Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Maelic
The connection crackled to life. Katan’s face filled the display, and Maelic braced himself.
His captain looked furious. The fins at Katan’s face flared, and the usual pale orange of his skin flushed bright.
“You had better have a vreking good explanation for this.”
“I do.”
“Three rotations, Maelic. Three rotations with no signal. I had to initiate emergency pulsing tech. You know how expensive that is on our budget with the Intergalactic Alliance! Where did all your years of training go? I thought…” Katan’s jaw tightened.
“I was preparing to recover your corpse. What happened?”
Maelic swallowed. “I was shot down. Crash-landed on a restricted planet.” He paused. “Earth.”
The silence stretched.
“Earth.” Katan repeated it like he wasn’t sure the word translated correctly. “You have been on Earth this entire time?”
“Yes.”
“And you did not think to contact us?”
Maelic’s antennae flattened against his skull. There was no way around this.
“The communication system was operational. I chose not to use it.”
Katan stared at him through the display. His eyes began to glow that light shade they did during intense emotion. Maelic had seen that look before—usually right before someone got assigned to sanitation duty for a full cycle.
“Why?”
“I found my mate.”
The anger drained from Katan’s face, replaced by something Maelic couldn’t quite read.
“Your luminance activated.” It wasn’t a question. “How could there be another Artaisan on an X-Zone planet?”
“There are no others. She is a native species here. Called a ‘human.’”
His captain exhaled slowly and dragged a hand over his face. When he looked back, the fury had softened into something that could loosely be called amused.
“Well. That certainly complicates things.”
“I am aware.”
Katan was quiet for a moment. Then he laughed—low and rough, the sound crackling through the connection.
“You know, when I pulled you off that passenger vessel, you were the most difficult creature I had ever encountered. Angry. Feral. Convinced you needed no one.” He shook his head. “I remember what that day was like for you.”
Maelic’s throat tightened. He didn’t want to have this conversation. Not now.
“Katan—”
“Let me finish.” His captain’s voice was firm but not unkind. “You were barely more than a child when I found you. I have had the pleasure of watching you grow into the male you are today. But in all that time, you have never let yourself have anything beyond the bond we share.”
“Who said we have a bond?”
Katan barked out a laugh.
“You are the closest thing to family I possess, whether you like it or not.” His expression softened, then sharpened in that annoying way it did when he thought he knew better.
“But I have also watched you run at the slightest risk of attachment. Every time someone gets too close, you find an excuse to pull away.”
Maelic said nothing. There was nothing to say.
“This is the universe telling you differently.” Katan leaned closer to the display.
“Do not run from this. She is your mate. I know you carry what happened to your parents deep in your heart—I know you fear losing someone like that again. But you deserve more than solitude, Maelic. And that mate of yours would be lucky to have a male like you.”
The words landed somewhere deep in Maelic’s chest. He didn’t know what to say.
“She does not want to come with me,” he managed. “She has attachments here. Obligations. A vreking farm she is determined to save even though it is already lost.”
“Then convince her. You are an Axiom. You have talked your way out of slaver holds and negotiated with warlords who would sooner eat you than listen.” Katan raised a brow. “Surely you can convince one human female that you are worth the risk.”
Maelic huffed. “You have not met her.”
“I look forward to it.” Katan’s expression sobered. The shift was immediate—the male moving back into the role that had become more than protocol, more than a job. His life. The dignified captain of the Axiom. “But we need to discuss Barvarti.”
Maelic’s blood went cold.
“What has happened?”
“After your signal dropped, we moved in on his operation. But he vanished. Went completely dark.” Katan’s jaw tightened.
“We have been tracking him since you went dark, but he has been impossible to pin down. Intelligence suggests he knows you survived and has not left the galaxy you are in. If he has traced your signal to Earth…”
“He will come for me.”
“Yes. And for anyone connected to you.”
Delaney’s face flashed through his mind. Her laugh. Her sharp tongue. The way she had felt in his arms last night, soft and warm and trusting.
His mate.
On a planet with no defenses. No knowledge of what was coming.
Rage burned through him at the thought of Barvarti anywhere near his mate—
His vision blurred. Wrong. This wasn't purely rage.
Pheromones. Unstable and dizzying, flooding his system. Just like that day. He could almost hear his Mamir's scream, he shook his head. forcing himself to focus on what he could control now.
And that was hiding his mate.
“I have to secure her first,” Maelic gritted out. “Before anything else.”
Katan nodded. “I can buy you a little more time.” His expression hardened.
“But I have put an order in for extraction. We are just waiting for approval to land on Earth. We are close enough to pulse jump, if needed… but you know how the Intergalactic Alliance is. We should have clearance by the end of this rotation.” Katan’s expression turned serious.
“If things go wrong before then—if you need immediate extraction—activate the emergency beacon. I have enabled it on your transponder band. Do not worry about the Alliance penalties. I can handle it.”
“I will.”
Katan sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Be safe, and good luck with that mate of yours.”
The connection went dark.
Maelic stood in the cold silence of the escape pod. His heart pounded against his ribs.
He had been a fool.
He had let her push him away. Let his own wounded pride carry him out the door when he should have stayed. Should have fought harder.
He thought of her face when he’d called her a fool. The way she’d flinched. The way her voice had gone flat and cold when she told him to leave.
Good luck out there. It was nice knowing you.
She hadn’t meant it. He knew she hadn’t meant it. But he’d left anyway.
Vreking idiot.
He burst out of the pod and ran.
The trees blurred past him. Snow crunched under his boots. His wings ached to unfurl—to carry him faster—but the forest was too dense.
Hold on, astara.
He should have told her about Barvarti sooner. Should have explained why he crashed, why he was really here. Instead, he’d hidden behind half-truths and let her believe he was just some wayward alien who’d stumbled into her life by accident.
As if anything about finding her had been an accident.
He broke through the tree line—
And stopped.
She was there. Running toward the woods. A bag clutched in her hands, her face streaked with tears, but her eyes wild. Determined.
She was coming for him.
They saw each other at the same moment. Both froze.
Then she was running. And so was he.
They collided in the snow. Her arms wrapped around him, her face pressing into his chest, and he held her so tightly he feared breaking her. He didn’t care. Couldn’t make himself let go.
“Maelic—”
“I should not have left.” The words came out ragged. “But we must go now, there is dang—”
“No, shut up, listen to me.” She pulled back just enough to look at him. Her eyes were red and swollen, but blazing. “I signed it. The papers. I’m selling the farm.”
His brain stopped working.
“You… what?”
“Grandpa was going to sell anyway. He wanted me to be free. He wrote it all down, and I found it, and Rus confirmed it, and—” She was talking so fast he could barely keep up. “I don’t care about the farm. I mean, I do, but I care about you more. I’m coming with you. If you still want me to.”
If he still—
“Del.” He cupped her face in his hands. She was so small. So fierce. So vreking perfect. “I have wanted nothing else since the moment I saw you.”
She laughed. The sound was wet and broken but beautiful.
“Okay. Good. That’s—that’s good. Then let’s get the hell off this planet before I change my mind.”
“You will not change your mind. I will not allow it.”
“Possessive bastard.”
“Yes.”
He leaned down to kiss her—
Her eyes fluttered closed, a soft smile on her lips.
A sound split the air.
I have failed.