by Corin Cain
That whole time – from her first grey hair, to wrinkles and liver spots, I stayed the same age.
I watched the course of her entire life, and to any observer, it would be as if I was frozen in time. I yearned for my men every day, and now I’ve lost them.
Yes, I’ve seen Lilac grow, and mature, and age, and finally wrinkle and die…
But I’ve also seen her go from a broken young woman, on the brink of insanity, to regaining her sense of self, her identity, and her life.
Lilac and I spent seventy good years exploring all the worlds we could together, ensuring we never saw an Aurelian during any of our travels. The mere mention of one could revert years of progress.
The therapists and treatments helped Lilac recover from her years of abuse – but not totally. The sight of an Aurelian was the only thing that could instantly undo all that work; triggering one of her breakdowns. She saw one, once, five years into the treatment…
…and we lost all of our progress. It took years to recover to the point we’d been at.
Every day, during all of those decades, I thought of Daccia, Kitos, and Hadrian. I even thought of taking off the Orb-Ring, countless times. I nearly cracked time and time again, and thought of going off to see them – promising myself it would only be ‘for a few days’ but I knew it was too cruel.
Cruel to them. Cruel to me. If I’d succumbed to the Bond – if I allowed it to take hold of me completely – it would be too cruel to Lilac, because I’d never have returned to her. I’m too weak to have only part of them, and so I let all of them slip away.
So, in the end, it was easier to just keep myself completely cut off from those three incredible men.
I knew if I saw them, I’d succumb to the Bond completely. I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist them. As much as I hate to say it, it was ‘all or nothing’ with them.
But that was a long time go – for a human, at least.
“I love you, Lilac,” I say, and lay the bouquet of flowers I’m holding on her grave.
She was ninety-one years old when she died – wizened and wrinkled, always cackling at my youth and beauty. Lilac was never jealous of my eternal youth. She told me once, when she was eighty, that she was actually happy for me.
She’d lived a good, quiet life. That’s all she’d ever wanted. I’m so thankful I was able to give it to her.
The tears come out. They well from my eyes like a storm – a storm that had been waiting for decades to burst.
I soak the ground with my tears, and when all my grief is finally expended, I walk back to the simple house where we’d lived alone together in quiet solitude – away from everything else in this universe.
I look down – at the hand that hasn’t developed a single wrinkle or spot in all these decades.
I gently touch the Orb-Ring I wear on my finger.
I’m too afraid to take it off. I couldn’t bear to learn that any or all of the three Aurelians I’m Bonded to might be gone, or that they hate me for leaving them. I’m fearful that they curse my name with every waking breath.
But I touch it.
I touch the ring, and the Orb-Material it’s crafted from glows at me – blue-black, angry, and hot. It’s like the ring is filled with rage.
I know it has one purpose – to sever the link between Bonded partners. It’s like it is rebelling against its purpose. Sometimes I feel it wants to come off.
I felt like I died when I first put this ring on, in the palace of Queen Jasmine, over seventy years earlier. I felt like I’d died three times over – as each of the auras of my beloved triad winked out of my mind.
Cool, collected Daccia.
Passionate, fearsome Hadrian.
Devious, sadistic Kitos.
I let my hand fall to my side, the ring still on it. Then, I step into the kitchen and pour myself a kettle of tea. Of course some part of me wants to pull the ring off - but it’s too late. I know it’s too late. How could they still love me, after all this time? How could they still care for me, after all I did to them? I’m a survivor. It’s all I’ve done. It’s all I know. I’m not fit to be a wife, or a mother. I don’t deserve the three men. I know they must have moved on, no matter hard it was. I know they must have forgotten my name.
This was Lilac’s favorite blend.
I sip it and consider how lucky I was to be able to spend an entire lifetime with her.
It was the only thing I could do. Even when Lilac had returned to rationality, she still had nightmares every single night. I’d hold her tight, and then she’d feel better.
It took years of therapy and counselling before I finally saw the spark of the ‘old’ her. As Lilac returned to lucidity, we reminisced about our childhood, how we scrapped and fought to survive.
In all those years, she never spoke to me about what Torelli did to her. I think I’m better off not knowing. The irony was that it as just three years. Three, gruelling years that had shaped the rest of Lilac’s full life.
But it was a full life. The past seventy years would have seemed like eternity to most humans. It was, after all, a lifetime – in fact, longer than most humans get.
And yet, when I look in the mirror, I’ve aged only a few years, and so gradually it was hard to notice. Now I will have thousands of years to be lonely. Thousands of years to know someone who just survives can’t be worthy of love. That’s my nature. It always has been. It always will be. I can’t pull off the ring and let them feel my essence again.
I drink my tea, sitting on my comfortable, well-worn chair.
“That hits the spot,” I murmur to myself, as I’ve said every day for the last seventy years to Lilac.
“Nothing like a good cuppa,” the memory of her voice answers back.
I want to cry again, but there are no tears left in me. I feel so alone all of a sudden, and yet there’s a beautiful simplicity to this solitude.
Every day, I’ve wondered ‘what if?’.
What if I had chosen my triad? How many sons would I have by now? Are Daccia, Kitos and Hadrian still now alive? How many women have they collected in their harems during the past seven decades?
Before I can think another thought, I look down at the black ring on my finger…
…and suddenly, I yank the Orb-Ring off.
They flood my mind.
Instantly, the auras of my triad return – so strong, so powerful, and still so yearning.
I feel this strange… determination from them.
I don’t say anything. How could, after all these years? I wanted them to get over me. I wanted them to move on…
My legs wobbly, I stand. I stagger from my house, out into the beautiful sunshine. Blinded by the warm, gorgeous sunlight, I stand there and feel the warmth and hardness of the Orb-Ring in my palm.
Gods! It’s too painful, feeling the auras of the three men I love…
…and hearing nothing but their silence.
By saying nothing, they say everything.
They don’t want me. They’ve moved on!
I press the ring against my finger, poised to slide it back on. It must be better if they wink out of my mind again, and disappear forever…
…and then, suddenly, I look up.
The blinding sun overhead is suddenly marred by a shadow. It’s a shadow that grows and grows, getting larger and larger.
I blink with shock.
There’s a sleek, powerful spaceship coming over the horizon.
The ship slowly lands, and the doors to the side of it open.
I watch in astonishment as Daccia steps out, followed by Kitos, and then Hadrian.
The three of them have more scars on their bodies, more anger in their eyes, and they stride forward with more purpose to their steps.
“Daccia,” I can hardly believe it’s them. My voice is a croak. “I’m sorry, I…”
“Shut up,” Daccia says, and suddenly he kisses me.
My whole body melts in his embrace, and then I feel the heat and presence of Kitos
and Hadrian stepping up either side of me.
Together, the three Aurelians scoop me into their arms, carrying me towards the small, simple house I’d shared with Lilac for a lifetime.
A human lifetime.
I forget than an Aurelian lifetime is a thousand times longer – often more…
…and because of the Bond, I share that lifespan.
I melt into the arms of my beloved triad – realizing that my choice to spend a lifetime with Lilac wasn’t a rejection of these three gorgeous, devoted warriors…
…it was a postponement.
I gave Lilac a full and happy life – and yet it was just a blink in the life I still have left ahead of me.
A life I can now spend with Daccia, Kitos and Hadrian.
I’d spent so many years fighting to prove that I could make it on my own. Lilac had taught me that I had more to give by sharing it with somebody else.
I shared my life with her, and we were both richer for it.
Now, I have three gorgeous, devoted men to spend my life with – and a hundred more lifetimes during the thousands of years that lie ahead of us, as I bear my beloved warrior triad a legion of strong, healthy Aurelian sons.
The door of the house slams shut, and Daccia, Kitos and Hadrian begin eagerly peeling off my clothes.
I fall into their arms, and eagerly accept their kisses – excited for the next chapter of our long, long lives together to begin.
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Go back to where the Aurelian Empire began with Sold to the Alien Gladiators! It tells the story of Queen Jasmine’s beginnings as a dirt poor scavenger to Queen of the Aurelian Empire.
We will claim her.
She looks at my triad with disgust and hatred.
We stare at her with pure hunger.
Captured and forced to battle in the blood-soaked arenas of Bugra, my triad will live and die under the scorching sun.
The only thing that moves our weary muscles and overcomes the pain of our wounds is the obsession of claiming our fated mate.
She is brought to us humiliated and disheveled, and yet still her eyes burn with defiance.
We are born to battle. We are born to blood and violence. Aurelians have no master, and when we break our shackles there will be a reckoning.
She will be ours, even if I have to level empires and plunge the universe into war.
I would kill for her, die for her, even as her hatred burns me to the core.
She will be ours.
Read Sold to the Alien Gladiators today!