Dante
Rosalie was so fragrant in my arms. The touch of her skin quelled the fire within me. Seeing her, holding her, having her close was as good as any paraxio. I never want to let her go.
Except I need to deal with Darax, given Dalox determined my crew was my own affair, and should the other warlords wish to assist, it is entirely up to them.
I suspect my demeanor in the clan meeting didn’t help. I needed a lot of paraxio to bring me back. Enough to probably give the rest of the warlords a headache by being in proximity to me.
Most of what I said probably didn’t make sense, and it’s only now as the fog is lifting, as I have my sweet mate in my arms, I can see clearly.
And the memory which I couldn’t reach is back, with a vengeance.
“The Gonoz don’t exist,” Darax growls. “They’re a myth.”
“My mate says we’re a myth on her planet,” I respond, watching fondly as Rosalie, assisted by Darax’s mate, herds the sarkarnlings out of the door. “We’re drag-ons.”
Darax glares at me, then at the door, then back at me. “My mate says the same,” he admits. “She says humans used to put metal all over themselves and stick big long sticks into us.”
“Like the Gonoz,” I respond. “They are metal.”
“The Gonoz don’t exist.” Darax sighs.
“But what if they do?” I’m pacing around the room, my mouth dry and filled with the aftertaste of accelerant. “What if they’re the reason we’re in this galaxy?”
“Nev it, Dante,” Darax rasps. “You’re not making any sense. Could you possibly have taken fewer narcotics for a change?”
I shake my head. “When I was outside the scout ship, disengaging it from the pirates, I saw the remnants of a wormhole.”
“You can’t. I have a constant watch ongoing for wormholes. If one appeared, I’d know about it.”
“What if these are wormholes the Gonoz control?” I query. “What if they can control them and they have a different signature to naturally occurring wormholes?”
Darax growls deep in his chest.
“Why didn’t you say any of this to Dalox?”
“Getting my crew back was more important.”
Darax folds his arms, narrowing his eyes.
“I heard a rumor about you.”
I huff out plenty of smoke because the last thing I want to deal with right now is Darax being some sort of commander all over again.
“What?”
“That your mutation is something other than being able to heal rapidly without becoming your Sarkarnii.”
“And what if it is?”
“Then I understand.”
“You do?”
“So do I.” A deep growl emanates from the doorway where Dalox is watching.
My wings flare because my shift is not under my control, and also having both Dalox and Darax in my sector is not doing my rut any good either.
“You,” I snarl.
“Did you really think you could keep it under control without me knowing?” Dalox’s gaze rakes over me.
“Like the sarkarnlings?” Darax adds.
“Sarkarnlings?” Dalox moves his deadly gaze to Darax.
The pair stare at each other for a long time.
“Your mate is with sarkarnling,” Dalox says eventually.
“Dante has sarkarnlings.”
“It’s all to do with the Gonoz.” I look between the two warlords. “Now, if you will both leave my sector before I tear your heads off, I have my crew to rescue.”
“Gonoz?” Dalox queries.
“I’ve already told him it’s a myth.” Darax says.
“And the wormhole?”
“You were hallucinating.” Darax blows out a perfect smoke ring. “I doubt it’ll be the first time.”
Dalox studies me like he’s working out which part of me to bite off first before blowing out a little flame.
“But if it is Gonoz…” He rubs his chin, making a rasping sound.
“There are no wormholes. I would know,” Darax says, flattening his hands and extending his claws.
“Find me evidence, Dante, and we’ll deal with them as we have dealt with all the other threats to Vorostor,” Dalox growls. “And keep your head.”
“No chance there,” Darax responds.
“Get out of my sector,” I snarl at the pair. “And away from my mate.”
“At least that’s one thing. You have your rut and you get to stay on Vorostor.” Dalox flashes me a full mouth filled with fangs. “As it looks like the female has accepted you.”
“Do not talk about my mate. Do not look at my mate. Stop polluting her air with your smoke and your presence.”
Darax snorts with amusement. “Dante in rut. Who’d have thought it?” He shakes his head.
“Rut, I can understand, but a mating frenzy?” Dalox rasps. “Now there’s something I never thought I’d see.”
“Not a frenzy.” I growl back at the pair who are finally doing as I requested without the need for me to resort to violence.
“Absolutely a frenzy.” Darax laughs. “I’ll see you on the other side, brother.”
I glare after him and Dalox, hearing the sound of their voices as they make their way out of my sector and Dart pokes his head around the door.
“Boss?”
“Have Darax’s guards gone?”
“We have been released.”
“I need to go after the others. I think I know where they’re going to be.”
“A rescue mission?”
“Yes, and if we’re lucky, we’ll get the eletviz and some answers as to how we came to be in this galaxy in the first place.”
Dart grins.
I do not.
“I have to do this without my mate. It is far too dangerous for her. She must not know I have gone. You know what to do.”
Dart holds my stare for a long time, longer than necessary, before twitching his tail.
“As you wish, boss,” he says.
But his tone betrays him. My crew care for my mate, not in a way which would make me remove limbs, but with respect for the mate of their captain and warlord.
He dislikes lying to my Rosalie as much as I do. But one day, if and when he mates, Dart will understand. Sometimes it is necessary to do this to our fated ones. Sometimes what they don’t know can’t hurt them.