Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga) (85 page)

His distraction cost him. Amy was closer now, singing an eerie little made-up song about pretty kitties. But he felt Hunter coming, very close now, and knew that Arianna would be safe.

When Hunter and Jace burst through the door, distracting Amy for a second, Sean lunged forward, gripping the hand with the gun and twisting it sharply. Amy, in that split second, realized that her plans were about to be spoiled. With the strength born of insanity and vindictiveness, she wrenched her arm from his grasp and pulled the trigger with a fierce shout of triumph.

Many blaster shots sounded at the same time. Two from Trey and his team, at least one each from Rian’s team, and one from Amy’s gun. Her forehead exploded outward, spattering Sean with blood and flesh, bone and gore. But he had been thrown back against the wall and was slumped there now, clutching his middle, the pain incredible. He slid slowly towards the floor.

Hunter stopped for a moment, his tortured eyes showing the conflict in his soul. He had to choose between the brother he’d only just got back and his mate, the mother of his children.

“
Go!
” Sean managed to grit out as he slumped to the floor. Jace followed Hunter, as Trey and his team fell to Sean’s side, immediately going to work on his wound.

Sean lost consciousness, satisfied that he had kept their woman alive just long enough.

“She’s still awake,” Hunter said, stroking Arianna’s wet hair from her face and holding her bleary, pain-filled gaze with his. As Sean had done, he fed his own energy into her, lending her the strength she needed to hang on through the poison’s rampage through her body. “I’m keeping her with us. Jace, hurry!”

“Sean’s been shot,” Jace said as he thrust a syringe into her neck and a booster into her upper arm. Hunter nodded.

“He’s still alive,” Hunter said after a moment of mentally searching the outer room. “The medics are with him. Dammit, Shouldn’t she be responding by now?”

“Yes,” Jace said, then his eyes widened and he frantically emptied the other three syringes from the pack into her body. When Hunter stared at him in question at the high dosage, Jace said weakly, “The babies. The nanos might be trying to save them first. I didn’t allow for that. Hell, knowing Ri, she’s probably sending all her energy to them first, too.”

Another minute passed with Hunter murmuring to Arianna to hold on and Jace wrapping her more securely in the blanket. Finally, her breathing leveled out a bit. Hunter breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief and thankfulness, and rose with her pain-wracked body in his trembling arms.

“Ri,” Jace spoke quickly, softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “We can’t take the tube out yet. I don’t know if you’re going to have another reaction before we get you to the med center. But I’ll get it out as soon as we have you there, okay?”

She nodded weakly, her eyes still closed, and let the men do what they needed to do.

“I’m beginning to hate this place,” Hunter growled, sitting in the chair he’d dragged between his brother’s and his mate’s beds. Jace scowled wearily at the machines hooked up to Ri’s body. Sean was asleep in the next bed. He needed to stay here at least overnight, until Jace was certain the burns were healing from the laser blast. Sean would be rather sore for awhile, but he was going to be fine. The men were here mostly to monitor Arianna, to make sure that she didn’t lose the babes.

“Right now, I don’t blame you,” Jace yawned. He threw a scowl at Hunter. “I would like to put in a formal request that our little Ri does not spend another moment in the med center for the rest of her days, unless it is to check on a future pregnancy. I don’t care if we have to take double-shifts so that one of us is with her every moment of every day.”

“Request granted,” Hunter sighed. He stared at the hands he was holding in each of his… Sean’s in his left, so that he could send energy to his brother if he needed it, and Arianna’s in his right, for the same reason. He was also adding as much energy as he could to her, sending it toward the babies she carried, who were farther along than they should be, for either of their species, but still too young to survive for very long outside the womb. Hunter’’s heart caught at the thought of losing either of the children, but more importantly, he could not lose his little warrior.

“Hunter,” Jace said softly. “She will be fine.”

“The babes?” he asked. Jace shook his head.

“I do not know, but if it is a choice between them…”

“Save Ri.”

“Good. We’re in agreement.”

“Gotta save Ri,” Sean mumbled drunkenly. Hunter and Jace started then chuckled as their brother stirred a little. He was awake and staring at Arianna’s pale face, his eyes dark and worried. “She okay?”

“She will be,” Jace said, squeezing his brother’s foot through the blanket. “Thanks to you. We wouldn’t have been there in time.”

“Had to save her,” Sean said, his eyes closing. “She lights my world.”

He fell asleep again, leaving his brothers staring at him in baffled silence. Hunter dove shamelessly into his brother’s brain, discovered what had passed between Sean and Ri in the bathroom.

Groaning, Hunter let out a heartfelt, “Ah hell.”

Sean awoke several hours later to find the med center dark and quiet. Hunter was fast asleep in a chair between his bed and Arianna’s, still holding each of their hands in his, and Jace was sprawled on a bed he had pushed close to Ri’s. He was also deeply sleeping, but had a hand lying protectively over Arianna’s swollen belly. Sean watched as Ri’s fingers tenderly stroked Jace’s hand where it lay, and darted his eyes up to hers. Sensing his gaze, she looked up at him and smiled wearily.

They must be exhausted,
Sean sent her mentally.

You are tired, as well.
Her brow furrowed in worry.
You are hurt?

I will be okay, sweet Arianna,
he assured her.
I am simply exhausted, drained from today’s little drama. Jace promises that I will not even have a scar to mar the ‘washboard abs’ you seem to admire so much when I’m not looking.

He offered her a teasing smile as she fought back a sputter of indignation and glared at him. He grinned at her efforts. Neither of them wished to wake Hunter or Jace.

Besides,
he sent her,
It would take more than one puny laser blast to keep me down for long. I am a Thorsani warrior!

She finally grinned at his scoffing mental tone.
Good! I would not want my babies’ uncle to die from weariness, just for saving me.

You are my brothers’ mate,
Sean sent her, sobering.
I would die for you.

Her eyes went incredibly soft. He could sense her fighting the growing admiration she held for him, and it did his heart good.

You are… not what I thought you were the first night you got here, are you?
she asked, her mental voice gentle, curious. Sean shook his head, grinning.

I am. But I am much more, I think, than you give me credit for.

I know how that is,
she laughed mentally, the sound even lovelier in his head than it was in the physical world. In his head, the brightness of her spirit added sweet chiming, almost like tiny bells or crystals ringing. He had missed this, being on the same world as her, instead of just talking through space.

Rest, my sweet Ri,
Sean urged her, feeling her energy waning.
Too much mental effort like this can tire you out quickly. There will be time for us. Soon.

She nodded, watching him until her eyes closed on a smile and her fingers laced with Jace’s over her tummy. As Sean watched, Jace stirred but didn’t wake, moving closer to her, his face nuzzling into her neck before he sighed and fell back into slumber. Hunter, sensing the change even in sleep, leaned toward her, resting his head near her shoulder on the bed. Sean’s heart melted for his brothers and the obvious love they had for the small Earth woman. A love that he now understood and shared. More than anything, he wanted to see those big green eyes of hers turned to him with the same joy and love that she gave to his brothers.

Arianna Hunter-Jace needed her rest and time to recover from the day’s events. She also needed time, to get used to the idea of Sean being part of their family and to get used to the expanded family itself. She carried his brothers’ children, though that didn’t detract from her beauty or her sexual attractiveness in any way. If anything, she was even more sensual and enticing with the glow of pregnancy on her. Sean’s body hardened and he fought to keep a self-deprecating chuckle from escaping his throat. Calming himself, he closed his eyes and thought back to the moments in the bathroom, the glimpse of her soul that he’d managed to catch.

There were shadows on her heart and in her soul, chambers in her mind that held secrets she was hiding, some of them from herself. He wanted to get into those chambers, see from whence the shadows crept, and find a way to dispel them. He had a feeling that some of those rooms would only give up their secrets to him, because of his special abilities. But he could handle them. He would wrestle her demons and banish them with her.

There was much to do, a lot of work to be done within the colony and within their family, and most of all, within Ri herself.

As he drifted off to sleep once more, Sean vowed to himself that one day, very soon, he would be welcomed into the loving circle of Arianna’s arms.

* * *

The End

( for now…)

Ri, Hunter, Jace, and Sean’s story has only just begun…

Keep reading for a preview of
Storms of Ishira
,

Book Two in the Hearts of Ishira series,

coming fall/winter of 2014.

Keep a watch on her Facebook page or her blog for Ishira news and upcoming releases not from the Ishira universe.

Dear Reader,

I hope you’ve enjoyed this book, the first in an epic space saga that will sweep galaxies and dimensions.

It was amazing to watch it come to life, from my head into a novel, and fulfilled a life-long dream. I still can’t believe it’s real!

The Thorsani are not the only alien species that you’ll meet in the Ishira universe…

Watch for more books in the upcoming years with shapeshifters, other paranormals, and maybe even some more Earth women.

Who knows what’s in store? It’s an adventure!

Sincerely,

Bethany

Bethany LOVES hearing from readers and fans…

You can contact Bethany Aan in several different ways:

E-mail:

[email protected]

Facebook:

Bethany Aan Author

Facebook Author Page:

www.facebook.com/BethanyAan

And she has a goodreads page:

https://www.goodreads.com/BethanyAan

And a regular website, though it’s still a work in progress:

www.bethanyaan.com

There’s Twitter, though she’ll be the first to admit she doesn’t check that very often (bad author! No coffee!):

Page: https://twitter.com/BethanyAan

Tweet: @BethanyAan

And finally, she has a blog that she randomly updates with teasers, chapters, news, life musings, writing musings, and book reviews:

http://bethanyaan.blogspot.com

She absolutely loves to hear from her readers! Feel free to bug her on Facebook or drop a note by e-mail.

And if you loved Hearts of Ishira, please consider leaving a review and help others discover Ishira and its hot, hot alien men.

Because this is still a work in progress, these might not be the exact, finished chapters. But please enjoy them as they are.. Nothing significant will change, except perhaps where the chapter breaks are. You’re probably getting chapter three here, as well!

Prologue

Western Mountain Range

Ishira

The stasis gel did its job admirably. When something jolted the spacecraft she was being held in, Stormy barely felt it. Lights flickered. Fires broke out and were quickly suppressed. Frantic movements from the various creatures beyond the clear tube that had been her home for far too long made her wonder what was happening.

She watched, eyes wide, as the spacecraft seemed to separate from its other half. The other section blasted away as though it had never been. Stormy’s heart thundered as she fought to scream one word.

No!

She had friends in that other section. Women who had become sister through their ordeal, though most of them would never remember it.

She wished she could be so lucky.

As the ship seemed to whirl through a vortex of angry green and purple clouds with violent lightning streaking painfully against her eyes, Stormy could only silently mourn the loss of those friends, sisters… and more. She felt tears escape her eyes but they were instantly absorbed by whatever odd gel entombed her body. Had she been in control of her muscles, she would have beat on the glass, or whatever it was.