Shifter Planet (4 page)

Elise frowned, but thankfully let it go with a simple, “You should ice it.” She wandered farther into the room, letting the door close behind her. “Randy tells me you’ll be spending considerable time down on that planet.”

Every planet was “that planet” to Elise Sumner. She’d never forgiven Amanda’s father for choosing to remain rooted on his home planet rather than follow his pregnant lover back into space. He was perhaps the only man in history she hadn’t managed to win over to her view of the universe, and, apparently, the only one who’d ever really mattered.

“I was down there with the science team most of the day, and I’ll be heading back in just under two hours,” she said with a glance at the clock on her bedside. “It’s a fancy reception of some kind, which means dress whites, so I really need to shower.”

“What you need is several hours’ sleep.”

“I know, but that’s not—” She frowned. “Randy?”

“Admiral Leveque,” her mother said, brown eyes sparkling with mischief.

Fantastic. She’s dating Leveque.

“Don’t look at me like that. He’s a lovely man, quite intelligent. Besides, he’s an old friend.”

Amanda’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
An old friend? Leveque? Since when?

“Okay,” she said, drawing a deep breath that did little to erase the image of her mother and
Randy
. “I’m keeping you from your, um, guest, and I really do need to get in the shower. I’ll need to do something with my hair, and I’m not sure my dress uniform is—”

“I could get you out of it, you know,” her mother said thoughtfully. “Not the party, that might be enjoyable, I mean the rest of it. Wandering around down there for days…in the dirt. I could get you reassigned shipside. The leg injury alone would be enough.”

She didn’t even flinch, just gave her mother a quiet look. “It’s a lost colony, Mom.”

“Yes,” Elise agreed archly, drawing out the word. “Nearly five hundred years lost and only one major settlement to show for it. One shudders at the genetic possibilities. You should advise the male members of your party to beware of friendly women bearing small specimen cups at this so-called party tonight.”

She laughed. “I’ll tell them to be careful. Can I please shower now?”

“Of course.” Her mom leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Big night,” she said, with wide eyes and a dramatic quiver of her slender shoulders. Then her eyes met Amanda’s in a moment of perfect sincerity. “Stay safe down there, my child.”

“I will. And you enjoy your evening.”

Elise pressed the door control and turned back to give Amanda a teasing look before stepping out of the room. “Oh, I will. In fact, I’ll see you there. Randy is taking me to the party.” Her delicate laughter drifted back as the door slid closed.

She stared at the door for a few minutes and then shuddered. Her mother and Leveque. Fuck.

Chapter Four

The Planet Harp

R
hodry Devlin de Mendoza stood in perfect stillness and surveyed the field, his eyes always moving, never resting for more than the space of a single breath. This wasn’t where he’d have preferred to be tonight, but Cristobal had given him little choice.

His gaze slid to the big double doors leading to the main entrance hall, where the guests had been arriving all evening, from both Harp and the Earth ship. His focus sharpened at a flash of brilliant white, which turned out to be yet another high ranking fleet officer, with rows of colorful bits of ribbon on his chest, and the occasional flash of gold. This one had a blond woman on his arm. But she was a civilian, and she wasn’t Amanda Sumner.

He cursed softly and looked deliberately away. He told himself he was only looking for her because of the unique threat she posed to Harp. He didn’t completely accept the idea that she could tap into the voice of Harp’s trees, yet if it was even a possibility, they had to keep an eye on her. She obviously hadn’t reported it to her superiors yet, but the more she learned, the more likely that she would. So, it was in all their interest to keep her away from the forest.

Which was why
his
only interest in her was official.

He found himself scanning the open doors again, and forced his attention to the growing crowd on the ballroom floor instead.

“Who is she, Rhodi lad?”

Rhodry gave his cousin Aidan a dark look. “Who’s who?”

Aidan laughed. “Whatever fair lady you’ve set your heart on. Or is it only your balls that are set on her?”

“Could you be more crude? Besides, I haven’t had time to meet a lady, fair or otherwise.”

“That’s not what I heard. I heard you and Fionn were giving a certain blond Earther a tour of our very fine forest.”

“Trying to keep her out of it, more accurately.”

Aidan laughed, his blue eyes dancing with wicked amusement. Rhodry smiled in spite of himself. Cristobal hadn’t been happy to see his cousin at his side when he’d arrived in the city. He hadn’t seemed all that surprised either.

The truth was that he’d mostly grown up in the Devlin household of his father’s family, and every one of his numerous Devlin cousins was like a brother to him. Except for Aidan. Aidan was more. They were night and day in looks—Aidan’s blue eyes to Rhodi’s gold, his blond hair to Rhodry’s midnight black. They’d been born only minutes apart and raised together, sharing a cradle and a wet nurse. They’d been inseparable from their first breath, and it was a fact of the Devlin household when they were children that where you found one, you’d find the other.

“I’m thinking I might stay on in the city a bit,” Aidan was saying. “Some of these ladies are fairly fine.”

“If you can stand the perfume.”

Aidan laughed again. “Take them outside in the fresh air, and it’s not so bad.”

Rhodry grunted. This was yet another way they were opposites. Aidan had the Devlin charm and an eye for the ladies, which the ladies returned in full measure. He, on the other hand, had spent too many of his earliest years under the tutelage of his de Mendoza grandfather, who’d insisted a clan chief must exhibit a seriousness bordering on dour. He’d also convinced his young grandson that everyone—man or woman—would want something from him. So, while Rhodry garnered his share of feminine attention, he rarely returned the favor. It was too easy to see the ambition in their eyes, to wonder if they were after the clan chief, instead of the man.

A new flash of white drew his gaze to the entrance again, and this time it stayed there. Amanda had finally arrived. She wore the same blindingly white uniform as the others, although it looked good on her, with the jacket cut to fit her very feminine curves, while still remaining properly military. Had he given it any thought, he might have hoped for a skirt and a glimpse of leg, but the tailored slacks certainly did justice to her firm thighs and nicely rounded ass.

“That’s her, is it?”

He glanced over and caught a very speculative look on his cousin’s face.

“Don’t bother yourself, cousin.”

Aidan grinned. “So that’s how it is. Excellent. I’ll have to introduce—”

His words were interrupted as the doors at the opposite end of the ballroom opened and Cristobal appeared. There was no fanfare, it wasn’t the Harp way. It was curiosity that had every eye in the room swinging in that direction, not for the Ardrigh, but for the Earthers who accompanied him.

“Well, now, there’s a beauty,” Aidan said appreciatively.

He followed his cousin’s gaze to a small, dark woman, her petite figure shown to fine advantage by a deep coral dress that managed to hug her curves while still giving the appearance of modesty. She was lovely, but not to his taste. He preferred women who looked like they could walk the forest with him without screaming. Women like Amanda. Fuck!

Forcing Amanda out of his head, he studied the officer next to the beauty. He was tall and lean, his uniform fitting as if it had been tailored specifically for him. Which it probably had. His name was Randolph Leveque and he was the scion of one of Earth’s wealthiest industrial families.

Rhodry had been briefed, along with all of Cristobal’s guard, on Nakata and his officers. Everything they’d managed to gather so far anyway. Some of it had been gleaned from conversations with various members of the landing party, and much of it had been offered freely by the fleet’s Commander Wolfrum and his First Contact team. He’d learned enough already to know that the Earthers hadn’t come all the way out here looking for lost colonies. The rediscovery of Harp had been pure happenstance. The Earth fleet was after treasure—minerals and metals, anything they could send back to their home planet for a profit.

“She appears to be taken,” he told his cousin, noting the way Leveque kept one hand low on the dark-haired woman’s back, clearly staking his claim.

“Just means more of a challenge, lad.”

Shaking his head in amusement, his focus narrowed as he scanned past the admiral and his party to fall on a familiar figure. Amanda was conversing animatedly with Leveque’s companion, as if they knew each other well. She should have looked mannish in her uniform, compared to the petite beauty and her elegant gown. Instead, she looked even more attractive to him. Graceful and strong, feminine, and irritatingly sexy.

He scowled at his own thoughts. Lieutenant Amanda Sumner was trouble. He could feel it in his bones. She was too interested in the trees of Harp, for sure. Even more, she was trouble for
him.
His position on Harp was complicated enough, between those in the city who suspected him of dynastic ambitions, and his own clansmen who resented the fact that his de Mendoza grandfather had skipped an entire generation in order to name Rhodry as heir and clan chief.

He didn’t need the complication of an affair with any Earther, much less
this
one, with her unexpected, and unheard of, connection to Harp’s forest.

“So what’s she like?” Aidan asked.

“I don’t know the woman, but she looks like Leveque’s, so watch your step.”

Aidan laughed. “I meant the Earth lieutenant you can’t take your eyes off of.”

He shrugged. “She doesn’t know what’s good for her. She wasn’t on the ground five minutes before she was off into the Green, lost in thought, without a care for what might be coming after her.”

His cousin nudged his shoulder. “And you’ve taken a shine to her.”

“Hardly,” he lied. “I’ll be glad when they’ve all gone back to their ships, and I can get back to the mountains where I belong.”

“You think Cristobal will let you go?” he asked doubtfully.

He turned to regard his cousin. “Why not? He doesn’t want me here; none of them do. And I don’t want to be here, so we’re all agreed.”

“Aye, but he’s
got
you here now. And he’s made it clear that I’m not welcome to stay. Maybe that’s what he had in mind all along, and our visitors just gave him a convenient excuse. Maybe he wants to keep you here in the city where he can control you. Far away from your own people.” He frowned. “It won’t work, lad. The Martyns could lock you away for years and we’d never forget you. You know that.”

Rhodi flashed a quick grin. “You’d never leave me locked away for years in the first place.”

“Well, no, I wouldn’t. But I was making a point. I don’t like leaving you here on your own.”

“Go home, Aidan. No need for both of us to be miserable.”

Aidan’s glance lifted beyond Rhodry’s shoulder, his eyes taking on a speculative gleam. “Our fine Fionn seems to like your woman, cousin. He’s sniffing around her like a poohbear in heat.”

His laughter at the comparison of the elegant Fionn to one of Harp’s rotund and golden-haired mountain bears died when he turned and caught sight of the other man chatting up Amanda. He was moving before he knew it, before thought caught up to action. Long strides took him across the ballroom to where she was still laughing at whatever fake charm Fionn was ladling upon her.

She looked up when Rhodry joined them. “Good evening, Mr. de Mendoza.”

“Ah, Rhodry,” Fionn said smoothly. “Can I trust our lovely guest to your care for now? My father requires my presence.”

Rhodry gave him a dry look. “I doubt the lieutenant needs your protection.”

Fionn ignored him to take Amanda’s hand in both of his. “Save me a dance, Amanda.”

He swallowed a growl, keeping a distrustful eye on Fionn as he moved off into the crowd.

“That’s not what you said in the forest this afternoon,” Amanda said.

His gaze swung back to her. “What?”

“About me needing protection.”

She gave him a half grin, and he studied her, trying to figure out if she was teasing him. “The Green is a dangerous place, while this…” He didn’t finish his sentence, simply gestured at the crowd of mostly smiling people. “Are you enjoying the welcome party?”

“I am,” she said, smiling. “And does my choice of apparel meet with your approval?”

His eyes narrowed as he definitely noted a spark of mischief in her blue eyes. “The white is—”

“Aidan Devlin,” his cousin said, shoving him aside before Rhodry could say something offensive about the uniform. As if he would. She looked beautiful. Rhodry scowled as Aidan took her hand and raised it to his lips with a small bow. “I’m Rhodi’s more charming cousin. A pleasure, Lieutenant.”

She laughed. “Call me Amanda, please. There’s no need to be formal is there?”

“Of course not, Amanda,” Aidan assured her. “Harp is usually a very informal place, although tonight the Ardrigh and his lady seem determined to prove me wrong.”

She turned and surveyed the gathering as Rhodry had done earlier, seeming to study her fellow fleet officers in their starched whites, the Harp officials in formal black, with the colorful ladies scattered in between. “It is all a bit stuffy, isn’t it? I’m sure you’d rather be outside. I know I would,” she muttered, then cast Rhodry a glance over her shoulder. “If it’s as dangerous as you say, you probably don’t go out into the Green at night very often, do you?” she asked with what he would have sworn was wistfulness.

“Only at need,” he said sternly. “Which you don’t have.”

Instead of being properly warned, she gave him a wicked grin, then leaned over to Aidan and said, “Your cousin is upset because I didn’t ask permission before trekking out there today. Tell me, is he always this strict?”

Aidan laughed along with her, which earned him a disbelieving glare from Rhodry. “Not at all, lass. You’ve just got to catch him in the right mood. Why I’ve seen our Rhodi—”

“Yes, that’s fine, Aidan. Thank you,” he said, cutting his cousin off, then turning to Amanda. “My concern is for your safety, and that of your fellow officers. Our earliest forefathers learned of the Green’s dangers the hard way. It was decades before the colonists were able to achieve a measure of safety on the planet. I’m simply trying to spare you a repeat of their rather painful learning experience.”

“Of course you are,” she said with blatant insincerity. “Tell me something. What’s the guild?”

He scowled. “What guild?”

She bared her teeth in what might have been mistaken for a smile. Yeah, right. He knew a challenge when he saw one.

“When Fionn joined us out there this morning,” she reminded him, “he referred to you as his fellow guildsman. I assume that means there’s a guild.”

He cursed silently. She wasn’t only lovely, she was smart, too. And fucking Fionn needed to concentrate more on minding his tongue and less on charming the ladies. The existence of the Guild came too close to the one subject they definitely didn’t want to share with their Earth visitors.

“There’s a Rangers Guild,” he admitted, parsing the truth. “Most of us serve for a time, patrolling the forest around the city, chasing away the worst of the predators. We escort hunting parties and student groups, that sort of thing.”

“Oh! Can anyone join a hunting party? I’d love to explore some more, and I’m not without skills.”

The sparkle in her blue eyes made him want to say yes. He could picture her in the deep forest, the joy on her face as she made new discoveries, the dappled sun playing on her hair, the scent of the loam beneath her feet… The destruction her fellow Earthers would leave in their wake.

“Unfortunately, they don’t go out frequently,” he heard himself say. “I doubt you’ll be here long enough. How long do you think your fleet will remain in Harp orbit anyway?” he asked, knowing he was being rude, but for some reason she brought out the worst in him. Probably because he wanted her, and knew he couldn’t have her. Or at least, he
shouldn’t
. Damn it. He nearly choked on the snarl of frustration that tried to crawl up his throat, but she didn’t seem to notice. In fact, she was giving him a delighted smile that told him her next words weren’t going to make him happy at all. And she was right.

“Haven’t you heard?” she asked. “Your Ardrigh and Admiral Nakata just agreed to build a shuttle base on Harp. Congratulations, de Mendoza, you’re about to become part of Earth’s trade route.”

He bit back a curse. What had Cristobal been thinking in granting the Earthers that kind of access?