by Octavia Kore
“Of course I can,'' he grunts, bristling at my question.
“Good, get the human female at the back. She is hurt so be careful. Luz is on his way as we speak. The rest of you who can, grab a kit and move! ” Lief orders and we all jump to action.
Chapter 22
Inoxia
“Do not give up, female. You are still needed here.” A gruff voice is whispering in my dreams.
This isn’t one of the voices I want to hear, but it’s reminding me that I can’t fall into this darkness. I need to push forward, but I don’t want to go back to the pain. A shiver takes me, even inside of my own dream the thought of that pain makes me feel sick. Buck up! You can do this! I want to tell that little inner voice of mine to shove it, but she’s also right. I don’t want to die, I want to live, I want to make a life with the people here that I love. I swim through the darkness, kicking and clawing frantically.
Something is irritating my ears, a sharp screeching that has a pain shooting through my jumbled mind. A baby’s cry? Why isn’t anyone helping the poor thing? With all of the strength in my battered body, I lift my heavy eyelids and peer around, trying to find the source of the crying. The first thing I see is Ettrian’s face and I almost begin to cry. Please don’t be a dream. A grunt is pulled from my throat as I bounce roughly in my male’s arms, my head lolling to the side because I’m not strong enough to keep it up. The front of the Tachin lab is behind us and I know I will never forget this place. From the corner of vision I see a flash of green, but I can’t make out who or what it was. Dread settles like a stone in my stomach and I wonder if it could be one of the Tachin escaping.
“You said you had a team, Lief!” Ettrain yells.
Blackness begins to creep in as the pain in my body becomes worse. Over the buzzing in my ears I hear a voice that is strangely familiar.
“This is a team!” This is the voice from my dream, the one who helped to pull me out.
“I only see one other Venium. How is this a team?”
“There is also a pilot and Luz is more than capable of aiding us.” Dream voice growls.
There is a massive explosion and a ball of fire erupts from the windows of the lab, sending glass flying outward. Ettrian shields me with his body as he stumbles forward. I want to stay awake, want to watch as this place burns to the ground, but the pain is too much and I feel myself begin to slip under once again. The last thing that floats through my mind before I give in is a plea that everyone taken by the Tachin has gotten out.
Gods, my body hurts. People are speaking again, their voices swirling around me as I try to concentrate on what they are saying.
“I cannot fit everyone into the ship. Some will have to travel by foot or wait here for the transport to return.” Dream voice says with a frustrated sigh. “I am sorry. We didn’t account for this when we set out.”
“Of course. Did not bring sufficient backup and did not bring technology big enough for all of us to return on,” Ettrian grumbles.
“Give us the young and those that were wounded. We will meet the rest in the village.”
All at once, a multitude of rattling quills fills the air, sounding like hail from a Summer rain storm on the hood of a car. “We will not be separated from our sister.” This is Yssig I believe. He doesn't sound pleased.
“Nor do we wish to be away from our mate or kit.” Ettrian rumbles. “We trust you, Lief, but we have been apart for too long.” He sounds different to me, changed. I can’t seem to put my finger on what it is exactly though. “These females are the most precious beings to us. Take the kits and the human female to the village. They will know what to do to aid them there.”
“The Venium pup stays with me.” Dream voice growls.
“We would never attempt to keep a male’s kit from him, Lief.”
Ah, so Dream voice has a name.
“The little female is not mine.” He sounds a little nervous, like Ettrian has struck too close to his heart.
“She may as well be.”
The next thing I remember being conscious for is something I’m not sure I will ever forget. It is a strange yet soothing sensation. How long was I out? “Kareen?” I call out, panic making my voice rise.
“Shh, be calm. The kit is asleep. Everything will be okay. Rest.” I recognize Aquilian’s soft, gentle voice along the bond.
Oh gods, he is going to be so mad at me. I got punished for leaving the tree, for doing what I knew I should not and then turned around and did the exact same thing, only this time, the consequences were much greater. Staying inside the tree would have prevented all of this, but I had to know that they wouldn’t hurt my family. I needed to know that Ettrian had been left in good hands. While he had done wrong, had upset me and pushed me, I still cared for him. There was some force still pulling me to him. Could it be the bond that Doxal spoke of or something else entirely? It doesn’t even matter anymore. The only thing I know for certain is that my family has grown to include a blue-eyed little girl and two big, glowing aliens.
If someone had told me weeks ago that I would have not just one alien male, but two, as mates, I would have laughed until I cried. Now though? Now these aliens are mine and I couldn’t leave them behind even if I tried.
“Always, Xia. We will always be yours.” My sweet, dark male whispers.
How Aquilian seems to know exactly what I’m thinking doesn’t even surprise me anymore, it’s just something I accept. Before coming here, I wouldn’t have believed humans capable of a mental bond like this, but now it seems perfectly normal. Whether it is something within the Dauur themselves, or something about this amazingly beautiful planet, there is no way to deny this bond has taken root inside of me and perhaps Kareen as well. I am no longer scared of what that means for us. “I shouldn’t have left.” I breathe as I sink into the sensation that surrounds me.
“No, you should not have left.” He acknowledges quietly. “Make no mistake, Inoxia, when you are recovered I am going to spank your bottom until it is the prettiest shade of red for scaring the life out of me.”
“I’m so sorry.” Pain pulses through me at the same time desire settles into my lower stomach.
“Don’t worry about it now, just let the seed pod do its job.” Somewhere along the bond I can feel his love and adoration surrounding me as if he is physically touching me. “We are nothing without you, Xia.”
“Will this work for me?” I wonder mostly to myself.
“I hope so. The trees and seed pods were a gift from the Sun Father himself. The tradition passed down from our ancestors says that he was injured during a battle with a great beast at the dawn of time and because he could not heal fast enough on his own, he missed the birth of his twin sons, Nebol and Semol. The labor was long and difficult and he lost his mate before he made it back to her side. With great effort and love, he built the pod; watering the seed each day until it grew large enough to fit even the largest Dauur, because he believed neither should a mama lose her kit, no matter what age. It is our hope that he will bless your healing.” He goes quiet for a moment and I feel his fear and uncertainty, his worry that this may not actually work. “Our daughter needs you.”
Our daughter. I repeat to myself. He’s right, Kareen has always been mine, even when I thought I had lost the chance. I’m her mom and she needs me.
Chapter 23
Ettrian
“A spanking?” I ask my brother, remembering the conversation Kareen and I had not too long ago when I woke from my time in the pod. “Was this a punishment?”
His quills light up brightly, pulsing as his eyes begin to swirl in a rainbow of colors. “She needed to be punished for leaving the tree when there was danger all about. She also let Doxal and Yssig into our home when she was defenseless. Our kit was there, Ettrian.” I watch as he rakes his fingers through his quills nervously. “I spanked her for it.”
“You… spanked our female?”
“Do not judge me, Ettrian.” He huffs when I clench my jaw to keep fr
om smiling. “You spanked her for merely wiggling on the first day we met her!”
I quickly avert my gaze, stifling the laughter that threatens to bubble up. “That was different.” I mumble.
“Ettrian?”
“Yes, brother?”
“She enjoyed it.” My eyes slide slowly back to his face and I can feel the embarrassment and uncertainty rolling off of him. “A lot. We-” His words falter for a moment and he rubs the length of one quill. “We mated.”
“You mated our female.” I repeat, not quite sure I have understood.
“We did not finish the bond.” He rushes. “I only pleasured her… and myself.”
“This actually makes sense.”
“Does it?”
“The bond is far stronger now than it was initially. Even without a translator you are able to understand her.” I shrug, tracing the pattern on one of my legs. “It has happened before when mates are found among other far off tribes. The bond helps with the language barrier.”
“Are you upset with me?”
His question takes me by surprise. “Why would I be upset with you, Aquilian?”
“I mated with her without you. I had not set out to do so, but she drank cini tea, which is apparently something that affects humans far differently than it does Dauur.” I see anger bloom in his eyes as he recalls a memory. “I brought you back to the tree, wounded and unconscious, and the first thing I see upon entering our home is Xia on top of Doxal, Yssig’s twin, attempting to mate the male.”
“She did what?” Shocked, I jump to my feet, preparing myself for a fight.
“They were only trying to help her, brother. Our little female was the aggressor.”
“Xia?” My anger deflates and I fall back into a sitting position. “I am not the one who should be upset. I attempted to do something unforgivable because I gave into my fear. You showed her the love a mate should bestow upon a mate.”
“You felt you had no choice.”
The air around us feels thick with the tension I have created. In the room across from us I can hear the newborn kit whimpering and I know we will need to seek the milk of the seed pod for him soon or he will starve. There is no telling what the Tachin fed the poor thing since we found no females aside from the sick human.
Tiny footsteps pad against the floor signaling to me that our kit has awoken and come to see if her mama is better yet. Pretending not to notice as she slinks into the room, I glance down at my hands where they rest in my lap and grin. She thinks herself quite the hunter. I suspect she has also come looking for Bunnyfly who is curled up next to Aquilian. Thank the Sun Father the little creature was waiting patiently outside the door of the lab for her or the kit would have been devastated.
A moment before she pounces, Kareen makes a soft noise as if she cannot contain her excitement and I manage to lean forward, tucking my quills close to my skin so that she cannot poke her eyes out on them just before she jumps onto my back with a screech.
“How did you know? That’s not fair!” Her laugh is so beautiful that I share it along the bond so that Aquilian can experience it as I reach over my shoulder, flipping her head over foot before dropping her into my lap.
“I will always know where you are, trouble maker.” She giggles again when I squeeze her tightly in my arms. “Why are you out of bed?”
“Xia-”
“Is still resting. She will be fine now that the pod has her.”
“Just like you were?”
“Just like I was.” Tucking one of her ‘wayward curls’, as Xia calls them, behind her ear, I begin to slowly rock her from side to side. “If you are not careful you are going to end up being quilled. No more pouncing.” When I look down to make sure she has heard me I see that Kareen has fallen fast asleep and I am certain she did not hear my warning at all. Kits. “What will we do with these males?”
Aquilian lifts Bunnyfly into the air and rubs his face against the little beast’s. “They have asked to be taken to the village. Kareen and Yasi refuse to be parted. Our daughter claims that they need one another.”
My hand strokes her curls and I feel my heart swell with love.“Then it is as it should be.”
Chapter 24
Inoxia
My eyes ease open and I am immediately confused because there is still only darkness. I blink rapidly, hoping to clear my vision, but there is still only inky black all around me. Reaching my hand out tentatively, I come into contact with something hard and smooth. Whatever this is extends in every direction like I’m encased within it and I can feel the panic well up inside of me. Coffin! I gasp for air, but it would seem that my lungs have forgotten how to work. I’m not dead! I’m alive! Oh gods, this can’t be happening, this has to be a nightmare.
“Help! Please don’t leave me! I’m alive!” Fists slamming into the surface in front of me, I scream as loud as I can, managing to draw short panicked breaths. “Please!”
“Calm, female.” An unfamiliar voice commands. “You will injure yourself farther and the pod will keep you inside to heal the new wounds.”
Pod? I’m in the seed pod? Images flash through my mind of the Tachin, their hands grabbing at me, tools cutting me open. I was hurt. They hurt me. The memory of the unimaginable pain makes my heart race wildly and I fight the panic, willing my breathing to return to normal, counting backward from ten the way I learned in my therapy sessions years ago. You can do this, Xia. Stay calm, you’ve got this. After a few minutes the pod slowly begins to part, a sliver of light breaking through the darkness. Two large hands tug at the seam, opening it wider before they reach inside and pull me up, lifting me from the giant seed.
“Can you stand on your own?” The huge male in front of me asks.
My legs wobble a little, but they hold steady so I nod. A quick glance down my body alerts me to the fact that I’m naked and covered in a decent amount of slime. Nudity has never been a big deal for me and all of the Dauur aside from Yasi I have met so haven’t worn any type of clothing. Still, waking up without a stitch on when you can’t remember undressing is odd. At this point, I’m just thankful to be alive and pain free. The male has grabbed two lengths of the silky material, his eyes never straying from my face as he hands me one. “Clean off with this one. You can use the other to clothe yourself if you wish.”
“Thanks.” The slime comes off relatively easy, leaving my skin soft and smooth in its wake. The male holds out the other length and I take it gratefully, wrapping my body as I take a moment to study him. Like Ettrian, this Dauur is incredibly light, but he is broader in the shoulders and far more intimidating than my alien. Unlike my males, this one has a length of cloth that crisscrosses over his chest. When he turns his back to me I see that there is a tiny newborn baby nestled into material that he has around himself. “You’ve got a baby? I thought I’d only imagined one crying.”
The only response I get is a grunt as he fusses over something on a shelf in front of him.
Not a talker. “What was your name?”
“Ayku.”
“Is the little one’s mom here somewhere?”
“No.”
“Oh.” Pursing my lips a little, I frown. “Where is she?”
“Dead.”
Well hell. Xia, insert your foot into your mouth and leave it there. “I’m so sorry.” I tie off the makeshift dress and glance around, half expecting to see Bunnyfly curled up in the corner. “All covered up. Is my family here?”
“They have gone to retrieve food.” He turns slowly, looking down at me hesitantly, and I see that his eyes are a pretty blue. This is a color I have seen a couple times over my time spent with Aquilian and Ettrian. “One of the Darkborn males stayed behind.”
As if on cue there is a flurry of loud footsteps before Doxal rushes into the room. “Inoxia!” His gaze sweeps the room, narrowing on Ayku. “What are you doing in here, Lightborn?”
“Your job,” Ayku growls. “If you had been paying any attention at all, you would have felt her panick
ing from across the forest.” Doxal huffs in irritation, but the lighter male seems to ignore him. His gaze is on me again as he reaches a hand out to tuck a curly, red strand of hair behind my ear. “You have eyes just like my son’s mama.”
A loud, furious rattle fills the air as Ettrian pushes his way past Doxal to where we stand. “Keep your hand off of our mate.”
Ayku steps back, his hand falling to his side. “My apologies. I meant no offense.” A sharp cry from the baby on his back slices through the tension and he reaches behind himself in a practised motion, slipping the little one free of the carrier. With his other hand he attempts to grab something from the pod, but whatever it is seems to be stuck.
“I can take him for you if you want. Just for a moment,” I hurry to ask when he narrows his eyes and clutches the infant closer. “So you can get what you need.”
He takes a moment to consider, eyeing my open arms. “Thank you, female.” Ayku’s eyes flash white before he slowly hands his son over to me, keeping his fingers on the baby for a moment longer as if he is afraid to lose contact.
“My name is Inoxia,” I tell him, pulling the baby close. “And you’re welcome.” As I stare down at his little face, I begin to notice things that seem to indicate this baby isn’t completely Dauur. In the middle of his face is one of the most adorable human noses I have ever seen and along his neck and chest I can see a lighter shade of skin, similar to my own. My fingers run over the tiny nubs where I imagine he will one day have quills, trailing down his back until I feel something strange. There are tiny, delicate wings between his shoulders. Neither humans nor Dauur have these. My mind flashes back to something the Tachin said about what they were using the human females for and I shiver. “His mother was human?”
“She was.”
Aquilian has joined us and my males stand on either side of me as I cradle the baby against my chest, cooing softly. I feel Aquilian’s chest brush my shoulder as he leans down to nuzzle his face against my neck, his warm breath warming my skin. “How is it possible that you are even more beautiful?”
