by Zoey Draven
Stubborn male.
He just wouldn’t admit that he didn’t like it. It had become a game to them.
Stella’s lips twitched and she sat down on the terrace, placing her own delicious tea beside her on the wood, letting her legs dangle through the railing. The terrace was a wraparound wooden platform, sturdy and solid, and Tavak had been putting in hip-height—at least for Tavak—rails.
Stella strongly suspected his sudden need to finish it had something to do with her sleepwalking episode over a week ago. The morning after that, she’d woken to the sounds of hammering and every morning since, before he went to the labs, Tavak was out there sanding, cutting, and building.
Most mornings, she found it nearly impossible to keep her hands off him. She’d always been a sucker for males good with their hands, resourceful and…build-y. She’d practically jumped Tavak’s bones after he fixed her bed, after all.
So watching him build his terrace in the mornings, when he was sweating and hammering, his brow furrowed in concentration…well, who could blame Stella for the blaze between her thighs? Honestly?
Yes, life was good. The last week had been one of the happiest of her life. They were together a lot. In the mornings and at Reji’s when he came in after work—and he always helped her close up and clean up—and then they’d go back to his jivera tree for the night. She’d cook herself dinner most nights and she’d even cooked him dinner, which had been a production in itself, though Valerie and Eve had given her a few pointers.
They hadn’t been kidding. Keriv’i didn’t need to eat every day but when they did…Stella didn’t know how they didn’t explode from all the food.
But watching Tavak eat had brought a new sense of intimacy between them. She felt like she was beginning to wiggle into places of his life that he’d never really expected her to be.
At night, after dinner, they’d cuddled in his armchair until his lazy, soft strokes across her skin left her squirming. And then he’d take her to bed—or right there in the sitting room—and she’d be hoarse the next morning from all her screams.
Yes, the last week had been one of the happiest of her life…but a part of her couldn’t shake the sense of dread and worry that had taken hold in her gut either. Because every moment she spent with Tavak only highlighted how much she had to lose.
Even from the beginning, Stella had always suspected she liked him more than he liked her. Being with him, like a lover, like a partner, had assuaged those fears a little but Tavak was still very closed off. Emotionally at least.
He showed her he cared in little ways. Like keeping his tea supply stocked, even buying her a different type of tea so she had options in the mornings. Like cuddling her after sex because he knew she needed it. Like walking her to Reji’s every single morning unless she had a port shipment and then he’d help her load and unload anything that came in without complaint.
His actions told her he cared.
And sometimes throughout the week, he’d opened up to her a little bit.
A few nights ago, as they sat in the armchair in his sitting room, as Stella watched the night-blooming jivera flowers begin to come to life, he’d told her of his own mother.
How she’d been a…prostitute. One that helped unmated Keriv’i through their Ruts or whenever they desired a companion.
How she’d had Tavak when she was young and how Ravu had come a little later from another male. His half-brother.
And Stella had listened, with tears in her eyes, as he told her that she’d abandoned them both. One of those unmated Keriv’i fell in love with her, a rich merchant, who had come back to Kerivu for his Rut.
So, Tavak had loved and cared for Ravu, providing what he could for his younger brother, even when Tavak himself had been a child.
He’d never seen his mother again. They’d been orphaned on the streets of Kerivu from a young age. It was too much responsibility to bear for anyone’s shoulders, much less a child’s.
But his story helped connect pieces of him. Little pieces that slotted into place. Why he was so serious all the time, why he worked so hard, without complaint, why he was a creature of habit because his youth had been filled with chaos and instability and disappointment.
And then he told her about Kerivu being destroyed. A planet-killing weapon had been used during the last war. He’d been lucky to escape, even luckier to escape with Ravu, when so many were lost.
When she’d asked him what had happened next, however, he’d gone quiet again. He answered, brief and short, that they’d spent the years on different colonies, here and there.
So Tavak was opening up to her but she had the sense that he was still keeping a lot from her. Secrets that Valerie and even Eve seemed to know. Secrets that tied them all together. But secrets that Tavak didn’t divulge to her.
She’d be lying if she said it didn’t hurt. That it didn’t sting.
Maybe a part of him still didn’t trust her. Maybe a part of him still thought that what was between them was temporary, a brief moment in time where they could both be happy, but it was only that. Temporary. Fleeting.
“I talked to Ravu yesterday,” Tavak murmured, drawing her back into the present, making her jump a little. He had his face tilted towards her, a deep scowl on his face as he tried to make a perfect notch in the wood for the next railing bar.
“You did?” she asked. “You didn’t say anything last night.”
“We were a little busy last night,” he retorted, snorting a bit, flashing her a brief, knowing smile that had her flushing.
“Well what did he say?” she asked. “Where is he?”
“They might be returning a few days earlier than planned. Khiva has a massive shipment he’s preparing and he wants Haase to be his merchant for it.”
Stella smiled. She was thankful that Haase was working with Khiva and the firestones labs. Because it meant that she would get to see him more often.
“That’s good,” she said. “Is…is Ravu going back out with Haase? With the firestones shipment?”
Tavak’s lips pressed together. “Pax.”
The word was short and Stella sighed. Tavak loved his brother deeply. His resistance to Ravu leaving Dumera was only out of concern for his safety. But now that she knew about his mother, about their life after she left, Stella understood why he was so nervous about it.
It was…touching. His concern and worry and fear for his brother.
“He’s already made up his mind,” Tavak said, finally slotting in the railing with a sharp tug. He rocked back from his crouch until he sat against the trunk of his jivera, his bare chest gleaming with sweat.
Stella let her eyes run over him, her fingers twitching when she remembered how that skin felt sliding against hers.
“I’m never leaving Dumera,” Tavak declared, blowing out a long breath, his eyes scanning the forest in front of him. He wiped a hand down his face and then looked back at her. “Ever.”
Stella chuckled a little at that, trying to break through some of the tension she felt rolling off him. They worked well in that way. He was stable and steady when she was worrisome and fidgety. She was bright and optimistic when he was surly and cold.
“Scared of space?” she teased.
“Absolutely,” he told her without hesitation as he shuddered. He’d hinted at it before and she’d always assumed he’d had terrible experiences with space vessels. The wrong ones left you with churning, desperate fear, especially during a rough take off. “I’m terrified of the void of it. The emptiness. You’re at its mercy, at the mercy of a sheet of metal. That’s all that lies between you and death.”
Stella’s lips parted and she rose to her knees, crawling over towards him and then sitting herself in his lap.
“We’re in a very bleak mood this morning, aren’t we?” she murmured, threading her arms around his neck. “It’s barely sunrise and we’re already talking of death.”
Tavak groaned but then huffed out a short chuckle, his head tilting back agai
nst the jivera trunk.
“I understand the fear,” she told him softly, not wanting to dismiss his words or his worries. “I guess…I just learned to have faith. That if I was meant to die in space then I would.” She shrugged her shoulder, feeling his hands slide around her waist. “But I tried not to think about it when I was up there. It’s not worth the worry. And I always try to look on the bright side. Space is beautiful, you know. Completely and utterly breathtakingly beautiful. I loved my time up there.”
“You’re like my brother, you know,” he murmured, his gaze softening ever so slightly.
Her insides went a little gooey with that look. “Like what?”
“Always looks for the good. In other beings. In everything.”
“And you don’t?” she asked, leaning forward to press her lips to his cheek, feeling his suede skin rub against her.
“Veki,” he rasped, another small laugh filling the quiet bubble around them. “I think I’m too vauking jaded for that.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
The warm glow from Reji’s led him like a beacon.
His body had been tight with stress all day. A warehouse worker had dropped a crate of firestones from one of the top shelves, nearly shattering all the contents inside and it had been Tavak that had needed to tell Khiva, who was already busy with the upcoming shipment for Haase. One of their biggest yet.
Khiva hadn’t been happy. Tavak saw that even though the male merely gave a curt nod in response. And then he’d turned back to extracting his blood—a necessary ingredient for the infamous fuel.
“Deal with it how you see fit,” Khiva had finally murmured.
And maybe it was because he’d been in a good mood all week or maybe it was because of Stella’s influence rubbing off on him, but when Tavak returned to the warehouse—only to see the Laoti worker practically shitting himself with nerves—he’d only clapped the poor male on the shoulder and told him to clean it up. Leaving it at that.
Tavak was already anticipating the way his body would relax and loosen at the sight of her as he stepped up to Reji’s bar. Her smile, the sound of her laugh, her scent…
I wonder what Ravu would say if he saw me now, Tavak thought. His brother knew him best, after all. Would he be able to see the change in him?
Ever since his Rut, he felt…different. And he knew it had everything to do with Stella waking in his bed, feeling her heat against him as he slept at night. Listening to her giggles when she watched him choke down his morning tea—which a part of him actually craved now.
Of knowing that she made him feel…wanted. Safe.
And the sex…
Vauk, nothing had ever compared to it and Tavak had had more sex in his life than he’d cared to.
He pushed open the door to Reji’s, his eyes immediately tracking behind the bar counter. Seeking her out.
But when he found her, his whole body froze. Tightening to the point of pain.
Because she was smiling at a male seated at the counter.
Not just any male…but a Wa’zuyi male. Only the skin of his bulky grey arms and the back of his head were visible but Tavak would recognize Yikerza anywhere.
Fury and fear shot through him. The sounds of the bar seemed to drain away as his vision narrowed on the male. Everything else blurred but Yikerza was in perfect focus.
Tavak went straight for him. And Yikerza might not know that Stella was his or that Tavak frequented his bar but the male damn well wasn’t welcome here. He wasn’t welcome in any colony in the Second Quadrant as far as Tavak was concerned.
Stella’s smile faltered when Tavak slid up next to Yikerza.
“Tavak?” she asked quietly, no doubt seeing the thunderous expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“Get the vauk outside,” Tavak murmured to the male, whose head turned to regard him.
All six of his eyes flickered in his skull, each going a different direction. His long black hair had once been in a long neat braid down his back but now looked unkempt and matted, dusted with powder from the mines, as were his clothes.
A goblet of Luxirian brew was in front of him—full and brimming—and the sight of it made Tavak’s gut roil. Because he could imagine Stella sliding it across the bar to the undeserving male, could imagine her chatting happily, none the wiser about what a monster he truly was.
Yikerza stood but Tavak didn’t step away. Wa’zuyi were huge. Tall and broad and strong. If Yikerza hadn’t been a Wa’zuyi, there was no doubt in Tavak’s mind that his business on Jrika wouldn’t have been profitable. Beings were scared of Wa’zuyis and Yikerza had used his strength and size to intimidate and flex his power.
Tavak still had the scar from the blade Yikerza had used on him. The male had plunged it into his shoulder, quicker than he could blink, when Tavak had reported that his client for the night hadn’t paid in full.
Sometimes Tavak swore he could still feel it there, scraping against bone.
“Get the vauk outside. Now,” Tavak hissed again, fury brimming. He wasn’t afraid of Yikerza anymore.
But what he was afraid of was Stella discovering who and what he’d been before. With Yikerza at Reji’s, there was a line that was blurring, the edges softening. Tavak worried what would leak free.
Yikerza turned towards the door, without a fight, surprisingly enough. Tavak followed him out, ignoring Stella’s questioning gaze. The sooner Tavak got him out of here, the better. Then he could deal with Stella’s questions however he saw fit.
Outside Reji’s, the road was empty and quiet but Tavak kept walking until they were a decent distance away from the bar. When he rounded on Yikerza, he caught the familiar stench of the male, drifting in the breeze towards him and his belly roiled with sudden nausea. Remembering it.
Tavak’s fists squeezed tight, glaring at the male in front of him.
“What the vauk are you doing here?” he hissed.
“I merely came for a drink,” Yikerza replied, that slithery voice making Tavak’s flesh crawl.
“Veki, I meant what the vauk are you doing on Dumera?”
“I merely came to work.”
“You think I would believe a lie like that?” Tavak asked, his voice steady. “Males like you don’t change. You’re rotten, through and through. Don’t poison this place too.”
Like you poisoned me and so many others, he couldn’t help but think, before he banished the thought entirely.
“And you’re blinded by hatred and always have been.”
Tavak hadn’t expected Yikerza’s response to steal his breath…but it did nonetheless. He couldn’t believe the balls this male had on him, to say something like that.
“Vauk you,” Tavak growled.
Yikerza cocked his head to the side, watching him carefully. For the first time, Tavak noticed the slump of his shoulders, which had always been pushed back and proud, posturing endlessly. His ragged clothes, which had always been clean and brightly colored and gaudy on Jrika, seemed to hang off him. He’d been one of the richest males on the colony and he had always dressed like it.
Maybe…maybe males like him did change. But only because the years had caught up with him and they obviously hadn’t been kind.
Tavak didn’t know how he felt about that. There was a strong strumming of satisfaction in his chest…but another part of him felt discomforted. Strange. And he couldn’t pinpoint why. Why he would feel something like vauking pity for this male.
“Don’t think I haven’t been informed that you’ve been trying to freeze me off of the colony,” Yikerza said. A hint of the former male he’d been—proud and angry—shone through, all six of his small, beady eyes narrowing into a glare. His black teeth flashed in the dark light. “I finally found a food vendor that wouldn’t turn me away but all I get are the scraps,” he spat.
Tavak crossed his arms over his chest. “I want you to leave. Leave Dumera. I never want to see you again.”
Yikerza huffed out a sound, mirroring Tavak’s pose, threading his
massive arms over his wide chest. His tunic was cut above his pectoral. From the mines, no doubt. It exposed some of his grey flesh.
Silence descended and Tavak’s gaze cut to Reji’s. He stilled when he saw Stella, just outside. His jaw tensed, seeing the vauking taser in her hand, like that would be enough to take down the Wa’zuyi. He needed to get Yikerza out of here. Before he said anything damning.
“I’ll leave,” Yikerza said.
Tavak’s gaze flashed to the male, his scowl deepening because Yikerza had given in much too readily.
And he knew what that meant.
“What do you want?” Tavak growled low.
“Credits. What else?” Yikerza spat out. “I know of a colony in the Third Quadrant. Living there is as cheap as a night with a Kioi whore.”
Tavak stiffened, his eyes flashing to Stella again, wondering if she could hear them.
“And I can buy land there,” Yikerza murmured, eyeing Tavak. He hated how the male’s eyes ran over him, like he was sizing him up, trying to determine his worth. “But I need credits. The mine doesn’t pay well. And I used up the last of my credits getting here.”
“How much do you want?”
Tavak thought he might give him everything he had just to get him off Dumera.
“50,000 credits,” Yikerza said, stroking his long, clawed fingers over his chin. There was no denying the greed in his gaze. Veki, he hadn’t changed. “Your friend, the Prince of Firestones…I’m sure he has a lot of credits to spare. You too, or so I’ve heard.”
Tavak focused on breathing through his nose.
He had the credits. He had 50,000 and more. He wouldn’t even need to get Khiva involved but he wouldn’t tell Yikerza that.
“There’s a passenger vessel that leaves first thing in the morning,” Tavak told him, giving him a thunderous glare. “You will be on it. Pack up. I’ll get you your credits and meet you at the docks.”
Yikerza made a sound in the back of his throat. A pleased grunt. One that made Tavak’s flesh crawl.