Stealing Jia (Coletti Warlords #12) - Gail Koger Page 0,37

Dad asked, sitting the bowl of mealie worms in front of Bey.

“This is Adoz, the Draconic I rescued from Threll.”

Dad held out his hand for Adoz to sniff. “I heard they can produce fire.”

“Adoz’s fire came in handy when that idiot Rodan started shooting up his own engine room.”

Dad brows knitted together. “What were you doing on a Rodan ship?”

“Blowing it up,” Bey answered.

Huh? He understood English. “I prefer to call it, evening the odds.”

“Trayon let you port in the middle of a space battle?” Father’s voice rose an octave.

My spine stiffened. “I’m an adult, I didn’t ask for permission. I did what needed to be done.”

“Surely you know where a Jones female goes, chaos soon follows.”

Dad and I glared at Bey.

The doors slid back to reveal the rest of my family. One look at Trayon and I bit my lip to keep from laughing. He seemed a bit frazzled and if I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he had come straight from the battlefield. His armor was a bloody mess. “Who won?”

Trayon gave me the stink eye. “Who do you think?”

“You are a formidable warrior, but the evil twins are sneaky.”

“The children rigged several bowls of worms over the door.” Trayon gestured at his armor. “When I walked in, the contents fell on me.”

My dad snickered.

“How long did it take you to catch them?”

“Not long,” Trayon said.

His super speed did come in handy. It had taken me an hour to catch the little brats.

The evil twins popped out of Trayon’s tentacles. “Momma Jia! We found you.”

“You did. Have you been playing with the blood worms again?”

They hid in Trayon’s tentacles.

My mate let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Have you told Father Trayon you’re sorry?”

LeeLee peeked at me. “No.”

I tapped the table. “Come down here and apologize, now.”

LooLoo and LeeLee skittered down Trayon’s arm and leaped on the table. “We sorry,” they said in unison.

“Your access to the food processors has been revoked,” Trayon growled.

LeeLee peered up at me. “What mean?”

“No more bloos-bloos or mealie bugs.” It was a struggle to keep from laughing.

“Him mean,” LooLoo cried.

I clapped my hands loudly. “Enough. You will sit there and be quiet.”

The evil twins gave me their version of sad puppy dog eyes. “Kay.”

My dad laughed. “You have quite a menagerie, Jia.”

“Don’t I.” My gaze fell on Cason. His infant sized battle armor was too adorable for words.

“Ax. Ax,” Cason babbled happily.

“Yes, you look very handsome.”

Pepe trotted over to show off his red spiked harness. “Me have armor too.”

“The mesh will stop a laser blast, or a sword thrust. You can tap the icon key here.” Trayon pointed to my gauntlet. “And the mesh will completely cover him,” Trayon advised.

I tapped it and the mesh quickly covered Pepe. “Awesome.”

Chiara crawled up on the table. She proudly wore a wraparound gold band with Trayon’s clan sign on it. “While our quarters are being cleaned Father Trayon thought it was a good time to meet your father.

I bet he did. “Dad, this is Trayon my mate.”

“We met during the battle of Pictoris 335. You’d better take damn good care of my daughter,” Dad growled.

Holy Mother! Testosterone overload.

Trayon’s tentacles slowly rose from his head like angry snakes. “I will do everything in my power to keep her safe.”

“Really? How did Jia end up alone on the Rodan ship?” Dad snapped.

“Whoa!” I held up my hand. “First, I wasn’t alone. Second, we were outnumbered three-to-one and the shields were failing. I did what was necessary to keep my family safe.” I met my father’s irate gaze. “In my place, you would have done the same thing.”

“I’m a trained warrior and you’re…” Dad broke off.

“Not? I guess it’s just a coincidence that Threll got blown to hell along with those Rodan ships.” One of Trayon’s tentacles gently stroked my face. I smiled up at him. “It’s a dad thing, tesoro.”

“Which is the only reason he is not picking his teeth up off the floor.”

I patted Trayon’s chest. “I appreciate the restraint.”

“Sorry. Being a father is new to me.” Dad rubbed a hand over his face. “You and Kaylee are so much alike, it terrifies me. I’ll never understand why you deliberately put yourselves in harm’s way.”

“I’ve been in harm’s way since I was six years old.”

“And I wasn’t there to protect you,” Dad said grimly.

“I survived. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Isn’t that what the Americans say?”

Dad took my hands. “I don’t want to lose you, like I lost your mother.”

“You won’t. Believe me, I’m hard