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“She needsboth ofher mates,” he stressed stubbornly. “I am not her mate. That is not why I did this.”
Another upraised brow illustrated her disbelief. “You are not attracted to this female?”
“Any heterosexual male would be attracted to this female.” He clasped his hands behind his back and straightened his shoulders. “That is not the point. My life is incompatible with—”
“Then change your life,” she snapped. “You have been running from the pain for far too long. It is time to stand strong and combat it. Raina is your mate and we both know it.”
“Raina is genetically compatible with me. That is no reason to subject her to my darkness.” He glanced at her as he admitted, “When she sensed my energy she screamed. Just like everyone else, she was terrified. I havehisevil inside me and females can sense it.”
Udora took him by the shoulders and turned him to face her. “You listen to me, young man, and you listen well. You were conceived in violence. That does not make you violent. Your father was evil, but my precious daughter’s blood flows in your veins.My bloodflows in your veins. You are not evil.”
He wanted to believe her, had spent most of his life trying to convince himself it was true, but women weren’t the only ones who could sense the darkness. He could sense it too.
“What would I do with a mate?” His gaze drifted back to Raina and a lump formed in his throat. She was lovely. No one could deny her esthetic appeal, but she needed someone who could love her, shower her with affection, not just fuck her into oblivion.
“The question is what would you do as part of a power triad,” his grandmother reminded. “That is a much more tempting proposition than simply finding a mate. Is it not?”
Her choice of adjectives made him smile. Everything about Raina tempted him. It had been many cycles since any female stirred more than the most superficial lust in him. He couldn’t wait to bury his cock inside her again, but he also felt protective and possessive. She was clever and spirited. Her independence challenged him, but it also intrigued him. He did not just want to fuck her. He wanted to spend the rest of his life getting to know her. He wanted toclaimher.
“Triads belong to the Citadel,” he reminded himself as much as his grandmother. “I have no desire to be obligated to anyone.”
“Isn’t it time for the Citadel to give up its stranglehold on triads? I am well acquainted with the ancient texts. One planet was never meant to dictate to the others. Triads were meant to be distributed evenly between the four planets.”
He studied his grandmother for a silent moment. Udora was the only parental figure he had ever known. His mother had died giving birth to him, and his father—he refused to think about his father. “Are you ready to start a war, because that’s what will happen if I keep her. The rebels will come after me, and so will Jevara. And then there is the Citadel. Do you think Zevon will let her go without a fight? Are you prepared to defend yourself against all those factions simultaneously?”
She shrugged with an indifference she obviously did not feel. “We will worry about the ramifications after you have located a controller to help you claim Raina,” she told him, smoothing down her robes. “Because of your unique physiology, the link—”
“I am notunique. I am a mutant hybrid. A monster. An abomination,” he clarified.
“I reject derogatory labels and you know it. Do not use those terms again or I will not speak with you.” She went on before he could respond. “Let me explain what happened to yourpotentialmate and the choices before us now.”
Finally. It only took her six hours to work her way around to this explanation.
“I know you did not mean to bind Raina to you, but the process has definitely begun. Your physiology is unique and so is hers, so the link formed much faster than it would have if you were not both hybrids.”
“Raina is a hybrid?” This was the first he had heard of it.
“There are very few people in this star system that do not have ancestors from more than one planet. We have been traveling easily from planet to planet for too long. However, Raina’s DNA has also been manipulated.”
“That is true of all conduits,” he said.
“Her genome has been editedsince her birth.”
All right, she had his attention now. “How is that possible? She spent the majority of her life on Earth.”
“If she is the product of the program I am thinking about, the first transcription would have been done in utero, and a second when she was about two years old. The program was outlawed during the Great Upheaval, but there were rumors, a lot of rumors, that it was resurrected about twenty-five years ago.”
Not understanding the impulse, but unable to ignore it, he sat down on the edge of the bed and reached for Raina’s hand. Her fingers felt cool and tiny between his and he had to clear his throat before he could speak. “What was the purpose of the program?”
She scoffed under her breath. “What was the purpose for all of this? To create the ultimate weapon. The abilities became hereditary, which no one expected. But the strength of the gifts denigrated a bit with each generation that passed. So the powers had to be reinvigorated, recharged so to speak. This was undertaken on a large scale fifty years ago.”
“During the Great Upheaval…” he muttered, sounding as disinterested as he felt. He never spent a lot of time thinking about history. The conflicts and societies of the past only reminded him how little people had changed. Technology advanced, but people seldom learned from the events of the past.
“I need to get back to work. I will have someone bring you a datasheet so you can review your lessons regarding the Great Upheaval and the Controller Wars.”
She was clearly annoyed by his attitude. He dipped his head and tried to sound contrite. “I apologize, Mistress Air. I was being disrespectful. Please, explain what needs to be done to restore Raina to health.”
“I believe Raina is a second-level conduit.”
