Rylee smiled at her. “Well, I come from a closed planet called Earth. And did you know on my planet nobody knows that there are other people in the galaxy? We think we’re all alone out there in space so you can imagine how surprised I was when I, uh, ran into your uncles…er, Drace and Lucian.”
That statement sent them off and running and Rylee, who clearly liked children too, answered a myriad of questions. I felt relieved that the children’s appetite for information had turned in another direction. But then, suddenly one of the children piped up,
“Father’s brother, Drace—aren’t you an Alpha?”
“Yes,” Drace answered simply.
“And isn’t your bond-mate Lucian one too?” the boy continued.
“Yes,” I said, feeling Twyla’s small, angry eyes boring into me from across the table. “But you see—”
“If you’re both Alphas, how can you be bonded?”
“All right, children, time for bed.” Twyla was suddenly out of her seat and bustling the children out of theirs.
“What?”
“But I didn’t finish my stew!”
“What about dessert?”
“I don’t wanna go!”
Twyla looked exasperated by this chorus of protests.
“Porgy, can you lend a hand?” she demanded. “It’s the children’s bedtime.”
“No—we want Papa Kess!” one of the children begged. “He tells the best bedtime stories.”
“Papa Kess has to stay with our guests,” Twyla said, shooting Kess a dark look. “He invited them in the first place so it’s his job to keep them entertained.”
“Agreed,” Porgy rumbled, also getting up from the table. “To bed, kids or I’ll tan your backsides for you!”
The four of them ran scrambling down a long narrow staircase which led to the basement floor of the long, low domicile with Porgy and Twyla behind them.
“Sorry about that,” Drace said to Kess who had an unhappy but resigned look on his face. “We didn’t mean to make the kids ask questions.”
“It’s all right.” Kess sighed. “I wanted some time to talk to you privately anyway.”
“Privately?” I said. “Should Rylee and I leave?”
“No, no—this is for all of you.” Kess settled back down across the table from us and looked at us earnestly. “I just want you to know…Porgy and Twyla don’t speak for the entire family.”
“They might as well,” Drace said roughly. “You know they’re only saying the exact same thing my mother and fathers would say.”
“Well, they don’t speak for me, anyway,” Kess said firmly. “Drace, did you know I was a Halfer before I psy-bonded with your brother?”
“A what?” Rylee looked confused.
“Most Denarin males are born very clearly Alpha or Beta,” I explained to her in a low voice. “But every so often there is one born who could go in either direction—a Halfer. Half Alpha and half Beta. When it comes time to bond, they have to choose which way to go.”
“I didn’t know that.” Drace looked as shocked as I felt. “I just always assumed. You just…seem so Beta.”
“I am—now. But I didn’t have to be—I chose to be.” Kess looked at me and Drace intently. “It’s a decision I have never regretted. I fell in love with Twyla at the same time Porgy did and I knew I could never have her unless I allowed the Beta side of my nature to rule.” He shrugged. “So that’s what I did.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Drace asked blankly. “Neither Lucian or I is a Halfer.”
“We’re Alphas and we cannot be otherwise,” I agreed.
Kess sighed again and ran a hand through his hair.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you have some Beta tendencies you want to act on, well, there’s no shame in that. Not as far as I’m concerned.”
“Beta tendencies?” Drace looked at him doubtfully. “I don’t—”
Kess blew out a breath. “Goddess, I’m making a mess of this. I just…want you to know not everyone is horrified and ashamed of your choice. I know how lonely you’ve been, Drace—how much it hurt you when you couldn’t find a Beta who fit with you—one you could bond with. So you found another Alpha instead. And that’s fine—it’s better to be with someone you care for and who cares for you, than to be alone and hurting.”
“Kess…” Rylee reached out a hand and placed it on top of his. There were tears glistening in her lovely black eyes. “That’s beautiful. Thank you.”
Kess shrugged and tried to smile.
“Just want you three to know I support you. And I know, at least a little, about what you’re going through. It’s not easy to be Beta when you could have been Alpha instead. But sometimes it’s worth it.”
“Um…thank you,” Drace said at last. “That’s…kind of you to say, Kess.”
“We appreciate your wisdom,” I added stiffly. Indeed, he had given us a lot to think about. I couldn’t help wondering if he was right—if playing the Beta every once in a while could really be so bad, so wrong.
I wondered if Drace was thinking the same.
Chapter Twenty-four
Rylee
“How did everybody sleep?” I asked after we had finally said our goodbyes the next morning and left the long, low house with the thatched roof where Twyla and Porgy and Kess lived. I had to ask because Twyla had insisted on putting all three of us in separate rooms for “decency’s sake.” Myself, I had passed a very restless, unhappy night rolling around in a bed that seemed way too big and lonely.
“Poorly.” Lucian sighed and ran a hand over his face as we tramped along the dusty road through the still-sleeping town. “It took me forever to get to sleep.”
“Me too.” Drace grimaced. “Tossed and turned all night.”
“I missed you guys,” I said honestly. “I don’t like it when we have to sleep apart—I guess that’s because of the bond, huh?”
“That and the fact that we love having you between us, ma 'frela,” Lucian murmured, brushing my cheek with the backs of his fingers.
“It’s nice to know you like being there, too,” Drace added, giving me a kiss on the other cheek. He made a face. “I’m sorry my family was so fucking awful and Twyla insisted on putting us in separate rooms.”
“They were no worse than my own mother when she found out about us,” Lucian said calmly.
“And Kess was actually really nice and supportive,” I pointed out. “I like him.”
“He’s always been very kind to me,” Drace murmured. “In a lot of ways he’s a better brother to me than Porgy. The things he told us…” He shook his head. “I never would have guessed he was a Halfer.”
“His words were very…thought provoking,” Lucian murmured.
I looked at both of them in surprise. Could it be they were actually taking Kess’s advice to heart? If they could get over the whole Alpha/Beta thing… There might actually be some hope for them—for us! whispered a little voice in my head. But that was crazy, wasn’t it? It wasn’t like I wanted to leave Earth permanently and spend the rest of my life on a whole other planet…did I? What have you got to lose? asked that persistent little voice. What would you really be leaving behind?
Well, there was Aunt Celia but though she’d raised me, we had never been particularly close. I loved my cousins who were like brothers and sisters to me but they all had their own lives. And it wasn’t like I had a job I loved or any really close friends—not since Zoe had left so abruptly…
“All right—here we are. The edge of the K’drin.” Drace’s deep, rough voice cut into my strange musings. “Now listen, you two,” he said to Lucian and me. “The jungle is full of poisonous plants and hungry predators so let’s stay close. Anyone wanders off, they could get killed.”
Looking around, I could see why he was warning us to be careful.
The K’drin jungle was, in its way, as intimidating as The Sands of Death desert had been. Huge trees, as big as the giant Redwoods back home on Earth, grew at i
ntervals. Some were so big around you could have driven a car through them, and all of them stretched hundreds of feet in the air. They had a strange, bluish-gray bark and their leaves were an even deeper shade of dusky blue.
In contrast to the giant trees, there were also shorter ones which were a more normal height. These had bark in different shades of green and gray and grayish-green with silvery-green leaves. Of course, there were plenty of vines and creepers too and I could hear hooting and howls and growls and rustling in the underbrush. There was a wet scent in the air—like rain forever just about to happen—as well as the smell of growing things. It made me think of a line from one of my favorite books back home.
“The Jungle eats itself and lives forever,” I whispered and shivered.
“Are you well, ma’ frela?” Lucian asked, frowning.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, trying to convince myself as well as him. At least I was dressed for adventure this time. The red, lightweight tunic and leggings set I had on was treated to repel any kind of stinging insects and the boots I was wearing, while not as high and heavy as the ones Lucian had wanted me to wear in the desert, were still sturdy and protective. The outfit might have looked a little strange back on Earth but I had sworn to myself not to let my fashion sense interfere with self-preservation again. I didn’t care what I looked like as long as we all got out of this alive.
“Do we know exactly where we’re going?” I asked, looking around uneasily.
“Got the nav-tracker right here,” Drace said. “I put in a course to the temple—if we start now we should get there by moonrise.”
“What?” I said, surprised. “So you can just put it in the GPS-thingy and have it lead us straight there? I thought it was some hidden ruin that nobody knew the exact location of. All Indiana Jones-y.”
Drace laughed. “The Temple of Ganth isn’t a secret—it’s just a pain in the ass to get to. And people usually don’t bother because it’s just a stone slab floor with a single monolith standing in the middle. Scientists who study antiquities and past ways of life have been all over it but there’s literally nothing else to see.”
“Then I wonder what Tanta Loro expects us to find there? Where is the ‘claw’ she spoke of that can sever our bond? If no one else has been able to find it, how can we?” Lucian asked.
Drace shrugged.
“Who knows? Let’s go find out.”
He pulled out a short metal stick. When he thumbed on the button a pale blue beam of light shot out of it about three feet in the air.
“Whoa!” I exclaimed. “Cool light saber!”
“What?” He frowned at me. “What the fuck is a light saber? This is a brush-cutter. We’d never get through the K’drin without one.”
To demonstrate, he swung the cutter and the pale blue laser burned through a thick swath of branches and a tangle of vines, making a hole in the jungle through which we could enter.
“C’mon,” Drace jerked his head and swung the cutter again, making a way into the jungle. I followed him and Lucian came after, bringing up the rear.
The jungle closed around us in a claustrophobic tangle of gray and green and blue and I felt a shiver of fear run down my spine. We were beginning the last part of our quest—which was how I had started thinking of it—and I felt a sense of foreboding I couldn’t understand or deny. For a moment I wished we could stop—that we could call everything off and find a way to be together instead. But I knew that couldn’t be—we had to push on, into the jungle and find the Temple of Ganth.
There was no going back.
Drace
I don’t know how long we cut our way through the K’drin—long enough for my arm to get fucking tired, that was for damn sure. After an hour or so, Lucian asked to take a turn and I let him, warning him what to look out for when I did. He’d never used a brush cutter before but you would never know by the way he took to it. I couldn’t help feeling pride when I saw how quickly he picked up the right technique and rhythm, swing, cut, step…swing, cut, step…
The pride I felt in my bond-mate’s accomplishments made me remember Kess’s words of the night before. About how being a Beta wasn’t so bad. Rylee had asked Lucian and I why we didn’t just trade off on playing the part of the Beta—much the way we had begun taking turns at other tasks like cooking cleaning, or now, cutting brush. Her suggestion had seemed crazy to me when she first made it but now I was beginning to wonder…would it really be so bad?
I had been furious with Lucian for treating me like a Beta after our ill-fated adventure in the desert. So angry that he’d slighted my Alpha pride I didn’t even stop to thank him for saving my life. I’d reacted the way I’d been taught to react—the way my big brother, Porgy, would act. But our recent visit with my brother and his bond-mate’s words made me reconsider my actions and emotions. Why was it so awful to be treated as a Beta? Or to take a turn acting as one?
True, I had no attraction to other males, but I didn’t find my bond-mate unattractive either. It was as I had told Lord Mandrex—his pleasure was mine and vice versa. And both of our pleasure came from making our female feel good. As long as Rylee was between us, did it really matter who was the Alpha and who was playing the Beta?
I frowned when the thought popped into my head. Was it possible that it wasn’t so terrible to be bonded to another Alpha after all? Was I changing my mind about something I’d believed since I was old enough to understand the difference between male and female…Alpha and Beta?
Doesn’t matter if you are, whispered a voice in my head. Just because you changed your mind doesn’t mean Denarin society has. Stay with Lucian and you’ll never be accepted. You’ll live your life as an outcast.
And that was different from my life before I’d been bonded, how exactly? I’d been a loner—a recluse who only went out when I had to. So ashamed that I was unable to find a bond-mate I dreaded showing my face in public. People had cast pitying and mistrustful looks my way whenever I did dare to go out. I got the same looks now that I was with Lucian and Rylee but at least I wasn’t alone when I got them…
It was a lot to think about and I had plenty of time to think. Lucian and I traded the brush cutter back and forth all day, keeping Rylee between us for safety. But though I heard plenty of predators prowling through the trees none of them bothered us. We stopped in a small clearing for lunch and to catch our breath and then pressed on, guided by my hand-held nav-tracker.
At last, just as the sunlight faded and Denaris’s two moons rose, we came within sight of the Temple of Ganth.
Rylee
“Wow…” I looked up at the moons, just visible through a break in the jungle canopy. There was a steady stream of rocks—they looked like pebbles but must be the size of boulders—flowing from the smaller pink moon to the larger blue one. It was a mesmerizing sight, especially surrounded as we were by the rustling jungle.
“’By the light of the quarreling moons,’” Lucian quoted.
“And there’s the Temple of Ganth,” Drace said. “Just as Tanta Loro said. This is one of the early places of our people. Some say this is where we first learned to live in threes instead of twos and developed the Triune psy-bond which keeps Triumvirates together.”
I tore my gaze from the moons and looked to where he was pointing. A flat slab of stone glimmered silver-blue in the bright moonlight, looking almost like a lake.
Walking closer, I saw that the glimmering effect was caused by little glittery specks embedded in the blue-gray stone which made up the floor of what must have once been a huge temple. Around the edges, the stone was chipped and jagged and the jungle had thrown out creepers and vines as though to try and annex it. But somehow the middle of the temple floor had remained clear and surprisingly clean. In fact, it looked almost polished, reflecting the moons overhead like a mirror.
“It’s beautiful,” I said wonderingly. “Can we, uh, walk on it?”
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Drace said. “We have to find a way to use this.�
� He pulled the triangular Key from his pocket and I was surprised to see that it glimmered in the moonlight too, just like the temple floor.
“Oh, is it the same stone?” I asked, taking it from him to get a closer look. “I thought tanterine was extremely rare and valuable.”
“It is. The temple floor isn’t the same rock but both substances have lanzenite specks,” Lucian explained. “They glow and sparkle in the moonlight—especially when both moons are full as they are now.”
We stepped up onto the sparkly stone floor and moved slowly towards the center.
Right in the middle of the temple floor was a huge monolith of shiny black. It had the same lanzenite specks as the floor and the Key, which made it glimmer in the moonlight like an accusing finger pointing straight at the sky. We walked up to it but I didn’t quite dare to touch it. There was something about it…something that made me uneasy. Just under my usual range of hearing I seemed to be catching a deep, throbbing buzz which I thought came from the stone finger. I wondered what it was.
“The Finger of the Goddess,” Drace said, indicating the monolith. “It’s said it speaks with her voice when there is danger nearby.”
“Is there?” I asked nervously. “Danger nearby I mean?”
Drace shook his head. “It’s an old wives' tale. Don’t worry, baby—Lucian and I will keep you safe.”
“Thanks.” I looked around. “Okay, we’re here. Now what?”
“I don’t kn—” Lucian began but a deep, rumbling growl interrupted him.
“Guys?” I looked around, feeling the uneasiness which had been building inside me morph into outright fear.
“Drace, you know the jungle better than we do. What was that?” Lucian asked.
“I’m not sure.” His deep voice was grim. “It sounds like—”
The rumbling, purring growl erupted again. This time it sounded like it was coming from all around us—as though whatever was making it had surrounded us somehow.
“Whatever it is, it sounds hungry,” Lucian said grimly. “Rylee, put your back to the monolith.”
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