Lindsey’s smile was so full of love when she looked at her son I felt tears gather in my eyes. By the gods, what I wouldn’t give to see her look at me like that, with complete and total unconditional love. “Yes. Is that okay?”
The small man looked at me, raised his hands to my face and turned my head from side to side, exploring, watching, testing me. I noticed the mark of an Everian on his palm, knew he would one day grow strong, perhaps become a Hunter. He looked deeply into my eyes and I saw a soul much older than his young body, knew he had suffered just as his mother had.
I vowed he would suffer no more.
I waited. This moment, how he would react to me, feel about me, was Wyatt’s choice. But he would come with me no matter what. He was part of Lindsey and I loved him already, his courage, his obvious love for his mother. But I would not force this. I would give him all the time he needed to trust me.
Wyatt looked into my eyes. “Will you teach me how to protect mommy so no more bad guys will come?”
His question made my blood boil, and Lindsey gasp, but I gave him my most solemn vow. “Yes, Wyatt. I will teach you how to be a warrior and protect the people you love.”
Wyatt nodded slowly, deliberately before laying his sweet head on my shoulder to look at his mother. “Okay. I want to call you Daddy.”
Lindsey’s shoulders shook and I looked up to see Lindsey’s mother watching from the doorway. Tears streaked down her face and I nodded to her in respect and gratitude for giving my mate to me. “Mother.”
“Welcome to the family, Kiel.” She wiped at her cheeks and lifted her eyes to me. “I hope you know, wherever you take my daughter, I’ll be going, too.”
I recognized that determined glint in her eye, it was a look I’d seen more than once on Lindsey’s face. “Of course.”
“All right then.” She turned to the parking lot as we both heard a woman’s yell. Carrying my mate and son to the doorway so I could see, I found Warden Egara in the parking lot with a weapon pointed at the other female who’d exited the room. She had the gun pressed to the woman’s side and was taking the ReGen wand from her outstretched hand.
“I’ll take that, Doctor Graves.”
“I’m sorry, Katherine.” The red haired woman’s shoulders slumped in defeat as the warden waved her toward the car, fury evident in her gaze.
“Save it for your lawyer.”
* * *
Kiel, Personal Quarters, The Colony
It was only when I had Lindsey in my quarters, the almost silent whoosh of the door closing behind us that I breathed again. Every tense line of my body eased. My mark was warm and alive once more. My heart didn’t ache.
“Kiel,” she said. Just my name, nothing more, but I heard the worry in her tone.
Fuck. I didn’t want her to worry ever again.
I’d held her hand ever since we left that hovel of doors where I’d found her. I didn’t plan to stop touching her anytime soon. I’d held Wyatt securely in one arm, my other slung around Lindsey’s shoulders as we transported. Lindsey’s mom, Carla, held her daughter’s hand, surprisingly calm since she had never transported before and was leaving her planet behind for good. Both of them had been fitted with new NPU’s, courtesy of Warden Egara, who’d given us both a tight hug and told us to get the hell off the planet before anything else went wrong.
But now we were home, I tugged Lindsey into me, wrapping my arms about her and just reveling in her being her. With me.
“Are you sure they’re okay?” she asked, her words muffled by my shirt.
I was eager to be with Wyatt, too. To learn about him, see his smiles, watch as his eyes widened at discovering the world—no, the universe—around him. But we had the rest of our lives for that. Tomorrow would be soon enough. Tonight, tonight I had to claim my marked mate, make her mine. I couldn’t wait any longer, and while she didn’t understand it as I did, neither could she.
She hadn’t grown up with the knowledge of what this claiming meant. Being so far apart had been agony, but having her so close, yet unclaimed, was another kind of torture. My body ached for hers, as I was sure hers did for mine. Only when we were truly claimed would our bodies, our minds, our hearts, finally be soothed.
I wanted to claim Lindsey, my mate, but I had to soothe Lindsey, the mother, first.
“You saw Rachel, she is beside herself with having a little boy here. Your mother is with Wyatt so he has a familiar face, but he is eager to see where you traveled. Rachel and her mates will give them a tour. I have no doubt that he will run around as any little boy should and be ready to sleep soon. I am not familiar with the impact of transport on one so small, but Rachel will monitor him closely.”
I saw her glance toward the door. I recognized her worried look.
I tapped the comm unit on my wrist. “Governor Rone.”
“Kiel. I expected to have no communication from you this evening now that your mate is with you again.”
Yes, talking to Maxim was not my top priority. But I could not fuck Lindsey as I wished, to claim her as we both needed, if her mind was elsewhere. I wanted her focused solely on me sinking into her so deep we didn’t know where one ended and the other began.