<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Eula and Zha Tahl walked into Command Warship 1’s medical suite complete with their royal guard. Vivian realized at once, this was not a good thing. She’d been speaking with Vor who stood stubbornly just inside the doorway of Li’Orani’s room, and on seeing them and all their guards with their Psi’s on display headed her way, hurried to intercept them.
“Mom! Mr. uh, Sovereign! Think maybe you could leave all your big, scary alien dudes out in the corridor?”
“It is standard procedure, they mean no one any harm,” Zha Tahl answered patiently.
“Yes, but we’ve got some still terrified people in here, and they’re only going to frighten them more,” Vivian answered.
“You are correct, Daughter. Forgive me for not considering the needs of those most recently brought aboard.”
Eula snapped her fingers. “Please wait for us in the hallway. We are completely safe here, and should you be needed, you are only steps away.” The royal guard obeyed at once, ducking out of medical and lining the corridor along with Vivian’s guard, as they waited for their Sovereign and Sovereigna to either call for them or move on to the next location.
“Thanks, Mom. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it,” Vivian said, accepting a tight, engulfing hug from Eula.
Vivian glanced up and found Zha Tahl scowling at her. “Did I say something wrong?” she asked.
“Why is she ‘Mom’, and I am Mr. uh, Sovereign?” Zha Tahl asked.
Vivian hedged a bit, not quite sure how to answer.
Eula came to her aid. “Because she has never met you face-to-face because you never leave our home, and she has no bond with you.”
Zha Tahl regarded his mate for a moment before turning his gaze to Vivian. “Is this true?”
Vivian looked from Zha Tahl to Eula and back again. “Uh, yes, Mr. Uh…”
“Father!” Zha Tahl barked. “Not Sovereign, not Mr. Uh — Father.” Zha Tahl raised an eyebrow, waiting for Vivian to repeat the name he wished her to call him.
Vivian nodded, a small smile on her face. “Father.”
“Very good, Daughter. Now, let us speak with those we came here to see,” Zha Tahl said.
First they spoke with the two older females who were rescued by Rokai ahl and Gaishon, explaining that their conversations would be recorded, so they could be used in any legal proceedings Rokai ahl may be required to face. Both recounted the same story. Kidnapped from their homes, sold as slaves to the highest bidder, then atrocities at the hands of them and several others. They both emphatically believed that if Rokai and Gaishon had not rescued them, they’d still be there today, or dead.
“Do you not feel that actions taken by Rokai ahl were extreme?” Zha Tahl asked.
One woman simply shook her head and continued to look at the floor as she had been their entire conversation. The other was a bit more animated. “Absolutely not. If anything, he gave them exactly what they deserved. And had he not been so quick to act once he discovered them… us, they’d have likely killed us, and tried to kill him as well. He was not extreme in his actions. He should be celebrated, not incarcerated!”
Zha Tahl offered her a tight bow. “Thank you for your time, miss.”
“It’s true, then. He’s been arrested,” she asked.
Zha Tahl nodded reluctantly. “It is true. He was taken into custody and held by order of the Unified Consortium Defense. But he is no longer being held. And if all our investigations provide the same results we’ve encountered thus far, he will not be detained again.”
The woman glared at Zha Tahl. “He’s a good male. I’m alive because of him.”
Zha Tahl nodded. “I understand.”
As they walked away from the room the women were sharing as they convalesced in medical, Vivian looked up at Zha Tahl. “Thank you for releasing Rokai.”
Zha Tahl chuckled. “You are welcome, Daughter. But I didn’t release Rokai. Rokai released himself.”
“You mean, he escaped?” Vivian asked, a wide smile spreading across her face.
“It would appear so. Both he and his female are missing. Since all transports are accounted for, it would seem he is still aboard, but hidden away.”
Vivian had no doubt that Missy could tell her exactly where Rokai was, but now, with Quin’s parents within ear shot was not the time to ask.
“And who is this?” Eula asked, as they approached another medical room. This room held what appeared to be a young female, the palest of yellow tones to her skin. She had big beautiful luminescent eyes that matched her skin tone, and long, silky white hair. Standing facing each other in her room were two very growly, very tense males. One similarly colored to the female and resembling her quite a bit. The other a familiar dark orange, his Psi on full display, and his stance indicating that he had absolutely no patience left.
Vivian walked into the room and squeezed her way between both males, which had the orange one even more irritated. “Sirena! Please! You do not insert yourself between two males who are already on high alert. You could be injured if we come to blows,” Vor said, as he lifted her and placed her directly behind him.
“No, you will be injured if you come to blows. I will call Quin. This is ridiculous!”
“Forgive me, Sirena…” the yellow one started.
“Don’t want to hear it, Kron!” Vivian snapped.
“Mom, Father, this is Vor,” Vivian explained, indicating the orange male. “He’s the head of my personal guard. He’s decided this female, Li’Orani, is his Ehlealah.”
Kron snarled.
“And this,” Vivian said, indicating the yellow male, “is Kron. Li’Orani is his sister and has been missing for a very long time. She was rescued by Rokai ahl along with the other two women and the boy.”
“Ahh, I understand now,” Eula said, nodding her head.
“They are being ridiculous,” Li’Orani said, reclining on her bed, sipping from a cup she lifted from her bedside table.
“I agree,” Vivian added.
“Can you tell us what happened?” Zha Tahl asked Li’Orani. “I would like your permission to record our meeting in the event it is needed in defense of Rokai ahl.”
Li’Orani nodded.
Zha Tahl, encouraged by her agreement, proceeded to speak to her. “I understand that you were held against your will, suffered unimaginable abuse, and I certainly don’t mean to make you recount that. But rather, I ask about your rescue. How you were rescued.”
Li’Orani looked directly into Zha Tahl’s eyes before she spoke passionately, emphatically. “Rokai ahl. He rescued us. And I will stand beside him any time he needs me. If he is charged in this as I hear he may be, then charge me as well!”
“No!” both males shouted.
“Yes!” she shouted back, staring them both down before turning to look at Zha Tahl again. “There are worse things than death. I’ve lived them. Those are the things that should have been rained down on the heads of those who hurt me. Rokai was swift and just. He showed mercy in the deaths he delivered without hesitation. I would not have been so merciful. If he is to stand trial for his actions, then any sense of the law who prosecutes him is as warped as the males he killed. I will testify on his behalf, I will stand beside him, I will fight for his freedom as he fought for mine. And if either of these two fools standing here growling at each other ever plans to seek favor with me, they will do the same.”
“Of course I will,” Kron shouted. “You are my sister, he rescued you! And Rokai is a brother-in-arms! He is a member of our Elite Team as well!”
“He’s a member of our Elite Team?” Zha Tahl asked, completely perplexed.
“He is! He’s been training with us,” Kron claimed.
“I shall stand with Rokai ahl, as well! He has rescued my Ehlealah,” Vor stated.
Zha Tahl returned his attention to Li’Orani. “If I may be so bold to ask it of you, it may help his cause if you were to repeat those words to the Unified Consortium Defense.”
&nbs
p; “Done. Tell me where and when,” Li’Orani readily agreed.
“Thank you, child,” Eula said, smiling gratefully at the small, petite, yellow-skinned female.
“How old are you?” Eula asked, eying Vor and his refusal to back down from the female’s brother.
“I am only four years younger than Kron. It is a trait of our people that our females hardly age until well past their prime. Our people live a hard life, the females often outlive their husbands, a youthful appearance makes it easier to attract another male to protect them after the loss of their first mates.”
“Genetics is an ingenious thing, is it not?” Eula commented, nodding as she considered the traits Li’Orani’s people had developed during what was likely hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.
“I will not die young. You will not be left alone,” Vor growled unavoidably around his Psi. “You will not have another mate!”
“I’ve not accepted any mate. Yet!” Li’Orani said emphatically.
“I have not given you permission to mate my sister!” Kron growled just as intimidatingly as Vor had voiced his claim.
Li’Orani shook her head watching the two stubborn males.
“We are very happy you are recovering well,” Zha Tahl offered gently.
Li’Orani turned her head to look at the Sovereign of Cruestace. “Don’t allow them to crucify Rokai ahl for his deed. I am far from well, but I will be one day — because of him.”
“I will do all I can to protect him,” Zha Tahl promised.
Li’Orani regarded him for only a moment before she spoke again. She’d endured so much already, she had no guise left within her. “You’re more powerful than all the rest. Do more than your best.”
Eula smiled, nodding her head. Vivi raised her eyebrows, nodding right along with Eula.
Kron and Vor continued snarling at each other, Li’Orani lay back on her pillows and closed her eyes, and Zha Tahl and Eula moved on to the next survivor’s room.
“This is Fla’ad and his parents. He was stolen from their home during a raid on their village, and sold into slavery to the same male responsible for the abuse of the three women you just met,” Vivian explained. “His parents arrived during the night to be reunited with him,” Vivian explained, smiling at Kitty sitting beside the child, his huge head resting on the boy’s knee. He’d taken a particular liking to the child.
“Fla’ad, I am very pleased to meet you, young male,” Zha Tahl said, getting down on one knee to better speak with Fla’ad.
Fla’ad nodded his head one single time and did his best to meet Zha Tahl’s eyes, but after so long in captivity and suffering as much abuse as he did, it was a difficult thing to do. So, instead, he just kept running his hand through the fur between Kitty’s ears.
“He is having a hard time acclimating to freedom,” his mother said quietly.
“I’ll be fine, Mother,” he said.
“We know you will,” his father said, forcing a smile. “You are strong, you will be just fine.”
“Can you tell us what you remember?” Zha Tahl asked.
Fla’ad’s eyes snapped up to Zha Tahl’s and there was a flash of fear there.
“Of your rescue, I mean. Anything you wish to tell us will be much appreciated and held in the strictest confidence if you choose, but we’d like to record your answers, so we can help Rokai ahl. We are particularly interested in your rescue,” Zha Tahl clarified.
For an uncomfortable period of silence, they believed that Fla’ad wouldn’t speak to them at all. But then without even looking up at them, he quietly began to tell them what he remembered.
“I was sent to bring a male to our owner’s event. All had been prepared and was waiting for his arrival. I was afraid of him. I heard the bad males whispering his name… Rokai ahl, they said. Mercenary, pirate, criminal. Do not anger him, they said. So I hurried, as quickly as I could, and ran to his door the minute I was instructed to. I knocked and told him they awaited him. He sent me back with messages for our owner. So I waited by the door as I was instructed for this criminal to arrive. Finally, he pounded on the door, and I let him in straightaway. He carried a bag, stained with blood. But I barely had time to realize what it was before he saw a friend of my owner, and rushed to kill him.”
“Why did he rush to kill the male?” Zha Tahl asked.
“Because he was hurting one of the females. She was crying and whimpering, but she couldn’t get away because she was strapped down. Rokai ahl ordered him to stop hurting her, but he didn’t. So Rokai killed him. Then he killed the others that were hurting the other females. And his friend, Gaishon, he helped, too.”
Fla’ad’s eyes wandered to a point behind Zha Tahl and took on a far away look as he remembered. “My owner kept calling for me to release him. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. I just hid in the corner.”
“It’s okay to be afraid, child. We all are at some point,” Zha Tahl said, trying to soothe the boy.
Fla’ad looked up at Zha Tahl, his eyes sharp and focused. “I wasn’t afraid. I wanted him to die, too. I wanted him to keep screaming for me to help him and threatening to hurt me if I didn’t, because then, Rokai ahl may hear him and kill him too.”
“And Rokai killed him, too,” Zha Tahl said.
Fla’ad nodded. “He hurt me. Just like the females. He hurt me. He needed to die.”
Zha Tahl nodded his head slowly. “I believe he did.”
Fla’ad just looked at Zha Tahl without offering anything further.
“The other males, did they hurt the females often?” Zha Tahl asked gently.
“Yes. All the time. And when one died, they’d just buy another, and when she arrived, they’d hurt her too. Rokai ahl and Gaishon killed all the bad males. He didn’t leave a single one alive. They all needed to die.”
“Thank you, Fla’ad. You telling us this will help Rokai ahl. Thank you very much for trusting us and talking to us.”
Zha Tahl and Eula spoke quietly to the boy’s parents and guaranteed them they would never have to pay a single credit to care for their son as a result of his ordeal. The Cruestaci people would provide all the care he, and the three women rescued along with him, would need.
Then they respectfully made their way out of the medical room assigned to Fla’ad. Just before Zha Tahl had completely stepped across the threshold of Fla’ad’s room, Fla’ad spoke again.
“I want to be like him,” Fla’ad said.
Zha Tahl turned and regarded Fla’ad. “Who?”
“Rokai ahl. He saves people who can’t save themselves. I want to grow up and be like him one day. I want to save people like he does. I want the bad people to whisper my name in fear because they know I’m coming for them. I want to be like Rokai ahl.”
Zha Tahl nodded. “When you grow up, you come to see me. If you still wish to be like Rokai ahl, we’ll give you all the training you need.”
Fla’ad nodded and smiled the only smile he’d offered anyone since he’d been stolen from his home more than a year previous.
Chapter 31
Rokai lifted Rosie off her feet and sat her on the edge of the conference table. “Now, where were we before the damned computer interrupted us?”
“You were explaining that your kind know their mate on sight.”
“Yes, our Ehlealah. And you are mine,” he growled softly, forcing her head backward and nuzzling her neck.
Rosie moaned and wrapped her fingers in a handful of his braids, holding him tightly to her.
“You are mine, Rosalita,” Rokai growled, as he kissed his way up to her lips.
“Not until I say so,” she said, pulling his head back to give her access to his throat. Rosie licked his throat, dragging her tongue up to his jawline before nipping him there. “Have to lay a few ground rules before I decide if I belong to anyone but me, Papi.”
Rokai grinned. “I am not Papi,” he said as she pushed the shirt he wore up and held it out of the way while her lips and tongue played with the small steel
bars pierced through his nipples.
“I know that,” she whispered between suckles on his nipples.
“I am Rokai, feared mercenary, smuggler and thief! I am known in the multi verse by one and all!” he claimed, his own hands lifting her shirt by feel as she still held his chin in the air by his braids being pulled down in her grip on the back of his head.
“Then why don’t I fear you?” she asked, biting his chest.
Rokai swatted her thigh lightly as she giggled. “Because I am yours, Rosalita.”
“For now, maybe.”
Rokai’s eyes narrowed, and he forced his head up despite the hold she had on his braids, which just let her know that he was allowing her to hold him — he could have shaken her off easily at any time he chose.
“What do you mean - for now?” he asked.
“Until the notorious Rokai ahl, feared the universe over, finds another female he’d prefer to claim,” Rosie explained.
Rokai’s hands came up to frame her face, one on her jawline, another cradling her cheekbone. “You do not understand at all, my Rosalita. There will never be another. Never. Not for one moment, not for one instant, not for any reason. I cannot bear to even think of another female. You are all I see, all I will ever see. You have redeemed me, my Ehlealah.”
“How can you be so sure?” Rosie asked, turning her face to kiss the palm that cradled her cheek.
“It is how we are made. We find our Ehlealah, and our bodies, our souls are given. There is never an opportunity to regain possession of that part of ourselves. They belong to our mates ever after.”
“Does that frighten you? Anger you?” Rosie asked.
Rokai ahl smiled. “Until you? Very much so, both fear and anger. But now?” he shook his head. “Now I welcome it. You are fierce, my Ehlealah, just as I am. You are no sniveling female. You rival me in strength. I need you to make me stronger, Ehlealah. And you need me to make you stronger. The fates have chosen well. We are perfectly mated.”
“Well, only one thing to do, then,” Rosie said huskily.
“And what is that?” Rokai asked, expecting his Ehlealah to make another sarcastic joke.
Haven 2: Redemption Page 27
