Her Commanders - M.K. Eidem Page 0,96

When Cali turned her soft, hopeful gaze to him, he took it. "I, too, will spend the rest of my life span trying to make up for what I almost did. My heart is yours, Cali. Please, be our Lalla."

Cali didn't try to stop her eyes from filling as she reached out to cup each of their cheeks. Before her stood the two males who captured her heart even when she'd fought against it. They’d accepted her, exposed their deepest secrets and fears to her and for her. Now it was time for her to do the same.

"Yes, Gods’, yes, but first I need to tell you…" Cali trailed off when Taarig suddenly grunted. His back slammed against the wall then his feet began to slide out from under him as he slowly went down it, leaving a broad, red streak behind.

"Taarig!" Cali tried to grab him before he hit the floor but froze when a piece of the wall shattered between them.

"Don't move or the next onesss in hisss head."

Cali's gaze flew down the corridor to find Nalo, a frequent customer of The Brink, standing near the airlock, suppressors on the active weapon he held in each hand. One trained on Taarig and the other on Jamis. Seeing the weapons, she finally realized what happened to Taarig.

"You shot him!" she accused.

Nalo shrugged, "He'll sssurvive if he receivesss treatment soon." His elongated gaze shifted back to Jamis. "Ah ah ah, Commander, ssstay where you are, or I ssshoot her." He gestured toward Cali with the weapon he'd used on Taarig.

"What do you want?" Jamis growled. Instinct told him to grab Cali and run, but that meant leaving Taarig behind, something he'd never considered doing before. A quick glance at Taarig revealed that while he was struggling to breathe, he was awake and using a hand signal they'd developed to tell him to leave before he passed out.

"For you to sssuffer the way I've sssuffered," Nalo hissed, then turned his attention back to Cali. "Come over here, unlesss you want one of your bond matesss to die."

"Stay where you are, Cali," Jamis immediately ordered.

"Fine, then ssshe can watch him die." Cali watched as Nalo aimed the weapon at Taarig and prepared to pull the trigger.

"Wait!" Moving before Jamis could stop her, she stepped into Nalo's line of fire.

"Come clossser," he gestured to Cali, " and Commander, don't try anything, or I end her ssspan."

Jamis’s entire body vibrated with the need to act. The life span of the male he'd bonded with nearly two hundred years ago was slowly slipping away at his feet while the Lalla they both had only just found was in mortal danger, and there was nothing he could do.

"In there," Nalo pointed one weapon toward what Cali now realized was an open airlock.

"Why?" she demanded.

"The longer you hesssitate, the lesss chansss the Sssub Commander hasss of sssurviving."

Cali knew Nalo was telling the truth because she could feel Taarig slipping away. Glaring her hatred for him, she walked past Nalo and into the airlock. She'd barely crossed the safety line before the door whooshed shut behind her.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Cali turned, pounding angrily on the inner airlock door, and screamed. "Nalo! Let me out!" Even though she knew it wasn't going to happen. She'd seen the look in his eyes. He was going to eject her.

Spinning around, she touched her link as she scanned the airlock for something that could save her.

"What is it, Cali?" Xanto's voice filled her ear.

"I'm locked in ML105's airlock," she told him as she spied stabilizing straps hooked in the walls. Running to them, she began wrapping them around her.

"WHAT?!!"

"I'll explain later. Just get here! Taarig is injured, and…" As she was sucked out into the cold, dark emptiness of space, the rest of what she wanted to say turned into a silent scream.

Chapter Twenty

"Cali!" Jamis exclaimed, horrified, taking a step toward the closed door.

"Ssshe isssn't ended yet, Commander," Nalo told him as he elbowed up the safety shield for outer door release.

Jamis immediately froze as his ears picked up the faint thumping from inside the airlock, telling him Cali was still alive. Looking to Nalo, he demanded, "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you need to know what it feelsss like to lossse everything, and for your life ssspan to continue when you have nothing to live for. I was ssso upssset when Tecumssseh failed to end you on the transssport, and then again with her vipersss."

Jamis’s eyes widened at that. He'd