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THREE MONTHS LATER:
TEMPEST STARED ACROSS THE room over the conference table at the various faces—Xeno Sapien and human alike.
“Tempest, what are your thoughts?” Robyn asked.
“It’s true. She isn’t quite the same, but I think for a different reason than you all do.” She sucked in a breath, mostly to give her time to ponder her next thoughts. Next to her, Shawn squeezed her leg gently. Always so encouraging and he alone was the only reason why Tempest tried to temper her words and not blurt out things atrociously.
“Do you think an intervention is in order?” Robyn asked.
“No. This is between Leah and Trance.” And here was the hard part with what not to blurt out. “How many of us have been friends with Trance in the past to find ourselves being embarrassingly cast into his dreams?”
The humans looked confused, but the Xeno Sapiens looked downward before deciding to come clean. One by one, hands rose. Their entire shift—except for Trance—was present, along with Esson Four, and Amanda and Robyn.
“What did you all do when you found out the dreams were real?”
Adam—the Xeno Sapien who called himself that after the first human male—cleared his throat. “I began to avoid him. The dreams stopped.”
“But is it fair to avoid a friend?”
He shrugged. “No. Probably not. But I was embarrassed—mortified is a better word. I didn’t know how to deal with the thought of Trance knowing my humiliation in captivity. He never said anything in the light of day...but still.”
She nodded. “That’s where Leah is. Except her humiliation is in real time, not memories. And she’s human. She has no idea that the dreams are real. Couple that with her finding out that her ex-husband was trying to murder her and yeah, I can see how she’s having a hard time dealing.”
“So in order to protect her, should be separate her from Trance?” Renegade asked.
“No. She’s already moved from his apartment. I think purposely separating them will cause him enough distress that he’ll unknowingly yank her further into his dreams. I think we should leave things as they are—Trance is her sponsor and let her work things through slowly.”
“He needs to be ordered to tell her about his power,” Beast said.
“He is not keeping it from her,” Tempest said, looking directly at him. “He’s tried more than once to explain things to her. But she avoids the topic.”
“He’s talked to you about it?” Adam sounded surprised.
“Yes. Leah is my best friend.” She was rather proud to admit this. “But she avoids the conversation with me also, which tells me that she’s not yet ready to know about the abilities some of the Xeno Sapiens have. Hell, she just found out Pax isn’t a triplet.”
“I’m just not sure how much longer we can let her go on before she collapses from mental exhaustion,” Robyn said.
“Love,” Tempest whispered. “Love is the answer. I’m not saying everyone has to be paired up and mated. But Leah has to learn that Trance loves her. And she has to face her own feelings for him. And for herself. The only way she can do this is to be in a situation where she has to see him. Forcing them apart just delays things. Plus, she has her ex-husband’s trial to get through. Let’s allow Trance help her through that. He can pass for a human with a pair of contact lenses and sunglasses. Maybe being together will allow her to listen to the secret he needs to tell her.”
“I think Tempest is right,” Amanda said. “I know we all care about Leah, but we have to let her work through this just like we all worked through our issues. Hell, if Robyn had listened to Tempest and had given her another trainer—”
“You wanted another trainer?” Shawn asked, his voice slightly insulted.
“Not really,” she assured him. “Amanda’s just dramatic.” She turned to Amanda and glared at her friend for letting the secret out.
Amanda cracked a smile. “Point is, Shawn and Tempest worked things out for the better. Just because we’re all appalled that Leah has been abused is no reason to change our thought processes and restrict Trance from her. We tried to restrict Zealish from Angela and look at how well that turned out.”
There was quiet in the room.
“Okay, if there are no further comments, then it’s decided to let things run its course. It’ll be up to Tempest to monitor her friend. Tempest, will you be comfortable with that?” Robyn asked.
“Yes.”
Next to her, Shawn spoke up. “I’ll help out on the Trance end,” he said. “He and I have a connection.”
Tempest snorted. “Trance dreamed of him.”
Everyone around the table snickered. It made her glare around the room at each individual for singling out her man. “Unlike the rest of you, Shawn doesn’t avoid Trance just because of a little dream.” She allowed the sneer to come through her voice.
“To be fair, I’ve had more experience handling tougher situations,” Shawn said, looking at her.
Everyone around the room agreed as she kissed him. He was seriously the best mate ever.
People began clearing the room. Trance’s telepathic link breached the edges of her mind.
Temp? What did they decide?
Seriously? I can’t be relaying confidential information to you.
Come on. If you don’t tell me, I’m gonna have to ask my new pal, Shawn. You really want to put your mate on spot like that?
Fine. Meet us out at the gazebo where the twins go into a cocoon.
She turned to Shawn. “Trance is going to meet us at the gazebo.”
Shawn snorted. “He wants information about the meeting?”
She grinned at her intelligent mate. “Of course.”
They didn’t even make it out of the main hub before bumping into Leah, however. She looked tired, but jumpy at the same time. She hurried through the main gathering room with a box of food ingredients in her arms, struggling with the weight. Tempest felt torn between helping her and fulfilling her promise to Trance.
“Go,” Shawn whispered. “Go to your friend, my love. I’ll deal with Trance and meet you back here afterward.”
“Thank you.” She kissed his lips, thankful that he made the decision for her.
She ran up behind Leah and gently pulled the box from her arms. “The box is bigger than you. You have lost weight, my friend.”
“Mmm. I know. I’m just adjusting to everything.” Leah smiled, but it was rather brittle.
“I was thinking we need a girl’s day.”
“Sorry. No rest for the wicked.”
They made it outside so Tempest let Leah lead the way to her destination.
“You know we can rig a cart for you to use.”
“I know. Trance mentioned it.”
“So you keep refusing because Trance mentioned it?”
“Something like that.”
Her friend wasn’t leaning on her the way she used to lean on her friends. It was disturbing. “Leah, if you would rather, we can invite some other girls to hang with us. Sunny and Lily. Amanda and Robyn. Like we did before, back when I was learning your mannerisms.”
Leah stopped, looking at her funny. “Why?”
“In case I make you uncomfortable.” Tempest squirmed. “I know I am not the easiest person to be friends with. But friends talk to each other—”
“It’s not you, Tempest. It’s me. I want to hang out with you. There are just certain things going on in my life.”
“But you won’t share them with me.”
“I’m not used to sharing,” Leah said. “I’ve been silent for six years, remember?”
“So you are freezing Trance out, too? He is your sponsor. I am your best friend.”
Finally. The edges of Leah’s lips squirmed upward into a small smile. “Yeah. You’re my best friend. You’re right, we should hang out more. Do you want to come with me to this cooking lesson?”
Tempest really didn’t see the point to learning to cook, not like a few of these crazy Xeno Sapiens. They followed Leah faithfully—like sheep. After all, it wasn’t like they didn’t have fine food prepared for them in the mess hall. Every day. But sometimes friends had to make sacrifices.
“Yes. I will come to support you.”
She sent a quick message to Trance to let Shawn know she’d be a little late in meeting him because she was off on a cooking lesson.
“You want to take a break carrying that heavy box?” Leah asked her. “I can take it back.”
“No, I have more strength than humans. Plus, I am taller than you so I can actually see over the top of it.”
Leah laughed. “That’s what I love about you, Tempest. You’re so open. I wish I could be like that. It would be simpler. But I’m not. I’m closed off and tend to hide things.”
“It is not simpler,” Tempest said. “I had a ton of work making others see things my way. They thought I did not have true friendships.”
“You’re just a little unorthodox,” Leah said. “The most important thing is Shawn loves you the way you are.”
“Yes, he does,” Tempest said. “And as far as you being closed off and hiding things? That makes Trance the perfect sponsor for you. He has also learned to be closed off, so he understands this. He accepts it, just as Shawn accepts me.”
“Yeah,” Leah said. “I guess as sponsors go, he’s not a bad guy. I just don’t want to take too much of his time and he keeps wanting to be right there, always in my business.”
“He cares for you.”
Leah winced. She definitely didn’t want to hear that.
“In a platonic way,” Tempest amended.
Leah winced again. “Let’s not talk about that, okay?”
It was curious that her friend wished to avoid speaking of a relationship because she’d seen the way she looked at Trance. It seemed, before Leah had moved from his apartment, that things might swing that way. What had happened in the meantime?
“Okay, but I will be here should you wish to open that discussion in the future.”
“Gotcha.”
“How about dreams? Do you dream?”
She heard Leah’s swift intake of breath. “How do you know about that?”
She couldn’t tell her. Leah had already shut down the discussion of Trance. “The circles under your eyes,” she said gently.
Leah relaxed and Tempest knew that was the right move. “They’ll sort themselves out. Dreaming is a way of your subconscious releasing your fears from daily life, you know? For the first time in my life, I am safe from my ex. And instead of allowing me to feel safe, my dreams intrude to remind me of how scary it was.”
So her dreams were now of her ex? That was interesting.
“Perhaps they will go away soon,” Tempest said, hesitatingly. She wondered how much she should tell Leah. “I just came from a meeting with my security team. You are to be released from Xenia to testify at your ex-husband’s trial. The meeting was to decide if you needed a team of protection—which is somewhat dangerous for Xeno Sapiens to be outside of the city—or if one person will suffice.”
“I don’t need a whole team of people,” Leah said, panic in her voice. “I don’t want to cause drama.”
“Good. It was decided to allow your sponsor to escort you.”
Leah froze.
Tempest nudged her with her shoulder, the way Shawn usually did her. But she was gentle about it, because Leah was smaller than her.
“That means Trance.”
“Yeah. Got that.” Leah sounded cranky.
“You were friends with him at one point,” Tempest said. “Things were simpler then. Why don’t you just forget every stress that has occurred—every embarrassment over people knowing that you were an abused female—and lean on that friendship?”
“I don’t want to put him out.”
“Trust him. Perhaps he needs this as much as you. Like I said, he has learned to close off from others, too.” That struck Leah’s curiosity.
Finally, she slowly nodded. “I can try.”
