The dinner had started as any family dinner would. There was laughter, amongst most and odd ball conversation. Tristan and Vectio were the only two silent ones. They sat watching and observing the others but didn’t join into the conversation.
Arinth, who always sat just to the right of Mendax, seemed to join into the fun but not as her usual self. She laughed along with Julius at the retelling of some occurrence they’d both shared a few years ago but her eyes weren’t alight with joy. Tristan knew she was hiding something and he knew that she’d slipped up that moment when she saw Adrian. She’d been concerned and motherly as usual but hadn’t been as careful with her tongue as he now knew she must be. Then there was the case of Adrian. He wasn’t sure what to do with her yet but he wouldn’t keep her bound in their dungeon. She was, after all, Hunter’s mate and he would come to realize it sooner rather than later. Tristan knew, not exactly from his own personal experience, that once the ritual begun no man stood between a warrior and his mate.
He sat at the head of the table where a leader should and examined all of his warriors. He was wrong earlier that morning, he had a great team. He just needed to be a better leader. Their laughter rang in his ears but he dismissed the happiness it made him feel inside. He would have to start taking things more seriously. There were things that he hadn’t told them and this wasn’t the time to bring it up. Although he didn’t like keeping things from them he had to make sure it was right that they know right now. A strange feeling came over him and he looked around the table. Someone was trying to get in his head. He, at first, thought it was Technik playing games on him again. It wasn’t. Technik was immersed in his meal, gumbo being his favorite Cook/Arinth-made dish.
A soft buzzing at the back of his mind sounded again before he knew exactly what it was, it wasn’t a particular person. He’d felt that feeling before. The last time he’d felt it was when he said goodbye to his parents before coming to Earth. They were the two most in love people he’d ever met. They’d been mated early on as his father had grew up in the village adjacent to his mother. Every time he was in their presence that buzzing had sounded. He’d learned to tune it out, not knowing where it’d come from, as a child but the more mated couples he’d encountered over the years the more he’d begun to recognize the feeling. Attentively, Tristan glanced at Adrian sitting just two seats down the table from him on his left.
***
Adrian sat laughing hilariously at something Arinth was saying. Her eyes were squinted shining with tears, mouth open and her head tilted slightly to one side. Her hair, once again coming undone from its braid, swung dangerously close to the bowl of gumbo before her. Hunter sat across from her, openly staring at her. He’d stopped eating, spoon stilted in the air, eyes watching her face. He’d been ignoring her since they’d had the run-in in the kitchen. He’d felt an almost zinging in his body when he’d touched her. It’s not like a lustful feeling, not a feeling felt when someone attractive walks into the room. No, this was far and beyond. Maybe it was because he hadn’t tupped anyone in a long time. It might just be time, maybe his body was getting restless. He reached out to Technik with his mind. I wonder why Mendax didn’t tell us he was sick. He knew we would have done anything possible to help him. Now it just might be too late. For a moment he thought that Technik hadn’t heard him and then he felt a slight shuffling in his mind, a response brewing.
You can talk in my mind, too? The soft voice he heard surely didn’t come from Technik. Looking up, Hunter caught eyes with Adrian. A slight confused look covered her face mid laugh, just before she schooled her features and looked down at her plate again.
I didn’t know I could. How are you doing that? Are you reading me? He answered her cautiously. She shook her head slightly and the connection was lost, she seemed to be shutting him out.
For some reason, even after she severed the link, he felt more in tune with her. Once a mind connection was made, the two separate halves become a whole. This is usually only done with members of the same team, unit, and it could take up to a month, even a year, to develop a strong enough bond to actually speak. To be able to understand each other straight out was uncommon. Hunter didn’t know what to really think. She was gorgeous. Her fiery auburn and honey brown hair hung long, in a messy braid, and her emerald eyes shone as she’d laughed with the group.
Thinking of her made him confused. It made him think of Ana, Ana Guile. They’d been friends since he was a young warrior. It had almost made sense to him when the Council suggested they mate. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t liked her a lot or she him. They’d already begun a distant but physical relationship when the proposal by the Council had been given. They’d both given in; the incentives had been beyond beneficial to both of them. They’d both been given a promotion and a possible voice in Senatus as lead enforcement. If they were to be stuck with each other, they were going to get something good out of it, Ana had said. He didn’t see it as being stuck at first. He’d thought that love would eventually come. He thought they would’ve made it work somehow but he’d definitely been wrong.
Ana Guile was a wild card. She was unpredictable in almost every way and although Hunter had easily kept up with her mentally it was the emotional toll their relationship took on him. He could almost smell the lies in her skin; see the links in her aura to other men that burned fresh as the crisp winter air. She’d been unfaithful from the beginning, her mind, although ingenious, had been warped. He’d thought that he’d loved her at one moment but knew that wasn’t the case when he’d met Tristan. He and Tristan had been on two separate teams during a bust on a rogue safe house and they’d side swiped each other with their weapons. They’d fought before the Council intervened and brought it to their attention they were fighting for the same side. Chase Hunter had been the only warrior to fight Tristan Omen and fell him unexpectedly. They’d held a new respect for each other but it wouldn’t be for another year that they would join forces.
Tristan, a single man, had held an Adantra and had invited a few Eidyia Warriors. Because Ana Guile was his mate, Chase had also been invited to the Adantra. It had been the first time that he’d realized, despite the troubles they’d conquered, he and Ana weren’t going to make it. Tristan’s parents had been the only mated couple he’d met in person since going to war. Their love poured into him, and everyone around them, just from being in their vicinity.
He wasn’t surprised when Ana turned out to be a traitor, he wasn’t surprised when the Council told him they’d been watching her for years. He wasn’t surprised to hear they’d used him in order to attempt to get at her. He definitely wasn’t surprised when they’d asked him to hunt her down and bring her in for questioning. They’d given him a choice to join a team or come down and track her alone. He, honestly, couldn’t bear the thought of tracking her down and then, as a mentally divorced man, for eternity, to go unmated and defeated back to Arinth. When he’d received a missive from Tristan saying they had need of a Hunter on their team he accepted almost immediately and headed out the next day. It’d been almost five years since that day and he had yet to find Ana, granted it wasn’t high on the Council’s priority list. He was just as comfortable spending time on Earth with the other Dark Warriors than in some high wall security watch position like the one he would’ve been stuck in until they figured out what to do with him. A sound brought him to the surface of his mind and Hunter grunted as he looked around him; he felt like Vectio there for a second.
It looked as if everyone had cleared out and left him there to eat silently, alone, in his daze. Had he really zoned out so much he’d missed his favorite meal of the day? Scrapping his large spoon through the bowl of brown delicious smelling liquid and scooping up bits of cold shrimp and rice, Hunter looked across the table to where Adrian had been sitting. Something stirred in his belly at the thought of her; he’d do well to figure out what it was. He didn’t want her to be a distraction.
“’A distracted Warrior is a dead Warrior’, humans.” Hunter slurped on the soup and coughed just as its cold liquid hit his lip. He’d been sitting there just thinking and scowled, realizing his food had lost its fervor. Rising, he walked into the kitchen and glanced around. It was almost spotless save a few bowls that were soaking in the sink. He smirked as a glance at the oven sparked the memory of Adrian’s derrière waving around earlier. He rather liked humans; well, this one. Usually they were a nuance to deal with or an irritation to his job but he knew what he wanted to do. He’d walk up to his room, open the door and see if their connection was mutual, see if the attraction went both ways. He’d seen the way she’d heated when he touched her earlier, he’d almost felt it. He’d seen the true concern in her eyes when she thought him hurt. There was something there, beyond the physical, as much as he’d like to believe. He’d find out what it is and maybe it was a good thing. Despite the shroud of mystery she seemed to live under, he trusted her. Adrian was his, at least, she will be. Won’t she?
***
Adrian sat on the soft bed, legs crossed and arms folded in front of her chest. The ambiance of the room was completely different than it had been that morning. That morning she’d been a prisoner, tied to the bed barely clothed. Now she sat comfortably staring about the room, with the freedom to come and go, as she pleased, about the room. She’d thought about changing into the adorable pajama set that had been laid on the chair, by someone, while they’d been at dinner. It looked comfortable enough but she didn’t really want to give in to the madness. She didn’t want to admit that the men that had kidnapped her seemed to be decent men, men she’d be friends with under different circumstances. She wasn’t a victim of Stockholm syndrome. She wasn’t, she swore.
“Well, if you can’t beat them; be comfortable.” She spoke aloud as she climbed from the bed and walked over to the chair. Pulling the shirt she’d put on that morning over her head, without unzipping it, Adrian gasped as strands of her hair were caught in the links. She tugged softly but small painful pulls at her scalp stopped her movement. The soft strands at the back of her neck were caught in the metal zipper of the shirt. She tried not to panic but even the slightest movement pulled at the strands causing her eyes to water. Turning slowly, Adrian dropped softly to where she thought the chair might be. The cushion almost enveloped her as she tried to keep her arms elevated and still keep her balance. A soft knock on the door sounded and she moaned in irritation. Of course someone would come when she needed help in one of the most embarrassing ways.
“Come in,” she spoke, relieved.
“I just recalled, since you are using my room, I am going to have to grab somethings to sleep in and possibly hygiene things for however long you’re going to be here.” The voice sounded from the other side of the door. She knew who it was and reddened at the thought of him catching her in the awkward position.
“Go ahead, come in. I…uhh…need your help anyway.” Adrian stammered through the sentence and waiting, unsure of his response. A click sounded as the door opened and a soft chuckle arose from the man. “Chase, please do not laugh. I’m stuck.”
“It’s not that I think this is funny. I just, had been imagining what color bra Cook had bought for you when we told her to go out and get you girly things and I guess she has more of a sense of humor than we thought.” He chuckled more but walked forward to help her untangle her hair from the zipper.
“So you were the reason I received undies with little bows on them!” Adrian laughed awkwardly and almost shivered as his hands touched her waist just below her ribcage. The tension in the air changed as one hand softly withdrew the strands from the zipper. He breathed out softly as he helped her pull the shirt the rest of the way over her head and down her arms. Before releasing her hands he caught them to her chest. A tug between them pulled them closer as he looked down into her eyes. Pupils dilated, Chase drew her chin up and briefly touched his lips to hers. An electric wave washed over him, a deep feeling filled his mind and all thought and reason ran away.
Adrian felt the magnetic pull towards Chase but tried everything she could to ignore it. It was like her life source had joined with his and she could just barely connect with his mind.
Just beautiful, his thoughts reverberated in her head. She leaned closer, encouraged by the tightening of his arms.
I knew I really could hear you speaking in my mind, she sighed softly and thought back to him.
I’ve never been able to project like that to someone outside of my team. He slowly stopped the assault on her lips and looked down at her. “Only my team has access to my thoughts. Is there something you aren’t telling us?”
“What? Were you sent up here to spy also?” Exasperated, Adrian leaned away from him.
“No! They don’t even know I’m here.”
“So you came to spy on your own?” Adrian, hurt, pulled away from him and gasped as she remembered her undressed state. She drew her arms up to cover the swell of her breast beneath the bra.
“No, that’s not what I meant at all.” Chase ran his fingers through his hair as he stepped towards her. “I didn’t come to spy at all; I really came to grab some of my things. You just…distracted me.” She looked up into his eyes trying to believe his words. For some reason, she had this connection to him and the thought of him betraying her or lying to her, over all the others, hurt her the most. “Trust me. You can trust me.”
Adrian stepped forward and patted a soft hand against his chest before turning back to the chair and donning the night shirt that had been laid out for her. The silence stretched as she moved about the room with her back to him. She climbed into the bed and turned on her side, facing the window and the stars just beyond it. She could hear him bustling around the room as she lay under the covers. She chuckled as she heard an expletive come from his lips as he tripped over something in the dark of the room. He’d flipped the switch off so that she could sleep and she guessed his eyes hadn’t adjusted just yet.
“If you need the light…” She laughed harder as he denied needing the light, saying he just didn’t see whatever it was he tripped on. A trace of humor filled his voice and Adrian smiled as she closed her eyes. Maybe trusting him isn’t the smartest thing that she’d ever do. Or maybe it is?
"The only way to be a writer is to write, write and write. The only way...is to write." -Jade Elyzabeth
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