Theron Destiny (Brides of Theron) (9 page)

“I want to thank you for this.” She gestured with her hand over the pile. “It really means a lot. I mean, you and Brylon took a great chance today to do this for me.”

He reached for her hands and placed them inside his, “I know this is hard on you. I will do anything that makes you happy. I want you to feel safe and comfortable here with me. I hope that eventually you can accept me as your mate and want to make a life with me.”

She pulled her hands out of his grasp and turned her back to him. “I was taken from my home, sold to the highest bidder and now have to live the rest of my life in another world. I just don’t know what you expect me to say. I’ll try? Sure thing? What? What do you want me to say? I had already lost my family once when I was a kid, and now I lost what little family I had left. You just can’t expect me to be happy go lucky right about now.”

His hands fell to his sides, “I just hope with time you can be happy again. I ask for nothing more.” Defeated in spirit, he knew he had to get out of the room for a while. “I have to go check on my warriors and the ship. I am not sure how long I will be gone. You will be safe in here.”

She turned her head and watched as he left their quarters. She didn’t say a word as the door slid shut. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there staring at the door but eventually she became aware of something furry rubbing against her leg. She looked down to find Books looking up at her and purring. She bent down, scooped him up into her arms and buried her face into his silky white fur and began to cry. Heart wrenching sobs began to escape her. She could no longer stand up as her legs grew weak and she sank onto the sofa, holding onto Books tightly.

Sob after sob racked her body until she finally had no tears left to cry. She lay on her side on the sofa.  Her face directed to the window that looked out into the reaches of space with Books curled up into a ball alongside her. Hours must have passed before she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.  Not even waking up when her quilt from home was gently place on top of her.

Zeb had returned to his quarters several hours later to find Avery asleep on the sofa. In sleep, she looked so peaceful but he could tell by the dried streaks that ran down her cheeks that she that she was far from at peace. He had left earlier in a bad mood after she had rejected him.  How could blame her? He wasn’t the one ripped from his home and everything he knew.

He went to his office in the command center looking for something to take his mind off Avery.  However, being that they were docked here for a while, there was really nothing to attend to.  He looked down at the monitor to see if all was well on the ship and there were no problems.  He checked his schedule for the week and found no meetings with the council in the near future.  Everything was as it should be.  Not being able to stretch his presence here out any longer he decided to take part in some form of manual labor.

He had gone down to the hanger bay to work on one of the ships that they used when traveling short distances back in the X-Tran galaxy. He had to take his mind off of her for at least a little while. But every time he tried to concentrate on what he was doing, her face would come before him, that lovely face. How was he ever going to make it up to her? Would she hate him forever? He was going to have to give her as much time as she needed.

Since working on the ship wasn’t helping him any either he had headed back to his quarters. Now sitting here on the sofa, watching her sleep he knew now what he needed to do. He needed to court her just like Therons used to do when trying to find a bride. He needed to show her how much he was starting to care for her. From the first moment he had touched her while on her planet, he had felt some kind of connection to her. A spark had been started and now was trying to develop into a full-fledged flame. It was a flame that he was going to feed and make it grow into a raging fire that would never die.

Chapter 9

After a second sleepless night, Zeb moved around their quarters on auto pilot.  Avery still hadn’t risen yet so he decided he was going to take the opportunity to catch up on some paper work in his office. He stared at the monitor in front of him, nothing making any sense. All the words just jumbled together and his mind refused to concentrate. Frustrated yet again, Zeb leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. Maybe, just maybe he could find the answers that he needed in the lines of the ceiling tiles.

He needed to get her out of here for a little while and show her what the ship had to offer. He had neglected to tell her anything about the ship other than it was her home now until they returned to Theron.

Plans started to take form when he heard a low meow coming from the door way to his office. Looking over he saw Books lying in the threshold, watching him. Maybe he should try and make friends with the hairy creature. Their first meeting didn’t exactly go very well.

He got up from his desk and slowly approached him. When he was within reaching distance, Zeb sat on the floor and held out his hand to Books, “Come here little fellow.” Books didn’t move at first but then he raised his nose up to sniff the air and let out a low pitched meow. Zeb edged a tiny bit closer with his hand still held out, “Hey Books. I am not going to hurt you. I am sorry for yesterday, but it was necessary for me to put you in that cage. See, Avery was missing you and I told her I would get you. She obviously loves you very much so maybe we can be friends for her sake.”

Books continued to sniff the air around him as Zeb talked to him. The creature seemed to understand what he was saying because all of a sudden the animal stood up, stretched his legs and sauntered over to Zeb and got into his lap. Stunned, Zeb continued to talk to Books and cautiously began to pet him.

“Now that’s better isn’t it?”

He was still sitting on the floor when Avery all of a sudden appeared in the door way with a smile on her face, “I see Books has made you his friend.”

“Yeah, Books and I have been having a talk.”

“Oh? About what may I ask?” She leaned on the door frame and watched as the big guy’s hand ran back and forth across her cat’s back. Her cat was really enjoying the attention, purring softly

“I was telling Books here, how I would like to take you and show you around the ship. It has some amazing things you might like to see.” He looked up at her to see her response.

“Sure, what else have I got to do? I’ll go change.” She turned away and walked to the bedroom without another word.

Feeling a little down played at her response, Zeb picked Books up into his large hands and held him to where he could look directly at the critter, “Well Books, looks like I got a lot of work to do. Come on, I’ll find you something to eat.”

Twenty minutes later Zeb and Avery were headed out the door. They walked slowly, since her ankle was still a bit sore but she was able to finally put pressure on it and walk on it a bit more.  He led her a good ways down the corridor and stopped in front of a clear door that had some sort of tube on the inside of it. Avery didn’t exactly have a good feeling about what she saw so she asked, “We’re not going in that are we? It’s too small for both of us to fit in. Why don’t we just use the elevator?”

“This is the personal transport carrier. It’s a lot faster and will take you to any part of the ship in a fraction of the time it takes to walk there. I admit we will have to squeeze in but it’s the fastest way to get around. The ship is really big, about the size of one of your larger states.”

She looked back and forth between the glass tube and Zeb, not really sure if she wanted to go in there with him.

Zeb placed his hand on the palm pad and waited for the glow to turn green. When it did the door to the personal transport opened for them. Zeb stepped in and held his hand out for Avery, “Come on, I promise I don’t bite.”

She placed her hand in his larger one and stepped into the tube. She had to press up against him in order for both of them to be able to fit inside. She placed her hands on his chest and looked up when he asked, “Ready?”

“I guess so.” As soon as she said that the door closed. A computerized voice came over a speaker on the wall, “Destination?”

“Starlight Gardens.” The tube dropped without warning causing Avery to scream and to grab hold of Zeb’s shirt. She closed her eyes and prayed the thing would stop. She got her wish immediately. The tube came to a stop and opened. She didn’t move, to afraid it was going to drop again but with Zeb’s urging she stepped out of the transport not relinquishing his shirt.

“I do not want to go in that thing again.”

Zeb gave her a full smile when he looked down at her hands, still clinging to him. “It’s not so bad once you get used to it. Come, I want to show you something.”

She let him take her hand in his again when he turned to lead her towards an archway that was at the other end of the hall. As they approached the arch, she could swear she smelled flowers and fresh cut grass and she could hear the sound of water falling somewhere.

Stepping through the arch, Avery came to an abrupt stop. Stretched out before her was a scene she never thought would be possible on board a space ship. An immense park lay before her. Everywhere she looked she saw trees that reached for the stars, flowers big and small with their fragrances mingling in the air. Flying through the air were small yellow and red birds chirping and chasing each other. So many sights to behold that made her stop and stare opened mouthed.

In various places scattered around the park were other couples. Warriors with the other females that she had been in the holding room with. Some were sitting on benches talking while some were walking hand in hand through the flowers that were everywhere.

Zeb stood rooted to the spot watching as she took in all that she was seeing. He could see the excitement in her eyes as they darted from one thing to another. His heart skipped a beat as he watched her start to walk forward advancing further into the park. He wanted her to look at him like that. He wanted to be able to see that spark in her eyes when he made love to her, to be able to bring her to the point of pure ecstasy. He wanted to have her cling to him and want no other.

He gave his head a good shake when he realized his mind was wandering from the task at hand. He needed to stop thinking those kinds of thoughts for now. He needed to get her to trust him, to want him.

Coming to stand beside her near a stream, he asked, “Do you like it?”

“It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I would never have guessed that something like this was possible on board a space ship.”

“You would be surprised actually of what we have on board. We try to make the ship as much like home as possible since we can be gone for extended periods of time and of course there is the war which has ravaged our planet for years now.”

She pulled her eyes away from the sight before her to look at the man standing beside her. She could almost see the deep hurt in his eyes over his planet, his home. Could she give this man a chance to win her heart? Would she really be able to forget where she came from? In that instant she wanted to know more about the man who had bought her and saved her from Lars.

“What was your planet like?”

Surprised by her question, he took her hand and said, “Come, let us go sit and I will tell you about my world.” Leading her all the way into the serene park, he walked with her hand in his making certain that she didn’t stumble to the uneven ground until they reached a bench that was placed along the crystal clear stream was running through the park. Surrounding them were trees she had never seen before.  Colors she never thought possible on a tree. Reds, blues, greens just about all the colors in a box of forty-eight crayons were splashed everywhere around her.

“Do you really want to hear about my home?” He softly asked her for fear that she would say she changed her mind.

Smiling at him she answered, “I do. I would like to know about the world I am going to be making my new home.”

Taking that as a step forward in gaining her trust, he started, “My home as you know is on a planet called Theron. It is about the size of your planet you call Jupiter and is in the galaxy called X-Tran, roughly about one hundred thousand light years away from your home. It was once a beautiful and flourishing planet. We have a sun just like you do but at night the moons of Theron come out. It is a rather breath taking sight to see. I used to sit for hours as a child with my mother watching the night sky and hoping one day that when I grew up that I would be able to soar through it.” He broke off for a moment to watch the water as it rippled with the wake of a fish.

“What you see here in the park is what my planet looks or rather looked like. We prospered as a people. We grew what food we needed and had just about everything we needed. We traded with other worlds for things that we didn’t have. Our biggest asset is the harvesting of cavmenton, which allows us to be able to travel through space and worm holes. Our down fall came when we started to trade with the Drylons again about ten years ago. At first they approached us with peaceful intentions but as time went by and the Drylons elected a new leader, their intentions became much more aggressive. When their leader Gatton took over, almost overnight the Drylons started to attack the ships that were traveling to trade with our world. Gatton had broken a treaty that had been in place between our and many other peaceful planets for hundreds of years. Gatton wants Theron for his own use not to mention the plentiful cavmenton that is harvested on the dead planet right next to it.  So, ten years ago the Drylons declared war on us and we have been fighting them ever since. Many of my people have died in this useless war including most of our females. Those females that have not been captured or killed are in hiding or on board the mother ship.  There are still too few of our females to sustain our species.  We face a harsh reality of extinction if we don’t find compatible mates.  This brings us to your planet and why we are here.”