Chapter Eleven
Xexis
A fresh hunt, a proper one, one she deserved. Xexis returned to his Council chambers, while Aphrodite slept, to look at the stellar maps. Grooug, always awake even when he should sleep, slithered inside, and plopped down beside him. “So, a new hunt?”
“A proper one.” Xexis nodded, pulling up the map.
Their ship was projected home; they’d arrive within a few rotations if they kept at their current speed.
He wanted to be close if anything happened.
They could slow, but there was an eagerness to bring her home.
Present her to his father, show her the court, bring her into his arms where they might never part.
Quagmor did tell him mating fever happened quick.
Excessive need to be near, know they’re breathing, feel their heart, it surged through his veins like poison.
If he’d known the glory and the pain of such emotions, he’d have hunted for his mate more seriously.
And to think it had been an accident. He’d stumbled upon her in a forest, reading to her floating drone. The memory replayed before his eyes like a hologram message.
Pulling off his helmet, he could hear her voice clearer now.
Not the beast he’d been after, but the very thing he needed most. A sweet face, yellow hair, wide smile as she proclaimed into the foliage.
The drone bobbed and weaved over her head, cheering on her boisterous reading.
“To war! He cried, we raise our arms to war! And never shall we flinch! Never shall we fear! To war…and shall only victory or death may we return to this cursed place.”
Xexis knew in that moment as he leaned against a tree, watching her from the shadows…
this is my mate. There was no other possibility.
He imagined her reading to him and his heart thundered like feet against the metal of his ship.
Whoever she is, he must find out, she is the other part of our soul, the beating in our chest.
Xexis only learned her name that day because one of the other people from her crew yelled, “Aphrodite! Where’d you go?”
She said a rather spicy, naughty word, scowling with distaste. That’s where he went wrong…he took her anger in that moment as permission…she clearly hated them; it made sense she’d sacrifice her useless crew mates to the hunt. They were unworthy.
Grooug tapped his hand over the map once and the pair stopped the map’s scroll. Grooug pointed at Fravsin 12. “You said trees, correct?”
“She did ask for a forest,” Xexis breathed, wicked delight filling his face. “Perfect. Spot on concentration, as always Grooug.”
His stoic hunter nodded once in acknowledgement before sitting back in his seat. He pulled a snack bar out of his pockets and ripped off a piece before offering a bite to Xexis. “Kiefgr’s going to want a souvenir.”
Xexis groaned, nodding in agreement. His trainee, his young hunter would, indeed, want a trinket from the planet to take home. “Ensure he gets…something.”
“I shall as you will be busy.” Grooug wiggled his facial muscles suggestively before slithering out of the room.