Casey's Warriors (Bondmates) (26 page)

Things started to fall into place as she stared up at Lorn. “Are you…are you lovers?”

“Yes. We have been lovers for a long, long time.” He glanced at his father then back at her, his bond between them shutting down tight. “Sire, may we please be alone?”

His father stood and gave Casey a hard look that made her flinch. “Even without being able to read your emotions I can see your fear and judgment, Earth bride. I am aware you consider two men loving each other to be wrong, but you do not understand. Nast is Lorn’s blood brother, did he explain to you what that is? Or did you just immediately assume the worst? I believe I know which one. You do not deserve Nast or my son.”

Lorn quickly stood and pulled her up with him so that he had her pressed to his body as anger filled him, mixing with his heartache and fear until Casey was close to tears. “Father-”

“Silence!” Lorn’s father roared, and she let out a frightened yelp.

Lorn started to move, violence coming off of him in waves, but before he could go very far she clung to his neck and put her face in front of his. She couldn’t let him try to disown both his parents in one day, especially when everything they’d said was true. She did assume the worst and she did unfairly judge both Lorn and his culture. And yes, she’d even been selfish about putting her feelings above his. She was woman enough to admit it and loved Lorn enough to try and understand. Her family would have done the same thing if they were in a similar situation. Though she couldn’t imagine ever being in this kind of relationship on Earth. It shamed her to admit her fear of what people would think about her still influenced her despite her best attempts to not care.

“No! Lorn don’t do it! Please, please don’t fight with your father.”

The connection between them closed down and he trembled against her hold. “He is hurting you.”

“No, he’s not.” Lorn glared at her and she quickly added. “I mean he hurt my feelings, but not bad.”

“He has no right to say those things to you. It is not his place to speak of Nast to you.”

His shields cracked just the smallest bit and she found herself drowning in his pain. Hugging him close she buried her face against his neck and she whispered, “Shhh, my
alyah
, it’s all right.”

He gave a startled bark of laughter that made her pull back. “
Alyah
is considered a feminine word. It is like…like if we were on Earth and you called me your sugar baby girl.”

His father coughed and she gave Lorn a relieved smile, happy to feel his sorrow and fear pulling back to a manageable level. “I kind of like that. Maybe I will start calling you my sugar baby boy.”

Malin cleared his throat, “Casey…”

Lorn glared at his father. “Leave. You have said enough and done enough damage.”

“No, wait. I want to hear him out. If I’m willing to listen then maybe he would be willing to explain to me what he is trying to say like a calm, rational adult instead of just yelling at me.”

“You are correct, I was unnecessarily harsh with you.” Closing his eyes Malin took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Forgive me, bride of my son, but I find your fear to be offensive. The two other men in my own marriage are my blood brothers and I love them as much as I love my wife. To know your people would look down on us and condemn us for our love angers me greatly.”

She went to move but Lorn held her tight with a frantic look. “It’s okay. I just want to sit down for this conversation. You guys are so tall I get a crick in my neck looking up at you.”

He reluctantly released her then joined her on the couch as soon as she sat, pulling her as close as physically possible. Malin was right, she was being judgmental but she couldn’t comprehend how Lorn could love both Nast and her. “I’m listening. Please help me to understand.”

“Before he is bonded, a Kadothian male leads a very lonely existence. Yes, we have the love of our friends and family, but can you imagine what it would be like to live thousands of your Earth years without someone to care for as your own? Someone you can return home to and would be there to hold at night as you slept? Someone you can find not only physical affection with, but can trust with all of your heart and soul? A Kadothian male cannot just take any woman into his home to fill that role. First, it would not be fair to that woman because he would never love her, and second, because our race is empathetic and we need the special bond with another of our race in order to truly love them.”

She frowned. “But I’m not of your race.”

“You are once my son kissed you and changed your physiology. In many ways you are no longer human, Casey. You won’t age as you used to, instead, you will live as long as your bondmate lives once your bond is completed.”

Lorn stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. “Don’t be scared.”

She went to deny it, then shook her head. “I’m not really scared, I mean I am but I’m more in shock than anything else. How long will I live?”

“At least another thousand cycles.”

“How many earth years is that?”

“Around two thousand five hundred years.”

“Holy shit…”

Lorn’s father gave her a gentle smile much like his sons. “Now imagine spending all that time alone.”

“That would be terrible.”

“It would. Fortunately, Kadothian males have the ability to form blood bonds with each other. It only works with men we can someday share a wife with, but it is the closest thing to bonding we can achieve without her in our life. We keep each other sane while we wait for our
alyah
and we love each other in a way that is not wrong or a sin, and neither is it a threat to your love for Lorn.” He looked frustrated and ran his hand through his hair. “This is so difficult to explain to someone who cannot sense others’ emotions.”

“I can feel Lorn’s,” she offered.

He gave her a relieved smile. “Thank the Lord of Life. I was wondering, but did not want to ask such a personal question. When the bond is fully open between you it will be impossible to lie to each other because you will know the truth in his heart. Lorn loves Nast because they have been keeping each other alive and strong while waiting for you.”

She glanced at Lorn out of the corner of her eye. “Does…is Nast jealous of me?”

“Absolutely not,” Lorn said quickly. “He insisted that if you refused to bond me because of him that he would remove himself from my life. But he wants you, Casey, desperately, just as I wanted you before I even saw you because we are meant to be together. However, if you cannot live with that I will still love you and accept your decision.”

The burst of sorrow following his words had her closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly and looking at his father. “Will this be easier to understand if I’m married to Lorn?”

“Yes,” both men said at once.

His father shook his head with a small smile. “Becoming a bondmate is only slightly similar to your Earth marriage. It is not just an exchange of words and a promise. It is a true blending of souls. You will never again doubt Lorn’s adoration for you in any way.”

Turning, she studied Lorn, trying to really look at him with a clear mind. His blue eyes were filled with love and worry as she examined him, loving the way his full lips were framed by his high cheekbones and square jaw. The silver glints in his hair shimmered as he breathed and just looking at him made her all weak and hot inside. She would never find a more perfect husband, and if it was true that there was another man who would love her as much as he did, she would be foolish to dismiss it out of fear fueled by ignorance. While she couldn’t imagine feeling for anyone the way she did for Lorn, she had to admit that before meeting him she had no idea what true love really was. And he did love her, with all his heart and soul. Just like she loved him.

More importantly, Lorn loved Nast, and she couldn’t break up a relationship that had existed for hundreds of years without even meeting the other man. Everything she’d ever wanted in life lay within her reach if she just had the courage to take it. She thought about what it would be like to watch Lorn kiss another no doubt unfairly handsome Kadothian man and had to admit the idea wasn’t as disturbing as she’d first thought. Especially if she was there while he did it and Nast was anywhere near as hot as every other Kadothian man she’d seen. A sudden, intense fantasy came to her of being pressed between two men, naked, surrounded by them and the focus of their passion. She cleared her throat and tried to get that naughty image out of her mind before looking at Malin again.

“Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me in a way I can understand.” She took a deep breath and held tight to Lorn’s hand, not daring to look at him as she asked, “Can you do me a favor?”

Before his father could respond Lorn said, “What do you need? You have but to ask and I will do all in my power to give it to you.”

Lorn gently cupped her chin and tried to get her to look at him, but she shrugged away. She didn’t need to read his emotions to know he was just about out of his mind with worry, but she hoped what she did next would help him to never doubt her again. If she looked at him she wouldn’t be able to continue so she kept her gaze on his father.

Malin studied her for a moment, then nodded. “I will help you however I can, bride of my son.”

Her words tumbled out in a rapid spill as her nerves got away from her. “How soon can you arrange a bonding ceremony?”

Chapter Twelve

Nast stood in line at the back of the transport ship that had just taken him and two dozen other Kadothian males through the wormhole. His right leg ached as it healed, and his skin still tingled and burned where he’d taken a laser shot to the shoulder, and his right hand shook slightly as the nerves rapidly regenerated thanks to Vilpon who’d managed to save his hand. Though now he was wondering why the other man even bothered.

Slowly, but surely, his emotions were draining away. The rage that was characteristic of the madness hadn’t yet begun to fill the emotional void of his fading empathy and compassion, but he knew it wasn’t far away. Right now his heart should be racing with the anticipation of seeing Lorn again, of seeing Casey for the first time, but instead he felt nothing but depression. The day prior, he’d witnessed the deaths of over a thousand of Kadothia’s youngest and brightest warriors during a well-planned Hive attack deep in the safe zone, and those deaths haunted him. Men he’d trained, men who had looked up to him, men he failed to keep safe. Faces kept scrolling through his memories, the faces of the dying pleading with the Lord of Life to save them, the faces of the men who would no longer be coming home to their mothers, and the faces of those would never meet their
alyah
.

For a while there, he’d been sure he was going to die as well and he’d almost embraced that feeling, an insidious part of the madness insisting Lorn would be better off without him, that Casey would never accept someone as unworthy as Nast, but he’d managed to hold on. While he wanted to think it was his strength that gave him the will to survive, to heal, it was his true dream with Casey that had saved him. Nast refused to believe that the Lord of Life would send him that meeting with her soul when he needed it most if they were not meant to be. But the rumors swirling around about the frailty and weakness of the Earth brides was wearing away his hope. But he had the dream and Casey’s scent to give him enough strength to hold on. His faint memory of that dream, of how good it felt to hold her, of her smile, kept him going when all he wanted to do was stop fighting.

He clung to that memory, praying it meant something even as he found it hard to care.

In the line ahead of him, Nast overheard two Scouts who were waiting for their turn to step through the scanners and decontamination unit as they whispered to each other.

“Did you hear about Kalit of House Menaw?”

“Yeah, poor guy. His bondmate attempted to kill herself after she partially bonded two other Warriors.”

“Heard he tried to join her, but his blood brother reached them in time.”

Both men sighed heavily, but the man on the right gave the one on the left a quick hug. “That won’t happen to us.”

The line moved forward and Nast wanted to yell at them that it could happen to them, to anyone, because death, disaster and torment were never more than a breath away, but he managed to hold his tongue. They must have sensed some of his emotions leaking through his shields because they both stiffened and turned back to look at him. As soon as they did and recognized who he was, they both turned quickly back around. No one wanted to anger the blood brother of Lady Elsin’s oldest son.

After moving through the scanner Nast stood in the crowded terminal and his heart seized in his chest at the first faint trace of Lorn somewhere on the ship. His soul grabbed onto that sense of belonging, that sense of love and he took a deep breath for what felt like the first time since Lorn had left the Bel’Tan galaxy. Moving as quickly as he could to one of the information stations, he stared at what had to be an Earth female standing with a big Warrior in the navy blue armor of a Negotiator he assumed was her husband. She had lightly tanned skin and soft hazel green eyes with short brown hair that framed her petite features. A triple bondmark showed on her exposed cleavage and he couldn’t help his rude examination of this Earth Matriarch who had taken three husbands.

Before her husband could speak, the Matriarch smiled up at him. “Greetings, Warrior. How may I help you?”

Nast stared at her husband, protocol demanding she state her name before he could talk directly to her. With a small smile the blue-eyed warrior leaned down to his bride and whispered, “You forgot to say your name,
alyah
.”

She flushed a pretty pink. “Ahem, my name is Bonnie of House Turner. This is my third husband, Denod.”

Charmed by this pretty female Nast smiled. “My name is Nast of House Enn. It is an honor to meet you, Matriarch of House Turner.”

Her husband stiffened slightly and the woman narrowed her eyes at Nast with hostility now radiating from her tense posture. “Why is my husband fearful of you?”