“Try to understand, Baird,” she pleaded softly. “I never asked for this—for our minds to align or for you to claim me. I never wanted any of it. I just…I just want to go home.”
Baird closed his eyes briefly. “I wish I could let you. But I can’t, Olivia. I need you too damn much. I’m sorry.” He got off the bed and left just as he had the first time he’d brought her into the suite.
Liv sat in the middle of the huge bed and wrapped her arms around her knees, trying not to cry. God, if only she could control herself better around him! It made her feel horrible, like the worst kind of tease to go so far with him and then refuse him anything else. But damn it, she was fighting for her future here! She didn’t want to never see her family again, especially Sophie. She didn’t want to give up the career she’d worked so hard for. Not even for love? whispered a little voice in her head but Liv pushed it away. She didn’t love Baird, despite all the dream-sharing they’d done and the way he made her laugh. Despite the way she felt so safe in his arms—at least until things started getting sexual. All of that, as nice as it was, didn’t add up to love. Did it?
Liv didn’t know but she didn’t intend to stick around and find out.
“What am I supposed to do now?” Baird stood in the ship’s main temple before the statue of the Goddess, looking up at her beautiful, blank face. Because of their three genetic trades, the Kindred had many gods to choose from but the Mother of Life was their original deity—the one they had worshiped back on the Kindred home world before the first trade had ever taken place. Baird’s father, who had been a rare full blooded Kindred with no trades in his heritage, had prayed to her in times of need and taught his sons to do the same. And the gods know I’m certainly in need now, Baird thought ruefully. If only Olivia wasn’t so damn stubborn! If only I could make her see that we need each other.
His thoughts ran in circles as he stood on the green and purple grass. The lush vegetation served as the floor of the temple which was located in the sacred grove. It tickled his bare feet, since he’d removed his boots before stepping on the holy ground.
All around him trees of different variations on the same colors grew. Lavender and mint green leaves mingled with royal purple and emerald bark, filling the grove of the Mother of Life with the warm, resinous scent of growing things. Baird breathed it in, letting the blessed scent fill his lungs and calm him. No matter what deity they worshiped, this temple was a sacred place to all of his people. In fact, the artificial sun that hung overhead and bathed the core of the Kindred ship in golden-green radiance had been patterned off the sun of their home world and specially developed just so these trees would grow.
He sighed, reflecting that he had been hoping to show this part of the ship to Olivia soon. They had only been to restaurants and attractions around the perimeter and near their own suite during their holding week because he hadn’t scent marked her and had wanted to be close to home in case of trouble. He’d thought that after their bathing week she would have enough of his scent on her that it would be safe to take her out to the center of the ship where the three types of Kindred mixed more frequently. But now…he shook his head.
“Warrior, are you in need of counsel?” The soft, creaky voice behind him startled Baird and he turned to see an ancient priestess of the Mother of Life coming toward him. She was one of the extremely rare five percent of his species that were female and in addition to that, he could tell that she was a full blooded Kindred as his father had been. Set in a net of fine wrinkles, her large almond shaped eyes had deep emerald green irises and the whites around them were green also, albeit a paler shade of the color of life. Her hair was white streaked with jade and olive and she wore it loose around her shoulders. Baird knew without even smelling her that she was unmated. Because of their rarity and special abilities, true Kindred females were reverenced by his people and most of them chose to become priestesses of the Mother of Life rather than have a family.
Baird had come to the sacred grove hoping for peace and a way to sort out his feelings without bothering Sylvan again. He hadn’t thought about asking for spiritual guidance but now that he saw the priestess approaching, he felt the appropriate response rise to his lips.
“I have come seeking counsel of the Mother of Life, she who made and nurtures us all,” he said formally.
The priestess came closer, her bare feet whispering over the grass. “You have much sorrow within you. Do you care to speak of it, Warrior?”
Baird scarcely knew where to begin. “It’s my bride—our minds have been aligned these six Earth months and I can tell by her scent that she needs me as much as I need her. But I can’t make her see it. She…refuses me over and over again.”