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  A tall blond male who reminded her of a paler version of Trajen stepped forward to hug Hadrian. "Don't worry, little brother, I've got her back for you. Nothing's getting through me."

  Only then did Hadrian relent. Scooping his son up, he held him and watched as Nero and Jayne walked off and left him with his daughters and son.

  Fain started after them, but Galene stopped him. "Not without me, Hauk."

  He looked at the others who stood around them. "You have a base to set up, Commander. You're needed here."

  Galene turned to their son, Talyn, who was also the second-in-command for the Alliance forces. "Commander Batur? Take the camp and make sure everyone is safe and accounted for. You're OOD until my return."

  Defiance blazed in his stralen eyes, but Talyn didn't argue. "Yes, ma'am."

  Safir Jari clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Talyn. I'll keep her safe. Besides, your father isn't about to let anyone get near her." He hugged Ture and kissed his nephew Terek before he led Fain and Galene toward the others to mount a rescue for Jullien.

  Talyn appeared sick to his stomach as he watched them launch. His wife, Felicia, took his hand in hers while Vega, War, and the rest of the kids played in their blissful ignorance of what was going on around them. How Ushara envied them that innocence.

  Talyn turned to issue orders, then stopped. "Admiral?"

  Ushara blinked before she met his gaze. "Yes?"

  "We are guests in your home. And--"

  "No," she said, cutting him off. Swallowing hard, she looked around at the ones who'd been left behind. And in particular at the innocent children who had no idea how harsh the world could be. A sob wedged in her throat as she realized that all of Nykyrian's sons wore Tavali badges.

  Jullien's and Davel's personal arms.

  There was only one male who would have the authority to claim them as Fetchyn, and pin them with that Canting. One male whose wishes she would uphold even while cursing him for doing this to her. Because with those badges on those tiny arms, she knew what Jullien was saying, not just to her, but to all their brethren.

  She met Talyn's handsome gaze. "You are not guests. You're our family."

  And it was time for her children to meet the part of their father's blood family that wasn't responsible for this disaster. The part that he'd risked his life to protect.

  She took her daughters' hands from Trajen and led them to Nykyrian's twin sons so that she could introduce them.

  The two sets of twins, who were only months apart in age, were amazed by each other. At first, they frowned and stared at each other as if trying to understand why they favored so strongly, but within a few seconds, they were old friends. Even Adron and Jayce embraced them.

  Grateful they were getting along, Ushara took command so that she could show the newcomers where to bunk for their extended stay here. She'd already called ahead and had the facilities manager prepare them condos and apartments.

  As she led them from the bay, Jayne's son Sway came running up for Talyn to carry. Even though he was impeccably dressed in his Andarion battle uniform, Talyn perched the boy on his shoulders, just as Jullien would have done Nadya or one of their other nephews or nieces. "Your base is very different from the Ports'. Much more family oriented."

  "It is. The Tavali was founded on family, honor, and Code. And we were the first among the Nations. It's said that in the steel of our walls, you can feel the Snitches still watching over us, wishing us all well."

  As they entered the main housing district, Ushara met Zellen, who handed over a duty tablet. "These are the accommodations we have. Since you know your team and their requirements, I leave the final housing assignments up to you, Commander Batur. This is my adjutant, Zellen. He will note who is assigned where for you, and make sure everyone has clearance and access to their new housing."

  "Admiral?" Talyn called as she started away. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

  She was touched that he'd asked. Fain and Galene had a wonderful son. "No, thank you. Please see that you're all settled, and if you need anything, just let me or my staff know, and we'll take care of it immediately."

  And with that, she ushered her babies to their grandparents' home. Or at least tried.

  The girls began a high-pitched symphony of whining. "Can't our cousins come with us? I want to play with a real Taryn doll!"

  Ushara laughed, then turned toward Kiara. "Do you mind if your boys go to my parents' for a while?"

  "Honestly, I'd really appreciate the break. Is that wrong to admit?"

  Ushara glanced down at the baby in her arms. "She's what? About seven months old?"

  "Very good. She is."

  "Then you probably haven't slept in nine." Ushara glanced to the brood of scrapping boys. "Or more. It's fine. They'll be at my parents'. I'll text you their address and number so that you can check on them."

  "Bless you!"

  Vasili stepped forward to help her wrangle the six smaller children toward his grandparents.

  "Are you our cousin, too?" the eldest boy asked Vasili.

  "I am. My name's Vas. And you are?"

  "Adron! This is my brother Jayce. You look more like us than your dad does." He frowned at the girls. "So you only have sisters?"

  He grinned at Ushara. "I'll have a brother any day now."

  "Poor you!"

  Vasili laughed. "It's not so bad. I love my sisters so long as they're not climbing all over me like I'm a piece of furniture."

  "So you're the one who flies with Basha Jullien?"

  He paused as a very attractive young blond woman drew near. "Um, yeah."

  She held her hand out to him. "I'm your cousin, Thia. How much to have your father give mine lessons on how to loosen the noose?"

  Vas scoffed at her. "What are you talking about? My noose is double-knotted around my throat. You get kidnapped once in your life, and your parents never, ever forget it."

  "Oh my God! You, too? It's awful!"

  Ushara shook her head as the two of them wandered off to continue their discussion on the horrors of having parents who loved them.

  Her stomach burning, she rubbed against her son, who was turning somersaults inside her. It was as if he knew something had happened to his father.

  Unable to stand it, she surrendered the children to her parents, who were waiting outside for their arrival, then made her way to the command center, where she could sit and monitor communications.

  One way or another, Jullien would get word to her. She knew it. His band was still transmitting a heartbeat. So long as she could feel that, she wouldn't panic. Yes, his heart was racing most of the time, but he might be running or in hiding.

  Her Dagger Ixur was good at survival. Better than anyone. If there was any way for him to pull through, he'd find it.

  Determined to believe that, she turned her link on and scrolled to the last message he'd sent her. The one that had come over with his video.

  Don't panic. You knew something would go wrong. It's me, after all. Ever a thorn in the ass of Corela--please don't rat me out to my matarra for posting that. She said if I didn't stop saying such things, she'd wash out my mouth and break my texting fingers. I love you, Shara. You know I won't break your heart.

  Ever your Jules.

  She choked on a sob.

  "Matarra?"

  Turning, she saw Vasili, who must have entered the room while she had been reading. She pressed her hand to her lips and forced her tears into submission. "Yes, baby?"

  He knelt down beside her chair like he used to do when he was a boy. "Paka won't leave us. He's the strongest fighter in all the Nine Worlds. Better than even the Iron Hammer."

  She laughed at his choice of champions. "You know Commander Batur is the Iron Hammer, right?"

  He gaped. "Really?"

  She nodded. "You can ask him about it. Or his nephews."

  "His nephews?"

  "The two Andarion officers who are attached to his hip? Gavarian and Brach ezul Terronova."

  "I didn't know that. So they're from Felicia's family?"

  "Her older brother is their paka."

  "Ah. Does Paka know them?"

  "He does. But he and Talyn aren't on the best of terms." No sooner had she spoken those words than Talyn entered the room.

  He paused just inside the door and looked about as if impressed with their facilities.

  Ushara's acting adjutant immediately stiffened as she took in Talyn's dark, handsome features. Like most of them, her adjutant was gun-shy of the Ixurianir who had taken up temporary residence with them.

  She smiled at the Fyreblood female. "Relax, Captain. Commander Batur and the others here are at peace with us."

  Only then did she return to sit in her chair.

  Releasing Vas's hand, Ushara returned to her monitoring. "What brings you here, Commander?"

  "The same as you. I wanted to hear them and make sure you weren't left alone. After all, as you said, you're my family."

  Those words touched her almost as much as Vasili's had. She'd been right. While Talyn had issues with Jullien, he was still a decent Andarion male who had compassion for others.

  With a grateful smile, she indicated the chair by her side. "There's really nothing to hear right now. They're flying dark through League space."

  Relaxed and yet very commanding in his uniform, Talyn sat down by her side. "Then it's going to be a long night." He took her hand and squeezed it comfortingly. "But we will see it through together."

  No sooner had he spoken those words than the tadara, Sumi, Felicia, and Aros came through the door to stand vigil with them.

  Within the hour, the room was filled to capacity. Even Trajen came to sit in a corner, wordlessly observing them all while they waited for news.

  The look on his face said that he knew more than he was relaying to her. Ushara wasn't sure why he was keeping it to himself. It actually terrified her. Especially after she learned that Thraix and Dimitri had been gone for days in search of Jullien's whereabouts and had yet to find a single clue as to his location.

  Unable to stand it, she got up to walk for a bit and check on the girls. They should be asleep, but she wanted to make sure. Mira had been beside herself since they'd lost contact with Jullien. He was her woobie. She didn't sleep well unless her father held her and read to her until she collapsed in his arms.

  Jullien never complained or minded. No matter how long it took for the twins to fall asleep. Whenever he was forced by missions to be gone, he'd call in and read over their link while Ushara held them in his stead.

  Choking, she twisted her wedding band and waited for it to send over his heartbeat.

  "Ushara?"

  Involuntarily, she let out a sound of supreme disgust as the tadara called out to her. With a deep breath for patience, she turned. "Yes, Marastrada?"

  Cairistiona scowled at her. "I'm your matarra. Surely, you can dispense with such formalities?"

  She had to bite back what she really wanted to say. "My husband was disowned by you, Marastrada. Turned out to be tortured and dismembered in the streets after he'd saved your life. Forgive me if I'm not in a benevolent mood where you're concerned."

  "I didn't know about any of that."

  Ushara gaped at her. "What? You never once bothered to read the warrant your own mother swore out on his life?"

  "No. My advisors told me it was for treason against the crown. I assumed they meant me. Honestly, I was too upset to read it myself. I didn't want to see a public record of my own child turning on me."

  "So you and his father decided to make a public record of turning on him? You're right. That's so much better."

  "We didn't know," she insisted.

  "I don't care. You had one job ... to protect the child you brought into this world."

  Cairistiona glared at her. "It's not that simple."

  "It is that simple. I've seen the photos of his childhood, Marastrada. Jules never speaks of the cruelty you personally did to him. He actually defends you to this day. His father, not so much, but you ... you, he still defends. So tell me honestly, did you ever once hold him when he cried? Nurse him when he was sick?"

  "He wasn't..." Her voice trailed off as if seeking a lie.

  "What? Lovable? That's what he says when he defends you. He was an asshole, unworthy of your respect. Do you know that his first words to me after our daughters were born were that he finally understood why you hated him so much? It took forever to get him back in my bed after that. He was so traumatized by my labor that he couldn't understand how I could still love my children when his own mother had never loved him for the pain he gave her on his arrival."

  "I never meant to hurt him. You have no idea what it's like to have to look someone in the eye who bears the face of your brother who tried to kill you."

  "No, you're right. I don't have that. But I do have a son who is the spitting image of a father who tried to kill us all."

  Cairistiona sucked her breath in sharply. "What?"

  "Vasili. His father was a traitor to this Nation. No one knows that I know. I've kept it from my child and everyone else, because I would never see Vasili hurt for something his father did. I think my son might know the truth of his father. And it's why he didn't speak until the day Jules saved him and gave him back to me. Why Vas has chosen to forsake his father's name in favor of Jules's."

  "Who wouldn't want to be the son of an eton Anatole?"

  "Jules, for one," Ushara said coldly. "Check his records, Marastrada. He dropped your family name a long time ago for Jules Dagger Samari." She looked past her shoulder as Aros joined them. "He wants nothing from either of you. Not even the names you gave him when he was born."

  "Mama?"

  She turned at the sound of the twins calling to her to find her parents walking with them toward her.

  "Are you okay, Shara?" her mother asked.

  "I'm fine." Wiping at her cheeks, she knelt to hug her babies. "How are my girls?"

  "I want Paka!" Mira whined. "Why won't he answer my call, Mama?"

  "He can't, mia. You know if he could, he'd answer it in a heartbeat."

  Her lip quivering, Viv looked up at Cairistiona. "Are you the bad Andarions who hurt my paka? He always said that you'd come for him and that we had to watch for you so that you didn't hurt us, too."

  "No," Cairistiona said, her voice breaking. "I'm your yaya."

  Mira slapped her hand against her forehead. "We gots three yayas? I'm so confuzzled."

  Ushara laughed at her drama. "I can play Paka's video for you."

  "Not the same." Viv's lips quivered as tears welled in her eyes. "He doesn't talk to us in the video. I want to talk to Paka."

  "I know, sozibu. So do I." Her link began to buzz. For an instant, she hoped it was Jullien.

  But as she pulled it out, she saw it was Thraix. Hoping for a miracle, she answered it. "Hey? Did you find him?"

  "No. Sorry. Are you still getting his heartbeat?"

  "Yes. Why?"

  "Don't panic. We're picking up a lot of bizarre activity on Andaria that we can't understand."

  "Define bizarre activity."

  "That's just it. We can't."

  Terrified, Ushara pressed her ring.

  This time, no heartbeat returned.

  "No ... no."

  "Shara?"

  Her head light, she looked at her parents and Jullien's, then at the girls.

  She pressed for his heartbeat and waited.

  Again, there was no response.

  Unable to tell her girls that their father was dead, she collapsed.

  CHAPTER 41

  "Don't take this wrong, but I seriously hope Jules is dead."

  Ushara gasped at Thraix's harsh, deadpan words. "Pardon?"

  He raked a grimace over her extremely pregnant body as she continued to arm herself. "'Cause if he's not, he's going to kill every last one of us for letting you do this."

  Scoffing, she fastened the blaster harness over her shoulders with the help of a tiny green alien named Morra Deathblade, who'd come in with The Sentella to help them make this rescue run. Sadly, because of her distended belly, Ushara couldn't carry a traditional holster. For that matter, she could barely get the shoulder one to fit comfortably. But for sheer determination and Morra's ingenuity, she'd have been unarmed. The tiny green Phrixian was amazing when it came to knowing her weapons.

  Ushara checked the charge levels, then slid the blasters into place.

  Morra hissed at Saf, then left the room to prep her ship.

  Ignoring her hostility, which had been nonstop since Saf's arrival, Saf Jari inclined his head to Ushara in approval. Tall and handsome with black hair and dark, intelligent eyes that missed no detail about anything, he reminded her a lot of Jullien. They even favored enough physically that they could almost pass as relatives. "I love going into battle with an Andarion female."

  She arched a brow at the former League assassin. It was a very peculiar comment coming from the mouth of a Phrixian warrior. As an extremely misogynistic race, they kept their females under strict lock and key--which was why Morra was so hostile to him. She was Schvardan, and apparently more than just the green skin differentiated her species from Saf's Naglfari Phrixian race.

  Only Saf's brother Maris was immune from Morra's hatred of Naglfari males. And only because Morra loved and respected him, and had dubbed Maris an honorary Schvardan.

  Supposedly, to protect them from all threats, the Naglfari females were banned from any dangerous activity, including military service. From what Ushara had been told, they weren't even allowed to leave their homes to visit a friend or family member without a male escort. And he must be her husband, father, brother, or son, or another very close blood relation. Any female found without an escort could be arrested.

  So Saf's comment was highly unusual for his upbringing. "Why's that?" she asked him.

  "Aside from the fact that you're some of the best trained soldiers I've ever had the honor of serving with, your females are voraciously protective of their team, and especially their males. I know you're not going to let anything get through you. And if it comes down to it, you'll go out fighting with everything you have. I respect your warrior's code." He handed her his rifle. "Watch the kick on it. It's a Phrixian weapon, stronger than anything you've ever shot before. Think of it like a handheld ion cannon."

  Saf took a second to show her how to properly hold and fire it. "Just make sure you have it anchored at your shoulder when you shoot, or it'll break your collarbone."

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