Upon the Threshold (9 page)

“I was just going to ask that very question. Because I have to tell you, I really don’t want to be with the two of you in front of a crowd. I think I would have failure to perform or something. I would very much like to invite my dad and others as well. I think it would be good for them to see you as I do. While you are warriors, that much is clear, I see you as kind and honest beings. I rather love that about you.” Well, she saw them as something more, but Kraven’s people had all been kind to her

“For now we should get some rest and then we will make sure you get home. You should be there early so that you can take whatever time is needed to assure your dad that you know what you are doing. I have the feeling he will be more than a little upset by this development.” Lukkis told her.

“As long as I am happy, I think he will be okay.” She could hope at least. And she was. Oddly enough, she was happy. She asked them to take her so that she could contact her camp to check on her dad.

“You can use the terminal there.” Kraven pointed to a screen over a small desk. “It’s in the listings, so just pull up the directory and then click on your town’s main communications system. Your people can then reroute your communication as needed depending on where your dad is currently.”

“Thank you.” Eli rose from between the two of them and smiled. “Most of my people would think this was too fast. I think that it’s been hundreds of years in the making. You both had to wait for me to get here.” She laughed a little. “I guess I’m robbing the cradle with the two of you.” Because they couldn’t be beyond their mid to late thirties, if that, and she had been in cryo-sleep for a number of years.

Or maybe not, unless she was misinterpreting the look they shared. But neither one of them said anything. In fact, they avoided the subject entirely.

“Make your call to him. I’m going to head to my quarters and will see you after dawning for the first meal of the day,” he said to her. Getting to his feet, he ran a hand over her hair. “Rest well, Elisabeth.”

Eli leaned into him and closed her eyes. “I like that,” she whispered honestly and then opened her eyes to look up at him. “How will this work? Will I have to split the nights between the two of you?” If he was leaving her now, it seemed as if that was how it would work, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

“No, you won’t,” was all he said. Smiling slightly, he ran his hand over her hair once more and then stepped away. Nodding to Kraven, he left the room.

“I will go into the sleep chamber so you can have some privacy to make your call. When you are done, just let me know, and I will show you to the room you can use for this darkening.”

“Thank you.” Eli looked to Kraven and nodded. “You don’t have to leave though. Anything that I say to him you have every right to hear.” She wouldn’t start this with them by hiding anything—not if she wanted it to be a good relationship, that was.

Taking a seat, she pressed the Command prompt and was directed to her camp. After being placed on what one would term a hold, she was finally given to her dad. She smiled. “Hello, Dad. I am safe.”

Well, that wasn’t the way to begin a conversation with her dad, and she knew it the second he got
that
look on his face.

“Why are you calling me from one of their ships, Elisabeth?” her dad demanded, his voice getting that little rise in volume toward the end of the question. “Why the hell are you on one of their ships?”

“Because Kraven and Lukkis saved my life. When I went to check on the horses, I was attacked by some type of beast.” She described the beast to the best of her ability. “Dad, make sure that when you send out a patrol, double the number of men, and make sure all of them are heavily armed. You need to ensure that they know these things are deadly. I’ve never known a creature that was as deadly as these were. They are also pack hunters, so if you see one, there are others waiting to pounce.”

“Are you all right? You weren’t hurt, were you? I’m sending guards for you right now. You need to be home where I can watch over you. This is unacceptable. They should have brought you back as soon as you returned,” he said, his tone firm.

“No. No, Dad. I’m fine here,” she told him with the shake of her head. “Do not allow anyone outside the protection of the camp tonight. I mean it. These things are deadly. And I’m fine. In fact, I’m more than fine,” she admitted. “I am going to be mated to these men. My choice, before you even voice that question.” She was a bit shocked by her confession and thought the only reason that it came out was due to the pheromones her men were giving off. “I’ve desired them since I met them, and I finally feel what you told me you had with Mom. I finally feel as if everything is right. My soul recognizes them, and oddly enough they want me. Poor guys don’t know what they are getting into,” she teased. “But, please. We will all discuss this tomorrow, I promise you, but for the night, stay inside and triple the guards. I’m worried that these things followed us back, and I don’t want anyone harmed.”

He was staring at her. Then he snapped his mouth shut and ended the call. The screen went black as she stared at it. Her reflection was the only thing staring back at her now.

“Is everything all right?” Kraven asked behind her.

Eli sat back and frowned. “I don’t know.” She looked up at Kraven and found herself reaching for his hand. “I told my dad that I was going to be with the two of you, that we were going to have a mating, and he disconnected the communication between us.” She felt sick, weary to her bones. “I guess I couldn’t expect anything more than that,” she admitted.

Tugging on her hand, he got her to stand and then led her over to the sofa. Sitting, he drew her onto his lap, sitting crossways this time, and wrapped his arms around her. “He is likely in shock. I doubt he ever thought that he would bring your people across the universe to a new home and have his daughter want to mate with men he doesn’t know.”

“Likely.” She curled up against Kraven, sighing as she stroked her fingers along his chest. “I should go to bed. We need to be at my dad’s camp at first light, or at least I should try to contact him when the suns rise so that I can see if he even wants to sit down and talk to us. I also know that you have a great deal to do, and you can’t do it with me sitting here on your lap all the time, right?”

“Some of it, no,” he said softly. “We will go as soon as it is light enough to be safe to travel the distance. Perhaps catch him before the first meal of the day so that we can find out what his troubles may be with what you told him.”

“I think that will be the best solution. I just truly hope that he listens to me and increases the guard and doesn’t send a party over to get me now. I told him that it was too dangerous. I was right, wasn’t I? These things, these creatures that attacked, they are predators, night or day?”

“Most likely they are more prevalent at night, but they were out during the light hours, so if they are hungry, they will attack at any time. I have a feeling that they were hungry, though they may have been protecting a kill we couldn’t smell, or young. It is hard to say for sure, but we will be investigating and figuring out just what they are and finding ways to keep your people, and ours, safe from them.”

“Thank you for that. Even now, you are working to keep my people safe. You humble me,” Eli whispered and nuzzled against the side of his neck. She could become very, very used to this. “Okay, before I fall asleep, you should show me where I will be resting or if I’m staying here in your arms and in your bed.” Oh, she wanted to stay though. She wanted his heat surrounding her, but oddly enough ached for Lukkis as well. She was seriously crazy.

“As tempting as that is, it wouldn’t be right. So I will take you to the quarters we have set aside for you,” he told her. Helping her to her feet, he stood up and then guided her from his room and into the corridor. Her room wasn’t that far, just up from his a few feet, and then she was inside. “If you need anything, just use the communications to let me know.”

“I will.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Come get me in the morning?” She didn’t want to walk out in the hall because she didn’t know who all was on this deck with them. “And then we will go to my people and talk to my dad. Hopefully, he will have breakfast ready so we can at least feed you for saving me.”

“I will alert you before I am coming to collect you, in case you need a little more time. Rest well, Elisabeth,” he told her, touching her cheek with light fingers. Leaning in, he kissed her gently, just a soft and quick brush of his lips before he drew back. Likely a good thing.

Eli stepped back and watched the door slide closed. She licked her lips and smiled. “Wow,” was all that she could think to say in that moment.

She turned the lights down to just enough for her to see if she woke during the night. Crawling into the bed, she closed her eyes and pulled one of the pillows close to hug. “Who would have thought?” she whispered happily. She had traveled light years to come to these men. She was happy. Very much so. With that last thought, she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Seven

Dawn broke with a bit of cloud cover, the light creating odd shadows so early in the day. Kraven had come to collect Eli just before daybreak and taken her to get some food, where they’d also met up with Lukkis.

Now the three of them were trekking to her town. They and a few others who were following discreetly to ensure that her people didn’t do anything moronic. Not like history hadn’t shown they were capable of it. It was one of the many reasons they were now living on an alien planet in an alien galaxy.

“You are too tense, Elisabeth,” Lukkis said, his voice pitched low. He and Kraven were both visibly armed, just as they were every day they left the safety of their camp. And they were both looking very relaxed and moving along like they didn’t have a worry in the world.

“I can’t seem to help myself. I feel as if I have done something wrong, and I know that I haven’t. I’m a fully grown woman who is allowed to make her own choices and destiny.” She looked up at Lukkis and smiled. “And that’s the two of you, by the way,” she added in case he was wondering.

“I was following your thought process,” he said, smiling slightly. “You haven’t done anything wrong, but you have to know that they likely will not be happy, at all. They will likely put the blame on us, especially if it ever gets out about the pheromones.” That last part he said in a very quiet voice.

“That’s why we will not tell them. Period. I’ve not told them that your people can see into our camp for that reason. I’m protecting you.” She shrugged and blushed. “Sorry, I should have mentioned that. All that they need to know is that I am happy and this is my choice, because it is.”

“Probably wise,” Kraven said. “We don’t need them being more afraid of us than they are already. We will only tell them what we need to and nothing more. If you get stuck on a question, look to us and we’ll help you out.”

“That sounds good to me. I think that is the best way to handle this. I hate subterfuge, but I know my people. They would not like that in the least. Where I felt safe, they would feel invaded or worse. So, yes. It’s best we keep this to ourselves.”

“Guards,” Lukkis said under his breath.

“I see them,” Kraven replied. “From here out, watch everything you say and who you say it to.”

Eli hated that her men already knew her people so well, and knew of the darkest underbelly of her people’s distrust. Slipping her hands into each of theirs, she gave them a squeeze. “I’m not letting you go. Either of you.”

They didn’t say anything, but the looks they gave her said they understood and were of like minds.

Reaching the border of the town, they stopped when one of the guards held up a hand. And then they got to wait and wait and wait a little more before her dad arrived.

When her dad got to the gates, Eli smiled. “Hello, Dad. This is Kraven and Lukkis. We have come to talk to you.” She noted that the guards had been increased, thankfully. She was, however, a bit worried because she was bringing the men she loved into a heavily guarded area. “May we come in and have a private conversation?” It felt odd asking her own dad for permission to enter their camp, but she did it for her men’s sake as well as her own after the reception he’d given her last night.

He looked at her—
through
her was more like it, actually—and, after a time, nodded. Turning, he strode away at a quick clip, leaving them to follow. Kraven shot her a look. She could just make out some of the worry in his gaze, even though his face was blank.

Eli felt sick. Her dad had never given her such a hard and cutting look. Squeezing their hands, she followed her dad to his quarters and the offices just off of them. Walking in with her men, she took a seat between them and waited for her dad to seal the room.

When he did, she looked to him. “What is wrong?” She knew something was wrong. Either he now hated her or there was something else going on that powered that look. Since she had done nothing more than fall in love, she didn’t know why he would hate her. Then again, stranger things had happened.

He shot Lukkis and then Kraven a look before staring, or rather attempting to stare her down. “Parker is very upset by this. Apparently he’s quite traumatized that you are throwing him over for the Droushanian males. Breaking your engagement in such a way is uncalled for, especially since this is the first I’m even hearing about it. But he came to inform me that you’d broken it all off, just this morning in fact, that you’d been keeping it quiet until he was ready to ask me for your hand. He is more than a little distraught, Elisabeth. How could you do this to him? I thought I raised you better, young lady.”

“What?” Eli was up and out of her seat. Anger all but seethed from her. “He is a lying asshat. I didn’t promise him anything. He and I never have had a relationship. I can’t stand the man. You know me better than that, Dad. At least I thought you did.” She sat back down and shook her head. “I dislike Parker a great deal. He makes my skin crawl, and if I had to ever spend a moment of time with him alone, one of us wouldn’t come out alive.”