Chapter 63
RAVIK
Ravik didn’t know how far he walked, he only knew that he found himself at the docking area where the silver long-range shuttle had been left for them to return to the Mother Ship after the vaccine was made.
But there’s not going to be a vaccine now, is there? whispered an accusing little voice in his head. Because you’re refusing to help make one. Lots of people are probably going to die because of you.
“That’s not my fucking fault,” Ravik growled to himself, as he climbed into the shuttle. “They’re asking too much—I can’t fucking do it.”
He thought about what his family and clan would say back on Rageron if he showed up with two mates—one of them male—and admitted he shared a female with him every night.
He thought of the shame his parents would feel—the derision he would get from other Beast Kindred males.
He thought of the pointed questions—no doubt asking if he let Severin bite him and fuck him the same way he fucked their shared female.
No, it wasn’t fucking possible, he decided. He couldn’t do it—couldn’t stand the shame.
He started the engines and lifted the craft into the air. He would call the Mother Ship and ask them to send another ship for Sev and Cassie. They could leave whenever they wanted. They could leave together. Hell, maybe they would bond and get Joined in a big ceremony. How nice for them.
He made himself picture the scene—his best friend and the woman they both loved standing in the middle of the Sacred Grove, pledging their love before the Goddess—
“Warrior!”
The voice came out of nowhere so suddenly that Ravik lost his grip on the steering yoke and nearly crashed the shuttle. He had to grab for it quickly to keep from going nose-first into the ground.
As he scrambled to keep the ship aloft, his brain was racing. What the fuck was going on? Was he imagining things? Hallucinating because he was so upset?
“You are not hallucinating.”
It was that same voice again—strong and feminine and not very happy.
“Goddess?” he asked uncertainly. He had heard other warriors say that the Mother of All Life had come to them and spoken to them directly but he had never dreamed it might happen to him.
“You are correct—it is I, the Mother of All Life,” the voice told him. “Put your ship in autopilot—I have something to show you.”
Ravik did as he was told—he didn’t dare to do otherwise.
“Speak, Goddess,” he said, once he was sure he wasn’t going to crash and burn. “I’m listening. What do you want to show me?”
“I am here to show you two different futures,” the Goddess told him. “Watch and then choose which shall be yours.”
Ravik had been watching the viewscreen as they spoke, because the Goddess was a presence and a voice—not a physical person he could look at. Now, as he watched, the golden skies of Cherubin Three faded and he saw something new instead.
It was the Sacred Grove and there—just as he had been picturing them—were Sev and Cassie.
They were dressed in formal wear—a flowing white dress for her and the traditional Blood Kindred fur leggings and boots for Sev.
The two of them were standing before a priestess with green-within-green eyes, saying their vows.
Ravik felt his heart twist in his chest.
“So they get Bonded and stay together,” he muttered.
“They try,” the Goddess murmured in his ear. “But the Bond they form is incomplete. All their lives they feel something—someone—is missing. They are never truly happy.”
The scene changed and Ravik saw himself going back to his clan on Rageron, the Beast Kindred home world.
He saw himself welcomed by the Clan Elders.
No one laughed or made fun of him for having another male for a mate.
No one turned up their nose in disgust when they learned he and Sev shared a female.
He saw himself respected and esteemed…and always alone.
“Do I never find a mate, Goddess?” he asked, his voice hoarse. “Or another friend?”
Her reply was brutally honest.
“Never, Warrior.”
“But…I live a happy life?” he asked.
“It is fulfilling, in a way. You are successful in your profession—you rise high in your clan. But it is a lonely life and you will die alone.”
The words cut him to the quick and he found he couldn’t even answer.
“Now see another way,” the Goddess said, speaking in his ear. “Watch, Warrior, and see what you are giving up.”
The scene on the viewscreen changed.
Now he saw Cassandra laughing in a suite on the Mother Ship, her hair loose around her shoulders, a curvy little human woman tucked between two giant Kindred males on a couch meant for Twin Kindred and their bride.
She was holding a book in one hand and scolding both him and Sev for interrupting her reading.
Sev was beside her, one arm behind her shoulders, looking happier and calmer than Ravik had ever seen him. Ravik was on the other side, his head in Cassie’s lap while she absently stroked his hair.
Sev reached over her and touched Ravik’s shoulder and Ravik didn’t flinch. He turned his head and caught Sev’s hand, pressing a kiss to his palm like it was the most natural thing in the universe.
The vision moved on.
He saw them in the Sacred Grove, all three of them this time. Cassandra in white, Sev and he were wearing their uniform shirts and ceremonial leathers.
Some people in the audience stared. Some whispered and pointed. A few looked shocked when they realized this was a three-way Joining ceremony.
Ravik saw himself notice. Then he saw himself kiss first Cassie and then Sev in front of everyone. Both of them kissed him back and Ravik could almost feel their joy as the three of them vowed to be together for life.
But he saw even more… A vaccine spreading through the Mother Ship. Children safely receiving it from Kindred healers. Visskous survivors weeping as the cure reached their sealed cities. Dr. Verityx fluttering around his lab in triumph while Cassandra rolled her eyes and called him “Dr. Owl.”
He saw lives saved because of the three of them but it wasn’t all roses.
He saw himself standing on Rageron again, but not alone this time. Cassie was beside him, chin lifted in that stubborn way he loved, and Severin stood on his other side. His clan watched from the hall steps, some horrified, some curious, some silent with shock.
His father’s face was like stone and his mother was crying.
Ravik saw himself take a breath, then reach for both his mates.
“I am Bonded to them,” the Ravik in the vision said. “Both of them. They are mine, and I am theirs. Any male who has something to say may say it to my face.”
No one stepped forward—no one dared.
The vision blurred, and the Goddess’s voice filled the cabin again.
“This is also a path, Warrior,” she said.
Ravik’s throat ached.
“They’ll hate me,” he whispered. “My clan. My family.”
“Some may,” she said. “Some may not. And some may learn courage from your choices.”
“I don’t know how to be that male—the one in the second vision you showed me, Goddess.
” His voice came out low and hoarse. “I know how to fight. I know how to protect. I know how to stand between danger and the ones I care about. But I don’t know how to stand in front of everyone and let them see this. ”
“Then begin with one truth,” the Goddess said. “Do not ask what others will think. Ask who you love and who matters most to you.”
Ravik closed his eyes.
The answer came at once—Cassie.
He loved her warmth, her courage, her sarcasm, her softness, and her way of making impossible things sound absurd instead of terrifying.
He loved the way she said his name, the way she trusted him to hold her, the way her body opened for him and her heart somehow made room for the broken parts of him.
Then the second name came, quieter but no less true.
Sev.
His best friend. His brother-in-arms. The male who had known him at his worst and stayed. The male who had put the cure in his own body and risked everything to save him. The male Ravik had kissed once in a pleasure house and spent years pretending he hadn’t wanted to kiss again.
Ravik covered his face with one hand.
“Gods,” he whispered. “What am I going to do?”
“That is up to you, Warrior.” The Goddess’s voice was growing fainter in his ear now, as though she was fading away. “I have shown you what may be. Choose wisely.”
And then she was gone.