Page 94 of Taming Chaos

“Seph’s been through a lot,” Torin said without hesitation, giving her thigh a reassuring squeeze. “All my instincts scream at me to return to Earth, but that is not for me to decide alone.” He turned toward her expectantly, his gaze filled with warmth, his eyes crinkling slightly at the corners.

And somehow, Seph found the fate of an entire planet resting in her hands. She took a deep breath, already certain of her answer. Her gut told her this whole thing with the Bartharrans was important to Torin. “As long as I can be with you, I’m not in a hurry to go anywhere. Why don’t we stay and see this through?”

I miss home like crazy, but how many more Bartharrans would die if we were to go back now?

She left the obvious unspoken, because Torin was astute enough to read between the lines, and she sensed this was a kind-of delicate situation.

He would always put her first, and she couldn’t abuse that. Earth could wait. It was’t as if she had some important job to go back to or anything like that.

“Then we stay.” Torin gave her a long, smoldering look of appreciation.

He turned to his boss. Some silent communication passed between them, and the General nodded, appearing completely unsurprised.

He expected this?

Now why did Seph have a sneaking suspicion they’d just been played like pawns on a goddamn chessboard?

How scary.

“Welcome to Darkstar, Seph of Earth. I am pleased to welcome you into our unruly tribe.” The General smiled, his fangs glinting in the dim light. “I have been waiting for Torin to find his mate for some time. Perhaps now he will stick to his missions without getting so infernally distracted all the time.”

“Uh, distractions?” A look of alarm flickered across Torin’s face as he shot Seph a sideways glance. You are the ultimate distraction.

“Believe me, the feeling never gets old,” Tarak al Akkadian said dryly. “It will drive you to near-madness time and time again, but you will figure out how to deal with it, because that is what we all do.”

“She isn’t the distraction,” Torin agreed, sliding his powerful arm around Seph’s waist. “She is the nexus, and everything else is a distraction.”

“Precisely.”

As a silent look of understanding passed between the two most powerful, intimidating males she’d ever encountered in her life, Seph could only marvel at the twist of fate that had brought her here.

Somehow, in the midst of betrayal and disaster, she had found her mate.

Epilogue

“That concludes our first module on Bartharran politics,” Seph said, her voice becoming sharp as her irritation grew. “Now, considering that some of you haven’t been paying attention, I want a two thousand word discussion paper in my inbox by the end of tomorrow. The topic?” She frowned, considering her options. “Intra-planetary tribalism in the post-imperial Universe.”

An audible groan echoed throughout the cavernous lecture hall.

Got your attention now, huh, brats? As Earth’s foremost expert on Bartharran culture, Seph could get away with such things. Six months on the dusty red planet had given her a unique insight into the politics and culture of a world that had been long forgotten by the rest of the Universe.

In the end, the General had achieved his peace treaty, although peace on Bartharra was still fragile. Sorting out water issues had helped immensely, with the Kordolians offering to construct an atmospheric water generating plant. It turned out that most of the time, the Bartharrans had just been fighting over water.

How lucky humans were to live on Earth. It had made Seph appreciate the big old green-and-blue even more.

When they’d finally returned, the job offers from academic institutions had come thick and fast. As the only human who had ever set foot on Bartharra, she’d become something of a celebrity in academic circles, and even the Federation—who she’d unceremoniously told to fuck off—had to acknowledge her expertise. After much deliberation, she’d finally accepted a post in Tasmania of all places, because Torin liked the weather here, and it was close enough to his workplace—a secret Kordolian base in the Antarctic Circle.

At least the Federation had given her compensation for that clusterfuck on Zarhab Groht, and she’d had the satisfaction of seeing Markov and Davis get roasted before an internal investigation committee.

She’d been one of the main witnesses, after all, and the two agents didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Still, it galled her that in the Federation’s eyes, their worst crime was that they’d returned to Earth empty-handed, with not a single plasma weapon in sight. As a punishment, they’d been sentenced to work on a remote prison mining station at the edge of the Ninth Sector.

Seph folded her holo-wand, and her final lecture slide flickered and disappeared. “That’s it for today. See you tomorrow, nine o’clock sharp. You know my policy on lateness. A hundred words will be added to your assignment for every minute that you’re late. If you don’t want extra work, don’t be late.” She stared up into the back corner, seeking out a familiar silver face. “I won’t be making any exceptions.”

She caught a flash of sharp teeth in the dim light. There was Torin, sitting right at the back, clad in a deep blue jacket and jeans. Earth fashions suited him so well, but then again, the man could wear a fucking paper bag and look good if he wanted to.

No wonder so many of the students had been distracted, stealing furtive glances up into the back corner as she spoke. Torin tried his best to be discreet, but no matter what he did, he would always stand out, and it wasn’t every day that a real live Kordolian attended one of her lectures.

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