Viola Grace - Terran Times 14 - Entwined, page 1
Thea has risen to the top of her field in data accumulation. She knows that her soul is incomplete and has come to grips with all that it means to her.
Hathir is a gladiator at the top of his game who has the same problem. When they meet, sparks fly and souls are made whole. Hathir wants more than half his soul back, he wants to convince Thea that they are meant to be together, even if it means that he has to participate in a wedding where she is the maid of honour. Doing ritual battle with his soul mate at the wedding is a foreign idea to Hathir, but with her instincts marked by carrying half his soul for most of her life, the battle is on.
Let the best woman win.
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Entwined
Copyright © 2010 Viola Grace ISBN: 978-1-55487-475-0
Cover art by Martine Jardin All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Entwined
A novella of the
Terran Times
By
Viola Grace
Prologue
Twenty-five years before the Volunteers left Terra he Arkhage survey ship slowly scanned the Tplan et known as Terra. They had clearance to move past the system perimeter for the purpose of gathering information on the species that was being considered for entrance into the Alliance.
“Mama, I don’t feel well.” Captain Daylen Callar turned to view her son, Hathir. He was flushed, peaked and had a glazed look to his eyes. “What’s wrong?” As she cupped his face, she heard his whisper.
“I think half my soul is gone.” “What? That isn’t possible, sweet. Your soul belongs to you and your mate alone. You haven’t even been introduced to likely girls.” “I know, but it is what I feel.” Her little boy was just thirteen, far too young to have made a match, especially with no females of his age in the area. Her doubts were silenced when he fainted in her arms.
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“Woof, lad. You are growing far too fast.” She carried him to medical and hooked up the scanner. He was not ill—no virus or bacteria and no other sign of infection. If he was truly experiencing his twining with another’s soul, it must be a young female from the planet they were scanning. Daylen sighed and shook her head, despair flooding her. If one of the girls below had half her son’s soul, then he had half of hers and neither would be whole until they were joined.
The likelihood of that one girl making it into Alliance space and finding her son would be astronomical, but if they could share one-half of the joy that Daylen had shared with her mate, Horal, it would be worth every second for them both.
She hoped that her son was suffering from a debilitating virus that the computer couldn’t identify, because if he never found his mate, he would be a hollow shell of the boy she had raised.
The very thought broke her heart.
Thea looked up at the night sky and put her dolly aside. Something had just happened, but she didn’t know what it was. It was like half of what made her Thea was gone and something else was 2
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now in its place. The something else wasn’t happy either.
Thea picked up her teddy bear and whispered her confusion to him. Teddies were good at keeping secrets.
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Chapter One
ill, I don’t know if I want to go.” Theadora C
“S om
et was looking at her roommate dubiously. “I still have to send this research parcel to the Rep and then start on the next project.
Taking time out to watch a fight is not really on my schedule.”
Sillohoran Negathic reached out and hit the send key on Teddy’s keyboard. “Afterward, my engagement party begins and as my maid of honour, you are required to be there.”
“You know, I am beginning to regret giving you that Terran wedding planning book.” The documents had been ready to go—she was just stalling. Watching the gladiators disturbed her in ways that went beyond the attraction to physical power and danger.
Sill snorted. “Just be thankful that the full portion of your wedding duties doesn’t kick in until the big day. Your stamina has been coming 4
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along, but the voice coach said you haven’t made an appointment yet.”
“I still don’t know why I have to sing at your wedding.” She crossed her office and entered their living room. Sill followed and tossed an armful of clothing at her. “I don’t want to wear this around all those glads. They can see through this stuff or something.”
“Tough. You have to sing at my wedding, because it is part of the Mer-thaka tradition that Stavin wants to uphold. His mother’s people have duelling singers at the wedding with the winning singer giving the upper hand to the bride or groom for the first year of marriage. You already know that the glads have the exchange of best friends after the ceremony.”
“Yeah. I am not looking forward to being Stavin’s best friend. After some of the fights, his hygiene is suspect.”
“You think I am looking forward to Rhinoss?
His hygiene is always suspect. I wonder that the other guys don’t mind the stench.” Looking a little disgruntled, Sillohoran sat next to her best friend.
“If it wasn’t for the love I feel for my big fella, I would never get within twenty feet of that guy.”
Teddy stifled a snicker. “Yep. If it wasn’t obvious that you two were head over heels for each other, I would have put my foot down the first time you dragged me to a gladiator event. All 5
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that testosterone makes me nervous. I know that, in theory, they are safe outside of the arena, but they don’t all turn off their aggression when they leave the gates.”
Her friend gave her a sincere begging look and Teddy sighed. “Fine. I will get dressed and come with you to your party.”
Sill gave her a puppy dog stare.
“And the Arena Championship.”
Sill’s grin came out and her pointed teeth gleamed in the afternoon sun. Teddy groaned and grabbed the fabric, retiring to her rooms to change. The tight blouse went on with a bit of wiggling, the deep vee of the fabric holding her breasts in an obvious position. The Mer-thaka clothing was brief, but at least it was decently opaque. The skirt held tightly to her hips and then flowed loosely to her ankles. The clothing was more provocative than she would like, but it was traditional Mer-thaka formal wear. Stavin was a good guy and if he wanted to have formalities at the party where he introduced his family to his prospective bride, she would help not to stand out. It was a matter of respect. Respect for Stavin and for Sillohoran. A match made in the stars.
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With the slumbering bodies of his evening’s companions around him and over him, Hathir sat up in bed watching the gladiator news feed. One of the reigning champions of Mer-thakaaka was getting married and his engagement party was one of the events of the season. Stavin Rahoul was a strong fighter, a credit to the deadly game that they played on a daily basis. As the reigning Grand Champion, Hathir Callar was proud of the strides that Stavin had made. They trained under the same master and for Stavin to be high enough in the battle chain to take a wife was gratifying.
For Hathir, there had been no choice but to forage forward in the ranks of the gladiators. With his soul mate lost on an alien world, he had no option but to drive for success in his chosen career.
He smiled as Stavin came into the picture, a woman on each arm. The one on his right was obviously his fiancée and the one on his left was a friend. The hold that she had on his arm was formal but tight—she didn’t like being in the spotlight. The little mouse was dressed in Mer-thaka formal wear, but she didn’t flaunt the form-fitting wear. Instead, she curled in her shoulders and kept a calm stillness to herself as if to avoid the gaze of the predators in the room.
Hathir chuckled quietly. No woman at a glad party would escape unfondled for long.
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Something about her was familiar. As the camera swung over the trio, he paused the vid.
They had caught her looking into the recorder with a wide-eyed gaze. Her large green eyes were enormous in her creamy complexion. Waves of rich brown hair fell to her hips and as he let the vid progress, the flexing of her mouth with tension kept his attention.
“Who’s that?” A sleepy feminine voice came from his left. Her name was Halla or Calla or something. “She doesn’t look like your type.”
He looked down at the lovely blonde who was trailing her fingers
“What?” She had been his first selection of the evening and her astonishment was almost amusing.
“Get your things and get out. I need to do some research and make a few calls.” He looked to the other woman who was still sleeping soundly and nodded sharply, “Take her with you. I need to be alone.”
The blonde squeaked in surprise when he stood and she tumbled to the floor.
Naked, he strode into his study and locked the door on the feminine outrage that was being enacted in his bedroom.
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“Computer, isolate the woman on the left of Stavin in the entrance sequence and show me all scenes where she is visible.” He waited for the computer to collect the scenes and then watched them slowly. He learned every tilt of her head and the graceful way she had of eluding the hands of grabby gladiators. The longer he watched her, the more he was sure that she was his soul mate.
“Computer, locate and identify the female selected.” He waited, tenting his fingers as he tried to contain his rising hope.
The computer finally started to roll some data,
“Identified as Theadora Comet of the Alliance Protectorate of Terra. Data accumulation specialist on Mer-thaka.”
Terra. Terra did sound like the planet that they had been scanning when his soul split. He would have to call his mother.
Daylen Callar had held hope for her son finding his mate her entire life. When Hathir had felt his soul split, Daylen had taken him immediately to Arkhage Prime. There, the doctors and psychics pronounced his soul bond in process and with the planet in question being interdicted for assessment, they advised him to pursue a route of employment that would assure him plenty of female companionship. That way, he would not feel his loss as keenly. It had worked, after a 9
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fashion, but he still felt the hole inside him calling for his other half.
“Computer, call Professor Daylen Callar.” He quickly draped a fold of fabric over his lap and adjusted the vid recorder to shoot him from the shoulders up. He liked to observe the proprieties with his mother.
She had supported his un-Arkhage decision to become a gladiator and helped him gain the training that he needed on a planet that thrived on academic advancement. It had been no easy task to find an expert in hand-to-hand combat, but she had put the effort in and gotten him tested for aptitude in the physical arts. What followed were a stream of Bio Tactics specialists who taught him enough to get him into the Gladiator Training Centre on the Alliance planet of Guarius Primalus.
The ping of the communications unit jerked him out of his fond memories. “Hello, Mother.”
“Hathir! How nice to see you.” He could see the resemblance to his own dark features in her deep grey eyes and sweeping black brows. The sharp curve of her lips was the same that he saw in the mirror, but the deep burgundy swath of hair was inherited from his father.
“Mother, do you remember the planet we were scanning when my soul broke?”
“Of course. It was Terra, known by the natives as Earth. Why do you ask?”
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He pondered on how to bring up the subject and decided simply to blurt it out. “I believe that I have seen my soul mate. She is on Mer-thaka.”
Eagerness lit her grey eyes. “Do you know her name?”
“I do. I will tell you after I have met her and confirmed that she is the one who bears the other half of me.”
“What are you waiting for? Get your ass to your ship and head for Mer-thaka.” Her urge to have her son in a happy bonding blazed from her eyes.
Hathir smiled, she was his biggest fan. No matter what he chose to do, she would be behind him. Unless of course, he decided not to pursue the possibility of his soul mate, then she would be behind him, kicking his ass.
“I am on my way, Mother. I just wanted to confirm the planet so that I wasn’t making eyes at a woman who was destined for another. Hathir out.” He flicked off the communication and got to his feet.
He would contact Stavin on the way and wrangle an invitation to the wedding. His old friend would probably be happy to have him visit.
If not, he would simply challenge the champion to a fight.
No fighter could resist fighting the Grand Champion.
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Chapter Two
he feminine whine droned in her ears.
T“P lease?”
“No.”
The tone grew grating. “Please.”
“No.”
Sill fell to her knees at Teddy’s feet. “Please!”
Sill had been nagging her for three hours and Teddy was wearing down. “Fine. Yes. I will go to dinner at Stavin’s with you to meet the Grand Champion.”
Sillohoran clapped her hands and got to her feet. “Excellent, I will pick out your clothes and you can grab a shower—you have been in that chair for far too long. You stink.”
“Flatterer.” Sighing, Theadora pushed away from the desk to make a face at her friend. As a data researcher, it was nice for her to have her best friend as her agent, but it had the effect of Teddy not being able to claim work-related business without Sill knowing the truth.
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The shower took less than five minutes, but when she got out of the shower, it looked like her friend had strewn her entire wardrobe around her bedroom.
“What’s all this?”
Sillohoran sighed and looked at the options.
“It’s no good. You will have to borrow something of mine.”
“No, I won’t. I will wear this dress with this jewellery.” Her dress was modestly cut but very flattering, slit to mid-thigh on either side. The jewellery was Arkhage in design, spiralling geometrics in an earring and necklace combination that always warmed her when she wore it. It gave her a quiet confidence.
“Really? That stuff is so boring!”
“I like it. It’s comfortable and I won’t be worried about it shifting to one side and flashing skin.”
“Your race is such prudes.”
“Not my race. Just me. Some of the others are party girls. And boys for that matter.”
“Well, you are one of a kind then. Come on. I want to arrive in time to have drinks before dinner.”
Bounding out of her room, her friend gave her a jaunty wave and tapped her watch as she rounded the corner. Teddy grimaced and put on some nice underwear, the gown and a nice pair of strappy 13
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sandals. She brushed her hair over and over until it crackled. Reaching back, she bound it into a long tail and then took the collar-necklace and draped it into place. The heavy weight on her chest made her breathe more deeply, calmly and she felt control rippling through her. The earrings merely completed her look. She could have been quite complete with only the necklace.
Makeup was not her thing, so she merely put on some lip balm to protect her from the spices in Mer-thaka cooking. She could digest them well enough, but they inflamed her lips to the point of pain. The balm went into her small evening bag with her credit slips and some data sticks so that if the evening went badly, she could slip off to Stavin’s study and get some work done.
“Are you ready yet?” Sill’s voice snaked around the corner.
“Yes. I am ready, but you won’t approve.”
Taking a deep breath that flexed the front vee of her gown, she strode out into the living room to face her jury.
“It isn’t as bad as I had anticipated. It looks like Theadora, not Teddy though.” She cocked her head and circled Thea slowly. “Not bad at all.”
“Thanks. Then let’s go before you forget about having drinks before dinner.” Grabbing a wrap from the closet, she waited for Sillohoran to catch up, then made her way out to the sidewalk and 14
