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  A girl with long black hair and a tear-streaked face suddenly appeared in the doorway of the ship. She was wearing what looked like a male’s too-large dress shirt that ended at mid-thigh and not much else.

  “Please,” she said in Standard. “Can you come help me? I can’t lift Varin and he can’t walk himself. The chip countdown has frozen him somehow. Please!”

  “Coming,” Baird shouted, jogging over to her. Sylvan and Yipper followed, leading a floating hover-stretcher behind them.

  Sylvan sent a quick prayer skyward. Please Goddess, let us be able to help. And then he sent a thought message through his link to his mate, Sophia.

  “Talana, I have a female in need of comfort in the docking bay. Yipper and I are going to examine and possibly operate on her male. Can you come?”

  “Of course—the twins are at dayschool right now so I’ll be right over,” Sophia sent back promptly.

  “Thank you. Come soon. Oh, and ask Olivia to come too and bring a shot or a capsule of translation bacteria. I think this female only speaks Standard,” Sylvan sent back.

  “Got it—be there soon!” His mate sent him the equivalent of a mental kiss and Sylvan knew she was on her way. Looking at the tearful, panicked face of the girl with the long black hair, he hoped she hurried.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  “Do you think he’ll be all right? Do you think your physicians can help him?” Brynn looked anxiously back and forth between the two nice girls who had come to sit with her while Varin was examined. They looked very alike—so much that they must be sisters, she thought. Though one of them had brown hair and green eyes and the other had blonde hair and gray eyes, their faces were so similar as to be almost indistinguishable.

  “I’m sure he will,” said Olivia, the blonde haired girl.

  “My husband, Sylvan is the best doctor on the ship,” the brown haired girl, Sophia said, smiling at her. “He’ll do everything in his power to save your guy, I promise.”

  “Thank you.” Brynn smiled tremulously at both of them. At first she hadn’t been able to understand a word they said. Then Olivia had given her a large pink capsule to swallow with some water. After a few moments, their words had become clear to her and now Brynn found it easy to talk to them. They were sitting in a waiting area outside the place where the blond doctor and the little animal creature whom she had been assured was also a doctor were operating on Varin.

  “So tell us more about Varin,” Sophia urged her. “What kind of Kindred is he?”

  Brynn shook her head.

  “I don’t know and neither does he. He was sold as a slave to my father, the King of Galen Prime, when he was only seven cycles old and I was just a baby. My father bought him to become my personal bodyguard—they gave him a drop of my blood and he was bonded to me. After that, he had dreams and visions of me and I…” She bit her lip. “I dreamed of him too, although I didn’t realize it until I saw him in person.”

  “It sounds like some kind of early dream-sharing thing,” Olivia said thoughtfully. “I’ve never heard of Kindred bonding or dream-sharing so early though.”

  “Dream sharing usually happens just a few weeks or months before you meet your guy in person,” Sophia added helpfully. “The fact that the two of you dreamed of each other for years and years like that is just amazing.”

  “It’s Varin who’s amazing,” Brynn whispered. “He’s sheltered and protected me…he even shot off his own hand to come rescue me when I was trapped in the Hive.”

  “He did?” Olivia’s lovely eyes widened. “Wow—if I didn’t know he was Kindred before, that right there would convince me.”

  “It sounds like something a Kindred warrior would do to save the woman he loves,” Sophia agreed. “They’re incredibly devoted to their females.”

  “Varin has been devoted to me since they bonded him to me at age seven,” Brynn agreed. “But…but he says he loves me and not just because of the bond.”

  “So he was your slave—your bodyguard—but you fell for him anyway?” Olivia raised an eyebrow. “How did that go over with your mom and dad, the king and queen?”

  “They sold me—sold me to Sovereign X'izith of the Hive,” Brynn said harshly. She swallowed and her throat gave a dry click. “He…wanted to implant me with his grubs. But Varin came and rescued me before he could…”

  “Your parents sold you to a guy who wanted to put grubs in you?” Sophia frowned. “I’m not sure if the translations bacteria is quite doing its job.”

  “You heard me correctly,” Brynn said quietly. “He is an evil being—he looks like a giant insect and he has this long, sharp breeding barb that he…” She shook her head, unable to finish.

  “My goodness, honey—it sounds like you’ve really been through the wringer!” Olivia exclaimed.

  Sophia put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

  “I’m so sorry you had such an awful time. But you’re safe here with us. The Kindred protect their own.”

  “Thank you.” Brynn gave the two girls a small, grateful smile. How different they were from the catty, gossiping ladies in waiting she’d had on Galen Prime! Of course, all of the girls who had been mean to her were probably decomposing in that awful pit in the center of the Hive or else filled with grubs right now…

  The thought made her shiver and she tried to push it away. But no matter how hard she tried not to think of the Hive, she kept hearing the high, buzzing voice of Sovereign X'izith hissing that nothing but a “deep breeding” would ease her need…

  “Hello ladies, I’m afraid I need to speak to our new friend alone for a moment.”

  Brynn’s head jerked up.

  The physician with spiky blond hair and pale blue eyes was standing in front of her with a grave look on his face.

  “All right then.” Olivia and Sophia started to get up but Brynn reached for them instinctively.

  “Please,” she said, clasping both their hands. “Please, don’t leave me! If…if the worst has happened, I don’t want to be alone.”

  At once the two girls sat down again on either side of her.

  “Of course we won’t leave you, sweetie!” Sophia pressed her hand comfortingly and Olivia put an arm around her and squeezed.

  “We’re right here for you, Brynnalla.”

  “Call me Brynn, please.” Brynn tried to smile at them. “It…it’s what my friends call me.”

  “Brynn then,” Olivia said decisively. “Brynn, we’re right here with you.” She looked up at the blond Kindred doctor. “All right, Sylvan—go ahead. What happened in the OR?”

  He took a deep breath and Brynn saw that his pale blue eyes were grave.

  “We managed to stop the chip countdown—momentarily. But it will start back up again if we don’t do something.”

  “Can’t…can’t you just replace his chip?” Brynn asked tremulously. “That’s all he needs is just a new chip.”

  Sylvan shook his head. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any slave chips aboard the Mother Ships. We find the practice of slavery abhorrent and wrong.”

  “Sylvan, you’re going to make her feel bad!” Sophia exclaimed. “Varin was her slave, you know—but then she fell in love with him.”

  “Because her parents bonded him to her when she was just a baby,” Olivia put in.

  “Really?” Sylvan frowned thoughtfully. “That is most interesting. I’d like to hear more about it later but for now, we have a big problem to solve—and a decision to make.”

  “What decision?” Brynn’s mouth was so dry she could barely speak. “Will he live? Can you save him? What can you do if you don’t have a replacement chip on hand?”

  “We can take the chip mechanism itself out. Yes we can, yes we can.” The little animal surgeon Olivia had told her was called a Tolleg suddenly came bounding out. “I have done the procedure myself many times in the past. Yes, I have, yes, I have.”

  “Well, then do that!” Brynn exclaimed. “That’s perfect—then we would never have to worry about