Deceived Read online

  “Honey, you know what she just went through!” Sophie murmured to her husband. “Isn’t there anything you can give her to stop the pain until this passes?”

  Sylvan looked regretful. “Maybe I could give her something to help her sleep through it if she’d only eaten a piece or two of the fresh fruit. But the quantity of bonding fruit chemicals in her blood is too extreme. She won’t be able to sleep through this attack and I’m afraid it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

  “Worse?” Anna groaned as another cramp hit her. She had been holding back her tears, hoping for a quick solution from the Mother Ship’s medical team. Now, hearing there was no help for her, made her lose her fight to stay dry-eyed. She could feel the tears coming and she didn’t even try to stop them.

  “I can’t do it,” she sobbed, burying her face in the pillow. “I don’t want to do that after everything Gorn and Lazlo put me through! And I don’t have anybody who would do it with me anyway. Dark hates me now and I don’t blame him.”

  “I could never hate you, baby,” a low, familiar voice said and then Dark was pushing his way into the crowded bedroom. “Anna,” he said, falling to his knees beside the bed and reaching for her. “I know how you feel about me but please—just take my hand. Let me help you, baby—let me take your pain.”

  * * * * *

  Dark had been awakened by a voice speaking right in his ear—but also inside his head, somehow. A soft, feminine voice that was filled with power.

  “Awaken, Warrior,” it said, startling him out of sleep. “Your female needs you badly. You must get up and go to her.”

  Anna! He was up and out of bed, getting dressed before he was even fully awake. The sense of urgency—the feeling that she was in grave danger and needed him badly—got stronger by the second. He yanked on his trousers and boots and then threw on a shirt, not bothering to button it. Then he found himself in the corridor outside the guest suite he had been assigned with no idea of where to go.

  I will guide you, Warrior, the strong, feminine voice said and this time Dark knew who it must be speaking to him.

  “Goddess?” he gasped, looking around, as though she might appear out of thin air.

  “Yes, Warrior. You must come—your female needs you desperately.”

  The voice of the Goddess guided him until he came to the suite where Anna was. It left him with two final words.

  “Help her,” the Goddess commanded, and then Dark knew he was on his own.

  The moment the door of Anna’s guest suite whooshed open, he felt her pain. It radiated out to him, calling to him as her pain and fear had in Gorn’s house, making him ache to be with her, helping her bear it.

  He pushed his way into the room and saw her curled in the bed, her face a mass of tears and agony.

  “Dark hates me now and I don’t blame him,” he heard her say. Her words twisted his heart.

  “I could never hate you, baby,” he told her gently. Then coming to his knees beside her bed, he reached for her. “I know how you feel about me but please—just take my hand. Let me help you, baby—let me take your pain.”

  To his great relief, Anna reached for his hand. The moment they touched, he felt her pain flow into him. A grinding, cramping agony that was like being stabbed in the guts with a butcher’s blade.

  Dark grunted in pain and stiffened at the sudden blow.

  “Oh, I’m sorry!” Anna started to withdraw her hand but he wouldn’t let her.

  “No!” he rasped, hanging on tighter. “No, I can take it. Let me help you, baby—don’t pull away.”

  “I don’t want you to hurt too,” Anna whispered. “I’m so sorry about the way I treated you, Dark. You saved me and kept me safe and I was awful to you.”

  “I lied to you,” he said simply. “That’s hard to forgive, especially when you’ve been deceived before by someone you trusted. But I swear I was only trying not to scare you and I’ll never lie to you again. I love you, baby.”

  “Oh, Dark—I love you too,” she whispered, her eyes bright.

  “Then let me come on the bed with you and hold you,” he said. “It’s easier to take the pain if we have more contact. Can you let me get closer, baby?”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “Yes, come on.”

  Greatly relieved, Dark toed off his boots and joined her on the bed. He had never bothered to button his shirt when he rushed over so it was easy to take Anna in his arms and press her against his bare chest. She was only wearing a short little night dress and her arms were bare. The greater skin-to-skin contact seemed to help and through his gift, he felt her pain ease a little.

  “Thank you,” she whispered as she snuggled in his arms, her cheek pressed to his chest.

  “You’re welcome, baby.” Dark dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Anything for you.”

  “Ahem.” This sound came from Commander Sylvan, who was still standing with the two females at the side of Anna’s bed.

  “Sorry,” Dark said, looking up at him. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your treatment. I just knew that Anna needed me and I had to get to her.”

  “No, not at all,” Sylvan said. “In fact, you’re giving her better treatment than I or my colleague here could.” He nodded at the blonde female beside him. “This is Olivia, Anna’s healer.”

  “Do you know what happened? What she, uh, needs to get over this?” Olivia asked, frowning at him.

  Dark shook his head. “I only know the voice of the Goddess woke me up, telling me that Anna needed me. I got here as fast as I could.”

  Olivia and the dark-haired female who looked remarkably similar to her exchanged a glance and nodded, as though confirming a suspicion both of them had.

  “Anna told us you’d been Dream Sharing,” she said. “So we know you’re Anna’s intended mate. In which case, you can help her far more than we can. You see, she’s had an overdose of bonding fruit.”

  “What? Where would she get bonding fruit?” Dark demanded.

  “Gorn gave it to me,” Anna whispered weakly. “He said one of his new drewgs gave it to him. He called them ‘Kindred sweeties’ but I thought they were just some kind of dried fruit. He…he made me eat them all and now I feel so…well, you know how I feel, don’t you?”

  “I certainly do,” Dark said grimly. “Dried bonding fruit? I thought that was against the law—isn’t it a controlled substance?”

  “It is.” Sylvan frowned. “But regardless of how Anna got it, the fact remains that there is only one cure for an overdose this bad—penetration and an injection of male seed.”

  “No—I won’t do that to her,” Dark said at once. “She’s been through too much already—I won’t take what she can’t give.”

  “What can you do then?” Olivia asked blankly. “How can you help her if the two of you can’t make love?”

  “I’m helping right now,” Dark told her. “I’m half Dark Healer and more than that, I’m a Pain Taker. I can siphon off her pain and take it into myself.”

  “You can’t keep doing that for the hours and hours this attack is bound to last,” Sylvan protested.

  “Watch me,” Dark said grimly. “Anna is mine. I’ll protect her from the pain, no matter what—no matter how long it takes. You don’t have to worry—I’ve got this.”

  “Well…it appears you have.” Sylvan nodded and the two females exchanged a knowing look again. Dark was relieved that they seemed willing to trust him to take care of Anna. All he wanted to do right now was hold her and help her get through this.

  All he wanted to do was love her forever.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  At a nod from Sylvan, the three of them walked quietly out of the room. As they left the suite, and the door whooshed shut behind them, Liv turned to her brother-in-law.

  “Do you think she’ll be okay?” she asked anxiously. “I thought for sure I should have re-admitted her to the Med Center.”

  “There’s nothing in the Med Center that can help her nearly as much as Dark can,�