Lundric and another warrior stood with four human males. One of them snapped his head in her direction.
“Cambry!” The voice that answered wasn’t Lundric’s.
“Tal!” Her heart flew up to her throat. She ran for her younger brother, and he met her halfway, grabbing her and squeezing so tightly, he picked her up from the ground.
“You’ve grown,” she laughed, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. “At least two more inches since I saw you last.”
“Have I?” he asked gruffly, his voice choked. “They told me you were dead. That you killed three guards escaping and they sentenced you to death. What happened?”
She tore her focus from her brother to look at the broad-shouldered warrior standing several feet off, watching with eyes still shadowed in pain. A Zandian was leading the three other humans away.
When Lundric saw her looking, he nodded once and strode off down the corridor.
“Lundric!” She bolted after him. “Lundric, wait!”
He turned just in time for her leap, catching her as she hurtled at him.
She strangled him in a hug, burying her face in his neck. “Thank you.” She dropped little kisses behind his ear. “Thank you, Lundric.”
“Stop.”
Her heart twisted.
He pried her from his massive body, lowering her to the floor. “I like the show of appreciation, but that’s not why I did it.”
The emptiness of his tone slapped her. Blood drained from her face as she realized her warrior was still just as withdrawn as he’d been before he left to find her brother. Her eyes watered. “I know that. You did it because you’re Lundric and it’s what you do. Because I’m your female.”
He went very still, watching her warily. “Yes.”
Tal had joined them, and he cleared his throat. “So—?”
She drew back from Lundric to include her brother. “So, you’ve met Lundric?”
Tal nodded and extended his hand.
She reached over and folded his fingers into a fist bending his elbow to form the ninety degree angle of the Zandian greeting. “This is how they do it.”
Lundric’s gaze lighted on her face with the curious, appreciative glint they usually held, but then it dimmed again. “I’ll let you two catch up.” He turned an
d walked away.
“Wait—Lundric?”
He didn’t turn or acknowledge her, his broad shoulders stiff as he disappeared around the corridor.
Her nose and throat burned.
Tal squeezed her shoulder. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
She blinked rapidly and forced a smile. “Come on. Are you hungry? Let’s get some lunch.” She brought him to the main meeting room where the food packs were being distributed and picked up two.
They settled on the floor with their backs against a wall to eat.
“So, what is this place? How did you get here?”
“It’s a bizarre story.” She tried to push back the thoughts tangling around Lundric, the irrepressible urge to keep running to him, to keep leaping until he kept her.
“This originally was the death pod the Ocretions put me on. But I got lucky. They also put an escaped human slave named Lily on here. She happens to be the sister of the Zandian prince’s mate. Her boyfriend, a Zandian captain named Rok, orchestrated her rescue and pulled this pod down. So now, all the beings on the pod have been conscripted into the Zandian army, and we’re being trained for battle, because they want to take their planet back. Are you following?”