Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga) (13 page)

“You could be,” he responded, heat in his eyes. Having already offered to allow the women to stay, Hunter decided to lay it all out for her before the meeting. “We have no women here. Ours was a warriors’ transport. We were stranded here and no one has found us in a number of years. We would not be… troubled… if your women were to wish to stay with us and mate. Eventually. Not immediately, of course.” He hastened to add that last part, in case he’d just scared her off.

She gaped at him, tears welling in her eyes. What in the world was wrong with her? She was not normally a watering pot! His brows knit in concern at her sudden distress, though he sensed her frustration at her inability to control the reaction. He had a feeling that she usually managed to hide her emotions much more effectively than she currently was. The thought of her having to develop that skill made him unaccountably sad. Her desire to appear strong in his eyes only made him ache for her even more.

“You do not wish to consider the possibility?” he asked, more deeply disappointed than he was comfortable with. She shook her head, swiping angrily at her tears.

“It’s not that,” she said quietly. “I’m sure that, in time, once they become used to your men and this place, the others will adapt and eventually want to have families.” He waited, sensing that there was more. She sighed, her heart in her gaze as she met his. There was a finality in her eyes that stole his breath, as though their flirtation was ending before it truly began.

“Hunter, I can’t have children.”

CHAPTER SIX

Their leader could not have children?

The tiny woman with the heart of a warrior and the will to stand, broken and in agony, against alien predators and help protect the young of her species until help came? The same one whom he sensed would die defending any of those girls she didn’t even know? He had the feeling that though she might not be able to have children, she would ‘mother’ anyone close to her who wished it, young or old. Her protective, nurturing instinct had called to him, though he hadn’t realized it at the time. Now he did. He should have recognized a like soul.

Hunter paced his quarters in frustration. He had hoped… no, prayed to his gods, that one day his men would be rescued or joined by either their own lost people or visitors with women whose genetics were compatible. Jace had already run the tests necessary, and these ‘humans’ were theoretically compatible. It was simply not fair that the only one that he found attractive was unable to have children! Beyond his surprisingly quick and deep attraction to her, he had harbored a hoped that a mating of the leaders would help solidify a chain of command for both groups, easing their transition from two species into one culture, and then one new species down the road.

The Thorsani colonization directive stressed procreation when possible, that all who were of child-producing age and ability were to find mates and increase the population, if a ship managed to find itself in this sort of situation. Short-lived as it had been, Hunter had truly been looking forward to such a mating with the little woman who claimed not to be their leader and made his body harden in an instant when she did more than smile up at him.

“
Bah
!” he roared, upending the small table in the lounging area, sending the contents flying.

“Problems, big brother?” Jace asked, entering the room and taking in the damage.

“She is barren!”

“Their leader?” Jace asked. “Yes, I noticed a lack of a womb when we did the trauma scan. I did not think much of it. Such things happen sometimes. How do you know about it?”

“She told me.”

“That must have been an interesting conversation,” Jace murmured. “Perhaps she knows that she is lacking a womb? Born without it?”

“I do not know,” Hunter groaned. “But I cannot claim her, and neither can anyone else, if she is unable to reproduce, according to our colonization by-laws. Population growth is paramount in the first generations.”

Jace watched his brother thoughtfully for a moment. He could not remember Hunter ever reacting this badly to the news that a woman could not be his. This young woman, this human, must have really made an impact on the usually easy-going commander.

Not that Jace blamed his brother. She seemed to be strong, capable, and sensible, not to mention a lovely armful of curves and long, gently curling brown hair that he ached to dig his hands into. He wouldn’t have minded considering her for courtship, himself. He had a feeling that when she wasn’t injured, she was lively, bright, and curious, all qualities Jace appreciated in a companion, male or female. It didn’t hurt that her smile made his breath catch and her body made him hard with wanting. If his brother was feeling the same way, they needed to think hard about the colonization directive and what it might mean for them, specifically. Jace’s brow furrowed as he recalled medical tests and trials from their days on Thorsan, before war had sent them out into space.

“I will have to do more tests when she is healthier,” Jace finally decided. “It is possible that her medical technology was unable to fix what is wrong with her, but ours may be advanced enough to do so. If there is a problem I can repair, I will do so. Before we left Thorsan, medical technology was reaching a point where we were experimenting with artificial wombs. Do not lose all hope, brother. Perhaps the pretty leader is not beyond your dreams of a family.””

Hunter swung a hopeful gaze at his brother. “You will be my favorite person on the planet if you could make it so,” he told the younger man fervently. Jace laughed.

“I’m already your favorite person on this planet, brother-mine. But I will still look into it. Not for you, of course, but for myself. The little commander is lovely, and I wouldn’t mind courting her myself.”

He shook his head. “I can make no promises. I do not know what is wrong with her, or whether I can replicate the artificial wombs that we were experimenting with before the war, and I do not have the experiment notes to do so. Please don’t get your hopes up.” Jace sighed then, his face growing serious. “However, we do need to think about the impact this influx of women will have on the colony. Even if they are alien, the men will be itching to start courting, and very soon, especially when they find out that our genetics are compatible enough for mating.”

Hunter nodded, his commander’s brain turning over the possibilities and logistics of it all. They needed to house the women somewhere for now, until new housing could be arranged. Having the women in a place they felt safe was the first priority. He could still feel how scared and confused they were. Most of them were not open to the idea that they were on a different planet, and were laboring under the assumption that they had been hit on the head and were having a nightmare. He wondered at the imagery that accompanied those thoughts… of a whirling vortex of air, debris, a house, and a strange, black-clad woman riding a metal contraption with two wheels. And red, sparkling shoes. Odd.

A few of the women, though, were more accepting, and of those, two were actually excited and eager for the adventure they sensed was at hand. Hunter’s little warrior was one of them. He had to admire the adventurous spirit within her that was able to accept and want to know more immediately, though she was sorely injured at the moment.

If she was this eager, curious, and flirtatious when badly hurt, what was she going to be like once she was healed and able to get around? He had a feeling she was going to be a handful. A very curvy, lovely handful. He fought his body’s surprising reaction to the thought of getting another handful of her lovely curves. Forcing himself to focus on colony business, he returned his attention to his brother.

“Yes. Right. We will have to discuss with the men how we will claim the women, if the women are indeed open to mating at some point. Back home, we had enough women that we were able to claim one woman to a man or two. Not like in the old days, when one woman mated with three or four, a warrior team.”

Jace shook his head with a derisive snort. “We have no need to bolster our race, just our numbers for colonization purposes. And once we get the homing beacon repaired, perhaps not even that. Mating would just be for companionship and physical need.

“But judging from the inhibitions I have seen of these women, team matings might not be acceptable in their society. They seemed affronted that we had seen them naked, even if it was beyond our control and necessary. Several have already complained about the inadequate medical tunics, claim they’re too revealing. I think that we must tread carefully here, until we know what they will allow, what their culture was like, and what their courtship and mating rituals entail. We need to know much more, before we can make any sort of plan. Either way, the women should be involved in that plan from the beginning.”

Jace shrugged, then grinned mischievously. “For the record, I share your interest in their leader. She is the elder of their group, seems to be very intelligent, a Reader from what you have said, and she is by far the most beautiful.”

Hunter nodded, curling his lip. “The others are so… young, and skinny. Except for three of them, who seem to have more meat on their bones, they appear to be far too fragile for our men right now.” He shook his head, which had begun to ache with the problems that he must find solutions to. “I will need to think on this. We will need to call an officer’s meeting in the med center, after dinner. We must deal with this quickly, so that the men understand their boundaries with these females. We cannot scare them off. If they feel threatened, they could get seriously hurt or killed trying to escape us. I won’t have that on my conscience, when just a few ground rules would take care of it. I have already instructed Trey to retrieve the little blond beauty. She seems a good candidate for second-in-command for our little commander.”

Jace nodded in agreement, then slapped his hands on his thighs, stood up, and headed into the kitchen area.

“Supper will be ready shortly. Think no more on this until you have restored your energy. You know your brain works better after a meal.” He narrowed his eyes at his older brother and shot him a teasing sneer. “When it decides to work at all.”

Hunter growled at his brother, moving to go help him with the evening meal. The men bickered, teased, and mocked each other as only true brothers could.

The itching woke her up an hour later from a nap to recover from the brief meeting down in the great hall. Ri’s face screwed up with the sudden discomfort and she made a sound of distress. The medic on duty looked up from the main bank of computers, checking her feedback monitor against her physical appearance. Her heart was racing, though she wasn’t scared or in pain… just itching like crazy. Jax rose, moving toward her while speaking toward the com system.

“Medic Jax to Master Jace,” he said in a professional, clipped voice. He strode over to Arianna’s bed. She stared up at him, her eyes going wide with alarm when she realized that she couldn’t move to scratch at any of the itchy spots. Her heart rate went up a notch, as did her breathing, and she suddenly knew she was having some sort of allergic reaction. Jax’s eyes narrowed and he quickly looked toward the other girls in the ward, who were exhibiting the same symptoms as Ri. Alarms started going off and Jax’s men immediately took their places caring for the other girls.

“Jace here,” Jace’s slightly raspy voice sounded over the com. “Report.”

“Situation here, sir. All of the women in the unit are exhibiting signs of an allergic reaction. Their Commander can’t seem to move, though she appears awake.”

“On my way.” Jace bit out on the other end. The next voice on the com was Hunter’s.

“Priority is the commander, medic. Understood?” he barked.

“Aye, sir.” Jax nodded in addition. Ri was trying very hard to remain calm, but being locked in her own body, unable to move to relieve any of the itching, was driving her crazy. She managed a tiny whimper.

“Medical alarm, code three. I want all trained medics to the great hall, now, to check on the other women.” Jax called out the order as he began injecting Ri with a series of nano-shots. Ri was barely able to move her eyes toward him, watching him as he quickly hooked her up to an IV and began forcing fluids. It hurt, but she couldn’t move or tell him that. As if knew how uncomfortable it would be, he gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Commander, but it has to be done. Do you know of anything that might be causing this?”

Unable to do anything else, she wiggled her eyes side to side, hoping he’d figure out that she was trying to mimic shaking her head. He did and grinned at her for her ingenuity. Ri heard as the other girls’ monitors went crazy, but Jax stayed by her side, taking care of just her. She sensed that other medics had responded to the klaxon calling for assistance, and were now helping the others. Thankful that her companions were being taken care of, Ri relaxed and tried to keep calm as her heartbeat raced and her lungs sped up. When her throat began closing, though, she very nearly panicked.

Hunter sensed her distress when her throat got tight. He was at the door to the medical center by that time and between him and Jace, took over Ri’s care. Jace quickly ordered Jax to take blood samples from each girl, to try to figure out what the hell was going on. He also answered calls from other medics down in the great hall. Other girls were going into anaphylactic shock, as well. Hearing that, Arianna sent a mental blast toward Hunter, hoping he got the message.