by L. A. Casey
I bobbed my head.
“We’ll be reaching Ealra soon, so what we want to do is slow down, and to do that you need to fire all forward facing thrusters.”
I knew that; my father had told me the functions of every part of every machine in an engine hall, but I still appreciated Kol’s guidance because I suddenly forgot everything I had ever been taught about a spacecraft.
“Okay, and how do I issue that command?”
“You simply think it.”
Uh.
“Okay… is that all?”
“You have to start your command with ‘Ebony’, or she won’t do what you tell her.”
I gasped. “Is she self-aware?”
A lot of androids on Earth had become self-aware over the years.
“No.” Kol laughed. “She is just programmed to react in conversation as if she were a living Maji female. She has personality.”
“Right,” I said, relaxing. “Will I do it now?”
“Let me announce our heading to the passengers first.”
I hesitated. “Okay.”
He closed his eyes. “This is the shipmaster,” he spoke, his voice stern. “Prepare for deceleration. Humans, you will feel odd for a few minutes, so I’d advise you to sit down and place your head between your knees now. All males assist any female that is in need… Please note that my mate is heading the deceleration.”
The crew on the bridge practically wrapped themselves around their consoles.
“Oh, that’s reassuring!” I said sarcastically as I scowled at them.
“You can go ahead,” Kol murmured to me.
I didn’t know why I was so startled by his voice, but I was. I figured it was my nerves over flying the ship that was filled with not only Maji salvation, but human too. I quickly looked down at my hands, and before I lost my nerve, I thought, Ebony, can you fire all forward facing thrusters to slow us down… please?
Yes, Princess Nova, a sultry female voice flowed through my mind.
I gasped when my body was suddenly, in slow motion, pulled forward. I felt so bizarre and almost instantly lightheaded. My hands slipped from the control panel, and before I knew it, I was sitting on my behind with my knees raised to my chest and my head resting on them. A large warm hand was stroking up and down my back.
You did well, shiva.
I was trembling.
I can’t believe you let me do that. I’m never doing that ever again.
Kol laughed as he continued to stroke my back. It didn’t take long until I was back on my feet and feeling back to normal. I worried for the rest of the human women who were possibly weak, but Kol assured me there weren’t many cases of humans fainting, and those who had were being cared for by males until Surkah, or another healer, could help them feel better.
“Do you want to see the engine hall?” Kol asked me. “You won’t be back on board the Ebony in the future, so it’s your last chance.”
So he thought. I didn’t tell Kol that I eventually wanted to start my trade as an engineer, but I figured I’d wait until we were settled on Ealra before I made that declaration.
“I’d love to see it,” I beamed up at him.
We left the bridge hand in hand, and a few minutes later, we were on the lower decks of the Ebony and walking into the incredibly huge engine hall. I imagined the engines of the craft to be roaring with life, but they were eerily silent, though they were working from the look of them. I was a little unnerved that I couldn’t tell which engine was the main one used for converting energy from the reactor core and which ones were the propulsion engines used to fire up the craft’s thrusters. It all looked different than what I was used too.
“Thane?” Kol shouted, looking around for his friend.
I saw no males anywhere, and I found that extremely odd because an engine hall usually had a crew with specific skills that kept everything in check from the moment the rector flared to life until the moment it was shut off. I smiled when I suddenly heard the familiar growl of an engine, a hiss of pneumatics that flowed to the reactor core, as well as some reverberating. The Ebony was virtually silent, as Mikoh had once told me, but an engine was an engine, and all an engine wanted to do was to be heard.
“This is amazing,” I said in awe.
I jumped when I heard a loud bang that was quickly followed by harsh curses.
“Is that you, Kol?”
The voice that spoke was deep and had a natural rasp to it.
“It’s me,” Kol confirmed. “And my mate.”
I blinked when a male rounded from behind a black engine pump with a rag of some kind in his hand. His skin, or what I could see of it anyway, was a warm blue… the patches that weren’t covered in a thick black liquid anyway. Like every other Maji male, Thane was tall, muscular, and ridiculously attractive. His chestnut brown hair was tied into a knot on the back of his head, but wild strands escaped the tie and hung loosely around his chiselled face. His cat-like eyes were emerald green with white strikes throughout them, and a white scar stood out against his skin, curving up from his neck and onto his cheek in a jagged pattern. I didn’t focus on it. Instead, I locked my eyes on the black patterns that decorated his neck, the top of his chest, and his bare arms.
He had spilled an oil of some kind on himself, and he was busy wiping it off, but I mistook some of his obvious tattoos for oil, too.
“I’m not presentable for the new princess,” Thane angrily scowled at Kol.
My mate laughed. “I think you look just fine, like a young one with a skin rash after he got into an alder berries bath.”
Thane’s glare told me he’d love to beat the shit out of Kol.
“Stop teasing him.” I clicked my tongue and nudged my mate.
He put his muscled arm around my shoulder.
“This is my female,” Kol stated, his show of dominance not going amiss.
Thane rolled his eyes and focused on me.
“Princess,” he said and placed his fist on his chest before he… bowed.
I tensed. “You really don’t need to bow. I’m not really a—”
“You’re my mate, shiva,” Kol cut me off. “You’re a princess through our mating.”
That was never going to be possible to wrap my head around.
“Yes, but still—hey, wait a second! How come you aren’t freaking out at Thane for looking at me and talking to me?”
No male—except Mikoh and Nero—was allowed glance in my direction or mutter a word in it. And more than once, Kol had attacked them both when they made me laugh. Kol had been very firm about no one interacting with me since our bond snapped into place and I became his mate.
Kol raised a brow. “Because he is Thane.”
He said that like I knew the meaning behind it.
“Explain,” I demanded.
“He is my brother in arms,” Kol shrugged. “I trust him, and my instincts do, too.”
“In other words,” Thane interjected, “he knows I pose no threat to take you away from him.”
Oh.
“Well.” I nodded. “Okay then.”
Thane’s lips twitched then he flickered his eyes to Kol.
“The deceleration wasn’t very smooth. Are you well?” the male asked, worry laced in his tone.
“Did you not hear my announcement?” Kol asked.
As if on cue, one of the engines roared.
Thane raised a brow. “I never hear you in here unless you contact me through our comms.”
“I forgot.” Kol waved him off. “It was nothing anyway.”
“Nothing?” the male blinked. “It stalled engine one.”
I winced and looked up at Kol. “You said I did well.”
“You did,” he assured me. “Gravity pockets are all over space. Anyone could fly into their path when deceleration is issued, even you.”
“Excuse me?” Thane cut in. “Did I hear that correctly? You let a female pilot the Ebony?”
I could hear the amusement in his tone.
&nbs
p; Kol set his jaw. “For one minute, yes.”
“Why?” Thane asked, astonished.
“She… She was crying… and I wanted her to stop.”
Thane stared at Kol, and he waited about two-point-five seconds before he burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
“You’ve… gone… insane.”
My lips twitched as Thane bent forward and whacked his hand against his knee as he laughed. I didn’t mind that I was the source of his laughter. I quickly realised that women… females, have a very long way to go before the males of the Maji race will see them on an equal level. To be honest, I didn’t think the males would ever see the females as something other than gems to protect. And I wasn’t sure that it was a bad thing.
“I am still in my right mind,” Kol growled.
“You’re not,” Thane insisted, still laughing. “You’re letting a female pilot the Ebony because you wanted her to stop crying.”
Kol scowled. “She is my mate; it pains me when she cries.”
“That is why I won’t ever take a mate,” Thane said with an amused chuckle. “The only female I will let rule me is the Ebony.”
Kol tensed. “Nova does not rule me.”
Thane deadpanned, and it only caused Kol to scowl at him harder, and that made me laugh. Thane switched his gaze to me, and he beamed a huge smile. It was a gorgeous smile even if he did have sharper gold-capped teeth than what I was used to.
Kol suddenly growled, and almost instantly, Thane dropped his gaze from me, but he was still smiling.
“You have tamed him, princess.”
Kol grumbled something under his breath that made Thane snicker.
I sighed. “I don’t believe this one will ever be tamed; he is prepared to attack every male I glance at.”
“He won’t be like this forever.” Thane winked. “Your mating is fresh. After a few decades, his instincts will calm, and he won’t be bothered if other males look at you and speak to you… within reason, of course.”
“A few decades?” I spluttered.
Thane laughed. “At least five.”
Normally, that kind of talk would prompt me to say ‘I’ll be dead in five decades’, but Surkah has assured me many times since Kol and I became mates four days ago that the chemical essence of my bond with him would slow my aging dramatically. She had no proof other than a reading her lissa thing projected to her. For Kol and every other Maji, Surkah’s word was as much proof as they needed as she was a healer, but for me, it didn’t hold much promise or make a lot of sense. It made as much sense as being able to hear Kol’s thoughts and feel his emotions. I was either going to be young for very long time or get old and wrinkly sooner than the Maji thought.
Only time would tell.
“It’ll take him that long to calm his ass down? Are you kidding me?”
Kol belly laughed along with Thane.
“I’m not Human, shiva.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that a million times, but how different you are is still baffling. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. You’re a complete weirdo, mate.”
Kol stared down at me then lifted his hands to my face, rubbing his thumbs over my cheeks before he lowered his mouth to mine. Almost instantly, I leaned up on my tiptoes and returned his kiss. My arms went around his waist, and my lips moved with his. I hummed when I parted my lips, and his tongue snaked inside. When he pulled back from our kiss, he was making that rough purring sound I loved so much.
Kol chuckled softly. Placing the tip of his nose against the tip of mine, he dragged the tip up the bridge of my nose before he stopped at the point between my eyes. He pulled back slightly and replaced the tip of his nose with his lips as he planted a gentle kiss. My stomach instantly burst into butterflies. Kol had done that very action the morning after our mating. I had woke up, and he did the exact thing with his nose on mine, and when I asked him what he was doing, he told me it was a mate kiss, a sacred gesture between mates and cherished family members. He explained it as an action of deep love between mates.
I was greatly touched by the action, and the meaning and emotion behind it, but I quickly turned the conversation to our being able to hear each other’s thoughts and began to learn all about that part of being a Maji’s mate. I didn’t want to discuss love with Kol because I wasn’t anywhere near that point with him to be able to say it. He hadn’t told me he loved me, but I knew he was very close to doing so. I knew our mating was different for him; it had a completely different effect on him. He didn’t just feel possessive of my body; he felt possessive of my heart, too. Our mating didn’t only ensure he was mine, and I was his, but it gave me his heart without asking if I wanted it. I knew I had to be very careful, or I’d break it.
He regained my attention when he kissed me once more, and it caused me to hum with delight.
His kisses are awesome.
“I’ll be sure to give you plenty of them, my mate.”
I smiled up at him. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“You’re lucky I have not had lunch; it would be all over your feet right about now if I had.”
I blushed wildly when Thane spoke, reminding me of his presence.
I turned my head towards him. “I’m so sorry; that was incredibly rude of us.”
“Don’t apologise.” Kol snorted. “He has done a lot more than kiss a female in my presence, and Mikoh’s and Nero’s for that matter. I think he even once brought a female to her knees when my father was close by.”
Thane devilishly grinned. “Guilty.”
I snorted, and just as I was about to speak, Kol closed his eyes, and a slow grin spread across his lips.
“Why’re you smiling?” I asked, appreciating how handsome he was.
“I’m being hailed to the bridge.” He looked down and pinned me in place with his violet eyes. “Ealra is within sight.”
After Kol had been hailed to oversee the descent and landing of the Ebony on Ealra, we made it to the bridge within minutes. Along the way, Kol kept projecting his lustful thoughts my way. I not only heard words in my head, but I could also see whatever he projected to me. And right now, I saw a slideshow of being fucked by Kol through his eyes.
It had his desired effect on me that had him grinning from ear to ear as I gnawed on my lower lip and tried to keep my breathing even. I was very aware of my scent, and that my arousal would sting the nostrils of the Maji on the bridge. Kol assured me that every male within sniffing distance wouldn’t breathe if they could help it just to avoid his wrath. He promised they would treat me as if I wasn’t there, but even being ignored by them wouldn’t change the fact that they could smell that I was turned on.
I was mortified.
I made it a point to sit on Kol’s crotch and keep my thighs plastered together to mask my scent with his. I wished that I could avail of our cleansing unit, but until we landed on the new home world, I just had to deal with everyone being able to smell that I was horny.
This is so embarrassing.
Laughter vibrated in Kol’s chest, but he said and thought nothing. Instead, he issued an order to open the viewing panes for the humans in the concourse of the ship so they could see Ealra. Seconds later, the viewing pane on the bridge opened, and instead of staring at a wall, I was staring at a huge planet. I sucked in a startled breath, jumped from Kol’s lap, and rushed around the consoles and males until I was all but pressed up against the viewing pane with my hands and forehead flattened on the glass. I stared wide-eyed at the monster of a planet that we were nearing.
“It’s so big,” I gushed. “And it’s so colourful!”
It must be a least three times bigger than Earth, and through the different shades of green that covered the surface, there were streaks of brown, blue, and red too, and huge portions of vibrant purple. Freaking purple! The size of the planet and the stunning colours of it aside, the main thing that stood out was the obvious life on the planet. One look and you could see it was thriving. It was a true thing
of beauty and something to behold.
“Ealra,” I whispered.
I didn’t jump when I felt hands on my shoulders because I knew only Kol would touch me… unless someone had a death wish. His hands gave me a gentle squeeze, and I felt his delight at seeing his planet. He was happy to be home.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” he murmured.
“Yes.” I nodded. “Stunningly beautiful doesn’t cover it. I’ve never seen something thrive with so much colour and life.”
Kol hummed in agreement.
“How far away from Earth are we?” I asked him.
“Just three light years,” he answered.
Just three light years?
I gasped. “We’re eighteen trillion miles away from Earth?”
I felt the large hands on my shoulders squeeze me once more.
“You know one light year is six trillion lengths?”
I managed a snort. “I’m not stupid, Kol.”
“I know that, but education isn’t available on Earth.”
I shrugged. “It used to be.”
“When you were a child?” he asked, surprised.
“No, not in my time, but it was in my father’s, and he taught me what he knew. He taught me how to read, write, and count numbers. And since he was obsessed with space, he taught me useful things like how many miles were in a light year.”
“He sounds like he was a great male.”
I smiled, my eyes scanning Ealra.
“He was the best,” I agreed.
“He taught you well,” Kol said proudly. “We are eighteen trillion lengths away from Earth.”
“How fast are we travelling?” I asked, amazed. “Shouldn’t my insides be liquidised or my blood boiling from moving so fast?”
Kol chuckled. “No, your anatomy is like ours, so you can space travel easily. All spacecrafts are designed to protect our bodies during warp.”
I figured as much being as I was still alive.
“You never answered my first question,” I said, my eyes flicking to the double moons that were to the far right of Ealra.
“Maji have intergalactic space travel, shiva… The technology of Earth has always been far less advanced than other species that exist in our cluster. Planets within a light year distance of the Milky Way have already activated their solar shields to protect their planets from the debris of your planet when it implodes. Debris won’t reach them for a long time, but precautions are a must when dealing with a dying planet in close proximity. While humans have barely passed two hundred thousand years in existence, many races have seen this before because they’re billions of years old. Your planet was old, but your species was not. We read the signs that you could not, and we have saved you."