Episode Fourteen Thanks, We’ll Go Our Separate Ways

L ylah

I'm dead. The workers I overheard were right. It's peaceful. There's even a little smile on my face.

They said something about clouds, didn't they? Because I'm on the softest cloud, and maybe I'm being held by an angel, because it feels like feathery wings are surrounding me.

"Are you awake?" a man whispers.

Gods! Maybe this is hell. The male's face is human, his body seems human to his waist, but his bottom half is that of a snake. Terror sizzles along every muscle as I remember the words "eternal damnation."

"Hush," he whispers. "You're safe. Look. You're in your males' arms."

My male's arms. Yes. Hazlan. I remember now. I'm in his embrace. His arms surround my waist and his wing is feather-soft around my naked body.

"I'm Szoka. My friend, Boreas, and I have been watching over you while you healed. Smell that? We've had a pot of rabbit stew simmering for days, just waiting for the four of you to wake up."

He looks so happy. Like everything he just said made perfect sense.

"Am I in hell?" I'm still trying to figure things out.

"You're in the forest, a few hours' ride from the Works. You're with the male you mated, the proudborn Hazlan."

Oh. Relief floods through me. I'm alive and have the kindest, handsomest mate.

"The male whose arm is tucked around you from behind is Eldar. He was generous enough to complete the Energy Transfer that saved your life. In order to do that, he is also your mate."

Two mates? A male I don't even know? Have never met?

I turn on my side to see an elf. There were a few of them at the Works. Not that they aren't stolen and brought there by the droves, but they're not built as sturdy as most of the more animalistic males. They're often beaten to death before they reach adulthood.

He's an elf, all right. He has the beauty his kind all seem to possess. Perfect features. His long lashes fan his cheeks, his slim nose ends in the softest point, but it's his jaw that draws the eye. It's masculine and strong in such an elegantly beautiful face. Well, the ears certainly draw the eye, too. I can tell they're pointed, although they're only peeking through snow-white hair that hangs down his back.

"He's my mate? That couldn't be true."

"And lying behind the proudborn is Zoron. If I understand correctly, he's to become your mate, too."

I lift my head enough to see a… horse. It takes a second glance for me to see it's a centaur. He's all black except his rump is spotted white. His hair and tail are black as night.

While I'm flailing to find answers to the million questions swirling in my mind, the three males all wake up.

"How many days has it been?" the centaur asks.

"Four. The medic, Reese, left the morning after the Transfer. He told Boreas and me to stay, clean you up, and keep you safe. We have food. Even though we've been spooning broth into your mouths, I imagine you're all starving."

"Yes. Food," the elf says as he sits up. "Fuck. I'm starving."

Although he was curled around my back when he was sleeping, he scoots away from me and doesn't even give me a glance.

After a trip to the bushes to relieve our full bladders, the naga and griffon, Szoka and Boreas, fill wooden bowls with thick soup and hand them to the four of us. We all eat quickly, shoveling the food into our mouths as fast as we can. I can't recall the last time Joseph allowed me to eat, although I stole a bite of cheese the night he almost killed me.

"Did I dream it, or is Joseph dead?" I almost called him my husband, but I caught myself. I'll never again even think of him as my husband.

"I killed him." Hazlan sets his bowl down and tugs me closer.

It doesn't take too many questions for me to catch up. Soon I know that hundreds of people from Down Below stormed the Works and freed all the slaves. There were other human females there, but when I ask about them, the males know nothing about them.

"One thing is certain," Zoron says, "none of us would have harmed a hair on a female head unless they fired a laser at us first. We came to save slaves' lives, not take them."

It's only now, after filling my belly and touching every inch of my skin to find I'm somehow whole and healthy again, that I try to wrap my head around how I was healed.

They have to repeat the part about the procedure the medic performed. Now that I can picture it, I swallow hard and say, "So explain the… mating?"

Humans don't bite when they mate, so it was surprising enough when Hazlan bit me in the cage to try to heal me. But two males have bitten me?

A large pelt of what must have been a bear is covering me. It's tucked between my arms and my body so my shoulders are exposed. Sure enough, although all my other scars were erased in the Energy Transfer, I have a bite on both shoulders.

"The way I see it," Zoron says as he rises from lying to now stand on four legs, "we will have to sort out this mating bond. There is no disputing that you and Hazlan are mated. Nor let there be any question about my commitment to Eldar."

Good. All we need to do is figure out where to go and what to do with the rest of our lives now that neither of us is confined to the compound at the Works.

"How my relationship to Hazlan works remains to be seen," the centaur says.

"What?"

"I had to have sex with him, bite him, and mate him in order for the Energy Transfer to work, to heal him," Zoron says, his gaze never leaving mine. "And my mate, Eldar, did the same to you. We're going to have to figure out what this means."

I suddenly recall waking to a strong pungent scent and though I was unable to make much sense of what the monk was trying to explain, it was Hazlan's voice and eyes that pleaded with me to agree to save our lives.

For the first time in my miserable life, I had a reason to live. Hazlan. The last thing I remember is saying ‘Yes'.

"This means," I say, my voice rising high, warmth burning my cheeks, "that Hazlan and I thank you very much and as soon as I find some clothes, we go our separate ways!"