by Luna Hunter
Dru enjoys the contrast between the three different men. Normally, you’d have to find the perfect mate, who completes you and challenges you at the same time in every single way… and here she is, with three men, each one a gorgeous catch in his own right! Dru doesn’t have to choose. She can enjoy every brother for their own personality, for their own strengths.
As she stares into Aksel’s eyes, that familiar sinking feeling appears in the pit of her stomach. If she wasn’t half-Djall, if they weren’t Xhakans, if she could just let go of the anger simmering inside of her… but try as she might, Dru simply can’t change any of those things.
She has to face the Djall King. She has to avenge her mother. She has to make him pay for all that he’s done to her. Only then can she let go of the hatred inside of her, only can she begin to love.
In the meantime, however, a hike sounds nice.
“Okay,” Dru says, “I’ll join you.”
“Excellent!” Aksel replies with a wide smile. “Excellent!”
Several hours later, the two take a shuttle down to the surface of Rhozenia. He gently holds her hand as he leads her outside, into this rugged, alien planet.
The view is simply breathtaking. There’s massive mountains up in the distance, a lake so clear you can see the bottom in front of them, and high, high above, there’s a nebula spread out overhead, covering the sky like the most colorful blanket imaginable.
“I’ve been looking forward to visiting Rhozenia for years,” Aksel says. “It’s in all the guide books.”
“Are you such a hiking enthusiast?”
“Guilty as charged,” Aksel says as he leans down and plucks a flower. “Look, a Rhozenian lilly. Isn’t it beautiful?”
He places the gorgeous, purple flower in Dru’s hair, and she can’t help but smile. With just the two of them there, Dru feels downright amazing. A gentle breeze is making their hair dance, and she grabs his hand and squeezes it tenderly.
“Why do you like to hike so much?” Dru asks as they make their way across the grassy plain.
“For many reasons. Most of all, I enjoy being in touch with nature,” Aksel answers. “When you’re walking, your feet touching the ground, the very soil, you’re simply there. In the moment. Completely aware of your surroundings. Try it!”
“What do you mean?”
Aksel drops down to one knee and grabs Dru’s foot.
“May I?”
“You’re crazy,” Dru laughs as he takes off both her shoes.
“Now walk around, and concentrate on nothing but what you’re feeling.”
Drusilla does as he says. At first it feels a bit awkward — the cold dirt between her toes, the wet grass brushing against her ankles — but within a few tentative steps, she has to admit it feels kinda good.
“This is crazy,” she laughs again.
“You’ve never walked barefoot in a field?”
“No, I never have.”
“Then you haven’t truly lived,” Aksel laughs.
Drusilla love the sound of his voice. It lacks any sense of worry. She loves how the wind makes his blond hair dance. She loves how he looks at her, with his gorgeous, icy-blue eyes.
There is something so calming, so worry-free about the way he carries himself. When he’s there, Drusilla knows that everything is going to be okay.
Being barefoot is making her appreciate the world all over again. She leans down and admires all of the crazy details she’s never paid attention to before. The drops of dew sliding down a blade of grass. A colorful bug scuttling its way across the ground. A flower dancing in the wind.
“I’m glad you can appreciate nature,” he says softly. “My brothers don’t care for it too much.”
“They don’t?”
“They have different interests. Ragnar is a passionate warrior at heart, as I’m sure you’ve seen. He prefers using his body, his strength, his agility. Kolos, on the other hand, is a history buff. If you have questions about history, law or philosophy, he’s your man. He’s always sharpening his mind, and he prefers to spend his time reading and debating.”
He’s certainly got a smart mouth, Dru thinks with a smile.
“That’s what makes him such an excellent diplomat, and why he’s always playing peacemaker when Ragnar and I get into an argument,” Aksel continues.
“Do you and Ragnar fight a lot?”
Aksel shrugs. “Not really. It all comes from a place of love. We disagree, yes, but I think that’s our strength as well. With us three combined, we can overcome any challenge, any obstacle.”
“It must be nice to have such a close bond,” Drusilla says. To her own surprise, she feels secure enough to open herself up. “I never had that. I grew up alone.”
“But you do have that,” Aksel says. “Our group is not complete. It’s missing an essential part. You.”
He lifts her hand up and kisses the back of it.
Dru finds herself turning crimson. “I…” she stammers, but she’s at a loss for words. That’s the most beautiful, most loving thing anyone has ever said to her.
Ever.
“We want nothing more than to love you, Dru,” Aksel says. “Our minds, our bodies, our very souls yearn for it. The Celestial Mates work in mysterious ways, but their matchmaking is a thing of legend. You are our destinuar. I know you feel it too.”
“It’s complicated,” she says, struggling to find words, to find an argument to rebuff his straightforward advance, but for the first time in her life, she simply can’t find any.
Dru searches her heart, and finds no good reason to resist.
“It’s not complicated. We want you, all three of us, and I know you want us. Why do you continue to fight these feelings?”
“Because I always have,” she says. “That’s who I am. That’s what I do. I’ve never let anyone in, and you’re asking me to let not one, but three guys into my heart? After what my father did?”
“What did your father do?”
“Forget I said anything,” Drusilla says, turning away from the Xhakan. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You’ll feel better if you do. I was right about the bare-foot thing, wasn’t it?”
Drusilla wiggles her toes. He was right. As weird as it feels, it does feel kinda good.
“A broken clock is right twice a day as well,” she teases.
“Ouch,” Aksel laughs, grabbing his heart. “You wound me.”
Drusilla turns back to him, her arms crossed in front of her chest defensively. “What do you care about most?” She says, eager to change the subject. “If Ragnar is a warrior, and Kolos a scholar, then what are you?”
Aksel runs his fingers through his golden mane.
“There are many words for what I am. I am a druid, or a healer, if you will. I don’t turn to my body, or to books for answers; I turn to nature. I turn to the universe, to life itself.”
He spreads his arms wide to illustrate his point.
“I hope I’m not being too vague. My brothers tend to shrug and poke fun of me when I wax poetic about the things we can learn from a place such as this. However, when they feel ill, who do they come to for a cure? Exactly.”
“You’re not being vague at all,” Drusilla says. “I won’t claim I see what you see, but… I get it. It’s really calming to be here.”
Her eyes enjoy the vista, the sweeping mountain range, the still lake in the distance.
“I’ve never been to a place like this,” she admits. “With this much raw nature. I’m a slum-rat.”
“Don’t call yourself that,” Aksel says.
“Why not? That’s what they call us, and I know it’s true. I grew up in the blights of Holanis… and there’s a beauty there as well, in fact. Different from this splendor, yes, but there is beauty. You just have to know where to look. There is kindness, there is purity. There is heart.”
She kicks a pebble and watches it tumble down the hill, and thoughts of home flood her mind. Thoughts and memories she’s pushed aw
ay for a long time. Suddenly, she’s overcome with a intense feeling of guilt.
Guilt for making it out of there, for knowing that she made it out of there. There was a whole pack of them, the street children of Holanis, living off scraps. They called themselves The Kings of Dirt, after they built a throne out of random garbage. That was a magical summer, and for a brief moment, it seemed that the possibilities were endless. However, life caught up with all of them rather quickly. In fact, Drusilla is the only one who made it out of Holanis alive.
The others fell victim to illness, to gang violence, to skim addiction, to the dangers that comes with life on the wrong side of the universe.
She blamed all of this and more on her father: If he hadn’t abandoned her, if he hadn’t cast her away, if he hadn’t sent assassins after her mother, forcing her into hiding on Holanis… then life would have been different.
“What are you thinking about?” Aksel asks gently, placing his hand on her shoulder.
She allows the touch and leans into him. “Of home.”
“What was it like?”
“Honestly… I barely remember. And the things that I do remember, I want to forget.”
Aksel kisses the top of her head. “We can build you a new home.”
Tears sting the corners of Dru’s eyes. “I don’t think I was meant for a happy life, Aksel.”
“Nonsense. Everyone deserves happiness.”
“You don’t know what I’ve done, who I am.”
Or what I’m going to do, she thinks.
“You’re a good person, Dru. I sense that with every fiber of my being. You will make a beautiful bride, an excellent wife, and the best mother this world has ever seen.”
“M-mother?” Dru stammers. “You want to…”
“Impregnate you.”
Drusilla’s eyes grow wide. Just accepting that the three Xhakans want to mate with her is already hard enough as it is, and now Aksel is casually mentioning they want to knock her up!
“I don’t know about that,” she says. “It’s all so much.”
As she gives the thought a moment to grow in her mind, she’s surprised that it doesn’t sound that bad. In fact, it sounds like everything she ever wanted.
A family.
One she’s always dreamed of.
She could give her children all the love and care they deserve. They won’t just have one father, but three! Talk about making up for lost time.
“Maybe,” she whispers softly to herself. “Maybe.”
Chapter Nine
Drusilla turns around to face Aksel, ready to tell him how she feels, when she notices his blue eyes are narrowed as he stares off into the distance.
“What’s wrong?” Dru asks.
“Intruders,” he growls. “Do you smell that?”
The next moment the loud roar of a spaceship engine breaks the silence. Birds fly away and the wildlife scatters as a clunky ship touches down in front of them. Drusilla recognizes the skull painted on the side of the vessel in bright, garish orange right away, and her heart sinks.
The Gulzin Syndicate has come to collect.
Aksel adopts a fighting stance, his fists raised.
“Thugs. Get behind me,” he says.
His kind demeanor, his soft-spoken voice are all gone. Now he’s pure business, a warrior, ready to defend his mate with his life if need be.
“No,” she says defiantly. “I got this.”
He shoots her a look, one that says are you insane woman!?, but there is no time to argue. A dozen soldiers pour out of the vessel, all wearing full body armor and carrying rifles.
“Drusilla!” the one in the front calls out, his voice muffled by the helmet he’s wearing. “You know why we’re here.”
Her heart is beating in her throat, her palms sweaty. Of course this happens right now, just when she had started to believe that things might turn out okay, that she might just have a life with her three mates. Her past catches up with her, and reminds her that her place isn’t here.
Her place is in a cramped cabin, doing grunt work. That’s all she ever was, and if the universe has its way, that’s all she will ever be.
Well, to hell with that! Drusilla curses.
“You know these people?” Aksel asks, his voice betraying his surprise.
“Know?” The squad leader laughs. “You haven’t told them who you really are, have you?”
“Shut up,” Drusilla snaps. “Shut up!”
The man takes off his helmet, grinning from ear to ear. There’s a diagonal scar across his mean mug. “Look at what she did to me,” he says. “Your little princess is a tough son of a bitch, and one of the best fighters I’ve ever had on my squad. You can dress her up all pretty-like all you want, but that don’t change a thing. She’s a killer, and she’s my killer.”
Aksel turns to Drusilla, his fists still raised. “Is that true?”
“That I fucked his face up?” Dru says, her voice shaking my anger. “Damn right. He tried to get handsy with me, and I made sure he would never forget that mistake. All the other stuff is bullshit. I don’t belong to anyone!”
“You signed a contract, pledging you life to the Gulzin!” The man bellows. “The penalty for desertion… is death.”
“Watch your words, stranger,” Aksel says. “I will make you eat them.”
“All you will be eating is lead, my Xhakan friend. In fact, I think this has gone on long enough. Time to set an example. Ray, torch this guy.”
“No!” Drusilla cries out.
It’s too late.
The short hail of gunfire makes her wince, and instinctively her eyes close. Mentally she’s prepared for the coming bullets that will rip her body to shreds, the final judgement that she known has been coming for her entire life. In fact, she’s surprised she got this far.
At least she had a small taste of normalcy, of tenderness, of love. She never got to fully consummate her love with the three Xhakans, but deep down she knows that the past few days have been nothing short of amazing.
If she could do them all over, she’d do it differently. She would have surrendered. She would have opened her heart more, trusted the three men, let them love her, kiss her, let their strong hands wander across her body, and let them enjoy her fully, without reservation, without holding back.
It’s too late for all that now.
She waits… and waits…
And nothing happens.
Drusilla opens her eyes, and all the breath is sucked out of her lungs.
Aksel is gone.
In his place now stands a massive, blue-scaled dragon. His wings are curled around Drusilla’s body, shielding her from the barrage of gunfire. The dragon’s eyes, a clear-icy blue are looking right at her.
“A.. Aksel?” she asks.
The beast nods. She reaches out and tentatively touches his snout. His body surges with power.
“What the fuck?!” The squad leader screams. “Take that monster down!”
Aksel turns around and unleashes his breath on the dozen soldiers, and Drusilla is in awe of his immense power. The sheer power of his breath knocks all the soldiers off their feet, and the electricity his breath is laced with short-circuits all of their weapons.
“Leave now!” the dragon growls, his voice so low and so strong that Drusilla can feel it in her belly, making her feel all kinds of ways.
The soldiers scramble up to their feet and run for their ship. Dru has never seen Gulzin men on the run before, but they cower like children in front of the mighty dragon. Even the squad leader, a man as tough as nails, knows when to call it quits. He runs away, his tail tucked between his legs, and the couple watch the ship until it’s nothing but a speck on the horizon.
Aksel transforms back into his Xhakan form before Dru’s very eyes — the same eyes which nearly pop out of her head when she sees he’s totally and completely naked.
“You-you’re,” she stammers.
“Naked?” Aksel grins as he follows her line of sight. “Y
eah, my clothes don’t shift with me, unfortunately.”
“Aren’t you going to, uhm, cover up?”
“I don’t know. Do you want me to? I’m kinda enjoying the breeze.”
That’s not all Dru’s enjoying. She can’t tear her eyes away from his perfect body. Everything is in proportion, everything perfectly defined, everything is sculpted.
Especially his massive, thick cock. That draws most of Dru’s attention, and her heart races as she admires the form, the length, the veins running up the side.
Her fingers inch to touch, and she knows that if she doesn’t do something fast, she’s going to do something crazy and wild.
Instead, she turns her back to the naked warrior.
“Am I making you uncomfortable?”
You’re making me a whole lot of things, she thinks to herself.
“Kinda,” she says, cursing herself. She wish she could be honest with herself, tell him how she really feels. For a moment there, when the gunfire started, she was reminded of her mistakes.
Of how she wanted to trust.
To love.
To mate.
Now that her assailants are but a speck on the horizon, those thoughts fade away, and doubt and fear rear their ugly heads once more.
“I apologize,” Aksel says as he ties a piece of his ripped cloak around his waist. “You can turn around now.”
Dru does, and she can’t help but raise an eyebrow. Except for the tiny, tiny fabric around his waist, the Xhakan is as naked as can be.
“You call this getting dressed?” she says.
“The important bits are covered, are they not?”
Drusilla runs his fingertips up his naked chest, and to her own surprise, hears herself mutter “Every bit of you is important to me.”
“Do you mean that?”
She looks up, right into his brilliant eyes.
“Yes,” she says. “Yes, I… I do.”
Aksel leans down and kisses her. His tongue is soft and sweet, caressing her gently, yet with a firm power simmering beneath the surface. She’s seen what he’s capable of, knows that he’s a strong warrior, a proud Xhakan underneath his gentle exterior.
