Divided Read online

“A little closer,” Kat urged. “It feels good doesn’t it? Feels right.”

  “Of course it does.” Commander Deep turned around and Becca was glad she’d grabbed her blouse and wrapped it around her shoulders again. “The touch of your twin is healing—in every way.”

  “I…” Suddenly Truth pulled away and took a step back. “Apologies,” he muttered. “But I…I cannot.”

  “What happened?” Becca asked anxiously. “Did it start to feel wrong somehow?”

  “No,” Truth said shortly and would say no more.

  Far simply stood there, his arms hanging by his sides, making no move to pursue the other male.

  “It’s all right,” he said at last. “Truth just needs some time.”

  “Time is what we don’t have.” Commander Deep sounded impatient. “Truth, how will you merge your shaft with your brother’s to form a lasting bond with your female if you cannot even bear to hug him?”

  “What?” Becca demanded.

  “What?” Truth repeated, sounding incredulous. “We must what in order to form a bond with a female?”

  “To form a bond you and your twin must merge your shafts into one before you penetrate her—you know this. Every Twin Kindred knows,” Deep snapped.

  “Well I didn’t know.” Becca couldn’t stop her voice from shaking. And judging from the look on Truth’s face he hadn’t known either.

  “You are joking,” he said flatly. “To touch another male in such a way…it’s depraved.”

  “It’s not depraved. It’s not even sexual.” Lock, who had been standing quietly, jumped in, obviously trying to salvage the situation. “I mean, it is with your female but not with your brother. It’s simply the only way to bond her to you completely. You must join—become one.”

  “And then you enter her as one,” Deep clarified. “It’s also the only way to conceive a child.”

  “I…I cannot…even think of such a thing!” Truth was shaking his head, looking more and more horrified and disgusted.

  Becca was feeling pretty horrified herself.

  “Wouldn’t that be way too big for a girl to, um, accommodate?” She tried not to look but her eyes were drawn involuntarily to the twin bulges in both Truth and Far’s tight, black uniform trousers. They looked huge and if putting them together doubled their size…

  “Don’t worry about that,” Kat said quickly. “There’s this little thing called bonding fruit that helps.”

  “There is no help. And no way I will ever do this.” Truth lifted his chin. “I should not have let myself go so far. Should not have allowed myself to be seduced by your talking of bonding and brotherly affection. It’s sick and wrong—all of it!”

  “Brother, please…” Far held out a hand to his twin desperately but Truth backed away, shaking his head.

  “No. No!” he growled. “Stay away from me.”

  Turning, he left as quickly as he could but not before Becca saw the look of horror on his face and the look of anguish on Far’s.

  Chapter Nine

  Kat turned on her mate.

  “Now just look what you did! Why did you have to go and tell him that? And just when we were making progress too!”

  Deep shrugged irritably. “How was I supposed to know he was completely ignorant of his own anatomy? Even a child knows what I told him.”

  “A child raised on Twin Moons does,” Lock said quietly. “But Truth was raised on Pax among the Rai’ku. They are a savage race with strict ideas about wrong and right. It is probable that the things we have asked him to do here would make him an outcast there.”

  “What do you know about their culture?” Far asked, breaking his anguished silence at last. “I couldn’t find out much—only that the Kindred Council had refused a genetic trade with them. But none of the documents said why.”

  “It’s because of what Truth said—about being raised in ‘the pack,’” Lock said. “The Rai’ku males have a beast within them—a beast which rises to the surface and overtakes them until it blots out all personality, making them mindless creatures capable of acting only on instinct. When this happens they band together and hunt in a pack.”

  “What—like a wolf pack? But what causes that?” Kat demanded. “Are they like…werewolves or something? They get hairy during the full moon?”

  “As far as anyone can say the rising beast seems to be tied to some kind of cycle though I do not know if the moons that orbit Pax have anything to do with it,” Lock said. “The change from man to beast may also be tied to emotional instability.”

  “How did you find this out?” Far asked hoarsely.

  “The Kindred Council sent a warrior to study them,” Lock said. “I was able to gain access to his records for my language studies. They have been locked against casual observers due to some of the graphic content they contain.” He shook his head. “I don’t think you want to read them, Far. Sufficed to say that when the Rai’ku change they are very unpredictable and very dangerous.”

  Becca felt sick. “But…we’re not thinking that Truth is some kind of a…a were beast are we?”

  “Of course not!” Kat exclaimed. “We’re just saying he was raised by them.” She looked at Lock. “Right?”

  “Right.” He nodded. “But even being raised by them has been enough to color his perceptions. The Rai’ku are a very dominant and possessive race and they are also extremely competitive when it comes to mates. They do not share their women under any circumstances. In fact, even seeing another male too near a female who is spoken for would be enough to cause a fight to the death.”

  “I suppose they want to be sure their genes are getting passed down and not some other guy’s,” Kat muttered.

  “Speaking of that,” Becca said. “Truth mentioned that he had some half brothers from his father’s second marriage. But if what Commander Deep said about the Twin Kindred way of…of fathering children is right…” She felt her cheeks heating up and cleared her throat. “Well, I just don’t see how it’s possible.”

  “It shouldn’t be,” Lock said thoughtfully. “Although the Rai’ku do possess very dominant genetics. That is one reason the Council voted not to make a trade with them—they determined that the tendency to transition into a mindless beast could not be bred out of them, not even with an infusion of Kindred DNA.”

  “So Truth’s other brothers are half Kindred and half savage beast,” Far said, sounding bitter. “And still he prefers them to me.”

  Becca felt her heart twist at his expression.

  “Far, honey, don’t feel that way,” she protested. “Whoever those other brothers are, he doesn’t have a bond with them.”

  “He doesn’t have one with me either,” Far pointed out. “And now he’s never going to.”

  “Give him some time,” Lock counseled. “Think of the society he was raised in. Rai’ku males never come into physical contact unless they are fighting. Aggression is like a second language to them. But affection—especially between members of the same sex—is foreign.”

  “Yes, remember—he said he had never been hugged, even by his own father.” Kat shook her head. “That’s just sad. I don’t understand how anyone could raise a child without hugging them. I mean, I want to hug my little guys already and they’re not even out yet.” She cupped her rounded belly protectively.

  “Probably Truth’s father was trying to fit into the Rai’ku’s repressive society and be certain his son would fit in as well.” Deep sighed.

  “He may have also been damaged emotionally. To lose your brother, your mate, and a son all at once…” Lock looked sad. “It must have been devastating. Honestly, I don’t even know how he survived at all—usually the death of one Twin Kindred means the death of his brother too. Maybe Feels Pain was frightened that if he loved Truth too much or showed him too much affection he would lose him as well.”

  “So instead he raised him to be a homophobic, touch-phobic, straight-laced, tough son of a bitch,” Deep growled.

  “Which means that basica