Teril's Fire: A Mate Index Alien Romance (The Mate Index Book 12)

by S. J. Sanders

  Drifting deeper into the system, she wasn’t sure how long she was there but felt a surge of elation when she found exactly what she was looking for. A buried, encrypted ad looking for an experienced technician with coding and encryption skills, among other specifics. Although she wasn’t as on top of things as perhaps some of the more elite coders among the alien races, she pinged the ad and was gratified when she received an immediate response. They would meet her at Intakfell and arrange immediate transport from there to their homeworld of Lorgoon, courtesy of the Lorgor uprising.

  A whispered breath of surprise left her as she left the systems and dropped the virtual visor away from her eyes before returning it to the small protective case in her pack. The Lorgor uprising. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on her.

  “Well,” Talimia said. “Did you find something?”

  “Oh yes, I definitely did,” Crystal chuckled.

  Her friend’s relived grin spread over her face. “Wonderful. What can I do?”

  “Well,” Crystal said slowly, “do you have a way to help me get to Intakfell?”

  “Of course! I will transport you personally.”

  “Talimia!” Nargis shouted from the door of the comm room. Crystal wasn’t sure when exactly he arrived at that spot, since last she had seen he had been intent on returning to their room. The outrage on his face meant that he at least arrived just in time to hear his mate’s offer.

  The female directed a steely look at her mate. “The law of the hunt, Nargis,” she reminded him once more in a hard voice as she led Crystal away into another room.

  Sleep was elusive, despite the comfort of a plush bed and knowing that her friend wouldn’t let anyone disturb her. Still, Crystal’s mind was restless as it continued to circle. The offered position within the heart of a resistance movement where her skills would be valued and depended on warred with images of Grish and Borth and their regular routines and the upgrades that they had discussed as they cuddled together in bed. She felt the strain in her mind and heart, and it followed her into her restless slumber and into the waking hours the next morning as she prepared to leave on the flyer with Talimia.

  Chapter 17

  Borth was exhausted. Sleep had eluded him late into the night despite his attempts to distract himself. Nothing had worked, and when it finally came, he had slept fitfully. His heart felt heavy, and there was no wondering as to the cause.

  He rubbed one hand down his face.

  He needed to apologize to Crystal and pray she would forgive him. He had been caught by surprise, but he never should have said what he had.

  Discovering that the threat from the Calystii was not just a couple of males that had to be dealt with but an Imperial Army of Caysa had alarmed him. That her presence with them was all a part of an elaborate ruse to escape had cut deep. Made him question everything. Even more so when it became apparent that the lies had not stopped there.

  The only thing he could think was that they weren’t equipped to fight an army, and if she had lied and kept secrets, how could he know that anything between them had been true?

  It hurt, and he had reacted quickly in order to protect himself.

  Now that all that anger and confusion had ebbed out of him, he was left with regret and worry. Regardless of what brought her to their door, there had been no lie in her touch or in any part of her life with them. Outside of tricking him into giving her a chance to fit into their lives, she had been blunt and straightforward about what she wanted from the first and pursued it relentlessly and unapologetically.

  His lips quirked in a ghost of a smile.

  It drove him mad, but he admired that persistence and forthrightness that had colored their relationship. She hadn’t slipped away to find a more convenient target when she had the perfect opening to do just that. No, she had stubbornly stuck to him, asserting her place with them, and had enthusiastically shared his passion.

  He could not even fault her for falsifying her documents. Despite his paranoia, he knew that it was a smart decision on her part. It was just odd that they were still pursuing her. He had never heard of the Calystii chasing this long. Not even pirates who plundered Calystii ships were hounded for more than a few cycles. That the Imperial family was still hunting Crystal after revolutions weighed on his mind, disturbing him throughout the night.

  What could the male possibly have stolen that would have triggered such a massive hunt for it? That was the one thing he could not work through.

  Borth frowned and pushed up from the bed to pace over to his bedroom window. His brow drew low as his eyes scanned the rear fields. For once, looking upon them did not bring him peace. Nor did it offer any answers.

  Whatever it was, it was unlikely that the human stole a treasure or credits from the Imperial ship. The Calystii royals had plenty of those to spare. So this human, Robby, had to have stolen something detrimental, something that they wanted back very much.

  That left them with only one option. They would have to hunt down the male and arrange a trade. The thief for Crystal’s freedom.

  It would not be easy, but it was not impossible.

  Borth cracked his knuckles, allowing himself a moment to enjoy the fantasy of snapping Robby in half for all the misery he had inflicted on their female. Borth would not kill the male—after all, he did them a favor by leaving Crystal. Sparing him would repay that debt.

  But that did not mean he couldn’t take pleasure in slapping the human around a little to teach him the error of his ways. No permanent damage done, as a special thank you.

  But first, Borth needed to apologize to Crystal. Once that was accomplished—and she hopefully forgave him—he would see if she had any ideas of where Robby might hide and any useful information on the male that might give them a clue where to locate him. One thing Borth was certain of: the male would not be on Earth. With Earth’s infantile tech, the Calystii would have located him and terminated their search for Crystal.

  Unfortunately, there were a number of dark pits into which the scum of the universe could escape to avoid being found. Which brought him right back around to how difficult their task was going to be.

  A low, frustrated growl vibrated in Borth’s throat. He needed to focus on one task at a time. Although the Calystii were concerning, Crystal was more important right now. His tail thumped the floor as he strode toward the door.

  No sense in putting it off. The hour was still early, but it could not wait.

  Leaving his room, he headed for hers at the end of the corridor and placed his hand on the comm panel. A soft beep let him know that the comm was open, and he took a breath to steady to himself. He could repair the damage he had done.

  “Crystal, open the door… please,” he tacked on quickly.

  Silence met his request. It was not just quiet, but unnaturally so.

  He frowned and leaned toward the door, straining to listen for rustling bedding or the creak of movement from within. There was nothing, not even a sigh of breath from someone disturbed in their sleep.

  “Borth, what are you doing?” Grish’s voice came from behind him.

  Glancing back, he saw his brother standing midway in the corridor as if he had been merely passing through when he halted in place. Grish was fully dressed, wearing a perplexed look on his face as he raised one heavy brow ridge. Borth was well aware that he likely looked awful. The lack of sleep was, no doubt, a bad look paired with his rumpled clothes from yesterday. He scowled back, his arms crossing over his chest.

  “You are up early.”

  Grish inclined his head in the affirmative and stepped toward him. “The gorthal breeder arrived early so I went out to meet him and get the animals settled. I decided to let Crystal sleep while I saw to the matter, and a few other personal ones, before I woke her. There is no reason to disturb her, I will take her to Intakfell shortly.”

  The latter was said without emotion, his brother’s expression so blank and subdued that Borth felt the uncomfortable bite of guilt. />
  “The animals traveled well?” he asked evasively.

  Grish nodded again. “Of course. The Mintigi is an excellent breeder. All three arrived in perfect condition.” He hesitated and shrugged. “We will have to think of what to do with the umprenal. It is too small for either of us to have use for, but I did not have the heart to return him to the breeder. There is a chance we may need him if you ever wish to try again with acquiring a mate.”

  A flash of annoyance rose in Borth, and he leveled a glare on his brother. Crystal had not yet left their home and the male was already thinking ahead of replacing her.

  As if Borth would agree to any such thing!

  “You will do no such thing,” he snarled, his chest puffing up with anger. “You will not be taking our female to Intakfell. You will not be turning her over to other males to claim. And you most certainly will not be speaking of giving her umprenal to another female or replacing her.”

  Grish suddenly smiled, his body relaxing. “Glad you’ve come to your senses. I have been spending much of my time while settling the animals trying to figure out how to make you see sense without doing any further physical damage to you. Your head is thick, brother.”

  “Perhaps so,” Borth muttered. “But not so thick that I would be foolish enough to let our mate leave.”

  Grish let out a long, low whistle.

  “Our mate now, is she?” he asked cheerfully. “This is better than I expected. Were you not the one who was insisting on taking things slowly just days ago?”

  Borth glared at the other male. “You are enjoying this.”

  “Immensely,” Grish agreed with a deep chuckle. “But not nearly as much as I will enjoy watching you beg her for her forgiveness for being—what was it?—a complete and utter shit?”

  “I will do whatever is necessary,” Borth grumbled, his attention once more returning to their female’s door. “You may laugh if you like, but alone in my room, imagining our domicile without her in it… It is easy to play with rules and dance around each other until you realize it is going to be gone and you will never get it back.”

  Grish sobered and shook his head. “I thought for sure that you would hold onto your anger. Last night you were so sure she had deceived you into caring for her. I am relieved I did not have to beat the revelation into you for you to see beyond your pain.”

  A snort left Borth in answer to Grish’s observation. “She was far too persistent to be anything but earnest. Besides, all she had to do was go to Yaturnak or return to Intakfell to find an easier arrangement with a lone male who would be grateful to have her. She did not want two mates when she arrived, and certainly not an uncooperative male. She did not treat me like I was undesirable,” he admitted.

  “At last, you see,” Grish announced, his arms outstretched dramatically in an eye-roll worthy performance. The male dropped his arms and grinned cheerfully. “So, what is your plan now to gain our female’s forgiveness?”

  “I plan to apologize—and to explain. If she would respond to her comm and let me in,” he muttered, glaring at the closed door. A thought occurred to him then, and he glanced over at Grish and raised a brow ridge. “Did you see any trace of her anywhere when you returned to the house?”

  Grish shook his head. “The domicile has been silent all morning. As I said, I assumed that she was asleep still. She was very upset when she went to her room last night, despite my best efforts to reassure her. Since I heard her moving around until quite late through our adjoining wall, I assumed she had a difficult time finding rest. Hence the reason for my delay to rouse her this morning.”

  “This is not right,” Borth muttered.

  Placing his palm on the door panel, he input the emergency override and stepped into the room as the door slid open. His heart stilled, the breath leaving his lungs as he stared at the unslept-in bed still piled with the bags that she had brought back from the market.

  He shook his head in denial, his eyes darting around the room and falling upon the datapad and ear transponders sitting beside the bed before roving over to the open closet. The black bag that she had when she arrived and all of her simple clothing from Earth were gone.

  She had left… and taken nothing from them with her.

  He turned and swallowed painfully as he watched Grish slowly walk over to the table, his large fingers awkwardly picking up the tiny transponders. The male blinked, the moisture rimming one eye falling away to roll down his cheek as he gathered them up with the datapad and held them to his chest.

  She had left everything, leaving every trace of her time with them behind. The pain of loss suddenly stabbed deep within Borth, and he stumbled back until he sat heavily upon the bed, the soft clothing rustling at the movement. He could still scent traces of her on the bedding and on the clothes from when she tested their fit. Though the latter was far fainter, it didn’t pain him any less.

  “We have lost our mate,” Grish rumbled sorrowfully.

  Borth dropped his head, the weight of guilt and grief unbearable. He felt like he could not breathe, as if he were drowning under some force even greater than the grief he had felt when he realized that he would never be the same after he left Agraadax. Losing his leg had struck him a grievous injury—but losing Crystal would be the end of him. He would have nothing left without her.

  His breath trembled as it heaved from him. His fist curled tight on his leg, and he shook his head violently, horns swinging through the air with fierce denial.

  No! He would not lose her!

  “We are not losing her,” he repeated aloud to Grish, his voice booming in the small room.

  His brother’s head swung up, a hope brightening the dimness that had come to his eyes. Grish swallowed thickly and nodded in agreement as he clutched the mating gifts bestowed upon their female tightly to his chest.

  “We will not,” he agreed in a deep rolling bass. “But where do we even begin to search for her?”

  “Bring up the security systems,” Borth shot off rapidly. “We will see if there is any clue there.”

  Grish pulled the datapad away from his chest, and his hands moved over it, bringing up their domicile’s systems. A confused frown suddenly pulled at the male’s face, and he shook his head in bewilderment.

  “There is nothing there at all for the span of an hour. She turned off all systems when she left so there would be no recordings of her departure.”

  Borth let out a weak laugh despite himself. “Clever female.”

  “Brother, there is one thing. She has left something for us,” Grish said quietly, drawing Borth’s attention.

  The other lifted up the datapad, tilting it so that they both could see, and drew up the tiny flashing icon of a communication transmission. The datapads were not programmed to receive direct transmissions. They could only receive direct files from a comm docked to it. Seems she figured a way around that as well.

  Touching a finger to the icon, a window opened. Crystal stared back at them, her eyes shadowed with exhaustion. Borth wanted to demand that she come home, but he knew this was only a recording from sometime earlier. A tiny, sad smile tugged at her lips before she pressed them in a tight line, blinking back tears. Her voice wavered as she spoke, and his chest tightened at the pain in her voice.

  “Borth, Grish, by the time you receive this I’ll be long gone. I’ve figured something out for myself. Maybe it’s not where I wanted to be, but I can take some comfort in knowing I can do some good there. I didn’t want to leave before I had a chance to tell you goodbye… and that I’m sorry. You were right that I came here to run away and hide. Even though I wanted to live out my own happily ever after, I had a backup plan in case Borth never came around. Grish—sorry you spent a crapton of credits on the intergalactic comm system. If I can ever repay it, I will. The Mate Index Distribution Program had discovered what I did some time ago, and this was my last shot. Even if there was a way to go back to Earth and escape the notice of the Calystii, I’d be in jail for a very long time.”r />
  Crystal glanced down and took a deep breath, her lip trembling. When she looked up again, tears ghosted down her cheeks, and she swiped her palms over her face. “I really wanted to be with you. I hope you believe that. I’m not entirely sure what I feel… I’m not good with people things and emotions, but I did want you. From the bottom of my heart. I wanted you both more than I wanted anything. I wish things could have been different.”

  A watery sigh escaped her as she dropped her head. She sat that way for a moment, deep in thought, before she lifted her head again, a tremulous smile on her face. “Anyway, this is it. I have obscured my departure as much as I can. I only hope it’s enough that the Calystii won’t disturb you much, and you’ll be able to go back to your lives as soon as possible. You will both be with me, in my mind and heart.”

  A soft voice called in the distance and Crystal glanced over her shoulder.

  “Yes, I’m coming!” She faced the screen again and offered an apologetic grin. “Time to go. Bye, boys,” she said, pressing her fingers to her lips in a gesture of kissing as the recording ended.

  Grish sighed, but Borth nudged him sharply in the side.

  “Go back.”

  “How far?” Grish asked, his brow ridges raising with inquiry.

  “To just before she turned. I want to you to isolate the voice of whoever is speaking. Can you do that?”

  “I am not as good at this as our mate is,” Grish muttered. “But I will try.”

  Again and again, they went over the segment as Grish worked at drawing out the voice. Finally, they were able to hear it, though faint in the background.

  “Come, we must go now, Crystal,” a female called out.

  Borth recognized that voice. He had known that the females were on pleasant terms and that Talimia had offered to teach their female how to cook, but Wanits tended to be isolated and not invite intrusion from other species. Why would she help Crystal?

  Grish swung toward the door, leaving Borth to stumble after him in a clumsy attempt to catch up. “Nargis has much to answer for,” the male growled impatiently.