Shattered Soul by Angela Verdenius

so he’d have been a mere boy of about eight years when she’d been an outlaw. No wonder he’d wanted to try her out.
    The other hunters were older, mostly in their thirties and forties. Older, wiser... and deadlier. Vane was an annoyance, but these other hunters were a threat if they chose.
    Meeting Abra’s gaze once more, Ceri acknowledged that this pack leader, this silent, mohawked Mracan, would be one of her biggest threats because he seemed to see right through her. Because he was unpredictable. He was calm and controlled. Deadly. She had no doubt he’d kill her if she was a threat to his pack.
    Now that she respected.
    The meal was finished without further disruption and they both pushed back their plates at almost the same time.
    “Ready to talk to Reya?” Abra stood up.
    “Yes.” She’d been putting it off, not knowing quite how to talk to the girl she’d once known.
    The girl now her leader.
    Ceri had half expected Abra to get annoyed when she’d refused the first few times he’d asked, but he’d simply shrugged and strode away to do his own thing. The hunter really didn’t give a vagrat’s arse what the Reekas did. What a surprise. But she couldn’t put it off any longer, and she had to admit to a certain amount of curiosity at seeing Reya again, seeing how she handled the role of leader.
    Abra led her to the control cabin and motioned to a chair near the console before turning on the viscomm. Within seconds he was in contact with a rakishly handsome, brawny giant, who smiled at her and left the screen. It wasn’t long before someone else took his place.
    Reya. Ceri would know her anywhere, even though she was older. The same wild curls as she herself had, though her niece’s were red/gold rather than her own blonde. The ice green eyes were Vulya’s, but the coldness in them was something Ceri didn’t remember from the past. It looked like her niece had lived hard and seen a lot.
    Hadn’t they all?
    “Reya,” she said softly, aware at the same time that Abra had left the cabin.
    Reya smiled, though her gaze was searching. “Ceri. ’Tis been a long time.”
    “Apparently so.”
    “I’m so glad to see you. We all are. It took all my persuasive powers to get everyone to stay behind while I came for you.”
    “Doesn’t surprise me. We’ve been through hell together...” Ceri stumbled to a halt. “Or, we did.”
    “Aye, we did.” Reya smiled slightly. “I had to pull rank or you’d have ended up with the whole settlement flying like hell through space to get to you. They’re looking forward to having you home.”
    Ceri knew she should be touched but hell, it seemed like jus Cemed likt a few days ago that she’d been fighting for her life in that cave. The missing fourteen years just didn’t seem real.
    Unable to think of anything to say, she finally settled on, “All are well, then?”
    “Aye. The survivors of the Outlaw Years live on Comll, though some of us wed and live on Daamen, too. Mind you...” Reya stroked her chin thoughtfully. “There are a couple of warriors who wed and they all live on Comll.”
    A trickle of amusement went through Ceri as she studied her niece anew. “You wed a Daamen.”
    “’Aye.”
    “I’d have known by the way you talk.”
    Reya looked uncomprehendingly at her.
    “You say some words the way they do,” Ceri pointed out.
    “Oh.” Reya smiled. “It rubs off on some of us.”
    “Share a bed, share their life, you’re bound to pick up something,” Ceri replied.
    They both laughed, a momentary understanding of similar humour. When it died away, however, there was a wealth of unsaid things between them and Ceri felt uncomfortable, something she’d never have felt before when facing another sister warrior.
    But hell, this particular sister warrior, her second cousin, was almost a stranger yet not. Damn it, fourteen years missing crapped up a lot of things. Where the hell was the fifteen year old girl she remembered? How could she