4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

T he world spun, making Jenna dizzy. When she opened her eyes, she was back in Rakha's and Bella's house with SaKura holding her.

"What happened?"

"You passed out." Bella was running her hands over Jenna, looking for anything to explain what happened. "Are you all right?"

"I think so. You can let me go now." SaKura took his sweet time putting her on her feet, hovering to make sure she didn't fall.

"Run, Jenna. I will catch you. Consider this your one pass. The next time, you will be mine," he whispered. SaKura stepped back with a wide smile, showing his sharp incisors. "I think she's good."

Shivers went through Jenna that she tried to hide, but Bella had eagle eyes when it came to her sister, and she saw it all.

"Jenna, we should go to my room and have a good look at you before we sit down to eat. Thad, can you hold dinner for a while?"

"Anything for you, princess." Bella let out a growl that unnerved Jenna. It sounded too much like the Diza growl.

"Really, we don't have to—." Yep, that didn't work. Bella was dragging her by her arm. "I love what you've done with the place." They decorated the house in light shades of purple and black. It looked better than she thought it would, and the best part was that it wasn't dark or dreary. There was a peaceful, calm feeling like she'd used a calming blue. Kudos to her sister.

"Bella…" The hand on her sister's hip and the stern look on her face caused Jenna to stop talking.

"Sit. I know you better than you know yourself at times. Don't give me bullshit. What happened?"

Jenna struggled to breathe. So much had happened over the last four months since Bella found her mate and married. Where should she start? Not with SaKura, that was for sure.

"I left the house today." Strangely enough, she hadn't realized how much of a recluse she was until she said those words aloud.

"Good, perfect. Tell me you went to a park, watched the children play, and breathed in fresh air."

"Good try. I went to the mall; the voices led me there." She quickly told Bella about watching the news and then going to the mall. She stopped to describe the mystery man she saw there and then ended by telling her about her run-in with their ex-neighbors, Jeffrey and Marilyn Johnson. Bella growled again; she hated them as much as Jenna did. It was wrong to hate; Jenna knew that, but she couldn't seem to wrangle her feelings about them.

"It could have been a coincidence," Bella said. Except Bella didn't believe in coincidences like that, and neither did Jenna.

"I need to move; they found a way to track me. Why me? What does Jeffrey see in me?"

Bella shook her head. She didn't know. Jeffery and his wife were bad news, and she wanted Jenna out of the line of fire.

"We could go to the police," Bella said. She didn't like that option, but what choice did they have?

Jenna vigorously shook her head. Her father had been a cop, and they were the last people on earth she wanted to deal with.

"Yeah, I feel you." Bella crouched down in front of her. "Was that it? Nothing else? I have a hard time imagining you passing out over that. When it was happening, maybe, but not in my home where you know you're safe."

Darn her sister. She really knew her too well. She cast around for another excuse and went with the semi-truth. Anything else and Bella would scent a lie. Those enhanced senses weren't working in Jenna's favor.

"I thought I knew SaKura. It's from the voices in my head." Bella gave her that look that called her on the carpet but put her lips together, saying nothing.

"Give me time. I don't know what's happening." It was all Jenna could say and as close to a plea as she was willing to come.

Bella dropped her eyes and nodded her head. "Just think how nice it would be if you fell in love with SaKura and mated him. We'd both be married to princes."

"You used to have your feet planted firmly on the ground. No pie in the sky or rose-colored glasses for you. Was it the pregnancy that changed you?" Jenna exaggerated her shiver. "I'm never getting pregnant."

Bella cast her a sad smile. Neither of them was willing to delve into the trauma they experienced at the hands of their sperm donor. Jenna caught most of it, being five years older than Bella.

"If SaKura bothers you, I will kick his ass."

"Look at my sister, she's so bad…"

"Badass Jenna, curse words are your friend." Jenna laughed, the sparkle coming back to her eyes.

"Food is my friend, and I'm hungry."

"I'm hungry too. Let's get our eat on. Thad's food…" Bella put her first three fingers against her lips and kissed them. "You need a Thad. I mean, Amelia can cook, but she won't be with you forever and you'll starve without someone to feed you."

"Haven't you heard of TV Dinners?" They moved through the door and down the steps.

Bella shuddered. "That was out of my worst nightmare." Jenna would pay good money for her worst nightmare to be about frozen dinners.

"We're back," Bella said. "Jenna is fine, and the baby is hungry. Let's eat."

Jenna wanted to kiss her sister. She took all the attention from her and placed it on the baby. No one was going to jeopardize this pregnancy.

"I could go for some Thad food." Jenna smiled at Thad. They had gotten to know each other after the disaster that happened at Bella's reception and then over the last couple of months. She liked the shifter, who was an alien observer. Everyone needed one of him in their lives.

"Come on, we need to get my niece and my favorite sister fed." Thad led them to the dining room and then went through the attached door to the kitchen.

"Jenna is my only sister," Bella said, exclaiming. Thad's laughter floated in from the kitchen.

When he came out, he looked different. Thad looked like a forty-year-old white man when he was hiding his true self. Now he looked like who he was. He was tall and slender, with brown skin and locks. His signature tail that reminded her of a horse. He was also crazy-powerful.

Between Rakha's power and Thad's, who was devoted to Bella, Jenna could sleep at night.

"How long are you staying?" Jenna asked. Thad had given them a first course of soup and salad and now that her stomach wasn't trying to eat her backbone, she could think. Between skipping lunch and running, like a wild woman on an unfamiliar planet, she was famished.

"A week or a month, maybe several hundred years." SaKura tried on a human shrug. It looked weird on him; she was happy that he didn't have his shoulder spikes out.

"Don't you have some princely things to address?" What the heck did royalty do? She never got into the British royal family and as far as she knew, they were more for show than the actual running of the country.

"I've been doing princely things for years." She could hear the humor in his voice and almost wanted to smile at him. She didn't, though. Her mind was putting up danger signs. That way leads to the abyss. Abort, abort. "I'm older than I look."

Bella glossed over the fact that Rakha was older than her. Now she wished she had pressed her for more information.

"It seems strange that the king would want his children to be so far away from home. Especially one that may one day wear the crown." SaKura's skin paled just a little. One for Jenna, too many for SaKura.

"Our father is protective, but we can't blame him. Not after the tragedy that our planet experienced. I should be fourth in line for the throne. We all knew that the firstborn, my sister, would one day become queen." He went quiet and Jenna wanted to kick herself. She knew what happened to the females on their planet. The Tan-ge manufactured a virus to attack anyone with DNA that made them female.

There were times she wondered what would have happened if they had let lose a virus like that on Earth. It was the Diza who were fighting the battle for them. She knew what happened when the Tan-ge landed in a small mid-western town. It was a bloodbath, and no one had been able to stop them. It was one Tan-ge and he killed thousands before a Diza doing exploration stopped him.

"Welcome to Earth if no one remembered to say that to you. No matter how long you stay, I hope you have a good time and see that we are worth fighting for." His smile was genuine. He didn't show his teeth, but he didn't have to. She could see it in his eyes.

If she wasn't broken, maybe it would have been possible, but she was, and the pie in the sky wasn't a real dessert.

"Thank you, sweet Jenna, it was the nicest welcome I have received."

"I made you welcome and even asked if you wanted a domicile of your own." Rakha popped his oldest brother upside of his head.

Jenna giggled, and Bella and Amelia joined her. Siblings were siblings no matter what planet they came from. They finished dinner. Jenna stood and started collecting plates to take to the kitchen.

"You don't have to do that," Thad said.

"Remember, I'm your favorite sister. I can help if I want to." What she wanted was some time away from SaKura.

"Thanks for letting me hang out with you." Jenna was sitting at the island in the kitchen. The main floor was an open concept, but Bella asked Rakha to put up a wall between the kitchen and dining room so Thad would have some privacy when he was cooking. No one wanted to be stared at when they were producing recipes that people would kill for.

"You need some time." Thad snickered before he started doing the dishes. He used some type of high-tech method that not only cleaned but sterilized the dishes and didn't require water.

"I just don't do well in crowds." Thad snorted, and she ignored him. She didn't do well in crowds, but that wasn't the case here. She needed to get away from SaKura.

"The Diza are fascinating people. The minute they go on the hunt, they don't stop. They will only hunt a prize they deem worthy. When the crown-elect goes on a hunt, he or she will not stop until they trap their prey. I hope your sister told you that the Diza hunt their mates."

Jenna swallowed hard and then started coughing. All the dreams she had over the last several months came back to her. In every one of them, she was running because something bigger and badder than her was hunting her. Something she was sure she'd never escape.

"I suppose that is SaKura's older brother."

"You would think. I have it on good authority that he doesn't want the crown." She nodded wisely; it was all the more reason he needed to go home after he visited with his brother. She held her tongue not liking the look that Thad was giving her.

"Is there something I should know?" Thad's eyes flicked from her to the doorway and back again.

She felt like she was being watched and didn't know what to make of it.

"Do you trust me?" Surprisingly, she did. He was the one who got her out of Bella's and Rakha's reception when everything went up in flames.

"Run."