Rescued by the Alien Outlaw

Ella Maven

Mates of the Kaluma

About Rescued by the Alien Outlaw

Instead of a white knight, I got a bronze alien…

Rain: My life has never been my own, and that’s never been more true than in the Rinian Galaxy. I’ve always had dreams that led me to believe my life is bigger than being the servant to some snake alien queen, but as each year goes by, I’m beginning to think my subconscious is lying to me. Until he shows up… the Kaluma with one blue eye who I’ve never forgotten. But he’s not who I remember, and it seems this galaxy has broken another soul.

Kazel: I will rescue Rain, and I refuse to die trying. She’s the reason I’m alive, and I always repay my debts, even if it means pretending to be someone I’m not to infiltrate the enemy’s stronghold.

But this won’t be easy. As I embark on the mission of my life, I know it will take all of my wits to rescue the beautiful, strong human and then convince her I’m her future… as her fated mate.

Rescued by the Alien Outlaw features a strong heroine who will do anything to survive and an alien hero who’s seen it all and is ready to finally return home with his mate.

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 © 2021 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 Covers By Combs

First edition: November 2021

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

Epilogue

About the Author

Also by Ella Maven

One

Rain

The only good thing about my current situation was that for once in my life I had muscular definition in my arms. I held them out in front of me and flexed a little, ignoring the terrified cries around me.

This was how I coped; I disassociated like a motherfucker. While Drukil ripped the spine out of one of her offspring who hadn’t come a second after it was called, I was admiring my physique and pretending like I was anywhere but here.

Sometimes, when I focused on being fully lucid, I worried about my mental state. I grabbed a mop and bucket from nearby and began to clean the blood off the stone floors while Drukil stomped around as two of her offspring ate the remains of their sibling.

I was like Cinderella, if Cinderella’s stepmother was a snake alien called a vizpek and her stepsisters were twin vizpeks who despised me. But I had no mouse army and there were certainly no balls where I could meet a prince to whisk me away from this life.

I’d never get out of here, not until I was killed or died of natural causes. I had lamented many times about how I wished the human lifespan was shorter, but I was somewhere past thirty—time had long since blended together—so I had a hell of a lot of time left. Too much.

“Faster,” Drukil barked at me. Having no mouth, she spoke through several slits in her neck, so the words sounded like six voices speaking.

I mopped with a little more oomph. I moved slow all the time on purpose. I didn’t want her to think I was a particularly strong or fast human. She treated me like a sub-species, little more than a dog, which was fine with me.

When I was finished with the floor, she clapped her four hands together and motioned for me to follow her. Drukil slithered down the hallways of the cavern, lanterns along the way to keep it warm, as she despised cold. Her twin daughters—the only pure-blood vizpek she’d ever created—followed her, and I brought up the rear.

Vizpek females were twice the size of me, with four bejeweled breasts that swayed as they walked, the gems pierced through the tips jingling. Around their waists they wore an intricate belt to highlight their cloaca. As we walked, we passed several doors of incubator rooms. Some of the eggs would hatch creatures so deformed they’d die instantly. Others…? Well, they were monsters all right, but monsters Drukil loved, as they were her army.

When we reached her room, the sisters forced their way inside and slithered about the room, messing with Drukil’s things. I stayed behind, standing near the door with my head bowed, trying to remain as invisible as possible. What wouldn’t I give to be able to disappear?

Drukil’s room was the nicest in this mountain cavern and tunnel system she used as a fortress. Furnishings gleamed with jewels and rare metals while the floor was coated in a soft sand she liked. She sat down at a table and began to remove her jewelry while her daughters huddled around her.

“How are the hatchlings?” Drukil asked.

“They are well, mother,” said Prubel.

“Vicious,” Grubel added.

Drukil carefully watched them in the mirror over her dressing table before righting the jeweled crown on her head. She had a weird relationship with her daughters I couldn’t quite figure out. She needed them for procreation purposes, but she also seemed to see them as competition. And they were cunning. I wouldn’t put it past them to sink a dagger in the back of their mother’s neck if it meant they could be the ones to grow the army. Vizpeks were originally asexual and cloned themselves, but somewhere in the last few years—the clones stopped reproducing. Drukil, as one of the last vizpek females, began seeking other ways to procreate, as it was in her genetic makeup to produce as many offspring as possible. She was happy as long as she was being filled with sperm and laying eggs.

She flicked the fingers of her right arms toward the door. “Go check on them again.”

Prubel, the bolder of the two, twitched her tail. “But we thought—”

“I’d like to rest. It’s never fun disciplining my offspring.”

“Of course.” Grubel said, snagging one arm of her sister and tugging her toward the door. “Call us if you need us, mother.”

The two slithered out the door and shut it behind them, leaving me alone with Drukil.

“Prubel’s getting too confident, don’t you think?” Drukil said into the room.

My other life on Earth hadn’t been that much better than this one, but at least I’d been free. I’d also had a dog. A stray mutt that kept coming around the old garage where I’d been squatting and just…never left. I’d talked to him, told him things I’d never told another soul, and he’d sit there with big eyes and listen. Maybe offer a paw in consolation.

That was how Drukil treated me. When we were alone, I was her dog. The dog that listened and didn’t talk. The dog who couldn’t repeat or make sense of what she said—or so she thought.

But I filed away everything she told me. I didn’t think I’d ever escape here, but I dreamed of one day providing someone with information that could take her down and destroy this entire empire of hers. I’d thought many times of killing her. I’d held sharp knives in my hands and been inches away from sinking them into one of her eye sockets, but in the end I never did. There was no point. Her daughters would take over, and they seemed a whole lot less predictable and more deadly than Drukil.

“I give them partners,” she was saying. “They have their own hatchlings. They should be happy with that.”

She provided any random species she could find to her daughters, who then took the hapless creature into their chambers where they basically fucked him to death. Drukil never allowed them the powerful species, so the hatchlings were weak creatures who rarely made it a few days past birth. The Drukil didn’t have emotional attachment to their hatchlings. They were more like…products. Like cakes off an assembly line. If one didn’t make quality control, it was destroyed. This entire mountain was like a giant egg factory.

I shifted my weight from foot to foot and stretched my neck. The tight skin of my back pulled, and I winced before relaxing my muscles.

I was hungry. While she never starved me, I was on a pretty strict diet that was mostly protein rich. I had never been this lean in my life, and I now remembered my wider hips I’d had on Earth with fondness.

There was a knock at the door, and it swung open shortly thereafter to a Rogastix guard. “He’s here,” he announced.

Drukil’s tail fluttered with what I recognized as excitement. “I’m ready.”

She rose to her full height, which was about seven feet or so, and slithered toward the door. I remained quiet with my head bowed, as I was taught. I couldn’t wait until she was gone, and I could relax my posture just a bit.

“Follow me,” she announced, her voice cutting off my hope for peace, and I almost groaned out loud.

Rolling my shoulders, I turned on my heel and followed her. We made our way to the main entrance of the mountain settlement, which opened up into a massive cavern. Getting to this cavern without explicit instructions, luck, and a lot of help from the Rogastix guards was nearly impossible. If someone got past the treacherous conditions outside, they then had to pass through a heavily guarded tunnel which was fortified by Drukil’s traps and lined with some of her venomous offspring.

I remained behind Drukil, following quickly and silently on my bare feet. I’d once longed for shoes when my soles had blistered and cracked, but now I had tough skin and preferred going barefoot. I was given a loose dress that ended at the knee. I had only one, so I took care of it as well as I could. The color was still tan-ish, but the ends were starting to fray and there were a few holes in the back.

The cavern was buzzing slightly, and I thought it was from her giant fly-like offspring, but it was a multitude of Rogastix guards standing in a group, their backs to us. I felt a slight sinking feeling in my stomach because that was never a good sign. Whatever they had among them was likely about to meet a bloody and painful end.

As Drukil came to a stop, I remained behind her, already letting my mind wander free so I could pretend I was anywhere but here.

Drukil was talking, and Rogastix were muttering, but I wasn’t paying attention. My eyes were on my dirty toes, and I had a random memory about the time I’d gotten a pedicure with my mom. I’d chosen a neon green nail color for my toenails I knew my mom hated, but she’d only smiled and told me she was glad I’d chosen something I liked.

I had liked it. A lot. My heart thumped and I rubbed at my chest. I tried to picture my mom’s face, but it got harder every day. I remembered her hugs, and the way she smelled, so I held onto those memories. That had been before…well, before my life went to shit, long before I woke up on a rocket in space. My time on Earth hadn’t been so great, either. I traded one hell hole for another.

“…Kaluma…”

My head went up as one word sliced through my daydreams like a sword. I took one shuffling step to the side to see who stood among the crowd of Rogastix. When my eyes landed on one blue, fluorescent eye, my knees nearly buckled as my blood ran cold.

I never thought I’d see him again. In fact, I hoped I’d never see him again, because that meant he was no longer a prisoner. In my mind, I always imagined he was fighting foes, visiting his family, and finding a mate. At least, I hoped so.

The white swirls of the matz markings on his chest and neck stood out in stark relief from his bronze scales. The spikes on his shoulders looked deadly, and I could see a few that had new growth which led me to believe they’d been broken at one time. His full lips were closed, and his jaw was tensed just slightly. He now wore a patch over one eye, and even though he hadn’t had that when I’d met him, I still knew this Kaluma was unmistakably Kazel.

Over the years, I’d built him up in my mind to be larger than life. Why was he here? Had he been caught? But he wasn’t hurt or chained. He wore an axe strapped to his back with a harness. I let out a noise without meaning to. A gasp maybe, and Kazel’s eye swung from Drukil to me.

I expected his expression to change. For recognition to hit. For… anything. Any sign of life. But instead, I got nothing. Not even a flicker of interest. His eye swept through me like I was invisible.

Every single day in this fucking mountain I longed to be invisible and never was. But today of all days, and to this alien of all aliens, I wanted to be visible. Something inside of me cracked, and my sense of doom only got worse when his one good eye swung back to Drukil, and he dropped to one knee. The Rogastix chattered happily and Drukil preened as she slithered forward.

“I’m at your service,” Kazel said.

At his words, the remaining pieces of my heart shattered into dust at my bare feet. White noise rushed in my ears, and I didn’t want to hear the conversation between Kazel and Drukil. But my disassociating skill wasn’t working. I couldn’t tune them out. I could only listen to every single word as it pounded into my head like nails on a chalkboard.

“I want to join your cause,” Kazel was saying. “I believe in what you’re doing, and I think anyone who opposes you is on the wrong side of history.”

“And why should I trust you?” she answered. “Last time we met, you weren’t eager to join my side. And it’s a coincidence you’re here now when I recently met another Kaluma.” Her tail rattled, and while I hadn’t seen this Kaluma she mentioned, I’d heard stories about him and a mate escaping from Drukil, a fact which had her seething for weeks. She looked him up and down. “At least you’re following my rules. You blank in here for even a blink of an eye, and I’ll have you killed.”

Kazel nodded. “Understood.” He tugged on a rope I hadn’t realized he was holding and out of the crowd of Rogastix guards stumbled an alien who I’d never seen before. Standing on three legs, the alien was small, almost child-like, with a reddish pallor and black hair. Its skin was covered in a velvet-like fur. The alien trembled, and a cut above his eye dripped dark blood.

Kazel lifted his chin. “I caught him lurking outside. I thought I could prove my loyalty by punishing him for trespassing.”

My mouth went dry. He was going to hurt this creature? The Kazel I knew wouldn’t even kill the rodents that scurried in and out of our cells. I’d heard him talking to insects. And now he’d punish this—

Suddenly the small creature let out a roar that seemed much deeper than his little body could produce. Before my eyes, he transformed. The rope around his neck snapped as he began to swell. The muscles beneath his fur shifted, and his bones cracked as he grew a head taller than Kazel, morphing into a sort of bipedal red werewolf-like creature with fangs and claws.

I took a step back without meaning to, as the creature opened its mouth and stabbed a claw at Kazel. “What do you think you’re doing? If we work together, we can take out this slimy bitch.”

Hope flared in my chest, because I was stupid and never learned, but that hope died a very quick death as Kazel didn’t say a word, only reached behind his back and took out the axe. He held it in his massive palm before pointing it at the red wolf thing. “Fight me, viree.”

“Stupid,” the creature hissed, and attacked. I gasped as the two clashed, while Drukil—now surrounded by her closest guards—screeched from her many neck slits. “Kill him, Kaluma. Prove your loyalty and kill him!”

Kazel didn’t even flinch at her escalation from punish to kill. He was busy fighting for his life, slashing at the viree as they both opened wounds on each other. He couldn’t blank, because Drukil had forbid it, but he was a skilled fighter. Despite everything, I was rooting for him, which was stupid, but his death seemed worse. Like maybe as long as he was alive, he could be good again, like he’d once been. If only I could get through to him…

The viree was pushing Kazel dangerously close to some of the traps at the front of the cavern, false platforms that would give way with any weight, sending the unlucky soul plummeting to the rocky base of the mountain below.

I almost shouted for him to watch out. My mouth moved, but no words came out, and I could only watch helplessly as he swung his axe, and the momentum of his body had him stepping at the very edge. I heard the distinct scrape of the stone giving way, but at the last minute, he twisted his body and with a swing, slammed the butt of his axe into the viree’s side. The wolf man let out a roar, but it was too late. He placed one foot on the platform, and it gave way. Letting out a screech of defeat, he fell out of sight. I listened for the crunch of his body to hit the rocks below—a sound I’d heard too many times to count—but it was windy outside, and any sound was swept away.

Kazel stood at the end of the hole, looking down. His giant shoulders heaved. His shoulder spiks trembled, and when he turned around, his matz shimmered for just a moment. His one eye met mine for the briefest moment before turning to Drukil. He walked toward her and stopped a few feet away, bleeding from a cut on his chest and another on his arm, but otherwise unhurt.

“Have I proved my loyalty to you now?”

Drukil was pleased as she nearly vibrated with pleasure. Her cloaca pulsed, and I wanted to vomit thinking of her taking Kazel as one of her bedmates.

“I no longer desire to mate with a Kaluma for offspring,” she said, and I let out a low breath. “But,” she added, “I’m curious about something. I have one last test.” She turned and eyed me in a way that made my body go rock solid. Her neck slits fluttered happily. “I want you to breed my human.”

Two

Rain

I couldn’t believe this was happening. We traveled toward the mating chambers and the familiar walls and signs made me want to zone out—thinking about my favorite candle scents or the way I used to love to shop Black Friday sales with my mom.

But I could only stare at Kazel’s back and the way his muscles shifted beneath his skin like a panther’s. Drukil slithered at the head of the procession, clearly pleased with herself.

She’d never made me do this before. In all the times she’d brought me, I’d been… like an asexual pet with opposable thumbs. I hadn’t been sure she knew I was a fertile being. Clearly, she knew more about humans than I thought.

The Rogastix on either side of me bumped into me with their shoulders and when I glanced at one out of the corner of my eye, he was watching me with interest. A leer. They never looked at me like that before, probably because I’d been presented to them as a sexless being, but now that I was breedable?

Oh God. My life was about to get a whole lot worse. Because this would end in an about an hour, and then I’d be left with the consequences—the new way the guards would look at me, and the most daunting of all—possibly a pregnancy. It was hard for me to think about what that pregnancy would produce. I’d never really wanted children even in my life back on Earth. Giving birth here? In this galaxy? I wouldn’t wish that on any living being, especially one I carried in my belly for nine months.

Wait, would my gestation time even be the same with a…Kaluma baby?

There’d been a year or two when I arrived that I hadn’t menstruated, most likely due to stress and the change in my diet. But my body seemed to adapt to the stress so, like clockwork, I cycled. I couldn’t be sure how regular it was—I didn’t have a calendar and the days here weren’t the same as Earth, but I could feel the cramps coming in time with every other supply shipment.

So, that meant while I might not get pregnant easily, it was a very real possibility. Shit, shit, shit. How was I going to do this?

We stopped outside a room in which the door was made of a transparent film. Kazel peered inside with narrowed eyes before turning to Drukil. “I’d like to ask for privacy. I’ve heard mating with humans is quite pleasurable and that implantation is most successful if the female orgasms.”

I nearly choked on my own spit. No, no way did I want him to try to coax anything from my body. He could get in and get out and have this over with quickly, thank you very much.

Drukil turned and looked at me. I kept my head bowed, but I could feel her eyes on me like lasers.

Finally, she responded to Kazel. “I’ll be outside the door with a few guards. I will be watching since this is still a test of your loyalty.”

Kazel nodded once. “Of course.”

A Rogastix planted his hand on my upper back and shoved me. I pitched forward with a cry as I sought to get my feet under me. I was about to faceplant directly onto the stone ground when a hand gripped my arm and righted me like I weighed nothing. I glanced up into the stony face of Kazel. His fingers tightened around my biceps as our eyes met, and I couldn’t disguise my wince at the pain of his hold. A muscle in his jaw jumped as his grip slackened.

Drukil waved her ring in front of the door, and the clear film dissipated. She gestured inside with her two right arms. “Enter.”

Kazel walked inside, hauling me behind him. I briefly looked into Drukil’s face and saw zero remorse. But then, I was barely a sentient being to her, so she didn’t care I didn’t want this.

As we entered the room, my eyes immediately landed on a round, soft bedding pallet in the middle of the floor. At least we weren’t made to do it on the cold floor, but nothing about the bed was inviting to me. I could imagine all the horrors that had been done in this room, and my body began to tremble.

Kazel’s head jerked down to study me, and while I tried to shy away from him, he held me against him tightly.

I swallowed as my body temperature raced between hot and cold while my head spun, and my stomach rioted with nerves. While I was spiraling, trying to disassociate by thinking about all the swimming strokes I knew, Kazel was peeling back the layers of bedding. He gripped me around the waist and hauled me up onto the bed platform. As soon as my back hit the soft mattress, all flight instincts kicked in. With a screech, I surged up and made for the door, but a strong arm banded around my waist and hauled me right back to the bed. My eyes met Drukil’s, who was watching this with glee. Her body jiggled and her tail writhed, all signs she was enjoying this show.

My muscles went limp, and I lay back as Kazel’s body rose over mine. He threw a small blanket over our mid-sections, which wouldn’t do a whole lot to hide what we were doing underneath.

I closed my eyes, praying he wouldn’t do something like pet me or lick me or anything that resembled a mockery of foreplay when I hadn’t consented to one aspect of this.

When his hand clasped the side of my neck and a claw brushed the underside of my chin, I let out a whimper.

Lips touched the rim of my ear. “I’m sorry, Rain,” Kazel’s deep voice whispered.

My eyes shot open, and I stared at him. This close, I could see nothing but his single fluorescent blue eye, but it wasn’t dead and dull like it had been only moments ago. It was vivid, bright, and bubbling. Confused as hell, I blinked at him.

His lips tilted into a sad smile. “I didn’t know this would be one of her tests, but we just have to make it look real, and then I’ll have the freedom to get you out of here.”

I stared at him, mind blank with confusion. “Wh-what?”

His grin widened. “Was my acting that good? I practiced for a while.”

“B-but…” I stuttered. “You killed…”

He shook his head. “That was all planned. Vik owed me because I saved his mate and litter. He’s alive.”

Was he fucking with me? I’d spent a hell of a long time ignoring the anger inside of me, but now my blood fired. How dare he show up, get my hopes up, then dash them, and then play this trick on me to make me compliant? “Fuck you,” I whispered as I began to squirm and twist under him. “Fuck you for thinking you can trick me so I’ll be complicit in my own assault.” I got my arms loose and swung them at his head, but he easily gripped both my wrists in one giant palm and slammed them onto the bed over my head. I panted as I sought to hold back the tears. I wasn’t successful though, and I could feel the hot frustration leak out the corner of my eyes. “Just get it over with, you asshole.”

I expected him to hit me or at least shout but instead he let out a relieved breath as his eyes glittered. “There you are. I was worried Drukil had broken you, but you still have spirit. Thank yerk. This is the Rain who saved me.”

I went still and cocked my head. Now it was my turn to study Kazel. He waited, holding his body a few inches over mine. His grip on my wrists loosened until he let them go completely. I lowered my hands and touched his face, running my fingertips across his cheeks and over his lips until I lightly brushed the tattered black eye patch. Could this be? Had he really come for me? “Kaz?” I whispered with a cracked voice.

He swallowed thickly, and his expression shifted to sorrow. “I’m sorry it took me so long. I looked everywhere for you—”

I shook my head as I muffled a sob from behind my hand. “You didn’t have to find me.”

“Yes, I did,” he answered quickly. “And I wanted to.”

His hand smoothed over my hair which was pulled back into a tight bun like Drukil requested. It was the only way I had been able to prevent her from shaving my head. He tugged out the tie and the pressure on my scalp eased as my long curly hair fell back onto the bedding.

He glanced over his spiked shoulders before once again meeting my eyes while he settled his body over mine. I reacted without thought, spreading my legs so his hips slotted between them.

His thumb rubbed a soothing pattern on my neck. “We’ll fake it. I won’t penetrate you. We’ll be out of here in two rotations at the most. Okay?” I could feel the press of his hard cock on my stomach, and I wiggled my torso. He grimaced. “Ignore that.”

But my heart was light. Lighter than I thought I could feel ever again. Hope was a powerful drug, and it was flowing through my veins, making me feel nearly weightless. Powerful. “Are you hard because you’re attracted to me?”

His eye blinked and his thumb went still where it’d been caressing me. “What?”

“Are you hard from the friction or do you—?”

“I’m hard because it’s you, Rain,” he answered gruffly, suddenly extremely serious. “I don’t intend to rescue you from here and send you off. It’s been you since the moment I met you. Before you saved my life. I want to make you my mate. In my mind, you always have been.”

My mouth moved before my brain could catch up with it. “I want this.”

His hand flexed around my throat. “What did you say?”

Only Kazel made me impulsive. I ignored the voice in my head that reminded me of the consequences of my last reckless decision regarding Kazel. I was too caught up in hope, his touch, and feeling alive for the first time in years.

I raised my hips so I could hook my legs around the back of his thighs. He exhaled roughly and went down to his elbows above me. His weight felt good. Amazing even. I hadn’t been touched like I was human in so long, and even longer since I felt any sexual desire. Now it roared through my bloodstream like a drumbeat, and my libido followed with a chant. I knew more than anyone that it was impossible to plan the next day. Even the next hour. I wanted to feel something for the first time in years.

I didn’t think about Drukil and the guards standing outside the room. To me, there was only the softness of the bed at my back and Kazel’s heated body on top of mine. I fingered the wild locks of his hair, and his cock pulsed against my stomach. “I don’t want to fake this.”

Kazel’s lips parted, and his brow furrowed over his eye. “Rain,” he whispered.

“Don’t make me beg.”

“I won’t—” he swallowed and slid his hand from my throat to cup my face. “I wanted to get us safe first. This wasn’t how I imagined joining with you.”

“We’re not in Drukil’s lair,” I said. “We’re safe on your home planet, and we’re going to take a nice nap afterward and then eat a feast.”

He smiled, but his eye still looked sad.

“Fantasize with me,” I pleaded. “It’s how I’ve made it this long. Sometimes I thought I was losing my mind, but I realized lately that this is the way I’m preserving it. If I actually faced my situation head-on, I would have lost it long ago.”

He was quiet for a long time as he watched my face. “We’re home,” he finally responded, fingers massaging my temple. “In my hut on Corin. I snuck away from training with my brother because I wanted to see you, and you greeted me wearing nothing but a fur.”

I grinned as I clutched the blanket beneath me, pretending to dig my finger into a thick pelt. Somewhere in the back of my head, a voice told me to be careful, but I was too far gone. My stomach swirled with excitement, and I could feel wetness coating my core. Kazel’s hips were rocking softly against me, and I shimmied my body until my dress rode up to my waist.

Kazel’s head cocked as a hand slid down my chest. He paused at my left breast.

I gasped when a claw brushed my nipple.

He tugged the neckline of my dress off my shoulder and lowered it until my full breast popped out. He shifted down my body and while he kept his eye on me, he opened his mouth and took my nipple into the wet heat.

I closed my eyes on a moan as I gripped his head while he worked my sensitive peak. A suction started almost immediately, and I bucked my hips as pleasure shot right to my clit.

His hand was on the move. As his tongue worked my nipple, his fingers drifted until he slid a thick digit through my wet folds. “Kaz,” I murmured as I opened my eyes. He popped off my nipple and shifted up until our faces were inches away. Slowly, he took my lips before sliding his tongue inside.

I’d never had a kiss like this in my life. I’d been terrified I didn’t know how to kiss anymore, but it didn’t matter. He took control. He mastered me with his tongue, and when he groaned, I felt the rumble all down my spine. I shivered as he kissed me while he toyed with my clit.

I gripped his face as I mumbled against his lips. “Now.”

“Want to draw this out,” he panted above me. His eye was shining, and his cheeks were a ruddy brown. “So I can give you pleasure.”

“I want to be connected now,” I whispered. “Please, Kaz. Come inside.”

He was much taller than me, so when he surged forward, my head was in line with his chest. His large body covered mine, protecting me from anyone watching, not that they mattered to me anyway.

“I don’t know that I can last long,” he said with gritted teeth as the tip of his cock prodded my entrance.

I looked down his body to his cock. A darker bronze than the rest of him, white lines matching the matz marks on his chest pulsed and shimmered. The head of his cock was flared out and seemed to be…rotating.

I gripped the shaft and pressed him against me. I shifted down until his head entered me. I gasped at the large intrusion while he moaned. All the veins in his neck protruded. “Rain,” he murmured.

I ran my fingers down his sides before clutching his waist. “Mate me, Kaz.”

Three

Kazel

I took a deep breath, and then slammed my hips forward into my mate. Her tight heat clutched my cock, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head at how perfect she felt.

I’d known since I first laid eyes on her that she was my mate. My other half. My linyx. Beneath me, she lay with her eyes half-closed and her wild mane of curls spread out around her. Pale skin flushed pink, she was everything I imagined her to be all these many cycles I searched for her.

I fantasized with her, and in my mind we were already home in my hut safe and sound. We would be soon I was sure of it. No way would Drukil take more of Rain’s life from me. A part of me whispered in my ear that I should stop this and pull out. That this wasn’t the time or place to connect with my linyx and complete the bond. But my body wanted this too badly, and I was already thrusting my hips, rocking our bodies in a steady rhythm on the soft bedding.

Rain’s lips were curled in a soft smile as I reached between us and rubbed the pad of my thumb over her clit. I’d overheard a conversation with the other Kaluma and their human mates about the female anatomy and how to bring them pleasure. Rain’s mouth opened wide, and her neck arched as she moaned. I curled my back so I could lean down, press my tongue to her neck, and suck a patch of skin there. Marking her.

The vurs on my cock pulsed rapidly inside of her, and the cap of my cock spun quickly. I was close, but I wanted to hold off as long as I could so Rain would feel as much pleasure as possible. I knew how Drukil worked, and I couldn’t imagine all Rain had been through serving under her. The fact that she was still able to fight and speak on what she wanted filled me with pride. I wasn’t sure I deserved Rain, but I’d spend the rest of my life honoring her.

“So close,” she murmured as her warm brown eyes went liquid with pleasure. “Please, Kaz.”

No one ever shortened my name, and I wouldn’t let anyone—unless they were Rain. When she said it, I always puffed my chest out with pride.

I plucked her clit with my claw, and she gasped before her body went rigid. Her eyes popped open before she whispered in a high-pitched, “Yes.” Her body shook as her hips bucked against mine in a wave of ecstasy. I couldn’t hold back as her inner walls squeezed my shaft. With a shout, my cock cap spun, unleashing seed inside of her.

She clung to me, her face pressed against my chest, as we came together. I couldn’t even be sure of the sounds I made. I only knew that being with Rain was the single greatest moment of my life.

She made a muffled sound against my scales, and I let her back rest on the bed. Holding myself above her on my elbows, I brushed her damp hair off her forehead.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her eyes half-closed as she let out a cute little happy sigh.

I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and rolled to the side to tug her against me. “We’ll get up soon and have a meal with my brother and his mate,” I said as I closed my eyes. “Tonight, is a celebration.”

“Mmmm,” she hummed next to me as she snuggled under my arm. “I want s’mores.”

“What are—?” Suddenly I was wrenched off the bed. I tugged up the waist of my pants as I came up swinging. My fist connected with the nose of a Rogastix guard just as my scales began to click to start my blank.

“Don’t do it,” Drukil’s voice called out in the room. I went still as I turned to find one guard with his laser gun on Rain’s temple. She sat in the middle of the bed on her knees, dress once again covering her. I tried to communicate silently with her, but she avoided my eyes with her head down.

Drukil’s hand brushed my arm, and it took all my willpower not to yank my arm away. I stood there, puffing air through my nostrils to prevent a meltdown. Drukil’s eyes were watching my every move.

“Sorry,” I muttered. “Your guard surprised me. Instinct.”

“I see,” Drukil said. “You enjoyed that more than I thought you would. But I can’t spare her again, so that’s the last time you get to enjoy human cunt.”

I gritted my teeth as the Rogastix guard hauled Rain off the bed. His grip on her was punishing, and I could see her skin already reddening.

She wouldn’t meet my eyes, and I hated it. I begged her silently to look at me, but she kept her head bowed. I’d get us out of here. Within a few yoras if I could swing it. I just had to keep up the act for a little longer…

“I’m done with her now,” Drukil snapped, and my veins turned to ice. Rain’s head shot up and her eyes were round, face pale. Drukil eyed her guard. “You can kill her now.”

And that was when I went berserk.

I blanked and everything went to yerk. Drukil moved faster than I thought possible with Rain over her shoulder. My mate kicked and screamed, and I roared as I leapt after them, but Drukil was out the door and had it shut and locked before I could make it out. I hit it with a thud and immediately I turned on the guards in the room. Stunned, their eyes darted around the room looking for me while firing off random laser fire. I killed them before they had a chance to defend themselves. Blood stained the walls, the floor, and me. The body of a Rogastix guard lay on the bedding that had once been a source of my happiness.

I whirled to the door and beat it with my fists, but whatever film covered the door was indestructible. My axe sat outside, leaning against the wall.

Drukil stood just on the other side of the door. Rain fought two guards, kicking and punching, but she was no match for the much bigger creatures. I could only watch helplessly as one took his laser gun and slammed it into the back of her head. As her body went limp, I swore I felt the echoing pain in my own head. I slid to the floor on my knees with a wail.

“I knew it,” Drukil’s voice sneered at me. “You failed this test just like I knew you would. I would never kill my human.” She reached out two hands and ran them through Rain’s hair. My lips curled back as I sought to wrap them around the vizpek’s neck. “Instead, I’ll keep her and raise your spawn as one of my own.”

“No!” I shouted, pounding on the film, and slashing at it with my claws. “You’ll never get a hand on my son.”

Her fingers slid down to caress Rain’s cheek. My mate didn’t even flinch as she hung unconscious between the two guards. “This will be a fun experiment. Thanks for impregnating my human. I’m looking forward to seeing what she pushes out.”

I let out another roar as Drukil turned and slithered down the hallway. The guards followed, carrying Rain between them. I heard Drukil say to another two sets of guards, “Throw him in the mines. We’ll get some use out of him before his body gives up.”

My muscles gave out and I pitched forward, only catching myself at the last minute, so my face didn’t hit the stone. I’d yerked up. I’d only had to hold out a little longer, and keep up the ruse, but I’d failed. I’d failed myself, Rain, and possibly the life we’d created. As the guards poured in, I fought with everything I could, but there were too many. After sustaining too much laser fire, I lay slumped in the corner, nearly dead as blood poured from my body and the stench of my own burned scales flooded my nostrils. They slapped a collar on me that prevented me from blanking and then dragged me out of the room.

Four

Rain

I prodded at the nubs on my baby’s shoulders, and once again thanked the genetics gods that Kaluma weren’t born with their sharp spiks. Harry’s would grow around puberty to the sharp points like his father’s. His scales were a much lighter color like my own skin tone. But his face was his father’s with eyes that seemed more wise than a few months old. I poked his tummy, and he let out a giggle before reaching for me with his chubby hands.

Suddenly bronze arms scooped him up, and I craned my neck back to see Kazel blowing a raspberry into Harry’s neck. He’d learned that from his brother, who had his own wild daughter to contend with.

I leaned back in my chair. “We were talking, and you interrupted.”

“Oh yeah?” Kazel crossed his eyes at Harry and made a funny face. “What were you talking to your mother about?”

“He said he’s tired of you snoring at night.”

Kazel gasped dramatically. “Me? Snoring?”

I pressed my lips together to hide my smile. “It’s loud.”

My mate shook his head. “Harry said it’s you.”

It was my turn to gasp with mock horror. “Absolutely not.”

Kazel sat down next to me and placed Harry on his chest. Our baby snuggled into his father’s chest, which was his favorite place to hang out. Since he’d just been fed, I knew he’d fall asleep soon, and within a few minutes, his back was rising and falling with deep breaths. Kazel patted his bottom and leaned back with his eye half closed. “I’ll be taking care of Harry tonight. Alone.”

I frowned. “What?”

He peered at me sideways. “You’re having a…” he scrunched his lips to the side. “What term did Karina use? Something like girls’ out night?”

I laughed. “Girls’ night out?”

He waved a hand. “Something like that. According to Karina and Zuri, it’s essential to survival. Bloom just goes along with whatever they say.”

It’d been so long since I’d been around other humans, let alone women, that I still could barely believe I lived in a settlement with them, safe and sound, where we got to take care of our babies, cook for our mates, and do fun things like have a girls’ night out. Of course, there was no club or wine bars here on Corin, but knowing Karina and Zuri, they’d come up with something fun. Those two were trouble together, and I loved it. “Okay, but I’ll miss you and Harry.”

“Of course you’ll miss us,” Kazel sniffed. “We’re amazing.”

“Don’t you ever want a boys’ night out?”

He scrunched his nose. “I spend enough time with Bosa. I’m not volunteering to give up any more of my time to listen to him practice human language slang.”

I laughed. Bosa awkwardly spouted phrases he overheard us saying and while sometimes he got the references right, he was often wrong.

“Well maybe you can take a hunting trip alone with your brother sometime,” I suggested.

When Kazel didn’t immediately reject the idea, I knew it was a possibility. He’d been working on his relationship with Sherif, and while it was slow going, the two were committed to getting close.

I smiled. “I’ll talk to Zuri about it.”

Kazel’s hand stilled on our son’s bottom before he gazed at me with one bright blue eye. “Thanks to you, Drukil didn’t win.”

I shrugged. “It wasn’t just me. You showed up—”

“And then I needed the rescue. Thanks for not giving up on me. If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be out of my mind, swinging that sledgehammer in the darkness.”

Harry let out a burp, and Kazel pressed a kiss to his temple before leaning back in his chair. “I’m going to nap with Harry. You get ready for your out night girls.”

I stood up with a laugh.

* * *

I opened my eyes and started at the cracked ceiling over my head. It was the same view I’d had for years, but I usually woke up and pretended like I wasn’t in a small alcove in Drukil’s room. I acted like my morning meal wasn’t the same gruel it was every day, and instead was some delicious brunch with quiche and roasted potatoes.

The last few months, I hadn’t been so great at pretending. Ever since I was carried out of that room on Drukil’s back and watched Kazel fall under a barrage of Rogastix guards…

I’d never forget his roars of pain and anger. Or get the smell of his blood out of my senses.

Drukil acted like nothing happened. She watched me closely, probably waiting for me to drop an egg in the middle of a room like a chicken. But she never mentioned Kazel. No one did. It was like he’d never been there. Every day, I wondered if they’d killed him, but inside I felt like he was still alive. I dreamed about him almost every night, and the dreams were so real, so vivid. They were all set in the future, as if I chose a different chapter in a choose your own adventure book and was actually safe and sound with Kazel rather than still living as Drukil’s servant.

I could hear her stirring in the main room, and I knew I had to get up soon and attend to her. She’d want her meals, and I’d have to help her don her jewelry.

I ran my hand over my sensitive breasts and to the soft swell of my stomach. I hadn’t had my period for about three months, by my estimation. I had been nauseous for weeks, although I hid it well, and now my lower stomach was swollen and a little hard.

I was pregnant. There was no denying it now. That one time with Kazel, that one chance we’d had to be together had resulted in a child. I had been in denial for a while, but with every day, I grew more and more sure.

I had never dreamed of my baby before. Last night had been the first. Little Harry with his white hair, shoulder nubs, and pudgy face. I could still smell his milk breath and feel his skin on my palms. It had all been so real, and I’d been so happy.

I swiped away the tears leaking out of the corner of my eyes and sniffed. I hadn’t even realized I’d been crying, but I could feel the hot sting of tears as they ran down my temples. I longed to hear Kazel’s voice and to feel his arms around me. I did everything I could to find out where he was. I asked around discretely, but I didn’t have allies here, and if I let on that I was looking for him…I shuddered to think about what Drukil would do.

A door swung open, banging against the wall, and the familiar screeches of Prubel and Grubel entered the room. I swung my legs out of my bed pallet and quickly used my chamber pot in the corner of the room. After righting my dress and securing my hair in a tight bun, I opened the tattered curtain and walked into Drukil’s room. She was on her chaise eating her breakfast while her daughters slithered around her, talking rapidly. I usually ignored their chatter but ever since I’d been separated from Kazel, I paid attention to everything. No more pretending or disassociating. I couldn’t afford to be ignorant anymore in case I heard one word slip about Kazel or his whereabouts. Despite everything, that hope hadn’t died in my chest, no matter how many times Drukil tried to drown it.

“You have to do something about her,” Prubel said as I began to polish Drukil’s jewelry.

“I’ll talk to her.” Grubel was clenching her fists as she glared at her sister.

“You’ve done enough talking,” Prubel shot back. “Mother, the hatchling is beyond hope. She’s past maturity now and still too soft. I don’t trust her.”

“Stay out of my business,” Grubel hissed.

“This is my business,” Prubel slapped her tail on the floor. I jumped, nearly dropping a large gem, but fortunately recovered. I glanced in the mirror in front of me to find the sisters facing off against each other. Drukil watched with mild amusement.

“We can’t afford a weak link,” Prubel continued. “And that hatchling of yours will be our downfall.”

Grubel rolled her eyes. “You’re so dramatic.”

Prubel crossed both sets of her arms. “What do you think, Mother?”

Vizpek talked through neck slits, but they breathed and ate through a fanged mouth at the base of their throats. She tossed a roasted leg of some sort in there, bone and all, before answering. “Bring her here.”

Prubel looked triumphant, while Grubel trembled with anger and swiped her tail across the floor, nearly taking out a table.

“Human!” Drukil barked, and I turned with a jerk and a slight bow. “Take the guards with you and bring Grubel’s Uldani hybrid. She’s the only one of that litter left, so she’s not hard to find.” She waved a hand, and that meant I was dismissed, so I had to move.

I quickly left the room and closed the door behind me. Outside, the guards were already notified of the orders. Drukil trusted me, but also thought I was a total dimwit who couldn’t convey instructions.

The guards led the way as we walked toward Grubel’s brood barracks. Most of them had to be separated, since many of the species would eat others. The Uldani hybrid was with the less vicious of the species. These were supposedly bred to carry out less physical tasks, but sometimes they either weren’t intelligent enough or were handicapped in some way. Seriously, this place was like an ableist nightmare.

As the more powerful female, Drukil’s offspring typically hatched more advanced—often fully formed creatures with immediate kill instincts. As for the sisters…their hatchlings needed time to grow and some education on how to how to act as children of an evil empire.

I felt for a lot of the hatchlings, even the ones who’d been close to killing me when I’d walked into the incubator rooms by accident. They hadn’t asked to be born with the genes they were, but that was the hand they were dealt, and they unfortunately suffered the consequences for the way they were bred.

Drukil was ruthless with her daughters’ offspring. Most were killed, and those that survived to maturity were put through rigorous tests. If they failed, they ended up like their siblings—thrown out of the cavern to their deaths.

Every time the thought of trying to save them entered my head, I dismissed it. I wasn’t the same Rain who stuck my neck out for Kazel. I wouldn’t be that Rain ever again. And with every new horror, I withdrew more and more into myself until I sometimes mixed up my daydreams and reality.

So now, knowing I was going to have to face a test fully aware of my surroundings and while protecting a growing baby in my belly made me want to vomit.

We entered the room and my eyes immediately landed on the hatchling they wanted—a slim adult Uldani hybrid. Unlike the vizpek, she had legs and a thick tail similar to a kangaroo’s. With her four arms, she was elbow-deep in a wash basin cleaning some clothes. When I walked in and made eye contact with her, she went very still with her gray eyes wide and wary. From what I heard, she resembled the Uldani much more than her vizpek mother, which was probably her death knell from birth. She wore a slim dress over her two sets of breasts, and she straightened to her full height as we drew close. She was on the small side for a creature with vizpek blood, as she only stood slightly taller than me.

When she spoke, the sound came from her mouth, but echoed through her neck slits, which made her sound like she was talking in a tunnel. “Can I help you?”

I remained silent while one of the Rogastix guards spoke. “Drukil wants to see you.”

I remembered this hatchling’s name then. It was Carew, which I found pretty. Of course, she named herself. None of the offspring got real names.

Her eyes landed on me, and while normally I avoided eye contact, I looked right into her round gray eyes. I couldn’t offer assurance though. I had nothing but silent support. She stared back before heaving a breath and nodding with a sad resignation. Some of the vizpek offspring were nothing but one-minded monsters, but Carew wasn’t like that.

One guard led the way, with Carew and I side-by-side, and another guard bringing up the rear. Carew walked with heavy steps and wrung her hands in front of her. Unlike the bald Drukil, Carew had a head of white hair that she likely inherited from her Uldani father. It flowed down her back in a way I admired. I didn’t have much dignity left, but I was still vain about hair. It was why I refused to cut it even though my life would have been simpler. And maybe if I ever got out of here, I would cut it, but it would be my choice, not Drukil’s.

Carew was walking to her death. I knew it, and I was pretty sure she knew it too. I wasn’t sure what she’d done, but if they got one whiff of her not falling in line with their goals, they wouldn’t hesitate to oust her. I’d spent the last few years ignoring what went on around me, and even though I knew I couldn’t do much to save anyone, the guilt still piled up in my chest like a wall of rocks. Maybe I could have done more, tried harder, been smarter.

But I’d learned the consequences of sticking my neck out. I’d done it once for Kazel. Once for a nameless offspring when Drukil first bought me. And both times I’d paid for it nearly with my life. I brushed my hand along my stomach. I had someone else to think about now. Someone who couldn’t vote, who didn’t have the guilt I did. Who should have a chance to live. How could I make the decision to risk my life to save anyone knowing it would affect us both?

Indecision made me stumble, and I went down to one knee with a groan. My head swam, the nausea I thought I was over returning with a vengeance. I clasped my hand over my mouth as I fought not to throw up my last meal. Four hands settled on my shoulders, and I looked up into the face of Carew. “Are you okay?”

No, no I wasn’t okay. And I didn’t know what to do about anything. I wasn’t brave enough to save her. I was barely brave enough to save myself and my baby. I couldn’t remember the Rain who fought hard to save Kazel’s life. Maybe it was better we were separated before he found out I wasn’t the same Rain I’d been. This one was a coward.

I felt the tears prick the back of my eyes just as Carew glanced up at the guards. “I think she needs to go to the infirmary.”

The head guard grunted. “No, she doesn’t.”

Carew gritted her teeth. “Do you know human anatomy?”

“Don’t get smart, hybrid,” the other said as he cuffed her on the head.

She took the blow with barely a flinch, and despite her situation, despite knowing that I was barely a rat in the hierarchy of this place, watched me with concern. “I don’t know much about human sickness, but I’ve seen you before, and you’ve never been this pale.” She appealed to the guards again. “I really think she’s sick. Do you want to be responsible for Drukil’s human dying when she could be helped?”

The guards glanced at each other, shifting their weight back and forth. Finally, the Rogastix barked a few words into his comm device before turning on a heel. “Let’s go.”

Carew helped me to my feet, and even offered me a small smile. She didn’t let me go, taking most of my weight as we made our way slowly to the infirmary. I watched her the whole time, and when she noticed my eyes on her, she patted my shoulder for comfort.

This alien, who was raised in a hellhole and treated horribly most of her life, who knew as well as I did that her hours were numbered, was comforting me, a species she was taught was barely dirt under her foot.

The guilt nearly choked me as we made our way to the infirmary. Grutick, Drukil’s healer, was an old urgot with a squat body, thin legs, and waddling gait. When Carew knocked on his door, we heard him muttering on the other side for a while until the door finally clicked open.

He stared at me, and I stared back. I’d met him one time, back when I almost died after my punishment. I remembered wavering in and out of consciousness while he laid strips of stinging medicine to my back while an infection raged in my skin. Now, I suspected I had some sort of blood infection, and I still wasn’t sure how I survived. Had Grutick saved my life or just prolonged my suffering?

“I think the human is ill,” Carew said.

Grutick continued to stare at me. His jowls shook slightly as he glanced at the Rogastix guards behind me. Finally, he let out a rumbly growl and waved us in. The Rogastix guards tried to follow us, but Carew slammed the door shut in their faces.

Despite her near future, she was still a hatchling, which meant she carried certain privileges in this place, which was the only reason the Rogastix guards didn’t beat the door down…and then beat her.

Grutick pointed to a spot on the floor and I stood there with my arms clasped in front of me. “What’s wrong?”

Before I could answer, Carew spoke up. “She stumbled outside. Her color isn’t good, and I think she’s light-headed.”

I let Carew speak for me. Grutick waddled over with a few of his instruments in his hands. I eyed them warily. First, he looked up my nose, then in my mouth.

Finally, he stared at me, and I could see a barely-there grimace of humanity as he asked, “How has your back healed?”

With my teeth gritted, I nodded. “It’s healed well.”

He walked around to my back, which was facing Carew, and when he drew up the back of my dress to check my scars, she let out a strangled sound.

I closed my eyes as Grutick let out a sigh and let my dress fall back into place. “Drukil didn’t provide you the cream I gave her?”

The cream? Absolutely not. “No.”

He shook his head as he came around and made a few marks on an electronic tablet. Suddenly from behind us came a crash, and I turned to find Carew standing over a tray of shattered bottles.

Grutick let out a wail and shuffled over to the spilled contents, picking up small medicine tabs and lamenting over the spilled liquid.

“I’m so sorry,” Carew said as she helped Grutick pick up the shards of glass. “I lost my balance, and my hip bumped the cart… I can go down to the supply rooms and get you what you need. Do you want to make a list?”

Grutick shoved her hands out of the way. “Don’t touch anything else. Stay here with the human, and I’ll go get what I need.”

“Are you sure—”

“I’m sure,” he growled at her. For such a small, fairly docile creature, he sure got riled when his office was messed with. He grabbed his tablet and hustled out the door. After slamming it behind him, he said a few words, presumably to the Rogastix guards, and then we could hear his steps retreat down the hall.

There was a knock at the door. “We’re coming in.”

“No!” Carew called out. “The human isn’t dressed. Give us a bit of time.”

I stared down at my dress, and when I raised my head to ask Carew what was going on, I found her in front of me, face scrunched into anger. With the flat of her palm, she shoved me back into the wall and produced a shard of glass in her palm which she pressed against my throat.

I stared at her, unmoving, as she swallowed and shifted her weight. Her tail thumped the ground as she glanced back at the door and then to me. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I don’t have a choice. If I leave this room, I’m marching to my death.” She licked her lips. “Right?”

I heaved a breath and felt the prick of the glass edge against my skin. “Yes,” I whispered. “Drukil doesn’t trust you.”

She huffed out a breath before glancing at the door again. “Look, I was just going to kill you. No offense human, but… I need to get out of here and I don’t want anything to stop me. But then I saw your scars.” The muscles around her nose twitched. I wondered where she learned empathy because it surely wasn’t her vizpek side. “How did you get those scars?” she whispered.

“At Zhronx,” I answered.

“Why?”

I said only five words, but the weight behind them dropped between us like a bomb. “I tried to save someone.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

I swallowed. “Me too.”

The hand holding the glass shard dropped slightly. “You’re more intelligent than Drukil thinks you are, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I mean, it’s a low bar. She thinks I can barely speak. But I’m smarter than she thinks.”

“So, what do you want? If I leave you alive here, they might torture you to find out what happened. And I can’t afford to let that happen.” She shifted her weight as her time to escape slipped away the longer we talked. She glanced around and picked up some sort of handled tool with a round head. “I can hit you and knock you unconscious.”

“Then how do you plan to leave?”

“What?”

“What’s your plan?”

“I’m going to run out of here and make some sort of excuse to the guards. I just have to get—”

Talking outside made her go still, but we didn’t hear Grutick. She turned back to me, panic in her eyes. “I don’t have a solid plan, okay? But I have to get out of here, and I’m not leaving without my mate.”

A mate? “Who’s your mate?”

She smiled fondly. “His name is Racks. He’s a former Rogastix guard who was banished to the mines.”

I gasped as a deep voice from my dream echoed in my head.

If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be out of my mind, swinging that sledgehammer in the darkness.

Without a doubt, I now knew where Kazel had been hidden away. I didn’t deserve to ask her this, not after I hadn’t done a damn thing to save her, and she’d been nothing but kind to me. “Take me with you.”

Both her arms went limp and hung at her sides as she took a step back and stared at me. “What?”

“I need to get to the mines too.”

Now she looked at me like I was crazy. “What? Why?”

“The Kaluma who was here a while ago. Did you hear about him?” She shook her head. “He’s in the mines. I know it. And I won’t leave here without him either.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and watched me carefully. “Are you trying to trap me to turn me into Drukil so you can gain some favor from her?”

I snorted. “Are you kidding? Drukil doesn’t know what favors are. I have no loyalty to her. You saw my back. That was on her orders, and ever since she’s assumed I’m an obedient pet. I might have acted that way, but I never once felt loyalty to her. And I never will.”

Suddenly Carew rushed at me and grabbed me so strongly that I let out a cry of alarm. “You’re serious about this? Do you have a better plan?”

I dislodged myself from Carew’s touch and began walking around the room in small shuffling steps, Carew watching me with her tail thumping the ground. She spun to keep me in her line of sight. “What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for—” Suddenly Carew’s tail made a hollow sound on the ground where a thick pelt covered the ground. She went still and slowly lifted the tip to stare at the floor. “Uh, what was that?”

I grinned at her, feeling better than I had in a long damn time. “What I was looking for.”

I squatted down on the floor and swiped away the first layer of stone dust. Using the tool Carew had abandoned, I cracked a thin layer of stone and rock to reveal a flat board.

Carew dropped down next to me and placed her palm on the board before lifting her round eyes to mine. “What is this?”

I pulled the board up to reveal a hole and Carew gasped. I ran my hand along the edge until I felt small foot and handholds. “I only learned about this recently, and I wasn’t sure if the guards gossiping about it were making it up or if it was real. There’s a series of connected tunnels, like secret passageways, in this mountain. Most are unusable as they’ve collapsed, and I can’t be sure, but there has to be one that leads to the outside. I heard someone saying they were once used to transport supplies back when the shipments came by water before the river dried up.”

Carew glanced at the door. “But when they walk inside here, they’ll see we uncovered the door.”

I grabbed the two stone pieces that I’d cracked. “We’ll replace this as best as we can and pull the pelt over the top again. They’ll find it eventually, I’m sure, but hopefully by then we’ll be out of this damn mountain.”

She was breathing hard, adrenaline making her eyes bright. “You’re really not a stupid human, are you?”

“Oh, I make stupid decisions all right. But this one?” I patted my chest. “I feel in my heart it’s right.”

She grinned, and I was struck at how pretty she was now that she didn’t have a cloud of impending death over her. “Let’s go get our mates.”

Five

Kazel

The heat of the fire singed my scales when I slammed my sledgehammer into a pile of hard black rock that would later be used as fuel.

I swiped my hand across my forehead and stared at my gnarled, black-stained hands. Burns had warped much of the scales on my palms and fingers. I had injuries elsewhere, but it was so dark down here that I rarely noticed unless the pain became unbearable.

I worked, ate, and slept. Every rotation. The same routine. The only way I was able to get through was because every time I closed my eyes, I had visuls of her. When I was asleep, we were happy. Safe. Surrounded by family and friends. Her belly was round with my child, and she smiled all the time. I held onto those visuls as proof she was alive somewhere in this yerking mountain, and that I had to remain alert for an opportunity to return to her. That was one thing Drukil didn’t know about—at least I was pretty sure. Rain wasn’t just a mate. She was my linyx. As soon as I’d released my seed inside of her, the bond had been final. And that bond was why she spoke to me in my dreams and why I knew she was alive. And most of all, I had every hope that I appeared in her dreams as well, letting her know she wasn’t alone.

After we’d been separated, I’d lost my mind a bit. I’d raged alone in a cell with no food or water until I was nearly dead. They’d given me an option—work in the mines and stay alive or starve to death. I chose the first one, because at that point Rain was appearing to me even when I was awake, begging me to hold on.

I picked up a chunk of rock and threw it in the cart with the rest of the rock I’d mined that shift. When it was full, I pulled up the brake lever. With a push, I sent the wheeled cart sailing down the tracks until it disappeared down a small tunnel. There, someone would unload it and send it up to the burner on a pulley system.

When I was first sent to the mines, I’d remained chained in one room. Bags of food would be thrown in and I was forced to piss wherever I could.

The guards seemed to think I was sufficiently cowed now. They let me join the rest of the miners, although I kept to myself. I listened to their conversations to see if they had any information that could help me escape, but most of the time they bickered over food and meaningless things. The only other miner who seemed to have half a brain was a former Rogastix guard named Racks who’d only been sent down here a few rotations ago. He was treated the worst by the guards, as he was considered a traitor. I still wasn’t quite sure what he’d done, and the fact that he’d betray his own kind made me wary. But he was also a former guard, so he had knowledge of how this place worked.

An alarm blared, signaling that it was evening mealtime. Only a little longer and then I could close my eyes and be with Rain.

I walked down the tracks the wheeled cart had taken and jumped down from the path to the bottom floor of the mines. Some miners were already carrying their trays of gruel. I grabbed my own meal tray and spotted Racks sitting on the ground spooning the mush into his mouth. A guard walked by and kicked out his foot, knocking Racks’ bowl to the dirt. The gruel spilled out, and Racks stared at it with his jaw tight and eyes downcast while the guard walked away with a grin.

Racks heaved a sigh and leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. When I crouched next to him, his eyelids cracked, and he watched me warily as I righted his bowl and poured half of my gruel into it. Then I sat down next to him and ate my share. He didn’t say anything for a while, then slowly picked up the bowl and spooned the rest into his mouth hurriedly. When he was finished, he wiped his mouth and dropped his bowl to the ground with a clatter. “What do you want?”

He wasn’t stupid, and he knew I’d want to trade something for food. That something was information. I didn’t look at him as I continued eating. “What did you do to get tossed here?”

He studied me for a long time before answering, his yellow eyes shrewd and assessing. Rogastix weren’t an attractive species, although Racks was the least ugly one I’d seen.

“I protected someone,” he answered.

My head went up at that. “Who?”

He cocked his head, interested in me now. “Is there someone you wanted to see protected?”

When I remained silent, he shrugged and said, “Not anyone you care about, I’m sure.” He paused and gave me a knowing look. “Not human.”

As a guard, he would have been notified of my fate. I gritted my teeth before answering the next question. “Is she still alive?”

“The human?”

“Yes.”

“Last I heard.”

I scratched at the collar on my neck, doing my best not to show my relief. I didn’t want to give anything away. To anyone.

He bent his legs and braced his wrists on his knees. “I guess you’ve been watching the routine around here, right?” I didn’t answer, only listened carefully as his voice dropped lower in case anyone around us was listening. “Drukil’s bringing in some extra weaponry supplies tonight. She’s readying for something. Guards will be short staffed.” He gestured toward the large elevator doors that the guards used. They were heavily monitored and required a special code to access. “Might want to watch that space. Tonight won’t be one where you’ll want to rest.”

My heart skipped a beat and then began to pound in my head. Sharing half my gruel had been a good choice. I hadn’t done it out of kindness. This was what I wanted. Information. I nodded, and he nodded back before closing his eyes.

Of course, I didn’t have any reason to trust him, but I’d be a fool not to pay attention. I’d promised Rain I’d rescue her. And I hadn’t given up on that promise.

* * *

I’d been working on loosening the hinges of my cell door ever since I came out of my depressed stupor and had decided to fight for my survival. And freedom.

My collar was hopeless. Unless I had a guard’s key, I couldn’t remove it without slicing off my head in the process, so blanking was still out of the question. But if I could only get out of my cell at night, I was halfway to getting the yerk out of here. And once I could gain access to the elevator, I could find Rain. I was already planning how to take out a Rogastix guard so I could break out of this collar. I longed to feel the click of my scales and relish in the protection of my camouflage.

There was rarely much light down here. A flickering torch outside my cell gave a sliver of light through the barred window of my cell. The guards who usually patrolled weren’t in the halls outside the walls, as best as I could see. I worked at the hinge, tugging it back and forth to weaken the metal. It was a slow process, and the familiar pain of a blister bursting on my palm made me wince. The pus trickled down my wrist, but I kept going.

Suddenly a shadow passed in front of my window, and I went still. In the barely there light, I could have sworn that was Racks’s profile.

I took a chance and whispered in a low voice, “Racks?”

There was no answer, and I held my breath. There was a rustling somewhere down the hall, and a smack followed by a grunt. Then silence.

Pressing my ear to the door, I waited. Footsteps scraped along the stone floor drawing closer. Outside, there was a click followed by the slam of my cell’s bolt. I immediately retreated to the shadows of my cell and narrowed my eyes so the fluorescent blue wouldn’t be seen. I couldn’t be sure who was outside.

The door swung open, and I expected to see a Rogastix—either a guard or Racks. And instead, I saw a mane of curly hair and a small figure. “Kaz?” the female voice whispered.

My knees nearly buckled as I took in the form of my mate. The relief was short-lived, because I couldn’t understand why she was down here. I rushed into the small patch of light to stare at her. I wasn’t sure how long it’d been since we’d been separated. There was no night or day down here. “What are you doing here?”

As soon as she saw me, her shoulders bucked and her face crumpled. “Oh God, you’re alive.” She threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around me and burying her face in my stomach. I didn’t want her to touch me. I was filthy and covered in wounds, but when I tried to put distance between us, she only clutched me harder. “Just give me a minute,” she sniffed. “I’ve been dying for a hug.”

I cupped the back of her head and dropped a kiss into her hair. “I don’t know why you’re here, or how, but I’m so happy to see you.”

She pulled back and swiped at her face. It was then I noticed Racks stood in the hallway outside my cell door and beside him was a female who looked like a vizpek offspring crossed with…an Uldani?

The sight of her made me brace. Was this some sort of trap? But then Rain turned and brandished a hand toward the pair. “This is Carew. She and I escaped because Drukil was going to kill her. When she told me her mate was in the mines, I knew you would be here too.” She gazed up at me with round eyes. “You told me in a dream.”

“Kill you?” Racks nearly shouted, grabbing at Carew. “Why? I didn’t say a word about you. How’d they find out?”

Carew shook her head. “I don’t think they found out about us. I’m just considered too weak for them.”

He drew her into his arms, and she clutched him with her four hands. “I’m sorry,” he said softly, kissing her face. “You’re not weak. You’re better than them and they know it.”

I tugged at my collar. “Well, how about we move then. I’m ready to leave this yerking mountain.”

When I glanced out of my door, I spotted the slumped body of a guard at the end of the hallway. Racks held up a key to my collar, and I heard a beep followed by the sudden loss of the weight. The discarded collar fell to the ground with a clatter, and I stomped it.

I glanced up at Racks. “Did you know the females were coming?”

He shook his head. “No. So change of plans. They know a way out of here that doesn’t involve the elevator. Might have to fight our way out, but…”

I rolled my shoulders and felt the prickle of my spiks on the side of my neck. “I’ve been ready to fight for a long time.” I gripped Rain’s hand. “You stay behind me, all right?”

After Carew and Rain briefly explained the tunnel system, we made a quick plan. I blanked and led the way with Rain behind me, Carew behind her, and Racks bringing up the rear. As we left the cells and made it onto the main floor of the mines, I grabbed an axe and tested the weight with my hand. Not as good as my old weapon, but it would have to do.

We kept to the shadows, as there were a few guards patrolling the area. I was hoping to slip into the tunnels unnoticed, but then Rain inhaled sharply before making a loud barking sound.

I whipped my head to her as she stared at me with wide, terrified eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I had to sneeze.”

A Rogastix guard nearby let out a holler of alarm, and then the half dozen or so guards in the mines rushed toward us at once. I stepped in front of the trio, still blanked, and smiled to myself. Honestly, I’d been longing for this. I’d spent a long time chained and worked to death. But I’d only gotten angrier, stronger, and now with my mate to protect, they had no idea what kind of monster I could unleash inside.

Racks seemed to know what to do. He immediately grabbed a nearby sledgehammer and stood in front of the females. I saw Rain pick up a chunk of rock, and Carew brandished a hammer. I was proud of them, but if I had anything to do with it, all they’d be in this battle were bystanders. I licked my lips, already tasting the blood of my enemies in the air and went to work.

My muscles remembered the feel of a weapon in my hands as I twirled the axe, slicing into limbs and chest cavities with ease. I cracked a few necks because I was feeling like I wanted my hands dirty and relished the sound of the dying guards. I knew more would be flying down that elevator any minute, so as soon as the guards lay dead and dying at my feet, I unblanked and turned to find Racks, Carew, and Rain all staring at me. I swiped the blood from my eyes. “Let’s go before more guards show up.”

Rain swallowed and nodded before pointing a finger to one of the cart track tunnels. “There’s access to an outside tunnel through there.”

After taking a torch off the wall, Racks entered first with Carew behind him and then Rain. As I entered the tunnel, I heard the familiar sound of the descending elevator.

As we took off through the narrow tunnel, Carew explained how they’d escaped from an empty healer’s office. She said it was likely their escape route had been discovered by now, but the tunnel system was complicated, and many passages were too small for a Rogastix to squeeze through easily. It’d taken most of the day for Carew and Rain to travel to the mines, and they’d only reached the mine cavern a little before we’d been locked away in our cells for the night.

I had a concern. “If the tunnels are too narrow for Racks and me…”

“The tunnels down here are larger,” Racks explained. “The ones leading up to the main cavern are narrower, used by small errand species, whereas the ones down here were needed to bring larger supplies to the mines.”

“So, you knew these existed all along?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I wasn’t going to leave without Carew.”

I nodded. “I understand. They could have thrown me out and I would have come back again and again for Rain.”

Her hand slipped into mine just as we took a hard right from the larger track tunnel into a narrower one. The stone walls were damp, and crumbling. My head scraped the top even when I walked at a crouch. Rain’s breaths could be heard as she panted. She ran with a hand pressed to her side. “Are you hurt?” I asked her.

“Cramp,” she gasped. “It’s fine. Just gotta push through it.”

Suddenly Racks let out a small cry and ducked out of view. Carew followed, and I knew why as the floor suddenly sloped downward. I managed to haul Rain into my arms as we both went down, sliding down on the slick rocky ground. My stomach dipped, and the air rushed past me, stealing my breath.

My mate clutched at me, her breathing hard against my neck, as she said on a rasp, “This is way more fun at Six Flags.”

I could see the bob of Racks’ torch ahead, until he let out another holler and suddenly the fire was out with a hiss. Carew cried out as we were plunged into darkness. The tunnel changed direction, and my head smacked against the side with a thunk. Dizzy, I shook it and spotted a dim light up ahead.

We slid out into a large cavern filled with water. It wasn’t deep for me, but Rain splashed around with only her head above the surface. I grabbed at her and pulled her out further. She sputtered and shoved her hair out of her face as she peered around. A hole in the cavern ceiling let in a small bit of light, and I was grateful it wasn’t actually night yet. Or maybe it was early morning.

Racks stood nearby with a wet, unlit torch holding a shivering Carew. Her eyes took up nearly her whole face as she looked around in awe. “Where are we now?”

Six

Rain

I’d been terrified for…longer than I wanted to think about. As much as I hated my life with Drukil, it’d been somewhat predictable, but now, I was flailing in the darkness. Literally.

The coldness of the water seeped down to my bones, and I wrapped my arms around myself as my teeth began to chatter. We stood in neck-deep water around the edge of the large cavern. I was propped up on a small ledge, so I wasn’t completely submerged, but the water still lapped below my breasts.

Only a single hole in the ceiling of the cavern provided any natural light. I could vaguely hear the wind outside, and I swore I could hear the rustling of leaves, like trees were nearby, but my mind could have been playing tricks on me.

Kazel stood with his hand on my legs, holding me in place so I didn’t slip back into the water. His palm was hot, and I stared at his profile as he studied the cavern with his shrewd eye. The space was around half the size of a football field, and when I touched the rocky walls, my hand came away damp and covered in some sort of slick moss.

Racks waded out further into the center of the cavern, gazing up at the hole when suddenly he dropped below water.

“Racks!” Carew called out and darted forward. Before she could get far, Kazel grabbed her hand and hauled her back to stand next to me. She slapped at him. “I’m trying to get to Racks.”

“I’ll get him,” he growled at her and started forward just as Racks’ head broke through the surface of the water. He floundered for a bit before splashing forward. He rose out of the water to his waist, tossing his long braid back as he dripped and panted. “The, uh, ground drops off there. I can’t be sure how deep it is, but that’s not promising. Makes me think this isn’t just a collection of rainwater, but some underground reservoir.” He waved at the center of the water. “There could be some sort of passageway under here and if that’s the case…” he exhaled roughly. “It’s possible we’re not alone.”

Now that he mentioned it, the water wasn’t stagnant. It rippled, like it was being filled from somewhere beneath. I couldn’t hold back the whimper, and Carew’s four hands gripped the ledge as her legs seemed to falter.

Racks rushed to her side as Kazel continued to scan the cavern. He didn’t show signs of panic. Even Racks looked unsettled as he spoke to Carew in hushed tones.

“We’re trapped here,” Carew was saying. Her neck slits fluttered rapidly. “They won’t leave an inch of this mountain unturned, and they’ll find us here to kill us where we stand.”

Her panic wasn’t unreasonable, and I tried not to let myself give into the hysteria. My stomach rolled, and I pressed my hand to my belly as I imagined the little one inside. I wanted out of this water. The cold couldn’t be good for the baby, right? A shiver wracked my bones as I blew hot breath into my cold hands.

Suddenly large bronze palms held my hands, and I looked up into the blue eye of Kaz. He rubbed my hands and arms before dropping a kiss on my forehead. His hands came up under my armpits and he lifted me to stand on the ledge. This way, only my ankles were submerged. He looked to Racks. “Her skin isn’t as thick as ours, and she can’t be under this water long. Watch to make sure she doesn’t fall.”

Racks nodded but then frowned. “Sure, but where will you be?”

Kazel pointed up. “Climbing.”

I didn’t get a chance to say a word before he was off, scaling the slick walls of the cavern with strong, fluid movements. There were plenty of handholds and footholds jutting from the walls, but he slipped several times, making us all gasp. I lost my footing just standing still, because the rock was that slick, so I couldn’t understand how he was able to climb even a few feet. Eventually Racks and Carew both stood in front of me so I could lean on their shoulders.

As he drew closer to the hole in the ceiling, the sunlight settled on his broad shoulders. For the first time since we were separated months ago, I was able to get a good look at him. The mines hadn’t been kind. His white hair was shaggy and knotted, while his body was covered in various cuts and burns. His hands were the worst, gnarled with burns and oozing blisters. I covered my mouth with my hand as frustrated anger welled up inside of me. Why hadn’t I tried harder to find him?

He reached the edge of the hole and grasped at the lip. His feet slipped, and I gasped as his legs swung down and out. He hung onto the edge by three fingers, until he grunted loudly and hauled himself up on the rim, muscles bulging.

He disappeared from view and then reappeared at the lip of the hole with a vine as thick as my calf. He lowered it down and swung it back and forth until Racks was able to reach out and grab it.

Carew climbed first. Racks tried to get me to go next, but I could see Carew struggling a bit. “Go and help her. I’ll follow.”

He glanced up at Kazel and called, “Your mate doesn’t want me to wait.”

Kazel, who must have tied the other end of the vine to a tree, because he stood crouched at the edge of the rim, nodded. “Go ahead and follow your mate. I’ll pull up Rain.”

Racks nodded and climbed after Carew. When he reached her, he grabbed her and together they hauled themselves up and out of the cavern. I watched with a giddy feeling because I couldn’t wait to see some sky. Trees. Breathe fresh air. From down in the cavern, I got the faintest whiff of dirt and rainwater, and I wanted to bottle it up and carry it with me forever. Never again did I want crusty dusty musty cavern air.

“Loop the bottom of the vine around your foot, wrap your arms around it, and I’ll pull you up,” Kaz instructed.

I nodded and did as I was told. “Ready,” I called.

Bracing his feet on the edge, Kazel clenched his jaw, gripped the thick vine in both hands, and tugged.

I held on, watching as my feet lifted out of the water and dripped to the rippling surface below. I looked up to see Kazel’s eye on me, glowing fiercely, and above him a beautiful sky streaked with white clouds. “Stunning,” I whispered to myself.

I glanced back down just in time to see a dark shadow move beneath the surface of the water. “Kaz!” I yelled out just as a massive gray creature broke the surface, all black eyes and long teeth, like some sort of deep-sea adder. I screamed as the mouth rose to close around me. With a violent twist, I let the rope go and arched backwards. The creature’s jaws closed around the bottom of the rope where I’d just been as I sailed downwards. My back hit the surface with a smack, and I cried out at the pain as I plunged down into the dark water.

Water flowed into my mouth and my nose as I flailed and kicked. I had no idea which direction was up, but I did know the creature was in the water with me. I bubbled out a sob, punching the water in front of me, as I prepared for the slice of its fangs into my skin.

I vaguely heard another splash, and soon there were weird percussion sounds beneath the water along with screeches and roars. I reached out blindly but couldn’t feel anything… until the water around me began to feel warm. The tangy iron of blood seeped into my mouth, and I gagged.

Something grabbed me, and I fought back until I felt the familiar slickness of Kazel’s scales. We broke the surface, and I coughed up water as I peered into Kazel’s eye. He panted, his warm body surrounding mine, as we tread water. His palm pushed my hair from my face. “Are you hurt?”

I shook my head, barely able to believe I was alive. “What was that thing?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, but it’s not alive anymore.”

A vine slapped the surface near us, and we looked up to see Racks and Carew standing on the edge of the cavern hole, peering down at us. “Get out of there before another one shows up,” Racks called.

Kazel wrapped my arms around his waist before grabbing the vine with both hands. “Hold on.”

“I won’t let go this time,” I said. “No matter what.”

His lips tilted up in the briefest of smiles before he pulled us up and out of the water.

When we reached the opening of the hole, Carew reached for me and helped me stand. I faltered a bit before gaining my balance and pushing my wet hair off my face. A breeze rippled over my damp skin, and I shivered as I took in our surroundings.

We stood on a large rock shaped like a dome, and all around the base of the rock were trees as far as I could see. When I looked behind me, I could make out the large mountain rising in the distance with the dried up river bed snaking below it. A large ledge jutted out, and I knew that as the main entrance to Drukil’s lair. I shuddered at the sight of it.

“We need to move,” Racks said as Kazel rose to his feet. “We’re too visible here. The more distance we put between us and the mountain, the better.”

The air was warm, and while I didn’t relish trekking in the woods with my bare feet, I knew we’d be better off now than at night. I wasn’t quite sure how cool it got when the sun went down, but I wore only a thin dress that provided little to no protection.

Kazel nodded and then went down to one knee in front of me. I stared at his back, marred by cuts and burns. “What are you doing?”

“Get on. I’ll carry you.”

“I can walk.”

“In your bare feet?” Carew pointed at my wiggling toes. She had sturdy boots, and so did Racks and Kazel. As tough as my feet were, I wasn’t used to walking outside. As much as I wanted to feel the dirt and grass on my soles, that would have to wait. There was no point in insisting I could walk. If I was stubborn and got hurt, it would put everyone at risk.

I climbed onto Kazel’s back. His shoulder spiks made it hard to hold on, but I managed to wedge my arms between them and his neck so I could clasp my hands around his throat.

He picked his way down the rock, with Racks and Carew leading. She was nimble with her spring-like legs and used her thick stubby tail a bit like a kangaroo. Racks was more of a bull, crashing through the brush with a large stick he’d picked up.

I hadn’t eaten since we arrived at the mines. We’d stolen a water and a few snacks from the healer’s room and ate it before running to the cells. And that had been… hours ago. My timing was all messed up. This was likely mid-day, as the sun was high in the sky. I didn’t want to say anything about food and water, even though my throat was so dry it hurt to even breathe.

My head bumped a large purple and blue leaf as we walked, and I reached out a few times to touch the twisted and gnarled tree trunks. I could have sworn some branches seemed to sway toward us as we walked. In the distance, swaying in the breeze were massive Venus-flytrap like plants that could probably swallow me whole. Luckily, we kept our distance from them.

Occasionally I’d hear the howl of some animal and the rustling of rodents. I swatted at a few insects, but nothing bothered us as we walked.

We stopped once to finish off the rest of the water Carew and I had taken from Grutick’s office. Kazel passed on his sips to let me finish the bottle. When we walked again, I noticed him tipping leaves toward his mouth as we walked to catch the dew or rainfall.

Eventually the sun began to dip, and I hoped that meant we were stopping soon. My arms ached, my back was screaming, and I felt faint from lack of food. Still, I refused to complain. Even though I knew I was the weak link, I refused to slow our progress.

The ground began to incline again, and I heard the distinct sound of trickling water. Carew heard it too, as her head went up, and she began to talk to Racks excitedly. He nodded, and we took a hard right into an even denser area of brush. Thorns snagged on my clothes and hair, and I let out a little shriek as something winged swooped down over our heads. Kazel patted my leg. “Just a curious grill. They won’t hurt you.”

It circled over our heads, flapping manically. “It reminds me of a bat.”

“What’s a bat?” he asked.

“Like tiny puppies with leather wings and fangs. They sleep upside down and hang around vampires.” I was a little delirious from lack of food and sleep, so I giggled to myself. “I vant to suck your blood.”

Kazel craned his neck to look at me with concern. “Are you okay?”

I sighed and dropped my head between his shoulder blades where I muttered, “Not really.”

The dense brush gave way to a small clearing near a creek. Racks dropped down onto a fallen log, and Carew collapsed beside him, her head in his lap. He combed his hand through her dark hair while she peered up at him with a tired smile.

Kazel dropped down to one knee so I could slide off his back. He gently pushed me down on the log before standing up, still brandishing the axe he’d taken from the mines. “I’ll get us some food.”

I snorted, lightheaded and out of it. “Is there a Wal-Mart nearby? I would kill for some bagel bites.”

He looked at me with alarm. “I don’t understand your words.”

Carew reached for me, and her face blurred. I blinked but she was still out of focus. “Rain, are you okay?”

I tried to laugh, but I was pretty sure it came out a sob. “I don’t—I don’t think so.” I pitched forward, and the last thing I saw was the ground rushing up to meet me.

Seven

Kazel

I hadn’t wanted to leave Rain’s side, so Racks left to hunt for our meal. He returned quickly with a few bloodied, furry gorpz bodies hanging from a stick off his shoulder. While Carew cooked the meat over a small fire, I held Rain in my arms. Her breathing was shallow, but her pulse was steady. I dribbled a bit of water in her mouth, and she flinched and swallowed reflexively, but didn’t wake up.

Guilt wracked me. I should have paid more attention to her condition. I wasn’t quite sure why she passed out, but I could imagine it was from the lack of food. I knew as a human that she had to eat more often than the rest of us. Why hadn’t I checked on her?

Once the smell of smoked meat filled the air, Rain’s nose began to twitch. She let out a moan, and then her eyelids fluttered. For a moment, all I could see were the whites of her eyes, but then she blinked and focused on my face. Her forehead wrinkled, and she lifted a shaking hand to her cheek. “What—?”

Carew handed me a chunk of meat. I ripped it into smaller pieces before holding it to Rain’s lips. “Eat,” I instructed her.

She opened her mouth and took the meat on her tongue, barely chewing before swallowing. Moaning, she pressed a hand to her stomach. “Starving.”

“I know but chew thoroughly or you’ll feel sick.” I paused with the next chunk of meat. “Want me to chew it first?”

She widened her eyes in horror. “I appreciate the offer, but no. I don’t need to be fed like a baby bird.”

“Bird?”

She flapped her hands as she chewed. “Flying things from Earth. Their moms sometimes digest their worm food and then throw it up into their mouths.”

I gagged. “I wasn’t suggesting that. I only wanted to lend my teeth.” I clacked my jaw at her.

After sipping some water, she patted my chin. “You do have better teeth than me. Do you have to get them checked or cleaned regularly?”

“No.”

“What if you get a cavity or something?”

“What’s a cavity?”

“Like…an infection in your teeth. It causes pain.”

I shrugged and pointed to a patch of gum on the right side of my mouth. “This one hurt so I yanked it out.”

She paused mid-chew and stared at me.

“What?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing. That’s… that’s one way to do dental work.”

Placing the water bottle back on the ground, she rose to a sitting position and smoothed her hair off her face.

“You worried me.” I wrapped my arm around her waist, terrified she was going to falter again.

She patted my leg and her cheeks colored. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you feeling better now?” Carew asked. She handed me a cooked leg, and I gnawed on the bone.

“Yes, I’m sorry about that.” Rain’s cheeks pinked. “I can’t believe I just passed out like that. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before.”

“I felt close to passing out myself.” Carew tossed a hunk of meat in her mouth. “Don’t apologize.”

“Do you think we can take the time to rest here for the night?” Racks asked me.

I picked off a chunk of meat and chewed on it for a while before answering. “I thought we’d hear a search party after us, but it’s been quiet. Makes me suspicious.”

“I thought the same thing,” Racks said. “Drukil has scent tracker hogs. If they really wanted to, they could be right on our trail.”

“I think we can rest. I’ll stay awake the first half of the night and then you can take the second half. Let the females sleep.”

“I can stay up and take a shift.” Carew thumped her tail on the ground.

Racks rubbed one of her arms. “Please rest. I can handle less sleep than you.”

She gave him a look like she didn’t believe him, but her fatigue won out, and she nodded. “If you say so.”

“Let’s lay down now so I can get a little rest before it’s my watch time.”

They settled on a mossy pad under a tree and covered themselves with large leaves. They murmured quietly for a while before falling silent.

Rain finished her meal, and I was happy to see her licking the grease from her fingers.

“You need more fat stores,” I said, poking at her ribs.

She let out a small laugh. “I’d like to go back in time and tell Earth me to just drink the regular Coke instead of diet because one day, the man of my dreams will tell me I need proper padding.”

“It’s for insulation,” I explained. “You wouldn’t be so cold if you had a thicker layer of fat. And then you wouldn’t pass out from lack of food so quickly.”

She sighed and looked away. “Trust me, I’d love nothing more than to be thicker than a Snickers. I ate everything Drukil gave me, and while I wasn’t starving, it wasn’t like I could eat as much as I would have liked.”

Guilt weighted my next words. “I’m sorry. That was an insensitive thing to say.”

She patted my hand, but her voice was still sad. “It’s okay.”

“When we’re home, you’ll have all the food you want.”

She nearly whispered, “That sounds delightful. I hope we make it there.”

“We will,” I insisted as I fed her more meat. “We just have to make it to the viree burrow so I can call home. They’ll send a rescue cruiser.”

She was quiet for a long time, and I became uneasy. “Rain.”

With her head bowed, she avoided meeting my eyes. “I’m not the same woman I was who helped you escape.”

Not a rotation went by that I didn’t remember laying in my cell as I awaited another fight, one I knew would kill me. For many rotations, the Rogastix at the Zhronx fortress had been pitting different species together in order for Drukil to decide who she wanted to breed with. I’d fought and won many times and had the physical and mental scars to prove it. But I often wondered why I bothered. I wasn’t fighting for a prize I wanted. What was survival when all I would be doing was helping Drukil continue to procreate?

Rain had been a servant then, someone who delivered food to the prisoners. I had always found her fascinating, and despite her situation, which wasn’t much better than mine, she’d offer me small smiles and would sneak extra food on my tray.

That rotation, when she’d arrived in my cell, I’d been resigned to lose the next fight. I didn’t have the drive anymore, I never had. While I could fight, it’d never been something I wanted.

“Knock out the next creature that comes in this cell,” she’d whispered in my ear. “And then run. Don’t look back. I’ll get out as soon as I can too. We’re getting free today.”

The next body that walked into the room was a frantic Rogastix cook. I didn’t think, I just knocked him out and stumbled out of the cell to find the usual guards weren’t in the hallway. I desperately wanted to wait for Rain, but she’d given me instructions, and I couldn’t let the brave human down.

I still wasn’t quite sure how I’d made it out that day, but I’d managed to scale the back of the building without attracting the winged cudgels and was running to the cover of the nearby trees when I stopped to wait for Rain.

But she never came. I started the trip back inside for her many times but would then pace indecisively. If I went back in, they’d kill us both instantly. But how could I leave her behind? Eventually I had to leave, forced into hiding by the Rogastix search parties looking for me.

I never forgot her. After that rotation, every time I got word of a dark-haired human female, I’d investigate if it was her. I traveled from planet to planet, and never gave up the search, even when I learned she was in the heart of Drukil’s lair.

And now she sat in front of me, thin and huddled into herself. I placed my palm on the back of her neck, and her eyes slid closed. “You don’t have to be the same person you were all those cycles ago. It doesn’t matter. You saved me then, and I will never forget it.”

She shook her head. “You don’t understand. I’m not brave anymore. Drukil made sure I never did something like that again.”

I swallowed, my stomach churning. “Did they know you helped me?”

A choked sound bubbled out of her. “They didn’t know, but they needed someone to blame, and that was me.”

My fingers flexed around her neck. “Rain,” I whispered. “What happened?”

She tugged up the back of her dress, and when her skin came into my view, I only just held back a gasp. Long horizontal scars and burns marred her back. She’d been whipped, deeply, as some of her skin was gouged out nearly down to the bone.

She’d paid dearly for what she’d done for me.

Unable to look at the painful reminder, I wrapped my arms around her and pressed her back to my front as she sobbed quietly. “I’m so sorry,” I murmured into her hair. My heart pounded, and fury roared through my blood as I fought not to rage.

“It’s not your fault.”

“It is. If it wasn’t for me—”

“It was my decision, and I don’t regret it. Not one bit. Never did. But after that, I didn’t stick my neck out again for anybody. Not even myself. There were many times that I could have saved some of Drukil’s offspring, but instead I stood by and let it happen, too terrified of what they’d do to me.” Her body bucked with another sob, and I held her tighter, afraid if I let her go, she’d dissolve into pieces. She held me together all those cycles ago. I’d do it for her now. “Carew saved us. I knew they were going to kill her, and I said nothing. Because I was too scared.”

“It’s okay,” I told her.

“It’s not okay.” She pounded her fists on my arms. “It’s not. I’m weak and a coward. The shame I feel…”

I turned her in my arms and gripped her chin, so she was forced to look me in the eyes. Her gaze skittered away until I shook her gently. “Look at me.”

“No.”

“Please, Rain.”

Finally, her wet eyes met mine, and I swallowed. “You are brave, because you’re alive in this galaxy that has done nothing but try and kill you. Sometimes, it’s brave just to keep breathing.”

* * *

Rain

I’d long given up on anyone understanding what I’d gone through. On days where I missed home so much that the grief was like a physical ache in my chest, or when I woke up in a cold sweat from the phantom pain of the whipping, or when I had to watch a particularly gruesome punishment by Drukil…sometimes just the act of drawing air into my lungs felt like a marathon.

I’d viewed that as a weakness, as permanent damage done to my psyche from all the trauma. But now Kaz validated how I felt and forced me to recognize that there was strength even in living another day.

I didn’t even know what to say. No words felt sufficient, so I blurted out the only thing on my mind at that moment. “I’m pregnant.”

For a moment, he didn’t react, and I waited for the explosion. But then very subtly, his skin tightened around his eyes, and his fists clenched on his thighs. He gave a short jerk of a nod. “It’s okay. We’ll raise the child as our own.”

It was my turn to stare at him. “What?”

“No matter who sired the child, we’ll give them the life they could never have in the mountain—”

Realization dawned on me. “Kaz, no one else—” I exhaled roughly. “This child is yours. I’m pregnant with your child.”

He swayed on the log, and I reached for him just as he dropped his head in his hands. With my hand on his back, I listened to his steady breaths. His scales flickered a few times, and I had a brief moment of panic he was going to blank and take off. But he shuddered and got himself under control before lifting his head.

He picked me up like I weighed two pounds and placed me on his lap. I straddled his hips as his big palms slipped down my arms to rest on my stomach. “In here?” he asked on a rasp.

I nodded, held rapt by the utter awe on his face.

He swallowed and his thumbs rubbed ever so gently. He held me like I was breakable. “That one time was all it took?”

I bit my lip. “I guess we’re compatible.”

He lifted his head to meet my eyes. “How do you know?”

“I know,” I answered. I pushed his hand down until it rested on my lower stomach where the skin was harder and tighter. “Feel that?”

“I never—” his voice cracked, and he tried again. “I never expected to have a family. I only wanted you, Rain. Just you is enough. A baby is…more than I could have ever imagined.”

“I know the feeling.” I felt the tears gathering at the back of my eyes. “I never thought I wanted to have a baby in this world. In fact, I didn’t want to have a baby on Earth.”

He cocked his head. “You never wanted to be a mother?”

My life on Earth felt like centuries ago. I could barely remember that Rain anymore. I thought life had been hard then? I had no idea. “I was raised by a single mom.” When I saw he was confused, I quickly explained. “My dad didn’t want to be part of our lives.”

His one-eyed glare intensified, and I hurried to finish my story.

“When I was eighteen, my mom died after being sick for a long time. I spent three years taking care of her, so my grades suffered, and I couldn’t hold down a job since I was busy with her appointments. So, when she died, I was just… left with nothing. No money, no skills. Just a shell of a human. I couldn’t afford our apartment and was homeless for a while…” I glanced up at the dark sky, for some reason remembering that stray dog again who had been my only friend for a solid six months. “No way did I want to have a baby in that situation. I couldn’t take care of myself. How could I take care of a child?”

His big palms cupped my neck, and the warm weight of them grounded me, bringing me back to the present and away from the bad memories. “And you’re trying to tell me that you think you’re weak?”

I blurted out a laugh that sounded more like a sob. “You’re right, I breathed, didn’t I?”

“You breathed.” His lips brushed mine.

I picked at a lock of his hair. “Did you want to have children?”

He nodded. “When I was younger, yes. I was the older son of the pardux—our leader—and it was expected of me to mate soon after maturity. But then I was stolen from our planet and brought to Gorsich. And then…I felt like you. No way would I want any child of mine brought into this yerked up situation.”

“And now?”

“And now…” He smiled. “Now I want nothing more than you and this child.”

I really did let out a sob then, but this time it was happy. “It feels like a blessing. Like we can give them a happy life.”

“We will,” he whispered as he wrapped his thick arms around my back and pressed me to his chest.

I melted against him. With Kazel at my side, I felt nearly invincible. I still had a ways to go before I felt that strong on my own, but I had hope that one day I’d be able to be the Rain I was. For Kazel’s sake, and for our baby’s sake.

“Rain?”

I was nearly asleep. “Hmmm?”

“When you helped me escape, why did a cook come into my cell?”

I yawned. “I told him that he fed you rotten meat and you were so sick I thought you’d die. And that he should tend to you first, because if you died, Drukil would kill him. I told him I’d run and get a guard I trusted.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Smart little human.”

“One question,” I said on a yawn. “Why are you always in my dreams?”

He went quiet, and I glanced up at him with concern. “Is that weird?”

He shook his head. “No, I realized I should have explained this to you before. Rain, you’re my linyx.”

“Uh. Okay.”

“It means more than just a mate pairing. We’re connected by a powerful bond. We communicated in our visuls, or dreams, and often your visul can show you the future.”

I thought about the little baby I’d held in my arms. Harry. “Oh. Wow.”

“If I say things to you in your visul, they likely mean something. Pay attention.”

“It is weird because I often forget dreams the moment I wake up, but these stick with me. I saw our baby in one of them, Kaz. We were so happy. And safe.”

His eyes crinkled as he smiled. “We’ll get there. Visuls don’t lie.”

I planned to take that confidence and run with it. I cuddled into him until my eyelids grew heavy. This time when I fell asleep, it was with a smile on my face.

Eight

Rain

“So how did you meet?” I asked Carew.

The conversation felt so…normal. Like we were talking over drinks at a bar rather than over collected rainwater with some grilled fungus for breakfast while we sat on the ground around a dying fire. When we’d woken up, Racks and Kaz had left to go find us some food, while Carew and I washed up in the creek. Picking a few leaves off a nearby plant, Carew rubbed them together until they formed a lather that smelled a bit like mint. She said the leaves held a cleaning agent, and I had to admit my hair and skin felt clean and soft.

Yawning, Racks dropped a carrot-like root in her hand, and she bit off the tip with a snap. “He was my guard, and we just…” her head bowed, and a shy smile crossed her face. “We connected. We both knew it could never work, but we couldn’t help it.”

I propped my chin on my hand. “The heart wants what the heart wants.”

“When he lied to save me from a punishment, they found out. So, he was sent to the mines.”

Kaz leaned back and propped his elbows on the log behind us. “The rumor was you betrayed some other guards.”

“Drukil probably would have liked that reason better. But instead, I took the blame for something Carew did, and that was considered weak.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

She placed two hands on Racks’ thigh. “Let two hatchlings go.”

I hadn’t expected that answer. I straightened and leaned forward. “You what?”

Laughing, she nodded. “Yeah. Two of the winged ones. I forget what species their father was. They belonged to Grubel… like me. They were one of the few born full intact and were sort of sweet. They’d eat out of my hand with their little beaks. Anyway, took them to the front cavern and sent them off the ledge so they could fly away. When Drukil found out, she went nuts, and Racks said he set them loose by mistake.”

Kaz nudged me to eat, and I shoved a grilled mushroom-like cap in my mouth. “Do you think she knew about you two?”

“We were so careful.” Carew scraped at a patch of dirt on her tuber before taking another bite. “But she has eyes and ears everywhere.”

I nodded and leaned back next to Kaz. “You’re right.”

Racks stood and yanked out the tie holding his hair. “I’m going to wash. You coming, Kaluma?”

Kaz raised one side of his brow. “You can call me by my name, you know?”

Racks laughed. “Sorry, habit.”

“Drukil doesn’t like names,” I murmured.

“What did she call you?”

I watched him stand out of the corner of my eye. “Human.”

His hand settled on top of my head and twirled a curl of my hair. “You’re Rain. Always have been, always will be.”

He stepped around me and sauntered toward the edge of the creek. The sun shone through the large leaves, creating a pattern on his bronze scales. Racks stepped up next to him, and I should have looked away when they both dropped their pants, but Carew certainly looked on without shame, so I did too.

Racks skin was a dark green and mottled with brown. His gray hair hung in a wavy sheet down his back. Shorter than Kaz, he was stocky, with a thick barrel chest and round stomach that reminded me of a heavyweight boxer.

Kaz was a little leaner, but I imagined when he was able to eat his fill, he normally carried more weight. His ass flexed as he stepped into the creek, and my libido that had been sleeping since we last came together woke up with jerk.

He was just so…big. Strong. I knew what he felt like inside, and most of all, I knew what kind of partner he was—caring and understanding. He allowed me to be vulnerable. I never in my life thought I’d meet someone like him. When I saved him all those years ago, I did it because I saw something in his eyes that told me he didn’t belong in Zhronx, that he had a bigger purpose in my life and he could accomplish more than three of me combined.

He bent over and ducked his head underwater, then flung his wet hair back. He turned and glanced at me over his shoulder, giving me a sly grin. Butterflies erupted in my stomach as I smiled back at him.

It was hard not to dwell on the scars and burns all over his body, especially the ones on his hands which had warped some of his fingers. But I wouldn’t want him to focus on my scars, so I refused to do the same to him. He was still Kaz. He hadn’t been broken down in those mines, and Drukil hadn’t broken me, no matter how hard she tried.

“What will you do from here?” Carew asked, drawing me out of my alien boyfriend admiration.

I glanced at Kaz. “We haven’t talked about it yet.”

Racks emerged from the creek, and I looked away as he pulled on his pants. A warm body settled next to mine and I looked up to see a dripping Kaz grinning at me. He was wearing his pants but had forgone his boots for now.

With his back to Carew, Racks leaned his head back while she nimbly braided his hair. “I know a few places we can get refuge.”

“You’ll be on the run for the rest of your lives,” Kaz said.

Racks shrugged. “It’s a big galaxy. At least we’ll be together.”

“If my brother has anything to say about it, Drukil will be defeated within the next cycle.”

Racks snorted. “That’s some wishful thinking, but I appreciate the effort.”

“We have help from the Drixonians.”

The Rogastix’s head slowly turned until he met Kaz’s gaze. “Really?”

Kaz eyed Carew. “Probably the Uldani too.”

Carew’s fingers went still for a moment before she resumed braiding. “I doubt my father is still alive.”

“It’s possible,” I said. “Sometimes the sisters had favorites, and if they performed well, they were let go.”

Carew shuddered. “I don’t want to think about that.”

I slumped back. “You’re right, sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s the truth of what happened.” She finished braiding Racks’ hair and tapped him on the shoulder. He shifted next to her and draped his arm over her shoulder before pressing her against his side.

“I plan to take Rain to a viree den where I can contact my brother. You’re welcome to join us,” Kaz said.

Carew glanced at Racks and then smiled. “I think we’re going to forge ahead on our own and find a refugee camp where we can meet up with some other Rogastix. Racks thinks he can find some former soldiers he served with before being hired by Drukil.”

“Why did you decide to work for Drukil?” I asked honestly.

He sighed. “I thought it would be a regular job. Things changed after the Drixonian and Uldani war. There was a shakeup in the galaxy, and some shifting of power. I served on cargo ships for a while—” his eyes went wide, “—but not human cargo. Just supplies to Vixlicin. I didn’t think Drukil would be much different than some of the Rogastix generals I worked for.” He laughed dryly. “I was wrong. And it wasn’t until I met Carew that I realized just how evil Drukil was, and how detrimental her mission would be to everyone.” He smiled at his mate. “I can’t regret my choices because they led me to Carew, and despite some of the terrible things I’ve done, I promise to spend the rest of my life showing Carew I deserve her.”

I held my hand over my heart and let out a long sigh. “That’s so sweet. I’m rooting for you two.”

“Visit us sometime on Torin,” Kaz said. “You’re always welcome there. My brother, Sherif, is the pardux.”

Racks grinned. “We might take you up on that.”

As the men cleaned up our campsite to hide our tracks, I hugged Carew. She patted the top of my head fondly. “You take care, little Rain.”

“I’m sorry,” I squeezed one of her hands. “I should have tried to save you, and instead you saved me.”

She was quiet for a moment until she stepped closer and spoke in a low voice. “I saw your back. I can understand you not wanting to take risks.”

My eyes pricked with tears. “But it still makes me feel like I’m failing as a person.”

She shook her head. “We all make choices we feel are right at the time. I was prepared to kill you, so I’m not sure you should be apologizing.”

I laughed as a few tears escaped. With a sniff, I swiped at them with the back of my hand. “You have a point.”

“We’re even,” she hugged me again with all four arms, squeezing tight. “I hope to see you again in happier times when we’re safe with our mates and families.”

“I like that wish.”

“Ready, Carew?” Racks called.

The men stood side by side, each holding a small pack over their shoulders made of dried leaves that held a small number of provisions.

“Ready,” she answered.

Kaz and I watched as they walked in the denseness of the brush, bumping shoulders, and talking quietly. Then he bent down and tapped on my knee. “Bend.”

“What?” I reached for his head to keep my balance. “Why?”

He held up a crude-looking shoe with a flexible sole made of thin wood. The upper boot was made of a thick, leathery leaf. “We’ll get you proper shoes soon, but these should do for now.”

I slipped my foot into them, shocked that they fit as he looped a vine around my ankle and tied it. “How did you make this? When?”

“Carew made them during Racks’ shift.” He stood up with a grin. “I told her I was going to take the credit, but I can’t lie.”

I glanced in the direction where Racks and Carew had walked, considering running after them and throwing my arms around Carew. She was my first real friend in so long, who had worked on these boots in the middle of the night with only the light of a dying fire.

Tears dripped onto the ground below and I sniffed. Kaz reached for me. “We’ll see them again someday. I know it.”

“I hope they stay safe.”

He patted my back. “And if we want to stay safe, we better get moving.”

I shook my head and took a deep breath to get myself together. “You’re right. I pointed in front of us. Full steam ahead!” I began to march, but Kaz gently swung me around by the waist and pointed in a different direction.

In an amused voice, he said in a low voice in my ear, “We’re going that way.”

I cleared my throat and pointed again. “Right. Full steam ahead!” I stomped off with Kazel laughing behind me.

* * *

Kazel

I’d spent a disproportionate amount of my life thinking about Rain rather than being in her presence. And as we walked toward Vik’s den, I realized that while I knew her—her heart and who she stood for as a person—I didn’t know what she liked or didn’t like or what she considered fun.

I knew she was carrying my child, and that she deeply cared about others.

“Do you think Carew and Racks had enough supplies?” She walked slightly ahead of me in a wet marshy area where cold water seeped through my boots and a breeze caused little bumps to rise on Rain’s skin. I wished I had something to give her to keep her warm, but I didn’t have a chest covering myself to offer.

“The first refugee camp they were heading for is only two day’s walk from where we were. They’ll be fine.”

“What did you think about Racks being a Rogastix?”

I shrugged. “I learned there are good and bad of every species.”

She sighed. “Yeah, that’s a good point.”

I scratched at the skin below my eye patch, and Rain fell into step next to me, although she had to take two strides to my one. “Kaz?”

“Yes?”

“What happened to your eye?”

I tended to forget about it, but when I’d first met Rain, I’d had both of my eyes. “A few cycles back, I helped a human escape, and I was caught. A cudgel poked it out.”

Her jaw dropped. “What? How are you so nonchalant about it?”

“Nonchalant?” My translator implant did not know that word.

She fluttered her hands in front of her as she stuttered. “I-it means, like, casual. Carefree.”

“Well, at the time I wasn’t carefree about it. Hurt like yerk, and blood ran in my other eye, blinding it temporarily. I thought I was completely blind. When they threw me back in a dark cell, I couldn’t see for a few rotations. I finally was able to wash my face, so when I realized one eye was still working…I had something to be happy about.”

Pressing her lips together, she marched ahead with her head bowed, and I could see a few wet drops glittering on her cheek. “I’m fine now. Healthy as ever.”

She sniffed. “No, you’re not. They didn’t feed you enough.”

“Well, that goes for both of us. Soon, we’ll be fat and happy.”

Rubbing her hand over her stomach, she shoots me a smile through her tears. “I’ll definitely be fat. You’ll just be more muscular probably.”

I patted my stomach. “My father was a big Kaluma. Round as a pikua trunk.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Big,” I said again, and she laughed.

“Okay, fine. I’m holding you to it. For every pound I gain with this baby, you have to gain one too.”

“I look forward to eating Wensla’s cooking again.”

“Is that one of the females from your home?”

I nodded. “One of the best. She just gave birth before I left.”

“Will the Kaluma accept me?”

“Why wouldn’t they? My brother and two of the other warriors have human mates.”

She stopped dead in her tracks and whirled on a heel. “They do?”

I nodded, and she smacked my arm so suddenly that I let out a yelp. “What was that for?”

“How could you not tell me this?” She clasped her hands under her chin and widened her eyes. “I’ll see other humans? Women?”

“You will. And they know I left to find you and bring you home. They’re probably planning a party or something as we speak.”

Rain’s mouth opened and closed a few times before she rocked back and forth on her feet, making squelching noises in the mud. “I don’t even know how to react. This is the best news I could ever hear. I’ll have friends.”

“You’ll have friends.” I spotted a dry area ahead and steered Rain toward it as she babbled about something called girls’ night out and babysitters. After directing her to sit down on a patch of dirt, I dug in our pack for some food. Rain’s mood had improved considerably as she munched happily on the tasteless tubers I handed her.

I pointed to a series of large rock formations ahead—some platforms only held up from the ground by a thin column of rocks. “That’s where we’re heading. The viree have dens among the rocks and Vik, the viree who I pretended to kill, lives there. He’ll provide us some supplies and a way to contact my brother back home on Torin.”

She chewed slowly as she studied the rocks before turning to face me. “So, tell me about your brother.”

“Sherif.”

“Yes. You said he’s the leader, um, the pardux?”

“Will I meet your mother and father?”

I winced at the question and then shook my head. “No.”

“N-no?” She tilted her head before letting out a little gasp. “Have they passed? I’m so sorry—”

“Don’t say you’re sorry.” I handed her a flask of water I’d made out of a hollowed gorpz rib. “I have to tell you about them, and I guess now is as good a time as any.”

She swallowed her mouthful of tuber and nodded. “Okay, I’m listening.”

“I told you that I had a happy life on Torin with a close family, but then I was taken right after maturity. I was held on Gorsich for a long time until you saved me, and then…I didn’t return home. I wasn’t even sure if it was my home anymore. I’d been gone longer than I’d lived there. And I couldn’t return home knowing you weren’t free.”

I explained how I learned about my brother searching for me only recently and saved him after they destroyed one of Drukil’s lairs.

“That was your brother?” she gasped. “I heard about that.”

“That was him with his human mate. And it was then I learned things at home took a dark turn when I left.”

It was still hard for me to accept the fact that when I was taken, our mother had died of grief, and our father had turned into a madman who isolated the settlement and created a harem out of the unmated females, insisting he be the sole sire for the next generation of Kaluma.

Sherif had been young, and the Kaluma belief was to follow our pardux no matter what. It wasn’t until a Drixonian was taken prisoner by our father and fought him over a human female that the mad pardux was defeated. Sherif was installed in his place, who carried guilt over his inaction for many, many cycles.

As I told this to Rain, she listened quietly, often reaching out to squeeze my hand.

“I have guilt over not returning, although our father had done most of his damage by the time I was freed by you. I don’t know what difference I would have made.” I rubbed my forehead. “Sherif looked for me because he wanted to know if our bloodline was cursed. If he was doomed to go as mad as our father. He refused to mate until he knew.”

“Oh, that’s so sad. The trauma he must have had.” She shook her head. “I’m assuming his mate showed him he wasn’t doomed?”

I laughed softly. “She did.”

“I can’t wait to meet her.”

I cupped her head and fingered the thick curls. “She’ll be thrilled to meet you. And the little one.”

Rain’s smile was brighter than the sun, and I would have given anything to touch my lips to hers and press her body tight to mine. But this wasn’t the time or place, I wouldn’t relax until we were safe in a viree den. “Are you finished eating?”

She shook out her shoulders. “Yeah, I guess that’s your code for it’s time to get moving, right?”

“Want me to carry you?”

She tsked. “I can walk. Thanks to Carew, I have shoes for the first time on this planet.” She knocked her heels together before she stood up. “Let’s go.”

Nine

Rain

The home of the viree was beautiful, but uninviting. Large formations rose out of the ground like stalagmites, with heavy rock platforms somehow balanced on thin columns that defied gravity. I expected one to crash down on my head at any moment.

I held my hand over my eyes to shade them as I peered up into the sky. “Where do they live?”

Kaz pointed to the base of the stalagmite-looking formations where I could make out round, dark entrances. “There. They live underground, but this whole area is under guard.”

I stopped suddenly. “Are we safe?”

He shot me an amused look. “Would I bring you here if you weren’t?”

I stuck my lips out. “Good point.”

“Their scouts saw us coming around mid-day.”

To get to the entrance of the viree burrows, we had to descend a hill covered in jagged rocks, traipse across a stream, and then stomp through tall grasses. By the time we reached the end of the field, I was exhausted, and my Carew-made shoes were nearly destroyed.

A short howl sent a shiver down my spine, and I braced just as a small figure emerged from a rock entrance. I recognized the viree right away as Vik, the creature I thought Kazel had ruthlessly captured and killed to prove his loyalty to Drukil. Instead, he was here, in the flesh, padding toward us in his unique, three-legged gait. He swung his back legs forward, then his one front leg, and I imagined he could get a good gallop going if he had to. Behind him were a group of viree, all covered in a shiny armor and carrying spears

While the viree was smaller than me now, I had seen what he could shift into, which was a massive werewolf as big as Kazel.

Vik had a snout that reminded me of a Doberman, and black eyes. His reddish fur glistened in the sun as he peeled back his lips to reveal a row of sharp white teeth. “I shouldn’t have doubted you.” His voice was low and craggy, like he smoked a pack a day.

Kazel grinned. “You returned safe and sound? I didn’t want to have to answer to your mate if anything went wrong.”

Vik snorted. “You know she would have done worse to you than Drukil ever could.”

Kaz inclined his head in acknowledgment. “I’m aware.”

Vik’s black eyes shifted to me. “So, this is the human.”

Kaz’s hand tightened around mine. “Her name is Rain.” He spoke with an edge to his voice that had the armed viree shifting uncomfortably.

Vik didn’t look bothered. He only smiled and nodded. “Right. Rain. Nice to meet you.” He pointed to a healing cut over his eye. “I had to get this for you.” I opened my mouth to apologize, but he waved a paw with a husky laugh. “I’m just kidding. I owed Kazel, as I’m sure he told you. And I’m assuming you’re here for some shelter?”

“Please,” Kaz said. “I know I used up what you owe me—”

“Absolutely not,” a feminine voice snapped from behind Vik. An even smaller viree trotted around him and stopped short in front of Kazel with a fierce expression.

I took a step back as Kazel seemed to shrink into himself. “Hello Pria.”

“Used up what we owe you!” Her voice went shrill and I searched for somewhere to hide while Kaz winced.

I expected any minute to be turned away, and it made me want to cry. But I bit my lip and held firm as she continued to shriek.

“Used up what we owe you!” She cried again, whirling around on Vik, who I assumed was her mate. “Did you tell him that? Did you tell him that you getting knocked around a little made you even?”

Vik swallowed thickly and his mouth flapped open without sound.

She threw her paws in the air before turning and smacking Kazel with a thump in the chest. “How dare you think that? You not only saved Vik, you saved this entire clan. You saved my pups, and my sisters’ pups. There is no even, you dumb Kaluma. We will never be even. Now you get inside right now. Your mate is shivering and by the moon goddess, what is she wearing? How is that warm for her furless skin?”

My knees nearly buckled with relief as she continued to rant while the virees behind Vik scrambled to do her bidding. They scattered like a pack of crows while Vik stood looking ashamed. “Sweetness, I never told Kazel—”

“I’ll deal with you later,” she sniffed at him before smiling sweetly at Kazel. “One of my sisters is preparing our best burrow. Can I get you something while you wait?”

“A margarita,” I blurted out without thinking. Was I delirious again?

She blinked at me before turning to snap at Vik. “Get her a margreeta.”

“A what—?”

“You heard her, a magreeta!”

I waved my hands frantically. “No, it’s okay. I don’t—”

“Go,” she barked at him, and he raced off.

I stared after him before trying to appeal to Kazel, but he gave me a firm head shake and big eyes that said, drop it.

So, I dropped it.

* * *

Soft moss lined the viree burrow, keeping the air inside warm and humid but also fresh. We entered a large cavern-like area where viree sat on several long banquet-like tables and leading out from the cavern were a series of tunnels.

Vik took Kazel in one direction, while Pria hustled me in another. A small contingent of female viree followed us, chattering in whispered tones to each other. I smiled at them, and they grinned back with their snouts full of sharp teeth.

“You can shift too?” I asked Pria.

“Oh yes, all of us can. Females are bigger than the males, so we have a lot of female warriors. Actually, most of our best warriors are females.”

“The men can’t take the pain as well,” one of the viree behind us piped up.

“Lots of whining,” another added with a little nose scrunch.

“I didn’t see any female warriors behind Vik when he greeted us.”

“No, they have better things to do than parade around with Vik. Like training,” Pria sniffed.

I muffled a laugh behind my hand. As we walked, the air grew more damp, until we entered a large cavern filled with an opaque steamy liquid. It appeared thicker than water, and two females were along the far edge of the round pool, submerged up to their necks.

“This is our bathing pool filled with slurry.” Pria scooped up a handful of the liquid. Most of it ran through her fingers, but a small puddle remained behind in the palm of her paw.

“Slurry?”

“It’s a water mixed with a cleansing herb. Cleans you and even has some healing properties.” She pushed her hand toward me. “Try it.”

I dipped my finger in the puddle, and it felt a bit like a thin mud. A fresh, herbal smell filled my nostrils, and I inhaled deeply. I hadn’t bathed fully with Drukil. I had been giving myself a sort of sponge bath for years. The idea of fully sinking into the slurry sounded like a dream come true.

“I’ll get in with you,” Pria grinned. She immediately tossed off her clothes, revealing a stomach with a row of teats. She waded into the slurry and gestured for me to follow. I glanced around, but the females were ignoring me as they, too, tossed off their clothes with no worry about nudity and slipped into the liquid.

With a deep breath, I pulled my thin, dirty dress over my head. I glanced down at my rounded tummy and hairy legs. My breasts had plumped up since I’d gotten pregnant, but I could tell I was still too thin.

The slurry was hot, but there was also a coolness to it, almost like using a minty soap. The smell was intoxicating, and I slipped into the water up to my neck.

Pria waved a paw. “Hair too. It’ll clean everything.”

Holding my nose, I dipped underwater and came back up. The slurry sluiced from my curls, and I tasted a cool tea-like flavor on my lips.

“You like it?” Pria asked.

“Do I like it?” I laughed. “This is the best feeling ever.”

She leaned back against the side of the bathing pool, and I joined her, finding a ledge to sit on. I leaned back so my body was covered up to my neck and closed my eyes. “Thank you,” I murmured.

“Do you know the story of how Kazel saved Vik?” she asked.

I immediately opened my eyes and turned my head to face her. “No, he didn’t tell me.”

Pria nodded. “Kazel likes to downplay it, but he saved Vik, and in doing so, saved this whole burrow.”

“How so?”

“We were in the process of moving burrows at the time, so we were nomads for a cycle as we traveled here. Vik is our alpha, and he entered a refugee camp one day alone to gather supplies. But he was taken by some Rogastix from Vixlicin who wanted to use him in the mines.” She shook her head. “Without him…we were lost. Vulnerable. And while we tried to rally the warriors, we were at a standstill. Move on and find our new home or stay put and risk capture? But Kazel had seen the abduction. He saved Vik before he could be taken off planet, and by the time they found us again, we were under attack from a roving band of cudgels. Kazel organized our warriors and we fought them off. He taught us a lot about how to defend ourselves.”

“Wow,” I whispered. “He’s amazing.”

“It makes sense why you are a pair,” she said. “I hear you risk your life for others too.”

Immediately my heart skipped a beat before plummeting to my stomach. “I don’t know about that. It was only one time, and I wasn’t even sure I was thinking correctly…”

Her paw rested on mine. “Sometimes we make our best decisions on instinct. Your instinct was to save Kazel. And that decision affected me too. If you hadn’t saved him, he wouldn’t have saved Vik. Do you see the chain of your choices?”

I swallowed. “But I could have made the wrong choice.”

Pria shrugged. “But you didn’t. And I think when it really matters, you make the right ones.”

When she closed her eyes and fell silent, I did too. I hadn’t thought about all the ways my saving Kazel had affected others, and he had said many times that in his search for me, he saved others in honor of what I’d done for him.

Carew had made a sacrifice for me. So had Racks. Most of all, so had Kazel. I had to think about what kind of person I’d be moving forward. I rubbed my hand over my bulging stomach. What kind of mother did I want my baby to have?

* * *

Kazel

I jiggled my knee as I held the tablet in both hands and waited for the recipient of my call to pick up. I ran my fingers through my hair. I’d finally had a proper cleaning in one of the viree’s underground reservoirs. Rain was off somewhere with Pria to bathe and get some proper clothes. I didn’t like her leaving my sight, but she told me that she was fine and would like to pee with privacy. Wearing a pair of clean pants, I sat in the room we’d been given to use on the edge of the bed pallet.

Finally, after what felt like a whole rotation, there was a click followed by a voice and a fuzzy, flickering screen. “Hello?”

I squinted as the image finally came into focus. “Zuri?”

Her mouth dropped open and then she dropped the tablet on the table so all I could see was the roof of a hut. In the distance, I could hear her shouting, “Sherif! He’s alive. Baby, he’s alive!”

I grimaced, guilt clawing at my chest. My brother had enough devastation in his past, and I didn’t want to be the cause of anymore. Once I’d rescued him and his mate and returned home to Torin, I’d wrestled with the idea of staying, but I couldn’t get Rain’s face out of my head. Now, I knew I’d made the right decision.

The tablet righted itself and suddenly I was looking at my brother’s face. His hair was neatly braided, courtesy of Zuri, but his expression was anything but kind. “Do you have any idea how long it’s been?” he seethed, eyes firing. If I was standing in front of him, I had no doubt he’d punch me in the face.

I heaved a sigh. “I’m aware.”

“Are you? Are you really?” His voice went shrill, and Zuri’s hand appeared to pat his arm soothingly.

“I’m sorry,” I scratched at my forehead. “I really am. I didn’t want to put you through this—"

“What’s wrong with your hand?” He demanded. “Do you have your female. Where are you? Are you underground?”

Zuri’s face came down beside his head as she spoke calmly in his ear. “You need to stop asking questions and let him answer a few.”

Sherif’s nostrils flared as I tried to discretely remove my ruined hand from view, but my brother didn’t let it go. “What happened to your hand?”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t contact you sooner. I was working in Drukil’s mines for about…” I blew out a breath. “Maybe ninety rotations.”

“Working?” Sherif barked out. “Working? As in you volunteered and she paid you?”

I shifted in my seat. “Uh, okay, so working might be a stretch.”

“What. Happened?” He gritted out.

Quickly, I gave him a brief summary of events since I left Torin. Zuri sat next to Sherif, listening intently, but I knew her main purpose was to make sure Sherif didn’t lose his mind over what happened to me. I got to the good part quickly, about how I was finally in a safe place with Rain. I held up my hand and fluttered my fingers. “It’s not a big deal. Just some scars.”

“Don’t brush it off,” Sherif spat. “Those injuries would have been painful to sustain, and they don’t look healed.”

I lowered my hand again. “Well, of course it hurt, but they’ll have time to heal now.”

Sherif looked away and inhaled deeply, his eyelids fluttering, before exhaling. Beside him, Zuri clapped loudly. “Good job on the breathing techniques we went over. I knew you had it in you.”

He narrowed his eyes at her in a glare that would have sent most mortals running, but Zuri only grinned back before turning to me. “I’m so glad you’re safe now. What do you need from us? We can send a rescue cruiser. The twins are itching to do something.”

“Yes, we need a cruiser at dock G3,” I said. “Is that possible?”

Sherif nodded at Zuri, and she rose. “I’ll go let the twins know. See you soon, Kazel. Stay safe.” With a wave, she was gone.

I was left with Sherif, who did not look any happier. He stared at me until slowly the anger began to leach out of his eyes and his shoulders dropped. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry I yelled at you.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I wish more than anything that I hadn’t had to leave you. But I made the right decision.” I smiled. “She’s with child, brother.”

His back stiffened and he blinked at me. “What did you say?”

“I will explain more another time, but we mated when I first arrived at the mountain. We were separated and when we saw each other again, she let me know that she’s with child. My child.”

Sherif’s lips parted and I could hear the air escape his lungs on a hiss. “Brother,” he said on a near whisper.

I could only nod as my heart began to pound.

“Brother,” he repeated.

“So, I’m sorry—”

“No,” he shook his head as his voice gained strength again. “Don’t say you’re sorry. You did what you were meant to do, for who you were meant to do it for. And you were rewarded. Keep her safe and healthy. I can’t wait to dote on the new addition to our family.”

His voice cracked on the last word, and I curled my fingers into my palms to hold back the tide of emotion welling in my chest. Outside the door, I could hear Rain’s voice, mixed with Pria’s. “I need to go, brother.”

He nodded. “I’ll call when we have details on your rescue. You’ll be home soon.”

“Soon,” I echoed.

The screen went black just as the door opened. “Thank you so much,” Rain said with her head turned to the hallway.

“Let me know if you need anything else. Get some rest,” came Pria’s voice.

“I will. Thank you.” Rain shut the door and turned to face me with a wide smile on her face.

I nearly dropped the tablet on the floor, and quickly recovered in time to place it gently on a side table. Rain was…a vision. Now clean for the first time since I’d ever met her, she wore a stretchy band of fabric around her breasts and a long skirt with two slits on either side. Her feet were bare, but she dropped a pair of thick boots near the door. Her hair coiled around her head in a brown mass of curls, shining in the dim lantern light. Most of all, she glowed, from her eyes to her skin, to her rounded belly. Her hand drifted to her stomach, likely following where my gaze had landed.

“You are beautiful,” I said with reverence.

She let out a little sound, somewhere between a gasp and a cough, before padding toward me on her bare feet. Stopping in front of me, she fingered my clean hair. “It’s so white. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it this white.”

“I always seem to be dirty around you.”

She laughed.

Yerk, I could barely believe how much my life had changed, and that I was so fortunate to have this amazing creature in front of me. I placed my hands on her belly, which wasn’t very big, but a change when the rest of her was thin from not enough food. I couldn’t wait to get her home and watch her grow.

Her hands settled over mine, and I met her pretty brown eyes. “Penny for your thoughts,” she said softly.

“What?”

Her eyes crinkled with amusement. “What are you thinking about?”

“How lucky I am.”

A bark of laughter bubbled out of her. “You? You’re lucky? Kaz, I’m the one who was fortunate enough to be rescued by you. Out of all the human women on this planet who’ll never be saved or shone kindness—”

“And that pains me to think about,” I said. “You all deserve to live happy lives in this galaxy. And I’m the lucky one because without you, I wouldn’t be alive.”

She pursed her lips as her eyes glittered. “I couldn’t let you die.”

“Why me?” I asked. “There were others…”

“There were others. But there was something about your eyes that made me desperate to keep you alive.”

“And now I only have one.”

She shook her head. “It’s not your eyes, it’s what shone through them.” Her fingers fluttered over the top of my head before drifting down to my chest. “And in here.” She sighed. “I made one smart, risky decision to save you, Kaz. And I’d do it over again in a heartbeat, even knowing what I know now. I’m not who I was back then, but maybe I will be one day. Today, I’m content to be brave and breathe.”

I picked her up, and she let out a little squeal as I twisted at the waist to place her on her back on the bed pallet. “Can we do a little more than breathe?” I nudged the top of her breasts with my nose before brushing my lips along hers.

Her breath rushed out of her, ruffling my hair. “I…okay.”

I pulled back slightly. “Are you sure?”

Nodding quickly, she confirmed. “Yes.”

I ran a hand over her stomach, and she sucked in a breath. “Breathe,” I murmured.

She laughed, and her breasts jiggled. “Right, breathe. I can handle that.”

“There was one thing that I thought about the whole time we were separated while I was in the mines.” I drifted down her body, pressing kisses along the way.

She rose on her elbows to watch me. “What’s that?”

“What you taste like.” I untied the knots at either side of her waist and licked my lips as the fabric fell away to reveal my mate’s glistening folds. “Wet already?” I said as I ran a finger from her clit to her entrance.

She jerked and spread her trembling legs. “Your voice does things to me, especially when it goes all husky like that. And how do you know…” her voice trailed off on a groan as I swirled my thumb over her clit. “How do you know just where to touch me?”

“I have heard the Kaluma human mates talking. They’re quite open about their bed activities.”

She made a choking sound. “That’s so nice they’re open with this information. Doing the Lord’s work, truly.”

“Who’s that?”

“Never mind.” She gasped as I pressed the tip of my finger into her entrance. Her head fell back, and her chest heaved. “Oh Kaz.”

Last time had been special, but now we had all the time we wanted, and privacy. My mate was going to get the best I could give her. I rolled my tongue out of my mouth, let the edges peel back, and lowered my head between her legs.

Ten

Rain

When his tongue swirled around my clit and then latched on with a hot, wet suction, I lost all ability to function normally. My elbows gave out beneath me, and I clamped my thighs around his head. His hands camp up quickly to protect my calves from his spiks, and thank goodness for that, because I would have impaled myself and bled to death before I pulled away from his masterful appendage.

With the hole at the end of his tongue, he pulled at that magical bundle of nerves like a professional. Two fingers slid into me, moving in time with his suction, and my body began to shake. I clawed at the furs under us and might have yanked out a chunk of his hair, all the while he kept my legs injury free, finger-fucked me, and drove me out of my mind with his tongue.

When I came, the orgasm was like a geyser. I bucked into his mouth with a shout. I might have blacked out because when I came to, I was a noodle on the bed, and he was rising over me, fists in the fur on either side of my shoulders while he licked his lips like the cat who got the cream. I’d never seen such a self-satisfied look on anyone, and he hadn’t even come yet.

“How do you feel?” he asked in that husky voice that made my insides clench.

I could only nod, and he laughed as he unwrapped the fabric around my chest to reveal my breasts. He kissed around my nipples and mumbled about how they looked bigger.

I hadn’t planned on getting naked in front of anyone ever again. I was scarred, too thin in some areas, with a pregnant belly and lopsided breasts—my left had always been bigger. With Kaz, I was aware of my nudity, but also not at the same time. I felt pretty in my own skin rather than feeling like a gross creature for the first time since I left Earth.

Finally gaining control of my limbs, I planted a foot in the bed and rolled us. Kaz let me, falling onto his back with a grin while I rose up above him to straddle his waist. “My turn to play,” I said as I ran my hands over his chest. He’d lost some of the weight he’d had when he’d first arrived on the mountain, and I looked forward to seeing him bulked and barrel-chested again. Now, he was leaner muscle with skin as scarred as mine. Well, not quite as bad.

He only wore a pair of loose pants that he never fastened, so I shimmied them down his legs quickly. As for his cock… I could now take my time to explore. The shaft was covered in the same white markings as on his chest and seemed to shimmer and pulse. When I wrapped my fingers around the thick shaft, his cock jerked in my hand, and the mushroom-shaped cap flared out and began to slowly spin. I glanced up to see him watching me carefully with his glowing eye while his legs shook slightly. “Mate,” he whispered in a near warning growl.

The sound made me shiver, and I rose on my knees to position myself with the tip of his cock at my entrance. When I sank down, we both groaned. His cock felt bigger now than it did before, and I had to swirl my hips a few times to get all of him inside.

I fell forward, bracing my palms on his chest while he slid his hands up my arms to cup my shoulders protectively. His eye was half-lidded, and his full lips were parted as his chest heaved. “Ride me, Rain,” he whispered.

And I did. No matter how long it had been, sex was a bit like riding a bicycle. I bounced on his cock, loving the feel of him feeling me, and the way the markings on his shaft rippled along my inner walls. The cap of his cock was doing things, rotating and vibrating, until I began to lose the rhythm from the sensations. With a growl, Kaz took over, rolling us so he was on top. Hiking his knee under my leg, he braced himself above me and began to thrust vigorously.

My breasts shook, my throat hurt from crying out, and just when I felt like I couldn’t take any more, my body took over as another orgasm crashed over me. I screamed just as Kaz let out a roar and slammed into me so hard, we jolted up the bed. His cock pulsed inside of me, and I weakly rolled my hips as he jerked a few times before lowering his body on top of mine. With a trembling hand, he cupped the back of my head and pressed my face into his neck. I felt his lips press a kiss to the top of my head. “You’re perfect, Rain. So perfect.”

I bit my lip, but it did nothing to stop the tears. I clung to him, and we lay like that for a long time, content in our good fortunes for once in our lives.

* * *

The next few days were some of the best of my life, and that included my time on Earth. The virees were a fierce bunch, small when shifted to their original form, but scrappy. They fought constantly. Every day there was some sort of brawl about mates, arguments over food, and challenges over who was the better fighter. Vik would have to wade in while Pria shrieked from a safe location that they were embarrassing her in front of guests.

On our last night there, a feast was prepared in their great room, which was located in a large cavern with multiple light shafts in the high ceiling that reminded me of skylights.

Tomorrow, we’d be leaving for the nearby dock, where a rescue squad of Kaluma would take us home. Home. I hadn’t had a home since my mom died.

Kaz didn’t talk throughout the meal because he was too busy eating. He’d been ravenous since we arrived at the viree boroughs, and already he’d packed on weight. I could no longer see the packs of his abs. I knew they were there, but now he had a nice layer of fat over the top of them. I loved seeing him like this, bulked out with his hair in shiny waves settling over his spiked shoulders.

He glanced at me with half the leg of a gorpz sticking out of his mouth. Chewing slower, he raised a brow at me. “Mu o’ay?” he muffled around the hunk of smoked meat.

I smiled at him, amused. “I’m great.”

We sat at a large wooden table with benches on either side. Unfortunately, the table and benches were made for the small viree, which meant Kaz sat in nearly a squat. He looked like he was a dad sitting down to his daughter’s PlaySkool table tea party.

He patted my stomach with his greasy fingers. “I un o’ay?”

Rubbing my side, I nodded. “I’m full, so he’s full.”

I’d been to a viree doctor while I was here, and although he didn’t know anything about human anatomy, the viree’s gave live births just like I did. He was able to detect a heartbeat with a fancy funnel machine he placed on my stomach. I hadn’t needed the confirmation, but I’d still cried when that whooshing sound filled the room.

Kaz hadn’t said a word, only gripped my hand so tightly that I had to tap him before he snapped the bones.

“You sure Vik can’t send some of his pack with you?” Pria asked.

Kaz shook his head. “You’ve given us so much already, and the bigger our group, the more likely we are to be detected.”

She huffed and crossed her stubby arms over her ample chest. I’d grown to love Pria since we’d been here. Feisty and unafraid to speak up, she ran the burrow like a five-star general. “If you say so. I prepared a pack of supplies for you.” She pointed to a strapped bag in the corner. “And if anything happens, you know we’ll be there for you.”

Kaz reached over, his mouth now full of some sort of mashed vegetable. “I know, Queen Pria.” He patted her hand. “Thank you.”

“Yes, thank you,” I chimed in. “You’ve done so much for us. I’ve felt so comfortable here.”

She beamed brightly and opened her mouth just as a round fruit with one bite taken out of it went sailing through the air to land directly in my water glass with a plop. The table went silent, and I stared at it. A second later, Pria let out a shriek that nearly shook the entire cavern down while two viree males at the other end began throwing haymakers at each other. I couldn’t be sure of the argument—it was most likely something trivial—but I might have heard something about one stealing the other’s drumstick.

One of the viree accidentally elbowed a pregnant female viree, who howled in pain. Her mate leapt into the fray and soon the entire place was a food fight. Pria was in a near meltdown and Vik was trying to placate her. Kaz secured me between his legs so he could hunch over me protectively and then proceeded to continue eating, even as food flew through the air. A few times, his body jolted with a grunt as a viree bounced off him, but otherwise he munched happily.

Safe under the massive hulk of his body, I snuck my hand up and stole a few sweets off his plate. He chuckled, and I grinned up at him. “This is better than TV, honestly,” I said as two female viree wrestled in front of us, complete with hair pulling.

“What’s TV?” he asked.

How did I even describe TV? “A type of entertainment that we watch on screens like tablets.” There, that was good enough.

He let out another grunt and kept eating. “Sort of feels like home. I miss Zuri snarking at Sherif to smile, and Karina teasing Bloom, and Bosa bickering with…well, everyone. Everyone fights with Bosa, because he’s annoying.”

I snorted. “I can’t wait to meet him.”

He dropped a set of clean rib bones on his plate with a clatter and looped a massive arm around my chest, hugging me tightly. “And I can’t wait for them to meet you.”

“Soon, right?”

“Soon. Nothing’s going to stop us from getting home now.”

And I was on such a high that I believed him.

* * *

Kazel

Vik narrowed his eyes at me as he placed his paws on his wide hips. “Don’t show your face on Gorsich ever again, you hear me? Stay on Torin and don’t come back.”

“Should I be offended you don’t want to see me again?” I grinned at him.

He didn’t crack a smile. “I’m serious, Kaluma. Take your mate and live happily far away from here.”

I sobered a moment as I gazed off into the distance where I could just barely see the top of Drukil’s mountain. “And what will you do about her? She’s only going to gain more and more power.”

He huffed. “We’ll be fine.”

I wanted to argue with him, but Vik was stubborn. Because no matter what he said, I would be back. Sherif and the Drixonians had vowed to stop her reign of terror before she gained any more power in the Rinian galaxy.

I patted him on the shoulder. “Thanks for all you did for us.”

“Of course. Pria doesn’t want to let Rain go, so you better treat her right or that whirlwind of a viree will travel all the way to Torin to beat you.”

I laughed. “I believe it.” I watched the viree fuss over Rain, loading her down with a large pack, which made my mate stumbled under the weight. She shot me a wide-eyed look of amusement as Pria stuffed more supplies in the bag.

“Be a stranger,” Vik said with sincerity.

“I’ll do my best,” I answered him, and I knew he wasn’t satisfied with that answer.

After a long goodbye where Pria clung to Rain’s skirts for far too long, we climbed onto the back of a hover buggy. Rain sat in front of me, protected by my body in the circle of my arms, while I gripped the handlebars. Dust blew as the buggy rose into the air, and Rain continued to wave to Pria and the other viree as we sped off. We weaved among the towering rock formations as we headed toward the coast in the distance.

Finally, when they were merely specs on the horizon, Rain faced forward with a long sigh. I rubbed my chin on the top of her head. “I’m sorry we had to say goodbye.”

“It’s just…she treated me with such kindness, and still had the fierceness in her to rule the entire burrow. I wish I was like that.”

“You’re fine the way you are.”

She made a tutting sound. “I figured you’d say that.”

“You want me to say something else?”

She fidgeted in her lap. “Yes. No. I don’t know.” Her fingers gripped her skirt. “I want you to know that I want to be braver and do my best to overcome what I’ve been through. And that it’s okay for you to encourage me through that. Yes, sometimes there is bravery in just breathing, but it’s okay for me to want to do more than that too.”

As we rode over a grass plain, I thought about what she said. “You want me to encourage you so that you’re capable of more?”

She glanced at me over her shoulder, and her shy smile let me know I was on track. “Yes, I would like that. I trust you, Kaz. You’re not going to shame me, but I also want you to push me to be a better person. We can all improve.”

“Then you do the same with me.”

“What are you insecure about?”

“Right to the point, huh?”

She grinned and squeezed my wrists. “We’re getting to know each other.”

The answer wasn’t hard for me to give. “I’m not sure I’m a good brother.”

Twisting slightly at the waist, she placed a hand on my thigh. I kept my eyes straight ahead, so I didn’t crash the buggy. “How so?”

“What if I’m not like he suspected? I’m older, but Sherif is more of a leader. He seems like the older one. I want to support him, but I don’t really know how.”

Her fingers tapped my leg. “You know what? I’m sure he has the same worries you do. When we get home, the best thing to do is talk it out.”

I grunted. “I’m not sure we have that relationship yet.”

“Okay, but you can get there. And if you need a mediator, I’m happy to sit between you and help the conversation get going.”

I smiled. “You and Zuri both, I’m sure.”

She clapped her hands with a little squeal. “I never thought I’d have a sister-in-law.”

I dropped a kiss on her head. “Eat something. It’ll take most of the day to get there.”

Nodding, she dug in her massive pack and pulled out some dried strips of meat. She stuck one in my mouth before chewing on hers.

Enjoying the feel of her body close to mine, I kept one hand on the handlebars and the other on her growing stomach. She placed her hand over mine and leaned back into my chest.

* * *

While the sun set to our right, the dock rose on the horizon like a black behemoth. This dock wasn’t under Drukil’s control and was rarely used. Still, any appearance by an unknown cruiser without prior approval would be reported to the council—which would likely report to Drukil.

The twins—Grego and Uthor—would be docking illegally. They were likely circling somewhere overhead now using a cloaking device on their ship. I had a signal in my pocket, courtesy of Vik, to alert them when I arrived.

I reached into my pocket and hit the button as the dock grew closer and closer. Soon, we’d have to ditch the buggy and travel the rest of the way on foot to avoid detection. Rain had proper shoes now, so I wasn’t too worried. I could smell the salty air of the freshas along the coast and could see where the dirt below steadily give way to a grainy sand.

Rain’s curly hair fluttered in the rushing wind, often smacking me in the neck, but I didn’t mind. Seeing her hair down and free, just like she was now, made my heart soar.

We parked the buggy in a prearranged location so Vik could return for it—these buggies weren’t easy to come by. I took our pack of supplies on my back and then, with my hand in Rain’s, we took off in the direction of the dock.

I couldn’t see the Kaluma cruiser, but I could hear a faint roaring sound of the engines. We’d have to be ready to board as soon as possible, and even this was risky. Still, it was the quickest way to get home, and I trusted the twins to maneuver the cruiser safely.

As we drew closer to the dock, I felt a rumble beneath my feet. Rain faltered a moment before righting herself, and the sand around us began to whip up in a frenzy. Covering Rain’s head to prevent the stinging of the grain’s, I squinted into the air just as a cruiser materialized moments before the sleek aircraft’s landing gear hooked onto the dock. I glanced at the operations hut, and while the light was on inside, there was no movement and no armed Rogastix came running. I found that a little suspicious but didn’t have time to ruminate as the back hatch opened up.

Two sets of eyes peered at us. Grego and Uthor were identical, with matching haircuts—shaved on one side and long on the other, except they each had a different side shaved. That was a way to tell them apart, but I still had issues with it.

Of course, they didn’t give a yerk about me. Immediately, their eyes came to Rain and they each let out little gasps before scrambling out of the cruiser. It was amazing how these quiet, skilled Kaluma warriors turned into mush at the sight of a human female.

They rushed down the ramp of the cruiser to Rain’s side. One took her hand while the other wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

Stuttering, her head whipped back and forth between the two of them. “Uh, hi. Hello.”

They stared, and I rolled my eyes. “These are the twins, Grego and Uthor, who suddenly go mute at the sight of a human.”

One of them glared at me—I thought he was Grego—and said in a snappy voice. “We are showing respect.”

“Right, well let’s show respect by getting her on this cruiser and getting the yerk out of here.”

They nodded and took one step toward the ramp when a whistling sound pierced the still dusk air. I went down into a crouch, my scales immediately rippling to blank just as a dark shape materialized above us. “What the—” Rain gasped just as a webbed net spread, blotting out the last remaining sunlight, and pinned us to the ground.

Eleven

Rain

“I have to start over,” I groused as I tossed the ruined stew to the livestock. They snorted as they rushed to eat the slop.

“What happened?” Kazel said, stepping up next to me.

“I added too much spice. It was so bitter I couldn’t even eat it. Trust me, no one wanted that.” I stomped my foot, feeling like a kid, but I was frustrated. “Bloom has been trying to teach me how to cook but I’m not sure I’m cut out for it. I did all that work and now I’m back at square one.”

“What’s square one?”

I blew out a curl that had flopped into my eyes. “The beginning.”

He frowned. “You’re not at the beginning.”

“Yeah I am. I have to peel all the tubers again, sear the meat—”

“You aren’t at the beginning because you learned something when you made that.” He gestured to the puddles of stew in the green dirt, currently being inhaled by snorting snouts. “You might have taken a step back but you’re moving forward with everything you know now.”

“I feel like I’m listening to a self-help lecture,” I murmured, except I didn’t mind all that much. Already I was feeling less dread about remaking the meal.

He tapped my temple. “You’re smarter now. Stronger. With every experience. Don’t forget that.”

I woke up to familiar stone walls, and my blood ran cold. I prayed it was a dream and pinched myself, but when I opened my eyes again, I was still there. My skull felt cracked open, and my stomach was woozy. When I tried to sit up, my head spun.

The last thing I remembered was the net and then inhaling something sweet and musky. After that… nothing.

I swung my feet to the floor and fought through the nausea. Beneath me was my small bed in the alcove of Drukil’s room. “No,” I whispered as bile rose in my throat. This couldn’t be. We were so close.

I bolted from the bed and threw back the curtain to find Drukil lounging on her chaise with her daughters standing in back of her. I stopped dead in my tracks as all the air left my lungs. I swayed, falling on one knee before stumbling back to my feet. Drukil watched my panic with a bored look.

“Are you done?” she asked when I managed to right myself.

I fought to breathe as an invisible band tightened around my chest. “Where is he?” I wheezed.

Her neck slits fluttered, and her color darkened for a moment which was a sign of her anger. “You’re not worried about yourself?” Her head tilted. “You have a lot to answer for, human.”

My stomach revolted, and my body bucked as I just barely held back from vomiting. For such a short time, I’d been Rain. I’d been a person who loved and was loved and now I was back in this monster’s clutches.

But no, no I wasn’t worried about myself. Likely, she’d flay all the skin off my back, but I first had to know where Kazel was. “Where is he?” I asked again.

She sighed dramatically and her tail shook with irritation.

“Stupid human,” Prubel hissed with glee as she clapped her four hands together.

Grubel only glared at me.

Drukil finally rose to her full height and slithered toward me. I held my ground, only because I was afraid if I took a step that my legs would give out. Right now, I had my knees locked to keep me upright.

She stopped in front of me and leaned down, her strong perfume nearly suffocating me. “I’ll take you to him.”

That was the only thing that got me to unlock my legs. I hurried after her as she opened the door and shooed me out. On the way I looked for a weapon, but her room was strategically empty. Outside, half a dozen guards stood waiting for us. I knew I had to keep my wits about me, but I could only think about seeing Kazel right now. He had to be alive. He just had to be. I ran a trembling hand over my stomach as we walked down the narrow hallway.

Eventually, the walls opened up to the main cavern of the mountain, the place where I’d first seen Kazel when he arrived. Rogastix guards stood along the walls, and when I caught sight of what was in the center, my heart stopped.

No.

This can’t be.

How?

Tied to poles in the center of the room, still unconscious, were Kaz and the twins. To my horror, two more poles held Carew and Racks. Racks looked near death—his eyes were swollen shut, his one arm hung at a crooked angle, and he was bleeding so profusely that I couldn’t even tell the source of the wounds.

Carew, meanwhile, looked unharmed physically, but her thousand-yard stare chilled me to the bone. I rushed toward her, but a guard grabbed my arm and held me back. “Carew!” I shouted as I fought the grip. “Carew!” I didn’t even remember the tears starting. One second my eyes were dry, and the next I was a mess of tears and snot as my shoulders shook with sobs.

Her head slowly turned, and she looked at me with utter defeat in every line of her body. “It’s okay,” she said in a dull, lifeless tone. “It’s over.”

“No!” I wailed, collapsing to my knees. “No, it’s not.”

“Oh, it is,” Drukil said as she slithered between the poles. “It’s very much over.”

She tapped the twins on the head, and one opened his eyes groggily. When he caught sight of her in front of him, he jerked with a hiss, waking up his brother.

Both began to struggle in their bonds, and their scales flickered, but blanking didn’t matter now. They couldn’t go anywhere.

“These two,” Drukil began, “I think I’ll keep as breeders for my daughters.”

The vizpek sisters preened in the corner while one of the twins made a retching noise. “Those two,” she pointed at Carew and Racks. “Will die. And your Kaluma here…” she slowly made her way to a moaning Kazel who seemed to be coming around. “Will also die, but much slower. And you will watch.”

“You bitch,” I hissed at her as I managed to rise to my feet.

She flinched, her jewelry tinkling, as I’d never talked to her like that. “What did you call me?” She glanced at the Rogastix. “What does that word mean? My translator doesn’t recognize it.”

“It’s a weak word to describe how horrible you are,” I grated, wrenching my hand out of the guard’s grip. He let me, but unholstered his laser gun and pointed it in my direction. “I’m just out of practice on insults.”

Kazel groaned again and opened his eye blearily. “Rain,” he murmured as he fought to hold his head up.

Drukil lashed her tail like a whip. “Watch it, human. There is time to keep your punishment to a minimum.”

Kazel’s eye landed on me, and his pupil pulsed until he finally focused. “Rain,” his voice came sharper now as he fought his bonds. His scales flickered, and he blanked and unblanked in rapid succession as panic took hold. “Be careful.”

“I am disappointed,” Drukil said, tugging on Kaz’s hair. He jerked out of her hold with a grunt. “I thought they’d send a bigger rescue team. That’s why I let you go, to lead me toward more Kaluma. I even heard a little rumor about them aligning with the Drix, but I overestimated the Kaluma bond. These two,” she pointed to the twins, “is all that the pardux’s brother means to him? This is all he sends to bring home his brother?” She huffed out a laugh. “Pathetic.”

Slithering over to Racks, she poked at him, but he didn’t respond. I feared he was dead already. Carew didn’t say a word, only closed her eyes and moved her lips silently. “Well, enough talk,” Drukil said. “It’s time for some of you to die.” She slapped her tail down on one of the false platforms of the cavern floor. As the stone fell, she took a hold of Racks’s pole and tossed him down like he was a sack of flour.

“No!” I screamed. And everything hit me at once. The way Racks had hunted for us and cooked while I was passed out. The shoes Carew had made for me. The outrage over Drukil thinking she could dictate how we lived. And I thought about my baby. I was fighting for him, and I was fighting for the mother I wanted him to have.

All of it came bubbling to the surface. I took one look at Kaz, who’s eye glowed fiercely. His jaw clenched before he nodded.

Suddenly a pins and needles tingling sensation came over me, kind of like my whole body fell asleep. The next thing I heard was the twins gasping. I checked my body only to see…nothing.

I held my hands out in front of me, but I wasn’t there. I had somehow gone invisible. Blanked.

In the distance I heard Drukil screech. The guard next to me fired his laser gun in my direction, but I had dropped to a crouch. His shot sailed over my head to land right between the eyes of another guard, and angry shouts filled the cavern. Kaz’s deep, husky voice rose above the din. “This is who you are, Rain.”

And that was all I needed. I grabbed a blade from a Rogastix’s guard belt and a laser gun from another and then took off at a dead run toward Kaz. I hacked at his bonds, which were stronger than I expected, some material that didn’t want to break. But I was fueled with anger and adrenaline. With a war cry, I held my hands over my head and slashed down. Something gave, and Kaz got one hand loose before grabbing the blade out of my hand. The blade was slashing down onto the rest of his bonds when he blanked. All around us, guards were firing blindly.

Prubel let out a screech as a laser fire caught her in one of the arms. Drukil shrieked at the top of her lungs, slashing the air with her tail in a frenzy.

I could just barely make out his outline as he grabbed at me and rushed to the twins. He cut them free in seconds. “Carew!” I shouted at him.

We cut her listless body down, and one of the twins threw her over his shoulder as we raced to the mouth of the cavern. But there was no way down—nothing but a ledge that dropped off to the dried creek bed below.

“There she is!” screamed Prubel, and I knew they’d seen Carew, who was the only one who couldn’t blank.

“Leave me,” she coughed around cracked lips. “Just leave me.”

“There has to be a way,” one of the twins muttered, running his hands over the stone walls on either side of the ledge.

Laser shots flew by our heads, and we ducked as the guards finally mobilized to chase us.

Suddenly, Carew was in my hands, and I could make out the blurred figures of three Kalumas fighting the first wave of guards. I looked around me helplessly, and through the fighting met the eyes of Drukil.

Everything on her body promised a very painful retribution. I stumbled back, my heels nearly touching the edge of the ledge. I wanted my baby to live, but I didn’t want my baby to live in the hands of Drukil.

I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live, but this situation seemed impossible…

A buzzing flew around my ears, and I swatted it away, thinking it was an insect, but the sound didn’t go away. If anything, it grew louder, steadier. I glanced behind me, and my jaw dropped. My skin tingled, and I could once again see my hands in front of my face.

Dozens of single-rider hover bikes soared toward us, careening up the face of the mountain. Mounted on the bikes were bronze Kaluma and massive, blue-skinned aliens with horns and tails. Some of them held laser guns and one blue alien with a mohawk let out an excited whoop while he high fived another with a long black braid. In unison, they crested the edge of the cavern ledge, raised their laser guns, and fired.

I thought it was chaos before, but it was nothing compared to this. Kaluma, blanking in the air, leapt off their own bikes to face the Rogastix guard army head on. I spotted Drukil in the back, fleeing toward the scene with a few guards and her daughters. I let out a cry of rage and raised my laser gun, but hands grabbed me before I could fire.

“Let go!” I roared, whirling around to face a massive blue alien with shoulders the size of boulders. Spikes ran along his forearms, and his scarred face seemed way to calm for the situation. These had to be the Drixonians.

“What’s going on?” I gasped.

“I’m Gar,” he said in a deep voice. He took Carew from my arms, and I reached for her, but he passed her off quickly to one of his warriors. “We’re getting you the fleck off this mountain.” He looked over my shoulder, and I turned around to see another massive Drixonian. His black hair was wild and unruly, and a large scar marred his chest. “Take her, Lukent,” he said.

The big alien nodded and before I could say a word, he tossed her over his shoulder and mounted a bike.

“Kazel!” I cried out, struggling in the iron grip of the big blue alien. “We have to get Kazel.”

But my voice was drowned out over the roaring of the buggy as it soared into the air and took off. I screamed as we careened over the ledge, but when I picked my head up, I saw all the bikes were siphoning off to follow us one by one. Drixonian and Kaluma. I couldn’t see Kazel, and I began to panic, especially when one hover bike sped past us. Driving was a Kaluma with long white hair and a familiar jaw line. “Oh my God,” I whispered as I caught sight of the Kaluma riding behind him, and what he was holding. I could only describe it as a rocket launcher—an over the shoulder weapon with a pointed tip at the end.

The driver—who I could only assume was Sherif—let out a loud whistling call, and the passenger holding the weapon fired. Fire burned bright at the end of the rocket as it sped right into the mouth of the cavern.

I watched as the hover bike quickly careened in a sharp U-turn and sped away after us down the side of the mountain. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the detonation sounded from deep inside the rock. The air seemed to pulse, and then, like a volcano, the entire top of the mountain blew off. Chunks of rock soared into the air and shouts of caution went up among the hover bike riders. As the rocks rained down, we dodged them, and I felt like I was in some sort of space movie, dodging meteors. A few times, I swore we were going to tip over, or I was going to fall off the broad alien’s shoulders, but he had an iron grip on me as he steered with one hand.

Once we reached the dried riverbed, the bikes righted themselves like an army of ants and sped away from the obliterated mountain. Could Drukil have survived that?

We rode for a long time, long enough for the adrenaline of the day to wear off and for my anxiety to set in as I looked around frantically for Kazel. I couldn’t see him, and I wondered if he was still blanked—but it didn’t look like any of the other Kaluma were.

“Kazel,” I whispered weakly and felt an awkward pat on my back by a big palm.

“He’s alive,” said a deep voice in stilted words.

I sniffed and let myself slump on his shoulder. “How do you know?”

“Because that was the plan.”

That was all he said. And for now, it had to be enough.

Soon, I could smell the salty air of the coast, and I wondered if we were close to the dock that was the scene of our abduction. We rode until the two bikes in front—driven by the mohawk Drixonian and the braided Drixonian, held up their hands somewhere along the coast.

The bikes slowed, and the Drixonian had barely touched the bottom of the hover bike to the sandy ground when I leapt off. I stumbled on the soft ground and went down on one knee, but then I was up in a second, racing between the bikes, yelling, “Kazel! Kaz!”

“Rain!” A familiar husky voice rose above the din of the idling bikes.

Then he was there, racing toward me, dirty and bloody, but standing. I threw myself at him, and he caught me mid-air. Hugging me to his chest, he panted in my ear. “Oh, thank yerk, thank yerk. They told me they had you, but I couldn’t see you. Oh yerk.”

“I couldn’t see you,” I wailed into his neck. “I thought you were still in that mountain.”

“I’m here,” his hand smoothed down my hair. “I’m right here.”

I suddenly became aware we had an audience as murmurs penetrated over the relieved racing of my heart. Kaz let me slide down his body until my feet touched the ground, but he didn’t let me go, as the Kaluma who I thought looked familiar approached us. “Brother,” he nodded with a tight jaw.

Kazel lifted his hand to his chest with his thumb and forefinger splayed. “Pardux.”

“Oh, yerk that,” Sherif snorted.

“Only a pardux could have pulled that off.” Kaz gestured to the skyline where the mountain top had previously been visible. “What—? How—?” He shook his head. “I thought I was done for, and my plan was to take out as many of them with me as I could.”

Sherif jerked his chin to a Kaluma standing silently with a bow and arrow strapped to his back. I recognized him as the handler of the weapon that blew up the mountain. “Grego and Uthor weren’t alone. Ruvo was on the ship, and alerted us as soon as you were taken, then hid. We suspected Drukil would try something like that. The rest of us, including the Drixonians, weren’t far behind.”

Kaz glanced around him, and I did too, really noticing for the first time the amount of alien warriors who stood around us. Dozens of Kaluma and Drixonians, each armed and jacked, and seemingly unfazed by the deadly battle.

Overcome with gratitude, I could barely get out a choked up, “Thank you.”

Sherif’s gaze swung to me, and his expression softened. “Zuri and the rest of the females are eager to meet you, Rain.”

Grego and Uthor hopped off their bikes. One of them nodded his head at me. “Even though we knew we had backup, things weren’t looking good there. Thanks to you, we’re alive.”

Sherif lifted a brow. “What happened?”

“She blanked,” said one of the twins. “Stole a gun and a blade and cut Kazel free.”

Despite my relief we were alive, I couldn’t forget the catalyst for my sudden surge of courage. “Where’s Carew,” I asked Kaz, placing my hand on his chest. “She must be devastated.”

“You looking for the Uldani hybrid and Rogastix guard?” The mohawked Drixonian said. He jerked a clawed thumb over his shoulder. “Over there getting treated.”

Confused, I stared at him. “The guard…”

Suddenly Carew’s wail could be heard over the crowd, and the warriors seemed to part like the sea as I took off on a sprint in her direction. Seeing her head bowed, I skidded to a halt to see her bent over the body of Racks.

I clapped my hand over my mouth as I went to my knees beside her. “No,” I murmured, too scared to touch his injured body. “How—?”

A Drixonian bent over Racks’s prone form with a bag of supplies. “We watched him drop and caught him before he smashed to pieces.” He nodded at Carew. “He’s not dead. Close to it, but I’m good at what I do.”

“Wait,” I held up a hand. “He’s not dead?”

The Drixonian shook his head as he filled a syringe with liquid from a vial before injecting it into Racks arm. “No. And if I have any say, he’ll stay alive.”

“Carew,” I grabbed my friend’s shoulders as she sobbed into her hands. “He’s alive. He’s still alive.”

But she was beyond hearing. The entire situation had broken her, and I couldn’t blame her. She’d probably watched as Racks had been beaten near death, and then to watch him fall through that platform…I’d be inconsolable too.

A blue hand settled on her shoulder. A Drixonian with short hair and lip piercing crouched next to us. His voice was soothing as he gave me a kind smile. “I’m Nero, and I’ll sit with her. Go on and talk to your mate.”

I reluctantly stood up, but Carew didn’t even seem to notice my presence. I wanted to stay and comfort her, but when Nero bent and began speaking in her ear, she began to nod, and her sobs softened somewhat. Confident she was left in good hands, I stood and walked back to where Kazel stood with his brother watching me. On the way, I spotted the Drixonian who’d hauled me off the mountain. He was bent over his bike fidgeting with a gear. I cleared my throat, and his head went up, violet eyes piercing. “Um, Lukent, right?” He just stared at me. I smiled, then laughed nervously. “I just wanted to say thank you. Sorry I…yelled a lot.”

He didn’t respond for a moment, until finally he straightened to his full height, towering over me, and crossed his wrists in front of his throat. “She is All,” he said in a deep rasp that had a tinge of reverence to it, and then once again resumed messing with his bike.

The encounter was odd, but not rude, and I remembered that Kazel had told me most Drixonians had not been around females much of their lives.

“Right,” I murmured to his back as I walked away. “Thanks again.”

Kazel reached for me as soon as I was close and pulled me into his arms. I spotted a few cuts on his arms. “I was so worried you didn’t get out in time.”

“I was the last one out, but I made it.”

I sighed as I rested my head on my chest. “Do you think Drukil made it?”

“I know she didn’t,” he grunted.

I pulled back to look at him. “How do you know?”

He held my gaze fiercely with his one eye. “I was the last one out because I killed her, Rain. Her and her two daughters. She’s dead, and so’s her army.” He smiled. “We’re going home for real now, Rain. We’re going home.”

Twelve

Kazel

Sherif leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head with his lips curled into a small smile. “This feels familiar.”

We sat in the main cabin of a large Drixonian cargo ship on the way back to Torin. Stored in the cargo section were all the hover bikes that the Drix refused to fight without. Now that I’d seen them in action, I understood why.

All around us were a mix of Kaluma and Drixonians chatting or eating. Others were in their bunks sleeping.

I found the Drixonian structure interesting. While they had one overall leader—Daz Bakut, who had remained behind on Corin—there were smaller subgroups. Most mingled together. The Drix who had rescued Rain from the mountain—a large, intimidating warrior named Lukent—seemed to distance himself with a few other Drix. They appeared a little rougher in appearance, more scarred, and less social.

My brother and I sat alone. “Did you call Zuri?”

“She’s eager to see you and meet Rain.”

I nodded as I rubbed my hands together. I’d used the cleanser, so while I felt cleaner, my muscles ached something fierce from battle. I’d had to fight my way to Drukil and her daughters with every bit of strength I had.

When I saw that rescue was on the way, I’d shouted for someone to get Rain out as quick as they could. She’d already seen enough violence, and I wanted to spare her the scene of me lopping off the heads of the vizpek queen and her daughters. Blowing up the mountain would ensure they wouldn’t be able to regenerate.

“Have you contacted the council yet?” I asked.

Sherif nodded. “Turns out we were dealing with Drukil because the council was fighting amongst themselves—those who were willing to side with Drukil and those who weren’t. She had them by the balls by threatening to unleash her offspring on the whole planet. I guess they thought they could keep the casualties down if they went with her plan.” I shook my head. “If they would have reached out to us or the Drix, this might have never happened. They avoided a battle, and sometimes a battle is the only way to solve a problem.”

“Well, you certainly brought the battle to Drukil.”

He smirked. “We did. I have a meeting with the remaining council members in the near future. The Ubilques who aligned with her are exiled from the galaxy.”

I cringed. “Severe punishment.”

Sherif shrugged, unbothered. “Severe punishment for a severe crime.”

“We will have to keep an eye on the council. There might be a bit of a power vacuum now.”

“Daz and I are aware and are keeping our focus on them for a while.”

I nodded. “Good. Good.”

“But that can wait a little bit. Now, we get to celebrate you coming home.”

I blew out a breath and shook my head “I didn’t want you or any Kaluma to have to risk anything for me, but I thank you for coming to my aid.”

He glowered. “Of course I’d come to your aid. You saved Zuri and I, remember?”

“Yes, but—” I blew out a breath and remembered Rain telling me to be honest with my brother. That our relationship wouldn’t grow if we didn’t have the hard conversations. “I felt guilty about leaving Torin. I know I made the right decision for me and for Rain, but I wasn’t sure if you felt like that was selfish and not in the best interest of the Kaluma.”

Sherif’s eyes fired, and he opened his mouth, but I held a hand up. “Let me finish. I know I haven’t spent a lot of my life on Torin, but I’m still a Kaluma, and I consider that my home. So I worried I was letting you down.” Sherif waited with a raised brow, and I gave him a smirk. “I’m done now.”

He sighed and lowered his hands into his lap. “Zuri told me we were going to have to have a conversation, but I brushed her off.”

“Rain encouraged me to be honest.”

“These females have a way of making us our best selves, don’t they?”

I grinned with a nod.

He bent and braced his forearms on his knees. “You’re not letting me down. You refused to let someone suffer who you owe your life to. That’s the kind of brother I can look up to. That’s the type of Kaluma I want to see carry our settlement into the future. You and your mate are far from letting me down. You’re the ones encouraging me to be the best pardux I can be.”

The air left my lungs on a hiss, and I straightened my back as my chest got tight. My heart pounded in my ears, and my scales flickered a few times as I sought to keep my emotions in control.

Sherif watched me with his lips pressed together. “I’m proud of you,” he said. “And I’m proud to be your brother.”

I inhaled sharply. “Who knew we’d turn out this way after all we’d been through?”

His laugh rang out. “Who knew?”

I dropped my head between my shoulders. “That was exhausting. Can we spare ourselves from having talks like this often? I can only take so much.”

Sherif shuddered. “Yes, that’s enough for about a few cycles I would say.”

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. “I’m going to grab some food and take it to Rain.”

As I stood up, Sherif’s eyes lifted to mine. “Is she still with Carew?”

“I can only get her to leave her side when she sleeps.”

Sherif nodded thoughtfully. “She’ll fit in well at home. Also, if Racks is awake, I want to tell him and Carew they are welcome to stay with us on Torin. For a visit or forever. You told me what they both did for you and Rain.”

My chest swelled with pride. Racks hadn’t regained consciousness yet, but the Drix healer was hopeful. “Thank you, pardux.”

He scoffed. “Stop it. Look, I only just accepted Bosa and Cravus calling me that. You’re still not allowed.”

I laughed and punched him playfully on the arm. “Fine, little brother.”

He shoved me away, and I went directly to the food stocks to grab a few Drix tein bars and some dried fruit. I made my way down a few of the winding hallways containing the bunk rooms until I reached the infirmary. A few warriors sustained injuries during the battle, but all had been attended to and left. Only Racks remained, laying on a cot with Carew and Rain huddled together on one side.

They couldn’t look more different—Carew with her big gray eyes, four arms, and strong tail. While Rain was small and pale with a mane of dark curly hair. She glanced up at me when she heard the door and shot me a brilliant smile. I returned it and strode toward them, eager to see why she was so happy. As I approached the cot, Racks’ head turned, and for the first time, I could see the yellow slits of his pupils through his swollen eyes.

“You’re awake,” I exclaimed, rushing to the side of his bed to grab his free hand. The other was in a cast. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I almost died,” he cracked.

Carew fussed at him, fixing the sheet over his chest, and combing through his hair.

“You did almost die,” I said.

Carew sniffed, and Rain shot me a narrow-eyed look that promised we’d be speaking later.

“Just telling the truth,” I muttered.

Racks chest hitched, and he coughed. “Don’t make me laugh. Hurts.”

“What’s the damage?” I pulled up a chair and sat down.

“It’s easier to tell you what isn’t damaged.” His voice was scratchy.

“Should you be talking?”

He tried to shrug but winced. “Maybe not, but I’m so happy to be alive, that I can’t stop. Anyway, I’ll have scars everywhere and be even uglier, but Carew said she’ll still stick by me.”

“Of course, I will,” she snapped. “Stupid.”

“She’s dead,” I told him. “Her and her daughters. I killed them myself, and then we blew up the mountain.”

Racks split and swollen lips twitched as he tried to smile. “Rain told me. Good job.”

“How’d they find you?”

Racks began the story, but his voice quickly gave out, and Carew finished it. They’d gone to one of the refugee camps, but Drukil had eyes and ears everywhere. Even though they thought they were disguised enough, they were recognized and Drukil sent a squad of Rogastix to capture them.

Racks had fought with everything he had, which most likely was the reason he’d been beaten so severely, while Carew had been put to sleep, just like we’d been in the net.

Carew spoke in halting words and finally shook her head, unable to go on. I imagined the trauma of the situation would stick with her for a while.

“Still can’t believe I’m alive.” Racks closed his eyes and sighed. “I could tell I was in a freefall, and then suddenly… I wasn’t. I was flying on a hover bike. Can’t believe one of those Drix caught me mid-air. Always kinda hated them, but now I’m indebted.”

“What’s your plan?” I asked Carew. “Where do you two want to go after this.”

“We hadn’t talked about it,” Carew said. “He only just woke up, and before that… well we didn’t know we had much of a future.”

“Sherif said you’re welcome to stay with us on Torin as long as you’d like—temporarily or forever. He knows what you did for Rain and me.”

Carew’s eyes went big and round. “Really? And we’d be… accepted there?”

I nodded. “The Kaluma no longer wish to remain isolated. We are happy to welcome others.”

“Stay,” Rain said, grabbing two of Carew’s hands. “I’d like you to stay forever, but at least until Racks is healed and you have a safe place to go.”

Carew glanced at Racks, who gave her a small but firm nod. She grinned at Rain, and I could see the relief in her gray eyes as she bit her lip with a happy head bobble. “Yes, we’ll stay for a while. Thank you,” she beamed at me.

“I’ll have to let Zuri, and the rest of the females, know we’re getting a lot of company. I can already hear Wensla yelling at us if we don’t give them advance warning to prepare.”

“Are you sure they’ll accept me? I’m…I’m part vizpek—”

“You’re Carew,” Rain said, cutting her off. “That’s who you are, and that’s good enough.”

Carew’s smile brightened up the room.

* * *

Rain

I held Carew’s hand as we stepped off the cargo ship into a plain field. Not far away, I could see a stretch of wildflowers in bloom, their colors brightened by the glowing sunlight.

Torin wasn’t an ugly planet—it wasn’t a desert like Vixlicin or anything—but it had nothing on Torin. The moist green dirt squished around my shoes and the tall blue grass tickled my ankles. In the distance, massive trees the size of redwoods rose to the sky. I could just make out the large, flat fungus pods branching out from the trunks where the Kaluma made their homes.

Sax and Xavy, the Drixonians I’d learned were in charge of the rescue operation, stood on the ramp of the cargo ship, watching our descent. Along with Sherif, about two dozen Kaluma warriors had joined in the rescue mission.

I’d come to get to know the Drixonians a little over the journey home and found them immensely fun. Sax, the one with the thick braid and pierced nipples, talked endlessly about his smart mate, Val. Xavy had a history with the Kaluma, him and his mate, Tabitha. I was eager to meet their mates, and they promised to visit us sometime.

Arms crossed, Xavy nodded in Sherif’s direction. “Don’t be a stranger.”

“Bring Tabitha by sometimes. Wensla and Gurla want to see her. They have a baby now.”

Xavy grinned and nodded. “She’ll want to come as soon as I tell her. Don’t worry. We’ll see you soon.”

“Thank you,” Kaz said to the Drixonians. “For everything.”

Sax held up his hand. “No need for thanks. This was in our best interest too. And to be honest, I was itching to shoot something. I was getting out of practice.”

“And it showed,” Xavy quipped back. “Your aim was terrible.”

“Better than yours.”

“Let’s have a contest when we get home, then. Winner gets—”

“Quit your flecking arguing and get in the cargo ship.” Barked the Drix with facial scarring who I’d learned was named Gar. “I have babies to see.”

“Right,” Sax said, sauntering back into the ship. “Poor female is stuck caring for your massive children who eat more than the average adult.”

I heard a meaty smack and a muffled “Ow,” followed by Xavy’s high-pitched laughter. The ramp lifted with a hiss as the ship prepared for takeoff.

With Sherif in the lead, we made our way to the settlement slowly. Racks was walking now, but barely, so our progress was slow. He insisted on arriving at the settlement under his own power, and I was sure it was a pride thing. Carew walked next to him for support and the twins hovered nearby in case they had to help in the event of a fall. His jaw was set as he walked with a limp, and I knew with that determination, he’d make it.

When we reached the edge of the wildflowers, a shout could be heard ahead of us, moments before three figures burst out of the dense brush. “Sherif!” shouted a black woman with a full head of tight curls and a colorful scarf streaming out behind her. Her brown eyes went wide at the sight of me, and she skidded to a halt. Behind her were two more women—a short one with brown hair and a taller one with a braid and a … spiked bat strapped to her back.

Following them at a slower pace were two Kaluma—a massive one with short hair and another with his white hair shaved at the sides and the rest pulled back in a long braid. He, too, wore a spiked bat strapped to his back. Hustling behind them at an even slower pace were two other figures who I quickly recognized as female Kaluma. They were gorgeous, with bronze skin, white hair, and large round eyes.

“The welcome committee has arrived,” Kazel murmured. He grinned and reached for my hand.

Zuri, Sherif’s mate, began to run again. Sherif opened his arms and she melted against him. He rubbed her back, whispering a few words in her ear. She immediately straightened and came right to me, her eyes wet.

“Hi, I’m Zuri. I guess we’re sisters-in-law.” She took my hands in her warm grip and I was pretty sure I fell a little bit in love with her.

“I’m Rain,” I said. “I heard so much about you, and I’m so excited to meet you.”

She eyed Kazel. “All good things, right?”

Kaz laughed. “Of course.”

Letting go of my hands for just a moment, she wrapped her arms around his thick middle. “You did good bringing her home.”

He patted her shoulder. “Thank you.”

Zuri took my hand and tugged me toward the other women. I met Bloom, the short one with kind eyes, as well as Karina, the one wearing the spiked bat who had a mischievous look about her. Bosa was her mate, and he looked equally trouble. Cravus, Bloom’s mate, was a bit like a teddy bear, if teddy bears were bronze with spiked shoulders.

Wensla and Gurla were the female Kaluma, and they were part of a mate triad with a male. Wensla wore their baby on her back, and he gurgled happily at me.

It was a lot of introductions, and my head was spinning by the time we were finished—and we hadn’t even arrived at the main settlement yet. Racks was looking pale, so we continued at a faster pace while the rest of the women chattered.

“We figured you wanted to rest first when you arrived, so we prepared the meal for later today, closer to nightfall,” Zuri said.

“We got Kazel’s hut ready for you with clean bedding, fresh water, and some snacks, just in case,” Bloom added.

“She’s been experimenting with cooking the ingredients here and is a good cook.” Karina patted a blushing Bloom on the arm. “She made something that Zuri called an amuse bouche but none of us knew what that was.”

Zuri sighed. “It’s like a sample bite of something.” She glanced at me. “You’ve heard of it, right?”

“Uh, no.”

Zuri waved a hand. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Bloom is a good cook and that’s the important information.”

“And she’s given me a break on organizing the meals,” Wensla said. “We have this little one and another on the way.”

My hand drifted down to my stomach. “I, uh, I have one on the way too.”

Zuri’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “What?”

I smiled. “It’s a bit of a story.”

Sherif nodded at me. “I told Kazel that I’m happy for you two.”

“Hold up.” Zuri waved her hands frantically before turning a wicked glare to her mate. “Did you know?”

Sherif’s eyes darted to Kazel and then back to his mate. I wasn’t sure the big serious Kaluma could look scared. I saw him ride into battle on a hover bike with a warrior armed with a rocket launcher at his back. But with his mate questioning him, he looked terrified. He swallowed and nodded once, slowly. “I did.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” she shrieked.

“I thought it was their news to share,” he quickly shot back. “And it wasn’t my place.”

Zuri stared at him for a long time with narrowed eyes before she let out a huff. “Okay, fine. You’re off the hook for not wanted to steal a pregnant woman’s thunder. But only a little off the hook.” She pointed a long finger at him before turning to me. Her expression shifted completely to one of joy, and I had to laugh at her about face. “This is the best news ever. Are you feeling okay? Scared? I promise there are enough humans and Kaluma females here to get you through it. Plus, Karina is pregnant too, so you can go through it together.”

“Zuri!” she snapped.

“What?” Zuri shot back.

Karina stamped her foot. “You just stole my thunder.”

“Everyone already knows!”

“She doesn’t.” Karina flung her hand out at me, nearly catching me in the face.

Zuri pressed her lips together firmly before blowing them out. Her shoulders slumped. “Shit, you’re right. Sorry Rina.”

Karina clearly didn’t stay mad for long because she flipped her hair over her shoulder and beamed a smile at us. “I’m just giving you a hard time Zuri. Anyway, yes I’m pregnant too, so we’ll get through this together.” She gripped my hand and squeezed, and when I looked up at her pretty face and kind smile, I felt the tears prick the back of my eyes.

Sniffing, I tried to hold them back. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I just… this is a lot. Friends, and safety, and happiness. I didn’t think it was possible for me. Not on Earth, and not here either.”

Karina’s smiled faded as she stepped closer. “I get it. We all do. It’ll take some time to adjust, and we’re here for you to help you through it. Your emotions will be all over the place, and especially more so that you have a whole lot of new hormones going on. Be kind to yourself. We’re here for you. Plus, Kazel’s pretty great, and I would totally have tried to hit on him if Bosa didn’t lock me down first.”

“I heard that!” the braided Kaluma growled. He gripped Karina’s arm and spun her around. She let out a happy squeal moments before he crushed his lips to hers. Once one of them moaned, we all turned away.

Zuri cleared her throat. “Anyway, get some rest and we’ll meet you for dinner, okay?”

I nodded with a laugh. “Yeah, okay.”

Thirteen

Rain

The Kaluma settlement was unlike anything I’d seen before. Gorsich, while developed, was still a bit of a mess as the Rinian Council butted heads with the many species who made their home there.

On Torin, the Kaluma were completely self-sufficient. Plentiful crops swayed in the breeze, livestock resembling long-legged pigs grazed, and a nearby stream was the perfect source of fresh water.

Karina, Bloom, and Zuri made some small touches to bring a human element to the settlement. They organized a better dining system resembling a high-school cafeteria that was very efficient and arranged designated sober buddies to help each other home during the raucous bonfires popular among the Kaluma. Xavy had left some of his homemade spirits, and a sweet-smelling herb was popular among the Kaluma to smoke. The scent was strong and gave me a contact high. When I worried about the baby, Wensla assured me it was perfectly safe.

With the arrival of Kazel and me, and the downfall of Drukil, that night a large bonfire stretched into the sky in the center of the settlement. I lounged in a special chair that Wensla lent me while Karina lay in Bosa’s lap while he fed her berries. Kazel sat next to me, casually rubbing my shoulders as he talked with his brother.

“How soon do you think we should visit?” Kazel asked.

“Soon,” Sherif said. “Before Karina and Rain are due, because the human women there have had several births and can give advice. Next time, they said they’ll travel here. Xavy said Tabitha has always wanted to be something called a travel influencer, but I don’t know what that means.”

Karina snorted. “I’m excited to meet this Tabitha.”

“Wait,” I tried to sit up, but the smoke made me a little uncoordinated. “How many of their human mates have babies?”

Sherif ticked off on his hands but gave up after five. “I can’t remember. A lot. The Drixonian males are fertile.”

“So, we can meet humans who gave birth here? They’ll be able to give us tips?” I gasped, looking to Karina. “Did you know this?”

She nodded with a smile. “I’ve been asking if we can visit them before I get too big to move around.”

“Daz said there are lots of children with mates.” Sherif frowned. “It’s going to be loud and crowded.”

Kazel laughed. “It’s going to be good. Don’t act grumpy about it. I see you talking to Grim when Wensla isn’t looking.”

“Grim and I have a lot in common.”

“He’s an infant.” Zuri rolled her eyes as she sat down next to Sherif with a glass of clear liquid that smelled like it could strip paint off walls.

“Yeah, he listens and doesn’t back talk.”

Zuri smacked Sherif in the head with the flat of her palm. He didn’t even flinch, and I saw the corners of his lips tilt up, like her annoyance amused him. “Just for that, you’re getting extra back talk,” she sassed before she threw back the shot. She hissed and sucked in a breath before shuddering. “What does Xavy put in this stuff?”

Nearby, a bleary-eyed Racks held up an empty glass. “Sumthin’ strong.” Next to him, Carew giggled, and the sight of them cuddled by the fire filled me with immense joy. I knew there would be a lot for them to overcome yet. The trauma of what they experienced together was not something they could get over in a day. But Racks would get stronger as he healed physically, and Carew would gain more confidence in herself. The Kaluma females were kind with her, and even the Drixonian males—who had bad blood with the Uldani—treated her like an equal. She hadn’t asked to be half vizpek and half Uldani. She was Carew, big-hearted and in love with her Rogastix guard. She had already expressed interested in learning some healing techniques, and Racks wanted to try his hand at taking care of the livestock. I’d caught him leaning over the fence a few times, letting the animals sniff his hands.

I peered up at Kazel, who seemed to have a permanent smile on his face since we arrived on Torin. Seeing him like this after all we’d been through warmed my heart. I reached for his hand, and he immediately laced our fingers together before leaning down to push my curls off my face. My hair had only gotten thicker since I was pregnant, and I wasn’t sure if it was the hormones, or this bitter drink that Wensla made me drink every morning—the Kaluma version of prenatal vitamins.

“Do you need anything?” Kazel asked.

And for some reason, the question made me laugh. Hard. My body shook as I snorted and giggled while he stared at me. Finally, I shook my head. “No, that’s the crazy part about my life right now. I don’t need anything. I have a home again, for the first time since I was eighteen. Fifteen years ago.”

He smiled, the skin around his good eye crinkling. “I think you do need one thing.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

He leaned down and kissed me, and I laughed into his mouth.

* * *

Kazel

We’d been home for about what Rain called a month, and I couldn’t remember a time I’d been this happy. Even my childhood was a bunch of fleeting memories and knowing what came after I was gone soured the happy images.

We lay on the bed pallet in our hut. My body was achy from losing myself in Rain, and she lay sated next to me, yawning so loudly that I had to laugh.

The human females had decorated my hut before our arrival, filling it with bunches of blooms and soft bedding. Several brand-new furs had been spread out for us, and Rain said that while she loved the whole settlement, her bed was her favorite place. I was only fond of it when she was in it too.

I rolled onto my side and placed my hand on her swollen stomach. She was growing bigger every day. We weren’t sure how her pregnancy would go. A Kaluma female’s gestation was less than a human’s, as far as we could figure out. And Zuri, who’d been by her sister’s side on Earth when she’d had a child, remarked that Karina and Rain’s stomachs were growing bigger faster.

Rain said she felt the movement of the baby a few times, but I’d never felt it myself. “How is the baby today?”

“Sleepy,” she murmured as she watched me with half-shut eyes. “Like momma.”

“You still think it’s a boy?” I asked.

She nodded. “Karina thinks she’s having a girl.”

“What does Bosa think?”

“Bosa is too worried about the pregnancy to realize there is actually a baby at the end of it. He’s trying to act tough, but he loses it if Karina so much as stumbles. She said he’s driving her crazy.”

I laughed. “That sounds like Bosa. Cravus would be a calm, protective father-to-be.”

“Sherif?”

I hummed to myself. “I think he will view parenthood as a large responsibility.”

“He takes everything so serious, doesn’t he?”

“He does, but Zuri is good for him.”

Rain grinned. “The women here are so supportive. I was worried I wouldn’t know how to act. I didn’t really have close friends on Earth, but our shared experiences have given us so much to bond over.”

“I noticed you’ve been talking a lot to Bloom.”

“She’s such a calm presence. I like hanging out with her. Plus, she invites me to watch Cravus work and that’s something else.”

I craned my neck to eye her. “What?”

Suddenly her eyes went wide. “I mean… we support him. In his work.”

“You support him.”

“Yes.”

“How so.”

“By… admiring his, uh, form.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, and she ducked her head. “Busted.” She murmured against my arm, followed by a series of giggles.

I’d heard about the women sneaking away to watch Cravus forge his weapons. Apparently, they found him very attractive, and I couldn’t really fault Rain. Cravus was a chiseled mountain of a Kaluma. “I have no problems with you admiring Cravus. I just wanted you to admit it.” I tickled her ribs, and she let out a yelp.

She’d gained a lot of weight since arriving on Torin, so much that I could no longer see her ribs. Her hips had filled out, and her inner thighs now touched when she walked. We were both thrilled at how healthy she looked, and what that meant for the baby.

Suddenly, I felt a slight ripple along my fingers moments before a bony body part made contact with my palm where it rested on Rain’s belly. I let out a holler and immediately lowered my cheek to her smooth, stretched skin.

Rain’s fingers combed through my hair as I waited for another kick or punch. “Come on, son,” I whispered. “One more.”

A lump connected to my cheek, and I smiled before pressing a kiss on her belly. My heart swelled, and every inch of me warmed with pride. “Good job,” I whispered.

When I glanced up at Rain, her eyes were watering. “I felt him,” I grinned.

Biting her lip, she nodded. “Good.”

“How does that feel when he moves?”

“It’s a very weird feeling I can’t describe. Like I have gas, but that gas has arms and legs.”

I laughed. “I see.” I stayed resting on her stomach for a while, but the baby calmed down after that. Still, I liked feeling close to him, and when I finally lifted my head because of a kink in my neck, Rain was fast asleep, small snores fluttering from her lips.

I smiled and picked up a fur that had fallen off the bed and gently laid it on top of her. She snuggled into it, making a smacking noise with her mouth, and even though I wasn’t tired, I lay down next to her to watch her sleep.

Threading our hands together, I pressed a kiss to her palm. “Thank you, Rain,” I whispered to her sleeping face. “Thank you for giving me the best life I could imagine.”

In her sleep, her lips twitched into a smile.

Epilogue

Rain

I could see why Corin and Torin were sister planets—I felt nearly as at home on Corin as I did on Torin. The lush vegetation swayed in the breeze, and I deeply inhaled the fresh air. The Drixonians had long ago separated themselves into groups called clavas, and while Daz was recognized as the overall leader of the remaining Drixonian race, he didn’t dictate how each clavas should live in times of peace.

We rode the hover bikes from our landing site to the Night Kings village, which was bustling. The stone pathways were alive with children, animals, and a mix of human and Drixonians, as well as a trio of smaller creatures I’d never seen before, named hilbobs.

Standing at the entrance was a small band of women. One with dark hair and tan skin who couldn’t have been much taller than five-two stepped forward, a large smile on her face. Despite her stature, her voice carried as she chattered excitedly. “Welcome! I’m Frankie, Daz’s mate—”

“Quit introducing yourself as Daz’s mate,” said a woman with purple hair. “You’re like the queen here and have a purpose beyond dealing with the big grump.”

Frankie glared at her. “Did you seriously just interrupt my whole spiel. I’ve been working on this.”

The woman ducked her head and toed the dirt. “Sorry, I’m just saying…”

An arm brushed mine, and Bosa stepped in front of me. “Causing trouble already, Tab. We just got here.”

The purple-haired woman’s face lit up. “Bosa!”

“The one and only.” He grinned.

She rushed forward and hugged him. Another woman with short dark hair and tattoos lifted a hand with a smirk. “Hey there, Kaluma.”

Bosa nodded. “Justine. How’s your mate?”

“Sitting in front of screens as always. He’s hyper-vigilant on security now that we have honored guests.”

“Seriously?” Frankie stomped her foot. “I don’t get to do my thing?”

A black woman with long dark braids placed her hand on Frankie’s shoulder. “Of course, go ahead—” Suddenly she stopped speaking and her eyes went wide. “Is that… Oh my God, do I see another human with melanin?”

Zuri, who’d been talking behind us with Sherif and Xavy, let out a gasping shriek before sprinting toward the braided woman. They slammed into each other so hard that I winced, but they weren’t hurt as they hooted and hollered with tears. I found myself swiping away at a few of my own that leaked out. Zuri was like family to me now, and seeing her happiness warmed my heart. I learned the other woman’s name was Miranda, and her mate was a wild-looking Drixonian who hovered near her. He gave me a nod and a small smile when he caught me looking, and while he didn’t let Miranda out of his sight, his energy didn’t strike me as negative. He watched her with a sort of protective pride.

Frankie watched Zuri and Miranda hug and swiped at her own tears before waving her hand. “Nevermind about my spiel.” She shot us a wide grin as she clapped her hands together. “Let’s eat!”

They’d prepared a feast for our arrival, and despite our travel fatigue, I found myself eager to enjoy the food and get to know everyone. While I’d had a good impression of the Drixonian males, I was still unsure what kind of life they had with their mates and still worried about the women, hoping they were happy. I hadn’t needed to worry. Frankie and her band of women were healthy, content, and more than eager to show off their home.

The village had been cleaned and decorated. The cool season had set in on Corin, and the scent of the air reminded me of fall. The women hadn’t disappointed as they served some kind of spiked cider along with roasted meats, mashed tubers, loads of seasoned vegetables and fruit pies for dessert. They had slightly different food to work with than us, but I could see Bloom making notes on different recipes to try when we got back home.

The twins, Grego and Uthor, were beside themselves with the abundance of feminine energy. As far as Kaluma women, we’d only brought along Hara the healer, and she was fawned over by Tabitha and the rest of the women.

“Wensla and Gurla are well? Keeping the Kaluma warriors in line?” Tabitha asked her.

Hara laughed. “Of course. In Sherif’s absence, Wensla is in charge, backed by dozens of Kaluma warriors, and she’s probably loving ordering them around. I bet we’ll come home to the whole settlement rearranged.”

“Good for her,” Tab nodded.

We ate at a long table in the center of the village, beneath the shade of a large tree in the middle. The breeze felt good after being cooped up in a spacecraft, and the sun warmed my skin.

I sat next to Kazel, who seemed to eat without breathing. He’d taken my pregnancy as free rein to also put on weight, and I had to admit I enjoyed the roundness of his middle. He was still stacked with muscle, but now he had a little extra padding on top that I found much better for cuddling.

He glanced at me and pointed to my half-eaten dessert. “You going to eat that?”

I shook my head and patted my stomach. “I’m full.”

He snatched it off my plate and downed the dessert in one bite before licking his fingers.

“Kazel,” Sherif sighed. “I don’t care how you eat at home, but could you be less of an animal here?”

Sax, who sat nearby, snorted. “He’s fine. My Val made that dessert, and she likes watching people enjoy the food. Go for it, Kazel.”

My mate stuck his tongue out at his brother, a habit he picked up from Zuri. I clapped my hand over my mouth as Sherif glared at his mate. “Look what you did.”

She shrugged and licked the sauce from her utensil. “Very appropriate use of the action, Kazel. Ten points.”

Kazel grinned at her while Sherif rubbed his forehead.

“I’m glad you like it,” said Val, who was a pretty woman with pale skin. I’d learned she’d been a nurse on Earth and was part of the Drixonian healer team of the village.

Sax glanced at the sun placement before nudging his mate. “Incoming.”

“What?” she asked.

The sound of a door opening cut through the chatter and excited shrieks filled the air along with the patter of little feet. Sprinting toward us was a small army of children. Bringing up the back were two Drixonian males and a young female who at first glance was Drixonian, but as she drew closer, I realized she was also part human.

The kids scattered to their respective parents, and I had a hard time keeping track of who had kids and who didn’t. There were just… children everywhere.

A little boy climbed up into Val’s lap—he had blue skin, the brow nubs like a Drixonian, and nubbed horns. He was tailless, and his skin had a slightly softer look than the Drixonian adult males. He stared at me with his thumb in his mouth, and I stared back. I was going to have one of those soon. Well, slightly different as Kazel was the dad, and not a Drixonian. Still, seeing the proof of the procreation that human women could do in this galaxy was a little startling.

Val caught me looking and gave me a kind smile. “Before you leave, let’s chat with Karina. I’m sure you have lots of questions and as you can see—” she waved a hand around the village. “We have a lot of different experiences here to share. Naomi even had twins.”

“Twins?” I gasped and jerked my chin down to stare at my bugling stomach. “Oh my God, I hadn’t even thought that was a possibility.”

Val laughed. “I have some equipment I can hook you up to. We’ll get you sorted before you leave. And you can ask me anything you want.”

I blew out a breath. “Thank you. That was one of the reasons I was so eager to visit, selfishly.”

Val shook her head and reached across the table to touch the back of my hand. “Not selfish at all. You’re in mom mode now.” She dropped a kiss on her son’s head before handing him off to his father, who immediately began tickling the little boy until he let out a scream and ran away laughing.

“I’m looking forward to the chat, and I know Karina is too.”

Val smiled. “Of course. For now, eat and enjoy the peace.”

“I plan on it.

* * *

Kazel

Fenix’s orange mohawk flopped on his head as he sauntered toward where the women were gathered around a pile of wood castoffs. With a grin, he tore off one of his long black gloves and fluttered his fingers. Flames burst to life on his palm, and with a flick of his wrist, he tossed a fireball on the dry wood.

Rain squealed with delight and clapped. The orange of the flames flickered in her eyes as a roar of applause went up among the women. They’d all made fast friends, bonding over shared experiences and learning how to live with…well, us. Not that I was hard to live with. Bosa, on the other hand…

He was currently playing around with Mikko, one of the four Drixonian males who’d been experimented on by the Uldani. We hadn’t brought Carew on the trip, but Daz had assured us that the warriors held no ill will toward her, and that in fact the Drixonians now had a truce with the remaining Uldani.

“Swing,” Bosa said to Mikko as they stood in front of a body-shaped target filled with dried grass and beans. “Aim right for the head. Unless you want to inflict as much pain as possible.”

Mikko, a Drixonian who couldn’t hide his forearms spikes like the rest of the Drixonians, slammed the Bosa’s spiked bat directly into the target’s chest.

Bosa shrugged. “Sure, that’s one way to do it.”

Mikko played around with the grip on the bat. “I like this.”

“Cravus can make you one, can’t you?”

Cravus lifted a cup of spirits to his mouth and nodded silently. He kept glancing in Bloom’s direction, maybe worried how she’d react to being among a lot of women. Her memories were slowly returning, but she still had a lot of gaps. But she seemed perfectly at ease sitting next to Rain.

“Where are some of the other Drixonians who were on the rescue mission?” I asked Daz. “I think the one who drove with Rain was named Lukent.”

Daz settled back in his chair and clasped his hands across his belly. “He and the rest of his clavas aren’t close by. We sent word to see if they wanted to visit, but they like to keep to themselves unless there’s a battle to be fought,” Daz winced. “Some of that may be our fault, so I can’t say I blame them.”

“How so?”

“Long-held Drixonian prejudices made them outcasts,” answered one of the healers named Shep who walked with a cane and sat next to his mate, a younger male named Hap. “We aren’t perfect. One day we hope to be more united.”

I nodded, not asking any more questions, because Daz had fallen silent, his gaze on his mate. I appreciated the big Drixonian. He reminded me a lot of Sherif—too serious for his own good, although I’d seen the way he relaxed when his upbeat mate was around.

Mikko and Bosa finished beating the target and joined us with flasks in their hands. They clinked cups and chugged. I saw Rexor—a white-haired Drixonian who I was told had wings—roll his eyes at Zecri, a quiet, scarred Drix.

“So Drukil is dead,” Sherif said. “The Uldani are ruled by responsible leaders. The human abductions have been slowed thanks to Karina and Bosa. The corruption in the Rinian Council has been rooted out, for now. Dare I say we can finally relax and focus on our mates, families, and homes?”

“It’s been quiet for a few cycles,” Daz said. “And while I appreciate it, I’m never going to shy away from answering a call that’s going to keep the galaxy safe.”

Sherif nodded. “Agreed. You came when we asked.”

“And you came when we asked. We couldn’t have defeated the Uldani without you.”

Bosa exhaled loudly. “That was fun. What am I going to do without heads to cave in?”

Mikko laughed and they bumped shoulders like fast friends. Sherif glared. “Easy on the bloodthirst, Bosa.”

He shrugged. “Just being honest.”

“We still haven’t fully explored Corin since we’ve been back. We’ve been hard at work rebuilding the abandoned city.” He pointed to the large buildings in the distance. “We hope to return it to a trading hub again. But we also plan on some exploratory missions on the planet.”

“Never know what settled here while you were gone,” I said.

Daz nodded, and his expression looked weary before he shook his head and took another swig of clear liquid. “But that’s a worry for another day.” He smiled. “Tonight, we listen to the laughter of our females and the snores of our chits, and we thank Fatas for blessing us.”

Echoes of “Thank Fatas” went up in a chorus of deep voices. I joined in as I watched my mate rub her hands over her swollen belly. I wasn’t sure who was responsible for the happy turn of my life, but I wasn’t taking any chances of anything reversing that. I lifted my cup of spirits, met my mate’s eyes glittering in the flames, and whispered an all-encompassing, “Thank you.”

Coming soon… I’m heading back to Torin with a whole new group of Drixonians finding their human mates! Don’t miss any news, and sign up for my newsletter!

Curious about the Drixonians mentioned in this book? Get the complete seven-book series, plus two bonus novellas and loads of bonus scenes in the box set, available in KU.

The Drixonian Warrior series

Thank you so much for reading Claimed by the Alien Chieftain! Want a bonus scene with the Kaluma? Get it free HERE.

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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Also by Ella Maven

Drixonian Warrior Series

Anna and Tark: The Alien’s Future (prequel)

Daz and Frankie: The Alien’s Ransom

Sax and Valerie: The Alien’s Escape.

Ward and Reba: The Alien’s Undoing

Miranda and Drak: The Alien’s Revenge

Gar and Naomi: The Alien’s Savior

Xavy and Tabitha: The Alien’s Challenge

Nero and Justine: The Alien’s Equal

Stolen Warrior Series

Rexor

Mikko

Fenix

Zecri

Mates of the Kaluma

Hunted by the Alien Assassin

Protected by the Alien Bodyguard

Claimed by the Alien Chieftain