Epilogue

Saying that mess with Liam turned my life around would be the understatement of the century. In the weeks that followed his attempted kidnapping, much more drama unfolded.

I still had mixed feelings about what had led him to discover my presence on Xoccoris to begin with. Although the planet's Hall of Records had indeed shared the information about our wedding to the intergalactic records shared by all the members of the United Planets Organization, that wasn't how Liam found out.

Agent Benton, who had been in charge of my case after I first escaped, voluntarily leaked the information to my ex. From the beginning, he questioned my innocence, only caving in after a Temern confirmed I truly had no knowledge of whatever shady business Liam was involved in. What I didn't realize was that, even after I went to the refuge, Agent Benton kept tabs on me. He hoped to nail Liam if he once more came after me and violated the restraining order I obtained against him.

Moving to Xoccoris pretty much ruined any chance the agent had of this occurring. Therefore, he used me as bait. Naturally, I lost my shit after finding out how he put my life in danger. However, Benton had not believed Liam would harm me, only attempt to kidnap me. As much as I hated to admit it, he'd been correct in that. I didn't doubt for an instant that my ex shooting me had been an accident. He meant to shoot Talin. Even as I lay dying, I heard his distress, first when his shots hit me, and second when he shouted for Talin to let him in so that he could care for me.

But Benton still put my life in danger.

His unit had been waiting at the docking bay, ready to arrest Liam the moment he tried to get me onboard his vessel. He didn't want to risk coming to the Penlam complex and getting detected as arresting Liam over there wouldn't have allowed Benton to lay more serious charges at his feet. But once he got me on that ship against my will, then the agent could accuse him of not only violating the restraining order, but of kidnapping and of intergalactic people trafficking.

Naturally, all hell broke loose once he found out how things had gone belly up. They put him on administrative leave while running an investigation for reckless endangerment. Krogal and Talin made a mighty stink about it. But even as the Enforcers apologized and promised accountability, I easily recognized their lack of sincerity in this instance.

Yes, they felt horrible about his actions putting me in danger. But Liam's arrest, and the heavy charges they were able to slap him with, got them the type of unlimited warrants they wanted to be able to dig through his homes and businesses.

And did they ever hit the jackpot!

Their discoveries were largely aided by the confessions of his two goons who survived their encounter with Krogal and Demar. The one Krogal tossed across the parking lot to knockout his companion suffered extensive fractures and injuries, including a crushed vertebrae. The basic medical care granted to convicts would leave him permanently disabled. When the Enforcers offered him a plea deal that would provide the advanced medical treatment he required to make a full recovery, he spilled his guts without hesitation.

I couldn't even blame him.

Between spending the next ten years on Molvi with a healthy body, or the rest of your life in that dreadful prison planet, surrounded by the vilest criminals while disabled, the choice was a no brainer. He gave them all the goods, prompting others to also seek plea deals.

Overnight, Liam's empire was no more.

Not only did he get a life sentence on Molvi, they sent him to Warden Dakon's Sector—the most savage and unforgiving holding area of the prison planet. The Obosian judge who presided over his case awarded me an obscene amount in damages. On top of that, all my money he had seized control of was returned to me.

Being filthy rich in his own right, Liam had no use for my money. Aside from negotiating good contracts for me when he was managing my career, he invested my earnings wisely. Even without the damages award I received, that money sufficed to guarantee a life of comfort and luxury for the rest of my days. No wonder he kept me from accessing it. Then, he wouldn't have had any control over me.

As I didn't crave a lavish and extravagant lifestyle, I didn't need all that wealth. Therefore, I found a brilliant way to use the punitive damages money I received.

Considering what a powerful man my ex had been, and in light of the nature of his crime, it made a huge scandal. Stories of Joree's heroism spread like wildfire. Pictures shared by the media of the crime scene prominently featured the mural Belle had painted of Joree and me. The young Nulia—and her species as a whole—became an overnight sensation.

Every planet of the alliance tried to acquire these wondrous creatures, with many civilians wanting them as pets. This prompted the Zamorian government to place a moratorium restricting the off-world sales of Nulias until strict rules and guidelines could be instated to protect them.

Unlike most other companion animals, you couldn't just waltz up to a breeder, check out his inventory, and pick the pet whose color or demeanor appealed to you the most. With Nulias, they picked you. Krogal never would have been able to get her for me had Joree not also chosen me.

Nulias were more like people than animals, with a great need to nurture and care for others. They weren't rescue animals for nothing.

Accordingly, I used my damages award to set up a foundation that would match Nulias with charitable organizations mainly on primitive worlds and refugee colonies that didn't have the means to acquire such wondrous creatures. Joree opened my eyes with her interaction with the other injured pets in Krogal's clinic, and then with other patients in the hospital. During my recovery and physiotherapy, Joree realized how her comforting presence could help some of the patients who didn't require isolation.

Needless to say that after the mural of Joree and me went viral, Belle put her foot down about tweaking the other pieces she had been working on featuring me so that my face would no longer be hidden.

I was fine with that.

Talin was over the moon. The events granted her and both her sons the same type of intergalactic heroic status that her nephew Bayron had achieved after saving the Atreall Queen—another momentous event immortalized by Belle. As I didn't care much for fame, I gladly let her give all the interviews that we kept being bombarded with.

All that drama also served as the best possible publicity for the fashion business I was putting together. I barely even started building my collection that people were already trying to place orders. While I totally gave up on singing, except for pleasure and in casual settings, I pursued my dancing projects on the side. Not only had dancing helped accelerate my recovery during physiotherapy, I was truly enjoying merging my Caribbean culture with the Zamorian traditional dances.

Both of those passions played an important role in my wedding planning.

As she couldn't have the traditional wedding she would have preferred, Talin went all out making sure it would still be the most memorable celebration on Xoccoris. The upside of it all was that she happily did most of the heavy lifting. My mother-in-law had connections everywhere. Anything I wanted, she knew someone who could get it done. As I always dreamt of a fairy tale wedding, her excessive enthusiasm didn't bother me in the least.

With Talin handling most of the wedding preparations, I got to work on a side project to get my husband the best wedding gift I could come up with. Thanks to Bayron's and Belle's assistance, we sweet talked the Ordosians into granting Krogal a private internship. We wouldn't be allowed inside one of their villages, but we could say at the Hunter's Federation basecamp on Trangor. For two weeks outside hunting season, Szaro would take Krogal around the forests of his homeworld so that he could experience firsthand some of the local fauna, as well as give him some technical training directly in the Hunter's basecamp lab.

If things went well, his wife Serena suggested that private mentoring could continue remotely through vidcom since Szaro was impressed with what Krogal did for Ferach before they took over his care. But the best part was that she even hinted that the Ordosians might be open to holding veterinary summits on their homeworld. Anything related to promoting the welfare of animals, local and otherwise, held their interest.

I couldn't wait to present that gift to Krogal on our wedding night!

In the end, we didn't have the slaying of a wild beast, but a war dance to claim me.

In accordance with Zamorian traditions, I became a Vaika—a sacrificial bride—and wore the typical white sacrificial gown, although one of my own design. Adding a human element to it, I had a long veil, which Joree held between her front paws, flying behind me. Hovering would be a more accurate term as she maintained the proper distance with me.

Following Talin who led the way, I walked through two rows of single females forming a path on each side of the entrance of the arena. They sang while showering me with shabira petals, a flower which symbolized luck and fertility.

My heart fluttered with an odd thrill as she took me to a set of pillars framing a rectangular altar. Embedded in the stone platform in the center of the arena, the altar acted as a bench that the bride could sit on if she started feeling weak in the knees. I gladly submitted myself to being shackled to the pillars, the long chains granting me quite a bit of freedom of movement.

On a dais overlooking the arena, Feidin, her mate, sons, and their wives, looked on approvingly from their VIP box. Shortly after I regained consciousness in the hospital, the Clan Matriarch returned Krogal to Talin upon his request, reinstating the mother-son bond.

It pleased me tremendously. As much as I loved Feidin, Talin was the birth mother of the love of my life, and more than just my mother-in-law. A true bond had also formed between us. And I intended to nurture it in the future.

The cushion in the inner lining of the shackles prevented them from chafing my wrists. However, there would be no cause for me to strain against them as no harm could potentially come to me.

In a normal Zamorian wedding, they released a feral beast in the arena—usually a grummoll. I would have been sprayed with brumar sweat, a potent pheromone to entice the beast, so that it would come directly after me. To prove his worthiness as a husband and protector, Krogal would have been expected to single-handedly defeat the creature, keeping it from ever reaching me. Obviously, security measures were set in place to protect the bride in case the groom failed.

For our wedding, the traditional Thasnak dance that the males performed before the battle became one of the main events. Instead of the single males trying to impress me by outperforming the other men in the choreographed war dance, warriors of all ages joined in on the action. It became a symbolic representation of the battle between good and evil, with my man as the hero.

Krogal was magnificent as he flawlessly executed acrobatic battle moves that would put the most proficient martial artist to shame. It boggled my mind that a man so massive could show such dexterity. He stomped his feet, slapped his chest, and mimicked a plethora of powerful attack moves while shouting and grimacing.

He was terrifying… in the sexiest ways.

The other men warred each other in a savage dance that electrified the audience. I stared in awe at the spectacle before me, still struggling to believe the entire clan had answered the call to celebrate my formal union with one of theirs.

With a final war cry, the men dropped into a one-knee kneeling position, the tip of their spears stabbed into the packed dirt of the arena. The beating of the bamurs—giant drums similar to the Japanese Daiko drums—filled the arena.

The single women, also dressed in my reinterpretation of the traditional Zamorian gowns, spread around the arena. They danced in between the men. My throat tightened when I recognized the typical movements of my Haitian heritage. I had played no part in the choreography, only in the women's outfits and mine. Tears pricked my eyes when even the song the women sang as they danced and the rhythm of the bamurs took on a distinctive Caribbean edge. That they went out of their way to integrate my culture like this told me more than anything how completely they claimed me as one of theirs.

A collective gasp rose from the crowd when streams of flames shot through the sky. At first, I thought it was some kind of fireworks. But then I spotted the dark little creatures called Bitris. They resembled Indian flying foxes, with the same bat wings, but a leathery body instead of fur. They accompanied the women with their own aerial dance while spitting streams of fire. It took me a moment to realize they were forming Zamorian letters which spelled ‘Soulmates.'

My chest constricted again. Krogal regularly cared for these circus pets. But it made sense he would include a part of himself in the ceremony as well.

With a final shout from both the men and women, silence descended over the arena. The Bitris landed in pairs facing each other and formed a path towards the altar. Each pair took turns spitting fire in the air, forming an archway under which Krogal marched towards me.

I couldn't wipe the silly grin off my face as I stared at my man with adoration. He stopped a meter in front of me, and I drowned in the dark depths of his obsidian eyes. Movement at the edge of my vision startled me. I'd been so lost in my man that I didn't notice his parents as well as Feidin and Ugrul approach us.

The Clan Matriarch always oversaw every wedding. While the birth mother could deny her children a marriage she disapproved of, so could the Matriarch. In fact, she could override the decision of the birth parents.

Here, her presence was merely a formality.

"Krogalsenyiek Skortheatis, you are here to claim the Vaika as your bride," Feidin said in a commanding voice. "As no male dared to issue a challenge, you may proceed."

Krogal puffed out his chest. He was shirtless as always, his braid bared of any adornment for the first time since our contractual wedding. Closing the distance between us, he accepted the key Ugrul extended to him and freed me of my shackles.

"Farah Toussain," Talin said in a solemn voice filled with pride, "my firstborn son Krogalsenyiek has proven himself over the past few months as a worthy protector for the family he desires to build with you. Does he meet your approval? Will you have him as your mate?"

"I do," I said, my voice filling with emotion. "I wholeheartedly do."

"Then yours he shall be," Talin replied.

Ugrul turned to the large stone altar behind me and activated a hidden mechanism. Had Belle not warned me of what would follow, I would likely be freaking out a little bit right now. The altar rose from the ground by close to a meter, giving it a proper height rather than that of a bench. The top slid open, revealing a small basin filled with purifying water, a short staff, and clean cloth on the other side.

Feidin retrieved a bowl—which she filled with the purified water—and a few cloths before going to stand next to her sister. Talin immediately began to undo Krogal's braid. It was silly, but I couldn't help a pang of jealousy to see her touch it. In the few months since my arrival here, I indeed grew to see a male's braid as something as off limits as any other naughty bits.

Meanwhile, Ugrul retrieved the staff which he brought to Krogal's father, Orym. My pulse picked up when he approached me and removed the custom-made medallion around my neck. Krogal had asked me to choose a symbol that represented me, or which held significant importance to me to be engraved on it. I chose a Nulia. To me, she had become the symbol of freedom, hope, compassion, and second chances.

Orym placed the medallion at the tip of the staff. My stomach knotted knowing what I'd have to do with it in a minute. But Talin washing Krogal's hair with a cloth dipped in purified water reclaimed my attention.

"Krogal, my firstborn… I carried you for ten months. I gave you birth, raised you, and nurtured you into the formidable male you have become. A male who fills this mother's hearts with pride and joy. Today, I release you."

My throat tightened at the powerful emotion those words stirred in my husband. Those two had come such a long way…

Talin turned to me and gestured for me to approach. I complied, feeling inexplicably nervous as she placed Krogal's braid in my hand.

"Farah Toussaint, I give you my son," she said. "From this day forth, no female but you shall touch his braid—for real this time—or have any claim over him."

All of us couldn't help a snort at her snarky remark.

"Plait it while repeating after me," Talin continued.

I nodded. Just like I did with Feidin on the day I arrived on Xoccoris, I repeated the vows after Talin while plaiting Krogal's hair. When I finished, Talin stepped aside so her husband could approach. He extended the staff to me. The medallion had turned red and was emitting scorching heat.

I accepted the staff, swallowed hard, and cast an apologetic look at Krogal. Although I should have known he would be proudly grinning and impatient to have me permanently brand my mark of ownership in his flesh, it still messed with my head. Belle having gone through it previously and confirming it wasn't torture for them was the only reason I didn't argue about proceeding with it.

I gave him a shaky smile and brought the brand to his chest, right above his left heart and pressed. The sizzling sound of burning flesh and the scent of charred meat had my stomach roiling. Where I would be screaming bloody murder, Krogal's face split into the widest grin as I continued to press the brand until the red light on the staff turned blue, indicating the process was complete. After burning the symbol into their flesh, four tiny needles poked out of the head of the staff to inject the male with antibiotics that would prevent infection and accelerate the healing process.

As soon as I removed it, Krogal emitted a victorious roar. His forearms spread wide, he rotated in place while the crowd went berserk. I couldn't help but laugh, my heart filling with happiness and love to see him so ecstatic to finally be officially bound to me before his people.

"Welcome to our family, Daughter," Orym said with a paternal affection that moved me to the core.

"Yes, welcome to our family," Talin echoed. "You are now officially ours. You are home."

Krogal smiled at his parents before turning his gaze towards me. With an air of pure adoration in his black eyes, he opened his arms to me.

A silly grin plastered on my face, I went to him willingly. He leaned down and gave me a tender kiss.

"I love you," I whispered against his lips.

His forehead resting against mine, he tightened his embrace around me. "I have waited for you my whole life, my Farah. I am yours, now and always. You are my hearts, my love, my eternity."

THE END