Delivered by the Defender (Kindred Tales)

“I…will never forget either,” he said, his voice sounding stilted and cold in his own ears. “And now you’d better go stand in line—you don’t want to lose your place in the shuttle.”

“No, I guess not.” She nodded again. “Thank you.”

Then she turned away and this time she went to wait in line. Valen couldn’t help thinking how lonely she looked—her solitary figure among all the other Kindred and their brides, going home from their vacations and honeymoons. There were so many of them, laughing and talking and looking into each other’s eyes the way he never could with Selena.

It was too much. He had meant to stay and watch her safely board the shuttle, but Valen had to go. He told himself she would be all right—she was in a group of Kindred, after all—males who were known to be extremely protective of females. No thief or slave-taker in their right mind would attempt to attack or abduct her in such company. And he couldn’t bear to see her walk away—to see her pass through the connecting door to the shuttle and know it was his last sight of her.

Turning away, he left, striding down the spaceport’s main concourse as quickly as he could. He would bury himself in work and try to forget her—there was nothing else that he could do.

He didn’t see the two gold-and black liveried palace guards standing in the shadows of a narrow hall across the concourse, watching Selena, waiting for just the right moment to act…

55

The minute she left Valen and got to the waiting area of her gate, Selena pulled up her shirt and covered her breasts.

She was wearing her traveling clothes—jeans and a t-shirt—but she’d purposefully chosen a shirt with a loose V-neck, so she could pull it down while she was in public. Otherwise, she was well aware, she would have gotten into some serious trouble. But now that she was almost to the shuttle and in the middle of a group of Kindred warriors, she felt safe enough to pull the t-shirt up, covering her breasts for the first time in what felt like forever.

It was a relief not to be exposed, though it made her sad, too. She was no longer Valen’s Dependent Female and he was no longer her Master. She was just a single woman alone, as she had been before she met him. She—

“Everyone boarding Shuttle Two-Seven-Five, direct flight to the Kindred Mother Ship, please enter the connecting tunnel at this time,” a Ma’shorkan stewardess announced. She was wearing a bright blue and red uniform, which clashed with her pink and purple skin, and red and blue nipple rings to match.

Selena hadn’t been paying much attention—she’d been too absorbed in her personal sorrow—so now she found herself at the very end of the rather long line. Still, what did it matter when she boarded? She had a ticket with assigned seating and the only luggage she had was her violin case—she’d checked her other bag after Valen had weighed them both carefully at the weigh station for her.

The big Kindred had made very certain that there was no extra weight she would get into trouble for. That had been nice, at least, Selena thought to herself as the line snaked forward slowly. Maybe it showed that he cared, at least a little. He—

“Excuse me, Miss, but I must ask you to stop for a moment for a luggage search.”

“A what?” Selena looked up, realizing that the man whose voice she’d heard was talking to her. He was dressed in gold and black, like the guards who worked at the palace, and he was frowning at her in a stern, official-looking way.

“A luggage check,” he said again, his frown deepening. “We have reason to believe that something very valuable was stolen from the palace, so we’re searching everyone who was at the gala.”

“Really? Everyone? But my luggage has already been weighed!” Selena protested, clutching her violin case to her chest. She was suddenly aware that the line of Kindred warriors and their brides was almost all gone—most everyone had moved on into the connecting tunnel that led to the shuttle. She needed to go too, or she was going to miss her flight!

But when she tried to dodge around the stern-looking palace guard, he grabbed her by the arm.

“This will only take a moment,” he growled. “You won’t mind if you’ve got nothing to hide.”

“Of course I don’t have anything to hide!” Selena exclaimed. “Here…” She thrust her violin case at him. “Just be careful—that’s a valuable and delicate musical instrument in there.”

The guard didn’t answer—he only grabbed the case roughly from her and flipped up the latches. But as he opened it, he turned away from her, bending over the enclosed violin with his back blocking Selena’s view.