Chapter 5
ZIVREN
June has been Akkal’s nanny for two weeks, and I’d fire her if she weren’t so good at her job.
Being in her presence is becoming increasingly unbearable.
My cock is constantly poking through my pants, and I blame her scent for that.
It’s everywhere. Her hair smells like sunshine and fresh flowers, and her skin smells like she bathes in the juice of guatavi berries.
When she arrives, I rush to get out the door, and when I return home at the end of a shift, I often find her asleep on the couch, her soft body tucked into a ball that makes her look like a kenuuvo bear coming out of hibernation.
Her hair is a wild mess, and the warmth of sleep radiates off her skin.
When she leaves, I end up sprawled on the couch, inhaling her scent on the pillow as I try to keep my hips from pistoning into the cushion.
She is driving me to madness. A madness I’ve never known before. I…want her. Badly.
I gather my duffel of overnight supplies as I get ready to leave for my shift. It’s rare that I’m called upon to stay for a double, but I like to be prepared. The central part of the island is mostly brush and prone to fires, and when the air is this dry, you never know when a spark could catch.
June is standing in front of the cold box with the door open, humming a lilting tune to herself.
She’s wearing a loose top and shorts that cling to her thighs and ass.
This means her legs are fully bared to me, and I want nothing more than to sink to my knees and kiss along her shapely calves, her ankles, and the tip of each bare toe.
I need to refill my water jug, but as I watch her nipples slowly harden, I forget my needs entirely.
When she notices me, she quickly apologizes and steps to the side.
“I was just figuring out what to make Akkal for dinner.”
“Mm,” I grunt, trying to compose myself. I’ve never been more thankful that I’m the one who can read minds because if she could see inside my––her employer’s––head in this moment, if she could see the things I’ve fantasized about doing to her, I fear she’d run straight into the sea.
There are times when I think she may feel the same pull that I do, like when I woke her from a dead sleep and my name was on her lips.
I could sense a yearning in her voice. But since the day she began working as Akkal’s nanny, I’ve promised myself I wouldn’t invade her privacy by peering into her thoughts or making my desires known.
My family made it clear how off-putting my ability is to those who don’t have it, and the last thing I want to do is make June uncomfortable in my presence.
Especially when Akkal has grown so fond of her.
They laugh, chase each other around the house, and she’s gotten him to try activities that I never could.
She even plays with his toys and creates different voices for each one.
He needs her, and in order to ensure she remains, I must conceal my feelings.
“Oh, sorry,” she says with a nervous giggle as we bump into each other in the middle of the kitchen, the skin of our forearms brushing.
A zap of electricity shoots down my spine at the contact, and I grit my teeth to stifle the moan climbing up my throat before clearing it. “It’s fine,” I say stiffly before tossing my bag over my shoulder. I press a kiss to Akkal’s hair and rush out the door without another word to her.
When I return home in the early morning hours, I find June in her usual spot––curled up on the couch and deep in slumber. But this slumber seems to be the opposite of restful. Her brow is pinched and her knuckles are white as she clutches the thin blanket draped across her middle.
There’s part of me that’s hesitant to wake her. Isn’t it worse to wake a sleeping creature from what is clearly a nightmare? I read that in a parenting book once. Or perhaps that’s just my kind and the rule doesn’t apply to humans.
“No,” she whimpers, her chin dropping to her chest.
She looks so fragile and afraid.
“No, no, no. They’ll kill us.”
What could she be dreaming of? Something from her imagination, or her memories?
“Don’t leave me here,” she cries with a shaky voice, her hand reaching down to grab the cushion. “W-won’t make it.”
When her plush bottom lip begins to tremble, I decide I’ve had enough. Rules be damned. I can’t let her continue to be stuck in whatever awful vision she’s experiencing. I lightly brush my fingers along the back of her hand. “June,” I whisper. “Awaken, June. You’re safe.”
She still doesn’t wake, and the words she mutters aren’t even words. They’re bitten off unhappy sounds that twist my gut.
I grab her shoulder and try shaking her a bit. “June, wake up.”
She jerks back as her eyes fly open, worry and fear changing the luminous green of her irises to a dark seaweed color. “Wha-where are they?” she asks, getting to her feet and looking around, bewildered.
“Who?”
That’s when her gaze settles on me, but only for a heartbeat before she wraps her arms around my middle and hugs me like I’m her only tether to reality. “Zivren,” she chokes out, her grip tightening. “Thank god.”
At first, I’m frozen in place. My son is the only being who’s ever held me this tightly.
I’m not sure what to do, or how to react.
June’s body shakes and when I hear her soft cry against my chest, my front arms slowly fold around her.
I keep my touch light, casual, non-threatening.
“You’re safe,” I tell her, hoping my embrace brings her nothing but comfort.
She pulls back with tear-stained cheeks a moment later, and her expression is twisted in shame. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” She bites her lip, dropping her hands to her sides. “A bad dream. It was just a bad dream.”
I let her go and clear the knot in my throat as I attempt to look as unaffected as she does. “It’s fine.”
We remain like this for an indeterminate amount of time, a very short distance between our bodies as we stare at each other. I don’t know what it means, but I can’t bring myself to break away from it. Particularly when her eyes return to the brighter green shade that’s so easy to lose myself in.
Her gaze drops to my lips, and I want more than anything to peek inside her head and see what’s on her mind.
Does she like the way I look? Or does she find my purple skin unsightly and voice grating and daydream about forever closing the source of such a wretched sound with a needle and surgical thread?
“I…” she begins, her gaze traveling over the bridge of my nose and along the lines of my jaw. What does she see? “I should get going.”
The spell is broken.
“Right,” I reply. There’s no hiding the disappointment in my tone, but maybe she’s too tired to notice. “I shall see you tomorrow.”
She offers me a wave and a smile before closing the front door behind her.
I plop down on the couch, sinking into the cushions that are warm from her body, and try to clear my head. How am I expected to continue this torturous charade? What can I do?
As I ponder breaking my rule of listening to her thoughts to see if she returns my affections, I hear a commotion building outside. Voices raising. More than two, in fact. Then I hear June’s.
“This is ridiculous!” she shouts. “I’m an approved resident of the island. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
I race outside to find two large males with rusty orange scales and white jumpsuits closing in on either side of her, a stout, older looking male with blackish gray scales and yellow feathers along the center of his skull holding a thick folder of papers in front of her face, and Uzellarin, Chancellor of the Isle of Many, looking like she wants to squeeze the feathered man’s head until it pops like a bubble.
“We have laws here, Lord Forchan,” Uzellarin declares with clenched fists. “You cannot pluck a resident from their home and take them back to whatever planet from which you hail.”
“She is a murderer, Chancellor,” Lord Forchan replies through gritted fangs. “I’ve explained this to you already. She killed our benevolent king and must be prosecuted immediately back on Etirinu.”
June lets out a scoffing cackle. “Benevolent? The king who used to beat his wives and children when they spoke without his permission? That’s the king we’re talking about?”
I watch Lord Forchan raise his webbed hand like he’s about strike June and something snaps inside me.
Something foreign and feral. “Ficqing porkovyo!” I shout as I charge toward the group and wrap my fingers around the lord’s thin wrist, yanking it backward.
“You do not touch her.” My voice is gravelly and almost too low for me to recognize, but I make my threat clear, and I can see the terror in Lord Forchan’s eyes as he registers my size and the fact that I have twice as many arms as he does.
“Zivren, let’s not resort to violence,” the chancellor says nervously.
“We can resolve this issue with words, of that I’m confident.
” She turns to Lord Forchan. “You see, this is what happens when you attempt to break a mate bond. You could’ve at least warned us about your arrival and the matter at hand.
The couples on our island are blissfully happy and will lay down their lives to protect one another. ”
June meets my gaze, and I can tell she’s as confused as I am.
The chancellor gestures between me and June. “A new mating such as this, well, that’s when the eternal bond is at its strongest.”
Mate bond? Me and June?
My mouth flops open.
Lord Forchan is caught off guard by this revelation, but only for a moment.
A sneer returns to his oily, tightly pinched face as he says, “A mate bond means nothing to the government of Etirinu. This female is an assassin of the mighty King Hextul, and I am required by law to bring her back so that she may be properly prosecuted.”