by C. R. Jane
Derrial surprised me by picking me up in his arms.
“Are you sure you’re strong enough to hold me?” I asked, trying to get out of his grasp.
He looked offended at my question. “I feel better than ever,” he said. I looked over his shoulder at Corran. “Have I told you how much I love your big, beautiful brain?” I asked him.
The guys threw back their heads and laughed at me. The sound of their laughter was a balm for my soul.
“What?” I asked, pretending to be affronted.
“You like my brain, do you?” Corran asked with a smirk that set off way more fireworks inside of me than was appropriate in this situation. “Are you sure there isn’t something else on my body you like better?”
"I happen to find your brain the sexiest part of you," I replied haughtily, my cheeks flushing under their teasing. The fact that they could tease me at all, however, had my soul soaring.
I pressed a firm kiss against Derrial’s cheek, and they laughed again.
"Looks like we need to have more near-death experiences so that kitten can retract her claws for a minute or two," joked Thane. I stuck my tongue out at him but squeezed Derrial tighter. I didn't want to experience anything like what we had experienced today ever again.
"Let them joke," Derrial whispered in my ear. “It's the only way that we’ll get past the fact that we almost lost you forever." I pulled back away from him.
"Haven't you heard that it's always the living that are left behind when someone dies?" I asked him, stroking his face gently. "You would've been rolling around in heaven while I was left behind to mourn you,"
“The Vepar don't believe in heaven. And even if we did, the three of us are never going to make it there. We’d be fighting our way out of hell to get back to you," he swore softly.
I didn't say anything to that. I had already come to the conclusion that they were monsters.
And maybe it was wrong to love a monster, but they were my monsters, and I was never going to feel guilty about that ever again.
We finally followed Lanton’s men outside of the facility, and I had never been more grateful to be in the fresh air as I was right now.
Derrial set me down long enough for me to give Lanton a huge hug, although he didn’t stray more than an arm’s length away from me. "I'm forever in your debt," I told Lanton, starting to cry again, which was getting really frustrating.
Lanton held my face between his hands and looked at me fondly. "I would do anything for my children," he said. "And now that includes you."
I didn't have any response to that, so I just threw my arms around him, I was sure, shocking the gruff Vepar. I would find some way to show my appreciation to him, even if it took the rest of my life.
After Thane, Corran, and Derrial all gave their thanks and said goodbye to Lanton, we walked back to Corran’s ship. As we stepped inside, I couldn't help but feel like I had lived an entire life between the last time I had been on the ship and now. And even though we had made it through, I didn't let my guard down until we were up in the air pulling away from the facility. I never wanted to see that place again.
If our lives kept up this way, there wouldn't be any place on Veon that wouldn't give me terrible memories when I visited it.
"So where do we go now?" I asked my mates as we sat in the Bridge, all exhaustively pondering what we had just been through.
Corran looked back at me as he fiddled with the controls. "Let's go home."
Chapter 11
Home happened to be another one of the guys’ safe houses. I had never been happier than I was as I walked into what I hoped would be our home for at least a while.
Considering this was a safe house, it actually was my favorite place that I'd seen on Veon. And that wasn't just because of the experience we had just had.
The house was located on the edge of Veon’s lavender ocean. There wasn't another soul around for miles. The colorful trees went all the way up to the shoreline, and the dwelling was situated in the midst of the trees, hidden from sight just in case a Council ship flew over. But the men weren’t too worried about that, this area was so remote that the Council had never paid attention very much to it in the past.
The outside of the dome structure was a soft brown color, and I was grateful that it wasn't white like the facility had been. The trees around us held a multitude of colors and combined with the lavender sea, I felt like I had fallen into a beautiful dream world.
Corran had designed the inside so that you could see through the walls, so it felt like you were living amidst the trees, even though no one could see in.
It was perfect.
Corran must've used the same technology as he had on his ship because the inside of the house seemed to stretch on forever despite the fact that it looked like a very humble dwelling from the outside. We each had separate rooms complete with our own bathrooms. There was a large living area, an office that resembled the inside of a computer it had so much technology in it, a gym, and a gourmet kitchen that contained the same machine as Corran’s ships, meaning that I could get ice cream whenever I wanted it.
I collapsed on my bed as soon as I walked in, immediately knowing which bedroom mine was since it had the largest closet. The closet was of course filled with more clothing than I could wear in a lifetime, but it made me feel normal to see it, like we were back in our house on Earth and we were just living a normal life.
I stared through the wall at the candy-colored trees as they blew gently in the breeze. Derrial had said it was safe to go out into the ocean, but for now, I was content to stay hidden in the house. It felt like for the first time in a long time, I didn't have to look over my shoulder.
Thane walked in with his hands behind his back. The guys had been hovering just outside my door for the last hour. I guess they felt as needy as I did at the moment.
“I have a surprise for you,” he said with a big grin.
I sat up. “What is it?” I asked, so sleepy it was hard to muster up any excitement.
Thane pulled a tiny purple piglet out from behind his back, and I immediately started squealing.
"Thane," I said excitedly, jumping off the bed to grab him. "I mean Thane Jr.," I amended laughingly, looking up at Thane’s annoyed face.
"But how did you get him here?" I asked, lovingly petting the tiny purple creature. I felt like a terrible alien pet parent considering I hadn’t really thought about him with everything that was going on. Although really do most people think about their pet piglets when they’re being forcibly impregnated, hunted by an evil alien race, or fighting for their mates’ lives?
I didn’t think so.
Thane Jr. snuggled into me, squeaking excitedly. I’d forgotten how cute the noises were that he made. Now, this really felt like home.
"We had left him with Corran’s parents before everything happened. My father actually brought him on his ship to meet up with us." Thane explained. “I think he was happy to hand him off,” he said with a laugh. “Evidently our little piggy caused a lot of messes.”
I was barely listening in my excitement at having my pet back. "Oh...you are so cute. Did you miss mommy?" I cooed at Thane Jr.
Thane’s arms went around me, and he snuggled into my neck, petting Thane Jr. as he held me. "I’d love for you to talk that sweetly to me," he said, licking the side of my neck. His touch sent delicious shivers down my whole body. I was exhausted, but he was making me think about how much energy I could muster up for some extracurricular activities.
I turned around and tried to kiss him. But Thane only let our lips touch for a second before he pulled away.
"What's wrong?" I asked, confused at his reaction.
Thane knelt down and put our foreheads together. "You need to rest, and then we need to talk about everything before I can have the privilege of being back in your bed,” he said softly.
Everything he had just said made sense. I might have decided that I loved them too much to leave them, but we still had a lot
to talk about.
I looked back at my bed, holding Thane Jr. close. “How about if you get in my bed just to nap?" I asked as I yawned.
He gave me a little smile. "I think that's within my rules," he said.
"Oh good," I answered, already climbing back into my bed. "But Thane Jr. is joining us," I warned him.
Thane got in the bed with me, spooning me from behind. "I wouldn't expect anything less. Just as long as he doesn't cock block me later," he replied. I fell asleep before I could answer him.
I woke up screaming, rabid Vepar had chased me through my dreams, not stopping until I was standing in front of the corpses of my lovers.
“Ella,” Thane said frantically, shaking me. “Are you alright?”
My piglet was squealing in a panic on my other side.
"It's just stuck in my head. The attack, your bodies lying on the ground," I said with hiccupping breaths. "I don’t think I'm ever going to get those images out of my mind," I said, as tears started to streak down my face.
Thane lovingly caressed my cheek, his eyes speaking a multitude of words that his lips never would say. "Then I guess we'll need to make it our mission to build a life full of memories good enough to replace yesterday," he said tenderly.
I smiled at him through the tears. "I would like that."
"You need to sleep for a couple more hours," he said to me as he pulled me back into his arms. With Thane’s warm body sheltering me from behind and my piglet’s warm body in front of me, I drifted into a surprisingly dreamless sleep.
When I first woke up the next morning, my mind was blissfully clear. It took me a minute before the previous day's events floated over me. Thane’s presence behind me was gone, and I knew he had probably been up for several hours as the Vepar didn’t need to sleep nearly as long as humans.
Despite the fact that I had to have slept for at least twelve hours, my body felt sluggish and tired.
Thane Junior nuzzled my face as I laid there. "I guess I better get up," I told him as he snorted excitedly. I was not looking forward to the hard conversations that we had to have today.
After getting dressed in a simple purple sheath dress, I walked out of the room. I found the guys gathered around a table, pouring over tablets and other documents. "Is everything okay?" I asked, my voice rising a bit frantically at the thought that they were already having to plan evasive maneuvers to escape from the Council or the Vepar zombie hordes.
Derrial got up and walked over to me, "Everything's fine, pet," he reassured me, brushing a kiss firmly across my lips. I took a moment to lean into his chest, soaking up his warmth. He was here. They were all here. Everything was alright.
Corran came over with my favorite smoothie from his kitchen machine. I took a moment to savor the coconut-chocolate taste before I moved over to the table to sit down with everyone. They were all looking at me with concern and a little trepidation, I’m sure wondering how the conversation was going to go.
“Why don’t we start from the beginning,” I said softly, looking at all three of them while I spoke. “Explain what you did know, and what you didn’t know...and maybe that will help me to understand.” I took a deep breath. “Whatever you say though, it won’t change the fact that I’m irrevocably, forever in love with all of you. I just want the truth.”
My words seemed to soothe them because they settled back into their chairs. Or at least Corran and Thane did. Derrial scooped me up and sat me down in his lap. “I need to have you in my arms for this conversation,” he explained as he ran his hands nervously up and down my arms.
I settled back into his arms, and I waited.
“We told you the truth that we were originally sent to Earth to look for humans that would be compatible with the Vepar genes enough to carry a Vepar child. But we never told you that we had a whole team there,” began Corran. “And one of those team members was a member of the Council, Edipe. He’s dead now apparently, killed by another member of the Council quite a while ago over some kind of dispute. But he was a piece of work. He struck up a relationship with a human woman almost as soon as we got there. The first of our kind to do so. When he wanted to go back to Veon not long after, we didn’t think much of it. It only became an issue when he wanted to bring his human with him. But he was on the Council, so no one argued even though we had tested the girl and she was not compatible in the least bit for our fertility efforts.”
It was shocking to me that a member of the Council had been the first to form a relationship with a human woman. But maybe it shouldn't have been shocking considering all that we had found out about them having certain secret proclivities for human women all this time.
Corran continued. "We didn't think much of it when we didn't hear anything about the human woman causing a stir among her people, we were busy with our mission on Earth. But when the Council issued orders that we were to send one human female back to them once a year, we got a bit suspicious as we knew they weren't related to the fertility experiments..." Corran grimaced and stopped speaking.
Thane continued for him as it was evident Corran had trouble with the next part of the story. I braced myself for what I was going to hear next. Derrial’s arms were like a vice around me as if he was afraid that I was going to bolt at any minute.
“We were busy searching for someone like you, and we didn't want to be bothered with the Council trying to make things difficult for us. So we had members of our team periodically send women to the Council.”
I opened my mouth to respond to that, but Thane hurried on before I could speak. "In our defense, the women were all obsessed with everything Vepar. They had already started to participate in the clubs on Earth that facilitated sexual relationships between the Vepar and humans, and they were eager to get to Veon. None of us knew what the Council was doing with them. And honestly, we didn't ask," Thane said in a shamed voice.
There was silence for a moment as I thought about what he had just said. It made it a little bit better that the women wanted to go. But I'm sure if they knew they were going to be forced into sexual slavery for the alien Council, they probably wouldn't have volunteered.
"Continue," I said, not trusting myself to say anything soothing at the moment.
“The Council wasn’t satisfied with just one woman a year after a while though. They sent another team to Earth to start bringing them back at a more frequent rate. We were told they were performing other studies on humans and Earth for use in further population of the planet. And again...we didn’t look any further into it.”
“That all explains a lot, but it doesn’t explain about my parents,” I said in a terse angry voice. I was obviously a bad person because I could get over the women...but my parents’ imprisonment was another story.
“We didn’t bring your parents to Veon,” said Derrial, squeezing me even tighter. I flinched at how tightly he was holding me, and he immediately loosened up.
“Then who did?” I asked, feeling an immediate rush of relief that they weren’t directly responsible.
“Your mother was originally chosen to be taken by the Council’s other team. Your father fought so hard when they came to get her that they brought him with them, thinking that they would let the Khonsu take care of him since there was a mandate in place against the Vepar killing humans at the time.”
I snorted. “They were alright with taking humans as sex slaves but they drew the line at killing?”
“It was a line they didn’t follow for very long,” inserted Thane sarcastically.
“But you did know that they had taken my parents when you met me?” I asked sadly.
“When we met you, we did research on you until we knew everything there was to know about you. And we thought that your parents would just be another detriment to you accepting your place with us. If you were all alone, you were more likely to want to stay with us,” explained Corran softly.
There it was. The truth stood there tall and foreboding between us, threatening everything. I had promised them
that nothing they would say could change how I felt about them. But was that the truth?
“You told me you had changed. Have you really? Or was that just something you told me to try and save us?” I asked them, staring at the table, too afraid to hear what their answer really would be.
Derrial gently took me off his lap and stood up. I watched as the other two stood up as well. They all towered over me, staring at me intently before they got down on their knees. My heart began to flutter at the sight.
“We’re sorry, Ella. So fucking sorry for how everything has happened. If you’ll give us a chance, we’ll show you that we’ve changed...even if it takes the rest of our lives,” said Derrial in a broken voice that was far from the confident Vepar that I was so familiar with.
I looked at all three of them, knowing that they were giving me a choice for the first time since they had kidnapped me. I could forgive them, and we could move on and hopefully have a chance at happiness, or I could choose to hate them and maybe still be forced to be with them regardless. But all of our lives would be terrible.
I knew looking at them, that it actually wasn’t a choice at all. I was theirs. There was no choice but to love them, to forgive them. Despite everything that had happened, they had saved me. Saved me from a life where I had been literally fading away.
Now looking at them, I could see how much they had changed, how much they had softened and melded to resemble a love that I had been looking for my whole life and just hadn’t known it.
Maybe they had saved me. But I had also saved them.
“I forgive you,” I told them, sinking to my own knees in front of them.
There were no sounds but the rustle of clothes being taken off, and the intake of soft breaths and groans as we lost ourselves in each other.
I would get my happily ever after one way or another.
Chapter 12