The priestess raised her hands before pouring the vessel of nevarot onto the ground as offering, and Melanie and Dareth threw armfuls of sun-spark blooms to the ground in thanks and promise of their devotion before the gods.
The Tagith in attendance began to sing the mating song of the new sun as Dareth swept his mate up into his arms and, with a fiery shimmer of his extended wings, took to the air to begin their true ceremonial mating flight away from the eyes of those who came to celebrate.
Eliza leaned her head against his shoulder as they watched their offspring fly away. Zerik rested his cheek at the top of his head.
“If I had known that I was to join with you, I would have arranged to have the mating ceremony,” he whispered.
“It is never too late, young male,” the elderly priestess croaked, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
“We have no living elder-kin present to stand with us,” he said slowly.
The priestess waved her hand dismissively. “You both are old enough to know your responsibilities and have established your ties to your ancestors, I believe.” She waggled a faded clawed finger at him. “Best to mate with the blessings of Avanahal regardless,” she chided.
Zerik looked questioningly at Eliza, who grinned and nodded her head, tender love shining in her eyes. Love for him. Zerik fluffed out his feathers with pride and happiness.
Yes, he would have their mating secured with the blessings of Avanahal.
He bowed his head. “If you please, priestess, we would be honored to have the blessings upon us.”
The wizened female chuckled. “I thought as much when your olo told me of your new mate you have taken, so I took it upon myself to come ready.”
The gathered friends and kin watched with interest as she pulled out another coil of sun-spark flowers.
Zerik smiled with pride at his lovely mate as the priestess repeated the ritual, bonding them before their community and gods with the sun-spark flowers and the nevarot. Eliza never took her eyes from his, even when the nevarot was brought to her lips. She conveyed her devotion to him through her focused gaze, and he did the same.
When at last the priestess poured the offering of nevarot once more, and Eliza came to his side to grab armful of sun-spark blossoms to lay upon the ground with those offered by their offspring, Zerik was filled with a steady warmth. Eliza was forever his now. United for the rest of their days before the gods, their love would burn in their ever-sparked fires.
Zerik raised his wings to take Eliza away, back to their rookery, when a crack rang out. Tagiths shrieked and scattered. Some pressed themselves against the ground; others took to wing to carry their mates and young to a safe distance. Within minutes, a wall of males had formed, their wings braced with anger as they faced the intruders.
Eliza’s jaw dropped and Zerik snarled angrily at the sight before him as the crowd settled to reveal a tiny group of humans.
“Charles! What the hell do you think you’re doing? Why are you even here—uninvited, I might add?” Eliza exclaimed.
The ruddy-faced male curled his lip at them in disgust. “I was coming to fetch my wife and daughter, only to see you betraying me and the rest of your species with this… monster.”
“We’re divorced. We have been for months. The papers are signed and have been processed,” she stated matter-of-factly. “You have no reason to be here interrupting this private affair.”
“Leave,” Zerik snarled, pulling up in front his mate, his wings unfurling to spread protectively before her. Never again would he stand aside to see his female hurt, by this man or any other who dared try.
To his surprise, Gaveth came to his side, spread his wings, completely concealing Eliza between them, and growled aggressively. Gaveth’s claws hooked threateningly at the males, pain a burning promise in his eyes. Of all Zerik’s children, Gaveth possessed the hottest temper.
As Zerik and Gaveth sheltered Eliza, the Tagith males circled the intruders from both sides. The humans began to look increasingly nervous as the circle tightened around them, their weapons wrenched from their hands as they were distracted and beaten with heavy wings.
The foul, acrid smell of urine burned Zerik’s nose even as far back as he stood shielding Eliza. All the Tagith collectively wrinkled their noses at the terrible scent, as more than one human had pissed themselves. Charles wore a huge damp stain down the front of his trousers, which made Zerik’s lips twist into a smirk. The human was nothing more than a weak windbag, completely powerless without a weapon.
“Wait!” Eliza called out and pushed forward, the aged priestess at her side. “As much as I’d like to see these men pummeled into the ground, we can’t. It’s better to avoid any kind of interplanetary incident and see to it that these men are returned to Earth—with their travel visas revoked—rather than return their violence in kind.” She glanced over at the priestess. “Is there a place we can put them until the Intergalactic authorities arrive?”
The elderly female cackled and nodded her head. “I have just the place in mind!”
***
Eliza grit her teeth and stared at her ex held within the heavy livestock pen. Charles looked noticeably uncomfortable. The pen stank to high heaven of dirt, manure, and a sort of bovine beast with rank heavy fur that dripped a foul yellow slime from its mouth. Zerik had explained to her before that their saliva contained an enzyme that helped them to break down their food easier. Still, it was disgusting, and Charles, who never even went camping because of dirt and insects, looked like he was about to faint.
As much as she wanted to gloat over his discomfort, she was pissed that he’d crashed the mating ceremony. Oh, he’d been slick. It took very little to get him to talk and tell everyone that he had commed the space station looking to forward her important paperwork. A few threats later, the poor sucker he talked to explained that he couldn’t give him a direct comm line because she was on Tagess attending their daughter’s mating ceremony. After that, it was easy for him to root out the details. It incensed her that he still thought that was his right.
She knew Zerik and all the males who’d felt their rookeries were threatened by the assault weapons had wanted to kill the gun-toting idiots. A big part of her wanted to let them. She empathized with their anger over the situation, but as a diplomat and representative of Earth, it was her responsibility to look at things from all angles. She couldn’t risk Earth’s standing in the Intergalactic Union because of the stupid actions of her ex-husband. Likewise, she didn’t want to see Tagess embroiled in an interplanetary scandal if she could help it.
Gaveth lurked at her side like a gloomy shadow. Of Zerik’s sons, Gaveth reminded her the most of his sire. He put up a hostile front, yet even after provoking his brother into a fight, he had still attending the mating ceremony. Despite vocalizing his opinion of human-Tagith mating, he had stood with his father to protect her. Even now, regardless of that surly scowl, he flanked her closely, his wings twitching to spring forward at a moment’s notice to get between her and Charles if necessary.
“I can’t believe we’re letting them go,” Gaveth growled unpleasantly.
Zerik, standing at her other side sighed heavily. “Eliza explained why. Earth’s authorities frown on their citizens being killed. If we kill them, and she allows it, they will remove her from her position and probably penalize her as well as bring Tagess on charges before the Council.”
Gaveth made a click of disgust and wrinkled his nose at the men in the pen.
“Not like the other members of the Intergalactic Union would not support us,” he grumbled but otherwise made no other objections to her decision.
Zerik moved closer to the pen, glaring at Charles, his wings arched threateningly behind him. Charles backpedaled through the mud and muck, soiling himself further in his attempt to retreat.
“Hear me well, human,” he growled low. “If you ever come near Eliza again, if you ever threaten her, speak to her, or dare to set a finger on her, I will end you. I am her mate
Charles jerked his head in a quick nod that told everyone exactly how spineless he was in front of someone stronger than himself. After years of being intimidated by him, it was enlightening to see his true nature come forward. He knew exactly how close he’d come to being torn from limb to limb by the Tagiths. Bruises welted large swathes of exposed skin from where their wings had struck him. Eliza have never considered their wings to be part of Tagith arsenal, but she knew better now.
Eliza slid forward and looped her arm through Zerik’s, and leaned her head against his arm. She looked tiredly up at him.
“Come on, Zerik. He’ll be guarded here. Let’s go home and enjoy the next few days here before I have to return to the space station.”
Zerik glanced down at her and squeezed her affectionately, his eyes shining with warmth. “You mean when we return to the space station. From now on, where you go, I go.” His eyes narrowed briefly again on Charles.
Gaveth grinned and waved them off. “Go on, both of you, and enjoying your mating night, as if you haven’t already,” he said with a snort. “I will keep an eye on the trash,” he growled out, baring his teeth at the cowering humans.
Zerik studied him for a long minute and some sort of silent communication seemed to transpire between them. Finally, Zerik nodded and swept Eliza securely up into his arms. He stepped away from the livestock pens, his wings spreading wide when Eliza pulled his head down.
He looked down at her, a feathered eyebrow raised in question.
“I just want you to know how much I love you. That you trust my judgment rather than try to automatically take control—that’s everything to me, Zerik.”
Zerik’s eyes wrinkled up as he smiled down at her. “We are one together, my heart. I will do what is necessary, but I will always listen to you.”
Eliza grinned and tugged him down, their lips coming together to feast upon each other as Zerik once more spread his wings wide and took to the skies with a leap. Never had Eliza been happier to fly away to a new future, and a second chance at having a mate to love.
Epilogue
Eliza smiled as she left the delegation chambers for the Intergalactic Union. She and Zerik had been back on the space station for two months, after taking an extra two-week extended stay on Tagess since, after the mess with her ex, she had no immediate concerns that needed to be seen to. She called it her honeymoon and felt zero guilt about it. Ever since she’d returned, Eliza was determined to be a whole new ambassador. She’d cut her hair into a practical bob to keep the hair from catching on her unconcealed scar, refused to wear anything but minimal lipstick, and walked into meetings with the representatives like a lioness.
Initially, Eliza had been afraid that Earth would replace her now that she was mated to an alien male. Instead, it had the opposite effect; she was never more popular. The representatives of Earth considered her actions an outstanding example of human character and integrity, and they were pleased that she enforced Earth’s policy to police its own citizens. Her mating with an alien even had them patting themselves on the back as showing a pro-alien-human front, which was a good thing in light of some pretty bad anti-alien scandals that had come from Earth.
Furthermore, the Mate Index officials were finally seriously considering some of her proposals to open the Mate Index up to a wider variety of women. She didn’t know how quickly she would get things moving, to give all Earth women a better opportunity to find love in the universe, but she had high hopes that she would wear them down little by little.
True to her promise, Charles had all his off-planet visas revoked, and last she heard, his law-firm was assigning him the worst of the grunt work rather than allowing him to work on any of the intergalactic suits and interspecies legal negotiations.
Just thinking about it made Eliza grin.
Her smile widened as she saw Zerik waiting for her outside the door, his wings twitching anxiously but he had nothing but smiles for her. Zerik drew her into his arms and kissed her soundly, his wings extending to lift them off the flooring. They were flying swiftly through the space station, but Eliza was just barely attentive enough to notice that they were not heading toward their apartment.
“Where’re we going, Zerik?” she laughed.
He grinned down at her. “We must hurry. Dareth had commed me just before you got out of your meetings to say that their egg is hatching.”
Eliza shouted out happily. “Oh, finally! What wonderful news! Well, let’s hurry then—I don’t want to miss seeing my grandbaby hatch.”
Zerik picked up their speed so that within less than fifteen minutes, they’d sped across the space station and were in the low-lit interior of Dareth and Mel’s apartment. The apartment was kept warm with soft lighting for the healthy development of the egg in its final weeks. The large brilliant gold egg was secured in place by several thick pillows and was covered in a spiderwebbing of thin cracks.
Eliza leaned forward and smiled as she watched the top of the shell press upward. The force of the push revealed a soft-skinned pale gold baby as he rapidly pushed his way out of the shell, his tiny wing buds beating furiously for additional balance. Finally, the remainder of the shell broke in half, freeing the infant from his confines. The delicate brush of ruby feathers on his brow and wing buds looked soft as silk. His horn buds were tiny bumps on his head, and the protective studding barely dusted his skin.
He was, in all ways, perfect.
Melanie picked the fledgling up and cradled him to her chest as he yawned, exhausted by the effort expended getting out of his shell. Dareth wrapped his arms around them both.
Eliza smiled at the vision before her and leaned back into her mate’s arms as they encircled her. In his tender, loving arms, watching their children shower their newborn grandchild with love, she knew this was the perfect ending to her old life and the best beginning for their new lives.
Hours later Eliza bent over the quirnik board in their room, her eyes gleaming with challenge at her mate. “Once more?”
“Always,” Zerik murmured and made his move.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed Zerik and Eliza. Love can happen anywhere and at any time, and not just to the young and fertile. I really wanted to do a second chance short story romance to kind of touch on that and to propel toward changes that may come up in books further down the line in the Mate Index books.
I knew going into this book that I wanted to write another book about the Tagiths, but I didn’t know until the end what sort of story I would want to focus on for them, or if would even come up soon. Imagine my surprise when an outline quickly started falling together.
Expect to see Gaveth sometime this winter in book tentatively titled Burning for Her. Gaveth goes to Earth on a diplomatic mission and falls in love but—oops—the woman in question is registered with the Mate Index and has already been assigned a mate.
As always you can find me on Facebook or join my fan-club group on Facebook Mate Index Sweethearts!
Thank you for Reading!
S.J Sanders
-->