Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
Virak stood in the center of a circle of smoking, twisted wreckage. He had completely destroyed six training bots, all set to the highest difficulty levels. His chest heaved. His body would have been drenched in sweat, but his body heat caused it to steam right off his skin in a thin mist.
The training room was the safest place for him right now, as he fought to spend the surge of aggression and keep the people and spaces around him from harm. His physician had said Virak was exceptionally hot, even for one in primal form.
He’d caused paint to bubble on a piece of historic wall artwork just by walking past it. Until his temperature lowered, he would stay here, where the floor could withstand his heat and he could vent his aggression on the dwindling number of training bots.
Still, he wasn’t fatigued. Energy sizzled in him. The urge to fight, destroy, and rage pounded through his veins like an ancient drumbeat—which it was.
So this was the primal form. Few Virilians experienced it anymore. First, because of how few had mates, but also because warfare and mercenary work wasn’t the mainstay of the Virilian existence any longer.
For Virak, it chose a bad time to emerge. He could not get the mental image of Jessa’s expression out of his head. She’d been sickened by what he’d become and also by what he’d been about to do to the prisoner.
There had been no way to explain it to her—he could barely form a clear thought when the primal form was fresh and raw.
He had been on the verge of asking her to stay, be his partner, mate—whatever term she wished to use.
Now, she wanted to leave. According to the agreement he had signed, he had no choice but to do so.
“Virak.”
He spun around, barely believing his ears.
He saw her through the screen of red that still filmed over his vision. She’d flattened herself against the wall across the room, as though she needed the support. Her eyes were wide and haunted and still held traces of fear.
Virak didn’t move—he dared not so much as breathe. Any movement could scare her. He struggled to relax, tried to appear nonthreatening. What a joke that was, when he stood there, over a third bigger than he had been, and rippling with fire and fury. He was the very thing of nightmares.
“Hello, Jessa.”
The pause drew long and heavy. He held her gaze, unsure what to say, afraid of the deep harsh tone of his voice, which wasn’t what she would find familiar. It was just that he spoke from a larger chest and throat.
“Your horns are gone.”
“Are they?” He compulsively touched the top of his head. Sure enough, he couldn’t feel the long, curving projections of flame. Well, that was something. “Good. They kept catching on doorways.”
Her laugh echoed across the empty chamber. It was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard, and it delivered a stab of hope to his throbbing body.
“Your eyes are still scary,” she said.
He looked down, averting his red, flaming gaze. “I can’t help it.”
“Would you have killed that prisoner if I hadn’t distracted you?”
He closed his eyes. He would never know for sure if he would have killed that Magdian. “I don’t know.”
“Did he do something to cause you to…change?”
“He said things…” Virak cut off, hands fisted. “I will not repeat the filth he uttered.”
“Ah. I understand.”
He flinched at her soft tone. It sounded like pity, or resignation, or…he didn’t know what. But the sound of it made his eyes flare out with flames. “I will not send you back.”
“You won’t?”
“Not without explaining this.” He gestured to his own hulking, red-veined body. “Someone told me that in order to keep you, I’d have to fight for you. So that’s what I’m going to do.”
She was silent for a moment. “No one has ever fought for me before.”
“Then everyone who hasn’t is a fool,” he said harshly.
Silence.
He pulled in a deep breath. It was now or never. She hadn’t repeated her request to leave, yet, and he had to get this out before she did. Then, he’d be forced to put her on a transport ship back to Earth. “I need to explain why I look this way.”
“I know why you look that way,” she said. “Madison just explained it to me, earlier. That’s the reason why I’m here talking to you.”
“She told you about the primal form?” He swallowed hard. “And what it means?”
Her face was pale. Even with the distance between them, he could tell she’d been crying. “I didn’t know how you felt about me, Virak. What you wanted from me. Just a baby? Or more. You never asked me to stay.”
“That was what I was going to talk with you about before…” He trailed off.
“But why?” she pressed. “Because I’m the first female whose touch you can tolerate?”
“Because I love you.” His words boomed. Passion resonated from his voice.
With deliberate slowness, he raised his gaze and met hers directly.
“From the moment I set eyes on you—even when I believed I would never feel your touch—I could think of nothing but you. Even if we never have a child, I want no one else. Ever.”
He heard her sharp intake of breath. He saw the clutch of her hands and the bite of her bottom lip between her teeth.
“I love you, Jessa.” Virak was accustomed to guarding his true feelings—for reasons that didn’t even make sense anymore.
Jessa deserved the simple truth, here and now.
“If you truly wish to return to Earth, I will send you back. But if you do, know you are leaving a male who would spend the rest of his life cherishing you as his queen.” He spread his arms wide and faced her fully.
“This is not my true form. My eyes will not always be scary. All of this will fade, but the way I feel about you won’t.
” He lowered his arms, blinking at what he’d just managed to get out.
Even without the primal form, it would have been hard to verbalize all that.
“Virak…” Jessa staggered away from the wall. Her eyes were full of tears. She ran toward him, black hair streaming behind her.
His first instinct was to open his arms and hold her, but he held out his hands and backed away at her rapid approach. “I wouldn’t.”
“Oh.” She skidded to a stop, fingertips to lips. “Right.”
“I don’t want to burn you,” he said unnecessarily. His heart pounded at her closeness. She hadn’t run from him, but to him. She hadn’t asked for a return trip to Earth. He ached to know her thoughts.
“God, Virak.” She peered up, moving her gaze all over him. “You’re even scarier up close.”
He smiled wryly. “If primal form was pleasant to look at, it wouldn’t be nearly as effective.”
“You’re like this because of me.”
It wasn’t a question, but he nodded. She had spoken to Madison, who had seen her own partner, Drex, in this form. “You know my feelings. If you do not feel the same, tell me now. I will not force you to stay.”
A slow, full smile crossed her face. “Before all this happened, I was falling in love with you. I didn’t want to, but it was happening.
I started having this feeling like what I was so intent to get back to Earth for, wasn’t as great as what was happening here.
” She crossed her arms and shrugged. “It was hard to accept, to be honest. It’s hard for me to trust people. ”
“I understand that.” Virak said it evenly, even as elation shot through him. Was this a dream? Was she standing here telling him that she loved him and wanted to stay? He could barely breathe. Not a muscle in his body moved as she continued.
“I know you do, which is what made me feel safe around you. And then I saw you with that prisoner and I thought you’d lied to me about who—and what—you were.
” She stepped close, even though it had to be uncomfortably warm for her.
“You’ve shown me who and what you were from the beginning.
From the creatures in the Sanctuary, to how you run the city, to how you gave Paeri a home without asking for anything in return.
You never ask for anything in return. Even just now, when you told me that you love me.
The truth is, I—I love you too, even with your demon eyes. ”
He’d never heard her ramble before. She spoke so fast, his v-link device struggled to keep up and deliver a translation.
Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were still bright, but with something other than tears.
He worked through her words for the underlying meaning of it all.
Primal form didn’t make that easier. “So, are you staying?”
She laughed. “Yes, Virak. I’m staying. With you. For good.”