Page 18 of Badari Medic

Brent eyed him, hearing no sincerity in the man’s words but knowing the two powerful enforcers wouldn’t allow the incident to continue. He nodded, putting his knife away. “Don’t let it happen again.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Mateer said, addressing the entire table, his eyes narrowed. “Brent’s one of the Originals, one of the three humans who helped Jill at the beginning, along with your Alpha’s mate Flo, might I add. Brent doesn’t help Jill then, maybe none of us are standing here right now as free men after 800 years of torture and death. However he came to be in the pack, we’re fortunate to have him and he’ll carry out his part of our job with honor and his considerable skills.” The enforcer turned to Brent, hand out. “Again, welcome.”

Brent shook the extended hand, then pivoted on his heel and returned to his lunch, sitting down as if nothing had happened.

Ivokk cuffed the now shame-faced Balkor on the back of the head so hard he fell to his knee. “Daegan wants to talk to you,now.” He and the soldier walked off together.

The humans in the commissary who hadn’t understood any of the excitement, since none of them spoke Badari, resumed eating in an uneasy silence, with many peering sideways in apprehension at the Badari.

“You were saying? About this afternoon’s drills?” Brent said to Camron.

The soldier flashed him a smile and picked up on the thread of the topic and his interrupted comments from before the incident without a hitch. The rest of the Badari fell to chatting and eating with no pause.

Yonn was leaving with Mateer, but he stopped next to Brent. “I’m glad you and Raeblin came back to us. She’s a sweet person—all the Daughters are great, but Raeblin is above and beyond. Thanks for standing up for her.”

“Thanks for having my six,” Brent said with genuine appreciation. “Probably best if you don’t go wading into fights between full grown males yet though.”

“I was trying to make him stand down,” Yonn said. “He’s not in my pack though and I wasn’t able to overcome his emotion. He was aggressive and worked up. I could have subdued him in another minute or two.”

“Another minute or two and the knives and talons would have been flashing,” Brent said with a grin and perfect truth.

“I think he had his eye on Raeblin at one time,” Mateer said, setting a hand on Yonn’s shoulder. “Which might have added to his fury. She wasn’t interested in him and they weren’t potential mates as far as I’m aware. Aydarr’s waiting, cub, we need to go.”

“You’re not in trouble, are you?” Brent asked, half rising. “It was my fight.”

Yonn drew himself up to his full height and his voice deepened, although a note of humor remained. “No trouble. I do think he wants to lecture me a bit about interceding but it’s an Alpha’s job to cool tempers and quash disagreements. I can’t act against my own nature, now can I?”

Oh yeah, once he had a few more years Yonn would be as powerful as Aydarr, Brent had no doubts. “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, I get it kid.”

“Aydarr understands as well but he’s waiting for us nevertheless.” Mateer firmly shepherded Yonn away from the table and the tension lessened further. Probably the only man who could take Mateer was Aydarr and possibly Daegan, the South Seas Alpha so once the huge enforcer was gone, everyone could relax.

Walking to the training area with Camron a few minutes later, Brent pondered the way he’d scented the lie in Balkor’s faux apology in addition to knowing from the man’s voice and attitude he was reluctantly acting repentant to appease the enforcers. It had been like a sour whiff of spoiled citrus rind in his nose. Brent added another mental note to his tally of what the blood transfusion had conferred upon him and turned his focus to the afternoon’s work.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“There was excitement in the commissary today,” Palinna said, eyes glowing. Her current work assignment was assisting Sandara the chef and learning about the operation of the huge facility. Sandara would be relocating to the South Seas when the war was over and her actual assistant was going to need help, hence Palinna’s presence as an intern. “Your man was involved.”

Raeblin’s attention was firmly caught. “What happened?”

“One of the South Seas guys made a derogatory remark about a human being in the packs now and about how we Daughters weren’t real Badari.” She waved her hand. “Something to that effect anyway. I got the details third hand. But Brent got right up in his face and challenged him to a fight over it. Mateer and Ivokk had to come in and break the confrontation up. I heard the South Seas soldier involved got harshly disciplined by Daegan, their Alpha.”

She wasn’t surprised it had been a man from the south who’d started the trouble. “Who was it?”

“Balkor. Do you know him?”

“I met him once or twice. He tried a few moves when I was swimming with the pack in the lake,” Raeblin said. “He’s one ofDaegan’s malcontents. Not all the men wanted to be forced into a formal pack, with the blood oath and then relocated up here to fight the war, you know." She was warmed by the knowledge Brent had stood up for her and the other Daughters and wished she'd been there to see it.

“Are you coming to the social event tomorrow night?” Palinna asked. She rushed on before Raeblin could answer. “I know Brent is planning to attend. I heard one of the human women ask him to go with her, before all the excitement went down.” She raised her eyebrows meaningfully. “He said he might see her there but he didn’t sound enthusiastic. We’re all going of course, since Aydarr insists we attend a minimum number of these events. Come with us—you haven’t had any fun in a long time and I’m sure your mission was stressful..”

What a massive understatement. Raeblin didn’t want to hurt her sister’s feelings as Palinna probably couldn’t begin to imagine the nature of the experiences she’d gone through during her absence. Keeping her voice mild, she said, “I’ll think about it.”

Her answer, so similar to Brent’s, satisfied her sister and Palinna left Raeblin’s room, no doubt to go spread her gossip elsewhere in the small pack of women. Raeblin looked at her handheld as she’d done innumerable times since arriving back in the valley. The short text from Brent had meant so much to her but she kept hoping he’d send another or come to see her in the Daughters’ residence. She’d broken down on the flyer, sheer relief at being safe and seeing her Alpha Keshara overwhelming her, and there’d been no chance to even speak to Brent during the flight or once they’d landed.

Gabe had whisked him away to meet with Aydarr.

Of course she could go see him, or initiate another text but her pride kept her from doing either. She wasn’t the one with a problem—he was the one who didn’t want to be mated.Raeblin and her inner predator wanted him to make the first move, to soothe her wounded heart and maybe work on their relationship. The longer they went without contact the more chances her stubborn soldier would talk himself into rejecting their unsealed bond.

Keshara had shared with her how Gabe had refused her first overture about becoming claimed mates too, which surprised Raeblin no end. The two were so in love and so firmly bonded. But his reasons had been different than Brent’s, focusing more on the fact Keshara at that point hadn’t even met any Badari men and Gabe believed to be honorable he needed to hold off and wait before allowing her to claim him. Of course his noble resolve hadn’t lasted long in the dangerous, chaotic situation at the lab, not with the events they’d lived through before they escaped.

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