by Ella Maven
She cocked her head. “The one who brought me to see you? No, he wasn’t the one who hit me.” She glanced over her shoulder and bit her lip. “He must have been … down there and died in the explosion.” Her expression shifted to concern as her hand shifted through my hair. I could feel it was shorter, singed by the fire. “Fatas was wrong, Gar. The fire wasn’t your end.”
I let my head fall back until it hit the ground. “Fatas wasn’t wrong.”
“But—”
“The fire was the end and the beginning. My new beginning is you.”
She sucked in a breath, and I closed my eyes as the pain once again sucked me under. “Take me home, cora-eternal,” I breathed just as the water of her aura splashed over me, making the fire hiss and spit. “Take me home.”
The next time I woke up, I was no longer on the ground. I lay on a soft sleeping pallet, a warm fur pulled up to my chest. I had to blink a few times to clear my blurry vision, but at least there was no pain. For the first time, my brain wasn’t a riot of violence and anger. An ember stoked there, and I knew it’d only take a soft blow to rage, but it was held back by a slowly lapping tide of water. The sound soothed me, and for the first time since I was a chit, my cora beat with a sense of peace.
I cast my memory back, and immediately my gaze darted to my wrists, terrified I had been dreaming. I lifted my wrist to find the loks still there, the golden lines shimmering in the sun streaming through the skylight in the ceiling. The lines were the shape of flames, and I rotated my wrist in awe.
A soft sound tickled my ears, and I turned my head to see Naomi sitting on her chair. She wore no coverings, and her long brown hair was swept over one shoulder as she pulled a brush through the thick waves. Her loks glowed on her wrist, stark on her pale skin.
I stared, mesmerized, remembering when I watched her do this very thing and ached with my desire for her, a desire I never thought I’d be able to act on in a million cycles. I was content to watch her, and she didn’t seem to know I was awake. She made that soft sound I often heard Miranda make—a wordless sengeng that made me want to surround myself with the lilting vibrations.
She stood up and I caught a glimpse of her full breasts as she reached into her chest for her coverings. As she drew out a pair of short pants, she shot me a quick glance. I met her gaze. Her mouth dropped open, and then tossing her short pants to the side, she raced to the pallet. “Gar!” Her mouth stretched into a joyful grin. “You’re awake!”
I nodded, because I wasn’t sure what else to say, and I didn’t quite trust my voice yet. My throat ached something fierce.
She grabbed a cup of qua beside the bed, and I let her help me drink. The cool liquid slid down my parched throat. When she took the cup away, I licked my lips. Running her hands over my forehead, she sat beside me, bending her knee to prop on the bed. “How are you feeling? You’ve been asleep for two days. Well, Val did drug you because we didn’t trust you to actually rest, and your body needed you to.”
“I feel good,” I said.
She arched an eyebrow. “Good?”
The memories were coming back now. “Good.”
She shook her head. “It’s crazy. Val said she thinks the loks strengthen you. And us. Sax thought she died when they escaped Alazar, but when their loks appeared, she survived.”
I was distracted by her nakedness. I ran my palm over the soft skin of her thigh. “I don’t know how I didn’t die. The loks keeping me alive is the only thing that makes sense.”
She stretched out her body beside mine, her tiny form taking up almost no room on the large pallet. We were in her room, and I liked it better than my bare hut. She had a few blooms in pots, gifted to her by Miranda I was sure, and a colorful floor mat Anna had knitted. “Tell me what happened after you left me,” she said.
I used as few words as possible, my throat still scratchy from inhaling too much smoke. I told her about how I had been able to hear the Kulk squads following me as I made my way back to the underground bunker.
“Was your intention to blow it up?” She looked hurt as she asked the question.
I didn’t fault her for that. “I had a lot of time to think after I let you go. I wanted more than anything to run back to you, and the only reason I didn’t was to keep you safe. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do. But when I reached the bunker, the majority of the Kulks and Uldani were still there, scrambling to make repairs. I knew this was my chance.” I licked my lips, recalling how I’d huddled in the dark of an alcove and sliced the detonator out of my scales. “I tried to rig up the detonator to go off remotely. I had a whole plan with a rock attached to a string…”
Naomi shot me a look.
“I know,” I huffed. “Bad plan. And clearly it didn’t work. I think the only thing that saved me was that I hid behind one of the only metal-plated doors in the bunker.”
Still, the blast had knocked me out. I’d come to surrounded by flames and I’d panicked, convinced that was it. “I could only think about how I failed you. So, I forced myself to get out. I didn’t know if I was going to make it, but I was going to try. I somehow climbed the stairs and then there you were among the flames like a cold bucket of qua.”
She cupped my face, her thumb stroking over my lip. She explained how they found me by a locator Nero had installed on my bike.
“That devious flecker,” I muttered.
She smiled. “He saved the day, but Daz saved your life. Do you even remember? The ground crumbled beneath his feet. I thought he fell into the flaming bunker but at the last minute, he grabbed a root and held on. While still holding you.” Her eyes bugged out. “It was amazing.”
I smiled. “Oh, so Daz was amazing, huh?” I extended a claw and gently scratched at her side.
She gasped and jerked away. “No tickling.”
“Well, you’re in our bed praising another warrior. I have to give you some sort of punishment.”
Her eyes twinkled as a mischievous grin spread across her face. Rising above me, she lifted one leg over me to straddle my stomach. She braced her hands on my chest. “Jealousy is a new look on you. I like it.”
I rubbed the inside of her thighs with my thumbs, an unfamiliar feeling of self-consciousness hitting me. “Do I look different?”
Her smile immediately faded. “Gar,” she said softly.
I hadn’t missed the twisted and marred scars littering the left side of my body. And my hair… Well it was short now, most of it burnt off.
She leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You don’t look different to me. You’ve always had scars. Now you just have more. I see what’s inside now, remember?” she tapped my forehead.
“I spent so much time worried you’d hate what you see in my aura.”
She smiled. “I admit when I first felt you, your aura was nothing but a column of angry flame. Now, you’re tame. Just a cute little campfire.”
I chuckled. “Your influence. You doused me.”
“Guess we’re a good match then.” She shifted her weight back, and the tip of my cock brushed against her cunt.
I groaned and rolled my hips.
She let her head fall back as she teased me with her wet heat. “We shouldn’t. You need to heal.”
“Nothing better to cure my aches and pains than your cunt,” I murmured, leaning up enough to suck a pebbled nipple into my mouth.
She moaned, hands digging into the ruined scales on my chest. “Oh, I missed this. I missed you.”
“Missed you too, little one,” I murmured. “Now come up here, let me taste you.”
Her eyes went wide as her head dropped to look at me. “What?”
I didn’t bother with further instructions. I hoisted her in the air over my body.
She squeaked as I dropped her down, so her cunt smothered my face. “Oh Gar,” she murmured just as I licked her from entrance to clit. She ground herself down on my face. “Oh yes.”
I speared her with my tongue and worked her hard nub with my thu
mb until she was trembling and crying above me. I ate at her like I was starving because I was. In the forest all alone after I’d left her, there were many times I’d remembered her taste and the sound of her pleasured cries and wished I could get it all back. For eternity.
When she came, she shuddered hard, bucking against my mouth as she gripped what was left of my hair. With her body still shaking, I rolled her onto her back in bed and pushed myself over top of her. After wrapping her legs around my hips, I didn’t wait. I couldn’t wait, my cock as hard as a metal spike as I plunged into her.
I threw back my head on a throaty groan. The tight heat of her cunt took my breath away, and I gritted my teeth so I wouldn’t release inside of her on the second stroke. When I felt like I had myself under control, I pulled my hips back and snapped them forward.
Naomi stared up at me with wet eyes full of wonder. This was different, mating my cora-eternal. Being inside her before was everything I thought it would be, but now that we were bonded, it was more than I ever could have imagined.
My fire spit and crackled.
Her waves crashed and churned.
We pushed and pulled each other until she was coming again, her cries sending me over the edge until I surged inside of her with a roar, releasing what I hoped was the seed for our chits to grow in her womb.
Only then did I collapse next to her. Her hands coasted over my chest, and I nuzzled her face, pressing kisses to her soft skin.
“Promise,” she said, “that you’ll keep yourself alive. For me. Putting me first means putting what we feel for each other first. You need to be alive for that.”
The word settled something in my cora, and it skipped a beat before restarted. A new life. A new destiny.
“I won’t let you down again, little one,” I stared into her deep brown eyes. I ran my fingers over the little brown dots on the bridge of her nose. “I promise.”
She smiled, her waves frothed happily, and I sank into her welcoming arms.
Sixteen
Gar
I stepped into our council room to find only Ward sitting at the table. I frowned. “Do I have the time wrong?”
Ward shook his head. “No, this is the time I told you. But everyone else is coming later.”
I glanced behind at the closed door. “I’m not understanding.”
“Sit, brother,” he sighed.
When I raised a nubbed brow at him, he gestured to my chair. “Please.”
I promptly sank down in my seat and watched as he shifted in his chair. His hands were clasped on the table in front of him. He cleared his throat before speaking again. “I need to confess I have some guilt over letting you down.”
I sat up quickly. “Ward—”
“I had no idea you in so much pain. I see now how your whole posture has changed. You smile more. I heard you laugh this morning, brother. Laugh.” His jaw clenched, and he swallowed. “As your big brother, I should have been more involved. I should have reached out more. Reba has encouraged me to talk about my feelings and the feelings of others which is frankly exhausting, but the females talk all the time and are happy. So, they must know something we don’t.”
I had to stop him. He looked miserable. “Ward, stop. I can’t let you feel guilt over anything. There was a lot I hadn’t dealt with surrounding Mave’s death, and Naomi made me see that. I’m not sure I would have been receptive to you prying into my head.” I stared down at the scarred wood of our table. “I have my own confession. I’ve been angry at you for a long time, ever since you pulled me out of that fire during the Uprising.”
Ward’s head went up and he frowned. “Angry with me? Why?”
“Because you saved my life.”
Ward’s mouth open and shut with an audible click. “I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t want to be saved. Fatas had been sending me visions for many cycles and I thought she was telling me I meant to die in that fire. I thought I’d find my end in flames. I was sure of it.”
Ward swore sharply. “I had no idea.”
“Now I see that flames might have been an end to a stage of my life, but they also gave me a new one—with Naomi.” I leaned forward. “I have you to thank for that, brother. If you weren’t so stubborn, if you had just let me die, I never would have found happiness again. I owe you more than my life. I owe you everything.”
Ward stared at me for a moment, his expression full of shock before he slumped back in his chair and let out a low chuckle. At first that was the only sound, but soon it gained in intensity until he was howling with laughter, holding his stomach while his eyes watered.
I joined him, even though I wasn’t sure what was so funny. Maybe it was that the tension between us which had been like a taut bowstring for many cycles had snapped. His laughter was contagious. Joyous.
Finally, he rose, body still shaking with the echoes of his humor. He jerked me to my feet and clasped his hand around my neck. I did the same, and we touched foreheads. We stood that like for a long time, silence stretching between us that was full of emotions, too big for words. We’d reached this happiness, he and I, after so much pain and heartache. We had our mates, and we had each other.
“Mave would be so happy to see us now,” he whispered quietly.
I closed my eyes and squeezed the back of his neck. “She would be. It took me a long time to realize I deserve happiness.”
Ward’s smile was a flash of brightness. “You do, brother. We all do.”
The door opened, and we broke apart, sending each other a knowing smile. The rest of the council poured in, talking amongst themselves, oblivious to what had just gone on the room.
Ward and I sat, and soon Daz was starting the meeting. There were whoops and congratulations about my mating bond with Naomi. We listened to a report on the condition of the females, and then it was my turn to update everyone on the whereabouts of the cruiser.
Sax scowled. “I’m so pissed. I had the best escape story—a high-speed hover car chase through Alazar. And you had to steal all my glory with shooting your way out of an underground bunker with a stolen cruiser and crash landing into a spring.” He crossed his arms over his chest and let out an exasperated huff.
“I think Val’s hunner trick was inventive,” Ward said.
“I want a cool escape story,” Xavy pouted.
Daz rolled his eyes. “Dealing with you all is like herding salibri cubs. Gar, after the meeting, show Nero on his maps where the cruiser is located. We’ll retrieve it first thing sunup tomorrow. Nero, what’s your report on the Uldani activity and have you been able to activate the controller?”
His eyes sparkled a deep purple. “Gar, I can’t thank you enough for the controller. Gaining access to the Rinian Network has been…” Het let out a blissful sigh. “It’s been everything.”
“Agreed, excellent work, Gar for making the controller, and Naomi, a priority,” Daz said.
I nodded in acknowledgement of the praise.
“So,” Nero continued. “The Uldani have retreated to Alazar. I was able to intercept some communications before they locked the access. They are also aware we have merged the clavases. They are preparing for war, Daz.”
Our drexel nodded. “I’m not surprised.”
“I’m currently working on gaining access to their data files. What concerns me is…” his brow furrowed, and he swiped at his tablet with trembling fingers.
“What?” Daz asked.
“There is a lot of information on our life on Corin. Detailed maps, our food production, military activity. I’m going to be honest, Daz, it’s like they were preparing for a takeover.”
Daz’s eyes went distant, and he gazed at the far wall for a long time. We held our breaths, but the same thought seemed to be flitting from mind to mind, because we collectively began a steady growl under our breaths.
“And since the Uldani would never beat us in a military matchup, maybe they had to resort to other means.”
My fist slammed down on the t
able, and I hadn’t realized I’d done it until a crack bounced off the walls of the room. “They could be responsible for the virus? For Mave’s death?’
Daz swallowed. “I’ve had my suspicions since the Uprising.”
Violent tremors wracked my body, and all I wanted was to see Naomi, to hold her, and feel her soft hands on my chest, and her sweet voice in my ear. Just the thought of her calmed my racing cora, and I shoved my fist into my lap, taking a few breaths so I didn’t toss the table into the wall.
Nero kept his head bent to his tablet. I knew he’d lost many loved ones too. We all had. Nero’s mother had five sisters, and they were all high-ranking members of the Drixonian council, serving on many committees. His name was well known in our society, and then they’d all been wiped out in the blink of an eye. “I’ll work nonstop on this Daz. I’ll get answers.”
“And we’ll also get a war,” Daz murmured.
We all nodded our ascent, a few “yeahs” filling the room.
Daz’s fist clenched on the table. “Meeting over, brothers. We meet tomorrow at sunup to return our cruiser home.” He looked me straight in the eye and nodded. That one motion was all I needed to know Daz was proud of me.
I nodded back.
Naomi
“And then!” I said, telling the story for the hundredth time. “I peer through the smoke and dust and there’s Daz, hanging from a root by one hand, holding Gar over his shoulder with the other.”
Frankie listened with rapt attention, her chin propped on her fist, with almost cartoon-like heart eyes. She loved this story. And I told it often because Daz told me privately he “got laid” every time I repeated it, and that he appreciated it when I relayed it often.
And since he saved my mate, I was going to do Daz a solid and get him laid as often as possible.
“And he was all dirty and bloody, right?” Frankie asked breathlessly.
Miranda, who’d heard this story as many times as I’d told it, mouthed Frankie’s question behind her back. Because Frankie always asked the same thing at this point in the story.