Out of the Ashes

by L. A. Casey

  Surkah lowered her hands to her side. “I healed you quickly. You had three nasty breaks and a couple of cracked ribs too.”

  I rubbed my healed ribs.

  “Yeah.” I snorted. “They felt pretty messed up.”

  “You harmed the human female greater if it helps your pride?” Surkah offered. “Her left eye socket was shattered, and her jaw was severely broken. It took longer to heal her.”

  That didn’t make me feel better at all.

  I winced. “I didn’t mean to do that… but she attacked me.”

  Surkah nodded. “Kol informed me of the incident. It is why we have separated you from the other humans. You don’t have to share a quarters with them anymore.”

  Kol.

  “Where is your brother?”

  “The bridge.” Surkah shrugged like that was an obvious place to find him.

  “Can you call him for me?” I asked politely. “I need to speak to him.”

  I needed to find out why he attacked poor Vorah, and if he would kick me off his ship for attacking Echo when he gave me an order to leave her and her sister alone.

  “I have already hailed him,” Surkah said, blushing. “He ordered me to do so when you awoke.”

  I nodded but said nothing.

  Surkah wrung her hands together, and after a minute of silence, she said, “Will you be my friend again?”

  I wanted to correct her and tell her we weren’t true friends in the first place, but I didn’t.

  “Why?” I asked with my shoulders slumped. “I’m not exactly good company.”

  I was miserable to be around if I was being honest with myself.

  “I care for you greatly,” Surkah said. “I have bonded with you very fast.”

  She said that to me the last time we spoke, too.

  “Would you have lied to me if Kol hadn’t ordered you to do so?”

  “No,” Surkah said instantly. “I would not have.”

  Surkah’s face was too expressive for me not to see the truth in her words.

  “I believe you,” I said. “And I do want to be your friend, but I just don’t know how to be a good one. I’m not very good with others… as you already know. I’ll try my best, though, so yes, if you want me as your friend, you’ve got me as your friend.”

  Surkah let out a little cry as she quickly crossed the room and gathered me in her arms.

  “I am so glad, Nova.”

  I was a little hesitant, but when I put my arms around Surkah, it felt right.

  “I am too,” I told her, and I meant the words. “I’m very sorry for upsetting you.”

  “It was I who upset you, so I deserved your anger.”

  We only separated when the door to the room opened. When my eyes landed on Kol, I narrowed them almost instantly.

  “You’re a huge bully, do you know that?”

  Kol looked over his shoulder to—surprise—Mikoh and said, “What did I do now?”

  “To annoy that female, your heart beating would surely do it.” He grinned.

  I scowled at Mikoh, and so did Surkah.

  “Why are you upset with me?” Kol asked, regaining my attention.

  I scoffed. “Do you want the list?”

  He raised his brows. “There is a list?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “You beat up Vorah, who is only a kid and was doing your bidding by searching for an intended, you shouted at me on the bridge and that both upset and scared me, and then you put me back in a room with Echo—who attacked me by the way. I wasn’t exactly innocent in the build-up, but I didn’t throw the first punch either.”

  “Why do you care what happens to Vorah?” Kol growled. “He is not your intended.”

  I gaped at him.

  “Out of everything I just said, you focus on that?”

  Kol growled at me once more, and I fought off the urge to throttle him.

  “You’re the most trying person… being… Maji I have ever met!”

  “Do you care for Vorah?” Kol pressed.

  I face palmed. “You’re unbelievable, Kol.”

  “Answer me!” he demanded.

  “I care for him as I would a new friend!” I angrily shouted. “I don’t know him at all, but he seems very sweet, and he didn’t do anything wrong, but still you hurt him. It’s not right, Kol. You can’t just hurt someone because their motives don’t suit yours!”

  Kol’s stared at me, his expression hard.

  “It is the Maji way to challenge a male for the intention of a female.”

  I sucked in a breath. “Excuse me?”

  He was not saying what I thought he was saying!

  “You gave your verbal consent to test a bond with Vorah, and I had to challenge him and beat him to break that consent and restore your status.”

  “My status?” I repeated. “My status as what?”

  “A single female.”

  “Hold on a second,” I said and held my hand in the air as I stood from the medical bay bed. “You beat up Vorah to break my consent to marry him? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “That’s exactly what he’s saying,” Surkah murmured from my side.

  “How can that be legal?” I shouted. “It’s up to me who I pick as a husband, right?”

  “Yes.” Kol nodded. “But if another male challenges your intended male and wins, then the challenger wins your intention.”

  “That is barbaric!” I shouted.

  Kol shrugged. “It is the Maji way.”

  “I can’t believe this,” I said with a shake of my head. “Are you telling me that you are my… intended?”

  Kol smiled. “Yes.”

  My heart slammed into my chest as I sat down.

  “No!” I bellowed. “No, you will not take another choice from me. I picked Vorah!”

  “And I beat him!” Kol snarled, the smile vanishing from his face. “I could have killed him to end the intention, but I didn’t because I knew he didn’t know that I had the intention of having you.”

  I was glad I was sitting on the bed when he finished speaking because I had a strong feeling I would have otherwise collapsed on the floor at his declaration.

  “Since when did you have an intention for me?”

  “Since the very moment I first laid eyes on you, and you fainted before me.”

  That was almost romantic, but I refused to show I thought that. I got up from the bed, spun away from Kol, and hugged myself with my arms.

  “You’re a prince,” I reminded him. “Shouldn’t you be married to a nice noble Maji female?”

  “Nova—”

  “Won’t your parents, your society, expect the royals to keep their bloodlines pure?” I pressed.

  “You let me handle my parents and the people.”

  That meant yes.

  I swallowed. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

  I noticed that Surkah had moved away from me, and when hands touched my shoulders, I knew they weren’t hers.

  “I will be a good mate,” Kol said softly. “I will care for you, I will provide for you, and I will make you happy. Just… just give me a chance, shiva.”

  My eyes welled with tears.

  “I’ve been so horrible,” I cried. “Why do you want an awful human like me?”

  He turned me to face him and swiped his thumbs under my eyes.

  “Because I have never known a female so fierce or one with so much pride. Because I have never seen true beauty until my eyes rested on you. Because you challenge me, fight me, and treat me like a regular male, and not a prince of the people. Because your stubbornness matches mine, and because I have never wanted a female in my two hundred years in the way that I want you, shiva.”

  I brought my arms around his waist and pressed my forehead against the top of his stomach.

  “I’m so scared, Kol.”

  I’m terrified that I have growing feelings for you.

  He tipped my chin up until I was looking up into his eyes.

  “I will take
your fear away. I promise, shiva.”

  I licked my lower lip. “What does that mean?”

  “What does what mean?”

  “Shiva,” I said. “You’ve called me it a few times.”

  “I hadn’t realised I have been calling you it,” Kol blinked, “but the closet words in your language are ‘my treasure’.”

  I sucked in a breath. “That’s so sweet.”

  Kol smiled down at me and brought both of his hands to my face where he stroked his thumbs over my cheeks.

  “Will you accept me as your intended?” he asked me, his voice soft.

  I squeezed his waist. “I thought you won the right to be my intended?”

  “I did.” Kol grinned. “But I’m learning that you want to make some decisions instead of them being made for you.”

  Butterflies exploded in my stomach.

  “I’ve never had a boyfriend,” I whispered. “I’ve never… never known anything about being intimate with a man. I’ve never even kissed one.”

  “It will be my honour to teach you, shiva,” Kol murmured as he lowered his head to mine.

  His lips barely touched mine before Mikoh said, “We need to get to the bridge. If warp is not activated soon, we will lose time.”

  Kol growled so deep in his throat I felt it on my lips.

  “Kiss your intended later, friend. We have work to do.”

  Kol turned to face his friend.

  “I give the orders, Mikoh,” Kol snarled. “Not you.”

  Without warning, Kol surged forward and smashed his fist into Mikoh’s face, and before I had time to verbally react, Surkah was on her brother’s back and was biting down on his shoulder. Kol’s roar was deafening, but either he scented Surkah, or knew with his mental comm thing that it was her, but other than let out a roar, he didn’t make a move to remove her from his body. He didn’t make a move to touch her at all.

  Surkah was growling, and I noticed it wasn’t only her teeth that were sunk into Kol’s flesh, but her nails were also all imbedded into Kol’s skin. I winced for him, knowing how much it had to hurt. I moved towards Kol and Surkah, but a warning growl from him kept rooted me to the spot. Mikoh was already on his feet and moving towards Kol with his eyes on Surkah. I was suddenly so scared they would both team up and hurt Kol, and before I knew it, tears fell from my eyes and hiccups tore free from my throat.

  “Come,” Mikoh purred to Surkah. “Come to me, faya.”

  Surkah reacted like she was an android. She released Kol—who didn’t even wince—and grabbed Mikoh’s hand and pulled herself flush against his body. He stroked her back as she nudged his chest with her face, and gripped his arms with her hands. Surkah didn’t really look like Surkah; her eyes were charcoal black, and she looked like she was acting on instinct when she saw Kol hit Mikoh in a way that was not playful.

  This must be the edge thing they mentioned.

  “Leave,” Kol ordered the pair. “We will be on the bridge in two minutes.”

  Without a word, Mikoh and Surkah left the med bay, and Kol turned to face me. I stopped a step away from him, not out of fear, but out of worry.

  “Why did you do that?” I asked, wiping my tears away.

  He rolled his neck onto his shoulders.

  “Mikoh questioned me.”

  “So you punched him?”

  “It is the—”

  “Maji way,” I finished. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Why do you cry?” he asked, frowning.

  “I thought they were going to gang up on you, and it scared me.”

  “Shiva.” Kol rumbled with laughter. “Surkah attacks me at least three times a month when I hit Mikoh. Her instincts as his intended force it. Their bond is so close to being in place that they may as well already be mated. You have much to learn about the people.”

  I most definitely did.

  Kol stepped towards me, and it was at that moment that I realised we were alone, and apprehension gripped me.

  To drive the mood toward conversation, I asked. “Do you have cameras in all the humans’ rooms?”

  Kol blinked at my question but nodded. “Of course, we can’t have a male assigned to every human, so monitoring you seems the best way to keep you safe.”

  I dropped my gaze to my hands.

  “We want to give you freedom aboard the Ebony, and we don’t want to scare humans any more than they already are, so motion capture was a good option.”

  “I never said they weren’t,” I mumbled.

  “You never said they were, either,” Kol countered.

  I sighed and looked up at him. “I would have just liked it if you told me about them. I feel weird knowing Maji security were watching me.”

  Kol raised a brow. “Maji Elite weren’t watching you. I was.”

  My pulse spiked. “Excuse me?”

  “I had the feed from your quarters transferred to my comm so I could… keep an eye on you.”

  My heart started to beat fast.

  “Did you do that with other c-camera feeds?” I stammered.

  “No,” he said, his lips turned up in a half smile. “Just yours.”

  It was idiotic for pleasure to flush through me with that knowledge, but I couldn’t help but like that Kol singled me out to watch over. Echo and Envi suddenly invaded my thoughts and ruined the joy I felt.

  “Because you were afraid I’d hurt Echo and Envi?” I asked, not being able to stop myself from frowning.

  “No.” Kol chuckled, crossing the space between us to tip my chin up with his finger. “To make sure you were in no danger from them.”

  “They’re skinny little kids,” I scowled. “They weren’t a threat to me.”

  Kol dropped his eyes to my ribs, and I gritted my teeth.

  “My ribs were a minor setback,” I stated. “I was handling Echo… It was Envi who caught me off guard.”

  Kol’s lips quirked. “I know, I saw the fight through my comm, remember?”

  That’s right. He did see the fight.

  “Did you send Vorah and the other male to help?”

  Kol tensed. “They were the closest males to your room. I allowed them access to the feed, so they knew what they were rushing in on.”

  He really didn’t like when I mentioned Vorah or something about him.

  “Are you going to kick me off the ship for breaking your rule about not harming the twins?” I questioned. “Because if you are, I’d be much obliged if you touched back down on the Earth’s surface before you do so.”

  Amusement flashed through Kol’s eyes.

  “I was thinking of changing your quarters, so you weren’t around other humans at all.”

  Hope surged through me.

  “Oh, yes, please,” I practically burst. “I’ll get better with having company in time, I promise.”

  Kol folded his thick arms over his broad chest.

  “I’m sure you will.”

  I beamed at him. “I’m getting my own quarters?”

  “Not exactly.”

  I furrowed my brows. “But you said I wouldn’t be around other humans.”

  “And you won’t be.” Kol nodded.

  “Who will I be around then?”

  Kol leaned his head down to mine, stopping mere inches from his lips touching mine.

  “I’ll give you one guess,” he whispered.

  A shudder ran through me.

  “Y-you?”

  Kol winked. “Clever human.”

  I sucked in a deep breath.

  “I… I’m going to be staying wit … with… with you?”

  Kol laughed. “You looked terrified.”

  I am, but because I knew were this was headed.

  “I’m not,” I lied. “I just don’t understand why you want me to stay with you.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  I felt heat stain my cheeks.

  “Give me your answer,” he said as his eyes started to glow.

  I knew what answer he was referring to.

  “I�
�m worried you’ll regret asking me,” I nervously admitted. “For your kind, marriage is for life, and I don’t want you to regret me.”

  “I’ll never regret you,” Kol said, a hint of a growl in his tone. “Never.”

  My mind was screaming at me to accept for two reasons. One, being with Kol, a royal prince of the Maji, would ensure my safety, and my safety was my number one property. Two, I couldn’t deny any longer that I was attracted to him, and if I had to mate a Maji, I wanted it to be with a male who I would willingly want to touch and have touch me in return. Even though it killed me to admit it, Kol was the only Maji I wanted that type of intimacy with. He was captivating to me.

  With my heart slamming into my chest, I whispered, “Yes.”

  “Yes?” Kol repeated.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “I’ll be your intended.”

  Kol suddenly picked me up off the ground and pressed my back against the wall. His lips covered mine as he gifted me my first kiss, a kiss that he claimed with assertiveness. It was a kiss of promise… a promise of so much more to come.

  “You’re going to be my sister-in-mate, Nova.”

  I looked at Surkah, and I couldn’t help but beam at her. It had been only a few hours since she found out about my and Kol’s intention, and she was happier than anyone about it.

  “I hope I am up to your royal standards?” I joked.

  Surkah snorted. “Despite what the people believe, we don’t set our standards that high.”

  I widened my eyes, and Surkah’s face flushed purple.

  “That came out sounding wrong,” she blurted. “Oh, forgive me. I didn’t mean you are a low standard; I only meant—”

  I cut her off with joyous laughter, and after a few seconds, she shoved my shoulder, but laughed, too.

  “You tease too much!” She scowled, but her eyes gleamed with amusement.

  I chuckled. “You don’t have to worry about offending me so much; things are bound to get lost in translation between us from time to time.”

  Surkah nodded. “I know, but I fear I will speak out of turn and Kol will ban us from speaking. He won’t allow me to speak to you if I upset you.”

  I felt my jaw drop. “He’d really do that?”

  Surkah bobbed her head.