Chapter 17
DALOX
Having her close makes my heart pound a little less. It doesn’t help much with the shed, which has come upon me like a plasma burst. I want to rip my skin off and hurl it away from me, only my shed has never been good, and it feels like this one is going to be particularly difficult.
And now there is an added complication.
“Rosalie says we’ll need to use a wormhole to even get close to the galaxy where my planet is. Is that possible?” Gillian asks.
She has hit upon the one thing I was hoping to work out before the question was asked.
“The female is correct,” I say as we collect my warriors, some of whom have fresh blood on their claws, and exit the clan hub into the neutral sector.
“The galaxy we are in is well away from even the more populated parts. To reach the area where the Sarkarnii home world once was would take more than my lifetime.”
“Once was?”
“Our planet was taken from us, or rather it was surrendered to an enemy by our supposed allies, and upon which, half of the Sarkarnii population was murdered.” I grit my teeth.
“Oh,” Gillian says as all around me my warriors growl. “I am so, so sorry, Dalox.”
“You do not need to be. It was not your fault.” I stare straight ahead.
All this talk of taking her home. Maybe the others should consider returning to our original galaxy. I glance at my warriors. They should have the opportunity to take mates as I have done, and here on Vorostor, they will never get the chance.
Although, as my mate’s main aim is to return to her home, my chances of mating seem diminished too. But my rut means I cannot deny her what she wants.
Gillian will have her passage home, and I will accompany her.
We reach my sector, and I dismiss my warriors to go get cleaned up.
“I have few options, my mate.” I usher her though the ship and towards my quarters. “I need the mapping system for the wormholes, and I will be working on obtaining it.”
The door ahead of us opens at our approach, and Gillian steps hesitantly through it, looking at her surroundings carefully.
“And what happens if you don’t have this mapping system?”
“If we choose the wrong wormhole…” I feel my tail lashing behind me. “Then we may end up in a worse place than this.”
“Then we need the mapping system.” Gillian looks up at me.
It takes everything I have not to draw her to me. Instead I close the gap between us, smoke billowing for a nova-second before I gain some control and instead suck down her perfect scent.
“Mine is not reliable. I will need to obtain another.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
“It is something I will have to consider.”
The door closes behind us, and Gillian cocks her head on one side.
“What is that smell?” She lifts her head. “It’s like…water?”
“My personal aquium,” I explain, subconsciously lifting my hand to my neck and scratching.
“A pool?” Her eyes light up. “You have a pool.”
“I do not have a pool,” I respond, watching her expression change from delight to despair. “We have an aquium, and you can use it any time you wish.”
Gillian stares at me.
“I don’t have a swimsuit,” she says.
I furrow my brow.
“Clothes for swimming in,” Gillian clarifies. “I don’t have any clothes to swim in.”
A smile spreads over my face. “Neither do I.”
We stare at each other for a few more beats, and then her face changes, her lips curling up and her eyes closing as she slaps her hand on my chest and throws her head back in the most incredible of ways, a laugh tumbling from her with the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.
“I do not require clothing, Gillian. But I do need to shed my skin.”
Her laugh comes to an abrupt halt.
“All Sarkarnii shed, but when we’re in rut, the shed is worse, more urgent. And my shed has never been easy, even more so since we arrived on Vorostor.”
Gillian is still close to me. Close enough I can’t help myself. I take her chin in my hand, tilting her face up to mine.
“The wormhole which brought us here, the one I chose, even though my mapping was malfunctioning, changed some of us. Not all of us, but for me and my warriors, it made being a Sarkarnii just that little bit harder. Shifting from our Sarkarnii form isn’t as easy, but ending up in our Sarkarnii form is much harder to stop.
My shed is…difficult as is that of my warriors.
Our flame is hotter but our accelerant burns.
My flight lungs work better but my spines often refuse to retract. ”
“That doesn’t sound like a change,” Gillian says, her voice hoarse. “It sounds like an enhancement.”
“Help me shed my skin, little mate. I won’t ask anything else of you,” I rasp. “But do me this one thing and I will be forever in your debt.”