The Alien’s Revenge

Drixonian Warriors #4

Ella Maven

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2020 by Ella Maven

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.

Copyedited by Del’s Diabolical Editing

Cover design by Natasha Snow

First edition July 2020

Dedication

To those fighting for justice

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

The Alien’s Savior

Acknowledgments

About the Author

One

Miranda

“I told you, I’m fine.” Reba struggled to sit up, but Ward placed a firm hand on her shoulder, keeping her in place.

“You nearly fell, and I won’t have my mate endangering herself, or our chit,” he announced as he sat down beside her on their bed. “I’ll stay here to make sure you take care of yourself.”

“You know it pains me to agree with his big blue ass, but he’s right,” I said from my standing position at the end of their bed.

Reba glared at me as, “Traitor,” was mumbled under her breath.

I held back a laugh. “You fell and could have hit your head. Val said your blood pressure was a little low. So, relax, drink your fluids, and enjoy the company of your baby daddy.”

“Yes, mother.” Reba sassed as she avoided my gaze, ruffling the ears of her pet welf, Luna. She knew I was right. I could understand not wanting to be confined to a bed, but too bad. It was her own fault for getting knocked up on a foreign planet by a horned alien.

She sighed and reached for Ward’s hand. “But you wanted to go hunting with your brother. You should have your sibling bonding time.”

Said brother, Gar, stood in the corner of the hut looking like he wanted to be anywhere else. I knew Gar well enough to know he had no idea what sibling bonding time was, nor did he care.

“Gar and I have gone hunting thousands of times and we’ll go hunting thousands more.”

“Fine,” Reba sighed. “I’ll just sit here, I guess. God, I miss trashy reality TV. I could really go for some 90 Day Fiancé right now.”

“You’re on your own, brother,” Ward said. “I’m staying with my mate.”

And just like that, I pounced. “I’ll go with him!”

Reba lifted her eyebrows at me and from the corner of my eye, I saw Gar jerk his big body in surprise. “Nit,” he growled.

I whirled on him, knowing this was going to be a fight. “Yes, I’m going with you. I’ve been wanting to learn how to you track and hunt.”

“Why?” Ward asked. “It’s not safe for you out there and we have dozens of males here who can hunt.”

Okay, I knew that. I knew I was supposed to be quiet and sit pretty inside the walls of the clavas for the Night Kings—a Drixonian warrior clan on Torin where we’d been deposited by some other asshole aliens who’d snatched us out of our beds on Earth.

The problem was I didn’t want to sit back and let these aliens take care of me. I didn’t want to rely on them for every aspect of my survival. I wanted to be an active participant, to learn how to stay alive and provide for my girls. They were my priority. The other Earth women—there were seven of us now—were everything to me. I’d practically raised my five younger siblings on Earth because my parents worked long, odd hours, so the maternal protector in me couldn’t quit.

There was another reason I wanted to learn about tracking, a reason I hadn’t told anyone about yet, because the last thing I wanted to do was worry the girls. It was my job to worry about them. Three of them were pregnant by these aliens. They didn’t need to worry about me, the girl who could barely see because I relied on contacts. When I was drugged and taken from Earth, my captors hadn’t been accommodating enough to grab my glasses off my nightstand. So, I’d been walking around this damn planet in a perpetual, near-sighted blur.

I’d adapted … sort of. I could distinguish people from a distance based on their stature, posture, and walk. Which was okay as long as I stayed within these walls. And while I was confident in the ability of these aliens to protect me and the girls, I had never been comfortable relying on anyone. The best person who could watch out for me was me.

Therefore, I needed to make up for my lack of 20/20 vision. And that meant getting up close and personal with the wilderness outside of these gates under the tutelage of Gar Garundum, the deadliest warrior on this whole planet.

The other women might have been shacking up and getting knocked up, but that wasn’t for me. I never wanted kids, and I never really wanted a husband either. On Earth, I’d liked my independent life and my apartment with everything where I wanted it. My bed had stayed made, my closet organized, and my toilet seat down. Just because I was on an alien planet didn’t mean I suddenly changed my mind about finding a life partner. I would be perfectly fine enjoying my freedom and being there for my girls.

“I don’t like knowing I can’t take care of myself,” I explained. “I want to learn things. And I can’t learn all I need to do if I stay within these walls.”

Gar growled low in his throat, turned, and stomped outside, his tail slapping the door as he went.

I grinned triumphantly at Reba, who snickered.

“See you soon, sweetheart,” I called over my shoulder.

“Love you, Miranda!” She hollered back. “Stay safe!”

“Always,” I shut the door behind me. I spun to see Gar already striding toward the gates. I had to sprint to catch up with him, the long-legged jerk. “So,” I chirped happily as I reached his side. “What’re we hunting today?”

This was the thing with Gar and me. He could “nit” at me all day and grump and give me the silent treatment, but I knew deep down he liked me. We had an easy-going brother-sister type relationship. Well, one where I talked at him, and he scowled back, but there were times I felt him relax in my presence. There was something about him I felt a connection to, and he must have felt it too, because I was the only female he tolerated for more than a few minutes.

“Antella,” he grunted back as his tail thumped the ground once.

I grinned. I’d won this small battle.

Antella were a deer-like antlered animal with a thin furred skin the Drixonians used for a variety of purposes. The meat tasted like chicken, and we’d had a lot of fun in the kitchen experimenting with sauces and native spices to spruce it up.

“Meet me at the gates in a yora,” he grumped and then stopped to narrow his eyes and assess me. I glanced down at my clothing, which was a loose shirt in the cotton-like material Anna made, along with a pair of leather shorts and sandals. “Wear long pants in the forest,” he grunted. “And proper foot covering.”

I grinned at his back as he walked away. Gar could frown all he wanted—deep down he had a big heart.

I lived in the end unit of a row of rooms that resembled a one-story motel. The guys had built it in a day for us because we weren’t keen to share the multi-story barracks with the rest of the warriors. So me, Tabitha, Justine, and Naomi each had our own space. I loved it. In the corner was my palette piled high with furs. Hap had made me a dresser where I stored my few items of clothing. The rest I filled with flowers and plants. The flora of this planet captivated me.

Back on Earth, I’d filled my office at the law firm with succulents and perennials. At my home, my balcony was practically a jungle and on weekends—when I wasn’t dealing with a crisis from one of my five siblings—I could be found elbow deep in dirt in my garden. I was so grateful this was a lush planet with colorful blooms and enough blue-leafed plants to fill my room and then some.

I opened my drawer and pulled out one of my three pairs of antella-leather pants. I closed the drawer, remembering when all of us women had explained to Hap what a dresser was. He’d been so eager to get started, and even carved decorative handles. He had been our favorite from the start when we arrived on this planet, confused and terrified. He had a gentleness about him we’d responded to immediately.

I missed him. Hap had been injured in an attack by a neighboring clavas, and he took it hard he had been struck down before he could defend us women. Luckily, the other Night Kings had arrived in time to save us, but Hap struggled with his injuries.

He refused to leave his room, no matter what we said. One of the eldest Drixonian males still alive—a healer named Shep—had arrived at the Night Kings a few days ago. He was the only one who’d been able to draw Hap out of his room. Under Daz’s orders, Hap and Shep had left the clavas yesterday on a two-alien getaway. Us females viewed it as a kind of intense therapy and rehabilitation. We were eager for them to return, but after talking with the kind Shep, we knew he was in good hands.

I barely had my pants pulled up around my ass when my front door burst open. Two little feet slapped across my wooden slat floor before the small horned creature dove into my fur pallet and tugged the covers over her head.

Anna rushed in immediately afterward, frantic as she searched for her daughter. “Miranda, I’m so sorry for not knocking. I saw your door open and—”

The furs moved, and a nearly imperceptible giggle filled the room. Anna pursed her lips and rolled her eyes.

“It’s no problem, Anna,” my voice slightly louder than usual. “What’s up?”

She leaned against my door frame, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “Oh nothing. Nothing at all. Just doing some cleaning.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I’m working on Bazel’s room right now, but I can’t find her to ask her which toys she wants to keep, so I’m just going to throw them all out.”

A shriek followed her words as a blue head popped out of my furs. “No, Mommy! Don’t throw my toys away!”

“Ah-ha!” Anna exclaimed as she lunged at her daughter. “Caught you!”

Bazel screamed with joy that her game of tag had been renewed. She tore out of my furs, flew past her mother, only to get caught up at the door by Frankie. She swooped the little girl into the air and tickled her belly while Anna stood nearby, hands on her hips, trying to look annoyed but failing.

The scene was so wholesome I had to take a moment to snapshot this in my head. As much as I missed the hell out of my family at home, I had one here. A growing one.

Anna met my eyes and smiled. “How come she always sneaks in here?”

“She likes my plants.”

“Ah.” Anna looked around and leaned in to smell a large orange flower which smelled like citrus. “I don’t blame her.”

Anna had met Tark about ten years ago when she’d been stolen from Earth and her captors had crash-landed on this planet. Tark had left his clavas to keep her safe. They remained alone for ten years until Daz and Frankie found them with their five-year-old. She was the first of us—and the proof—that Drixonian and humans could procreate successfully.

With the increasing unrest on the planet with the Drixonian’s enemies, the Uldani, Tark and Anna decided to abandon their solitary life and come live in the Night Kings clavas for protection. With them came Bazel, and their dog-like pet, Rufus. Bazel was adorable and rambunctious with light blue skin, nubbed horns, and Anna’s delicate human facial features.

Frankie placed Bazel back on the ground, and she wasted no time racing out of my hut on another adventure. Anna sighed and looked to the ceiling. “Okay that’s it. I’m done for the day. I think her father can handle her now.”

“Yes, go treat yourself.” I gave her hand a squeeze.

Frankie, now unburdened by the child, sashayed into the room, and flopped dramatically onto my pallet with her forearm over her eyes. “I don’t know how you do it. I’m exhausted and hot just walking from my hut to this one.”

“You’re pregnant. And kinda whiny on a good day.”

Frankie glared at me from under her arm as I laughed.

“The beginning was the worst,” Anna told her. “But good news is you’ll only have to deal with five more months of this. My pregnancy was six months long, and Bazel was maybe a three-pound baby. She grew at an abnormal rate after that, but at least I didn’t have to push out eight pounds with horns attached.” She walked toward the door. “With that said, I’m going to go chase down my spawn. Miranda, I’m almost done that shirt for you.”

“You’re amazing, Anna.” Long ago, she had found a plant that bloomed with a substance which could be spun into a cotton-like material. It was a lot cooler than the antella leather the men favored.

She gave us a wave and left, shutting the door behind her.

I turned to Frankie who was giving me a weird look. “Why are you wearing pants?”

I sat down on the pallet next to her. “So, since Reba fell, Ward is staying with her. I convinced Gar to let me go hunting with him.”

Frankie bolted upright, her head nearly colliding with mine. “What?”

“Yeah, I want to—”

“Miranda, no. The forest is dark and full of terrors.”

I rolled my eyes. “The Game of Thrones references are tired, Frank.”

She ignored me. “I’m serious. You didn’t nearly get eaten by those hippo things. You weren’t chased by the giant wasps.” She grabbed my hands. “Stay in the compound. It’s safe here. We have pie.”

“Pie is great, but I really want to do this. For myself. I don’t like being dependent on anyone. You know this. I was the first to volunteer for the translator implant because I didn’t like not knowing what was going on around me. I wanted to communicate with the Drix. And now I want to know if something happens, I can survive out there.” I threw my hand out. “I get that you’re scared for me, and this isn’t something you want to do, but I need to do it for me.” I squeezed her hands. “Please understand that.”

Her eyes watered, which had been happening a lot since Daz knocked her out. Her nose twitched and she looked down at our joined hands. “I understand,” she whispered.

“Frank—”

“No, you’re right. I just hate being separated from you. From day one in this new life, it was your face I saw.” She glanced up at me with a wobbly smile. “You’re my good luck charm.”

I wrapped my arms around her, drawing her to me. I closed my eyes, remembering when I’d handed her my lucky necklace when she was off on her dangerous mission with Daz. When they’d been captured, they’d used the wishbone charm to pick the locks of their bonds.

Frankie’s words only solidified my reasoning for wanting to learn to hunt. They relied on me, even Frankie, who as the leader’s mate was something of a queen to the clavas.

“Look, I’ll be fine,” I pulled back, swiping the tears off her pale cheeks. “I’m with Gar of all aliens. He’d cut off his arm before I was harmed. You know that.”

She sniffed. “I do. But you watch your back too, okay. And if you’re going to do this stupid life-risking thing, you better pay attention and come back like fucking Katniss.”

“You like shows where everyone dies, don’t you?”

She scrunched up her face. “The books were better.”

I groaned. “I miss books.”

“Tabitha’s short stories of pure filth she’s been writing for us have been getting me through.”

“That girl,” I muttered. “She’s trouble.”

“She can write a wicked sex scene,” Frankie said. “Just saying. And I have wicked sex so I—”

I smacked my palms over my ears. “Lalalalalalala, I can’t hear you talk about your alien sex life. Lalalalalalala.”

Frankie collapsed on the bed laughing, and then with her growing belly got stuck like that, so I had to help her up. I tended to my plants, watering and plucking dried blooms, while Frankie piddled around my room smelling the foliage.

Gar had said to meet him in a yora, which was about an hour. The only way I could tell time was by a small sundial outside my front door, which told me it’d been about a yora. I slipped on the thick-soled boots Anna had made each of us.

“It’s time for my adventure,” I called to Frankie, who had her face in a gigantic yellow plant that resembled a sunflower.

“Fine, I’ll just sit around here and sweat by myself.”

I rolled my eyes at her and gently pushed her outside into the sun. After I straightened the small flower wreath I’d hung by the door, I closed it.

Frankie gave me a hug. “Be safe. Come home. Don’t do anything stupid like run into a pack of Rizars and almost get eaten.”

“Haha. I won’t pull a Reba. I’ll stick by Gar’s side like glue.” I didn’t add I’d do that because I couldn’t see well enough to be more than five feet away from him.

Frankie kissed me on the cheek before walking off while wiping the sweat from her brow. I shook my head. Three pregnant ladies stuck in this clavas together carrying hybrid babies. That wasn’t going to be me, that was for sure, so I’d sit back and enjoy being the auntie. I had my room and my blooms.

A mate wasn’t for me.

Not at all.

Never.

Two

Miranda

As I crossed the grounds of the compound toward the gate, Naomi spotted me as she left the dining hall, as we called it. Her small face lit up in a bright smile as her short legs walked swiftly toward me.

I had a soft spot for all my girls, but Naomi was different. Everything about her exuded a kind of soft innocence which inherently pulled at my heart strings and protective instincts. She wasn’t even the youngest of all of us—that was Tabitha—but Naomi was only twenty-four. I’d just turned thirty, so to me she was a baby. In another life, she could have been a fairy or an elf. Or maybe even a leprechaun. Even her voice was soft. On Earth, she’d had a big brother to protect her. Here, she had an entire clan of big brothers, plus a bunch of big sisters too.

“Hey,” she smiled, eyes crinkling. The sun had made her freckles more pronounced. “Where’re you going?”

“You all are a nosy bunch, you know that?” I squeezed her shoulder.

“We just like to keep track of each other. It’s important.”

“I know, you’re right. Well, don’t lecture me, but I’m going hunting with Gar.”

“What?” she squeaked.

“Since Reba fell, Ward refuses to leave her side, so I invited myself to go hunting with Gar.”

Naomi laughed. “That sounds like you.” She sighed. “I wish I could talk to him like you do. He pretends I don’t exist.”

“That’s not true.”

She gave me a suffering look. “Okay, fine, he actively avoids me.”

I bit my lip on the denial because she wasn’t lying. When they did interact, Gar barely looked at her.

“I don’t get it,” she mumbled.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. “Men are dumb.”

As we approached the gate, a figure took a step out of the shadow of a small hut. Gar stopped abruptly when he saw who I had at my side.

“I heard you’re taking Miranda hunting,” Naomi said to him.

His gaze flickered to her before returning to me. He nodded.

Naomi’s shoulders slumped and I gave her another squeeze before letting her go.

“Well, be safe,” Naomi soldiered on despite Gar’s lack of eye contact.

The muscles in his jaw bulged, and he frowned deeply. With a near growl, he grunted, “She’s safe with me.”

Naomi didn’t wither under his expression, even though I’d seen her startle at some of the other men’s deep voices. Instead she took a step even closer and tilted her head. “I know that. I’m telling you to be safe. I want you back in one piece, as well as Miranda. I care about you too, Gar.”

For a moment, Gar didn’t move, in fact I wasn’t sure he breathed, until his chest gave a mighty heave and he blinked rapidly. I expected him to snarl or be dismissive, but instead, with his eyes unfocused over her head, he gave a brief nod.

Naomi waited, but when it was clear Gar would make no other acknowledgement of her words, she smiled sadly. Her hand lifted, as if she meant to touch him, but then she dropped it quickly back to her side. With wet eyes, she hugged me tight, whispered, “See you soon,” and turned on her heel, taking off toward our rooms at a brisk pace with her head down.

Gar’s eyes were no longer unfocused. He watched her walk away with an intense expression so pained I worried he’d collapse. His hand flexed, just once, before he closed his eyes.

“Gar?” I asked softly.

He didn’t respond. When his eyes opened, his expression had returned to a blank slate. No pain, no joy. Nothing.

“Hey,” I reached for him, but he stepped away from my touch and turned swiftly to walk toward the gates.

I had no choice but to follow him, my heart aching for whatever he was going through. The pull between him and Naomi was obvious to everyone, including themselves, but Gar made every effort to ignore her. I didn’t get it, and when this hunting trip was over, I was going to have some strong words with him.

“We’re going to discuss what just happened later. I’m giving you a heads up now,” I said to his back.

His shoulders bunched around his ears and his steps pounded the dirt.

I rolled my eyes. Dramatic.

As we neared the gates, I nearly skipped at Gar’s side, so damn excited to get out of these walls which had started to feel like a cage.

That is, until a shadow fell over us, and I turned to find Crius, with that ever-present weasely smirk on his blue face, walking beside us.

Crius gave me a weird vibe. I always prided myself on reading people well, and my bullshit alarm blared like crazy when Crius was around. His eyes were shifty, and the way he perused my body always left me wanting a shower.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Coming with you.”

I huffed and waited for Gar to give him a firm, “nit” so he’d run back to whatever hut he crawled out of.

Gar remained silent and kept walking.

I toggled my head back and forth between the two aliens on either side of me. “Wait, why is he coming with us?”

“Crius is a good tracker,” Gar said. “Almost as good as Ward.”

I held back a groan. “But—”

“He can show you tracking better than I can.” His black eyes speared me, leaving no room for argument. “You wanted to learn, so you’re going to learn.”

He looked away and signaled for the gates to open.

Crius shot me a smug grin.

Ugh, the bastard.

I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for the gates to open. The only option was to suck it up. I could deal with Crius’s presence as long as he actually taught me something. My bid for a bit of freedom just became a whole hell of a lot less fun.

After leaving the gates, we entered a dense area of forest which covered a large section of the continent where the Drixonians made their home. Occasionally we saw remnants of their war with the Uldani.

Charred stone walls of what once had been Uldani dwellings were hidden among the dense foliage. In fact, the Night Kings barracks where most of the males now lived had once been some sort of Uldani resort along the coast.

I stepped as lightly and quietly behind Gar and Crius as I could. They didn’t talk much, but when Crius would point out some tracks, I’d stoop down to peer under his arm. I couldn’t see that great, so I’d wait until he moved on before I would study it closer.

For a being with such a large mass, Gar was stealthy. Twigs didn’t even crack beneath his big boots.

How did he do that?

He carried a weapon in one giant fist which resembled a crossbow. While the Drixonians owned solar guns, they didn’t use them to hunt since they burned too much flesh and fur. Gross, but fact. Seeing as antella meat made up a large part of the warrior’s diet, they didn’t want to waste anything. From the tongue to the tail, every bit of the animal was used for something.

We came across some salibri tracks. I hadn’t seen a live one yet, even though I slept under one of their furs every night, but Val had seen one. She said it looked a lot like a saber-toothed tiger.

While Gar walked ahead, I watched very closely as Crius pointed out the tracks in the dirt and marks on the nearby tree trunk. “They mark their territory with their fangs.”

The indentations were wet. I went to touch it when Gar’s deep voice cut through the air. I immediately stilled, only to find he was about ten feet away, glaring. “Salibri saliva won’t kill you, but it’ll burn.”

“Ew.” I took a step back. “Good to know. Thanks Gar.”

He gave me a sharp nod, then shot Crius an indecipherable look. Was he wondering why Crius hadn’t informed me of this? Because I sure was.

“Don’t touch it,” he said to me with a shrug.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yeah, thanks to Gar I know that now.”

He only gave me a lazy blink like he couldn’t have cared less.

I so didn’t like this guy.

We continued walking, and I learned how to spot nests where hunners lived. I also got an unwelcome lesson on pivar droppings, so I could avoid a herd of those meat-eating hippo-like bastards.

Finally, we found some antella tracks, and as much as I hated seeing these animals killed—they were kind of cute—the Drixonians only killed what they needed for meat, and only mature adults. Babies and fertile females were left alone.

Crius, finally realizing he had a purpose on this excursion, showed me the difference between antella rub marks from their antlers and the more aggressive marking of the salibri fangs.

Up head, Gar held up a hand, silencing Crius. I crouched but couldn’t see a damned thing. I assumed up ahead was an antella, but all I could make out was a blur of blue foliage.

Gar lifted his crossbow, notched an arrow, and shot.

I only heard a solid thunk and then a thud as the animal fell.

I silently mourned the loss of the animal while also thanking it for the food it would provide us. The warriors had more mouths to feed now, with the addition of us humans, especially because three of those humans were growing babies.

Gar motioned for us to stay where we were and then turned to retrieve the animal. I stood up slowly and returned my attention to the antella rubbings seeing as I had no intention of engaging in small talk with Crius.

He, however, had other ideas. “I want to show you something interesting. There’s an abandoned welf’s nest ahead.”

I liked Luna, the welf Reba had adopted when she’d found her as a pet next to her dead parent, so I got over my dislike of Crius. “Sure, I’d like that. Should we yell to Gar?”

He shook his head. “We’ll only be a moment. I saw it recently, so I know right where it is.”

“Okay,” I tried to squint in Gar’s direction, but I couldn’t see him, so I followed Crius as we took a detour to check out the welf’s nest. Luna wasn’t even full grown yet, but she seemed like a direwolf out of Game of Thrones. Best of all, she was ridiculously loyal to Reba and had seemed to adopt the rest of us human women into her circle.

“Right up there,” Crius pointed and nudged me ahead of him. “See it?”

I didn’t, of course, but I refused to show weakness around Crius of all people. “Yeah, I think so,” I answered vaguely.

We walked further, and while I had no way to track time here—my Apple Watch having long died—our trek seemed far. My inner alarm blared. I knew I was supposed to trust all Drixonians as their creed was She is All, but I judged everyone individually. I stopped and let out an annoyed sigh.

“Crius, are you sure we shouldn’t have told Gar where we were going?”

No answer.

I turned to find myself alone. Completely and utterly alone. “Crius?” I called. Maybe he stopped to take a whiz. But he should have told me. And why didn’t I hear him walk away? I could have sworn he was right behind me.

My heart started pounding as the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Immediately my mind raced with the all the things in this forest which could kill me in bloody, painful ways.

“Gar?” I cried out as footsteps crashed toward me.

I exhaled in relief. Good, one of the blue bastards had found me. I was going to give Crius a swift kick in the balls for this…

Except the creatures coming toward me were not Drixonians. They were Kulks, the armored soldiers who did the Uldani’s bidding. Three of them stood in front of me, peering at me with their yellow eyes through the slits in the helmets. Fear slammed into me like a punch.

I opened my mouth and got a split-second of a scream out before they lunged. One clocked me in the jaw, and blood filled my mouth before another clapped his hand over my lips. He effectively cut off any more of my verbal protests with a forearm to my throat. I kicked and flailed, but these guys were seven-foot-tall behemoths. One grabbed my hands and slapped a set of manacles on them. I went into a crocodile roll. No way would they take me to the Uldani who wanted to use me in their fucked-up breeder program. No way in hell.

I tried to bite, but the gloves the Kulks wore prevented my teeth from doing any damage. I lashed out with my feet, the only weapons I had left. One slammed right into the chest plate of one of the Kulks. A sickening crack followed, and for a moment, I thought I hurt him until pain streaked up my leg like wildfire. I screamed behind his hand holding my mouth as I stared down at my ankle which now hung at an odd angle. Tears streamed from the corners of my eyes as despair swamped me. No, no, no. I couldn’t be away from my girls.

Dizzy with pain, I tried one more effort at bucking the hands off me, but it was no use. They were moving me now, carrying me away from the only safety I had felt on this planet. I cried for Gar, who lost his sister and would now lose me, for the girls who’d have to mourn me. I cried for myself, because fuck, my ankle hurt, and I didn’t want to be used for my womb by some cracked-out aliens.

I slumped in the Kulks hold as they spoke of victory to each other. My whole leg throbbed, I could barely breathe behind the crushing hold the Kulks had on my neck and chest.

“I didn’t think it would be this easy,” one said.

“She was right where he said she’d be.”

“Yeah, but—”

A whistling sound cut through the air and the Kulk’s words cut off on a gurgle. I opened my eyes and looked down to see him writhing on the ground in a heap, blood pouring out of this neck where a crude blade was sunk between his armor joints.

“What the—”

The Kulk on the other side of me dropped to the ground on a muffled scream. At my back, I could hear the last Kulk’s heartbeat slamming against his armor. I had no idea what was killing these Kulks. I didn’t see any hunners. Would I be the last to go? The two Kulks on the ground were barely twitching as they lay in pools of blood.

“Who’s there?” the Kulk holding me called out.

Rustling came from above us. I looked up but could only see a mess of blue leaves. The Kulk muttered a low curse and began to run. I thought we would get away from whatever was trying to kill us when he grunted and tripped over his feet.

We hit the ground, his bulk landing on top of me, and I gasped for breath. I caught a glimpse of blue, black, and white just before my head slammed into something hard and everything went dark.

Three

Miranda

I came awake to a pair of black eyes inches from my face. I tried to scream but pained surged up my throat—probably a result of the Kulk’s grip on it. I could only manage a hoarse whine.

The face in front of me jerked back, and I found myself in the presence of a Drixonian warrior. For a moment, my heart leapt thinking I’d been rescued. Until I realized he wasn’t a Night King.

He wore no armband at all, which meant he wasn’t a part of any clavas. A lonas.

I tried to get my feet under me but remembered too late my ankle was non-functional. Pain shot through me and with a cry, I fell back to the green dirt. I gripped my ankle, which had managed to nearly double in size in a short amount of time. Tears of pain streaked down my cheeks as I did my best to breathe through the agony.

Knowing there was no way I could get away, I tried to assess the warrior in front of me. He was massive, easily as big as Gar. His body was streaked with dirt and he wore only a pair of threadbare pants. No boots. His hair hung down to the middle of his back, and was a mass of loose strands, braids, and dreadlocks. Two streaks of white hair started at his temples, giving him a wild look. In fact, everything about him was a little cavemanish. Scars covered him, the most gnarly being a nasty gash at his throat.

I held out my hands to show I had no weapons, as if he couldn’t tell by one look at me I was no threat. “I’m Miranda. I’m with the Night Kings. Please don’t hurt me.”

There was zero recognition in his dark eyes. Shit, of course he couldn’t understand me. All the warriors had to have their implants updated with our language. But I’d be able to understand him, as I had an implant. If he would talk. So far, he’d done nothing but stare at me.

Something stirred beside me, and I let out a little shriek as the Kulk who had previously held me twitched with a groan.

The Drixonian moved fast as lightning. He gripped the Kulk’s head with both massive hands and with a vicious twist snapped his neck. The body fell limp beside me, and I didn’t even flinch. I’d seen enough death and violence since landing on this planet. Seeing I knew what that Kulk wanted to do with me, I couldn’t find it in me to feel sorrow at his demise.

But there was still the little—well, big—problem of the silent Drixonian at my side. I opened my mouth to plead my case and try to get him to speak when my wrists started to tingle.

I ignored them until the irritation turned to a burning sensation. I lifted my wrists and stared in disbelief as two dark lines ran parallel to each other around my wrists, almost like an invisible tattoo gun.

“No,” I murmured to myself. “No, no, no, no.” I rubbed frantically at my skin, but the lines were growing. Just as a pattern began to appear between the lines like an inked bracelet, I heard a growl.

The Drixonian stared at his wrists as an identical pattern to mine appeared on his blue-scaled skin. His nostrils flared and his chest heaved.

I knew what these lines were. The Drixonians called them loks, and the matching pattern on my wrists and this unknown warrior meant we were mates, picked by their karma-like Fatas.

Just as the pattern finished, the loks glowed a bright yellow before dulling to a gold which stood out prominently on my dark skin. My head spun as my mind felt crowded with something else. Someone else. The girls had told me about this benefit of the loks—they could feel their mate’s emotions in their head at all times.

That had sounded exhausting to me. I had enough of my own damn emotions. This warrior’s aura, as the girls called it, appeared like a cloud of gray smoke. It shifted and churned violently. His emotions were hard to decipher, because while I could detect shapes behind the smoke, they were murky and blurred. Fragmented.

He grabbed my wrists and tugged me to his side in a not so gentle manner as he compared our loks. I sucked in a breath at the heat coming off his body, and his utterly dominating presence. Only Gar and Daz exuded an alpha strength like this guy.

I’d been told not all Drixonians could be trusted. Hell, we’d just fought a battle with another clavas who had every intention of harming us women. Where did this guy fall on the good and evil scale? As much as I didn’t want a mate, my first priority was survival, and I could only hope these loks meant he wouldn’t harm me. Right now, his grip was a little too tight on my arms, and his body felt coiled like a spring. I hoped when he set himself free, it wasn’t to my detriment.

Of course, Fatas hadn’t mated me with someone calm like Hap or Nero. Oh hell no. My mate was some scarred loner with a death grip.

For a moment, he didn’t move, and despite the fear coursing through my body like electricity, I met his gaze. Just when his smoky aura seemed to reach a boiling point, it suddenly fell flat. The warrior’s eyes cleared for just a moment, and a curl of purple danced across his black pupils. I couldn’t look away, entranced by the beauty and the sudden calmness of his aura.

He blinked, as if surprised, and reached out a trembling hand toward my face. I was shocked too, because despite my fear, I found I wanted to feel his touch. My fingers itched to chase away that choking smoke of his aura to see what lay behind it.

Suddenly, a rustling sounded in the distance. The warrior’s head went up, and his entire body went still. Then, before I could blink, he picked me up off the ground and sprinted through the forest.

We moved so fast everything was a blur. I wanted to call for Gar, but my throat still hurt like hell, and I was using all my strength to keep from puking as we whizzed by blue trees.

He ran for what felt like miles until he reached the base of a massive tree trunk and launched himself up the trunk. While holding me with one arm, he climbed the tree with his other three limbs. I glanced down, glad for once I couldn’t see well because I didn’t want to know how high off the ground we were.

He leapt from branch to branch and just when I felt I couldn’t take much more, he stopped abruptly and placed me on my one good leg. Thankful for his arm still bracing me, I swayed with dizziness. I blinked a few times before I was able to figure out where we were. Or more importantly, where we were not. We were not safe on the ground. We were in a tree and before us was a structure supported by a web of tree branches. A house, complete with four walls and a room.

This warrior had fashioned himself a Swiss Family Robinson life in the trees. The structure was large for a treehouse, at least two hundred square feet. The door lowered like a drawbridge, and he carried me across it until we were inside. There, he immediately strode toward a pallet of furs against the far wall. He laid me down and immediately reached for my ankle.

The minute he touched it, I cried out in pain. I couldn’t help it, but the damn thing hurt like a sonofabitch. He immediately stopped and studied me. I could tell he was conflicted. His aura pushed and pulled like he warred with himself. Finally, he leaned toward me, his movements halting, which was in direct contrast to the confident way he killed and climbed.

His hand closed around my neck, and the warmth of his palm seeped into the delicate skin there. My pulse, which had been pounding in my ears, slowed. I blinked at him, thoroughly baffled at my response to him. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want a mate, or loks, or to have to decipher a male’s feelings. I wanted to go home to my girls and my little room with all my plants…

But when he took a deep breath and pressed our foreheads together, I closed my eyes. A soft wind blew through his aura, and I could just detect a solid structure there, begging for me to lean on it, to give it my weight, to give up my control for a moment.

As much as I wanted to sink into him, I jerked back. The fear was too much, and I hadn’t let anyone prop me up in … well, ever. I was the only person I needed: a motherfucking island. I didn’t need anyone, especially not some warrior who lived in a treehouse.

He must have sensed my resistance—well, of course he did as he had my own aura in his mind—because his eyes darkened again and his lips thinned.

He didn’t speak, but when he reached for my ankle again, his movements were rougher. I gritted my teeth and let him rip my pants up to my knee to expose the injury. I’d let him give me some physical relief, but that was it. I couldn’t give him my emotional load, my fear over what could have happened and my worry over what was to come. I’d deal with that when I didn’t have to grit my teeth in pain.

He worked quickly, ripping the leg of my antella-skin pants that Naomi had bled over when she stabbed herself with the animal-bone needle. Oh, sweet Naomi. My heart ached at just the thought of her. She’d taken to this life well in her quiet sort of way, but everything about her made me want to shelter her. Despite everything we’d gone through and seen on this planet, she maintained an innocence about her. I hoped I got to see her again.

I wanted to get back, more than anything, but there were several major complications. I forced myself to think clearly rather than act on emotion and scream, cry, and flee.

First, I couldn’t communicate with this warrior. He didn’t understand me, and he didn’t talk.

Second, I didn’t know his story. I assumed he was a lonas, but what if the Night Kings were his enemy? I didn’t want to do anything to harm them by leading him toward their compound.

And third, I had what was likely a broken ankle. Even if I knew my way back, I couldn’t climb down this freaking tree and track all the way home on one good leg. That was asking for something terrible like a salibri to eat me as I limped home. There was also the minor problem of me not having any idea how to get there…

And fourth—we were connected now. I didn’t know everything about the loks, but I knew both of us would experience pain if separated as part of the mating bond. I wasn’t eager to be in more agony, and I didn’t want to put this warrior through that. So far, he hadn’t hurt me.

He’d killed the Kulks, carried me to his home, and right now, seemed to be working on my leg. He prodded it with a gentleness I wouldn’t have expected him to possess. After placing two flat boards on either side of my ankle, he lashed it all together with a thick vine. After that, he left. Just … walked out. No words, no nothing.

With my hands braced behind me, I took stock of my surroundings. He had carved a round window on each wall and the ceiling even held a skylight. As far as furniture, he didn’t have much. A small stone structure sat in the corner with a crude spit with a bowl over top, so I assumed that was where he made food. Other than that, he had a few boards stacked in the corner, as well as several jugs of liquid.

As I sat there alone, fatigue set in. It’d been a long damn day, and my muscles ached as I fought through the dull aching throb in my ankle. I didn’t want to fall asleep. That was the ultimate act of letting my guard down, and I wasn’t there yet with my warrior. I stifled a yawn.

The sunlight beamed down, making the golden marks on my wrists sparkle. I still couldn’t believe it. The Drixonians said Fatas chose our mates, and the bond began when a female’s blood was spilled. Which, in my case, had been when the Kulk punched me.

I tongued the raw skin on the inside of my cheek.

The bond locked into place when the warrior killed the one responsible for our injury. So, when this warrior of mine snapped the Kulk’s neck, that was it. We were mates, and now he lived in my head. Freaking great.

His aura pulsed with a steady determination, and I felt a stir of excitement from him just before he walked in the door, holding a large leaf cupped in his two palms. As he drew closer, I saw he had a mess of green mud inside. He knelt fluidly and began to lather the mud on my ankle.

I watched with interest as the mud dried quickly and seemed to form a kind of cast. When he was finished, he sat back on his haunches, decorated wrists braced on his knees, and watched me.

I didn’t want to squirm under his gaze, but it was intense. Finally, he reached behind him and flicked his fingers through a small, crude box. He pulled out a pouch made of a large leathered leaf and reached inside. With his thumb and index finger pinched together, he gathered a small bit of brown powder.

He tapped me under the chin and held his fingers toward my mouth. I jerked back, eyeing him. “Uh, I don’t know what that is, so I’m not putting it in my mouth. Never take candy from strangers is like Earth 101, man.”

His eyes narrowed and he gave me a small huff. With his other hand, he placed it on the side of his face and then tilted it with his eyes closed.

“That’s going to make me sleep?” God, I was tired. All I wanted to do was lay back on these furs and rest my eyes. But what if I fell asleep and he sold me somewhere or took me to some cannibals? Anything could happen on this damn planet.

He watched me for a minute, like he was trying to work out what I meant. He pointed to my leg too, then made the sleep gesture again. His aura was insistent.

“So, you’re staying it’ll help with the pain and let me sleep?” I tried to disguise the tremble in my voice, but I missed my girls. I was tired and scared. “That’s nice, but I don’t know I can trust you.”

He blinked slowly, and then his muscles went lax. Purple bled into his black irises and he leaned forward. After a slight hesitation, he picked up my arm and rubbed his thumb along the mark on the underside of my wrist. He stared at the marks there, and then he visibly swallowed before he stretched out his neck and placed my palm on his scarred throat.

I sucked in a breath at the movement. For the Drixonians, exposing their throat was the ultimate vulnerability. In their fighting stance, they crossed their arms in front of their necks, and unleashed their machets, which were the bone blades that rose like daggers from their forearms, head, and down their backs.

The fight I’d been so determined to hold on to fled. While he allowed me to touch his throat, his eyes were wary, his body trembled, and his aura shook. The wicked scar there felt rough under my skin, and I could barely believe he’d survived whatever had injured him. He was letting me touch him in the most vulnerable place, one where he’d been hurt before.

That was when I felt the soft vibration. While he made no sound out of his mouth, the Drixonian purr I’d heard the other males make to calm their mates was unmistakable. While he fought through his fears and instincts to let me touch him, he still sought to soothe me.

If he could do that, then I could take this powder to sleep. I wrapped my fingers around the wrist of his other hand and drew it toward my mouth. He kept his gaze locked on mine. I gave him a brief nod, “Okay.”

His lips twitched, but he didn’t smile.

I opened my mouth and he slipped his fingers inside before depositing the powder on the inside of my lower lip. I got a taste of dirt and grass before my eyes grew heavy.

I laid back on the furs, and the last thing I felt before I fell asleep was the steady vibration of my mate’s purr under my palm.

Four

The Warrior

I watched the female sleep. A voice in the back of my mind spoke to me, and I hadn’t heard that voice in a while. It belonged to the honorable male I once was, and it told me not to stare at her. It was the same voice which had told me to soothe her when she was scared. I listened to it then, but I didn’t listen now, because I couldn’t look away.

She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. Her light brown skin gleamed in the rays of the sun, and her long, dark braided hair was splayed around her in my furs. She wore a pair of antella skin pants and a shirt made of a soft material. Her chest rose and fell beneath it, drawing my eyes to her full breasts.

I looked away then, the voice in my head insistent this wasn’t how warriors acted. We didn’t covet what wasn’t ours.

It’d been so long since I’d seen anything other than the prey I killed and a few Rizar or pivar packs. A few rotations ago, I’d seen another who looked like me. My mind fractured then, because something told me I knew him, but I couldn’t remember how, and I didn’t know his name. Even though I knew he wasn’t the one who betrayed me—I remembered his face—something about this warrior’s presence angered me and unsettled me. But with him had been one of her. A female. Not the same one sleeping next to me—she’d had yellow hair and pale skin.

She and the male were about to be attacked by a hunner horde, and that many stings would have killed them. So, I did what I could do save them. I hadn’t done it for him, I’d done it for her. I still wasn’t sure why. Now the male knew I was alive, but something about the fear in the female’s voice and her cries … my instinct had been to protect and save.

I worried though, because the male had spotted me and called to me as I fled in words I didn’t understand. What if that male knew the one who betrayed me? What if he told him about my existence, and my enemy returned to finish me off? So I’d prepared. I’d be ready this time. I’d be the victor.

Except now I had a more important task. The sleeping female in my hut. I wondered if she knew the other female, but why would she have been alone? That didn’t make sense. She would have been protected if she knew any warriors. She must be alone, which meant she needed me.

I looked down at my wrists and rubbed the markings there. What did they mean? I’d long ago decided Fatas didn’t exist. We had nothing to reward or punish us. Life was life, flecked and broken. Miserable. But I couldn’t explain these confusing skin markings that matched the female’s in front of me. A flash of recognition over the markings entered my mind, but quickly vanished like smoke. I couldn’t remember, or maybe I’d blocked it out, just as I’d blocked out most of the Before.

I’d been hunting when I’d heard a hoarse cry. I hadn’t thought much of it until I felt a blow to my face as if I’d been struck. I had tasted my blood in my mouth, a bitter tang on my tongue, but I hadn’t been bleeding.

I stumbled toward the sound of a struggle and that was when I’d seen the female fighting two enemies. I knew they were enemies even if I couldn’t remember why. They were hurting her, and they had to die, so I’d killed them with a few easy throws of my blades.

I’d intended to leave her, but once I looked into her eyes, I couldn’t. For a moment, she’d cleared the madness and made me feel like a duty-bound warrior again. I’d had an important job once, but it’d been long ago.

The only purpose driving me now was revenge on the one who took everything from me and turned me into a mute savage. Revenge was all that kept me alive, and it’d turned my mind into a wicked, murky, shriveled thing. Until her. Until I’d looked into her warm brown eyes and I’d seen a glimpse of what I’d been.

This was a complication I didn’t need, as my plans were focused on punishing the one who betrayed me. But she was a complication I wouldn’t walk away from.

I couldn’t.

She needed me. Her injury was severe, and she was alone. Where did she come from? She wasn’t from this planet. I didn’t know her species, but she wasn’t like me.

What was I?

Something important. A warrior. But that was all I remembered. I thunked the heel of my palm against my head, wishing I could knock something loose inside, to jar memories, but my mind, as always, remained dark.

Except for her. She was a large blossom on my mind, a golden flower which glowed, just not strong enough to break through the smoke choking my mind. I wished I could draw them closer, to clear the darkness inside of me.

Instead I stayed on the other side of my tree hut with my tail curled around my ankles. She’d be hungry when she woke, so I gathered a collection of jerky and fruits from my hoard and prepared it on a board. With silent steps, I placed it on the furs next to her along with a jug of qua, then padded away back to my corner. I wouldn’t disturb her. She needed her rest. Fortunately the gramin I gave her would help her heal. I wished I had more, but the splint and cast I made, along with the gramin, was the best I could do.

Until then, I’d care for her. I’d feed her and help her get clean. She was my purpose now. My wrists burned slightly, and I rubbed them with a frown. Then I rested my hands on my bent knees, leaned my head back against the wall, and waited.

* * *

The sun had almost set by the time she began to stir. She came awake slowly, smacking her lips with contented sounds. It was only when she stretched her arms over her head that pain streaked across her features and her eyes popped open. She gasped and shot to a sitting position, her gaze darting around my hut. The golden bloom in my mind began to close, and it wasn’t until she spotted me in the corner that the delicate petals once again opened. She showed no outward signs, but the truth of her feelings in my head gave her away.

I pointed to the food and drink by her bed. She eyed it for a moment, and then slowly reached out and grabbed a hunk of jerky. She bit into it slowly, but then as if suddenly realizing she was ravenous, rapidly finished everything on her board and drank down the last drop of qua.

When I went to replenish her board, she shook her head. “Uv ad eeenuf.”

I sat down beside her bed and ate the remaining handful of berries and jerky. My rationale for doing this was I didn’t like anything to go to waste. The truth was I liked being close to her, and she didn’t seem to mind.

“Ken u wondersten meh?” She asked me a question with her heat tilted.

I wished I knew what she was saying.

With heavy sigh, she looked away before meeting my gaze again. With a hand over her breast, she said, “Merr-anda.” I frowned at her, and she repeated it again, this time pointed at herself. “Merr-anda.”

I guessed that she was telling me her name, and I liked the sound of it. I would have given anything to let the syllables roll of my tongue. Instead, I only nodded.

She pointed to me and shot me an expectant look. Ah, so I was supposed to tell her my name? I did not know it. Not anymore. That was in the Before, and now I was just a disgraced warrior.

I shrugged, and she sucked in a breath. “U dun no?”

I repeated the shrug and this time shook my head. Something odd passed over her face, and her brown eyes shimmered in the orange light of the setting sun.

“Merr-anda,” she said pointed to herself. Then she placed a hand on my chest, over where my cora beat. “Heart.”

Was she telling me my name? I didn’t think it was Heart, but if that was what she wanted to call me, I’d accept it. I nodded, and her full lips stretched into a smile. I sat transfixed at the way her face changed. The skin at the corners of her eyes crinkled, and small indents notched into her cheeks. She had blunt little teeth—no fangs—and the bottom row was a little crooked. I was fascinated by every one of her features, from her small feet to the tip of her nose.

I was honored that she named me and felt my chest puff out with pride. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been proud of anything or stood tall. But my Merr-anda was changing that.

“Heart,” she said again. Then she held up the empty jug. “Qua.”

I went still. She knew my words. Did that mean she knew the other female? The warriors?

Images hit me hard and fast—battles and blood. A large warrior with a nose ring and dark hair. A cliff overlooking the freshas. Brotherhood and peace. Until the betrayal. My enemy’s face flashed before my eyes like a solar flare, followed by sharp slash across my throat. I growled, grabbing my head as pain sliced through my skull. Memories. Memories always did this.

It was easier not to remember. It was easier to be alone and prepare for the revenge I’d one day seek…

Soft hands landed on my back, and I flinched away with a growl. The hands were insistent, soothing, blanketing the fire raging in my blood. The pain ebbed and I slumped forward on my hands and knees.

Something tugged me onto the furs, and I came willingly. I allowed my body to be arranged and my head to land on a softness. Exhaling, I opened my eyes in the near darkness.

Fingers sifted through my hair, and a rumble in my ear calmed me. My female, Merr-anda—she was talking. My ear rested on her breast as she spoke words in a lilting way I’d never heard before. The sounds drifted up and down, high pitch to low, and I was mesmerized by the sound.

I lifted my head to see her eyes half-closed, her full lips stretching and contracting to form the strange syllables and words. For once, I was glad I couldn’t speak, because I wouldn’t have been able to describe the beautiful sounds.

Finally, she stopped, and smiled at me. “Sengeng,” she said.

I liked this sengeng. I tried to smile, but my lips wouldn’t work, so I settled for placing her hand at my throat so she could feel the only sound I was able to make, a rumbling vibration I’d never had an urge to utter before. It’d been instinct to do it when she was in distress, and since it helped, I vowed to do it as often as I could.

She kept smiling, and I laid down once again on her chest, listening to her cora beat strong and steady against my ear.

* * *

Miranda

He was a cuddler. Or something. I couldn’t believe it. He had all the instincts of a Drixonian warrior, but he didn’t seem to understand why. He cared for me, yet he was wary.

He’d slept on me all night with his head on one breast and his palm curled possessively around my other one. His tail rested over my legs and looped around my hip. If he was literally anyone else, I would have kneed him in the balls for taking such liberties, but this was … not bad. Sort of nice. He cradled my breast delicately. What was this silent alien doing to me? I should have been shoving the big lug off me.

About seventy-percent of my body was numb from his weight, but I was loathe to wake him, even though I was hungry, had to pee, and now the sun was up, I felt like I was in a sauna. But no, I didn’t move, because I felt bad waking him up.

When had I ever felt bad waking up anyone?

Never.

I thought most Drixonians slept half-awake and alert, but this one was like a rock on my chest, snoozing away. It would have been kind of cute if he wasn’t a half-Neanderthal living in a tree who didn’t talk. Our only communication relied on reading each other’s auras, and he seemed to be alarmed every time I had a sudden one.

I’d decided to call him Heart because that was what he was to me—all heart. Cheesy, but seeing as he either didn’t have a name or refused to tell it to me, that was what I was going with. He was like Mowgli and I kept expecting a pack of wolves or monkeys to come out of the trees and claim him as family.

His reaction last night when I’d said ‘qua’ had been startling. One of my uncles served in the Vietnam War, and Heart’s episode had been so reminiscent of my uncle’s flashbacks caused by PTSD. His reaction killed me and even though I knew the risks of touching him, I couldn’t help it. He’d been so … wounded.

My aunt would always sing to my uncle, so that was the first thing I thought of to soothe him and bring him back with my voice. I hadn’t sung anything important really—just “Lean on Me.” But he’d settled almost immediately, and when he’d placed my hand on his throat, I’d nearly cried.

I felt oddly protective of him. Not in a physical way, since he was obviously the most capable between us, even if my leg had been healed, but in an emotional way. He wasn’t … okay. I got that from his aura and from the way he huddled in on himself. He was a massive guy, yet he rarely stood up straight and proud.

I had so many questions—how did he get his scar? Why couldn’t he talk? Why was he alone and living in a damned tree?

I ran my hands over the scales on his upper back, marveling at the texture of them, almost like velour-coated steel. As close as I’d been to many Drixonians, I didn’t touch them often. Most of the ones I interacted with on a daily basis were taken, and the other ones—well I didn’t want them to get ideas I was on the market.

I supposed I was off the market now. I lifted my wrist to marvel at the marks. They were in a swirly pattern, and they almost reminded me of flowers. I had to admit, they looked badass on my skin tone. But still, I hadn’t wanted these. I hadn’t wanted to leave my big, annoying, lovable family on Earth either, but that was what had happened when I went to bed one night and woke up on a damn spaceship.

I’d sort of come to terms with the fact I wouldn’t see Earth or my family again. Sometimes the grief still hit me at odd times, and I’d wake to break down when I was alone in bed. I wanted to be strong for the women here and lead by example. It was what I’d done all my life, and old habits were hard to break.

I shifted my weight and Heart instantly came awake with a jerk. He shot up on his hands and glanced around before his wild black eyes fell to me. I remained still, wary of his reaction at being woken, but he blinked lazily before his expression lost some of the startled harshness.

That was when I felt it—a hard rod poking into my leg. Because of course aliens got morning wood too. But Heart seemed confused. His hips thrust a couple of times before his nostrils flared and he jerked away from me, his aura cowering like he was ashamed.

“Hey, it’s okay,” I said.

But he didn’t want to hear it. He turned away from me, his giant shoulders heaving, before he immediately retreated to a woven basket in the corner where he kept his food. There he worked with his back to me, and I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want him to be embarrassed. I knew a little about Drixonian history. If Heart was like the rest of them, he’d been a child when the females of his species had died from the virus. After that, their libidos had gone dormant. Most had never had an orgasm, or even been hard.

Heart, for all I knew, might not even understand sex or what his body was doing. But I let him have his dignity. I was sort of flattered I’d made him hard. Then I rolled my eyes at myself. Seriously, Miranda? I was most likely the only female he’d ever seen in his adult life.

After preparing a wooden slab of food, he brought it to me with more qua. I had to pee, but I held it in and dutifully ate my food. It wasn’t anything special, but it was food, and I’d long since learned to take what I could get and not complain. My niece had taught me a saying she learned in kindergarten: You get what you get, and you don’t get upset. So that was my mantra. I was alive. I was okay.

Afterward, Heart poked at my mud cast and then gently pulled me to my feet. I swayed on one foot, but he held me steady. For a moment, he regarded me, and then lowered himself to one knee and gestured to his back.

“Ooo, a piggyback?” I asked.

He only blinked at me. Well, if this meant he was going to take me to solid ground so I could relieve my bladder, then I was all about it. I climbed on his back, which was difficult with one operating ankle, but as soon as I wrapped my arms around his neck, he tucked his hands under my knees.

Even though my vision was shit, I still closed my eyes while we descended. Heights had never been my favorite thing, and this tree house was way too high off the ground for my liking. While inside, I could pretend it was on solid ground, but out here, I got vertigo.

When we touched down on the forest floor, I was able to communicate I had to pee with a series of hand movements, and he left me alone long enough behind a tree for me to do my business.

Afterward, I climbed on his back again and we set off on a path away from the tree house. I was a little wary. Was he taking me to some leader who’d sacrifice me?

His aura was calm, and when my nerves raged too much, he would pat my leg. I forced myself not to panic. My grandmother always said not to borrow trouble. So, I’d worry when I actually had trouble.

We traveled until what felt like mid-morning. Occasionally he’d stop and hand me some berries or leaves to chew on, but other than that, he kept a steady pace. It wasn’t until the air grew humid and I heard the sound of running qua he slowed down. The trees were denser here, lusher.

When he pushed a large leaf aside to reveal what lay ahead, I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A lot of it was blurry anyway, so I had myself half convinced it was a mirage, but as we drew closer, it became very, very real.

Qua trickled down a small cliff in a gentle waterfall to fill a wading pool about the size of half a large neighborhood pool. The qua was edged with large rocks except for a pebble-covered area sloping down into the water. It was perfect, like something out of a movie, and I could barely believe it was here. I hadn’t been outside the walls of the Night Kings compound other than when we traveled on their hover bikes, so I hadn’t been aware of all the beauty this planet possessed.

I slid off Heart’s back and took a few cautious, limping steps toward the qua. He stepped up beside me. I turned to him, unable to control my delight. “Thank you for bringing me here. It’s beautiful.”

His eyes scanned my face and his aura, while smoky, seemed calm. Almost peaceful. He swung me into his arms and placed me on a low rock so that my legs dangled into the qua. I jerked my ankle out of the water as my mud cast began to soften and fall apart. But Heart wrapped his large hands around my knee and slowly lowered my limb back into the water.

“Oh, it’s okay if it gets wet?”

He worked quickly, cupping his hands with qua and washing away every last bit of the mud cast. After carefully removing the splints and bindings, he placed them on a flat rock in a sunny spot to dry. His large hands ran down my calf, prodding at the injury with careful, gentle movements. The care with which he held me nearly took my breath away.

How many times had I bandaged my siblings’ boo-boos and injuries? Many times. How often did anyone tend to me? Barely ever. And I never cared. I was like a cat—when I was hurt, I wanted to be alone. But I couldn’t deny I enjoyed being taken care of.

Was it really so bad to let him do this? What was so wrong with letting my guard down for a little? This was an unprecedented situation. As soon as I was better, I’d be my independent self again. I’d find a way back to my girls. I wouldn’t get used to this silent warrior’s attentions.

Heart let my leg drop back into the qua, and he plucked at my pants before gesturing at it. Oh right, I could bathe. I wanted to do that more than anything, to wash away the feel of those Kulk’s hands grabbing at me.

Heart turned away, like a gentleman. To be honest, I didn’t care that much about nudity. This was an alien planet, and I’d never been too hung up on modesty. Boobs were boobs and butts were butts, right? Still, it was pretty cool he gave me privacy. I quickly slid off my pants and untied my top before sliding into the warm qua. I let out a long moan, reveling in the feel of getting clean. I dunked my head under and rubbed the qua out of my eyes. With a contented sigh, I relaxed back on the rocks behind me, the qua up to my collarbones, and turned my face up into the sun with my eyes closed.

A shadow fell across my eyelids, and I looked to find Heart making his way around the outside of the pool toward the waterfall. “Heart?” I called after him.

He jerked at the sound of my voice and looked at me over his shoulder. His aura was calm, so I knew everything was okay. He motioned toward me with his palms down. Stay. I could have gotten annoyed at him for giving me Fido commands, but he didn’t have another way to communicate, so I let it slide.

He picked his way up the small cliff, scaling it like a monkey before reaching the top. I could barely make him out up there. His skin blended into the foliage around him, but his black and white hair stood out like a beacon. He entered the stream above the cliff and then without warning, braced his hands over his head and dove down the waterfall.

I cried out his name in surprise just as he landed in the water with a small splash which would have scored great in the Olympics. He surfaced quickly, the water beading off his scales like he was coated in a thin oil.

He swam toward me until he could walk on the bottom. He rose out of the water like Jason freaking Momoa in Aquaman, all long, dripping hair and bulging pecs and Christ on a Cracker he was completed naked.

Na-a-ked. Somewhere in the time he’d dove down the waterfall, he’d lost his pants and I could not look away from his giant blue cock. Girthy, long, and pierced at the tip with a heavy ring, it hung between his legs at perfect attention.

My body flushed white hot. I didn’t want to stare. I didn’t want to look away. I wasn’t sure which part of his body held my attention more—his intense eyes and rippling abs, or hard dick. Oh, and his muscled thighs. Also, his square jaw. Damn, his veined hands.

He kept coming, and his aura pulsed a steady beat, the smoke taking on a hazy red tinge that made my toes curl.

I should have felt fear, but I didn’t. I had never been so aware of my nakedness. My breasts felt heavy, my nipples pebbled despite the warmth of the qua, and my core clenched.

I was a mess because I was about to risk it all for this blue hunk of alien.

Five

The Warrior

She was aroused. Her color had deepened, rising up her neck to flush her face, and her brown eyes were glassy. The bloom undulated in a steady rhythm, the petals seeming to beckon me. Closer. Touch me.

I had never in my life thought I’d see an aroused female, let alone one who looked that way because of me. I hadn’t thought twice about taking off my coverings. I did it all the time when I came to this spring to get clean. But I hadn’t been hard then either, not like I was now, not like I’d been since I woke up.

It was an odd feeling, for my cock to be so thick. The flesh slapped against my thighs, and my balls hung heavy and full.

She did that to me. My Merr-anda.

My mind buzzed with the need to be inside her, to release my seed, to claim this female as my own. On the heels of that possessive urge came anger. I wouldn’t let any males take her away from me.

Merr-anda let out a small cry of distress and rose out of the water to her waist. She smashed her back up against the rocks behind her, an arm across her breasts. The bloom in my mind shriveled. A warning. I hesitated and studied her as her chest heaved, not out of arousal. But out of fear.

What had I been thinking? Fleck, I’d scared her. This wasn’t how honorable warriors acted, and that was who I was now. To her, I wouldn’t be the miserable savage fleck I’d been for tens of cycles. I’d be her Heart.

Ashamed, I dropped to a crouch in front of her. The qua covered me to my chest, and I gazed up at her. Kneeling didn’t come naturally to me. The position was awkward, and something told me warriors didn’t go to our knees for anyone—except our females. So, I’d do it for her, and hoped that would make up for my sick thoughts of ravaging her. Had I ruined it? I waited to see if she’d let me touch her. I didn’t know how to ask, or if I was allowed to. Maybe she’d touch me first, then I’d know it was okay.

The bloom in my mind trembled before cautiously peeling back the petals one by one. The warm golden glow strengthened, heating me from inside out. I heaved a breath and then inhaled the scent of the fresh qua and my female.

Merr-anda swallowed, and I watched her neck work. Her eyes bore into mine, searching. She must have been satisfied with whatever she saw, because she stretched one hand and slowly touched the side of my face. Her fingers were soft, warm, and without meaning to, I felt myself leaning into her touch.

“Heart.” She murmured that strange name she’d given me.

I wanted to say her name back, but all I could manage was the steady purr in my throat. With careful movements, I bent forward and pressed my forehead to her stomach. She gasped softly, and then dropped both hands to the top of my head. I could feel them there, sifting through the strands and loose braids.

Images flashed in my mind, but these didn’t come with pain. These were pleasant visions, words, and lectures on how to pleasure a female. Someone had taught me once. I knew for sure I’d never touched one, but I could remember what to do. I clicked the piercings in my tongue against the tips of my fangs. Yes, these meant something. These were for her.

Her hands sifted down my neck to my shoulders, and I lifted my head to find the peaks of her breasts close enough to take into my mouth. My muscles tensed in anticipation as I stretched toward them and slowly ran my closed lips across her beaded nipples.

Her breath caught, and her eyes glittered a warm amber in the sunlight. But she didn’t stop me. Her hand tightened in the hair at the base of my neck, and her full lips parted, pink tongue peeking out of the corner.

Keeping my eyes on hers, I opened my mouth and drew the stiff peak in. I closed my lips around it and sucked while I lashed it with the balls pierced through my tongue.

“Oh, fuck,” she groaned, and her hips bucked, sending qua splashing between us.

I kept going, sucking, licking, and rolling the balls along her sensitive flesh as she squirmed above me, fists gripping my hair as she held me against her. My cock was a spike between my legs as it dragged along the pebbled bottom of the spring. I wrapped my hand around it and squeezed hard, to the point of pain, so I didn’t rut like an animal. Her skin tasted of sun and qua, her breasts sweet as ripe fruit.

My mind buzzed like a hunner horde, and I felt dizzy with her taste and scent. Unable to resist any longer, I gripped her waist and drew her from the water. She gave a surprised gasp but didn’t resist as I stretched her out on a warm, flat rock. The sun beamed through the leaves above us, dappling her skin like an antella’s young.

There were no words to describe how she looked spread out before me like a meal. I picked up her injured ankle and touched my lips to the delicate bone there. With half-closed eyelids, she bit down on her lower lip and beckoned toward me with a smile.

When she spread her thick thighs, I knew I’d found the source of true happiness. Nestled amongst a bed of dark curls was her cunt, ripe and glistening from her arousal. I didn’t even remember moving, but one moment I stood above her and the next, I’d buried myself between her legs.

She purred a husky moan, and I fisted my cock between my legs. I swiped my tongue up her cunt, my eyes rolling back into my head at her taste. She writhed beneath me, her hands tugging at my hair and my ears while her nails dug into my shoulders and neck.

My mind—which normally raged and spun with a mishmash of memories and visions—cleared, and her bloom sparkled like a lone star on a dark night. There was only her, me, and this moment. Nothing in the past or the future. Only the now. My goal was to give her pleasure, and as she gushed on my tongue, I knew I was halfway there.

I swirled the tip of my tongue around the hard bud of her clit, and her back bowed, heels slamming into my back. I loved the pain because her reaction was real and beautiful.

I ate at her, eager to taste everything she had, all while she purred beneath me like a happy salibri. Retracting my claws, I slipped two fingers into her entrance.

She let out a hoarse shout. “Yes,” she hissed. “Rite thare, Heart.”

I plunged them in out of her as I continued to tease her bud. But it wasn’t enough, not for either of us. I removed my fingers, ignoring her cry of protest, and unfurled my tongue to its full length. With a glance up her body, I speared her and let loose the vibration.

She screamed, and her nails raked my scalp.

My cock pulsed, and my balls felt like they would explode. I squeezed the base, unsure what to do when it felt like this. As I plunged into her with my tongue, my fist moved in the same rhythm. Up and down, up and down. My body knew what to do even though I didn’t. I drove her higher and higher, relishing her cries until she arched her back on a wordless shout and began to shake.

Her whole body shuddered on the tip of my tongue. Her walls squeezed my tongue and my fist pulled ruthlessly on my cock until a harsh flash lit up behind my eyes. My cock erupted into the qua, and my knees nearly gave out, but I refused to stop pleasuring my female. It wasn’t until she collapsed on her back that I reluctantly pulled my mouth from her body.

My legs buckled, and I slid back into the water with a rough exhalation. Merr-anda jerked to a sitting position, her skin flushed, and tugged at my arms until I managed to crawl on weak knees to lay at her side.

I panted there with my eyes closed as I processed what had just happened. That wasn’t supposed to be about me, but when I’d felt her come and heard her cries, I couldn’t stop myself from releasing my seed.

Her small hands traveled down my chest and stopped at the base of my cock. She paused there, and I cracked an eye open to see her staring at it. Was she angry with me? Had I done something wrong?

But then her gaze locked with mine, and a smile stretched across her lips. “U caem? Frum eetin meh aut?” She flopped onto her back beside me. “Waow. Gurlz werr rite. U rr gud.” She clapped a hand over her eyes and heaved a sigh. “Dis us crazee. Wee cant eevin tawk.” After a pause, she met my eyes again. “But I cen feel u.” She brushed fingers across my forehead, and I leaned into the touch. The bloom glowed bright, chasing away the dark. The bloom was her. Merr-anda. She traced my brows and down my nose before cupping my cheek. “For de furst dime, u rr cawm.”

* * *

Miranda

Watching Heart hunt was hot. Not as hot as his tongue between my legs because good God that was out of this world, but I had always thought women rated capability too low on the attractive traits dating scale.

While I sat comfortably in the crook of a tree—well comfortable as long as I didn’t look down—Heart was stretched out on his stomach on a branch with a small hollow reed between his lips, dark eyes perusing the ground for our next meal.

If I wanted a man—which I totally didn’t—he had to do the things I didn’t want to do or know how to do. So far Heart had killed gross aliens who wished to hurt me, took care of my injury, and provided me with food. All things I wasn’t quite capable of doing on this planet.

This leg wound pissed me off, though. I didn’t like feeling helpless, and I was. Heart had to carry me almost everywhere, because hopping hurt like a mother, and a stick for a crutch was nearly useless in the dense forest. After our time in the spring, he’d rewrapped it with the splints, vine, and more mud plaster.

I could have remained in denial and convinced myself what happened at the spring was simple pay back. He got pussy if I got fed. A mere exchange of services. Except that wasn’t it. I’d wanted him. Lord help me, but I’d wanted him. I knew all about the Drixonian abilities. The girls talked about it all the time, how the elder males refused to let the Drixonian reputation for being sex Gods or some shit fade away after all their females died, so they’d taught the males everything they knew.

I’d enjoyed a healthy sex life back on Earth, so while I was curious, I’d never seen a single Drixonian in the Night Kings who made me want to jump on his metal-tipped dick. Hell no.

Until Heart. Maybe it was the mate thing, or a result of the loks, but I didn’t feel manipulated or out of control. Every step of the way, I knew what I was doing, and I’d made a conscious decision to touch him … and be touched.

I didn’t regret it. Even now, I could feel the way he’d clutched my thighs and latched onto my pussy like it was his job. His eyes had glowed nearly purple and the smoke cloud of his mind had faded until I could see a dim light shining through the haze. The way he looked at me … it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Like I was his sun, moon, and stars.

I slowly twirled the small bundle of flowers I’d plucked from near the spring. The purple and yellow petals were insanely vibrant and smelled a bit like lavender. I’d added a sprig of greenery and wished for one of my mason jar vases I always used at home.

Gardening was the one thing I had for me. In between my own demanding job as a lawyer and taking care of my siblings—like dealing with Brendon’s constant money issues from his revolving door of jobs and listening to Yanna complain about the deadbeats she continued to date—I found peace in nature. I’d never minded getting my hands dirty, and I’d only just started a veggie garden in the backyard of my small townhouse before I ended up here. When I said I wanted a little greenery, I hadn’t meant I wanted to live off the grid. Now, I’d give anything to hand Brendon ten bucks and answer Yanna’s call about her last first date from hell.

Heart’s body tensed on the branch, and I went still. Down below, a moira loped across a small clearing toward a small puddle. They were weird creatures, about the size of a small dog, but with a long snout and round, recessed eyes. They tasted a bit like chicken. Heart puffed out his cheeks and blew into the reed.

I didn’t even see the arrowhead leave the tip. But I could tell it hit its target when the moira gave a little squeal before falling onto its side, legs out like a fainting goat. Heart grabbed me, leapt down to the ground, and trotted to the moira. With a quick slash of his claws, he opened its throat. After letting it bleed out onto the forest floor, he tied up the feet, slung it over his shoulder and let me climb on his back. This planet had clearly done weird shit to me, because I was aroused at the sight of my man hunting for me. So. Fucking. Capable.

Wait, what? My man? No. I didn’t want a man. Even an alien man with a six-inch long tongue that made me see Jesus.

I rested my chin on his shoulder, letting the gentle rock of his gait lull me into a half-doze. I jerked with a start when he suddenly went still. Statue-still. His head was cocked to the side, his eyes focused on something northeast of us.

Squinting, I tried to peer into the distance, but all I could see was trees. And plants. And more trees. More plants. “Heart?” I whispered.

He slowly brought up his hand and tapped his ear.

Oh right, listen. Not just look. Smart. So, I closed my eyes, and I focused on every sound I could hear. Some antella in the distance. A far-off welf howl. Something small scurrying on the ground below us. And then I heard it, a metal clinking sound that plummeted my stomach right down to my feet.

Armor. Kulks.

Heart turned and started sprinting away from the direction we’d been traveling. Between me and the dead moira, he had quite a burden on his shoulders, but he ran with light steps, barely making a sound as he seemed to glide over the ground. I’d seen some of the Night Kings run, but I wasn’t sure any of them were as fast as Heart. He was like Usain Bolt-fast.

We came to a large tree, which he scaled with me on his back with ease. Finding a spot where two branches forced off from the trunk, creating a little seat, he placed me there with the moira on my lap. “What—?”

He shook his head, once, and I fell silent. That was when I heard the armor clinking, more urgent this time. Heart stepped out onto the branch, his large feet curling like a gymnast on a balance beam. His thick tail was steady, helping him keep his balance. He didn’t waver, not once, and I understood why he made his home in the trees. This was where he had the advantage. I curled into a ball to make myself as small as possible. While he wore his blue skin like camouflage, I did not blend in.

The clinking drew closer, followed by murmured voices. About six Kulks broke out of the dense foliage into the clearing below us, and it took all my strength not to scream. I could still feel the smack to my face and the punch to my gut. The sight of their soulless eyes peering around through the slits in their helmet sent a bolt of fear straight into my veins.

Heart didn’t move. In fact, I wasn’t sure he was breathing. Even his hair was still despite the soft breeze blowing through the leaves.

Just when I thought we’d made it, that the Kulks hadn’t seen us and would leave, Heart’s aura went from dead calm to hurricane. With a raspy growl, he dropped to the ground between two Kulks like a spiked blue bomb. His forearm machets came down on the back of their necks, slicing their heads clean off their bodies.

I slapped my hand over my mouth to cut off my shriek.

Heart wasn’t done. He reached into the waistband of his pants and while I couldn’t see what he withdrew, sunlight gleamed off a shiny surface. He flung his hands out and two more Kulks dropped, blood pouring from their eye slits.

He must have blades, which explained how he’d been able to drop the Kulks who’d captured me at a distance.

The last two he took on hand-to-hand, slamming his elbow into the shoulder of one while his tail swept the other off his feet. As they clutched their pained limbs, he finished them off with two quick snaps of their necks. Just like that, it was over.

Heart stood in the center of the carnage with heaving shoulders dripping in green Kulk blood. I hadn’t moved from my curled ball position, and my hand remained tightly pressed over my mouth.

I had to get over my shock and remember this planet was a violent place. The other women told me how their mates had reacted when they were threatened. Sax, Val’s mate, had slashed some guy into bits and pieces.

Heart had thought I was threatened. And he did something about it. In his … alien way.

Capable. As. Fuck.

He turned his head slowly and met my gaze. His aura was still once again, but the smoke was thick, layer after layer built up so I couldn’t see a damned thing beyond it.

Before climbing the tree to me, he tore off a few dew-drop-wet leaves and wiped down his body. When he was clean of Kulk blood, he climbed up the trunk. When he crouched down in front of me, his expression was cautious.

Did he think I’d be upset at his violence? The only thing that upset me was the solid wall of smoke in his aura. Violence seemed to take him away from me.

I touched his cheek because he seemed to like that gesture. He leaned into my hand the first couple of times I’d done it. This time, he didn’t move for a long moment, then finally his eyes closed briefly, dark lashes casting shadows on his blue cheeks, before nuzzling into my hand.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

He blinked his eyes open at me, pressed a kiss to my wrist, then picked me up.

The way back was less eventful, thank fuck, but he remained alert the entire time, his head constantly on a swivel as he checked our surroundings. As for me, I listened. I documented what sounded normal so I’d be able to pick up anything unique.

When we finally swung into the doorway of his hut, he placed me on my feet near the bed. After arranging the furs, he slowly lowered me down to the floor. Seriously, I was getting too used to this. I didn’t want him to think I was incapable of doing things for myself. I’d managed pretty well on this planet so far. Sure, I’d been under the care of other Drixonians, but I still had to hold my own, not lose my shit, and look out for my girls.

He started the fire again and then skinned the moira using his claws. His movements were quick and efficient. I couldn’t do much from my spot on the floor, but I did set the table—er, floor—so to speak.

He only had the one board which he’d used to feed me yesterday, so I placed it between us to share with two jugs of qua. I dug out some fruit, a white fuzzy thing that reminded me of a peach but tasted like a melon. The skin was not edible, so I eyed Heart before beckoning him over to me. When he stood nearby, I grabbed his hand and tapped on the tips, growling, and curling my fingers into a claw imitation. For a moment, he only blinked at me like I’d lost my mind, but then he blinked, and his black dagger-like claws unleashed.

I grinned and almost patted him on the head. Using his finger like a tool, I sliced the fruit, taking my time and even cutting a few fun shapes into it. What else did we have to do other than watch a moira cook?

Heart sat beside me patiently, not moving, allowing me to twist his hand this way and that. When I was finished, I patted his hand and arranged the fruit along with a few seeds and nuts from what I dubbed his trail mix stash. I sat back and analyzed my board, pretty proud of my Planet Torin charcuterie. I might be in a tree house with a barbarian-like alien, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t eat in style.

I found a crude cup, filled it with some qua, and placed the bouquet inside. After fluffing the foliage, I eyed my little place setting. It was almost romantic.

Wait, was that what I was doing? Setting this up like a date? The setting sun cast an orange glow over everything and deepened the shadows in the hut. Heart remained crouched beside me, and when I turned to see what he thought of my task, I found him looking at the flowers.

He didn’t turn his head, and I searched his aura to see how he was feeling. The smoke was calm, swirling delicately in little curls. Finally, he met my gaze, and purple irises met mine. They were the lightest I’d ever seen them.

I reached out a hand to cup his cheek, feeling like I needed to physically connect, and he slowly lowered his lashes as he leaned into my palm. I adored the gesture, like every time I granted him my touch, he needed me to know how much he appreciated it. Not for the first time I wondered how long he’d been alone. He seemed wary of physical contact, while also craving it.

He swallowed and he opened his eyes to lock with mine before he pressed one single kiss to the inside of my wrist over my loks.

Six

The Warrior

I didn’t know when I’d ever felt pride like I did watching my female eat food I’d prepared. With my own hands, I’d killed and cooked for her, and now my efforts nourished her body. If I’d been able, I would have shouted it from the treetops.

Look at me, a warrior with a purpose once again.

I didn’t understand the reason for the blooms in front of us, but every once in a while, Merr-anda would reach out and touch the tip of her finger to a petal. She’d smile to herself, and the sight filled me with a welcomed warmth.

“Purridy,” she said to me when I caught her looking at the blooms.

I didn’t know what that word meant, but the blooms made her happy, and I had to admit the bright colors stood out amongst the dark wood of my hut.

She’d sliced the fruit into shapes, which I found indulgent, but as I tossed them into my mouth, found they tasted better. That made no sense, and I frowned at them. But every time I chewed and swallowed, I liked them better.

Would Merr-anda always do these fancy things for us? And why did I like it so much? Everything she touched seemed to sparkle. Around her, colors were brighter. The sun was warmer. I felt less like a savage.

After dinner, I decided to share with her my favorite place. Because of her leg, I scooped her into my arms and carried her outside of my hut. I traveled around the side, where I’d made a small platform path just barely wide enough for my shoulders. She clung to me, and while her bloom trembled with nerves, she didn’t protest. Her trust humbled me.

At the back of my hut, I’d built a ramp that rose along the back wall to the roof. I ascended it until I was able to take a step onto the roof. She gasped as she took in the view, and I placed her on her one good foot.

Her eyes darted from the sky to the ground to the leaves which reached toward us. She reached out and tapped one with her finger, laughing softly as a drop of water resting on the leaf splashed onto her foot. I understood her awed reaction. This was the reason I came up here often at night.

Our moon glowed softly through the trees and stars tinkled. The outline of another planet was just visible, lit by its own moon and the stars. I sometimes came up here when the painful disconnected memories became too much, when my cluttered mind felt fractured. I’d often wondered when the last of my sanity would slip.

But I didn’t want to think about that now, especially because the memories had started to come into focus, just a little bit, as long as Merr-anda was at my side.

She took a few tentative steps toward the center of the roof near the hole I’d cut into it for sunlight. I arranged one of the furs I’d carried on the floor and wrapped the other around her shoulders. She smiled at me, white teeth gleaming in the dark.

I sat down next to her and pulled my hair pick from my pocket. I ran it through my unruly strands, doing my best to untangle the knots. I had thought many times of cutting it, but my reflection was often the only thing I recognized. I worried if I didn’t even recognize that, then I’d truly go mad.

Merr-anda’s hands stilled mine, and then she plucked the comb from my fingers. Her touch was soft, and I craned my neck as she knelt behind me. With a tsk sound, she redirected my head with a gentle press of her fingers to face away from her.

At the first pull on my scalp, my eyes fell closed. As she worked through the tangles, she made a sound, like her sengeng, but with no words. The vibrated melody wound through my limbs one by one, loosening the tension in my muscles until I felt like a cloud floating in the air.

She worked on my hair for a long time, as a welf family howled in the distance and moira scurried below us in the brush, foraging for food.

I couldn’t remember when I’d ever felt this content or relaxed. No one had touched me like this or took care of me ever. I hadn’t thought I’d enjoy it or want it. But now she’d shown me this attention, I knew I’d crave it.

When the tugging on my scalp stopped, I mourned the loss of her touch. I cracked my eyes open as she touched my face. She held up a strand of her hair, wound together in a braid. Then she tugged on my own hair with a questioning look. I nodded, and she smiled.

When she slipped to my back again, the tugging continued, and I closed my eyes again. She worked quickly and continued her wordless sengeng. The murkiness of my mind seemed to fade, the dark shapes in the background creeping forward. Usually that came with pain, but now, I only felt warmth as Merr-anda’s hands sifted through my hair, occasionally rubbing my shoulders and neck.

I often fought with the shadows when they surged forward, tired of the pain, the memories. But now, I felt stronger and ready to take them on. It was because of her, Merr-anda. I’d thought my purpose was to protect her and care for her, but I hadn’t realized what she’d do for me. The human I’d thought fragile was physically smaller than me, but her mind? It was formidable. Kindness radiated from her, and she’d brought beauty back into my life. When had I ever taken the time to admire the many-colored blooms in the forest? Now I had eaten with a cup full of them.

Merr-anda’s sengeng calmed me, and her touch invigorated me. With her, I didn’t feel scared to investigate the murky shapes in my mind. The barrier of dark smoke I’d thrown up long ago to protect me now shamed me.

I hadn’t realized she’d stopped her task until she was in front of me, eyes assessing her work as they flitted over my hairline. I placed a hand on her thigh, the skin still sun-kissed warm despite the darkness. Her gaze shot to me. Held. Heated.

I surged forward and pressed our lips together. At first, she didn’t move, and I worried I’d taken things too far, but then a needy little moan rose from her chest and fluttered across my lips. I needed more. I needed her, maybe more than she needed me. When I slipped my tongue into her mouth, she gasped and clutched my jaw with her talented fingers. I wrapped a hand around her lower back and tugged her into my lap, where her legs straddled my hips, her heated core pressed against my hard cock.

I licked into her mouth with abandon, craving her taste and her little moans, and the way her hips churned against mine. Dizzy with her, my mind spinning and the smoke protesting at the upheaval. The stars in my mind pressed, insistent, their glow forcing the barrier of smoke back like an advancing army of light.

A singular image broke through. My face but younger, wind whipping my long hair around my shoulders. And with that image came one singular sound. Foreign at first until it beat inside my head like a caged hunner. Drak. Drak. Drak. Drak.

I pulled back from her with a growl, clutching my head as the word pelted me over and over again. I fell onto my back with a groan and Merr-anda surged over me, eyes no longer glassy with arousal but now wide with concern. Her mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear any sound. I could only hear that word over and over again.

Drak. Drak. Drak. Drak.

It was like a rock against the wall of my skull until a crack appeared, just enough for a bit of light to peak through.

The word burst out into the light, and knowledge slammed into me like a truth-tipped arrow. My throat burned, fire ripping through the cords there just as my lips moved. That’s who I was. I was….

I opened my mouth, eyes finally focusing on the creature above me who had broken through my darkness, and I uttered the first word that had left my lips in as long as I could remember.

“Drak.”

* * *

Miranda

The word ripped from his throat like a record-scratch, the sound caustic and abrupt. He clutched his throat, eyes panicked and pained as he writhed on the rooftop under me.

Tears pricked at my eyes because this big strong alien looked equal parts terrified and tortured.

I placed my hands over his, but he didn’t stop. He said the word again, which rhymed with back. “Drak.” With a swallow he tried again, and this time it was less like sandpaper on tree bark. “Drak.” His chest heaved, and the smoke in his aura was a whirling mess, sometimes gaping so large that figures behind it were nearly visible.

He struggled to sit up and plastered my hand against his throat. I waited as he panted with his eyes closed.

“Hey,” I kept my voice as calm as I could, the one I used with my siblings’ when they were upset about bad grades or cheating boyfriends. “It’s okay. I’m right here. You’re okay. Come back to me. Please.”

He took one more shuddering breath and the smoke in his aura faded. Light peaked through, and when his eyes opened, they were a vibrant purple. His pulse which had been beating rapidly in his neck slowed. He slid my hand down to his chest, where he clutched it and pressed it over his heart. “Drak,” he rasped.

He took our hands and placed them on my chest, then looked at me expectantly.

“Um…Miranda?”

He nodded, and then pointed to his own chest again. “Drak.”

My mouth dropped open. “Is that your name? Drak?” Did he just suddenly remember it? I gripped his face and said it again. “Drak.”

He nodded, and then he did something I hadn’t seen him do, not once, not even after he orgasmed. His lips stretched out, his eyes crinkled, and he smiled.

I’d been given some awesome gifts in my life, from friends and family and clients. A gold-plated gavel from my first case. A booklet of favors from my siblings—even though I never used any of them—and a scholarship from my high school.

But they all paled in comparison to the gift of a smile from Drak. It lit up the darkness so bright I swore we would attract everyone within miles. He went from handsome to downright breathtakingly beautiful. And I felt like I’d earned it. I’d trusted him and cared for him. This was what I got in return, his smile. So simple yet something I’d cherish for the rest of my life.

“Drak,” I needed to keep the sound on my tongue, to remind him who he was. I wasn’t sure how, but I knew he’d had some sort of breakthrough in that dark mind of his.

“Drak,” he growled, purple eyes firing, and then pulled my face down to meet his.

This kiss wasn’t gentle like the one before, with a sweet probing tongue and caressing lips. This was a claiming kiss. His tongue enjoyed what was his, and his lips kept me open for the taking. I had never been kissed like this in my life, and my core pulsed at the ownership of it.

I let him, my commitment to spinsterhood all but forgotten, because how could I deny someone who made me feel like this? I wanted him. I wanted more from him than his kiss and his tongue between my thighs.

His cock throbbed between us, pressing against my clit where I straddled his hips. I pressed down, flexing my ass, and he growled into my mouth. He bucked against me and angled his head to deepen the kiss further while his hands coasted down my torso to slide under my top. I braced my hands on either side of his head and gasped when his rough thumbs plucked my nipples.

“Drak,” I murmured again, and his lips peeled back into a nearly feral snarl, eyes a tornado of black and purple.

With a flick of his wrist, he tore my top from my body. It spoke to my height of arousal that I wasn’t concerned about the only clothing I had, painstakingly sewn by my friend. It didn’t matter. Who cared? I could be naked forever with Drak as long as he kept looking at me like I was the best food he’d ever had.

I didn’t want to wait or draw this out. I was so wet I’d coated his pants with my arousal. I shoved his pants down and palmed his throbbing cock. He kicked off his pants, and I did the same while remaining careful of my ankle. When he lay naked beneath me, I straddled him, guided his cock to my entrance, and sank down.

He was huge, long and girthy, and I’d never had anything this large inside me. Even with how wet I was, I gasped at the intrusion, and Drak made that vibrating sound in his throat, fingers digging into my hips as he locked his jaw tight with self-control.

When I finally took him into the hilt, I threw my head back, hands braced on his hard abs. The feel of him … there was nothing like it. He stretched me to my limit and reached every place inside. The thick ring on the tip of his cock rubbed my sensitive inner walls with a delicious rasp.

“Drak,” I murmured, just before I surged up and slammed back down. He threw his head back, body arched, neck muscles corded as I fucked myself on his cock like a wanton thing. My ends of my braids brushed his thighs, and I moaned as I got the angle just right. His cock pegged me in the place that made me see stars. My sole focus was on where we connected, how good I felt and how much pleasure I could bring him.

He didn’t just lay there. He bucked up into me, his powerful hips thrusting in time with me, his strong fingers twisting my nipples. When his hand came up and gripped my throat, I cried out.

The world turned, and I didn’t realize he’d moved us until my back was on the roof and I was staring up into his face. He took over, powering into me with his muscled body, growling constantly so that his scarred throat was a vibrating blur. His eyes were nearly neon, glowing like a siren and I was a sailor entranced. When the node on top of his cock—the one the girls told me about—stretched to suck on my clit, my eyes roll into the back of my head.

I was close, my orgasm barreling down my spine like a freight train. He leaned back and threw my legs over his shoulders, which changed the angle of his cock inside of me. That was all it took. I came on a garbled cry, clutching at him as my body shook and heaved. I was nothing but a trembling mass of flesh on the end of his cock, tears streaking my face and wetting my hair as he plundered my body of everything I had.

When he came, it was on a silent roar with his mouth open and his neck stretched. He shuddered as he emptied himself inside of me, and when his hips finally stopped churning, he wrapped me in his arms and rolled us to our sides with his cock still inside my body.

I nuzzled my face into his neck and closed my eyes, too tired and overwhelmed to do much more than that.

It was sometime later I finally felt him move.

His cock slipped from me, leaving me empty, but he quickly returned to my side and wrapped us in a fur. I opened my eyes. “Drak,” I murmured as I blinked at him blearily.

He smiled at me and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. “Drak,” he whispered. I grinned as I fell back asleep.

Seven

Miranda

The rooftop became our new favorite spot. We didn’t have a discussion about it, since the only word he was able to utter was his name. But the next night, Drak led me to the roof to sleep where he’d made a new pallet of furs. So that was it.

That was our life for a week. Maybe two weeks. I didn’t keep track. All I did was focus on healing my leg and regaining strength in my muscles. Drak hunted for us and showed me in his silent way how to track various prey. Without words, he was far and away better a teacher than Crius.

I learned which antella were the right ones to kill—never babies or females in heat. I even learned how to skin them, and which cuts of meat were the tastiest. He showed me how to live on this planet, and I felt like his equal in a way I hadn’t ever felt with the Night Kings. I didn’t fault them for it. I understood why they remained protective over us. But with Drak, I could almost believe we were alone, partners on an island with a lush wildlife population and tasty plants.

It was impossible to cover up my poor vision even though I tried. So much of the trees and brush around me looked the same, that I often would get turned around and confused if Drak wasn’t right next to me leading the way.

One afternoon while I was tending to some blooms at the base of the tree leading to our hut, Drak pointed out something in the distance. Curious, I began to walk toward it until he stopped me with a stern look. He made a hand sign that I’d learned meant welf. Embarrassed and annoyed with myself, I nodded and continued with my gardening.

But Drak wasn’t done with me. His booted feet stepped into my vision, and I glared up at him. He ignored my glare, because while in the beginning, he was timid not to upset me, now he had gotten used to the moods I had every now and then and didn’t take it personally anymore.

He tugged me to my feet and placed his palms down. That meant I was to stay. I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at him. Which only made him blurrier.

He walked to a tree trunk about five feet away and with one of his claws, carved a circle in the bark. He returned to my side with a long stick. After swiping away the leaves at our feet, he placed the stick in my hand and tapped the dirt. He then pointed at the tree trunk.

“Do you want me to draw what I see?” I asked.

He looked at me expectantly. I sighed and drew a circle in the dirt. His aura gave a pleased shimmy.

He walked farther away this time, to a trunk about ten feet away. This time, he drew a triangle. By the time he returned to me, I’d already drawn a triangle in the dirt. It was then I realized he had improvised a sort of caveman eye test. He’d detected my vision wasn’t up to par with his, and while I hated this sign of weakness, I also knew that out here, we were only as strong as the weakest link. Which was me. He had to know just how poor my vision was for survival purposes. While I understood the purpose, I still hated someone else knowing I had a physical limitation.

He walked away again to make another mark on a distant tree. This continued until the point where he turned around, and I couldn’t see the mark on the tree. Helplessness burned in my gut like acid, and when he returned to my side, I shook my head furiously and threw down the stick.

He watched me with a frown and then stepped right up into my space, ignoring my body language which clearly said fuck off. He gripped my face, and his gaze held neither pity nor censure. If anything, he looked pleased.

I soon realized the test wasn’t to make me feel weak or stupid. He had a valid reason, which he proved when he strategically placed markers at various points around our hut. A cluster of red flowers signaled the base of the tree we climbed to our home. He laid purple flowers down along the path to the spring. And he placed yellow flowers about ten feet apart on the border of what he considered our territory. There were a few hazards on the trails we frequented, just as fallen limbs or a hunner next, which he also marked.

When I realized what he was doing as he busied himself with the flowers, I nearly burst into tears. He did that all for me, extra work for himself when already the burden of keeping both of us alive fell on him every day. He didn’t care, though. He wanted me to feel safe and welcome. He wanted me to feel at home. I wasn’t sure he even realized how much it meant to me. I made sure to show him later when I gave him his first blow job.

Best of all, he encouraged me to listen more. I was not a patient person, but because of Drak, I trained my ears until I could hear a pivar pack in the distance or the sound of an antella chewing berries.

In return for all he did for me, I tried to improve the quality of his life. Not to pass judgement, but Drak’s mental health was in the shitter. These aliens had zero concept of self-care. I couldn’t exactly give him a facial or anything, but I diligently braided his hair, which had an interesting texture that held braids well—if they were woven tight enough. Good for him, I’d braided my own and my sisters’ since I was a kid.

I brightened up his meals with flowers. I smiled at him and touched him often, because he still seemed surprised every time I offered him physical affection. And most of all, I sang. I wasn’t the best singer—no one ever told me to try out for American Idol or anything—but I was passable, and I liked to sing. Around Drak, I could belt out all the songs I usually saved for the privacy of the shower, and he would do that purring thing or stroke my hair. He’d close his eyes, and his aura would settle.

Whatever he used to splint my leg had some special powers, because my ankle most definitely healed faster than it would have back on Earth. Each day, he diligently splinted, wrapped, and mudded it. Until one day, he only wrapped it with a thick leaf like a jungle Ace bandage. That was when I finally placed some weight on it to find that while I needed a makeshift cane, I could finally walk on my own with only a slight limp.

Oh, and we had sex. Like a lot. As in, his head stayed between my thighs for a ridiculous amount of time. My sex drive was through the roof. All he had to do was stand there and I was ready to hop on that big cock. I was hypnotized by alien dick, and it was ridiculous. I knew it was, but that didn’t seem to stop me from stripping him out of his worn pants every chance I could get.

So, I let myself make believe this was my new life. As much as I wanted to get back to my girls, I also couldn’t pull myself away from what felt like a weird fairytale.

We couldn’t even talk to each other, but our auras let us know what the other was feeling, which took away my perpetual skepticism of the male species. On Earth, I had always second-guessed what a man told me, worried he was lying, but Drak didn’t lie. It had nothing to do with the fact he couldn’t speak—he was just so damn honest about his actions. His aura always matched his posture. If he was angry or frustrated, he’d make short, quick movements with flared nostrils and eyes black as night. If he was happy, his eyes swirled a light violet. And if he was horny… Well, the tell-tale bulge was hard to miss.

I’d been so determined not to be tied to a mate, but my Drak was special. He was kind and gentle and never once made me feel like a burden to his solitary way of life. I ached to know his history. The Drixonians were a pack race—I’d been told many times being alone was a death sentence to them. How long had Drak been on his own?

One evening, as the sun set, we sat at the hot spring, me on a rock and Drak with his back to me, wide shoulders between my legs. His eyes were closed as he rested the back of his head on my chest. It was rare his big body remained still for any length of time, but I knew from experience he was listening to every sound around us in case of predators. And now I was too.

I could walk without a cane now, and I’d even jogged a short distance. I’d told myself tomorrow I’d need to communicate with Drak we had to take a little trip. I couldn’t let my girls think I was dead, and Drak should be with other warriors. But I worried about him—would he acclimate to a clavas? What about his flashbacks? I felt caught between my loyalty to Drak and my love for my girls. The problem was, I had no idea how to get back to the Night Kings. I just knew I had to try.

I hadn’t been able to eat much that day, my mind constantly spinning different scenarios so my anxiety had ratcheted up to insane levels. Drak noticed, of course he did, which was why he’d brought me to the hot spring. Other than the roof, this was my favorite place.

We’d just finished some fresh antella, and a little of the greasy fat remained. For the last few days, I’d been massaging this throat scar. I couldn’t tell if he didn’t talk because of the thick ridge of skin or if there was damage to his vocal cords. He could utter his name and make that purring sound, so he had some ability. The first time I touched some grease to his scar, he’d jerked away from my touch with wide panicked eyes. So, I’d sang and pulled him back against me. Trembling, he let me work the lubricant into the damaged skin.

Now, when I massaged the scar, he stretched his neck back further, giving me full access. His full lips parted, and his cheeks darkened with an aroused flush. This always happened too, the horny bastard.

I didn’t know if oiling the skin would do a damn thing, but I was willing to try. Not that I needed Drak to talk, but I did get the sense it frustrated him. He often moved his lips, and it took me a while to realize he was mouthing my name. My heart had skipped a few beats over that.

My mind was still on my girls, especially the pregnant ones—Val, Frankie, and Reba. I ached to see them, and I knew they were worried about me. We were a tight group, bonded by being forced into an unfathomable situation.

And Gar … he’d already lost his sister. Knowing him, he would have taken my disappearance personally. I let my hands fall away from Drak’s neck and wiped the remnants of the grease on the grass near us. Tears pricked my eyes. I’d already lost one family. I couldn’t lose my girls too.

* * *

Drak

Merr-anda’s bloom in my mind dulled and quivered. I whirled around, the qua splashing around my chest to find my beautiful mate with wetness coursing down her cheeks.

I gripped her face, terrified she was sick, just as she let out a low cry. I check her body for injuries, but she lightly gripped my hands and shook her head. As she nibbled her lip and looked down at her lap, it hit me. She was sad.

My arms flopped to my sides as I dipped lower into the water so I could peer up into her face. No, this wasn’t right. My beautiful cheerful mate who dined with blooms couldn’t be sad. Shouldn’t be sad. I’d known her mind had been crowded for a few rotations now, and I had brought her to the spring to make her happy. It hadn’t lasted long. If anything, she was sadder now than before.

I pressed a kiss to the inside of her knee, and she smiled at me as her wet eyes continued to leak. Her hand cupped my cheek, and I leaned into the touch because I liked it and I noticed she always did too.

But now, the action caused her to make that low cry again. I tried everything I could to make her happy, but maybe I wasn’t enough? Or maybe I wasn’t what she wanted at all. I’d tried to do everything in my power to please her—I’d hunted for her, given her safety and security. I’d pleasured her with my mouth daily.

Maybe that was what she wanted. I lowered my head to nuzzle between her legs, but she shook her head and gently pushed me away. Then she pointed toward the path behind us. “Hoam,” she said in her husky voice, which was the word I knew she’d given to my hut in the trees.

I pressed my lips to hers, and she allowed that, even as I delved my tongue inside her mouth to taste her. She moaned softly, and the wetness on her face touched my cheeks. When I drew back, I wiped her skin, and then mine. She smiled at me, and I wondered if there was something other than me that had upset her. But what else could it have been? There was only her and me. Us.

After dressing us both—I’d had to repair the shirt of hers I’d ripped—I led the way home, holding her hand as she remained silent behind me. Her thoughts were still chaotic, and they began to hurt my head.

Consumed by her dull bloom, and my own worries, I wasn’t paying attention like I should have been to the growing darkness of the forest. Luckily, I heard the crunch of leaves in enough time to duck, tucking my body around Merr-anda’s, just as a laser bullet pinged off a tree trunk over my head.

Merr-anda screamed, and I jerked to my feet, standing over her crouched form, just as a half-dozen large armored creatures emerged from the underbrush. The same species who’d hurt my mate.

“Kulks,” Merr-anda hissed from behind me.

The name knocked something loose in my head. I couldn’t remember who the Kulks were, but the word caused a hot flash of anger in my blood.

My lips pulled back into a snarl as I unleashed my machetes and claws. I pushed out all of the chaos, falling comfortably into the mindset of a warrior with a single-minded focus to protect me and mine. I knew they wanted Merr-anda, but they’d fail just like their fellow soldiers who’d tried to take her the first time.

I crossed my arms in front of my throat, an instinct I couldn’t remember learning, but my muscles nonetheless knew—an action as effortless as walking.

The sun had dipped below the horizon, and their solar guns would be useless soon without the ability to charge. Plus, their weapons were slow compared to the ones I had strapped at my lower back. One Kulk fired at me, and I dodged quickly before flinging a blade, catching him right in the throat where his armor belied a weakness. He let out a garbled shout of surprise before falling and clutching his neck.

An image flashed at me—my hands covered in blood and I knew that blood was my own. But I shook it loose, because now was not the time to get lost in memories. Another Kulk aimed for me but I tossed a blade into the eye-slits of his armor before rushing forward and finishing him off with a slice of my machets across his throat.

Four more Kulks remained standing. Two rushed at me while the other two lunged for Merr-anda. But my mate wasn’t helpless. I’d fashioned her a knife, and she brandished it now, slamming it to the hilt into one of the Kulk’s armor seams. He screamed and fell to one knee. I made a run for the other one, but a blow to the back of my head took me off my feet. I hit the ground face first, eating a mouthful of dirt before rolling onto my back and narrowly dodging a spiked ball on a chain as it slammed into the ground where my head had just been. Somewhere nearby, Merr-anda screamed. A body lay near me, the solar gun still clutched in his lifeless fingers. I grabbed it and lurched to my feet.

Two Kulks had a hold of my mate while another one swung the spiked ball over his head as a low growl rumbled from his chest place.

“Drak!” Merr-anda cried as she flailed in the Kulk’s grip. “Yore bleeden. Oh Gawd, yore hed!” Her pupils were blown, the whites of her eyes showing. “U mawtherfukerss,” she snarled at the Kulks. “Led meh goa!” One slammed his fist into her gut and then as she doubled over, he backhanded her to the face. The smack reverberated around the space and sent a bolt of adrenaline down my spine. Merr-anda coughed and spat a dark blob on the ground.

I didn’t feel pain. Liquid trickled down my back, but I ignored it. I lifted the gun and shot two laser bullets right into the eye-slits of the Kulks holding her. They dropped like stone. I turned on the last Kulk and swayed back just in time to avoid the spiked ball slamming into my face.

Somewhere in the distance, an orange fireball lit up the sky. Heat slammed into me. The remaining Kulk sneered. “There’s more of us coming. You’re already injured. Give up the human now and I’ll give you a quick death.”

Kulks traveled in units of twelve. I’d known from the beginning there’d be more to fight. I’d take them on too. I’d take on hundreds to protect Merr-anda.

I raised the solar gun and pressed the trigger. The gun clicked ineffectually. The Kulk laughed, a husky eerie sound as he advanced on me. “Stupid Drixonian.”

The word sliced into my skull, ripping through brain matter like a sharpened blade. I gasped as the night spun. The ground and sky and fire mixing into a frenzy of blurred images. Seething with anger and confusion, I tossed the gun to the side and dove at the Kulk in front of me. A painful blow slammed into my shoulder, but I didn’t stop as I slashed at the figure in front of me with both forearms, hacking away until I fell to the ground on top of a lifeless body. Only when I felt small hands tugging on biceps did I stop.

The Kulk lay below me, his armor bent and broken and his soft body inside sliced into ribbons. I fell back, panting, my vision coming into focus as I peered up into my mate’s bruised and bloody face.

That Kulk’s word had sent an arrow right through the wall of my mental protection and pierced at the bullseye of the truth. Some of it. I grasped for Merr-anda, who clung to me as her eyes leaked and that low cry fluttered from her swollen lips. Who I was sat in the back of my throat like a burr, and I longed to spit it out and hear that verbal truth spin in the air around me.

The crackling of fire drew my immediate attention. Merr-anda and I stumbled toward the hut, and as we drew closer, the reality of what I feared proved right. The Kulks had found my sanctuary, and they’d set fire to it. Merr-anda gasped when she saw the flames leap into the air. I could do nothing but watch helplessly as smoke poured from the home I’d made for myself when the last one had been purged from my mind.

Because I remembered now. I was a Drixonian. A legendary warrior. And my home was with the Night Kings. I wasn’t welcome there. I couldn’t remember why, but I knew with certainty that they wouldn’t allow me inside. However, they would help Merr-anda though. This I knew. The male I’d seen in the forest those many rotations ago had been a Night King, and he’d had a human female with him. They’d protect Merr-anda from the Kulks, which was a mission I’d failed to do. The Kulks had hurt her, made her bleed. Twice. I didn’t deserve her anymore.

The light of the fire highlighted the wet tracks on Merr-anda’s face. Her shoulders shook, and her palm covered her mouth as she stared at the fire with wide eyes. “Yerr hoam,” she cried as she turned to me. “O Drak, um sew sorree.”

The Kulks would be lurking near the fire, waiting for us to return. While I longed for their blood, to make them pay for lighting Merr-anda’s pretty blooms on fire and turning the roof to ash where I’d first entered her body, I couldn’t risk Merr-anda getting hurt. I turned away, gripping her hand, and tugged her away from the fire. She tripped over a root, and I realized she was favoring her leg again.

I picked her up, ignoring the pain lancing through my shoulder. “Yerr erm,” she said, and when she touched my skin, it came away sticky with black blood.

Shaking my head, I trudged forward. My feet knew the way, even if my mind wasn’t sure. My instincts took over as I traveled to the last place I wanted to go. But my feelings didn’t matter, not on this. Protecting Merr-anda from the Kulks after her was the most important, and if I had to walk through fire to do it, I would.

I walked while the stars overhead twinkled, until Merr-anda fell asleep in my arms, and still I kept going for many yoras until every step was agony.

My ears were ringing from the blow I’d received while fighting with the Kulks, but I still heard the heavy footfalls of several large figures just as they emerged from the dense forest. They were all Drixonian, like me, with their machets out. One stepped forward, his hair a shining blue, black, and silver. A ring was pierced through his septum.

This was Daz, the drexel of the Night Kings. The one who forced me out. I scanned my fragments of memories, but I knew he wasn’t the one who betrayed me. Neither were the warriors standing behind him as their identities came back to me—his brother Sax, and the two warrior brothers Gar and Ward. The latter held a length of chain in his fist.

For a moment, no one moved. I remained in shadow with Merr-anda a curled ball in my arms. One more step and I’d enter a patch of moonlight. I’d reveal the most precious thing in my life. In any of our lives. The phrase She is all wove through my brain like a growing vine. Where had I heard that before? It meant something.

My muscles tensed, eager to run away, to forget this mission and carry Merr-anda deeper into the forest so I could keep her for myself. But that wouldn’t be what was best for her. I had no shelter for her, and Kulks would be combing the woods looking for her. I needed Daz and his protection, even if it cost me my life. I lifted my chin, calling on all the dignity I had left, and stepped into the moonlight.

Gar sucked in a breath and on a roar charged me. I turned to protect Merr-anda, but my movements were sluggish, my lifeblood staining the dirt where I stood. She was ripped from my arms just as a blow slammed into my legs from behind. I fell to my knees, helpless to do anything but watch Gar carry my mate away from me. Chains lashed around my chest, wrenching my hands behind my back.

Daz stood above me, blotting out the moonlight, as he pressed a spear over my rapidly beating cora.

He snarled down at me like a beast. The spear tip pressed into my flesh. “Tell me in less than ten words why I shouldn’t strike you dead right now.”

Eight

Miranda

I came awake to shouting. I was jostled, and for a moment I was airborne. I flailed, and I jerked open my one good eyelid. The first thing I saw was Gar’s angry—no livid—face.

“Gar?” I was dreaming, I had to be, except his name came out garbled and my jaw hurt so badly I could barely open my mouth.

Suddenly, I was moved again, and Sax cradled me in his arms, his usual kind eyes now hard and laser-focused on something behind me. I tried to twist, but my ribs screamed, and I cried out in pain. A growl echoed in the darkness, following by a meaty thump.

“Don’t. Move.” That was Daz’s voice, but his tone was one I’d never heard before, laced with an unspoken threat.

“Please,” I mumbled to Sax. “Where’s Drak?”

His brows lowered, and he blinked at me. “Drak?”

I ignored the pain shooting daggers into my side and struggled in Sax’s arms. He finally lowered me, so my feet touched the ground. I whirled around and gasped. Drak knelt on the ground, a chain wrapped around his torso binding his hands behind his back. Daz stood above him, a spear aimed at his neck. My heart sank into the dirt with a thud.

Drak’s eyes were blank. With his head bowed, the wound at the back of his skull where the Kulk had struck him with the spike ball bled profusely, dripping down his face. The injury to his shoulder looked mangled like raw meat.

Drak’s aura was… something else. A large gap had appeared in the center like a heavy curtain had parted and beyond was a swirl of orange and yellow that raged and flashed. He’d had a flashback when the Kulk had called him a Drixonian, like the word jogged something loose. This whole time, had he not known what he was? If only I’d uttered Drixonian once in all the time we’d been together…

“Your betrayal of our race never ends. Now you harm a female? Daz should have killed you when he had the chance,” Gar growled with a tremble of rage in his words as he advanced on Drak. “We won’t make the same mistake again.”

“No!” I cried and rushed to Drak’s side. I didn’t get far. Gar’s arms wrapped around me and hauled me back. I screamed as he squeezed my ribs, and Drak went wild. He surged up to his feet only to be smacked back down by the flat edge of Daz’s spear. Blood gushed anew on his scalp, coursing down into his eyes to drip from his chin. I bucked in Gar’s hold. “Don’t hurt him, Daz!” I managed to shout from my swollen jaw. “He’s my mate. Look at our wrists!”

Daz turned furious eyes to Drak. “You beat your mate?”

“The Kulks did this!” I cried as my body bucked with sobs. “They attacked us and burnt Drak’s home and he’s trying to get us to safety.”

Daz went still, until only his head swiveled to face me. “What?”

I wasn’t a crier, but I couldn’t seem to stop the sobs from ripping out of my throat. This was so fucked up. My face hurt like a motherfucker, my ankle screamed in pain, and all I could taste was the iron of my own blood. I could only see out of one eye, and I couldn’t imagine what Drak and I looked like right now. My body shook from pain and fear and fatigue. “Drak would never hurt me.”

“Miranda, we saw him carrying your prone body through Nero’s eyes. When we confronted him, he said nothing—”

“Because he can’t talk!” I cried. “Look at his throat.” I inhaled sharply before getting myself under control. I pushed against Gar’s hold as I looked Daz straight in the eye. “He’s my mate, and I swear to God if you hurt him, I’ll launch myself off the cliff. Frankie would never forgive you.”

Daz’s nostrils flared. “He’s a traitor. We cast him out over fifteen cycles ago.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Well, people can change. It’s been fifteen fucking years.”

“Daz,” Ward spoke up. “He did save Reba and I from the hunner swarm.”

Daz’s chest heaved, and he watched me for a long time before looking over my shoulder, his gaze skimming each of his warriors in attendance—Gar, Ward, and Sax.

Finally, he dropped the spear at his side, and gestured to Ward. “Get him up. We’ll take them back and deal with this in the morning. Miranda needs to see Val for her wounds.”

“Drak’s in worse shape than me,” I said as Ward gathered Drak’s chain in his hands and tugged him to his feet. He swayed, and I wanted more than anything to wrap my arms around him.

“We won’t waste medis on—”

“Daz, if you finish that sentence, I’m going to grab that spear and gut you.”

He rolled his eyes to the sky and sighed heavily with his hands on his hips. Finally, he met my gaze. “Fine, we will treat his wounds, but he will be locked up until tonight.”

“Locked up!”

“That’s final, Miranda. I won’t put the whole clavas at risk on your single opinion.”

I wanted to stomp my feet and rage, but I had to pick my battles. My priority was getting Drak medical attention because he’d lost a lot of blood. It had pooled on the ground where he knelt, leaving behind a black spot that shone in the moonlight.

I let myself be led toward the Night Kings compound, watching Drak’s stumbling steps. My ribs screamed, my face throbbed, but nothing ached as bad as my heart.

His hut. I knew he’d built it with his own hands, because I’d seen him repairing it a time or two with the same materials. We’d eaten in the safety of the structure. We’d made love on the roof. He’d said his name in my arms while the stars twinkled above us. Another sob threatened to leave my lips and I stuffed it down. It wasn’t the time to have a mental break. Was Drak okay with watching his home go up in flames? The only home he had?

Earlier I’d been so worried about getting back to see my girls, and now that felt like a dream. My priority now was staying alive and seeing to Drak. I would help him rebuild. No way would I leave him when I was the reason his only home was now drifting to the forest floor in a pile of ash.

“Oh Drak,” I muttered.

His black eyes flicked to me before his jaw clenched and he trudged on, bound with chains like an animal.

* * *

Drak

I hadn’t understood everything that had happened in the forest. Miranda’s words were still gibberish to me, but from Daz’s response, she had fought for me. My brave, amazing female. My mate.

I could understand why the Night Kings thought I’d injured her. She’d been unconscious in my arms as I’d carried her to the compound. I wished I could remember what I’d done that they didn’t trust me. It had to have been unforgivable. Bits and pieces were coming back. I’d been friends once with Ward. But now he held the chain keeping me captive in one giant fist and didn’t make eye contact with me once. He’d known it was me who’d saved him from the hunner horde. It’d been my name he said. I knew that now. Drak.

When we reached the gates, they opened, and I was led inside directly to a sparse hut. There stood a healer and a female with light skin and yellow hair. She had kind eyes, and I liked her immediately as she placed gentle hands on my arm and led me to a fur pallet on the floor.

I had just sat down on the edge when Merr-anda burst through the door and threw herself at me. With my arms still tied around my back, all I could do was lean into her. I closed my eyes, relishing her warmth and touch. I’d gone without company for so long, but now that I knew what it felt like to fall asleep next to Merr-anda, I couldn’t imagine life without it.

I’d been prepared to deal with it though. When I delivered her to the Night Kings, I’d known they could potentially separate us and turn me away. I would have lived without her if it meant she got to live.

She shook as she burrowed her face in my neck. Ward remained stoic at my side, his hand loosely holding the end of my chain restraint. The yellow-haired female spoke to me in the same lilting language that Merr-anda spoke, but I shook my head to indicate I couldn’t understand her. She frowned, and then turned to say a few words to Sax. While her expression remained calm, her tone and look were firm. With a heavy sigh, he left, and returned a moment later with a gun-looking object. I flinched as he held it up to my ear. A bolt of warmth spread throughout my skull and when it was over, I blinked up at Sax in confusion.

“Done,” he muttered.

Merr-anda yanked her head back, eyes on the gun-like object. “Did you update his implant?”

I jolted in her arms, and she whirled to face me, eyes huge and round. “Can you understand me?” I nodded and she threw herself at me again, gripping the back of my head as she wet my shoulder with her eyes.

“Merr-anda,” the yellow-haired human said with a tap on my mate’s shoulder. With a sniffle, my mate rose and hugged the other human. The two females clung to each other for some time. “I’m so glad you made it back to us,” she said. “We were so worried. The men searched for you every day…”

“I was safe,” Merr-anda wiped at her face with a cloth the other human handed her. “I was safe thanks to Drak.”

The yellow-haired human turned to me. “Hi, I’m Val, Sax’s mate” she said.

“You can trust her.” Merr-anda perched on the bed next to me. “She’s a ners. Well, a healer.”

“You need to untie him,” Val said to Ward.

“Daz said—”

“I know what Daz said,” she said. “You and Sax can stand guard if you’d like, but I cannot check all his injuries with his arms tied behind his back. This is ridiculous.”

“He won’t hurt anyone,” Merr-anda insisted, swiping at my face with her cloth. The white fabric came away black and green with blood and dirt.

With muttered curses, Ward unlocked my bonds. My arms came away free, and I slumped on the pallet, the room spinning as the blood in my body rushed back to my limbs and torso.

“Help him lay down!” Val called out, and strong hands lowered me to my back.

Ward bent over me, his gaze searching my eyes. I flashed back to another time, us in battle against a foe. We stood side by side. Machets out. Arms crossed. Battle formation.

I blinked, and his jaw clenched. He moved away before I could read any more from his eyes. Val returned in my vision, but I shook my head, pointing to Merr-anda. She needed treated first. I would live. But my human mate was fragile with thin skin. Small breakable limbs.

Val gave me a soft smile, and I liked her, especially when she did exactly what I wanted and worked on Merr-anda’s wounds. I must have drifted off, because I came to with a non-bruised Merr-anda smiling down at me while Val poked and prodded me. A few needle pricks later, and my scalp itched as well as my shoulder. I glanced down at my wounds to see them sealing shut.

I tried to lift my head, but it felt heavy, too heavy. My cora beat faster as I began to panic. Had they tied me down again?

“What’s wrong?” Merr-anda asked, fussing over me. “Why’s he upset?”

“These guys won’t rest unless we knock them out,” Val said to Merr-anda. “I gave him something to force him to sleep. He’s probably fighting sleep. They always do.”

“It’ll be okay,” Merr-anda petted me, her hands warm on my chest. “Just focus on resting. We’ll worry about everything else later. I’ll be right by your side. I promise.”

She was perfection, more than I could ever deserve in my life. My eyes weren’t focusing, and my body felt fuzzy, like I was floating on a cloud. With the last bit of energy I had, I reached for Merr-anda’s hand and placed it on my throat. I’d been working on this at night after she fell asleep. My last effort before I let sleep consume me was to say in a scratchy, halting tone, “Merr-anda.”

Nine

Miranda

I was not going to cry again. I refused. But nothing had ever felt quite like my palm vibrating with Drak’s broken, “Merr-anda.”

Val didn’t speak, and neither did Sax or Ward. We sat there in silence as Drak’s breathing evened out and his arms flopped to his sides. I kept my hand on his throat, comforted in the pounding of his pulse and the echoing vibration of my name. Thank fuck for medis because I felt no pain. Even my ankle seemed good as new.

We weren’t in the healer’s hut. This one was empty except for a cleanser in the corner and the fur palette on the floor. No windows except for a barred hole in the ceiling. A prison hut.

I’d moved from sad and scared to downright fucking mad. I whirled on Sax and Ward. “How dare you? How fucking dare you!”

“Miranda—” Val began in her soothing tone.

“Do not use your nurse tone on me right now, Val,” I snapped. “I love you, but not right now. Not while my mate was marched in here in chains like a criminal.”

“He is a criminal,” Ward said. “The only reason we didn’t turn him away is because you pleaded for him. I understand your anger, but be mindful, Miranda, we are making concessions.” He waved a hand around the hut. “This is a concession.”

I gritted my teeth. I wanted to argue more but I also knew I’d get nowhere. Not tonight They’d given him medis and a bed. I’d fight for more tomorrow. I ran my fingers over the hard planes of Drak’s face.

Despite the late hour, the silence was broken by the sound of feet slapping the ground outside before the hut was filled with a gaggle of women. Reba, Tabitha, Justine, a pregnant Frankie, and last but not least Naomi. With Drak safe and resting, I relished in my homecoming and threw myself at them. All the pregnant ladies were crying, along with Tabitha. Justine was yelling about never allowing me to leave the walls again. Meanwhile Naomi clung to me, her face buried into my side like she wanted to live in my skin.

“I missed you all,” I said. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“What happened?” Justine was still on a rant. Her emotions almost always manifested themselves in anger. “Why the hell did you run away from Gar and Crius?”

“I didn’t run away…” I sighed. “I’ll explain tomorrow. Right now, I just wanted to hug you all and hear how my baby mommas are doing.”

“Terrible!” Frankie wailed. “Aunt Miranda was off gallivanting in the forest finding a mate while I’m growing a baby with horns!”

I rolled my eyes. “I was not gallivanting.”

“You’re like the solid rock we all pivot around,” Naomi said in her soft voice at my side. “Without you, we flailed in orbit.”

“That’s pretty poetic,” Justine said with a sniffle. “But accurate.”

“They’re not lying.” Frankie poked me in the side. “The guys here might love me, but they don’t listen to me like they do when you crack the whip.”

I laughed, remembering all the shenanigans some of the warriors got into, like when a bunch tricked a younger warrior into sticking his head between two wooden slats of fencing and then scattered when he’d gotten stuck.

We hugged and talked some more. But eventually the girls grew tired as it was the middle of the night. They left after I promised to explain what had happened while I was gone. Frankie remained behind with Val.

“And now,” she reached for my hand and examined my loks. “You’re mated, Miss I Don’t Need a Man.”

I yanked my hand back. “I still don’t need one.” I glanced back at Drak as he twitched in his sleep. “But I do want this one.”

“Miranda,” Frankie whispered.

“He’s good, Frank,” I pleaded to her and Val, ignoring the piercing looks of the warriors in the room. “When he’s himself again, he’ll show you. He’s kind and gentle. I don’t know what happened all those cycles ago, but he’s a good warrior. Strong and resourceful.”

Frankie looked me right in the eye and said the three words I hadn’t realized I’d wanted to hear. “I believe you.”

I held back the tears that threatened and whispered a broken, “Thank you.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow,” Frankie said. “Get some rest. Don’t worry about anything. Daz has the last word, but I’m his mate and I’m carrying his child. If anyone has his ear, it’s me.”

“I love you, Frankie.”

She pressed a kiss to my cheek and smiled. “I love you, too.” With a flourish, she tightened her wrap around her bulging belly and walked out.

“Come on, Val,” Sax said. “Time to get some rest.”

Val gave me one long look and turned to leave.

“Val,” I called out.

She looked at me over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

She smiled. “No need to apologize. I know what it’s like to desperately want to protect your mate.” With a nod, she left.

Ward gave me one final long look and walked out. He shut the door, and I heard him slide a bolt across, locking us in.

I glared at the door for a while until I swayed on my feet. I needed to sleep too, so I curled up next to Drak’s big body and finally let myself drift off.

* * *

Drak

My mind churned with images, sounds, and visions. I didn’t know what was a dream and what was memory. I felt my pulse pounding in my ears and opened my eyes on a gasp to stare not at the stars but at an unfamiliar ceiling. The sun’s first rays of the rotation beamed through a barred window in the room, and I frowned at it.

Merr-anda!

I jolted to a sitting position, ready to slay the world to find her, only to realize she was curled in a ball with her back to me, asleep.

I winced, kneading my temples as I sought to remember what happened last night, and where I was. Spotting a jug of qua near the door, I stumbled from the bed to retrieve it. I chugged the cool liquid as the memories returned. Fighting the Kulks. My injuries. Remembering the Night Kings would protect Merr-anda. A yellow-haired female who’d healed me as Merr-anda raged for the chains restraining me to be removed.

I was in the Night Kings compound, and while they allowed me in their walls, they didn’t trust me yet. I scratched my head, wishing I could remember what I’d done to be forced out. Exiled. Shunned.

Why couldn’t I remember?

“Drak?” Came a groggy voice from behind me.

I whirled around to see Merr-anda blinking at me. I rushed to her side, running my hands over her face. I’d requested the healer tend to her first, but I wanted to make sure myself her injuries were taken care of.

“I’m okay,” she said, and I marveled again at how amazing it was I could understand her. “Val is a good healer, and your medis is some powerful stuff. We don’t have anything like that on Earth.”

I nodded, not sure of all her words. Medis sounded familiar. Ah, that was what the healer had filled the needle with before she jabbed it into my shoulder. I glanced at the spot of the former injury, playing my fingers over the scales there that were good as new.

“Hey,” Miranda’s fingers brushed my jaw. Her gaze roamed my face, lingering on my throat scar before meeting my eyes. “Now that we can finally communicate, I have some questions, okay? I’ll try to make them yes or no.”

I nodded, urging her to go ahead.

She smiled. “When we first met, did you know your name?”

I shook my head, and she sucked in a breath. She licked her lips and swallowed. “Okay, that’s what I thought. You remembered that night you said your name on the roof, right?”

I nodded.

“Was that… the first memory you had in a while?”

I nodded again.

“When the Kulk called you a Drixonian, that made you remember something, didn’t it?”

I gestured around us to indicate I’d remembered I was a Night King.

“Okay so you remembered you were a part of this clavas.” She reached for me, her touch gentle but her words direct. “Do you remember why you were forced to leave?”

I shook my head. My skin felt too tight, and I forced down the agitation. I didn’t know. I didn’t know, and it pissed me the fleck off. What had happened? How dishonorable was I? When Merr-anda found out, would she send me away?

Her fingers combed through my hair. “Hey, hey, calm down. It’s okay.”

I forced myself to calm. I’d been panting with my fists clenched.

“I believe you, Drak. I believe that you don’t remember. And I also believe that whatever you did, you’re not that person anymore, okay?”

Wasn’t I? What if I was?

“Drak, it’s me. Merr-anda.” She pressed a kiss to my nose. My forehead. Each cheek. “Don’t worry about all of that yet. Right now, it’s just you and me. Just us.”

Just us. Like before. We didn’t have my hut or roof anymore, but that didn’t matter. We could pretend. She was my mate, and I was hers. No matter what this rotation held, or the next, or the one after, I’d always, always belong to her. My cora beat for her.

I kissed her, rolling us so she lay on her back, looking up at me with those deep brown eyes that comforted me like nothing before. Her hands smoothed down my arms, and her lips tilted up into that coy smile she always gave me before I took her. She liked my tongue and my cock, and I didn’t like a day to go by where I didn’t pleasure her with one. Both was better.

I kissed her, delving my tongue deep to taste her. She moaned and spread her legs, calves rising to press against my hips. I settled between them swiping her tongue with mine one last time before pulling back.

She stared up at me, her mouth wet from my attentions. “Drak,” she murmured.

I slid down her body, tugging off our clothes as I went. I hated them. When we’d been alone, we often went without in my hut. I loved seeing the way her large breasts swayed when she walked, and it’d been easy to slip my tongue between her legs whenever I wanted a taste of her.

When she was bared to me, I studied her sweet cunt with its dark curls. With my claws completely retracted, I spread her folds and slid my tongue from her entrance to her clit.

She arched her back and gripped my hair, tugging fiercely with a growly moan that made my cock ache every time. I ate at her, nipping slightly and swirling the balls pierced into my tongue around her sensitive flesh. Her heels dug into my back and her body shook as I pleasured her with my mouth.

I wanted to spear her with my cock, so I concentrated on her hard bud, sucking hard until she came with a trembling cry. I rose above my mate, licking her juices off my lips and chin before placing the tip of my cock at her entrance and surging inside.

Her neck arched and she hissed out a “yessssss,” as I plunged into her, a knee on the bed so I stroked her at the perfect angle, the one I’d perfected after getting to know her body so well.

She clung to my shoulders, eyes staring into mine, body jolted with each of my thrusts. I pounded her sweet body, wishing I could tell her how much she meant to me, how I’d kill for her and die for her. That she was the reason I remembered my own flecking name.

But I couldn’t. All I could do was grab her palm and place it around my throat. Her eyes widened as I chanted her name with each rut of my hips. “Merr. Anda. Merr. Anda. Merr. Anda.”

She blinked rapidly, and her lips parted. I kissed her, pouring everything I had into that kiss just as I came, releasing myself into her. My arms shook, and I fell to the side of her, keeping us connected as I liked to do, as she panted beside me.

Her palm remained on my throat. “Merr. Anda.” I whispered.

A single tear slid down the side of her face, and I licked it away.

Ten

Miranda

I loved him. Which was a total mindfuck. I went from Independent Woman to Devoted Mate in a matter of weeks. In the back of my mind, I had to admit to myself I’d thought the other women emotionally weaker for falling for these big blue guys. Despite the whole mate and loks thing, I figured they still just went along with it when I would have fought it.

And now look at me. Not fighting it at all. Hell, I would fight this whole clavas for Drak, and that terrified me. What if they refused to accept him? What would I do? I loved my girls, but I also couldn’t imagine being without Drak. He was the reason I felt I could win a hypothetical Survivor: Planet Torin television series. In the past, I’d either dated men who wanted to dominate me or who wanted me to be their second mom. I was never about any of that.

But Drak was my partner. My teammate. He lay beside me with his violet eyes swirling and my palm tingling from the rasp of my name on his tongue. I believed in my heart he was good. I would get to the bottom of why he was sent away and use every single courtroom skill I had to convince Daz to let Drak stay.

No one on this planet had met Miranda Glennon, defense attorney for the prestigious Michaels and Paulson law firm, but they were about to.

Silence was our norm, but now he could understand me, I found myself wanting to fill the silence. So, I did. I told him about how I was taken from Earth by the Rahguls and plopped on this planet like livestock. I explained how Daz and his males had been supposed to deliver us to the Uldani in exchange for Sax, who they had imprisoned. But Daz had no intention of ever handing us over to the Uldani. Sax ended up getting free on his own with Val, and we’d been living in these walls ever since.

“I went out with Gar and another male to learn some hunting techniques. We got separated and that was when the Kulks grabbed me. And you rescued me.”

He tried to say a word, his neck strained, and he grew frustrated when no sound came out. I wasn’t a lip reader, but I tried. “Are you saying safe?”

He nodded, then pointed at me, and the floor of the hut. He licked his lips and tried again. “Merr-anda. Safe. Here.” His last word was a toneless rasp. I jerked upright and placed my hand over my throat. “Your words! Does it hurt to speak? You don’t have to. We did fine before.”

He swallowed and rolled his jaw. Then he gave me a sharp nod.

“Don’t push it,” I said. “If you want to talk, we can work on it. Practice every day. But not unless you’re up for it. Okay?”

He sat up and crossed his legs in front of him. He grabbed my hand and placed it on his throat. The scarred ridge rasped against my palm. He took a few deep breaths before saying, “Try.”

The light behind his aura shone determinedly, cutting through the thin layer of smoke.

“Okay, say your name.”

“Drak.”

“Say mine.”

“Merr-anda.”

“Say what you are.”

He didn’t answer, and his aura dimmed. He looked away from me, and the sadness in the downturn of his mouth made my heart skip.

“Drak, listen to me. You’re a Drixonian warrior.”

He blinked rapidly, his gaze still on the far wall.

“Say it,” I said.

Nothing.

This wasn’t okay. He didn’t need to speak for me, but he did need to stand up for himself, no, be proud of who he was. I refused to let him be ashamed of something he couldn’t even remember. I squeezed his throat and leaned closer. “Say it now, Drak. For me.”

Finally, his gaze swung to me. And though his aura trembled with anger and resentment, he opened his mouth and said in halting, broken syllables. “Drix—nian war—or.”

I rubbed my thumb along his scar. “Yes, you are. Remember that. Okay?”

“You,” he uttered as he tugged me into his lap. I straddled his hips as he nuzzled my cheek before resting his lips near my ear. “You … are … mah … light.”

I hugged him, loving the strength with which he held me in his arms. His tight embrace said more than words, but I had to admit it’d been damn nice to hear his words too. I was his light. No man in my life had ever said anything to me like that. I combed my fingers through his hair. “And you are mine.”

The door flung open and Drak stiffened, tossing me onto my back and throwing a fur up to my neck. I yelped with surprise. He rose out of the bed with a growl, machets out, unconcerned with his nakedness as a warrior filled the doorframe.

“Miranda!” Gar’s voice called from the outside. “Where are you?”

“I’m here!” I struggled to stand up and tripped over the fur wrapped around my body. I stumbled into Drak’s back and one of his bone blades nicked me in the hip. “Ouch!” I whimpered as the blade sliced through my skin like a sharpened knife.

I realized my mistake a second too late. Our only warning was a growl as bodies rushed into the room. Gar came at Drak with his fists out, but Drak was ready for him, clocking him in the jaw with a solid punch. Gar didn’t even flinch and slashed his claws across Drak’s chest. The scent of blood filled the air.

“Stop!” I screamed. The fur covering forgotten, I threw myself in front of Drak.

Gar pulled his punch at the last second, which was good because one of his blows would have caved in my face. He reared back with wide eyes and flared nostrils.

He stared at my nude body, gaze coming to rest on the cut marring my hip. “You’re injured.”

“I’m fine,” I barked at him. “When you guys ran in here without knocking, Drak rose to defend me on instinct. I jumped up and ran into one of his back spikes.”

Drak’s form at my back shifted, and his fingers ghosted over my hip. Retracting his machets quickly, he gathered me in his arms and sat on the pallet with me. He pressed a kiss to my cheek and vibrated his chest, seeking to soothe me. His expression was apologetic, and I patted his chest. “It’s fine. An accident. See? It’s already clotting.”

I turned a glare to Gar, who stood with Ward and Daz at his back. “Is it too much to ask to get in a quick turn with the cleanser and dressed first, and then you can barge in when we’re finished?”

“I’m sorry,” Gar began. “I—”

“You jumped to conclusions. Yes. I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but I promise Drak will not slice and dice me.”

Gar heaved a large breath and then turned and walked out the door. Ward followed him. Daz remained, a conflicted look on his face. “Knock when you’re dressed,” he said. “We have a lot to discuss today.”

“That we do, drexel,” I said.

His lips thinned when I used his title. It was honorific and respectful, but it also showed I meant business. With a nod, he turned on his heel and closed the door behind him.

Drak watched him go, his aura shimmering and thinning into a barely there mist. I touched his face, and his gaze shifted to me. His eyes looked haunted. He shook his head and handed me my clothes before pulling on his single pair of pants. It was the only possession he had, and that thought nearly killed me.

Today was going to be a battle.

* * *

Miranda

I felt like we were on a perp walk. I strode next to Drak, who held his head high as we were led by Daz, Ward, Gar, and Sax to the dining hall. Members of the clavas watched, keeping their distance like we were diseased. At least they hadn’t chained Drak.

The girls stood huddled together in front of the dining hall. Frankie looked absolutely livid as she glared daggers at Daz. I gave her a brave smile to let her know I was okay. My heart warred with my head. As a lawyer, I understood Daz’s need to sit down and hear the full story. As a woman in love, I hated every minute of it.

As we entered the dining hall and made our way back to the sacred meeting room of the head of the Night Kings, I wondered if it would be the last time I’d be welcome inside these walls.

We filed inside, where Xavy and Nero waited for us. Nero’s expression remained calm and impassive as always, while Xavy’s jaw was clenched and his leg bounced in agitation. He gave me a brief nod, and I saw the sympathy there. For such a joker and wicked warrior, he was a very empathetic guy. I knew he hated this almost as much as I did.

Drak and I sat at one end of the long table while Daz sat at the other. The rest of the males took their seats along the sides. Daz sat with his hands folded on the table, eyes on me. “I know you’re angry with me, Miranda. And I’m sorry.”

“I’m not angry with you,” I said. “I’m very frustrated over the situation. I get it, but that doesn’t change how I feel.”

His lips twitched into an almost smile. “Frankie is less understanding.”

“Frankie runs on pure emotion,” I said.

“And you don’t?”

“I do, but I also understand order, and your position as the leader here. So, let’s start talking. The sooner we do that, the closer Drak and I will be finding out where our future lies.”

Daz’s jaw clenched. “You will always be welcome here.”

I scoffed and held up my wrists, loks on display. “He’s my mate. Where I go, he goes.”

He sighed heavily and glanced at his brother before speaking again. “I need you to explain what happened the day you went hunting with Gar.”

I nodded. “Everything was going fine. Gar shot an antella, and he went to retrieve it and told me to wait with Crius.”

Drak’s body jolted, and he sucked in a breath as his gaze whipped to me. The mist of his aura kicked up, swirling into an angry tunnel.

“What?” I asked, placing my hand on his.

He blinked rapidly, and then shook his head, but his aura remained stormy.

“Go on,” Daz said.

“Uh.” I shot Drak another look, distracted by his reaction. “Uh, so when Gar was gone, Crius said that he’d noticed a welf burrow and he’d show it to me. I said I thought we should wait for Gar, and he said it would fine and that we’d only be gone a moment. So, he led me away. After a while, he nudged me in front of him, and told me to keep walking. I did, but I didn’t see any welf burrow. I turned around to ask him where it was, and he wasn’t there. Just… gone.”

Gar slammed his fists down on the table so hard, the legs creaked. I jerked at the sound. “The fleck you say!” he roared.

I stared, stunned at his reaction. “I’m sorry…” I glanced around the table, but no one would look at me. “Wait, what’s wrong?”

Gar paced the length of the room, fists clenched at his sides.

“Get him,” Daz said, flicking his fingers at Sax.

Sax stood swiftly and left the room.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Daz looked me square in the eye. “You’re telling the truth, Miranda?”

“Of course, I am. Why would I lie? When I realized I was alone, I panicked and heard someone walking toward me. I thought it was Crius returning, or Gar, but instead it was three Kulks.” I leaned forward, using my closing argument voice. “They grabbed me, hit me, and began carrying me off somewhere. Until Drak showed up. He killed them all, our loks appeared, and then he cared for my broken ankle for weeks until I could walk again.”

The door opened, and Crius strode inside, Sax at his back. “What’s this ab—?” He froze when he caught sight of me. Then his gaze swung to Drak.

Drak’s swirling aura spun faster and faster as he slowly rose to his full height. His eyes were black as pitch as he locked onto Crius like I’d seen him do to prey while hunting. The tornado of his aura exploded into a burst of smoke just as a blinding white light shone through like a savage spotlight.

A sound emerged from Drak’s throat that I would never forget as long as I lived. It was pained and ravaged, a growl that seemed to unleash from his very core. It ripped up his damaged throat and thundered around the room like hurricane.

That’s when he lunged. I’d never seen him move that fast. One second he was beside me and in the next he was on top of Crius, pummeling him with lightning-fast fists. Over and over he slammed his knuckles into Crius’s bloodied face until Ward hauled him off of the battered male.

But that didn’t matter. Drak broke from Ward and went at Crius again, the godawful sound still leaving his throat, like a rabid animal. Crius weakly defended himself from the punishing blows. I screamed for Drak to stop, and it took the strength of Ward, Gar, and Sax to pull Drak off Crius and hold him onto the ground. Still he fought. Still he made that sound that sent a sharp shard of ice down my spine.

Daz knelt by Crius and lifted his upper body. The beaten warrior moaned, his head limp against Daz’s chest.

“Fleck,” Daz muttered. “I wasn’t thinking about how Drak would feel seeing Crius.”

“What does that mean?” I demanded, standing up so fast, my chair crashed to the floor behind me. Drak thrashed on the floor at the sound.

Daz’s jaw clenched. “Crius was the one who saw Drak making a deal with the Uldani. He’s the reason he was cast out.”

Suddenly lightheaded, I stumbled. Xavy reached for me but I shoved him away. Drak making a deal with the Uldani?

“That can’t… that can’t be,” I said. “He killed at least nine Kulks for me. Why would he do that if he was working with them?”

Daz sighed. “I can’t answer that.”

A theory occurred to me. “But wait, was it only Crius who saw this deal?”

Daz sighed. “I know where you’re going with this. Miranda, Drak didn’t deny it.”

Drak lay panting on the floor, his eyes closed. I blinked at Daz. “He didn’t… What do you mean he didn’t deny it?”

“He and Crius fought, and he was injured. When we asked him what happened, he never spoke once in his defense.”

This didn’t make sense. None of it.

Crius moaned. He raised a hand to his face and opened his battered eyes. His gaze clashed with mine, and immediately his body went tense. For a moment, he didn’t speak, and then he said, “Miranda, we thought you were gone forever.”

Something was off. His words were careful and measured even as he spoke through a rapidly swelling jaw.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Why did you want him to come here?” I asked Daz.

He pulled Crius into a chair, and Crius groaned. “You’ll live,” Daz grumbled. “Answer our questions and then we’ll take you to get some medis.” He folded his hands on the table. “Tell us again what happened when Miranda went missing.”

Crius blinked, and cast his gaze around the table. Fear flickered in his eyes, and I went still. I knew a man about to lie when I saw one.

“She wanted to see a welf burrow. So, I led her there and while we were looking for it, something caught my attention. I looked away from her for a moment when I looked back, she was gone. I saw signs of a struggle—”

“Bullshit,” I spat.

Crius’s shoulders hunched, but he didn’t look at me. The coward refused to meet my gaze.

“You led me away from Gar when I told you I didn’t think it was a good idea. It was you who shoved me in front of you and told me to keep walking straight. And it was you who disappeared on me. I didn’t wander off. The struggle lasted a long time. There was no snatch and grab. They hit me in the face and stomach. I broke my ankle trying to defend myself. And it was Drak who killed them to save me.” I lifted my chin in the air and leveled Daz with a glare. I jabbed a finger in Crius’s direction. “He is lying.”

Daz held my gaze, and if I was someone else, I would have been wholly intimidated. His dark purple stare pierced me like a laser, dissecting my words and actions.

I held my breath, terrified he’d believe his warrior over me, when I knew something was wrong about Crius. If he lied about me, then he also could have lied about…

I looked at Drak. His eyes were no longer closed. He watched Crius closely. Gar stood now, and only Ward and Sax held Drak down. His big body was coiled, ready to strike. And I didn’t give anyone an ounce of warning about it.

“Crius,” Daz said in a firm, even tone. “I don’t believe you.”

Crius erupted into a sputtering mess. Gar crossed the room in one giant stride and slammed his fist down on the table in front of Crius. He snarled in the beaten male’s face. “She could have died or worse! I trusted you, and you betrayed me, this clavas, and our creed!”

“I’m not lying!” Crius shouted back, but his voice shook, and his eyes were wild, panicked. “She’s not remembering right. You’d actually believe a human female over me?”

“I absolutely would,” Gar shouted, spittle flying to mix with the dried blood on Crius’s face. “Especially Miranda.”

Drak made his move. With an almighty lunge, he broke free from Sax and Ward’s grip. But Gar was faster. He thrust his hand out, caught Drak around the neck and slammed him against the table.

“No!” I cried. Drak’s head thudded against the table with a sickening crack, and his body went limp.

Wrists burning white hot, all I could after that was scream.

Eleven

Drak

Low voices carried on the breeze, and I froze. I was outside the Night Kings territory, so past Nero’s eyes. Daz, our drexel, had asked us to start scouting past our borders because Nero had seen some suspicious activity in the distance in his eyes. None had been close enough to be distinguishable.

I crouched and crept forward, stepping carefully to avoid sound as the voices drew closer. The familiar sneer of the Uldani raised the machets on the back of my neck. What were the Uldani doing in the western hemisphere? They knew it was a death sentence to be caught here. I needed a full report to take back to Daz, so I peered through the underbrush.

“We need to know the Night Kings activities.” An Uldani official wearing an adorned jacket stood with another Uldani at his side, their backs to me. Nearby stood twelve Kulks.

“I promise I’ll have information,” said a familiar voice. “But you have to give me some time. I’m not on the council meetings, so I don’t hear everything that happens.”

I sucked in breath, barely able to believe what I was hearing. The Uldani shifted his weight, and there Crius stood, one of my warrior brothers, making a deal with the Uldani to find them a human female.

“Remember, you give us information, and we return the favor. Understand?”

Crius glared. “I understand.”

I ached to reveal myself, to tear apart those Kulks, slice the Uldani into pieces, and then shake Crius until he revealed why he would betray all of what we Drixonian warriors stood for. She is All.

I turned and crept back the way I came. Daz must be informed that Crius was a betrayer. We had never been close, Crius and I, but his willingness to work with the Uldani still cut me deep.

I heard them coming, but it didn’t matter. How they heard me was a mystery, as I was silent as night, but one minute I was picking my way through the forest and the next I was surrounded by Kulks. The Uldani stood in the distance. In front was Crius.

I didn’t say a word. There was nothing to say.

Crius shook his head, and while he looked pained, anger rose in his face, flushing his blue cheeks and igniting in his eyes. “You stupid bastard,” he spat. “You just had to scout beyond the territory today? Didn’t you?”

I didn’t answer.

“I know you heard us.”

I still didn’t say anything. I let my machets loose.

But it didn’t matter. With a shake of his head, he held his arms out at his sides and made a signal with his fingers. The Kulks descended on me. I took on a few, dispatching them easily, but I didn’t anticipate Crius. His fist slammed into my head, catching me off balance, and that was all it took for the swarm of Kulks to take over.

Blows rained down. My ribs, my chest, my shoulders, my head. A large metal boot rose above my face and slammed down on my temple. Pain exploded in my head. My thoughts went up in a fiery ball of flame and smoke, and then everything went black.

* * *

I came to with a gasp. My head pounded and my throat ached. I blinked up at the ceiling, memories slamming back into me in bits and pieces like a laser gun firing into my brain.

Beaten and bloody, my mind a fragmented mess. Daz questioning me. Crius explaining that I’d betrayed my clavas with the Kulks. Had I? I couldn’t remember. Why would I do that?

Daz casting me out. I walked through the forest without direction until I heard bootsteps behind me. I’d turned around, hoping it was Daz, or Sax, or Ward—anyone to tell me they’d made a mistake.

But it was Crius, backed by a few Uldani. Do it, they’d ordered him. Crius had clenched his jaw, regret flashing his eyes for a second before he lunged at me.

Still weak from my injuries, I fought as hard as I could, but he overpowered me long enough to slice his machets across my throat. You’ll never tell anyone the truth now.

Blood everywhere. Tainting the leaves. On my hands. Dripping down my chest to pool in the dirt.

After that, I let the smoke overtake my mind.

But now…I rolled my head to the side to see Miranda scrambling onto the table on her hands and knees, crawling toward me with wet streaks on her cheeks. The wall of smoke had cleared. A blinding light shone through. I remembered now. I remembered it all. And I’d never ever let anyone silence me again.

I sat up, and Gar tensed in front of me, but I only had eyes for Crius. “You,” I uttered in a broken rasp. Miranda went still at my side, as did everyone else in the room. “You…lied. You…talked to…Uldani. I…found you. You had me…beaten…so I couldn’t… remember.”

Crius didn’t move except for the pounding vein in his neck.

I rose slowly, and no one stopped me this time. “You…led Merr-anda…to Kulks. Didn’t you?”

Crius swung his gaze to Daz with a snarl. “He isn’t making sense! You casted him out fifteen cycles ago. He doesn’t deserve to have a voice at this table.”

“You… tried to take my voice!” I roared, the burn in my throat making me clutch my neck on a pained moan.

My knees buckled, but this time, Gar’s hand was there, not in aggression but for support. He kept me on my feet and watched me carefully, looking into my eyes just as my Merr-anda’s hands touched my shoulders.

“It hurts him to speak,” she said. “He couldn’t even say his name when we first met.”

“I … have to.” I said to her, cradling her face. “Rest … later. Truth now.”

Crius raged. “He nearly killed me, and now you’re going to let him—”

Gar smacked the back of his head so hard that his forehead slammed into the table.

He cried out.

“Shut up,” the big warrior growled. “You lied about what happened with Miranda, so we have to determine if you were telling the truth about Drak. I always wondered why he didn’t defend himself. I thought it was out of guilt.”

“He and the Kulks … beat me.” I said. “Couldn’t…” I shook my head. “Couldn’t … remember.”

“And now?” Daz asked.

I stood tall. “Now…I remember.”

Crius struggled to rise, and when Daz pressed on his shoulder to keep him sitting, Crius turned on him with his machets lifted. The warriors in the room went berserk as they placed their bodies between the attacker and their drexel. Raising your machets to the drexel was forbidden, an instant challenge.

Crius was cornered, and he knew it. Unable to reach the door or his drexel, he made a grab for Miranda. But I got there first. With a forearm to his throat, I took him to the ground and placed my foot on his throat. I pressed down, and he gurgled a protest. A little more pressure and I’d snap the delicate bones in his throat. Then he’d know what it felt like to be silenced. He flailed but I pressed harder, and he went limp, eyes wide, as he knew he’d been beat.

Daz spoke, but I didn’t focus on his words. I was too busy staring into the face that had haunted me for ten cycles, the face I knew betrayed me, but I hadn’t been able to remember how, when, or why.

Now I knew. He’d sacrificed me to save himself. She is All was our creed, but after that it was never betray a warrior. Crius had done more than that. He’d betrayed me, and everyone in this clavas.

Hands tugged on me, and I let them pull me off Crius as Xavy and Nero hauled him to his feet. They led him away, his head hung between his shoulders. When the door shut behind them, I stared after it.

“They’re taking him to a barred cell. Not a hut like you were in, but a locked cell,” Daz said. There was a pause before he spoke again. “Drak?”

I blinked and turned to him.

He gestured to the seat next to him. “I understand it hurts you to speak, but I need to hear what you remember. Everything.”

I sat down, Miranda at my side, and I repeated everything I remembered, from finding him in the forest talking to the Uldani, to them beating me up, to stumbling back to the clavas with Crius to hear him accuse me of betrayal.

How he’d found me after I was casted out and slit my throat. I’d lived, but I hadn’t spoken a single word after that moment. Not until Merr-anda.

“Did you see Gar or Crius that day you found Miranda?”

I shook my head. “Only … her fighting … Kulks.”

“Daz, I swear to you, Crius led me away from Gar,” Miranda said. “He left me there, like he was making a delivery to the Kulks. He framed Drak fifteen years ago, and he must still be in league with the Uldani.”

Daz leaned back in his chair, his elbow on the armrest, as he rubbed his fingers across his blue nubbed brow. With his lips pressed together, he closed his eyes on a heavy sigh. For a moment, he looked as if the whole world was on his shoulders.

My memories of Daz had returned in bits and pieces. He’d been a leader during the Uprising from the Uldani. Strong and dependable, his focus was on gaining our independence, rather than destroying the Uldani as a race. He’d been a fair drexel.

When he opened his eyes, guilt swam in his purple irises. “I wouldn’t be a good drexel if I didn’t admit when I was wrong. And fifteen cycles ago, I was wrong. I believed Crius. He said you two had fought—he’d been beaten too, although now I suspect those injuries were self-inflicted. And you had been silent and stunned, like you couldn’t believe you’d been caught. I should have let you heal and given you time to defend yourself. Instead I made a snap judgement that let a guilty warrior live here and endanger our women while a good warrior remained alone for fifteen flecking cycles. I’m sorry, Drak.”

He hesitated, and then reached out to clasp the back of my neck. He drew our foreheads together until they touched.

I sank into the familiar feeling of the Drixonian greeting of respect. I hadn’t felt this for fifteen cycles, and I’d forgotten it. I hadn’t remembered the strong palm on my neck as we breathed in each other’s air. But now I did, and I could see why my mind had shut everything off. It’d been self-preservation in a way. If I had remembered everything I lost, I never would have made it.

Daz’s words threaded through me like liquid gold. I hadn’t realized I needed his words until he said them. Merr-anda’s bloom glowed in my mind, no longer working so hard to shine light into the darkness of my mind.

But I couldn’t find it in me to return Daz’s gesture. My mind held me back. As much as my anger didn’t reside with Daz, I’d still lost fifteen cycles of my life to madness. I could barely speak with my mate because of Crius’s actions and Daz’s acceptance of Crius’s word without giving me time to heal and defend myself.

Resentment swam in my stomach, bitter and acidic. I wanted to vomit it up and give in, offer forgiveness, but the words tangled in my scarred throat, turning into something ugly. I didn’t trust myself to give them a voice, for fear of how they’d come out.

Daz released me, his expression guilty. I lifted my head.

“Crius will be allowed to speak for himself,” he said. “But I don’t think there’s much he can say to sway me. I’ll make the judgement on his sentence tomorrow.”

I nodded, weary, wanting nothing more than to eat and sleep in a bundle of soft furs with Miranda at my side.

“I’ll gather everyone to make the announcement that you are welcome within these walls as a free warrior. I understand if you don’t want to stay, but you will always be a Night King.” He gestured to my arm, which was naked of a red arm tag worn by the clavas. I’d had one once, before it’d been stripped of me. “If you decide to war the Night Kings tag again, it’s yours.”

I nodded again. That wasn’t a decision to be made now. As much as I wanted to say yes, a part of me needed more time. Assurance. Would everyone welcome me? Would I always be the mostly mute warrior who had been cast out? And most of all, could I trust Daz, and myself, enough to follow his leadership once again?

My place for so long had been on my own. I didn’t know how I could get used to living in a clavas again. So many memories here, many good. And others the worst of my life.

“Come on,” Daz rose to his feet. “We’ll convene in the dining hall for the announcement. It’s time everyone knows the truth.”

Twelve

Miranda

I was over crying. It made my eyes sting and my face hot and my head hurt. I held back a fresh wave of tears as Daz stood with Drak in the dining hall, his deep voice booming over the gathered crowded of warrior and human women.

“More than fifteen cycles ago, I made a mistake,” he said. “Drak was not responsible for betraying us, and in fact Crius is in a cell right now awaiting his judgement, not only for framing Drak, but also for putting one of our precious women in danger.”

Murmurs rippled through the crowed like a wave.

“Drak is welcome here, whether he visits as a guest or remains as a Night King. I also formally recognize Miranda as his cora-eternal.” He clasped Drak on the back. “Please respect his privacy and time as he adjusts to life in a clavas again.” He waved a hand. “As you were.”

The crowd didn’t break up immediately, many of them gawking at Drak, even as he turned and immediately sought me out. I met his eyes, and his shoulders relaxed as he visibly sighed. He cut through the crowd to reach me where I stood at the back next to Gar.

A heavy hand settled on my shoulder, and I glanced up to see Gar watching me. His teeth were clenched, and he heaved a sigh as it seemed to take what was gargantuan effort to unhinge his jaw and speak.

“I’m sorry for my part in you getting hurt. If I’d known Crius…” his hand on my shoulder tightened and I winced. He immediately let me go with a look of contrition. “Sorry,” he said quickly. The ever-present anger that swam in Gar’s eyes surfaced, turning his eyes a deep black.

“I don’t blame you,” I said. “You trusted Crius. Like everyone did. And if this all hadn’t of happened, I never would have met Drak. We wouldn’t have known the truth.”

Gar nodded with a jerk. He looked over my head, and I turned to see Drak striding toward us faster as he glared at Gar.

When he reached us, he pulled me into his arms. If he could’ve talked well, I imagined he would have told Gar to fuck off. Their eyes met. Held. Something passed between them, and it ended with Gar lowering his gaze. He gave me an indecipherable look, his features softening for just a moment. With that, he turned and walked away. Gar had always been protective of me, and it felt a little like he had passed the torch to Drak.

My mate looked dead on his feet. Fatigue was evident in the deep grooves of his face. When he swallowed, pain streaked across his face. I glanced around the room for my girls but didn’t see them anywhere. I could have used the support, but maybe it was for the better. After being alone for so long, I felt overwhelmed at the crowd. My stomach was a rioting mess. I didn’t want anything but to be alone with Drak.

I gathered a bundle of food, shoved it in Drak’s arms, and led him out of the dining hall. All the eyes on us made my skin crawl.

As we set off across the compound, my thoughts went to my room. When I’d been gone, I’d missed my friends, but now that I was back, I realized I’d been missing some other living things in my life—my plants.

I dreaded their state. Without my care, they couldn’t be in good shape. As Drak and I drew closer to the row of rooms, I glanced up to see my friends forming a line to block my view of my door. I stopped a few feet away and took in each of them. Frankie had a mischievous grin on her face. Tabitha tapped out a rhythm on her thigh with her fingers only she could hear. Justine stood with her arms crossed, an ever-present smirk on her face, while Naomi fidgeted, blinking at me from beneath her too long bangs.

“What’s this about?” I asked.

“We hope you don’t mind we took some liberties with your place,” Frankie said.

“Liberties?”

Naomi stepped forward. “We knew you’d come back, because… well you had to. And even if you didn’t, we would have always kept you alive through your plants.” She ducked her head. “Sorry that’s morbid.”

I blinked at her. “Wait, what?”

“Did you really think we would have let your plants die, dumbass?” Justine said with her customary eye-roll. “I could see the dread on your face the entire walk over here. What kind of friends would we be? These flowers were like your children.” With a wave of her hand, they all stepped aside to reveal your front door. “Reunite with your babies. Make your mate jealous.”

I sucked in a breath at the decoration on the door. Gone was my flower wreath—of course it was, those picked blooms would have died long ago. In its place was a wooden cup, hung on a hook with a thick vine, the container overflowing with a gorgeous arrangement of blooms and greenery. The annoyance I felt toward them in the dining hall went up in smoke. They hadn’t left me. They’d been preparing a surprise. “It’s… beautiful,” I whispered, almost too overwhelmed for words.

“That was all Justine,” Frankie said. “Her anal graphic design mind took over and she insisted on making it.”

My gaze swept to Justine, who suddenly seemed to find her fingernails super interesting. “I just figured I was the most qualified.”

“This took you hours,” Frankie said. “And you insisted on sending Gar out special for some different leaf things because you couldn’t find, and I quote, ‘the right concave shape to fit the aesthetic.’”

“Whatever,” Justine muttered.

I strode toward her and wrapped my arms around her, hugging her close. She went stiff at first, like she always did, but soon relaxed into my embrace. Her hand smoothed down my spine. “Glad you’re back, Miranda,” she whispered.

When I pulled back, she ducked her head to hide her eyes from me.

“The inside,” Frankie said, “was all Naomi. We helped but she was a drill sergeant.”

A blush rose up Naomi’s neck to flush her cheeks. She opened up the door and gestured inside. “I hope you like it. We tried our best, but no one can tend plants like you.”

I kept my expectations low as I stepped inside, Drak on my heels, but I shouldn’t have. The smell hit me first, the dirt and bloom fragrance that never failed to calm me. When my eyes adjusted to the dimmer light, I gasped. Naomi hadn’t just tended to my plants to keep them alive, she’d cared for them. Loved them. Let them blossom and grow and spread their mighty leaves. The room was a jungle oasis. A vine climbed up the far wall, clinging to a new lattice board made of wooden planks. My flowers were arranged around the room according to how they grew best—shade, half shade, or full sun. Everywhere I walked, it seemed a leaf or flower was there, reaching out to touch me.

I went from plant to plant, sniffing and caressing, checking soil dampness and stalk strength.

“Naomi,” I whirled around to find my friend still standing in the doorway, the others craning their necks over her to get a look at my reaction. “Girls, I don’t know what to say. This is absolutely the best thing I could have come home to.”

“We love you,” Naomi said. “We’d never let you tackle this on your own when you returned.”

I had expected to, and what did that say about me? Was it that I didn’t trust them or that I didn’t want to get my hopes up and be let down? I hugged Naomi, and each of my friends in turn.

“We’ll leave you two alone,” Frankie said. “Enjoy the peace and quiet. We don’t expect to see you until tomorrow.” She winked at me and herded the women away from my place. With one last smile, Naomi closed the door.

I got distracted by one of my favorite plants near the door—it flowered only once a month in a blue-black bloom that seemed to glow. I sniffed it, tested the soil, and then used a nearby vessel to give it a little water.

When I turned, I expected to find Drak inspecting the room, but he hadn’t moved from the center. He stood watching me, his form backlit by the large window behind him, his blue skin blending into the plants behind him while his dark hair, with its distinctive patches, rested on his shoulders.

His eyes swirled a light purple, and his aura … well I’d have to get used to it. The wall of smoke was gone, and in its place was a light so strong I felt warmed from the inside out. This was Drak in his final form.

I stepped toward him. “Do you like my room?”

He nodded, never taking his eyes off me. As I drew closer, he glanced to the side, where a plant rested on a pedestal about hip-height. I referred to it as my purple-people-eater because the blooms were massive and plentiful.

He reached out and pinched a stem between his thumb and forefinger. He caught my eye. “Pick?” He rasped.

“You can pick it,” I answered.

With a nod, he plucked it. About six inches of the stem remained below the flower. He stepped forward and tucked it behind my ear, drawing my braids over the opposite shoulder. “My bloom,” he said. “New life.” He swallowed, and I knew this was hurting him, but I ached to hear what he wanted to say. He inhaled. “Second chance.”

And then he smiled.

I’d never seen anything like Drak’s smile. It changed the shape of his face. His cheeks rose, and his eyes crinkled in the corners. His eyes swam like purple waters as he ran the backs of his fingers down my cheeks.

“What does my aura look like to you?” I asked.

He cocked his head, a question in his eyes.

“How you…feel me? My emotions. How does it look in your mind?”

He smiled again and tapped my temple. “Blooms,” he whispered.

I placed my hand over his heart. “And you are a light. A sun. I guess that explains why I’m drawn to you, huh?”

His smiled dimmed, and he patted himself on the chest. “Not bright,” he said. “Not sun.”

I pulled his hand away and twined our fingers. “You are to me. And it might take time, but soon you’ll be a light to yourself, too.”

* * *

Drak

Merr-anda lay in my arms with her naked body curled into mine. Her fingers rested on my chest, occasionally swirling patterns on my scales. They shimmered under her touch, the colors reacting to my state of arousal. I’d just released inside her body, and I could have entered her again only a moment later. But I relished this closeness, the way we held each other. I hadn’t had this for an entire lifetime.

“My mother … was a bit like you,” I said.

She went still and then propped her head on her palm, an elbow resting in the furs. She lifted a dark arched eyebrow. “Normally, on Earth, that would not be a thing to say to your woman after you have sex, but I think this is a unique circumstance.” She smiled and pressed a light kiss to my cheek. “Tell me about her.”

“Justice,” I said. “She fought for … justice.”

Miranda’s fingers curled on my chest. “How so?”

“She heard … disputes. Made decisions on punishments.”

Miranda’s mouth gaped. “Like a judge? She made judgements?”

I nodded. “That.”

Our society had been run by our females. While the males joined the military at an early age and learned to defend our way of life on the ground and in space, the women were what made us work. They farmed our crops and formed our branches of rule. We were a peaceful society, which we defended with anything but peace. Our male warriors were lethal and effective. An airborne enemy we couldn’t fight with fists and machets had been our downfall.

Miranda’s eyes grew wet, but she blinked rapidly before biting her full bottom lip. “I think I would have liked your mother. Justice means a lot to me. I was a criminal defense back on Earth, which meant I defended people accused of crimes.”

I studied her. “Were they guilty?”

“Some of them, sure. Not all of them. In my country on Earth, every citizen has a right to a defense. A judge, like your mother, or a council of sorts would make the decision. When I was a kid, my uncle was accused of a crime he didn’t commit. His attorney was able to prove he wasn’t where his accuser said he was at the time of the crime. That was one of the reasons I wanted to become a lawyer. To fight for those wrongly accused. I believe in justice.” She pressed her lips together and swallowed. “I would have fought for you. You were accused of something you didn’t do, and what happened to you wasn’t fair. I know life isn’t fair. I know wrong men go to jail but…” she sniffed. “But that’s why I do what I do. Or did. I’m sorry those years were taken from you, Drak. I wish I could get them back for you.”

How did I express to her that in a way, life was simpler when I couldn’t flecking remember?

“Memory lost … on purpose,” I huffed out an irritated breath. “My mind … changed … to handle … what happened.”

She seemed to process my words before speaking. “You threw up a mental block, so you didn’t have to face the fact you lost your home and everything you knew?”

I nodded.

“I understand that. Before, your aura was a wall of gray smoke. I couldn’t see your light behind it. Just nothing.”

“Now angry … Sad … but also … happy. Angry at Crius. Sad about my life. Happy I met you … and the truth.”

“Do you remember what kind of warrior you were before you were cast out?”

“Proud,” I answered quickly. “Loyal. Strong.”

“You’re still all those things,” she said.

I rolled onto my side to face her. “Not ready to forgive.”

Her hand cradled my cheek. “You don’t have to forgive. Not now. Maybe not ever. What happened to you was not fair. All you can do now is choose the kind of warrior you’ll be moving forward.”

“What … if I don’t … want … stay?”

Miranda broke my gaze, her eyes dropping to the fur between us. “Then … we don’t.” Her voice was barely a whisper, and sadness lurked in the her bloom in my mind.

I placed my fingers under her chin and lifted. Her brown eyes swam with wet. “You want…stay?”

She didn’t answer.

“Truth,” I rasped.

“I do,” she whispered.

“You’d leave?”

“You’re my mate.” She held up her wrists. “We’re cora-eternals. Fatas chose that for us.”

“Flecking Fatas,” I spat. “Nothing for … me.”

She went still. “So, you don’t believe I’m your mate? You don’t think these loks mean anything?”

“I do… But not … thanks … Fatas.” I inhaled sharply, my throat working through the fireball sitting there. “My mate … because … my bloom. You stay … I will. To make you … happy.”

She released a long sigh. “I don’t want that. You were forced to live a life you didn’t choose for ten cycles. How can I force you to make that choice again?”

I clenched my jaw. “For you.”

“And then resent me? You’d be miserable, and you can’t hide it, because you’re in my head!” She ended on a shout, jabbing her finger into her temple viciously.

I didn’t like her hurting herself. Her bloom trembled in agitation. I grasped her hand and began to vibrate in my chest—that usually calmed her.

Not this time. She yanked her hand back on a growl. “Don’t. Don’t do that purring thing for me to try to get me to calm down. It’s underhanded and sneaky. If I want to be frustrated, then let me be.”

“Don’t like—”

“I don’t care if you don’t like it. Don’t you see? We’re already fighting over this. I don’t know how this is going to work.” She sat up and hugged her knees, dropping her forehead on top of them. Her braids cascaded around her in a curtain.

“Merr-anda,” I whispered. “My bloom.”

She picked her head up. “And you’re my sun.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, this is happening fast. We will give it time. Daz said we could. I’ll think about how I’d feel leaving, and you can think about how you feel staying. But we have to agree. We aren’t sacrificing our happiness for each other. Neither of us deserve that.”

I nodded. I’d try. For her. But in the back of my mind, I knew I’d never again live alone with her, not with the threat of the Kulks and the Uldani. I’d have to leave her here if I couldn’t stay. And that would break both of us.

Still my nod seemed to appease her. She lay back down and cuddled against me. “Tell me…life. On Earth.”

“You want to hear about my life?”

“Yes.”

She told me all about her big family. Her parents who had important jobs as healers which meant they weren’t around a lot. As the oldest, she often cared for her younger siblings.

“Did you have any siblings?”

I shook my head. I’d been the first born, and my mother got sick shortly after with the virus.

“I miss them,” she said. “I used to wish for an afternoon of peace without one of them calling me, and now I would kill to hear from them one more time.”

“You … that way … with … women.”

“What way?”

“Care … them. They see you … older sister.”

“I do see them as my little sisters. I’m the oldest, and some of them, like Naomi, are just so innocent. I want to protect them.”

“But then who … protects you?”

“I don’t need protecting.”

I gave her a look. She rolled her eyes. “Okay, so sometimes I do, and I guess that’s your job now.”

I puffed out my chest. “Warrior.”

She laughed. “Yeah, yeah, big guy. Well I protect you too.”

“My female warrior,” I murmured into her hair. “Don’t need … clavas. Only … you.”

I had meant it as a compliment, but when she lifted her eyes to mine, they were sad again. “You’ll always have me. No matter what.”

She wanted me to accept the clavas again, but she didn’t want to force me to do it. I appreciated the way she respected how I was handling this return to my home, but it pained me to see her so conflicted.

“Maybe … it’ll feel different. Crius … closure.”

She smiled. “That’s true. We’ll see what judgement Daz hands down tomorrow.”

“I wonder…” I said. “Would you have like … before Drak?”

She cocked her head. “Would I have liked you before? Why not?”

“Colder,” I said. “Less…” I paused to think of the word I wanted. “Less care.”

“I don’t believe that,” she said. “I know some people say everything happens for a reason, and that’s often true. If the Kulks hadn’t taken me, we might never have met. But I don’t believe you had to suffer in your own mind for fifteen years in order to be a better warrior. A better male. A better mate.” Her lips found mine in the darkening room. “I don’t know if I believe in your Fatas either, but she pairs couples who complement each other. That’s us, Drak. You and me. I’m your bloom, remember? I always would have been drawn to your light.”

Her words put out the raging fire in my throat, spreading a cool balm to all my limbs until I felt like I could melt right into the furs.

“My eternal bloom.” I whispered before taking her mouth in a hungry kiss.

And then I took my bloom until she cried my name loud enough for the whole clavas to hear.

Thirteen

Drak

As I stood in the courtyard of the compound surrounded by the entire clavas, I would have given anything to turn back time to that morning. I’d woke up to find my mate already out of the furs. She wore a simple pair of shorts and a loose-fitting shirt that hung off one shoulder to reveal a creamy dark shoulder.

She had been sengeng to herself as she tended to her plants, watering them with an old qua jug and picking off any dead leaves or blooms. I watched her, making no move to let her know I was awake.

This was peace. Watching her encourage life to grow. My gaze dropped to her stomach. I’d seen the swollen belly of Daz’s mate. Would my bloom grow our life inside her? I imagined her heavy with my chit, and my cock thickened down my leg.

I’d interrupted her plant tending then by pulling her into the furs. She landed with a laughing shriek, which quickly turned to moans as I’d buried my face between her legs and licked her until she cried out.

I relished my memories now. They flashed in my clear mind vividly. Merr-anda elbowed me and shot me an exasperated look. Oh, right. She probably knew what I was thinking, which was plunging my cock back into her wet cunt. Instead I stood in the hot sun waiting for Crius to be handed his judgement.

He was brought forward in chains, shuffling his feet because of the restraints around his ankles. I’d spent so long with his face one of the few memories in my mind, wishing I could see it twist in agony and defeat. He had long since healed from the beating I’d given him. Daz had required him to receive medis so he’d be well enough to deny or confirm his crimes.

But I felt no joy watching him be led to where Daz stood near the gates. The drexel had no throne or adornment to show his leadership other than his Night King tag rimmed in gold and another curiously matching woven armband. Yet, no one would deny that he was every inch the drexel. His mate, Frankie, stood nearby in a flowing dress and barefoot. She had a palm on her swollen belly as her hair fluttered in the breeze.

Ward and Gar stopped in front of Daz with Crius between them. He bowed his head before he lifted his eyes to meet his drexel’s.

“Your first offense is you are accused of lying about a betrayal which caused a warrior to be exiled for fifteen cycles.” Daz’s deep booming voice carried to every part of the clavas. “Do you deny it?”

Crius didn’t move until finally his head swung to me. I remained where I was, because with each passing moment, I wanted nothing more than to flee from the crowd and the stares, and this scene. I knew it was necessary—I’d been cast out just like this—but I felt disconnected, like an outsider looking in on a sacred ritual.

Crius swallowed and shook his head.

“Speak,” Daz barked.

“No,” Crius called out.

Somewhere in the difference, a welf howled. Ward’s mate, Reba, gripped the neck fur of her welf as she sniffed the air and whined.

Daz swallowed, and while he held himself in check, he visibly shook with his fists clenched tight at his sides and his scales rioting into a cascade of colors. “Drak said he saw you conspiring with the Uldani and had him beat so badly he couldn’t defend himself. After we cast him out, you sought to silence him forever. Is that correct?”

Crius’s head hung between his shoulders. “Yes.”

“Drak?” Daz called. “Is there anything you want to say to him?”

No there wasn’t. The revenge I’d sought had soured in my gut, and I didn’t like how it made me feel. I shook my head.

Daz shoulder heaved as he continued. “You are also accused of purposefully conspiring with the Uldani’s for them to take one of our females. Do you deny it?”

“No,” Crius said, softer this time.

Gar’s grip tightened on Crius’s arm, and he winced.

“Miranda,” Daz called. “Is there anything you want to say to Crius?”

“Yeah,” she shouted. “You’re a motherfucking bastard.”

Frankie covered a laugh with a cough, and Tabitha cackled until Justine shot her a dark look.

“Why?” Daz asked, a slight plea in his voice that pricked at my scalp. “Why would you betray your clavas?”

Crius clenched his jaw, and just when I thought he would remain silent, he said, “Sometimes we have to do what’s best for one and not all.”

Daz shook his head. “That’s not the Drixonian way. We have adapted to new ways and will continue to adapt, but one thing will always be true—She is All. And never betray your fellow warrior. You failed both.” He rose to his full height. “Crius, you are cast out of the Night Kings. You are not welcome within our borders and your name will be sent to the other Drixonian clavases, so they know you are not to be taken in.” He reached out and ripped the tag from Crius’s arm with a sharp tug. “If we see you again in our territory, you will be killed. You have until nightfall to reach our borders.” He nodded at Ward and Gar.

They removed his chains as the gates opened. The warriors standing at the front of the group closed rank, cutting Crius off from venturing further into the clavas. The only way he could go was out. Forever.

Instead of Crius walking, I saw myself. Stumbling with pain, heartsick and nauseous, Daz could have torn my heart out and I wouldn’t have noticed the difference. The gates closed, and I flinched, remembering the sound that had been like a stab in my gut. My clavas had meant everything to me—I’d been a loyal scout, known for my stealth.

Alone, I had no one. Nothing. After Crius slashed my throat, I’d wandered for rotations, maybe an entire cycle, eating nothing but leaves and rotten fruit that had dropped to the forest floor.

When I’d found the spring with the falling qua—I’d been taken aback at the beauty of the place. That was the only reason I’d kept myself alive. I’d found a sanctuary. And with it, I’d focused on the revenge I’d one day seek.

“Drak?” said a soft voice. I snapped back to present to find the gates closed and Miranda cupping my cheek as she searched my eyes. “You okay?”

I swallowed, nodding with jerky movements. Over her shoulder, I saw Daz stride toward me, Frankie at his side.

“I know I can never give back what I took from you—”

“Crius.” I interrupted him. “He took.”

Daz nodded. “But I was a part of it. I know I can’t give you what you lost back, but I hope seeing Crius answer for what he did helps you be more comfortable here.”

I nodded, unsure what to say. I wasn’t comfortable. I sought my roof and my stars with Merr-anda’s warm naked body next to mine. I wanted to bathe in my spring while Merr-anda lay on the rocks with the sun shining on her skin.

“Tomorrow,” Daz said. “I’d like you to show us where the Kulks attacked you. We need to find out if more are in the area to see if they left any behind. You were one of our best scouts before, so not only can you lead us to the right area, but you can help us try to determine their goal and where they might have gone next.”

Vague memories in shadows flitted through my mind. Daz had often called upon me to handle the more difficult areas of our territory. It was why I’d been where I was on that day when I’d seen Crius with the Uldani.

My skills had only improved in the ten cycles I’d been on my own. While I’d felt out of place since returning, I latched onto the purpose he’d given me with my claws. I nodded immediately. “I will. They burnt … my hut.”

“He’d built a home in the trees,” Merr-anda added. “Above ground. They couldn’t reach it, so I’m guessing they set fire to it to smoke us out. Good thing we weren’t there at the time.”

“Tomorrow,” Daz said. “Now, we relax.”

“We’re going to have a celebration tonight,” Frankie said, her eyes shining as she glanced between me and Merr-anda. “To welcome you home, Drak. Xavy’s spirits and a bonfire. Maybe Sax will tell us a story like he sometimes does.”

Merr-anda’s fingers closed around my wrist. Her bloom quivered with excitement. She liked this idea, so I’d go along with it.

“Great idea,” Merr-anda said. “Do you need help with the food?”

“Sure, if you want. Justine is being a tyrant in the kitchen. Tab didn’t chop the herbs fine enough, apparently.”

Merr-anda laughed. “Oh, I’ll show her fine.” She turned to me. “Want to watch us cook? We’re generous with samples.”

I nodded. I didn’t care about the food, but I enjoyed the way Merr-anda lit up around the other females. Her eyes shone, and her bloom brightened. She loved her friends, and I wished I could remember what that was like. Sometimes I’d get flashes of talking with Ward, and his smile, but that was it. Maybe fifteen cycles had been too long for our friendship bond to last.

“Merr-anda, Drak, wait up!” Reba walked quickly toward us, her welf pet bumping into her legs as she walked, nearly knocking her over. In a flash, Ward was at her side, wrapping a strong arm around her shoulders to keep her steady. She rolled her eyes at him, muttering, “I wasn’t going to fall.”

“Your balance is terrible,” Ward said.

“You try carrying extra weight in an awkward place,” she groused at him before turning to me with a kind smile. “Hi, Drak. I’m Reba.” She waved a small hand at me. I wasn’t sure how to return the greeting, so I nodded back. I did a lot of nodding.

“Um,” she bit her lip and glanced at Ward. “I wanted to thank you. Ward said it was you who dropped the numa mat on him when we were being attacked by the hunners. You…you saved his life. And now knowing your story, I wouldn’t have blamed you if you walked away. But you didn’t. That shows me…” she smiled at Merr-anda. “It shows me you have a good heart. I’m sorry seems very inadequate for what you went through, but I am sorry. I’m glad the truth is now known.”

Merr-anda hugged Reba, murmuring some words in her ear. Reba pulled away, wiping her eyes before nudging Ward forward with a strong elbow jab. He jolted forward, shooting her an annoyed glare before meeting my gaze.

“Drak,” he said softly.

I didn’t respond.

He sighed heavily and scratched his head, a pained twist to his lips.

Reba tugged on Merr-anda’s arm. “Why don’t you two talk? We’ll be in the kitchens when you’re through catching up … and all.” She turned big eyes to Merr-anda, who was watching me closely. I gave her a nod, and with a swift smile, turned and hurried away with her friend.

Ward watched them go longingly, then straightened his spine with a determined clench to his jaw. “I don’t know where to start. But Reba is right—thank you for what you did when we were under attack from the hunner horde. When I spotted you, I could barely believe my eyes. Why did you help?”

“Female,” I rasped. “Didn’t remember much … but that … She is All … I remembered.”

He shook his head. “I should have known. I never thought it made sense that you would betray us, but Crius had been so convincing, and you wouldn’t deny it. I don’t think I ever got over it. We were close. I don’t know if you remember, but you used to give all your scouting reports to me. While Gar was off being Gar and Sax and Xavy were getting into trouble, we’d sit by the fire with some spirits and fantasize about what we’d do if we ever got back to Corin.” He cocked his head and his eyes held a bit of hope. “Do you remember?”

I swallowed, searching hard in the bright light of my mind. I wanted to remember, more than anything. I had a glimpse of the clavas fire flickering in his eyes as he sat beside me, but that was it.

“Maybe … with time,” I said.

Ward’s face fell, but he quickly wiped it clean.

“I’m sorry, I—”

“Don’t be sorry,” Ward bit off, his eyes turning stormy. “Don’t you flecking be sorry for anything. You never betrayed this clavas. When it mattered, you saved me, Reba, and Merr-anda. Crius has the blood of his own on his hands, but yours are clean.”

He reached out and clasped me around the back of the neck, drawing our foreheads together. When they touched, he exhaled, and I closed my eyes.

“A lot has changed, Drak,” he said softly. “But my loyalty to you remains. If you need anything, you just ask me. I don’t blame you if you don’t feel like you can trust us again, but I hope you find it in yourself to forgive us.” He pulled back to stare me in the eyes. “I’ll never forgive myself for not fighting for you harder. All I can say is I’ll spend the rest of my life at your side.”

* * *

Miranda

I was elbow-deep in a type of biscuit dough when Drak strode into the kitchens. His eyes came to me immediately, and he came to my side. His nostrils flared as he drew closer, and immediately dipped his head to sniff the mixture. He jerked back and his eyes went wide, a small smile tilting his lips.

“It smells good, right?” I asked. “We use antella fat and your harriker seeds which taste a lot like our wheat when ground down in a powder. That’s how we make flour.”

“It was Justine’s idea,” Naomi said, placing a tray near me so I started assembling the biscuits. “Nero sneaks in and steals them all the time. They are his favorite, and since the guy makes zero noise, he gets away with it.”

“Wait until you try them,” I told Drak. “We flavor them with a little guara rind and some other herbs.”

Drak reached his hand inside the bowl and I smacked it. “No way.”

He frowned at me and gestured to my hands. “But you.”

“Yeah, but I cleaned them first,” I said.

Drak looked so hurt and I nearly laughed. “Just wait until their baked. They taste better that way. I promise.” I tempered my words with a kiss on the cheek. That seemed to appease him.

“I wasn’t … interested in this,” he said, waving a hand around the kitchen bustling with the women and a few males. “But the food … different.”

It had been clear when we arrived that while the males could cook, they certainly didn’t experiment. They ate mostly whole fruits and meat. They hadn’t bothered to use herbs or find a grain to mill. They’d previously been employed by the Uldani who provided rations and after that, it’d been a war where they got by with whatever was easiest to procure.

Us Earthers wanted more—spices, sauces, and a little variety on our food pyramid. A lot we learned from Anna, who had ten years of experience on us. Ever since we started cooking, the Night Kings could barely stay out of the dining hall. It got to the point Daz put them all on a schedule which included regular exercise since a lot of the food we made had some, uh, extra calories. Oops. Couldn’t have out-of-shape Drixonians, I guessed.

Drak looked around the kitchen in wonder, watching as Frankie pulled a tray of cookies out of the wood-burning oven. Tabitha hummed to herself as she stirred a large pot of flavored meat on an oven-type device we’d had Hap make.

As I watched Drak, my smile faded, remembering that for ten years he’d lived on only food he had handled himself. Antella meat he’d hunted and dried. Fruit he’d picked. He hadn’t had time to play around with ingredients on this planet—he’d only been trying to survive.

I swallowed and focused on my biscuits. I had to make these huge—about the size of a dinner plate—as sandwiches for the Drixonians. On nights like this, we’d set out a buffet line in the dining hall. They’d file in with large leaves as plates, help themselves to a heaping sandwich full of meat along with whatever sides we made and carry it out to mill around the large fire in the center of the compound.

“Drak?” I called.

He stepped to my side immediately.

I gestured to the pail and cup in the corner. “Wash your hands and you can help me make these biscuits, okay?”

He followed my instructions immediately, washing halfway up his arms with such concentration, that I had to cough to cover my laugh. He returned to my side with his hands stretched out in front of him, so he didn’t touch anything.

After that, I showed him how to make the biscuits. He was a quick study, but I didn’t miss when he stole a ball of dough and popped it into his mouth when he thought I wasn’t looking.

When he tasted it, he smiled.

* * *

The sun was set by the time the clavas gathered around the fire to eat their meal. There was minimal talking as everyone ate, and I never got over the sight of the big strong Drixonians sitting with their leaf-plates balanced on their knees and the sauce from the meat dripping down their chins.

Tabitha sat with her sandwich half-eaten, her hand propped on her chin as she gazed around the fire.

“Tab, are you not hungry?” Naomi asked. We made smaller biscuits for us, which the guys would eat in literally one mouthful.

“Oh, I’m hungry.” Tab said. “But I made this meat with extra sauce on purpose and I’m not missing it.”

“What are you talking about?” Justine crunched a mouthful of crispy yona chips.

“We don’t serve napkins on purpose.”

“Yeah,” Frankie said. “Because the guys clean their faces with their tongues—” Her eyes went wide. “Oh.” She started laughing. “Tab, you’re ridiculous.”

“I’m not ridiculous!” Tab cried. “I don’t have any of those tongues to my lonesome, so I’m going to sit here and enjoy the show, okay? Go back to eating and leave me to my porn in piece. Jerks.”

Drak wasn’t paying attention to our words. I watched as he took a large bite, chewed, and then unfurled that devilish tongue to catch a drop of sauce that was about to drip off his chin. His piercings glimmered in the flames of the fire. He must have felt eyes on him because he glanced up to find me, as well as Naomi and Tabi, staring at him. He slowly drew his tongue back into his mouth and cocked his head with a questioning look. I burst into laughter.

After that, I indulged in Xavy’s spirits. Lately he’d been influenced by our activities in the kitchen and had begun flavoring his spirits. So, while they still burned up my entire esophagus and probably took about ten years off the life off my kidneys, at least they had a nice aromatic citrus hint to them like a bootleg White Claw.

I offered some to Drak, but he shook his head, and I got it; he remained wary of this place and these warriors. But for me, I needed to kill off some steam and that meant getting a little blitzed and dancing with my girls while we sang a cappella mashups of our favorite songs. Well, the non-preggers humans could drink. The knocked-up ones got to bust a gut laughing at our antics.

My signature was “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé because I knew the entire dance. I added my own choreography flair too, and just managed to stay on my feet when Naomi—who went the wrong direction on her Uh-Ohs—crashed into me.

She wrapped her arms around me, big brown eyes glassy from the spirits and a smile so wide, she lit up the dark. “Missed you. So much. You’re back, and now we’re all whole again.”

I tugged her hair. “I’m back.”

“Don’t leave me again,” she said.

My response was on the tip of my tongue, to say, Of course not. But then I remembered Drak and our conversations. I glanced up, searching for him, but not finding him in the seat where I’d left him. The sun of his aura gave off an intense glare, spitting out angry flares every now and then.

So, I didn’t answer, only squeezed her tightly as the spirits churned in my stomach. By the time I’d forced myself to sober up a bit after downing a whole bunch of qua and shoving a leftover sandwich in my mouth, I went in search of Drak, finally finding him sitting at the edge of the cliff, staring out over the moonlight rippling off the surface of the freshas, which was what they called their ocean. Drixonians weren’t seafaring. Apparently, the sea had its own hierarchy of alien life, and the Drixonians weren’t a part of it. I was fine with that. Boats weren’t my thing anyway.

I plunked down next to him cross-legged. He sat with his knees cocked, wrists braced on his knees.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have been paying—”

“No,” he grunted. “Your happiness … laughter…” his eyes closed briefly. “It was good for you.”

“But you’re not happy.”

He turned to me and cocked his head. “Do I need to be?”

I frowned. “What do you mean? Of course, you should be happy.”

“I don’t remember...” He sighed. “Even before…was I happy?”

“Before you were cast out?”

He nodded.

I thought for a minute. “Do you know what it feels like to be happy? Can you remember ever being happy?”

“When I was … chit … with mother.”

I smiled. “Okay, and how would you describe when you’re happy?”

“Content…” he said. “Not … defense. No fighting.”

“Is there another time you remember being happy?”

“With you,” he answered quickly. “On my roof. In the hot spring.” His lips turned up and his aura calmed as a serene smile stretched across his face. “Happy.”

“I was happy there too,” I said wistfully.

“But happier … here.” He watched me waiting for my answer.

“Drak, this isn’t fair,” I whispered. “I was happy alone with you, but I’m happy here too.”

“They need you. Here.”

“But you need me, too.”

His eyes closed, and his head dropped. “I’m trying,” he rasped. “So much … noise. Talking.”

“We could live on our own for a while and visit—”

“Not safe … out of walls … for you.”

I felt the anger rise inside. “Then what do you expect me to say, Drak? What do you want from me? Do you want me to order you to stay or to go? I won’t do that. I won’t tell you what to do.” I pounded my fists on the ground in frustration. “I didn’t even want a mate! I didn’t choose these loks.” I shoved my wrists in his face as his nostrils flared in warning. “But now we’re stuck together and—”

He was on me in a split second, forcing me to my back as he braced himself over me, caging me in with hands braced on either side of my head. His lips curled back. “You. Are. My. Mate,” he snarled, the rasp to his voice twisting his words into a threat. “The loks do not matter. To Me. What matters is who you are. Who I am. With you.”

His eyes swirled in a tornado of black and purple. As I breathed, my chest brushed again his, and my nipples pebbled through my thin shirt. “Drak,” I murmured.

“We will stay,” he growled. “Do not question what I need. I need you.” His hips, slotted between my thighs, ground down, and I gasped at the feel of him hot and hard at my core. “I’m Drixonian warrior, mate. My place is with you. Inside you.” He thrust hard, his cock rubbing against my clit through my pants. With a rumbling purr, he rolled me onto my stomach and pulled me up by my hips. I cried out at his rough treatment just as my clit throbbed and I arched my back shamelessly.

He ripped down my pants, and the night air cooled my hot, wet pussy. He bent over my back and the metal ring on his cock dragged through my folds. His hot breath whispered in my ear “She. Is. All,” just as he savagely thrust inside of me.

I bit down on my biceps to suppress my screams as he fucked me. This wasn’t my calm and unsure Drak who tenderly touched me beneath the stars. This was Drak the warrior claiming what was his and fuck, I loved it. I’d never been this wet, and when he fisted a hand into my braids, I let out a long groan of need.

He held me with one hand on my hips, and the other in my hair, keeping me pinned right where he wanted me until I was a shivering, crying mess, begging him to keeping going, to never stop, to never leave me.

And all the while he growled and purred until I came apart on the tip of his cock on a scream, trembling with whole body quakes. He found his release with a roar as his cock pulsed inside of me. We fell to the dirt in a heap of sweaty limbs.

His hands gentled immediately, sifting through my hair to massage my scalp before drifting down to rub at the sore spots on my hip. I didn’t care. If any other man had talked to me or fucked me like that, I would have balked. No one owned me or put me in my place. But this was a Drixonian warrior who had let me know the best way he could how he felt about our future.

I turned my head to see he was watching me, eyes a mellow purple while a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead to wet the dirt below us.

He’d offered me security and a promise with his brief words and a dirty fuck. What else did a girl need, really?

“So now I know,” I said with a husky laugh. “We stay.”

“We stay,” he said.

And even though I knew I’d regret it later, I ignored the brief flare of a smoky curtain he threw up in front of his aura.

Fourteen

Drak

My bike sat before me, strange and yet familiar, the black body gleaming in the sunlight. A younger warrior stood nearby, fidgeting with the cloth he’d used to polish it until I could see my reflection on the surface.

Daz stood nearby, his hands on his hips watching my reaction. I didn’t know what he wanted. Should I be thanking him for returning my property to me? As I examined it, I remembered now, how I’d felt over the loss of power between my legs. I hadn’t used my bike for scouting, but I’d taken rides with Ward sometimes to investigate a disturbance seen with Nero’s eyes. Did I even remember how to ride?

I turned away from it, and walked toward the gates, eager to get on with the mission of the day. Ward called my name, but still I kept walking. He caught up to me and stopped at my side. “We thought you’d want to take the bikes.”

I shook my head. “Know the way … on foot.” I needed to feel the ground under my feet and touch the forest. That was how I knew directions now. Not on the back of a bike soaring above the ground.

Ward waited to see if I’d say anything further, and when I stopped at the gates to wait for them to open, he called over his shoulder. “We’re on foot today.”

“Are you serious?” Sax groaned. “But I just upgraded my footboard—”

“On. Foot.” Daz growled. “Drak has to lead the way. I’m going to guess he’s more comfortable on the ground.”

That made me turn around and give Daz a look. He met my gaze and nodded. Respect for him as a leader, which had always remained dormant in my gut, reared its head. He understood, and I appreciated that.

As soon as I took a step outside the walls of the Night King clavas, I inhaled deeply. The familiar scents of the forest calmed me. Despite knowing I was free to come and go as I pleased from these gates, the walls bothered me. They represented a loss of freedom. It wasn’t lost on me I’d spent many cycles mourning the loss of home, and now that I returned … it didn’t feel like home anymore.

But it didn’t matter. The Night Kings were my home because that was where Merr-anda was happiest. I’d lock myself in a cramped cage for her.

“Drak,” a voice said over my shoulder and I jolted at the sound. Behind me stood Ward, Gar, Daz, and Sax. Sax had tried to convince his brother to stay behind. The drexel of a clavas was important and must be protected at all costs, but Daz had never been the kind of leader to hide behind his walls and make his warriors do his dirty work.

I would have preferred to do this entire mission alone, but that wasn’t the Drixonian way. I was a part of a clavas now. I had warrior brothers, even if I didn’t know them well anymore. They certainly didn’t know me.

I led the way, Daz behind me, the rest of the warriors bringing up the rear. Sax complained about the heat while Ward and Daz talked about Crius.

“What do you think he meant?” Daz asked his fellow warrior.

“I’ve been thinking about this since he said the words. I’m not sure. What were the Uldani offering him?”

“It makes no sense,” Daz said.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Gar growled. “He’s just a treasonous bastard. And now he’s gone. Good riddance.”

Was that what they’d said about me when I’d been cast out?

We reached the area of my former home mid-day. I scaled the tree leading to my hut quickly, knowing exactly where to place my hands and feet. The other warriors followed behind slower, picking their way carefully. Gar was last, muttering curses the whole way about how heights were Fatas-cursed.

A memory struck me as I watched them ascend—Ward and I eating fruit in a tree, legs dangling, while Gar glared at us from below, begging us to throw down some food for him since he refused to climb and join us.

I remained on my perch, the other warriors filing past me on the branch until only Gar remained, huffing and puffing. I reached out a hand and helped him the rest of the way. “I see … heights are still your enemy.” I couldn’t hold back a smile.

Gar’s narrowed his eyes. “Fleck you. A flecking hut in a tree. Bastard.”

Ward laughed, and I did too as Gar, who seemed afraid of nothing, shivered as he risked a glance downward.

I turned to find the other warriors watching me curiously. I shrugged. “I remembered.”

Ward reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “Well, in case you don’t remember this, a Drak smile was always rare, but teasing Gar was one of your favorite things to do.”

I cocked my head. “Is that right?”

He nodded, eyes shining with amusement. “It’s true.”

“Let’s get on with it,” Gar groused, giving me a gentle shove from behind.

I took a step forward and stopped dead as I cast a look over the burnt shell of what remained of my home for fifteen cycles. I swallowed around a dry, scratchy throat, feeling like someone scooped out my insides and set fire to them. When I’d had nothing and no one, I’d made my own home, a refuge in the trees where I was safe from the prowling Rizars and pivars. Where I could hear visitors long before they could see me. I’d camouflaged the entire structure so well that unless you were right on top of it, you couldn’t see it.

The Kulks probably used Uldani tech to find it, and that made my blood boil in my veins.

“Fleck,” Sax muttered.

The floor, while blackened and full of holes, was still there, as well as half of my back wall. The window I’d cut out was still visible, and I could picture Merr-anda sitting in the spot left by the sun’s rays, tending to a bloom she’d picked that day.

I walked closer, testing the branches. Fortunately, it had rained the morning of the fire, so the tree remained mostly intact. My home, not so much. I couldn’t go any further, stuck in a trance as I imagined all I’d accomplished in that home, the most miserable parts of my life as well as the happiest.

A shoulder brushed past mine, and Daz stepped in front of me, hands on his hips, and his head hung low. He heaved a heavy sign and looked back at me. Guilt hung heavy on his proud features. “I’m sorry we made you come back here. I wanted to see if they’d left any tracks—”

“It’s fine,” I croaked, the smell of ash thick on my tongue. “Nothing to be sorry about.”

“You built this with your bare hands and lived here for fifteen cycles. Alone,” Daz spat. “Because I made the wrong decision with one of my most valued warriors. And now it’s destroyed because despite it all, you held onto the Drixonian creed and protected a female with your blood and sweat.” He picked up a burnt piece of wood that lay at his feet and with a vicious overhand throw, tossed it into the remains. “Fleck!” He roared.

The wood hit the floor with a crunch, sending it along with shards of ashy limber crashing to the forest floor below. Briggers chirped. Sax jerked at my side, his jaw clenched as he witnessed his brother’s anguish.

I should have said something to Daz. I should have spoken to my brothers, but a flash of color caught my eye on the floor below, lying amongst the heap of debris Daz had sent falling.

I turned around, nearly knocking over Gar on my way and scrambled down the tree as fast as I could. I flew to pile of ash and carefully pawed through it until I found what I was looking for. Miraculously, among the gray and black of my former home, a bright purple bloom remained. Merr-anda had pulled it up by its roots just that morning and placed it in some dirt in the sun.

Despite the fire and the choking air, it had remained alive. Blossomed. Bright as the glowing flower of her aura in my mind.

I sat on the ground, cradling the flower to my chest. Voices rose and fell from above me, but I didn’t pay attention, not for a long time, not until a warm hand rested on my shoulder.

I jerked at the touch but settled when Ward’s familiar tone rumbled in my ear. “Merr-anda leaves her mark everywhere she goes, I see.”

She left more than a mark on me. I swallowed and nodded. “Survived. Despite it all. Survived.”

He cleared his throat. “Don’t let Gar hear me say this, or he’ll mock me for eternity, but that flower’s a fleck of a lot like you. Fatas knows why, but you’ve been tested in this life. Cast out. Voice diminished. Home burnt. But you stayed alive, Drak. Through it all. And you didn’t lose yourself as much as you think you did. You just need some coaxing back is all.” He knelt beside me and dug through the ash until he produced the old qua vessel Merr-anda had smashed the top off of to create a pot for the plant.

He gathered some ash-free dirt into it. “I know you didn’t want us to come along. I know the walls make you feel caged in. I get it, Drak. But we’re not going anywhere. We’re here to stay, as your brothers. Your fellow warriors. I hope you’ll want us at your side again someday.” He smiled and placed the pot in front of me. “Get that bloom in some dirt to take back to your female.”

With that, he stood up and walked away, back to where the others stood, studying some tracks on the ground. I dug a hole in the dirt, his words circulating in my mind as I did.

I rose with the pot in my hand and strode to where they stood huddled around some Kulk boot tracks.

“These are fresh,” Ward said. “There are old tracks at the base of this tree, mixed with new. A day old, maybe a few yoras. They were here recently.”

“Do you think they tracked him to our clavas?” Sax asked.

Ward shook his head. “I studied the ground the whole way here. There were no tracks leading to us.”

“So why did they come back? They burned his place, so he didn’t have a place to return to. Where were they trying to drive him?” Sax asked.

“Out into the open, maybe,” Gar said. “They couldn’t have known he had a former affiliation with a nearby clavas, could they?”

“It’s possible they remembered him from Crius.”

“It doesn’t make sense unless—”

Merr-anda’s bloom in my mind shriveled suddenly, shaking and screeching so loudly that I gasped and clutched at my head.

“Drak!” Daz shouted and gripped me by my shoulders. “What’s going on?”

Her bloom trembled and when a small trickle of red liquid dripped from the tip of a puddle, I opened my eyes with a gasp. “Merr-anda,” I choked out. Anger and fear swiftly overtaking me as I realized what had happened. “She’s in danger.”

* * *

Miranda

With Drak gone, I was restless. I constantly checked on his aura and found his sun dulled and still. He was irritated. Part of me hoped this mission with Daz, Sax, Ward, and Gar would be a bonding time for Drak. I was pushing it. I knew this would take time. The pessimistic part of me worried he’d never feel comfortable here, that I was dooming him to a life of painful reminders. No matter what he assured me when we were alone, I couldn’t shake the dread and guilt.

I fussed with my flowers in my room, pruning some of the larger vines that had wrapped themselves around the edges of my window during my absence.

Frankie wouldn’t leave me alone. She lounged in the corner of my room on a large cushion Anna had made, rubbing her belly, and munching on berries. Loudly. The sounds grated on me until I turned to her with a glare. “You can’t chew with your mouth open anywhere else? Like literally anywhere in this whole compound?”

She threw a berry in the air and caught it in her mouth. “Nope.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Daz is gone, so I can’t annoy him. You’re my second favorite person to annoy.”

“I’m so honored.”

She only shrugged and kept eating. Before I could snap at her again, my door opened. Tabitha sauntered inside with Naomi on her heels. “Sorry, we’re late,” Tab said to Frankie. “I got distracted by the guys running laps.”

Frankie rolled her eyes. “You’re a perv.”

“They all have big dicks and don’t wear underwear.” Tab flopped down next to Frankie and stole a berry. “Excuse me for enjoying all that bouncing around.”

“You’re late for what?” I asked.

The three of them froze and looked at me with wide eyes.

“Um,” Tab said.

Naomi sighed heavily and sank down on the edge of my furs.

“Tab, you have a big mouth,” Frankie groused.

I propped my fists on my hips. “Late for what?” I repeated.

“Keeping you company,” Tab said. “Frankie said it’s hard the first time you’re away from your mate for a while.”

Frankie elbowed Tab and shot her a look.

“What?” Tab asked. “That’s what you said!”

“Yeah, and now Miranda is going to go all ‘I don’t need your company I’m fine.’”

I inhaled sharply. “Well, it’s true, I—”

Frankie waved a hand. “You’re fine. Yeah, we know. Too bad. This is exactly why I didn’t tell you I was keeping you company for your benefit. Because you never take accepted help. Stubborn ass.”

“But we’re here now,” Tab said. “And I’m comfortable so I’m not leaving.” She leaned back and opened her mouth. “Feed me,” she implored to Frankie while batting her eyelashes.

Frankie threw a handful of berries at her face with a laugh. Tab managed to catch two in her mouth before chewing triumphantly.

“I am fine, though,” I said. “Drak isn’t,” I swallowed as his aura dimmed further. “But I am.”

“You’re not fine if your mate isn’t fine,” Frankie said matter-of-factly. “Your stomach hurts, right? Your head is throbbing. You’re irritable.”

I turned away from her with a frustrated growl.

“Frankie hits the bulls-eye,” she sang.

“Frankie can shut up and not talk about herself in the third person,” I muttered.

A small hand landed on my arm. Naomi. I turned to face her and felt my annoyance fade. I could never be mad at her. “Let us keep you company,” she said. “I can tell you’re not yourself. Just for a little while. After that, if you want us to leave you alone, we will.”

“But—” Frankie interjected.

Naomi gave Frankie a stern look. “We. Will.”

My pregnant friend pursed her lips and huffed. “Fine.”

I was both annoyed and flattered. Frankie had made this plan knowing I’d be restless and uncertain without Drak. She knew me well enough to let me believe she needed me to keep her company, not the other way around.

She was right, but I was a stubborn ass and didn’t want to admit out loud how well she knew me.

“The three of you can stay here and eat or whatever. I want to work on my plants and clean up a little bit.”

“I’ll help clean,” Naomi brightened. She loved having a job.

“Fine, get the broom and let’s sweep,” I said. “Drak has no concept of kicking dirt off his boots before he comes inside.”

With a knowing smile, Naomi reached for the broom in the corner of my room while Frankie and Tab continued to munch on berries. Their laughter and voices kept me company as I prepared my room for Drak’s return. And I didn’t admit it, but their presence soothed me and made the time pass a whole lot quicker.

With Naomi’s help, I rearranged some of my plants. I liked a variety of color and found that I missed the bright purple flowers which had grown all around our hut. It was a deep violet, so like Drak’s eyes when they simmered with lust for me. I’d seen a few of them outside the walls sparkling in the moonlight that night we’d been led home, Drak in chains.

He always loved when I decorated the hut with the purple flower. The bloom was full, like a peony, but heartier. It even survived the sudden and strong rainstorms common on this planet.

Maybe that would help Drak be a little more comfortable. If I could retrieve some of the purple flowers and place them in our room, it would remind him of when we met. Our hut. Laying out on his roof under the stars.

Except to get that flower, I’d have to go outside the walls. I glanced over at my friends. It was mid-afternoon, and Frankie could barely keep her eyes open. Tab seemed fidgety, because being in one place too long was difficult for her. Even Naomi was lagging as she wiped down the handle to my door, her movements sluggish. Then her stomach growled, and she blushed when she caught me looking at her.

If I told them I planned to leave the walls, even for just a moment, they would either demand to come with me, or tie me to a chair to keep me from going. I had to ditch them, sneak outside to pick a few blooms, and return. I would take me an hour. Tops. They wouldn’t even know I was gone.

“So, I think I’m going to take a nap,” I announced.

“Cool,” Frankie said, smacking her lips and settling in. “I’ll get some shut eye right here.”

“I’m going to take a nap,” I repeated. “Alone.”

Frankie stuck her lower lip out. “I can’t stay?”

“Come on, Frank,” I helped her to her feet. “I love you and I appreciate you girls for keeping me company, but I’d like some alone time.”

Frankie sighed. “All right. I guess so. I do kind of miss my own bed. Smells like Daz.”

“Okay, weirdo,” I said. “Go sniff your furs and miss your man who will be back soon.”

Tab hopped to her feet. “I’m going to grab some food. Want to come Naomi?”

“Sure,” Naomi answered. “Want us to grab you something, Miranda?”

“I’m good. I got some snacks here. I’m not really hungry.”

Naomi frowned, but didn’t push. Frankie waddled her way out first, followed by Tabitha. Naomi stopped at the door and looked at me over her shoulder. Her intelligent brown eyes assessed me, and I held her gaze as if I wasn’t planning to sneak out like a teenager. She smiled at me. “Have a good nap,” she said. “Love you.”

Her soft declaration of affection socked me in the heart. I swallowed. “Love you, too.”

She turned and shut the door behind her.

I waited until I was sure that the girls were gone, and then sprang into action. I exchanged my shorts for pants and my sandals for boots. I tied my braids back at the nape of my neck and peeked outside my front door.

Mid-afternoon, when the sun was highest in the sky and the hottest part of the day, was when the clavas grew quiet. Most of the warriors were eating or resting after their morning training session. Later, they’d assemble for their second workout of the day. This was their free time, and they often spent it in the dining hall playing games of chance or working on their bikes.

I climbed out the window at the back of my hut, dropping to the ground with as little noise as possible. The gates would be tricky. Warriors manned them at all times in rotating shifts, but the goal of the guards were to keep anyone from coming in, not to keep anyone from leaving.

I hid near the gates and took advantage of a shift change. Two warriors walked outside to greet the guards they were relieving. The gates stayed open, and that was when I slipped outside, hiding in a nearby bush. Thanks to Drak, I knew how to walk with stealth, and cheered silently when the old guards returned inside. Of course, when I came back, I was going to have to be let in. I’d deal with the consequences then. At least I’d have my flowers.

When the new guards were occupied for a minute exchanging pleasantries, I stole farther away from the gates. It felt good to be in the forest again, the dewy leaves brushing my skin and the air ruffling the fine hairs on my arms. I smiled to myself as I spotted the first purple flowers only about a half mile from the gates.

I went to work plucking as many as I could, bundling the stems with a piece of vine. Drak would love these, and I smiled to myself as I imagined his aura glowing a delighted heat as he caught sight of them near our bed.

The girls could yell at me when I returned. I turned to make my way back and spotted a familiar shape to the right in the distance. The color resembled a Drixonian—the varying hues of blue were too blurry to make out though. Was someone there? Injured? I’d have to go slightly off path to investigate, so I dropped a few petals from one of the purple flowers to signal the way back.

As I walked closer to the shape, my heart sped up. Black liquid stained the dirt, and the shape moved just a low moan filled the air. I darted forward, a shout on the tip of my tongue just as the blue body rose and stepped closer to me. My mouth fell open as I took a step back. A face came into focus, and it was then I realized I had stumbled upon Crius. A bruised and bloody Crius, who now shot me a resigned sneer. “Took one of you long enough to leave those walls,” he snarled.

Flee! My mind screamed at me, but it was too late. He lunged for me, and I fought, kicked, and hit, but Crius, even injured, was too strong for me. I fought anyway I could as he shoved a gag in my mouth and tied it at the back of my head. I screamed; the sound infuriatingly muffled by the fabric.

He knocked my carefully picked bouquet out of my hands and lashed my wrists together with a rope. He held the other end and yanked.

I stumbled forward onto my knees. Tears streaked down my face. Drak. What would happen to Drak when he found out I was taken? I tried to reach him with my aura, but surely he’d feel my panic, my terror. Oh God, what had I done? All for a few pretty flowers?

“Get up,” he hissed at me.

I shook my head and flipped him the bird, a gesture we’d taught the Drixonian, so I knew he understood the meaning when his eyes narrowed dangerously. I didn’t give a fuck. Did he think I was going to make this easy on him? Hell no.

Crius wiped the blood from his face. “If I have to carry you all the way to Alazar, I will. They did this to my face for failing once already.”

Panic seized my limbs and I went still. No, he couldn’t take me to Alazar. Once I was inside the Uldani’s fortified city, I was as good as dead. Or knocked up.

When I refused to get up, Crius growled and tossed me over his shoulder. When I kicked, he tied those two with a piece of vine. Trussed up like a turkey, I couldn’t do much. But one thing Crius missed was that when I’d fallen, I’d picked up a handful of my purple flowers.

So, I did the only thing I could think to do. Steadily, as we marched to my fate, I dropped violet petals, like a trail of breadcrumbs. I could only hope Drak would find me. I could only hope I hadn’t ruined both of our lives.

Fifteen

Drak

I didn’t even remember the journey back to the clavas. My head burned with Merr-anda’s panicked aura. All I could do was hold onto the fact she was alive. If she was scared, that meant she was breathing.

Daz and Sax said their females’ auras were calm, so we were confident the clavas wasn’t under attack. But that was barely a blip in my mind. All I was focused on was Merr-anda’s bloom as it shook and shivered with a dull gray color.

I raced to the gates to find the two guards standing in position. Their eyes widened in alarm as I barked a throat-searing, “Open!”

Daz was on my heels, pounding the Earth. “Open the gates. All warriors on duty. Search teams. Find Drak’s mate. Now!”

The gates flew up, and Daz’s well-organized clavas flew into action. Shouts arose from various points in the clavas as the teams assembled, each with their own region of the compound to cover. I headed directly to our room at a dead sprint, Ward at my side. I burst through the door, and it splintered beneath my fist.

I would have given anything to hear Merr-anda’s angry shout as she reprimanded me for breaking the door, but the room was empty. All that remained was her plants, which seemed dulled and lifeless in her absence.

Her aura continued to shake, and pain streaked through me as a petal from her golden bloom fell to the ground. “No,” I cried, clutching my head.

Ward’s hands braced me, keeping me on my feet, as feet trampled the ground in the desperate search for her. I shoved Ward away and stumbled outside, unsure what to do or where to go. Daz appeared amid the dust kicked up by dozens of boots. His mate jogged at his side, her face red, her hand splayed over her swollen belly.

“She told us she was going to take a nap,” Frankie cried. “I don’t understand where she could be.”

“Drexel!” shouted a voice from the front of the gates. I ran blindly toward the voice, Daz overtaking me as we reached a warrior who stood over a print in the moist dirt outside the gates, hidden in the shadow of the wall.

“That’s not from one of us,” he said. “Too small.”

He was right. It was Merr-anda’s boot print. I knew because I’d seen those prints every day mixed with mine in the wet bank of our spring.

She wouldn’t have left on purpose, but I tracked the boot prints as they continued in her gait away from the walls. I followed them, ignoring the breathing of Daz behind me as he followed. I didn’t need him here. All I needed was to follow these tracks to my mate. Maybe she was attacked by a welf, or a pivar pack. The Rizars wouldn’t travel this far…

Suddenly her boots came to a stop. I frowned and looked up. All around me were patches of purple blooms—her favorite one that she picked every day around our hut.

Boot prints mingled with each other, showing she walked around this clearing, and when I ran my hand over the blooms, I could tell some had been picked.

She’d left the gates for blooms. Blooms that I’d loved the most, and she’d known, because she’d noticed my reaction. I fell to my knees. What had happened? Where had she gone?

“Drak,” Daz said.

I glanced up to see him pointing to a large petal left on the ground. The tear was clean, as if made by a human hand… “She left this,” he said, brow furrowed as he studied the ground. Suddenly he jerked forward. “Here, more boot prints. She walked this way.”

I took off after him as we followed her prints until we came upon the scene of a struggle. A pool of black blood lay nearby amid some trampled underbrush. Large boot prints mixed with hers, and dread sank down into my feet just as Daz hissed, “Crius.”

Daz jerked his comm from his pants pocket and began to speak into it, but I wasn’t paying attention to him. A spot of purple caught my eye, and I took a step to find it was another torn petal. Frowning, I picked it up, running my fingers over the bruised petal. I glanced up to see another petal further away, amid even more large boot prints. I no longer saw Merr-anda’s. But the petals… They were a sign.

She’d left me a trail. My smart, beautiful mate. She knew I’d come for her. And I would. Nothing would keep me away. I started out at a dead run following the purple petal path.

Daz shouted my name, but I kept going. I didn’t need his help. All I needed to do was focus on the petals. I’d find her, and I’d bring her back. I’d brought her here to keep her safe, and she still wasn’t. When I got her back, I’d lock her away until she couldn’t—

A steady vibration shook the air around me, and my steps faltered. What was that sound? The buzz grew louder until I could barely hear myself think. I whirled around, machets out, ready to face the attacker when a formation of bikes roared out of the trees, Daz at the help and a dozen warriors fanned out behind him. Tethered to the back of his bike was another bike. Mine. I lowered my machets, because even I remembered raising them to my drexel meant a challenge.

He dropped his bike to rest on the ground, and the warriors behind him followed his example. He eyed me over his handlebars. “Drak.”

“You delay me,” I said over the rumble of the machines. “She left a path. I follow…on foot.”

Daz was silent for moment before he swung a leg over his bike and dismounted. He strode toward me, his gaze taking me in. “And what do you plan to do once you find her?”

“I will kill Crius and rescue her—”

“Crius is working with the Uldani. He might be taking her to Alazar on his own, but what if he’s not? What if he is traveling with a squad of Kulks? Do you have any idea how many you’ll have to fight on your own? If you die, what’ll happen to her then, huh, Drak?”

I gritted my teeth. I didn’t have time for this, I had to keep going—

Daz gestured behind him. “Drixonians are faster on our bikes and stronger together. We can take on five times as many Kulks. More than you alone, Drak.”

“No one … will fight harder for her … than me,” I said through clenched teeth.

He tore his hands through his hair, agitation shimmering in his eyes.

“You brought her to us because you admitted you couldn’t keep her safe with the Kulks after her. So now we’re here, standing with you. Fighting with you.”

When I didn’t respond, he dropped his head to stare at his feet before meeting my gaze with eyes burning a bright violet. “I’m sorry, Drak. We are all sorry. But you are no longer alone. I know you don’t feel like we can help you, but we can. We are here, right now, fighting for you and your mate. That is what Drixonians do. You are one of us. You always were.”

The words were simple, and since losing my voice I hadn’t placed much value on words. Until now. They weren’t just words—they were feelings with meanings and a promise. I’d spent so much time fighting on my own that I felt comfortable still fighting. Still battling. Still carrying that resentment deep in the pit of my stomach.

But I took a moment to clear my head, to really think about this. Daz had a point. If Crius had a squad of Kulks as backup, I’d be out of luck on my own. The last time I’d try to fight Crius and Kulks, I’d ended up beaten. Fleck my feelings. Fleck my pride. I needed Merr-anda back. Daz and the Night Kings would help me do that.

I nodded, and Daz’s shoulders sagged. He let out a long breath and retreated to his bike. He untethered mine and gestured to it. “It’s all yours.”

The bike sat between Ward and Gar. They watched me as I walked toward it and ran a hand over the body. The newly polished antella leather of the seat shown. I threw a leg over it, and with an exhale, sank down into it. Memories flashed. Riding with Ward. Laughing at Sax and Xavy as they raced. Rubbing oil into the leather to keep it supple.

The smell of the fuel surrounded me as I turned on the bike. The rumble underneath me felt like coming home, a steady purr vibrating through my body, infusing my blood with adrenaline and the need to fight. To draw the blood of those who dared to hurt my mate.

I revved the engine and nodded at Daz. A smile tipped his lips before he turned around. We rose into the air as one fighting force, and following the trail of purple petals, we raced to battle for my mate.

* * *

Miranda

I was fucking over this. The rope around my wrists hurt like hell and I had run out of flower petals about a mile ago. Crius hadn’t noticed I’d plucked every single inch of the bloom until I began to shred the stems too. Now my hands were empty, but I hadn’t stopped squirming or trying to yell around the gag he’d placed in my mouth. If he wanted to trade me to the Uldani shitheads so they could make me a breeder, I was going to make his life hell.

He hadn’t hurt me, but I didn’t trust him to follow the She is All creed. I couldn’t understand why he was injured though. Had he run into a pivar back? I didn’t really care, but it was a clue that remained unsolved, which sat like a splinter under my skin.

My strength began to flag. My stomach and hips were sore as hell where they kept bumping against Crius’s hard shoulder as he ran. My head swam from hanging upside down for hours on end. If he didn’t let me down soon, I was either going to throw up or pass out. Maybe both.

I tried to remain optimistic. The light of Drak’s aura was angry, flames bursting forth from the orange ball. He knew something was wrong, but did he have any idea where I was? Like an idiot, I hadn’t told anyone where I went. I’d tried to be as stealthy as possible. Where was he looking now? Dread churned in my stomach.

As the sun set on the horizon, we slowed to a walk, then a stop. Crius tossed me on the ground like I was a sack of potatoes before whistling sharply. I tried to gather my legs under me, but my limbs weren’t working right, and the restraints made standing nearly impossible. I had just risen to my knees when the trees in front of me rustled. The pit of dread in my stomach widened to a gaping black hole when at least two dozen Kulks emerged.

“No,” I moaned through my gag.

Crius gestured to me. “She’s here. Now where’s my flecking information?”

“Orders were you are to travel with us to make the delivery,” a large Kulk said. “You’ll get your reward then.”

Crius’s nostrils flared. “I was told all I had to do was bring her to the check point.”

The Kulk shrugged, unbothered. “Those were my orders.”

“Flecking worthless.” Crius muttered under his breath. He sliced the vine at my ankles and hauled me to my feet. I rose on unsteady legs. “You’re walking this time, or I’ll have one of them carry you. Trust me, he’ll knock you out first.”

I shot him the best hateful glare I could. In my head, I told him off and described in detail all the ways I’d like to rip him into pieces.

I didn’t want to be carried by a Kulk. The armor would hurt like hell, and they smelled bad. So, I trudged behind Crius, jogging to keep up to the asshole’s long strides. I got angry. I could feel it burning in my gut. The tears had long dried, and I began to work on a plan. I couldn’t do much with the contingent of Kulks leading us, but no way would I let them get me inside the walls of Alazar. Fuck. No.

I worked on my gag, steadily loosening it with my jaw and teeth until I was confident I could spit it out. I let it rest between my lips for now. As the sky grew darker, I felt discouraged, but focused on the positives. I was alive. I was conscious. And for now, unhurt.

A slight buzzing tickled my ear and I brushed it with my shoulder, annoyed. The buzzing grew and I shook my head, trying to work my braids like a horse’s tail. What was that? A hunner?

Crius stopped so abruptly, I ran into the back of him. He slowly turned his head, eyes assessing the dense forest behind us. I followed his gaze, but everything was blurry to me. Hell, maybe I did have some sort of injury, because the air seemed to vibrate.

“Hunners?” I mumbled behind my gag.

Crius started to pant, mouth open, and his eyes widened just before he turned and shouted. “Night Kings!”

The Kulks turned. Crius yanked on my rope, but I wasn’t moving, not a fucking inch. I fell to the ground and Crius swore. He hauled me into his arms a split second before the trees swayed and a dozen black dots sped toward us.

I spit the gag out of my mouth and screamed. “Drak!”

Crius took off at a run, but even as fast as he was, he couldn’t outrun the Night Kings on their bikes. They flew toward us, growing larger and larger the closer they came. I kicked and flailed, refusing to be a good little burden. Crius nearly dropped me twice before finally throwing in the towel. He threw me to the ground, the length of rope held firmly in his fist, and turned to face his former warrior brothers.

The Kulks turned and ran past us, advancing on the Night Kings and creating an armored wall between us and the Drixonians. Still, I shouted and screamed until my voice was hoarse. Drak’s aura was a red fireball of fury, focused and bloodthirsty.

About a half dozen bikes remained in the air, the drivers shooting laser guns at the Kulks, while the rest of the warriors touched down. They leapt off their bikes in a coordinated motion, immediately forming a V-shape with Daz at the helm. He shouted a few words and they unleashed their machets, arms crossed in front of their throats.

Then I heard his next words, clear as day over the beginning sounds of the battle. “She is All!” His warriors repeated his words, and the booming chant sent a shiver down my spine.

Then the fighting began. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. While the Kulks shot their laser guns with inaccurate aim, the warriors in the air—including Sax, Xavy, and Nero—hit their mark every time. They picked off the Kulks with armor-piercing shot after shot. The Drix were outnumbered four to one and it didn’t matter, not when the Kulks, slow and encumbered with their armor, fell easily to the strong and quick hand-to-hand combat skills of the Drixonians. Gar was a one-warrior wrecking ball, smiling a terrifying grin as green Kulk blood dripped from his machets.

“Fleck,” Crius spat. He yanked on my rope to retreat further from the battle. But I wouldn’t budge. If he thought I was going to stumble along behind him docilely now that the Night Kings were here, he was out of his mind. I dug my heels in, and though I was no match for the strength of a Drixonian, I would do anything to slow down our progress.

“Drak!” I screamed. “Drak!”

A roar answered my call. I glanced over my shoulder as time seemed to slow. Out of the sprayed arcs of blood and dust clouds a dark form materialized in the air, sailing over the barrier of Kulks in front of us which had dwindled to one measly line.

Drak landed in front of us with a thud, and he rose to his full height, plotting out the last remaining sun rays. His body was streaked with dirt, his muscles bulged, and green Kulk blood was streaked across his chest.

He wasn’t alone. The last remaining Kulks fell under the machets and boots of the Drixonians. Crius, seeing that the battle was lost, dropped my rope and ran. He didn’t get far. Gar tackled him as Drak reached my side. I threw myself into his arms as he slashed the bonds around my wrists.

“I’m so sorry,” I cried into his chest. “I never should have left. I just wanted to get your favorite flowers. So stupid.” I banged my forehead on his breastbone. “So stupid.”

He held me tight, his chest heaving with the exertion of battle. His fingers wrapped around the base of my skull, his palms on my jaw, and forced me to look into his eyes. They swirled a brilliant purple. “So smart, my bloom. I will always follow your petals.”

I will always follow your petals. I sank into his embrace. He’d come with an army to save me, and he promised he always would. I believed him.

Shouts at my back forced me to turn my head to look over my shoulder. Gar and Daz stood over Crius, who was on his knees between them, his hands tied behind his back.

He was no longer snarling. He knelt a defeated man, his shoulders hunched, his head hung low.

“I cast you out,” Daz said. “I didn’t take your life, and you repay me by taking one of our females. We have injured warriors who will need medis we can’t spare.”

Crius remained silent and still.

“No more silence. Tell me why you’re working with the Uldani.”

Crius inhaled sharply before finally lifting his head. He looked right at me, his eyes black and empty. “I’m sorry.”

Those were the last words I expected him to say. Drak’s arms tightened around me. “Don’t speak to her,” he rasped.

Crius’s eyes dropped again. “I never wanted to betray you.”

“But you did. Why?”

Crius sank back and leaned his head back toward the dark sky with his eyes closed. “The Uldani sold our warriors to fund their experiments.”

“We know this,” Daz spat. “It happened before the Uprising.”

Crius opened his eyes and shook his head. “No, it happened during too. Many of the warriors we thought died were instead captured and sold.”

The air rippled with tension as Daz’s nostrils flared. He gripped Crius’s hair in his fist and tugged. The kneeling warrior winced. “You lie,” Daz gritted out.

“The Uldani promised me they’d tell me where my brother was sold and give me passage off this planet. As long as I supplied them one of your mated females.”

Daz shoved Crius to the ground, and he landed with an oomph in a cloud of dirt. He managed to pull himself back up to kneeling as Daz growled at him. “You would trade a female for your brother’s life?”

Crius turned his head, eyes glowing purple as he sneered,” Not just my brother, but yours too. Rex is alive, Daz. And the Uldani know where he is.”

“You lie!” Daz roared just as the sharp pew of a laser gun cut through the night. Crius’s body jerked, and a hole opened in his chest. His eyes went wide before they dulled to black before he crumpled to the ground. Drak pushed me to the ground and covered me with his body.

Warriors immediately circled Daz, protecting their drexel. Nero raised his modified gun and fired off one round. A cry followed, and then a Kulk body fell to the ground in the distance with a crash of armor.

“Go find if more are hiding,” Daz ordered. A dozen warriors took off into the distance. Sax knelt at Crius’s side, checked for a pulse, and shook his head.

“They must have had orders to kill him if he told us the truth,” Ward said.

Drak finally stood and helped me to my feet. He fussed over me, brushing dirt from my arms as if I gave a fuck that I was dirty. I was alive, and so was he. All the warriors were alive too, even though some were injured.

When the dozen warriors returned, they reported the Kulk had been alone. “I’m impressed one of them could actually hit a target,” Nero said.

Daz hadn’t moved much. He remained tense, staring at Crius’s body. Sax stood next to him, speaking quietly, but Daz shook his head violently and turned away.

Sax didn’t let up. He grasped his brother around his neck and smash their foreheads together. Daz fought it for a moment, before letting his shoulders sag. “Rex,” he said, and the one word was laced with pain.

I’d heard of his brother, the youngest of the three Bakut brothers who died in the Uprising. Frankie said Daz had a lot of guilt for his brother’s death, so I couldn’t imagine how he was feeling. As much as I missed my siblings, I knew they were safe. They had each other, and they were loved. What kind of life had Rex had all these years?

Finally, the two brothers separated. Daz cleared his throat. “Ward take Crius’s body back to the compound. We will bury him. He’s still a Drixonian. Leave the Kulks here for the Uldani to clean up.”

Drak picked me up to carry me back to his bike. “Are you injured?” he asked.

“I can walk,” I protested.

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

“I’m okay,” I said. “Bruised, but I’ll live.”

“You will,” he said and brushed a kiss over my lips. “We go home. Rest in our furs. With our blooms.”

I didn’t miss that he’d called the Night King clavas home.

Sixteen

Drak

Miranda slept beside me so deeply I’d had to check if she was breathing. Val had given her medis for her substantial bruising she’d tried to hide from me. After we’d both taken a turn in the cleanser, she’d fallen asleep as soon as I’d tucked the furs in around her.

The sun was almost halfway across the sky, and still she slept, making small snuffling sounds. I smiled at her and ran my hand over the furs covering her bare shoulder. I wanted to tear them off and ravage her, but my mate needed her sleep.

A gentle knock rapped at the door and I smiled to myself, I was surprised they’d waited this long. Careful not to wake her, I rose from the bed, pulled on a pair of paints, and walked to the door. I swung it open to find Daz and Ward on the other side. I nodded at them.

“Morning,” Daz handed me a mug of steaming brew. It was made with an herb called pula, which the women steeped in water for a flavored drink. I took a sip and gestured for them to step back so I could walk outside.

I fell into step beside them as we walked leisurely through the camp. The morning training session was in full swing with the warriors currently sparring.

“I wanted to check how you and Merr-anda were feeling,” Daz said.

“Good,” I answered. My voice was growing stronger each day. My words were coming back, and while I couldn’t talk long, my speech was less broken. “She needs sleep.”

We stopped to watch the training session. Sax and Gar faced off against one another. Daz watched, his brow furrowed, eyes stormy.

“I’m sorry about Rex,” I said.

A muscle in Daz’s jaw clenched. “Thank you. Nero has been studying some information we stole from the Uldani, but there is no record of warriors being sold during the Uprising.”

“Do you believe Crius?” I asked.

Daz sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I do. One of the Uldani commanders I killed recently mentioned Rex right before he died. I’d written it off but…” he shook his head. “I can only guess he was sold to Vixlicin. That was where the warriors were sent before the Uprising.”

I grunted, remembering tales of the hot, red-sanded planet ruled by the ruthless Plikens.

Sax swung at Gar, who dodged the blow and swiped Sax’s legs out from under him. Sax hit the ground with a thud and Gar growled, eyes black with bloodlust. He raised his machets and drew his arm back to slice into Sax.

“Hey!” Sax hollered before rolling, narrowly avoiding Gar’s machets.

Daz was already running, Ward at his heels, and I wasn’t far behind. Ward threw himself at Gar, and they both went to the ground, wrestling in a cloud of green dust. Daz hauled a shaken Sax to his feet.

“Calm down!” Ward hollered as Gar fought, spat, and cursed.

“Gar!” Daz roared, and finally the big warrior went still. His eyes cleared, remaining black but lost the turbulence. He blinked, took in Sax, and slumped. “Fleck,” he muttered. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I was … somewhere else.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Sax glared at him, his usual humor gone. “You nearly took my head off.”

“I’m sorry,” Gar said again. Ward stood up, wiping at a cut on his chest, made from his brother’s machets. Gar watched Ward miserably.

“I know you’re flecked up about what Crius said,” Ward sighed. “But you have to find a way to work through this. You can’t let it consume you.”

Sax reached out a hand to Gar, who took it with an unsteady hand. He patted the larger warrior on the shoulder. “I forgive you. But I’m not sparring with you again. For a long time.”

“Understood,” Gar muttered. “I just want … revenge.” He looked at me. “I bet it felt good to see Crius fall, right?”

“No,” I rasped, and Gar went still. The other warriors watched me. “I wanted revenge for so long, but that didn’t make me happy. Merr-anda did. Returning to this clavas did. Being a Night King again did.” Daz sucked in a breath, but I kept going. “You have to find a way to look forward, not back.”

Gar didn’t want to hear that, I could see it in his eyes. I understood that. I had to figure it out for myself too. He looked away. “I’m going to take a ride. Clear my head.”

“Stay within our boundaries,” Daz said.

Gar nodded, and then strode away, his shoulders weighed down with anger.

“I should check on Merr-anda,” I said.

Daz placed a hand on my shoulder. “Did you meant what you said? You’re ready to accept that you’re a Night King again?”

I nodded, and a piece of my cora settled into place. “You were right when we rode to rescue Merr-anda. I couldn’t have done that without you. This clavas. I was fighting it, but that proved to me that this is my home. I’m one of you.”

Sax whooped and Ward grinned. Daz’s eyes crinkled as a smile split his face. “I’ll get your tag. Welcome back, Drak.”

I grasped him around the back of his neck and touched our foreheads. “Glad to be home.”

* * *

Miranda

The sound of little feet slapping the floor alerted me about my visitor a second before a body flew at me. “Oomph,” I grunted as a giggle reached my ears and soft hair swept my cheek.

“Miranda’s back!” cried a little voice.

I peeked over the furs to see Bazel’s face inches from mine. “Hi Bazel.”

“I missed you!” she cried.

“I missed you too.”

“Bazel!” Anna cried from outside my room a second before she stepped through the door. She spotted her daughter on the bed and heaved a sigh. “Honey, I told you Miranda needed to sleep.”

“But I missed her!”

“It’s fine,” I said, reaching for a shirt and shorts and slipping them on under the covers before sitting up. “I slept long enough.” I yawned. “Have you seen Drak?”

“I saw him talking to Daz,” Anna said.

“Oh,” I frowned. “I hope everything’s okay.

“I’m sure it is,” she smiled.

Frankie sauntered through my door, Naomi at her side. “How are you feeling?” Frankie asked, handing me a mug of pula while Naomi dropped a pastry in my lap. Justine and Tabitha joined her, followed by Val and then Reba bringing up the rear. They all crowded around me, giving me hugs and telling me how glad they were I was home.

“I’m feeling good,” I said, sipping my drink.

“You’re feeling good?” Justine asked before landing a solid punch on my shoulder. “Well then I get to yell at you. Fuck you for leaving. What the hell were you thinking? Why didn’t you tell one of us? Why didn’t you bring one of us! What the hell?”

I rubbed my shoulder with a wince. “Damn, who taught you to hit?”

“Don’t change the subject!” She hollered.

I sighed. “I wanted to gather flowers.”

Tabitha blinked at me and flung her arms out to her sides. “You didn’t think you had enough?”

“I wanted to get my favorite and Drak’s, to welcome him back and make him feel at home. And it would have gone fine, but I mistook Crius’s body for something else and—”

“What do you mean?” Val asked.

I stared at her, realizing what I’d said. Maybe if I’d been able to see properly, I would have never gotten close enough to get caught.

“Well, he looked like something else.”

Val’s gaze was like a laser. “And why’s that?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

I bit my lip.

“What’s up?” Frankie said. “Is something wrong? We can help.”

“I don’t … I want to be someone you can depend on,” I said. “I don’t want you to be worried about me or think I can’t be there for you.”

“I don’t know what this is about, but sure we depend on you, but you depend on us. We all depend on each other. We’re a team here, just like all those warriors are better together, so are we. You’re not an island, Miranda.”

She was right. I’d spent so long wanting to be everything for them, that I’d let myself down. And them. “I can’t see,” I blurted out.

“What?” Frankie asked.

“I mean, I can see, but really poorly. My vision is terrible. I wore contacts, which weren’t in my eyes when I was asleep, and it wasn’t like the Rahguls grabbed my glasses when they took me.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us,” Justine said.

“Looking back, it’s stupid, but I’ve never been good showing weakness. Drak noticed, and he helped me learn to use my other skills better. He’d mark our trails with bright flowers so I wouldn’t get lost…”

“Like a team,” Val said. “I get it. Sax and I wouldn’t have survived what we did without working together. I suspected you had impaired vision.”

“Your damn nurse skills,” I mumbled.

“You should have told us,” Frankie said.

“I know, and I’m sorry.”

“Don’t keep shit like that from us again,” she nudged me with her shoulder.

The doorway darkened, and I glanced up to see Drak leaning against the frame. Daz, Ward, and Sax stood behind him.

Drak glanced around the room a little anxiously. I knew he still didn’t like a lot of people in a small space. I waved him inside and opened my mouth to ask how he was doing when I caught sight of a familiar color on his arm.

I gasped, and Drak froze. I leaped out of bed and grabbed his arm, holding it out at his side as I took in the brand-new red Night Kings tag wrapped around his bicep. “Wait, what’s this? Are you … are we…?”

Drak smiled, and his aura shone bright and strong. There was no smoke, no hesitation. Just pride and happiness. “I am a Night King.”

That was all he had to say. I knew he meant it. I squealed like a little girl as claps and cheers erupted around the room. I threw myself into his arms and he spun me around. When my feet finally returned to the ground, I looked around me. Frankie lounged on my cushion with a proud Daz rubbing her belly. Ward hugged Reba, while Sax nuzzled Val’s neck. Justine, Tabitha, and Naomi beamed at Bazel while Anna tickled her.

“Miranda,” Daz said.

“Yeah?” I turned to find him sitting against our wall, his legs stretched out in front of him with Frankie’s head in his lap. His fingers sifted through her long hair. “If you’re willing, I’d like to talk to you about a better judgement system. I don’t want what happened to Drak to happen again. I admit that I don’t have the skills in that area that you do. Would you work with me?”

Drak’s aura nearly burst with pride. My own chest puffed out a few inches. “I’d love to, Daz.”

Frankie beamed at him and shot me a wink.

“Was this your idea?” I asked her.

“Nope,” she answered. “All Daz.”

“I already have some suggestions,” I said to Daz.

He smiled. “I look forward to hearing from you.”

“Great, well that time is not now. Everyone out, even the little one. I have some celebrating to do with my man. Alone.”

There were a few grumbles, but eventually they all filed outside. When the door shut behind them, I sighed. There were times I didn’t think I’d have a room full of my friends. I wouldn’t take it for granted.

Arms wrapped around me from behind, and Drak’s lips tickled my ear. I closed my eyes and leaned into his embrace. “Are you sure about staying?”

“My place is here. As a Night King warrior,” he said. “Daz has given me my scouting assignment back. When you were gone … I wouldn’t have gotten you back. Not without them. Not without the Night Kings working together.”

I turned in his arms. “You have made me so happy.”

“I’m glad,” He smiled. “Because you, my bloom, have given me my life back.”

Thank you so much for reading The Alien’s Revenge! Want a free bonus story in the Drixonian universe? Get it FOR FREE along with loads more bonus content when you sign up for my newsletter.

Thanks for reading about my Drixonians! I’d love it if you’d consider leaving me a review on Amazon or Goodreads!

If you missed reading about Daz and Frankie, you can get their story in The Alien’s Ransom. Sax and Valerie’s story is in The Alien’s Escape. Ward and Reba’s story is The Alien’s Undoing.

And finally, the next book is Gar’s! He’s the warrior I get the most messages about, and I can’t wait for you all to read his book! He and Naomi come together in the next book in the Drixonian Warriors series: The Alien’s Savior.

Read on for a sneak peak!

The Alien’s Savior

Excerpt from Chapter One of

THE ALIEN’S SAVIOR

Gar

She sat with her back to me, her bare skin glowing in the first rays of the morning sun, as she brushed her hair. The ends of her shining dark locks touched the top of her heart-shaped ass. In a moment she’d stand, and I’d get a full view of that perfection before she slipped her short pants on.

I hated those clothes. I’d spend all day sneering at them, wishing I had the honor of shredding them with my fangs and burying my face in the sweetness of her cunt.

Of course I’d never get that honor, and I shouldn’t. Especially because of this, standing in the shadows outside her window every morning, watching her like a flecking wretch.

I didn’t want to do it, but yet this was where my feet led me. I couldn’t function without seeing Naomi every morning, hearing her quiet voice as she talked to herself. I had worn a groove in the dirt beside her room with my boots from spying on her. My brother always said I was stealthy for my size, and I’d never cared more than now, when I could use that skill to get a glimpse of the one thing I wanted the most in this world. Well, that and the head of every Uldani on a spike. And it was flecked up that I was more likely to get the latter.

I could not bind Naomi to me. Not that I thought Fatas would ever gift me with a mate, but if she somehow did, no way could I let Naomi see the flecked up shit in my head. I didn’t even want to see it, and I lived with it every day. No, I wanted my Naomi sweet and unblemished from my darkness. She was better off without me.

Just then, she rose, and I inhaled as I caught a glimpse of her lean legs. She was tiny, the smallest of the human females, with big round eyes, tiny brown dots splashed across her face, and gleaming hair that swirled around her waist. Her breasts were large, and I’d heard her complain to the other females about the lack of a proper bra, which I understood as a sort of support for her breasts. I preferred to watch them swing free beneath her shirts.

She angled her body and I caught a glimpse of one pink peaked nipple. My mouth watered. My cock thickened in my pants, but I didn’t touch it. The pain of no release was not even close to what I deserved for this.

If she just moved her leg…there. Just a glimpse, but it would fuel me for many rotations, probably the rest of my life. Her cunt, covered in a patch of dark curls. I ached to get closer, to kneel at her feet and worship her as she deserved. But she deserved that from someone else. I better male. With a clean mind. Like Xavy or Nero.

I growled thinking of them touching her, and she jerked. As her head turned toward the window, I ducked out of the way with a muffled curse.

I didn’t wait to see if she’d seen me. It didn’t matter now. This was the last time I’d watch her. The last time I’d torture myself with what I couldn’t have.

Preorder THE ALIEN’S SAVIOR!

Acknowledgments

I can’t thank the readers enough for loving my warriors. I love every message, email, and comment.

Thank you so much to Natasha Snow, my cover designer, who continually inspires me with her amazing work. This series might not have ever gotten off the ground without her amazing covers!

Thank you to Del for the thorough edits. I appreciate you working with me during the craziness that is homeschool and quarantine!

Thank you so much to all my readers in Ella Maven’s Haven! You make me smile every day.

About the Author

Ella Maven is the pen name for a multi-published USA Today Bestselling author who decided to finally unleash the alien world that had been living in her head for years. (Is that weird? Probably). Her books feature dominant, possessive aliens who are absolutely devoted to their humans.

She lives on the East Coast with her completely normal husband and two spawn who sure seem alien some days.

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