Assigned a Mate (13 page)

A hand pointed behind me and I spun about and tended to the next patient. I didn’t know how long I worked, but it took some time to stabilize a man that had a punctured lung. Using a simple sheet of a plastic-like substance that was attached to a strange electronic clipboard, I was able to create a makeshift seal for the wound to allow the man to breathe better. Stabilized, he was led to the med unit for the ReGen wand. I didn’t know what a revitalization pod was, but it sounded like something I’d like to check out.

The remainder of the injured had been carried off on simple pallets to the med unit. I braced a broken leg, but Trion’s gadgetry could heal it better than me making a cast, which I couldn’t do in the middle of a desert, no matter how good my skills.

When the last of the wounded were gone, Tark approached, along with a few other men. I must have been a sight. I had blood up to my elbows, my robe was torn at the hem and hanging off my shoulders, and smears of blood coated the front of my slip dress. I was sweating and my hair clung to my damp forehead and neck.

I was tired and hot and hungry and the adrenaline had worn off, leaving me in no mood to be led back to the harem or tied to a stake or told I was a murderer. My hackles were raised when the man who’d met us spoke.

“I am Doctor Rahm. That was quite impressive.”

I lifted my head to the man in surprise.

“High Councilor Tark told me that you were a doctor on Earth. Watching you work was incredible. Your field skills are far beyond any medical technician here on Trion and I am thankful you were here today to help. I fear we have become too dependent on our technology. Thank you for assisting us today.”

I cleared my throat, for it was so dry and I was quite thirsty. “Thank you.”

“I have heard that the first of the wounded have completely recovered in the med unit, the others are almost complete with their revitalization. Even the woman with the leg wound.”

I couldn’t help but smile, knowing that my skills had been helpful, that people had lived because of me.

“That is good to hear.”

The man eyed me with curiosity, but not like the men on the council.

“I would like to talk to you further, for perhaps you can teach some of us how some of your skills. The knot work you did on the sutures—”

“Doctor Rahm, my mate is obviously weary.” Tark’s protective voice cut the man off. “You may question her another time. She needs a bathing unit and food, otherwise she will need revitalization of her own.”

He bowed slightly. “Of course. I apologize. I have not seen someone of her skill here on Trion.”

“I will arrange a time for you to meet, if that is acceptable to you, Eva.”

Tark was deferring to me, which was a surprise in itself. He was the one who had been in control in our relationship. I was the one who submitted. This change was a surprise.

“Yes, of course.”

“Until then, thank you.” The man bowed, not to Tark, but to me, and retreated.

Tark leaned down so he could whisper in my ear. “It seems,
gara
,
that I am not the only one enthralled with you.”

Chapter Eight

I was in complete awe of my mate. Once back in my tent, I helped her strip off her bloody clothes, letting them fall to a dirty pile at her feet. I thought of her as she’d helped the injured people. The way she’d deftly saved Mara’s life had been scary and exhilarating and intense.

A ReGen wand hadn’t been able to tackle a wound of that size. They were made to treat small cuts and scrapes, thing that didn’t require full use of the regeneration units. Doctor Rahm hadn’t been able to help Mara. People on Trion didn’t die very often from the kind of wound Mara had. We had healing tools that resolved most emergencies swiftly and efficiently. In this particular case, combining the remote location and other factors, the tools were ineffective. Skills that Eva had were what had been needed, what our doctors needed to learn. Waving medical devices about only did so much. Perhaps this was a topic for the high council. If Eva’s hands-on skills could save a person on Trion from death, then they were worth teaching to our medical technicians.

I opened the bathing pod door for Eva and set the unit to run the full cleaning cycle. “Remember to close your eyes,” I murmured, remembering the first time she’d used the machine and hadn’t known what to do. It had been a scary experience for her. She’d told me how she bathed on Earth and while it was archaic, the idea of having my soapy hands on her naked body had made my cock hard. “The blood will come off and you will be cleaned without any scrubbing.”

This time, she was much more docile, a combination of familiarity and weariness.

I’d been to battle many times and remembered the feel of the tension in the air. The high stakes. It was life or death and the rush of adrenaline in my blood had me almost high for hours after. Then, it would wear away and I’d be drained, as if my energy was washed off me in the bathing unit.

While Eva had not gone through battle—she’d been perfectly safe with me and the guards surrounding her—she had a similar reaction. She’d tended to everyone else and now it was my turn to tend to her.

Once finished, she stepped out and not a hint of blood remained. Her beauty was breathtaking. Her mind, her intelligence was awe-inspiring. I was more amazed by my mate than ever before.

“Stand still,
gara.
”

Reaching up to my chain, I carefully undid the links that attached it to the nipple rings, one side then the other.

She watched me, then looked up and frowned. “Why are you doing that? Are you… giving me back?” Fear blanched all color from her cheeks.

“Oh,
gara
,
no.” I stroked my finger over that soft, pale skin. “I want to adorn you in another way. You have pleased me today. Made me see you… me… things in a new way.”

I took her hand and led her to my bed, had her sit in the middle upon the blankets and furs. Lifting the lid on my small chest that sat beside the bed, I pulled out the gems and held them up.

“I am not sure of the custom on Earth, but a man on Trion adorns his mate with jewels.”

She nodded. “On Earth, it’s usually a ring.”

I looked at her unadorned fingers. Fingers that had until just a short time ago been bathed in blood. In that moment I realized something important. Perhaps I’d known it all along, but her actions today confirmed it. She had the hands of a healer, not a killer.

“You aren’t a murderer.”

She frowned, a deep V forming in her brow. “What does that have to do with jewels?” she asked.

I looked down at the green gems in my palm. “Nothing.” I met her eyes. “Your crime. You said you’d committed murder.”

She didn’t respond, for I hadn’t asked her a question.

“That’s not true, is it? The match, I know the match is true. Our connection—” I pointed between the two of us, “—is not a lie.”

Tears filled her eyes. “No. We are not a lie.”

“And the rest?” I asked, my voice soft. I felt as if the weight of Trion was in her response.

“Lies,” she whispered, a tear slipping down her cheek. She wiped it away with the back of her hand.

I sighed, imminently pleased.

“Tell me. Tell me everything.”

I sat on the rug before her as she told me what happened.

“I work in a hospital, a med unit, on Earth. People come there if they are sick or injured, like the wounded today. I save lives. That’s my job. One night someone came in who’d been shot.” She described to me what that meant, the kind of weaponry used. “He’d been stabilized and ready for a room. On Earth, it takes days or weeks to heal. While he was waiting, someone came into the hospital and killed him. He was part of a crime family—a family that does bad things—and his death was required to settle some kind of turf war between the families. That part of the story isn’t important, only that I was the only witness, I saw the killer through the curtain that separated his bed from others.”

I clenched the gems tightly in my grip. The idea of Eva being that close to a killer—a real killer—had me ready to transport to Earth and hunt the man down.

“He didn’t see me, didn’t know I was there. When the police came, we were all questioned and I was able to identify the man. Turns out he’s wanted for many such crimes, but has never been able to be convicted for them. He’s a known assassin, with many deaths to pay for. And I am the only one who can stop him. My testimony would put him away, would bring down a very powerful and well-connected crime family.”

Dread filled my gut at where this story was going. I knew what she would say next.

“They sent you away to keep you safe, so the killer couldn’t reach you.”

They’d sent her all the way to Trion.

She nodded. “Yet the only way I could do so was to join the Interstellar Bride Program as a criminal. On Earth, the worst criminals are expedited and my match was made quickly.”

I was angry. Furious even. Eva had been forced to give up her life, to go off-planet, because she’d witnessed a crime. “You’re the innocent one and instead of that
fark
,
you were made out to be the criminal, the murderer. What Bertok and the others said to you.”

I swallowed down the bitter anger in my throat.

“Yes, but I was matched to you,” she replied.

I looked at her fiercely. She was right. We’d been matched because of this random act. It never would have happened otherwise. She would
never
be a criminal and therefore never would have been put in the Interstellar Bride Program. Had it been fate? It seemed like destiny to me.

“Then it doesn’t matter. None of it. You’re here, safe and away from the danger to you on Earth.”

She came up onto her knees to move closer to me. Her pale eyes were bleak instead of relieved.

“I have to go back.”

I stood abruptly. Her words hit me like a blow to the solar plexus. “What?”

She couldn’t just leave. She’d just arrived. I’d just found her. She was mine and I was not giving her back.

“I have to testify. I have a personal transport nodule implanted in my skull.” Her hand lifted to a spot behind her ear. “When it’s time, it will transport me back to testify. Usually, all the matches for Earth’s brides are permanent, but that’s not true for me. They plan to bring me back to Earth for the trial. I have to go back.”

“When? Why did you not tell me?”

“I don’t know when. They said the trial would be in a couple of months. I was supposed to blend in here on Trion and hide until they summoned me.”

“No. I won’t give you up. Just have Doctor Rahm take the nodule out.”

She shook her head slowly. “It doesn’t work that way. It was part of the agreement. They wanted to keep me alive to testify. Obviously, I wanted to stay alive, so I agreed. I didn’t know where they would send me or to whom. I knew nothing, just like you. I made them agree to bring me back, not only to testify and put the man in prison, but because I needed a way to go home.”

My heart was beating so hard I was sure Eva could hear it. I felt it aching at the very idea of her being so many light-years away. I hadn’t even liked her being in the harem across the outpost.

“And now? Do you want to go home?”

“I… I don’t know.”

Her indecision was fine with me. She didn’t say yes. She didn’t jump eagerly to her feet in anticipation of returning to Earth. She looked lost and confused. If she wanted to stay, then she was giving up her world, her way of life, forever. As a convict, she’d had no choice, but Eva had known all along that she could return home. She was conflicted about it.

It was my job to sway her, to make her stay. Perhaps she read my thoughts, for she said, “I have to go. I don’t have a choice. The transport technology will take me back. I don’t even know when it’s going to happen.”

There had to be a way. I had to discover how to keep her. For now, I had to show her, to make her doubts go away. She had to know that she was mine. I’d said it over and over, had pushed her, bullied her even, into the idea. Now it was time to show her my real feelings, to convince her to stay through the connection we shared.

I moved back to the bed, tilted her chin up with my fingers so her eyes met mine. Held. “Is Eva really your name?”

“Yes.”

“It doesn’t matter that the bride program matched us. All that matters is what we think. I know you are my perfect match. I
feel
it.”

Tears dripped down her cheeks. I knelt before her and opened my palm.

“The chain between your breasts marked you as mine for all to see, but it was a symbol of my power over you. You witnessed it firsthand in the meeting earlier. While I proved my possessiveness to the councilors, it was at a cost to you.”

I affixed one of the green gems to the ring on her right nipple, then the other to the left.

“Now you are again marked as mine. These, however, I hope—” I lifted my gaze from her nipples to her eyes, “—you will wear because you are proud to be mine. They show that I am very much yours in return.”

She was even lovelier without the chain. The gems made her pale skin glow and made her hair shine like fire. My cock throbbed in my pants, reminding me that while my heart might want to tell her of my feelings, my cock wanted to
show
her.

“It’s too much,” she replied.

I frowned and cupped both her breasts. “They are too much? They hurt?” Her skin was like the finest of silk, my palms so rough and dark against her tender flesh.

She shook her head. “The gems. They appear precious.”

My worry eased. “
You
are precious.” I grinned then, ready to shift from this mood. I did not share my feelings with others often—if ever—and I was ready to turn my time with Eva toward more carnal directions.

“Did the rings you wore do this?” I waved my hand in front of the gems and they began to vibrate. The piece that attached the gem to the ring was a stimulator that I could control.

“Oh,” she gasped. “You have… you have many different kinds of toys.”

“Toys? As in children?”