Chapter 18 Gnnar
Our leader paced in front of the brig, a stern look on his face. “Do we need to confine you for the rest of the rut?”
Considering the number of fights I’d started in the last planetary rotation, I didn’t blame Krxare for throwing me in the warship’s holding cell. While fights were common between warriors during this time, they were usually easily diffused by the human females with an offer to help us cool off. Problem was, I didn’t want them to help me cool off. I wanted Dana. My ability to think properly was eroding away by the minute.
Krxare to turned to Grtirr, our medic. “Do you think the foreign chemicals are still in his system?”
“Negative, I do not believe so. He’s fully metabolized it, and there are no traces of it left at all.” Grtirr was at the edge of his rut; I could tell by the way he kept clenching his jaws and fists. “This is the rut. He’s displaying all the classic symptoms of a male denying himself.”
I had yet to tell anyone that Dana was my mate, but perhaps that had been a mistake. I needed help looking for her before the rut consumed me, making me dangerous to my own people.
Dana wasn’t anywhere in the stronghold. I’d looked everywhere. At least, that was what I told myself. The alternative was that another warrior had found her compatible as his mate and taken her to his nest, and that was unacceptable.
“Dana is my mate. Vostak said she stayed for the rut. I’ve looked everywhere for her, but she is not here.”
Krxare visibly relaxed. “That makes sense now. I was getting worried that the chemical somehow damaged you, making you more violent permanently. In this case, the solution is easy. Go find your mate.” Then he paled. “Unless she has rejected you.”
We had protocols in place in case a warrior was rejected by his mate. First, we’d try to help them work out the issue. We’d had females reject a warrior that first year we had the treaty with Nova Vita simply because they were scared, not understanding our customs or our biology. We encouraged them to spend several days together in his nest, or even better, through an entire rut. Then, if she still found him unworthy, we watched the warrior for signs he could become dangerous.
It was common for Kadrixan males denied by their true mates to go crazy. Many had to be locked up for the safety of everyone else.
“She has not. Dana doesn’t know she’s my mate. She had no translator during our escape, and I have not found her to tell her. She has not rejected me.”
“Then congratulations.”
“She also has not yet agreed to be my mate. My chest aches when I think of her, and it feels so tight I cannot breathe.”
“That is love,” Krxare said. “It comes with the mate bond. You’ll get used to it.”
“Sounds more like a heart condition to me,” Grtirr huffed. “I’m glad I’m not afflicted.”
Krxare chuckled, opening the cell of the warship’s brig. “You’ll change your tune when you meet your mate.”
Grtirr scowled in response.
“You have your entire life to convince her, Gnnar. You are a good warrior and a good male. She is an intelligent female. I have no doubt you will succeed.” Krxare turned back to Grtirr. “Do you need anything else to start isolating a cure for the berserker chemical?”
Sami and Macey had started referring to it by that name, and it stuck. They’d explained that Berserkers in old-Earth mythology were warriors who fought in a trance-like state of fury.
“No. Gnnar’s body had already started producing an enzyme to neutralize it. My guess is that future doses would need to be exponentially larger for it to work on him. Controlled exposure to a weakened form of the chemical can give Kadrixans resistance to it.”
“Will that work on the humans?” Krxare’s mate, Clara, was the sister of one of Ellaston’s founders. He had good reason to protect the humans.
“No. Clearly, this chemical was originally produced for use on human enemies. But I can make a serum containing the enzyme I took from Gnnar to help jumpstart the breakdown of the chemical in those affected.”
“Good. Get on that after your rut. Everything you need is at your disposal.” Krxare then motioned for me to follow him. “Let’s find her so you can stop being a menace.”
We stepped into his office, and he made an announcement asking Dana to come by as soon as possible. Before long, there was a knock on his office door. I found knocking to be a strange human custom; I didn’t understand why they didn’t just announce they were here. There was more information in a voice than a knock.
Krxare opened his door from his desk, and I turned to face it, excited and relieved that I’d finally see her again.
But it wasn’t Dana who walked in.
“Hey, Krxare,” she said with a cheery wave.
Wait. I knew her! Judy? Julie? Yes. Julie. She spent a lot of time with Krxare’s mate. I’d even seen her around the stronghold in my search for Dana. Her hair was messy, but she had a rosy glow on her face that told me the last warrior she’d spent time with treated her well and put her needs first. When she spotted me in the chair her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she turned back to Krxare.
“I know you’re expecting Dana, but she’s not here. She decided to skip the rest of the rut.” She eyed me up and down. “I told her that she’d already done her share. She’s in Ellaston.”
“I will go find her.” I stood.
“Now, wait just one minute. You spent days with her,” she accused.
“I did,” I said, amused. “And I wish to spend the rest of my rut with her.”
“Are you trying to force a mate bond? I thought that wasn’t allowed here.”
“It isn’t. Dana is my mate. I would’ve fallen to the ground for her if I hadn’t been lying down.”
Her mouth rounded into a little O. “She’s your mate! That’s so exciting! No wonder she looked at all the other warriors like they were chopped liver.”
I frowned. Was that a good or bad thing? Kadrixans considered liver a delicacy, but we found many of the human females did not like it.
As if reading my mind, she said, “She wasn’t interested in them.”
“Now you know where she is. Good luck, warrior.” Krxare dismissed us both and stood, eager to head back up to his nest to be with his mate.
As we walked out of the commander’s office, Julie turned to me.
“When I first arrived here, I was sure that all my friends had abandoned me. I recently found out that Dana has been looking for me since I got sick. Nova Vita blocked her calls, hoping I’d choose to join the Utopia Project out of desperation when I couldn’t pay my medical bills. Her dedication to finding me means so much. I’m glad she’s your mate, but if you break her heart, you will have an enemy for life.”
Was she threatening me? She was half my size! But she didn’t need to threaten me at all; I planned on cherishing Dana for the rest of my life. I told her so. I also told her that I was nervous to show Dana my nest. It wasn’t anything like the one I’d built on Kadri. What if it wasn’t enough?
“I’m pretty sure she chose not to participate in this year’s rut because she’d rather spend it with you, even though I told her it was dangerous to do so. I think you’ll be fine. We were closer when we were younger. We went to school together. She doesn’t need pretty gems and priceless treasures; she just wants someone who’d devote his life to her. Pretty gems won’t hurt though,” she said, grinning.
“I am willing to devote every last waking moment to her.”
“Then you will be fine.”
Then, she was waving goodbye as she ducked into the corridor leading to the women’s dormitory.
“Good luck and congratulations,” was the last thing I heard before I stepped out into the valley.
For the first time, I was glad that I’d been forced to rest. My body had filled out much of the muscles I’d lost, and my injuries had healed for the most part. I still had the scars, but they no longer affected my mobility and strength.
It wasn’t long before I found myself circling the settlement, my eyes scanning the ground as my ancestors had as they searched for the right females to spend their ruts with. It wasn’t just for the ruts, but for mates as well—the only difference was if they brought the female back to their nest or not.
In less civilized times, it was common for a male Kadrixan stricken with a mating bond to swoop in from the skies and carry the female away to his nest and keep her until she agreed to stay with him. Our aeries were made high up in the cliff, and like humans, female Kadrixans cannot fly.
Some males did this with females they coveted but had no bond with, hoping they’d both develop one. Back on Kadri, that ploy would be a costly one because if it didn’t work, the male forfeited his entire nest, which was usually everything of value he had saved throughout his life. Each nest could only be used for one female.
Here, with our simple nests and few worldly items, we had voted to outlaw forcing mate bonds. We could only bring a female to our nest if we had already formed a bond to them.
I circled the settlement again until a door opened. Dana stepped out, a rather confused look on her face. She held a device in her hand as she looked up to the sky. The smile that spread on her face at the sight of me was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
She said one last thing into the device, then tucked it away in her clothes. Just in time, too, because I was already swooping down to meet her. She threw her arms up, reaching for me.
She was laughing as she jumped into my arms and wrapped her legs tightly around my hips.
“Gnnar! I was so confused when Julie told me to go outside and look up but wouldn’t tell me why. No wonder she was being so cryptic.” She buried her face into my neck. “I missed you.”
It was also good to be able to understand her again. “I missed you too, my mate.”