Epilogue
Gark
“This is definitely the one.”
Gark looked up from where he was tying the laces of his boots. Aletta was plucking at the dress she was wearing and looking at herself in the full-length mirror in the guest room of his mother’s home.
He tied off the lace and pulled the cuff of his pants down with a jerk of the fabric. He stood, rolling his shoulders to ease the stiffness of the past few days helping with the harvest. One thing he didn’t miss about his childhood home was how back-breaking the work was on the farm.
He smiled. One thing he’d learned about his mate is that she was fiercely protective of those she deemed ‘hers’. At their first meeting a few months ago, Aletta and his mother had become fast friends. So when they’d been invited back for the harvest festival, she’d taken little convincing to come.
Gark admired the way the flowing fabric skimmed her hips and clung to her breasts and stomach. By the Lady, his mate was beautiful. He slipped his arms around her from behind and dropped a kiss to her neck, right on the faint scar of her claiming.
She shivered. “Gark, if you keep doing that, we won’t make it to the dance.”
His lips twitched as her head rolled back against his shoulder and she bared her neck to his lips.
“What a shame.” He purred against her neck, running his tongue up the side of her neck in the way he knew drove her wild.
“Ahh! You’re incorrigible.” She pulled away, but smiled. “Come on, your mother’s waiting.”
Gark sighed. “My mate—”
Aletta turned with one hand on the doorknob—his mother’s house lacked the automation that had become common all through Taurean space, but she insisted she liked it this way and didn’t want to change—and looked up at him, her lower lip caught between her teeth.
“The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave.”
Gark pulled the door open and gave her a gentle push in the middle of her back. “Get to it, then.”
She laughed and skipped down the hallway in front of him.
“Dylan! You’d better be ready, or we’ll be late.”
His mate’s sister stepped out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. “I’m ready.”
“You’re wearing boots.”
Dylan looked down at her feet. “Letty, I always wear boots.”
“It’s a dance, Dee. How are you going to dance in boots?”
Dylan laughed. “At least my toes won’t get crushed by size fourteen feet.” She stuck her foot out. “Besides, I put new laces in. See? They’re pink.”
Gark shook his head. He found his mother on the front porch, sitting in the old swing she used to share with his father.
She was a handsome woman, her bronzed skin darker thanks to the work she did in the garden and the many long hours she spent managing the farm.
A far cry from the pampered daughter of a Taurean diplomat she’d been as a young woman.
“Mother.”
She looked up with a smile. “Gark, my heart. Come and sit with me.” She patted the swing next to her, and Gark eased himself into the seat.
They sat for a few moments in the low light of early evening, the insects calling and the cooling breeze rustling the trees.
“Is that mate of yours giving Dylan a hard time?”
Gark snorted. “Of course.”
They shared a smile, sitting in silence as they stared out across the fields. The long grasses that were processed into fabric had been cut down, and in the distance, the big farming bots were tilling the soil.
His mother’s hand slipped into his and squeezed. “I want you to know how proud I am of you, Gark.” Her eyes were warm on his, the lines at the corners crinkling as she smiled.
He straightened. “Mother, you don’t need to…” He trailed off, looking down at their joined hands. He patted hers with his other, holding tightly to her.
“I worried about you, you know.”
He looked up with a start.
“I think I’ll always worry about you. I’m your mother.” She smiled, patting the side of his face. “When you were in the military, I worried, of course I did. But I worried even more when you left.”
He looked down at their hands, not sure what to say.
“I was worried you’d be alone.” Her eyes were warm. “But now I don’t need to worry. You have found someone who makes you feel the way your father made me feel.”
His cheeks heated. This was not something he wanted to talk about with his mother.
“Oh, not like that!” She shook her head with a laugh. “Don’t you ever wonder why I didn’t return to Taurus after your father died?”
Gark nodded. “It was because of me.”
She snorted a disbelieving laugh. “Oh, Lady. No! It wasn’t because of you.”
Gark frowned. If she hadn’t returned to Taurus because of him, then why hadn’t she gone back?
“Then why?”
She gestured around them with her hand. “This is where I loved your father. I still love him, you know. Even though he’s gone.” She smiled sadly. “If I were to go back to Taurus, I would lose the connection to him. I would lose everything I’ve worked so hard for.”
Gark slowly nodded. “So it wasn’t because I was half Gnaggarian—”
“No.” She made a chopping motion with her hand.
“I don’t care what those stuck-up Taureans think.
You are the best son I could have ever dreamed of having, Gark.
I never wanted to go back to Taurus. It was a blessing to be disowned by my family.
” She leaned closer to him, screwing up her nose. “They were awful.”
Gark laughed. He had met his grandfather as a child.
After his father died, he and his mother returned to Taurus for a visit.
She must have picked up on his thoughts.
“I only ever wanted you to be happy, Gark. To forge your own path. And now I feel you’re finally finding your way.
” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I am so very proud of you.”
She stood, freeing her hand from his. “Ah, there they are!”
Gark followed her lead, taking a moment to settle his thoughts. The final piece slotted into place. He’d always been a little afraid that not being in the military would bring shame to his mother. He needn’t have worried.
He watched the women emerge from the house.
Aletta’s dress shone in the fading light, the slinky red fabric moving with her.
Dylan hadn’t changed her boots, he saw with a satisfied nod.
Her pale pink dress contrasted with her black boots.
His lips twitched as he took in the pink laces.
She had a much stronger backbone than he’d initially given her credit for.
So much so that he hadn’t been surprised when she’d announced she had just accepted a job as a caretaker for some rich Taurean’s holiday home on a remote moon.
Aletta had been a bit anxious about her sister being so far away, but they’d worked out a way to stay connected and for The Lady to swing by whenever they were in that sector.
Which would be quite frequently, now Gark and the crew were contracted to complete regular trade runs in the area.
Well, on paper that’s what they were doing; just their usual courier runs to the outer sectors that nobody else wanted to go to.
But, in actuality they were working for the Taurean government—for Karik Za’Rell directly—as part of a new investigative unit had been created to hunt down the Alliance members responsible for human abductions.
The entire crew had signed on without hesitation—including Aletta—as they’d been horrified at the conditions the human women had been kept in.
And Arik? Well, after the escape pod he had managed to jam himself and Cara—the human woman he stayed behind to rescue—into was found, he’d been somewhat of a grumpier recluse than usual.
And Cara had asked to stay on The Lady. She turned out to be an academic, with skills in research and analysis, and was already making great advances with the mass of data they’d collected on the Alliance’s activities.
The hired vehicle pulled up and they all piled in, chatting as they headed the short distance to the center of town, where the celebrations for the end of the harvest were being held.
When they arrived, the first bars of a dance were starting, and he pulled Aletta to the dance floor and into his arms. She smiled up at him through dark-rimmed brown eyes and his heart gave a little flip. He bent his head, kissing the scar on her neck.
“So, what adventure will we go on next?” Aletta smiled as she looked up at him.
“I did get a comm from Oren just this morning…”
“Do tell.”
Adventures or not, as long as he was by his mate’s side, he would be happy.
Thank you for reading Alien Warrior’s Honor!