Epilogue

One year later…

“She’s perfect,” I said, placing a wrapped package on the table in the house Sara shared with her mate, Uklat.

Their baby had been born two days earlier. She lay nestled in Sara’s arms, sound asleep. They’d named her Treena. She had her mother’s red hair and her father’s red skin. Scans showed that she’d likely have horns, but no spikes, and as the first child born in Thrail Tyvor, she was adored by all.

“Thank you, Lise.” Sara looked up at me with a smile. “She’s here because of you, you know. I should be bringing you a gift.”

“Oh, no.” Please, no. “I think you and Uklat had more to do with it than me.”

“You know what I mean. If you and the warlord hadn’t figured out what had happened, and you hadn’t gotten word out for rescue—”

I held up my hand, having heard enough of my so-called heroics enough over the past standard galactic year for a lifetime. “My motivations were purely selfish, I promise you.”

“So you’ve said.” She looked up at me with a new wisdom. Perhaps it was something that was acquired to some people when they became parents, or maybe Sara had just been through so much that she’d become a bit more insightful than most. “Everyone’s motivations are selfish, if you really think about it, especially in hard moments. That doesn’t make them any less great.”

“Maybe I’d like to leave that period of time in the past,” I said. “It’s not something I want to keep reliving.”

Sara reached out with her free hand and squeezed mine. “Then I’ll never mention it again.”

“Thank you.” I leaned down and kissed her cheek. Sara had become one of my closest friends on Mitra as I settled in and became a citizen. She, Aisha, and Cassi were amazing and fun, and after life at the Thrail went back to normal, we became close friends. “That would mean a lot to me.” I rose to leave as the baby began to wake and turn her little face toward her mother. “And I think someone’s hungry.”

Sara smiled. Tears brightened her eyes. “I am so happy,” she said in a soft, wistful voice.

With a wistful smile of my own, I left her and the baby alone and slipped out onto the street.

The air was cool as it pulled through the valley, over the river and through my hair like a soft touch. It carried the light scent of tinka flowers and the hint of a late season snow. I walked to the main square, where the wide, stone paved walkways were clean and smooth. A newcomer would never guess that a bloody battle took place here, painting these very rocks with the blood of three species. I was lost in thought—the very ones I’d been trying to set aside—when a shadow fell over me.

I looked up to see Adrik standing over me. He was handsome as ever in a new black leather sword harness that held crossed blades on his back and snug pants that showed off his ass in all its mouth-watering perfection. He looked older. A few new lines fanned from his eyes. A few new scars puckered on his skin. He looked wiser, too, and I knew the battle had changed him as profoundly as it had me and so many others. I knew this because I loved him.

“Lise.” I still liked how he said my name in a low rumble. “How are Sara and the child?”

“They are well.” He opened his arms and I moved into them, as I had so many times before. No matter where we were, when he held me, I was home. “Healthy and happy. Very, very happy.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “That is good news. The other expectant mothers will be pleased to hear it.”

I rested my cheek against the supple straps of his weapon harness and breathed in the fresh, clean scent of him. “It’s a good sign of things to come.”

“Another good sign,” Adrik said, tucking me at his side and walking with me toward our residence. “The peace treaty with the Dessicans has reached its conclusion. They don’t wish to relocate their settlements, so they will upgrade them with food synthesizers, climate stabilizers, and environmental stimulators to make their lands more fertile and their lives more comfortable. Our allies, the Heveians, are supplying them with free vistran, to get them going. They are sincere in their assurances that they will not attack us again. The great battle decimated their population. They considered it a final big effort to take the valley and improve their way of life.”

“That is welcome news, indeed.” I would always be grateful to the Heveian king for running the talks and negotiating a settled peace between the Mitrans and the Dessicans. These allies, a species in a neighboring system, had relied on Mitran help to win a war they’d been pulled into, and they hadn’t forgotten it.

Adrik, as well as five other warlords, had been gone for a month to the Heveian palace to work on this treaty and it hadn’t been wasted time. He’d only been home for five days as the king hammered out the final details of the treaty. Now, finally, the valley was safe. No more patrols. No more fear. Not that I—or anyone involved in the battle—would soon forget the destruction and loss of life. The Dessicans would likely never be our allies, but it was worth some concessions to see children like little Treena grow in peace and safety.

“And how are you, my lovely mate?” he asked in a quiet growl.

“Good, now that you’re back.”

“I shall not leave you again,” he said, opening the door to our home. “If I’d had my way, I would have brought you to Heveia with me.”

“I was needed here.”

He sighed. “So you say. It was terrible not to have you close.”

“I felt the same. Besi got very tired of having her back plates oiled.”

He snorted and shut the door behind us. “I find that hard to believe.”

It had been my decision to stay. I couldn’t leave Sara and the other expectant mothers after all they’d been through. As the warlord’s mate, I had responsibilities, and they meant a great deal to me. My days of being a journalist and media producer were long over, despite the obscene amount of money Hans had offered me to keep working for him. I’d turned him down. I was a warlord’s mate, now, and my days of being followed by a flycam were—thankfully—over.

Nugget sauntered up, weaving around my mate’s legs with a plaintive meow. Adrik gazed down at him. “What is wrong with you?” He asked the cat. “I fed you this morning.”

“He knows an easy mark,” I said with a chuckle. “Watch out. You’re done for when you start talking to them as if you expect a reply.”

“I know what he’s saying,” Adrik muttered, but bent and scratched Nugget’s cheek. “And he does reply, in his way.”

“As I suspected,” I said, kicking off my shoes. “You’re done for.”

He straightened and pulled me close again. “I can live with that. I seem to have a weakness for earth creatures.”

“Nugget is grateful for that.” I leaned up and pressed my lips to his. “So am I.”

“Hmm. Are you now?” He grinned. “How about we open another bottle of the Heveian wine I brought back with me and you can show me how grateful you are?”

I slid a hand over his ribs. “Arrogant male.”

“I’m a warlord.” One brow raised loftily. “You knew that when you chose me. You even married me.”

“I did.” The human ceremony had been surreal and a little strange, but deeply symbolic and a reason for a grand celebration after the Thrail had been repaired and cleaned up from the battle. Everyone had come to eat, drink, and dance. Yaran had made me a gown so beautiful, I nearly didn’t recognize myself and Adrik had worn fine embroidered leather that made him look more like a king than a warlord. “I would choose you again, today.”

His hands curled into the fabric at my shoulders and yanked downward. “Show me.”

I shimmied out of the shirt and slipped off the rest. “I’m yours, Warlord. Today, and for all the days to come. Take me.”

He was not smooth as he dragged me against his body and cupped my ass. “Ah, I love you, Lise. I may take you, but it is you who possesses me. Mind, body, and everything in between.”

“And I love you, my warlord,” I gasped, as his mouth make a searing path down my throat to the valley between my breasts. He was mine. This warlord. This male with the gentlest heart I’d ever known. We’d endured pain and fear in the past, but the future was a thing of light and hope. With Adrik at my side, and I at his, the Thrail would thrive and grow…and so would we.