Paige's Warriors (Bondmates Book 3) (18 page)

Light russet, furry furniture dominated the far side of the room, and Jaz, clad in her green robe with black edging, stood and smiled. Today her hair was styled in a multitude of braids held back from her face with jeweled pins, and lovely, almost glowing purple gems hung from her pierced ears. Her gaze went from Paige to Xentix, and she waved her hand.

“Okay, you delivered her safely, now off you go. It’s time for girl talk.”

Xentix rolled his eyes, a rather odd expression on such a big and intimidating man, but smiled at Jaz. “As you wish, my Matriarch.”

Jaz laughed and put her hands on her ample hips. “I know you’re dying to go spar with Mavet and Tandar, go have fun.”

Xentix strode across the room and pulled his wife into a kiss that had Paige blushing all the way to the roots of her hair by the time he was done.

Giving her a smug smile, he left her with a silent Jaz, who was staring after her husband in open appreciation as he left. “That man…drives me crazy, but boy can he kiss.”

Before Paige could respond, a chime came and Jaz said, “Receive.”

A portion of the wall slid up and a table, loaded with food, slid out.

The scents of so many delicious things at once had her stomach roaring to life and before she knew it she was chowing down on a barbeque covered rib, cooked to perfection. The meat fell off the bone, and she found herself licking her fingers loudly while Jaz watched in open amusement as she nibbled on a piece of pineapple. Another wall lowered across the room, this one filled with desserts. Among it, she spotted a giant apple pie and her mouth watered even as she grabbed a cob of perfectly buttered and salted corn.

“Tren requested food from Earth for you that you would like, and I figured every American girl loves a good barbeque.”

“Oh my God, this is so delicious. I mean, even if I weren’t starving because my body needs fuel, it would still be awesome. Thank you so much. Is this really from Earth?”

“No, it’s replicated.”

She stared down at the corn in her hand, then the heap on the plate. “Pardon me?”

“It is a replicated food containing perfectly balanced nutrition for your body. We have fresh food from Earth here, but it is a rarity. The Kadothians have strict rules about interacting with previously unknown galaxies and races, including stealing their harvest. One of those rules it to keep from inadvertently hurting the planet by draining resources. Don’t worry, that piece of corn you’re eating is better than anything you’d get on Earth. It’s full of all kind of nutrition that regular corn doesn’t have. Does it taste any different?”

“If I didn’t know it was, I’d just say it was absolutely authentic. And this is from a girl who grew up with fields of corn behind her house.”

Jaz sat down on the nearby couch, pulling her legs up beneath her as she put one arm over the back. “Tell me about where you grew up. I’m from Harlem so small town life is something I find fascinating.”

Smiling at Jaz, Paige wandered over to where a bowl of mashed potatoes with gravy sat and grabbed a nearby spoon. The rich, buttery, and creamy taste exploded on her tongue, and she hummed in happiness. Little tingles had settled into her feet and toes, but it was so faint she barely noticed. Instead, she had a mouth-gasm at the taste of the rich brown gravy combining with the mashed potatoes.

“Oh my God, so good.”

Jaz burst out laughing. “Damn, now I want some of that.”

Flushing at her bad manners, Paige held out her spoon. “Would you like some?”

“No, honey, but thank you.”

Remembering the woman’s earlier question, she leaned against the table and looked up, trying to think of how to explain her home. “It is a small town, but we’re on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, Michigan.”

“Home of the University of Michigan,” Jaz said with a smile. “My father lives, eats, and breathes football. All football.”

Tears surfaced in Jaz’s dark eyes for a moment, and Paige abandoned her food, going to the other woman’s side. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” Jaz waved a hand at her face, blinking fast. “Some days I just have a harder time than others dealing with the fact that I’ll never see my Dad again.”

“Oh, yeah.” Paige slumped back and rubbed her hand over her stomach before letting out a big burp. “Oh jeez, excuse me.”

Laughing, Jaz took in a deep breath then let it out. “How are you dealing with leaving Earth, and all it contains, behind?”

Standing, Paige wandered back to the table, the burp somehow creating even more room in her belly. She snagged what looked like a cornbread biscuit with honey and moaned as she bit into its melt-in-your-mouth sweetness. The flooring beneath her slipper-covered feet was slightly spongy, and as she watched a crumb from the cornbread hit the ground, she gasped. The piece of food melted right into the floor, as if the deep forest green flooring had turned to liquid.

“What the hell?”

Jaz rose to her knees and looked over the back of the couch at the floor. “What happened?”

“The floor ate my food.”

“They’re made of some kind of biological stuff that absorb dirt and are always totally clean. Since we’re in the medical bay, they’re also formulated to take care of biological hazards.”

“Neat.” Squishing her slippers against the ground, she gave an experimental bounce as she finished her biscuit, finally full. “Ugh, thank God I’m not wearing pants right now.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

“No pain?”

“Nope.” Stretching out, Paige sighed. “I actually feel pretty good now that my stomach’s happy.”

“Good, good. So, do you have any questions about how the Kadothian polygamous relationships work?”

Raising her eyebrows, Paige said, “Uh, what?”

“Their practice of a woman having more than one husband.”

Actually, she hadn’t. “I haven’t really thought about it much.”

Jaz frowned. “The Commander didn’t discuss blood brothers with you?”

“No. What is that?”

“Oh dear.” Jaz started to play with one of her braids. “Maybe I should wait for him to talk with you about it.”

“No, tell me. Whenever I get around Tren all I want to do is climb him like a tree. I swear my brain doesn’t operate all that well around him. I become dick drunk.”

Jaz burst out laughing. “Dick drunk? Dare I ask?”

The apple pie across the room was calling Paige’s name, but she smiled. “My friend Dawn said there are some guys that are so good in bed you feel like you’re drunk after you’re done. But with Tren all I have to do is be around him and I’m dick drunk.”

Giggling again, Jaz nodded. “I know how that feels, times three.”

Sitting up a little, Paige pulled up her knees and rested her chin on them. “What’s it like? Being married to more than one guy?”

“Amazing.” Jaz’s dark eyes went dreamy and her face soft. “I have three men who love me beyond reason, and I wake up every day happy beyond belief.”

“There’s no jealousy? I mean, what if you spend more time with one guy than the other?”

“If we weren’t bonded I don’t see how it would work, but with the bond there is nothing to be jealous of. I feel my husbands’ love for me, and each other, like it was my own. I know without a doubt if one man is feeling like he needs a little more affection than usual, or when one of us needs our space.”

“You still manage to have alone time with three men?”

“Well, not a lot, but they know I need my girl time and my alone time. They know it’s not because I don’t want to be around them, but just because it’s something I need to be happy. They understand.”

“But what about the bond? Can’t you always feel each other?”

“Yes and no. I always feel their life force, but most of the time I’m busy in my own mind and can’t deal with the distraction of theirs. You’ll find that most bonded couples are like that, open in private where they can focus on each other, shielded from each other in public. Like right now I can feel that Mavet and Xentix are closed off from me, but Tandar is a little open to all of us. That’s not surprising since we’re the most recently bonded we’re still kind of in the honeymoon stage. He likes being able to feel us.”

“How did you end up with three husbands?”

Jaz told a condensed version of her story about meeting her men, and when she talked about blood brothers she got a funny look on her face again that alerted something in Paige.

“So most Kadothian males have blood brothers?”

“Yes, it helps them keep the madness at bay. You see, Kadothians live a very long time, around three thousand Earth years or more. During that time they have…well, they have a hole in their soul, an unfinished part of their mind that yearns for a psychic bond with their bondmate. As time goes on, if they don’t find something to fill that hole, the darkness, the crushing loneliness consumes them until their human mind breaks and the animal takes over.”

“What happens when they go mad? Why do they have to go to a prison colony?”

“Quite simply, they go rabid.” Jaz held Paige’s gaze, her expression deadly serious. “These wonderful, vibrant men become the thing they fear most, the nightmare that haunts their existence from the day they are born. Can you imagine, the older you get, knowing you are slowly losing yourself? Can you imagine looking into the mirror and having no idea who you are because you can no longer access your memories? Can you imagine killing those you love because you no longer see them as people, but prey?”

“That’s terrible.” Paige dashed at a tear and sniffed.

“It is. The only thing that helps is partial bonding.”

“What’s that?”

“You know how a full bonding works, right? Tren explained it to you?”

“I got the general idea. Once my crystal implants start working I plan on doing a lot of research.”

“Okay, well, in a full bond, you trade bits of your soul—at least that’s my theory. Everyone has an opinion about how the bonding works, but here’s what I can tell you for sure: you will stabilize and heal your mates. Their mental scars, and there are a lot of them from the hard life they’ve had to lead, will slowly heal the more you’re together, and they’ll change—in a good way. So will you; the healing works both ways.” She smiled and stroked the black tattoo on her chest. “Have you been feeling any different? Maybe braver, stronger? Casey described you as a woman who didn’t like strangers or crowds, but from what I’ve seen you handle yourself just fine.”

Now that Paige thought about it, she’d gone through the growth regime today without a single panic attack about being in such a vulnerable position around so many men. Alone. If Tren had been with her, she would have dismissed it as the result of being around him, but she’d been alone, and she’d handled herself gracefully. A sense of pride, not something she usually felt about herself, came through her, and she slowly smiled at Jaz.

“I did—I mean, I am. I’m not automatically afraid anymore.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. It takes hundreds of years for some of those deep wounds to heal, so don’t go around thinking something won’t trigger you. But also don’t dismiss your bravery as only coming from your bond. You are a strong woman and as you shake off the shit from your past that’s clinging to you, I think you’re gonna surprise a lot of people.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” She clapped her hands. “We got a little off track, and you need this information, so pay attention. A partial bond can’t quite heal psychic wounds, at least they don’t in most cases, but they do stabilize them. A Kadothian male, before he meets his Matriarch, will often have two partial bonds. One partial bond to a Matriarch that is often either a good friend or a political ally, and one to a blood brother, which is a totally different type of bond.”

“How so?”

“It’s sexual.”

“Oh…oh!”

Grinning, Jaz nodded. “Yeah.”

“But they don’t have a sexual relationship with their Matriarch?”

“No. They’ll have a deep friendship and respect, sometimes an almost familial connection, but it’s not sexual. At least with Kadothian Matriarchs from the Bel’Tan galaxy, but the blood brother relationship is a romantic and sexual one.”

“Does Tren have a blood brother?”

Jaz opened and closed her mouth a few times before saying, “I’m not sure. They tend to keep their relationship a secret.”

“Why?”

“It’s not out of shame, but for protective reasons. The Kadothian Empire has an…interesting political structure. I won’t get into it now with you, but suffice to say a blood brother could be used against a Warrior as powerful as Commander Trenzent. He’d be foolish to expose the weakness of loving someone else enough to risk everything for them.”

“But he’s pretty open about loving me.”

“Yes, but you’re a Matriarch. On Kadothia, you’re revered and it is taboo to harm a Matriarch, not to mention being an instant death sentence.”

“Wow.”

“Crazy, right? That’s not to say bad things don’t happen to Matriarchs, they do, but it’s a lot easier to harm a Warrior who regularly goes into dangerous battles than to take on a heavily guarded Matriarch on Kadothia.”

“That makes sense. Do you think he has one?”