Theron Destiny (Brides of Theron) (12 page)

“The leaders of the country where they all came from gave us their permission to proceed in our mission.  In return, we gave them what we promised. So, what do you feel is wrong with what we did?”

Zeb walked around the desk to sit in his chair before answering, “I don’t know. I am thinking we went about this all wrong. Maybe their government shouldn’t have kept it a secret. Maybe the females should have a choice in whether or not they want to leave their home. By ripping them away the way that we did, I think we are going to have a hard time gaining their trust, much less their affection.”

“I believe that you are right. But, what can we do about the ones we already have?”

“The best I can think of is to continue showing them that we mean them no harm.  That we will protect them at all costs. Show them that their lives with us won’t be as bad as what they are thinking.”

The room was quiet for several minutes while both men were thinking of a way to ease the situation. Zane was the first to speak, “Do you think you could get Avery to come over to talk with Gracie, since she is willing to leave her planet? Maybe that way, both will of them find peace in their situation.  Maybe, talking with one of their own kind will help them adjust.”

“I think that is an excellent idea. We will do that tomorrow. Oh, by the way, do you have the translation chips ready?”

“I finished them this afternoon. I already put Gracie’s in. Just bring Avery down to the hospital tomorrow morning and I will implant the chip. It’s getting really late and I must get back to Gracie. I will see you in the morning.” Zane stood to leave and headed to the door, “Here you can finish these.” With that he placed the two remaining beers on Zeb’s desk and left the office. Zeb just sat there until he heard the swishing sound of the front door sliding shut.

It was quiet once again. He needed to think of a way to make Avery feel more comfortable and more trusting.  An hour passed and he reached for last earth beverage and popped it open. While taking a sip from the can, he felt something rubbing against his leg. Looking down he saw that Books had made it back into his office just like this morning. “Hey there Books.” Books stopped rubbing and looked up at him. Without warning the cat jump up into his lap and proceeded to rub his head against Zeb’s chin.

“What do you need Earth creature? Missing Avery are you? How about we go join her in the bedroom and get some sleep?” Scooping Books up into his arm, Zeb took one last large swallow out of the can and headed to the bedroom.

Opening the door, Zeb quietly asked the lights to come on dimly so that he would be able to see his way around the room, not disturbing the small body that was curled up into a tiny ball facing the window. He placed Books on the bed and then sat to the edge to remove his boots. Standing back up to remove the rest of his clothes, he studied the back of the woman lying in his bed. Her long curly hair was spilled on both of the pillows. The blanket was just crossing her hips revealing her back. She was wearing a shirt that had thin straps over her shoulders and he could see the bare skin of her neck and upper back. The thought of running his hands through that hair and down her back caused an ache in his loins
that screamed to be satisfied.

Sighing to himself, he crawled into the bed and lay on his side facing her. The movement of the bed caused her to turn over.  A quiet moan escaped from her lips while she turned over to face him. She settled back down with one hand under her cheek and the other hand stretched out towards him. Tentatively, he reached his own hand out and softly glided one of his large fingers across the top of her hand. Her fingers gave a little twitch and curled in slightly. He decided to go a step further by taking two of his fingers and run them through her curled fingers which would ultimately have him holding her hand.

He was unaware of her opening her eyes, as hazel puffy eyes were silently watching his attention to her hand. He took a firmed hold of her fingers and gave them a soft squeeze.  When he noticed she was watching him, he blushed while giving her a crooked smile. He watched as a tear made its way down her cheek landing on the hand that tucked underneath her beautiful face. Her mouth that is so tempting to kiss, curled into a small smile in return. He tugged on her hand hoping that she would understand the meaning of his gesture.  Hoping she would slide closer to him.

Avery hesitantly looked at their hands entwined for a moment, then scooted over until she was laying within the circle of his arms. She looked up at the man holding her, smiled then tucked her head down into his chest taking in a deep breath that smell like oak and beer.

Why in the world did he smell like beer? She thought to herself as she settled more closely in his arms. She would have to remember to ask him about that in the morning but for now, she was content to close her eyes and drift back to sleep.

Zeb’s heart jumped in relief when she moved into his arms. He didn’t really think she would want him touching her after what happened this afternoon.  Her actions took him by surprise. She nestled close into his chest and fell back to sleep. Taking this opportunity of having her in his arms, he brought the hand of the arm she was resting on up to her hair. He took one long curl of her hair and watched as it twisted lightly around his finger.

Gods, it was so soft. He would give anything to have the feeling of her hair skimming over his body. His cock became rock hard at the thought of having that hair tickling his chest, teasing it.

Closing his eyes he argued with himself.  He told himself that he needed to stop thinking like this or he was going to be unable to win her trust and heart. For now he needed to concentrate on more subtle things not animal things. Like tonight, for instance, her taking hold of his hand gave him such hope.  They could, maybe, be able to move forward. This could be the start of something, a relationship that he was hoping for. No matter her feelings, she was his now and forever. He would protect her with his life if he had too. No other man or warrior would ever lay on hand on her in anger for as long as he was breathing.

He sighed heavily and pulled Avery closer to him. He would make this work. He had to.

Chapter 12

“Where are we going?” Avery held on tight to the hand that was tugging her along the long corridors of the ship. “Zeb, would you please tell me where we are going?” She tried to pull her hand from his, but it was no use. His much larger hand had her’s firmly encased in his.

Zeb looked down at her and gave her a genuine smile and said, “It’s a surprise, and I am quite sure you will very pleased.”

They continued to walk down the corridor, turning here and there.  She was to the point that she was hopelessly lost. She didn’t think she would be able to find her back to their quarters if her life depended on it. All the corridors in the living quarter area looked the same.

“Here we are.” Zeb guided her to stand next to him in front of a door that looked exactly like theirs.

“How can you tell this thing where you want to go? There are no markings of any kind on any of the doors.”

“Yes there are. Do you see these lines and raised dots on the wall next to key pad?”

She moved a bit closer to see what he pointing at, “Yes, but what they?” She ran her free hand over the design on the wall and felt what he was talking about.

“Those are marking in my language, the Theron language.”

She drew her eyebrows together, “But I don’t know how to read your language.”

“Do not worry my little one; we are taking care of that problem. Brylon, our ship engineer has designed a device that will help the earth females find their way around the ship when they are not with their mate. They should be ready soon.” With that said Zeb pushed the green lighted button on the wall and waited.

A moment later, the door slid open and revealed a face that had become familiar over the past few days. Zane stood to the side to let his guests in then the door slid shut.

“I am glad to see that you were able to come and visit today. How are you doing Avery?”

She bit her lower lip and replied, “I am good.”

“I am happy to hear that. Please come in. I would like to introduce you to my mate.” Zane gestured with his hand and Zeb placed his hand on the small of her back and led her in front of him. Zane fell in beside his friend. Both men glanced at each other and smiled behind Avery.

Avery moved forward and was led further into Zane’s home. Basically it was the same design as Zeb’s, just decorated differently. Even some of the furniture was identical. She continued to move further in when she noticed that there was someone in the room who was sitting on the massive sofa that faced the window looking out. Whoever it might be, it was definitely a female.  She had long auburn hair that was gathered up into a ponytail.

The woman on the sofa turned at the approach of the three individuals. She stood up quickly and her eyes widen in astonishment when she saw who was walking towards her. “Avery! Oh my God it’s you!” She shouted and moved around the sofa as fast as she could to get to her friend.

“Gracie!” Avery took off as fast as she could to cover the short distance that still separated the two women. Both women ran to each other with arms out stretched. It only took a matter of a few seconds until the women were embracing each other and crying at the same time. Neither woman knew how long they stood there, holding onto one another.   Finally, Gracie was the first to pull back so that she could Avery’s face.

“I thought I would never see you again. I can’t believe you are here. How have you been doing?” Gracie asked through the tears that were still running down her cheeks.

“Oh Gracie, I missed you so much. I didn’t know who had bought you at the auction.  Frankly, I have been understandably out of it lately, that even if I was told who bought you, it probably wouldn’t have registered. But, I am relieved to know now that you are with Dr. Zane. He will take really good care of you.” Avery replied smiling back at her friend she thought she would never see again. She didn’t know what had happened to any of the other women who were also brought on board the ship or who they went to.

“Come sit on the sofa with me.” Gracie grabbed hold of Avery’s hand and pulled back toward the part of the sofa that was nearest the large window.

As the women moved to sit on the sofa Zane broke in and said to them, “If you two don’t mind, Zeb and I will be in my office so that you can have some privacy.” Two pairs of eyes watched as both men made their way to Zane’s office and shut the door.

Avery was the first to speak again, “How have you really been doing?”

“To tell you the truth this hasn’t been an easy thing to adjust too. I mean, I miss my home, friends and the food here is just too weird for me to even try. I haven’t even been out of here since Zane first brought me here.” She smiled again at her friend, “Maybe now that I know you are here too, I can accept our situation a bit better.”

Avery sat silent for a moment to gather her thoughts, “Well, I would think that since we are bound to Zane and Zeb forever, we should be able to have free reign of the ship. We need to speak to them about that when they come out of the office.”

“Have you been to any other part of the ship besides the bar or whatever the place was we were sold in?” Gracie asked.

“Oh yes! Zeb took me to a place in the ship that is so beautiful. He says it is basically a replica of what their home planet used to look like. Then we went to a food court, but we didn’t stay long. We got some food to bring back to our quarters.” Avery had shifted a little closer in her excitement in telling Gracie about the park. “We got something that resembled pizza, I have named it “alien pizza”, and it tastes pretty good.”

“I guess that doesn’t sound too bad. I wonder what else there is on this ship. From what Zane told me about it, it’s probably around the size of Rhode Island and houses an extremely large population of Therons among the other races of traders.”

“Zeb really hasn’t told me anything like that about the ship, but at the same time, I haven’t bothered to ask. I haven’t exactly been the most pleasant person to be around.” Avery rolled her eyes and looked away in embarrassment.

“What do you mean?” Gracie drew in her eyebrows, confused.

“Well….I have kind of freaked out on Zeb twice now. The first night aboard the ship I was so freaked out that Zane had to sedate me.  Last night, after coming back from our outing I was having a hard time again. Though, the first night was the worst. I was really bad. I was so pissed I started to throw things at him.”

Gracie’s eyes opened wide and her mouth hung open in astonishment, “Oh My God! What happened?”

“Like I said, the first night Zeb had to call for Zane to come and sedate me and last night he threatened to call him again, but I didn’t want to be sedated again so I was able to calm down. I just get so mad about what has happened to us that I just start to lose control.” She was fidgeting with her hem of her shirt and looking at the floor.

Gracie moved to embrace her new friend, “Girl, I am so sorry. Hopefully things will get better. I guess we are just going to have to make the best of things. Maybe these guys aren’t so bad after all.”

“Maybe.”  Avery answered back. When she pulled away from Gracie, both women had tears in their eyes that were threatening to spill over. The sound of a door opening distracted them and caused them both to turn in its direction.

Zeb and Zane made their way over to where their mates were sitting. Zane was the first to speak to them, “Did you two have a nice talk?”

Avery and Gracie both said at the exact same time, “Yes” with smiles on their faces.

“I am glad to hear that. Avery, I need you to come down to the infirmary unit so that I can implant the permanent translation chips into your ears. Gracie can come along with us if she wants.  I implanted hers yesterday.” Zane informed Avery and looked to Zeb for an answer.