Mad Panther: Alien Guardians of Earth #2

Chapter 4

4Nyomi sat on her throne brooding. She hated this. She hated it every time it happened even though she’d accepted the reality of it before Rodu even did.

She’d been a warrior for the entirety of her long life. She well knew the cost of that kind of service.

“Mother, my bed is empty, and there is no trace of my mate in your queendom. Where is she?”

Nyomi straightened and faced the male stomping toward her. “Where is who, Axel?”

“You know who I mean.”

Nyomi huffed—then narrowed her eyes at her son. “I do not know where Sugar is. Ask your father.”

“Very well,” Axel said, looking around. “Where is my sire? I’ve checked the training room and the library.”

“I don’t know where your father is either,” Nyomi said stiffly. “I will not know where he has gone until he returns to me. That is how this works, Axel. The blade calls him to duty. He follows its directions.”

Axel frowned. “Are you saying the blade made Father do something? Do you think Sugar went with him? Do you think her blade made her leave me?”

Nyomi shrugged. “I do not know the answers to any of your queries.”

“What do you know then?” Axel demanded.

Nyomi lifted her chin and glared at her angry son. “I know I will have my guards lock you up if you continue to yell at me. Do not forget that I am your queen. When I sit on my throne that trumps being your mother. But—if it helps you—I’m just as concerned as you are about them.”

Axel turned away and stomped off, hissing loudly with frustration. A low growl rose from deep within him and echoed throughout the room. When it died away, he took some calming breaths.

Then, and only then, did he turn back to his queen.

He approached the throne and knelt at her feet. Axel schooled his expression to calmness when he lifted his face to hers. “Forgive me. My human emotions have made me unreasonable.”

“Will my forgiveness stop you from being mad at Sugar for leaving?” Nyomi asked.

Axel grunted. “No. It will not.”

Nyomi waved a hand and glared. “Get up then, Axel. Fifteen hundred years ago, every time your father left I reacted as you are doing. Now? Now I know it is a waste of my energy to get so emotional over what cannot be changed. I suggest you turn your anger into quiet seething and find something purposeful to do while Sugar is gone. That is your destiny as the mate of someone merged with a sentient blade.”

Axel rose to his feet. “Father disappears from you without a trace? And you accept this as normal?”

“Yes. The blade tells him what he must do, and he goes to do it. He doesn’t tell me because he knows I would go along. He will call if he needs help. That is our agreement. For the last thousand years, he has kept his word.”

“What is so wrong with wanting to help?” Axel exclaimed, lifting a hand. “The blade hosts need protecting. Isn’t that our job as their mates?”

Nyomi sighed. “I hear the echo of my own thoughts coming from my beloved son’s mouth, and I can’t even enjoy it. I can only answer that I do not really know what our role is where the blades are concerned. They allow our mates to be with us, but Rodu has always insisted that there are things he must do alone. I have no choice but to accept his words are his truth.”

“That is you,” Axel said, then smacked his chest with his fist. “But I will never accept such a thing. I have seen Sugar helpless and in need of care. After she fights, she sleeps like death before she is reborn.”

“I know the full worry of what you speak, and yet you must somehow find a way to bear it emotionally,” Nyomi said firmly. “If you do not willingly let her go, Sugar will leave you to seek the freedom she requires to obey the blade.”

Axel grunted. “Sugar will not leave me. All I’m asking is that she not go out alone and unprotected.”

“She will leave you again and again to serve the blade, but from that, she will always return,” Nyomi said firmly. “But if she flees your fears and your hovering, she will be gone for many, many years. By the time you find her, your human love might be on death’s door. Then you will watch her regeneration and pray that her frail human cells allow themselves to be remade. It is a torture that goes on for months and one that cannot be adequately described.”

Axel shook his head. “It does not have to be that way. No matter where Sugar goes or what she does, she cannot escape me following. I have ways to find her.”

Nyomi shook her head and kept on shaking it. “You will not find her unless the blade allows her to be found.”

“Before she merged completely with the blade, I put a bio-tracker in her. At the time, I thought I was doing it to protect a mere human. I’d forgotten about it until now. My craft is equipped to track her through that chip I implanted. I merely have to activate the program.”

Axel paced in a circle in front of the throne.

“I’m going after her, Mother, and I will tell her she is not to go without me ever again. We will come to an agreement.”

“Or to blows,” Nyomi warned.

Axel stopped and stared at his mother. “Didn’t you ever go after Father?”

“Of course I did. I chased him many times until I realized that loving him was not my only purpose in this life I’m living,” Nyomi said, lifting her chin. “I learned my lesson about it the hard way. While I was gone searching for someone who didn’t wish to be found, there was no one here sitting on the Lyran throne. My son refused to sit it for me. Being gone too much and too often nearly cost me my people. I cannot abandon my duties, not even for the only male who owns my heart.”

Axel’s guilty gaze dropped. “I’m sorry, Mother. Truly. If I had known what was happening…”

“I’m not attempting to inflict guilt on you for your decisions. I could have ordered you here, and you would have come, but a reluctant ruler cannot lead. And your father’s relationship to his blade was nothing I could tell you about back then,” Nyomi finished with a shrug. “The bottom line was that Rodu didn’t want me following him around. Like you, I consoled myself with finding clever ways of tracking him.”

“How do you do so?” Axel asked.

“Your brilliant sister developed nanotechnology that I placed in the fabric of his clothing—all of it. So long as he remains dressed, I can find his whereabouts. When he stays too long in one place, I send my elite guard to see why. However, I learned the hard way not to interfere with the blade’s business directly. Please learn that lesson from me and not from your own mistakes, Axel. It will save you from angering your mate and from the grief I suffered.”

“When the blade owns Sugar completely, it undresses her without thought. Does Father always remain dressed when he is gone from you?” Axel asked bitterly.

“No. Not always,” Nyomi admitted.

“Sugar is mine, Mother. She will undress only in my presence.”

“Axel, try to remember that you are Lyran. Human jealousy is not part of Lyran logic. Do you not trust Sugar’s love for you is complete and unchanging? Do you not see that your lack of trust in her love is about your own selfish motives?”

Axel bowed his head. “I hear your words, my queen, but the need to find my mate is greater. If there is wisdom in your advice, my heart is not able to hear it.”

“Very well then,” Nyomi said finally. “Go and search for her. I have warned you of what could happen. That is all I can do. You almost didn’t win Sugar’s heart back the last time you messed up with her. I caution you once more to reconsider your course of action.”

“In this instance, I cannot heed your advice,” Axel said tightly. Bowing once more to his queen, he turned and walked quickly from the room.

Nyomi sighed heavily as she watched Axel go. She could have told him where to start searching, but her son seemed determined to seek out his own lessons. As for her, she might brood about Rodu’s absence, but she would stay focused.

Rodu the Destroyer was with Sugar the Protector. No one knew yet what two blades working together could do. Given what she’d seen Rodu do alone, Nyomi suspected their combined power would exceed even her imagination. She would cling to that until her mate returned to her.