Jen watched as Treyvon unfolded his massive body from behind his desk and slowly moved toward her. Silent rage vibrated in every step he took, and while Jen’s heart was pounding, she wasn’t afraid of him. She knew in her heart that Treyvon would never hurt her.
“You believed that I had abandoned you. That my absence when you awoke was because I wished it?” While Treyvon spoke softly, there was no doubting her words had angered him.
“Abandon is a strong word,” she began, “I know you would never do that. You checked the educator and left me with Mac and Luol. There was no reason for you to remain any longer. You’d done your duty.”
“This is why you distanced yourself from me last night in your quarters? Because I was not there when you woke? Not because my presence or my touch offends you?”
“Why would either do that?” she asked, frowning up at him.
Treyvon saw the confusion in her eyes, but couldn’t help but wonder if it were truth. Slowly he raised a hand and ran a calloused finger along her injured cheek, his gaze locked with hers judging her reaction. Others had allowed him to do this too, but he had always seen the truth in their eyes. They only tolerated his touch because of what he could give them.
He hoped it wasn't that way with Jennifer.
His heart sank when she closed her eyes, just like all the others had, but then they flew open, and her powerful eyes gazed directly into his, and he saw she spoke truth. His touch did not bother her. She even tipped her head slightly, seeming to want more.
Stepping close, so his body nearly touched hers, he framed her upturned face with his large, battle-roughened hands, his gaze searching hers. How could she not know she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, even injured? That the gaze of every Warrior followed her when she passed by?
"It is my duty and honor to see to your protection, Jennifer." His thumb caressed her full lower lip as he spoke. "That I desire to and find great satisfaction in the act makes it very personal to me."
"It does?" she whispered.
"Yes." Treyvon watched her eyes soften at his words, then something that looked like guilt filled them before she looked away. She would have pulled away, but his hands tightened, keeping her in place. "Jennifer, what is wrong?"
"That shouldn't mean so much to me." Her gaze returned to his, and he was shocked to see them filling with tears. "This shouldn't feel so… right. Todd hasn't been gone that long. I barely know you. What does that say about me? Am I really that shallow of a person? Don't I have any loyalty? Even to the man I loved?"
"Jennifer…" Treyvon bent his knees, so he was closer to her eye level. "I may not have known you long, but in the time that I have, I have found you to be a most loyal and brave female. You put others before yourself. You attacked a Zaludian soldier to defend your Dasho, and then a Captain in defense of your friend. Those are not the actions of a shallow female. Or one without loyalty."
"That…" A knock on the Command Center door cut Jen off, and she pulled out of Treyvon's grip. Or at least she tried to. "Please," she pleaded.
Reluctantly, Treyvon let her go and watched as she moved the tray on the hover cart to his desk. "Enter," he ordered, but his eyes remained on Jennifer.
Gryf entered Treyvon's Command Center, stopping at what he found. His General and friend was standing in front of his desk watching as Chef Jennifer moved behind it, removing a cover from a tray revealing what he had seen Nikhil, his Ashe, Luol, and Gulzar eating at Last Meal.
"This is your share of the beast stew and biscuits that I cooked," she told him moving from behind the desk. "There is also some butter to slather on the biscuits."
"Biscuits?" Treyvon finally pulled his gaze from her to the golden squares next to the bowl of fragrant food.
"You split them in half, butter them, and can then either dip them in the stew or eat them by themselves."
"They are… very good," Gryf admitted grudgingly.
"You had some?" Treyvon's shocked eyes went to his commander. "I didn't know you had allowed your food stores to be used."
"I did not," Gryf admitted.
"Then how would you know how a biscuit tasted?" Before Gryf could reply, Jen spoke.
"I made the biscuits from the basics that were available to all, so I made enough for everyone to try."
"I see."
"Commander Gryf, if I had known you would be here, I would have brought extra for you."
"There is extra?" Gryf asked, hope in his voice.
"I'm sure I could have stretched out one more portion. It wouldn't be as large as this, but...”
"Who would have gone with less?" Treyvon demanded quietly.
"No one."
Her answer had him growling, "How is that possible?" When she didn't answer, he realized what she refused to say. "You would have given up your portion to Gryf."
"What?!!" Gryf looked at her in disbelief then demanded. "Why would you do such a thing?"
"It's not that big of a deal. I don't need as much food as you do." She moved to the cart and started pushing it toward the door. "Eat. I'll get the dishes later." With that, she left.
• • • • • •
Jen took her time walking back to the kitchen. She needed the time to think about what had just happened and what had just about happened. She'd remained on Pontus because she wanted to get back to Earth and her little sister, not because of Treyvon.
Treyvon aroused feelings in her that she thought had died with Todd. Feelings she wasn't sure she wanted to experience again. It was easier to be numb, to just concentrate on surviving. But Treyvon had changed that, and now she needed to figure out how to deal with it.
• • • • • •
Jen found she was still trying to figure that out several weeks later as she washed up from the Last Meal she'd prepared for nearly the entire base.
How could this possibly work? And she wasn't talking about her being human and Treyvon being Kaliszian. She was talking about that deeper connection between a male and female. The one that bound two people together at the most basic level for all eternity. She thought she'd had that with Todd, but it hadn't taken her long to learn she'd been wrong. Giving her head a shake, she forced her thoughts back to the present.
Things had been going well in the food area. She'd been able to provide Chicken Fried Steak, Fried Chicken, and Beast Noodle Soup. It had all gone over well. When she got back to Earth, she'd have to go and thank Sally for what she'd learned working at her diner. How Sally had put up with her attitude, Jen would never know. Jen had been so sure she'd known more than the older woman, who had survived in the cutthroat restaurant business for nearly fifty years. Jen had her new shiny degree, which meant she had to know more than Sally with her basic, tired recipes. God, she was a food snob. Something she'd always sworn she wasn't.
The truth hurt sometimes. But it was the truth, that it was at Sally's that she learned how to use lower grade ingredients, to make them stretch, and to make them taste good. It was because of her time there that she now had the skill set to feed the Kaliszians.
"Jen? Is there something wrong?" Gulzar's question had her realizing that her mind had wandered again.
"No. I was just thinking."
"About tonight's Last Meal?"
"No, I was just thinking about the past and how I learned to cook this way."
"Whoever taught you such amazing skills is a gift from the Goddess." Gulzar frowned when Jen started to laugh.
"Oh, Gulzar." Jen found all the tension she hadn't known was building disappeared when she thought of what the heavy-smoking, plain-talking Sally would say to that. "That is the truth, and Sally would be the first person to tell you that."
"Sally, she is the one that trained you?"
"For this way of cooking, yes."
"This way?" Gulzar's frown grew. "You mean there are other ways of cooking?"
"Oh, yes. It all depends on the food you have available and the cooking possibilities."
"Possibilities.
..”
"Yes. For example, the Zaludians just gave us a pot with food in it. There wasn't much more you could do than boil it like you were doing the first time I arrived."
"I see, and this is something you do not do on your Earth?"
"Oh, we do. On Earth, we call it a New England boiled dinner. We just do it differently than you do."
"Differently? How?" Gulzar asked.
"It's just in the timing of when the ingredients are added. They can't be added all at once because things cook at different rates." Jen gave him a considering look. "Should we make that for tomorrow? That way you can teach your family, and it would be something that they are familiar with."
"It would make it easier for my mother to understand since I know she will be concerned with making the biscuits."
"Then that's what we will do. It will also do your fellow Warriors good to see that not everything is different."
"Jennifer." The deep voice had Jen turning to see Treyvon standing just inside the kitchen, the dishes from the meal she'd brought him earlier in his hands.
"General." Gulzar immediately came to attention.
"Warrior Gulzar," Treyvon acknowledged even though his gaze remained on Jennifer.
"General, I would have come and gotten those." Jennifer immediately moved toward him, drying her hands on a towel before flipping it onto her shoulder to reach for the dishes.
"I realize this, but as I needed to speak with you, it only made sense to bring them with me."
"Oh." Jen paused then took the dishes from him before turning back to the sink and asking over her shoulder. "What did you need to talk to me about?"
"Luciferins."
"Luciferins?" Jen gave him a confused look. "What about them?"
"Warrior Gulzar will finish what you are doing," Treyvon ordered, not even glancing at the Warrior. "I would like to speak to you alone."
"I… oh…" She looked to find Gulzar was already moving.
“I will finish this, Jennifer, then I will make sure that the meat is placed in the cool room for Last Meal tomorrow," he assured her.
“Alright then. Thank you, Gulzar.” Turning, she preceded Treyvon out of the room the way he gestured, but when he turned toward his office, she put a gentle hand on the warm flesh of his muscled forearm, stopping him. "Do you mind if we talk outside?"
"Outside?" Treyvon frowned down at her.
"Yes. I usually walk out in the garden after Last Meal," she told him.
"Garden?" he questioned.
"The area with the tree in the middle and paths leading away from it. I assume it used to be a garden, a place where decorative and edible plants grew. I don't know the Kaliszian word for it."
"Gairdín," he told her changing directions. "It is an old word that most have forgotten as there are no longer any left within the Kaliszian Empire."
"But you know of them." Jen paused and looked up at him. "That's right. I forgot that Nikhil said I should speak to you about it as you had studied the old texts."
"Nikhil told you this?" Treyvon was surprised at that. Nikhil was normally a male of few words, speaking only when he thought it necessary. Why would he think it necessary to tell Jennifer this?
"Yes, several weeks back when he, Mac, and I were out here." Jen walked through the exterior door Treyvon had opened for her. A warm, dry breeze greeted her arrival even though the sun had already set. It carried just the hint of moisture and Jen knew a storm would be coming soon, erasing all she had done here.
Treyvon inhaled deeply, noting the scent on the wind. But he gave it no mind as scents traveled far on Pontus and this storm was still days away. What he was noticing was the freshly swept path that hadn't been exposed when last he'd been in this area.
"I like to come here when I'm not in the kitchen and sweep the paths," Jen told him, noting where his attention had gone. "There seems to be five of them, although one doesn't go very far. It ends in a pile of rubble. They all have carvings on the stonework, though. It is so intricate and beautiful. I can't believe it has survived this long. I wish I knew what it said."
Treyvon went down on one knee, resting a forearm on the other, while he drew his finger along one of the designs. "It is the story of the Kaliszian people," he told her, "written in the original language lost thousands of years ago. Some say it was once the only language spoken, even by the Gods."
"Really? That old? How can it still be here then? The number of people that must have walked along here."
Treyvon rose, and carefully gripping her elbow, guided her along the path to the bench that encircled the dead tree. "Because it is no ordinary stone. It is called Kevtoof. It can only be found within Pontus. It is what the energy crystals draw their power from, but by itself, cannot be mined or carved."
"But…" Jen slowly sat, looking at all the intricate carving along the path and how each stone had been precisely cut then laid.
"It is a mystery, is it not? Just like the Crann of Bounty." Treyvon reached behind him and touched the bare black trunk of the tree with such reverence that even the wind seemed to still for a moment.
"Crann of Bounty?" the quiet question escaped her lips.
"So it is written. Some believe this to be the actual Crann. Some believe it is just legend." Treyvon slowly pulled his hand away.
"And you? What do you believe, Treyvon?"
"What I believe does not matter."
"It does to me."
Treyvon looked deep into the eyes that so resembled the energy crystals of old. The ones that had been powerful and said to be able to accomplish amazing feats. Jennifer was like them. What she was able to do with their food stores was as amazing and powerful as those crystals were to his ancestors.
He had learned a great deal about her during the conversations they had when she brought him Last Meal. He'd found out that while she was curious about their world, and found great pleasure in preparing their food stores, she was still focused on trying to get back to her Earth, back to her younger sister.
It was a loyalty and devotion he found himself admiring and hating at the same time because it wasn't directed at him. But then it never could be, could it? Not with what his ancestor had done. She would stay with him, where she didn't want to be until Treyvon was able to give her what she wanted. Just like every other female did.
Perhaps that was why he didn't want to tell her how he had poured over the old texts when he'd been young. Hoping to discover something to remove the taint in his bloodline. All he'd found was that sometime in the distant past, a powerful male had failed to protect his people. His actions destroyed those people, just as Aadi had. It had been then that Treyvon had decided his path must be one of protection, one of always putting the needs of his people first. Even if it cost him his honor, as it had with the female the Tornian Emperor had claimed.
No. To tell her that would reveal the part of himself he kept hidden, even from himself most of the time. It was the part that still secretly prayed to the Goddess for a True Mate, as it would be a sign for all to see that she had forgiven him, for his actions and those of his ancestors.
"They are nothing more than old stories, Jennifer," he finally told her gruffly.
"Then tell me a story." Her gaze pleaded with his. "There is still so much I don't know about your world."
Treyvon gazed down into her powerful, blue eyes and found he could refuse her nothing. Sitting down next to her, he began.
"The texts that started the legend were discovered here on Pontus in an ancient temple, sealed in a box made of Kevtoof. They were written in the ancient language and tell of a time when all that was visible in the night sky," he gestured to the millions of stars above him, "from any planet, was ruled by a single male, and supported by what was grown on Pontus. The Crann was the protector of the planet, and while it thrived, so would those sheltered under its branches."
"It was also written that The Crann was powerful. That it drew that power from what the Goddess had blessed deep within the planet and
from those that tended to it. If they were honorable and true, treating the Crann with the respect it deserved, then it would provide for their every need. If they didn't, then it would be taken away. It was because of this, that only the most honorable and trustworthy male was ever put in charge of Pontus."
"So one of those males built the gairdín?" she asked.
"No. When the temple was discovered, the Crann was in its center, the box cradled in its branches." He gestured to where the trunk of the Crann ended, and five thick branches began.
"How could a tree, I mean, Crann survive inside a temple?" Jen asked.
"It was an open air temple."
"Open air?"
"Yes. While there were raised walls, there was no actual ceiling and nothing to keep anything out. When the box was removed, the temple walls fell. The pathways were only discovered when the rubble and vegetation were cleared."
"Are you saying we are sitting in the middle of an ancient temple?" She looked around them in astonishment.
"If you believe the legend, then yes."
"Then why the hell would you build a military base on it?!!" Jen couldn't believe it.
"We did not," he denied.
"What do you call this?" Jen was outraged as she waved her hand around indicating the building and the wall.
"When it was decided that we were to remain on Pontus after Emperor Vasteri's shuttle crashed here; this was the only structure that was still standing. Apparently, it had been some type of educational center. Scholars from every planet would travel here to study and learn, then return to their planets with seedlings and the knowledge of how to care for them. It was built from the original walls of the temple.
"And the wall?" she asked more quietly, the anger leaving her voice.
"It was built after the Great Infection struck in an effort to protect The Crann," he told her stiffly. "It is not made of Kevtoof, so has always been inspected and repaired in the hopes the Goddess might relent in her punishment of us."
Jen looked at Treyvon's rigid body and knew she had offended him. She hadn't meant to, but the words had just spilled out of her. Reaching out, she put a tentative hand on a tense bicep. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that."