by Ashley West
Chapter 13: Epilogue
The weeks that followed proved to Khaos and anyone else watching that there was still a use for government. While the other quadrants of Blessini hadn’t been as plagued by the Vekosh as the Kaspersi had, once they’d found out what the Vekosh had been doing and just how far flung the whole thing could have been, it turned out that they were perfectly willing to help the Kaspersi in their efforts to banish the Vekosh once and for all.
No matter how crafty or underhanded the creatures were, they didn’t have the power to stand up against the united forces of Blessini’s other races.
While Khaos would have been in favor of killing all of them for the pain and suffering they had caused him and so many others, he was out voted, and it was decided that giving the Vekosh what they wanted was a better way to get rid of them and not have to fight.
Since he was already in trouble with Calin for his stunt with rescuing Kayla, Khaos decided not to argue about it. Instead he watched as the Vekosh were loaded up and taken to a remote planet that would be perfect for them. The explorers had found it recently, and while it was too harsh and cold to be home to any of their races, the Vekosh would thrive there.
“I hope we don’t regret this,” Khaos murmured as the shuttle took off, taking their main enemies to a place where they wouldn’t be able to monitor them as closely as he felt they needed to be monitored to make sure that something like this didn’t happen again.
“They don’t have completely free reign,” Calin said as he came up behind him. “There will be limits to what they can do, and they’re restricted from entering Blessini’s orbit ever again. We will be vigilant.”
“Right,” Khaos replied, nodding.
With the Vekosh gone, they wouldn’t have to worry about people dying from the venom anymore. At least, that was the assumption. Between the scientists on Earth and their own medics, they’d determined that the venom didn’t last long in the food or water and that without the Vekosh around, whatever was remaining there would essentially fade away in a matter of days. They were going to go through and test everything to make sure that there were no more causes to worry, but for the most part, the Kaspersi could breathe easy.
Or at least that was the assumption. Khaos wasn’t sure how much that would apply to him. He watched until the shuttle was out of sight and then sighed, rubbing at his face.
He felt like he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep since he’d come back to his home planet. Nothing felt the way it should, and even though he hadn’t had a chance to jump back into the arena yet, Khaos was pretty sure that even that wasn’t going to help. It just felt like something was missing and remembering the way Kayla had looked at him as he’d gotten in the car to take her back to the apartment, Khaos was pretty sure he knew what it was.
He’d been told that the thing about mates separating was all legend, but maybe that wasn’t true. Or maybe he just missed her. He’d understood why he had to come back home and why Kayla couldn’t come with him, but that didn’t mean that he was happy about it.
When Khaos looked up, Calin was looking at him speculatively. “You know,” he said. “When I first met you, I believed you were champion material. Now I’m not so sure. You disobeyed me when I told you that we weren’t going to go get that girl. You put her above your people, Khaos, and I don’t think that’s what a champion would do.”
“With all due respect, Calin, you made me champion because I won a certain number of fights. You didn’t know anything about me or my character. Just that I could fight well,” Khaos replied. Mouthing off to the leader probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, especially considering he still didn’t know if he was going to get punished for that whole disobeying thing yet.
Calin’s eyes were slightly amused as he looked at him. “That’s a fair point. I was more than a little desperate at that point. But the fact remains that things could have turned out much worse for all of us because of your interference. As such, I am stripping you of your title of champion. Since you have proven you can’t make the Kaspersi your first priority, you no longer have to.” He held Khaos’ gaze for a long moment and then inclined his head. “Good day.”
Khaos watched, confused as Calin walked away. Was that it? He was being stripped of a title that was basically obsolete now anyway? That was his punishment?
“Think about what he said,” someone murmured from behind him, and Khaos turned to see Bran standing there.
“You’re sneaky, aren’t you?” Khaos asked.
Bran laughed. “It helped you out, didn’t it? Now do it. Think about what he said.”
“He said that I wasn’t champion anymore. What’s to think about?”
“Oh for-” Bran sighed. “Warriors. He said that you don’t have to make the Kaspersi your priority anymore. Because you made Kayla your priority before. So since the Kaspersi don’t have to come first…”
“Kayla can,” Khaos said, eyes wide. “He’s...he’s letting me go back?”
“A round of applause for you. Yes, Khaos. He’s letting you go back.” Bran shook his head, clearly amused. “But will you? I know how much you love the arena here.”
That was true. For the longest time, fighting in the arena had been his life. It had been the reason he got up in the morning and the thing that kept him going through the day. He’d measured his worth in how many battles he’d won and how many people were proud of him because of his skill. But his time on Earth had shown him that he could be good at other things and that there were plenty of other reasons to get up in the morning and keep going through the day.
“Are you going to be heading back there?” he asked Bran.
“Within the next few days, yes. I like it here, but my home is there now. And I need to be there if ever other Kaspersi need to come to Earth. Will you be coming back with us?”
“Yes.”
It wasn’t even something he had to think about.
Back on Earth, things were proceeding as normal. People came into the clinic for everything from colds to broken bones, and Kayla treated them with her usual grace and good humor. She was trying so hard to get back into her groove, the way things were before she’d met someone from a different planet who had turned her world upside down in a matter of weeks.
She missed him, to be sure, but they both had responsibilities and lives apart from each other, and that was probably the way it should have been. He’d saved her, and she’d kissed him goodbye, and now it was time to get back to her life as it had been before this whole thing had started.
The nurses noticed, of course, that she wasn’t the same as she’d been before. They’d asked about the whole her being kidnapped thing, and Kayla’s vague excuses hadn’t really been believed, but when it became clear that she didn’t want to talk about it and that Khaos was the person who had saved her, they’d let the matter drop. Of course, she still caught them watching her sometimes, eyes concerned as they went about their days.
A week passed, and Kayla found excuses to linger at the office after hours. Going home to her empty house was no longer something she could pretend gave her any joy. She still had Charlie and that was better than being alone, but now she knew what she was missing.
And god, did she miss it.
She missed him.
She missed the way he had always gone home with her and made things so much less lonely and just...brighter. She missed kissing him and being held by him.
“Do we need to hunt him down and hurt him?” Christina asked one night as they were cleaning up and putting things away for the night. “Because I don’t like seeing you like this. None of us do.”
Kayla forced a smile and shook her head. “I’m fine, Christina. I promise. I just miss him, but it’s fine. He had to go back home.”
“For his family emergency?”
“Something like that, yeah. I...he’s not the kind of man who can just abandon his family and friends because of a girl. Not until they’re okay. And I respect that.”
> It was clear that Christina did, too, even if she wasn’t happy about the way it was clearly making Kayla feel.
She insisted on staying with Kayla that night, but she shooed her off, promising that she was fine and there was nothing to worry about. She’d picked a couple of new doctors that she needed to interview to come in and help, and she needed to finalize the questions she had for them and set dates for that.
There was plenty to keep her busy and keep her from pining pointlessly. She was better than that.
And if she had to wipe away a few tears that had trickled down her face while she typed, well. That was fine, too.
Kayla jolted when she heard someone knocking on the door to the clinic, heart leaping up into her throat. She was still on edge after being basically abducted from her place of work, and she gripped the knife she’d started keeping in her desk drawer before she got up and made her way out to the waiting room.
For a moment, she thought she was seeing things because surely there was no way that Khaos was standing outside of the clinic with his bags, looking like he wanted to be let in. There was no way.
But even when she closed her eyes and then reopened them, he was still there, smiling when he caught sight of her through the glass window.
“What are you doing here?” Kayla demanded as she flung the door open.
“What kind of question is that?” Khaos replied, glancing down at the knife in her hand. “And what are you doing with that?”
Kayla shrugged. “Can’t be too careful these days. But seriously, what are you doing here?”
He smiled and stepped inside, dropping his bags on the floor. “I came back. Because I missed you. I just. The Kaspersi don’t need me. I pretty much proved that I can’t just fight for them all the time, and that I want some things for myself, too. So I was...dismissed.”
“They kicked you out?” Kayla asked, incredulous. “After all you did for them?”
Khaos laughed and pulled her into his arms. “They didn’t kick me out. They...told me that I was free to pursue other options. And I chose that because all I could think about is you. So if you want me, I’m yours.”
She thought about telling him that she didn’t see how it would work. There was so much that he didn’t know about living on Earth, and she knew that he was going to miss his friends and his fights and that she probably wouldn’t be able to give him all the things he needed. It was going to be a struggle for them to make it work, but even knowing that, Kayla clung to him tighter.
“I want you,” she said, burying her face in his chest. “I really, really do. I missed you, and everyone thought you just left me, which isn’t true, but. I just wanted you to come back.”
Khaos grinned and tipped her face up, pressing a kiss to her mouth. “I think you might be stuck with me for good now.”
“You’re not going to hear me complaining.”
He laughed, and she laughed with him, giddiness bubbling up in her.
“Good,” Khaos said. “Are you done for the night, then? I can think of a lot of things we could do that would be more fun than you working all night. Let me take care of you.”
And Kayla nodded, for once perfectly willing to let someone be for her what she was to everyone else.
One year later
“Kayla, your man is here!” called Christina. “And Dr. Carpenter is gone for the night.”
Kayla smiled, looking up from her computer where she had been inventorying the supplies they had and making lists of the ones they needed to restock. It was just after eight, so Khaos couldn’t even tell her that she’d been working too late as he was prone to whenever it got too far after the clinic's close and she was still in her office.
Even though he preferred to walk home, and she was perfectly capable of escorting herself to her car and then to the house, he usually made his way to the clinic so he could ride home with her.
For the first little bit of their relationship since he came back, it had bothered her. Logically, she knew that it didn’t mean that he didn’t think she was capable of getting home on her own, but that fierce streak of pride in her had risen up and made things hard.
After a while, she’d learned that it wasn’t him doubting her. It was him just wanting to keep her safe and protected, which was like some kind of natural instinct when it came to Khaos.
Once she got over being mildly irritated by it, it was rather nice.
“Why do you insist on calling him that?” Kayla called back, saving her progress and shutting down the laptop before she got up to stretch languidly, her back popping with each movement as a clear testament to the fact that she’d been sitting down in her chair for too long. With the addition of the new doctor, Kayla had much more time to work on paperwork, which was good for the way the clinic was run, but bad for her back.
“Because it’s what he is,” Christina replied. “He’s too beefy to be called your ‘boyfriend’ or something stupid like that.”
Kayla laughed. She supposed the nurse had a point. For all he wasn’t human, Khaos was definitely not a boy.
“Are you talking about me?” his familiar voice said, and he poked his head around the doorframe with a raised eyebrow. “I can tell when you’re talking about me.”
“That’s just because you’re vain,” Christina said. “Anyway, I’m off for the night. See you on Monday, Kayla.”
“Good night, Chris,” Kayla said, waving to the nurse before turning her attention to her mate. They’d decided to just use that term since it seemed to fit everything they felt for each other. Kayla had learned that on Blessini, there wasn’t really a such thing as marriage, more of a joining of lives, which was almost the same thing without all the legal bits.
She’d explained marriage to Khaos, and he’d understood it, though he didn’t seem as fond of all the stipulations that seemed to go with it. They’d been together for over a year at this point, but neither of them were in a hurry to make things more official than they already were.
Khaos hadn’t had a lot of time to think about it anyway, considering all he’d had to do once he came back to Earth. With Calin’s blessing, he hadn’t been considered an illegal alien, and he’d had to be integrated into the system so he could have an identity.
Once that was done, he had to find out what he wanted to do.
It turned out that he was just as good at teaching people to fight as he was at actually fighting, and with a little help from the Kaspersi on Earth and the savings he’d had back on Blessini, he’d been able to open his own studio where he taught everything from hand to hand combat to self defense training. He was a hit in the city, and it gave him something to do while Kayla worked, and more importantly, it gave him a sense of purpose that he’d seemed to be lacking when he’d first come back, and that made Kayla happy.
She was so happy that he’d come back to be with her, but if he’d been miserable, then she didn’t think she would have been able to take it.
Now that they were alone in the office, Khaos gave her a warm smile and crossed to where she was standing, gathering her up in his arms. No matter how many times they did this, it was always the same comfortable, exciting feeling to be this close to him.
“How was your day?” he asked, leaning down to brush his lips over hers.
“Good. Three kids with broken bones came in. Apparently it’s football season at the middle school.”
Khaos snorted. He’d seen the human sport and didn’t understand why humans were so fragile, clearly. “Did you make them better?”
“I tried. They needed to be sent to the hospital because of the severity of the breaks, so. Hopefully they’re alright. How was your day?”
“Really good. The people in my self-defense class are doing awesomely.” He filled her in on how the class was going while she packed up her things and the two of them left together, Khaos keeping a sharp eye on everything while Kayla locked up.
It had been a good long while since she’d been kidnapped and held hostage by the Ve
kosh, but neither of them had forgotten it, and Kayla knew that Khaos still considered it a moment when he’d failed her.
She didn’t agree, but they didn’t talk about it often.
Together they got in the car and headed towards home, knowing that Charlie would be there waiting for them and that Khaos would make dinner while Kayla showered and got changed out of her work clothes. Then they would sit down and eat and Kayla would clean up the kitchen while Khaos showered. It was a weekend, so they’d take their time before going to bed, and it would all be cozy and familiar and wonderful.
Their routine had taken time to get used to, but it had worked for the best, in Kayla’s opinion. At first she had worried that he would miss his home and his friends and the arena, but he’d seemed to adapt to life on Earth, life with her, easily enough. She was happy, and Khaos seemed to feel the same way, and she was pretty sure that even though there hadn’t been an actual sickness that brought them together, what they had built was definitely the cure they both had needed for their lives.
About The Author
Ashley West was raised in a small Midwest town. She has always been a big fan of science fiction and paranormal books and movies. Her all-time favorite movies are the first three Star Wars movies.
She started writing at a young age and has not looked back since. Ashley brings her worlds to life with vivid details and likeable characters. On her spare time, she enjoys painting, jogging, and curling up next to her favorite books.
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