Prime Imperative (The Prime Chronicles Book 3) (14 page)

The need to growl swept over Bria. She touched her throat, soothing the tight muscles as the guttural sound fought to get out. As the Prime males' rumbling increased, the noise swallowed all other sound in the room.

Intellectually, Bria had known the physical attraction would be strong between them because of the potent pheromones which had created the mating mark all those years ago. But she’d never realized how much her heart and soul would be involved…until now. Or, that in an instant, she’d fall head over heels in love with her mate.

The urge to rush to his side was strong, but a vicious battle waged within. She had a duty to see to her patients, but her instincts were to stay and defend her mate.

This time, nature beat out nurture and training. She’d stabilized the patients the best she could, and the paramedic would keep the male alive in stasis on the regen bed until she got there. She’d be damned if her
gemat
was hurt, or worse, before she even met him.

Bria pulled her knife from her boot and waited. For what? She didn’t know.

Then she did.

Damon, her
gemat
, and the other Prime male were focused on the Erian and his men. So focused, they might not have felt the other evil in the room—it was a sly, secretive evil wearing the face of an ally.

Bria scanned the room, clearing it section by section. So far she found no one acting hostile, but the feeling was present and growing stronger. She’d stand back and let the men handle the obvious danger, but was poised to act to cover their asses, if need be.

And from what she could see, her
gemat
had a very fine ass.

“Bria, what are you doing? Damon will kill me. All of the Prime look as if they could eat titanium hulls for breakfast. One of those big-ass bastards is your mate, and he’ll kill me, if Damon doesn’t,” Tomas said. “We need to get you out of here.”

“Brianna needs to stay. She has us to protect her.” The tall, blonde woman in the Alliance uniform and another Prime male came to stand by them. Three other Alliance-uniformed soldiers formed a protective perimeter while giving Bria a view of the center of the room where the confrontation was still at the verbal stage.

“The man next to Brianna’s brother is my brother Iolyn Caradoc.” The Prime male told Tomas. “You try to take his
gemate
from this room, he’ll get distracted. That would make this an even bigger clusterfuck than we have now.”

The blonde woman smiled and inclined her head in greeting. “Brianna, I’m Nadia and this”—she indicated the man who’d addressed Tomas—“is my
gemat
Huw. Wulf, the oldest Caradoc brother, is backing up your brother and Iolyn.”

“Brianna, is any of that blood yours?” Huw frowned. “Iolyn will go even more berserk—and he is already as unhinged as I have ever seen him.”

“
Sladkie
, he’s been ready to boil over ever since he knew Brianna was in danger.” Nadia leaned into Huw, who rubbed his chin over her shoulder.

“Not my blood.” Bria turned her gaze away from the obvious love and affection the couple felt and wondered if she and Iolyn would be that way. She hoped so.

She focused on the action in the middle of the room. The other evil in the room was still at the intent stage, and how she knew that, she didn’t know. Her empathic abilities seemed to have increased a hundredfold since Iolyn came into the room.

“Brianna—” Nadia murmured. “Are you okay? You look…lost.”

“Call me Bria. I’m…I’m not sure what I’m feeling. Is the reaction to a
gemat
always this intense at first?”

Who’d be better to ask than another
gemate
who’d gone through similar feelings, right?

“I’m not Prime, obviously, so my road to mating was a little different as I’m sure Lia told you. So, describe
intense
.” Nadia also turned to monitor the situation in the middle of the huge barroom.

“I…I…” she turned her head toward Nadia and waited until the other woman looked away from the preliminaries to the inevitable fight.

The Erian wouldn’t back down. Bria easily read his determination to kill anyone who tried to stop him from kidnapping her. He had plans to make a lot of money on her. And how could she know that? Was she going crazy?

She found an amused understanding in the other woman’s icy blue eyes. “Go on, Bria. We’re all friends here. We’ll understand.”

“I need him. I smell him. I-I-I feel his rage, and his intense, bordering on scary, need to protect me. His growls prick my skin and…and I want to growl, too. Is that part of being a
gemate—
or does the battle-mate allele have something to do with the feelings?”

“You have the allele?” At Bria’s nod, Nadia’s beautiful face glowed. “It’s both. Isn’t it amazing?”

“You’re a battle-mate?” Huw’s voice was filled with shock and happiness. “
Ansu bhau
. We Caradocs are truly blessed.”

“Can you read Iolyn’s thoughts?” Nadia leaned into Bria and whispered, “You should have enough of a sensory impact now to do so. It’s just a higher form of the empathy I sense in you.”

The nearness of Nadia’s body, even the slight wisp of her breath, made Bria cringe away. Her skin had become extremely hypersensitive since she’d scented Iolyn.

“Are you feeling—being drawn to—an outside source of energy? It will feel strong and masculine and comforting,” Nadia said. “It’s Iolyn’s energy, and you’ll be able to draw from it.”

Bria’s brow creased in confusion. “I have my own energy well. Why would I need Iolyn’s?”

Her own power had served her satisfactorily. And with time and training, she imagined she could become a formidable opponent—if she could get past the teachings of her childhood and her profession of doing no harm.

Nadia nodded. “All battle-mates have their own well of energy as warrioresses. But there should be a connection to Iolyn’s. I could connect to Huw’s even before we physically joined for the first time. Visualize it”—Nadia closed her eyes and Bria could feel electricity in the air and knew the woman was connecting to Huw—“as a life-line connecting the two of you. Huw’s and mine is like a faintly glowing rope in my mind’s eye, which grows brighter when our energy wells connect. Seek it now.”

Bria closed her eyes. Seeking deeply within, she found a phantasmal connection that might have been there before, but now glimmered—and it led to Iolyn. His power source was super-bright. It roiled and bubbled, held in only by Iolyn’s stronger will. “I see it. I feel Iolyn’s energy. He’s readying for battle.”

Nadia smiled. “Yes. You can draw on it whenever you need, just as he’ll be able to draw upon your energy when he has need.”

Bria couldn’t imagine the vigorous energy well she’d touched ever being depleted, didn’t want to think about how badly hurt Iolyn would have to be to draw upon hers. The idea of her warrior-
gemat
drained of his animal vitality to the point of death had her ready to scream her outrage to the galaxy.

“Send him a thought—now.” Nadia’s urgent tone brooked no argument. “He heard your voice on the message you sent Lia. He scented you as he entered the room, and, I can tell you from experience, the need to be with you is driving him crazy. But most of all, he needs to know you are safe.”

The tall blonde leaned in closer and murmured in such a low tone Bria knew no one else could overhear. “And save yourself the aggravation and accept the gifts of the bonding sooner, rather than later. Fighting it doesn’t help.”

“Why would I fight the bond?” Bria asked out loud, drawing Huw’s attention. “I’ve waited for the one man who’d make me feel alive all my life. I just don’t want to let him down.”

Growing up on Gliese 581C, she’d known instinctively there was only one man for her in the universe. She’d left home not only to obtain an education, but also in the hopes she’d find the “one.” The men she’d met, dated—and the few she’d had sex with—had left her feeling cold…disappointed.

With one mere breath of Iolyn, her whole body, soul, and heart had come alive. Fight against the bond? Never. She’d grab onto it, fight for it, and never, ever let it go.

“Don’t worry. You can’t disappoint him,” Huw said. “Trust me on that. Iolyn wants you with every breath he takes.”

“Good.” Bria turned to face Iolyn as he, his brother, and Damon stood between her and the danger of the Erian and his men.

Both sides growled and postured. The barroom crowd had moved away, clearing a large space, and then watched in a hushed, hungry-for-a-fight silence.

And then there
IT
was again. The sly evil. The elusive trickster. Its focus was on Iolyn and Wulf. Why didn’t Huw or Nadia sense it?

Bria turned to ask and noticed the attention of Nadia and the others was riveted on the center of the room and the standoff. Nadia and Huw seemed especially attuned to Iolyn and Wulf. There was a mental energy wave flowing among the four that beckoned, but she didn’t know how to attach herself without losing her sense of the other evil in the room.

In her gut, she knew the sneaky evil was more dangerous to the Caradocs and Nadia, than the Erian was to her.

“Nadia!”

The blonde woman turned, noted the look on Bria’s face, and touched her arm. “What is it?”

“Can you feel it?” Bria lifted her head and sniffed the air to see if the danger had a scent. It did. Decayed vegetation and rotten meat. “Smell it?”

“What?” Nadia looked around and took a few deep breaths.

“A crazy, deluded evil.” When Nadia said nothing, Bria continued, “Not the greedy wickedness coming off the Erian and his men. This evil hides and then attacks from behind.”

Nadia closed her eyes. “There’s something. But I can’t get a fix. I’m riding the
batel rabia
wave, and it’s very strong and concentrated on the Erian. Can you show me the danger?”

Bria followed the sensory impressions that kept digging at her brain. This evil was the most foul she’d ever sensed. It sickened her with its fanatical hatred of her mate and his brothers, but she persevered until she found its location.

She opened her eyes. The man—just one, thank the One—was on the periphery of the crowd. He moved among the bar crowd like a shark cutting through the ocean, weaving back and forth, coming ever closer to his targeted prey. Iolyn was his first goal. Then Wulf. Then Huw.

He was an assassin with a rabid focus which promised death.

But why? And why here and now?

Her empathy had its limits. They’d have to ask the man once he was captured.

“The assassin…is coming in from our right, behind Iolyn and the others.”

Nadia murmured something to Huw who drew his weapon and alerted the other Alliance soldiers. Nadia then moved closer to Bria and began to scan the crowd slightly behind Iolyn and Wulf.

Bria could see him more clearly now. He was large, tough-looking like many of the men populating the jump station, and was alone. The assassin lifted his arm. In his hand was a laser pistol. He aimed at Iolyn. There was no time to show Nadia or Huw. Only time to act.

“Iolyn. Down. Now,” Bria screamed.

The urgency in her voice did the trick. Iolyn dove for the ground. Damon, Wulf, and station security, weapons drawn, moved to surround the Erian and his men, who’d been distracted by her scream.

Stopping the assassin was up to Bria.

In the second or two after her shout, Bria ignored heated demands for information from Huw and Nadia and one overwrought male voice inside her head. She kept her eyes on her target. As the assassin switched from the now inaccessible Iolyn to the easier target, Wulf, she stepped forward and threw the knife still clutched in her fingers.

Her aim was true. She hit the assassin in the upper chest as she’d done countless times in throwing contests in the lab. The wound was in his left shoulder. He was down and bleeding, but remained conscious, armed, and still dangerous.

Before anyone could move to contain him, she pulled the laser weapon she’d placed in her waistband and stunned the assassin for good measure. His hand went lax and his pistol fell to the floor. A jump station security guard picked it up and stood guard over the downed man.

Bria closed her eyes as her knees threatened to give way and the room spun around her. Blessed be the One. She’d stopped the man and hadn’t had to kill him. But she could have. Easily. She swallowed hard against the bile threatening to come up her throat.

When she was sure she wouldn’t vomit or fall down, she opened her eyes. It seemed as if every gaze in the room was on her. But she only had eyes for her
gemat,
who looked taken aback. She tore her gaze away from his shocked one and looked at her brother.

Damon was pissed.

Wulf Caradoc saluted her with an approving smile on his handsome face.

And the Erian and his crew looked intrigued and even more interested in her than before. They’d been disarmed and were surrounded by station security.

“Good job, Bria.” Nadia moved to her side. “Where’d you learn to throw knives? We heard you weren’t trained as a fighter.”

“Thanks.” Bria shoved the borrowed laser back in her waistband. “Medical school. Scalpel-throwing champion three years in a row. That hit would’ve garnered me 250 points.”

Nadia grinned. “We’ll have to have a match some time.”

“I’d like that.” Bria smiled and knew she’d made a new friend.

Huw moved to her other side. “Welcome to the family, sister-kin. Would you like another knife?” Bria nodded. “Take mine.” He handed her a finely balanced throwing knife.

Bria took it, moved forward a couple of steps toward the center of the room, and then spoke in a loud and what she hoped was threatening tone, “Anyone else who tries to harm my man or his people will answer to me.”

She was fairly certain the would-be assassin had acted alone, but just in case, wanted to warn anyone else who might be foolish enough to take a shot at the landing party. Then she looked at Iolyn, whose face was emotionless despite his close call. But underneath the calm facade roiled a combustible mix of potent feelings, of which the uppermost was fear—for her.

Bria appreciated the sentiment, since she’d felt an equal amount of fear for his well-being as the assassin had taken aim. If Iolyn hadn’t ducked, if she’d missed her throw, then he and his brother could’ve died.