Page 25 of Badari Medic

I love you more, she said in his mind.

Not possible, he shot back.We’ll have to call it a draw. “Holy shit, now I’m telepathic?”

“The goddess must be pleased with us since she granted the gift immediately,” Raeblin answered. A pensive expression settled over her features and she asked hesitantly, “Do you—do you sense the mate bond at all?”

Brent slid to the side and rolled on his back, rubbing his chest wheresomethinghad been aching and twinging for days. Now there was no pain. He was content and fulfilled. Closing his eyes, he blinked and shut the lids again to doublecheck. There in his mind’s eye was an intricate golden cord, running from his heart to hers. “Incredible. I do see it.”

“Can you feel this?”

He wasn’t sure what she was referring to but then like a sunburst unfolding warmth spread through his chest and a sensation of being loved and cherished engulfed him. Brent kissed her hard. “Can you teach me to do that for you?”

“I’m sure. We don’t have to master all the nuances of being Claimed mates in the first hour.” Her laugh was sweet and satisfied.

Brent curled his hand around her breast, thumbing the nipple. “Maybe if we practice some more?—”

“After dinner,” Raeblin said. “I’m starved and now is the time to explore all those goodies the chef sent over. Our mating feast.”

“Don’t move a muscle.” He scrambled off the bed and hastened toward the living room. “I’ll dish us up a first course and we can be decadent and eat it in bed.”

“I’ll pick dessert,” she called after him and he was pleased she liked his idea.

Loading up two plates with food from the containers in the stasis keepers, Brent couldn’t remember a happier moment in his entire life than right now, with a Claimed mate in his bed, about to bring her what she needed and then later—he had no doubts—he’d take care of her other needs again. He was glad he hadn’t brought any other woman to this residence so it could be special for the two of them alone.

He was in for quite a few changes in his life now, he guessed and he welcomed the idea, as long as Raeblin was by his side.I was stuck in my ways and my beliefs for too damn long. Comfortable in my rut. I let my parents set the parameters of my happiness years after they passed on and I should have known better.Pausing in his tracks, hands full with plates, he closed his eyes and directed a thank you to the Badari goddess, for sending him Raeblin to set him free of his narrow boundaries and push him into a new path.

There was no answer although he caught a whiff of an incredibly beautiful scent but then he was rushing to bring his mate her dinner and start on the rest of his life.

EPILOG

Afew weeks later…

Leaning against Brent, enjoying the way he’d wrapped his arms around her, Raeblin surveyed the stone circle deep in the valley’s forest. All the Badari were here tonight, including claimed mates and even Hope, Megan and Mateer’s toddler. Only the men who were on duty guarding their safety were absent. This was a celebration and a time to give thanks to the Great Mother for all her efforts on their behalf.

She and her mate were settling in to living together in his residence. Brent and several of the brothers had helped her move her personal items from the Daughters’ residence to his, which had immediately made his space less utilitarian and more welcoming. He’d asked her to do whatever she wanted to the place to make it a home and as a couple they’d spent a long time at Stores, selecting furnishings from the loot the Badari accumulated each time the packs took down a Khagrish lab.

He was on combat duty again, which was only right and proper since he was one of the most experienced and deadly operators the pack had. Brent continued to gain advantages from the blood transfusion as his body adapted more and more to its new composition. The healers and the doctors werefascinated by the way the Badari cells were working on him which was unique among the claimed human mates. Brent was decidedly less enthusiastic about being a guinea pig but he told Raeblin he’d go along with it to benefit any future human mates of Badari women who might receive a transplant.

The question of whether they could have a child together was unresolved yet but they’d talked and he was enthusiastic about the idea, as was she. For the human women, the transfusion from their Badari mate ensured fertility but no one had any idea if a formerly human man, now a Badari via transfusion could father a child with his Badari female mate.I guess we’ll find out.

The pack bond had sorted itself out in about twenty four hours, anchoring her firmly into Aydarr’s actual pack, where her mate had his blood bond. The outcome made her a bit sad and weepy, but Keshara assured her their sisterly bond wouldn’t change.

“It was never intended for me to establish a formal pack the way the brothers have themselves organized,” Keshara said. “And since Gabe and I’ll always be affiliated with Aydarr, you and I’ll always be in proximity.”

It was odd to stand with Brent in the midst of Aydarr’s actual pack, and to see her sisters clustered with Keshara and Gabe across the circle. Raeblin speculated whether her other sisters would find mates among the humans or the Badari as time went on, or remain single. It wasn’t her business of course but she did want them all to be as happy as she was. All her sisters had congratulated her, even Jezari, who was detached and antisocial 99% of the time since getting out of the hospital. But since Raeblin had spent the better part of a year as her personal nurse, Jezari had a shred more patience for her. At first Raeblin feared Jezari had skipped the ceremony despite Aydarr’s edict, which would have been a huge problem but then she saw her standing behind the other Daughters, a frown on her face.Raeblin offered up a quick prayer to the Great Mother to help her troubled sister find her way out of the prickly mental state she was in and to find a mate to be her partner, the way Brent was hers now.

Leadership had agreed Raeblin wasn’t going out on any more combat missions. The stakes were too high that the Khagrish might learn there were female Badari and her safety couldn’t be guaranteed, even with Brent at her side. She was actually happy with the decision because her flashbacks and PTSD, while better, flared up from time to time and she was afraid to go out on a deployment and freeze, thereby putting others at risk. There was plenty to do at the valley hospital, with the large number of humans now living in the valley. Accidents and illnesses were inevitable.

Distracting her from thoughts of her patient load at the hospital, the healers began to sing an ancient song from deep in the ancestral memory, a paean to the goddess. The music filled Raeblin’s consciousness with awe and happiness. She wondered how it was affecting Brent but didn’t want to disturb the moment to ask him, not even with telepathy.

For an instant Raeblin saw the Great Mother standing in the center of the stone circle, where no one else would dare to venture tonight. She was veiled in shadows but Raeblin was sure she was pleased by this gathering of her children. The goddess nodded her chin to Raeblin and was gone.

Did you see her?Brent asked on their private mental channel.I glimpsed her once in passing at the Wanderer’s place. Guess she approves of us being mates finally, you think?

I’m sure she does.Raeblin rubbed her fingertips over her shoulder where the golden mate mark had appeared the morning after their Claiming. Brent had a matching one. The visible symbol of their union was immensely pleasing to Raeblin and she was sure once they had their human wedding, thegolden ring on her finger would give Brent the same assurances. He was proud of his mate mark but in this his heart remained human and he wanted their symbol of eternal love. Once he got over his reluctance to risks involved with settling down with one woman—her—he was all in.

The song ended and the drummers switched to a new rhythm for the next portion of the evening, where senior brothers would be performing a sacred dance, also brought from the ancestral memory. Their inner predators had nothing to do with this—it was all Badari and Raeblin liked to think she’d gone traveling in time, here in the stone circle, to her actual forebears, before the enemy aliens swooped down on the planet and ended the lives of all the original Badari. Of course then she wouldn’t be with Brent, which was unthinkable.

Her mind drifted to the Wanderer and she was sad for him, living his immensely long life in solitude, yet keeping his hope alive for a better future for his brothers, and the sisters he was probably not aware he had. She wished they dared to revisit his cliff dwelling again but Aydarr had ruled it was too risky until the war was over.

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