Chapter 25

Ashley

The cool morning air greeted my face, which made me snuggle closer to Axon's warm body. I missed our home within the mountain. It's always warm there. The cookfire was always burning and many of the private caves have their own little fire pits as well. I didn't mind warming myself against Axon though. It was strange that he'd been able to sleep in twice now while lying with me. I wondered if I was having some kind of physiological effect on his nervous system. Something that allowed him to remain relaxed enough to stay asleep longer.

I was glad that I was able to provide something for him after all the joy he'd given me. I felt emotionally safe with him in a way that I'd never experienced with anyone before. It was wonderful and I prayed it'd never end.

While he was still asleep, I thought I'd get up and grab our breakfast rations instead of him grabbing breakfast for me like he normally did, but as soon as I tried to rise from our bed, I felt strong arms hold tightly around my middle.

"Let me up. I want to grab the breakfast rations for us," I giggled.

"Never. That's my job, my honor to provide for you, my mate."

My mate . God I loved hearing that from him.

"You honor me by staying in bed."

Axon got up and tightly tucked the top fur around me in an attempt to keep me where I was. I wasn't going to get up, but his effort made me smile.

He returned with two pouches full of dried food for us to munch on. We ate as the sun rose through the trees. The golden light danced along the dark purple hues of the forest, creating a picture perfect fall image, and I was glad to be seeing it with my mate.

"You ready?" Axon asked as I closed the pouches shut. I looked him up and down and noted the tension had returned to his shoulders.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I want to know the truth whether I'm ready for it or not."

That was understandable. There were some truths a person could never really be ready for.

Hand-in-hand we headed out into the forest. This time there was no path to follow. Axon used his keen sense of direction, memory of the area, and his heightened senses to guide us.

"It's not much further," he assured me as the sun started to rise high in the sky.

It wasn't long after that, when we ascended a hill that overlooked the valley, his childhood home. It was beautiful. Trees that I'd never seen before had heavy branches that drooped low from the fruit they carried. We hadn't had fresh fruit in weeks since the weather turned cold.

A deep anger festered in the pit of my stomach on Axon's behalf, for all the guys. This place was lush and beautiful, and most of all, safe, and they'd been banished from it as children.

I was once again very thankful that Axon's parents had chosen to come with him into exile. They not only parented Axon, but they became stand-in parents for a lot of the guys. They were becoming like second parents to me too, which I appreciated after losing the family I had once I was abducted.

"Are you alright?" I squeezed Axon's hand in reassurance.

"No, not really." He looked over the lush green land. "There's a reason I never came back here." He clenched his jaw. His expression turning resolute. "Let's get this over with."

I agreed wholeheartedly with that plan. Axon took us the long way around the valley to a dense forest.

"The priestess' home in this way." He stopped and took in our surroundings. His nostrils flared and his gaze darkened. "I can smell them everywhere. The males of this dekes. The ones that tried to take Taylor from Brexl."

He shifted into his spider form and once again I was struck by how powerful he looked. Other than the hard exoskeleton that covered his arms and shoulders, he remained mostly the same from his head to the bottom of his torso. But below that he was fully spider, complete with a large abdomen section and six thick spider legs. I knew exactly how fast those legs could take him. I'd seen him in action once before when we were attacked on our first journey to the mountain. He was not a male to be messed with, that was for sure.

"I want you to ride my back again. It's the best way for me to make sure you're safe in case we run into anyone."

"That sounds good to me," I agreed. Anything to help keep our journey safe.

Axon lowered himself for me and I rode on his back through the dense forest until we approached a lone house with smoke billowing out of a small chimney.

"That's her place up that hill." My mate whispered.

Our approach was slow and silent. Axon's spider legs didn't make a sound as they trekked across the forest floor.

Once we were close enough, he helped me off him and shifted back into his sirret form.

We silently stood in front of the door. Axon's tail nervously whipped behind him as he mustered up the courage to do what we'd come here for. I took his hand in mine and squeezed.

"Let's do this." He said aloud before knocking on the door.

I had been expecting an older sirret to open the door but instead it was a young woman who looked to be about my age.

"Hello Holey, may we come in? I must speak with Kahina." Axon requested.

"Uh, yes, of course, come in." Holey, who I assumed was the priestess's acolyte, let us into the large but cozy house.

The log cabin was filled with worn furniture covered in soft blankets as if it were meant to be a gathering place for the people of the dekes.

"Come sit by the fire and I'll get Kahina." The young woman suggested.

Axon chose a small bench for us to sit on and placed me snugly against him. I squeezed his knee in reassurance. Everything would be fine.

"Axon? What brings you here?" The older voice I'd expected to hear when we entered, greeted us.

Axon and I looked at each other for a long moment before he pulled his attention back to the sirret in the black and white robes who wore the only piece of metal this entire community owned.

"I have a question, about our past, the history of the dekes," my mate began.

"Oh," she seemed surprised by that, and honestly, in her position, I probably would be too. Who risks being caught just to ask a simple question?

Kahina drew closer to us. Her eyes focused on our joined hands and she smiled.

"Have you two luminesed?"

Axon furrowed his brows and looked away. "No, but we are mated. We've chosen each other all the same."

"Perhaps luminescence will follow," the elder woman encouraged.

"I'll put on some tea," Holey chimed in as she put a water skin over the fire.

"What question brought you all the way out here to see me?"

Axon's gaze shifted to the pendant around Kahina's neck. "I was wondering where the pendant came from."

The priestess covered the petal piece with her hand as if to shield it from Axon's gaze and, in turn, shield herself from any more questions.

"Don't tell me you came all this way to ask about this little trinket." There was a smile on her face, but it didn't meet her eyes. She even shifted her weight on the chair to point away from us as if she wanted to bolt from this entire conversation.

"It's important," Axon said softly, as if sensing her desire to leave as well. "I know it has been passed down through the generations, but where did it come from originally? Who was the first priestess to have it and how did they get it?"

Holey had stopped preparing the tea by this point. She knew. She knew the priestess wasn't going to let us stay for tea if we kept this up.

"If you must know. It came from the old world before the goddess' miracle that brought us here."

"And it was the goddess who brought us here. We didn't come here on a ship like the hu-mans?"

Kahina furrowed her brows at Axon's comment and thinned her lips in a grimace.

"Why would you say something so disrespectful?" she bit out. "You know as well as I how we came to be here. Did you really come here for these questions and nothing else? Because if you have other things to speak on, I suggest you start-"

"I saw the ship," Axon cut in. "The ship that lies among the ruins of an old village of ours. It has that symbol on it." He pointed to the necklace that Kahina was still hiding under her palm.

"You don't know what you saw!" She stood up from her chair. "That village could belong to anyone."

"Symbols of the goddess were everywhere, our goddess. Who else would put our goddess in their village?" Axon questioned.

"Get out!" the priestess pointed her finger to the door. "I will not tolerate these lies in my own home!"

"But!" Axon began, but Kahina cut him off.

"Out!"

We did not linger there. What would be the point? We came for answers and if the only person who had them was unwilling, then we were just wasting our time .

Holey's eyes were shiny with unshed tears. Had she yet discovered what we saw in the forest, or was Kahina keeping her in the dark too?

Axon stopped at the door and looked back at Kahina and Holey. "Please. I must know the truth." he pleaded.

"I've told you the truth," Kahina said through gritted teeth.

Axon hung his head in defeat, then held the door open for me. We walked out together. The sun was getting low in the sky. The long shadows of the trees greeted us as we stepped out into the forest.

"I trusted her," Axon whispered. "I'd expected to feel heartbroken over the truth that our history was a lie. I hadn't expected to feel heartbroken because the priestess that I grew up trusting would refuse to speak to me at all. This…this feels hallow." He rested his palm over his heart as if he could physically ease the pain he felt inside.

"You were hoping for closure, and yet received none," I supplied.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I don't know how to move forward from here. How do I forge ahead without any answers?"

"Kahina didn't give us any answers, but she still told us a lot." I hedged.

Axon furrowed his brows, "What do you mean?"

"Sometimes you have to find your answers in what is left unspoken. If your people didn't come here on that ship, then who did? Wouldn't she have told us about those people to prove her point? The fact that she just wanted to shut the conversation down tells me that we already know the truth."

"Right, I hadn't thought of that." Axon nodded his head.

A bird hooted in the distance, which reminded Axon of where we were and the danger we were in.

"Get on my back and I'll find us some shelter."

"Do you think we can make it back to the cave we used last night before it gets dark?" I asked as Axon shifted and I climbed onto his back.

"No, we'll have to find somewhere closer. There's a set of caves beyond the stone wall that protects the valley. We can stay there for the night."

Once again, Axon moved swiftly on silent feet, but this time the rubbing of his textured hard spider body had a pleasant effect on me.

I looked up through the tree branches and saw how big and full the moon was tonight. We had to be close to the full moon. Sometimes I'd feel aroused for a solid few days instead of just my normal one day a month, and I think this might be one of those times.

With each silent gallop, my sex rubbed against Axon in the best way possible. I could feel my neck and chest getting warm and I longed to reach out and run my finger along my mate's back. His muscles rippled and he moved with all the grace and ease of a trained gymnast or ballet dancer.

We emerged from the forest and to our right was the rock wall that Axon had referred to. We must be getting close to the cave. He picked up his speed, causing my lower half to rub against his body even more than before.

Axon's perfectly ruffled hair blew in the wind and I longed to run my fingers through it. I longed to touch and be touched. I even pictured the reality of what it was that I wanted, us lying naked on the furs, our bodies intertwined as one, flesh against flesh, and instead of being turned off, my arousal only grew.

I kept picturing what it would be like to lie with Axon in this way, and I let out an involuntary whimper that made him stop dead in his tracks.

My mate looked at me over his shoulder and his nostrils flared.

Axon swallowed hard. "You are aroused, more so than usual."

"Yes," I nodded my head.

"Do you...do you want time alone when we reach the cave?"

OH. MY. GOD! He was so fucking sweet I wanted to cry. Instead of his first reaction being to try to hop on the arousal train to satisfy his needs, he was seeing if my preference was to be alone!

"No," I shook my head. "I want to be with you, Axon."

He swallowed hard again and gave me a wicked grin. "Hold on tight."

That was the only warning I got before Axon took off in a sprint toward the cave that was now coming into view.

I let out a giggle at his enthusiasm because I was excited too. We were about to add a new dimension to our relationship and I was excited to see how it would go.

Everything else with Axon had been amazing. I had no doubt that this would be too.