It was purely a waste of fine wine to guzzle it down, yet in less time than Falon could have hoped for, everyone was offering one excuse or another to depart-except for Tedra Ly-San-Ter, who reclined on one of the couches, merely sipping her wine. Falon was afraid she was not going to budge either, even if he asked.

He asked, “Could we speak privately, Shodan Ly-San-Ter?”

“There is no need to be so formal, Falon. And I have reason to doubt that my lifemate would leave just now without causing a scene to embarrass us both.”

“He’s joking, warrior,” Tedra said, tongue in cheek. “I wouldn’t do anything more than challenge-”

“Woman,” Challen admonished. “If you mean to stay, do so in silence.”

Tedra shrugged and looked away from them. Falon cleared his throat and stated, “My request is formal, shodan. I desire above all things to give my life to your daughter, with full knowledge that she also wants me. I ask that you honor this request by giving her into my care so I may protect the keeper of my heart.”

“Your request joins many others, yet never has another warrior been so bold as to tell me my daughter wants him. Why do you assume this to be so?”

“I do not assume, I know. She said as much to me. Also did she give herself to me.”

Tedra came up off the couch spewing wine. “Why did you have to tell him that?” she fairly shouted.

Again Challen admonished, this time a bit more sternly. “Woman, this is a matter between men.”

“Not if you’re going to challenge him, it’s not,” she shot back. “Then it’s a matter that concerns Shani, too, because I happen to know she doesn’t want him hurt. I was going to break his skull myself, but she talked me out of it.”

“I have no intention of challenging him.”

Tedra blinked in surprise. “You don’t?”

“Why would I, when what he has done is relieve my mind by telling me that my daughter wants the man I would choose for her myself. My relief takes precedence in this case.”

“Well, that’s just great,” Tedra grumbled in full irritation. “She was worried sick about you finding out. I figured you’d go off the deep end myself. And here you are happy about it. But there’s a little something you don’t know, babe. Shani might want him, but she’s also afraid of him.”

“Such is normal-”

“No… it’s… not! And another thing, the man’s a farden slaveholder. Were you aware of that?”

“I was aware of the possibility,” Challen replied, and asked Falon, “How many slaves do you own?”

“Sixteen serve in my household.”

“Would you set those slaves free do I give you my daughter?”

Falon frowned at the unexpected request. “For what reason would I do this?”

“My lifemate, my daughter, they do not differentiate between a master who has a care for his property and one who does not. To their way of reasoning, no people should endure the total lack of rights as that of a slave. My daughter could not be happy for long with a warrior who owns slaves, no matter if those slaves are well cared for as his property. Can you give them up?”

“For your daughter, I believe I would do anything. All slaves in my ownership will have their freedom the same rising I return home.”

“Then it is with pleasure that I relinquish the right to protect the child of my heart, Shanelle of the house of Ly-San-Ter, and give that right to you, Falon Van’yer. Do you accept this right?”

“I do.”

“Then it is yours.”

Tedra gave a mental shrug as she pressed the sound activator on her computer-link unit. There was no use bemoaning what she’d known was going to happen.

Quietly, so Challen wouldn’t hear, she said, “Now, Martha.”

If Tedra hadn’t given the impression that she was furious with her lifemate for his decision, so furious that she wasn’t about to be helpful no matter the reason, then the search party might have come to her sooner for questioning. As it was, Challen didn’t show up until that evening, with Falon at his side, and the young warrior looking like he was about to do murder if he didn’t get some answers fast. Well, that was too bad for him. The man needed to learn some patience, and he was pretty much going to be forced to start learning now.

Challen said nothing until he stood above her with his intimidating height; then he came right to the point. “Brock has pointed out the probables that you would know where Shanelle is hiding, and if you do not, then Martha surely would know.”

Tedra swirled the dhaya juice in her glass and replied indifferently, “You must be desperate if you’re using Brock. Instead, why don’t you just accept the fact that Shani doesn’t want to be found?”

“So you know why she hides?”

“I know why she’s not here to be claimed by our young friend from Ka’al, but so does he.” Her eyes swung accusingly toward the younger man. “Why don’t you tell him, warrior?”

“He has already done so,” Challen said calmly. “He has also informed me that the lack of control he suffered was a thing to be expected. It can happen only with the keeper of his heart; thus does a Ba-Har-ani know when he has found his true lifemate.”

Tedra wished to Stars she’d heard that little tidbit sooner, and her defenses rose now with a touch of guilt that because of her, Shani was not here to hear it. “If he had bothered to tell her that, she might not have panicked when it became apparent that you favored him. You know how little tolerance she has for pain, Challen. She’s afraid of him, afraid he’ll hurt her again, afraid of the unique punishments a warrior will give his own woman, that all women end up earning for one reason or another, afraid that he can’t love her because he’s a warrior. She’s not ready to accept him yet, and won’t be until she can reconcile herself to some of that.”

There was no indication that he understood Shani’s difficulty, or her own in deciding what to do about it. All he said was, “Where is she, woman?”

His inflexibility infuriated her, causing her to gulp down the rest of her dhaya juice, then slam the glass down on the table beside her. “You may not consider it my duty to protect her, but I do! And right now she needs protecting from him”

Challen’s gaze had unfortunately followed her glass to the table, and he picked up the bottle of dhaya juice sitting there and took a large drink of it himself. Tedra squirmed nervously. She hadn’t wanted to feel anything when he got around to punishing her, which was why she was drinking the juice. A blatant case of defiance on her part that he couldn’t help but realize, because dhaya juice was what warriors took to kill all sexual urges so they could punish their women with desire that wouldn’t get relieved.

Setting the bottle back, he leaned over her to say, “There is always the new rising, chemar, and the next-and the next.”

His meaning was absolutely clear and Tedra blanched. “You wouldn’t punish me that much!”

“Where is Shanelle?” was all he said.

She pushed off the couch and began pacing in agitation. Her silence prompted the warning “Do not make us both suffer with your stubbornness, woman.”

“Well, if I’m damned anyway, it might as well be for a good reason.”

He was beginning to look like his patience was running out. “You will cease to defy me on this now.”

“Wanna bet?” she shot back with a tightly fixed smile.

He stared hard at her for a moment before he finally sighed and reached for the computer-link unit attached to his belt. “Brock, best you join with Martha’s terminal so I may speak to her of this matter.”

Brock did not respond immediately. When he did, it was to say, “Martha has either been turned off or gone beyond my reach.”

Challen’s eyes bored into Tedra’s again, with full suspicion now written all over his features. “Where is Martha?” he asked her.