by Vi Voxley
"With everything," she said, turning to look at her fateds.
Eredin chuckled.
"Whatever you're imagining, it will be better," he promised, pulling her along to lie on the bed between the two of them. "You ended up on Corolon at a very peculiar time. The messenger clearly knew all that was going to happen, but we still had to live through it. At peace, our world is very beautiful."
"Are Haverins ever truly peaceful?" Joanna asked, smiling, utterly content to be happy in her personal moment of joy.
"No," Rago admitted, "but you wouldn't know it, being here. All that matters to us is that you are happy. If life threw such an obstacle in our way, I doubt there will be anything we can't handle in the future."
Joanna thought that was most likely true.
Her words were stolen from her, however, when Eredin pulled her in for a deep, soft kiss.
"After everything you've been through here," the warlord said. "I wouldn't be surprised if you chose to be elsewhere. You just need to know, Joanna, that the rest of the two weeks we have ahead of us aren't going to be an exception. We will never stop trying to make you stay, even after the messenger has long come and gone.
"There will never be a day that we wouldn't spend with you, bringing that gorgeous smile of yours to your lips."
Joanna didn't know what to say, but it seemed her fateds didn't wait for her to figure it out either. They held her between them, safe and warm and loved. The feeling of absolute joy was blooming so fast in her chest that Joanna thought she was going to explode.
It was the kind of happiness a person never expected to really feel, something out of fairytales or myths, not out of real life. The sincerity of her fateds had been hard to believe for Joanna at first, but with every word out of their mouths, she was forced to believe them.
I'm not leaving, she thought. I don't think I could bear the pain either.
The next day brought Joanna more unexpected realizations.
Eredin and Rago took her along to oversee the order and help along with dismantling the horrible legacy Doraton had left behind. They'd told Joanna how the Lord Templar had been trying to turn all those who didn't belong to his family into fodder for the enemies' guns.
She'd been feeling guilty about using the power of the Orb on him, but after seeing that Joanna had no regrets anymore.
The hovership was taking them to the temple of the order and the view outside was as breathtaking as ever. Joanna sat opposite of her fateds, observing them with a quiet smile. It had been another fear of hers that she'd simply fallen for the image the warlords portrayed. Given how they'd appeared to her, that was entirely plausible.
And it wasn't it. What Joanna was feeling was much, much deeper than simply being starstruck and she was certain her fateds felt the same way.
"Will they reconsider?" Joanna asked, leaning back on her seat and letting her eyes drift to the glorious morning outside before turning her gaze back to them. "Will they let you join the order now?"
Eredin scoffed.
"They better," he said with a feral grin on his lips. "After what we did for them, after everything that has come to life... I don't think they could keep us out if they tried."
Joanna nodded, agreeing.
"I think you deserve it," she said, smiling. "I'm just worried about that whole mission thing. The order being the protector of your way of life and so on. Wouldn't your inclusion break a lot of rules?"
"It would," Rago said, exchanging a look with Eredin. "There are a few things the order has come to understand as well in the last couple of days. One is that Haverins and our existence aren't as fragile as previously thought. The kings have proved that many times and now us. It's time to move on.
"The order will be great again, restored to its actual purpose. Eredin and I will see to that."
Joanna couldn't keep the smile off her face. She loved listening to her fateds when they were truly passionate about something. As a Terran, she couldn't have fully appreciated what the order did for Haverin, but Joanna had all the faith in the world that her fateds wouldn't let it down.
"What exactly are we going to do there?" she asked.
"We'll show you around," Eredin said with a mischievous grin. "And they can see that having a fated doesn't make us any less qualified to be a Templar."
"We are going to look for information about the Orb," Rago said, giving Eredin a harsh glare. "Change takes time. We can't expect to be inducted into the order as soon as we step through the door."
As it happens, something very much like that happened, to Joanna's amusement. She knew it was a guilty laugh she was holding back. It was just that nice to see the look of pure shock on the faces of her fateds when the Templar in charge rushed to meet them, uttering quick words to both men.
"Repeat that," Eredin ordered, frowning. "We do not appreciate being joked with."
"No jest," the Templar assured him, a fearful look in his eyes. "This is what the order has decided. If you and Rago wish to take the honor duel again, we can make it happen right now."
Joanna listened, thinking to herself that Haverins truly were a one-of-a-kind species.
I figured the order would be a bit more inclined to make changes after the kings chided them all for following Doraton so blindly.
"Joanna," Eredin said. "Do you mind waiting one more day to start your research about the Orb?"
"Of course," she laughed. "But only if I get to see the honor duel. I want to be there when you get everything you've ever wished for."
Both her fateds turned to her as one. The twin looks of love made the smile fall from Joanna's lips. Not because she wasn't happy, but because she simply felt overwhelmed in the face of their devotion to her.
"You are everything we ever wished for," Rago said with a soft smile. "Never forget that. This comes as a very distant second."
Joanna wondered if that was a smart thing to say in front of the Templar, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She rose up on her tiptoes to kiss both her warlords and nodded quietly, accepting that there were men like them in galaxy after all.
And they were hers.
The Templar led her to the arena, promising to help her look for the information she needed on the next day.
"Thank you," Joanna said thankfully. "I'd love to learn more about this. If I'm going to live with it, I’d better put it to good use."
The Templar nodded with a proud smile, making Joanna think that perhaps their species weren't so different after all. There were monsters and heroes everywhere, after all.
She watched the honor duel with a smile she couldn't fight. When it was time to give their oaths, Eredin and Rago, both dressed in Templar black now, were looking at her. The looks in their eyes told her without a shadow of a doubt that it was her their first loyalty belonged to, and always would.
None of the Templars around her gave any indication of noticing that, but then again, it occurred to Joanna that perhaps the new order would also open a path for them to find their fateds.
No one could deny love, after all. That was the lesson she'd learned in the last few days.
Joanna clapped the hardest when the order welcomed their two newest members and ran to them. All other greeters quickly made themselves scarce, seeing how none of them wanted to be disturbed at that moment.
"This is what you would have given up for me," Joanna said, looking around, glancing at her fateds, both observing her with clear love in their eyes.
"It was the easiest decision we ever made," Eredin said. "I know it sounds like we didn't care about the order to begin with, but that's not true. The truth is that compared to you, nothing else comes close."
Joanna smiled.
"If you keep going down that path, very soon you'll run out of pretty things to tell me," she said.
"Unlikely," Rago commented.
They led her away from the arena, walking through the halls of the order. It amazed Joanna how quickly life changed. The men who'd been vigorously opposed to
the order changing in any way came up to them to congratulate her fateds for winning the honor duel.
Chance, she thought. This is what taking chances gets you. If I'd chosen to live my life, only doing the things I thought were possible, I would never have ended up here. I would never have known how it feels to love so deeply and be loved in return.
It was the same with the order, Joanna was sure of that. As the ruins of the old world they'd lived in were falling, the Templars had taken their first breath of freedom too. And she believed her fateds would lead them to greatness.
She slipped her hands into theirs when they boarded the hovership again. The physical contact didn't need to be fierce and filled with lust to once again tell Joanna she was finally where she belonged.
It seemed her fateds were thinking along those same lines.
"After all this, if you were given the choice to go back and change anything, would you?" Eredin asked, musing. "I still wish I could somehow make that messenger pay for putting you in that situation. The Orb could have rejected you."
It could have, that was true. Joanna had no idea if Reuben had known she'd be the host or not but she was inclined to think he knew everything.
Even so...
"You mean if I could choose to get the Orb out of my arm? Never have met Doraton? Not being shot at and chase by the Orochis?"
"Yes," Eredin and Rago said, a hint of concern in their voices.
All of that gave me the chance to meet you.
"No," Joanna said.
Epilogue
Joanna
She noticed that her fateds didn't need to ask.
A week later, they were eating dinner at Rago's villa. The warriors were a little tense, unsure of how to approach the subject with her.
It was at that evening when they were in the garden, lounging on comfortable sofas, when they seemed to understand she was going to stay.
"I think I'd like to do something to this garden," Joanna said, musing, twirling a glass between her fingers. "I like how one part of it is kind of wild, like nature can't be tamed. I'd like the entire thing to be like that, a bit out of hand. Do you think I could do that?"
Rago looked at Eredin, moving a little slowly due to his wound healing. They didn't say a thing. Instead, they stood and came to sit with her, one on either side as before.
"You can do whatever you want to the garden," Rago said. "I told you, it's yours."
"Good," Joanna replied, laughing a little. "Because I think I could do with a little gardening. I've spent so much of my life in cramped ships that my spirit is calling for the outdoors. I'll have to think of a real job too, though. I don't just want to be the lady of the house –"
Rago kissed her. His lips were surprisingly gentle, kissing her like he had never tasted anything sweeter than her. As if he could tell her everything with the way he held her, tightly but without hurting. Joanna felt a warmth building in her chest as everything about it felt right. When Eredin pulled her to him for another kiss, she leaned into his touch, thinking of how perfect it was.
There was no explanation to it, barely any reason. She didn't even know if it was the Orb in her arm that told her what the right decisions were.
All she knew was that she could never leave her fateds. The mere thought of being without them had quickly become unbearable, no matter the cost and there really wasn't anything to consider. There was nothing for her back on Terra that came close to even comparing to the joy she'd felt over the course of the few days of fighting for her life and experiencing love that was meant to be.
"I love you," she said softly, the words coming to her lips as easily as she breathed.
Their answers were lost in kisses, whispered against her lips, forever sealed and etched on her heart.
Reuben appeared as he'd promised, on the dot two weeks after Joanna's departure from the Rivera.
She was alone in the garden, working, when the messenger teleported a few feet away from her. Hiding how startling it was to suddenly see someone standing so close to her, Joanna stood and smiled.
"So here we are," she said, glancing at the violet pattern on her arm. "You couldn't have given me any hints or clues, could you?"
"No," Reuben said simply, smiling apologetically. "The course of history is complicated. Sometimes the future depends a lot on how little the people who bring it about know. Forgive me for any trouble I caused you, Miss Joanna. I assure it was not my intention."
"Nothing to forgive," Joanna said. "There might be, logically taken, but I regret nothing. I had no idea what to expect from all this, but now that I'm here... thank you for coming for me. I don't know how you picked me or why, but I assure you, you have done nothing wrong by me."
Reuben smiled, giving her a small bow.
"I take it that you won't be returning to Terra, then?" he asked. "Just a formality."
"Of course," Joanna replied, grinning. "Let me formally decline your offer, then. No, I will not be returning to Terra."
"That is good," Reuben said. "I believe you will do much good here. I trust that your fateds are well?"
"They're great," Joanna assured him. "They run the Order now. The kings appointed them both Lord Templars. I think it's not just because they earned in the last couple of weeks, but to show Haverins once more that the two families can work together. It's a good move. I think they'll do an excellent job at it.
"Their first task, of course, has been to investigate the matter of Doraton and any Templars who might still be loyal to him. I believe they will restore the Order to its former glory. It's all they've ever wanted, after all. I'll soon be joining them. I'll start learning about the Orb and how I could use my power to help people."
"A very worthy task," Reuben said, pretending he didn't know it already.
He sighed deeply then, a kind smile on his face.
"I'm really glad everything worked out for you, Miss Joanna," he said. "I will take my leave now. Perhaps we will meet again."
"Wait," Joanna said.
She hadn't known whether she dared to ask or whether she even should. Now, standing in front of Reuben, Joanna couldn't resist.
"You see through time, somehow. Or you can predict the future. I don't know and I suppose I don't need to. Just tell me – what does the future hold for me? For me and my fateds?"
Reuben smiled.
"Templars," he said.
"I already have two," Joanna laughed. "I don't think I would like them to move the headquarters to my backyard. How many more could I have in my life?"
Reuben took a step closer, gently laying his hand on her stomach.
"There will be a few more Templars in your future," he said, grinning mischievously. "To follow in the footsteps of their fathers."
"What –"
The messenger was gone and Joanna was once again alone in the garden. Only – she wasn't, was she? Running her hand across her belly, imagining she could feel the life growing inside her, Joanna felt peace and happiness surround her like a cloak. There were no words to describe the infinite joy she felt in that moment, thinking of her baby and what else life would bring her family.
She'd taken a gamble and literally stepped through a door into a new life. It was the sort of thing people were usually warned not to do.
Joanna had never been gladder for anything than being given the chance to take that step.
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Triad in the Stars
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Nadar: Alien Warlord’s Conquest
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Alien General's Bride
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Don’t miss the excerpt of Alien Warlords’ Baby, the first book in Vi’s new Warlords of Octava series, on the next page! It is out now!
Alien Warlords’ Baby
Alien Warlords’ Baby Excerpt
One by one, they scrambled into the cramped space of the ship and strapped themselves in. Riley came last, looking around in wonder, her sharp gray eyes taking in everything while the others seemed focused on the apparent danger.
"Miss Riley," Cole stopped her when she was about to climb into the ship.
The female stopped, a small smile playing on her full pink lips, a questioning look in her eyes.
"Yes, Commander?" she asked, unaware how very obvious her attraction was. "Is there something wrong?"
Nothing could be wrong around you, not now, not ever.
"No," Cole said, grinning, as the last of the other Terrans swept by them, leaving only the last seats empty. "I just wanted to make sure you got a seat next to me."
She covered her surprise well. Just for a moment, the smile widened, brightening her up in a way Cole didn't think he could ever forget. The image of her, shining in the daylight, was instantly embedded in his heart.
"I see," Riley said quietly. "What earned me the honor, then?"
"You ask good questions," Harbor replied for him, coming to stand beside them, his dark eyes eating her up.
The sight sent furious pulses through Cole. To see him look at his – their – fated like that was almost unbearable.
If Riley noticed, she didn't give them any clue of that. Giving them another long look, she let Cole help her into the ship. Her soft hand in his made his body roam with electricity. The commander wanted so much more, needed every inch of her to be his, but there would be plenty of time for that.
He had only just found her. They had all the time in the world to be together.
