by Poppy Rhys
That had them sitting forward, because Saltan? He wasn’t actually a little criminal. More like one of the most notorious warlords in known space.
"And because my mate and his father are eager to cooperate..." Dania pulled out a fourth chip from her dress pocket. "This is a contract. I think you'll find it extremely interesting, especially since it involves high end weaponry that—oddly enough—just keeps slipping through the Coalition’s fingers."
Dania innocently shrugged and stood, grasping Val’Koy’s offered hand.
"Think it over," her mate suggested and nodded toward the legal team standing by. "Our lawyers will answer any questions you may have."
As Dania left the room with two of her mates at her sides, she had the sudden urge to yell the pesky human word that Lucia loved, and Val hated.
Booyah.
****
JRUVIIN
“How?”
The magcuffs released his wrists, the lost burden lightening his soul. He grabbed Dania with his freed hands, her plush body molding against his as if she were created for it.
Kinokym’s dust, he loved this woman.
“Bigger fish!” She smiled, the brilliance luring him in. “League One really should get more credit for their Vishik crime drama. There’s a reason Rita and I are hooked.” Jruviin watched as she tapped her pink lips and said, “I have so many episodes to catch up on.”
“I think we have other pressing matters to attend to,” Val’Koy rumbled, closing in behind her so she was trapped between their bodies. Her breathing hitched and her cheeks pinkened. The pulse in her throat thrummed and he watched as Val’Koy pushed aside her golden tresses to press his lips there.
“Oh boy,” Dania sighed, eyelids drooping. “Not here.”
“Then we better leave before they change their minds,” Jru thickly murmured, swallowing down her pheromones that suddenly gushed the air he breathed.
“Good idea. Also, Piktiin said he’d be joining us for the holidays,” she quickly blurted. “Anyone craving Skittles? No? Just me?”
Jruviin reeled back. “Explain.”
Dania gulped, eyes darting to Val’Koy for help, but he offered none. “It was his one condition. He wants to be part of our lives. For the younglings.”
“No.”
“It’s too late.” Dania stepped forward, placing her hand on his chest. “It’s the only way I could get the bigger fish.”
His gaze darted between his mates, realization curling its fingers around his throat.
He’d never be free of his father.
“Hey, you have us now,” Dania reassured and, surprisingly, it helped calm him. He wasn’t afraid of Piktiin any longer, and he wasn’t in this alone.
It’d be a subzero day in the blistering Huttin territory before I let Piktiin anywhere near my fledglings, he’d once thought.
Jruviin grimaced, tightening his grip on Dania’s middle.
Huttin must’ve frozen over.
****
DANIA
She stood with her mates in the queen’s meeting room. They were accompanied by the three agents and most of Val’Koy’s family.
“Due to the overwhelming, non-refutable evidence, Emperor Vu’Mal’Su has been stripped of his title and power. An official intergalactic warrant has been issued for his capture,” Agent Rickin informed them.
“What will happen to the rest of the Trepnils? Their planet?” Lucia queried.
“Vu’Mal’Su’s daughter, Princess Beela’Su, will be taking the throne with the protection and support of the Intergalactic Coalition.”
“Really? That’s...” Lucia exhaled. “That’s amazing. Was it her idea?”
“It was,” he nodded. “We trust she will make a new name for her species.”
Lucia smiled and squeezed Dania’s hand.
“In fact, she left this message for you.” Rickin set his comm on the table and allowed the video recording to play.
“I am hopeful our descendants will one day be allies,” Beela’Su respectfully dipped her head and politely smiled. “Thank you for your friendship, and I am relieved to hear your family members are now safe.”
Dania looked over to see Lucia wipe her misty eyes. “Dammit,” she muttered. “The air filtration is broken again, I think.”
They chuckled.
Dania leaned into Val’Koy’s side, the news of Vu’Mal’Su’s warrant making her feel optimistic. Between this and forging a tenuous connection between the IC and the underground arms market... Soon, she’d be bringing younglings into a universe that would be a little safer than it was before.
And that? That mattered.
****
“Val’Koy?”
“Yes, Dania?” he murmured from her side as she and her mates lay sprawled and huffing on the bed. Something had been simmering in the back of her mind for a long while.
“Did you steal my panties?”
He leaned up. “Your what?”
“My panties.”
Val’Koy’s brow ridge dipped, confused, before his chest shuddered with laughter. “Your underthing?”
“Yes.”
“I did.”
By this time, Jruviin leaned up too, feathers quirked with curiosity.
“Why?”
Val’s heated stare bore sizzling holes into her skin. His black gaze threatened carnal acts that had her body melting into the silken sheets of his bed. “Because your scent drives me insane.”
Images of him sniffing her panties while getting off ran rampant in her mind and lit her nether region on fire. She couldn’t suppress the full body shiver that rolled through her.
“I think I’ll keep you,” she whispered, running her hand along his jaw. “And you.” She curled her fingers into Jruviin’s chest feathers.
“You cannot get rid of us,” Jruviin’s hoarse voice whispered back.
“No?”
Val shook his head as their tails wrapped around various parts of her body. “Never.”
Dania bit her bottom lip, unable to hide her cheeky smile. “Then kiss me again.”
Her next thought floated away into the dark, mingling with her soft sighs.
EPILOGUE
Four years later...
“Get to work, peasants. I am the GAME MASTER! Mwahaha—”
“Zed!” Dania scolded the A.I. whom she had installed into their current apartment on Dor Nye.
“Ahem... Sorry. Chop chop, valued employees,” he droned with exaggerated politeness toward the cleaning bots. “Spill on aisle three.”
“This would be a non-issue if you let us hire more staff,” Val’Koy rumbled, put out.
“We have staff.” A chef and one cleaning lady to help alongside the bots was enough.
“I said more staff.”
“And how will our younglings learn the value of hard work if they don’t get to clean up their own messes?”
A round, white cleaning bot slowly zoomed by, sucking up the spilled juice and Dania bristled at the uncomfortable silence. Damn Zed and his timing!
“You were saying?” Jru smirked, and Val’s brow ridge raised. Touché.
“I meant when they’re old enough.”
“Val’Koy?” Jruviin turned toward their mate.
“Yes, Jruviin?” Val’Koy looked up from his comm.
Dania groaned.
“I think our mate is saying we can hire more staff.”
“I think you are right.”
“That’s not what I said.” Her comm chimed and she saw the new contact roll across her screen. Lucia had suggested an interior decorator who recently moved back to Dor Nye to raise her youngling, and she happened to be partnered to a Yarian. “I have to take this, but we are not done with this conversation. Oh, and,” she lifted a finger in the air, just as she remembered something, “Piktiin is coming for a visit this weekend.”
Jruviin’s mood shifted. Dania could see it in the way his exposed feathers slightly raised, and his eyes narrowed. Dania didn’t care much for the o
ld Draekiin either, but something could be said for the way Piktiin continued to put forth effort to be a part of their youngling’s lives.
And, funnily enough, they liked the crotchety Drae. She knew that unsettled Jru, but he understood a deal was a deal. Maybe it was Dania’s hopeful imagination, but she could see them having a future together—one that centered around their search for antique guns.
Dania reached out to pat his chest before accepting the call. “Hi, Finley,” she greeted as she walked away from her mates. “I hear great things about your company!”
Sometime later, Dania waited patiently in the transport.
"Keep your eyes closed!" Val'Koy warned and Dania rolled her lips into her mouth to conceal her grin.
"They're closed."
"Promise?" Jru checked.
"I promise."
"No peeping, mama," Astrid giggled.
She heard them step out of the transport.
"WOW!" Leo gasped. "Look at—"
The rest of what he said was muffled gibberish. She imagined her youngest (by a few minutes) was about to give away the surprise and one of her mates covered his mouth.
Younglings.
Dania balled her fists in her lap, her skin vibrating with excitement. "The suspense is killing me!"
Val'Koy rumbled laughter to her right, his hand gliding over hers. She latched on. "Do not look..."
"I'm not, I'm not," she groaned, her foot touching solid ground. Feathers tickled her left arm and she reached out. Jru, ever vigilant, caught her fingers in his callused palm, helping to steady her.
She'd been waiting for this moment all her life. Well, three years technically. She'd never had a place that was truly hers. Something she could eventually grow a family in and spend her days when she was old, surrounded by her loved ones. A place for her parents and grandparents to call home too—generations of her family.
The Melierun palace had been amazing—huge, extravagant, and more than she could ever ask for during that first year while they raised their quad of infant younglings. All the helping extra hands—literally—she’d never be able to completely repay her gratitude.
But the palace wasn’t home.
For the last three years, they'd been living in a suite of apartments Dor Nye's Assembly had graciously offered to the ambassador of Melierun and his family. That is, whenever they weren't traveling for Val'Koy's diplomatic endeavors for Melierun.
She was grateful, and it had certainly been nice for Jruviin, given his short commute to the Dor Nye’s special weapons unit. Despite everything, Dania longed for something they could call their own. Her mates promised they would take care of it, but it had taken time.
The breeze floated by and her nostrils flared, breathing in the scent of too-sweet smelling flowers. She heard the crashing of waves, knowing it was the aquamarine waters of the Morken Sea rolling along the pink grain beach.
Dania hadn't realized her mates chose a plot of land so close to the water! Her excitement rocketed and she bounced on her heels. "I don't know how much longer I can wait, guys."
Lips brush her temples on both sides—the feathery softness of Jru on her left, and the firm lips of Val on her right.
"Open your eyes," Val’Koy whispered.
Dania squinted in the bright rays of sunlight, her jaw slackening at the cream-colored stone residence that commanded attention atop the pristine, rich green, and freshly cut, lawn.
Three levels with open terraces. Stretching, curling vines with sprouted flowers crept up the sides of the home, proof nature couldn’t be stopped with its invading roots. Manicured flower beds with strategic growth weaved along the flat-stone paths. The ones tucked closer to the house were dotted with pale green, spear-like shrubs.
“Oh my stars...” she breathed. A small glimpse of the backyard through the shrubbery confirmed—a short jaunt along the wooden path would lead her to the Morken Sea.
“How did we do?” Val’Koy queried.
She burst into tears.
“Dania? Is it that bad?” The mild panic in Jruviin’s voice had her snorting a laugh that sounded so gross with her blubbering.
“No!” she sobbed. “It’s perfect. It’s perfect, I love it!”
Val’Koy pushed tears off her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. “Then why do you cry?”
“Happy tears.”
“Mine?” River pushed into her head, bumping her shoulder from behind.
“Mama?”
Dania looked down, noticing the worried pinch to Aries brow. He looked just like his father with his bandit mask of feathers slashing across his eyes. Streaks of blond feathers ran through his crest though—a little piece of her.
“I’m okay,” she reassured them all. “I’ve never been better.” She stroked the glossy scales along Faye’s temple, her pale blue skin lighter than Val’Koy’s, and her curly mop a shade of dark honey. Neither of Val’s offspring came out with four arms, and Dania was thankful, because a clawing toddler had been bad enough with just two arms.
She winked at Leo and he grinned. He’d been a terror, sharpening his claws on anything made of wood.
Astrid and Aries were the biters, nipping at anything that would fit into their mouths. Jruviin had assured her it was normal fledgling behavior. Poor River had his tail gnawed on countless times, but he was a gentle trooper.
“One more thing.” Val’Koy shared a small grin with Jruviin, the act making her a little nervous.
“What?”
"I am now Val'Koy Dennik of Dor Nye"
Her eyes widened.
"And I am Jruviin Dennik of Dor Nye."
"It's official?" Breath escaped her. They nodded in unison. Her eyes took in the house again, marveling at what that meant. This was officially the Dennik residence.
"Welcome home, Dania," Val'Koy murmured, flashing a brilliant, sharp smile.
"Our home," she uttered wistfully, taking it all in.
"Ours," Jruviin echoed, but he only had eyes for her when he said it, not the house.
Heat crept up her neck and warmed her face under their openly devoted gazes.
“Are you gonna kiss?” Leo wrinkled his nose and the others echoed their distaste. It broke the spell, and she cleared her throat of the stuffy feeling.
"Is someone going to give me a tour?"
Squeals and high-pitched whoops made her mates wince as the younglings cheered, taking off toward their new home. They skipped, flipped, and zig zagged around each other, River giving chase on all fours and adding in his playful gnarrs.
She slipped her hands into her mates’ waiting palms, taking her place between them as they made their way toward the blue-paned set of front doors.
Blue. Her favorite color.
Without seeing the inside, she already knew she'd love it. Their home. A place where they could grow their family. A place where generation after generation would feel safe and loved.
As the sun’s rays warmed her skin, Dania cheerfully sighed, "And they lived happily ever after."
"Who?" Jruviin inquired.
"Us.”
Val’Koy regarded her strangely. "Are you clairvoyant now?"
"No, it's just—"
"A thing humans say,” they grumbled in unison.
Dania laughed.
AUTHOR NOTE
You made it to the end! Thank you so, so, so much for reading!
You guys have stuck with me for so long, and I adore you for it. This was seriously a labor of love over the span of three years (yowza!). My editor deserves some chocolate, because she made me sit down and go through every little detail of this book when all I wanted to do was... anything else, really. Thanks Mel, you fierce woman.
Shout out here to my amazing alpha reader. *holds up a boombox Say Anything style* Thank you for your time and effort over this project and, more importantly, your friendship. *heart* You have no idea how much it means to me.
I hope you guys enjoyed Val’Koy, Jruviin, and Dania’s adventure and decide to leave a r
eview on Amazon (really helps). Now, onto the next ride!
-
“See ya around, home skillet!” – Zed
WOMEN OF DOR NYE
The Melier
The Melier: Home World
The Yarian
The Khyma: Taken Part One
The Incuabri: Taken Part Two
VALOS OF SONHADRA
Tempest
Galvanizing Sol
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Poppy is a small town American girl, living in a tiny Canadian hamlet, who spends her days pounding on the keyboard, drinking tea, and living one step outside of reality. Her retirement plan is to be abducted by the aliens she writes about, but for now, she enjoys life with her husband, their cats, and when she’s not getting sucked into cute animal videos, you can normally find her with her nose in a book.
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