Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Selena
The soft sound of purrs woke me from my slumber.
My body felt stiff as something silky and soft surrounded me.
The side of my neck felt raw. I carefully touched my mark to check the damage and winced in pain.
Surprisingly, my breasts didn’t feel achy or full.
I opened my eyes to a scene that differed greatly from what I remembered.
How did I end up here? What happened?
The room was dark, the only light from a lamp sitting on a black desk across the room.
Zirene was sitting in a matching chair with his back turned to me, looking out through the glass wall.
The jacket he’d handed Kaede was hanging off the back of his chair.
The open view of space was amazing. Only a few small ships traveling to and from the space station took away from its emptiness.
I was lying on a strangely curved corner bed.
It was slightly smaller than my nestbed and wedge-shaped as it connected one wall to another in the corner.
The mattress was the same height, while the pillows and blankets were royal purple with silver details along the edges that shimmered by the starlight.
Xylo and Odelm were curled up on either side of me, sleeping with their bodies uncovered. My cubs seemed slightly larger as they slept between Xylo and myself—piled on top of each other against his chest. His vines boxed them in, creating a barrier around them.
I sat up and winced at the stiffness in my body as I pushed the heavy blanket down, revealing I was no longer in the dark green dress I had arrived in. Instead, I wore a soft nightgown, the color of my hair.
How much time had passed while I was unconscious?
Slowly, I pulled my legs up and out of the blanket, trying not to wake up my sleeping clan. I carefully crawled across the bed, failing to muffle a soft hiss from the stinging on my shoulder.
“Selena?”
I jerked my head up to the source of the voice.
Zirene jumped to his feet and raced toward me, lifting me gently off the bed. His face filled with concern as he studied me with weighted eyelids. His amethyst eyes met mine.
“Tell me what you need, and it will be yours,” he whispered. His deep raspy voice sent shivers down my spine.
“I need answers,” I responded wryly, my hands gripping his mane, feeling its soft and silky texture between my fingers. “What happened while I was out?”
“Let me take you to the bathroom, so you can freshen up,” Zirene answered. “Then we will go to my office, and I can fill you in. We have a lot to discuss. I am hoping to have the doctor I assigned to you examine you.”
The door automatically opened, revealing a bathroom that put the one on the Destiny to shame.
It screamed masculinity with its royal Aldawi coloring.
A deep black stone tub with silver accessories and details sat along the glass wall.
Shelves and cabinets lined the walls, and the black and purple marble stone floor matched the counter.
“Wow.”
“This is my personal chamber in the Aldawi Royal Apartments. I remodeled everything to make sure it provided for our clan.”
Turning my gaze away from the bathroom to him, I searched his face. He had just called my clan his.
“What did you have to remodel?”
He looked away, toward the glass wall. “I upgraded the bed to fit more bodies. There was no bed shaped like a Circuli nestqueen’s nestbed available, so I had one custom-built.
Even if you don’t welcome me into your bed, I wanted to make sure you had a bed that would fit everyone in your clan.
I have a normal size one in my guest room. ”
His thoughtfulness surprised me.
I frowned.
Guilt soon followed. I wished there wasn’t a wall between us, and that things were different.
I was still upset at him, and I had the right to be.
We needed to have a long conversation about working out the problems between us sometime soon, because I didn’t want to continue with the way things were left unsaid.
“That was thoughtful of you,” I whispered.
He glanced at me. “It was nothing compared to what you deserve.”
Gently, he lowered me onto the ground and stepped back toward the bathroom door.
“Zirene, I don’t feel comfortable having a doctor whom I don’t know examine me.”
“I would feel better if he could. He aided Xylo and the others in stabilizing you.”
“Can we wait until Xylo wakes up? I’d rather have him and his team present.
They have been studying my progress since they found me.
” Pulling my gaze from him, I looked down at my feet.
“I still have issues with infirmaries and having others who I don’t know run tests and experiments on me.
Xylo and his team understand my triggers.
They have helped a lot with them and worked around them. ”
Arms wrapped around me, Zirene pulled me to his hard, furry chest. Leaning down, he lowered his head, rubbing it along the side of my neck—the opposite side of where he marked me. A rumble vibrated from his chest.
“I understand perfectly well, my little Nova. If that is what you want, then I will wait until Xylo and his crew are available before having my doctor come to examine you. I am sorry for not making the connection to your time with the Yaarkins sooner.”
I took in a deep breath, smelling him. His warm and spicy scent had a slightly sweet afterglow as it calmed me with each intake. It was made for me.
“Thank you.”
He reluctantly pulled away and brushed my hair behind my ears.
“Freshen up. Take your time. I will leave and wait for you in my office. It is directly across the social room from this chamber’s door.”
Without waiting for my response, he left the bathroom.
Right away, I used the waste unit, then washed my hands, splashing my face before dabbing it with a towel.
Satisfied, I left the bathroom and quietly walked over to the bed to check on my clan.
They were all still in a deep sleep in the same spot I left them.
Slowly, I walked away and made my way to Zirene’s office.
His office shared the same color theme as the rest of his apartment - black, royal purple, and silver. His desk was against the glass wall, facing the center of the office. There was comfortable-looking black cushioned furniture in the middle of the room.
Zirene stood next to the glass wall, near his desk, staring into space.
I walked up behind him and was about to touch his shoulder, but his voice halted me.
“About nine years ago, I was in the middle of a conversation with my brother, Prince Royak, when I first felt you. A tingling sensation traveled from the tip of my tail and up my spine, drawing my attention away. Denial of the whole event plagued me, knowing Novas were almost nonexistent during these modern times. Later that day, I heard a small ringing in my head, paired with the same tingling sensation I felt earlier. I automatically stopped what I was doing and hurried to my bedroom, forcing myself into a warrior’s sleep. That is when I first met you.”
Silence fell between us after his confession. I didn’t know how to respond. Instead, I placed my hand on his shoulder as a low purr radiated from him.
“Since that day, you changed my life. At first, it baffled me that you weren't Aldawi. In all of our recorded history, there has never been a Nova that existed outside of our species. Being paired with you was both a blessing and a curse.” I felt him take in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I am the second in line to the most powerful species in the CEG and ruler of the second star system in the Aldawi Empire. My star system is the closest to this space station and to my people’s greatest rival in power, the Quaww Empire. Regardless of all this, the Fates and the Stars matched you with me.”
Zirene turned around, making my hand fall from his back as he gently brushed my hair off my mark. Glancing up, he locked his amethyst eyes, which I had loved all this time, with mine.
“I spent the next nine years getting to know you and learning everything about you. While also giving you as much knowledge about what is outside of our dreamscape and freedom to enjoy yourself as I was allowed. Outside of our dreamscape world, I led the hunt to rescue you, with the Yaarkins as my prey. It took all of my willpower not to take you away the night we met. Doing so would have prevented us from collecting all the knowledge needed to hunt down the ones who were working with them. The Yaarkins broke our deal, and in response, I had my fleet hunt down their customers. Once we slew their only clients, I returned to capture the Yaarkins and take you away from them.”
Zirene grabbed my hand and slowly stepped back, leading me toward his couch. He sat down gracefully, and I followed as he let go of my hand. His eyes roamed my body.
“By Fates, you are beautiful.”
I could feel myself blushing as I looked away, embarrassed by the direct compliment.
“You are pretty handsome yourself. I am glad I can finally see who you are.”
A black paw-shaped hand lightly gripped my chin, bringing my gaze to his.
“I am sorry for keeping my identity a secret from you. I didn’t know if the Yaarkins would somehow find out—if they could pry any information from you.
Not knowing where you were drove me insane, yet I had to put up a strong front when I wasn’t alone.
Only a select few knew how much it affected me, mainly Prince Royak and Agent Kaede. ”
He looked away and dropped his hand. Standing, he went to the drink dispenser, selecting two drinks before returning to me.
He handed me a steaming dark purple beverage in a black cup before he placed his own on the table.
I watched as Zirene pulled out a blanket from a cabinet and carefully tucked me in before grabbing his drink and sitting down next to me.
“By the Yaarkins own records, your ship housed the last of their species. We rid the universe of them, but at what cost? They sacrificed their other experiments in order to try to escape. We failed the mission and weren’t able to save those lives… And we almost lost you in the process.”
“But you didn’t.”
He smiled gently at me. “No, because you are a strong female and saved yourself.” His tail brushed against my leg, sending a tickling sensation through me as its soft fur dragged lightly on my bare skin.
“I knew you weren’t dead. I felt no disconnect after our failed mission, only a void whenever I tried to dreamwalk to you.
“When the Circuli princes contacted me about your discovery, a great weight lifted off my shoulders. I told them to bring you here as I prepared a home for you and our cubs. I put all my focus on perfecting everything for us. Having my brother, Royak, on our side will prevent others in the CEG who want to study you and our cubs from taking away your futures.”
I took a sip of the drink and winced when the spicy flavor burned as it went down. Coughing to clear my throat, I placed the drink on the table and grabbed his tail, feeling it flicking in my hand.
“What do I need to do for them to leave us alone?”
Zirene growled. “You need to come with us to the council meeting with all the representatives. They want to meet you and our cubs. Now that I’ve marked you, they will have to let you be.
Some will have choice words about the matter, but they won’t have the power to do anything about it.
We may have to allow some scientists to come with us and observe you and our cubs, but I won’t allow them to do anything you don’t want, or prevent you from living your life freely.
You have been locked up, alone, and experimented on long enough. ”
Dread filled me.
Was I ever going to be able to get away from it all? I just wanted the freedom to live, to be able to explore life with my clan, to travel among the stars, and visit other planets and cultures.
I wanted to be able to settle wherever I wished without any restraints; to live my life with my cubs and the males who filled it.
And to learn about my amethyst-eyed Aldawi dreamscape male, Prince Zirene Darcaw, Second Prince to the Aldawi Throne, Ruler of the Lunkai Star System.
“What about us?”