Page 66 of Game on Askole

Detja tapped her communications bracelet and frowned.“The entire Askole battle fleet has left Tanith’s airspace. They aren’t answering our hails.”

Musa let out a high-pitched cry and flew off.

“Why Daddy Tihar leave?”KeeKee clutched my neck.

“To stop the rebel attack on Jinjira.”Anger vied with the devastating sensation of loss. I ached for Tihar. Our mental connection was as necessary as breathing. Did he realize what he had done to me? A harsh laugh broke from me.“One minute everything was perfect, and then I get booted off Tihar’s ship. I’m a warrior, not a helpless female. Why doesn’t he understand that?”

“Eat.”Detja held out a piece of chocolate.“Battle-crazed males are driven to find and kill the enemy. Eventually, reason returns. Then you will have your answer.”

PART TWO

Chapter Thirteen

Ten days had passed, and I still didn’t have an answer. Tihar’s silence was frightening. Zarek said Jinjira had been destroyed and a fierce battle raged at the western front. I kept telling myself once the war was over, Tihar would return for me.

Poor Musa missed her daddy as much as I did. With KeeKee along for the ride, she emitted high-pitched cries as she flew around the cavern looking for Tihar.

Detja came up with a great suggestion. Tanith had a pest problem. She wanted Aunt Tess to train Musa to catch and kill the Tanezumi, ratlike creatures that infested the underground cities. My aunt loved the idea, and Musa seemed to enjoy hunting down the varmints. KeeKee had a good time zapping them with web balls.

While I was stuck in limbo, my body began to change. Dark gray scales formed on my skin, but no buds or tentacles had appeared, yet. In the speed department, I wasn’t superhero fast, but a four-minute mile was a piece of cake.

Life moved on without me. Zandar, the gaunt Coletti that turned the Legionnaires into chop suey, claimed Sam. She soon found out that once a warlord had chosen and marked you, there was no escape. Not that my cousin didn’t try. Poor Zandar had his hands full keeping her in line and rebuilding his home planet of Sobek.

Voss finally found his mate, and yep, she was a Jones. Zoey ran circles around the Battle Commander and unleashed her own brand of whoop-ass to discourage his pursuit. My favorite was the skunk perfume. Warlords were persistent buggers, and he finally corralled her. Zoey loved the bad-tempered jerk. Go figure.

My cousins and Uncle Derek decided the best way to fight the Tai-Kok was to become Coletti. Uncle Derek returned to Earth to help Uncle Saul find the traitors taking down our defense systems. Quinn, Jake, Caleb, and Ethan were in the Coletti version of boot camp.

Uncle Saul rescued Casey from an island in the South Pacific and put her to work in his office. To everyone’s surprise, Hothar, Voss’s nephew, and Casey became best friends. In the Jones tradition, Casey managed to stir things up. General Tasker was not pleased. Like we cared.

The biggest shocker was Hank Benson of Earth First was our long-lost cousin Bree’s adopted father. Even more amazing, Bree’s dead sperm donor had been a Coletti warlord who’d crashed-landed on our planet. And the ultimate stunner? Bree was the Overlord’s granddaughter. Small universe.

Jaylan, Zarek’s best hunter, had been sent to Earth to eliminate Earth First. Luckily, after Bree zapped him with a cattle prod, Jaylan decided she would make the perfect mate, and the chase was on.

Bree and Jaylan’s bonding ceremony was a complete disaster. Before the ritual could be completed, a very pregnant Kaylee was kidnapped by the Shani Queen Mother, a psychotic alien bent on conquering the universe. I wasn’t permitted to leave Tanith and missed all the excitement.

Kaylee described in minute detail how she was forced to give birth, alone, in the middle of a battle with only a baby Tabor for help. Her son, Thor, was adorable and very unique. He had abilities only a much older child would have. Considering how powerful his parents were, I wasn’t surprised. The Queen Mother? She died like she lived. Grotesquely.

Just when I thought Tihar had forgotten he had a mate, I would feel him in my head, and for a moment, the aching emptiness would vanish. He needed me as badly as I needed him, but something was stopping him from contacting me for more than a minute. Before I could yell at him for leaving me, the link would vanish. It made me madder than a rattlesnake at a Thai wedding.

Going nuts with boredom, frustration, and anger, I gave my guards the slip and borrowed a shuttlecraft for a joyride around Tanith. I figured if I flew low enough, the Coletti version of radar wouldn’t pick me up.

Let’s just say the Overlord was not amused. He invaded my mind, tore me a new one, and gave me the knowledge on how to fly a Talon fighter, one awesome piece of spacecraft. To say I was grateful was an understatement. I wanted to hug the Overlord, but damn, he was one scary dude. I settled for a salute.

Zarek assigned me to the War Hawks combat wing. It was our job to escort freighters from the market world of Illowra to Tanith and back. Fighting off pirate attacks was a full-time job. By the time I finished my run, all I wanted to do was sleep.

That was when I started getting brief midnight visits from Tihar. A kiss. A big hand caressing my body. The sensation of being stroked with a feather sent goose bumps skittering over my skin. A nibble on that special spot behind my ear. A hot tongue licking my clit. It was driving me nuts. I wanted all of him.

One night a loudboomjerked me out of a deep sleep, and something slammed into me. Agony roiled through my body as jagged pieces of metal and plasticrete pelted me. Sonovabitch. That hurt. A lot. I frantically surveyed my room. What in the hell was going on? Was Tanith under attack?

Then it hit me. Tihar! It was his pain. He was injured and had instinctively connected with me. In his scrambled brain, I could pick up random thoughts.Bomb. Base under attack. Shields down.

“How badly are you hurt? Where are you? I’ll come to you.”

A groan was my only response as Tihar struggled to rise.

Summoning all my psychic abilities, I surged into his head and took control.“Open your eyes.”For a moment, everything was fuzzy. His vision cleared, and I could see funnels of black smoke rising from the destroyed compound. All around us was chaos, violence, and death. Askole warriors were ebony blurs as they fiercely fought off the rebel invaders.

I poured every ounce of energy I had into Tihar.“Get up and fight, dammit. I’m not losing you now.”

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