Page 20 of Lorran
A slow grin spread across Mylomon’s face. “So you do have a spine. I had my doubts.”
Lorran ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He noticed Mylomon did not deny any of his statements. Lorran’s father served on the Council and spoke of division between members, between the Mahdfel elders and the Sangrin civilians.
Correction:politicians.
It had not always been so. The Council once coordinated movements between the clans, allocating resources and ensuring adequate coverage for the territory. Then the relationship soured. Perhaps it was the inevitable outcome of distrust between the civilians and the Mahdfel, or a politician wanted to control the Mahdfel. Had Lorran paid more attention to history lessons, he could pinpoint the moment the Council actively worked against not just his warlord, but all the warlords of all the clans associated with Sangrin. Paax led the largest clan and commanded theJudgment, for sure, but even a powerful warlord had his limitations.
The Council saw to that as they dragged out the necessary repairs to the communications systems. Their actions blinded and silenced not only theJudgment, but all the clans and every other vessel, station, and base in the Mahdfel fleet.
Did the Council want to invite Suhlik aggression? The raid on the moon colony should have been warning enough. In addition, the Council did not seem overly concerned with the increase in smugglers with sentient cargo. Little holes in the defenses the clans created kept emerging faster than they could be patched.
Was this the spiral that led to Rolusdreus’s trouble? Ren, a male who recently joined the clan, came from that planet, and had made vague statements about the Suhlik invading his home planet twice. Pressure from civilians for the Mahdfel to withdraw created a relaxed environment. This Lorran had read in many history texts. It happened on Sotet and Alva.
The second invasion was always far more brutal than the first. Both were dead planets now.
“I can hear you thinking,” Mylomon said. Lorran expected some barb about the strain from an unusual activity, but nothing surprised him more than the male saying, “Give me your analysis.”
“I do not have enough data to make solid connections,” Lorran said with caution. The reports he prepared for the Security office, and ultimately the warlord, were half intelligence and then projections on that intelligence.
“I have read your reports. Your projections are more than adequate.”
Damn if he didn’t swell with a little pride.
“Suhlik incursions will increase. The Council will be mired in indecision. Any action that they take will be ineffective. This could last for several cycles, years perhaps, but the rate of incidents is increasing. Our warlord will move without the Council’s backing.” Lorran paused. That had not been a difficult leap to make, as Paax had done so in the past, but the next bit required more abstract thought. “Most of the smaller clans will join Paax, but the more ambitious will use the division between Paax and the Council. An outright challenge to Paax will fail as it did previously. Isolating theJudgmentfrom the support of the smaller clans, starving the clan and the families of resources, would be the most strategic.”
“All that from a distress call?”
“This situation has no good outcome,” Lorran said. He gathered intelligence and made the connections. The Academy wanted to place him with the Council, but Lorran declined, not just because his father served on the Council but because politics made his skin crawl. It was unnatural. “I drag my mate into a dangerous situation, I fail. I send her away, I fail. How are you so calm?”
“Terrans are not as helpless as they seem.”
He wasn’t so sure about that. The sleeping female looked remarkably helpless.
“Sit with your mate. Do not let her wake alone.”
Lorran recognized the order for what it was, a command to stop trying to avoid the responsibilities of a mated male.
His mate needed him, but he did not need another person to disappoint.
Wyn
An alien stared at her. Her alien. Her legal husband, Lorran.
Seated on the floor, his eyes were level with hers and they were so fucking gorgeous. Blue, but like pow,blue. Lapis, even. Flecks of a more brilliant blue just glowed, and if she could have ever made paint do that, she’d be a master painter.
Dark hair flopped playfully forward on his brow. He pushed it back, but it fell forward again. Behind the flop of hair and his striking eyes, his posture proclaimed him to be fairly pissed.
Weird, but okay.In his photo, Lorran looked like the kind of guy who laughed easily. That made her feel like this situation could have a good outcome, that everything would be okay.
“Um, hey. Hi. Hello,” she said. Moving to sit upright, her head protested.
“You are injured,” he said.
“Just a headache from being jabbed with huge needles and shoved into a teleporter. Hello,” she said again. “I’m so happy to finally meet you, Lorran. Where are we going? I mean, I’m trying not to get my hopes up about a romantic get-to-know-you retreat, but you know.”
She shrugged and held up her hands, as if she were helpless to regulate her expectations. Her mother and Sonia told her to get her head out of the clouds, but she was in space, so moderation could suck it regarding her expectations.
Oh. Wyn couldn’t help but stare. He was more handsome in person, and that just did things to her. Mostly, her brain short-circuited, but also her lady parts were waking up from a long sleep. Coma, more accurately.
