The Ilia's lovers - Chapter Eight

Please be aware, this is a first draft of The Ilia's Lovers. That means this hasn't been edited. There will be multiple errors and even consistency errors. Feel free to share comments highlighting them, but you don't need to contact me personally, unless you see a major consistency error. Please also remember, this book has been written in three parts across three different years due to the health concerns I've had since 2023. Thanks for understanding.

It took three whole days for the IGC to call Dahnus. He’d expected the call much sooner.

Imda Ikhan was a Tauban female who’d been elected the head of the council a few months prior. From the beginning of her reign, she’d impressed upon Dahnus and the other members of the IGC with her intention of punishing the humans for their ‘attack’.

Dahnus disliked her immensely.

The female was standing in her office, staring at the screen with a hard look on her face. She had a bone crest that ran from the bridge of her nose in a thin line down her skull, which was flanked by two sets of horns. Imda had dyed the horns light blue, to compliment her blue scaled skin which faded to pale greenish yellow skin around her eyes, nose and mouth, with the same soft skin down the front of her throat and disappearing under the dark cornflower blue of her draped, elegant and undoubtedly expensive clothes.

She looked at him with eyes the same blue, slit pupils expanding to circles before contracting back to slits.

‘Ilan Dahnus.’ She bowed in acknowledgment of his rank.

‘Counsellor Ikhan, I’m surprised it took you three days to contact me.’

There was a slight flinch, like she’d expected Dahnus to avoid the conversation.

‘I must admit to being surprised one of our greatest allies and a fellow founding member of the IGC would protect a terrorist. We had to confirm it before we would allow ourselves to believe it.’

Who was we? Imda Ikhan always spoke like this. It wasn’t as though it was a trait of her species.

She was just that arrogant.

‘I’m not protecting a terrorist. I’m protecting a vulnerable female who has been horrifically abused for almost two years. Her involvement in any terrorist plot has yet to be determined.’

‘She was a member of the crew who detonated a radiant engine within the IGC.’

‘A strange course of action, for a species who claims they need the IGC’s protection from slavers and invasions. High Protector Thanesh offers another explanation.’

‘Oh yes. High Protector Thanesh,’ Ikhan’s voice was full of mockery. ‘A conspiracy theory, that members of the IGC were involved in sabotaging the engine. One of those alleged conspiracists, Hekalion Dar, can’t even speak for himself, because he was murdered by one of those humans.’

‘I have spoken to that human. She was in no condition to murder anyone, considering Hekalion had just shot her. It was, in fact, her mate who killed him. The Tessans have the full records of the treatment the human received, including footage of her being brought aboard their ship and the operation that saved her life.’

Ikhan’s mouth opened and closed for a moment.

‘Let us not evangelise the dead, Imda. You and I both know Hekalion was a deviant, even by my people’s standards. We know for a fact he had blackmailed several members of the council to change their votes on the human’s membership and it was the Protectorate promising membership to those who wanted to join, if they voted for human membership. That vote immediately precipitated the explosion. Strange, that the humans were about to get what they wanted, what they fought for, and then blew up their own ship. Even now, nineteen months after the explosion, you still haven’t actually charged a single human for any crime.’

Something appeared on her face, some kind of flash of victory. Something had changed.

‘Imda, I feel like we’re getting off topic. If you can prove the human’s involvement, I will happily instruct my representative for them to be charged.’

Dahnus left it open. Watching Ikhan closely.

The victory seemed to dim slightly.

Whatever it was, they were close, but not there. Dahnus needed more.

‘In the meantime, I will not send the human until you can determine her involvement.’

‘Send her and we can determine her involvement,’ Ikhan hissed.

Dahnus got it then, the flash of understanding. He let out a hiss of his own.

‘Imda. Tell me you’re not planning to torture confessions out of the humans.’

A mask fell over Imda’s face. Dahnus knew without doubt he was right.

‘Torture is against our laws. Imda, I demand reassurance that the humans won’t be tortured.’

‘The IGC will do whatever it needs to do to ensure we get to the truth.’

‘Torture doesn’t evoke the truth. Torture victims tell their torturers what they want to hear and torturers don’t stop until they hear what they believe is the truth. Imda. I’m sending an Amaran delegation to the IGC immediately, and I will contact my allies to ensure they do the same. We will not allow you to harm them, and Imda, if I find a single human has been harmed, I will demand they are turned over to a neutral third party for protection.’

Rage was coursing through Dahnus’s body now. He could see it reflected in Ikhan’s face.

‘As for the human under my protection. I will not hand her over until you have proof the humans were behind the explosion, and even then, not until she is capable of facing her accusers as is the law of my Ilanian.’

‘Ilan—’

‘That is my final word on the matter,’ Dahnus cut the call.

‘Marstam. I need you to contact Isali Dendras. Tell her I need her to put together an exploratory team to travel to the IGC and assess the condition of the human prisoners there. Tell her to contact her friends in the Bolsen, Anadar, Nemari governments and tell them I have had it confirmed by Imda Ikhan that she intends to torture confessions out of the human prisoners. I want them protected.’

‘Yes, my Ilan.’ Marstam’s voice came back over the comm.

‘And Marstam. Get High Protector Thanesh for me.’

Dahnus paced his office until the call came through. He brought up the screen over the fireplace and transferred the call, unable to sit.

‘Dahnus?’ Thanesh watched him pace patiently.

That was the problem when one of your closest friends was hundreds of years old. He knew the meaning of patience in a way Dahnus never could.

‘Imda Ikhan all but told me they intend on torturing confessions out of their human prisoners.’

Anger flashed in Thanesh’s eyes, along with something else. Not acceptance, rather expectation.

‘You believed this would happen.’

‘Yes.’ Thanesh nodded.

Inscrutable bastard!

‘I’m sending a team to ensure their wellbeing, and I’ve instructed the leader of that team to find allies from other worlds to do the same. I won’t stand for that.’

‘No. Apparently you’ll pace for it though.’

Despite his anger, Dahnus chuckled. He took a few more steps before he stopped.

‘I swear, Thanesh. I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry. They know. They know who did this but they’d rather keep the peace and blame it on outsiders than tear out the rot from the IGC’s halls.’

Dahnus was shouting by the time he finished speaking.

‘And you do love to tear out rot, don’t you, Dahnus? I hear you won the first vote?’

‘There’s a long way to go. It’ll be a year before the Adalmis’s are brought under our control. In the meantime, I have agents in as many as I can manage.’

‘How is Tassian?’ Thanesh changed the subject again.

‘He says the flow of adalan and female Amarans is as high as ever. With our resources, he’s been able to save more. We are getting more evidence against the Myardahl every day, but I’d rather no adalan or female ever had to experience the horrors of slavery again.’

‘Understandable. It is strange how I could see slavery every day, hear you talk about it in terms like this, and yet I didn’t understand until I met Alethia. Heard her story. Do you feel calmer now?’

‘Yes. You devious ass.’

‘You’re coming along with the human swear words,’ Thanesh smirked.

‘I like them. The way they feel on my tongue. I don’t want to hear the plan. Just tell me you have one.’

He needed to know Thanesh was getting the humans out of the IGC.

‘I have one,’ Thanesh grinned.

‘Soon?’

‘Very.’

Dahnus’s muscles began to unwind.

In the corner of his eye, he saw the connecting door up on the balcony open and Hadith slip inside. He came down the spiral staircase and through the door beside the fireplace, standing to the side while he waited for Dahnus to finish his conversation. He must have been shouting louder than he thought for Hadith to hear him and come to calm him.

Dahnus held his hand out to invite him to join him. He needed his adalan. Needed to feel his heat and skin.

Hadith crossed the room and they kissed briefly.

‘Thanesh.’

‘Hadith. How is Elaine?’

Hadith’s face clouded. ‘Not well. She seems to be retreating further into herself. She’s skipping meals and rarely leaves her bed. I believe she is giving into her pain. If we don’t do something about it soon, we may lose her.’

Dahnus felt a clamp close over his heart.

‘Adalth’s mate, Sakura. I helped transport her sister to her side a few months ago. She is a human therapist. She specialises in trauma.’

‘Do you think Sakura might be well enough to part with her?’

‘I will ask. If she is, I will send the Misfits to transport her to Amara. I will message you with her answer.’

‘Thank you, Thanesh. If not her.—’

‘I will contact Earth and ask them to send another trained therapist to the Athena station for transport. It will take longer, but she will have the help she needs.’

The clamp eased slightly but didn’t let go.

‘I will call her now.’

With that, the screen went dark.

As soon as they were alone, Dahnus grabbed Hadith and kissed him.

Despite losing some of the rage from his conversation with Ikhan, Dahnus was still full of energy. He needed to fight or fuck it out and Hadith was here, with his full lips, and heavy lidded eyes.

‘I need you, Hadith!’

‘I’m yours,’ his adalan answered.

Dahnus tore Hadith’s clothes off and sat him on his desk, stripping quickly. He entered Hadith in one stroke and groaned.

‘Fuck!’

Gripping Hadith’s cock, he stroked it in time with his thrusts.

‘Cum for me, Hadith. Cum all over me.’

This was not love making. It was fucking. Hard and quick. Hadith’s cum arched across Dahnus’s chest as he came inside him. Dahnus smeared his adalan’s cum across his chest, rubbing it into his skin. He needed Hadith’s scent to cover him, to sooth him, or he’d climb into a transport and rip the IGC apart to get to the humans.

Trust your people to do their jobs. Trust Thanesh to save them.

He and Hadith kissed for several minutes, their bodies pressed together on the warm wood of his desk.

After, he used his top to wipe them both off, and opened the hidden wardrobe in his office, dressing his adalan, who then returned the favour, making sure their outfits were harmonious, even though they didn’t exactly match.

Dahnus looked in the mirror while Hadith buttoned and draped his clothes just right. Dahnus could see it looked good but didn’t really have an eye for clothes the way Hadith did.

He turned to his adalan, watching him as his eyes darted here and there, twisting, folding, adjusting. Dahnus smiled.

‘I love you.’

Hadith smiled, but never took his eyes off his job.

‘I love you, too.’

They shared another kiss, before Hadith went back up the spiral staircase and crossed the small library, through the secret door, hidden behind a bookshelf, and into his own office.

Dahnus sniffed, making sure he could still smell the scent of Hadith’s cum on him. Woody, nutty, thick with musk. He inhaled deeply, then sat down.

He was only at it for a few minutes when Marstam called.

‘May I speak with you about the human, my Ilan.’

‘Come through.’

The connecting door opened a few moments later, letting Marstam slip through before he closed it. That was always the way with Marstam. He never imposed, when he could work quietly, behind the scenes.

Marstam crossed the room, his feet barely making any noise on the wooden floor. He reached the seat and waited for permission to sit down. Dahnus paused a beat before nodding. It endlessly fascinated him Marstam never let their friendly manner disarm his sense of propriety, even though Dahnus had assured him over and over he didn’t need to stand on ceremony, he always did.

Marstam slipped into one of the seats in front of Dahnus and crossed one leg over the other, resting his hand, in which he carried a tablet, on the arm of the chair.

‘I have a team working exclusively on finding laws and protections for our guest. Most of what we’ve found so far explicitly excludes aliens. However, we are queuing those things we find that can delay extradition from most to least amount of time.’

‘Excellent. I expect any paperwork taken care of in advance so that we can submit a delay as soon as the last one ceases to be effective.’

‘We are already on it, my Ilan.’

‘I’ve just requested Thanesh provide a human therapist to help Elaine.’

‘That is good, my Ilan. She will need it.’

Dahnus nodded, his thoughts turning to Marstam’s own experiences briefly before he dismissed them. Marstam would not appreciate any show of emotion.

‘There are two permanent solutions, my Ilan. Though I understand we’re nowhere near instigating either.’

‘And they are?’

‘The most obvious. If the human were found to have bond mates here on Amara, and bonded with them, the IGC would be forced to give up any claim.’

Dahnus nodded. ‘The thought had occurred to me. With her current mental state, there is no way I would be willing to even broach the situation with her.’

Marstam nodded in agreement. ‘The other, is if the female were to become pregnant by an Amaran. Our laws refuse to separate a parent from their child in legal matters such as this, unless the parent is a danger to their child. In order to comply with the extradition, the child would have to be sent to prison with their parent. There is no court on Amara that will allow that. In the past, they’ve put a permanent injunction on extradition to preserve the rights of the child to their parent.’

Dahnus nodded again, thoughtfully. ‘I do not like the idea of bringing a child into the world simply to protect their mother. If Elaine wanted children, that would be one thing, but to bring a child into the world like this is wrong. Finding her mates is one thing. I do not like this idea.’

‘I agree, my Ilan. I thought I should offer all options.’

‘Yes. Thank you, Marstam. Keep looking. I believe we’ll have a long time before we have to use any of this. I do not believe Elaine will be in a position to pass a mental health review any time soon. But I want every option available to me so I can make plans.’

‘Yes, My Ilan.’

Marstam stood and, with a bow, left.

Dahnus stood and walked across the room. Staring into the fire burning in the hearth.

The human would become a point of contention in the battle to come. His enemies would use her to try and weaken his position. He had to find a way to turn her into a strength.

The Devori were raging about her being here and Zharr Araq was demanding the release of his brothers. Which Quennen and his allies were supporting.

Dahnus crossed the room and hit his comm.

‘Elithan.’

‘Yes, My Ilan.’ Elithan’s rough voice came in clear.

‘Release the Devori twins and their crew. Bring them to Dahnus Ascent and book them passage to Devor.’

‘My Ilan, we can’t just let them get away with firing upon your sister’s ship.’

‘The First Chamber will let them get away with it, and in doing so undermine my position. Release them. Instruct my military that when the Araq twins return, I want them destroyed on sight.’

There was a slight pause.

‘Yes, my Ilan.’

Dahnus could practically hear the smile on his face.

Quennen would be furious.

Dahnus considered calling him and delivering the news personally, but then he’d have to spend time in Quennen’s company and, no doubt, the company of his sister, Taia. Every time Quennen came to the palace, he had his sister in tow.

Dahnus sat back and just imagined the anger on Quennen’s face. He laughed, then returned to work.