Hitting the Target Read online

  “You are?” Her eyes widened. “We don’t do that in the People’s Republic.”

  “Well, we do it here,” Trey said firmly. “You’ll feel more comfortable if there’s another female in the room and you won’t have to worry that I’ll take advantage of you in any way.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much for understanding, Healer Treygar.”

  “Of course. And I told you—you can call me Trey.” He nodded and left the room, looking for a healer’s aide to be in the room with them as he cleaned and bandaged her cuts.

  But why can’t we heal her? his beast asked plaintively, and sent him a picture of Trey licking her wounds gently and watching as they sealed themselves seamlessly, leaving not even a scar to show she had ever been hurt.

  A deep longing filled him at the image—Lei’on Kindred needed to heal their mates the same way they needed to taste them. It was an inherent part of his heritage and he had to hold himself back sternly.

  You know we can’t do that yet, he told his beast. I just got finished telling her I would never touch her inappropriately and I’m certain she would think that me licking her all over her back would be completely inappropriate.

  His beast protested that it didn’t have to be sexual.

  She will be our mate—Lei’ons heal their mates of any hurts or cuts. It is a kindness—healing your female. It helps to deepen the bond between you, but it doesn’t have to lead to actual mating.

  Trey finally managed to convince his beast that was exactly what Mia would think it was leading to if he went back into the room and asked to lick her back instead of bandaging it the normal way.

  The “normal” way is ineffective and messy, his beast grumbled but agreed to put off the more intimate kind of healing for when Mia knew them better.

  Trey was relieved—his beast could be surprisingly stubborn at times but there was no way he could heal Mia the way they both wanted to without making her fearful and upset. He remembered the tears in her eyes when she admitted that someone had tried to rape her. He was glad they had been stopped at the last moment but the look of fear and violation in her lovely eyes was still enough to make him want to hunt the bastard down and kill him for her.

  But first he had to heal her. He sighed.

  The normal way.

  Chapter Seven

  Mia wondered if she could really believe all the things the big Kindred was telling her. Did he honestly only want to protect her and heal her? Was he truly just helping her because he believed it was right, and not for any personal gain or payback? Could she trust him not to hurt her or try to take advantage of her the way the Commandant had?

  But he has to take advantage of me—I’m supposed to seduce him! she reminded herself.

  It was all very confusing to say the least. Despite Treygar’s kind words and actions, she wasn’t sure if she could trust him. In fact, she had to hope she couldn’t trust him because her orders were to get him into bed. How was she going to manage that if he really was as honorable and upright as he appeared to be?

  I don’t know but you’d better figure it out soon, whispered a little voice in her head. You heard what the imaging tech said about him—that all the women in the Care Center are after him.

  And she could see why they would be, too. Treygar—or Trey as he’d asked her to call him—was so big and tall and muscular and he smelled so good. Also, his hair was amazing!

  She’d never thought much about men’s hair before—probably because all the men in the Republic wore their hair slicked straight back with greasy styling balm. If you accidentally touched it, your fingertips felt oily for hours afterwards, even if you washed your hands.

  But Trey’s hair was different. It was shiny and silky and obviously squeaky clean. It was almost like a mane around his face—like a targen’s mane, she decided, thinking of the huge, carnivorous felinis that lived in the wilds of Ormyu Five.

  The thought made her remember the way his eyes had turned from clear green to gold when he’d gotten upset. For just a moment, it had almost been like someone else was staring out from those golden eyes, she thought. Someone other than Trey.

  Mia pushed the thought away uneasily. It was just a Kindred trait—like the desire to protect women. He had told her so and she chose to believe it—at least for now.

  But strange eyes aside, he was gorgeous. Definitely the ideal for a man, which made her wonder all over again how she was going to manage to seduce him since she was the opposite of every standard of beauty she’d ever been taught to internalize.

  I don’t know either but you’d better make your move soon before you lose his attention, whispered the little voice. You probably should have told him you’d be fine letting him examine you alone and tried something then. After all, your ankle is better now. You have no excuse not to.

  But the thought of that—of stripping in front of him and then letting him touch her body—brought back the memory of the Commandant doing that exact thing to her that morning. A shiver of revulsion ran down her spine. God, had it only been that morning? The memory was fresh and raw and yet it felt unreal too. The Commandant was hundreds of miles away and the Great Barrier was between her and him. It almost felt as though he couldn’t reach her—couldn’t touch her.

  But he can touch Neemah, pointed out the little voice in her head. He can hurt her if he’s not happy with you. And don’t forget what he said—"The EYE is always watching.”

  Mia shuddered and began to strip carefully out of the ripped and dirty dress. It had been ruined by the fall onto the sharp gravel around the transport tracks, but she didn’t care. It was the garment that had made the Commandant want to touch her and she hated it. She wished she could throw it away, but she really had nothing else to wear and no money to buy anything else—or even to rent a flat or a hotel room. God, what was she going to do when she left the Care Center? Where would she go?

  She had no idea but getting rid of the ruined dress didn’t seem to be an option. She folded it carefully so that the Mercy Star pin was out and had a good view of the room—but only after she’d put on the gown Trey had given her to wear. She’d be damned if she would give the Commandant another look at her body, no matter what her orders were.

  There was a discrete knock on the door and Trey’s deep voice called, “Mia? Are you ready for us to come in?”

  “Oh!” The little gasp was startled out of her and her eyes flew involuntarily to the Mercy Star. Everything was in place—she was all right, she told herself.

  “Mia?” Trey sounded a little worried now.

  “Yes, come in. I’m ready,” she called, wrapping the gown a little more tightly around herself.

  The door opened and Trey came in followed by a woman with dark brown hair and a stern but kindly face.

  “Mia, this is Lydiah—the supervisor of healers’ aides I told you about,” Trey said. “She’s going to be with us while I treat your cuts and abrasions.”

  “Oh…hello.” Mia suddenly had her heart in her throat.

  “Hello, Mia. Healer Treygar tells me you were a healer’s aide in the Republic before you came to Bountiful and you’re interested in continuing your career here.”

  God, was she going to be interviewed right here and now for a position? Mia didn’t know what to do or say. She felt completely unprepared for any kind of questions, especially considering that the technology here was so much more advanced than what she’d worked with in her old Care Center.

  Her fear must have shown on her face because Lydiah burst out laughing.

  “Don’t worry, my dear—I’m not going to grill you right now. From what Healer Treygar says, you’d like a job sometime in the future, but you lost your certificate—is that right?”

  “Along with everything else,” Mia said in a small voice. “It was all in my bag. My identity papers, money, certificate…everything.” Just saying it made her want to cry again. She really had no idea where she was going to stay that night or how she was goi