by Maven, Ella
“Ah, it’s good to see you.” He waved with his three-fingered hand.
Justine beamed at him. “Hey there. No offense, but I didn’t expect to see you again for a long time.”
He opened his mouth but a shout from behind us cut him off. “Gram!”
I turned to find Hap running at full speed across the clavas, Shep trailing him at a much slower pace with his cane.
Gram’s expression flickered with confusion, then recognition as his eyes went wide. With a whispered voice, he said, “Hap?”
The young warrior skidded to a halt in front of the Uldani with a beaming grin and clasped him around the neck. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
Gram blinked at him like he was unable to believe his eyes. “I wondered many times what happened to you.”
“What’s going on?” I whispered to Justine. “How do they know each other?”
“Hap was taken in by Gram’s parents as their son’s companion, whatever that meant,” she said. “Hap told me Gram was the only Uldani who treated him well. They were friends, until Gram’s father was convicted of a crime and Gram ran away.”
The two were speaking quietly until Daz cleared his throat, interrupting the reunion. “Gram is welcome to stay and you two may spend more time together, but I’d like to know the reason for his visit.” He raised a nubbed brow at the Uldani. “I take it you aren’t here just to say hello?”
Gram shook his head. “No, I have news. I have a team working on going through the notes left behind by many of the elite responsible for military operations.” He cleared his throat as he gestured to an Uldani behind him, who withdrew a small tablet and handed it to Gram. He tapped on the screen a few times. “We uncovered the location of some things that belong to you.” He handed the tablet to Daz and then clasped his hands together, his chin lifted.
Daz looked carefully at Gram’s face as he took the tablet, probably searching for any sort of deception. As much as we wished to trust Gram, taking an Uldani for their word would take some time. Finally, he glanced down at the tablet. His entire body locked. Sax, looking over his shoulder, swayed on his feet.
I stepped to their side and eyed the screen. Pictured were five Drixonian cruisers and two massive warships, all sitting in a massive underground bunker. My cora pounded in my ears, and my body locked.
Daz swallowed, and he fumbled with the tablet as he inhaled sharply. For one of the first times in my life, I saw a vulnerability in my drexel when he looked at Gram with a plea in his eyes. “Is this real?” Sax gripped his brother’s shoulder and waited for Gram’s answer.
“We sent scouts to check. It’s all there in an underground cavern under a section of the plains on the eastern half of the continent. You probably rode over them hundreds of times.”
Daz went a little pale as his eyes dropped once again to the tablets. His fingers stroked over the warship’s cockpit. Piloting one is what he’d been trained to do since he could walk. I was certain he never thought he’d see one again.
I hadn’t thought I would either. When Xavy returned with news our only cruiser now rested on the bottom of the freshas, I’d mourned for many rotations. I gazed at the picture, my eye roaming the vessels which seemed to be intact. The aircraft could be damaged, or we wouldn’t have enough fuel—many things could still go wrong that could prevent us from going home. But this was a glimmer of hope. Plus, I was the best tech the Drixonians had ever seen. Now with Justine at my side, I knew we could fix any problem that arose.
Daz swallowed and lifted his head to Gram. “I thank you for this.”
Gram nodded. “I can’t give you back what you lost, as much as I wish I could.”
“You’ve done a lot,” Sax said. “You didn’t make the decision to unleash the virus.”
“No, but I still feel responsible. We all do.” The Uldani behind him, silent until now, murmured assents in low tones.
Footsteps sounded behind us, and I turned to find more bodies approaching, this time in the form of females. Val and her belly led the way. As soon as Sax saw her coming, he jogged to her side, and with one hand around her waist, and the other holding her hand, he helped her waddle forward. Frankie wasn’t far behind, walking as fast as she was able with Miranda.
More Drixonians had begun to emerge for the day. I hadn’t realized we’d drawn a crowd.
Val’s face lit up when she spotted Gram, and her eyes glistened with tears. “My savior,” she murmured.
Gram’s face colored as he let Val draw him into a hug. Sax hovered nearby, clearly not happy about his pregnant mate being so close to someone else. Val gripped Gram’s hands. “Thank you so much for all you did.”
“You make a lovely pregnant female,” Gram said.
“Yeah, okay, we know. Get your paws off her, Uldani,” Sax huffed, breaking up their contact. Val swatted at him, but that didn’t deter him from drawing his mate into his arms.
“What’s going on?” Frankie asked as she stepped to Daz’s side.
He still held the tablet, but at the presence of his mate, he came out of his stupor to wrap his arm around her shoulders. “Gram has come bearing news.”
“Oh yeah?” Frankie said, craning her neck to peer at the tablet. “What news?”
A serene smile crossed his face. “We’re going home, my cora-eternal.” His voice rose to carry over the gathered Drixonians and humans. “You will birth my chit on Corin, on the land our mothers and fathers walked. We’ll feed him from the soil that nourished the bodies of generations of Drixonians before us.” His chest heaved and his eyes glowed.
Frankie stood at his side, the breeze blowing her long dark hair around her shoulders and her dress around her legs. She gazed on with pride at her mate, just as I watched my drexel with respect.
“We’re going home!” Daz shouted to the gathered crowd.
Cheers went up, feet stomped, and soon the very ground was vibrating with the celebrations of hundreds of Drixonian males.
I clasped Justine’s hand, and watched as tears streamed from her eyes.
Daz bent down and placed a hand on Frankie’s bulging stomach. With his hair flying and his nostrils flaring, he roared one last call to arms. “She is All!”
“She is All!” The echoing chant was likely heard all the way to Corin.
Epilogue
One month later…
Frankie
I already had to pee every five minutes because of the gigantic baby pressing on my bladder, but now I also had to pee because I was shaking with nerves. One thing I knew for certain, I would do just about anything not to get on a spaceship again.
We’d spent a week on the massive warship, and I had to admit the accommodations were nice Daz’s room—a massive En suite afforded him as the ship’s captain—was impressive, with a large bed, a massive cleanser stall, and even a soaking tub, which I’d used almost every day since my back hurt literally all the time.
We’d sent scouts on a cruiser ahead of time, who sent word back that Corin was habitable and the first crew of Drix and females could return home. I wasn’t sure what I thought about the word habitable. That seemed a little of a low bar to me, but Daz’s excitement was palpable. No way would I ruin his homecoming with my fretting. I’d asked him questions, so I knew vaguely what to expect.
But still, as I stood next to Daz at the hatch of the warship waiting for it to open along with a hundred warriors and all my friends, I feared I’d pee myself from fear. What would the planet look like when this hatch opened? For a long time, I’d resented the walls of the Night Kings clavas, but now they represented safety to me.
I trusted Daz, and I trusted his warriors. If they said it was safe, then I had to be brave.
With a jolt, the giant hatch began to lower. We’d landed near the city of Granit in what Daz had referred to as a base for aircrafts and other military supplies. I pictured a fence with barbed wire and plain army green buildings but when the hatch came to a rest and I got my first look at Corin, my heart l
eaped into my throat.
I’d thought Torin was beautiful, but it had nothing on its sister planet.
Lush blue trees surrounded us, and tall grass swayed in the breeze. A large circular building, covered in overgrown vines, stood to the side and in the distance, sitting atop a giant crest of land, was a city. Tall buildings coated in an iridescent metal shimmered in the sun, and I could just make out a giant sphere in the center.
They’d built these to last—it’d been one hundred and fifty years—or cycles as the warriors called it—and these buildings looked like they’d been erected yesterday.
Also, in the distance to the right was a curious copse of spikes sticking out of the ground of varying heights, some as tall as twenty feet.
“Devas shrines?” Justined asked from behind me. She held her new pet, a mingo named Mozart she refused to leave behind.
“Yes,” Nero murmured. “I’ll take you there, little bird.”
I would have to ask Daz later what those were. He squeezed my hand, and I looked up at my mate, who was beaming down at me. His flat hand settled over my stomach. “Are you two okay? Ready to take your first steps on Corin?”
Our son kicked his palm in response. He always did that whenever Daz was around, and it never failed to amaze me how he seemed to know his father’s rumble from the womb. My nerves, which had been nearly overwhelming moments ago, calmed. I had all I needed right here. I nodded and smiled. “We’re ready.”
Daz lifted his proud head, and we made our way down the long ramp. When we reached the bottom, I toed off my flats and wiggled the toes of my swollen feet. “Fra-kee?” Daz queried.
“I want to feel the dirt and grass under my toes. See if it feels different than Torin.”
He smiled, and together, we took the very first step onto his home planet. It did, in fact, feel different. It felt like home.
* * *
Daz
It had been two dozen rotations since we arrived on Corin, and the amount of work seemed endless. My mate’s pregnancy was nearing the end, and I didn’t like to stray far from our hut, as our chit could come any time now.
Various clavases had split up into the villages that remained surrounding the city of Granit. The females refused to be separated, so the Night Kings all settled in the village where me, Sax, and Nero had been raised—Norjic. The moke tree in the center was still there, taller than ever, and the slashes we’d carved into the trunk’s bark barely visible.
The huts themselves had been a chore to restore. All needed new roofs, but luckily Hap was a master at delegating what needed to done, so I’d put him in charge of that. He’d been efficient with his team of warriors, and only took a few rotations to make the huts livable again while we slept on the warship.
We’d had to chase out several families of moira, who couldn’t seem to understand who and what we were. The wildlife of this planet had taken over, and it’d be a while before we cleared all the buildings of animal droppings.
The women seemed to love the village. They often gathered around the base of the tree to talk and mend clothes. Hap had built them a series of benches and tables, and even a hammock hung from the lower branches. The sight of that brought back memories of alone time with Fra-kee when we’d first talked at Tark and Anna’s after she’d had her implant installed. I caught her a few times running her hands over the netting with a sly smile on her face. Fleck, she was perfect.
I missed her, even now as I walked through the deserted streets of Granit with my brother. Once a busy metropolis, the buildings were now overgrown with numa, and I stayed prepared in case a pivar pack or salibri mother decided to surprise us. Anything could be living in these buildings now. It’d be a long time before we got our city back. There was also still much more of this planet we needed to explore. It was possible some areas had been inhabited by others in our absence. If they were friendly, we’d leave them be. But if not… we’d fight to ensure our safety.
Sax and I were supposed to be talking about starting repairs on the city, but there was a subject we’d been avoiding that would soon be impossible to ignore. In fact, it was past time we discussed it.
“We need to talk about Rex,” I said, my voice echoing off the nearby buildings on the empty street.
Sax’s body went stiff, and I hated how the news had affected him. He’d been the closest to Rex, and as someone who’d been imprisoned by the Uldani and pricked with needles as they sought to turn him into a breeder, he was surely haunted by what could have happened to our brother. His jaw worked. “I know.”
“What do you want to do?”
He whipped his head to me with his brows lowered. “What do you mean?”
“You want to search for him?”
“Of course, I flecking do,” he growled.
“Don’t get angry with me,” I snapped back. “I’m just as affected by this as you are.”
He huffed and kicked a rock, which went sailing through an already broken window in a nearby building. “I know that. I just can’t get the picture of him out of my mind of him laying on one of their tables while they touched him…” He closed his eyes. “You know they wouldn’t have spared him pain.”
The thought of them touching my brother made gorge rise in my throat. “No, I’m sure they didn’t. Gram still can’t find records on the experiments. Nero had searched everything to no avail. I just need to know that you’ll be okay with whoever he is now.” I swallowed. “Whatever he is.”
Sax lifted his head and looked me square in the eye. “I don’t care what they did to him or what they turned him into. He’s still my brother.”
I nodded. “I feel the same.”
He clasped my neck, and I clasped his. Our foreheads touched, and I reveled in the strength of my brother’s body beneath my palm. I couldn’t imagine not having him here with me. I also couldn’t imagine not doing everything in my power to bring Rexor home.
“We’ll wait until our chits are born and our mates are settled,” I said. “And then, we’ll bring our brother home.”
Sax’s smile, the one I’d missed, spread across his face. “Order received, drexel.”
My comm alert went off, and I glanced at the screen. The words there sent all the blood draining down to my feet. I swayed and would have dropped the comm if Sax hadn’t grabbed it.
He read the words and then, the flecking shet, laughed long and loud. “Let’s get back to Norjic, brother. You’re about to be a father.”
We sped back to our village on our hover bikes in record time. There, I watched my perfect mate, my cora-eternal, push out a perfect son with blue skin, little horns, and a shock of dark hair. He screamed in my face with powerful lungs until I handed him to my mate, who let him feast on her milk.
We named him Corthin, a mashup of the planets where his parents had been born. As he drank greedily from my mate’s breast, I leaned down and pressed a kiss to her sweaty forehead.
Exhausted, she still smiled at me, love glowing from her pretty eyes. “He’s perfect,” she whispered.
He was, and I vowed to give her the perfect life she’d always dreamed on the most perfect planet in the galaxy.
Curious about Rex? Don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging! His book is coming very soon!
REXOR
Book One in the Stolen Warriors series
They thought I was dangerous before, but now that I have a female to defend… I’m ruthless.
Preorder now!
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Thanks for reading about my Drixonians! I’d love it if you’d consider leaving me a review on Amazon or Goodreads!
If you missed reading about Daz and Frankie, you can get their story in The Alien’s Ransom. Sax and Valerie’s story is in The Alien’s Escape. Ward and Reba’s story is The Alien’s Undoing. Miranda and Drak’s story is The Alien’s Revenge. Gar and Naomi’s story is The Alien’s Savior
. Xavy and Tabitha’s story is The Alien’s Challenge.
The Alien’s Equal is the final book in the Drixonian Warrior series, but I have many more stories to come featuring Drixonians and other aliens in the Rinian Galaxy!
Rexor: Stolen Warriors
They thought I was dangerous before, but now that I have a female to defend… I’m ruthless.
Daisy: I’m a glass half-full girl, but this last week has really tested my outlook on life. First of all, aliens exist. Yeah, there’s a doozy. Second of all, they steal humans from Earth, and they’re not nice about it. Like at all. Anger issues abound in other galaxies apparently.
My situation worsens when I learn I’m the prize in some really effed-up alien gladiator games. I’m just going to admit it now—my glass is empty, and this doesn’t look good for me…
Rexor: Once I was a proud Drixonian Warrior. Now I’m an experiment gone bad and a former gladiator who can’t control his bloodlust.
When I see a human female with sunshine hair in danger, I can’t let her fall into the clutches of monsters who will break her. I steal her with the intention of rescuing her, not keeping her for myself. She’s beauty and happiness. I’m a hideous shadow of what I once was and losing my mind with every planet’s rotation. All I know is that while we’re on the run from our enemies, I’ll do anything to protect her. Even if I have to break myself to do it.
Rexor is a SciFi Alien Warrior Romance with lots of action, a heroine who’s really trying to look on the bright side, and a tortured hero with a few…enhancements.
