1
KAITLYN
“What’s this meeting about? Do we have a new assignment?” Ambassador Kaitlyn Prior asked as she looked up at the massive Kindred warrior walking by her side.
She had a long way to look, since Braze, her Kindred Protector, was over seven feet tall. But since Kaitlyn was just shy of six feet herself, she didn’t feel intimidated by the height difference—in fact, she liked it. Her ex-husband had been two inches shorter than she was and he’d been extremely self-conscious about it, which meant she could never wear heels. It was nice to look up at a man for a change, she thought.
“Fuck if I know,” Braze rumbled, his broad shoulders rolling in a shrug under his crimson uniform shirt. He was a Beast Kindred and had the thick, black hair and golden eyes of his kind to prove it. He also had a black beard that was neatly clipped on the sides and around his mouth. However, it was braided into two small plaits at his chin—the mark of the savage tribe he’d come from on the Beast Kindred home world of Rageron.
Kaitlyn thought he was extremely handsome—in a rugged, Alpha Male kind of way—but since he almost certainly wasn’t interested in the kinds of things she was into in the bedroom, she’d decided to leave him strictly alone. Plus, he was her co-worker—her Protector—and mixing work relationships and romance was a bad idea. She ought to know—she’d met her ex at her first job right out of college and look how well that had turned out.
The problem was, she and her ex, Mark, had gotten married too young, Kaitlyn mused. Neither of them really knew what they wanted at that age. Now, as a woman in her middle years, she had a much better idea of what she wanted out of life, and it wasn’t just being a mom and a wife.
Thank goodness she hadn’t let Mark talk her into giving up on her goals. He’d sneered at her for wanting to finish her degree in Xeno-cultural Anthropology with an emphasis on matriarchal societies, but Kaitlyn had kept at it anyway and she’d recently earned her PhD.
“What the hell can you do with a degree like that?” Mark had demanded in exasperation when Kaitlyn had insisted on making time to continue her classes. He considered it an imposition anytime he had to be responsible for their two kids and Kaitlyn’s studies had cut into his free time with his fantasy football league. “It’s worthless—a waste of time!”
As it turned out, her degree wasn’t a waste of time. Kaitlyn had been intending to teach at a university somewhere, but then a job aboard the Kindred Mother Ship had opened up. She had actually heard about it from one of her professors who had also acted as a mentor. She had gotten Kaitlyn an interview and now she was working for the Kindred as a Cultural Ambassador to new alien races. After finalizing her divorce and making sure that her youngest son was settled comfortably at college, she’d moved up to the Mother Ship to pursue her new career.
Since meeting and studying new people was Kaitlyn’s favorite thing to do, her new job suited her perfectly. She hadn’t been quite so sure about the Protector who had been assigned to her at first, however. Braze was so big and muscular, he looked like the kind of guy who would have trouble treating a woman as his equal.
However, in this case, her first impression had been wrong. The huge Beast Kindred might look like a bad-ass biker who would call you “little lady” and throw you over his shoulder before riding off into the sunset, but he didn’t act like that at all.
Well, there was that one time he’d thrown her over his shoulder, Kaitlyn reminded herself, but he’d had an excuse. They were being attacked by an angry mob on Velux Three. At the time, Kaitlyn had been wearing a pair of ridiculously tall, stilt-like ceremonial shoes which were part of the outfit she had to wear to attend the Veluxian Court. She couldn’t run in the damn things—hell, she could barely walk in them! And then they’d been confronted by the mob, who wanted to overthrow the monarchy. They had caught Kaitlyn coming out of the Veluxian Royal Palace dressed as a lady of the Court and there had been murder in their eyes—which was saying a lot since Veluxians had six eyes apiece.
“Now, hold on…” Kaitlyn had begun, putting out her hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “Just let me explain…”
But none of the angry Veluxian revolutionaries seemed interested in explanations. They had started coming right at Kaitlyn, chanting about “the blood of the wicked must paint the streets” or some such ominous thing.
Braze had assessed the situation and then flipped her over one broad shoulder as though she weighed no more than a pillow—which gave Kaitlyn a new appreciation of her Protector’s raw physical strength, since that was absolutely not the case. Then he had run flat-out with the angry mob behind them for over a mile to get them back to their ship—an impressive feat considering Kaitlyn was bouncing on his shoulder the whole time.
Mark certainly couldn’t have done that—he couldn’t even lift me to carry me over the threshold when we were first married, she thought, glancing up at Braze again.
Her Protector was a male of few words—and most of them were “fuck”— but she found his companionship extremely pleasant. He took the oath he had sworn to protect her very seriously and had saved her more than once when they got into dicey situations. Her ex, Mark, wouldn’t have been able to do any of that. He always bragged about being a “real man” but just one look from Braze’s fierce golden eyes would have melted him into a puddle on the spot.
Kaitlyn pushed the thoughts of her failed marriage out of her mind as she and Braze came to their destination—the office of Commander Sylvan, the Head of the Kindred High Council. He was their boss and had called them for a meeting—presumably to discuss Kaitlyn’s next assignment. She just hoped that she would be making contact with a more peaceful race than the Veluxians. She’d had enough of that kind of assignment.
Braze knocked on the sliding metal door and they both heard Commander Sylvan say, “Come in.”
The silver door slid to one side with a whoosh and, after a searching glance, Braze stood to one side, allowing Kaitlyn to enter first. She had noticed that her Protector always did that—even when they were going into a safe space, he always scanned the area for danger before letting her enter. She appreciated his caution—his warrior’s instincts had kept them from walking into some dangerous situations in the past.
“Ah, there you are. Come in, please. Have a seat.” Commander Sylvan—a big Blood Kindred with spiky blond hair and ice blue eyes—beckoned them to the two seats across from his desk.
Kaitlyn sat first and Braze sat beside her, long legs spread and hands resting lightly on his thighs. He had the grace of a lazy panther, but she knew from first-hand experience that the big Beast Kindred was always ready to spring into action. She also knew that Braze would let her take the lead verbally—in fact, he seemed to prefer it, probably because despite his imposing looks, he was definitely an introvert. Kaitlyn herself was an extrovert, so she didn’t mind jumping right in.
She crossed her legs and leaned forward, looking at their boss.
“Hello, Commander Sylvan—you wanted to see us?”
“I do indeed—I have a new assignment for you, Ambassador Prior. I trust you’re recovered from your last mission to Gorthax Centra?”
“No recovery needed,” Kaitlyn said briskly. “It wasn’t the most pleasant assignment I’ve been on, but we got the job done.”
“Yes, my apologies for that,” Sylvan said, making a face. “I didn’t realize they were such a misogynistic society when I sent you there to get the treaty signed.”
“Well, we did get it signed, eventually,” Kaitlyn remarked, pushing a sheaf of long silver-black hair out of her face and tucking it behind one ear.
She was “embracing her gray” and her long, straight hair was now silver from her crown down to her neck while the bottom half of her hair, which fell to the small of her back, was black. Growing it out was a slow process but Kaitlyn rather liked the look. She’d been dying her hair for years, since she’d gotten her first gray in her late twenties, but when she’d finally ended her marriage, she had promised herself to be more authentic in everything she did—and that included her hair and what she liked in the bedroom.
