Katieran Prime (6 page)

As he was reaching the meal room, the gates of Kitana broke loose. Medics were rushing out of the meal room and heading towards the lifts. Ren almost knocked Dr. Morris over. She was hurrying to get to a lift too. He grabbed one of the younger medics and demanded to know what was going on.

“We are not yet sure Prime Leader. We got a distressed communication from the breeding female from Earth. Her communications went down so we are on our way to …” Ren took off before the medic finished speaking.

Ren was on the second lift with several other medics heading to the 5th floor where most of the human females’ suites were located. Images of Cassie being hurt filled his head, making his aggressive side show. Couldn’t the lift go any faster? He was about to climb the walls before the doors finally opened.

Ren and the other medics ran down the long hallway to get to the suite Cassie was staying in. The main door to the suite was left open and Ren could hear many voices inside the suite speaking at once. At first his attempt to push through the crowd of medics in the hallway was met with resistance. But, he kept on pushing until he got to the door that belonged to a bedroom.

“What in Kitana is happening here?” He demanded. He was frustrated that he couldn’t see anything. There was a group of medics including Dr. Morris, and his younger brother SydEL, who were leaning over someone that was on the floor. His heart stopped as he saw long red hair spread out over the floor surrounding the still form of Cassie.  His Cassie!

He doesn’t remember what he did, though much later, his actions had been recounted to him by the medics present in the room. Ren’s brain went into protection mode. He started shoving medics out of his way. He lifted several of them and just tossed them across the room. The only stream of thought going through his mind was “get to mate …. Protect mate now!”

Medic JadEN ordered the medics to subdue him until security arrived. It took 4 medics and 3 security personnel, which included Commander KydEL, and a tranquilizer to finally remove Ren from the suite.

Cassie woke feeling groggy. She couldn’t lift her head at all but just turned side to side to check out her surroundings. It was almost like Déjà-Vu. “What the hell happened?” She asked out loud.

A tired female voice spoke. “Thank God you’re awake!” It was Jaxon. What was she doing here; she’s supposed to be training. Jaxon used her communicator to call for a medic.

Cassie’s clouded thoughts started to clear. She remembered the pain, and falling on the floor. She reached down to grab her enlarged stomach. “Is my baby okay?” She looked panicked as she gazed into her friend’s concerned brown eyes.

Before Jaxon could answer her, the door slid open to the medic room and Dr. Morris and Medic JadEN came in. They looked at her and sighed with relief.

“You gave us quite a scare.” Dr. Morris said as she came in and greeted both her and Jaxon.

Medic JadEN smiled warmly as he picked up his medical scope and scanned her. “Her vitals are stable and so are both young.” JadEN turned to show Dr. Morris his results.

It took Cassie a moment to realize what JadEN just said. “Wait … both young?” She looked at Jaxon, JadEN, and then Dr. Morris who were all smiling at her.

Jaxon was the one to answer her, “TWINS! My friend when you do something … you really do something to the fullest!” She laughed and hugged Cassie who was shocked and speechless. Twins. Wow.

“Are they okay? I was in a lot of pain earlier. I thought … I thought I might be miscarrying.” Cassie was rubbing her belly with tears in her eyes.

Dr. Morris reassured Cassie, “They are both doing fine. What you experienced is common with pregnancies with multiple babies who share the same placenta. It’s called ATTTS, Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. All the nutrients had been diverted to only one of the babies, leaving the other baby to struggle on her own.

“Normally the nanos would have diverted the nutrients to both babies, but we did not detect the second baby when we implanted you with the nanos. The nanos were programmed for a single baby. The twin that we did not detect early on had come to a critical stage. That’s when you started having the pains.  If you hadn’t called for help when you did, you would have lost one of the babies, possibly both.” Dr. Morris gave her an apologetic smile.

Cassie looked at Medic JadEN who had tears in his eyes. “I am sorry Miss Tomlin. I did not see that you were carrying two young.  I would have reprogrammed the nanos immediately.”

Dr. Morris tried to alleviate the Katieran male, “JadEN, the other baby was smaller and hidden behind the larger baby. Neither of us saw her.”

Cassie looked at JadEN and reached out her hand. He took it as her sign that she forgave him. She had learned a lot about the Katierans, one of which is physical contact such as hand clasping was to express feelings such as comfort, love, or forgiveness.

“So, I am having twin girls huh?” Cassie asked trying to lighten the mood. “Great, now I have to pick out two names instead of one.”

Chapter 5

Ren woke to find himself laid out in a comfortable chair. He ran his hand through his shoulder length black hair trying to recall exactly what had happened.  He remembered being in a room and struggling against some of the medics. Members of the security had been called in. Someone had yelled out for a tranquilizer. Ren felt dazed as he started losing consciousness. He had become out of control.  But why? And then he remembered. Cassie!

He jumped to his feet only to be pushed back down by a strong male hand on his shoulder. He looked up into his brother KydEL’s black eyes. Ren tried again to get up only to have another set of strong male hands grab him from his other side pushing him back down. He glared at his younger brother SydEL. “Let me go!” RendEL demanded.  Both his brothers shook their heads.

Kyd responded with his strong authoritative voice. “No. You stay down until you are in complete control of yourself.”

Ren looked at Kyd and growled. “I am in control! Why are you treating me like this?”

Kyd didn’t answer Ren. They stared each other down. His brother Syd asked him instead, “When did you mate the breeding female?”

He looked at Syd with frustration and confusion showing on his face, “Cassie … Her name is Cassie. And, I never mated her.  I need to see if she is okay.” Ren tried a third time to stand but both brothers pushed him back into his chair. “Let me up damn it!”

Kyd stared him down until he calmed. “Medic JadEN reported to me 10 minutes ago. Cassie is doing fine and so are both of her young.  Our concern is with you right now.”

“Wait … did you say … both young?” Ren felt the color rise in his cheeks, which was rare due to the Katierans' naturally bronzed skin.

Kyd smiled at his brother and decided it was safe to take a seat across from him. “Yes. That was actually the cause of her collapse earlier. When the nanos were implanted, they were programmed to care for only one infant. The medics and Dr. Morris did not see another infant or hear another heartbeat. But, there were two infants. Only one of the young was receiving nutrients by the nanos and the other young struggled to survive.”

“Cassie’s collapse earlier was caused when the smaller infant had gone into distress, causing much pain for Cassie. Medic JadEN said that if Cassie had not called for help when she did, she would have lost one or possibly both young. She could have bled out herself and died.” Kyd reached out a comforting hand and placed it on his brother’s shoulder. “She and both young are recovering in the South Medic Wing.  The nanos have been reprogrammed. She should be ready to go back to her own suite later this evening.”

Ren nodded his head that he understood everything that Kyd said. His voice was shaky with deep emotion, “I want to see her.”

“Not until we discuss what happened.” Kyd stated firmly.

“We just did. I want to see her now!” Ren was getting very impatient with his brothers.

It was Syd that answered in his calm intellectual voice of reason. “Not what happened with Cassie and her young, we need to discuss what happened with you.”

“I don’t understand what you are saying. What about me?” Ren asked Syd.

“You went into protection mode Ren. Like a fully mated Katieran male. You scared the shit out of everyone in the room.” Kyd didn’t gentle his words. It was important that Ren knew the danger he posed.

“But, we’re ... not … mated!” The idea of mating Cassie stuck in his head and would not go away. He didn’t want it to either. He had been denying his attraction to the beautiful female, thinking he was doing it for the good of his people. Things were different now. He could have lost her forever.

“What kind of contact did you have with the female … I mean … Cassie?” Syd asked as he leaned forward to rest his long arms on the tops of his knees.

“Not that much.” He looked at Kyd for confirmation as he relayed his encounters he had with Cassie. “I first met her when Kyd and I had to help defuse the security breach in the interview room on Earth. She collapsed into my arms and I carried her to the temporary Medic Room. I left her there for treatment and went to my suite.”

“Next time I saw her was in the small shuttle we shared taking us from Earth to the transport ship. I did notice both times that her scent appealed to me.” He frowned when his two brothers looked at each other knowingly.  He continued, “I thought, well, I thought I needed to make a match that would benefit the Katieran people, so I tried to keep my distance from her while on the transport ship. I confess to being overly concerned with her well being.”

“Did you have any kind of skin contact other than that first day on Earth?” Syd asked completely fascinated with something.

“No … well … maybe just once, on board the transport ship. It was just a tiny brush of our lips … couldn’t be called a kiss.” No, not a true kiss, but it had affected him more than any kiss or sexual encounter he had ever had. He waited for his brothers to help come up with another explanation.

Kyd knew Ren wasn’t telling them everything, “What about all the late night visits you have made to her suite?”

Ren gave him a surprised look, “Have you been following me?”

“No, but when the Prime is on a floor that is not a Prime floor it does not go unnoticed.” Kyd answered.

Syd sat back with a satisfied look on his face. “A bond mate then. A true bond mate. I haven’t heard of one happening in over 60 years.”

A bond mate. Ren just slumped back into his seat and looked resigned. All this time he had been denying his true bond mate. He felt like a complete and utter idiot. He wondered if it was too late. Would Cassie accept him now?

After Ren had convinced both of his interfering brothers that he was in complete control of himself, he made his way to the South Medic Wing to check on Cassie. He was anxious to test out the bond mate theory. The truth was he had been getting tired of constantly fighting his feelings for Cassie. He felt a relief that he was allowing himself to finally feel what he was feeling. And he was feeling it all for Cassie.

Ren walked through the open door of the medic wing. He heard feminine laughter and then a male’s laughter coming from one of the medic rooms around the corner. The male and female voices were clearly having a conversation and then there was more laughter.  Ren frowned. He knew the female voice but who was the male? And what was he doing with his Cassie?

Cassie laughed at what TarAK just told her. “That did not happen.”

“I swear Cassie, your friend Jaxon is giving the Commander a hard time. When he sees her coming his way, he practically runs in the other direction.” TarAK laughed as he relayed the information to Cassie. He enjoyed her company greatly. He hoped by spending more time with her he might be able to change her mind about mating with him.

Cassie giggled. She couldn’t remember the last time she giggled. “Jax was always the hardest on the guys she liked the most.”

TarAK almost choked on the herbal drink he took a sip of. “Like? You think she likes the Commander?”  TarAK laughed so hard he almost fell off the chair he was sitting in.

Ren walked into the room demanding, “What’s going on here?”

TarAK jumped up spilling the hot substance on him but refused to show any pain. “Prime Leader. I was assigned to be Cassie’s ... Miss Tomlin’s personal guard.”

Ren narrowed his eyes at the male. “By whose authority?”

TarAK straightened his shoulders, “Prime Commander assigned me to this position upon Dr. Morris’s request.”

Cassie was confused over the tension between the two men. “I don’t need a guard.”

Ren turned to look at Cassie and her traitorous body responded to his presence instantly.  Damn it! Cassie needed to get in control.  She managed to say something intelligible, “Prime Leader, it is good to see you again.”

Ren ignored the other male as he stepped all the way into the room and approached the bed Cassie was laying in. She looked a little tired but she had a healthy glow. “Ren … please call me Ren.” Cassie just nodded.

“I heard that your joy has doubled since last we spoke?” Ren asked as he took the seat that TarAK had been sitting in.

Cassie loved the way the Katierans said things. “Yes, twins. I can’t believe it!” Cassie told Ren about her babies and their health. Ren listened intently and asked questions.

TarAK stepped back and leaned against the wall as he watched the interaction between Prime Leader RendEL and Cassie. He had not been aware that the two even knew each other. He noted the intense looks the Prime Leader gave the female and Cassie’s face turned red several times from blushing. There was something more going on between the two. This caused a pain in TarAK’s heart.

Dr. Morris came into the room to check Cassie’s vital signs.

Ren addressed the female medic, “Dr. Morris, why would you request a guard for Cassie?” If Cassie was in danger he wanted to know.

“I don’t need a guard.” Cassie repeated while pouting. It was adorable. Made Ren want to suck on those lips of hers.

“I understand it’s inconvenient for you Cassie, but now that we know you are carrying twins, we need to keep a much closer eye on you. You are at 26 weeks. Most twin pregnancies last 37 weeks. I want to make sure you have someone with you or close by in case you experience any other problems. If you had roommates that I could count on to watch over you, that would be a different story.” Dr. Morris stopped as she noticed Cassie shaking her head at her motioning for her to stop talking.