The Ilia's Lovers - Epilogue

Zinif and Thalvuten were hurt, but thankfully, not badly.

Dahnus’s ship had docked with the Tessan’s ship a few minutes before. Almost immediately a pale skinned Danari asked to be brought to Zinif’s room.

“When did that start?” Elaine asked Dahnus. He shook his head, as dumbfounded as Elaine was.

Now, Elaine and Danari were headed to Zinif’s room. When they entered, Elaine hung by the door while Danari entered, a sob bursting from her mouth when she saw him. It seemed to be a sob of relief. She climbed onto the bed and the two of them held one another whispering together for a minute. They finished with a simple kiss, before Danari sat back and Zinif turned to Elaine.

“I’m so sorry for getting you shot,” she said, the words rushing out.

“You did not get me shot,” Zinif said, patting the bed.

Elaine walked over and pulled herself on the Raqhan sized bed. She’d pressed her lips together to try to stop herself from crying, but she was afraid it was coming across as more of a pout.

“The plan was good. The timing was off. If we hadn’t spent so much time buying the ammunition.”

“I shouldn’t have gone. I should have just let Dahnus handle it all.”

“I believe now, having been there, that having you there was the right decision. Especially when it was the value they placed on you that spared Lord Efari his life.”

Danari rubbed Elaine’s back as she almost hyperventilated at the memory of Zharr Araq shooting Hadith and aiming to fire again. When she threw herself over Hadith, she was sure she’d feel a shot him her back a moment later.

She loved Hadith so much it hurt. It felt the same with Dahnus. They were a part of her now. She didn’t know how she couldn’t be their mate when it felt like this. So real. So intense.

Thalvuten was tired, but they spent a few minutes talking in the dim light. Elaine kept a strict leash on her emotions and managed to only cry once. The last thing those who were injured defending her needed was to be consoling her while they were recovering.

It took a few minutes to find Radiin’s quarters. They were on the royal floors, a floor beneath where Elaine had stayed with Dahnus and Hadith on the way to Ket’Kitara. It was weird to think that was only around a week ago. It felt like months.

The door opened and Radiin smiled when he saw her. he invited her inside.

“I just, I wanted to thank you for coming with me. It was a disaster, but—”

“It may have been a disaster,” Radiin said. “But we did well. Lord Efari was hurt, but he is recuperating. It will all be well, Elaine.”

Elaine saw kindness, understanding and support radiating from this male. He was so gentle and sweet. She felt the first gentle fluttering of something new in her stomach. She didn’t know when she’d taken a step towards him. He stood still, letting her decide what to do. Elaine swallowed nervously and reached out, touching his face, and his lips, before she closed the distance. Their lips grazed one another’s with the softest touch. It took her breath away.

A little overwhelmed, Elaine stepped closer and turned the intimate embrace into a hug. Radiin followed her lead and they stood their for a few moments with their arms wrapped around each other.

Radiin buried his face in the crook of her neck and took a deep breath.

“I love the way you smell,” he whispered. “And the way you feel in my arms.”

The first fluttering took off into a flurry of emotion that spread with heat through her whole body.

It wouldn’t be long before she was in love with Radiin, she realised. She was already half way there.

Her feet carried her to Kerrok’s a few minutes later with barely any memory of the kisses they exchanged before she left.

When the door opened to Kerrok’s suite, he looked decidedly less happy to see her.

“I can smell the Zenin on you,” he complained when she entered.

I guess I’m a little way off of falling in love with this one.

“What do you want, Satya?”

So little patience, yet he called her by an endearment.

“I wanted to thank you, for believing in me earlier. For coming with me. For helping to save Hadith. For staying with us when he was being operated on. I know it couldn’t have been easy for you.

Kerrok folded his arms against his enormous Sehn barrel chest and gave a single nod to acknowledge everything she’d said and all of the emotion behind it.

“That’s it?” Elaine snapped, her irritation like fat in a smoking hot frying pan.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked, meeting her anger with his own.

“Nothing. You know what Kerrok. This is exactly what I’m coming to expect from you. Nothing.”

Elaine shook her head and turned, walking to the door.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her into his, trapping her like a cage. The kiss was harsh, passionate and angry. It wiped her mind clean. Arousal shot through her whole body.

Kerrok broke the kiss and growled low in her ear.

“I can smell you arousal, satya,” he whispered. Then he was withdrawing enough to look her in the eye.

“I wish I’d never met you,” he said, staring her in the eye, his own were hard.

It hurt. It hurt more than it should.

“Or, I wish I’d met you first.” He took a deep breath through his nose, his eyes fluttering closed. “I would have carried you away to the forests of my home. Brought you to my family burrow and filled you with many children. There would be no Amarans, or Zenin or Kuyon. Just you, me and our young.”

Kerrok painted a picture sparse of details, but it was a picture that stripped away all the complications.

Only they weren’t complications. They were her mates. They were her lovers. They were a part of her heart now.

“I better go,” she said, extricating herself from Kerrok’s arms. He let her go. For a moment, he appeared regretful, then he hardened his face and stood, taking a step back.

“Then go.”

Two rooms. Two very different experiences.

By the time Elaine got to Medbay, the mate bed was set up. Hadith was asleep in the centre and Dahnus was lying next to him. Elaine stood at the bottom of the bed watching them, unsure of what to do.

“Are you joining us?” Dahnus murmured, his voice quiet in the twilight room felt louder than it should.

“I feel like I’m intruding,” Elaine admitted.

Dahnus opened his eyes and looked at her. for a moment it seemed like he was considering, then he smiled.

“Of course you’re not. Hadith will miss you if he wakes and you’re not here.”

Elaine nodded, still feeling apprehensive. She looked down at the outfit she’d changed into on the way to the exchange. Tight black pants that reminded her of leggings and gave her freedom of movement. A tight top in the same material. Boots. She’d gotten them from the arms dealer who didn’t just deal in arms, but all thing war and hunting related. They were scuffed now. Covered in dirt and teal blood.

“There is a shower and some clothes waiting for you in there,” Dahnus said, nodding towards a door at the end of the room. Elaine nodded and without saying another word, she went to take a shower and change.

Twenty minutes later, she walked back out. She was wearing a small pair of pants and a bandeau top.

“Its to increase skin to skin contact,” Dahnus said when she gestured awkwardly to the outfit. “To help in heal.”

“Okay,” Elaine said.

The bed was a little higher than beds on Earth, but she managed to get in on the other side of Hadith without waking him. She snuggled into his side, careful of the wound which was on the same side as Dahnus and looked up at his face. He was utterly precious to her.

“I’m so sick of crying today,” she said, swiping fresh tears away.

“You’ve had a lot to upset you,” Dahnus said, reaching across and moving her hand aside so he could dry her tear with his thumb.

“I’m a hypocrite,” Elaine said finally.

“Why?” Dahnus asked.

“You gave me no choice about Kerrok and Radiin. But I gave Paydin no choice. The first time I made this momentous decision about his life for him without giving him the opportunity to argue the decision. Today, I cried, I emotionally blackmailed—”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I cried—”

“I saw you, Elaine. You were crying to manipulate Paydin. You cried because the circumstances, the kidnapping, the shooting, the fact that I tried to send you off, forcing you to go to that world alone, then Paydin saying he wanted to die, left you emotionally wrought. I could see the panic and fear of losing Paydin and so could he. We all could. You didn’t manipulate him, Elaine, I don’t believe there’s a manipulative bone in your body. You fell apart.”

Even now, the thought of losing Paydin twisted her guts until they hurt. Elaine spent a minute taking in deep breaths to try to stop anymore tears from falling.

“On Earth, a lot of people see crying as manipulation.”

“If humans are anything like Amarans, then crying is a way to relieve stress. People who say it’s manipulation are trying to manipulate others to stop them crying so that they don’t have to deal with their pain.”

Dahnus’s voice grew a little louder as he spoke. It was adamant and truthful.

“Will the two of you be quiet. I got shot today. I’m trying to rest.”

Elaine and Dahnus exchanged a guilty look.

“I’m so sorry, Hadith,” Elaine said.

“Don’t be sorry,” Hadith said, reaching over and rubbing up and down her arm even though his eyes were closed. “Be quiet, so I can sleep.”

“Elaine let out a huff of laughter, which was quickly followed by a long sigh of relief. If Hadith could joke, he must be better.

“Also, Dahnus is right. You don’t have the ability to be manipulative. You are a good and kind person. Paydin will thank you someday, for saving him and giving him another chance of love and life. For the children you will give him.”

Blue children. Would their eyes be black or have whites. Dairon Ethallion had black eyes and paler skin than Paydin. Would they look like him?

“I can’t even think about that right now,” Elaine said, dismissing the thoughts completely.

They quietened, allowing Hadith to fall asleep. Elaine looked over his steadily rising and falling chest and saw Dahnus watching her with his pale aqua eyes.

There was a lot to say, but now wasn’t the time to say it. whatever the future held, they would deal with it and overcome it. they loved each other and that was all that mattered. Right now, all Elaine needed to do was love and be loved. Everything else could wait.