Lying back on my bed, I stare up at the ceiling and think back to the feeling of her against my chest and how she wriggled when I zapped her after I claimed her.
I’m not sure, but I think she’s as crass and horny as me. I’ve just got to find a way to coax it out of her. I want her to be herself and feel safe opening up to me.
I can’t do anything about the other situations with my position of power removed. Guilt still makes me want to try.
But all I want to think about is my beautiful mate and the orb we created together. She is mine. We are meant to be bonded.
As I sit in the dark with only the pale light of my body and the stars to give the room shape, I consider the real possibility that I may not return to the fleet. They need help, and I want to be that source, but I am no longer, legally, one of them.
I must protect my mate. I need her. I’ll do everything I can to keep her safe. Whatever it takes, even if it means never going home again.
15: Jovie
When I open my door the next morning to head to breakfast, Aura is waiting outside. He greets me with a smile as he leans against my door jamb, dressed in ABR race gear.
“Where’s your armor?” I ask.
“New rule. Males only get to wear their armor or robes for the ceremonial race. This makes us more equal.” He looks me over with an air of concern. “How did you sleep?”
The faint creases around his eyes make me think he didn’t get much rest. “Good enough that I don’t remember the night. I feel like I could death-dive into a smoking thruster and come out making it fart pixie dust.”
“What?” he chuckles. “What’s a pixie?”
“A little magical creature of folklore on Earth. But with all the galaxies out there, I bet one of them has pixies for real.”
“Probably.”
I walk with him to the lunch hall, where we pick up some breakfast burritos and coffees before heading out to the first challenge of the day—the ropes course. “So how long were you standing outside my room?”
Aura waggles his head. “An hour, maybe? Got a lot spinning around in my head with what’s going on.”
“Just don’t forget where you are,” I tell him.
He chuckles. “Don’t worry. My Storm won’t let me. It is barely keeping it together.”
“And what will calm it? Or is that even the goal?” I ask.
Aura finishes his breakfast and tosses the cup and foil wrapper into a nearby bin. “If what the historical records say is true, along with some of the quieter tribal leaders more knownto the people, less so to royalty, then I will experience some sort of transmutation after Bonding.”
“If you don’t bond?”
He shrugs. “It is similar to what happens to a dying star.”
This is unnerving. “So you, what, supernova?”
An ABR official starts rounding up the women for the first race. I’m not really interested, but I’d like to give it a shot since I paid for it.
“Basically. Settling for a non-storm match helps, but it has weakened our offspring. Turned them into zur’ionas, glow bugs, compared to the a’kla’ata, the lightning warriors, we used to be. But that’s what the Royals want, commoners saving them while making stormlessness look like an honorable sacrifice for scraps.”
“A bit Machiavellian?” I ask. “Manipulative, immoral, egocentric?”
“Sounds about right.” Aura stays close as I snake my way toward the railing.
ABR has changed the ropes course and expanded it massively into a network of bridges, nets, towers, gatehouses, and battlement walls to scale. The bell is now on a flagpole atop a keep. The whole thing looks like a blend of a treehouse and a castle, something I only dreamed of as a kid.
“Will you be upset if I don’t win?” I ask Aura.
“No. Why wouldn’t you want to?”
