Shifter Planet (3 page)

“A pleasure, Lieutenant. Welcome to Harp.”

Amanda jerked her attention back to the Ardrigh and managed a polite, if slightly distracted, smile as she shook his hand briefly. She noted in passing that his palm and fingers were rough and calloused, not at all the hand of a pampered royal.

“An honor, your highness,” she said. In her experience, it never hurt to say she was honored to meet just about anybody. Although, at this point she was having trouble focusing on much of anything. Gods, couldn’t anyone else HEAR that?

The Ardrigh smiled as he released her hand, and there was a definite twinkle in his eye that made her wonder if he knew exactly what she was thinking. Damn. Maybe that’s what those voices she was hearing were all about. Maybe they were all telepaths here. She hated when that happened.

She lingered a polite few minutes while the Ardrigh spoke with Commander Wolfrum and the other scientists, just waiting for a chance to slip away unnoticed. One of the guards eyed her rather intently as if he knew what she was doing—the darker one with the black hair and a brooding expression. She smiled in a friendly way and tried to look innocent. He didn’t smile back, which was unfortunate, because he probably had a killer smile to go along with that killer body. And also because he probably
did
know what she was planning, and would stop her if she tried.

She waited until his attention was drawn elsewhere by someone’s question, then slipped away, quickly losing herself in the crowd. She paused once, to glance over her shoulder, then stepped off the hard-packed dirt and in among the tightly clustered trees. The forest swallowed her almost completely. If she turned just so, she could still catch glimpses through the trees of the shuttle and its crowd of people, could still catch the burned metal smell and crackling sound of the cooling engines.

All of that disappeared as she moved deeper into the forest. It was as if the trees were gathering around her now that she was finally here, as if they were swaying ever closer in their curiosity, as eager to study her as she was them. She had no sense of danger. She felt no fear. She was mindful of Wolfrum’s warning about leaving the city limits, but she was armed with a knife and was confident in her own abilities to protect herself. That’s what being a planetary specialist was all about. It was more than just her degrees in xenobiology and chemistry. It was the ability to survive the challenges of uncharted territory. It was the real reason that she loved her job.

She took a moment to breathe in the air, closing her eyes and tasting the scents and flavors of this new world. The voices in her head had quieted, as if now that she was here, they were willing to give her the time she needed to adjust.

Finally, she opened her eyes and walked over to the largest tree she could find, a giant that was nearly twenty-five feet around, towering so far overhead and with growth so thick that she couldn’t lean back far enough to see beyond the first few branches. Curious, she reached out a hand and touched the tree lightly, pressing harder as the sensations multiplied beneath her fingertips.

It was warm and rough, with deep creases of age in the bark that were so wide in places she could have slipped her entire hand inside. There was life flowing just below its surface, an awareness that washed over her as she flattened both hands against the crinkled surface. It started with a trickle and quickly became a flood, spreading outward from this single tree to encompass the entire forest, spanning the width of the planet, overwhelming her with details of not just the trees, but the lives of every creature that dwelt among them, from the tiniest vole to the huge, dagger-toothed predators at the far edge of the ice cap, bombarding her with…too much!

She pushed away with a cry, falling to the ground and cradling her head in both hands as she tried to make it stop spinning. Huddled at the foot of the great tree, she fought to keep from throwing up, even as she was laughing with delight like a crazy person. Tears of pain and joy filled her eyes to overflowing, dripping down her cheeks and soaking into the leaf-covered ground.

“Are you sick?”

Amanda jerked upright and stared over her shoulder. Through a blur of tears, she saw the Ardrigh’s guard staring down at her, the same one who’d been watching her so intently. He was a big man; at several inches over six feet, he was just slightly taller than the other two locals had been, and probably close to three hundred pounds of pure, gorgeous muscle. The severe way his black hair was tied back made his sharp cheekbones and almost pretty mouth stand in stark contrast to one another.

But it was his eyes that drew her attention, that sucked away her breath, and made her want to stare. She hadn’t noticed their color in the sunlight of the landing field. Here in the shadows under the trees…they were pure molten gold, surrounded by thick, black lashes. They were the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen, definitely not the human norm. And they were currently regarding her with a hostility that belied his concerned question.

She forced her emotions under control. She was supposed to be a professional, one of the fleet’s best. “I’m fine. It’s…” She waved a hand around to indicate the forest. “I don’t drop to a planet all that often, and this forest is so beautiful.”

“You shouldn’t be out here,” he said, staring at her with such focused attention that it bordered on something sexual.

Her entire body flushed with pleasure, but she managed to keep her voice only slightly breathy when she asked, “Why not?”

He stared at her a moment longer. Long enough that the blatant desire in his eyes faded into puzzlement, and finally disappeared altogether behind a wall so blank that Amanda couldn’t be sure they’d ever shared that moment of intense heat.

He straightened to his full height, his posture as unyielding as his expression when he growled, “Because it’s not safe. Your advance team must have warned you of this.”

Amanda almost interrupted him to disagree. It was perfectly safe out here
now
. There’d been a whole pack of some monkey-like things earlier—now they were long gone, and there was nothing in the immediate vicinity that posed any threat to her at all. She opened her mouth to tell him so. And shut it just as quickly.

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to admit that the trees were talking to her. She knew very little about these people or their culture. They might be human—okay, they obviously were
mostly
human—but humans did all sorts of horrible things to each other. For all she knew, they burned people like her at the stake on this planet.

“You should go back with the others,” he was saying, his voice cool and reserved. “I think the Ardrigh has plans to invite several of you to dinner at the palace this evening.” He gave her a quick once-over, though he was careful to avoid meeting her eyes. “You’ll want to change clothes first.”

Well, well, sexy
and
insulting. Who could resist?

“Really, de Mendoza,” a new voice drawled. “You’ll give our visitor a bad impression of us.” Amanda looked up to find the other guard, the blond one, strolling in from between the trees. She took the opportunity to stand up, using the tree for balance, and had to stifle a laugh at the little rush of warmth beneath her hand when she touched the rough bark. The new arrival was watching her, his gaze traveling up and down her body in a blatant appraisal, which had Mr. Sexy—whose name was obviously de Mendoza—bristling in disapproval. She held out her hand.

“Amanda Sumner,” she said.

Unlike de Mendoza, Blondie had no difficulty smiling, a slow, lazy grin that lit up his already handsome face. He bowed slightly before taking her hand.

“Fionn Ignacio Martyn, at your service,” he said. He straightened, giving de Mendoza a sideways look. “I apologize for my fellow guildsman, Amanda, but he’s right. The forest is no place to wander alone. The rest of Harp is far more welcoming to visitors, and may I say that
I
think your presence will be a lovely addition to the evening’s festivities, no matter what you wear.”

De Mendoza snorted his opinion of Fionn’s blatant flattery, and some perverse part of Amanda, still stinging from his comment about her clothes, decided to get a little of her own back. Giving Fionn an appraisal every bit as bold as the one he’d given her, she asked, “Will
you
be there?”

Fionn laughed out loud. “Yes, indeed. I will most certainly be at my father’s little get-together this evening.”

Amanda joined his laughter. “Then so will I.” But it was de Mendoza’s golden eyes she met when she said it.

A
manda slumped against the lift wall, stifling a groan as her body protested too many days of too little sleep. She’d been riding an adrenaline high ever since they’d taken up orbit around Harp, but that high had peaked to a painful intensity with today’s discovery that she, apparently, could commune with trees. At least on Harp.

And what the fuck was that about? Her first thought had been that it was a hallucinogenic in the air, possibly a spore cast off by the trees themselves. Although that couldn’t explain why she was the only one who experienced it. Or rather, the only one from the ship.

There was no doubt in her mind that de Mendoza and Fionn had both known exactly what was happening to her and why. And that they were determined to keep her from exploring it any further. The two men had entirely different ways of trying to control her—de Mendoza’s stern bossiness compared to Fionn’s charm. Their end goal, however, was exactly the same. They wanted her out of the forest and, ultimately, off the planet as soon as possible.

What were they afraid she’d discover if she stayed? Neither of them understood that trying to keep her from doing something was like throwing down the proverbial gauntlet. It was a challenge, and she could never resist a challenge.

She thought about the two men. Fionn Martyn was the Ardrigh’s son. Did that make him the heir apparent? Was the position even inherited? Fionn had let that piece of information drop casually, and she was sure he’d done it on purpose. He’d wanted her to know, either hoping to impress her, or… Well, there was no
or.
She knew guys like Fionn. They were handsome, charming, and easygoing—at least on the outside—and they needed to hustle every woman they met. His charm wouldn’t keep her from what she wanted to do on Harp, though if she’d been looking for a casual fling, sex with Fionn Martyn would certainly have been no hardship. It wasn’t Fionn who was occupying her thoughts, however. For some reason, her mind kept returning to de Mendoza. Did the man even
have
a first name? He hadn’t shared it, whatever it was. And he hadn’t been particularly friendly
or
charming.

And yet, there’d been that flash of something when their eyes had first met, an almost physical snap of energy. She just knew that if they’d touched at that moment, it would have crackled between them like a wild electrical charge. He’d felt it, too. No matter how thoroughly he’d shuttered it over. He’d seemed almost angry after that. As if the very possibility that he was attracted to her pissed him off for some reason.

Amanda scoffed at her own reflection in the lift doors. So what if she’d felt a surge of desire for the man? His ego needed to be knocked back a measure. She wasn’t exactly drooling over the idea of a relationship with him either. Broody bastard.

The lift doors opened and she headed down the wide corridor to the three-room suite she shared with her mother, which was far more comfortable than anything Amanda could have secured on her own.

She stuck her thumb into the biometric entry lock, and slipped through the door before it fully opened. From the main room of the suite came the gentle clink of crystal and silver and the low timbre of a man’s voice, followed by her mother’s soft laughter. Her mother was home, and she had company.

This wasn’t unusual. Elise Sumner was an intelligent and beautiful woman, and she frequently had friends over. Occasionally that meant a single male friend, although she’d never dated any one man for very long. The two of them rarely discussed Amanda’s father, but his presence, or absence thereof, was a constant in their lives nonetheless.

Since she felt like crap, and figured she probably looked like it too, she skipped the social niceties and went directly to her own room, thankful for a layout that permitted her to slip in discreetly. Stripping off her clothes, she thought wistfully of a long, hot shower followed by several hours’ sleep, but there wasn’t time. She’d have to settle for a short, tepid shower and a stimulant tab.

Without warning, her door whisked open and her mother stood there. Completely ignoring Amanda’s half-clothed state, she zoomed right in on the vicious bruise left over from her sparring bout with Angelito. “What happened to your leg, sweetling?”

Amanda was struck as always by Elise’s beauty…and by how utterly different the two of them were. Her mother was small and delicate, with rich brown eyes and black hair that turned her pale complexion into the most fragile porcelain. She was in her fifties, and thanks to the advances of modern science she would remain youthful in appearance well into her seventies. Youthful or not, however, she would always be beautiful.

Amanda, on the other hand, took after the father she’d never known. She was nearly six feet tall, with blond hair, dark blue eyes, and golden-brown skin that even the sunless confines of the ship couldn’t reduce to anything less than a healthy glow. She was attractive enough—fit, graceful and athletic, which somehow, next to her mother, made her feel like a huge, clumsy thing. This was all in Amanda’s head, because her mother had never made her feel anything but beautiful and loved.

“You’ve got company,” she said, arching an eyebrow.

Elise smiled, seeing the comment for the distraction it was, or at least was trying to be.

“A friend,” she dismissed. “Now, what happened to your leg?”

Amanda grabbed a robe and slipped it on, trying to conceal the damaged appendage. “Nothing,” she said. She sat on the bed to avoid towering over her petite mother. “A sparring accident.”