Jaz's Warriors (Bondmates Book 2) (2 page)

“Gotta say,” Raul’s voice came from inside the apartment after her father left, “your dad ain’t like any preacher I’ve ever met.”

Pride somehow helped ease her fear and she nodded before wiping away her no-doubt smeared mascara from beneath her eyes. “He’s one of a kind. Come on, you heard the man, we’ve got work to do.”

Twenty-five hours later, Jaz crawled into her bed after a quick bath to wash the dried sweat from her tired body. The building she lived in was filled with people who had sought shelter from the random violence of the streets, and one of her brothers was here with his family as well.

Once the sun had gone down, and the rolling blackouts had begun, chaos had erupted in the city and Jaz had been seriously scared for a little while. Gangs of armed men had roamed the streets, setting cars on fire, breaking windows, and looting everything. They started to come near the church, but a few well-placed shots from her brother’s on the church’s roof sent the mob off in search of easier prey.

Candles burned in her windows, visible signs that her home was open to being used as a shelter. The National Guard had set up a command post around her father’s church and she was worn out from caring for the endless stream of terrified people who were drawn to the promise of safety the men and women in uniform provided.

Outside her hallway, voices still murmured but she ignored them, content in the knowledge that her family would watch over things while she finally crashed.

The faint scent of her lavender body lotion puffed up from her sheets as she pulled them around her, falling almost instantly to sleep.

Standing before Jaz in the oddly ethereal desert landscape of her dream were three of the most beautiful men she’d ever seen, each striking in his own way. All three were built like professional athletes, thick and toned with cut muscles; utterly delicious in their loose black pants and lack of shirts. The first man had creamy golden skin, with slanted eyes and long dark hair that gave him a slightly Asian look. The second also had long black hair, but his skin was pale and his eyes a lovely light blue. The third had blond hair liberally streaked with mahogany brown that fell to just below his shoulders, along with a square jaw. With their gazes focused on her, they began to creep forward, stalking her with obvious sexual intent.

A glance at their pants showed the fabric now tented by three very large erections and she swallowed hard and took a step back, only to find the earth crumbling beneath her feet.

With a gasp, Jaz looked behind her, the fabric of the long emerald-green gown she wore whipped about in the suddenly harsh wind. She balanced on the edge of a dark cliff and far, far below her lay a huge caldera that appeared as if it was filled with black sand. Moving black sand. It swirled and writhed, making her dizzy before she managed to tear her eyes away and back on the men.

They remained poised, fear obvious on their faces as they held their hands out to her and begged her in some language she couldn’t understand. The cliff disintegrated more and without thought, she reached out and grabbed the arm of the man in the middle, the other two quickly grasping her under the arms and hauling her away from the edge.

In the odd way of dreams, the world shifted around them and she found herself kneeling in the center of a soft and elaborate carpet that reminded her of an Oriental rug, done in shades of green and gold. The rest of the room had a similar color theme, with curved ceilings and golden lights glowing as they floated in the air overhead.

Movement caught her attention and she found herself looking at the pussy-tightening sight of two hot guys kissing on a massive gold bed. Then the third, with the blond and brown-striped hair, joined them, their muscular bodies a sight to behold as they kissed and caressed. The pale man with the dark hair and light blue eyes held his hand out to her with a smile that made her nipples tighten with need.

She slipped her soft brown fingers between his pale ones and let him draw her into their embrace with a sigh. Warmth, devotion, and happiness filled her soul as they caressed her body. The feel of their love for her soaked into her very essence, marking her and sealing her soul to theirs forever.

Chapter

The Kadothian Reaping Ship

Present Day

With her hands slightly shaking, Jaz Brooks—no, make that
Matriarch
Jazmine Brooks—waited at one of the receiving bays for the molecular transports to the North American Continent on the Kadothian Reaping ship. Growing more anxious by the second, she hoped she wasn’t sweating through her dark green gown. Not that it was a real concern, Kadothian hygiene products were light years beyond what was available on Earth, but Jaz was nervous enough that she should be dripping in sweat. The crowd of Kadothian Warriors and the Earth brides ebbed and surged around her, but she barely noticed as she took in the terrified expression of an Earth woman arriving on the Kadothian ship for the first time.

Jaz could remember her complete freak out when she’d arrived months ago. She’d been one of the first Earth women bonded and had found herself in a world that shouldn’t exist, with a husband that was too good to be true-but was. One kiss with Mavet had sealed her fate and begun the biological transformation from a human woman into a Kadothian Matriarch. It hadn’t been an easy transition, but she’d been lucky enough to be able to utilize her skills as a therapist in helping new couples find their stride. To say there were some….cultural differences between the aliens and their earth wives was an understatement.

Cultural differences like having more than one husband.

Sometimes a lot more.

She only had two, Mavet and Xentix, but she knew women who had as many as eight, and they all lived as a big, harmonious family because of the bond between them.

It was that the ability to have that bond, to become a Kadothian Matriarch, that made the women of Earth the perfect soulmate to men from a distant galaxy.

Her own soulmates lingered nearby, sending her soothing emotions through her bond that helped steady her.

When the Event had happened all those months ago a wormhole had opened next to Jupiter, linking the Bel’Tan galaxy where the planet Kadothia was located with the Milky Way galaxy. To the delight of the Kadothian’s, they’d discovered Earth women could become bondmates with Kadothian males, a forming a psychic bond that would keep a Kadothian man from going insane and losing himself to his inner beast. Because no women had been born on Kadothia in 10,000 years, the men had to seek their brides off planet, and they’d exhausted their possible sources in the Bel’Tan galaxy for a bride for at least the next fifty years, which meant millions of Kadothian Warriors would go insane without the hope of finding their bondmate, the one woman in the Universe born to love them.

Because of the desperate nature of the situation, an accelerated courtship had been granted to the Kadothian Warriors, allowing them to try and seduce any Earth woman that was their potential bondmate. Jaz had been easily swept away by Mavet, her first husband. Yes, her first. The Kadothian’s were a polyamorous society where a Matriarch, the term they used for women who married a Kadothian male, could have as many husbands as she wished. Hell, that’s why she was here today, to meet her husband Mavet’s blood brother, Tandar, a man both he and Xentix wished Jaz would consider as a third husband.

A third husband.

Good Lord what had she gotten herself into.

Her bondmates’ worry reached her through their psychic connection and she forced herself to focus on something other than the man they were waiting for. Instead she took in the mass of people filling the Transport Terminal. In a way, it was like a high-tech, minimalist version of Grand Central Station. While the room itself was huge, it was just one of eleven Transport Terminals and they were all this big, or bigger. The ship that housed them was a massive marvel of engineering over three hundred stories high and six city blocks long, but as big as it was, the vessel fairly burst at the seams with people. It was like being on a very luxurious and absolutely astounding cruise ship that was way overbooked.

There had to be close to a million people onboard, and that made for long lines at the Terminals as a constant stream of Kadothian men, and some Earth women, made the journey back and forth between the Reaping ship and the planet. Jaz, along with Mavet and Xentix, were waiting for a very special visitor and she was having a hard time keeping still, constantly scanning the crowd for a man she’d only seen in pictures…and in her dreams.

Her pleasant thoughts were interrupted when nearby a young, slender, blonde Earth Matriarch shouted, “I don’t want to wait, make them send us down next. If I miss watching the ball drop in Times Square, you’ll regret it! You promised me we’d be there! I don’t know what the problem is, you’re an Elder Congressman, we shouldn’t have to wait with the rest of the commoners.”

Anger simmered through Jaz’s bond and she found her first husband, Mavet, staring blandly at the woman throwing a full-on temper tantrum. His long midnight-black hair was pulled back in a braid, and he wore his usual dark green Healer’s armor that accentuated his perfectly muscled body. God, he was hot; like, five-alarm-fire-in-her-panties hot.

Sensing her arousal through their bond, he turned his gaze to hers and the lovely light blue of his eyes deepened to an almost purple color.

The woman’s whining rant, loud enough to be heard even over the constant noise of the Terminal, interrupted their hot look and drew Jaz’s attention back to the spoiled brat.

The woman had an audience now, and she obviously loved the attention. Batting her eyes and giving a good pout, she flipped her hair over her shoulder then crossed her arms. “We’re going to miss it!”

“Begging your forgiveness, Matriarch Taverty, but we must follow the transportation schedule,” a Teleporter manning the transportation dock said in a loud, irritated voice. “It will not be much longer.”

“You don’t understand,” she wailed. “We’re going to miss the ball dropping. Why are you being so unfair to me?”

An unusually strong urge to go over there and gag the bitch had Jaz twitching to move, but she held her composure. The woman causing the disruption wore a black robe with white trim and a ton of shimmering Kadothian jewelry. Jaz studied the man who was gazing down adoringly at the spoiled bitch and grit her teeth. Of course this woman would be his bondmate. They were perfect for each other.

Vungus, or as she liked to call him, Vungus the Fungus, was a world—no,
galaxy
-wide class-A dick.

Having had a run-in with his arrogant ass before, she wasn’t surprised in the least when he made an imperious gesture with a bored look on his pinched face. “I am tired of waiting. We are going—now. Teleporter, clear the platform for us. That’s an order.”

The Teleporter ignored Vungus and continued to work as a steady stream of people jumped between Earth and the Reaping ship, or from one of the big freighters filled with Kadothian men who arrived from the Bel’Tan galaxy through the wormhole looking for a bride.

She could always tell the Warriors fresh from Kadothia by their incredibly wary expressions and body language. Evidently, word was spreading back on their home planet about human women, and not all of it was good. In fact, most of it was downright terrible. There was a serious anti-Earth campaign going on in the Bel’Tan galaxy, painting humans in a most unflattering light.

Her husbands believed the anti-Earth sentiment came from those threatened by the new human Matriarchs’ unusually strong psychic powers. Something about bonding with a Kadothian male seemed to awaken a dormant portion of an Earth woman’s mind, and the results had stunned everyone.

Jaz’s own mental powers of psychokinesis had begun to awaken a few weeks ago. Once she’d learned to control them, she’d had a hell of a time tormenting her husbands with her new skills in the best ways. Having the ability to physically touch people and objects with her thoughts was cool, and once she got over freaking out about it, she’d enjoyed training her new skills with her husbands.

Skills she was going to put to good use right now in a way she never had before.

Staring at the woman causing all the commotion, now actually stamping her feet in a petulant fit, Jaz focused on mentally reaching out and poking her ass just to shut her the hell up.

Evidently she’d poked a little harder than needed, because the woman shrieked as if she’d been stabbed, Vungus bellowed with rage, and every male in the place went on instant alert.

Her husbands were suddenly at her side and she sensed not only their shock and anger at her impetuous action, but their intense worry which had her heart racing.

Xentix, her faintly Asian-looking second husband, had emerged from hiding in the crowd. Though he was a Healer, she always thought he would have made a good Scout. He knew how to blend in anywhere, and that had come in handy when he’d had to go into enemy territory to heal fallen Warriors enough to get them back out. Apprehension twisted through her stomach when she realized he was deeply worried as he reached out and grabbed her hand.

“
Alyah
,” Mavet murmured the Kadothian endearment for ‘eternal beloved’, “that was unwise.”

Ashamed that her temper had gotten the better of her, she flinched when the angry couple across the room stared dead at her with furious expressions.

Evidently her lessons on shielding her psychic signature hadn’t gone as well as she’d thought.

Crap.

“You!” Vungus pointed at her with his lips pulled back in an ugly snarl, “You did this.”

One of the reasons she called him Vungus the Fungus was that he was pasty, like a poisonous mushroom, and his body unusually soft for a Kadothian. Now, her husband Mavet’s skin was like pale, pure ivory, glowing with a hidden warmth that reflected his giving spirit. Vungus, on the other hand, had all the warmth of a corpse. In an odd way, that made his equally pale and chilly wife his perfect match. They were like the king and ice queen of the zombie prom.

A snicker escaped her and she winced at the disapproval flowing through her bond.

Xentix, who hated Vungus even more than Jaz, lifted his chin in an imperious gesture. “You will address my Matriarch with respect.”

“Your Matriarch,” the man sneered, “is a menace. She is too violent to be let loose on Kadothia and her malicious actions only prove that further. I will see that my complaint is escalated to reflect the severity of the situation. She is not the kind of woman who should be influencing the impressionable minds of new Matriarchs.”

To Jaz’s relief, there were chuckles filling the crowd around her, and from across the room, a Warrior she was kind of familiar with spoke up. “Matriarch Brooks has shown unfailing empathy and compassion for the women of Earth in her role as an Ambassador. From the beginning, she was there to help guide them through the difficult adjustments and help bridge the communication gaps between Earth brides and their bondmates. Matriarch Brooks helped my wife get over her fears and become my bondmate. She is not a menace, and Kadothia is lucky to have her.”

Flushing, she smiled her thanks to the Warrior defending her as the tall and regal Earth woman at his side, Bridget, gave Jaz a small wave.

Vungus scoffed, the dark brown gem rings he wore on every finger flashing as he pointed at Jaz. “She has physically assaulted me as well, establishing a pattern of violence that worries me greatly. She should have been locked up then for everyone’s safety.”

A snarl rose from both her husbands’ throats and the crowd eased away from them, with good reason. Bonded males were fiercely protective of their wives, and to have someone threaten to take her from them was like waving a red flag at a bull. Her own muscles tensed as their fierce desire to protect threatened to strip away her own self-control.

Not wanting to, but needing the emotional distance from these two ticking time bombs, she closed off her side of the bonds.

A petite woman with long wavy brown hair shoved her way through the crowd, getting close enough to Jaz that her husbands crowded her further, but the other woman ignored them. Even if she hadn’t obviously been of Earth origin—that planet’s females were smaller than the majority of the women of the Bel’Tan galaxy—her disregard of two pissed-off Warriors confirmed it.

Mavet gave a low snarl, but Xentix sighed and put a restraining arm on Mavet’s shoulder, calming him.

Despite her small stature, the woman’s voice was fierce as she said, “I was there, asshole, I saw the whole thing. You were pissed when she didn’t address you as ‘Elder Congressman’ and wouldn’t let you get on the lift first because she’d been waiting longer, then she told you to go fuck yourself when you acted like a dick. You proceeded to berate her for being an—and I quote—‘ignorant Earther
prizmit’
. You’re lucky she only kicked you in the balls because
I
would have cut your dick off if you tried talking to me like that.”