HEART OF WARRIOR
JOHANNA LINDSEY
Prologue
BRITTANY CALLAGHAN STARED IN THE MIRROR, ABOVE her dresser, satisfied with the results. The blouse was sequined, fancy, but not too sexy. The jewelry was demure, nothing flashy. The long velvet skirt was elegant, slim, slit to the knee. It had taken her two hours to get ready, not that she needed that much time to look nice, but tonight was special, so she'd devoted more time than usual in her preparations.
Her makeup, applied Just right, brought out the deep green of her eyes. Her roommate, Jan, had done her hair, managing to get the long mass of copper into a tight coiffure that would have earned Jan praise in her beauticians class. They made a great pair as roommates, swapping each others skills as needed. Brittany could fix just about anything that went wrong in the apartment and kept Jan's car in top shape, while Jan cooked most of the meals and did Brittany's hair for special events, since she never had time to get to a beauty shop herself.
They had been sharing an apartment in Seaview now for three years. It wasn't a big town by any means. Oddly, it wasn't by the sea either and the standard joke was that it was named in anticipation of "the big quake" that would show up one day, bringing the coast to them. A joke in poor taste, but if you lived in California, you either joked about earthquakes or you moved.
Seaview was one of the newer towns spread out inland away from the big cities, but within reasonable driving distance if you happened to work in the big city. The closest big one in their case was San Francisco. They were far enough away to not experience the chill weather and fogs off the Bay. They enjoyed such mild weather, in fact, that Sunnyview would have been a much more appropriate name for their town.
It was great having a roommate she got along so well with. Jan was petite, effervescent, always had a boyfriend on hand for anything she wanted to do, whether it was the same one or not, she didn't particularly care. She liked men, had a need to always have one around, even if she didn't take any of them seriously. Her only fault, if it could be termed one, was that she was a matchmaker at heart. She might not be able to settle on any one man in Particular herself, but she saw no reason that her friends couldn't.
Brittany had proven to be a challenging subject for matchmaking though, and not for the usual reasons. She was beautiful, intelligent, responsible, had interesting careers, and admirable goals. She just happened to be six feet tall.
Height had always been a problem for Brittany, from childhood on. It put a serious restriction on the relationships she could develop, to the point where she had stopped putting any effort into developing one.
She had tried dating men shorter than her, but it never worked. The jokes would come out eventually about her height, or the man would get ribbed by his friends, or more often, their faces would accidently brush against her breasts‑deliberately of course.
She had decided, when she did marry, her husband would have to be at least as tall as she was. Taller would be nice, but she wouldn't hold her breath on getting that lucky, would settle for the same height.
Yet having such a problem did tend to make her notice tall men right off. Unfortunately, with a lot of really tall men, most of that height was naturally in their legs, and on some men, this tended to look a bit odd, particularly on the skinny ones. She'd take odd, though. She wasn't particular, just particular about not wanting to look down on her husband.
But a husband was a long way off for her, despite her age approaching thirty, or so she'd thought. Not that she hadn't wanted one eventually, but she was goal oriented, and she had one major goal that all her efforts were put into these days, owning her own home that she built with her own hands.
To that end, she worked two jobs, part‑time at the local health spa in the evenings and all day on Saturdays, where she kept herself in good shape while doing the same for others, regulating diets and exercise programs. Her full‑time job through the week was with Arbor Construction.
Sunday was her only day off, and the only chance she had to take care of the normal activities of life, like writing her family, balancing the checkbook, paying bills, house cleaning, laundry, shopping, repairing her car, etc. It was also the only day she had to simply relax, and she preferred to spend that free time catching up on sleep or working on designing her dream house, not working on a relationship. The two jobs gave her next to no time for socializing, which was why she had stopped trying‑until she met Thomas Johnson.
She had tried seeing the same man more than once, every Sunday actually, tried it with more than a few men thanks to her roommate's persistence. But that never worked out well, because they soon resented that she wasn't available more often. She'd been waiting until after she had her house. She could quit the second job, then have the same free time that everyone else enjoyed.
Then would be soon enough to start looking for a serious relationship.
Tom had changed her mind about that. She had begun to think she'd never find the right man for her, but Thomas Johnson filled the bill beyond her expectations. He was six foot six so he met her major criteria, but he was also exceptionally handsome and an established executive in advertising. She was blue‑collar, he was white, but they still found common ground. He might make her feel self‑conscious occasionally, but that was too minor a thing to
counter her belief that he was the one for her. Stubborn certainty might better describe it, but then she was Irish.
Actually, her last name might give testament to that, but her family were Americans to the core. Her grandfather Callaghan had owned a farm in Kansas that he built from scratch and that her father inherited when he died. This is where she and her three brothers grew up. None of the Irish part of their history had been preserved, if anything was known about it, because her grandfather had been orphaned too young to have learned any of it.
But their first names, well, it wasn't hard to guess that her parents had been a bit flaky when they'd started having children.
They denied being part of the hippy generation, called themselves "free‑spirited," whatever that meant, and in fact, they had met while hiking cross‑country, and had gone off to see the world together. They were hitchhiking through England when the first child came along, and had been so impressed with that country, that their sons got named York, Kent, and Devon, in that order.
As the only girl who showed up last, Brittany got named after the entire country. Her parents took offense when it was pointed out that Brittany was actually a province in France, and not the shortened version of Great Britain.
Brittany had a no‑nonsense attitude about life. You lived it, and eventually, you might even enjoy living it. That was actually a joke or meant to be, yet it wasn't that far off the mark on her own life. She actually liked her jobs, got a lot of satisfaction out of them, she just missed having the time to do all the little things in life that everyone else took for granted. But then she was no stranger to hard work and having little time for simple pleasures. Growing up on a farm, you went to school, then came home to endless chores. She hadn't had much free time then, and when she left home, even less.
She had made time for Tom, though. They'd been dating for four months now, went out every Saturday night, spent every Sunday together. As a busy executive who often worked late into the evenings during the week, his time was also somewhat restricted, so he never complained that he couldn't see her more often, was probably relieved that she had no such complaints either. He hadn't mentioned marriage yet, but she didn't doubt that he would soon, and her answer was going to be yes. Which was why she had finally made the decision to give up her virginity to him.
It was an odd thing to still have at her age, odd enough that it caused a good deal of embarrassment if she was forced to own up
to it. That usually only happened when whoever she'd been dating started putting the pressure on to have sex. But the result of her confession would always be the same, laughter on their part‑or disbelief
Tom didn't know. He merely thought she was being cautious. It was more than that. Heavy necking was fine, could be fun or incredibly frustrating, but going all the way required more than just liking, at least for her. She needed feelings first, strong feelings and she had those now...
"Tonight's the night then?" Jan said from the doorway of Brittany's bedroom with a knowing grin.
"Yes," Brittany replied and managed not to blush about it.
"Hot damn!"
Brittany rolled her eyes. "Let's not discuss it, or I'll get cold feet. "
"Cold? It's a wonder your feet haven't moldered, you've waited so long‑"
"Which part of 'not discuss it' did you misunderstand?" Brittany cut in.
Johanna Lindsey
"Okay, okay," Jan conceded with a chuckle. "Just trying to alleviate some of that nervousness you're drowning in. You've been tense about this all day, when there's no need. You are sure about him, aren't you?"
"Yes, I‑" Brittany started, then groaned. "Oh, God, you're going to make me have second thoughts!"
“Don't do that! Okay, I'm shutting up. Zipped lips. You're going to have a great time tonight. Stop worrying. This guy's right for you. Hell, he'd be right for anyone! He's almost too perfect to be believed‑no, scratch that. I didn't say that. Didn't I say I was shutting up?"
Brittany smiled, grateful for Jan's silliness. She had been tense,"' when she shouldn't be. She'd made the decision, had been agonizing over it for weeks, but was satisfied that it was the right step for her at this point. She was sure about Tom. That was all that real mattered‑wasn't it?
Chapter One
THE LY‑SAN‑TERS WERE FINALLY GOING HOME. THIS VISIT to his mother's homeworld of Kystran had been a much longer Journey than Dalden Ly‑San‑Ter had counted on. Sti I he
Was glad he had elected to go along. Unlike his sister, Shanelle, who had gone there to study for a while, he had never been to Kystran before. He'd heard much about it from his mother, had seen computer‑simulated pictures of life there, but it simply wasn't
the same as seeing it firsthand. It was also something he hoped to never have to experience again.
But it was where his mother came from, and he felt he under
stood her a little better by seeing firsthand the things that made her so different from the Sha‑Ka'ani people whom she now lived among He had always been torn, nearly literally, in two by his parents. His mother, Tedra, represented all that was modern and "civilized," while his father, Challen, represented old beliefs and what most worlds termed barbaric.
There was no compatibility between two social cultures of such complete and utter differences, and yet his parents had managed to become lifemates anyway. Not an easy thing for them, and not easy for their children, who grew up wanting to please them both.
Dalden had finally had to make a choice, and thankfully, his mother not only supported it, but had expected it. He was a ShaKa'ani warrior, after all. He could not be that warrior if he was going to slip every once in a while and talk as she did, or worry whether he would be displeasing her. So he had fully embraced his father's ways and never regretted it.
His sister, on the other hand, was comfortable with both cultures, could be a dutiful warrior's lifemate, as she now was, adhering to rules and laws that she knew were antiquated by most standards but worked well on Sha‑Ka'an. Or she could go out and discover new worlds, as she had once planned to do.
Shanelle hadn't been the least surprised by her first visit to Kystran. Dalden had been nothing but surprised.
He had thought it would be fun. He had expected to be amazed. He even knew the language as well as his own, since, unlike learning it from a Sublim Tape, he already knew all the words that otherwise might not match up without explanations. But nothing could have prepared him for feeling so out of place, for being in a near‑constant state of awe. His mother called it culture shock."
Even after some of the awe died down, which it did because they ended up staying longer than planned, he still couldn't be comfortable in a land where he wasn't just considered a giant, he was a giant by their standards.
Even during the short time they had stopped on the planet Sunder last year to collect Shanelle, his "runaway" sister, Dalden had felt he was dealing with children, those people had been so small.
The Kystrani weren't that small, but even their tallest was a good foot shorter than Dalden, and their average a lot shorter than that. It was distinctly uncomfortable to always be looking down on people, and to have those people always staring at you in fear or shock.
The fear was understandable. Some of the Kystrani still remembered all those years ago when warriors like Dalden had tried to take over their planet and had succeeded for a time, enslaving their women, taking away their rights, holding their leader hostage. It was Dalden's mother, with the help of his father, who had defeated those warriors and won Kystran its freedom again.
Tedra had become a national heroine in so doing, and that was the main reason their trip had been extended. They had gone because her longtime friend and old boss, Garr Ce Bernn director of Kystran, was retiring and had requested their presence for the ceremony. Because it had been more than twenty years since she had been back to her homeworld, he had also arranged for her to be honored while she was there. This amounted to not one but many ceremonies, in many different cities.
Tedra De Arr Ly‑San‑Ter did not take honoring well. It embarrassed her. To her, she had just been doing her job as a Sec I back then, which was to rescue her boss and put him back in power exactly what she'd done. She had then retired from her life of security enforcement to live with her lifernate on his planet of Sha‑Ka'an and had never regretted it. All that honoring had put
her in a testy mood that was still with her, even though it was over and they were nearing home.
The trouble was, as Dalden had heard Martha, his mother's Mock II computer, point out more than once, there had been no way to let his father know why they hadn't returned home two
weeks ago when they were expected to. Long‑distance communication did not include reaching across two star systems.
The distance had been shortened by the discovery of gaali stones on Sha‑Ka'an as an energy source that far surpassed anything else known to either of their star systems, but communicating between those star systems was still only possible by the
old‑fashioned way of sending a ship within range. They would be home by then. So Tedra expected to be facing one very angry lifemate for the worry her longer absence would have caused him.
Dalden was merely amused, but his mother, who would hear no reassurances from him, was determined to fret and worry over the matter. He knew his father would be worried, extremely so. Challen didn't like it when he couldn't protect his lifemate himself, which was why he had "insisted" on Dalden's presence on this journey. But Challen would understand, once informed of what had kept them. No difficulties would come from it, as Tedra seemed to be anticipating.
Brock, Challen's Mock II computer, who was in control of Dalden's ship, offered yet another reason for Tedra's short temper. She simply missed her lifemate. This was the longest she had ever spent away from Challen since she had met him.
Fortunately for the rest of them, since they spent most of their time on Tedra's ship with her, Martha was managing to channel most of the explosive feelings onto herself. It was one of her main functions and she did it extremely well, keeping Tedra from hurting innocent bystanders either with her deadly physical skills or with angry words, which might cause her later grief Mock lIs were super‑modern, super‑expensive, free‑thinking computers created for one individual only.
These unique computers couldn't be acquired without the buyer undergoing extensive testing first for the final programming that would bond them to t
heir owner. They were more like a companion than an actual computer, their sole purpose be assure the health, well‑being, and happiness of the one they were created for.
Not surprisingly, there weren't too many Mock Ils in existence. Because they were so powerful‑a single Mock II could run an entire computerized world by itself‑their cost was prohibitive, so only highly advanced, rich worlds could afford one. Kystran, a very rich trade world, actually owned two. That Tedra had acquired a third when she lived on Kystran was due only to Garr losing a wager to her, and Martha had been the payoff. That she had bought yet another for her lifemate was a minor point, due to Sha‑Ka'an now being the richest planet in the two star systems because of the gaali stone mines there. Their family owned the largest of those mines.
Wealth meant very little to the Sha‑Ka'ani, though. They were a simple people with simple needs. But when something specific was needed, it was nice to have the wherewithal to obtain it.
So, Challen had acquired a battleship to accompany his lifemate to Kystran. Her Transport Rover, while able to carry thousands, was a ship used for world discovery, not serious battle. Dalden and another fifty warriors had been sent to protect Tedra, but Challen had wanted her ship protected as well.
They had had no trouble from other ships, though; the trip had been completely uneventful in that regard. But they were all gathered in the Recreation Room six days from home when Martha announced she was picking up a distress call.
"From who?" was Tedra's first question.
"Sunder."
That answer caused major silence, for various reasons. They all knew the planet. All but Tedra had visited it last year, when Shanelle was trying to escape her father's choice of lifemate for her.
Tedra broke the silence first, wanting verification. "Isn't that the planet that Shanelle sought sanctuary on and didn't get it?"
"One and the same," Martha replied in one of her cheerful tones.