Freedom (Delroi Prophecy) (11 page)

“
Don’t wait, Roarr,” she said, her voice husky with the intense arousal still zinging through her. “Don’t stop.”

His first few strokes were slow, experimental, testing her readiness. He’d been careful of that every time they’d been together, despite the fact he could easily read her desires with his empathic abilities. It was impossible not to be moved by his care and concern. Once he was satisfied his thrusts changed. They were hard and fast, almost frenzied. He held her gaze while he fucked her. He’d finally shielded his mind. She couldn’t feel his emotions, but she saw so much in his gaze.

She was tempted to close her eyes and turn her head, anything to continue to hide from what was building between them. That something, that bond, scared the hell out of her and it was only seeing her fear reflected in his eyes that gave her the power to face it. She wasn’t ready for it, but a long neglected and repressed part of her seemed to come alive. Cautious perhaps, but curious too. Yearning. The unspoken admission strengthened the developing mental bond. She couldn’t stop it, knew when his eyes widened he felt it too.

“
What did you do?” he whispered.

She bit her lip and shook her head. She wasn’t entirely sure and didn’t dare try to explain, to reason it out while her body felt like a livewire ready to burst into flames at any moment. He didn’t question her further, thankfully. He thrust harder, faster, his hand sliding between their bodies so he could rub his thumb over her clit. That first firm touch was all it took to make her fly apart.

A long time later, she managed to knit her mind back together. She was held in strong arms. She was warm. She felt sheltered and that wasn’t as scary as it was a week ago. He pressed a kiss to her nape, humming, and murmured, “good”. But it wasn’t enough. She was in a new world and she knew so little about it. Her natural curiosity kicked in. Some people would have said nosiness, but who cared what they thought? She rolled over in his arms.

“
What happened to you today?”

He looked down at her with possessive hooded eyes and she felt a surge of fierce protectiveness. She knew her dreams of freedom would be a thing of the past if he got his way. She also sensed his reluctance to tell her what had kept him away.

“A group of rebels attacked the temple in my embassy compound.”

His fury was back. And something more. Fear for her. She lifted a hand to smooth over his brow.
“Why does that make you so worried about me?”

He took a deep breath and his emotions no longer battered her shields.
“There are two open goddess temples on Delroi. Both are associated with my clan, but they are only open to women. For a warrior to enter one is sacrilege.”

“
What does that have to do with me?” She’d heard rumors of rebellion among the Delroi before Tel captured her, but she’d hoped she’d left the madness behind on Earth.

“
Britt was able to get information from one before he died.” Kareena shuddered at the tone in his voice, bleak and dark. Somehow deeper and more primal than simple fury. She didn’t want to know what Britt had had to do to get the info.

“
And?” she asked when he didn’t go on.

“
They were looking for you and your friends.”

She stared at him. Speechless. Aghast.
“Tel,” she whispered.

“
No.” He shook his head with a fierce denial. “They were all Delroi. Rebels. We’ve identified most of them.”

“
Why come after us? How did they even know about us?”

“
Could be a number of things,” he said, eyes wary. “The rebel faction’s main complaint has always been an opposition to Torfa rule. That doesn’t get them any traction on most of Delroi, however. So they’ve added the invasion of Earth to their list of complaints. More specifically access to Earth’s women. They think Daggar is limiting it to strangle the rebels.”

She supposed that made sense, but damn it was weird. She still had a hard time wrapping her head around the reason for the invasion, but she sensed more. Emotions and thoughts he was keeping tight control of.

“You said a number of reasons,” she prompted.

“
My clan is the last one on Delroi where the goddess cult still exists,” he said with a tone of voice that suggested he knew that would get her attention. Of course it would. She followed a goddess focused path back home. But cult? He didn’t continue. Fine. She’d play.

“
And what is this goddess cult?”

He lay down, crossed his arms under his head, and grinned at her.
“Maybe I should wait and let my mother explain.”

“
Maybe you’ll get your ass kicked before you get the chance,” she said sweetly.

That just made his grin widen and he chuckled.
“You’ll fit right in with them.”

“
Roarr,” she practically growled. Couldn’t she get a straight answer for once?

“
Fine. We have three castes on Delroi.” She knew that. Warrior, healer, artist. She nodded.

“
And we have three corresponding gods,” he continued. “But there was a time, centuries ago, that a goddess was also worshipped on Delroi. It fell out of practice. People started to believe she’d forsaken us. There’s a prophecy for her return, of course.” He waved her off before she could ask about it. “I’ll leave that to them to tell.”

“
You know people in this cult?”

“
Of course. My mother is the high priestess.”

She’d landed in the twilight zone.
“Your mom is in a cult?”

He shrugged.
“That’s what we call it, but it’s more like a very small and mostly ignored religion.”

Um. Right. Of course, he knew how uncomfortable and suspicious the word cult made her, and he laughed again.

“You’ll like them, baby. Trust me. And gods help me,” he said. “These are the only Delroi women who train to be warriors. They’ll love you.”

His unspoken anticipation and admiration heartened her but it also made her nervous. Since when did she seek approval from a man’s family? It had never been important before and she wasn’t ready to confront why it was now. Besides, what if they didn’t like her? He pulled her down so she lay flat against him and kissed her softly, tenderly.

“It doesn’t matter, Kareena,” he whispered. “It won’t change anything between us.”

Of course it did. She felt his love and devotion of his mother. She was much too uncomfortable with the conversational shift so she got them back on track.
“What does that have to do with me being a rebel target?”

Damn, it was like being back on Earth except there Tel wanted her.

“The prophecy says the goddess will return to Delroi when three other worlders become one of us.”

“
There are already women from Earth here.”

“
Yes.” His response was grim, edgy. “But none will call the Keep home.”

“
Are we going there then? I won’t be locked in all day again. You said we’re not prisoners.”

“
You aren’t, baby. I ordered the house locked because my embassy was attacked. Any woman under my protection, especially my
der’lan
, would make a damned attractive target to them. Turns out you were the target. I won’t take a risk with your life.”

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d allowed someone to take care of her. Her knee jerk reaction was she could take care of herself, but she forced it back. She didn’t know who she was defending against on Delroi and he was convinced she belonged to him. Seen in that light, she understood his over protectiveness. But it made her really uncomfortable.

“You could make it known I’m not your mate.”

He snorted.
“Not likely.”

Damn it. He was mule stubborn, and for some reason he’d convinced himself that they were soul mates or some crap. Too bad his vision of this perfect relationship required her to give up her freedom forever. She sensed he was withholding something else from her but didn’t push. She’d ask him later.

“You didn’t answer me. Are we staying here?”

“
No. Barak will call me back if he needs to and I have my own people increasing our presence at the embassy compound.”

“
Okay.” She didn’t like the silence that stretched and searched for something to talk about. “You have a sister too?”

“
Hmm.” He leaned down to kiss the freckles across her chest.

She punched his shoulder, not that he noticed her attempt at focusing his attention.
“You can’t tell me something like that and wimp out.”

“
Wimp out?” His gaze was dark and dangerous. His voice almost a purr. It took all her self-control not to moan at what her instincts translated as a sensual threat.

“
What would you call it? You start to actually tell me something personal and then you shut up. Why?”

He rolled onto his back, and pulling the sheet with her, she sat up cross legged next to him.
“You were trying to keep things impersonal,” he reminded her.

She rolled her eyes.
“Well, I’m not now. I’m new here. I need to know what I’m getting into.”

They both knew she was talking about more than being a new emigrant to Delroi. He took her hand and laced their fingers together, staring up into her eyes.

“You’ll meet her tomorrow. When we go home.”

“
All three of us,” she said, wanting to be clear they wouldn’t be separated.

He smiled.
“The whole household will go.”

She cocked an eyebrow.
“There’s a household? Not that I saw.”

“
Gods, not you too.”

“
What?”

“
Britt thinks there needs to be full time staff here and a lot more of it.”

“
She’s right.”

“
Wonderful. My own
der’lan
is joining in,” he said, but it didn’t sound like a complaint. She frowned, ignoring the mate business, and skipped to an easier subject.

“
It was a beautiful house once. What happened?”

“
It can be again,” he said with a searching look. She wasn’t touching that. Not yet. She couldn’t believe she was even considering it.

“
What happened?” she asked again, making her voice firm.

“
My mother hates Saber City. She refuses to leave home.” He smiled. “Maybe you’ll understand when you see it.”

His assurance made her suspicious.

“Why?”

He shrugged.
“It’s a majestic place. Built on the top of a cliff, overlooking the sea, and on a natural oasis.”

Okay, she had to admit his description intrigued her. Hell, everything about him did. Damn, she in trouble.

***

She dressed in new clothes, but not the ones Roarr had picked out. A short sleeved black shirt and pants tucked into her boots. She didn’t feel complete without weapons, but he just shook his head when she asked for one. He tossed her a backpack and she loaded her remaining clothes into it. It was disheartening to realize her life had been reduced to one small bag. He gave her a pensive look as she preceded him out the door, but if he’d read her thoughts he kept it to himself.

They joined Parker, Zola, and two others downstairs. One she recognized as Jarek, Roarr’s healer brother, but she hadn’t seen the other one before.

“
This is Kaje Stian,” Roarr said, introducing her. “He’s my second in command and Steward of the Keep, so you’ll be seeing a lot of him.”

“
My lady,” he drawled, bowing over her hand with a flirty smile.

When Roarr growled, low and screaming
back off, buddy
, Kaje stood, winked at her and turned to the other two women to try his charms there. She had a hard time holding back her amusement. Roarr moved in close to her.

“
He doesn’t need any more attention, der’lan. Trust me, he gets enough.”

It was damned hard not to laugh at the complaining mental voice.
“He’s the charmer in your clan, huh?”

“
You want charm?”
he growled. 

She shivered at the images suddenly filling her mind. Roarr bent over her. Thrusting into her. Oh, yeah, that would do. She tucked her fingers into his back pocket.

“How soon can you get started?”

He groaned and they followed the others out of the house.
“Hours, yet. Just remember I’m available at the earliest convenience.”

Like she was going to forget? She couldn’t get his images out of her head and her memory of last night wasn’t fading either. She sighed, entered the small hover craft, and prayed the trip would go fast. At least it wasn’t bumpy. She was sore and sensitive in erogenous zones she hadn’t even known existed. The heat seemed to build with every passing block and by the time they reached the shuttle, mere minutes after leaving the house, she thought she’d lose her freaking mind.