Chapter 59
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Turns out, there is something worse than being transported to a different solar system, winding up as the potential mate for not one, but two huge, irresistible alphas, and then finding out the only other male I care about has gone on some sort of dangerous mission.
Going through all of that while bleeding.
Without chocolate.
Because, you know. This wasn’t emotional enough without PMS.
The night of Zolkan’s rut passed in a whirl of murmured discussion, tense silences, and eventually, the decision to move me back to my “nest.” At which point, Cylus hesitantly asked if he could carry me.
I sensed this was another thing that isn’t done on Khanos, but I was just sleepy enough not to hold in my whine or resist the urge to reach for him. Which silenced any protests from Zolkan.
I must have nodded off again on the actual journey, because the next thing I knew, I was here, back in the familiar opal-and-silver omega suite.
Both alphas refused to leave my side, burrowing into my sheets from opposite directions. Pretty soon, their purrs lulled me into another shallow slumber.
It’s worse in my room, away from the mind-melting musk soaked into Zolkan’s sheets. This time, I can’t escape my fuzzy nightmares. Shadowy shapes I didn’t recognize, shifting in a soundless void.
Space.
The darkness dances with a pink-winged hero who refuses to wear armor. Blades clash. Lights flare from technology I don’t understand, shooting neon currents into the vacuum of black blankness.
I shout his name, but no one can hear me. Not out there.
I don’t realize I’m still asleep until I hear Cylus’s low whisper. “Shhh. Don’t cry, my heart. It is not real. Only a dream. Open your eyes for me.”
I follow his instructions, snapping my eyes open to clear the thorny tangle of images that make no sense. Almost as if my mind doesn’t know what horrors might await Rask, so it conjured anything and everything it could.
Cylus’s face comes into view. His glasses are missing, leaving the plated planes of his blue features bare, creased in obvious concern. The fingers resting on the crown of my head rub gentle circles.
I can’t deny the urge to shift closer to his warmth, inhaling the clean, salted scent of his skin. It’s just like their luminous sea and the secret spot Rask showed me.
Irrational tears spring to my eyes as I turn toward Cylus’s broad, furry chest. Before they can spill over, I pause in confusion.
There’s a wedge of very soft fabric between my legs. When I glance down, Cylus smiles, sheepish. “For your courses. The bleeding began in the night, but I had the room prepared before we arrived.”
Mortified shock wakes me completely. I blink at him, stomach seething with embarrassment until Zolkan grunts, slinging his muscled, lavender arm around my waist. “I believe I had the room prepared,” he puts in dryly, nuzzling the back of my neck.
I flounder for some sort of reply, stumbling over utter disbelief. The last boyfriend I had wouldn’t even move a box of tampons if I left it on the bathroom counter. And these two had my suite “prepared”?
How??
And why aren’t they subtly angling their bodies away and being weird about the fact that I’m bleeding?
Instead, Zolkan hums appreciatively, fitting his hips to my backside. “Mm. Stryllas. How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?”
Now that he mentions it, I do have some cramps. Not nearly enough to rival the burning humiliation warming my cheeks and my chest, though.
“I’m fine,” I squeak, trying to figure out how to shimmy away from them so they don’t—
“Hmmm,” Zolkan rumbles again, this time with a distinct note of doubt. His purr starts up, vibrating against the length of my spine. The tension knotted at the small of my back instantly unclenches.
“Better?” he guesses, rubbing his lips along my neck.
The tender, teasing touch sends a shudder through me. My nipples prick as the sore muscles in my core contract in a whole different way.
WHAT THE ACTUAL—
Horrified with myself, I gasp, clamping my thighs shut. But Cylus immediately senses the perfume Zolkan inspired. He glides his free hand over my side, resting it on my still-naked hip. “Do you need tending, my heart?” he murmurs, utterly earnest.
Surely, one of these days, I will actually swallow my tongue. This feels like today might be the one. My lips open and shut, words snagging in my throat.
Because, yes, I want him.
And I am appalled.
“I’m bleeding,” I finally blurt.
The smallest twinge appears between his thick indigo brows. A pinch of confusion. “I am aware…?”
Zolkan’s thick fingers paint gentle caresses over my stomach. “If you’re worried taking his cock would pain you, stryllas, do not fret. Cylus will be very gentle, and I will be here to hold you the whole time. I can give you my seed first to help stretch you, if you’d like.”
The images he’s conjuring… they’re irresistible. Everything I’ve ever wanted and never knew I needed. A fantasy beyond my imagination, but buried in my soul.
Until shame swiftly floods my center, sloshing to cover the brightness burning where my Omega whines. I shouldn’t want this. I shouldn’t want them when I’m on my period. And at the same time?!
What is wrong with me?
“I—I can’t,” I breathe, irrationally upset again. So stupidly emotional, I’m sure it will send them running before I finish my protest. “I’m—I don’t know if your women have this sort of thing, here, but you guys don’t want anything to do with me right now. I promise.”
Cylus outright scowls. Insulted in a way that might be totally adorable, if this were any other topic. Zolkan husks a low growl—one I know, on an innate cellular level, constitutes a warning.
“I promise,” he fires back. “Your body’s cycles are sacred to us, omega. We are honored to be here to tend to you.”
Oh God.
Here it comes.
Normally, I would ignore the sting burning the bridge of my nose. I’d swallow all my emotions down, remind myself how insane I get when I’m on my period, and maybe shove a pint of ice cream on top of everything for good measure.
But there is no ice cream on Khanos, damn it.
I checked.
And there’s something inexplicable about these men. How they touch me and look at me. Their reverence and sincerity.
I think…
I think I—
I feel safe.
The thought is so foreign, it pushes me right over the edge. Tears spill down my face, pooling on the pillow I’m sharing with Cylus.
He tsks, murmuring low, “Precious heart.” He bends to press his forehead to mine. “So fucking lovely, even when you cry.”
Zolkan burrows closer to my back, his purr melding with my soft sobs. Cylus doesn’t balk. He stays with me, eye to eye, stroking my side and my hair.
When his plated brow nuzzles my flat features, I remember that this is their position for “kissing”—and realize Cylus and I haven’t ever done either kind. The human or the Roktusian.
With a thick throat, I reach one hand to hook around his curled horn. His gray-blue eyes flash, then flutter shut. An unrestrained gasp of pleasure floats out of him when I start to rub the warm, smooth surface.
His cocks kick, very obviously filling the front of his pants. Zolkan continues to pet me, whispering, “See how his body reacts to your touch?”
I’m barely breathing enough to reply, “Y-yes.”
Zolkan nods against my shoulder. “And you do not think any less of him, do you? It only makes you want him more?”
Cylus’s indigo lashes flutter. A streak of vulnerability darts through his gaze—and it occurs to me that my answer really matters.
Because after what I just said about myself, he probably assumes all humans think less of each other for simply…
existing in our bodies. And that I will think less of him, in turn.
But how heinously wrong is that? I could never want this male any less for how he responds to me. Which means, maybe, Zolkan has a point.
New warmth floods my center. I press my forehead tighter to Cylus’s. Reassuring him. “Of course I want him.”
Zolkan gives me another tingling brush of his lips along the shell of my ear. “It is the same for us, omega. Your courses, your heat, your perfume. We want to know what you need, and we want to be the ones who give it to you.”
God, his sincerity hurts.
It’s hope, I realize. The desperate desire to believe.
Can… can this be real? Am I going to wake up back in my lumpy, double bed on Earth—cold, cramping, and alone?
Cylus seems to sense the bent of my thoughts. His expression turns distinctly determined, but shyness flares in his icy eyes. “I’m told it is normal to feel this way,” he says, carefully choosing his words. “When you are in love with someone.”
Want and disbelief tremble through me, turning my next exhale into a weak quiver. “Y-you… you’re sure you love me?”
The words sound as small and broken as I feel. Apart from my best friends, no one else has ever said that to me. It wasn’t appropriate, considering I was always “just a foster kid.” No one’s “real” child. And the men I dated tended not to last long enough.
Zolkan falls still at my back, but Cylus’s frown deepens. “How could we not?” he whispers.
My stomach twists. “Because I’m your mate?”
Zolkan suddenly hugs me tightly, crushing my back into his bare chest. “Because you are pure starlight,” he roughs out. “Beautiful and warm and good.”
Cylus nods, his gaze wide and earnest. “So funny and brave,” he adds. “Bright, strong. Pragmatic and honest.”
His scowl gets more severe, full of true befuddlement. Like the first time he saw my feet and just couldn’t understand. “Sofi, there is much to love about you. Shall I index a list for you?”
He’s actually asking, the adorable male. I can’t help but smile through my tears. “On what? You don’t use paper.”
Sensing I’m teasing, Cylus’s confusion morphs into his put-on glower. Both of his tails wind through my legs, wrapping around each ankle. “I will use my tekk, of course. And get you a holotab of your own to carry the list with you, should you ever need to reference it.”
He’s so damn sweet, I barely manage a breathless laugh over the fresh tears rising to my eyes. Zolkan senses my bittersweet emotions and again runs toward them instead of away.
He hugs me once more, gentler this time. “I might hate mine, but you will enjoy having a tablet of your own, I think. You can use it to contact Rask, if you wish.”
New hope springs high in my chest, then deflates when I think of the only other people in the Milky Way I would ever want to call. The one part of my old life I can’t just let go of.
“Could…” I look back at Cylus, knowing he has more knowledge of their technology. “Do you think there’s a way for me to call my friends? We don’t have to tell them where I am, or where I’m calling from, but…”
They both wait patiently for me to finish, sighing, “If I’m going to stay… being able to keep in touch with them would make it a lot easier for me.”
I watch Cylus glance at my other mate, awaiting his Zortaire’s approval. I’m not sure why, but that power dynamic still seems right between them—perhaps even more so than it used to. Maybe because Zolkan isn’t just the king; he’s the Prime Alpha, first and foremost.
He nods, kissing my shoulder with a nip of his sharp teeth. Drawing more perfume from me as he vows, “I will do everything I can, omega. We will find a way.”
I try to picture it—being able to message Capri and Addy, to tell them I’m okay. Hear about their lives as they go on without me.
This time, when my eyes overflow, the tears are happy ones. I turn in Zolkan’s arms, scarcely daring to believe his promise. “Really? You would do that?”
My favorite half-smile curves his lips—and I see the truth in his eyes.
For his queen?
He will do anything.