Emma's Heart (Brides of Theron 3) (31 page)

This was the second time
in his life that Brylon had ever seen Zeb so mad.  Zeb looked like he was ready to hurt someone, and that someone just happened to be standing right in front of him.

Brylon took a deep breath and looked away from the commander
. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Zeb unfolded his arms, and began
to ball his hands into fists. “What do you mean ‘you don’t know’? My wife and Gracie came home scared shitless and worried about Emma because of your action towards one of their own. You had better come up with a good reason and fast.”

Brylon walked around the commander and went to sit on a nearby stool. He rubbed his hands over his face and tried to clear his thoughts before talking to Zeb.
  He knew that of everyone he knew Zeb and Zane could immediately see through his bullshit.

“I have this intense need to keep my mate locked up and aw
ay from everyone and everything,” Brylon said with reluctance.

“Why would you want t
o do that?”

Brylon shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. It wasn’t customary for a warrior to be acting in this manner and it confused him even more so.
  They were mated, and he shouldn’t have anything to be worried about.

“I took Emma to the market the day after we got back. It was such a joy to see her smiling and having a great time exploring the market. I bought he
r everything she wanted. I even got her two more of those damn rewas.” He stopped and looked at Zeb then continued, “We were eating in the food area when she asked me if she could tell me something.”

“What did she say?” Zeb wanted to know.

Taking a deep breath before continuing he said, “She told me of her life on Earth, of how she was raised with no one to love her or take care of her. My heart bled for her as she spoke.”

“All of the women we scouted and took had some kind of sad background. This should
n’t be the reason why you’re behaving so strangely.”

“No, of course
it’s not.  It was what she told me next that has me wanting to go back to Earth and kill someone.” Brylon’s hand balled into a fist and slammed on to the desk.

Zeb sat quiet and didn’t press his frien
d any further. He would tell, without a doubt now, what had been troubling him.

“When Emma was in one of the last homes for unwanted children, the man who was supposed to be a father to her
, tried to rape her. She fought back until his wife walked in on them. Unfortunately, Emma did not escape uninjured. The Earth bastard broke her arm.” He looked at his friend who had been in his life for as long as he could remember. There was not a time in his life when he did not have someone watching his back or vice versa. He couldn’t imagine having to go through life without Zeb and Zane who had always been there for him. She had nobody.

“I see,” was the only thing that Zeb said.

“After we got home, the protective feeling I already had for Emma increased tenfold. I don’t want to lose her Zeb, but it sure seems like I am trying real hard to do just that.”

“Brylon, we have been friends,
actually more like brothers, for a very long time now. I have always told you truth about what I am feeling and the reasons I do what I do. If you do not stop this crazy behavior you are going to surely lose Emma. Protecting her is one thing Brylon, but trying to keep her prisoner is another thing altogether. You can’t keep doing this to her. I almost lost Avery, and I refuse to keep her prisoner in my home, even though there may be a possibility that something will happen to her again.” Zeb pushed away from the wall he was leaning against and began to pace back and forth. “You have no choice at the moment, but to ease up or you will lose her.”

Brylon jumped up off the stool, “I think I already have. She threatened
me this evening to be put back on the auction block. She asked me for a reason on why I was acting like this, and I couldn’t give her a straight answer.” He ran his hand over short hair on top of his head. “I don’t know what I am going to do, Zeb.”

“First
thing you need to do is stop acting like such an asshole. Then you need to take your ass back home and explain to her what you are feeling and why you don’t want her out without you. It’s the only way to fix things. You don’t want to lose something as precious as your mate. It has taken us far too long to find them.” He clasped his friend on the shoulder, “Now go and talk to Emma. I can finish changing that fuse.” Zeb went back to the hole that Brylon had crawled out of earlier, “Just transport down, it will be a lot quicker.”

Brylon went to the transport room and quickly beamed himself down into the bedroom he and Emma shared. By now she would probably be asleep
, but needed to talk this over with her. He would apologize for his recent behavior and tell her how much he loved her. He walked slowly over to the bed where we could see a small lump in the middle. He eased his large frame down onto the bed and reached to pull the blankets off Emma’s head.

“Emma…wake up my love…” he leaned
in, ready to kiss her neck, but instead was met with a mouth full of fur. “What the hell…” he ripped the blanket the rest of the way off of the lump and stared in confusion at Emma’s rewas who had taken over his bed. “Where’s Emma, girls?” It was stupid to be asking the rewas where Emma was, but for the moment it seemed the only logical thing to do.

Nana raised
up her little head and looked at Brylon. She let out a low whimper then settled back down and closed her eyes. Brylon suddenly had a very bad feeling come over him. He ran through the rest of the house checking everywhere for Emma. When he was positive that she wasn’t in the house, he took out his communicator and called for Zeb on the ship.

“Zeb here,”
Zeb’s tone was muffled.

“
She’s not here, Zeb. She’s gone,” he spoke franticly into the communicator.

“What do you mean she’s gone?”

“Just what I said, she’s not here. I have looked everywhere in the house for her. Can you check with Avery, and see if she is over by your house, while I contact Zane?”

“Sure, hang on while I call Avery.”

Brylon put Zeb on hold while he contacted Zane, “Zane, is Emma with Gracie?”

Zane
’s voice crackled through the speaker of the communicator, “No, Gracie and I are up in the infirmary on the mother ship. Why?”

“I can’t fi
nd her. They were together this afternoon, so I was checking to see if Emma had gone to see Gracie after we argued,” Brylon replied to Zane’s question.

“Hold on
. I will check with Gracie to see if she knows where Emma might be.”

Brylon waited
as the doctor checked with his mate. He knew she wasn’t there with Gracie and that she would probably have no idea where Emma had gotten off to, but he still held on.

“Sorry, Brylon, Gracie doesn’t know. She said after you came storming out of the house like a madman
, she and Avery left, and haven’t see Emma since. If you need help looking for Emma, I’ll be happy to help you.”

“That would be great Zane. Meet me in front of my house.” He switched lines automatically in order to get back to Zeb, “Anything?”

“No, Avery was sleeping when I just called. She hasn’t seen Emma since she got home. If you want, I can send down a few men to help look for her, because I cannot leave the ship right now. I can send Ceran and Manko.”

“Thanks Zeb, send them down wi
th Zane. I will keep you posted.” Brylon shut the communicator and stuffed it back into his pocket. He walked outside, looking around the house and into the woods with the hopes of seeing Emma idly sitting somewhere just out of view.

“Emma!” He shouted into the forest. “Emma, where are you?”

His heart sank even further when she didn’t reply. Where could she have gone? He walked further out into the yard towards the stream, just as three figures materialized out of thin air.

Ceran was the first to speak, “Did you find her?” He and the others walked with Brylon to the stream.

“Gracie said something about how when Avery came over this morning to ask Emma to come along with them, she found Emma in the stream.” Zane informed Brylon.

“What would she be doing in the stream?” Manko questioned the doctor.

“Apparently, the rewas had knocked Emma in, and Avery had witnessed the entire event. Gracie said that Avery couldn’t stop laughing.” Zane walked to the edge of the stream and searched its banks for signs of Emma.

Manko jumped the protruding rocks the same way Emma had done a short while earlier. He knelt down on one knee and felt the damp ground before standing back up and turning to the men on the opposite side of the stream, “There are footprints on this side leading off into the forest, small footprints.”

Brylon took the rocks two at a time to get across to where Manko stood. Once across he observed the area that Manko was pointing at. Sure enough small footprints were pressed into the damp mud, and led off into the dark forest.

“
Oh Gods, please tell me she didn’t go in there at night, and all alone.”

Lars steered the fighter out of the Drylon atmosphere and set a course for Theron. They had escaped unseen thanks to the raging wind storm that was actively covering most of the planet at the time of their escape. Neither man could believe that the plan had succeeded, and that they were on their way home, supposedly.

Lars still hadn’t figured out how to get rid of old commander. He certainly wasn’t going to Theron
as he led the man to believe. He had just set the course for the planet so the man would not be alarmed. It was going to take several hours before they even came within viewing distance of Theron so he had some time to figure out what he needed to do to get rid of Zirlo.

“H
ow long does it take these new fighters to travel to Theron?” Zirlo asked.

“It should take us about eight hours to reach Theron, Comman
der.” Lars still needed to play the part of a lost warrior on his way home.

“Do you know if the mother ship has returned to Theron?”

Lars looked at the old commander of Theron. “I know as much as you. The last thing I heard was that it was in route, but had been attacked by the Drylons. I’m not sure if the ship even made it home. I was taken prisoner right after hearing about the attack.”

“
Come to think of it, you never told me how you became of prisoner of the Drylon Emperor.”

Lars’ mind raced for answer that would
satisfy the man and shut him up for a while, “I was out patrolling the outer boundaries of Theron when my ship became disabled. An electrical fire took out all communications and steering of the ship. I drifted for hours while I tried to fix the damn ship, but it was too late by then. The Drylons were also out patrolling when they came across my ship. I couldn’t put up much of a fight in the situation that I was in, so I went willingly with the hopes of being able to escape. Now, here I am.”

“Our
ships do not patrol in pairs any longer?”

Crap, Lars thought, the bastard was going to ask him a dozen questions
. “There are not enough of us to do so anymore. Many of our people died in the war with Gatton, and there aren’t many of us left. That is why we had to scout the universe for compatible mates, remember? The Theron race will never be what it used to be.” Lars laughed inwardly to himself. It was amazing how quickly he could come up with a lie and how the old bugger was believing every word he said.

“What did the Drylons do to Theron?
Was the planet completely destroyed?”

Would the questions ever cease, La
rs sighed, it was going to be a long eight hours, “The first couple years during the war, the Drylons had complete control of Theron. You remember how their attack took us by surprise, and we were nowhere near ready to retaliate. Those of us who survived the initial attack were able to get off the planet, taking as many away as we could. But, it was that first attack that had caused the most damage. Gatton must have been planning his attack for a very long time because he left nothing in the cities standing. He hunted down every female he could find, took them prisoner or killed them in cold blood. Once we were able to regroup and figure out a strategy using the help of our Pernmock allies, we were finally able to launch a counterattack and regain control of Theron.” At least this much he didn’t have to lie about. Everything he told Zirlo was the truth. There was no need to lie about what had happened to Theron. His own father had been killed in the middle of the war, and this is what caused him to start learning more about his mother.

“Have we been able to rebuild
our cities?”

“We have rebuilt
, but not how I bet you are thinking.” Lars grinned.

Zirlo drew in his eyebrows in a confused look, “What do you mean?”

Lars laughed while he took in the commander’s expression. “We live in the forest now.”

“What! The forest of the G
ods, how is that possible?” Zirlo was stunned.

“I am not exactly sure how it all came to be
, but it was your son and two others that lead the way for us to move into the forest. Miraculously the forest has accepted our presence. Our homes are now even in the trees. The Gods, for whatever reason, have allowed us to live in their presence, provided that we take of the forest and don’t destroy it. So far the way we live seems to be working quite well.” Lars was really starting to hope that Zirlo would grow tired of asking questions.