Awakened by the Giant: Brides of the Kindred Read online

  Then she remembered how Calden had held her while she cried her heart out—the way he had rubbed her back and whispered soft, soothing words in her ear to comfort her while she had her mini-nervous breakdown. Abruptly, she felt ashamed of herself. Would a person who could display such compassion and kindness for a stranger’s grief be likely to kill somebody and cut them up to study them?

  “I don’t see how he could,” Maddy murmured to herself. His arms around her had felt so comforting—she had badly needed a kind touch and a soft word when she was feeling so upset and alone. And Calden had been there for her. Likely he was just doing his best to help her—the sole survivor of a terrible wreck—like any decent guy would do. Still…

  “Here you are.”

  His deep voice startled her. Whirling around, she saw that he was holding out a piece of black fabric, though she couldn’t see what kind of clothing it was.

  “I was looking around your lab,” she said, unnecessarily. “Is that one of your specimens?” She nodded at the furry orange creature in the tray.

  Calden stiffened visibly and for a moment she thought she had upset him.

  “Yes,” he said at last, his deep voice neutral. “That is a brantha from Harkon Prime.”

  “Did you kill it?” Maddy demanded. She didn’t know why she was being so harsh—so accusatory. Hadn’t she just been telling herself that the giant Kindred couldn’t possibly be capable of such a thing? But somehow she couldn’t seem to stop. “Did you kill it so you could cut it up and study it? Or did it die of natural causes and you’re trying to find out why?”

  “I did not kill the brantha.” Calden’s tone was still carefully neutral. “But it did die before its natural life span was up.”

  “Oh.” Maddy felt a rush of relief. “So you were going to perform a necropsy—to see why. Right?”

  “Essentially.” He cleared his throat. “If you’re having fears again about my possible treatment of you—”

  “No, I’m sorry.” Maddy shook her head. “I shouldn’t have been so rude. It just…upset me when I saw the, uh—what did you call it?”

  “The brantha.” His deep voice was thick with emotion when he spoke this time. “He was…a very engaging little creature. Very affectionate. I was…sad when he passed, though we are not supposed to engage in emotions here on the Mentat station.”

  Maddy felt awful when she saw the pain in his glowing topaz eyes.

  Oh my god—it was some kind of a pet. I accused him of killing his own pet to dissect it! What a jerk I am!

  “I’m sorry,” she said again, earnestly. “I didn’t know he was your pet—I thought he was just a specimen.”

  “He was a specimen,” Calden protested. “But…” His voice dropped. “I suppose he became a kind of pet—though again, such things are forbidden here.”

  “If having emotions and pets is forbidden, I don’t think I’m going to fit in here very well,” Maddy said, frowning. “I’m a vet—a veterinarian, you know. I worked with people’s pets—cured them and healed them—for a living back on Earth. It’s one reason I was welcome aboard the Kennedy, because the leaders thought I’d be useful to have around when we established a new colony and we could start defrosting the embryos of the farm animals we brought.”

  Calden cocked his head to one side and gave her a penetrating look.

  “Fascinating. So your profession was to care for animals? In that case, I am sorry the brantha expired before you could see him for yourself. I think you would have liked him.”

  “Did you ever give him a name?” Maddy asked.

  He shook his head. “I simply thought of him as ‘the littlest one’ I suppose. To actually name a specimen is to become too attached.”

  “I guess it’s too bad I came already named, then,” Maddy said dryly.

  “I’m glad you can remember your name,” Calden said seriously. “It means that your other memories are not far behind. And I am hoping to learn much from you in the time that we have.”

  “In the time that we have?” Maddy frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “I…” Calden cleared his throat. “I just meant in the time that FATHER has allotted for this study.”

  “Who is this ‘FATHER’ anyway?” Maddy asked. “You’ve mentioned him before—is it your actual father?”

  “Oh, no.” Calden appeared to be amused by the idea because his glowing topaz eyes crinkled and the corners of his mouth twitched. The expression made his chiseled features almost handsome and for a moment Maddy felt her heart skip a beat. “FATHER is the AI overseer who runs the Mentat station,” he explained.

  “AI? As in Artificial Intelligence? You have a computer boss?” Maddy asked, putting a hand to her hip—or trying to. She kept forgetting that the damn things were non-functional. All she succeeded in doing was letting the towel she’d been clutching to her chest slip halfway off, revealing her bare right breast.

  “Oops!” She clutched for the towel but it was hard to hold onto when her hands weren’t working. She found she couldn’t even get the towel back up to cover herself so she had to settle for hiding her nipple with her arm. “Damn it, I’m getting really tired of this!” she exclaimed, feeling her cheeks get hot with embarrassment and frustration.

  “Here—let me help you into the garment I simulated for you,” Calden said practically. He held out the black fabric, showing it to her.

  “What’s that?” Maddy asked, frowning. “Did you make me a dress?”

  “It’s actually the smallest version of the undershirt that I wear that I could get the simulator to make.” He pointed at himself—he was still wearing the sleeveless black t-shirt he’d had on under his lab coat as well as black trousers and comfortable looking black moccasin-type boots that laced up to his knees.

  He really was pretty muscular for a scientist, Maddy couldn’t help thinking. The black t-shirt revealed well-developed arms and a broad chest as it clung lovingly to his six-pack abs. She wondered if he worked out in between science experiments or what.

  Then she realized what she was doing—admiring another man and an alien man at that—when she’d just found out that her husband was dead. A rush of shame and guilt came over her and she looked away in confusion.

  “Oh—okay.” She nodded jerkily. “Let me have it and I’ll put it on.”

  He hesitated. “Perhaps I’d better help you with it. It might be difficult to get over your head without the use of your hands.”

  Maddy saw that he had a point. Though she didn’t like it much, she was going to be at least semi-dependent on the big Kindred until she got her hands fixed. They must have been injured in the crash and the slime bath he’d had her in was helping to regrow the nerves or something.

  “All right,” she said reluctantly. “Just put it over my head and I’ll drop the towel when you do and put my arms through the holes.”

  She thought for a moment that he was going to protest again that he didn’t think of her in a sexual way so it didn’t matter if he saw her body but he only nodded.

  “All right. Here.”

  He dropped the black fabric shirt over her head and Maddy put her arms up, letting the dark blue towel puddle at her feet. She managed to get her arms through the large holes, all right, but when the shirt settled over her, the rounded neck-line proved to be much too big. It sagged down towards her belly button, leaving her breasts completely bare.

  “Oh!” Maddy tried to cover herself with her arms, feeling her cheeks get hot again. “I, uh know you said this was the smallest thing you could make but I think it’s still too big,” she told Calden.

  “Hmm.” The big Kindred frowned. “This does pose a problem. Maybe if we turned the undershirt around? It’s higher in the back than in the front, I believe.”

  He turned himself so she could see what he was talking about, showing a broad, muscular back which matched his front. Maddy saw that his long hair—which was in many tiny braids—was gathered in a loose bunch at the back of his head. Some of the