"He?" Dr. Carrington asked in surprise, but she hurried from his office without answering further, bustling past a tall man with black eyes, who, for a moment, gave her a kind of pause. When she turned back, no one stood in the hallway at all. With a shiver, she walked onward down the polished floors, the echo of her footsteps the only sound behind her.

"She's been taking rock and soil samples," Scott said, watching Jared across the meeting table where the mitres drawings were spread. "Turned them in to one of her professors."

Jared lifted his eyes, and Scott answered his unspoken question. "She's a geology student."

Jared nodded, turning his attention back to the schematics. They'd paid for these blueprints with blood many times over, smuggling them out of the Antousian-controlled borderlands. All in hopes of gaining access to hidden Refarian technology-technology that could turn the tide in the war that waged on their own planet, and had spilled over onto Earth in the past six years. Technology left here two hundred years ago, at a time when many of the Antousians had still been their allies.

Jared studied the various chambers, the mapped catacombs, but his mind strayed again. Back to the human. All his life he'd been set apart; few spoke to him without filtering every word, which meant that few truly touched his soul. Yet she'd opened to him-and easily. Oh, far too innocent for this conflict, he chided himself, thinking of what a gift such innocence would be. And far too alien.

Should he ever form a match, there would be expectations. And, by the G.o.ds, he knew what they were, as surely as he saw Thea eyeing him from across the meeting room. Giving her blond curls a flirtatious toss, she smiled. He frowned back at his cousin, and repressed the urge to growl his dismay aloud. Equal match or not, he could never feel anything for his fellow soldier. Beautiful to a fault, she left his hot Refarian blood ice-cold, no matter how many times his council urged their mating.

"Jared," Scott snapped, glaring at his leader. "Are you listening?" No other person in their midst would dare speak to him so audaciously. But Scott was practically his brother, and knew the boundaries he could push.

"You're still angry," Jared observed.

Scott snorted, leaning over the plans. "Stop watching Thea and pay attention to what I'm saying."

This time he did growl. "Thea doesn't interest me."

"So you've said, sir." Scott inclined his head respectfully.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Scott leaned back in his seat, staring out at the woods beyond the full windows. "There's fear for your life."

Jared folded his arms over his chest defiantly. "Always has been."

"No, Jared." Scott leaned close until his piercing eyes blazed like lasers. "These chances you've taken lately have left fears within the people."

"The people," Jared repeated dully, sensing the direction this conversation was headed.

"The council."

Jared blew out a furious sigh. "I have little patience for the council."

"If you do not marry-do not have children-the line ends with you."

"The people don't need a figurehead," he argued softly, glancing again toward Thea. "They need a leader. And a leader doesn't need a lifemate." He believed strongly that he should remain unattached and focused strictly on military leadership. In fact, the thought of marrying anyone always felt wrong, on the most fundamental level. "I remain purposeful in my intentions."

"Then why do you keep dwelling on the human?"

Jared shuddered, staring back at his best friend, who fixed a wry smile on him. Blast Scott and his soul gazing, Jared mentally cursed.

Scott wasn't going to back away from the topic, however. "Well, sir?" he pressed, tapping his finger on the meeting table for emphasis.

"I will not marry," Jared snapped, "and if you hear rumors from the council again, tell them as much." He rose to leave, feeling his hands tremble and his heart race beneath his ribs.

"They don't know about the human," Scott answered in a low voice. "I'm asking as your friend."

Jared paced the length of the pine-paneled meeting room, raking his open palm over his short hair. It bristled beneath his fingertips, still an unfamiliar sensation. Until recently, he'd worn it long, but had wearied of the constant feel of it around his face, and so had shaved his head. It had grown out some, but not completely. He stopped before the large fireplace and studied the licking flames and the smoldering embers beneath. The banked fire steered his thoughts again in the direction of the human. Kelsey Wells. He spun the name in his mind, liking the sound of it. He'd encountered many of her kind in his tenure on Earth, many young women with nubile, arousing bodies. Many Refarian women, as well, who would have taken to his bed without argument, but there was something familiar about her that transcended the bond they'd formed on the sh.o.r.e, something that had been perplexing him ever since.

His gaze traveled upward to the fireplace mantel, where someone had placed fresh winter flowers. Narcissus, they were called. Life, even in this cold, forbidding landscape. That was it, he realized, his ordinarily serious face breaking into a full smile. Kelsey had aroused something he thought dead in his heart. He spun to face Scott, who sat at the polished meeting table, waiting.

"This Kelsey Wells..." Jared paused, trying to find the words, and thought of how she'd opened to him. How trusting she'd been-how unafraid, even in the face of obvious danger. Her brave innocence had thawed something cold in him, something he thought the Antousians had killed long ago. "She made me feel alive," he said, planting one worn boot on the brick hearth. "Very alive, I'm afraid."

Scott's dark eyebrows shot upward in amus.e.m.e.nt. "While you were nearly dying?"

"Strange, I know."

Scott leaned back in his chair, studying Jared. "Maybe it was all a hallucination."

Jared shook his head. "She opened to me."

"She did not."

"Scott," Jared insisted, voice rising as he crossed the room and took his seat at the table again. "I bonded with her."

"So you told me," Scott said with a roll of his brown eyes. "All for a data transfer."

"It was something more," Jared explained hoa.r.s.ely. He dropped his voice much lower, so none of the others would dare hear-especially not Thea. "It wasn't just me, Scott," he explained. "I think, well, that... we bonded together."

"Commander," Scott whispered, leaning close across the table. "Were you insane?" Both men knew the significance of a two-way bond with a stranger-an interspecies bond at that.

"I had to protect the mitres," Jared offered lamely again.

"But you didn't need her bonded to you," Scott said in a gruff whisper, shoving back from the table with an angry gesture. "And for that, my friend, you cannot offer any excuse."

"Excuse for what?" Thea asked, pulling a seat up to the table. She might have been his supposed destiny, but as she stared at him with those ethereal blue eyes, always expecting something that he was unable to give, he squirmed as usual. "Excuse for what?" she repeated, frustrated at the veiled looks Scott exchanged with Jared. "Listen, you two can't expect me to be effective if you're forever shutting me out," she complained.

"Commander Dillon is unsettled by my seeming recklessness," Jared answered carefully, staring at the plans to avoid his cousin's blue gaze.

She lifted a hand to his shoulder, which was still bandaged even though it was mostly healed. "How does this feel?" she asked, turning her touch into something of a caress.

"I am well," he rumbled, ignoring her hand. Finally, she dropped it away.

"Good," she said, "Because we have a situation this morning." Thea and several highly intuitive soldiers at the main base were able to communicate telepathically, which kept their risk of detection to a minimum. It was not uncommon to see Thea in a reflective position by the fire for hours, or outside on the deck, utilizing her vastly developed skills of perception. Listening, receiving, or just waiting- all through the unaided use of her mind.

"Anika and Anna are on their way now," she said.

Jared opened his mouth to question her further, but at that precise moment a pair of female soldiers entered the meeting room. All of his troops looked a bit alike, thanks to their uniforms and their military bearing, but these two were identical twins, and they shared a grim expression. Jared sensed fear- smelled it on them even before his energy made contact with theirs.

"Sir," Anika announced, out of breath. "We've been patrolling Mirror Lake."

"We were hawking it," her sister explained, black eyes fixed on him. Changelings, the twins were capable of a.s.suming simpler forms: in this case, gliding over the lake as hawks, surveying the scene.

"Go on," Jared urged with a nod.

Anika stepped forward. "The air force is searching the lake, sir. The place is swarming with uniformed search teams and equipment." Inwardly, Jared groaned, though he kept his demeanor calm while the soldier continued her report. "But that's not the worst," she added. "They've located the remnants of your craft."

In all these years, they'd lost only a handful of planes- but every time they did, it put more of their own technology into the humans' hands. And this, of course, put them at a disadvantage, especially since the Antousians' attacks on the military installations here in the United States had increased in frequency. The humans did not differentiate between their own race and that of their enemies: Aliens were aliens were aliens in the eyes of humans. So far there had been no summit, no peace brokering-and Jared trusted the human governments very little. He was all too aware of human behavior, their defensiveness when frightened. He'd seen that much firsthand over the past six years.

But Anika wasn't finished. Clearing her throat, she revealed the one thing Jared had feared most about Mirror Lake. "There was a woman there," she continued, awkward. "On the lake's sh.o.r.e, before the teams arrived. She wasn't camping; she seemed to be collecting some sort of samples from the site." Apparently the camp rumors had traveled very quickly; he knew that much from the quiet blush coloring Anika's cheeks.

But it was Kelsey who concerned him at the moment, not the gossip among his people. Jared's head snapped upward, power roiling within his core. "Did the soldiers see her?"

"No, sir, she'd left already, I think."

"Good." Jared released a sigh of relief, but his need to protect his bondmate only intensified. "Very good." He instructed the twins to return to the site, to continue surveying, and to keep him posted. Thea followed them out, but not before a telling glance in Jared's direction.

As they left, Scott pulled him aside. "If they find out about the human, they'll take her in for questioning."

Jared set his jaw. "She has no idea what she's actually carrying around."

"But the data is still there, Jared," he cautioned. "If they do anything with her-to her-they could uncover it."

"Don't you think I know that?" Jared snapped.

Scott gaped back at him, but then his features softened. "You know, the bond thing," he said, wincing in obvious displeasure at the idea, "is supposed to be pretty powerful. I wouldn't trust anything it might be doing to you right now."

"I do not feel the bond," Jared answered. Staring beyond Scott's tall shoulder, he hoped his friend could not detect the bald lie in his words.

"I'm glad," Scott replied. "Because you can't afford any distractions, sir. I'll go get the data from her later today."

Jared raised a silencing hand. "I will go," he insisted. "She knows me. And she trusts me."

Scott stared hard into his eyes. Piercingly hard, so much so that Jared knew the man was soul gazing yet again. Jared's temper sparked at the intrusion. "Don't do that!" he barked, stepping back.

Scott dropped his gaze with a slight bow, heat creeping into his face. But he said nothing. No apology, no explanation. Jared clasped his lifelong friend by the shoulder. "Scott, I won't put myself in danger," he said. "I promise."

This time it was Scott whose temper flashed hot. "You're already in danger, sir," he snapped, turning on his heels. "I'm just trying to keep you alive despite that fact."

Chapter Four.

Kelsey burrowed beneath her grandmother's quilt on her living room sofa, sketch pad balanced on her knees. From the TV in the background, a rerun of Buffy droned on. That stupid episode about the mayor: probably the single most overaired episode in Buffy history. Despite her lack of artistic ability, Kelsey had nevertheless been trying to render some sort of drawing of the visitor-as she'd come to term him-that captured his beauty. She knew all about shape-shifters, and she'd watched and read enough sci-fi in her time to understand that was what he had to be. A being didn't morph from a ball of light into a six-foot-something gorgeous man without possessing supernatural abilities. It flew in the face of every law and fact she'd learned as a scientist. And yet, somehow it felt right. Logical. The paradox of such illogic confounded her to no end, but the enigma always circled back to the same conclusion: The man she had encountered one week earlier had been like a being right out of science fiction, only he had also been real.

The most bewildering thing about their encounter, however, hadn't actually been his transformation-it was how attracted she'd been to both of his forms. That was a new one for a practical girl like her. And it fascinated her. Exhilarated her. Frightened her. It was as if he'd awakened some slumbering aspect of her soul with that strange fiery touch of his and with his raw beauty.

It had been one week since their meeting. One week of restless sleeping, of feeling her body blaze hot at the oddest moments. One week of aching for him so intently that she'd felt as though she'd go blind with need. But need of what? An abstract being's caresses? Was he really a man in any form she might recognize? Insanity, she cursed herself, slamming down the sketch pad. Despite her familiarity with the shape-shifter theory, as a scientist it contradicted everything she rationally knew about matter and energy. That was a puzzle she'd found herself revisiting all week long as well. Yet even as the scientist in her questioned, she could not deny the reality of what she'd glimpsed with her eyes. Nor could she deny that based on one brief encounter, she already had strong feelings for the man, as irrational as that sounded.

In the first day or two, she'd fantasized that he would come for her. That somehow he'd know how to find her- and that he would care to do so. But the pa.s.sing days had given way to despair as she came to realize the foolish schoolgirl fantasies she'd begun harboring for an alien stranger. Yet even as she cursed herself, she wondered if there weren't some way to call him back to her, some way to let him know that not only did she want his return; she begged for it with every cell in her human body.

Jared stood before the mirror in his bedroom, examining himself, turning first one way and then another. After nightfall, Anika would drive him to meet with Kelsey Wells. Scott had surveyed her apartment earlier in the day, and all agreed that access would be easy. None of his officers were pleased about his going into the open, yet they couldn't argue with the importance of Jared's retrieving the information he had locked within her mind.

Given the danger, he would not visit her in his usual human form-a form that only thinly veiled his Refarian body-but instead he would morph into a temporary ident.i.ty. Normally he gave little thought to such a choice; today, however, he found that it was keenly important that he choose well. Studying his appearance, he gave his body armor a tug, adjusting the outer sh.e.l.l of his bulletproof vest. At six-foot-four, he was a tall man and definitely a large-framed one. Kelsey, he had noted, was also quite tall for the female of her species. Perhaps she would find his natural Refarian height appealing? He smiled at the thought, pleased, and, without meaning to, blushed a bit.

d.a.m.n the human; she'd reduced him to a schoolboy, he thought with an angry scowl at his reflection in the mirror. Never before had he cared whether a woman admired his height or his size or his natural coloring, but now he found his mind wandering in that direction far too many times a day. Like now, as he studied his black eyes, his copper-colored skin-darker than he would ever reveal out in public, among the humans. The unusual tone looked too exotic for this part of the planet, he had learned, despite its general similarity to that of the Native Americans in the region. As Scott had explained, in a large American city, such as New York, he would never stand out; however, here in the mountain wilderness, his moody eyes and rich-toned skin marked him as a stranger.

With a weary sigh, he shifted a bit, diminishing his alien coloring into something paler and more unremarkable. Next, he morphed his fine cheekbones and regal nose, a.s.suming instead a freckle-faced "cowboy" look. His black hair became sandy brown. He became plain, unnoticeable. His pride rebelled at the image staring back at him from the mirror. Not a man given to ego, he nevertheless found that he wanted to appeal physically to Kelsey Wells, wanted it more than his very next breath. Oh, he had lied to Scott this morning for sure. I don't feel the bond, he had claimed. The thought was laughable. Scott was right: He'd been insane to allow a two-way bond with an alien stranger. Taking a bondmate had always been a sacred ritual among his people, reserved for lovers, for lifemates. Not for alien women like Kelsey Wells, dangerous to a fault. Why dangerous? logic questioned. Because you might open your heart again?

Reaching for the bottle of whiskey he always kept in his dressing quarters, he silenced that nagging thought, swallowing a quick shot of the burning liquid. Humans possess their share of fine inventions, he thought admiringly, studying the bottle. But then he felt a literal tug in his spirit, a physical reminder of his separation from the human stranger, and his mood blackened again. Indeed it is possible for a king to be a raving idiot, he mused with a weary sigh. So many years in control of his emotions, his thoughts; then he'd gone out of his mind in a fleeting moment. Irrational, that was how he'd felt for the past days, driven by thoughts of a woman he barely knew-yet whose soul kept touching his own hundreds of times a day. How can a man think under such conditions? Simple answer: He could not, and Jared knew that tonight was finally his chance to remedy the situation once and for all.

Yet even with that vow, he found himself turning to the mirror once again, wondering what she would think of the form he had now a.s.sumed. A woman with auburn hair like hers would surely find a man with dramatic looks appealing-so he shifted his eyes back to their natural, dark hue with a frown. Rubbing his open palm over the top of his head, feeling the sandy-brown hair p.r.i.c.kling his fingertips, he groaned aloud. There was no way he could make all these decisions on his own, so, hitting the comm b.u.t.ton on his forearm, he called for Anika.

When she arrived, he formed his hands into something of a temple beneath his chin, wrestling for proper words. He knew that Anika would make an excellent consultant on a choice such as this one. She'd lived deeply enmeshed within the shape-shifter ways all of her life. She would understand his dilemma, perhaps more than anyone else within camp; and unlike some others, he trusted her to keep their conversation private.

"I go to see Kelsey Wells," he finally grunted at her, saying little else.

She stepped close and patted his thick body armor, the dress of a field soldier. "And you are wearing this?" she asked, tilting her dark head sideways.

"Scott insisted on the protection."

"It hardly... blends." She laughed. "If I may say so."

Again, he grunted. "I agree with this a.s.sessment."

She studied his features, reaching up onto her toes to gaze plainly into his face. "And, my lord, if I may further say, you resemble"-she paused, narrowing her eyes- "well, sir, you resemble yourself. I do not think it is safe to venture into the open in such a recognizable form."

"I am having some difficulty," he admitted, dropping his gaze to the floor between them. "I seek your advice."

"Advice about visiting the human, Kelsey Wells?"

"I find there are," he said, "too many possibilities for my form in visiting this human." With that admission, he coughed into his hand, but said nothing more, and instead fingered the b.u.t.ton on his flak vest.

"Well, then," she announced in a bright voice, "we shall definitely make some choices."

Anika had always been his dear friend, far more than a mere military adviser. She understood him, in some ways, better than Scott or Thea ever would. Funny, but even though Anna was her identical twin, he felt nothing close to the same connection with Anika's sister.

"Yes," he agreed, daring shyly to meet her gaze, "excellent choices are necessary."

Anika's dazzling smile broadened, revealing her large, white teeth. "This will be a fine duty, my lord."

By the time they had arrived at Kelsey's apartment, Jared had on a thick cashmere turtleneck, topped by a black buckskin jacket. His hands were gloved in black wool, concealing the subtle body armor that encased his wrists, forearms, chest, and heart. Likewise, his dark jeans hid the rest of his careful protection, so that he could move safely in the open but appear fully human.

As Anika had p.r.o.nounced with a pert grin, he appeared, "Both handsome and princely, while maintaining strong security."

He had complained in the face of her honesty, but smiled nonetheless. Now he found himself right outside of Kelsey's apartment, a blond-haired man with green eyes, tall, but not overly so. Nothing like the man she'd seen on the lakesh.o.r.e-in fact, he resembled neither of the beings she'd glimpsed in him that night.

After scanning the perimeter in every direction, he pa.s.sed through her front door without even a slight noise- the benefit of shifting-and began stealthily walking through her dark apartment toward her bedroom, where she was undoubtedly asleep at such a late hour. Sniffing the air, he hesitated, a smile forming on his lips. Yes, it was her, he knew, desire snaking down his spine in reaction. The Refarian in him instantly awakened at the scent of his bondmate, even as the military leader within shouted down such irrational terms of affection.

Kelsey's bedroom door stood ajar. Pushing on it with his palm, he caught sight of her there in bed, illuminated by the moonlight spilling through her windows. What he saw stirred something so forgotten within him that he felt his palms burn in reaction: the urge to touch-to be touched. Pressing his eyes shut, he refused to acknowledge how many years it had been since he'd come this close to wanting a woman -really wanting one, rather than just availing himself of that which was offered to him. G.o.ds, so beautiful, he thought, taking a tentative step closer. Hair like gypsy's jewels, the dark red visible even in this half darkness. Blinking, he allowed his vision to heighten, so that he instantly gazed upon her as if in clear daylight. He breathed her in, held her scent in his lungs, then released it.