Chapter 356 Chapter 356
When the machine met the concrete, Terah released the breath she’d been holding. She watched him pushing buttons and doing things on the panel in front of him. The whirling slowed.
When he sat back and turned to look at her, she knew they were safely on the ground. “What do you mean I might have more than I think?”
Konner pointed to the headset he wore, then took it off.
She took hers off quickly and was glad the pressure was off her head.
“When clans started vanishing, I traveled to all of their locations and gathered up all of their paperwork and records.”
She frowned; she didn’t understand what this meant.
His mouth moved to form a small smile. “I’ll be able to look up what clan you’re from and the portion of their investments that helped build everything will become yours.” He motioned to the door beside her as he opened his own. “I took all of the money and properties and,” he smirked, “part of this,” he moved his hand toward the area around them, “and all of our companies are yours.”
Terah got out of the machine. Her legs felt funny when her feet were both on the hard surface that covered the earth. Before she could recover from that, he stood in front of her. She really didn’t understand what he’d said, except for one part. “You can find out about my family?”
Konner nodded his head slowly, then turned to get the bags out of the helicopter. Terah had no family—that she’d ever known. Only her mother. To her family were the names she said each night before sleep and any time she was scared. The sound of a vehicle had her spin around to see a black truck come out of the trees. She stepped back and hissed.
“Easy. He’s here to pick us up and take us back to the complex.”
“Okay.” She nodded, but inside, her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. A tall man got out of the truck and smiled at Konner. He was almost as big as him but had short black hair and his eyes were a darker green.
“Malachi.” she turned and looked at Konner as he spoke, “this is Terah.”
Her head snapped back to see the man coming closer. He was smiling at her.
“I was expecting weak and frail,” his smile got bigger, “you are not either of those.” She watched his eyes move as he looked her over. It made her feel uncomfortable. When he was closer, he held out his hand to her.
She looked at it and realized she was meant to clasp it with her own and shake it. She didn’t know what the significance of this was or why people did it. With a quick look at Konner, she decided she would do this strange custom and try to abide by the rules she didn’t understand.
His hand was cool when she placed hers in it and closed her fingers around it. She didn’t know why, but she had to check his scent and store it in her memory—instinct told her to do it and she never ignored that.
Gripping his hand harder, she jerked her arm and pulled him closer. Reaching up, with her other hand, she took a hold of his short hair and yanked his head down closer to her. With her face close to his neck, she inhaled. There was a scar there, a different scent inside it. She released his hand and hair at the same time and stepped back. “You have a female.” She looked at his neck where the mark was. Turning, she looked at Konner, who had his hand over his mouth. His eyes looked like they were smiling.
“I have a mate, yes.” The man, Malachi, said as he rubbed the side of his head.
“I can smell her from your scar.” Terah didn’t know what the female had done to him to put her scent inside him. She frowned, did the scar on her back smell like the man that had done it?
“It’s a mate’s mark.” Konner was watching her with that look in his eyes, the watchful one.
Had she done something wrong? “A mate’s mark?” she looked at his neck, she didn’t remember seeing one when he had his shirt off. “It was done on purpose?”
Konner grinned at that. “Yes. Raelyn, his mate, has one as well.”
Terah had been in her tank for the human mating rituals. In those, they gave each other a ring. She didn’t understand that at all, what good was body adornment that you could lose? A mark made sense to her. She turned back to Malachi again. “Are you good to your mate?” She knew nothing about mates and what it involved but had seen enough mistreated females during her life. She was not going to stand for it happening ever again.
Malachi’s mouth quirked, “she’d beat me to a pulp if I wasn’t.” He sobered, “I adore her, I need her more than my next breath. My children and she are the most important thing in the world.”
Terah gasped, “you have children?” Her heart sped up again.
“We do. Our daughter Lillee is thirteen and the baby is due very soon.”
New life. Terah had experienced that when the women kept with her had babies. They’d always be afraid or sad until their little one was born. New life changed everything. “I want to see the children.” She looked at Konner. “I tried to have babies, but it never happened.”
Konner exchanged a look with Malachi, his jaw was tight. “You can meet everyone, just,” he glanced over at the other man, “don’t grab people,” his gaze met hers again, “like that.”
Terah sighed. “I don’t know about the clan,” she waved her hand around, “things.” She hated not knowing and never understanding. “I don’t know what is good to do and what is bad.”
“We’ll all help you.” Malachi took the one bag from Konner. “Just ask if you don’t understand.
“Thank you. I will.” She took the other bag out of Konner’s hand and walked toward the truck. Her stomach was dancing inside her. She couldn’t be sure if it was nervousness or excitement, but it wasn’t fear and any feeling that wasn’t fear she could handle having.