Pairing with the Protector Read online

  Whitney felt her heart sink but she tried to make light of the situation.

  “Well I’m glad to know you’re looking out for me so diligently. Or maybe I should say, smelling out for me, since you’re such a detective with your nose.”

  Rafe turned the full force of his golden gaze on her again.

  “I would know your scent anywhere, mon’dalla. It is burned into my senses.”

  Whitney’s heart jumped again. The way he was looking at her was just so intense. And talking about knowing her scent anywhere—that had to mean something. Also what was that he had called her?

  “Mon-dalla?” she asked, trying to keep her voice light. “What does that mean? Is it some kind of a pet name?”

  “More of a title,” Rafe answered, perhaps a bit too quickly. “It means one whom I care for—one whom I protect and serve. It is from the old language on my home world which is perhaps why your translation bacteria were unable to translate it for you.”

  Like all the Kindred brides and other human personal who were brought aboard the Mother Ship to live, Whitney had been given a shot of translation bacteria which enabled her to understand just about any known language in the galaxy and beyond. Though he was right—his little nickname for her hadn’t translated.

  “Oh, I see.” She nodded thoughtfully. “I like it. You can call me that anytime you want.”

  “I may?” He looked at her in apparent surprise.

  “Of course you can. As long as I can call you my big Boo-boo Bear.” Whitney made a kissy face at him and he scowled—but she thought she saw humor shining in his golden eyes.

  “I do not approve of that name,” he growled.

  “Oh, well I can think of others,” Whitney offered. “How about sweetie-pie? Or honey bun? Or—”

  But just then the com-link crackled to life and a voice from the instrument array said,

  “Scout ship, you are cleared to fly through the fold. Repeat, you are clear to fly.”

  “Acknowledged,” Rafe replied. “Entering the fold now.” He turned to Whitney. “Hold on and don’t fear—this will only take a moment and we’ll soon be safely on the other side.”

  “All right. I trust you.” Whitney nodded tightly and returned her eyes to the scarlet tear in the fabric of space time. It was growing larger and larger in the viewscreen and soon she knew they would be in it and she would get that weird, floaty feeling like time had slowed down for a split second which somehow lasted an eon. But then it would be over and she would see the blackness of space, dotted with stars on the other side and everything would be just fine.

  Only that wasn’t how it happened…not at all.

  Four

  They flew through the fold in space, all right. But what Whitney saw on the other side wasn’t the comforting vastness of the universe. Instead, a whirling blue hole outlined in streaks of silver and cobalt light met her eyes. It was so huge it filled the entire viewscreen and it seemed to be getting bigger all the time.

  “Oh my sweet baby Jesus!” she gasped. “What is that thing?”

  “Must be a rogue wormhole,” Rafe grunted. His entire face was tight with effort and the muscles were bulging on his arms as he fought with the ship’s steering yoke. “Trying…to suck…us in,” he ground out as he wrestled with the controls.

  “Trying to suck us in? Well don’t let it!” Whitney exclaimed, eyes wide.

  “I’m trying.” Rafe’s deep voice was a growl of effort. “But we’re well within the event horizon of its gravity well. I’m afraid if we resist too much it’ll…” he grunted again, fighting with the yoke. “Tear the ship apart.”

  “Tear the ship apart? Oh no!” Whitney gasped. Closing her eyes, she started praying for all she was worth. “Don’t let this happen, please! Get us out of here now!”

  Rafe must have thought she was talking to him because he threw an irritated look her way.

  “I can’t help it. We’re too far in already. It’s either go where the hole takes us or wind up in chunks floating in space. Problem is, we don’t know where this goes—we’ll be completely lost when we get there.”

  Whitney tightened her grip on the armrests of her seat and squeezed her eyes shut.

  “Go then,” she said in a low voice. “If there’s no other way. It’s better to be lost than dead.”

  He nodded shortly. “I agree. All right then—hold on.”

  He did something to the controls and the engines—which had been making a scary, high-pitched whining—suddenly fell silent. At once they were sucked into the whirling blue vortex in space leaving the solar system of Vesuvius Two far behind.

  Whitney tried not to but she couldn’t help opening her eyes. What she saw reminded her of one of those psychedelic roller coasters you could ride at some theme parks. The ones which had been built indoors in the dark so when you rode them you saw wild rainbow neon colors racing past which made you feel like you were going even faster than you were.

  Only this is no roller coaster and I can’t get off and go home at the end of the ride, she thought grimly as the little ship dipped and bobbed, pulled endlessly and relentlessly along through the pulsating blue tube of the wormhole. Oh my God, what are we going to do—where are we going to end up?

  Turning her head, she saw that Rafe was looking intently at the controls. But when he saw her looking, he turned to face her and held out a hand.

  Whitney took it, feeling instantly better when her own, much smaller hand was clasped in his bigger, stronger one.

  “Whatever happens, mon’dalla, my oath stays true,” he rumbled, gazing into her eyes. “I will not forsake or abandon you and I will protect you to the last drop of my blood. Do not fear.”

  “Thank you,” Whitney whispered and felt even better. “Thank you, Rafe. I…I’ll stay by your side too. We’re going to get through this together.”

  Just as she said those words, the wormhole ended abruptly. The blue tube spat them out into unfamiliar space and the ship was suddenly floating free, as though nothing had ever happened.

  “Oh!” Whitney gasped as Rafe let go of her hand and grabbed for the controls again. “That was crazy! Where are we?”

  “I don’t know.” Rafe was rapidly punching something into the control bank’s Nav-Com and frowning at what he saw. “We’re in uncharted space—at least it hasn’t been charted by the Kindred or any of the sentient species we’ve dealt with. Which means we’re much too far from the Mother Ship for any communication, even if there wasn’t a solar storm going on at their end right now.”

  “Uncharted space?” Whitney’s heart was suddenly in her mouth. “You mean we’re lost?”

  Being lost far from home was a very, very big deal, considering that the Milky Way was one of trillions of galaxies spread out among an ever-expanding, nearly infinite universe. If they didn’t know where they were, how could they ever get home? And even if they did manage to find out their location, how could they transverse the vast distance back to their own galaxy without the Mother Ship to fold space for them?

  “Quick,” Whitney said tightly. “Turn around and take us back to the wormhole. It brought us here—it should be able to send us back, right?”

  But Rafe was shaking his head.

  “I’m afraid the odds on that happening are about a billion to one,” he said grimly. With a stable wormhole, yes it would take us right back to where it had gotten us in the first place. But with a rogue, well—they jump around from galaxy to galaxy—some even say from universe to universe—and almost never lead to the same destination twice.”

  “Still, it’s worth a try,” Whitney argued. “I mean, we can’t get anymore lost than we are, right?”

  Rafe shrugged. “A fair point. All right, we can try.”

  But when he started the engines on their little ship, a sharp, warning note of alarm immediately filled the cabin.

  “What’s that?” Whitney exclaimed. “Oh my God, it really doesn’t sound good.”

  “It’s not.” Rafe scowled as