CHAPTER FOURTEEN
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Fin
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THE RACING OF my zural heart when I held her in my arms once again only proved what I had spent recent days agonizing over—Jillian was my fated mate. It mattered little that she was human. The Divine Mother had bestowed upon me a life partner, and I could no longer ignore the gift.
Yet honor and duty lay heavy on me. My people had already lost so much when the Folri Swarm took our home world. We needed Sagittarian One.
And we needed a way to find peace with the humans.
Perhaps that is why the Divine Mother has made us fated mates? To build a bridge between our peoples?
Yet every conversation I had with Protector Tren or Warlord Grol ended with no conciliations. The Varool were not yet ready to bend.
“There is only one answer,” I said.
Jillian sat the goat-lope down and stood, stepping close.
I gathered her into my arms. “We stay together, even if it means cutting ties with our people.” Never could I take up arms against my fellow Varool, nor could I fight my mate’s people. I was no pacifist when the enemy deserved to be vanquished, but humans were not the insectoid Folri.
“How? Could we take your shuttle? Where could we go? You said there weren’t any other planets.”
“No. No shuttle. If we do this, we do it here, on Sagittarian One.”
“They’ll miss us.” Her lips pursed. “They’ll scan for us.”
I nodded. “They will, and varoolian scanners are far superior to human. We will need to make use of the natural barrier we have already found.”
Her eyes widened. “The cave!”
Her quick mind delighted me. “The cave.”
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The following days were nothing but physical labor, yet it was not without its advantages.
We met every morning to begin work clearing the entrance to the cave.
Jillian grew tired more quickly than me, yet always continued on without complaint.
And each day saw her getting a little stronger.
It was good—such strength would aid her in our upcoming trek.
Because peace felt ever further away. The diplomatic talks between our peoples had failed completely.
I also used these days as a way to build her strength in another way—I fed her and fed her heartily. Soon, I would see her generous curves augmented by a nice swell of muscle.
Billy roamed the mountainside, grazing on lichen and whatever else he could find, running back to us every time we stopped to rest. His small legs were amazingly steady as he raced over the uneven surface, perfectly adapted to this terrain.
We had not found his parent in the upper rock fall, but I imagined they were buried under the larger mass of scree covering the lower slope.
He seemed to have recovered well, though, and basked in all the affection Jillian constantly showed him.
She will make a fine mother. Yet we would not have such a future unless we found a way to be together. I returned to my work, heaving a boulder down and away, the weight straining my shoulders.
With the area above the entrance finally cleared of loose rock, we tackled the actual opening. Things proceeded quickly from there, and on the evening of the fifth day, we broke through to the first cavern.
Rock dust covered Jillian, yet she had never looked lovelier than when she stood inside the cave, triumph lighting her face.
I swept her into my arms, and she laughed, her copper eyes sparkling with warmth. Her scent, made rich by her exertions, filled my nose, setting my zural heart thumping. I longed to take her, to mark her as mine, my cock aching with need.
Yet night fell quickly in the mountains as the peaks cut off the lingering rays of the sun, and I would not have her attempt the river crossing under darkness.
We parted with a heated kiss, and I watched to ensure she reached the far bank, my secondary heart beating out an insistent tattoo the entire time—mine, mine, mine.
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Another of the planet’s ubiquitous storms blew in that night, and rain blurred my view of the opposite mountain the next morning.
Billy stood in the doorway, his small body pressed to my calf as he stared out into the bad weather without setting a hoof outside.
“Spoiled already, I see.”
He looked up at me.
I waved him back inside. “Go on then.” I had tasked one of the cleaning bots to monitor him and take care of any messes. One more mattered little.
Remaining in the doorway, I strained to detect any sign of movement from Jillian’s base, but there was none. It seemed my mate was as sensible as Billy and had decided to stay out of the rain.
Not for the first time, I wished we had some means to communicate. Yet even if we could hide the signal from her people, I knew nothing about how to do so from mine.
A restlessness kept me from being able to relax.
I shut Billy in the bedroom and reconfigured the main room into a practice space.
My yedral blade sang as I pulled it from its sheath.
It had been too long. I took up an opening stance in the center of the room and fell into the first moves, letting long years of practice and muscle memory take over.
The blade swished through the air, each strike true, yet the peace I usually found eluded me.
At the end of the sequence, I re-sheathed my sword and hung it again on the rack by the door.
I longed for Jillian—not just to mate her, but also for her company.
Nothing else would do.