Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Keeper

Holding up her hand, she stopped Raptor. She needed to think. To go through the information and try to figure out what he was saying. His story was interesting, unbelievable, and heartbreaking.

Not just for Raptor, but for Grace. She stood up and realized she didn't have room to pace, so she went and leaned on the wall by the monitor. It was the closest thing she had to a window. She needed to look outside, to let her mind and heart deal with the problems.

Grace didn't want to look at Raptor right now. To see how much this was hurting him.

It was the way he'd said it. The longing in his eyes, in his voice, when he explained, I can't tell you what it is like. To take a deep breath, filling your lungs with crisp clean air for the first time in centuries. To have the wind pass over your slowly forming body—a whisper of feeling tempting, then sparking the awakening. A small light of awareness grows within, and it thrills you knowing that once again, your Keeper has been reborn. Her soul calls to you, prompting your rebirth.

Raptor had a Keeper, one designed specifically for him. As they designed him for her? He didn't really say that. But it was implied.

How the hell did Grace compete with that? A woman designed by the Interstellar gods, specifically for Raptor. Even if she had refused him. Evidently many times. Huh .

It was at that moment that Grace realized she'd started to develop feelings for him. That she wanted—what? A hook-up for a few weeks? A long-term relationship? How the hell would that work?

She was... upset. Emotionally... distraught . Grace couldn't imagine getting rejected a dozen times over a thousand years. Tommy Johnson had rejected her affections when she was a senior in high school. It had devastated her. In the beginning, if someone had offered her stasis... she'd have taken it. Three weeks later, she was over Tommy and met the love of her life. That lasted until she went to college.

Raptor didn't get that chance. He failed with the woman and as soon as he fulfilled his duty—they dragged him back into stasis, so he never dealt with the angst caused by a stranger's rebuff. And let's face it, the woman was a stranger to him, no matter if she'd been custom designed.

Grace turned around and watched Raptor for a few minutes. He was... nervous and trying not to show it. He was also very focused on her cat. Trying hard not to watch her. But he kept sneaking glances her way. She frowned. Why? Something was going on here that she didn't understand.

Being rejected so many times had to be tough. Especially knowing that rejection would send you back to stasis. But what really upset her, and it didn't matter that she didn't have the right to be upset, was that Raptor was taken. Whether the Keeper wanted him or not... his heart and soul belonged to someone else.

Or was he taken? He'd run from that destiny. From his Keeper. Did that mean he was free to... date? And exactly how would that work? He'd leave her on Megoth and go off to save the universe. Then swing by when he got a break? That seemed extremely stupid.

Besides. Raptor was over a thousand years old and looked to be in the prime of his life. She was thirty-something and had a finite number of dating years left. Yeah. This was stupid.

So, was she going to give up and put him in the friend box?

She didn't want to. But she needed a little more information before she put her heart out there. "When you met your Keeper— those times when she refused you—how many days or weeks did you spend with her?"

Raptor seemed shocked by the question. "Never more than a day. We awakened to search for a criminal. We needed to find our Keeper and tell her what she was to us. Then if she agreed—we would take her with us to hunt down the threat to humanity, the gods awakened us to fight."

Grace's eyes opened wide. "Well, there is a part of the problem." She blinked. "Especially since all those times in the past were pretty much the dark ages. She would have thought you were the devil, or a witch, or something. You probably scared the poor girl to death! Tell me about the last time... two hundred years ago, right before you ran. That would have been what... sometime in the 1800s?"

He nodded. Watching her warily. "Yes. At that time, my Keeper lived in London. She was a dressmaker's apprentice." He stopped. As if unsure of what to say next.

Grace prodded him. "Where did you first see her?"

"She was at home, getting ready for bed. She had a small room in the dressmaker's house located up in the attic. I said something like, You are my Keeper. She spun around with a gun in her hand. In every incarnation, she has had a weapon of some sort. Guns, knives, a cudgel."

"Wait!" Grace demanded. "You were in her room? How did you get there?"

He couldn't help rolling his eyes. "You've seen that no lock keeps me out. It was even easier back then. I waited until most were asleep or downstairs in their rooms. I let myself in the house and ghosted up to the attic."

Grace didn't know whether she should laugh or cry. Raptor didn't have any idea how ridiculous that was.

She took a deep breath. "Raptor. No woman ever, in any time period, is going to talk to you if you break into their house or show up uninvited in their room. They are going to shoot you. Or scream bloody murder so someone else comes to shoot you. She would believe you were there to hurt her."

"You didn't scream or make me leave."

"I pointed a gun at you. And the circumstances were different. Someone was already trying to kill me. Have you ever taken time to get to know your Keeper before? Not when she is alone, but in a public setting where she felt safe. Not just appear and begin talking about Keepers, then show her your silver body. You need to take it slow and easy. Have you always just popped in and scared her to death?"

Raptor

He was stunned. Completely taken aback by Grace's perception of events. He didn't… Raptor stopped. He couldn't lie to himself, and definitely not to her. Siluthien Hell. She wasn't wrong.

But there was a reason for it. "The Interstellar gods only call us when we are needed and our Keeper is an adult. There isn't time for anything but claiming her if she is willing. There are universal criminals to catch." Something he thought but didn't say aloud was that there wasn't time to date, to slowly get to know one another and take the relationship in stages. They had to go from hello —to Guardian creating sex—within just a few hours.

He had to admit that everything was different since he met Grace. Having additional time with his Keeper seemed to work better. She definitely had a point.

Grace put her hands on her hips. "Absolutely no woman in her right mind would consent to being claimed by a stranger. Unless the situation she was in was worse. It hurts my soul to think about what those circumstances would have to be." She stopped and shuddered. Then seemed to pull herself back together. "Modern times won't be easier. If anything, the Keeper probably has a career, a family, and a house. Things she won't want to give up on a whim. You Guardians are being set up for failure. Someone needs to have a conversation with these gods," she muttered at the end of her rant.

Raptor started to answer her when she cut him off.

"They need to send you to your Keeper before you are needed. Weeks before. Hell, months would be better. Take time to get to know her in public spaces before you try to court her in private. Then, and only then, should you try to explain who you are." She glared at him. Obviously disgusted that anyone would be so… stupid.

And he felt stupid. Felt as if the gods had let him and all his brethren down. It certainly made more sense to have enough time to take it slowly. Except…

"Makayla is Falcon's Keeper. My brother said she went with him within moments of the first meeting," Raptor informed her.

Grace had been standing back at the monitor. Watching a fawn run through the meadow. At his statement, she whirled around and exclaimed. " She did not! Not without a damn good reason. Makayla would never do something like that." She glared at him. Extremely pissed off.

He needed to be fair. He sighed and admitted, "Her sister and… cousin? Is that right? Cousin?"

She nodded her head. Lips tightly pressed together.

"The Siloth had kidnapped her sister and cousin from their home. Makayla got injured when she fought them. She slammed the door in Falcon's face when he showed up with flowers and told her she was his Keeper. When his mate slammed the door in his face, she said that unless he had a spaceship , she wasn't interested. Falcon has a spaceship."

Grace's eyes were wide at the end of his story. "What are Siloth?"

"Red, four-armed, and very hairy creatures. Many of them smuggle goods or traffic in breeders."

This time, Grace's nostrils flared. "When you told me Makayla sent you to get me, what did she say… exactly?" she demanded.

He didn't blame her for asking again. She had a lot on her mind when he told her the first time. Men had surrounded the house and were trying to kill her.

Raptor closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Makayla told me to say, ‘I'm calling in my marker, Gracie. Not just for me, but for Kit Kat and Little Bit, too. I need you. For a couple weeks, a month, hell... Just come. You can decide how long you want to stay once you get here. All three of us are pregnant. There isn't a doctor here, and we're having lots of complications. My husband trusts Raptor to bring you to us. Come on, Parrothead. Bring Baby and come visit. I need you.' That was all of it."

Grace visibly relaxed. "Kit Kat is Kaitlyn, her sister. Little Bit is Lauren, her cousin. Makayla and Falcon must have rescued them."

Shaking his head, Raptor said, "No. Falcon told me the two younger girls banned together with other women from Earth who were also captured, and several female captives from other species. They forced the Siloth to land on Megoth. I think hid actual words were… they damaged the spaceship, so it had to land. That is when they managed to escape. But it took several days for Makayla to find both of them. They'd been separated."

Grace looked horrified. "You said the Siloth take women to become breeders. I assume that means they capture women to impregnate."

"They don't impregnate them. They sell them to someone who wants to have a child. Most species can breed with Earth women. Sometimes it takes a little help, and the Siloth have that medical knowledge. So, they sell the women to a specific individual or a lab for experimentation. Guardians spend a lot of time trying to stop the trafficking of Earth women."

"Kayla said all three of the women are pregnant. Do you know if someone who bought them impregnated the girls?"

He violently shook his head. " No . Not no —as in I don't know—but no to your question. One is married to the Dragon Prince of Megoth. Or hell, he might be king by now. The other is married to the leader of the Megoth Horde."

Grace blinked. "Dragon Prince. Tell me that doesn't mean he turns into a dragon. "

Raptor looked at her and frowned, but he said nothing because it would be a lie.

She swore. " Shit. No wonder Makayla and the girls are having issues. One is married to a Guardian. Who, I assume, turns silver and does all the weird stuff you do?" When he nodded, she continued, "And the other is married to a dragon? Oh, my God. What is the leader of the Horde? What makes him different?"

He started to shrug. He had no idea. Then he remembered a conversation he had with his brother about why they wanted this woman versus a Guardian doctor. "I will tell you what my brother told me when he asked me to come and get you. He said, ‘ When a Guardian pair lives on another planet, it sets their biological workings to the ruling class. On Megoth, the ruling class is the dragon shifter. One of our Guardian rules is that conception and pregnancy mirror the dominant life form. This means Makayla's pregnancy will be like her cousin's. Except she won't birth a dragon-child, so there won't be additional hormonal changes giving her abilities like telepathy. They will both be pregnant for about twenty-three months, while her sister's pregnancy will be closer to twenty-six months—because that's how long Megoth Horde females carry.' I'm trying to remember if he said anything else." He stopped for a moment and noticed Grace's open-mouthed stare.

Raptor frowned. "He also said that they both seem to be much further along than they should be. Falcon mentioned multiple births are normal for dragons, and single ‘pups' are rare."

Grace gasped and giggled a little. "They call the babies... pups? So, they could both have twins? That may be why they look as if they are further along."

Raptor shook his head. "It could be twins. Or more. Dragon litters are often in the double digits."

She gasped again. "You have got to be shitting me. Oh, my God. I need more stuff. At least a dozen incubators to start. Do you have paper and a pen? I need to make a list. Can the Helpers get me whatever I need?"

He nodded and waited while she stared at the ceiling in a near panic.

A few minutes later, she looked at him. "Is that all? What about Kaitlyn? Makayla's sister. You said she was married to the leader of the Megoth Horde. What is different for her?"

"Falcon said that because Megoth Horde warriors are huge, their babies have an average weight of nineteen pounds."

Grace whistled and said, "Shit. No wonder Kayla needs me. We need to wrap this up and leave." Without missing a beat, she asked, "Do you know what happened to your Keeper?"