Toward home.

  I don’t know when we pass the thing completely, just that when the forest envelopes us again, my shoulders sag with relief.

  I can hear my fellow humans release their breaths, too.

  I wasn’t the only one scared to death.

  “Wait,” Ga’Var says, and we halt.

  He brushes past Billy and heads toward me. “I’ll go in front.”

  I nod, grateful because I have no idea where the hell we are going.

  Ga’Var seems to, though. Even though this isn’t even his planet, he seems to know exactly where he is.

  “This way,” he says, confirming my assumption, and he turns slightly to the left.

  We walk in silence, stepping over brambles and fallen trees, focusing on keeping upright and not stumbling while Ga’Var traverses the terrain as if there are no obstacles in the way.

  He’s not looking at me now, completely focused on what’s around us, but even as I stare at his back, I know he’s aware of my presence.

  And, at one point, when his hand shoots out behind him before I almost stumble, awe similar to Billy’s shoots through me.

  “I can carry you,” he says, and my cheeks heat.

  I can already tell Jillian knows something is up between us.

  I see her covert looks whenever I glance behind me. I don’t need more gossip even before I know what the hell is happening between me and him.

  So I shake my head. “It’s okay.” I glance around us. “Any idea how far we are now?”

  We’ve been walking for at least three hours, but my sense of time and distance are skewed.

  “Not far.”

  As soon as he says this, Ga’Var’s suit slips over his head, and the same happens to mine.

  The feeling is startling, especially because I didn’t expect it.

  There’s a sharp intake of breath from one of the others and Ga’Var tenses, raising his hand in what can only be a signal for them to be quiet.

  The bushes in front of us rustle and for a moment, terror shoots through all of us.

  The last thing we want to see is a Gryken, but—

  Ga’Var relaxes, slowly lowering his hand as the bushes part and a sleek figure in all-black steps from the cover of the foliage.

  Female, undoubtedly from the shape, and wearing the same suit that we are.

  Relief and joy I never expected burst through me as I rush forward.

  “Adira!”

  Her suit slips from over her face as her eyes swell with tears and she rushes toward me.

  “Oh my God, Sam!” She grips me to her and I embrace her just as tightly.

  The bushes rustle again and Fer’ro appears, his fiery eyes piercing us all.

  Billy mutters something akin to “oh shit” and takes a step backward, but I’m too caught up with the suddenly overflowing emotions to look his way.

  “You’re safe!” Adira pushes me away enough to look down at me and as her gaze moves over me, over the suit I am wearing, another look passes over her face as her eyes widen.

  “I told you…Ga’Var may be a self-centered quu’mion, but he would never let the female die.”

  Ga’Var growls, but not loud enough, because I hear Adira’s whisper.

  “You’ve mated.”

  Her words have me blinking a thousand times as the warmth in my cheeks grows.

  I know the Vullan have super senses, but Adira isn’t Vullan.

  Granted, she’s been acting differently since she began wearing the suit and having sex with Fer’ro, but…

  Shit…

  My mind races as I wonder if there’s some kind of sign on me that lets others know I had sex with a Vullan.

  My gaze snaps to Ga’Var’s, and it’s clear he heard what Adira said, even if it was just a whisper.

  He’s looking at her strangely, a look I’ve never seen in his eyes before.

  Unease…anxiety…fear.

  “And you found…humans.” Adira’s eyes widen some more. “How did you…?”

  I glance back at the others. They look just as surprised as she does as their gazes flick across the Vullan and back.

  The bushes rustle again and I realize there are more people behind the leaves.

  The one called Fi’rox pushes his head through the leaves and I don’t know how I recognize him with the suit all over his face.

  “Can we do the greetings at another time? That Scrit is making me go crazy.” Even as he speaks, his suit bristles.

  “Fi’rox is right,” Ga’Var says, that strange look still in his eyes. “The base isn’t far from here now.”

  Adira nods to the others, taking them all in and offering them a reassuring smile before she takes my hand.

  “The guys are right. It’s not safe out here. Let’s keep moving.”

  She grips my hand tighter, and I have no choice but to walk beside her as we move through the bushes.

  “Oh my God,” she whispers again, her eyes shining awe as her gaze goes down me.

  There’s excitement building inside her—clear from the way she grips me and squeezes my hand. I get the sense that she wants to squeal.

  I guess she’s happy, no, surprised, about finding other humans—free and alive.

  God knows I was.

  But as we walk a little ahead of the others, Adira’s gaze darts behind us as if checking the distance between us.

  When I look back, Ga’Var’s gaze is boring into hers, that strange look still in his eyes, but if Adira notices, she doesn’t react.

  “I can’t believe it’s happened again so soon,” she whispers, only loud enough for me to hear.

  “What? Finding more humans?”

  Her brows furrow a bit and she shakes her head, a smile playing at her lips.

  “No, silly.” She lowers her voice even more. “A soul bond.”

  Her words make no sense to me. Yet, even as she says them, the suit covering me pulses.

  Adira smiles, as if she feels the pulse, too.

  “You don’t have to hide it from me. God knows I’m happy someone else has finally found a mate.” Her gaze darts behind us. “Not gonna lie, it’s been kinda lonely keeping this secret.”

  The entrance to the cave looms in front of us.

  It looks like pure rock and I hear the others murmur behind us.

  “Is there some kind of bunker close by?” Jillian asks.

  “No,” I glance back at her, “the base is right ahead.”

  Her brows furrow as she looks up at the mountain of rock before us and I see uncertainty flick across her features.

  She and Lily stop as they watch Fi’rox walk up the short incline and through what looks like pure rock. Only then does the uncertainty get replaced on her face.

  Her eyes widen and Billy exclaims a “What the fuck?”

  “It’s a barrier. Don’t worry,” I say, turning and following the others. “Think of it as a mirage.”

  “You mean like Bat Man’s cave lair?” Billy’s eyes are wide. “This is so frickin’ cool…”

  Lily rolls her eyes at him and I can’t help but blow a laugh through my nose as we move toward the entrance.

  The other Vullan and Adira walk ahead of us and my gaze fastens on her.

  Her words repeat in my head like the echoes of a beaten gong.

  I’m happy someone else has finally found a mate.

  As we enter through the barrier, our arrival draws shouts of joy and happiness that echo through the chambers.

  But I can’t focus on any of that.

  All I can stare at is Adira, and when she looks at me, her smile falters a little.

  Her eyes widen slowly as something dawns on her mind.

  She steps toward me, her mouth falling open a little.

  “What are you talking about, Adira?” I whisper, but I don’t need to. The shouts all around us make it impossible for anyone else to hear me.

  “I—” she says, her gaze searching the crowd until it lands on something or someone. Her hand flies over her mouth, her eyes widening some more. “You don’t know…do you?”

  “Don’t know what?” I turn to see what or where she is looking and my eyes land on Ga’Var.

  Even in the greetings happening around us, he is standing as still as I am, his eyes on me, fear that I’ve never seen before in those depths.

  “Ga’Var?” I whisper.

  He’s in front of me in an instant, so fast that it interrupts the joy around us, and in the back of my mind, I’m aware of everyone slowly looking our way.

  “I’m sorry, my Sa’am.”

  Sorry for what?!

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  GA’VAR

  There’s a growl behind me. One I know well.

  My womb mate. Fer’ro.

  “You took her by force?!” His words echo through the tunnels at the same time that Adira’s eyes grow larger.

  She opens her mouth to say something, but San’ten’s figure suddenly looms near.

  His hackles are rising, his fangs baring and the growls I hear around me have my hackles rising as well.

  Every Vullan close by is going into attack mode, ready to tear me apart for the transgression they believe I have committed.

  “Ga’Var.” Sa’am touches my arm and my ba’clan pulse, needing her closer. “What’s wrong? What’s happening? What are they talking about?”

  “He didn’t even explain to the female what he has done,” San’ten growls, his dark eyes growing even darker, like pits where stars go to die.

  I need to take Sa’am away. I need to speak to her.

  I need to make her understand before they can intervene.

  There’s a growl behind me, but I’m already moving, lifting Sa’am from the ground as if she weighs nothing and heading toward the ship.

  “Stop him!” San’ten shouts, but another voice replies.

  “No! Wait!” Adee’ra. The female who took the life-organ of my womb mate within her grasp.

  The one that put her life on the line for all the Vullan here.

  We all respect her. She has authority.

  And that authority is clear now.

  “He’s done the unthinkable,” San’ten says, but his voice has lost its power in the presence of Adee’ra’s command.

  “Let them go.” I’m almost at the ship when I look back and find them all looking my way. “You can beat him up later if he tries any funny business,” she says. “But I don’t think he will.”

  Sa’am’s eyes are a mixture of confusion and fear as I step into my quarters.

  It is pitch black in here, the way I like it, and I have to adjust the controls so that she can see.

  “Ga’Var?” She calls my name as I set her down and crouch at her feet. “What are you doing?”

  I bow my head, my forehead touching the ground in the ultimate display of subservience to the one before us.

  “What’s going on?”

  I do not lift my gaze. I do not move. And when I feel a hand on my cheek, tilting my head upward, I realize she has set herself on the floor beside me.

  Emotions I never knew I had well inside my throat.

  “There is something I haven’t told you.” I search her gaze, waiting for the anger to form, the disdain…the rejection…but I have said nothing yet.

  All my life, I have wished for a mate.

  Now I have one and I cannot even face her.

  What kind of mate am I?

  Perhaps I was not ready.

  And the way she is looking at me…as if I am a star in her strange blue skies…

  I am not good enough for Sa’am.

  “Adee’ra said something about…mating…being mates?” She searches my gaze.

  “What does that mean?”

  I gulp and my ba’clan shiver a little as if they too are steeling themselves for the potential rejection.

  I know that if Sa’am doesn’t want to pursue this with me…if she doesn’t want me for more than the one night we shared…I will not be able to go on…

  “The ba’clan…” I begin.

  “You mean the suit?”

  I shake my head. “It isn’t a suit.”

  Sa’am blinks at me and looks down at herself.

  “It is more than that.”

  She blinks again. “Like some super AI alien tech shit…” She giggles and the look on my face causes her smile to fade. “Right?”

  “No.”

  I can almost feel her heart thumping as her anxiety rises and her ba’clan pulse against her.

  I can feel them as if they are also connected to me.

  They were connected to me. Her colony is derived from my own.

  “It’s moving against me,” she whispers. “Pulsing.” She blinks a few times. “It’s done this before…but not like this.”

  “They’re reacting to the beat of your heart. Trying to calm you.”

  “They?”

  “Yes.” I take a deep breath. I might as well just tell her everything. Delaying the pain won’t make it hurt less. “They’re not a suit. They’re not artificial intelligence. They are alive. Like you and I. They live. They breathe. They feed. They die.”

  Sa’am does the most curious thing. Instead of her eyes widening in shock like they usually do, the only thing she does is raise a singular eyebrow.

  I’m staring at it when Sa’am suddenly laughs.

  The sound knocks me out of my musing.

  “You mean like a parasite?”

  I see when her ba’clan bristle, moving over her skin like a wave. “Oh, they didn’t like that.” She blinks and finally, her eyes widen. “Wait, they’re sentient? They can hear me? Understand me?”

  I jerk my chin in the way I see she usually does to indicate the affirmative. “They are the reason we can speak your language. They encoded it through Fer’ro first and shared it with all our ba’clan.”

  Sa’am stands slowly, turning her hands over as she stares at the ba’clan.

  “So this thing…these things…they can communicate with each other?”

  I jerk my chin again, watching her, waiting for the rejection. “They always are.”

  “And I can communicate with them?”

  I open my mouth to answer but I don’t.

  I don’t know where she is going with this and her voice has developed a tone I’ve never heard before.

  My own ba’clan bristle, caught in the middle of wanting to go to her and wanting to protect me at the same time.

  If Sa’am decides to draw her blade on me, I will have to allow her to attack.

  “Yes…” I say, hesitation lacing the word.

  “How?”

  This time, my ears twitch. I’ve never…thought about how I communicate with them. I just do.

  “Whatever you think…they will do it. They are connected to you now. They are yours.” Forever…I want to add. Just like I am yours now forever. But I’m not sure she’s ready to hear those words yet.

  Sa’am stretches her hand away from her and extends her fingers.

  She thrums the air as if playing with invisible thread and I watch in awe as strings of her ba’clan move forward like a web.

  She pauses, both brows rising before she slowly continues to move her fingers.

  I watch her in silence.

  She isn’t creating a blade.

  She’s creating…

  The petals form slowly as whatever picture she has in her mind takes form on her palm and when the strands stop moving, she turns to me.

  A flower.

  She made a flower.

  Sa’am chokes on a laugh as she stares at it.

  “This is amazing,” she whispers and I jerk my chin toward my chest.

  I don’t think she understands what I was trying to say.

  I don’t think she understands what Adira was saying either.

  She hasn’t put them together yet. But, for the life of me, I cannot bear to continue.

  Not when she is looking at her creation with such awe.

  She takes a few steps away, inadvertently heading toward the cleaning station, and when she steps over the glowing circle on the floor, the station activates.

  “Oh!” She looks down at it, finally pulling her gaze from the dark petals on her palm.

  “Cleansing station,” I say. “I suppose you should have a bath, now that you are home.”

  Sa’am murmurs something that sounds like a yes but then her brows furrow as she looks down at herself.

  Without my intervention, the ba’clan slip from over her body, revealing her tantalizing pink skin.

  My sazi throbs immediately.

  Now is not the time.

  Sa’am settles the ba’clan along her spine, much the same way that Adee’ra does, and proceeds to allow the cleansing station to do its job.

  I stand watching her, unable to move when she looks at me.

  “Aren’t you going to come bathe too?”

  My sazi throbs again.

  I want nothing more.

  But every moment I touch her without her realizing just how deep this bond between us is growing, the more I set things up for failure.

  I cannot go near her again—especially when her skin is on full display, her scent calling to me—until she knows everything.

  “Sa’am…the ba’clan…it means…”

  “That we are mates now?”

  Her words send alarm through me and it feels like every ridge on my body stiffens in response.

  “The more I think about it, the more it makes sense.” She meets my gaze. “Even without the strange suit latching on to me since I hurt my leg—” Her ba’clan must have bristled because she shivers a little and chuckles. “Fine, not a suit. But ever since it fastened to my leg and later, it’s been pulsing on me. And whenever you’re close, I feel…”

  She looks away, her brows furrowing a little as the light of the cleansing station moves over her.

  “I want you,” she finally says. “Even if the ba’clan didn’t push me toward you, I’d want you still. I’ve wanted you before they started pulsing insistently on my leg.” Her cheeks grow rosy as her gaze slides down me. “I wanted you out there.” She bites her lip. “And I want you now.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  SAM

  Ga’Var’s growl is so loud, I swear it shakes the air around us.

  One moment he’s standing stiffly, staring at me as if I’m about to tell him the worst news of his life, and the next, he’s right in front of me.

 

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