Natalie
The transport was a blue flash of light like the last time, but I didn’t have a murdering madman after me. This time, I wasn’t crying because my mate was dead. I wasn’t screaming for the doctor and the guards who’d protected me. I had my mate and my son with me. I had Miranda. And the little dagger Roark had given me in the oasis was tucked snuggly into my boot. I wasn’t getting near a transport center again without the weapon. Roark didn’t need to know my anxiety since he was injured, but I felt better knowing I could keep us all safe if something happened.
We were going back to Trion, to doctors and guards and Roark’s people. But we weren’t safe yet.
&nb
sp; It felt like I drifted in and out of consciousness for hours, holding tightly to Noah where he rested in my arms. I had no idea how much time had passed when the lights and pressure faded. I woke lying on a hard floor, Noah resting on my chest. Miranda appeared to be sleeping a few steps away, and Roark’s blood already soaked the pad beneath his back.
I opened my mouth to scream for help, but the med team surrounded Roark at once. I eyed them all, thinking one might be the mole. But they didn’t want him. No, not now that it was known I had the medallion. They wanted me.
“Councilor.” A man close in age to Roark came to him at once. He was tall, dark and handsome, of course. His pants were black, as was his tunic, but he had some sort of colored insignia on his chest, and the men surrounding him obeyed his commands. “Roark, my friend, you always show up bleeding and half dead. It’s not funny anymore.”
“Cease your whining, Seton, and see to my mate. There is a traitor among us.”
Noah chose that moment to stir in my arms and let out a blood-curdling scream.
Everyone froze in place and turned to look at me. At Noah.
As Roark was settled onto a Trion version of a stretcher, three people waving ReGen wands over him, he spoke. “Natalie and I have discovered that time on Earth passes differently than it does here. How long was I gone, Seton?”
“Thirty-five minutes,” Seton replied. “We notified your parents and they transported here to await your return.”
Thirty-five minutes? I was seeing now how Roark was so stunned that I’d had a baby when just a few days had passed for him.
“Take care of my mate, Seton. And my son. See to them first.”
“Son?” Seton asked, then, “What traitor? Roark, what the fark happened to you?”
“I will not say and leave my family vulnerable while I am healing. I want two sets of guards on duty at all times. Have my parents stay with Natalie and Noah. Trust no one.”
Seton ushered Roark toward a strange, oblong coffin-looking thing glowing with light. Roark looked at me as they lowered him inside. “Protect Noah, mate. Trust Seton and my parents. No one else.”
He held my gaze until I nodded. Noah was tugging at my hair and I absently grabbed his little wrists, holding him in place so I could think without him yanking hair out of my head. “We’ll be fine, Roark. Heal. We’ll be here when you wake up.”
Roark nodded and tore his gaze from mine to look at an older man leaning over the edge of the pod adjusting the controls. “How long this time, Doctor Brax?”
The older gentleman sighed, a wry smile on his face, and I assumed this was not the first time Roark and the doctor had this conversation. “I recommend a full twenty-four hours, Councilor. You weren’t fully healed the last time.”
Roark grinned back at him. “That’s too long. I can’t leave my mate unprotected for that long.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but Seton beat me to it. “I’ll protect her with my life, Roark. I won’t leave her side. You have my word.”
Roark looked to his friend and I saw the decision there even before he nodded. “She is my life, Seton.”
“I know.”
Roark nodded and turned to the doctor. “Twenty-four hours and not a minute more.”
“Excellent. You are making the right decision, sir.” The doctor’s hands sped to twice their previous speed and I assumed it was to knock Roark out before my stubborn mate changed his mind. I wasn’t eager to have him asleep and away from me for that long, but if it meant he would heal completely, then it would be worth it.
“Gara.”
A transparent covering slid into place over Roark’s face and he was surrounded by bright light. He was staring at me and I watched as his eyelids fluttered, then closed as he was put under for the healing process.
Once Roark was completely under, everyone in the room turned to look at me. Me and Noah.
Sheesh. Talk about feeling like a bug under a microscope. I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt I’d tugged on before leaving for the airport, covered in Roark’s blood from the many times I’d used the ReGen wand to heal him. Miranda cleared her throat behind me and I took a step back, closer to her. I’d completely forgotten she was with me.