Page 45 of Caldar
“I understand,” Caldar said. If he ever hurt Sonia, he’d welcome the male’s vengeance.
Lorran kept the blade pressed to his throat for a long moment, then pulled the blade away. He gave Caldar a rough shove. “Good. See that we do not need to revisit this conversation. Clean your face.” He tossed down a cleansing cloth and left.
That went better than expected. The male was justifiably angry with Caldar, but only the necessary amount of blood had been spilled. He groaned as he shifted his weight, easing the burden on his injured leg. The painblockers the medic administered were wearing off. The tussle did him no favors, either. He suspected that the pain in his leg would always be with him.
Caldar applied the cleansing cloth to his face, wincing at the tender nose. He did not believe it was broken. How considerate of Lorran.
While he waited in the empty room, Caldar examined the trophies on display while he waited. The trophies were not what he expected. Most males would display their favorite weapons or ones used in a notable victory. Some displayed the weapons of their sire and grandsire.
The warlord had one sword mounted to the wall. The rest was a collection of rocks and plants. Curious.
“They are interesting specimens. They can be medicinal or poisonous, depending on preparation,” Paax said. “I find it a useful thing to remember.”
“Few things are strictly one thing.” Caldar felt there was a more elegant way to express that thought, but exhaustion had him at his limit. Medical had done what they could, but he needed rest and his sleepless night in the brig did not count.
“Yes, you would be the one to appreciate that actions and consequences are seldom black-and-white.” He took a seat at a table and indicated for Caldar to join him.
“You are not what I expected,” Caldar said. He had known Paax long ago, back when the male had been a scientist. Most males who rose to the rank of warlord were ambitious, ruthless, and often brutal. Caldar had difficulty reconciling the memory of the quiet, intellectual male with the warlord before him. He had, of course, followed Paax’s rise over the years. How could he not? The male seized control of the largest clan in Sangrin territory. Gossip and speculation abounded.
Caldar sat before him asking, “How long did you scheme to bring me back to your clan?”
A grin tugged at the corner of the warlord’s mouth, nearly breaking his stoic demeanor. “It was a scheme of your own making, Caldar, son of Relyn, formerly of no clan and no name.”
He scratched the base of his horns. The colored wax he used as a disguise on the cruise ship had collected there, and he needed to scrub his horns thoroughly. He supposed he should take up the family name again. He stopped using Thorrick to avoid shaming his father’s legacy. Abandoning the family name had been one of many sacrifices.
Caldar said, “This was not my scheme.”
“You are incorrect.” Paax leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. His eyes gleamed, as if he enjoyed knowing something that Caldar did not, and that was an expression he recognized from long ago. In many ways, Paax had changed. In others, he was still the same intense male who enjoyed being an insufferable know-it-all. “Did you think you could follow the friend of a warrior’s mate for a year, and it would go unnoticed? Females talk.”
“Lorran talks.”
Paax nodded at the statement. “He does. You were clearly infatuated with the female. I had only to wait. The raid on theAllure of the Starswas an opportunity. Nothing more.”
As Sonia had said, they were played. Paax waited until Caldar found himself unable to resist claiming Sonia as his mate, knew Caldar had standards enough to do it correctly and offered a solution. He walked right into a trap of his own creation and found himself back in the clan he left decades ago.
Still, it was a good clan. It provided everything he could not provide on his own. Paax was a well-regarded leader. There were worse situations.
“I have always disliked you,” Caldar said.
Now Paax laughed. “We often dislike qualities we see in others that reflect ourselves. Now, tell me what happened on the ship.”
Caldar gave a detailed summary, skipping over the kiss with Sonia. The warlord did not need to know all the details.
Paax nodded. “We received the distress call before the ship was destroyed. We were already en route to intercept any emergency pods before we received your message.”
“Survivors?”
“Two casualties on the Suhlik ship. We recovered forty-three survivors there. So far, we have gathered nearly two hundred pods. Teams continue to search the debris field.”
“So few.” Caldar frowned at the numbers. He knew how many passengers were on board theAllure of the Stars, not including the crew. “The ship carried nearly three thousand passengers.”
“Yes. We continue to search. The debris field is large, and many objects obstruct our scans. It will be a slow recovery.”
An emergency pod could support life for days, but would not be pleasant.
“It would be wise to expand the search to include nearby habitable planets, as the pod’s protocols would direct it to land,” Caldar said.
“It is already underway. That is the benefit of being the warlord. I am able to delegate to capable males,” Paax said. His tone changed, indicating that he moved on to the next item on his agenda. “We captured several Suhlik soldiers and a low-level scientist, but not the doctor you claim had captured you. Do you know anything about the male that could help us track him?”
