“I agree, sir.” Colby was unable to hide his amusement, a big smile on his face at Sparx’s expense.
“Attention!” Sparx called out loudly. His voice boomed, filling the crowded dining hall. Standing on the raised dais before his men, he looked out at the expectant faces waiting for him to speak.
“Today we celebrate the matings we have been blessed with, and the matings we will be blessed with in the future.” Colby handed him a mug of mead, which he raised high. “For Fyeir!”
“For Fyeir!”
“For Djaromir!” Colby yelled, his voice strong and steady.
“For Djaromir!”
“Lucy,” Sparx called out her name, his eyes locked on her where she was standing in the center of the crowd.
When she started making her way forward—with Rue’s help—the crowd parted to grant her a path. Sparx ground his teeth together in frustration at having to watch her hobble forward. If he’d had his way, he would have carried her this entire time. Unfortunately, he hadn’t gotten his way and relented to Lucy’s requests to not appear weak in the eyes of his people.
He’d begun to argue that she wasn’t weak. She was only injured. But, he’d stopped once she’d plumped out her lower lip. He’d given into the request to let her hop about without another word.
“Has our warlord found his mate?” one of the men asked, his voice loud enough to be heard over the other whispers.
“Yes, I have,” Sparx answered, his voice solemn. “Lady Lucy—”
He narrowed his eyes at Rue when she snort-laughed at the title. She stopped in front of him with Lucy leaning on her and gave him an apologetic smile.
“Sorry,” Rue mouthed before running a finger over her lips and putting her hand in her pocket.
Sparx shook away whatever confusion he had over Rue’s behavior and focused on his treasure as she finally came to stand in front of him. Here, where he could hold her, was where she belonged.
“For Lady Lucy!” Colby cheered; the chant echoed back just as loud as the ones before.
Lucy jumped at the sound, burying her face in his chest when he chuckled at her reaction. Sparx snuggled her close, unable to do anything but hold tight to the treasure he’d been blessed with. He couldn’t imagine ever letting her go.
“Are you making fun of me?” she asked, peeking up at him through her lashes.
“Never,” he promised, bending to pick her up like he’d wanted to all along. Holding her in his arms, he let out a sigh of contentment. “How does it feel to be a lady?”
“Yeah, Goose.” Rue smirked where she was standing next to Colby. “How does it feel to finally be a lady?”
Lucy snorted, trying not to laugh as she tucked her face to his chest.
“Sister Eustis would be so proud of you,” Rue continued, holding a hand to her chest in sincerity. “Finally. After all these years.”
“Shut it,” Lucy mumbled between giggles, while he exchanged a confused look with Colby.
“She’s a strange one, isn’t she?” he asked, tilting his head to where Rue was annoying Sparx’s mate.
“Are you still mad at me about the whole pillow thing?” she asked, turning her teasing Colby’s direction. “I’m sorry it hurt your head. It was the softest one I could find.”
Colby’s lips twitched, although he didn’t give in to a full smile, unlike Sparx, who enjoyed the entertainment she provided. She was the exact opposite of his mate, yet she complimented Lucy well. Rue was also fiercely protective—something he more than appreciated, considering how fragile she seemed at times.
“Don’t forget your promise,” his mate whispered in his ear, calling his attention back to her.
“Promise?”
Lucy tilted her chin in Rue’s direction.
Sparx nodded, understanding what she meant without her having to say more. She was right. He needed to get the hunt for a mate for Rue underway if he hoped to keep his own mate happy. The friends, who seemed more like siblings, would not do well with being separated, considering how close they were.
“Attention!” Sparx shouted, causing the bundle in his arms to jerk at the unexpected noise. “Sorry, honey,” he whispered to the head resting on his chest.
“S’kay,” she mumbled, breathing deep as she melted against him. “You smell so good.”
“I do?” he asked, forgetting that he had an entire roomful of people watching him. “What do I smell like?”
“My favorite cookies.” Her lips teased the skin, eliciting a shiver from him. “Like cinnamon and sugar snickerdoodles.”
Sparx growled deep in his chest at her words, unable to keep back the primal rumble of satisfaction.
His mate was reacting to his pheromones.
It was one of the indicators Sparx had been waiting for. The one he had expected to be one of the first signals her body would respond to. Looking down at the dilated pupils of his mate as she reveled in his scent, another piece of the puzzle slid into place.
Things were exactly as they should be.
“Go on,” Colby said with a nod towards the door. “Take your mate back to your rooms. I’ll introduce this troublemaker around and see if there is anyone brave enough to claim her.”
“Hey!” Rue sputtered as Sparx walked away. “That was just plain rude. How many times do I need to apologize for a fucking pillow? Do you want to take a swing at me? Would that make you stop whining like a little bitch?”
Lucy giggled against his neck at the words her friend yelled as Sparx carried her away.
“She’s crazy,” his mate mumbled as she ran her fingers through the curls at the nape of his neck. “Have you ever thought about growing this out? It’s so soft and silky. I’m a little jealous.”
“Actually,” he answered, leaning into the caress she was giving him, “my hair used to be much longer than this, with only the sides shaved. When I’d go to work in the mines, I would braid the top into rows to keep it clean.”
“Really?” she asked, pulling back to look at him fully. “I can see that,” she said after a minute. “I bet it looked hot. What made you change it?”
“One of the other females told me I looked like a Viking, and I didn’t know if that was a compliment or not, so I shaved the whole thing. What you see now is the growth of a few Earth months.”
“Wait,” she instructed with a giggle. “Someone said you looked like a Viking, so you shaved your head?” she repeated, biting her lips to hide her obvious amusement.
“Don’t laugh. I’m not the only one that made changes based on what our visitors have remarked upon,” he defended. “Bitters shaved his beard, although it did look awful, and we were all trying to get him to do it, and Matrix used to be completely bald. He stopped shaving when one of the females called him Mr. Cleaner.”
Lucy smiled. “I think you mean Mr. Clean.”
He nodded, giving her a nervous look. “Do you wish me to grow it back out?”
“If you want to,” she said with a shrug of her dainty shoulders. “I like it however you like it.” Running a finger over the shell of his ear, she gave him a smile. “Remember what you said earlier about how you didn’t plan to feed me any more of your cock?”
Sparx’s pants tightened at the suggestiveness in her voice. “Yes.”
“How hard do you think it would be for me to change your mind?” Lucy licked her lips, her face hungry.
Sparx stopped walking for a moment and shook his head. Closing his eyes, he took a few breaths. Willing the painful erection to subside enough for him to continue walking without feeling like his cock was going to break off.
“Sparx?” His gorgeous tormentor cupped his cheek, turning his face her direction while his eyes continued to stay shut. She traced a finger over his lower lip, the sensation startling him into opening his eyes.
Lucy gave him an innocent look, peeking up at him through her lashes as she laid her cheek against his shoulder.
“Do you think
you could hurry up. I’m starving.”
He groaned.
She was going to kill him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I don’t think any amount of sucking in is going to make these look smaller,” she announced, wondering how Sparx was going to react to the overabundance of cleavage she had on display, some of it bruised with the claiming marks he liked to scatter there.
Lucy couldn’t stop the satisfied smile that slid across her lips at the memory of the more recent ones he’d sucked upon her thighs.
Her mate was insatiable.
“Holy tits, Batman.” Rue clapped, starting slow before building speed.
“Thank you,” Lucy bowed, fluttering her hand at the cleavage her bra and the borrowed dress propped up for everyone to see. Turning around, she studied the mirror with a critical eye and made a face. “I don’t know. I mean, don’t you think it’s a bit too much?”
“Don’t be crazy.” Kicking back, her friend propped her feet up on the footstool in front of where she was relaxed in the corner chair. “Sparx is gonna lose his shit when he sees you in that dress—which, by the way, I’m pissed looks that good on you. The last time I wore it, someone asked if I was going to a funeral.”
“Pfft,” she argued, fluffing her hair as she checked herself out. “It looks fantastic on you too, and you know it.” Turning carefully on her slightly still tender ankle, Lucy held out her arms in a ta-da motion. “I’m serious though. Is it too much?”
Rue raised one hand to her chin, tapping a finger against it as she studied Lucy with an extremely serious expression.
“Too much? Absolutely not.” Rue shook her head. “Trust me. Sparx won’t be able to keep his hands to himself, I promise you that.”
“That’s a given,” Lucy snorted, before smiling like a fool. “I feel—”
“What?” Rue asked, an expectant look on her face.
“Happy.” The word came out on a burst of air, shooting across the room with the energy of a bottle rocket. “It’s like—he’s everything I’ve ever wanted, Rue. I don’t even know how to explain how it feels to know that I have him.”
“I’m happy for you, Goose. I really am.”
Lucy frowned. She knew Rue enough to know a real smile from a fake one, and the one she was flashing at that moment was faker than fake. Rue was worried she wasn’t going to find her own happily ever after. It had been a full week since Lucy had found Sparx, and no matter how many Djaromir they introduced Rue to…well—so far there hadn’t been any hint of a match. With one week of their volunteer time gone already, it seemed as though time was slipping away.
“It’s going to happen to you too,” Lucy said, pushing Rue’s feet off the footstool to sit down in front of her friend. “Sparx said you haven’t even met half of the Fyeir yet, and there are still two more cities here.”
“I know,” Rue answered, her voice not nearly as enthusiastic as when they’d first talked about getting her a mate the week they’d arrived. “He told me the same thing. I’ll try to stop worrying.” Clearing her throat, she looked around. “Where’s he at again? How’s he doing?”
Lucy gave her friend the look. The one that said she knew Rue was trying to distract her.
“He’s fine,” she answered dryly. “Which you know, since you saw him at breakfast this morning.”
“Actually, where is he at?” Rue looked around with a frown. “Isn’t he supposed to be here? Ya know, to keep you from freaking out or something.”
“This is the first time we’ve been apart,” Lucy announced with a grimace. From her guesstimate, he’d been gone a little over an hour. “We’re kind of testing things out, now that things have calmed down. The healers said that as long as it’s not for an extended amount of time, I shouldn’t have any side effects. Just that if I start to feel bad, it’s been too long and I need to find him.”
Rue shook her head. “I still think that’s fucking crazy. I mean, this mating stuff makes us actually sick. Like sick, sick,” she repeated. “What would have happened if he hadn’t come to you? I mean, what if he died or something?”
Lucy gasped at the suggestion, her chest immediately tightening. The mere thought of it was enough to take her breath away.
“Fuck, Goose.” Rue stood up when Lucy put a shaky hand to her chest. Her bestie held her arms out, asking for a hug. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think before I opened my mouth.”
“It’s okay.” Lucy leaned into the comfort of her friend. “Apparently, even the idea of losing him—Jesus Christ, it hurts to even think about it.” Letting out a cleansing breath, she shook her head.
“Well…gee,” Rue said, her lips twitching slightly. “You make all this mating stuff sound so amazing. I can’t wait for my day to come.”
“Shut up, brat.” Lucy pushed her away with a chuckle. “What are you wearing tonight? Sparx said a crew was coming in from the mines, so you know what that means?” The end came out in song as Lucy fluttered her hands excitedly.
“Yeah.” Rue slumped back into the chair and covered her face, ignoring the enthusiastic jazz hands Lucy was still throwing. “I’m going to have a whole bunch of weirdos sniffing me all night.”
“They’re not weird,” Lucy protested, while mentally admitting that some of them were maybe a little weird. “Okay, not all of them are weird. They just haven’t been around women before. We have to cut them a little slack.”
“Oh.” Rue snorted. “I cut them plenty of slack. Just ask Colby what I did when Bitters asked me if I wanted to shave him.”
“Oh God.” Lucy’s imagination ran wild with the possibilities of what her ball-busting friend may have said to the scraggly looking miner that seemed to get on everyone’s nerves. “Did you kill him? Is he still alive?”
“You have Colby to thank for that miracle. He got him the hell away from me by telling him that Sparx had an errand for him.”
At the mention of her mate, Lucy looked down at her watch—only to see the Phaeton band and no watch.
“Ugh,” she said, dropping her head back. If this thing took her vitals and tagged her location, why in the hell couldn’t it tell her the time again?
“What’s wrong?” Rue asked immediately, a little bit of her momma bear coming to the forefront as she leaned forward and eyed Lucy.
“Ummm,” she hedged, not sure if she should be totally honest and possibly worry her friend—or play it cool and not borrow trouble. Sparx would probably spank her if he found out she’d lied about feeling ill—and it wouldn’t be the fun kind of spanking either.
“Goose?”
“I’m starting to feel weird, and I have no idea what time Sparx was supposed to get back.” The blurted confession was only out for a split second before Rue was in action.
“Where’s he at? How do we find him?” Rue asked, popping up and out of the chair with more energy than Lucy had seen her display in a while. “What? Don’t look at me like that. You’re not getting sick on my watch.”
“I didn’t say I was getting sick. I said I felt weird.”
“Girl, you looked like a character in a Rob Zombie film the first day we got here. You were sweating and pasty looking. I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t worried when I was scared shitless. I ain’t taking no chances.” Rue grabbed her hand, tugging her to the door. “Where can we find your big guy?”
“I don’t know.” Lucy allowed herself to be led like a child until they stopped just outside of the door. Looking left and then right, she shrugged. “He said he was going to the command center, but I don’t remember which tunnel takes us there. You know me and my sense of direction.”
“Yeah, it’s awful.” Rue tapped her foot as she eyed the two directions. “If I were a command center, where would I be?”
“I do know that it’s in the opposite direction of the dining hall,” Lucy announced as she remembered that small bit of information. “Does that help?”
“That would be this way,
” Rue said, spinning on her heel to point to their left. “Why was he going to the command center? I figured being the head honcho here meant he was the command center?”
“Another warlord has been running things while Sparx has been—”
“Running you?” Rue asked with a smirk, dodging the smack that Lucy shot towards her.
“Hardy-har-har.”
“Sorry.” Rue held out her hand for Lucy to continue. “Go on.”
She shrugged. “That’s basically it. Another warlord has been running things while Sparx was busy, and he wanted to talk to him. I’m guessing now that the heat has calmed down, the other guy can go home.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I appreciate everything you’ve done for Fyeir.” Sparx clapped Matrix on the back as he glanced over the most recent communication logs.
“You would have stepped in to handle Gunninng for me if our roles would have been reversed,” Matrix said with a shrug of his big shoulders before lifting a hand to touch the scar that ran down his cheek from the corner of his eye, past his mouth. “I remember a time when you did step in and handle Gunninng for me once already.”
“We were both new warlords back then,” he countered, remembering the incident that had required Sparx to step in and take command while their healers worked to make sure Matrix would survive. “Much has changed since those days.”
“True.” Moving away from the table, Matrix dropped heavily into one of the carved chairs and then winced. “I think I’ve started to become accustomed to the pillows the humans have been scattering about. This is not the first time I’ve expected to be greeted by something with a cushion only to land on stone.”
“It is amusing how quickly we’ve become used to the comforts the women have brought with them. I have a new understanding for their love of something soft,” Sparx murmured, his mind drifting back to his mate and the softness he’d reveled in a mere few hours ago.
“I am happy for you, brother.”
Miners of Djaromir: Sparx Page 13
