The Ilia's lovers - Chapter Three

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.

Dahnus sat down on a sofa in the inner sanctum of his suite and sighed. It was almost an hour since the human, Elaine, burst into tears. The sight nearly broke him. Not just him either, Danari’s face had crumpled into heartbreak and panic, and Hadith took several steps forward, obviously wanting to comfort her, before Dahnus held a hand up to ward him off. She was held as a slave by a Devori for almost two human years. Dahnus couldn’t imagine what he’d put her through. The last thing she needed was the hands of a male or adalan on her body. There was no telling how she’d react to that.

So, Dahnus left, taking Hadith with him, though Hadith refused to go further than the suite’s greeting room, determined that he’d know when the human was well enough to be left alone.

Dahnus knew Danari was hiding something when she messaged him from her yacht telling him she was bringing a human back to Amara. Something went wrong with the meeting between her and the Adosian leader Talis. Dahnus waited patiently for her return, knowing that it must be something sensitive. When it came to communication, Dahnus and Danari knew caution was the best way to preserve their plans, their intent.

A human from Endurance. Dahnus let out another sigh. He’d hoped to preserve the appearance of neutrality for longer. When the IGC found out a member of Endurance’s crew was on Amara, they’d demand her immediate extradition. Dahnus had no intention of handing that vulnerable, traumatised female over to them so they could imprison her, display her and do gods knew what else.

Again, the thought of somehow breaking the other human captives out the IGC brig entered his thoughts. He’d approached the subject with Thanesh and had a feeling Thanesh was planning something, not that Dahnus would ever ask him.

Casting that thought aside, Dahnus returned his thoughts to the human.

Humans were so small.

The IGC would demand her extradition and Dahnus would have to refuse.

Thankfully, there were precedents set in Amaran law, which the IGC had accepted in the past for Amarans, and the alien races in their space which they protected, like the Nuulan. It would be a stretch to claim the same laws covered humans; they were considered a slave race and now terrorists but with a skilled barrister it could be done. For the first time Dahnus was thankful to the fools in the first chamber who’d refused to even debate giving humans rights on Amara. In doing that, they’d also stopped from taking some basic rights away from them. The most obvious, an accused had the right to meet their accusers in full mental and physical health.

Elaine was deeply traumatised. That much was obvious and would be an effective defence for some time.

But it wouldn’t be enough. He needed more.

‘Elaine is sleeping.’

Dahnus turned to the door, seeing Danari and Hadith enter. It was Danari who’d spoken, now she turned and walked over to the drink’s cabinet.

‘Yes, please,’ Dahnus said.

‘Hadith?’ Danari asked.

‘Please,’ Hadith said, walking over to Dahnus and dropping onto the sofa beside him. Dahnus pulled Hadith into his side and leaned into him, smelling him and drawing the scent of fresh spring water and spices into his lungs. His eyes fluttered closed as he pressed his lips to Hadith’s temple, his heart rate increasing as his lips lingered there. Hadith pushed into the kiss, taking his hand and holding it to his heart, tightening his grip.

Dahnus withdrew and turned to see Danari pouring three drinks.

‘Tell me everything,’ he said.

Danari nodded, and quickly filled him in on the Adosian meeting.

Danari had gone to sound out Talis on joining them against the unfounded accusations against the humans. It did not go well. Apparently the Adosians were as convinced as everyone else that the humans were behind the explosion at the IGC. It didn’t help that the saboteurs destroyed the human ship, making it seem like it was a plot by them.

‘Then Talis got a call. He called the meeting off and went on his way.’ Danari handed a glass to Dahnus, then Hadith.

‘Thank you, Illisa,’ Hadith said.

Danari stiffened momentarily. ‘I am at your service, Hadith,’ she said.

Dahnus thanked his sister with a smile. The laws of Amara meant Hadith, as an orphan, could never be more than Dahnus’s favoured lover. In fact, Hadith was his mate and Dahnus had every intention of having his mate as his bonded Nidilan. But until they found their Ilia, their nidila, what human’s called a wife, he had to pretend Hadith wasn’t as special to him as he was. He had to let Hadith take a lesser role than the one fate and Dahnus was determined he would fill, And Danari, with all her love and graciousness, never failed to raise Hadith up. It was one of the many reasons Danari was his best friend and why he was grateful she was his sister and not like some of the siblings other Ilan and Ilia had in the past. Thankfully, their parents raised them better than to see each other as competition, and Danari was happy to play a supporting role to Dahnus in his position as Ilan.

‘Tell me about the human,’ Dahnus asked.

‘Elaine,’ Hadith admonished gently.

‘Tell me about Elaine,’ Dahnus corrected himself.

Danari blew out a long breath and took a sip of Amanath, a spirit distilled from blossom nectar.

‘It was a revenge killing, according to Talis. The Adosians were called into a planet by an agent claiming to have found Adosian females being sold. Talis and his people rushed there to help. Instead, it turned out the male who called them in was the bond mate of a human.’

‘Another human?’ Hadith asked.

‘Elaine’s friend. One with that red hair humans sometimes have, like the human you propositioned in front of her mate that time.’

Dahnus laughed. ‘Rhona Desares.’ It was a prank, instigated by Thanesh in revenge for something Rhona’s mate had done. Then the female had told them off for not bringing her in on the prank. Dahnus liked Rhona. She had a wicked sense of humour that appealed to him. He’d offered her a place as his lover for real after that.

‘Turned out, this female, Pyri, was also the bond mate of Talis and his pack. Though, they’re not going to like her. She’s very spirited.’

‘Interesting though. If she gets them on her side, that might be a way of bringing the Adosians over to us.’

Dahnus pondered Hadith’s point.

‘I don’t know. Adosian males are—’

‘Awful?’ Danari suggested.

‘That’s as good a word for it as any.’ Dahnus took a sip of his drink, the sweet, pleasant burn ran down his throat.

‘What happened to her?’ Hadith asked.

Danari took a deep breath, her eyes darkening.

‘The Adosians sent us these,’ Danari said, walking back to the drink cabinet and picking up a tablet. She walked over and handed it to Dahnus, taking his drink as his other hand was still in Hadith’s.

‘The red head was a virgin. You know how Devori value that nonsense. He wanted her, but wanted to be able to sell her for top value. He took his frustrations out on Elaine.

Dahnus activated the tablet, to find it already on the correct file.

He read through the information, his stomach turning on the first sentence. He felt Hadith turn and held the tablet so he could read over his shoulder.

When he was done, he let out a deep breath. How could anyone treat another being like that? Let alone a small, delicate female like Elaine.

‘How is she not scarred?’ Hadith asked, his voice reedy thin.

‘He took care not to scar her. To treat the wounds that would have scarred.’

Dahnus looked at his sister and saw the fury burning in her eyes, felt it reflected in his own face, his stomach, the tension of his muscles.

If this Castus were still alive, he’d have killed him, himself.

All the time they’d sat there, Hadith had been holding his hand. Now, Dahnus could feel his grip had tightened.

Dahnus gripped his hand back tightly knowing the report they held was reminding Hadith of the abuse he’d suffered before they’d met.

Even though it was long over. Even though that bastard who’d done it lay in an unmarked grave, it still burned Dahnus with anger. Now, he could feel the same kind of rage filling him at what the human had gone through. At the pain and degradation she’d suffered. At the games he’d played and the marks she would have carried had he not healed them.

‘What are you going to do? Hadith asked.

‘Everything I must to keep her here and safe,’ Dahnus said, feeling the growl in his throat.

The IGC could burn. There was no way he was handing this human over to them. If that meant he had to show his true allegiances sooner than later, so be it.

‘The Devori were captured,’ Dahnus told Danari. ‘We can keep them for a few days at most, then we will have to let them go.’

‘Then I trust you’ll make those days count,’ Danari said.

Dahnus nodded. He already had ideas. Nothing would make him hand over that female. The only question was, how could he achieve that without burning the alliances he and his family spent so much time building, in a galaxy that hated Amarans.

Chapter Two

Chapter Four