Epilogue
“Why is this taking so long!” Rage paced the small stretch of corridor immediately outside the cockpit of their ship, the Timeless Blue.
“Because the laws of physics are not affected by threats of violence or impatient demands from grumpy males,” Mercy retorted without looking away from the view screen.
“I’m not grumpy!”
“And I’m not having this argument with you. Sit your sexy ass down and strap in. We’re almost there.”
Almost wasn’t good enough. Not when he was so close.
The last time he’d seen this planet, he’d had to sit by and watch as the verexi fired on the ship carrying the only family he knew.
When they crashed, he feared the worst until he’d seen scans that showed lifeforms leaving the wreckage.
When the scrawnies had demanded all the observers leave the area, he’d tried to argue.
No one listened. Back then, it was just the two of them against the governments of the Galactic Legion.
They had no allies, no friends, and a single ship.
Things were different now.
“Any word from the fleet?” he asked Mercy as he took his seat behind her.
“All quiet. No one is in this system except us. Everyone else heard your message and got the fuck out of our way. I wish I could have seen them run, the cowards.”
The fleet currently in orbit were a threat to any and all of the species that inhabited this part of the galaxy. The gyr had arrived in force only a few weeks ago, hell bent on getting revenge on the verexi.
Even months after he learned the full truth, the magnitude of what the scrawnies had done still hit hard.
They hadn’t created the fa’rel. They’d stolen them.
Rage and his brothers weren’t experiments.
They were children stolen from a species the verexi thought were barbaric primitives.
They’d surveyed a planet that happened to contain one of the gyr’s recreational colonies.
These places were where his people came to relax and reacquaint themselves with the wilder part of their nature.
It was where generations of children learned to hunt and to find a balance between their primal instincts and civility.
The verexi should have spent more time exploring the area before committing their atrocities. Not only did they steal more than twenty of the gyr’s children. They slaughtered anyone who tried to protect the creche.
They had declared war on an enemy and then vanished before they could be made to answer for their crimes. Until Rage found his people, they had no idea who had attacked them. He made sure they knew who had done it and where they could be found.
“How are our passengers?” he asked.
“You mean how’s your mom? She’s fine. We’ve been discussing what a stubborn male you turned out to be. She blames your father’s side of the family.”
He snorted. “I’m not stubborn. I’m focused.”
“I dare you to say that to your mother.”
He shook his head. “I’m also not an idiot.”
His parents were in the cargo bay of the Blue along with a number of other guests.
All of them had lost children to the verexi raid, and they hoped to be reunited today.
Not all of them would be so lucky. Of the twenty-two babies taken, less than half that number had been alive by the time Rage had escaped.
He was still adjusting to the idea that he had parents, and they were coming to terms with the fact that their son had no knowledge about their culture, language, or values. Mercy had helped as much as she could, but there would always be challenges.
Still, he was happy to have them in his life. He had siblings, too, including a sister who captained one of the ships in orbit. There was one other passenger in the hold. She was not one of the gyr. Nor was she human. She…had been a surprise.
Mercy flicked something on her console, and her next words were broadcast across the ship.
“We’ll be landing in the next thirty seconds.
Remember, Rage needs to go out first. You’ve waited a long time for this moment.
Please be patient a little longer.” Then she grinned and added, “And don’t forget to tip your pilot. ”
Then she glanced over her shoulder at him. “You ready?”
“I’ve waited for this moment for more than a year. What do you think?”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “No need to be dramatic. Touching down in three-two-one… and… we’re here.”
She powered down the engines while he got to his feet. “Wait a second, big guy. I need to say something before we open that door.”
He waited, impatient but aware that his mate would not delay this moment without a good reason.
She caught up to him at the hatch, hitting him with a fierce hug that was surprisingly strong for one so small.
He folded her into his arms and held her. “Speak.”
“I’m getting to it.” She gave him one last squeeze before stepping back to look up at him. “I’m proud of you. Nothing we did in the last year was easy, but here we are. You kept your promise. You came back.”
“We did this.”
“We did. And when I go out there, I want you to remember one very important thing.”
“What?”
“I belong to you. Don’t ruin this reunion by beating the crap out of your brothers because one of them looked at me too long.
” She held up her hands to display the marks on her wrists.
Mating marks. They knew that now. A physical manifestation of the chemistry that bound them together.
His people believed the link carried on from one life to the next.
Mates would find each other over and over. He liked that idea.
He would still kill any one of them who flirted with his beautiful Mercy. She was his.
He walked off the ship with Mercy beside him. He knew there were more human females present because of the crash, but it still surprised him to see so many new faces among his brothers.
Mayhem and Menace on one side. Strife, Risk, and Vengeance on the other. Havoc stood with Bysshe, and the rest of his clan pressed in around them.
He had so much to tell them, but before he did, there was someone he needed to talk to.
“Bysshe!” he called the android over. “Do you remember Mercy?”
Bysshe looked down at his mate and then shook his head. “No.”
“You warned us that you intended to wipe your memories.”
“I did?” Bysshe looked uncertain. “I don’t recall that. But I suppose that was the point.”
“I have heard about your escape, however. Mercy, you have my thanks for getting Rage safely away.”
“You paid very generously to make it happen. But I decided to keep him around after the money ran out.” Mercy smiled. “It’s good to see you again, Bysshe. You’re the reason we went looking for the truth. Thank you.”
“The truth?” Bysshe cocked his head.
Rage raised his voice. “We are not the fa’rel. That was another lie the scrawnies told us. They might have experimented on our DNA, but they did not create us. We have another name, my brothers. We are the gyr, and our families have been looking for us.”
“Gyr? Families?” Bysshe repeated the words in a daze. Around them everyone else did the same.
“You can come out now,” Mercy spoke into a communicator. The back door of the Timeless Blue opened, and a group of golden furred aliens leaped down.
Rage didn’t pay attention to the chaos unfolding. He had another task to do first.
“It turned out someone was looking for you, too, Bysshe. Her name is Quen.”
“I don’t know anyone with that name.” Bysshe sounded uncertain, which was a new thing for the normally unflappable android.
“You do. You just don’t remember her. That’s alright, though. She remembers you.”
A blue-skinned android emerged from the Blue. Despite being bald, she was obviously female. She ran to join them, her face alight with joy. “Bysshe! I never thought I’d see you again.”
“Who are you? How do you know me?”
“I’m a CHESS unit like you. My name is Quen.”
Rage had learned that the letters referred to the android’s functions—Childcare, Housework, Education, Security, and Service.
The android held out her hand. In it was a data stick. “As to who I am. You need to remember. Everything is here. I kept it for you, just like I promised.”
And that is why Rage had brought her. Because his brothers weren’t the only ones who had lost part of themselves. Bysshe had too. Quen had chased them down after the interviews with Rage had spread across the galaxy. He’d mentioned Bysshe only a few times, but it had been enough.
“You have my memories?” The android took the data stick from her hand.
“Of course I do. You asked me to give them back to you if we ever found each other again.” Quen placed her hand over Bysshe’s. “It’s good to see you, husband.”
Rage and Mercy left the two to reconnect. They intended to slip away, but Havoc found them before they got too far. With him was a slender female with mating marks on her wrists.
“It’s good to see you, brother.” Havoc tapped his horns against Rage’s.
“It’s good to see you, too. Have you found any of your family yet?”
“No.”
“You will. More are waiting in orbit. Not everyone could fit in the hold of the blue.”
Havoc nodded, but he seemed focused on something other than his potential new family. “This will change everything.”
That was an understatement. “It will.”
“The verexi are really going to be punished for what they did?”
“It’s already happening. They’re going to lose everything. Their wealth, their territory. All of it.”
“Then we don’t need to take revenge ourselves?”
Rage understood what his clan-brother meant. “Not unless you want to.”
There had been a time that was all he wanted. That time had passed.
Havoc looked down at his mate and smiled. “I think we’ll stay here, instead.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” He cocked his head at Mercy. “Want to stay here for a while?”
Mercy grinned up at him. “Where you go, I go, big guy. But I’m sick of the inside of my ship. I’m not saying we’re putting down roots forever. But for now? This feels like home.”
He agreed with his little mate.
They’d finally made it home.
The End
***
Thank You for Reading Marked For Havoc.