by Ella Maven
I brightened up his meals with flowers. I smiled at him and touched him often, because he still seemed surprised every time I offered him physical affection. And most of all, I sang. I wasn’t the best singer—no one ever told me to try out for American Idol or anything—but I was passable, and I liked to sing. Around Drak, I could belt out all the songs I usually saved for the privacy of the shower, and he would do that purring thing or stroke my hair. He’d close his eyes, and his aura would settle.
Whatever he used to splint my leg had some special powers, because my ankle most definitely healed faster than it would have back on Earth. Each day, he diligently splinted, wrapped, and mudded it. Until one day, he only wrapped it with a thick leaf like a jungle Ace bandage. That was when I finally placed some weight on it to find that while I needed a makeshift cane, I could finally walk on my own with only a slight limp.
Oh, and we had sex. Like a lot. As in, his head stayed between my thighs for a ridiculous amount of time. My sex drive was through the roof. All he had to do was stand there and I was ready to hop on that big cock. I was hypnotized by alien dick, and it was ridiculous. I knew it was, but that didn’t seem to stop me from stripping him out of his worn pants every chance I could get.
So, I let myself make believe this was my new life. As much as I wanted to get back to my girls, I also couldn’t pull myself away from what felt like a weird fairytale.
We couldn’t even talk to each other, but our auras let us know what the other was feeling, which took away my perpetual skepticism of the male species. On Earth, I had always second-guessed what a man told me, worried he was lying, but Drak didn’t lie. It had nothing to do with the fact he couldn’t speak—he was just so damn honest about his actions. His aura always matched his posture. If he was angry or frustrated, he’d make short, quick movements with flared nostrils and eyes black as night. If he was happy, his eyes swirled a light violet. And if he was horny… Well, the tell-tale bulge was hard to miss.
I’d been so determined not to be tied to a mate, but my Drak was special. He was kind and gentle and never once made me feel like a burden to his solitary way of life. I ached to know his history. The Drixonians were a pack race—I’d been told many times being alone was a death sentence to them. How long had Drak been on his own?
One evening, as the sun set, we sat at the hot spring, me on a rock and Drak with his back to me, wide shoulders between my legs. His eyes were closed as he rested the back of his head on my chest. It was rare his big body remained still for any length of time, but I knew from experience he was listening to every sound around us in case of predators. And now I was too.
I could walk without a cane now, and I’d even jogged a short distance. I’d told myself tomorrow I’d need to communicate with Drak we had to take a little trip. I couldn’t let my girls think I was dead, and Drak should be with other warriors. But I worried about him—would he acclimate to a clavas? What about his flashbacks? I felt caught between my loyalty to Drak and my love for my girls. The problem was, I had no idea how to get back to the Night Kings. I just knew I had to try.
I hadn’t been able to eat much that day, my mind constantly spinning different scenarios so my anxiety had ratcheted up to insane levels. Drak noticed, of course he did, which was why he’d brought me to the hot spring. Other than the roof, this was my favorite place.
We’d just finished some fresh antella, and a little of the greasy fat remained. For the last few days, I’d been massaging this throat scar. I couldn’t tell if he didn’t talk because of the thick ridge of skin or if there was damage to his vocal cords. He could utter his name and make that purring sound, so he had some ability. The first time I touched some grease to his scar, he’d jerked away from my touch with wide panicked eyes. So, I’d sang and pulled him back against me. Trembling, he let me work the lubricant into the damaged skin.
Now, when I massaged the scar, he stretched his neck back further, giving me full access. His full lips parted, and his cheeks darkened with an aroused flush. This always happened too, the horny bastard.
I didn’t know if oiling the skin would do a damn thing, but I was willing to try. Not that I needed Drak to talk, but I did get the sense it frustrated him. He often moved his lips, and it took me a while to realize he was mouthing my name. My heart had skipped a few beats over that.
My mind was still on my girls, especially the pregnant ones—Val, Frankie, and Reba. I ached to see them, and I knew they were worried about me. We were a tight group, bonded by being forced into an unfathomable situation.
And Gar … he’d already lost his sister. Knowing him, he would have taken my disappearance personally. I let my hands fall away from Drak’s neck and wiped the remnants of the grease on the grass near us. Tears pricked my eyes. I’d already lost one family. I couldn’t lose my girls too.
Drak
Merr-anda’s bloom in my mind dulled and quivered. I whirled around, the qua splashing around my chest to find my beautiful mate with wetness coursing down her cheeks.
I gripped her face, terrified she was sick, just as she let out a low cry. I check her body for injuries, but she lightly gripped my hands and shook her head. As she nibbled her lip and looked down at her lap, it hit me. She was sad.
My arms flopped to my sides as I dipped lower into the water so I could peer up into her face. No, this wasn’t right. My beautiful cheerful mate who dined with blooms couldn’t be sad. Shouldn’t be sad. I’d known her mind had been crowded for a few rotations now, and I had brought her to the spring to make her happy. It hadn’t lasted long. If anything, she was sadder now than before.
I pressed a kiss to the inside of her knee, and she smiled at me as her wet eyes continued to leak. Her hand cupped my cheek, and I leaned into the touch because I liked it and I noticed she always did too.
But now, the action caused her to make that low cry again. I tried everything I could to make her happy, but maybe I wasn’t enough? Or maybe I wasn’t what she wanted at all. I’d tried to do everything in my power to please her—I’d hunted for her, given her safety and security. I’d pleasured her with my mouth daily.
Maybe that was what she wanted. I lowered my head to nuzzle between her legs, but she shook her head and gently pushed me away. Then she pointed toward the path behind us. “Hoam,” she said in her husky voice, which was the word I knew she’d given to my hut in the trees.
I pressed my lips to hers, and she allowed that, even as I delved my tongue inside her mouth to taste her. She moaned softly, and the wetness on her face touched my cheeks. When I drew back, I wiped her skin, and then mine. She smiled at me, and I wondered if there was something other than me that had upset her. But what else could it have been? There was only her and me. Us.
After dressing us both—I’d had to repair the shirt of hers I’d ripped—I led the way home, holding her hand as she remained silent behind me. Her thoughts were still chaotic, and they began to hurt my head.
Consumed by her dull bloom, and my own worries, I wasn’t paying attention like I should have been to the growing darkness of the forest. Luckily, I heard the crunch of leaves in enough time to duck, tucking my body around Merr-anda’s, just as a laser bullet pinged off a tree trunk over my head.
Merr-anda screamed, and I jerked to my feet, standing over her crouched form, just as a half-dozen large armored creatures emerged from the underbrush. The same species who’d hurt my mate.
“Kulks,” Merr-anda hissed from behind me.
The name knocked something loose in my head. I couldn’t remember who the Kulks were, but the word caused a hot flash of anger in my blood.
My lips pulled back into a snarl as I unleashed my machetes and claws. I pushed out all of the chaos, falling comfortably into the mindset of a warrior with a single-minded focus to protect me and mine. I knew they wanted Merr-anda, but they’d fail just like their fellow soldiers who’d tried to take her the first time.
I crossed my arms in front of my throat, an instinct I couldn’t rememb
er learning, but my muscles nonetheless knew—an action as effortless as walking.
The sun had dipped below the horizon, and their solar guns would be useless soon without the ability to charge. Plus, their weapons were slow compared to the ones I had strapped at my lower back. One Kulk fired at me, and I dodged quickly before flinging a blade, catching him right in the throat where his armor belied a weakness. He let out a garbled shout of surprise before falling and clutching his neck.
An image flashed at me—my hands covered in blood and I knew that blood was my own. But I shook it loose, because now was not the time to get lost in memories. Another Kulk aimed for me but I tossed a blade into the eye-slits of his armor before rushing forward and finishing him off with a slice of my machets across his throat.
Four more Kulks remained standing. Two rushed at me while the other two lunged for Merr-anda. But my mate wasn’t helpless. I’d fashioned her a knife, and she brandished it now, slamming it to the hilt into one of the Kulk’s armor seams. He screamed and fell to one knee. I made a run for the other one, but a blow to the back of my head took me off my feet. I hit the ground face first, eating a mouthful of dirt before rolling onto my back and narrowly dodging a spiked ball on a chain as it slammed into the ground where my head had just been. Somewhere nearby, Merr-anda screamed. A body lay near me, the solar gun still clutched in his lifeless fingers. I grabbed it and lurched to my feet.
Two Kulks had a hold of my mate while another one swung the spiked ball over his head as a low growl rumbled from his chest place.
“Drak!” Merr-anda cried as she flailed in the Kulk’s grip. “Yore bleeden. Oh Gawd, yore hed!” Her pupils were blown, the whites of her eyes showing. “U mawtherfukerss,” she snarled at the Kulks. “Led meh goa!” One slammed his fist into her gut and then as she doubled over, he backhanded her to the face. The smack reverberated around the space and sent a bolt of adrenaline down my spine. Merr-anda coughed and spat a dark blob on the ground.
I didn’t feel pain. Liquid trickled down my back, but I ignored it. I lifted the gun and shot two laser bullets right into the eye-slits of the Kulks holding her. They dropped like stone. I turned on the last Kulk and swayed back just in time to avoid the spiked ball slamming into my face.
Somewhere in the distance, an orange fireball lit up the sky. Heat slammed into me. The remaining Kulk sneered. “There’s more of us coming. You’re already injured. Give up the human now and I’ll give you a quick death.”
Kulks traveled in units of twelve. I’d known from the beginning there’d be more to fight. I’d take them on too. I’d take on hundreds to protect Merr-anda.
I raised the solar gun and pressed the trigger. The gun clicked ineffectually. The Kulk laughed, a husky eerie sound as he advanced on me. “Stupid Drixonian.”
The word sliced into my skull, ripping through brain matter like a sharpened blade. I gasped as the night spun. The ground and sky and fire mixing into a frenzy of blurred images. Seething with anger and confusion, I tossed the gun to the side and dove at the Kulk in front of me. A painful blow slammed into my shoulder, but I didn’t stop as I slashed at the figure in front of me with both forearms, hacking away until I fell to the ground on top of a lifeless body. Only when I felt small hands tugging on biceps did I stop.
The Kulk lay below me, his armor bent and broken and his soft body inside sliced into ribbons. I fell back, panting, my vision coming into focus as I peered up into my mate’s bruised and bloody face.
That Kulk’s word had sent an arrow right through the wall of my mental protection and pierced at the bullseye of the truth. Some of it. I grasped for Merr-anda, who clung to me as her eyes leaked and that low cry fluttered from her swollen lips. Who I was sat in the back of my throat like a burr, and I longed to spit it out and hear that verbal truth spin in the air around me.
The crackling of fire drew my immediate attention. Merr-anda and I stumbled toward the hut, and as we drew closer, the reality of what I feared proved right. The Kulks had found my sanctuary, and they’d set fire to it. Merr-anda gasped when she saw the flames leap into the air. I could do nothing but watch helplessly as smoke poured from the home I’d made for myself when the last one had been purged from my mind.
Because I remembered now. I was a Drixonian. A legendary warrior. And my home was with the Night Kings. I wasn’t welcome there. I couldn’t remember why, but I knew with certainty that they wouldn’t allow me inside. However, they would help Merr-anda though. This I knew. The male I’d seen in the forest those many rotations ago had been a Night King, and he’d had a human female with him. They’d protect Merr-anda from the Kulks, which was a mission I’d failed to do. The Kulks had hurt her, made her bleed. Twice. I didn’t deserve her anymore.
The light of the fire highlighted the wet tracks on Merr-anda’s face. Her shoulders shook, and her palm covered her mouth as she stared at the fire with wide eyes. “Yerr hoam,” she cried as she turned to me. “O Drak, um sew sorree.”
The Kulks would be lurking near the fire, waiting for us to return. While I longed for their blood, to make them pay for lighting Merr-anda’s pretty blooms on fire and turning the roof to ash where I’d first entered her body, I couldn’t risk Merr-anda getting hurt. I turned away, gripping her hand, and tugged her away from the fire. She tripped over a root, and I realized she was favoring her leg again.
I picked her up, ignoring the pain lancing through my shoulder. “Yerr erm,” she said, and when she touched my skin, it came away sticky with black blood.
Shaking my head, I trudged forward. My feet knew the way, even if my mind wasn’t sure. My instincts took over as I traveled to the last place I wanted to go. But my feelings didn’t matter, not on this. Protecting Merr-anda from the Kulks after her was the most important, and if I had to walk through fire to do it, I would.
I walked while the stars overhead twinkled, until Merr-anda fell asleep in my arms, and still I kept going for many yoras until every step was agony.
My ears were ringing from the blow I’d received while fighting with the Kulks, but I still heard the heavy footfalls of several large figures just as they emerged from the dense forest. They were all Drixonian, like me, with their machets out. One stepped forward, his hair a shining blue, black, and silver. A ring was pierced through his septum.
This was Daz, the drexel of the Night Kings. The one who forced me out. I scanned my fragments of memories, but I knew he wasn’t the one who betrayed me. Neither were the warriors standing behind him as their identities came back to me—his brother Sax, and the two warrior brothers Gar and Ward. The latter held a length of chain in his fist.
For a moment, no one moved. I remained in shadow with Merr-anda a curled ball in my arms. One more step and I’d enter a patch of moonlight. I’d reveal the most precious thing in my life. In any of our lives. The phrase She is all wove through my brain like a growing vine. Where had I heard that before? It meant something.
My muscles tensed, eager to run away, to forget this mission and carry Merr-anda deeper into the forest so I could keep her for myself. But that wouldn’t be what was best for her. I had no shelter for her, and Kulks would be combing the woods looking for her. I needed Daz and his protection, even if it cost me my life. I lifted my chin, calling on all the dignity I had left, and stepped into the moonlight.
Gar sucked in a breath and on a roar charged me. I turned to protect Merr-anda, but my movements were sluggish, my lifeblood staining the dirt where I stood. She was ripped from my arms just as a blow slammed into my legs from behind. I fell to my knees, helpless to do anything but watch Gar carry my mate away from me. Chains lashed around my chest, wrenching my hands behind my back.
Daz stood above me, blotting out the moonlight, as he pressed a spear over my rapidly beating cora.
He snarled down at me like a beast. The spear tip pressed into my flesh. “Tell me in less than ten words why I shouldn’t strike you dead right now.”
Eight
Miranda
I came awake to shouting. I was jostled, and for a moment I was airborne. I flailed, and I jerked open my one good eyelid. The first thing I saw was Gar’s angry—no livid—face.
“Gar?” I was dreaming, I had to be, except his name came out garbled and my jaw hurt so badly I could barely open my mouth.
Suddenly, I was moved again, and Sax cradled me in his arms, his usual kind eyes now hard and laser-focused on something behind me. I tried to twist, but my ribs screamed, and I cried out in pain. A growl echoed in the darkness, following by a meaty thump.
“Don’t. Move.” That was Daz’s voice, but his tone was one I’d never heard before, laced with an unspoken threat.
“Please,” I mumbled to Sax. “Where’s Drak?”
His brows lowered, and he blinked at me. “Drak?”
I ignored the pain shooting daggers into my side and struggled in Sax’s arms. He finally lowered me, so my feet touched the ground. I whirled around and gasped. Drak knelt on the ground, a chain wrapped around his torso binding his hands behind his back. Daz stood above him, a spear aimed at his neck. My heart sank into the dirt with a thud.
Drak’s eyes were blank. With his head bowed, the wound at the back of his skull where the Kulk had struck him with the spike ball bled profusely, dripping down his face. The injury to his shoulder looked mangled like raw meat.
Drak’s aura was… something else. A large gap had appeared in the center like a heavy curtain had parted and beyond was a swirl of orange and yellow that raged and flashed. He’d had a flashback when the Kulk had called him a Drixonian, like the word jogged something loose. This whole time, had he not known what he was? If only I’d uttered Drixonian once in all the time we’d been together…