by Vivian Star
"Good luck and may the goddess Vyuna herself be with you," she tells me, sitting back.
"And with you," I reply, a strange warm feeling appearing in my chest. I almost feel like I won't see her again, and that's just crazy. I keep a smile on my face as I walk out, all until the door slams shut.
"Where the hell did my overprotective, dumbass, and just plain old asshole mate go?" I demand, placing my hands on my hips.
Milca laughs a little. "My goddess, you are a frightening little thing. Xair made me swear not to tell you, though."
"You can tell me where to go, or I'm searching this entire planet for him, no matter how long it takes me," I exclaim.
"I think you're right, and he needs you," she sighs. "Fine, but he will be angry with me."
"At least he won't be dead. He needs me to get into that mansion to get near his sister. He will be dead if he goes in alone," I remind her. "And Vyuna made us mates for a reason. I believe I'm meant to be at his side."
"You'll be dead too if you go in alone. You need to be dressed up appropriately for the party and have an escort," she tells me.
"Will you help me?" I question.
"Yes, but you will need to do everything I tell you. The girls will be safe in this ship, but we must travel into the city by other means," she replies. "How do you feel about heights?"
Screaming doesn't quite do justice to the noises coming out of my mouth right about now as we free-fall down into the city. Milca is strapped to my back, and a parachute-type thing that is a blue and shimmering material flies through the air above us. Simple ropes keep us attached, and I glance up for a moment, pausing in my screaming, to see the ship auto fly itself back to the hiding spot we have picked in the mountains. It feels like hours until we get close to the city, and Milca moves us towards a flat area of snow. People point and stare as we go lower, and suddenly my feet hit the ground, and I stumble, landing face-first in the snow. I unclip the ropes around my waist and chest, and roll out from under Milca, sucking in a deep breath. I want to kiss the ground just being there.
"That panned out better than expected," Milca comments. "I was so sure we would hurt ourselves."
"Good to know you had confidence in your plan," I mutter, trying to calm my beating heart down. I'm so going to find my mate and kill him myself for abandoning me and making me have to dive out of a ship. Well, not dive, so to speak. Pushed out screaming would be more accurate.
Either way, it is his fault.
Milca gives me a hand, pulling me to my feet, and I brush off the snow from my clothes. A crowd of blue-skinned men surround us, and I realise we might be in a little bit of danger. That is until Milca pulls out two long guns and points them in the air.
"Touch us, and I will shoot you all," she shouts and clicks the safety off the guns. I hold my breath as silence is the only reply for a long time. Eventually they step back, and I follow behind Milca as she walks into the city. We don't walk for long before she knocks on a wooden door, and a young man with dark blue skin opens it. He has long white hair that is free like a curtain around his shoulders. His waist is only covered by a long blue skirt of some kind. It reminds me of what men used to wear in Scotland many years ago. Kilts, I believe they were called.
"I need a favour," Milca asks. They both stare at each other, and it's not a stare of strangers. It's a stare like they were lovers, or are. Either way, the tension is purely sexual and uncomfortable to stand next to.
"And yet you come to my door with only danger," he replies, but he steps aside. I follow Milca into the large room that is partly stone walls and partly curtains. "Pity for myself that I could never tell you no. What is it I can do for you both?"
"Savannah Jackson, this is Dhasnoir, but friends call him Noir," she introduces us, and I nod at him. "Savannah needs an escort into the mansion party for the Rebel King."
"Why would you want to go there?" he enquires. "If the Rebel King likes you, you will be killed by the queen. She will have no competition, and he has a wandering eye."
"The queen is my mate's sister. His only sister," I add in. "And he is going to try and see her. He believes she needs saving, so he wants to kill the Rebel King."
"I have told him his sister only needs saving from herself, but he never believed it," Milca tells me.
Pushing back the fear that Xair's sister might actually hurt my mate, I look at Noir's blue eyes. "Will you please help me? If not, we need to move on and find someone else. Either way, I am going."
"For Milca, I will help you. I attend the party every year, therefore they will not turn us away," he answers, his eyes moving to Milca. "She will need to be dressed for the event."
"What do I need to wear?" I nervously ask.
"A dress made of stars," Milca answers, and I frown in confusion. How can someone wear the stars? "In other words, a lot of glitter and lace."
Oh Vyuna. I wish I didn't ask.
Chapter Fifteen
Holding tightly to Noir's arm, I climb the many steps to the mansion above. Spheres of fire float around the steps in all different colours, and bright beams of light flash into the sky from behind the mansion sides. All I can smell is cooked food and heavy perfumes of the alien women walking in front of me, while I feel the cold air wrapping around me like a cloak.
My dress, if you can even call it that, is made up of blue shimmering fabric that is tightly wrapped around my breasts and around my waist, falling into a skirt that pools at my feet. My stomach, arms, chest and back are painted with bright white and blue glitter in ancient symbols of fertility, of Vyuna and her lover. Even my hair is braided back at the sides with tiny silver clips of the symbols that Milca found at the market where she got the glitter from. The long skirt of the dress hides my knee-high boots and the two daggers clipped to the side of them.
I will use them if I have to. To defend myself.
I think back to when I was eight, a memory flashing into my mind like it was only yesterday.
* * *
"Grip the string tighter next time. You lost some of the curve," my mum instructs as I hold the bow in the air. The trees, the animals in the forest, and even my mother's presence falls away as I focus on the bow and the arrow within it. I pull back the string and let my arrow go, breathing out at the same time. It spins through the air and lands right in the middle of the target board, inches away from my last one. I turn around to see my mum smiling at me, and she opens her arms. I run to her, hugging her tightly.
"Do you know why I teach you this and not the other girls?" mum asks me. I did always wonder. They all do something special with her, even knitting for Chloe, but archery was always our thing.
"I will bring all of you up to be fighters because the world we live in means women need to fight for our place. But you, Savannah, are my firstborn and a fighter from the get-go. I knew you only needed a bow in your hands, and you could save the whole world if you wanted."
* * *
The memory flickers away as we get to the final step. I hope you're watching, mum. I might be terrified, but I am going to save him even if it's the last thing I do. Glancing at Noir, he looks down at me at the same time, and I can see he is as nervous as I am.
"Ready?" he asks me.
My mouth feels dry as I answer. "Yes."
My feet feel like they want to stay planted on the snow-covered ground as I take my first step, and we walk towards the open doors, which have two blue aliens in full armour outside. Slow and enchanting music fills my ears as we step through the door into a corridor made of pure blue stone. The rough walls make the corridor seem smaller as we get to another pair of doors, and we step into a giant room. The floor is the same blue stone, but the walls are made of some kind of spiralling rock that looks like pillars and make root shapes across the ceiling. Floating flames litter the room, and the light sparkles off the dresses of the women here. I don't see any other human women, but women of all different coloured skin fill the space, and men stay firmly fixed at their sides in nothing
more than the blue kilts. At the back of the room, on a flat stone slab that looks like a giant white diamond, are two people with crowns on their heads.
The man, the Rebel King if I'm guessing right, is a thin man covered in scars from head to toe. His arms are bulky but a weird contrast to his overall thin appearance. His white hair is nothing but a few strands, and he looks considerably creepy. I move my gaze to the queen, my sister-in-law.
Unless I knew she was Xair's sister, I would never have guessed. Her hair is the colour of snow and is held up in plaits around her crown. Her silver skin shimmers a little bit under the light of the flames, and everything from the thin blue dress to the strappy sandals she wears makes her seem small and delicate. But as her eyes fall on me, the same eyes as Xair's, I don't see a delicate woman at all. She is far more than that. She looks away first, and Noir leads me to the group of dancers in front of the diamond stage where the king and queen are. I immediately start searching for my mate as Noir takes my waist and hand, dancing with me so effortlessly.
"Do you see him at all?" Noir quietly asks me, manoeuvring us effortlessly through the dancers.
"No," I reply, feeling more than a little on edge.
"Mates such as yourselves can sense their other half. Close your eyes and search with your heart, not your eyes. It is far more powerful," Noir softly explains to me.
I do as he suggests and close my eyes, my focus only on my need to find my mate before he does anything he cannot take back.
Before he is lost to me forever.
A warm feeling hits me deep in my stomach, and I blink my eyes open, letting go of Noir to slide around two dancers. There, right in the middle of a big group of couples, is my mate. Only wearing a blue kilt, like all the other men in here, his rippling muscles scream his tension. Without thinking, I walk to his side and take his hand in mine.
"Care to dance?" I ask him as his shocked eyes fall to me, and he looks so angry almost immediately.
Get on board the "mad at aliens" crazy train.
He drags me from the crowd of dancers and up a flight of stairs, making sure no one is following us. Opening a random door, we head inside a bedroom, and he locks the door behind him as I take a step back, keeping my eyes on the door.
"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" he demands, storming right up to me. Our bodies touch every time we breathe as we stare each other down.
"You're mad?" I poke him in the chest, fuming. "You left me alone! You came here and you could have been killed! I am your goddamn mate, and you cannot make decisions for me!"
"Sav—" he starts.
"No, don't Sav me. I love you, and I could have lost you," I shout, pausing when I realise that is the first time I've ever told him that. His eyes widen, and then his lips are on mine, kissing me with pure passion as I wrap my legs around him, climbing him like a monkey while pushing my skirt up. He carries me to the bed, pulling his lips from mine and turning me around. He pushes me face down on the bed and ever so slowly pushes up my skirt all the way, revealing how bare I am underneath.
Parting my legs, he runs a finger down my already wet slit.
"Fuck," he growls, and I hear him pushing down his kilt. The sound of the material dropping to the floor makes me clench around nothing, just wanting him inside of me. The feel of his hot cock at my entrance almost makes me come here and now.
"I love you too, Savannah Jackson," he tells me as he thrusts balls deep inside. Holy alien. Xair pounds into me, and I take every moment of it, the pleasure indescribable other than the moans leaving my lips. Xair reaches underneath me, finding my clit with his finger and rubbing circles. "Come for me, my mate. I need to feel you."
His words send me over the edge, and the orgasm near enough blinds me, leaving me in a shaky mess as Xair thrusts one more time, filling me with his come.
Softly Xair presses little breathless kisses down my spine before pulling out of me, and I turn around, looking up at him.
"We do this together or not at all. Okay?"
He smirks, rubbing his cheek. "Vyuna had to give me a brave and stubborn mate, didn't she?"
"You'd get away with murder otherwise. Quite literally," I reply, chuckling. He leans down, kissing me softly and slowly.
"Together it is."
Chapter Sixteen
"This isn't a good idea. Just for the record, I'm saying it," Xair all but huffs as the tablet rings in my hand, the screen flashing every few moments.
"You're my mate. I think she might understand," I reply, watching as my sister's face comes onto the tablet as she answers the call. Her eyes widen like she can't believe it, and tears fill my eyes.
"Where are you? We will send an army right now," she immediately starts, her eyes filled with anger and concern. "Tell me you killed that asshole who kidnapped you."
"Erm...not exactly." I almost cringe at how angry she is, and I don't blame her. "He is my destined mate, and we are mated. Xair is here with me."
"Your mate?" Rox comes into the tablet, his green face right next to Darcie, and they both have exactly the same expression of pure shock.
I quickly give them a rundown on everything that happened since I was kidnapped, and Xair looks away as I tell them where we are and why Xair is here. And how he did not kill Rox's brother, last of all.
"This Milca can swear on Vyuna that Xair is not guilty?" Rox asks, and it's the first time anyone has spoken since I started explaining.
"I can swear on Vyuna, and that should be enough. Xair is a good man, and I love him," I tell Rox. An awkward silence fills the room, and I'm surprised when Xair moves to sit next to me on the bed. Rox's eyes are hard as he looks at Xair.
"What Sav has told you is true. All of it. I got revenge for our brother's death, and I was happy to die as soon as my sister was saved. Then I met Sav, and death is far from my wish," he tells Rox and Darcie. My eyes fill with tears as I look at Xair. Rox nods and lets out a long breath. "In fact, a million years would not be enough."
I stare up at him as he looks at me. My heart feels full and, for the first time in a long time, not broken.
"Then, my brother, what do you need from us?" Rox asks, and my heart feels full as Xair starts explaining about the women we have here and how we need safe transport to Strixa for those who want to go.
"I will leave to make plans. I'm sure Savannah wants to meet our daughters," Rox suggests with a large smile, and I grin at Darcie. I can't believe Darcie, my pain in the ass little sister, is a mother.
"Yes! Please let me see them," I ask, and Darcie lifts the tablet she has. After a bit of carrying across the room, she lowers the tablet to hover over the cutest pair of green babies I have ever seen. They are in a cot, covered to their waists with knitted white blankets, and they are holding each other's hands. They might have Rox's green skin, but their little faces are the very image of Darcie, and the strands of blonde hair on their heads are all Darcie too. "I love them. Oh Darcie, they are beautiful."
"Well, this little girl is Savannah, and this little one is called Vyuna, after the goddess herself. I'm sure you can guess who I named Savannah after," she tells me.
"Darcie..." I burst into tears, and Xair wraps an arm around me, chuckling into my hair. Darcie is crying as she brings the camera back to herself, and I wish I could hug her.
"I loved our mum, but when she died, you did everything for us. You kept me alive and on the right track, and I couldn't think of anyone I wanted to honour as much as you," she admits. "Though to avoid confusion, we nicknamed her Hannah."
"I would do it all again," I tell her firmly. "And I fully plan to go after our sisters when this is over."
"I know you will," she tells me. "I can't, I had to choose a life for myself...and I need you to think of that too. I know Alice, Chloe and Isabelle would want you to be happy."
"Lucky that her mate has a hero complex, isn't it?" Xair jokes, but he has a point. "We have to go, the party will end soon and so will our window to save my sister."
&nb
sp; "Good luck and keep my sister safe," Darcie firmly tells him and then pulls her eyes to me. "I love you, Sav. Rox and I will do everything we can to help and bring you home."
"I love you too, and I'm already home," I admit, nodding at my mate, and when I meet Darcie's eyes, I know she understands. Rox is her home. "See you soon."
"Bye," she whispers, and I press the button to end the call, feeling like both Darcie and I have taken a big step forward in finding our futures.
And our mates.
"We should hide in the closet until the party is over," I suggest to Xair. "Then we could sneak around the castle at night and find your sister."
"I did think of that, but it's dangerous for you because it will be locked up," he tells me. "I want to kill the Rebel King and take my sister, the guards will react straight away. At the party, I can just take her."
"Are you sure she wants this?" I ask him, cupping his cheek. "It's been so long since you've seen her."
"The Rebel King has had many matings, and each has been killed off in the last year. He has no heirs, and I think he is killing those that can't produce one," he tells me. "I can't leave her here."
"What's the plan, then?" I ask him. He grins.
"I need a big distraction, and I had a slightly insane plan," he tells me, and I don't doubt it. As he starts telling me the plan, all I can do is laugh.
Chapter Seventeen
Xair and I stand in the crowd, pretending to be interested in watching the king and queen dance when really we have a different plan altogether. I spot Noir by the bar, but he doesn't see me, and I don't have any time to warn him to leave before the thirty to forty versions of Rocky escape from their stables on the other side of the castle. They might be rare, but that’s only in the wild. The king breeds them as pets. It was a brilliant plan to release the Truzans as they love food and will come straight here to eat, causing chaos. The floor starts shaking underneath our feet, and screams ring out in the distance just before the glass doors smash open as dozens of rock horse creatures run into the room. Xair grabs my hand, and we run towards the back of the room, flattening ourselves against the wall.