“I’m so fucking tired,”Kari Gy’at Li muttered to herself. “Why can’t I fall asleep?”Sighing, she stood up and padded over to the viewing portal insideher bedchamber and stared at the ominous ice planet looming in thedistance. She couldn’t shake the bizarre feeling enveloping herthat whatever secrets lay in waiting down there would impact morethan Dari and her—it was going to have an effect oneveryone. Or at leasteveryone who mattered to her.
“Or maybe I’ve got a good,old-fashioned case of space dementia,” she said unblinking. “I’vebeen aboard ship too fucking long.”
Whether or not Khan-Gorended up holding the key that would unravel the mystery surroundingthe evil one was likely debatable, but either way, she was lookingforward to transporting from thegastrolight-cruiserto the alienterrain below. Standing on any landscape was appealing at themoment—even if said planet turned out to be as nightmarish as sheassumed it was going to be.
Kari needed sleep. She knew she would be nogood to Dari without it. Dari might have been claimed by Gio, buthe was a fool if he thought he could stop his bride in her quest toprotect him. “I’ve got a newsflash, Gio,” Kari murmured. “Womenwill fight to protect the men they love the same as warriors willfight to protect their Sacred Mates.”
Kari would know. Protecting the only manshe’d ever loved had more than a little bit to do with why she wasstanding here now. She might not be able to give him everything hewanted from her, but he’d always own her heart and soul… even if itwas from a faraway distance. And even if he didn’t exactly knowit.
Isar K’al Draji—the warlord everyone saveKari called Death. He was big. He was brutal. He could crush mostmen with his massive, bare hands. She could understand why he wasreferred to as Death; she just didn’t agree. The only thing Isarhad ever brought to her was life.
A knock at the door should have snaggedKari’s attention, but it practically failed to register. The knockwas too harsh to belong to Dari’s hand, which could only mean thatone of the plethora of warriors who had boarded ship wanted to talkto her. Well, damn it, he or they could wait. She wasn’t in themood to get bitched out by Dari’s father, uncles, or anyone elsefor that matter. She harbored no regrets in helping theprincess—her niece—escape.
“Go away,” she said in amonotone. “I’m too exhausted for Trystonni bullshit rightnow.”
Again, a knock. Kari semi-rolled hereyes.
“Do you speak Trystonni?”she asked in Trystonni. “Or Galian?” she asked in Galian. “I saidto get the fuck lost.”
Turning around, she padded away from theviewing portal and climbed back up onto her bed. Falling on herback with a groan, she closed her eyes and tried once more to fallinto ever-elusive slumber.
“Kara,” a deep voice softlyreverberated. “Open the doors,pani.”
Pani—little one.
Kari’s eyes flew open. She gasped, her heartrate kicking into overdrive.
Isar was here. He had come for her.
Panicked, Kari jumped off the bed andfrenetically glanced around for a method of escape. She may havemissed him—hell, she may have even loved him—but she was not thetype of female who could accept Trystonni mating as a way of life.Her adoptive sister Klykka had seen to that.
“Y-you shouldn’t call me bymy birth name!” Kari said dumbly as her gaze continued searchingfor a route to freedom. Of all the shit to focus on! “You’ll getinto trouble.”
Silence. Thick, repressive, and moreunnerving than anything he could have said aloud. Her skin feltslick with moisture.
“Open the doors, Kara,”Isar calmly instructed. “Leastways, do not force me to break themdown.”
She swallowed roughly, herice-blue eyes wide. Her wine-red hair whipped around as shefrantically searched for a non-existent escape.This can’t be happening! This isn’t real!
Yet she knew that it was very real. IsarK’al Draji had come for her. Kari highly suspected he’d never againlet her out of his sight. While such an outcome held definiteappeal to her weary self, she owed it to Dari to be there for herwhen it came time to venture down to the alien planet below. Andthen there was the other part. Namely, her freedom.
“I can’t do this, Isar,”Kari said. Her breathing was heavy, her voice cracking. “I cannever be who it is you want me to be.”
Silence. And the sound of strange footfallsrunning toward Isar.
“I’m sorry,” Karicontinued. She backed up against the viewing portal until there wasnowhere left to go. “You deserve better than me.”
The sleeping compartment’s large doorswhizzed open. A warrior foreign to Kari bowed to his giantcommander before placing the override key in his palm. That done,he ran off to wherever it was he’d come from.
The giant slowly turned to face her. Herteeth punishingly bit into her lower lip. A familiar, golden gazefound her frightened one. He said nothing as he determinedlyentered her private chambers. The doors whizzed closed—andlocked—behind him. She gulped.
“Isar,” Kari breathed out.She didn’t need a bridal necklace to surmise the myriad emotionswaging war within him. Anger, relief, a sense of betrayal, and whatcould only be described as longing. “You’re here.”
* * * * *
King Isar K’al Draji drankin the sight of his bride-to-be. All theseYessat-Yearslater and she lookedmore beautiful to him now than she had back then. He could see thefear writ across her lovely face. He mentally chastised himselfagain for having been a fool to let her escape in the first.Clearly, an unclaimed Sacred Mate’s natural fear of the unknown hadgrown exponentially worse within Kara to the point where she shookeven now. Her eyes were wide, her breathing was labored, as hergaze anxiously searched for an exit. Unless the Galians had learnedhow to teleport without teleporters, there would be no leaving himthis time.
That last thought causedhim to momentarily pause.Hadthe Galians learned such a thing? He grimlyconceded ‘twas possible. Never would he have believed aforewitnessing it that Galians could speak to each other with naughtbut the power of their minds, yet they could. ‘Twas this worry thatcaused his next words to come out overly harsh. “Cease your searchfor an escape that does not exist. Leastways, there is nowhere youcan run to where I will not find you.”
