Page 193 of Tamed By Her Touch

“Yes.” Clair nodded.

“And you loved me before—before the Bond?” he asked.

“Oh my God.” She threw both hands into the air. “Yes, before the Bond! I loved you before Sendar injected you, before you bit me, probably before we ever got to this crazy planet! I just didn’t have the good sense to admit it.”

There was another stretch of silence and then Kaelus wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest. He buried his face in the side of her neck and breathed her in, inhaling her scent as though he could never get enough.

“Oh, Lissa’ra,” he rumbled in her ear. “I love you too—so much!”

They clung together for a long, long time, breathing each other in, sending feelings of love through their new Bond.

Finally, Kaelus pulled away and Clair saw that his eyes were suspiciously bright. Was her huge, grouchy, muscular lab partner crying?

It seemed he might be.

“Clair,” he said softly, “I will endeavor every day of the rest of my life to deserve you.”

“Well…” Maera and Varell came over to them, smiling and looking slightly confused.

“I’m not quite sure what just happened,” Marea said, looking at both of them. “But it seems the two of you have a reached a happy conclusion.”

“So happy.” Kaelus rose from where he had been kneeling. Reaching down, he swung Clair into his arms, making her gasp.

“Kaelus!” she exclaimed, panting a little. “Behave!”

“I cannot.” He pulled her in for another kiss. “You’re mine, Lissa’ra,” he sent through their link. “And I am yours—forever.”

EPILOGUE

KAELUS

“Well, it seems congratulations are in order!” Commander Sylvan said, leaning back behind the enormous desk in his office aboard the Kindred Mother Ship. “The two of you saved many lives.”

Kaelus glanced at Clair, who was sitting beside him in one of the chairs facing Sylvan’s desk, and felt the warm answering pulse of her presence through their Bond. Nearly three weeks had passed since they left Titus Four, and he still hadn’t grown accustomed to the quiet miracle of knowing she was there, tied to him.

Sometimes her mental presence was only a faint warmth at the edge of his awareness. Other times, especially when Clair was annoyed with him, her emotions came through with remarkable clarity whether she intended them to or not. At the moment she was pleased, tired, and faintly amused—probably because Sylvan was looking at them like a proud father congratulating two particularly troublesome children.

“It wasn’t just us,” Clair said. “Maera and Varell did a lot of the work, and once we isolated the active veloria metabolite, the medical teams here were able to synthesize it amazingly fast.”

“That may be true, but none of it would have happened if you hadn’t discovered how the compound was created and transferred,” Sylvan pointed out. “And Doctor Kaelus uncovered the evidence proving the Glenvarren outbreak was deliberate. I think both of you can accept a little credit.”

Kaelus inclined his head, though his mind immediately returned to Glenvarren.

He and Clair had gone there only briefly after leaving Titus Four, taking the first synthesized doses of antidote with them while the Mother Ship laboratories worked to create enough for the entire infected population.

He would never forget the condition of the colony when they arrived, he thought. The Savage males had been isolated in reinforced medical wards—many of them restrained and sedated for their own safety and the safety of everyone around them. Their wives had been kept nearby whenever possible, though some were recovering from injuries and others were too frightened to come close until the treatment began working.

The first male they treated had been a Beast Kindred named Brellan, who had been Bonded to his wife for nearly twelve years. When Kaelus first saw him, Brellan had been strapped to a reinforced medical bed, snarling and fighting the restraints while his eyes burned with the same terrible red light Kaelus remembered seeing reflected in Clair’s frightened face in the Containment Center.

They had administered the synthesized veloria compound intravenously, though Clair insisted on remaining beside the observation window for the entire procedure despite Kaelus telling her she needed to stay clear of the danger.

Less than twenty minutes later, the red had begun fading from Brellan’s eyes and the violent struggling stopped. His body had relaxed against the restraints.

After testing his blood markers and finding him safe, Brellan’s wife was at last allowed to enter the room. Kaelus thought he would remember that moment for the rest of his life.

Brellan had looked at his wife—confused at first. But then recognition flooded his face and he began to weep. They weren’t quiet tears, but deep, broken sobs as he begged his wife’s forgiveness for things he had done while the virus controlled him.

His wife hadn’t said a thing, but she had crossed the room without hesitation and wrapped her arms around him as soon as the physicians released the restraints.