Deus
“Have we got them all?” Darax says over the comm.
“They’re nevving everywhere,” Dante responds. “But the tracker is working. We should have them all within the next nova-hour.”
“Then the real work begins,” Dexx growls, dropping the head of his axe to the floor and leaning on it. “I want those collars removed from all my warriors.”
“Everyone will need to be checked,” Dyris says.
The Sarkarnii female glances at me and my Lydia.
“Even me?”
“Especially you.” She bares her teeth at me. “Nevver.”
Lydia has her hand on my arm, and Dyris’s face softens.
“Deus was a handful,” she says.
“Don’t I know it,” Lydia responds and Dyris laughs. “But I’m sure all the warlords will submit to checks, won’t you, Deus?” She glares up at me.
I don’t see any other option, and I nod.
Around us, the warriors are returning to their normal biped forms. It would appear they are unaware of what has happened to them in the intervening time, and many are nursing their injuries.
“No one is to shift,” Dexx roars out across the open area in front of the clan hall, from which smoke pours out. “Until ordered to do for healing purposes.”
From the looks of the warriors scattered about, and the ones being carried from the clan hall by the Sarkarnii females, no one looks like they have any intention of shifting, unless they are assisted.
Across the hall, I spot some of the other human females. My Lydia takes off at a sprint towards them. I am about to follow when Dalox drops a hand on my shoulder.
“I never thought I’d see the day you were mated and not a traitor,” he says.
“I was never a traitor,” I growl.
Dalox looks at me.
“I was slightly a traitor on one occasion,” I growl. “For which you have my apologies.”
Dalox continues to stare at me, his eyes burning with a blue flame.
“And my bond never to be a traitor again.”
Dalox lifts his lip briefly and then scans our surroundings.
“I believe you have proved yourself, Deus.”
“Does that mean I don’t have to work for these nevvers?” I ask, glaring over at Driok and Dante.
“I didn’t say that,” Dalox says. “It depends on one thing.”
“What?”
“Whether you intend dancing for that mate of yours,” he says.
“Dance?”
“Surely you are not so far gone you forget you need to dance for your mate?” Driok says as he joins us, leaving Dante as he continues to remove the collars from the downed warriors. “After all, what is mating unless there is a dance?”
“There is breeding your female. Which I much prefer to dancing,” I growl.
“Your female will expect a dance.” Dalox looks over to the females who are very animated. “And if you want to breed her, you will give her what she wants.”
“My female gets anything she wants, any time she wants it,” I snarl.
“Then dance for her,” Dexx rumbles as he walks past. “Or you will regret it.”
He heaves his axe onto his shoulder and stomps off in the direction of the females. One of them peels away and, with a sarkarnling on her hip, embraces the big grumpy warrior.
I shake my head. “I do not understand how that nevver got a mate.”
“Every Sarkarnii deserves a mate. Even you, brother,” Darax says through the comm.
I want to fling the thing as far from me as possible.
“What are my chances of not ending up in my brother’s prison again?” I ask Dalox.
“I would suggest you dance for your female and then gather your warriors, return to your sector, and potentially you will not end up in a cell for the foreseeable future,” Dalox says. “The Sarkarnii females have missed you. I can’t understand why.” He says with a growl.
I scan his face. The old warrior appears to be serious, or maybe sort of serious.
His female appears alongside him. Her belly is rounded as she is clearly in the early stages of her pregnancy.
“There’s hope for us all, Deus,” Dalox says. “Even me.” He puts his head on one side. “So go, talk to your female, tell her you want to dance for her, and it can be arranged once we’ve dealt with these nevvers and expunged the Ulep from this galaxy for good.”
“And if you don’t dance for her,” Driok says, appearing by my side. “We’ll know you’re a traitor.” He gives me a lopsided grin. “So go on, before she’s taken away by all the other females to do female things.”
I can see the group of females are moving. My shift still hasn’t resolved itself, but it at least means I can use my wings to close the distance between us in a nova-second.
“Lydia.” I growl her name, loving the feel of it on my tongue, loving having the scent of her in my nostrils.
“You go on,” she says to the others. “I’ll catch you up.”
One or two of the females gives me long, searching looks, but they give her hugs and then take the exit for Darax’s sector.
My heart feels full at the way they treat my mate.
“What is it, Deus?” she asks.
“I…” My hand finds its way to the back of my neck, and I rub at my scales before giving my scalp a scratch. “There’s something I need to ask you.”
“Go on.”
“It’s just…I would…” The words I need are out of reach, stuck at the back of my throat, wanting to come and yet not arriving.
Lydia looks up at me, her eyes bright, her face so beautiful I know exactly what I want. I scoop her into my arms, kissing her lips until she squeaks.
“Do you want to dance for me, Deus?” she asks when I release her.
“How did you know?”
“My friends…they said the other warlords would suggest it to you…strongly.” She cups my cheek. “But I understand if you don’t want to…”
“I have never wanted to do anything more, my Lydia.” I capture her hand in mine. “I have been wanting to dance for you since we first met. I simply didn’t understand what it meant. I have never danced for a mate before.”
“You haven’t?”
“Do you think I dance for every female who looks in my direction?” I shove my face into her hair to inhale her scent deep into my lungs.
“No, but…”
“My sweet mate.” I lift my head to look in her eyes.
“I have been given a second chance. I probably don’t deserve it, but I like to think it is because I do.
Dylia was my mate, it is true, and when I lost her, I lost part of myself.
But that was because I wasn’t looking. I became a shell and one which would do anything to recapture something which wasn’t possible.
She would have hated what I became.” I trace my finger down her soft cheek.
“But she would have loved you, and she would have loved what you made me into. That is all, my Lydia. Dylia is gone, and I have you in my heart, my whole heart, and more. You are my wings and tail, my shift, my growl, and my claws. I am one lucky male to have such a second chance, and I am not ever going to let you go.”