Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Z’fir
Z’fir watched his new nestqueen stomp away. Their golden courting bond thread became fainter as the distance between them grew. He took a hesitant step after her, conflicted whether he should follow her, but something wrapped around his arm, preventing him from continuing forward.
“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” Xylo scolded. “If Selena wants to be left alone, you are better off giving her the space she needs.”
Z’fir heard the words he spoke, but there was a nagging pull deep down in his chest that told him to be with her.
“There is nothing to see!” Zirene shouted, his paws opening and closing along his sides.
The crowd eyed Zirene warily as they dispersed.
A pair of Aldawi Royal Guards shoved their way through the thick crowd.
“Sire! Sire!” shouted one guard.
“Sire, do you want us to find her for punishment?” asked his partner.
It was clear by the dimness in his eyes, Zirene would not press charges. Z’fir didn’t need to be an Ulax to see how Zirene’s fight with Selena was affecting him.
“You are correct. His aura radiates an array of colors of emotions. Prince Zirene didn’t believe he was doing anything wrong and now regrets his decision,” V’dim confirmed.
“We weren’t the cause of the clan’s rift, but we should help our nestbrothers fix it before it gets worse. There is a multitude of big decisions about the future that need to be made. If the clan remains the way it is, I fear what would come.”
“No. Leave her be. What happened between us was between mates and nothing else,” Zirene growled. “I want her to be left alone. She has her own personal guard to handle her safety.”
“Understood.”
Both Royal Guards saluted Zirene and left.
The crowd had died down. The only beings around were stragglers. Some of which failed to hide their interest in Z’fir’s party.
“Secrets. They ruin everything,” Odelm murmured.
Z’fir glared at the young musician. The male was staring down Zirene, whose focus was on Selena’s retreat. Odelm growled, his coloring shifting between red anger and orange worry, as he advanced on Zirene.
“You did this. You had us keep secrets from her. Secrets that she should have already known. Why?” Odelm threw up his arms in rage as his tentacles loosened themselves from their default wrapped up position.
“Look what you did, Prince Zirene. I have done everything to prove myself to her… and now, you ruined everything I built up. Our clan just fell from its nestqueen’s grace because of you. If this is how you are going to treat her, then I will do everything in my power to keep her away from you.”
Zirene’s eyes hardened, his tail swishing in agitation as his ears pinned back.
“How do you expect to do that?” Zirene chuckled darkly.
Prince Royak stepped forward and grabbed Zirene by the shoulder, his face laced with anger as he eyed his brother.
“If this is how you are going to treat her after all of these years, I am disappointed in you. I have my own star system to rule, brother, and you have wasted my time and resources assisting you.” Royak squeezed Zirene’s shoulder.
“Fix things. Or don’t. But stop making things harder for her.
The poor female has been through enough. ”
Zirene rolled his shoulder, freeing himself from his brother’s grasp, and turned to face him.
“I worked so hard to get my Nova, only to fail…”
“You failed because you didn’t believe in Selena,” Odelm barked.
“Maybe you should trust her more. For someone who had a connection with her for nine years, you fail at knowing who she is.” He took a step back and turned toward the direction Selena left.
“She has an inner strength that shines so brightly, her golden aura lights up the room. Sometimes, I wonder how I deserve such a nestqueen.”
Zirene sighed and turned toward Odelm and Xylo. “How do I fix this?” he asked, his eyes pleading.
Odelm lowered his tentacles and eyed Xylo as his coloring started to return to normal.
“You need to give her space,” Xylo said, crossing his arms. “She needs time to adjust to all the changes in her life. The Fates keep throwing things at her with no chance to recuperate.” Xylo glanced over to both Circuli princes. “And we need time to fix things with our nestqueen as a clan.”
“This isn’t the place to speak freely,” Royak said, studying the bystanders and the few present Royal Guards. “Let’s return to the Royal Aldawi Commons and continue there.”
The group nodded in agreement and made their way together.
Z’fir hadn’t had a chance to spend much time with Selena on the Destiny.
His focus had been on commanding the ship, along with V’dim, while managing the crew.
The things he knew came from his discussions with Xylo and when he searched her memories.
She was fair and kind, with great inner strength.
Her major fault was her social awkwardness, paired with extreme emotions that got her in trouble.
He hoped Xylo was right, saying she would calm down as her hormones balanced out and as she learned more about communicating with others.
Xylo and Odelm were protective of her, borderline territorial—with good reasons. She had been through enough, as Prince Royak said, joined with the fact she had many species interested in using her for their own goals.
If being permanently bonded to her was everything Xylo and Odelm said, it would be worth it in the end. Consistently handling the Destiny’s thread network was tiring, even with V’dim co-managing it with him.
What worried him was the state of their clan dynamic after they solved the problems with their nestqueen. Until then, he wouldn’t start to entertain how it would be when he got the chance to settle down—both as crew and clan.
“What will become of us?” Z’fir asked, glancing at his lifelong partner.
“Do you believe sharing Selena as our nestqueen will affect our relationship?” V’dim replied, meeting his gaze. “Look how close Xylo and Odelm have become since becoming nestbrothers. They were barely acquaintances before joining with Selena.”
Z’fir knew those two had formed an intimate connection together as nestbrothers, similar to the one he shared with V’dim.
It made them a strong united front in taking care of Selena, taking the personal sacrifice in allowing another, outside of your nestqueen, to roam shallow parts of your mind freely.
“Do you think they would want to form a nestbrother bond with us?”
Traces of V’dim’s thoughts flooded through him as he tried to come up with a reply. Z’fir smiled as V’dim tried to sense their new nestbrothers current mental status as they waited for their lift access.
“Xylo may,” V’dim hesitated. “But Odelm is battling some hostile emotions coursing through him.”
They stepped onto the lift and V’dim grabbed his arm, sensing what he was about to do.
Z’fir closed his eyes and focused on the mental net that surrounded both V’dim and himself.
V’dim’s turquoise shield hugged his emerald one, wrapped tightly together by their intertwined thread.
Together, they shared the same sworn threads that branched out to each crew member.
Their sworn threads were faint compared to those of their Queens, but worked well enough to command their ship.
Each sworn thread to a nestqueen allowed them to instantly connect to their clan, for each nestqueen had a similar setup with their clan.
This was how they had known when Xylo formed a courting bond with Selena and how they felt a faint ripple from her through both Xylo and Odelm at times when they focused on them.
If the princes didn’t focus on any crewmember—or vice versa—they would hear a continuous chatter and overall flood of a variety of emotions. It took a lot of energy from both of them to constantly shield the sworn crew’s net in order to try to go through the day with little disturbance.
Z’fir’s new court bond connection with Selena was faint and muted by the Chamber Master, making it harder for him to use that connection to scan Odelm.
Once—or if—Selena decided to become permanently bonded, his nestqueen thread with her would allow him to have stronger connections to his nestbrothers, using her as their clan’s central hub.
Z’fir traveled along his sworn connection with Odelm and was instantly assaulted by the thoughts and strong feelings attached to them.
Anger. Disappointment. Jealousy. Shame.
Odelm’s thoughts were full of disappointment that he had followed Zirene’s plan and anger that he didn’t push for them to tell Selena about the trial and what waited for her on her moon.
He was ashamed he’d failed Selena—so much so, he felt like she was punishing him by not gracing him with siring her next offspring.
Jealousy raged at both princes for being publicly granted permission to be the clan’s next fathers.
Odelm felt inadequate.
The intensity of Odelm’s thoughts and emotions jerked Z’fir’s gaze away from him. Z’fir swayed, disoriented from the sudden ejection, combined with the jolt of the lift coming to a stop.
Z’fir leaned his head onto V’dim’s shoulder, clinging to his arm as V’dim held him. He glanced around the cabin and saw no one noticed his current position.
“Odelm has dark thoughts on the current situation. He will need a lot of self-healing and stability in the clan before we can even entertain joining with him,” Z’fir explained.
“Will this be worth it?”
He pondered the question, weighing the pros and cons of their new predicament.
Z’fir raised his head from V’dim’s shoulder. They released each other and stepped off the lift, following the others to the Royal Aldawi Commons.
“I don’t believe Selena would sever our courting bond.
She is too honorable and genuinely seems to care for us.
We should also receive aid in our shielding if her connections with us are like our nestbrothers’.
We are going from refusing to be used as political gain, to commanders of the separatist's colony ship, to clan members of one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy. I don’t think she has fully acknowledged what her connection with Zirene has made her, with everything going on.
Even if she ends up not wanting anything to do with Zirene, her Seedbearer status to him still outranks most. Will this be worth it?
If anything, our self-sacrifice will give our crew a new home. ”
Silence filled the room as everyone settled, reflecting on the day’s events.
“What if she wants nothing to do with me after this?” Zirene whispered, standing in front of the sitting group.
“Then you will have to continue ruling your star system and treat Selena as a true Seedbearer,” Royak replied, watching his brother with hardened eyes.
“But she is my Nova… I will always be connected to her.”
“And so are we,” Xylo countered. “You aren’t the only one who has an unbreakable connection with her. While nestmates have issues surviving when they are far away from their nestqueens for long periods—or after death—you don’t. Your actions not only affect her but us as well.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Zirene growled, pinning Xylo with his gaze. “I only want the best for her… but I can’t back away from what we built over these past years. I have spent almost nine years dedicated to her and only her. You know Aldawi don’t do that.”
“That may be, but it doesn’t change the fact that you kept secrets from her, after we warned you not to,” Odelm added.
Z’fir watched Zirene pace the floor, his tail jerking and swaying in frustration. Zirene paused and looked over at the group.
“What should I do?”
“Grovel,” Xylo remarked.
The veil lifted from his nestqueen’s connection, sending a shiver down his spine, his vines tightening from the sensation. Instantly, he reached for his nestqueen, his body needing to confirm she was well.
“Selena!”
She tugged his golden bond thread and combined it with his nestbrothers, addressing them as a clan.
“There is a lot to be discussed, but at the moment I need Xylo to check my injuries and I want to see my cubs.”
“If I were you, Zirene, I would leave,” Xylo said to the troubled male. “Selena is on her way back, and by her thoughts, it would be better if you weren’t around and gave her time to cool off.”
Zirene huffed in defeat. “I hope you are right.”
“Come on, brother. Let’s go,” Royak said. “You have done enough damage already.”