Chapter Seventeen
Lucy:
“Good morning, beautiful. Drink this.”
“Sky? Are we here?” I blink, but then I gasp. It’s obvious where we are. The sky isn’t blue. The sand isn’t sand. It’s a fine, silky gold dust that’s warm from their bright sun.
I sip the drink he’s holding for me. It’s slightly sweet and a little tangy. A juice, I guess.
“Yellow. It’s a yellow sky,” Samantha breathes, from where she’s held in Mejak’s arms. She’s wrapped in a mass of tentacles since Kalrian sits right next to him.
I’m still staring at the roving clouds in awe when Skiden speaks. “I’ve mentioned how odd your blue sky was.”
“You did. But somehow it didn’t dawn on me that yours is a different color.”
His rumbling laughter is low.
“We thought we’d stop off at the Adroki village,” Tiran says. “So you and Samantha can meet the others. Mikhail and Lilaina stayed behind to wrap things up with law enforcement and the media. We’ll be the first bunch to try the new shuttle service between clans. It’ll save a ton of travel time.”
“You’ll love it there,” River says. “Tessa’s home right now. You’ll get to meet her. She was the President’s fiancée, the second matched bride.”
Skiden helps me to my feet and I’m surprised to find my legs are wobbly and weak, like we ran across time and space.
“It’s only the first trip that you feel this,” Skiden assures me. “You’ll have built immunities by the next time you travel by portal. Want me to carry you, beautiful? It would make me so happy.”
“But I’m heavy.”
“Then I’ll posture.” He swells slightly and easily swings me into his arms, before shrinking back down to a normal size.
“You know you’re the only one who can turn it off and on like that?” Tiran asks. “It’s not as easily controllable by other males.”
“What a superpower,” Skiden snorts.
But instead of letting him brush it off, Tiran grabs Skiden at the back of the neck. He holds him still, and drops his forehead to his brother’s, touching for a few moments.
Softly, so only Skiden, he, and I can hear, he says, “Your superpower is strong because you practiced control over it so often. You always postured first to take the attention from me or Brone. You were the first to turn it on and off when your patron insulted River when we brought her to the village. Don’t think me and Bronan haven’t noticed, little brother. We have.”
Then Tiran pulls away and winks at me. “Nice to meet you finally, Lucy. Isabel’s told us all about you. I’m glad to have yet another sister.”
“And a cousin!” River says, her arms around Samantha as she sits on the mound of tentacles. Apparently, she was introducing herself and now is forcing Sam to love her. “In six months when Sam goes back, I say we all go back with her and have another party in the commune like we did with mine. I swear those people will actually mingle this time.”
Tiran smiles softly at his mate. “You’re such a sweet female.”
Kalrian snorts. “Sweet? Your mate just placed bets with me and Mejak over whether the villagers will be braver with our second visit.”
“She’s wise enough to know which way they’ll swing and smart enough to make money for us,” Tiran snaps, and holds out his hand to River. She slips hers in his and he hauls her up into his arms.
We make it across the golden beach where another group of Pimeons wait. It’s obvious they’re a different clan. They’re not tattooed as heavily as our males and they don’t have black diamonds in their belly buttons.
“You’ll love Tessa,” Mejak grins. “Even though her mate insists on giving her shoes dipped in dirt.” He tosses a pair of strappy high heels to one of the waiting males, who grins hugely, and loops them to his belt.
“I told you a hundred times, the humans love their shoes dipped in the dirt of the beach.” The other person spreads his tentacles wide, lowering himself to the ground, and fills a bag with gold, then closes off the top and swings it over his shoulder. “Did Mikhail think it was weird that you requested a pair of female shoes size seven?”
“I didn’t have to ask him,” Mejak drawls. “Samantha had a ton of them, most never worn.”
Samantha snickers. “My parents would have been appalled if I wore something to one of their functions that wasn’t brand new.”
Kalrian looks worried. “I’m sorry, my mate. You won’t be able to wear those same spindly shoes where we live. Stratek here lives in a castle, you see. And their grounds are paved. Our village is different from the Adroki clan—”
“I’ve dressed up enough to last me a lifetime,” Sam says, cupping Kal’s cheek. “And I brought a ton of different outfits because Lucy and I are the same size. We’ll be fine.”
“And me,” River says.
Samantha laughs. “Who’d have thought we’re all so similar?”
“Isabel is too, though she’s pregnant right now. She looks adorable with all the maternity clothes the Tiiblets are making.”
“If your Tiiblets are like our little guys,” Stratek says, joining up with River and Tiran, as the rest of his clan blends in with our procession, “they’ll get oddly excited when she wears a specific outfit more than once. It’s like she’s showing favoritism to one creator. Then that Tiiblet who made it gets bragging rights within their community.” He chuckles. “They’re such a proud little race.”
“Very sensitive,” Tiran says, cutting his gaze to me. “You won’t like accidentally making them cry. I swear their eyes grow bigger and huge teardrops run down their wrinkly faces.”
Stratek winces. “I made the mistake once of telling Lilaina’s companions to take a vacation. Apparently, they assumed I was banishing them. I forgot the number one rule with Tiiblets—their pride. They never just accept something. They always feel like they have to earn it.”
Tiran’s eyes grow wide. “What did you do?”
“When I couldn’t take their wailing any longer, I had to make a public announcement that I wanted them to take a human week’s vacation because I was selfish and wanted them to myself.”
Next to him, a larger Adroki guffaws, holding his belly. “He had to follow through too. Left his mate for seven rotations of the sun so he could escort them through the village like royalty, taking them to various events. And by then, both Tiiblets had little ones, so it was an entire family of four.”
Stratek winces. “Their bablets are as loud as a full grown Tiiblet. I think I’m hard of hearing now. Come, you’re about to find out.”
“Ours are not breeding,” Tiran says with a frown. “Maybe we should have Mikhail check that.”
Stratek shakes his head. “I’ll bet I know what it is. The conditions have to be right. Since their captivity, they seem to have shut down that aspect as a defense mechanism. But once they feel completely safe—and it takes time—they’ll go into a productive heat.” He clasps Tiran on the back. “Fun to watch.”
River snickers.
Their village is magnificent—a huge, towering castle sitting within stone walls with a drawbridge surrounding it.
“I think they feel safer since we created that moat,” Stratek says. “Since Tshiki couldn’t swim. It has to be wide, though.”
“I’m not sure we have a space where we could create this,” Tiran says.
“Maybe some wells, then? Lilaina tossed her companions in a well to keep them safe during a Tshiki raid. They floated out of reach of those long legs until we were able to pull them out.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Samantha look around, wondering what these Tshiki are. I hear Mejak assure her they’re wiped out of existence by the Adroki.
Stratek calls out that Tessa calls them “humongous spider-people.”
I’m excited to learn about this strange new world and one look over at Samantha? Her face is glowing when her eyes meet mine. She’s always been the outdoorsy type and I know working as a chauffeur for an entire decade for Duke—probably free—was torture for her. Trapped inside a vehicle, acting prim and proper, all the world in sight but unable to join in.
And now she has everything she ever wanted right around her, a mate to keep her safe on either side of her.
I’m so happy, I bury my head in Skiden’s neck and hold him tight while he rubs my back. He doesn’t have to say anything. One thing Maman got right was that he is indeed her most sensitive son. He knows exactly how overwhelmed with happiness I am.
When we near the drawbridge to their village, I squirm in his arms.
“You want to walk, Lucy my love?” he whispers, kissing my ear before setting me down.
I wrap my arm around his lean waist as we make our way over the drawbridge, which is a lot bigger than it appeared from a distance.
“We can actually walk across the water,” one of the Adroki leans in to whisper. “But the Tiiblets don’t know that.”
So it’s an illusion of safety, but done out of love for their Tiiblets.
Another Adroki glares at him. “If we ever see another Tshiki, we’ll dig a deeper one. It was just a lot of hard work in the hot sun for nothing and we were tired.”
“Baby!” A red-headed woman screams, a toddler on her hip, and comes rushing across the walkway. Stratek rushes out to meet them, lifting her into his arms and swinging them both around.
“Ladies, meet my Tessa. And this little male of my heart is Sol.”
River goes over to hug Tessa, and then the redhead says hi to both Sam and me as Stratek takes their son from her.
And even though I have no idea where they came from, a puffy, wrinkly creature with a long sweeping tail tugs on Stratek’s tentacles. “Who’s this, huh, prince? More humans?”
“Yes, two more for the Bronian clan, Driki. Meet Samantha and Lucy.”
He scowls. “Driki’s pleased to meet you.”
Stratek leans down and pokes his belly. “Then why are you scowling, little mama?”
His lip trembles. “Because surely we’ll lose two of our Tiiblets this day. Our peoples will be so enamored with these beautiful princesses that they’ll attach themselves for the trip to become… Bronian.” Sadly, he holds out his hands for Stratek’s son, who goes with him. Hand in hand, they head toward the castle.
Skiden shrugs and says, “I never know what they mean.”
Stratek gets a huge grin. “I guess we’re about to find out.”
By the time we get inside, formal introductions are made all the way around. Stratek’s twin sister, Shana, holds twin girls that Skiden mentions belong to Lilaina and Juris. The toddlers’ tentacles are wrapped around her waist. Stratek’s son is playing with another older little boy that is Lilaina and Juris’s first son. Turns out, the huge Adroki that was next to Stratek is her mate, Maleek.
Next to the scowling Driki is another little Tiiblet with two little ones straddling his tail, which he sweeps back and forth.
Driki wriggles his butt, sidling his own tail next to the other’s, and one of the children—bablets—bounces onto his tail from the other to ride.
“Mikhail temporarily set up the new shuttle system for us to try. Instead of stopping at the tunnels, it’s a smaller version for the humans to try. You see, with less weight inside, the shuttle should be able to drive through the water tunnels.”
“We’re excited to try it,” Tiran rumbles.
When we get into the castle, there are more Tiiblets lurking behind furniture, trying to sneak a peek at the new humans, I guess. One gets brave and scuttles out, darts between Tiran’s tentacles, and races out of the room screeching.
“We have no idea what’s going on,” Stratek says.
He’s dropped off the bag of gold and the high heeled shoes somewhere, probably so his mate won’t notice them.
“We’re going to take you home,” Tessa says. “Since Brashear showed us how to operate the shuttle. We’ll take it to where the water tunnels start and all the swimmers will get out and make their way through first, then with the lighter shuttle, we’ll be able to drive it through to the other side.”
One little Tiiblet comes by dragging a giant suitcase across Mejak’s path.
“Here, would you like me to get that for you?” he asks.
“Yes, please. How thoughtful. I choose you.”
Mejak tilts his head to the side. “For what?”
“To live with, I think. Your human is quite pretty.”
“Thank you?” Samantha says. “What’s your name, cutie? I like your leather skirt.”
The creature, who’s wearing lipstick, scowls. “Roxian. And it’s a great skirt until I turn around. And then, see?” the Tiiblet turns, waggles its butt and tail and the entire skirts lifts in the back. “I guess I could tuck my tail between my legs, but then it just looks like I have an extremely large dick lifting the front.”
Samantha’s jaw drops and Skiden snickers until I elbow him. But Sam recovers nicely. “We can fix that. Make a slit where your tail can come out of the skirt in back.”
The Tiiblet brightens. “Let’s try that when we get home.” Then tail-thumps Mejak. “Don’t drag my suitcase. It’s new.”
It’s rather beat-up.
Sam mouths to me, “Home?”
Oh. I guess the little person is coming with us.
Tessa smiles. “Um, Roxian here is friends with Bronan’s Tiiblet. Wrombley.”
“We fuck,” Roxian says. “For being all proper, Wrombley’s a beast in bed.”
“Much like Bronan,” Skiden says proudly.
“How do you know?” Tiran snickers.
“Bel’s mentioned it a few times.”
We all laugh since she’s not here.
“By the way,” Stratek says, “I know you can’t tell yet, but my Tessa is giving me a second kish.” He cups her flat belly with his larger hand.
“Congratulations!” I say, at the same time Sam does.
Tessa blushes. “We’re trying to catch up with Lilaina and Juris apparently. I don’t know what we’d do without Shana helping out.” She reaches out and clasps Stratek’s sister’s hand with hers.
Shana shrugs. “What better way to be around cute little bundles of love and not have to go through labor, right?”
Maleek has their own little girl sitting on his shoulders, her tentacles winding around his shoulders and arms.
“Okay,” Tessa calls out a roll call, pointing to the kids. “Mikki?” A little boy darts through Stratek’s tentacles. “Shana’s got the twins. Maleek’s got Bessi. Skiden has ours. I think we have everyone! Driki, Bantu, you’ll hold down the fort until Lilaina gets home?”
“Aye, aye, Princess,” Bantu smiles broadly, then elbows Driki. “Princess put me in charge.” Little Driki scowls further.
Then Tessa takes pity on Driki and smooths the little tufts of poky, hair-like protrusions on top of his head. “I’m proud of you.”
His scowl disappears and he smiles up at her.
“Aww,” I murmur and Skiden brings my fingers up to his lips to kiss.
And Bantu nudges Driki with his tail. “I’m proud of you too,” he whispers shyly. Driki’s tail entwines with his and this time we all sigh.
In a special “garage” is where the new shuttle is kept. Tessa opens the door so we all pile in.
“It’ll be a tight fit,” Stratek says, as more of us squish inside. “But we’re all friends here, right? Hope everyone bathed today,” he mutters.
When Skiden’s tentacles wrap around me, I see that all humans have to get used to being bound by their mates. Because Stratek’s wound around Tessa, poor Sam has both guys wrapped around her, and Shana and Maleek are the same.
When Roxian notices, she picks up a tentacle—though it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s Mejak’s or Kalrian’s—and winds it around her own shoulders like a shawl.
“When the Britonians lived among us, they lived underwater because our biggest enemy was the Tshiki,” Skiden murmurs in my ear. “They could leap great distances and cage objects like this shuttle. But now they’re gone so the Britonians are helping us build things like this.”
When the shuttle stops, all the tentacled people get out, even those with children. Apparently, the half-human kids are able to breathe water, so it’s easy enough for them to swim through the underground tunnels.
It leaves the humans and Tiiblets in the shuttle. Roxian holds still, hiding behind Samantha like maybe we can’t see her. When Sam has enough, she turns and picks her up, holding her in her arms, but Roxian gives a pained yelp. “Please don’t make me go swim! I’m human too. Just smaller.”
“Here, it’s okay,” I murmur, giving her my hand to hold.
“It’ll be fine, Roxian,” Tessa murmurs. “The Brits have tested this shuttle many times. Besides, sweetie. You float, remember?”
“But I’m scared for my humans,” she says.
“Aww,” Sam says, hugging her.
“You can stay. The shuttle’s light enough. Hold on,” Tessa says as we cut through the water. “The oceans on this planet are shallow in certain spots, which make it safe for swimming. When it’s deep, there are a lot of giant predators out. Normally we don’t swim with lights on because it will attract them. Which is why the Britonians chose this spot to place the tunnels.”
From the front window, we see where the tunnel begins. It has a more narrow opening that bends and then widens.
But it’s not completely filled with water.
“Pretty cool, huh? Originally, the tunnels were created as a safe haven for Tiiblets. When they swim in, they can maneuver low enough to get to the entrance and once inside? They float up to the top where the air is. Nothing can reach them in here. Back when we were traveling by foot, it was easy enough to push them through to the tunnel, they can stay as long as they want before floating up to the other side which is your territory. The water is more shallow on that side, connected to your cliffs, so there’s no Tshiki. Well, there’s none left anyway, but back when they existed, I mean,” Tessa says, but I think she’s mostly talking to soothe Roxian.
“None of the guys are in the tunnels,” I notice. I kind of expected the ones with children to be inside.
“Ha. The whole group of them are so fast. Swim like fish. You’ll see. Even the Tiiblets move quickly with those tails.”
We get to the other side of the tunnel and I can see the land we’re moving toward, where all of the purple people wait. Tessa powers down the shuttle as we get near the shore and some of the bigger males step into the water to push us to shore. Once the shuttle is settled on dry land, she opens the door.
“Easy-peasy,” she reminds us, smiling at Roxian who scrambles down from Sam’s hip.
“My Wrombley,” she says.
Sure enough, further up the embankment, Isabel waves with another male I assume is Bronan, and a Tiiblet who wears a… bowtie.
A large bowtie and nothing else.
“Wrombley,” Roxian yells, running up toward him.
But then Skiden is there, taking my hand, and Mejak and Kalrian surround Samantha and we make our way up the hill.
“You’re here! I can’t believe you’re both here,” Isabel cries, huge tears running down her cheeks as she hugs me and Samantha.
Her mate scowls like it’s our fault she’s crying.
“How did it go? Mikhail promised to show us the vid that was recorded but I can’t wait to hear.”
“River’s dad kidnapped me,” I say.
“Uh, your dad,” she counters.
“Tried to make me marry the old prophet to replace her.”
“Oh, my God, honey. Is that what happened to your face?”
“I hardly noticed,” Skiden says, blinking. “I did notice the other three mamans of River’s though. They were tore up.”
“Mother Clara? Bertha? Eleanor?” River asks.
“All three. I kicked their asses,” I say, proudly.
“I created a monster,” Skiden says, aghast.
“Yes!” River says. “All three?”
“All three. Though, I really hope the men get what they deserve.”
“They will,” Tessa says, her son back on her hip along with Mikki on the other side. The two little boys play peek-a-boo around her shoulders with each other. “Lilaina said all three are heading for prison.”
“Well, let’s go eat,” Bronan says. “We have a feast prepared.”
I don’t miss the look Skiden gives Mejak and Kalrian. Both males look nervous and I wonder if this will be the mating ceremony they discussed.
It turns out it is.
The Bronians live in the side of a cliff, mostly. There are smaller huts around the edge, leading toward the forest of trees, where a lot of the single hunters stay. Inside the main area of the cliff is a huge room, with polished marble floors. There are areas with floors to ceiling draped with fabric, which I assume hide entrances to other rooms.
Above the main area, and visible “windows” to the outside of the cliff, are individual homes. Sort of like apartments. There are staircases dug deeper into the cliff that wind up to each level, though there are smaller stairways that go from one level to the next. On the back end of the cliff is the ocean. I guess it’s nothing for Bronians to jump right in.
We take seats—oddly placed in the middle of the room—and I hold back a smile. Now I’m sure they’re going to ask her for a mating.
Both males spread their tentacles so they’re kneeling before her.
“Samantha Merende of Earth, you own my heart.” Kalrian leans over and places his kiss in the center of her palm. “I feel like I’ve waited my entire life for you.”
“Samantha Merende of Earth, you own my soul.” Mejak leans over and places his kiss in the center of her palm. “Please complete our family.”
Both males close her fingers, making a fist, as if they refuse to let her wipe away. A few people chuckle.
“Smart,” Tiran calls out. “Don’t give that female a choice.” He snaps a tentacle at Bronan.
“I love you both so much,” Sam says, and when she wraps her arms around their heads to pull them toward her, I notice her hands are still fisted like she’ll never let their kiss go.
I cup my hands over my mouth, so tickled with her happiness I could just burst. This is exactly what she wanted. Both of them.
“And for a double mating ceremony,” Skiden says, standing up and moving to the front of me. His tentacles splay out so he’s kneeling.
“Skiden?” I whisper, confused until I realize they planned this. It wasn’t just for Sam.
“Lucy, my love,” he says, taking my hand. “Please be mine. My forever mate. I will give you whatever your heart desires—brothers, sisters, cousins, kishren, even a mother in the form of my maman—from now until the end of time. Anything you want, I will make happen.” Gently he unfurls my fingers, then leans over and kisses the center of my palm. I swear, I feel that kiss all the way to my heart.
“Your maman was right,” I whisper. “You are her sensitive son. A perfect soul.” I bring my palm up to my mouth, and kiss right where he did.