Tee-ani's Pirates (2 page)

“Yeah, well I’ve learned a few tricks over the years,” she said, smiling. “But I can guarantee that I will sleep for a very long time once I stand down. Go, before I make my husband order you to bed.”

12

Rachel Clark

Tee-ani laughed then. Despite the fact that Sarah’s husband, Jordan, was the captain of this pirate ship, he was the most honorable and generous human male she’d ever met. He had never given her an order in the two months since his crew rescued her and many other human females from the slave ship. Many of the women stayed and joined his crew and now he ran his ship like a family. Everyone had a function and a purpose and he’d somehow blended a myriad of skills into a workable team.

“Okay, Sarah,” she conceded, despite the empty threat. “I’ll grab a few hours’ sleep and then I expect you to do the same. That, my friend, is an order from your doctor.”

Sarah grinned and saluted her cheekily before she turned to leave the room.

Suddenly tired beyond anything she’d ever felt before, Tee-ani climbed onto one of the unoccupied medical beds and fell quickly asleep.

* * * *

Trey sauntered into the medical bay, hoping to run into his favorite doctor. His brother, Ben, followed not far behind. The good doctor had been on the ship for less than two months, but they’d both felt an irresistible attraction to the pretty female and for the life of them, neither could explain why.

She was human, after all. Humans mated with a single partner.

They held no understanding of G’trobian mating rituals, yet somehow, Trey couldn’t shake the strange attraction. Ben had denied it more times than he could count, but Trey knew without a shadow of a doubt that his brother felt the same odd fascination.

“Damn,” Ben whispered softly as he saw Tee-ani’s sleeping figure.

Curled up on one of the medical beds, she looked small, tired, and very, very beautiful. Dark smudges showed clearly against her pale face, testament to how hard she’d worked over the last two days.

Tee-ani’s Pirates

13

Every instinct Trey owned clawed at him to protect this woman, to gather her in his arms and never let her go. He barely managed to hold himself back.

Goddess, what was wrong with him? G’trobians didn’t mate out of species. Well, G’ntriel did, but she was a rogue female and too willful to be mated to any true G’trobian males. G’trobian women were supposed to be demure and pleasant and they obeyed the males in their lives—pretty much the exact opposite of G’ntriel and many of the human females on this ship.

Ben glanced up from his perusal of the doctor’s sleeping form.

Trey knew what he was thinking. He had enough skill as an empath to sense his brother’s deep disquiet and he didn’t even bother to try to hide his own confusion.

Ben glared at Tee-ani. He hesitated a moment and then he spun on his heel and left the room, his back rigid, his gait stiff. Trey watched as he left, understanding the anger had come from frustration and a little surprised he didn’t feel the same way.

He was about to leave when Tee-ani’s eyes fluttered open.

“Trey?” she asked tiredly as she struggled to sit up. “Is everything okay? Does someone need me?”

Yes, he thought possessively.
I need you
. But he just shook his head and smiled as he encouraged her to return to her rest.

“I’m sorry I woke you. I just wanted to make sure that you have enough medical supplies.”

“I’m running low on antibiotics for humans,” she said quietly,

“but otherwise I’m still fairly well stocked from the last delivery you gave me.”

“Good,” Trey said as he nodded. “I’ll see what I can do to get more in our next delivery.” He smiled when he said it. “Delivery” was a polite euphemism for how they actually got supplies for the ship. It
was
a pirate ship, after all.

Not stopping to consider his actions, Trey gently pushed Tee-ani back onto the medical bed. “Sleep now. I’ll wake you if we need
14

Rachel Clark

you.” His loins tightened even as he said the words. Yes, he needed her. His body acknowledged his attraction to this woman, even if his head wouldn’t agree. She closed her eyes and he reached out to smooth a lock of pale blonde hair from her eyes before he could tell himself not to. She smiled for a brief moment and then fell back to sleep.

He sat there watching her for several minutes, knowing that he shouldn’t but unable to pull himself away. He’d been so deep in thought that the small chirp sound from his communicator startled him.

“Yes, captain?” he asked into the small device.

“Trey, I need you on the bridge.”

“Yes, sir,” he said quietly as he hurried from the room.

* * * *

Ben made it all the way back to his own quarters before he could do something completely stupid—like turning around and going back to the medical bay. The mechanical door slid open and he stepped into his cabin, heading for the sonic shower. Oh, what he wouldn’t give for a real G’trobian cleansing. G’trobians bathed in a fluidic substance that caressed the skin and soothed tired muscles. It had long been part of the mating rituals of his planet, but was widely used for other less intimate moments, as well. Since joining the crew on this ship, he hadn’t had a chance to return to his home world and lately he’d begun to miss lots of the little things.

He spent far more time in the sonic shower than he intended.

Distracted, he contemplated his life on board a pirate ship and how different things had been three cycles ago. He only roused from his musings when he heard the door slide open, so he quickly finished up and went into the cabin room that he shared with his brother. Trey wandered in listlessly and flopped onto his own bed.

“Why her?” Ben asked.

Tee-ani’s Pirates

15

“I don’t know,” Trey said quietly. “We’ve been attracted to non-G’trobian females before.”

“Attracted, yes, but this is more and you know it.”

* * * *

Trey nodded in agreement, but couldn’t offer any plausible explanation. Ben sat on his own bed and turned back to his brother.

“Maybe we just think it’s more. Maybe we just need to sleep with her. Get it out of our system.”

Trey laughed out loud at the same time that his heart contracted painfully. He wanted Tee-ani more than any other female he’d ever met and the thought of mating with her had his libido—and certain parts of his body—standing to attention. The problem was that he couldn’t imagine letting her go once he had her. His mind was full of images of loving her over and over and eventually watching her swell with their child, and it didn’t really fit in with the suggestion Ben put forward.

“Maybe we should just hitch a ride home,” Trey suggested. “We haven’t contacted our Fathers since we left three cycles ago.”

“I doubt that’s long enough for them to forget,” Ben said distantly.

It seemed obvious that Ben was hooked on the love-her-and-leave-her idea.

“Maybe it’s not,” he said carefully, “but how will we ever know if they forgive us for leaving unless we go back.”

“Am I the only one who remembers the mate they picked out for us?” Ben asked, his natural humor leaking back into his voice.

“No, I remember. I just can’t imagine that she would still be waiting for us.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, brother,” Ben said, laughing openly now.

“The female was a wallflower without an opinion or a personality of her own. Her family raised her to be our mate from the moment she was born. I doubt any other G’trobian family would accept her.”

16

Rachel Clark

Trey nodded slightly as the familiar guilt crept through. In reality, G’baena had been the perfect mate for them both. Submissive, shy, demure, and sexy, all rolled into one perfect package. She’d been the epitome of G’trobian royalty, but three cycles ago, the brothers had wanted so much more than a woman who couldn’t think for herself.

They’d wanted something they couldn’t define, couldn’t even understand with their limited experience. They’d just known that what they did have, they didn’t want.

Trey flopped back onto his own bed. Goddess, they were a couple of spoiled brats. They’d had everything they could ever have asked for and they’d traded it all for life on this pirate ship. Ben sat up to study his face.

“Oh, not the guilt again! Stop it. We weren’t responsible for the way the female was raised. We had no choice in our mate, same as her, but we chose to leave our home rather than enter a union that would have made us all miserable.”

“Oh, hell, I know that,” Trey said, rubbing his forehead tiredly,

“but I can guarantee she had no way to escape the life chosen for her.

We, at least, had a means to change our situation.”

“So what do you want to do
little
brother?”

Trey ground his teeth together. Ben always pointed out that he was the older of the twins whenever he didn’t like what Trey was saying. If only Trey had known that in the womb, he would’ve fought harder to be first out.

“Maybe we should return home and check that she is okay. It’ll also give us a chance to check on Mother and our Fathers.”

“We are their only sons and we left rather than take the mate chosen for us. We’ll be lucky if they don’t have us arrested.”

“Nonsense. They are our Fathers and despite everything else, I know they care for us. We should go home, make peace with them.”

“I’ll think about it,” Ben grumbled as he lay back down. He turned away from Trey, effectively ending the conversation.

Tee-ani’s Pirates

17

Trey lay back on his bunk and studied the bulk head above him.

Going home seemed the right move to make at this point in their lives, but even though he’d made that decision in his head, his heart screamed at him to stay close to Tee-ani.

Trey rolled over and tried to sleep without dreaming about the beautiful doctor.

It didn’t work.

18

Rachel Clark

Tee-ani woke with a start. Panic squeezed her chest as she tried to get her bearings. Her eyes darted around the semi-dark room, her breathing difficult, her heart pounding erratically, until her gaze finally landed on the familiar equipment of the medical bay.

Trying to shake her momentary confusion, Tee-ani levered herself off the medical bed. She needed to hold on to the edge for a moment as her legs shook with remnants of her dream. God, she hated this, hated everything about this weakness. As a doctor, she knew that the dreams and their lingering effects were from the trauma she’d suffered at the hands of the slave traders who’d abducted her almost two Earth years ago, but as a woman, as a human, she was fast learning that knowing why one reacted to something had no bearing on how one could control it.

Shakily, she moved away from the support of the bed and took a step toward her desk.

“Tee-ani,” G’ntriel’s musical voice called as she entered the room.

“Can I be of assistance?”

“Nah, just the same ol’ same ol’,” she said, trying not to wince as the dismissive words escaped her mouth. G’ntriel was the one person on the ship who knew exactly what was going on in her head. It seemed downright impossible to hide anything from her. She was the most skilled empath that Tee-ani had ever met, and she’d met plenty on her travels. G’ntriel seemed to be able to guess what went on in Tee-ani’s head just by reading her emotions.

Despite Tee-ani's off-handed manner, G'ntriel seemed to accept her explanation. It was, after all, the same problem she’d been dealing
Tee-ani’s Pirates

19

with since joining the crew. Strange how she’d lived months of terror at the hands of her abductors, yet it was now, surrounded by people willing to protect her, that she would fall apart.

G’ntriel walked farther into the room and settled her lean frame against one of the benches.

“We have located the medications for the Kelorians. It is stored by the local government in a warehouse not far from the capital city on the southern continent. Jordan is organizing a team to retrieve the supply, but he wants to know if you are able to assist with the distribution. The Kelorian people have very little medical knowledge and we need to be sure they understand the symptoms of the disease and how best to treat it.”

Tee-ani began nodding even before G’ntriel finished speaking.

“Of course. How long before we leave?”

“Sixteen Earth hours. Until then, I recommend that you try to get more sleep. You will be able to function more effectively if you are well rested.”

“And see, I thought I was the ship’s doctor,” Tee-ani said as she smiled at G’ntriel and then moved back to the medical bed she’d recently vacated. “But you don’t have to tell me twice.”

* * * *

“Shit, shit, shit.” Sarah wrestled the controls as the small ship seemed to lurch. “Inertial dampeners are offline!” she shouted. “This is going to hurt.”

Tee-ani tightened the restraint that she’d worn the entire trip.

She’d never liked traveling in small crafts and she hated landings even more. This was exactly what she tried to avoid.

The ship lurched sickeningly and the front view screen flashed images of greenery so quickly that Tee-ani closed her eyes against the onslaught. How the hell did Sarah even manage to figure out where they were?

20

Rachel Clark

“Got it,” Sarah yelled triumphantly as all movement within the cabin ceased. “Inertial dampeners are back online.” She turned and winked at Tee-ani. Tee-ani tried really hard to appear unaffected, but considering that her lunch had lodged at the back of her throat, she was pretty sure she failed.

“Okay, time to disembark,” Sarah announced cheerfully as if they hadn’t just nearly crash landed on this overgrown planet. Jordan rose from the seat beside her, glanced at Tee-ani briefly, and then followed his wife out of the ship.

Tee-ani couldn’t quite seem to unhook the seat belt with her shaking hands and almost cried in relief when strong arms wrapped her from behind and undid the buckle.