Prime Imperative (The Prime Chronicles Book 3) (11 page)

Borac shook his head and slapped Damon on the back. “Word of advice, old friend. Don’t come between a Prime male and his marked mate. All Prime males are warriors. They connect empathically during times of Prime battle rage. You mess with one, you mess with them all. Not even I would be able to resist the call of
batel rabia
.”

“You’d take me down?”

Borac nodded. “In an instant.”

“Bria’s too gentle to live with a warrior.”

“Oh, Damon…” Borac shook his head and laughed. “…your little sister will rise to her greatest potential with her
gemat
. Living with Terrans, she sublimated her Prime nature. I know you don’t believe in the bond, but listen to me and believe my words—meeting her mate will awaken her latent abilities, and she’ll become one with her man. One perfect loving unit. It is a wondrous thing to see. My parents had that.”

Borac’s sigh sounded sad. His parents had died in the last Antarean onslaught. The one which had sent Bria to Gliese 581C and his family.

“Well, I’ll believe the perfect loving unit crap when I see it.” Changing the subject, Damon said, “I want our Volusian guards on the doors to the employees’ quarters and at the front and back doors to
Hades
. We can shift the non-Volusians to the other areas of the jump station.”

The Volusians were a warrior race and fought fiercely. Damon didn’t know who’d targeted Bria, but he wasn’t taking any chances with her safety. He wanted his fiercest security people on alert while she was on-station. “No days off for any guard until my sister is off-station. All lasers are to be on maximum stun, and everyone carries a battle-blade.”

“I concur.” The large Prime almost vibrated with excitement over the possibility of a fight. Running a jump station and a dive bar and sex entertainment club was fairly tame for a man trained to be a warrior.

“I also need to find out who’s stalking Bria so we can be better prepared.”

“Let me know,” Borac said. “So I can see to rearranging the duty roster and adding more men, if needed.”

“Thanks, old friend.” Damon stood, slapped Borac on the back, and then left the bar to have his “talk” with Bria.

Chapter 8

The next day, Jump Station Charybdis

After what seemed like an endless decontamination process, Iolyn jogged through the connecting tube and then onto the jump station’s main passenger dock.

His battle-ready senses were at their optimal levels and bordering on dangerous as he scanned the crowded dock. Even four strenuous hand-to-hand sessions with his brothers and several other members of the
Galanti
crew during the interminable flight had barely taken the edge off his frustration and fears. He wouldn’t calm down until Brianna was safe in his arms.

His first view of the station did nothing to allay his turbulent emotions. The passenger shuttle docks were old and gritty-looking. The metal walls were corroded and needed a paint job. On some of the surfaces, there were amorphous spots that glowed from some variety of microbe or alien life forms. So much for the decontamination chamber's efficacy. And the air was stale and stank like sweaty socks and rotting meat.

Worse was the drubbing his empathic senses took from the hostile, chaotic atmosphere created by the sentient life forms populating the busy dock platform. Mercenaries, pirates, plus assorted thieves and con men loitered in the open, dimly lit areas, and even darker corners. The one hundred percent male crowd wheeled-and-dealed, fought, and caroused as they waited for their shuttle crafts’ departure times back to their larger ships, which waited their turn to use the erratic jump gate.

Iolyn’s hand itched as it hovered over his laser pistol. Had his sweet Brianna run the gauntlet of the dregs of the galaxy to get to her brother’s bar? Every Prime instinct rebelled at the thought. If she had been so much as touched, harmed, he’d—

Suddenly, the clamor on the docks quieted to the skittering and rustling of the smaller, less deadly males as they fled the danger zone. The remaining badasses focused their less than congenial gazes on him and his fellow shipmates. All it would take to ignite the current combustible aura of fear, hate, and murderous and larcenous intent was one wrong move from either side.

Iolyn pulled his laser pistol. The weapon felt good in his hand. With his other hand, he made sure the sheath for his battle-blade was open for an easy pull. Without turning his head, he spoke to Huw on his left flank. “Keep Nadia close, brother. I don’t like the feel of this place.”

Wulf, on his right flank, mumbled, “Neither do I.
Ansu bhau
. We should have left Nadia with Melina.”

“Wulf. Iolyn. Don’t make me hurt you.” Nadia elbowed Huw out of the way and moved to Iolyn’s side at the end of their assigned docking tube. One hand hovered over her laser pistol, and she had her battle-blade in her other hand. “I can take care of myself.”

Huw grabbed Nadia around the waist and pulled her to his side. “Stay close and behave, she-cat.” Then Huw belied the stern order by brushing a kiss over Nadia’s cheek.

For a single, distracting second, Iolyn envied Huw. He wanted Brianna anchored to his side…now. He snarled with frustration. Sensitive to his emotions, Huw and Wulf echoed the sound, along with the other Prime males in the landing party.

The atmosphere in the dock area heated up another notch as if the surly mob recognized the danger the
Galanti
landing party represented had just escalated.

“Boys, cool it,” Nadia hissed. “We’re here to pick up Brianna, not to start a galactic war on this dump.”

With great difficulty, Iolyn harnessed his erratic emotions and the other Prime males followed suit. The dock area seemed to sigh with relief—or maybe that had been Nadia.

“Can you sense her yet, Iolyn?” Huw murmured.

“No.” Despite the futility of it, Iolyn opened his senses wider, leaving him vulnerable to the odd psychic attack from any alien who had the ability. But there were too many other strong emotions bombarding his psychic sense, and the bond connection he shared with Brianna at this point was one-sided: he’d heard her, but she hadn’t heard or sensed him in any way.

Iolyn needed Brianna’s scent, her intimate touch, in order to develop the more solid emotional link which connected all
gemat-gemate
couples. He’d have the full sensory contact soon, and then he’d always know when she was near and how she felt.

“Wulf…” Iolyn turned his head slightly toward his brother. “This place—”

“Yes. Not at all safe. I’ve set the guards for the shuttle.” Wulf’s face was grim and his gaze alert. “Once we’ve found Brianna, we’ll signal the men guarding the shuttle and have them get the craft ready for quick departure. I don’t want to remain here any longer than is necessary.”

Wulf swept the landing party with a piercing look. “Highest stun on all lasers. Battle-blades close to hand. There are too many damn criminals here for my tastes.”

“Mel needs to know. The ships in the jump gate holding pattern might be a danger to the
Galanti
,” Huw said. “I see several groups of what look like Rim pirates.”

Most pirates had no allies, only enemies and prey. The Rim pirates or RimPz as they were called, were different and operated in what they called family groups. Family being a loose term, mostly defined by sharing common criminal objectives. RimPz tended to prey on the less-populated solar systems in the outer rims of the galaxy. Iolyn and his brothers had fought the RimPz to protect Prime territory long before the Prime had joined the Galactic Alliance.

“Mel already knows,” Wulf said, his voice low. “We studied the ships on long-range sensors before we dropped into orbit. I recognized the markings on some of the ships. There are two RimPz families represented and several known mercenary groups. She’s already alerted the Alliance Security Forces for this region and the Alliance Command. I updated her mentally on the interior situation as soon as we cleared the end of the tube.”

“Heads up, team,” Wulf said. “A Code 99 will bring all
Galanti
weapons to battle alert. Mel will then send several security teams to this station to extract us. Don’t use the code unless it’s truly a life-or-death situation.”

Nice to know his brother wasn’t taking the jump station’s bad reputation lightly. But no matter what happened, Iolyn wasn’t leaving without Brianna. He shuddered to think of her in the hands of any of the men on this dock. Every single one he’d seen so far would rape her first and sell her into slavery afterward. Women were a rare commodity in the rim worlds.

Huw grunted, drawing Iolyn away from his dark thoughts. He noted the threatening look Huw gave a scraggly Terran wearing a RimPz patch. The man had stared at Nadia a tad too long and lustily for his brother’s peace of mind.

“I think a mostly Prime landing party can handle this bunch.” Huw’s voice was loud and echoed off the metal walls on the mostly silent dock.

Iolyn snorted at his brother’s bravado. But he, too, sensed the lust in the crowd aimed at his six-foot-plus, blonde sister-kin. She was a prize worthy of taking on a Prime landing party. His lips twisted in a wry grin. He’d seen Nadia fight. The man or men who tried to capture her would soon rue the mistake. Of course, first, they’d have to get past the men in the landing party.

As they made their way onto the platform, the crowd lingering at the end of their docking tube parted—not for them, but for someone else.

Wulf growled and every man plus Nadia went on alert, pistols raised.

Two very tall males walked through the crowd as if they were the kings of all they surveyed. One was a Prime, which in and of itself was highly unusual. Not many Prime voluntarily lived outside the Cejuru solar system.

The other man was Terran, and tall was an inadequate term to describe him. He towered over any of the Prime in the landing party and was extremely broad in the shoulders. His body tapered down to muscled hips and legs that looked as if they’d hold up a shuttlecraft all by themselves. His long blond hair and sharply sculpted face covered in a darker beard scruff gave him an edgy, dangerous look. The expression on his face and in his piercing blue eyes said he didn’t want them here.

This had to be Brianna’s brother, Damon Martin. Iolyn hated him on sight.

The Prime male stepped forward and bowed his head in the traditional manner. He offered his arm for a traditional warrior’s greeting, which Wulf accepted with a bow of his head.

“Welcome, brothers,” he said in Prime, then switched to Galactic Standard. “I am Borac, co-owner of this station. My friend,” he waved the Terran forward, “is Damon Martin, my partner, and the adoptive brother of Dr. Brianna Martin.” He scanned the landing party casually as the man at his side frowned and did the same. “Were you able to bring Bria’s
gemat
with you? She is anxious to meet him.”

Iolyn read Borac as truly happy to see them and his statement about Brianna rang true. But Brianna’s brother was angry and—
ansu bhau
—jealous.

“I’m Brianna’s
gemat
.” Iolyn stepped forward and inclined his head.

“And your name…” Borac asked, one dark brow raised, as he looked Iolyn over from head to toe and back, “…Lt. Commander?”

“Iolyn Caradoc, son of Premier Ilar Caradoc.” Iolyn was pleased to see the shock on both men’s faces. “Where is Brianna? Is she well? We came as soon as we heard she was in danger.”

“Bria’s in the employees’ quarters. She’s safe.” Damon’s voice was low and harsh and just this side of rude. His posture was stiff, but underneath the outward calm, his core was hot and churning with turmoil—and, if Iolyn were reading him correctly, hurt. “I’ll take you to her.”

Damon turned to lead them away from the docks and the interested onlookers. Once they were out of earshot of the crowd, Brianna’s brother stopped and turned to face them.

“Bria only leaves this station once I’m satisfied she’ll be safe with you.” His voice was filled with an icy-hot threat.

“Damon. We’ve already had this discussion.” Borac’s tone was admonishing. He turned to address Iolyn. “Bria is looking forward to meeting you and going to Cejuru Prime. She has told both myself and Damon that.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t approved any of this yet,” snarled Damon. “And I don’t fucking care if he’s your people’s version of fucking royalty. He could still be a fucking abusive bastard.”

Damon scowled at his partner, glared at Iolyn, and then turned his back on all of them and stalked away.

Iolyn clenched his fists. A more primitive part of him wanted to chase the bastard down and gut him on the spot. It was obvious Damon had attempted to convince his sister to stay away from her
gemat
.

Huw must have read Iolyn’s fury because his brother laid a hand on Iolyn’s arm and muttered, “Calm down, brother. You don’t want to meet your
gemate
with the blood of her brother on your hands.”

Yes, he did. No man comes between a Prime male and his mate. None, not even a much-loved brother.

“Mr. Martin…” Nadia spoke loudly and clearly as they followed Damon and Borac. “I am Nadia, Huw Caradoc’s
gemate.
You need to understand that once a Prime male is mated, they’re over-protective and loving in the extreme. Brianna will be in safe hands with Iolyn.”

Borac shot her an approving glance. “I know this, Commander Nadia, and have told the thick-headed mule that many times in the last standard day.” A speculative gleam glimmered in his golden eyes. “But how can you be termed a
gemate
? You are Terran. I have a Terran mate, but she is not a
gemate
.”

“Nadia carries Prime DNA in her blood, a result of our planet’s imperialist era,” Huw answered. “We now have many Prime male/non-Prime female mate bonds among our crew. This is, after all, why the Prime joined the Alliance—to find mates and save our race from totally dying out.”

Borac hummed his approval. “I applaud our Elder Council’s decision. I left the home planet to seek my lost
gemate
. Instead, I found Cissy and am very happy. We have been blessed with one child and another is on the way. Do you think I would be allowed home now in order to take my family to visit my relatives?”