Casey's Warriors (Bondmates) (4 page)

A rush of hormones filled her and she sighed when the man holding her against his hard chest began to run his fingers through her hair, whispering to her in a melodic language that was an aphrodisiac in itself. Tears stung her eyes as she relaxed into them, a feeling of anticipation and satisfaction tickling at her mind along with a raw, intense hunger. She tried to reach out to those feelings, to identify why they were so odd, but the more she concentrated on them the more insubstantial they became. Desperate for more, struggling to not lose this amazing connection with these unbelievably sexy men, she tried to reach out to touch them but everything was fading around her.

As the dream vanished along with her connection to the men she began to cry, screaming that they come back, that they not leave her, not now, not when she’d finally met the men she was supposed to be with. The unfairness of it caused her to break down in sobs that shook her from the inside out. Someone shook her and she tried to bat them away, wanting to be alone with her grief and the rapidly dissolving memory of her dream. It all melted away, leaving her with only a feeling of loss.

“Casey, wake up!”

With a groan, Casey opened her eyes, then touched her wet face. “Paige?”

“Oh, thank God.”

She looked over and found a sleep-rumpled Paige chewing her thumbnail in the bright morning light. “You were having a nightmare, and I couldn’t wake you up.”

Rubbing at her face, Casey then stared at her wet hands. “Was I crying?”

“Yeah. And you kept begging someone not to leave you.”

Sitting up with a groan Casey rubbed her face dry on the edge of her t-shirt. “Wow, that’s weird. I don’t remember what I was dreaming about.”

Giving a rough laugh, Paige got out of bed and began to sort through her backpack. “Well, with all the shit that went down yesterday I’m not surprised that we both had nightmares.”

Casey took in Paige’s pale cheeks and the dark circles beneath her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I don’t really remember what I was dreaming about but when I woke up I was crying. You probably heard me in your sleep and that’s why you were crying as well.”

The digital clock next to the bed showed that it was just after nine in the morning. Casey’s mind spun as she realized that at this time yesterday her biggest fear was reading a poem aloud with feeling. She stood and went over to her window, pulling back the curtain and cautiously looking up at the sky. The ribbons of light were still there, but they weren’t moving as fast and their color had faded a great deal. Among the dew-covered lawns and bushes, some of her neighbors were out on the street, drinking their morning coffee and talking in small groups. On her front concrete walkway, her mother was talking with Kimber’s mom and Dawn’s dad, their expressions subdued, but not as tense as yesterday.

There was a knock at the door, and a moment later, her dad popped his head in. “You two awake?”

Searching his face for some kind of indication as to what had happened while she slept she noticed that he seemed more relaxed. “Dad, is everything okay?”

“Yeah. The government has been on the news all morning. The Event was caused by something happening in the far outer reaches of space, out by Jupiter.”

Paige gasped softly. “Do they have any idea what it is?”

“Oh they’re spouting a lot of hot air, but what it boils down to is something happened out there, it slammed into earth and caused all kinds of trouble, and now the world is dealing with all the crazies this thing has stirred up.” He looked over at Casey. “We saw Roxy on the news somewhere in the outskirts of Detroit. She looked tired, but good.”

A weight eased off of Casey’s mind and she let out a deep breath. “That’s great, dad.”

He briskly clapped his hands together. “Okay, you two, get dressed. We need to head out with some folks to Main Street to help clean up the mess. Some assholes tried to loot the liquor store and they left broken glass all over the place. Then we need to head over to the high school. Some strangers got trapped on the freeway and we need to bring them clothes and food, and see what we can do to help them out. Remember, in times of need the best way to help yourself is to help others.”

With that he left Casey and Paige alone, staring at each other. Finally Page sighed and looked away before tugging one of her schoolbooks from her backpack. “Is it weird that I’m sad we’re going to miss finals?”

“Yes, very weird. I think The Event might have given you brain damage.”

Laughter bubbled up from deep inside Casey, pushing away the remnants of her fear as her friend started to snicker, then laugh until they were both wiping away tears. She felt much better after the laughing bout, and Paige was still snickering while she went across the hall to her room. As Casey began to get ready for the day she couldn’t help but wonder if the changes to her world were finally over, or if they had only just begun.

Chapter Three

Kadothia

“Enough!”

Lady Elsin Adar’s shout and accompanying psychic blast of anger had its intended effect, silencing the bickering among the members of the High Congress. She smoothed her hands over the pristine white robe that almost matched her platinum blonde hair and glared around the massive chamber, making more than one Warrior look away from her ice-blue gaze. At her side, her husband, Malin Adar, stared down the few who dared to look back, his fingers caressing the hilt of the sheathed plasma sword resting beside his chair.

With a soft hiss of displeasure Lady Elsin placed her palms on the shimmering surface of the massive silver stone table that seated the three hundred delegates of the High Congress. As ruler of the richest and largest territory, the Northern Continent, Lady Elsin’s political power was rivaled only by the representative from the almost as influential Southern Continent, Lady Yanush. The women were not only political opposites, they were physical opposites as well. Both women were past their prime, but where Lady Elsin was tall and pale, Lady Yanush was short and dark.

Lady Elsin stared directly at Lady Yanush and said in a voice that chilled the room, “I will not let this meeting dissolve into anarchy. There is too much at stake.”

From the other side of the table, Lady Yanush stood and lifted her chin, refusing to cower before the other woman. “Then you need to open your ears and your heart to our words. To do otherwise is not only childish and dangerous, but arrogant as well.”

Lorn Adar let out a silent whistle from his seat at the back of the Congressional Chambers. Sounded like the ladies were spoiling for a fight today. He, along with six of the highest ranking unbonded Warriors from his legion, were permitted to attend this meeting. They all exchanged worried looks as the two women squared off; a psychic storm building between them could lead to real trouble. His father, looking more like Lorn’s brother than his sire with his deeply tanned skin and silver hair, stood and placed a hand on Lady Elsin’s shoulder. While Lorn had his father’s bronze skin and silver hair, he had his mother’s blue eyes, but thankfully, not her temper.

“My Matriarch,” his father said in a soothing tone as he discreetly stroked her back. Of Lorn’s three sires, Malin was the only one who held a High Congress seat, so he alone had the unenviable task of tempering his wife’s anger while Lorn’s other fathers watched from nearby in the gallery. “Ladies, I would beg you to remember there are a great many unbonded Warriors in attendance.”

Each woman stiffened and, on the other side of the table, Lady Yanush’s husband appeared to be trying to calm her as well. Despite their fearsome reputation, the Warriors of Kadothia knew all too well it was their women who were the most deadly. Men might fight each other until they were beaten and bloody, but women went straight for the kill. The last thing they needed were two powerful houses engaging in a power struggle. There were already enough of those going on, and throughout the domed room whispers rose as alliances were formed and destroyed based on the mood of the High Congress.

Lady Yanush took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her multitude of dark braids falling over her shoulders as she bent her head in Lady Elsin’s direction. Lorn actually liked her, despite the fact she was often his mother’s greatest opposition. Or maybe he liked her
because
of that. “Forgive me for my outburst. It was uncalled for.”

Though he could see it pained his proud mother, she nodded in return. “Apology accepted. However, that does not change the fact that the wormhole is too unstable to send our unbonded men through. They are spread thin throughout the galaxy as it is, guarding us from the Hive.”

At the mention of the sociopathic race of women every man in the audience, Lorn included, made a warding gesture with their right hand, asking for the protection of the Lord of Life from their greatest enemy.

“That is exactly my point.” Lady Yanush gave Lorn’s mother a pleading look. “We have taken our quota of Matriarchs from all available known worlds. It will be another fifty cycles before we can once again allow our Warriors to find their mates. Fifty cycles. You and I both know if we wait that long we will lose untold men to the madness, including my sons and yours.”

Lorn could feel the gaze of everyone in the room settle on him but he gave no outward indication of discomfort under their scrutiny. What Lady Yanush said was true; he was nearing the point where the madness would begin to overtake him if he didn’t find his
alyah
to bond with. While he had a partial bond with a Matriarch, his soul could no longer be held together by her will alone. His impending madness was one of the only reasons he’d left the men he commanded on the battlefront and traveled to Kadothia in order to attend this meeting. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his blood brother, Nast, was also slowly beginning to lose himself. Watching the man he loved degenerate into an unthinking animal would kill Lorn as surely as a blade through his heart.

Lady Elsin’s sharp voice interrupted his thoughts. To most people she would sound biting, but he could hear her fear beneath her strong words. Contrary what many people thought, his mother actually did have a heart. “But if the wormhole closes…”

Giving Lorn’s mother an exasperated look, Lady Yanush said, “Then at least they’re stranded on a world where they have a chance to find their soul mate.”

“A barbaric world,” Lady Elsin sneered in disdain.

Lady Yanush smirked. “Some would consider your birth world barbaric as well, Lady Elsin, while others would find it to be the height of civilization.”

His mother tensed at the veiled insult, but before she could go respond his father stood and gestured to an elderly Scout waiting in the shadows. “Why don’t we give our advanced guard a chance to tell us about this planet and the potential Matriarchs it contains.”

Dressed in battered tan armor, the Master of the Scout Division of Kadothia’s army moved forward and carefully placed a small crystal disk on the center of the table. A moment later an enormous image of a world with blue oceans and brown and green continents cloaked in white clouds appeared before the assembly. Lorn leaned closer, hungry for a look at the world that might save his soul and that of his blood brother. Lorn and Nast shared the unique chemical combination that would allow them both to become husbands to the same Matriarch, but Nast’s chances for finding a bondmate had been destroyed when his mother attempted to assassinate Lorn’s mother.

Usually Warriors tried to keep the identity of their blood brothers secret until they were about to bond their Matriarch, but under threat of execution, Lorn had been forced to reveal that he and Nast were blood brothers, making it impossible for Nast to have betrayed Lorn and, subsequently, his family. They were joined together on a soul-deep level; Nast would have been unable to hide his betrayal from Lorn, and there was no way Nast could have hidden any deception from Lorn’s mother. Lady Elsin could rip down almost anyone’s mental walls and read their souls. Not that she needed to. They’d told her about becoming blood brothers as soon as it happened, needing not only her support, but also her formidable political protection. 

It was only because of Nast’s proven loyalty to the House Adar that he’d only been demoted, not executed. Either way it cost him the opportunity to seek a bride until he could earn enough points in battle again and he was even closer to the madness than Lorn. They’d fought through countless conflicts together, had been each other’s sole source of affection and love in a world where nothing was guaranteed and every day was a gift that could be snatched away at any moment. For years they’d worked to build the manor that would someday house their
alyah,
and when Lorn had been injured during a fight or when it seemed like he’d never make it out of a battle alive, he would hold on to the dream of someday sleeping in safety with their beloved nestled between them, the final link that would draw them together as a true family.
 

He glanced over at Nast, sitting next to him, and studied the other man. His blood brother was dressed in his black officer’s armor that set off his long, blood-red hair streaked with blond and his deep green eyes. Nast met his gaze and the excitement and worry he saw in his friend’s eyes made him want to reassure him, to reach out through their psychic bond and send his love.  In this viper’s pit of politics, however, he didn’t dare to do anything that might give their enemies ammunition against them. Their shielding was formidable, forged over hundreds of cycles spent together, but even the best shielding in the world couldn’t protect them from the powerful minds of the Congress. So he had to settle for giving his blood brother a small nod, moving his head only a fraction while still letting Nast know it would be all right because he would make it all right.

Lorn’s attention was drawn back to the center of the room when the Master Scout with his dark, weathered skin cleared his throat. “I present to you, Earth. A planet smaller than our tiniest moon with a populace of a little over seven billion.”