Prime Selection (29 page)

The technicians ran for the exit … all except the Jod brothers. The men whom his Nadia had adopted as her brothers from what he’d heard through the ship’s rumor mill.

Men she liked better than him … loved even.

His next growl shattered the indirect lighting in the lab, throwing the room into darkness only broken by the red emergency lighting in the floor.

One of the Jods called to the Command Deck.

Huw glared. “Go ahead. Call my brothers. I beat their asses into the mats once already today. I can do it again.”

A small squad from Security entered the room, their laser pistols in hand. He wouldn’t get past them without a fight. Good. He needed to bash some heads in. They were keeping him from getting to Nadia.

“Commander, you need to calm down.” Bre cast a narrow-eyed glare at Cas. “My brother’s statement was vague and misleading. Commander Nadia is merely working on the report for Captain Wulf and Captain Melina. I think she plans on having dinner with Captain Nowicki and Commander Ard and then playing some poker with her former shipmates. There is nothing improper going on…”

Huw growled and raised his fists. Bre backed away. “Don’t tell me nothing is going on! You had your hands on my woman. You hurt her. Ard hurt her. No one is allowed to hurt her!” He stalked around the lab, kicking fallen shelves and glassware out of his path.

Diew
, he needed to gain control. But ever since the danger to her on the planet’s surface, his emotions had spiraled out of control, only subsiding somewhat after the beating he’d given his brothers. He needed to see Nadia, smell her sweet scent … touch her. He needed to put his scent on her … mate her!

“Nadia! Nadia! Where are you?”
He screamed at her mentally.
“Nadia … please
come back to me! I need you
.
I’m sorry if I hurt you
, lubha.
Forgive me … please?”

His telepathic shouts were ignored, bouncing off the titanium-strength wall she’d erected in her mind since the attack on the Cejuru docks.

Molten waves of anger surged through his body until he viewed the lab and the people in it through a red haze. He wanted Nadia back on the
Galanti
and he wanted her here … now! If he could see her … talk to her … she’d forgive him. Be with him.

“Commander?” Keeping out of Huw’s reach, Bre spoke. The man looked concerned.

“You need to control the battle rage before someone gets hurt.”

“Don’t tell me what to do—and stay away from my Nadia … she’s mine!” He glared at Bre and the other Jods. “No one will keep me from her. No one!”

He ran at the Security team blocking his way to the hall and the lift that would take him to the shuttle bay. Three stunning blasts hit him midbody. He continued to run toward the men who’d shot him, barreling through them as if they were flimsy pieces of wood.

The hallway was crowded with more Security. He roared the Caradoc battle cry, because this was what it was—a battle to get to his woman. As he rushed the men armed with laser pistols, he was tackled from the side and taken to the floor.

“Huw! Huw!” Wulf’s voice barely touched what was left of his rational mind. “Stop this! We don’t want to hurt you.”

Huw roared and twisted and attempted to throw his older brother off him. A stinging on his ass had him snarling.

“The tranq should calm him soon.” Kerr’s voice.

The damn doctor had drugged him. The anger swirling in him was soon buried under an avalanche of chemically induced ice.

“Huw! What have they done to you? I hurt. I’m cold. Huw?”

His consciousness wavering, Huw couldn’t find the path to answer, to reassure her.

Diew
! He didn’t deserve Nadia. His denial of their connection had allowed his emotions to rule him—resulting in her pain. Now, the release of his jealous rage, his need for her, had also hurt her. He was a lousy mate. He’d hurt the woman he loved most in the universe.

As he sunk deeper into the ice taking over his mind, he cried out in an attempt to connect.
“Nadia! I’m sorry. Forgive me.”

Starship Leonidas, Captain’s Quarters

Nadia jerked as a shard of freezing-cold pain tore through her. She pushed away from the dining table in Royce’s quarters and then hunched over, her arms hugging tightly around her middle with one hand splayed over the knifelike pain centered over her right ovary.

“Nadia!” Aeron leaped up and placed an arm around her waist to prevent her from diving nose-first into her pasta.

His touch, normally uncomfortable, now felt as if iron bristles had been dragged over her nerve endings. With the overload of pain and discomfort, her thick mental walls tumbled down and Huw’s voice, filled with so much anguish her heart hurt, shouted in her head over and over.
“Nadia! I’m sorry. Forgive me.”

“Huw! What have they done to you? I hurt. I’m cold. Huw?”

No answer. Only a thick, dark cloud of Huw’s pain and torment met her mental touch. His pain had become hers. She struggled to stand and will away the referred pain.

She could handle the feelings—for now—but only because Huw’s voice had dimmed and his pain had become buried under an unnatural bank of icy fog. The excruciating sensations were still there, merely camouflaged—an unceasing, knifelike agony scraping away Huw’s sanity, clawing to take him over body and soul.

“Huw? Are you there?”

“Dr-r-rug-g-ged. Sor-r-ry. Hur-r-t you.”

“Hold on,
zaychik
. I’m coming.”

She sensed his immediate relief at her words. He needed her. And, dammit, she needed to be needed. Still didn’t mean she wouldn’t make him court her, though.

“
Dermo
! Shit! I have to go back to the
Galanti
! Something bad has happened to Huw!” Nadia headed toward the exit to Royce’s private quarters. “I’ll finish the report for Wulf and Mel later.”

Royce stepped in front of her, placing a hand on her arm to halt her. “Stop, Nadia.

You’re as white as the Tooh 2 beaches. You’re in no shape to fly a shuttle. Let me check on what’s going on. If there’s a
real
emergency, I’ll have one of my crew take you back.

But if it’s Huw being Huw, why rush? It’s not as if he’s shown you any consideration over the past weeks.”

Fury unlike any she’d ever felt before surged to her forebrain. She thrust away Royce’s arm and got in his face. “He needs me. I can feel his pain. I can hear him screaming my name. He needs me … and I can’t … can’t…”

“Royce,” Aeron spoke as Nadia broke into tears, “it’s their bond. Nadia cannot ignore Huw’s pain any more than he could ignore hers. And while he’s been a stubborn idiot, he has gone to her side every time she has needed his nearness for comfort. Nadia can’t not go … it’s a biological drive.”

“Shit!” Royce rubbed a hand over his face. “This bonding crap is going to upset discipline all to hell and back. We’ve got a couple of techs going through the same thing … and they’ve been inseparable. Hell, the Prime male involved practically killed one of the other men for hitting his woman too hard in training. It took four of us and some heavy-duty drugs to control him.”

Aeron nodded. “A Prime male is very territorial during the bonding dance. He’ll be under more control after he’s assured his mate is his and only his.”

Nadia stared at Royce. “Someone else is experiencing these hellish emotions? I knew Lia and Joen were … but…”

“The docs are watching and running tests on any couple showing signs. They said the mating would be in reverse order of a normal Prime mating or some such shit.” Royce swept a finger over her wet cheek. “You’re crying.” He shook his head. “I’ve never seen you cry in all the years I’ve known you.”

Nadia made an effort to smile, but failed. “I think Huw’s unconscious now. I can sense him, but he isn’t trying to reach me.”

Aeron snorted. “Drugged for sure. Huw’s been out of control since you ran from the giant worm. I spoke to Mel right after we reached the
Leonidas,
and she told me Huw beat the shit out of Wulf and Iolyn when they wouldn’t let him come to the planet’s surface. Mel had a feeling Huw’s emotions would break through to you sooner or later.

She wanted me to keep an eye on you.”

The
beep-beep
of a communication from the
Leonidas
’s command deck came through. Royce put it on speaker. “Nowicki here.”

“Captain, Commander Nadia’s presence is needed stat on the
Galanti
. She’s to report to Sick Bay immediately per the order of Captain Wulf and Dr. Lenke.”

Panic had her checking the connection with Huw. He was unresponsive … but alive.

“I’ll let her know.” Royce clicked off the speaker. “Sounds as if it’s an emergency.

What are you feeling now?” Her old friend looked curious despite his earlier indication he wasn’t dealing well with the Prime mating on his ship.

Walking quickly, just short of a jog, Nadia left Royce’s quarters followed by the two men. “Fine. I’m fine. Just feeling the increased need to be there when Huw comes out from under whatever they gave him.”

“Nadia, be careful,” Aeron warned. “Huw will still be in a rage.”

“Why?” She frowned. “I’m not in danger now.”

“That was most likely only a small part of what set him off.” Aeron waved her and Royce into the lift and then followed them inside. “I suspect this outburst has been building for the whole time he’s denied the connection between you. He sees you working every day, side by side, with other men. You train with them. You eat with them. Joke with them.”

“Fuck me!” Royce said. “He’s jealous and has been building up a head of steam.”

“Yes.” Aeron nodded and his lips thinned. “When Wulf wouldn’t allow him to go to Nadia when she was in danger, Huw lost it. Only Nadia’s presence, her scent, her touch, and the sound of her voice will soothe him. Wulf once told me he wanted to kill everything and anybody who’d initially kept him from Mel. He said it felt like full-blown
batel rabia
all the time—and he could barely keep it under control.”

The three of them exited the lift on the shuttle bay level. The two men kept pace with Nadia’s swift passage through the corridor as they escorted her to the shuttle dock. “So?

Huw wants me because it’s some biological urge … not because he wants me for me?”

Aeron hummed under his breath for a second. “I’d have to say yes and no. Yes, in the physical sense that there is a need to claim you … the bond for a Prime traditionally begins as a neurochemical attraction, and a physical claiming, a scent marking, if you will, cements it. No, in the sense that for a Prime male, a mate is a precious gift from the One. Emotionally and mentally, he needs you to make him complete, to fill a hole in his heart and mind. Once the bonding is complete, a Prime male is loyal and loving to his mate and only his mate.”

Aeron closed his eyes as if in pain. “Every Prime male would give all he is to have such a bond—this is part of the reason why Huw held out so long. He thought he could only have such a mating with a Prime female.”

“Obviously Prime males can bond with other hominid females,” Royce said. “The couple on this ship act like Mel and Wulf did.”

“Lia and Joen were very quiet about their bonding…” Nadia frowned, “…plus there’s something they aren’t telling people. Although both Mel and Lia were quick to tell me things would work out … eventually. That Huw couldn’t deny me for much longer, his instincts wouldn’t allow it.”

Aeron chuckled. “Well, I would say that has happened. Huw is definitely a Prime male in full mating rage.”

“Fucking ass could’ve been dating her like a normal man all this time instead of being a slime creature’s hind end.” Royce snorted. “I remember when Wulf came to Tooh 10 and confronted me and the Admiral about where Mel had gone. The Admiral delivered a message from her to a very irate Wulf.” He paused and scrunched his forehead in thought. “Her message went something like this …
she was not a gift and
that Wulf had to earn her
.”

Royce laughed. “Make Huw sweat a bit, Nadia … make him court you.”

“I was thinking that very thing before this breakdown occurred.” Nadia shot Royce a look. “But first I have to help Huw through this rage. It hurts me as much as it hurts him.

My body, my mind, my heart are crying out to go to him and fix the problem.”

“I agree with Royce on this, Nadia,” Aeron said. “Yes, do what you need to do to ease both yours and Huw’s pain, but then make the
apayebo
court you. The courting stage of a Prime bonding is a much-needed period when the bond weaves itself into the heart and mind of the couple. It is in that phase the couple learns to trust one another to see to their partner’s emotional needs.”

“I think we don’t know exactly what’s going on with the Prime/non-Prime mating,”

Nadia replied. “I’m betting Kerr wants to get some samples before I go to Huw. We need to understand what’s happening since it seems to involve strong biological urges and even stronger emotions.”

Nadia entered a shuttle where a
Leonidas
crew member waited. She turned to look at Royce and Aeron. “We can’t have mating couples losing control in a battle situation. We need to know if the mating couple is fit for duty.”

The shuttle door closed on Royce swearing and Aeron frowning. Obviously, they hadn’t thought about the long-term issue as far as it concerned military needs.

She’d bet Kerr and Lia had—and Mel and Wulf. Because if it was so easy to find a non-Prime mate, a woman who had the mind-body-soul trinity with a Prime male and merely lacked the marking—the Pure Blood faction would be all over this like the plague. Then what had happened to her, Lia, and Joen on the docks of Cejuru Prime would be minor compared to the future attacks against all non-Prime women in the Alliance, military and civilian workers alike.