by Mary Auclair
Rose closed her eyes on the image of Maral dying. She should be glad her enemy was getting what was coming to her, but she simply wasn’t. She was no weakling, but she didn’t have it in her to hate the other female. Mostly, she didn’t want hate to be the last feeling she would take with her.
With a supreme effort, Rose turned her head toward Karian and opened her eyes again. His face was slack and peaceful, unmoving. Despair washed over her, but she couldn’t sob anymore. Everything was over. Her family was dead, or would soon wish they were. Karian was dead because of his love for her. She understood it now, understood it all. Everything he had done for her was because of love. He hadn’t tried to own her. He’d sacrificed everything for her, even his life.
How blind she had been.
Maral’s gurgles stopped, but that registered as a meaningless fact in Rose’s mind. All she cared about was the feel of Karian’s blood under her cheek and the warmth of his flesh where their bodies touched. She fought to keep her eyes open as the cold made her eyelids heavy, blurring everything. When she couldn’t fight the heaviness anymore, she closed her eyes and summoned Karian’s features, the way she remembered him on the Saarmak moon when they had both stood outside the pod, watching the stars in the strange sky. Strong, male and warm. Her Karian.
She wanted to die with his smile etched in her mind.
I love you.
Rose thought the words, hoping she had been able to show him that weeks before, when it had still mattered. What a mess she had made of things. She did love him. She had loved him ever since the first time those hands had comforted her in the escape pod, so warm and full of strength. She had just been too focused on keeping her freedom to realize her loneliness was just another prison. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, so many words he needed to hear.
Too late; it was all too late.
Somewhere far above, a loud noise erupted. Shouts and screams, familiar voices.
Too late.
A flash of sapphire blue invaded her vision, but Rose couldn’t focus anymore. There was more shouting, and more movement filled the blur of her vision. Someone talked into her ear but the words were lost. Hands closed around her shoulders, lifting her from the cold of the stone floor. Rose couldn’t feel Karian’s body anymore. They had taken her from him.
She whimpered, fighting them futilely.
Let me die with him. Please.
With Karian’s presence gone, the cold closed around her, invading her last refuge. A darkness filled with ice drowned her thoughts and she let go, accepting the silence that blanketed everything.
CHAPTER 30
ROSE
A hand on her forehead, petting her damp skin. The feeling of a warm cloth, washing cold sweat away. A hot glow coming from both under and over her body, wrapping her in the embrace of sunlight. Cold… Rose was still so cold.
Funny, I didn’t picture death like this.
The feelings melted together in time as she lay unmoving in a sea of darkness. Eons passed and went, until the darkness changed from an all-consuming ink into a thick fog. There were people on the other side of that fog—so close, Rose knew she only had to reach out to touch them.
This is more like it. I shouldn’t be alone, it’s too cruel.
Rose hoped against all hope that Karian wouldn’t be waiting for her on the other side of that fog. She had thought him dead before, but now, she wasn’t so sure. Yes, his injuries had been severe, but Karian was so strong, he might have pulled through with the will to survive. Even through the grieving of the bloodmating, she hoped. She smiled inside, imagining him walking in the tall grassland, hunting. He belonged there, with his family.
Voices called from the other side of the fog, familiar and full of promises. Encouraging her to come to them, to open her eyes—only they were wide open. She fought, wanting to go to them, tired of the boredom of the darkness.
“Pretty Thing.” That voice, Rose knew it so well. She would recognize it amongst millions of others. Pain pinched her heart. He hadn’t survived, then. “Wake up. Rose, come back to me.”
She pushed the fog away, tired of its weight. Her eyelids weren’t open like she had thought. Concentrating so hard it hurt, she lifted them, then closed them again. Voices erupted, a commotion as people talked and called for things that made no sense in the afterlife: medical equipment, doctors and nurses. They were drowned by the sensation of the hand cupping her cheek, a rough thumb caressing her with unbearable tenderness. With another supreme effort, the world appeared.
The colors were too bright, and the light too harsh, but Rose kept blinking until her vision adapted enough to focus on a male face with skin the color of midnight. Karian’s blue eyes shone bright as stars, and when he swallowed, she had the impression he was unable to talk. It made no sense. You didn’t swallow your emotions in the afterlife, did you?
“I’m so sorry.” She croaked the words, surprised that her voice sounded so broken. She had always envisioned the afterlife as being perfect, but what did she know about it after all?
“What can you be sorry about, Pretty Thing?” Karian smiled, his impossibly handsome lips curving upward. So kissable, so masculine. He was a dream, even dead. “Hush now, don’t strain yourself.”
“I’d just hoped you hadn’t died, that’s all.” Rose smiled, but pain morphed it into a grimace. It was so strange, she shouldn’t hurt anymore. “The afterlife is greatly overrated. It sucks.”
Karian frowned, confusion plain on his face. Another person entered the room, and Karian glanced up briefly before returning his gaze to her. He seemed even more concerned now.
“The doctor is going to be here any second now.” A familiar female voice, warm and melodious. “How is she?”
“I’m not sure.” Karian held her hand, his touch so hot, so real, it brought tears to her eyes. “She’s talking nonsense. She thinks she’s dead.”
The reality of the words penetrated her mind, and Rose widened her eyes in shock.
“I’m alive?” She tried to turn her head to face the owner of the familiar voice, but it was too much to ask. All she managed was to send a shockwave of pain all the way to her toes. She grimaced at the agony.
“Yes, Pretty Thing, you’re alive.” Karian laughed, the sound more beautiful than anything. “You’re alive.”
Rose let that sink in. Confusion rode side by side with a giddiness bordering on euphoria as she progressively became aware of Karian’s hand in hers, the intermingling of their fingers. She tore her eyes from his face and looked at the room she was in. Definitively a medical pod, with equipment lining the walls and a clean, antiseptic white all over. Her body was in a strange bubble, white and opaque, and as she wiggled, she realized it was some sort of jelly. It generated heat, enclosing her in a steady cocoon of warmth.
Memories of Maral and her tiny, wicked fangs rushed through. Her laughs and her jibes about the venom Avonies were able to produce when they were scared for their lives. Then her purple eyes clouding as her life slipped away.
Arlen will never forgive me.
“Maral—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Karian cut her off, his eyes blazing with an anger that verged on savagery. “You did what you had to do. It was only by luck that Elvira was able to alert us fast enough.”
“Maral’s dead?”
Karian nodded, and a silence like red velvet descended over the room. Rose had done it, then. That she’d acted in self-defense was little comfort. Taking a life left her feeling hollow and dead inside, as though she’d killed a part of herself at the same time. Rose blinked, and wasn’t surprised to feel a tear sliding down on her cheek, unchecked.
“Arlen?” That was all she could get out before her throat constricted and her voice broke.
“He’s grief stricken.” Karian shook his head, the pain plain on his face. “She was as bad a mate as can be, but the link was deep, even if she wasn’t his bloodmate. He doesn’t blame you for it, you need to know that.”
“The humans, my family…” Her words got lost in the wave of fatigue that washed over her body. “The Trade Minister will want to erase them all.”
“Don’t worry.” Karian bent over and kissed her. His heat scorched her lips, dulling her senses, pulling her under even faster. How badly she longed for his arms, his warmth and his passion. “Khal has already taken command of a garrison to protect your people. They’re safe.”
The relief that washed over Rose was like a liquid tide of joy. Her family was safe. Karian had kept his promise; through everything, he had kept his promise.
“I love you.”
Rose managed to keep her eyes open just long enough to see his eyes shine and his lips curve in the most heart-wrenching smile.
“I love you, too, Pretty Thing. I’ve loved you since that first time in the pod.”
Rose allowed the darkness to take her again, surrendering to its embrace like a lover.
EPILOGUE
ROSE
I t took a few weeks for Rose to fight off the deadly Avonie poison, but she was eventually allowed to leave the medical pod and go back home with Karian and his family.
They were on the transport, riding slowly under the midday sun while she enjoyed the feel of the wind in her hair. It had been so long, it seemed, since she’d simply enjoyed being. Karian’s hand reached out, stroking hers in a tender caress.
“Any news on my family?” Rose watched as a family unit of killkons ran in the tall grass. Mother and pups followed the father in apparent bliss. She remembered the killkon’s grief and death as his mate had died, and her heart pinched. Rose understood, now, the link between the mates. She didn’t think she’d survive without Karian for long, either.
“Your mother and brothers are safe and cared for,” he said, looking straight ahead. “There is still no news of your father. We have found the breeding facility thanks to the location tips you gave us, but by the time we arrived, it had been emptied.”
“Emptied?” The warmth of the sun deserted her skin and Rose felt as if she were under the spell of the poison once again. “Are they dead?”
“We don’t think so.” Frustration was clear in Karian’s voice and face. “The trade is worth too much money, even if the Prime Councilor declared the trade illegal. In all probability, Minister Knut had them moved to another world.”
“So, it’s over? I’ll never see him again.”
The face of her father, with his steel gray eyes and easy smile, imposed itself in her mind. He gave up everything to save his people, and in the end, Rose knew he would have been proud of her. It was little to quell her grief, but it was a comfort nevertheless. The faces of her loved ones appeared in her memory, one after the other. They were safe, but how many more were still being kept in a hellish life? Too many. Even one single human living like that was one too many.
“Not quite.” Karian gave her a fierce smile. “These humans are family members of Eok warriors. They are Eokian by law. And Eoks do not tolerate their own being enslaved.”
“You’ll wage war on the bastard?”
“So to speak.” Karian chuckled, and when she frowned, he nodded. “There is another one who’s under attack as we speak.”
“Who?”
“Your cousin Aliena gives my brother Kamal the hardest of times.” Karian broke into a heartfelt laugh. “She insisted on being part of the team leading the search for the remaining humans.”
“Aliena will give him hell.”
“That’s what I hope.”
Karian stopped the pod over the sea of grass and turned to Rose. There, alone under the three suns, he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her to him. His lips took possession of her mouth and she surrendered, opening it and kissing him back with passion. After a long time, he released her, and they both panted, looking into each other’s eyes.
“Do you like it here?” Karian waved at the general area.
Rose looked around and saw what he meant. They were on top of a rounded hill, and on all sides, they could see a different part of the Eokian landscape. The rolling hills spread to the north, smooth and moving like the sea, while to the south, the jagged teeth of the cliffs broke the grassland into a breathtaking landscape. All around, the flow of the river sparkled in the grass like a diamond necklace.
“It’s the most amazing view I’ve ever seen,” she said truthfully. “Where are we?”
“We’re home.” He squeezed both her hands between his.
“I don’t understand. We already have a home, with your mother and father.”
“This is where I will build our own house, our own enclosure, with a garden and fruit trees. Where our own younglings will be born.”
“We could start by making a youngling here.” Rose smiled, then kissed him.
“My thoughts exactly.”
His voice was already husky as his hands ran over her body, spreading fire and need. He pulled her to him again, and this time, he didn’t just kiss her. He lifted her, as easily as a child, and set her down over him. Rose gazed into his blazing eyes, as full of hunger as her own.
Her bloodmate. Her life. She truly had everything she ever needed.
THE END
MARY AUCLAIR
Mary Auclair is a lover of romance novels of all genres. She likes to write everything, from science fiction to fantasy, passing through paranormal and historical, but always with a dark, sexy twist. She spends too many hours to count daydreaming about adventures and hot, dominant, alpha male heroes. When she’s not writing, she’s busy being a full-time mom, as well as caring for her many pets.
Visit her website here:
www.maryauclair.com
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Table of Contents
Copyright
Table of Contents
What’s Inside
FREE Books for Amazon Customers
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
Mary Auclair
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