Chapter Eight
Wray ’s knuckles were white as he gripped the top of the cave’s entrance, staring out at the raging storm. After they’d returned to the chamber, they’d eaten and Kim had fallen asleep in his arms, emotionally exhausted. He didn’t like how easily she tired and hoped to find the storm easing. Instead, it seemed to be gaining strength. He had told her that storms like these could rage up to a week, but in truth, he’d never known one too. He’d told her that before he’d gotten to know her, telling her what he would have told a Tornian female so she would be appreciative when the time was shorter. Now he thought he might be right.
He knew Kim was concerned about what she would face once they left here, concerns he understood, but he wanted to get her on the Searcher. He wanted to get her into the deep repair unit so he could be sure she was truly healed. He wanted to be able to feed her until she was full. He wanted her to rest in his bed, not in a thin survival blanket, on a hard cold floor.
He wanted to see her in his home, surrounded by its beauty and comfort. He wanted to see her wearing his House color and know she was safe and protected. He wanted to Join with her... to make her his... forever. He wanted to do all these things, but could do nothing until the storm ended.
Soft hands slipp ing around his waist brought his mind back to the present. They traveled up his chest as warm kisses were pressed against his back.
“Why aren’t you resting?” He asked , covering one of her hands with his.
“I missed you.” She murmured against his back.
Reaching an arm back, he pulled her to his side. “I haven’t been gone long.” He said, kissing the top of her head.
“I still missed you. ” She looked out into the storm “What's got you staring out into the storm? Is something wrong?”
“ No. I was just thinking about how beautiful you are going to look in my home.”
“Your home? ” she questioned, looking up at him.
“Yes , on the planet Tornian.”
“I hadn’t realized…” Kim frowned slightly. Why hadn’t she realized?
“Where did you think we would live?” He asked returning her frown.
“I thought we would be living on the Searcher.” She told him honestly. “I guess I should have realized you’d have to have a home somewhere since you had Adana and Van.”
“ I do, it is called Torino, House Torino and I think you will be very happy there. There are rooms filled with beautiful things for you to enjoy. It has gardens you can walk in…”
“You mean ‘ we.' Gardens we can walk in.”
“If that is what you wish .” Wray smiled, enjoying the thought of walking in the gardens with her, especially at night, with the light of Tornian’s moon shining down on her. She would be so beautiful in it. “I would enjoy that very much.” Leaning down, he captured her mouth for a hard kiss.
“Tell me more about your home.” Kim encouraged snuggling in closer to his side.
“Our home.” Wray corrected and received a brilliant smile in return.
“Our home. ” She agreed. “I'd like that. I’d like to have a home again.” Kim's smile dimming slightly as she thought about home.
“I am sorry that I do not know where your Earth is, Kim.” Wray told her, turning so he blocked a sudden gust of wind. “Would you,” he found himself asking as he moved them away from the entrance, “return if you could?”
“No. ” She immediately replied. “There’s no one left for me there.”
“What about your sister? Jen?”
“ She and Todd went missing over six months ago, that’s why the Ganglians found me.”
“What do you mean?”
Kim sighed heavily as she rubbed her hands over his chest, taking comfort in his solid presence. She knew she needed to tell him what had happened. How she had gotten here. They needed to be honest with each other if they were going to make this work.
“I’d just turned sixteen when mom and dad died. On Earth , you’re not considered an adult until you’re eighteen. I wasn’t allowed to live on my own, I had to have a guardian. Mom and dad had already arranged it that if anything ever happened to them Jen would be my guardian. Todd wasn’t happy about it.”
“This Todd, he is the one who Joined with your sister? The one you spoke of before?”
“Yes. He was Jen’s husband.”
“Why would he be unhappy to take responsibility for you? It is an honor for a male to be asked to care for a young female. It is a measure of his worth.”
“Maybe on Tornian but not so much on Earth. Todd and Jen had plans… dreams… Jen had graduated from culinary school and had spent the last couple of years working for other people. She and Todd had scrimped and saved so they could travel the world and experience different cultures and foods. My parents’ death changed that.”
“That was not your fault , Kim.”
“No, but my attitude was. You see, Todd and I had never really gotten along. I always thought he was an arrogant jerk and he thought I was a spoiled brat.” Kim shrugged her shoulders. “Turns out we were both right.”
“ No, Kim…” Wray immediately denied.
“ Yes, Wray. Todd was right about me. I was spoiled. I didn’t want to go live with them and I made sure they knew it. He didn’t want me there and he made sure I knew it. We fought all the time and poor Jen was left playing the peacemaker between the male she loved and the sister she felt responsible for.” Kim found herself lost in the past as she thought about what her sister had put up with.
“Kim…”
Wray’s concern brought her back to the present. “Sorry. So on my eighteenth birthday, Todd and I got into it again and Jen tried to calm things down, but this time I didn’t have to listen. I was eighteen and I knew more than she did and that’s exactly what I told her, only I wasn’t very nice about it.” Kim felt the shame of her actions fill her again. “By the time I was done Jen was crying and I just walked away.”
“It took me nearly six months to finally admit I was wrong.” Kim looked up at Wray but instead of seeing disappointment, she saw understanding. “I went to their apartment to tell her how sorry I was, but they weren’t there. A neighbor finally told me they’d gone on a trip and would be back in a few days. I didn’t want to wait so I tried to call Jen. She never answered and they never came back.”
“What happened to them ?”
“No one knows. Hundreds of people went out searching for them and the ten other people that were with them, but they never found them. After six months, I couldn’t take it any longer, so I went looking for them. That’s how stinky bastard found me. I was looking for Jen.”
“You went searching for them alone?” Wray didn’t try to hide his anger.
“She was my sister .” Kim looked up at him defiantly. “I don’t know if you can understand what that means, but I’d already lost my parents, I wasn’t going to lose her too, not without a fight.” Jerking herself out of his arms, Kim walked over and stared out at the storm. It swirled around so wildly… was so out of control… it reminded her of her life. Would the chaos ever end?
Wray opened his mouth to argue with her then snapped it shut because he did understand. If Grim had gone missing, nothing in the universe would have stopped him from searching for his brother. Could he fault Kim for being as loyal to her sister?
“I know they’re dead.” Unaware of where Wray’s thought’s had gone, Kim finally voiced the truth, she hadn’t wanted to face. “They have to be. It’s the only way Jen would have left me.”
“I’m sorry Kim.” Wray slowly pulled her into his arms, giving her a chance to protest if she wanted. “I do understand.” He told her. “I would be lost without my brother, Grim.”
Kim looked up at him, surprised. “You have a brother? I thought you said the female always left.”
“She does, but sometimes the female remains long enough to present a second offspring before she is enticed away by another.” This is not what happened with Wray’s mother, but he wasn’t ready to confess that to her, not yet.
“So you do understand why I went looking for her.”
“Yes , I understand, Kim, but that does not change the fact that you should not have gone alone. You nearly died because of it.”
“ Well, it’s not like I knew there were stinky, hairy aliens out there that liked to kidnap women and torture them! The worst that I thought could happen was that I’d ruin my shoes.”
“What?” Wray gave her a confused look , not understanding her words.
“I’m a city girl , Wray. This…” she waved her hand around the cave, “is not what I’m used to.”
“City girl…”
“City girl. I grew up in a place that had lots and lots of people living in it. We call them cities. It’s what I’m used to, not this.” She gestured around the cave.
“This is strange to you?” Wray couldn’t hide his shock.
“Of course it is. ”
“But you haven’t complained … not once.”
“Would it have made any difference?” she asked.
“No, but…”
“I take it a Tornian female would have complained.”
“Yes. ” He agreed. “About the lack of food, the lack of privacy. About not being able to leave.”
“But that’s not your fault. You got us here alive .”
“That would not matter to a Tornian female. She would expect a male to fulfill her every need, no matter how unreasonable, wherever they were, whenever she demanded it. If he did not she would consider him unfit and leave him.”
“That’s just crazy , Wray. Not to mention wrong! Even I’m not that selfish or stubborn.”
“You are neither , Kim. This Todd may have thought so, but he was wrong. He should have put your needs before his own. It seems to me, he was a selfish one."