“Passion.” Baryn’s eyes got bright, and he seemed to enjoy the threat.

  “Let’s do this.” Jaek was done grandstanding. “Set up the ring.”

  There weren’t any official rules for a challenge, though there were customs. And Baryn seemed to be abiding by them. The soldiers from both camps made a large circle in the street, giving Baryn and Jaek plenty of room to fight in.

  Jaek couldn’t fail. The only way to protect Carise was to win. And he couldn’t let down his mate. Or his best friend, who would lose his position and his life if he failed.

  Jaek wasn’t a fighter, but he knew the siren song of bloodshed. But today he would fight to win. His fingers tightened around his axe, the weight not quite familiar or welcome, but the edge sharp enough to do the damage he needed.

  He stalked into the makeshift ring, only a few feet separating him from Baryn, who looked absolutely gleeful at the prospect of the fight.

  He’s regret it. If he lived long enough. Jaek didn’t care about making him suffer, not today. All he cared about was making him dead.

  He couldn’t look at Carise. Already crimson rage flowed in his veins, and if he looked at his mate, he’d lose all strategy. He needed to focus. Baryn was no great fighter, though he was accomplished enough. And anyone could get in a lucky shot.

  Jaek wouldn’t fail.

  He found his center and waited. A minute ticked by, and then another.

  And then, at the moment the fight began, Jaek charged.

  27

  Something had changed.

  Carise barely worried about the knife that was held a few inches from her throat. She could still feel the scratch from the one that Baryn had held against her, ready to bleed her dry with a flick of his wrist. The few inches of air between her and naked steel right now might have been a mile.

  Instead, her mind was preoccupied. She could feel Jaek. Not just the emotions that lived in her heart for him. She could feel what he was feeling.

  Soulmates are real.

  That was what Kenzie said. It was what Carise hoped deep in her heart she was to Jaek. And perhaps there’d been some bond that flourished between them in the last few minutes. She didn’t understand it and she couldn’t ask anyone about it right now, not when she was surrounded by enemies and watching her love fight for his life.

  She wanted to look away as Jaek and Baryn clashed, machete against axe. It was hard to believe that she’d loved action movies back when she lived on Earth. Then she’d been exhilarated by fast cars, sharp knives, and shiny guns.

  Seeing it in person made her want to vomit.

  But she couldn’t look away. She felt like she owed it to Jaek to watch. And she didn’t trust Baryn one bit. His voice had been slimy with triumph as he issued the challenge, and she could have sworn that she saw one of his men hand him something that he’d slipped into a discreet pocket before stepping into the ring.

  A secret weapon?

  Or was her mind playing tricks on her?

  She watched intently. Already Baryn had a cut on his cheek from a mean punch from Jaek, but Jaek had been nicked by Baryn’s knife. She knew Jaek was a better fighter than this, so why was he holding back?

  Baryn and Jaek came together in a flash of movement and then retreated. That was all the fight was, clash and retreat, clash and retreat. And in one of those clashes, eventually one of them would land a real blow.

  And then it would be over.

  It felt like it had been going on forever, but it couldn’t have been more than a handful of minutes. Come on, Jaek. She wanted to yell her encouragement, but she couldn’t risk distracting Jaek.

  Or making the exile at her throat remember he was holding a knife.

  That was her thought. Until she saw Baryn reach a hand into his pocket and pull out something that glinted in the moonlight before he concealed it in his fist.

  Had Jaek seen? What was that?

  They circled each other again, and Carise forgot about worry for herself. “There’s something in his fist!” she yelled and dodged to the side before she could be stabbed. Still, she braced for some kind of punishment.

  It never came.

  The Kru’dari beside her slumped to the ground, an arrow piercing the back of his throat. That arrow hadn’t come from Mad’s people.

  Carise looked behind and saw a shadow move on a rooftop, but she couldn’t see anything else, and she couldn’t look away for long. Strangely, the exiles around her didn’t seem to pay attention to their dead fellow. They were too engrossed by the fight.

  Whatever trick Baryn had tried to pull, it hadn’t worked. There was a shiny bit of metal fallen on the ground near the edge of the fighting and Carise took a chance, scrambling two steps forward and kicking it into the crowd before Baryn could get close to it again.

  That the enemy noticed and yanked her back to stand in place.

  Jaek and Baryn clashed again, but this time there was a pained male groan and they didn’t separate. Jaek swung his axe, and it connected with a meaty thud that made Carise want to throw up.

  Jaek tugged on the axe, but it was buried in Baryn’s side too deep for him to yank it out. So he let go, and he let the dying man have it with his fists.

  Baryn fell completely to the ground and Jaek stood, blood covering him and death in his eyes.

  A brief cheer went up around Mad’s people, but Carise could feel the mood about to break. It didn’t matter what the agreement was before that challenge, the men around her wanted blood.

  Another soldier beside her went down with an arrow notched through his throat, and all hell broke loose.

  Carise dropped down and snatched up a machete from the fallen man. She didn’t know how to use it, but in close quarters it was her only defense. But the soldiers seemed to forget about her.

  Most of them, anyway.

  They charged at Mad’s people, but during the challenge they’d had a chance to regroup, and though she could hear fighting, it sounded far more organized than any brawl.

  Two Kru’dari, however, didn’t ignore her. They flashed leering smiles and tried to advance on her.

  Carise waved the machete. She was no fighter, but she wasn’t going to let them take her. That was that.

  Before the exiles could get in knife range, Jaek’s huge body busted through the crowd and stood between her and the Kru’dari. They stood no chance against her terrifying mate.

  And he let his rage out on them.

  Perhaps Carise should have been afraid, but she couldn’t summon any fear when it came to Jaek, not when she trusted him so completely. Not when he stood between her and those who would do her harm.

  She was done running.

  Sometime later—it could have been minutes or hours; time had a strange way of flowing in the battle—a horn sounded. It sounded like something a Viking would have used, and it caused a ripple to go through the soldiers around them.

  “You are surrounded!” Mad’s voice boomed out, amplified. “Put down your weapons or die. Your leader is dead. The challenge has failed. Surrender.”

  There was a pregnant moment where Carise didn’t know how things would go. Would these men fight to the death for a leader who’d already fallen? Or would they do the wise thing and live to fight another day?

  They were smarter than Baryn, it turned out.

  First one, then another, then a wave of men let their weapons fall and put their hands up. There was some frustrated grumbling that could have come from anyone, but the fighting subsided to nothing.

  “Take them inside,” the order went out, and columns of guards formed around the enemy soldiers, leading them into the palace for whatever punishment awaited them.

  And eventually the crowd thinned down to barely anyone. There were servants and guards tending to the injured and the fallen, and a patrol ringed the street to make sure no one else came for Mad.

  Otherwise, it was just her and Jaek.

  “Who shot the arrows?” she asked. She and Jaek had drifted somewhat away from the enemy who had held her, but if she looked back, she could still see their bodies. She’d never seen so many dead before. And maybe the horror of it would wash over her eventually, but right now she was just relieved to be alive.

  Jaek wiped away some of the blood on his face with his sleeve. He looked up to the roof opposite them. “I saw movement, but there’s no way that was one of Mad’s men. I’m sure he’ll look into it. Come on.” He nodded toward the palace, but didn’t touch her. “Let’s go inside.”

  There were three feet of space between them, and Jaek wasn’t eager to close that distance. Carise did it herself, grabbing his hand, heedless of the fact it was covered in blood.

  Jaek tried to pull away, but she tightened her grip.

  “You shouldn’t have to see me like this,” he said, face angled away from her.

  Carise stepped around him so he couldn’t hide. Not that a seven-foot-tall warrior could actually hide on an open street. “As what? My protector? My champion?”

  “There’s no honor in this.”

  “My mate?” The words rang out, louder than they should have been. Carise stepped even closer to Jaek and reached up to run her fingers across his cheek. “That’s what this is, isn’t it?” She raised their joined hands to rest on her heart. “Do you feel it too?”

  “You called. I answered.” He swallowed hard, but was still holding himself back. “You deserve more than this.”

  He was right. They needed off this battlefield. But it wasn’t Carise’s nerves that needed to be tended. She wanted to kiss him right there. To tell him again that she loved him and wanted him. But with the echoes of battle all around them, Jaek couldn’t see it.

  He could fight, but he had a gentle soul. He didn’t need to see all of this destruction.

  She stepped back just enough and led him into the palace.

  28

  Jaek knew he should let Carise go. He’d unleashed the darkest parts of himself and she’d been forced to watch as he killed and killed and killed. All to keep her safe. How could she see him as anything but a monster?

  And yet he felt as docile as a lamb as she led him through the halls of the palace to his rooms. She pushed him inside and then opened the door to the shower room, letting the water run until the steam started to escape into the bedroom.

  Carise looked up at him with love in her eyes, and Jaek had to look away before the emotion swallowed him. Soon she would realize what he was, what he’d done, and she’d turn away.

  She would have to. She was too gentle for Guerran. And if tonight hadn’t proved that, some other night soon would.

  Carise reached forward and unstrapped his leather breastplate, carefully setting it on the ground. He’d left his axe buried back in Baryn’s body, and he’d sheathed his knife and left it in the bedroom before approaching the shower.

  Next his mate carefully untucked his shirt and pushed it up towards his head, but he was so tall, he had to pull it off. Blood stained the fabric, and it would probably need to be burned. Even if the stains came out, Jaek wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to wear it again without the memories of tonight haunting him.

  “Shoes,” Carise said quietly, dropping to her knees to loosen his boots and guide him out of them.

  Despite the shame and darkness roiling through him, Jaek’s body responded to the sight of his mate on her knees before him. But he did his best to push those thoughts away. How could she want him now?

  He wouldn’t dare touch her again.

  She stood and reached for his pants, undoing the tie and letting them slide down until he was completely naked in front of her. But her eyes stayed glued to his face, and something in Jaek cracked at that.

  He squeezed his own eyes shut, as if he could push out the emotions that were trying to crowd in.

  And while his eyes were closed, he heard more fabric hit the ground. His eyes snapped open and Carise stood before him naked, her dress pooled on the ground beside his dirty battle clothes.

  “In the shower,” she told him with a nod to the steamy stream.

  Jaek was helpless to resist her, as if he ever could. But no, from the first moment he saw her, he belonged totally to her.

  And as he stepped under the water, he started to feel those parts again, the way his broken soul was inexorably bound to hers. Nothing could make him walk away, even if he was braced for the moment Carise would leave him.

  Instead, he felt her soapy hands glide over his back, and her words wrapped around his heart. “I was terrified when I was out there,” she admitted. “But I knew that as long as I could find you, you’d protect me. That’s what you do, Jaek. And not just for me. For everyone you love. Whatever you think you became out there, you’re wrong. You fought because you had to. And you’re exactly what I need.”

  Jaek let her wash him, even kneeling down a little to let her get her fingers through his hair. And as she washed him, the shame and doubt melted away, cleaned by his mate as if it was only dirt.

  “Whatever you want, I am yours.” The confession came out easily, far more so than Jaek would have expected, considering where his thoughts had been only moments before. “If you want to leave Guerran, we’ll go. If you want…”

  She spun him around and looked up at him, a strange smile on her face. Water cascaded over his shoulders like he was standing in a rain storm, but he ignored it. “No big decisions while we’re washing the battle off.”

  He looked down at his arms and then back at his mate. “I’m all clean now.”

  Her grin turned heated. “So you are. Planning to do anything about that?”

  She was right, thoughts of the future could wait. Jaek stepped into her space until she backed up, feet hitting the small bench that lined the back of the shower. He leaned down and captured her lips with his own, the kiss searing deep down into his soul.

  Yes. This he could do forever.

  But as he shifted, his foot slipped, and he would have gone flying if he didn’t brace himself against the wall in time. He and Carise broke apart and stared at one another, laughter glinting in each of their eyes.

  He reached over and flicked off the stream of water, and then handed his mate a towel before quickly toweling himself off as well. He would have gladly taken her while the hot water flowed over them, but not if it would end with one or both of them with heads cracked on the tile.

  After quickly drying off, Jaek let the towel drop to the floor and picked up Carise, laughing with her as she made a startled sound. Then he was rushing them into the room where the big bed waited for them.

  Was it only this afternoon that he’d been with her here? Time had a funny way of flowing sometimes. He was sure he’d lived several lifetimes in the past few hours.

  But once he had Carise laid out on the bed, he forgot all about time, all about the outside world. His mate lay before him, a sultry look on her face and an invitation in her eyes.

  And Jaek knew he had only one purpose: to bring this woman pleasure. She’d unlocked something within him he hadn’t known was there, and he felt free for the first, the only, time in his life.

  How had he lived before she’d come to him?

  He hadn’t.

  He loomed over her, catching her mouth with his own and capturing her moan as he wedged his leg between her thighs. He loved her little sighs, the way she gave herself over to him with the perfect trust of a mate, and he wanted those sounds imprinted on him forever.

  Jaek took his time now, finally believing that he and Carise had their forever. He would protect her from the harms that came their way. He would hold her heart beside his own. And they would build their life together, however they wanted it to look.

  He made these promises to himself as he fit himself inside of her, inch by careful inch, watching her eyes widen and darken in pleasure as he filled her. It was its own kind of torture to take things this slowly. The need to thrust as quickly as he could, to make it hard and fast and pounding threatened to take him over.

  But not today. Today he worshiped his mate. He cared for her. Just as she’d cared for him.

  And as she cried out, her body rippling around him, Jaek let himself get swept up in the heat of it, his own body finding its release as he held onto her and promised to never let go.

  He whispered words of love into the bend of her neck, and from the tiny sounds of assent she made, he knew she heard them. But this wouldn’t be the only time. He’d tell her every day, and show her even more.

  “Mate,” Jaek sighed against her, as their bodies gave up to the exhaustion of the previous day and they both began to slowly lose the battle to sleep.

  But not before Carise whispered back. “Mate.”

  29

  Leaving their room that morning was hard. Really hard. Especially with Jaek giving her heated looks and lying in bed like some sex god. But there would be time for that later.

  Carise had something she had to do this morning.

  She was glad to find Kenzie alone in a small training area. She watched for a few moments as Kenzie worked out frustration on a wooden target, her knives doing the kind of damage that would leave a person dead.

  At times like these, Carise didn’t recognize her sister. This wasn’t the Kenzie who’d left Earth so long ago with stars in her eyes and a fancy job on a space colony calling her name.

  This was a warrior.

  But she also knew that Kenzie didn’t always recognize the new Carise. They’d each changed far more than they could have predicted over the last two years. And now it was time to make peace with that.

  She wanted her sister back.

  Kenzie finished her sequence and gave the target one final kick, making the stand almost fall over. Then she sheathed her weapons, grabbed a towel to wipe off her sweat, and turned to look at Carise.

  “You look well rested,” her sister said, exchanging the towel for a glass of water and sipping.

  Carise couldn’t help her blush and hoped that Kenzie didn’t notice. “I slept well,” was what she settled on. It was true, after all.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16