Deceived Read online

  And yet now, as she boarded the ship they were stealing from the huge Trollox, which was loaded with the treasures from his trophy room—the better to make it look like a robbery, she supposed—she felt nothing but sorrow.

  Dark had lied to her—lied over and over again—and she just couldn’t see him the same way now that she knew the truth.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  The trip back was a silent and somber one. Anna didn’t even want to sit in the passenger seat behind him, preferring, instead, to sit on the long black bench in the back. Dark wanted to talk with her some more—wanted to plead his case. But he sensed she wouldn’t be receptive to anything he had to say. There was a set look to her face—a look that said she had been here before and she wasn’t prepared to walk down this particular path again.

  Dark cursed himself for a fool for not telling her sooner…then he cursed Gorn for hurting her and that bastard Lazlo who had destroyed her trust in males in the first place. If he could get his hands on that male, he would pound him to a bloody pulp, he told himself. He had ruined Anna for other males—even a male who cared for her deeply and would never hurt her.

  After they flew through the worm hole and were clear of Trollox space, he put in a call to the Mother Ship and asked to speak to Commander Sylvan. He explained the situation he was leaving behind at Gorn’s domicile and then said,

  “I think your brother Baird must have told you about a female that Gorn was holding—a human named Anna?”

  Sylvan’s face, which had looked grave as Dark recounted the Knower’s attack and the mess left at Gorn’s house, brightened.

  “Did you say Anna? Is she by any chance originally of the Aka’ja mining station?” he asked.

  “Yes! Yes, I am.” Anna came forward at last, though Dark noticed she took care to keep her distance from him as she spoke to Sylvan on the viewscreen.

  Sylvan smiled at her.

  “Thank the Goddess you’re safe, Anna. Your parents—your mother and her mate—came to ask for our help in finding you some time ago. Your second father is out even now looking for the male who first abducted you to try and find a clue to where you are.”

  “Brex is out hunting for Lazlo?” Anna put a hand to her throat and her face turned pale.

  “It was the only way we could think to locate you,” Sylvan explained. “We’ve been scouring the galaxy for you—but the galaxy is a very big place.” He shook his head and looked at Dark. “I never dreamed when my brother Baird told me you were guarding a female that the Trollox had taken that it was the same girl we’ve been searching for all this time!”

  “So you say my mom is there? On the Mother Ship?” Anna’s eyes suddenly welled with tears and Dark felt longing and homesickness overcoming her. “God, I’ve missed her so much.”

  “I’ll have her waiting to meet you at the Docking Bay,” Sylvan said gently. He looked at Dark. “And I’ll ask Baird to meet you. He can bring you to my office so we can put the Shannom-rah in a safe place.”

  “Agreed.” Dark nodded neutrally, keeping his eyes on the viewscreen though what he really longed to do was take Anna in his arms and ease the pain and longing she was feeling.

  Can’t touch her now, he reminded himself sternly. Can’t touch her ever again.

  The thought was like a knife in his heart but he didn’t allow himself to show it.

  “You’ve done well in your mission, Brother,” Sylvan told him. “The High Council of the Mother Ship are in your debt and I’m grateful you were able to rescue Anna too.”

  “It was the will of the Goddess,” Dark said stolidly. “That’s all.”

  “I’m certain it was.” Sylvan nodded. “Well, I’m going to sign off and tell the Mother Ship to fold space for you. We’ll see you here momentarily.”

  “We’ll be there as soon as we can,” Dark assured him.

  Sylvan signed off and the viewscreen went blank.

  “Well, I guess you’ll be seeing your parents sooner than you tho—”

  The words died in Dark’s mouth as he turned and saw that Anna had already gone back to the back of the ship, putting the most distance possible between them. She was sitting on the black bench, looking down at her hands, a desperately unhappy look on her face.

  She’s afraid I’m going to beg her to forgive me and declare my love again, Dark thought. Afraid I’ll bother her when she doesn’t want to be bothered. All she wants is to go back to the Mother Ship and be with her family and never see me again.

  Well, if that was what she wanted, she could have her wish, he decided. His heart was sore but proud—too proud to beg anymore. He had done everything he could to show her he wouldn’t hurt her—he had told her that he loved her and reminded her that she had said she returned his love. If she was determined to ignore the emotion that had been between them, Dark would ignore it too.

  Silently, he began piloting towards the red gash in space—the fold the Mother Ship had opened for that which would bring them instantly home.

  He wouldn’t bother Anna again.

  * * * * *

  Flying through the red gash in space was scary but Anna had done it once before, when the Mother Ship had folded space for her family to get to the Aka’ja mining colony in the first place. Plus, it was worth the momentary discomfort because the minute they flew through it, she saw the vast, sleek white form of the Mother Ship orbiting the Earth’s moon.

  Home, she thought. Mom. Longing filled her so full she could hardly sit still but somehow she managed to make herself stay in one place until Dark landed the ship and opened the door.

  Anna thought about saying something to him then but there was a hard, closed look on his face. And honestly, she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t trust him now—didn’t feel like she really knew him. Still, maybe they should try to talk it out and—

  “Anna? Sweetheart, is that you?”

  Her mother’s beloved voice floated through the open door and then Anna saw her face. It was lined with more wrinkles than she remembered, as though her mom had been worrying ceaselessly and there were silver strands in her auburn hair as though she’d been forgetting to dye it. But it was still the most beloved face in the world to her.

  “Mom!” Her heart started pounding and she was out of the ship so fast she tripped on the long robes getting out. She literally fell into her mother’s arms.

  Her mother caught her and hugged her tight, stroking her hair and raining kisses on her cheeks.

  “Oh, Anna, sweetheart!” She was laughing and crying at the same time. “We thought we’d lost you forever! “I was so scared I would never see you again! Oh, thank the Goddess you’re safe!”

  “Mom…mom…” Anna couldn’t get anything else out. There were tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat. “I thought I’d never get home,” she whispered at last. “I thought I’d die there. Oh, Mom…”

  “We never gave up hope,” her mother told her. “Brex is out there searching for you now. In fact—look—I think that’s his ship.”

  Anna looked to where she was pointing and saw a small, familiar ship landing a little way down. As she watched, the hatch popped open and the familiar form of her stepfather came into view.

  “And you must be the one who rescued my Anna,” she was vaguely aware of her mother saying right beside her. She must be speaking to Dark but Anna couldn’t keep her eyes off her stepfather’s ship. He had opened the passenger door and was pulling someone out of it. When she saw who it was, Anna’s stomach felt cold, as though she’d swallowed a fist-sized lump of ice.

  “Yes, it was my pleasure,” Dark was saying to her mother in a distracted tone. He, too, was staring at her stepfather’s ship and the passenger he was dragging towards them with manacles on his wrists.

  “Look who I found!” Brex roared to Anna’s mother. He was big, even for a Beast Kindred, and the lanky prisoner beside him looked like a string bean beside a T-bone steak. “Now we’ll find where he took…”

  His golden eyes abrupt