Page 16 of Badari Medic

The declaration didn’t jibe with what Brent expected and he shot Gabe a glance. “With all due respect, sir, since I’m carrying Raeblin’s blood, don’t I belong in Keshara’s pack? If I belong in a pack at all.”

“Are you her claimed mate?” Aydarr shot back.

“No, sir, you know I’m not.”

“Mates become members of their other half’s pack.” A strange expression crossed the Alpha’s face and he added ruefully. “No one expected a Badari Daughter to mate with anyone other than a Badari Warrior so we weren’t prepared for this situation.”

“But Gabe?—”

“Yes, he’s Keshara’s mate and they have the mating bond sealed in blood,” Aydarr said. “It’s a different thing than the pack bond.” He leaned forward, tapping one talon on the table.“This does not leave this room, although of course every Badari knows it. Keshara isn’t an Alpha. She wasn’t Alpha-born and she hasn’t and won’t acquire the dominance to make her one. She and her girls share a pack bond but it’s a unique link and not at all like the one the males have. Not based on dominance but on sisterhood as I understand it. We assume it’s because the women don’t have the 800 years of forced evolution we acquired in our labs. Her ‘pack’ is a polite fiction we all agreed to when the Daughters arrived because we’d never dealt with anything like it before and in no way did it feel right to make them swear blood oath on their knees to me. Keshara did on their behalf. Again, we expected them to mate into the existing packs over time and Gabe and Keshara would remain affiliated with my pack. She’d retain her status as an Alpha, on the council of Alphas and be an advisor to me.” He waved one hand as if to brush all of what he’d said aside. “The point is, aside from her own mate, Keshara will not have warriors. She isn’t going to have you. Maybe in another time and place things could be different but I have to work with what’s in front of menowand again, I will not have a soldier with our blood outside the pack. For a human, you’re deadly, tough, experienced and an asset. For a transfused Badari, you’re still the same man and I’m happy to have you in my pack because what’s done is done.”

“And if we do become mates?” Brent asked, although right now that was very much an uncertain outcome in his mind.

“She joins my pack directly through the mate bond. The pack bond will sort itself out like it reliably does. If she chooses a different mate, an actual Badari, then she’ll be in his pack.”

Brent was so immediately angry at the idea of Raeblin mating with a Badari Warrior, he had a hard time concentrating on the next speaker.

“The goddess herself decided you were worthy to mate with a Badari Daughter,” Timtur said. “She pushes a Badari into thepath of a potential fated mate but then it’s up to the individual to decide whether to accept the claim or not. Have no doubts, however; with the addition of Raeblin’s blood, you are now counted as one of us in the eyes of the Great Mother.”

“Enough discussion.” Aydarr banged the table with his fist. “I will take your oath now.” He gestured to the open area beside the table and chairs. “You will kneel.”

Everything in Brent rebelled at the idea of being forced to accept a new role and to become a pack member. It was the exact thing he’d avoided ever since he left the human military. He was an independent, free agent, living as he chose to do so. Sure he’d been under Aydarr’s command all this time technically but that was a hell of a lot different than becoming an actual bloodsworn warrior.Raeblin, what have you done to me, girl?

He’d seen a few men swear their allegiance to Aydarr during his time with the Badari. He knew the drill but he stayed in his chair for a last, doomed second or two of independence. Would the Supreme Alpha kill him if he refused? What would defiance accomplish?

Gabe laid his hand on Brent’s shoulder and squeezed hard. “Proud to stand with you, brother.”

Mateer had moved to the open space already and Aydarr and Jill were waiting.

Gut in knots as if he was going to his execution, Brent rose and walked the few steps to the spot. He kept his face blank of expression as he sank to his knees and the two enforcers—Gabe and Mateer—held him on either side. He tilted his head to give Aydarr easy access to his neck and held rock steady as the Alpha blooded him with one blink-and-you-miss-it slash from his fangs. He repeated the necessary oath of fealty and the deed was done. Aydarr extended his hand and Brent shook it. Jill, to his utter amazement, kissed his cheek, which was a gesture Aydarrnormally would have killed him for receiving from his mate and then the actual Badari and Jill all left the room. Gabe was the only one remaining.

“You okay?” his friend asked.

“Yeah. I’m going to my quarters, need some space, brother.” Struck by a thought, Brent blinked. “Do I get to keep my own residence? Or do I need to relocate to the damn barracks like a fucking new guy?”

“Aydarr assured Keshara and me you’d keep all privileges you already had, based on your support for Jill in the early days and to the Badari since. You’re not the FNG. The Badari know you, have seen you in action. This blood thing messes them all up, honestly. Aydarr’s on edge because of the ongoing war and the new tricks the Khagrish are springing on us and he didn’t want to deal with any complications. He wanted to get you squared away in his pack, have it be a done deal and move on.” As they walked into the corridor and headed for the door to the outside, Gabe added, “I tried to convince him to let it go, or to wait a while to see how the transfusion affects you but my suggestion was a no go. He was adamant.”

Although Brent appreciated Gabe’s efforts, his overall emotion remained anger.

“Don’t hold this against Raeblin,” Gabe said. “If she thinks you could be her mate, of course she’s going to do everything in her power to save your life. Did you get the telepathy?”

Brent shook his head.

“It’ll come if you two claim each other. The goddess withholds it otherwise, or so we believe.”

“I told Raeblin I wasn’t on board for this mating stuff,” Brent said. “Not my nature to settle down—you know that about me.”

Gabe was silent for a minute. “Times change is all I can say. I used to think the same about my life and so did Flo but now both of us are claimed mates and firmly entrenched in thestructure here. Neither of us will ever be leaving. I don’t think there’s ever been a situation where the mates didn’t end up together. Give it time maybe, see how you feel. Raeblin’s a good person, helped me quite a bit when I was a prisoner at their lab and when we were escaping. I like her.”

Brent swallowed a hot retort. “I’ll be in my residence if you need me. Since I didn’t get the telepathy, I guess you’ll have to com me,”

Clapping him on the shoulder, Gabe seemed troubled and Brent was sure his friend had a lot more to say but he wasn’t in any mood to listen so the men parted in silence, with Brent walking away and not looking back.

His cave was as he’d left it, with a bare minimum of furnishings and no decoration. He got a beer out of the stasis freeze unit and sank into his chair in the living area. He sat, head down, beer dangling unopened from his hand and tried to absorb all the things that had happened to him on the mission just completed. The scope was so huge, from nearly dying, to Raeblin, to today with Aydarr that he couldn’t assemble it into any understandable set of realities to deal with. With a bitter laugh, he took a long drink of the beer and then strode to the sink to spit it out. His first thought was the drink had spoiled despite being in stasis but then he remembered Badari couldn’t handle alcoholic feelgoods.

Of all the ways his life had changed, this one was the last straw. He poured out the rest of it and tossed the bottle into the recycler before heading into his bedroom. He took a fast shower to rinse off the remainder of the grime from the mission and flopped onto the bed, staring at the phosphorescent lichen making patterns on the cave’s roof far above.

When Aydarr had blooded him he’d felt…well, he didn’t know what to call it. He was in no way psychic but something inexplicable and emotional expanded in his chest, not scary orpainful, but warm. For a moment he’d heard many voices in his head and then right before he was so dizzy he’d have fallen over, the voices muted. Brent rubbed his chest gingerly. It was still there, quietly humming, connecting him to…what? Was this the fabled pack bond? How could he, a human, even with Raeblin’s blood cells taking over his bone marrow, possibly feel the pack bond?

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