Free Adira's Mate by April Zyon Page B

controlled voice. He sounded pissed,
and chilling. “That was not a request,” he added with a little more bite to the
words.
    Adira kept her mouth closed. She was trusting him just as he had asked of her. She believed
in him and knew that he would keep her safe. She felt her pulse racing,
however. She knew that if she wasn’t careful she would have a full-blown panic
attack hitting her in the face of the men and women with their weapons raised
to her.
    The officer in the middle of the
grouping frowned. “ Fintan , what is going on?”
    “ They lower their weapons, or I’ll
take them from them violently. This is not a request, gentlemen. Lower the
weapons now!” His voice rose only a little but it
seemed to have the desired effect. All the guns were lowered until they pointed
at the deck plating. Fin gave her hand a squeeze before he moved out of the
crawler. Turning so his back was to the group, he helped her down. “Breathe,”
he said for her ears alone.
    Adira nodded and squeezed his hand.
With her gaze locked with his she took the moment to calm herself, breathing
with him. She was thankful that he was taking the time to calm her, to help her
to relax. She swayed in closer to him, closing her eyes, and lightly rested a
hand to his chest.
    His hand came up to rest over
hers. “Nothing is going to happen to you, Adira . Take
another slow breath for me.” Fin was keeping his voice very low, barely a
whisper to her ears, but exactly what she needed. It was an intimate moment
amid potential chaos.
    A throat cleared. “I hate to
interrupt, but what is going on here?”
    Adira nodded and smiled. “Thank you,”
she whispered very softly, wanting to keep the moment between the two of them
alone. She took another deep breath and touched her fingers to his lips before
pulling back slightly. “Your friend wants you, Fin.”
    “ I noticed,” he muttered. Turning
back around, he looked to his friend. “ Adira , this is
my oldest friend Bracken. Bracken, this is Adira , my
chosen one.” In the silence that followed that statement, a pin could have been
heard dropping on the command deck.
    Adira simply bowed her head to Fintan’s friend. The man was just as large as Fin and
looked as if he could spit nails from that pronouncement. She looked to Fintan , not sure if she could speak and relying on him to
lead her in this uncertain time.
    Bracken was staring at Fin with
wide eyes. “Uh,” he managed to get out. He shook his head and frowned again.
“Clear the deck,” he ordered. The men hesitated just a little too long. “Now!”
he snapped out.
    Once the landing bay had emptied,
Bracken moved closer. “What the hell is going on, Fin? You vanish for three months and bring back an Imarian ?”
    “ Be careful, Bracken. Friend or no
friend, if you insult her I will take offense. She saved my ass and got me out
of that hellhole I was stuck in. Once we bond she’ll be Craegin ,
so choose your next words very carefully.”
    Bracken shot her a look. “Do you
know what you’re saying?”
    Fin’s
eyes narrowed. “ As
the words are coming from my mouth, yes.”
    The other man shook his head
slowly. “You’d better, Fin. This is going to be a hell of a mess when we get
home. Damn,” he muttered. “I’ll pass the word through the crew, but I think it
best we get you two into a room sooner than later. No point testing them, given
the level of hostilities of late.”
    “ I’ll need all the data from the
last months I’ve been gone. Everything you have, Bracken.”
    “ I’ll have a pad delivered to your
quarters.” The man shook his head again, and let out a breath. “Hope she’s
worth what’s to come.”
    “ Bracken, enough,” Fin said with a
growl. He squeezed her hand gently and tugged as Bracken led the way out of the
bay into the bowels of the destroyer.
    Adira followed along at the heels of Fintan and Bracken. She listened to their quiet talks but
more than that, she watched the looks she received. She