Epilogue #2
Ariella looked up from the tide pool she’d been examining, a smile already spreading across her face. The little girl stood balanced on a flat boulder near the water’s edge, her arms spread wide, her wild curls dancing in the salt-tinged wind.
“I’m watching!”
Lilani took a deep breath, puffed out her cheeks, and attempted what she called a real Vultor roar.
What came out was closer to an enthusiastic squeak—but she followed it with a dramatic leap onto the next rock, landing with the kind of fearless grace that made her heart clench with equal parts pride and terror.
“Impressive.” Valrek’s voice rumbled from somewhere behind her, warm with amusement. “She’ll be leading hunting parties before she’s ten at this rate.”
“She’ll give me grey hair before I’m thirty.”
“So?” His huge body settled beside her on the rocks, close enough that their shoulders touched. “You’ll still be the most beautiful creature in these waters when you’re a hundred.”
“Flatterer.”
“Truth-teller.”
The sunset painted the sky in layers of purple and rose, the colors bleeding into the calm sea until it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.
A month had passed since their meeting with Seren—a month of slowly learning what it meant to have a future instead of just a survival strategy.
To her surprise, her father continued to show up every week.
Their conversations were brief, and frequently stilted, but as long as he kept making the effort, she was willing to meet him halfway.
The shelves carved into cave walls now held supplies from both the pack and the village, proof of the bridges they were building, one careful exchange at a time.
And in the deepest part of the cave, on a ledge where the morning light caught it just right, the echo-pipe waited.
She could feel it even now, a gentle hum at the edge of her consciousness, like a second heartbeat.
The connection had grown stronger over the past weeks, though she still didn’t fully understand it.
Seren’s promised elder hadn’t responded yet, but somehow that didn’t bother her as much as it once might have.
Some mysteries were meant to unfold slowly.
“Mama! Papa! Look!”
She turned to find Lilani pointing at the horizon, where a pod of sea creatures had surfaced to ride the evening swells.
The colonists called them dolphins although, based on the pictures she’d seen in her father’s books, they bore very little resemblance to the original Earth creatures other than their sleek grey bodies, now arcing through the water in perfect synchronicity.
A family, she thought. That’s what they look like. That’s what we look like.
Without quite meaning to, she began to hum.
It was a simple melody, something that had been forming in her mind for days, born from tide pools and sunset light and the particular way Lilani’s giggles harmonized with Valrek’s rumbling laugh. The notes rose and fell like waves, soft at first, then stronger as she gave herself over to the song.
And from the cave behind them, the echo-pipe answered.
Its voice wound around hers like an old friend joining a familiar tune, adding depth and resonance to her simple melody.
The harmonics shivered through the air, making her skin flare with soft blue light.
Lilani gasped in delight. Even Valrek went still, his golden eyes fixed on her with an expression that made her breath catch.
The dolphins changed course.
They swam closer, drawn by the sound, their curious clicks and whistles weaving into the song until the entire cove seemed to vibrate with music. Lilani scrambled down from her rock and splashed into the shallows, reaching out her hands as if she could touch the melody itself.
She let the song fade slowly, the echo-pipe’s voice lingering for a heartbeat longer before settling into silence.
“That was…” His voice was rough. “I don’t have words.”
“You don’t need them.”
She leaned into him, and his arm came around her shoulders, solid and warm. The dolphins circled once more before disappearing into the deeper water, but Lilani stayed in the shallows, splashing and spinning in some private dance only she understood.
“She’s going to sleep well tonight,” she murmured.
“She’d better.” There was a dark note of promise in his voice that made heat curl low in her belly. “I have plans for you once she’s in bed.”
“Plans?”
“Many plans.” His lips brushed her temple. “Detailed plans. Extensive plans.”
“I’m intrigued.”
“You should be.”
By the time they coaxed Lilani out of the water and up the cliff path, the stars had begun to emerge.
The little girl was chattering about the dolphins—Did you see how close they came?
They liked your song, Mama! Can you teach me to sing like that?
Can I have glowy skin too?—but her words were coming slower, her steps heavier.
The cave embraced them with its familiar warmth.
She helped Lilani change into dry sleeping clothes while Valrek stoked the fire, and by the time the girl was tucked into her nest of furs, her golden eyes were already drooping.
“Sing me something?” A sleepy request, barely more than a whisper.
She knelt beside the sleeping alcove, smoothing wild curls back from Lilani’s forehead. “What would you like to hear?”
“The one about the stars. The one Papa used to sing before you came.”
She glanced at Valrek, who had gone very still by the fire. His expression was unreadable, but she caught the slight nod he gave her.
“I don’t know that one,” she admitted softly. “But maybe Papa can sing it while I hum along?”
Lilani’s face lit up. “Really? Both of you?”
“Both of us.”
The song Valrek sang was an ancient Vultor lullaby passed down through generations, its words in a language she didn’t recognize but somehow understood.
His voice was deep and rumbling, rough around the edges, and achingly tender.
She found the melody quickly, weaving her hum around his words like vines around a sturdy tree.
Lilani was asleep before the second verse was finished.
They stayed there for a moment, watching her breathe, her small chest rising and falling with the easy rhythm of childhood exhaustion. Valrek’s hand found hers in the dim light, their fingers intertwining.
“She called you Mama.”
“She’s been doing that for weeks.”
“I know.” His voice was thick. “I just never thought…”
“I know.”
She squeezed his hand, understanding everything he couldn’t say. The lonely years. The fear that his daughter would grow up without a mother’s love because of what he was, because of what she was, because the galaxy was cruel and unforgiving to those who didn’t fit its narrow definitions of normal.
But we fit, she thought. Somehow, impossibly, we fit.
She rose quietly, drawing him away from Lilani’s alcove towards the mouth of the cave. The stars were bright now, scattered across the dark velvet sky like spilled jewels, and the ocean murmured its endless lullaby against the rocks below.
“Your plans,” she said softly. “Are they still… extensive?”
His eyes flared gold in the starlight.
“Very.”
He moved before she could respond. One moment he was standing beside her, the next he was pressing her back against the cool stone of the cave wall, his massive body surrounding her with warmth and strength.
His mouth found the curve of her neck, and she gasped as his teeth grazed the mating mark he’d left there weeks ago.
“Valrek—”
“I’ve been patient.” The words vibrated against her skin. “I’ve been so patient, watching you all day, seeing you in the water and the sunlight, smelling your desire and not being able to do anything about it because our daughter has endless energy and no sense of timing.”
A breathless laugh escaped her. “She gets that from you.”
“Probably.” His hands slid down her sides, finding the hem of her shift, and lifting it slowly. “But right now, she’s asleep. And you…” His fingers traced the curve of her hips, making her shiver. “You are going to tell me exactly what you want.”
“What I want?” Her voice came out steadier than she felt. “That’s a dangerous question.”
“I like danger.”
She tangled her fingers in his dark hair and pulled his head up until she could look into his molten eyes.
“I want you to stop being careful with me.”
Something shifted in his expression, something primal and possessive and entirely beast.
“Ariella—”
“You’ve been holding back ever since we mated.” She pressed closer, feeling the evidence of his desire hard against her belly. “You’ve been holding back because you’re afraid of being too much, too strong, too Vultor. But I’m not fragile, Valrek. The sea made sure of that.”
A low growl rumbled through his chest.
“If I stop holding back…”
“Then I can be with all of you.”
For a heartbeat, he didn’t move. She could see the war happening behind his eyes—the civilized male wrestling with the beast that wanted to claim and possess and take.
The beast won.
His mouth crashed into hers, all teeth and hunger and barely restrained need.
She moaned into the kiss, her body arching against his, her skin flaring as sensation overwhelmed her careful control.
He lifted her without breaking contact with her mouth, her legs wrapping around his waist as he carried her deeper into the cave towards the private space they’d carved out for themselves in the past month.
New furs. A wider sleeping platform. A niche in the wall where she’d started collecting shells and sea glass.
He laid her down like she was precious, but the look in his eyes was anything but gentle.
“You want all of me?” His voice was gravel and smoke. “Then you’ll have all of me. Every growl. Every bite. Every mark I want to leave on this beautiful, impossible body.”
“Yes.”
“Say it again.”
“Yes.”