Chapter 28

Paige

V arek and I spent a week enjoying each other.

A week, splayed out in the furs, loving and kissing and whispering and planning.

Because we have a lifetime together ahead of us and there was a time when I thought a future together was impossible.

After the council’s decree, Varek’s drive to start a family with me has been insatiable. He took Kylor’s words very seriously and he intends to keep me healthy and pregnant at his side for as long as it makes me happy.

I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of the practice.

My cheeks burn even as I think about it.

I walk through the glowhollows, on my way to check in on my friends who I’ve been unintentionally ignoring for a few days. Varek’s attention hasn’t left much time for others, but I put a stop to his morning wandering hands and kicked him out of the chamber.

After Varek tore my leathers to pieces, he worked to fashion me my own new wardrobe detailed with carvings and oil staining that mirrors the glowing markings on his chest. It is an adjustment from the previous tunic, learning how tight to tie the ties around the top piece that covers my breasts and extends to just above my belly button. The bottom skirt hangs across my hips and down almost to my knees.

Varek likes me bare underneath.

I swallow thickly as warmth spreads through my body just thinking about him.

Dammit, how does he have such a hold on me? Physically, mentally—I’m obsessed.

I suck in a deep breath and focus on anything else but my mate as I near my friends’ chamber. I slide the hanging leathers aside and my eyes widen.

Nicole is perched next to a very awake Melina.

“Melina?” I gasp.

Melina’s soft voice fills the air. “Hi, Paige.”

A rush of adrenaline floods me and I leap forward, amazed at what I’m seeing.

“Oh my God,” I laugh, unable to stop the emotions flowing out of me. I sit by her side and hug her, deciding not to focus on how frail she feels, or how thin she’s gotten. “It’s so good to hear your voice!”

Melina hugs me back, her arms giving me a soft squeeze. “Nicole was just telling me everything that’s happened since the crash.”

She beams back at me, a sparkle already returning to her eyes. She’s still pale, her dirty blonde hair dull and pulled back in a knot on top of her head. But she’s alive. She’s talking. She’s our Melina again.

“I can’t believe it,” I whisper. “Selvara is a miracle worker.”

Nicole nods, her lips pressing into a proud smile. “She really is.”

“You will be too,” I assure her.

From day one, Nicole jumped right in to take care of all of us and I don’t think we will ever find a way to repay her either. She was calm and controlled while Ryan and Lara were devolving into yelling matches and I was too focused on how to get us off this damn planet to slow down and take stock of how we truly were. Nicole was our rock.

But Melina is a survivor.

“How do you feel?” I ask Melina.

She winces slightly. “My leg is—”

Nicole shoots me a look and shakes her head. Oh, no.

“I’m in a lot of pain,” Melina clarifies with a polite smile.

She’s trying to be strong—she is strong—but she doesn’t have to be. Not in front of us.

Melina sits up slightly and laces her fingers together across her belly, getting comfortable. “So, Nicole told me about Lara and her interest in the Luminite,” she says.

My brows raise. I didn’t know. I guess I missed several things while being cooped up in the furs. “She is?”

Nicole jumps in. “Yeah, she’s been wandering around this to check out all the different gemstones in the rock. She thinks she can make some nice jewelry out of it. She’s tried to talk to some of the Vruts but they look at her like she’s crazy.”

“Hmm,” I say. I bet a necklace with glowing luminite would be rather striking. I hadn’t thought about it.

“And Ryan has some Vrut who thinks she’s his mate,” Melina smirks like she knows all the trouble that will come out of that bond.

I can’t help but chuckle. Draxel has been miserable, the mate bond chaffing like he never thought it would. Meanwhile, I can only imagine how little Ryan wants anything to do with him.

How those two are going to officially mate is beyond me.

“But what about Cristina?” Melina asks.

My chest tightens and I falter.

Nicole opens her mouth, but she closes it after. Apparently, I’m not the only one who can’t find the words. How do I explain to her that Cristina was dragged off by an enemy alien species and that I probably could have prevented it all along?

“She… didn’t make it,” I say.

Melina’s lips tremble as she blinks back at me. Her gaze slides between me and Nicole, processing.

Nicole fills in the details, explaining what happened to Cristina as if she realized I can’t. I can’t bring myself to talk about it again or else the guilt won’t let me move forward.

Maybe I shouldn’t.

Maybe I don’t deserve to.

Melina rubs her tears off her cheeks, sniffling and forcing down her emotion. “I wish I would have gotten to say goodbye.”

Me too.

I wish a lot of things had happened differently.

I reach out and grab her hand. It’s hard to process everything but I’m overjoyed that Melina is awake. She’s talking. She’s herself. We can deal with her leg with time.

But this is good news. Varek will be able to tell the council that another female survived. It’s the chance for another mate pairing. Another chance at a future for our new clan.

I hear footsteps pounding on the dirt ground outside of the chamber and the leather sways. My breath catches when I see my mate, his eyes searching for me with a desperation that sends a wave of worry through my body.

“Paige?”

“Varek, look,” I tell him. I scoot out of the way so he can see Melina and his shoulders relax for a moment before he bows his head in a respectful greeting. “Melina. Her name is Melina.”

“Melina,” he pronounces. Then his gaze flicks back to me. He nods for me to follow him.

I nod and turn to the girls. “I’m sorry, can you give me a minute?”

Melina’s eyes are wide as she nods. “Is that your mate?”

Pride beams through me and I smile. “That’s Varek. He’s mine.”

She bites back a wide smile. “Go. He seems eager for you.”

Eager is an understatement. When I take a step toward him, his fists clench at his sides and there’s an air of something I don’t recognize rolling off him. He’s impatient and upset about something. He holds the leathers out of the way for me and the second I’m outside the chamber, he drags me into his arms and crushes me to his chest.

The air surges from my lungs as he holds onto me, inhaling me as a deep rumbling pulls from his chest.

“Varek?” I whisper, unable to pull in a full breath. “What’s wrong?”

“I needed to touch you,” he grits. “Feel you. I was going crazy as soon as I heard.”

“Heard what?”

He loosens his hold on me but hoists me up higher and I wrap my legs around his waist, snaking my arms around his neck. His eyes are closed, his brows pinched in worry. I touch him there and smooth out the wrinkles across his gray skin.

“What is it? Heard what?”

Varek blinks at me, his amber depths warring with something. A chill of fear settles over me and my muscles go slack.

“What’s going on?”

He swallows hard, cupping my cheek. “Draxel’s mate, Ryan, is gone.”

I draw in a shaky breath. “W-what do you mean?”

His jaw is tight. “She ran away. Sometime early this morning. Draxel has gone after her.”

I shake my head, thinking about what lies outside the safety of the glowhollows. “No. She couldn’t have. I mean, she wouldn’t. She doesn’t have anywhere to go and—”

Varek grabs me by the back of the neck, grounding me as he presses a kiss to my forehead. His warmth is like a protective shield against the worry creeping in. “I know. She is in danger out there. But Draxel is one of our best hunters. He will find her.”

My heart pounds in my throat, the rhythm almost painful. “But the Thachiens. She could get taken or she could starve. What if she gets injured?” The words tumble out in a rush, driven by the terror clawing at my insides

All I can think about is Cristina, slung over the shoulder of a Thachien as they retreated into their lands. What if the same thing happens to Ryan?

I realize then how little I truly know about this place, about the dangers lurking just beyond the glowhollows' protective reach. Every dark corner seems filled with threats, waiting to take away yet another person I care about. I can't lose anyone else. Not like that.

Varek tilts my chin, his touch both firm and gentle as he forces me to meet his gaze.

“He will find her, Paige. I know it.”

I search his face, looking for any flicker of doubt, any sign of uncertainty. But there is none. He believes in his words, in Draxel, just as fiercely as he believes in us. And somehow, through the bond like a wave of calm, I can feel his conviction. He settles the frantic pulse of my heart.

“Okay,” I mumble. I look back at the leather tapestry separating us from my friends. “I, um, I need to go tell them too.”

Varek nods and slides me down. He doesn’t let go of me though, his hands on my waist possessive and warm.

“Do not ever try something like this,” he warns. His chest flares bright as he demands my attention. “Do not put me through that anguish.”

I tilt my head up, gazing into his eyes, and see the raw vulnerability there—the fear he tries so hard to hide. He must have been so scared. So worried about losing me. I hug him tightly, trying to let him know that I would never run from him. That I’m his and that there’s nowhere else I would rather be than by his side.

“I promise,” I tell him.

He squeezes me and I love how secure I feel in his arms. Like nothing can touch me. He won’t let it.

“I love you,” I murmur against his chest.

He sucks in a sharp breath. I feel his body tense, as if my confession has caught him off guard. His patterns flare, the deep green light pulsing in time with the steady beat of his heart.

“I have been waiting a lifetime to hear you say that, troublemaker,” he breathes, his voice thick with emotion, the rough edge softening as it wraps around me like a promise.

The intensity in his gaze steals my breath as he tips my chin up, his hand cupping my cheek with a tenderness that contrasts the strength in his hold. And then he’s kissing me, his lips crashing into mine with all the passion and longing that has been building between us since the moment we met. His kiss is more than just a kiss—it’s a claim, a vow that we are bound, now and forever.

I lose myself in him, in the taste of his lips, the heat of his body, and the knowledge that, no matter what lies ahead, we will face it together.

“I love you,” he says back, our lips just inches apart. “And I will always love you.”