Chapter 47

Jovan sat at Blake’s bedside, watching the male sleep under a thick, dark-blue comforter pulled up to his chin. He put his head in his hands and thought about the past six hours.

After Liberty screamed, he had jumped out of the car and hauled Blake off her, ready to make him bloody for upsetting her. However, she’d been correct; Blake was bleeding all over her and he was passed out cold.

Jovan hadn’t realized Blake had taken two slugs to protect Liberty.

He rubbed his face and looked back down at him. Any reservations he had carried about Blake were gone. The guy was a solid, stand-up male, and one they could use on their team.

When they had finally hit the road after Jovan killed the doctor and pulled Blake off Liberty, Noah had called Reno and told Hudson to get Cohen’s ass on a plane, which he had done immediately. Being the healer of the group, Cohen could take care of Jovan’s hole in the head and probably Blake’s wounds.

He and Noah had tossed around the pros and cons of having Cohen mess with Blake.

“He’s part Colonist,” Jovan had said.

“And he’s part human. We don’t know what Cohen’s healing capabilities will do to him.”

But in the end, they had to roll the dice and let Cohen do his magic because hydrogen peroxide and gauze weren’t doing the trick.

Blake slipped in and out of consciousness. The moments of lucidness were filled with ripe curses.

Jovan had tried to be kind. “Thank you, man. Thank you.”

“Go fuck yourself, J-man, and get me some drugs.” Blake’s eyes had then rolled to the back of his head and he passed out.

There was a light knock on the door, and Jovan stood to answer it. Cohen stood before him and Jovan was surprised by how thin he looked.

“Hey,” Cohen said.

“Hey, man. How are you?”

Cohen rolled his eyes like it was the stupidest thing Jovan could have said, and didn’t say anything. Jovan stepped back and let him in.

Jovan stood by the door and watched as Cohen knelt by the bed, laying his hands on Blake.

“This bullet just missed making his liver into pâté,” Cohen murmured.

Twenty minutes later, Cohen stood.

“I’m on my way to heal the trooper Annis. Do you want me to close that up before I go?” he asked, pointing to Jovan’s forehead, “or do you want to wait for human time to heal?”

Jovan immediately jumped for human time as he still felt the waves of sadness coming from Cohen when he had his shield down, but then he had second thoughts. If Cohen could heal the hole in his head while Jovan had his shield in place, then maybe it would be a win-win for him.

“Let’s do it, Cohen, but if I tell you to stop . . .”

Cohen nodded, the bags under his eyes looking like they were carrying ten pounds of water each.

They went into Jovan’s room. “Lay down,” Cohen instructed, pointing toward the bed.

Jovan had actually been able to get through the healing, although Cohen’s sadness was nearly insurmountable. But Jovan had been able to block out Cohen’s feeling so they were barely a dull roar, and all he felt was a tingling in his forehead as Cohen repaired the damage from the drill.

“Thanks, man,” Jovan said.

Cohen nodded and left without another word.

Jovan lay on his bed for a few moments, thinking about what he had to do next. There was one person he needed to exchange a few words with.

This wasn’t going to be fun. SR44 males were a protective bunch, and that went for mates as well as family. Jovan had deflowered Noah’s sister, and Jovan was certain he wasn’t happy about it.

Sighing heavily, he went upstairs to the kitchen area. Blake was resting, Annis was with Cohen, Rayner was still sick from the dart he took, and Faith and Liberty had gone to the store to get something for dinner. It was just him and Noah in the kitchen area.

“I need to talk to you,” Jovan said.

Noah turned to him, his anger evident. “You slept with my sister,” he said in a quiet voice, “and I don’t want to even see you, let alone talk to you.”

No sense in denying it. Liberty had already told Noah.

“Come on, Noah, knock it off. We’ve got to talk about it sometime.”

“You slept with my sister when I specifically asked you to keep your fucking paws off of her!” Noah bellowed, his voice echoing off the tiled floors and counters.

Jovan sat down at the kitchen table, realizing where this was going. Noah was on a roll, and once he got to this point, there was no stopping him or getting a word in edgewise. He paced the kitchen, throwing out a few curses, pointing at Jovan and went on and on.

“It is my duty as her brother to protect her. I simply asked you not to have sex with her. You told me not to worry about it! I trusted you! She’s was a fucking virgin, Jovan, not just physically, but she’s almost childlike in every way!”

And judging by how loud Noah was, it was going to be a while before he calmed down.

A few minutes later, Noah sat down across from him, breathing heavily.

“Look, Noah—”

“You of all people, Jovan. Do you know she cares about you? In her innocence, she’s probably got visions of a big mating ceremony. You, who skirts on the outside rim of life, the guy who prefers to be alone, the guy who sometimes seems like he would rather be locked in a box than—”

“I love her, Noah.”

Well, that shut him up.

Noah sat back in his chair and rested his ankle on his knee, stunned into silence. He just stared at Jovan.

“I love her, and if she will have me, I want to mate her.” While getting his head drilled, he realized that he really wanted to live, and it was because of her. He had gone and done the one thing he never thought would be possible: he had fallen in love, and it felt like the right thing with the right person. Liberty, the one person on this planet who understood him and had given him the greatest gift of all: the ability to control his own.

Mating ceremonies on SR44 were always done in the color of the female’s form, and a clear, crisp vision of Liberty walking toward him in a light pink dress flashed through his mind.

There was a long silence.

“Are you kidding me?” Noah said.

“No. I’m dead serious. I plan to ask Liberty to become my mate, and I wanted to get your blessing. I love her.”

Noah looked around the kitchen. “I didn’t see that one coming,” he mumbled. “That one pretty much came out of left field and blindsided me.”

Jovan shrugged. “Sorry, man. I was surprised as well.”

Noah exhaled loudly and looked around the room, his gaze coming back on Jovan. “If my sister will have you, then you have my permission to mate her.”

Jovan smiled, feeling like he had won the lottery. “Thanks, man.”

“But don’t fuck it up, Jovan. Don’t hurt my sister. And I do think she deserves better than you.”

Both laughed and Jovan said, “I do too, my friend.”

It occurred to him that if he did mate Liberty, by Earth customs, he would somehow be related to Noah. How, he wasn’t sure, but he would definitely look it up.

They stood, clasped hands, and did a quick guy hug with a tap on each other’s back.

“I still want her to come back to Fernley with all of us,” Noah said.

Jovan didn’t like it, but he knew Noah was right. This mansion was safe, but the silo was like Fort Knox. He wanted Liberty as protected as possible. And the next steps he would be taking wouldn’t exactly fall into the definition of safe.

It had been discussed before that he would stay in Phoenix with Blake, and they were going to see if they could at least get a read on the other group of SR44 males who called themselves The Platoon. It would be strictly recon, but he didn’t want Liberty anywhere around in case things went bad.

“Agreed. I want her in a secure location as well, Noah.”

There was a stretch of silence while they eyed each other. Jovan decided he needed to get moving. “I’m going to check on Blake,” he said, and left Noah in the kitchen.

Back downstairs, he quietly slipped into Blake’s room and sat down.

Blake had saved Liberty, even taking two bullets for her simply because Jovan asked him to, and he thought of everything Blake had given up to help them. His job. He had gone against his government, and if they ever identified him, he would be wanted for treason or some shit like that. Basically, Blake had given up everything in his human life to understand what he was and to help their people.

Their people.

Although Jovan hated Colonists, it was interesting to think that him and Blake were carved out of the same stone, so to speak. Blake was part SR44ian, even though Daddy had gone bad, his soul turned to black, and he had become a Colonist. However, he still had SR44 DNA floating around in there, so Blake was part of their people.

And lying in front of him was proof that just because someone’s parental heritage was bad news didn’t have to mean that the progeny swung that way. People could come from bad situations and make something of themselves, just as Blake had done, and gave it all up for them.

The question had been what would happen to Blake after the rescue mission was completed. They had three options: first, they could kill him, which didn’t sit well with Jovan at all. Second, they could let him go, which did put Blake in danger and into a pretty crappy life of being on the run and always looking over his shoulder.

Or they could ask him to join forces with them to help with the Colonists, their offspring, and the shit storm that was coming with The Platoon who wanted to kill all the Saviors. And maybe some more FBI.

Jovan put his head in his hands and closed his eyes. The thought of it all made him tired.