Cassandra's Challenge (34 page)

She is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen,
she’s his life mate. How is he going to let her go? The thought of
her sharing with another, what they’ve shared, is tearing him
apart. Starting towards her he stops as she turns, leaving him
without a word.

“Admiral, where’s Aunt Cassie?”

“I’m right here, kiddo.” Striding into the room
she finds them finishing their meals, a plate still covered next to
William. Rounding the table she pulls out the chair next to
Tori.

“So how was school?” She asks.

“Good.”

“Homework?”

“Some. Why didn’t you pick me up?”

“I’m sorry, I asked Javiera to because I was
worried I’d forget. You know how I get when I’m in the middle of a
project.” She forces a smile she isn’t feeling. “She picked you up
didn’t she?”

“Yeah, she did.”

“Good. You done?”

“Yup.”

“Then let’s hit that homework.”

“I can do it.” Leaving the table Victoria goes
to her room, closing the door. Standing Cassandra picks up the
dirty dishes.

“You need to eat.” William breaks the silence,
his eyes following her.

“Later.” Picking up the bag she’d dropped by her
chair she heads over the work area.

“Cassandra, we need to talk.”

“No.” With her fingers flying over the keys, she
dives back into her research, shutting him out. Watching her he
sighs.

“I’ll be at my desk if you need me.” Receiving
no reply he leaves, after one last long look at her back.

Sagging in her chair Cassandra puts her head in
her hands. This is going to be so much harder then she thought. To
be this close to him and not touch him, not kiss him. But he needs
to understand what his decision will cost. Cost both them. Looking
at the screen she gets back to work.

Unable to put it off any longer William goes
into their private quarters, hoping to find Cassandra already in
bed asleep. Instead he finds her at the comm center, her plate
untouched.

“You didn’t eat.”

“Hmmm….what?” She looks to finding him standing
beside her. She’d been so consumed by what she’s found she hadn’t
heard him enter.

“You need to eat.” He gets just a glimpse of the
woman he loves before she shuts him out.

“Later.” Turning back to the screen she
continues to scan the page.

“Cassandra….” As documents continue to scroll by
William rubs his neck in frustration. Perhaps for the first time in
his life he doesn’t know what to do. He’s responsible for this,
that he knows, but there is no other way to secure her safety.

“You want to sleep I’ll go work in the other
room.”

“No, stay.” He needs her close. “You’re all set
up.” Turning to their closet he changes for bed.

Unable to stop herself Cassandra watches him.
How could he possible think she’d be willing to give him up?
Dragging her eyes back to the screen she tries to concentrate.

Stopping on the way to bed he waits for her to
look at him. When she finally does her eyes are unreadable.

“Don’t stay up to late.” He mummers, raising a
hand to touch her cheek, he freezing as she jerks away. The pain
her action causes clearly evident in his eyes. Dropping his hand he
turns to the empty bed.

Lying alone, in the bed they should be sharing,
he watches as she continues to works at the comm center. Her
fingers flying over the keys digging out the information she needs.
He knows she’s searching for connections between the Royals and
Regulians. They’d discussed it…before. He’d given her the codes
she’d need to access the records, he’d been willing to let her
search, hoping it would keep her busy, so she wouldn’t realize what
he was doing…behind her back. He could admit it, to himself. But he
has the right to protect her, no matter the cost.

The wind whips his hair as the waves violently
crashed against the cliffs. There would be no calming sunset for
William. Storm clouds were building on the horizon, stealing the
light of the suns. Sensing someone behind him he braces for an
attack.

“Wicked storm, wouldn’t want to be caught in it
alone.” Turning quickly he assesses the shorter man. What he lacks
in height he make up for in size, he would be a worthy opponent in
battle.

“Only an idiot would be out alone.” William
replies.

“Most men are, at one time or another, or so my
life mate tells me.” The man turns calm, violet eyes to
William.

“You’re Kayden.”

“Yes.”

“You murdered your brother, than ran away.”

“Did I?” His violet eyes harden. “If I had, you
would never be. You know nothing.”

“You are the third son of King Tibus. You killed
the First Son then ran away taking the future Queen of the House of
Knowledge, with you.”

“My brother lived. The King’s First Son gave me
his blessing. I left with my life mate.”

“She was to be Queen.” William fires at him.

“She was Queen!” Kayden fires back. “My
Queen!”

“You stood in the way of what she was to be."
Kayden rounds on William.

“You know
nothing
!” Rage fills his eyes.
“Stand in her way!
No one
stands in my life mate’s way once
she’s made up her mind, including
me
!” Turning Kayden stares
at the gathering clouds his chest heaving.

William watches the gathering storm and suddenly
realizes what Kayden has said. His brother lived, if he hadn’t then
he
would never be. But William descends from the Fourth Son.
He said ‘King’s First Son’ not his brother. There is something he
doesn’t know. He’s beginning to doubt what he’s always
believed.

“What don’t I know?”

Kayden turns, staring at him as if he’s trying
to reach a decision. As William waits there is a sudden break in
the gathering clouds, a brilliant ray of light drives back the
growing gloom.

It reminds him of Cassandra,
his
life
mate,
his
light. Of the decisions he’d made for her, all
with good reasons. The clouds regroup shutting out the light,
William finds Kayden watching him.

“I would have lost her, my life mate, if she’d
done what
I
demanded, followed the path
I
had decided
was best for her.
I
was willing to make the sacrifice. She
was not. She didn’t care about winning the battle, she would win
the war. She never lost sight of what was truly important. I
did.”

“What did she do?”

“She found another way. One unthinkable to me,
she would leave Carina. She wanted no part of the darkness keeping
us apart. She would go to Messene, from there disappear. Going
somewhere she wouldn’t be found. That was her decision. I would
have to decide if she left alone. It was an easy choice to make. I
couldn’t protect her if I wasn’t with her.”

William is shocked by what he’s hearing. This is
not what’s believed in the House of Protection, Kayden had been
labeled a murderer, his name never spoken again.

“Your life together?”

“Full, filled with children, love, arguments,
respect, honesty. She is my Queen. I would willingly die for her,
she for me.”

“And you’re House?”

“We built our own, letting in the light,
fighting the dark, building the House we would never have been
allowed on Carina. What I had to leave behind could never compete.”
As the storm begins to rage Kayden confronts William.

“Will you make your own House, with your life
mate? Or live in the one you’ve been assigned? Will it be filled
with light, or darkness? It’s always been you’re choice.”

Easing back from the comm center Cassandra rubs
her tired eyes. Looking to William she finds him asleep in the bed
they’d shared, turned towards her as if he’d been watching her
before sleep claimed him. She has to make him realize he’s wrong.
But words weren’t going to work, she knows her life mate, he
wouldn’t change his mind when it comes to protecting her. She
understood, she felt the same way about him. It is
how
he
would protect her that she has to convince him to change.

Walking towards the bed she quietly removes her
clothes turning off the light, time to show him what he will lose.
Leaning over him her mouth explores his chest while her hands
lightly caress his sides. Her mouth moves down with her hands,
sliding under his sleeping pants to caress his stiffening
shaft.

Waking to darkness, fully aroused, William feels
his life mate’s hands holding him. Her mouth planting kisses across
his abdomen he groans.

“Cassandra…”

Searching for her in the darkness his discovers
she’s naked. Gripping her waist he pulls her up for an urgent kiss.
Straddling him she dives into the kiss, her breasts pressed against
his chest, hands gripping his shoulders.

Breaking off the kiss she uses her teeth along
his jaw on her way to the sensitive spot behind his ear. Her hips
are alive within his hands, telling him she’s as aroused as he.

With her mouth continuing its assault William’s
control vanishes. Pulling her under him his mouth attacks her
breasts while he removes his pants. Then he is deep inside her,
surrounded by her heat. Running a hand down her thigh he pulls her
knee up so they are even closer.

The pace is brutal, the desire unrestrained.
Cassandra hooks her legs around his waist trying to get closer, her
nails digging to his sweat slicked back. Feeling her release
approaching she pulls his head up, her tongue mating with his as
wildly as her body. Moments later they climax, violently.

When sanity returns, William finds himself still
on top of Cassandra, pressing her into the bed. Easing away, he
caresses her cheek finding it wet with tears.

“Cassandra, what...” Her fingers on his lips
silence him. Curling into his side she lays her head over his heart
and sleeps.

In the dark William’s trying to figure out what
just happened. She’d come to him, his life mate, after everything
that had happened, she’d still come to him. But she hadn’t spoken
he realizes, hadn’t said his name. The heart she sleeps on
aches.

Waking up alone, William rises to find Cassandra
back at the communications consul as if the night had been a dream.
Pulling on his sleeping pants he approaches.

“Cassandra…”

“Aunt Cassie?”

Both adults turn to the quivering voice, finding
Victoria standing in her hatchway, cheeks wet. Cassandra’s
immediately out of her chair.

“What’s wrong Tori?” She’s on her knees in front
of her. “Bad dream?” The nightmares had stopped since the thread
had been removed.

“No.” Tori wraps her arms around her burying her
face in her neck.

“Then what? Come on baby tell me.” Cassandra
pulls her into her lap. Raising her head Victoria looks at the
Admiral who’s squatted down next to them.

“Are you in trouble because of me?” Her eyes
lock with his.

“What?” William’s shocked.

“They said yesterday that you got in trouble
because of the Regulians, that’s why we’re going back to Carina
early. Is it because of me? Because of the thread?” William’s
appalled that Tori would blame herself for their return to
Carina.

“Tori, that’s not true! You’re not to blame for
any of this.” He pulls both of them into his arms. “Neither of you
are.”

“Then why are you in trouble?”

William doesn’t know how to respond. The
decision that he’d made to return to Carina, to protect them, had
been easy to make, it should have only affected
him
. But it
is affecting all of them. In ways he hadn’t considered.
Concentrating on the battle he’d lost sight of the war. It seems
Kayden was right.

“It’s not that I’m really in trouble, Tori.”
William looks to Cassandra for help, but her eyes tell him he’s on
his own. He’s caused this.

“Then what?”

“There are going to be people that are unhappy
that the Retribution is back early. When High Admiral Valerian gets
here he’s not going to like some of the things we have to tell
them, about what happened to Earth.” Victoria’s eyes bore into the
Admiral’s trying to tell if he’s telling her the truth then moves
to Cassandra’s.

“Aunt Cassie?”

“The Admiral wouldn’t lie to you Victoria, you
know that.” The conviction in her voice humbles him. He’d given her
every cause to doubt him.

“So the kids are wrong? Wait until I tell them.”
Tori starts to slide out of her Aunt’s arms.

“Tori, that’s not such a good idea.”

“Why?”

“Tori,” Cassandra isn’t sure how to explain it
so settles on the truth. “The things that happened to Earth, that
happened to
you
. It’s going to upset people. It will upset
people on the Retribution. The Admiral needs to inform his boss
first and he can’t do that until we get to Carina. So you can’t say
anything.”

“But others are.”

“I know, but it has to be this way. Otherwise
the Admiral really will be in trouble.” William watches Tori
processing it, thinking it through, just like her Aunt.

“Okay, I won’t say anything. I’ll go get ready
for class.” Giving a quick kiss to both of them, she goes into her
room.

Rising William helps Cassandra to her feet.
Tipping her head up, he watches the shutters fall back over her
eyes, shutting him out again. Refusing to let her pull away he
kisses her. He knows he hurt her. That she’s angry with him, but
still, she’d told Tori he wouldn’t lie to her. Pulling her close he
rests his chin on her head.

“We need to talk. Cassandra, I need to talk to
you.”

“Will it change anything?” Cassandra’s voice is
low as she looks towards Victoria’s room.

“I don’t know….I honestly don’t, I did what I
thought was right.”

“For who?” William allows her to ease away, but
won’t release her.