Lost in Barbarian Space(58)

Colm awoke. For a second, he thought he was back in the narrow bunk in the med bay, on the Institute ship.

Then he released a breath. He was in his own bed, and Kavon was sitting in a chair beside him.

“Kavon?”

Relief flashed over his friend’s face. “Finally. I thought you’d miss the feast. It’s starting soon. That hard head of yours has really taken some knocks lately.”

“I only remember the last one.” Colm expected to feel pain, but he felt nothing. In fact, he felt great. He remembered hitting his head after the explosion, and probed the back of his skull. There was no lump.

“Medscope,” Kavon said simply.

“Everyone’s okay?”

Kavon nodded. “Fine. And the pink-haired nightmare was brought in to clean up the area. Hard to believe such a young…unique girl is an expert with explosives.”

Colm sank back against his pillows. “And Honor? She’s okay?”

Kavon stilled. “Honor is fine.”

Honor. Honor. His Honor. Colm frowned, a faint ache in his head.

Then, it was like his mind crashed open. He groaned and pressed a hand to his chest. As the memories flooded his brain, his nanami buzzed inside him.

“Honor,” he breathed. “My mate.”

Kavon leaned forward. “You remember?”

Colm leaped out of the bed and searched for his trousers. “Yes!” He needed to get to her. “You didn’t tell me.” He spun. “You were just going to let my mate leave?” He made a strangled, enraged sound.

“She made me promise not to.”

Colm froze. “She doesn’t want me.” Mating was always the female’s final decision.

Kavon snorted. “Hardly. She loves you so much she wanted you to be free to explore life, without the issue of the nanami sickness hanging over you.”

Colm reached over and grabbed a glass from his nightstand. He threw it, and it smashed against the brick wall. “How could she believe it wouldn’t include her?”

“She spoke with Aurina, Colm. I get the impression her previous…relationships have not made her believe a man could love her as she is.”

Colm made another angry sound.

Kavon stood. “Colm, a small group of the skyflyers is staying for the feast with the Drake. The rest leave in half an hour with the Magellan to return to charted space.”

Urgency filled Colm. Honor had said she wasn’t coming to the feast. She was leaving him. “I will be unavailable for a few days.”

Kavon sighed. “Don’t tell me what you’re going to do, but at least tell me where you will be, in case you need my aid.”

“On my land. In the Dashon Meadows.” He smiled. “I think Honor will like the wildflowers.”

Kavon smiled. “As does my mate. Good luck, my friend.” They gripped each other’s arms in a warrior’s clasp. “She’s a worthy woman. A worthy warrior.”

Once dressed, Colm raced through the house, and out to the hargon stables. It took the stable master a few moments to get his beast, but soon, Colm was riding at full speed through the gates of the estate.

In a distant field, he saw where the Drake was parked. It was ferrying the last of the goods up to the Magellan. As he got closer, he searched the Institute team members working beside the ship. His gut clenched. He couldn’t see her. Had she left already?

Then he spotted a flash of gold.

Honor.

Colm kicked into his hargon, urging it for more speed and ignoring when it snorted steam from its nostrils. He rode hard, leaning forward over the beast.

At the last minute, Honor’s head snapped up. She saw him, her eyes widening.

Colm reached down and snatched her off her feet, pulling her up over the beast’s back. She struggled, cursing at him.

He smiled at his little warrior.

His mate.

He had her back. Now he just needed to convince her to stay.




Honor snapped awake.

She sat up and realized she was cocooned in a mound of pillows. She gazed around. She was inside some sort of circular tent. Above, the canvas roof flapped happily in the breeze.

She got to her feet and took a quick look around, but didn’t find anything to let her know where she was. Spotting the door, she pushed the fabric aside and stepped outside.

She gasped. All around her was a beautiful meadow filled with flowers. They were mostly shades of purple, but there were a few pinks and yellows dotted in between.

Where was she? And why the hell had Colm grabbed her like that? She walked into the field, letting her hand run across the tops of the knee-high blooms. She stopped and broke a purple one off the stem. It was interesting to look at, with spikes in the center and long purple petals.

She turned in a circle. There was nothing around. Only the large, round tent in a field of flowers that stretched as far as the eye could see. She put her hands on her hips. She remembered the thunder of hooves, then Colm grabbing her and dragging her onto his hargon beast.