Chapter 11
ELEVEN
“Where are your rooms?” Drex held Madison tight to him.
Later, he would greet his brother’s mate.
Later, he would follow up on the dead at the outpost and send messages to Tagja City.
Later, he would eat and bathe and do all the things one did after a journey such as theirs, but now was for Madison. Seeing her pale skin and slack face sent a spike of panic up his spine. “Do you have a medi-tank?”
Trak frowned at Madison in concern. “No, but I will see that she gets what she needs.” He tapped the communicator in his ear and gave orders to someone named Niir to secure a suite of rooms with a medi-tank immediately.
Drex was impressed that his brother didn’t bother to say who the rooms were for, but still expected them to be prepared instantly.
“Thank you.” Drex knew fear was showing in his face and didn’t care. “I cannot let her die.”
“She won’t die.” Trak rolled his eyes. “She’s dehydrated and exhausted. Half a cycle in a medi-tank and she’ll be right as rain.”
Drex frowned at him, puzzled. “What has rain to do with anything? You can take that chip out of your head.” He glanced at Anna, Trak’s mate. “Or do you need it to understand him?”
The female gave a crooked, cocky grin that resembled Trak’s. “Oh, I can understand him,” she replied in Virilian as she turned to leave. “Sometimes more than I’d like to.”
Drex decided right there and then that he liked this female. She walked off, fingers pressed to the v-link in her ear.
Trak made a dramatic sigh and waved his hand forward. “Come on then. You’ve been assigned quarters next to mine.” He gave Drex a bland smile. “To my utter joy.”
If Drex had less on his mind, he would have smirked or offered a smart remark in return, as this was his relationship with Trak.
There was sarcasm. There were barbed comments.
There was also undying loyalty and love.
As children, they had argued so much, a rumor had begun that they hated each other.
It wasn’t true, but they played it up for their own amusement.
The routine stuck, but underneath it, Drex and Trak were brothers in every sense of the word.
He followed his brother—fine, half brother—through the crowded corridors of the trading post. Madison was limp, cradled in his arms. The fact that no one gave a second look to a male toting around an unconscious female did not speak well for the reputations of those patronizing the trading post. That assessment should include Trak, but his younger brother had always walked an ethically ambiguous line.
Of the two of them, Trak had been the wanderer, the adventurer, and the one who found trouble no matter where it hid.
It was fortunate for both of them—and Exir City—that Drex was the elder brother, as he was content to stay and work to rebuild while Trak made his fortune in space and handled all of Exir City’s trade business.
He did a good job at that. And now his wayward brother had a mate and a son.
He hoped to meet his nephew, if the boy was traveling with his parents.
Accommodations at the trading post were small and spare and lacking in the luxuries Drex was accustomed to.
However, the room Trak opened for him contained a medi-tank and that was all that concerned him.
He laid Madison inside the transparent, rectangular tank and lowered the lid over her.
She was so still. The unit turned on automatically.
A thick blue gel poured in from holes in the bottom and slowly encased her in it.
Drex watched her become submerged in the substance, which would soon deliver her vital signs and begin healing her.
“Frankly, I’m shocked that you consented to being matched,” said Trak.
“I didn’t.” Drex’s gaze was locked on the monitor, which was beginning to display a readout of her physical condition. “Ferias returned from Earth with her.”
Trak let out a low whistle. “And you didn’t send her back.”
“How could I?” Drex frowned at the numbers on the screen. Madison was definitely dehydrated. “Ferias asked that she stay. You know I could not defy the Sage.” Plus, he didn’t want to.
“Also, she’s your great-aunt,” added Trak. “Not mine, thank the stars.”
Drex sent him a withering look. Trak’s mother bonded to their father after the death of Drex’s mother, but he considered both females his mothers. “Ferias is all we have left of our family.”
Trak went serious. “This is true. Except for the families we are making now.”
“I am not making a family.” The very thought made Drex’s stomach clench. “I am caring for this female until the time when my great-aunt sees fit to send her back to Earth.” He turned away from the medic unit. “She and I share no bond.”
His infuriating brother laughed. “You have bumped uglies with this female. Don’t bother denying it.”
“Bumped what?” Drex questioned.
Trak waved a hand. “An English phrase my dear Anna detests, so of course I have worked it into my vocabulary. It means you have had sex with her, and since you do nothing of an impulsive nature, dear half brother, I deduce that you care for this female.”
One thing Trak excelled at was reading people. It made him so very good at navigating complicated trade negotiations and commanding the loyalty of a large crew. The extra intuition also made him annoyingly accurate. “Of course I care for her. She is a member of my household, temporarily.”
Trak crossed his arms. “Temporarily. Right.” He smirked. “That’s why you’re glued to this medi-tank screen like it holds the secrets of the universe. Maybe to you, it does.” He said that last bit so wistfully, it made Drex grin.
“Are you still writing poetry, brother?”
“When inspiration strikes.” Trak raised one eyebrow. “Anna likes it.”
Drex snorted. “I doubt that. More than likely she is simply indulging you.”
“She does indulge me.” Trak let out a longing sigh. “She very generously indulges me on a regular basis. But she also likes my poetry.”
Drex rolled his eyes. He recalled his brother’s poems. If he didn’t steer the conversation elsewhere, he might soon be subjected to one. “Any word from Tagja City?”
“Yes. First, all the transports arrived yesterday and your people have been settled in temporary quarters.” He flattened a palm on his chest. “I have generously volunteered to shuttle you and your lovely companion there in the morning.”
“If she is better.”
“She will be better.” Trak shook his head and gestured to the medic unit. “Look at that. Her monitor has begun counting down to her full health restoration. She was depleted and once her body has been rejuvenated, the unit will revive her. She will awaken before the third sun fully sets.”
Drex grunted. “She looked very pale.”
“There was nothing actually wrong with her,” said Trak. “She just reached the limits of her endurance, which are considerable, I might add. She will do well living on this horrid planet.”
“She will not be living on this planet. Eventually she will return to Earth, where she belongs.” Drex wondered if his brother was trying to distract him by drawing them into a debate over the virtues of their home planet and those of keeping a mate.
To pass the time, he indulged, but they were not far into their debate when Trak’s mate arrived.
Anna was a beautiful female, but what captivated his attention was the blond-haired boy who toddled in with her. He had a chubby hand wrapped around two of his mother’s fingers. A blue, barbed tail swished behind him.
Drex was not prepared for the clutch in his belly or the ache seizing his throat.
His thoughts flickered to the child he was expecting with Tuli, then snapped to thoughts of Madison, but underlying all of them was a sharp bite of longing.
Ah, to have a family. Once, it was a deep desire, but he had set it aside with the passing of his mate.
He took in the sight of his brother gazing at his family with a softness that he’d never imagined Trak capable of.
His younger brother’s personality was the same, but who he was had evolved.
If Trak could open himself in such a way, could Drex, too?
He wasn’t sure. Trak had always been the more adaptable of the two of them.
The toddler’s green eyes lit up when he saw his father. “Da!” the boy squealed. He broke away from Anna and ran to Trak, tripping when he was mere feet from him.
“Ho, there.” Trak scooped him up before the little boy landed facedown on the floor, and settled him into his arms. Trak wiped away a line of drool from the child’s chin with a practiced hand. “Drex Letu, meet Reo James Letu, your nephew. Well, half-nephew.”
The boy regarded Drex with a solemn stare, then turned bashfully into his father’s shoulder.
“There is no ‘half’ anything when it comes to family,” said Anna, who Drex was liking more with each passing moment. She placed a hand to her mate’s chest, then she turned to Drex with a smile. “Nice to meet you, officially, that is.”
Trak’s female wore her hair in the ornately braided style of Virilian women and dressed as a space trader who was well aware of her allure and power. Drex inclined his head in a sign of respect. “The pleasure is mine. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that my brother has made such a fine match.”
She cocked her head. “I have to say, you look nothing like Trak described.”
Drex’s lips twitched. “I can only imagine,” he replied. “Your mate and I lead vastly different lives, but…” he turned to Trak, who gently bounced his son on his hip, “at the heart of things, we are not so different, I think.”
Surprise flickered in Trak’s eyes. Little Reo wriggled from his arms and toddled over to the glowing tank containing Madison. He pressed his face to the glass and gazed at the sleeping female inside.
“She’ll wake up soon, love.” Anna ran a hand over her son’s tousled head and turned a raised eyebrow to Drex. “We’re eager to meet her.”