Cecilia's Mate (2 page)

Chapter
Two

Slowly
rubbing a thumb to the scar that rode his jawline from left ear to midway along
the right side, Draven watched Bracken and his wife, Sadie. The two were deep
in discussion. One that his colonel didn’t appear to be enjoying. Sharing a
look with one of the lieutenants sitting nearby, he almost snorted when the
younger man rolled his eyes.

Pretty
much how he was feeling about the situation. Not that he was about to stick his
nose in between those two. He liked Sadie. She was good for Bracken. For a long
time he’d worried for his colleague and friend. Bracken had been so angry for
much too long. But the moment Sadie had come back into his life he’d begun to
calm. He still had a quick temper on him but he didn’t stay angry for very
long. His wife wouldn’t let him.

Finally
the two of them seemed to get on the same wavelength and Bracken waved him
over. Shooting Sadie a wink, he faced the colonel. “So she talked you into
whatever she wanted you to do, I take it.”

“Shut
up, Draven,” Bracken muttered.

He
was taking that as a yes given Sadie’s satisfied smirk. “Yes, sir. Now, what
else needs to be moved? And remember I need to be back on the ship in six hours
to accept the delivery of supplies we have coming in.”

“I
know,” he said with a nod. He waved to the remaining boxes in view in the
storage room. “She has a few furniture pieces in the other unit but we’ll worry
about that later. We definitely don’t have time to wrestle them out of here
before we leave.”

Draven
nodded, then signaled a couple of the others over to help him with the last of
the boxes. Moving to one, Draven picked it up and took it out to the rental
conveyance they had outside the storage bins. He set his box down, turned to
take another, and set it in place.

Once
it was loaded up he moved to the control panel and programmed in the address of
Sadie’s ancestral home. When it acknowledged the address, he set the conveyance
off with its instructions. Turning, he headed back to where the others waited.
They’d be going to meet the rental soon enough.

*
* * *

He
glared at Sadie when she handed him another box with directions on where it
needed to go. “You know you’re damn lucky I like you, right?”

She
smiled at him, then pointed in the direction he was supposed to go.

Damn
woman was a bossy little thing. Shaking his head, he took the box up to the
room the couple had decided would be used for storage until Sadie could go
through everything she’d brought over. He set it down but stalled on his way
back down to the main level. He needed to get out of there and back to port.

If
he went down there again, Sadie would task him with something else. Which would
delay his departure greatly, and Bracken had given strict orders on who needed
to be on the destroyer when they had anything brought on board.

When
Sadie moved into another room, Draven slipped down the stairs and sidled up
next to Bracken. “Colonel, I have to leave. I’ll be cutting it close in getting
back to the port as is.”

“Go,
I’ll handle my wife,” Bracken told him.

“Yeah,
good luck with that.” Grinning, he headed for the front door. Once he was
outside he checked his timepiece and walked down the path to the front street
and cursed. He would be cutting it way too close.

Draven
had dug out his communications piece and was about to put it in place in his
ear, when a blur came around the bend and slammed into him. He dropped the
piece and caught the tiny frame. The sound of his name in her breathy tone had
him tightening his hold on her arms. “By the stars, Cecilia.” He’d have said
more but the panicked look in her eyes stalled him out.

“What’s
wrong?” he asked softly, automatically pulling her in closer to his body.

*
* * *

“Draven.”
She said his name once more. Her hands squeezed his arms and when he pulled her
closer to his body protectively she all but melted into his embrace. “So many
things are wrong.” She choked on the sob that was working its way out of her
body. “Please tell me that Bracken is here?” she begged, but instead of pulling
away she clung tighter. Here he was, her rock. The man that had been meant for
her since she was born and he was holding her instead of pushing her away as he
typically did. “Please, don’t let go.” Ever. She didn’t know how she had
survived all of this time without him and she knew that when he let her go she
was going to fall apart again. He towered over her, his muscular arms holding
her tightly. His eyes seemed to look into her very soul. He was deeply tanned
and had only the slightest hint of blue color to his skin. His hair was of
course military short but it begged her to run her fingers through it. His shoulders
were wide and meant to carry the burdens. She could see the tiny lines at the
corners of his eyes from the stress of the position that he held. He also had a
scar that was on his jawline but to her it only made him more appealing. He was
her haven. But it was a no-win situation and she knew it. Pressing her cheek to
his chest, she listened to the cadence of his heart, inhaled the scent that was
all Draven and would always calm her, and prayed to anyone that would listen
that maybe, just maybe, this time he would keep her instead of pushing her
away.

“Your
brother’s inside with Sadie,” he told her, the rumble of his deep voice a
comforting sound under her ear. “I’m sorry, Cecilia, but I have to get to the
port or we’ll be leaving without half our supplies. Let me get you inside and
then I’ll head out.” She felt him stroking her hair gently, slowly.

“Thank
you.” He was running from her. Her heart felt as if it were crumbling inside of
her body. Embarrassed by her assumptions, she felt her cheeks heat. “Thank you,
Draven, and I’m sorry I got you all wet.” She began to brush off his jacket
where she had cried. “I can get in on my own, I promise,” she told him and took
a step back. “I appreciate your time. I really do.” She wanted to touch him
again. She wanted to have him go in with her, but she knew he had things to do.
He always had things to do. Everyone always had something to do and seemed to
run from her as fast as they possibly could. She was simply not worth sticking
around for and she knew that now. It was painfully clear.

Reaching
up, he gently rubbed a thumb under her eye. He looked back toward the house,
then down at her with a frown. “If you go in there you’ll be put to work. Come
with me to accept the shipment. When it’s on board we’ll come back here so you
can talk to Bracken. But you really need to calm down or he’ll go insane and
try to figure out who he needs to kill.”

“It’s
nothing he hasn’t seen with me before. Remember, to him I’m just a child in
need of placating.” She hated that they all saw her like that, but such was
life. “I have to give him something.” Then she needed to disappear. Period. She
couldn’t bring this trouble to her brother, not with his new marriage and all.

“You
can give it to him later. Come on, you can hang out on the ship for a little
while and then we’ll come back. We could even stop at that sweet shop you like
and get something to make you smile again.”

Oh
God, she couldn’t. Her family would find her by then, and Draven would be in
trouble. She was so torn. She wanted to go with him. She needed to go with him,
but would it cause him harm if she did? “You have no idea how much I want to go
with you.” She tugged at her dress just a bit so that he wouldn’t see the top
part of his name tattooed across her breast. The dress she wore was little more
than straps across her body, with flesh-toned mesh holding them all together.
It was considered today’s
height of
fashion
but Cece hated it.

“Talk
to me, Cecilia. What’s got you fidgeting like this? Something is clearly wrong,
little one.” He caught one of her hands to still it and sandwiched it between
both of his. “Tell me what’s going on,” he said softly.

Cece
looked up at him, and an open and caring look on his face was her downfall.
Before she even realized it, she began to spill her secrets. “I have a video
diary that Bracken needs to see,” was how she started. “But more than that,
they’ve sold me into marriage.” She bowed her head, her tears once more falling
freely. “I didn’t even get to experience life and I’m being sold off so that my
sister can have her husband and her lover both.”

“The
hell you say!” He used his hold to tug her back into his arms, pulling her up
close to him. She could smell his scent winding around her fragile soul and
leaned into the heat of the man. She wrapped her arms around him and felt the
corded muscles at his back bunching and releasing in tension. “That is not
going to happen, Cecilia. Not now, not ever. By the stars, I can’t believe they
are sinking so damn low.” He rocked her in his arms. His hand smoothed her
hair, his touch easing the tension from her neck as he did so. “Here’s what
we’re going to do. You’re going to give Bracken the diary, and then you are
coming to the ship with me. They can’t come on board, which means they can’t
get anywhere near you. They’d need Bracken’s permission and you damn well know
he’d never give it.”

“She’s
already had my father sign the contracts.” As a Craegin female of a fairly
well-to-do family, Cece had no choice. Her guardian had already sold her off.
Her hands were tied. “I want to come with you. You will never understand just
how much that I want to go with you, but I can’t.” It would hurt him and he was
the one and only being in the universe she would never harm. She loved him too
much to hurt him.

“It
damn well does matter, Cecilia.” He stepped back to glare at her. Taking her
hand in his, he tugged her up to the house and inside. He held up a hand when
Bracken opened his mouth. “Save it. We have a situation that I’m more than a
little pissed about. Give him the diary, and tell him what you just told me,
little one.”

Cece
handed over the memory stick, which held all of the information Bracken needed,
and took a deep breath. “Mother has sold me off into marriage. Evidently I’m
being married off to hers and Catherine’s lover, and Catherine is being married
off to our father’s lover.” She felt the heat rising higher in her cheeks.
“He’s already signed the contracts.” She was in tears and an absolute mess. She
was also ashamed by what she had just said, but it was the truth nonetheless.

“By
the stars,” Bracken muttered. He took the stick from her and shook his head.
“Father has no say over what you do or don’t do. The marshal has suspended his
guardianship of you since I petitioned for it. He can’t do shit, Cecilia. But
you can’t stay here. It will be the first place they look. The last thing I
want is for those idiots to get it into their minds to kidnap you and put you
into a position that you would be trapped in. Sadie has me with her every
moment of the day but you would have far too much time alone where they could
possibly strike.”

“The
ship,” Draven said. “They can’t come into the port, let alone onto the
destroyer, without your permission. And even if they did I can make sure they
never find her. We both know that ship better than any other. There are dozens
of places they’d never find because they don’t exist on the official
blueprints.” When Cece looked at Draven the typically calm man was fisting his
hands, his jaw locked in anger and his eyes flashing in his upset. She couldn’t
figure out why he was so upset. If he were as taken with her as she was with
him, then she could understand it, but what he was doing now made no sense.

Bracken
looked to her, then Draven, then back to her, with a suspicious look on his
face. “Cecilia, he is right, but it’s up to you.”

“Gladly.
I trust him.” She didn’t trust a lot of people, but she did Draven. Not just
because he was her bond mate, but because he was a good man. “But it will cause
him trouble in the end, won’t it? If he’s caught hiding me? I can’t do anything
to hurt him, Bracken. You have to understand.”

“He
won’t be caught, and if he is you let me worry about that. But you listen to
him, little sister. If he tells you to hide somewhere, you do it. He is right
about knowing places on the destroyer that don’t officially exist.” Bracken
stepped forward and wrapped her up in his arms. “I love you, Cecilia. I will do
everything in my power to keep you safe. You will not be marrying anyone you do
not choose for yourself, I swear it.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her
cheek, giving her another gentle squeeze. When he pulled back there was
something in his eyes that she couldn’t quite decipher.

“I’ll
do whatever he tells me, promise.” Cece kissed Bracken’s cheek. Pulling back,
she grabbed her pack and nodded. “Okay, I’m ready.” She frowned. “Shoot.
Bracken, is there any way you can get my clothing sent out? I didn’t shove any
in my pack. I only brought what was important.” Her sketch pads, pencils, and
her personal diaries.

“I’ll
have Sadie talk with her seamstress and get a few things organized. We’ll pick
them up, then send them to the ship with one of the others.” He brushed his
fingers to her cheek. “I won’t let them cause you any harm, Cecilia. I swear
it. Now go before someone thinks to come looking for you here. Better you were
never here, than to be found here now.” The look on her brother’s face was one
of deep fear, for her. She had never seen Bracken show that look to anyone
except when it dealt with Sadie. Impulsively she hugged her brother back,
knowing in that moment more than ever before that he really did love her.