The League: Born Of Betrayal Part 30

She rolled her eyes at him. "No, silly. His tone of voice was odd." Scooting off him, she pouted. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize. I could die happy right now."

Strangely weak and yet thrilled by his words, she traced the arch of his brow. "Come take a quick shower with me."

Fain obeyed, and followed after her. But when Galene moved to soap his body, he found a whole new level of heaven and h.e.l.l. "How can you possibly make me this hard again? Krikkin ey, it's like being a teen again. Aggravating as h.e.l.l."

She pulled her hand away. "You want me to stop?"

Catching her wrist lightly, he pressed her open palm against his sac and gently rubbed himself against her smooth skin. "No. But unfortunately, I don't want to p.i.s.s off Talyn. He already hates me enough." With a heavy sigh, he finished his shower and dressed, while trying not to focus on how incredible her body looked both in and out of her uniform.

As he fastened his shirt, she stopped him. "What are we going to do about your eyes?"

Fain winced as he realized they were still vibrant red. "I have a bad feeling it's permanent this time."

"Do you have any contacts?"

He shook his head. "I never bothered with them, as you were the only female who ever awoke it in me. And since I never thought you'd ever touch me again..."

She bit her lip. "What are we going to do?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "f.u.c.k them all. They need to know if they touch you or Talyn, they have me to deal with. It'll do them good to fear me." He took her hand and pressed it to his cheek. "No more hiding."

"They better not hurt you. Trust me, the only thing worse than a stralen War Hauk is a p.i.s.sed-off Winged Batur on the rampage. We can go places Hauks only dream of."

Laughing, he kissed her hand and allowed her to lead him to Talyn's new apartment.

He wasn't sure what to expect.

And when they walked in, they both drew up short at what they found.

Dressed in Batur blue, Felicia wore an old-fashioned Andarion wedding gown. The kind that was at least a hundred years old and very delicate and beautiful.

No longer sporting his moustache or goatee, Talyn was in his military dress uniform, and they were surrounded by Gavarian, Brach, Jayne, Morra, Dancer, Sumi, Darice, Kalea, Qorach, Vega, War, and Chayden.

Even more shocking, Felicia's parents were on a split-screen monitor, along with her brother Lorens.

Talyn arched an inquisitive brow at the sight of Fain's eyes, but didn't say anything about it.

"Paka! Paka! Paka!" War shouted as he launched himself into Fain's arms and hugged him tight.

"What's going on?" Galene asked hesitantly as she moved closer to the monitor.

Felicia's mother, who looked a great deal like her daughter, let out a fierce growl. "They don't listen and are being impossible. I told them that they can do this, but that it won't exempt them from a formal unification when they return home. She is my only daughter and he's your only son, by the G.o.ds. They are not robbing me of a glorified, humongous ceremony where I can shove my daughter's union down the throat of every snotty family member I have. Especially to a prince and a War Hauk!" She paused in her tirade to frown at Fain. "I'm Marna eton Nykyrian, by the way. You must be Fain eton Anatole. It's an honor to meet you, Tiziran."

He inclined his head to her respectfully. "And you, Tarra eton Nykyrian."

Galene smiled warmly. "And I believe Fain is well acquainted with Saren and Lorens?"

"We are," they said in unison.

Felicia cleared her throat. "Now, if my mother can refrain from yelling at me for the next few minutes... as you can see, Talyn and I have decided to have a simple Andarion wedding."

"A common wedding," Marna mumbled.

"It's legal," Felicia said in a gentle, patient tone. "It's even how the tahrs himself married Tizirah Kiara."

"And they had a formal ceremony later, did they not?"

Rolling her eyes at her mother, Felicia let out an exasperated breath. "Yes, Mum. And don't worry. Talyn and I are more than willing to take our vows a hundred thousand times, once we're home. You will get your grand unification ceremony with all its glory and pomp. We promise. We will take nothing from you."

Talyn laced his fingers with Felicia's. "Please don't be angry at Felicia, mu tara. This was all my idea. Having been raised as a b.a.s.t.a.r.d and with us at war, I didn't want to risk anything going wrong. I want to make sure both she and the baby are taken care of. Now that I can legally give her a lineage to be proud of, I didn't want to wait another minute. She and the baby need the protection of my lineage with hers. It's not worth the chance of waiting to get home to do a formal ceremony."

That finally succeeded in calming Marna down. "Galene, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Thank you for raising such a wonderful son. He is an honor to you, and this is why I love him as if he were my own."

"Hear, hear," Saren agreed. "And I should mention that I released Felicia's vestal accounts as soon as she told me the news. I put her, Marna, and you, Galene, on them. Spend to your heart's content. There's enough in there to throw her the unification ceremony of the century. One so large, even the tadara will be envious... And since she waited so long to marry, the interest has really acc.u.mulated. It should adequately cover everything and make quite a nest egg for her and Talyn. Not that Talyn needs it. I still stipulate he's worth more than I am."

Lorens laughed. "Given the size of his condo and toys, I think he's worth more than both of us put together."

Ignoring them, Talyn turned toward Felicia and lifted the sheer blue veil away from her face. His red eyes glowing, he stared down at her with a tenderness that choked Fain. He knew exactly how his son felt.

With a tender smile, Talyn took her hands into his. "Doctor Felicia Orfanos, born of the houses of ezul Terronova and eton Nykyrian... my only heart, my one true soul, and my guiding star, here before these witnesses, I proudly proclaim you as my Ger Tarra Batur, now and forevermore." He kissed her knuckles.

Her lips trembling, Felicia smiled up at him. "Lieutenant Commander Talyn eton Anatole, tiziran of Andaria, the famed and mighty Iron Hammer who has made grown Andarions weep in terror, born of the Warring Blood Clan of Hauk and the Winged Blood Clan of Batur, you are my fierce, shining strength and ever heart. As such, I proudly claim you now and forevermore as mi Ger Tana, mi courani." She kissed his hands, then lifted her lips to kiss him.

With tears in her eyes, Galene took Fain's hand and gave him a tenuous, proud and loving smile. He pulled her against him and held her close as they watched their son accept his new wife.

War and Vega threw glitter over them and shouted in happiness.

Marna sniffed back her own tears as she and Saren congratulated them. Lorens chimed in, too. Felicia thanked them and blew them a kiss before she turned their monitors off while Morra, Chayden, and Qory all congratulated Talyn.

Jayne sniffed as she approached Galene and Fain. "Isn't she beautiful in my grandmother's dress? I can't believe it fits so perfectly! Right down to being Batur blue for them."

Galene frowned. "How did you get it here?"

Grinning, Jayne winked at them. "Trisani husband. He told me to pack it before I left home. Said I might need it." She glanced back at Felicia, who was laughing and hugging Gavarian. "I learned a long time ago not to argue or question Hadrian's weird dictates." She reached up and playfully tugged at Fain's braids. "Nice eyes, Hauk."

"Yes, they are," Dancer agreed as he came up behind her. "I hope this means I have to buy two unification presents?"

Fain glanced over to Galene. "We haven't discussed it. There's still a lot to consider. Let's face it. We all know what an a.s.shole I am."

Dancer snorted as Sumi came over to hug Galene. "Congrats on the grandbaby." She cut a meaningful look to Fain. "And on other things."

Galene felt her cheeks heat up as they became the focus of everyone's attention. "This is Talyn's and Felicia's moment. Let's not take anything away from them." And with that, she moved to hug Felicia and kiss her cheek. "I've loved you since the moment I first saw you in the hospital and you told me you were Talyn's female. I can't tell you how much this means to me to officially have you as my daughter."

Felicia blushed. "Thank you, Commander."

"Matarra," she reminded her.

Smiling, Felicia bit her lip. "Yaya, you mean."

Galene hugged her again. "I love you so much, mia."

"I love you, too."

She turned to her son. "And you..." She squeezed his finally clean-shaven chin. "You're much more handsome like this."

He screwed his face up. "I still hate it. But Felicia made it worth my while."

"Talyn!" Felicia gasped.

"What?" He blinked innocently as he looked over to her. "What'd I say?"

Felicia groaned out loud as Jayne placed her arm around her shoulders and grinned. "Don't be so horrified, Lish. Face it. If it has an engine or t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, it's bound to give you trouble."

Fain let out a nervous breath as he approached his son. "I'm thinking we should make a quick exit. They're starting to turn on us. This can't be good."

Talyn nodded. "For once, we're on the same side." Then, he indicated Fain's eyes with a jerk of his chin. "Sorry I interrupted the two of you. Now I know why you weren't answering your link when I called."

Fain cringed at Talyn's words. "It's not what you think."

"Yeah, it is. But it's all right. At least I finally know."

Fain scowled. "Know what?"

Talyn turned so that his back was to the rest of the room before he dropped his voice to a faint whisper only Fain could hear. "Why you left her. You didn't do it because you were the d.i.c.k I thought you were. You did it to protect her."

"How do you know?"

He pointed to his own eyes. "Curse of being stralen. It makes us do incredibly stupidly wrong s.h.i.t for all the right reasons to protect what we love."

Fain snorted a short laugh at that. "Ain't it the truth?"

Nodding, Talyn held his hand out to him. "Clean slate, Hauk?"

"Clean slate." He took Talyn's hand and pulled him in for a warm hug that he savored.

Galene paused as she caught sight of Fain and Talyn embracing. But what brought tears to her eyes was the expression on Fain's face. The love and pride he had for Talyn. She'd waited a lifetime for this moment and it was far sweeter than she'd ever imagined.

Warmth rushed through her body that the two of them were finally making an effort to put the past behind them and start fresh. A warmth that strangely thickened as Darice and Dancer joined them, and she saw two generations of War Hauks standing together for the first time in decades. Then, she looked over to Felicia, who was holding Kalea and tickling her belly while she laughed with Vega, Morra, and Gavarian. Qory, Brach, and Chayden were joking silently in Qillaq sign language.

It was an odd family, to be sure. But it was all hers and she loved every one of them.

"You okay?"

She glanced over her shoulder at Jayne. "Fine. Just thinking."

Jayne wrapped her arms around her neck and held her like she used to do when Talyn was little and Galene had felt so alone and lost. "I've never seen Fain look so relaxed and happy... or you, for that matter."

Closing her eyes, Galene allowed her cousin to rock her. "And that's what scares me, Jaynie. I've never had so much to lose before. Nor so many trying to take it from me."

Hours later, Galene came awake to the sweet, precious warmth of Fain's naked body pressed against hers. His thigh was wedged between hers with his tattooed arm draped over her hip while he had his face buried deep in her braids. He held on to her as if he were afraid of letting go, even to rest. How he could manage to sleep, never mind actually breathe like that, she couldn't imagine. But it didn't appear to bother him at all.

After the small reception in Talyn's apartment, they'd taken Vega and War home, then returned to her condo where they'd spent the rest of the night making up for all the years they'd been apart. She'd made love to him thoroughly and had tasted every vast inch of his lush, muscled body until he'd begged her for mercy.

And a nap.

She never wanted to leave this bed or his arms again. A smile curved her lips as a wave of complete serenity engulfed her.

Until she heard a noise in Fain's room. It was a light sc.r.a.ping, but enough that her heightened Andarion hearing picked it up clearly. It was moving through the living room, coming closer to her bedroom.

"Fain?" she whispered, shaking him slightly.

He woke much slower.

She rolled to her blaster on the nightstand an instant before her bedroom door blew apart.

Cursing, she opened fire on her attackers.

Fain slid from the bed to search for his reserve blaster in the tangled mess of his clothing. She heard him cursing himself for his carelessness.

Meanwhile, their silent attackers spoke to each other in a language she didn't know.

All of a sudden, her blaster jammed. Her heart stopped as she realized they had her dead to rights. She grabbed the lamp to bash them, but before she could blink, Fain launched himself with a growl at the one aiming for her. He slammed the a.s.sa.s.sin against the wall and literally ripped his throat out before s.n.a.t.c.hing the blaster from the a.s.sa.s.sin's hand and shooting the closest one. He kicked the falling a.s.sa.s.sin into a third, then launched himself over their bodies to catch the fourth one and break his neck before he spun around and shot the third one.

Turning, he went to make sure there was no one else in the living room.

A second later, he was back in front of her as an alarm blared from the hallway. "Are you all right?"

Stunned and a little afraid of him, she nodded. Honestly, she'd forgotten just how brutal War Hauks were in battle how ruthless and never more so than when protecting family. Since she'd never seen Talyn in a Ring match, it was a side of her son she didn't know. Mostly because she'd never wanted to know what all her son was capable of doing to another sentient being.

It was why everyone on Andaria lived in fear of the War Hauk bloodline. Why their names and family were so celebrated.

Fain placed his cheek to hers. "Call Talyn and warn him in case there are more," he whispered. He stepped away to pull on his pants, then took off to check on their son still barefoot and without a shirt.

Galene didn't hesitate to obey. Like Fain, she wanted to make sure her son was secured.

Talyn answered a moment later in a groggy tone.

"I've been attacked, baby. Fain said to warn you. They might be headed for you and Felicia."

That cleared his fogginess instantly. "I'm on it. You okay?"

"Yeah." She heard the sound of blaster fire outside Talyn's room.

An instant later, Dancer's voice was in the background, checking on Felicia and Talyn.

"I'm on my way to you." She hung up and pulled her clothes on before she swapped her charge cartridge for a fresh one, and tucked in a few extra. Just in case.