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It was the perfect opening for revealing the secret Aru had been hiding from his men. Still, while he was thinking of a good way to broach the subject, Negal said, "I agree with Dagor. But since I'm not looking for a truelove mate or any kind of mate, I'm good." He let out a sigh. "Human females are so fragile, though. I hope we will get to meet sexy immortal ladies who will want to try out a god in bed." He waggled his brows. "How does the saying go? Once they sample a god, they'll never look back?"
Dagor chuckled. "That doesn't sound right, but I'm all for trying out those immortal females. It would be nice not to have to be so careful, for a change." He turned to Aru. "You said something about going on a vacation with some of the immortals?"
"They invited us to their clan's cruise, and many immortals will be on board." Aru leveled his eyes at his teammates. "I need your vow that you will never reveal what I will tell you next. Especially not to anyone on the patrol ship, because our communication channel with the commander is not secure. We must assume that everything said over that line is reported to the Eternal King's secret agents."
The men nodded, and Dagor put his hand over his heart. "A vow shouldn't have been needed. A promise would have been enough, but here it is. I vow not to reveal what you will tell us to anyone outside of Earth or on it. It will stay between the three of us."
As Negal repeated the same vow, Aru let out a breath. "Gods are living among the immortals. Turns out that Kian's mother is a goddess and wants to meet the three of us."
Aru had expected surprise, maybe some questions for which he would have no answers, but he hadn't anticipated that Negal and Dagor would exchange knowing looks.
"You knew?"
Dagor nodded. "We've seen the recording you deleted of Gilbert telling Gabi about the gods." When Aru opened his mouth to berate them, Dagor lifted his hand. "I only checked because I was afraid that you might have mistakenly deleted something important. I never expected you to hide things from us. We are a team, and you should have known you could trust us."
Son of a gun.
They had known for days and had kept it to themselves, waiting for him to tell them.
"Kian asked me to keep the information about the gods to myself, and I did. He didn't tell me that he was protecting his mother, but I should have guessed. He looks like a god."
"Why does she want to meet us?" Negal said. "And why didn't we find any clues about her when we searched?"
"I don't know." Aru put his hands in his pockets. "Kian didn't say. His mother must be curious to learn about people from her home world. I assume that she was born on Earth, and therefore had no tracker, so we didn't know she was alive. As to hints, the ancient texts we read were full of stories about gods, but then they disappeared, and the logical assumption was that they had perished, because we knew they couldn't have gone home."
"How many gods are there living with those immortals?" Negal asked.
"I don't know that either. But since Gilbert could have only been induced by a male god, there must be at least one male. Maybe Kian's mother and the male god are a couple."
Negal looked like he wanted to ask something else when the door of the master bedroom opened, and the sound of Gabi's light footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Aru had wanted to deliver the good news to her in private, but it was too late for that. Negal or Dagor might blurt out something and steal his thunder.
As soon as she walked into the living room he rushed to her, wrapped his arms around her, and lifted her to look into her blue eyes.
"I have something to tell you." He grinned at her sleepy face. "I'm staying on Earth. The commander informed me that we are not getting picked up when the patrol ship completes its rounds in this corner of the galaxy."
Gabi squealed, wrapped her legs around him, and kissed him hard. He started walking toward the bedroom with her when a throat clearing reminded him that his friends were there, and they were not done talking.
Turning around, he walked Gabi to the kitchen counter and sat her on a stool. "Dagor and Negal are staying too, and Dagor is unhappy about it. Negal doesn't care one way or the other."
Instead of joyously showering him with kisses, Gabi frowned. "I don't understand. Did you ask your commander to let you stay and stipulate that if you do, your teammates must also stay?"
"I didn't ask. I couldn't tell him about you, remember?"
"So, how come he's abandoning the three of you on Earth?"
"That's what I want to know," Dagor murmured.
"It's probably punishment," Negal said. "One of us must have said something offensive about the Eternal King and was overheard. It doesn't take much to get booted out into a hostile colony, or in this case, the forbidden planet."
Kian
As Kian escorted Annani onto the cruise ship, his eyes darted in every direction even though the Guardians were securing the area and Yamanu was shrouding it.
He'd instructed the team to return from China, not only because Yamanu and Mey were one of the couples who wished to be married on the cruise, but also because he could utilize Yamanu's unique talent to safeguard the excursion.
The truth was that there had been no reason for them to stay longer, and the only objective that they could claim to have achieved, if he could call it that, was improved relations between the Kra-ell and the clan members.
