Broken

by C. R. Jane

  I had to talk to them about Zeni tonight. I had to know what their relationship and their history was with her.

  After taking another moment to recover, I dashed into the cylinder, desperate to get back to the safety of my room before the date. I pressed a button and couldn’t help but smile when my clothes changed right before my eyes. I was now wearing a gorgeous sapphire colored dress that reminded me of Derrial’s eyes. This one was short sleeved and more form fitting in the bodice area, something that my lungs hadn’t thought was possible based on how tight the corsets usually felt.The fabric also seemed to have sparkles built into it. This must be one of the outfits they used to dress up. It was beautiful, but I couldn’t help but wish I had a dress with a little less fabric to wear on a date tonight. I wanted to look so good they couldn’t help but want me.

  My hair had been done in soft waves down my back and the machine had even managed to apply a light dusting of makeup across my face.

  I decided this was my favorite Vepar technology. Nothing could beat it.

  I rushed back to my room, wanting to make sure that I didn’t run across any of the other contestants and risk them messing up my look. Making it back without interference, I paced my room, anxious for the date to start and anxious for answers.

  It was start time and an intercom in my room alerted me that I needed to head to the front to meet the guys as they weren’t supposed to enter the mansion...apparently whoever was watching the place had missed the guys sneaking in after the first trial.

  I felt sick to my stomach as I headed to meet them. My mind had gone crazy after I had gotten back to my room, continuing to dissect everything that Zeni had said.

  It had affected me enough that I had to pause before leaving the house to try and get myself under control.

  “Something wrong?” came a voice from down the hall. It was Zeni of course.

  “Nope, everything’s great,” I said, knowing that she could see right through me.

  “Tell Thane I liked his new tattoo,” she said with a wink, disappearing from sight.

  Now I really felt like I was about to fall apart. I definitely hadn’t seen a new tattoo the last time I had seen Thane undressed, meaning it had to be new this week. I really needed to take classes in how to psych out my enemies. Because Zeni was a professional at it.

  My worries were dampened when I caught sight of the guys. They were standing in front of the mansion, one of Corran’s small planes behind them. They were back to their usual human forms and I made a mental note to ask them to go back to their natural forms. I didn’t want them to hide anything from me. If I was really going to make this relationship work I would need to love all of them. Horns and all.

  It wasn’t like it was hard. The three of them were enough to set the mansion on fire. They were dressed in traditional Vepar clothing, but the clothing had some kind of silvery threading this time that made it seem dressier than their usual clothes. They looked perfect.

  “Fuck pet, you look stunning,” said Thane. “I had always pictured you in Veon clothing and it looks better every time I see you in it.”

  I blushed.

  “Hi,” I said softly, feeling shy all of a sudden.

  I realized we had never really gone on a date. Hawaii was the closest that I had come to a date with one of them, and I had only been brought along because they needed me to be watched at all times and Corran needed to do his experiments.

  This felt different. And it was making me feel nervous.

  “Ready to go?” asked Derrial as he slowly took me in. I nodded.

  Corran came up beside me and put his arm around my waist, pulling me in close to him. He buried his face in my neck. “You smell delicious. I just might take a bite.”

  They were being so playful. I wasn’t used to it. The thought hit me that maybe they had been like this with the others. It made me see red.

  I shrugged Corran’s arm off of me.

  “Tell me what the other dates were like,” I told them, looking at each of them in the eyes.

  “What do you mean?” asked Thane, taking a step towards me. I held up my hand to stop him. I couldn’t seem to think when they touched me and I wanted a clear head for this.

  “Some of the other girls…” I started to say before my voice broke. I cleared my throat and started again. “Some of the other girls mentioned that their dates had gone rather well,” I finally was able to get out.

  Derrial looked at me with something that resembled pity. I hated it. “They went fine,” he said slowly as if I was a feral animal that he was trying to calm down.

  I kind of felt like one.

  “What does fine mean?” I spit out.

  “It almost sounds like you’re jealous,” said Thane in an amused tone.

  I was silent for a moment and all three of their eyes started to do that glowing thing. “You are jealous,” said Corran delightedly. “I didn’t think it was possible. Does that mean…?”

  “That I care about you?” I asked exasperatedly. “Yes asshole, it does.”

  Their grins were the widest that I had seen.

  Suddenly I found myself being shuttled towards the plane. “Time to go, green eyed monster. That’s a human saying, right?” Thane laughed at his own joke since we knew the only green eyed monster in the area was him.

  Derrial scooped me up and began carrying me before I could put up much of a fight.

  “You still haven’t answered my question,” I screeched, trying to get loose.

  “Kitten, don’t you know by now that there’s no one that compares to you? I don’t even see anyone else,” he said, before licking the side of my face.

  I looked at him, my anger rapidly dwindling in the face of his sweet words. “Why exactly did you just lick me?” I asked. Derrial shot me a grin.

  “I thought that was the thing on Earth, if you lick it, it’s yours,” he said innocently. I rolled my eyes, not so secretly loving his playfulness.

  We stepped onto the plane where Corran and Thane were impatiently waiting for us. Corran immediately scooped me up and sat down, placing me in his lap. They were all acting like they couldn’t keep their hands off of me. I kind of loved it.

  Derrial and Thane took the controls since it was obvious that Corran wasn’t going to let me go.

  “So where are we going?” I asked as the ship took flight. They had made the walls around us completely opaque so that you could see everything as we flew. Once again, Veon took my breath away with its beauty.

  “It’s a surprise,” said Corran, placing a gentle kiss on my neck that gave me goosebumps. He gently caressed my arm, continuing to place soft kisses from the nape of my neck down my shoulder as we watched the landscape pass by.

  I gave a little gasp when the plane went over a mountain and a sparkling lavender sea was laid out before us.

  “It’s gorgeous,” I gushed as we began to fly over it. The suns were just setting on the horizon and the water seemed like it was sparkling as it reflected its fading light.

  “Not as beautiful as you,” whispered Corran. I rolled my eyes at the corniness of the line even as I blushed. What could I say...I liked a good corny line.

  Evidently this was just a lake as we reached the opposite shore rather quickly. There were more mountains on the other side and as we scaled them, I couldn’t help but gasp.

  There was a city, right out of a fairytale, laid out in front of us. There were white dome like structures all over the valley, going up the mountains. They had brightly colored flowers all over them. Explosions of color were everywhere you looked. Planes similar to the one we were in were flying all around. Lanterns were hovering in the air. I couldn’t see anything keeping them afloat so it resembled the floating lantern festivals that I had been to a few times before. The effect was stunning.

  “What is this place?” I gushed, my eyes going everywhere as more amazing things caught my attention.

  “This is the capital of Veon. It’s called Valin,” said Derrial in an
almost reverent voice. This city is a millennia old. It’s where all of our history is. It’s where Thane and I were born.”

  “It’s the most beautiful city that I’ve ever seen,” I said, not knowing how to adequately describe the splendor of what I was seeing.

  “Yes, it is,” Thane said as we began to make our descent.

  Derrial and Thane landed us expertly beside one of the white structures.

  Instead of letting me walk off the plane, Corran carried me.

  “Is this the way that it’s going to be all night?” I asked, enjoying being carried around much more than I should.

  “Yep,” said Corran. “And it’s probably going to be me doing it. The other two have gotten your attention too much lately,” he said it matter of fact but I wondered if Corran was feeling a little left out. I had formed a bond with him after the other two, but it didn’t mean that what I felt for him wasn’t as strong as the others. There were so many things special about him, so many things that set him apart from the other two. If I ended up winning these trials I vowed that I would make sure he never felt left out again and always knew where he stood with me.

  I placed a kiss on his lips and he looked down at me, a storm of emotions in his golden eyes. “You can carry me all you want,” I said softly and he rewarded me with one of those rare Corran grins that never failed to light up my world.

  The four of us stopped outside the structure. Derrial waved his arm in front of the door and like with most of the other Vepar structures I had been to, an entrance opened up to allow us inside.

  “We thought we would do a little meet the parents night before we got to the next portion of the evening,” Thane threw out casually over his shoulder as if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me. Corran set me down and I wobbled on my feet as anxiety threatened to overtake me.

  “Meet the parents? Why didn’t you warn me? I would have brought a gift or something,” I started blubbering, even though I didn’t have access to a gift.

  “You didn’t need to bring a gift,” said Derrial, suddenly pulling me towards him and gifting me with a mind-blowing kiss. He pulled away from me and looked at me with satisfaction. “Perfect. You’ve got color in your cheeks again. I was afraid you were going to faint on us you were so pale,” he said as he brushed a piece of his hair out of his face.

  I tried to punch him but Thane caught my hands and put them behind me. With Thane behind me, Derrial in front of me, and Corran watching aptly beside me...I felt like I was going to combust.

  “Get your paws off the poor girl,” came a sweet voice from the hallway. The guys reluctantly stepped away, but I knew my face was as red as a tomato. Of course their moms had to catch us in a compromising position. What a way to make a first impression.

  Once they stepped far enough away, I was able to see a gorgeous blonde headed Vepar that I knew right away had to be Derrial’s mom. She had the same color of hair as him and the same sapphire eyes stared back at me that I had started to love so much.

  “Hi darling,” she said, looking me over not in the disdainful way that I had grown used to, but in a curious, friendly way. She had two small ivory horns that barely peaked out of her hair. She was shorter than the other Vepar women that I had seen, closer to my height, but no less beautiful than any of them. There was an intrinsic goodness about her that I could sense already that made her even more beautiful in my eyes.

  “I can see why my boys are taken with you,” she said, stepping towards us and pulling me in for a tight hug. “You’re absolutely stunning.”

  “Your boys?” I asked, looking at the guys confused. I had been under the impression that they weren’t related.

  She laughed, and I immediately fell in love with the sound of it. It sounded almost like a bell chiming.

  “They’re not all my sons, but they might as well be,” she said lovingly. “They’ve been apart of my life for so long I can’t remember what life was like before them.”

  “So you can give me all the dirt on them,” I joked even as Thane let out a half hearted growl next to me. She must have liked that joke because she laughed again, throwing her head back as if it was the funniest thing she had ever heard.

  I loved her already.

  “I’m Koria,” she said, beginning to lead me deeper into the home. “And I’m so happy that you’re here.”

  I could hear other voices as we walked down a white wall, devoid of any decorations as the other Veon structures had been. The room we walked into however, was very different from what I had seen.

  It felt like home.

  There were five Vepar in the room, lounging in various cozy looking pieces of furniture. The flowers that had adorned the outside of the structure had also somehow blossomed on the inside of the indoor walls as well, making it feel like I had stepped into paradise.

  “You’re home is beautiful,” I told Koria, who to my surprise blushed.

  “I’ve been working for the past month to make it perfect for you,” she said, surprising me.

  “A month?” I asked, perplexed.

  “Oh yes, as soon as I knew my boys were coming home, I knew that it had to be for a special reason, that they had met someone. And I was right!” she said, practically jumping in excitement.

  “Don’t hog the girl, Koria,” said a deep voice affectionately.

  Koria led me to one of the male Vepar who I immediately guessed was Derrial’s father. While Derrial had Koria’s eyes and hair, the rest of his features were all this Vepar. “Welcome to our home lovely girl, my name is Canton,” he said, surprising me when he hugged me too.

  “Okay Dad, that’s long enough,” joked Derrial. Canton gave me a wink as he let me go and I immediately liked him too.

  The other three Vepar stepped forward, friendly welcoming looks on their faces as well. All of them looked the same age as my Vepar, once again reminding me how different their life cycles were from humans.

  I met Corran’s parents next. They both had golden eyes and chestnut colored hair, resembling siblings they looked so much alike. Corran must have seen the questions in my face because he explained that he and his family were from a different province of Veon where most of the population carried the same signature golden eye color.

  “None of them are as handsome as our son though,” bragged Tenly, Corran’s mother. I was amused when the tips of his ears turned pink at the praise. Corran’s father was named Kenroe, and while the two of them were much more reserved than Derrial’s parents, I liked them both immediately as well.

  The last parent I met was Thane’s father, Lanton. He was alone, making me wonder why Thane’s mother wasn’t around. He was built like a truck, the biggest Vepar in the room and he reminded me of a body-builder. Contrary to his intimidating form however, his voice and personality were tranquil. More Buddah than The Rock. I felt more calm just hearing his voice.

  “We’re so glad you’re here,” he said, placing a soft kiss on my cheek.

  “Thank you,” I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. I had never really thought about meeting the guys’ parents. Our lives had been too chaotic to even think about doing something normal like that. But if I had thought about it, I would have feared it, convinced that they would hate me on sight the way the rest of the Vepar did that I had met.

  I was so glad to seemingly be wrong about that.

  We sat down, and just like he had warned me, Corran immediately scooted me onto his lap while the other two sat on either side of us holding my hands. It felt awkward to be showing so much affection in front of their parents that I had just met, but none of them even batted an eye. Derrial’s parents even looked proud about it.

  Koria brought us a liquid that tasted a bit like green tea as we all chatted. Corran’s father wanted to know all about Earth, asking me question after question until Corran let out an exasperated sigh.

  Corran’s father blushed the exact same way that Corran had earlier at his mother’s compliment, making the family resemblance even more
obvious.

  “Oops,” said Corran’s dad self deprecatingly. “I get carried away whenever your planet is involved. I’ve been obsessed with learning all about it since Corran left to stay there. It made me feel close to him I guess.”

  My heart melted. I would never have guessed that my three guys came from such loving families. I was pleasantly surprised and it made me like them even more. It also made me realize that I had so much I still needed to learn about them and that they needed to learn about me.

  Hopefully we would have the chance.

  “We’re all so happy to have them back home,” said Koria softly, looking like she was about to cry. “Thank you for getting our boys back to us.”

  Hmmm, wonder what she would say if she knew that her “boys” had forced me to come here…

  Thane pinched my side, seemingly reading my mind as usual. I shot him a grin.

  “Would you like anything to eat?” asked Lanton, gesturing to a tray next to the tea that was laden with food that I couldn’t identify.

  “Thanks dad, but we’ve got a full night planned for her,” said Thane, standing up. “We’d actually better get going.”

  All of their parents looked so disappointed. “We’ll visit again soon,” I promised. “There’s so much I need to learn about the three of them that they won’t be able to keep me away.”

  Derrial groaned in jest, but it seemed to do the trick of raising all of their spirits.

  More hugs were exchanged and we exited the dwelling, all of their parents walking out after us to wave goodbye as we took off again.

  “I loved them,” I said, cuddling into Corran’s lap.

  “They loved you too, kitten,” said Derrial happily.

  “Where was your mom Thane? I would have loved to meet her,” I said.

  Silence descended on the ship. I knew immediately that I had said something wrong.

  Thane cleared his throat as if he was trying to give himself more time to figure out what to say. “My mother is in a special facility,” he said quietly.

  “A special facility?” I asked hesitantly, feeling terrible for bringing it up.