Page 15 of Zimon's Bride
“Grath came outside after me. He apologized tome. I told him I must be losing my mind. I had never felt like that before and didn’t know where it came from. He told me that it was him, that he had done this to me. And, of course, I thought he had also lost his mind because he hadn’t done anything but look up at me. Then he explained about the pheromones and that we were soul mates, and I really thought he was out of his mind.” Kiley laughed hysterically as she said the last. “When it started to sink and what it meant, then I got mad. I started hitting him, slapping him on the chest, and yelling at him. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me so I couldn’t hit him anymore, and he kissed me. Then I kissed him back, knowing everything he said was true.”
Kiley quit her job that day and went into seclusion with Grath. As it turned out, Grath and Zimon are good friends working together on the human trafficking task force. He would leave the Defense Force two months after Zimon and return to Narova. Grath had planned that even before he met Kiley.
They wouldn’t be living in the same village as Zimon and me, but it would only be about a 40-minute flight in Zimon’s craft. Of course, we would talk often on our com units as much as we liked. As close as Zimon and Grath were, Kiley and I both expected that we would get together often.
Although it was disappointing that Zimon was away so much in the last weeks we remained on Earth, I couldn’t be angry with him. I knew how much it meant to him to finish what he started before his tour of duty ended. Instead, I cherished our time together as it made up for our time apart.
Zimon
Samara had been embedded with Dalton Lane’s gang for a few weeks. She had successfully gained his trust and was in deep undercover. We constantly monitored her because any misstep could put her in grave danger.
One day while tracking Dalton’s location, we received an urgent message from Samara. While she didn’t elaborate on what happened, she was in serious danger, and we needed to get her out of there.
Dalton didn’t know that Samara carried an internal tracker implanted under her skin that could only be tracked with Alliance technology. Jack quickly called the team together, and we flew to where Samara was being held. It was another Tenzari base in the mountains. It took longer than we would’ve liked to find the entrance. As we stealthily moved the team, we discovered Tenzari slavers loading human women into their shuttlecraft.
Samara was among them, struggling to escape the two Tenzari males holding each arm as her hands were bound behind her back. That bastard Lane had sold her to the Tenzari. Lane was watching as Samara struggled against her captors with a smug look on his face. It made me want to shoot him where he stood for what he had done to Abby and what he was trying to do to Samara.
Of course, I didn’t. Dalton Lane did not deserve an easy death.
I wondered if he had played her all along, letting her think he trusted her. I had no doubt Samara could bring a good price for them, but we wouldn’t let them take her.
Our team sprang into action as we shouted for them to lay down their arms and surrender. The Tenzari were not known for their fighting skills, so they capitulated immediately when confronted with the threat of violence.
Dalton Lane slipped out of sight before I realized he was gone.
“Jack, you and the men protect Samara and the other women. I’m going after Lane. I can track him with my feline senses.”
We’d had a backup team on standby. Jack would call them to help round up the Tenzari and transport the women back to their homes.
Although we stopped this shipment from leaving Earth, I knew the fight wasn’t over, and I would be unable to finish it. But if I could capture Dalton Lane, I would feel my job was done.
Usually, these Tenzari bases had a secret back exit. I had been on enough of these bases that I had a pretty good idea of where to find it. I took off running, leaving Jack to sort things out while I went after Dalton Lane.
Soon I was running through the wilderness forest, my feline senses on high alert. I could smell the earth, the trees, and the wildlife. But above all, I could smell Dalton Lane. It was a unique scent, a mixture of sweat, fear, and desperation. He knew I had every reason to want to kill him, and he was afraid I would.
I followed his scent, using my feline senses to track him through the dense forest foliage. My ears perked up at the slightest movement of leaves or snap of a twig, and like other cat species, I could easily see through the darkness in the forest.
As I pursued him, I sensed that Dalton Lane was slowing down. He had possibly injured himself running through the woods in the dark. He was tired and scared, and I could hear his breath coming in ragged gasps as I got closer.
Finally, I could see him ahead, his dark shape moving through the trees and stumbling every few steps. Instinctively I moved faster, knowing he was within my grasp. Adrenalin coursed through my veins, and my heart was racing as I closed in on my nemesis.
Momentarily I caught up with him where he had fallen to the ground. He was panting and sweating, and he looked up at me with eyes full of fear, knowing his reckoning had come. I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and hauled him to his feet.
I wanted to kill him then and there, but I didn’t. My sense of duty was stronger than my lust for revenge. I knew I must take him alive so he could stand trial for his crimes. I would, however, recommend that he be sent off-world to the underground mines on Xarkus Four. He would wish for death many times before it came in that place.
“I’m not taking the fall for this alone,” he cried. “I’m not the one in charge of this operation.”
“Then who is?” I demanded, gripping his throat.
“It’s Mark Lucas. He used to be Abby’s fiancé. He wanted to get rid of her without killing her.”
“So, he didn’t die and the Drayid attack?”
“No, it was a convenient way out for him when you people were getting close to his operation,” Lane rasped. “He was sure she saw him at the Tenzari base when we took her the first time. That’s why he sent us after her again after you got her back.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. A man who supposedly loved her had terrorized my beloved Abby. Now that was a man I wanted to kill.
“Where will I find this, Mark Lucas?” I squeezed his throat ever so slightly. “You will tell me unless you want to go to the mines on Xarkus Four.”
