Prime Imperative (The Prime Chronicles Book 3) (30 page)

Bria wasn’t sure how to feel about her bloodthirsty mate bragging about torturing another living being, then he walked into the light and she moaned with concern. Her mate had several gashes on his gorgeous chest and blood oozing from the cut on his arm.

She tossed her knife to the side and ran to him as he came toward her.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “What were you thinking? I told you to hide in the closet.”

“Dammit! Didn’t I tell you to be careful? To pay attention to your fight and not mine?” Bria slid her hands onto his chest and sighed when she realized the gashes were shallow and hadn’t damaged his marking. The cut on his arm needed more immediate attention. She covered it with her hand and applied pressure to stop the bleeding.

She didn’t get mad at his actions or scolding words, because they came from his deep fear of losing her. But she did need to make something clear once and for all.

“I sounded the alarm and then went to unlock the door. I checked before leaving the bedroom and didn’t see anyone in the outer room. I was careful. I didn’t know about the secret passages until the man entered the room through one. I defended myself until help arrived.” She covered his mouth when he opened it. “And I was about to kill the bastard with a knife to the throat when your father shot him.”

“
Lubha
—” Iolyn began.

“No. This battle-mate deal is a two-way street. I refuse to hide if I can do something to keep you safe.” She grinned. “Plus, before I put two knives in him, I took out his knee with a nice kick Nadia and Mel taught me.”

Iolyn pulled her closer to him and kissed her forehead. “I guess you’ll have to continue attending yoga classes with my sister-kin then.” She smiled as he brushed a kiss over her lips. “When I knew you were in danger…I couldn’t fight hard enough, fast enough to get to you. I was…scared.”

Bria licked his lower lip. “I know the feeling. I had to do something to get you help—fast. I knew my coming out onto the balcony to fight by your side would only be a distraction. So, I did what I could do.”

“You did the right thing. I’m sorry I yelled at you.” He kissed her, a deep kiss with lots of tongue. A kiss of claiming. A kiss of reassurance that both were alive and unharmed.

Ilar got off his com unit and coughed. “Children…”

They broke apart and looked Ilar’s way. Bria’s face burned at the knowing smile her father-in-law aimed at them. “Daughter-kin, you might want to finish caring for your mate’s arm, which is dripping all over his mother’s silk carpets.”

“I got distracted by his chest…” Iolyn laughed. She glared. “…wounds.”

Bria moved away and into the kitchen where she’d seen an emergency medical kit in the pantry. “Sit at the kitchen counter,
gemat
. I’ll clean you up and seal the cuts.”

“Just clean them up,
peata
. They’ll be fine.” Iolyn moved to a stool, and his father joined him. Then he turned toward his father. “What are we going to do about Darga?”

“After his increasingly irrational actions and words at dinner this evening, I took the precaution of having him and his home kept under surveillance. I was afraid he would do something rash, but never thought he’d go this far. I took out two assassins in my bedroom before I came to your suite.” Ilar rubbed a hand over his forehead as if he had a headache. “The surveillance team is bringing him in right now.”

“What about Wulf and Mel…and Huw and Nadia?” Iolyn asked. “Have they been warned?” Bria shivered and moved toward Iolyn, who pulled her into his arms, sharing his strength and warmth.

“I contacted them as I came to your rooms.” Ilar sighed. “They had also been attacked.”

Bria gasped. “No.” Iolyn pulled her even closer into his arms and brushed a kiss over her hair.

Her father-kin turned his heartsick gaze toward her. “They’re all right. The only injuries were to the attackers.”

“Thank the One,” Bria pulled out of Iolyn’s arms and walked behind the kitchen bar counter. She couldn’t comprehend relatives killing relatives.

Pulling out the bottle of scotch, she poured both men a glass, neat, and placed the drinks on the bar within their reach. Then she poured herself one.

“Thank you,
peata
.” Iolyn took a sip and sighed.

His father raised his glass to her in a silent salute and then did the same. It was cute how alike the two men were.

After a nice long drink of her own, she wiped a warm, soapy cloth over Iolyn’s chest wounds. They were all but gone, in less than a few minutes. She frowned. “These were deeper when you entered the room. Does the battle-mate healing work that fast? And how did I do it? I just touched you a minute or so ago.”

“No need to touch. You began healing Iolyn as soon as he received the wounds,” Ilar explained.

“Really? No need to touch. That means it’s all about energy and wavelengths.” She looked at the two men and they both nodded. “Cool. I’ll need to study how that happens on a cellular level. It might be replicable. Maybe I could do a gene-splicing and figure how to add that into other hominid DNA.”

Iolyn almost snorted his scotch up his nose and ended up coughing. His father laughed and slapped him on the back. “Watch it, son.”

“Only my
gemate
would think about trying to genetically engineer healing energy.”

Ilar smiled. “Your
gemate
is brilliant, and I’m betting she could manage it.”

“Premier Caradoc, sir!” A soldier dressed in the uniform of the Prime Military ran into the room and saluted.

“Yes, Sergeant?” Ilar stood, looking regal despite his lack of shoes and shirt.

“Darga Caradoc resisted arrest. He and whoever was in his house began firing on the security detail sent to bring him here.” Noticeably pale, the soldier paused and gulped audibly. “When the tactical unit arrived and breached his front door, the house exploded. Everyone inside the home is dead, sir. The tactical unit suffered some severe injuries, but are all alive.”

Ilar paced and swore under his breath. Then he stopped, pulled himself together, and concentrated on the soldier. “Was Darga confirmed among the dead? There were escape tunnels in his home.”

“He’s dead, sir. He was at a window, shooting at the breaching team when the house blew apart. He was expelled from the window. He had injuries from the explosion and others from his landing on the stone courtyard.” The soldier shook his head. “We checked the tunnels as soon as we could. His family couldn’t have used them. The explosion collapsed them. We have to assume anyone in the house is dead. The forensic teams are on call to begin their search once the hot spots cool.”

Ilar returned to his stool and sat. He looked at Iolyn and then Bria. Then he turned to face the soldier once more. “Sergeant, thank you. You may go off duty. I will visit the crime scene tomorrow to hear the forensics team’s report.”

“Crime scene?” Iolyn asked. “You don’t think Darga set the explosion to avoid being caught and questioned as a traitor?”

“My cousin was a narcissistic, power-hungry son of a bitch. He would no more kill himself than I would.” Ilar shook his head and sighed. “I have no doubt he was a part of the Pure Blood rebellion for his own personal aggrandizement. But I never really saw him as the leader. More of a scapegoat, like Beria and Luka, for the real power behind the fanatics.”

“So, you’re saying Darga wanted power, but wasn’t a true believer?” Bria asked.

“Exactly, daughter-kin.” Ilar patted her hand. “The person running this rebellion has an ulterior motive in spouting the Pure Blood cause. Whatever his reasons, they have their origins in the past. The true believers have been misled and misinformed, are small in number, are fanatically religious, and have been around for a long time. Historically, they have been mostly vocal.”

Bria then knew for certain Ilar
did
suspect a conspiracy to sabotage the Prime birthrate. Opening Prime society to the rest of the galaxy had been his countermove to force the saboteurs out of hiding.

“Ilar, Mel pointed me to some treatises on Prime culture written by her parents. I found them very interesting. So much so that Mel introduced me to your brother Tenar at dinner. He invited me, Mel, and Nadia to tea tomorrow afternoon to share some early writings on battle-mates and also on the rise of the
gemat-gemate
marking. I want to learn the history about battle-mates for selfish reasons. But I need to discover when the
gemat-gemate
markings were first documented in Prime history. I have a theory about the bond as a genetic adaptation. I also want to see the progression of the acceptance of the markings as a cultural protocol and how that evolved into edict.”

Ilar smiled and exchanged a knowing look with Bria. Then he winked at her.

“Go, enjoy yourself. Learn your people’s history from my brother,” Ilar said. “I’ll be interested if you find anything in the historical documents that could help us defang Pure Blood. Tenar has always kept the more precious tomes close to home. Very few have been privileged to view them. You’ll be safe in my brother’s mountain aerie. But please take guards with you anyway.”

“I don’t leave home without guards. My
gemat
doesn’t let me.” She grinned at Iolyn, who grunted his agreement. Then she bit her lip and looked toward Ilar. “Mel didn’t mention a
gemate
or children for Tenar. Did he lose them in the Antarean siege?”

“No, he never marked a woman.” Ilar sighed, the sound so heavy it hurt Bria’s soul. “He did love one. But she was marked by another.”

“That’s so sad.” Bria sensed an odd tension in Ilar and an emotion that felt like regret. She hesitated before she asked, “Who was the woman?”

“My
gemate
…Lorinda.” Bria gasped as Ilar closed his eyes. He looked and sounded so unhappy it made her heart hurt. “After we marked, became bound as a couple, Tenar retreated to his mountain and didn’t speak to either of us until well after Wulf was born. We made up for the sake of our people, to provide a unified family front.”

“That must’ve been very uncomfortable for the family as a whole.”
And Lorinda in particular
, Bria thought.

“It was.” Ilar’s lips thinned. “Tenar is still a healthy, vital male. I pray he finds a mate eventually…marked or unmarked. He needs a family of his own.”

“Please, don’t mention any of this to Uncle Tenar,
peata
,” Iolyn said. “He gets irritable and then withdraws. Wulf used to call it ‘Uncle Tenar’s grumpy mood’ when we were kids. He sort of scared us.”

“Iolyn is exaggerating, Bria.” Ilar grunted. “But it might be best if you don’t let on that you know he loved Iolyn’s mother and lost her to me. You may share the information with Nadia and Mel if my sons haven’t already told them.”

She nodded. “I don’t see any reason why Tenar should realize I know.”

“Well, if anyone has the knowledge you seek or knows where it is written down, my brother knows. He is the Prime Elder Council Historian,” Ilar said. “There has always been a Caradoc in that position.”

And Tenar could very well be one of the Elders who feared change. Bria mentally groaned. She’d have to be careful on how she asked for the information. She wasn’t ready to share any of her theories. She was still placing and rearranging all the pieces of the puzzle she had.

“Tomorrow should prove to be a very educational day.” Bria moved to Iolyn and let him fold her into his arms. “Now, can we go back to bed? Someone tired me out, and I need my sleep.”

Iolyn laughed and threw a look over his shoulder. “If you’ll excuse us, Father, I need to ensure my
peata
gets a good night’s sleep. I’ll see you at breakfast, and we can discuss how we are going to handle the terrorists in the Pure Blood faction.”

Ilar smiled. “I’ll meet you then. I’ll let Wulf and Huw know to join us.”

Chapter 19

The next morning

Alliance Astrobiology Research lab

“Yo, boss lady,” Cheri called out. “I have another consult. She asked for you.”

That was outside the norm. Intake was usually done by her research assistants. Once the questionnaires were filled out and blood drawn, the rotating team doctors—herself included—would do a physical exam and take uterine tissue samples.

Bria was not on the exam rotation today. She looked up from the electron microscope to find Cheri escorting a very attractive Prime woman into the Scope Room.

Since she and her team had arrived a little over a week ago, she’d met a lot of Prime women—some marked with mates, some marked who’d lost mates, and many more unmarked. All of the women wanted one thing—children. So they braved the loud, but non-violent Pure Blood picketers to participate in the research Bria’s team was conducting.

Bria’s profession had never been so rewarding before. Yes, she’d had past triumphs and accolades, but what she did now felt ten times better. She was helping her people survive the possibility of extinction and giving hope to women who’d had none.

“Welcome.” Bria stood and held out her hand. “I’m Dr. Martin-Caradoc. How may I help you?”

The Prime woman was dressed expensively, and her make-up was artful, but also tasteful. This was a woman who took care of herself.

“I wanted to come in and thank you for helping the women of our planet.” She took Bria’s hand and clasped it between hers. “I’m Susa.”

Bria started and pulled her hand from the woman who’d taught Iolyn everything he knew about sex. Inevitably, her thoughts turned toward comparing herself to Susa. The sex surrogate was everything Bria was not.

Iolyn is mine. She can’t have him.

Bria was immediately ashamed of her reaction, even if it was perfectly normal. She and Iolyn were well and truly mated. Susa was no threat to Bria’s relationship with Iolyn. The woman’s emotional aura read as embarrassed, afraid, and concerned.

Embarrassed, she could understand. Afraid? Concerned? About what? Not of Bria, that was for sure. She’d come here and asked for her specifically.

Obviously, Bria’s empathic reading and silence had gone on for too long, because Susa’s lips turned down and her glorious golden eyes dimmed.