scope table. “Please sit. And call me Bria. I’ll be happy to do your intake. You’ve been a good…um, friend to my
gemat
’s family.”

Susa’s aura turned even more volatile. Bria read fear, regret, fondness, loneliness, sadness, and a myriad of other contradictory emotions. There was more to Susa’s visit than helping out the research project.

“Thank you.” Susa sat and then looked around the room, at her lap, anywhere but at Bria.

“Susa,” Bria lightly touched the woman’s arm, “it’s okay. I’m happy you came in and asked for me.”

Bria would need to start with an easy question. She wanted Susa to be at ease so the woman would say what she’d come to say. The fear and worry in the woman’s aura bothered Bria a lot. “You said you were traveling? Will you be gone long?”

“Um, I don’t know.” Susa looked at Bria. “I’m visiting my cousin Borac on Jump Station Charybdis. His Terran mate will soon give birth, and he did not want to chance space travel with her so close to her due date.”

“I’ve met Borac and Cissy and their toddler,” Bria said. “They’re a lovely family.”

Susa smiled. “Borac mentioned he had met you. I’m eager to see him and help in any way I can.”

“That’s so nice of you going all that way to help,” said Cheri, who’d taken a seat to the side of Bria’s scope table in order to enter the intake data.

Susa smiled at Cheri. “He’s my favorite cousin. I don’t have much family left because of the Antareans, so I was happy he got in touch with me. I am thrilled he’s found a mate and that they’ve started a family. It gives hope to other Prime who are alone.”

Then Susa turned back to Bria. “You just came from the jump station. Do you think I’d like to live there…permanently?”

Bria inhaled sharply and then began choking. Susa moved to thump her on the back. “Do you need water?”

“No, um”—
cough, cough
—“just swallowed wrong.” After a couple of deep breaths, she said, “It’s a rough place, Susa. I was almost kidnapped twice and also attacked in the short time I was there.”

“Borac has his family there. He protects them. He’ll protect me.”

“Yes, he does, and he will,” Bria affirmed. “But Cissy and the child never, and I mean never ever, leave the safety of the secured employees’ quarters. And most of the station’s regular customers know Borac and his partner, my brother Damon, would deal harshly with anyone harming a woman. But you’re single and very attractive and…well, marketable, if you understand what I’m saying. Dangerous passers-through could hear of you and make the extra effort to kidnap you.”

“Sex traffickers.” Susa nodded. “Borac mentioned I’d be restricted in my movements. He said he wouldn’t allow me even to visit the bar because of the rough element, as he called it.”

“Did he also tell you the bar has strippers, live sex shows on stage and that some of the entertainers give lap dances and other intimate favors in privacy rooms?” At the shocked look on Susa’s face, she guessed not. “Oh, we need to talk before you leave.”

“Yes, we
do
need to
talk
.”

And Bria read in the woman’s tone it was not about Jump Station Charybdis, but about what Susa had really come to tell Bria.

Susa looked at the clock on the wall. “Would you allow me to buy you lunch, Bria?”

The woman had noticeably, but in a nice way, excluded Cheri from this
talk
, which screamed it would be about private Caradoc family matters.

“Sure,” said Bria. “Cheri, you can take a break. Maybe Zaek is ready for lunch?”

“I’m sure he is. Thanks.” Cheri jumped up and left the room before Bria had even finished her sentence. Susa looked shocked.

“She’s not rude. Just newly mated.”

Susa laughed and her whole face changed. She wasn’t merely beautiful, but downright gorgeous. Maybe Bria had better contact Borac and warn him. He’d have to put a security detail on her around the clock and outside her quarters.

Bria picked up a portable data pad. “I can ask the intake questions while we eat. And about this talk, would it be okay if I have Nadia and Mel join us? Or, would that be uncomfortable? I only ask, because later today we’re having tea at Tenar Caradoc’s, and they were going to meet me here and do lunch first. I think they’d like to meet you.”

At the mention of Tenar’s name, a look of panic wiped the smile off Susa’s face. The beautiful woman feared him. Hated him. A tingling of awareness pricked Bria’s mind. Susa knew something bad about Tenar. Something that streaked Susa’s aura with oily black shards. It might not have been the reason she’d sought out Bria, but it would definitely be a topic to address during lunch.

Susa recovered her composure quickly. “I’ve met Wulf’s
gemate
. She was very gracious about meeting the woman who’d had sex with her
gemat
—as were you.” Susa stood up. “But I am not sure Huw’s
gemate
would be happy to see me. He hurt her feelings by denying their attraction and came to me. If I had known about her, I would’ve told him to leave that day.”

“I know.” Bria patted the woman’s arm. “I think you should know I can read your emotions. You’re very open. Trust me…Nadia will read you just as easily. I’m sure that now she and Huw are fully bonded, there’s no problem.”

Well, that was a white lie. Nadia still had some issues, but her sister-kin would have to get over it. Susa knew something the Caradoc brothers’
gemates
needed to know.

Bria continued, “Plus, Nadia was with me on Jump Station Charybdis. You’ll want to hear her impressions also.”

“That would be fine.”

They proceeded down a long corridor to the exam room, Bria’s Volusian shadows several paces behind them. After Bria performed a physical examination, took tissue samples, and drew blood, she waited outside the room while Susa got dressed.

“Where shall we eat?” Susa asked when she exited the room. “The pickets are loud and rowdy today, but I have transport waiting for me. My driver is armed.”

“Because of the pickets, we need to stay within the Alliance complex so Iolyn and the other
gemats
don’t have fits.” Bria looked over her shoulder at V’niko and A’nan, who grinned at her and made no bones about listening in. “Iolyn also has insisted on me having guards.”

Susa turned her head to look back. “Oh my. They do look…competent.”

Bria had to choke back a laugh. Susa’s words belied her intense sexual reaction to the hunky warriors. Her arousal added hot pink streaks to her aura.

“They are. They saved me back on Oz.” The she leaned over and whispered to the beautiful woman. “A’nan is single and looking.”

Susa giggled, making her look young. “I’m not in the market…yet. But I’ll keep him in mind. Thanks.”

“We gals have to take care of our sisters.”

“That’s nice.” Susa sighed. “I haven’t felt a part of a sisterhood, outside of the other sex surrogates, in a long time. We are a part of society and yet not.”

“Well, the future is yours now. You can have a family, if you wish.”

“You believe you can solve the miscarriage issue?” The longing in Susa’s voice was potent.

“I know why it happens. So, yes, we can treat the issue with temporary fixes. My team and I can eventually eliminate the problem completely once we find exactly what caused damage to your immune systems. You’re young enough, you should be able to have children easily.”

“But what about the markings? There are some of us who believe we could’ve mated and had children without the bond mark. But the Elder Council—” Susa stopped talking and looked around to see who might be listening. “—um, you must know how things stand here.”

And there it was—one of the reasons Susa had come to Bria.

“Yes, I do know. You could’ve mated, but your culture allowed reproduction for only those couples who marked.” Since they were alone, but for V’niko and A’nan, she asked, “Why
exactly
did you seek me out?”

Susa bit her lip and replied in a low tone, so low Bria leaned in to hear her. “You know that sex surrogates were given hormone therapy?”

“Yes. You were told it was to prevent pain from the touch of a male who was not your
gemat
. But I’ve tested it and it is mostly a contraceptive.”

“Yes, that is what we were told.” Susa looked grim. “About five standard years ago, I and several other sex surrogates agreed to test our suspicions and stopped using the hormone and took other precautions against the possibility we might get pregnant. None of us had pain before or during sex. The only sex surrogates who had pain were the marked women who’d lost their men, and that pain decreased over time without the use of the hormone therapy.”

Bria nodded. “That’s what I suspected, but thank you for confirming it.”

“Why did you suspect such?”

“Because I lived fine with my mark for years without any pain. I asked Mel and so had she. It took our meeting our
gemats
to jump-start that side effect. It’s all about neurochemistry. So, why do you think the physicians gave you the hormones and misled you and the public?”

Susa snorted. “Mainly to prevent conception. When we shared our results with the physicians assigned to us, they told us we were not doctors and not to question their expertise. Later, we received visits from some of the Elders who warned us about spreading such heresy, as they called it. The other sex surrogates and I concluded that the Elders did not want the public to realize that unmarked females could have babies or that
gemates
could have babies with another male after losing their
gemat
.”

And another piece of the puzzle indicating a conspiracy just dropped into place.

“Elders threatened you?” Bria asked.

“Subtly, but yes. All of us took the warnings as a threat to our safety and livelihood.” Susa shuddered. “I was so happy when Premier Caradoc opened our society up to the rest of the galaxy, I cried.”

Susa slowed her pace and lowered her voice. “Not all of my peers were treated as well as I was. I had the Premier’s family as my clientele.
Most
of them treated me well.”

And there was the other reason Susa had come to speak to Bria. Why the woman had projected fear at the sound of Tenar’s name.

And then the seeds of a potentially devastating idea took root in Bria’s gut, or maybe it had been there all along. Susa’s two seemingly unrelated pieces of information added details to the image forming in her mind. Her conspiracy puzzle still missed a few pieces, but she could visualize enough of the picture to guess the rest.

Bria wanted to be incorrect, but her brain and instincts told her she wasn’t.

“Which Elder or Elders threatened you?” She held her breath and prayed she was wrong.

When Susa gave her three names, one of them stood out like a solar flare. The key piece to the puzzle had fallen into place. She was right—and she felt no satisfaction in that.

“Tenar Caradoc warned you away from speaking out about the truth of the hormone treatments?” Bria’s throat tightened. Ilar would be devastated. He’d shown no hesitation in sending her to Tenar for more information or having his daughter-kin go to tea with the man. He’d never suspected such treachery from his younger brother.

“Yes, in his role as an Elder.” Susa paled visibly. “But he always scared me, even before he threatened me.” She looked away, shame and pain on her face, in her posture.

“What did he do, Susa?”

“He visited me for sex as many of the unmated Caradoc males did—and some still do.” Susa shuddered. “He was cruel, rough. He also used me…frequently. He was just…wrong.”

Bria stopped in the middle of the hall and turned toward Susa. She waved V’niko and A’nan back, not wanting them to hear her next query and Susa’s answer. “Define ‘wrong.’”

Susa’s smoky green gaze locked onto Bria’s face. “He liked to give pain, and not in an erotic way, if you know what I mean?”

“He hurt you?…Badly?”

Susa nodded, tears formed in her eyes, and she looked at her hands, which were fisted against her abdomen as if she had to hold her emotions inside. “He liked me bleeding, screaming.” She looked up, her cheeks glistening.

Bria pulled the trembling woman into her arms and rubbed her back in soothing circular motions. V’niko started forward, concern in his eyes. Bria held up her hand, halting him.

“Thank you, Susa. I know that was hard. Would you…Damn, I hate to ask this, but would you share with Mel and Nadia what you just told me? Answer more of our questions? If you can’t, I understand. But it’s important. Very important to the Prime people’s future.”

“I figured such, but didn’t trust anyone in the Council after my physician reported me to the Elders.” Susa sniffed and pulled away. “I can speak with your sister-kin if I have to…but why can’t you tell them what I said?”

“Because they’re like me, they need to see and read the truth in your aura. They’ll then feel the same urgency I feel so we can make plans about what to do about Tenar.”

“Why would you do something about Tenar?” Susa gripped Bria’s forearms. “Bria, he was rough…a mean sex partner. His warnings about the hormones were echoed by many of the other Elders. The last I heard, neither of those things are a crime.”

Bria leaned in and whispered against Susa’s ear. “But trying to kill the main line of the Caradoc family is.”

“You think,” Susa looked around and lowered her voice, “you think he is behind the rebellion?”

“Yes, and even more heinous acts.” Bria took Susa’s arm and led the way to the Officer’s Lounge in the Alliance complex. “I’m beginning to believe Tenar’s perfidy began long before the Antarean siege twenty-seven and a half standard years ago.”

“When do you think it began?” Susa breathed out the question.

“When Ilar Caradoc mated with Lorinda.”