by Ella Maven
“But happier … here.” He watched me waiting for my answer.
“Drak, this isn’t fair,” I whispered. “I was happy alone with you, but I’m happy here too.”
“They need you. Here.”
“But you need me, too.”
His eyes closed, and his head dropped. “I’m trying,” he rasped. “So much … noise. Talking.”
“We could live on our own for a while and visit—”
“Not safe … out of walls … for you.”
I felt the anger rise inside. “Then what do you expect me to say, Drak? What do you want from me? Do you want me to order you to stay or to go? I won’t do that. I won’t tell you what to do.” I pounded my fists on the ground in frustration. “I didn’t even want a mate! I didn’t choose these loks.” I shoved my wrists in his face as his nostrils flared in warning. “But now we’re stuck together and—”
He was on me in a split second, forcing me to my back as he braced himself over me, caging me in with hands braced on either side of my head. His lips curled back. “You. Are. My. Mate,” he snarled, the rasp to his voice twisting his words into a threat. “The loks do not matter. To Me. What matters is who you are. Who I am. With you.”
His eyes swirled in a tornado of black and purple. As I breathed, my chest brushed again his, and my nipples pebbled through my thin shirt. “Drak,” I murmured.
“We will stay,” he growled. “Do not question what I need. I need you.” His hips, slotted between my thighs, ground down, and I gasped at the feel of him hot and hard at my core. “I’m Drixonian warrior, mate. My place is with you. Inside you.” He thrust hard, his cock rubbing against my clit through my pants. With a rumbling purr, he rolled me onto my stomach and pulled me up by my hips. I cried out at his rough treatment just as my clit throbbed and I arched my back shamelessly.
He ripped down my pants, and the night air cooled my hot, wet pussy. He bent over my back and the metal ring on his cock dragged through my folds. His hot breath whispered in my ear “She. Is. All,” just as he savagely thrust inside of me.
I bit down on my biceps to suppress my screams as he fucked me. This wasn’t my calm and unsure Drak who tenderly touched me beneath the stars. This was Drak the warrior claiming what was his and fuck, I loved it. I’d never been this wet, and when he fisted a hand into my braids, I let out a long groan of need.
He held me with one hand on my hips, and the other in my hair, keeping me pinned right where he wanted me until I was a shivering, crying mess, begging him to keeping going, to never stop, to never leave me.
And all the while he growled and purred until I came apart on the tip of his cock on a scream, trembling with whole body quakes. He found his release with a roar as his cock pulsed inside of me. We fell to the dirt in a heap of sweaty limbs.
His hands gentled immediately, sifting through my hair to massage my scalp before drifting down to rub at the sore spots on my hip. I didn’t care. If any other man had talked to me or fucked me like that, I would have balked. No one owned me or put me in my place. But this was a Drixonian warrior who had let me know the best way he could how he felt about our future.
I turned my head to see he was watching me, eyes a mellow purple while a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead to wet the dirt below us.
He’d offered me security and a promise with his brief words and a dirty fuck. What else did a girl need, really?
“So now I know,” I said with a husky laugh. “We stay.”
“We stay,” he said.
And even though I knew I’d regret it later, I ignored the brief flare of a smoky curtain he threw up in front of his aura.
Fourteen
Drak
My bike sat before me, strange and yet familiar, the black body gleaming in the sunlight. A younger warrior stood nearby, fidgeting with the cloth he’d used to polish it until I could see my reflection on the surface.
Daz stood nearby, his hands on his hips watching my reaction. I didn’t know what he wanted. Should I be thanking him for returning my property to me? As I examined it, I remembered now, how I’d felt over the loss of power between my legs. I hadn’t used my bike for scouting, but I’d taken rides with Ward sometimes to investigate a disturbance seen with Nero’s eyes. Did I even remember how to ride?
I turned away from it, and walked toward the gates, eager to get on with the mission of the day. Ward called my name, but still I kept walking. He caught up to me and stopped at my side. “We thought you’d want to take the bikes.”
I shook my head. “Know the way … on foot.” I needed to feel the ground under my feet and touch the forest. That was how I knew directions now. Not on the back of a bike soaring above the ground.
Ward waited to see if I’d say anything further, and when I stopped at the gates to wait for them to open, he called over his shoulder. “We’re on foot today.”
“Are you serious?” Sax groaned. “But I just upgraded my footboard—”
“On. Foot.” Daz growled. “Drak has to lead the way. I’m going to guess he’s more comfortable on the ground.”
That made me turn around and give Daz a look. He met my gaze and nodded. Respect for him as a leader, which had always remained dormant in my gut, reared its head. He understood, and I appreciated that.
As soon as I took a step outside the walls of the Night King clavas, I inhaled deeply. The familiar scents of the forest calmed me. Despite knowing I was free to come and go as I pleased from these gates, the walls bothered me. They represented a loss of freedom. It wasn’t lost on me I’d spent many cycles mourning the loss of home, and now that I returned … it didn’t feel like home anymore.
But it didn’t matter. The Night Kings were my home because that was where Merr-anda was happiest. I’d lock myself in a cramped cage for her.
“Drak,” a voice said over my shoulder and I jolted at the sound. Behind me stood Ward, Gar, Daz, and Sax. Sax had tried to convince his brother to stay behind. The drexel of a clavas was important and must be protected at all costs, but Daz had never been the kind of leader to hide behind his walls and make his warriors do his dirty work.
I would have preferred to do this entire mission alone, but that wasn’t the Drixonian way. I was a part of a clavas now. I had warrior brothers, even if I didn’t know them well anymore. They certainly didn’t know me.
I led the way, Daz behind me, the rest of the warriors bringing up the rear. Sax complained about the heat while Ward and Daz talked about Crius.
“What do you think he meant?” Daz asked his fellow warrior.
“I’ve been thinking about this since he said the words. I’m not sure. What were the Uldani offering him?”
“It makes no sense,” Daz said.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Gar growled. “He’s just a treasonous bastard. And now he’s gone. Good riddance.”
Was that what they’d said about me when I’d been cast out?
We reached the area of my former home mid-day. I scaled the tree leading to my hut quickly, knowing exactly where to place my hands and feet. The other warriors followed behind slower, picking their way carefully. Gar was last, muttering curses the whole way about how heights were Fatas-cursed.
A memory struck me as I watched them ascend—Ward and I eating fruit in a tree, legs dangling, while Gar glared at us from below, begging us to throw down some food for him since he refused to climb and join us.
I remained on my perch, the other warriors filing past me on the branch until only Gar remained, huffing and puffing. I reached out a hand and helped him the rest of the way. “I see … heights are still your enemy.” I couldn’t hold back a smile.
Gar’s narrowed his eyes. “Fleck you. A flecking hut in a tree. Bastard.”
Ward laughed, and I did too as Gar, who seemed afraid of nothing, shivered as he risked a glance downward.
I turned to find the other warriors watching me curiously. I shrugged. “I remembered.”
Ward reached out and squeezed my sho
ulder. “Well, in case you don’t remember this, a Drak smile was always rare, but teasing Gar was one of your favorite things to do.”
I cocked my head. “Is that right?”
He nodded, eyes shining with amusement. “It’s true.”
“Let’s get on with it,” Gar groused, giving me a gentle shove from behind.
I took a step forward and stopped dead as I cast a look over the burnt shell of what remained of my home for fifteen cycles. I swallowed around a dry, scratchy throat, feeling like someone scooped out my insides and set fire to them. When I’d had nothing and no one, I’d made my own home, a refuge in the trees where I was safe from the prowling Rizars and pivars. Where I could hear visitors long before they could see me. I’d camouflaged the entire structure so well that unless you were right on top of it, you couldn’t see it.
The Kulks probably used Uldani tech to find it, and that made my blood boil in my veins.
“Fleck,” Sax muttered.
The floor, while blackened and full of holes, was still there, as well as half of my back wall. The window I’d cut out was still visible, and I could picture Merr-anda sitting in the spot left by the sun’s rays, tending to a bloom she’d picked that day.
I walked closer, testing the branches. Fortunately, it had rained the morning of the fire, so the tree remained mostly intact. My home, not so much. I couldn’t go any further, stuck in a trance as I imagined all I’d accomplished in that home, the most miserable parts of my life as well as the happiest.
A shoulder brushed past mine, and Daz stepped in front of me, hands on his hips, and his head hung low. He heaved a heavy sign and looked back at me. Guilt hung heavy on his proud features. “I’m sorry we made you come back here. I wanted to see if they’d left any tracks—”
“It’s fine,” I croaked, the smell of ash thick on my tongue. “Nothing to be sorry about.”
“You built this with your bare hands and lived here for fifteen cycles. Alone,” Daz spat. “Because I made the wrong decision with one of my most valued warriors. And now it’s destroyed because despite it all, you held onto the Drixonian creed and protected a female with your blood and sweat.” He picked up a burnt piece of wood that lay at his feet and with a vicious overhand throw, tossed it into the remains. “Fleck!” He roared.
The wood hit the floor with a crunch, sending it along with shards of ashy limber crashing to the forest floor below. Briggers chirped. Sax jerked at my side, his jaw clenched as he witnessed his brother’s anguish.
I should have said something to Daz. I should have spoken to my brothers, but a flash of color caught my eye on the floor below, lying amongst the heap of debris Daz had sent falling.
I turned around, nearly knocking over Gar on my way and scrambled down the tree as fast as I could. I flew to pile of ash and carefully pawed through it until I found what I was looking for. Miraculously, among the gray and black of my former home, a bright purple bloom remained. Merr-anda had pulled it up by its roots just that morning and placed it in some dirt in the sun.
Despite the fire and the choking air, it had remained alive. Blossomed. Bright as the glowing flower of her aura in my mind.
I sat on the ground, cradling the flower to my chest. Voices rose and fell from above me, but I didn’t pay attention, not for a long time, not until a warm hand rested on my shoulder.
I jerked at the touch but settled when Ward’s familiar tone rumbled in my ear. “Merr-anda leaves her mark everywhere she goes, I see.”
She left more than a mark on me. I swallowed and nodded. “Survived. Despite it all. Survived.”
He cleared his throat. “Don’t let Gar hear me say this, or he’ll mock me for eternity, but that flower’s a fleck of a lot like you. Fatas knows why, but you’ve been tested in this life. Cast out. Voice diminished. Home burnt. But you stayed alive, Drak. Through it all. And you didn’t lose yourself as much as you think you did. You just need some coaxing back is all.” He knelt beside me and dug through the ash until he produced the old qua vessel Merr-anda had smashed the top off of to create a pot for the plant.
He gathered some ash-free dirt into it. “I know you didn’t want us to come along. I know the walls make you feel caged in. I get it, Drak. But we’re not going anywhere. We’re here to stay, as your brothers. Your fellow warriors. I hope you’ll want us at your side again someday.” He smiled and placed the pot in front of me. “Get that bloom in some dirt to take back to your female.”
With that, he stood up and walked away, back to where the others stood, studying some tracks on the ground. I dug a hole in the dirt, his words circulating in my mind as I did.
I rose with the pot in my hand and strode to where they stood huddled around some Kulk boot tracks.
“These are fresh,” Ward said. “There are old tracks at the base of this tree, mixed with new. A day old, maybe a few yoras. They were here recently.”
“Do you think they tracked him to our clavas?” Sax asked.
Ward shook his head. “I studied the ground the whole way here. There were no tracks leading to us.”
“So why did they come back? They burned his place, so he didn’t have a place to return to. Where were they trying to drive him?” Sax asked.
“Out into the open, maybe,” Gar said. “They couldn’t have known he had a former affiliation with a nearby clavas, could they?”
“It’s possible they remembered him from Crius.”
“It doesn’t make sense unless—”
Merr-anda’s bloom in my mind shriveled suddenly, shaking and screeching so loudly that I gasped and clutched at my head.
“Drak!” Daz shouted and gripped me by my shoulders. “What’s going on?”
Her bloom trembled and when a small trickle of red liquid dripped from the tip of a puddle, I opened my eyes with a gasp. “Merr-anda,” I choked out. Anger and fear swiftly overtaking me as I realized what had happened. “She’s in danger.”
Miranda
With Drak gone, I was restless. I constantly checked on his aura and found his sun dulled and still. He was irritated. Part of me hoped this mission with Daz, Sax, Ward, and Gar would be a bonding time for Drak. I was pushing it. I knew this would take time. The pessimistic part of me worried he’d never feel comfortable here, that I was dooming him to a life of painful reminders. No matter what he assured me when we were alone, I couldn’t shake the dread and guilt.
I fussed with my flowers in my room, pruning some of the larger vines that had wrapped themselves around the edges of my window during my absence.
Frankie wouldn’t leave me alone. She lounged in the corner of my room on a large cushion Anna had made, rubbing her belly, and munching on berries. Loudly. The sounds grated on me until I turned to her with a glare. “You can’t chew with your mouth open anywhere else? Like literally anywhere in this whole compound?”
She threw a berry in the air and caught it in her mouth. “Nope.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Daz is gone, so I can’t annoy him. You’re my second favorite person to annoy.”
“I’m so honored.”
She only shrugged and kept eating. Before I could snap at her again, my door opened. Tabitha sauntered inside with Naomi on her heels. “Sorry, we’re late,” Tab said to Frankie. “I got distracted by the guys running laps.”
Frankie rolled her eyes. “You’re a perv.”
“They all have big dicks and don’t wear underwear.” Tab flopped down next to Frankie and stole a berry. “Excuse me for enjoying all that bouncing around.”
“You’re late for what?” I asked.
The three of them froze and looked at me with wide eyes.
“Um,” Tab said.
Naomi sighed heavily and sank down on the edge of my furs.
“Tab, you have a big mouth,” Frankie groused.
I propped my fists on my hips. “Late for what?” I repeated.
“Keeping you company,” Tab said. “Frankie said it’s hard the first time you
’re away from your mate for a while.”
Frankie elbowed Tab and shot her a look.
“What?” Tab asked. “That’s what you said!”
“Yeah, and now Miranda is going to go all ‘I don’t need your company I’m fine.’”
I inhaled sharply. “Well, it’s true, I—”
Frankie waved a hand. “You’re fine. Yeah, we know. Too bad. This is exactly why I didn’t tell you I was keeping you company for your benefit. Because you never take accepted help. Stubborn ass.”
“But we’re here now,” Tab said. “And I’m comfortable so I’m not leaving.” She leaned back and opened her mouth. “Feed me,” she implored to Frankie while batting her eyelashes.
Frankie threw a handful of berries at her face with a laugh. Tab managed to catch two in her mouth before chewing triumphantly.
“I am fine, though,” I said. “Drak isn’t,” I swallowed as his aura dimmed further. “But I am.”
“You’re not fine if your mate isn’t fine,” Frankie said matter-of-factly. “Your stomach hurts, right? Your head is throbbing. You’re irritable.”
I turned away from her with a frustrated growl.
“Frankie hits the bulls-eye,” she sang.
“Frankie can shut up and not talk about herself in the third person,” I muttered.
A small hand landed on my arm. Naomi. I turned to face her and felt my annoyance fade. I could never be mad at her. “Let us keep you company,” she said. “I can tell you’re not yourself. Just for a little while. After that, if you want us to leave you alone, we will.”
“But—” Frankie interjected.
Naomi gave Frankie a stern look. “We. Will.”
My pregnant friend pursed her lips and huffed. “Fine.”
I was both annoyed and flattered. Frankie had made this plan knowing I’d be restless and uncertain without Drak. She knew me well enough to let me believe she needed me to keep her company, not the other way around.
She was right, but I was a stubborn ass and didn’t want to admit out loud how well she knew me.
