I hiccupped on a sob.
“But I think not long ago, they must have deemed the experiment a failure. Nine days before I escaped, my masters put me up for auction. It was the first time... billed me as a ‘unique’ experience—including my virginity—with an exorbitant price tag... said the fee would pay for a whole new experimental generation... I was the prototype, but they’d correct the remaining problems and finally have their perfect ‘Adapt’...” I sobbed into Xylo’s chest.
“That’s when I realized how different I looked than the other females lined up on the stage with me. I was the only one with silver hair and spotted skin. Everyone stared. It was... it was...” my hands clenched and unclenched against Xylo’s chest as I sought the words to explain—in vain “I finally realized maybe this is why I was a failure. Their experiments somehow resulted in me looking like I do.”
Xylo’s vines slid free and flailed behind him, while his arms pressed me closer to his body. I gasped for air, struggling for control... but when Xylo’s hand stroked my hair, I lost the battle. My emotions overwhelmed me, and I buried my face in his chest, soaking the downy fur as tears streamed from my eyes. Xylo did his best to comfort me in silence, only my sobs filling the void.
As my tears slowly eased, I noticed Xylo almost vibrating beneath me. He pulled me abruptly away from his chest, and I looked up in shock. His face was taut with unexpressed emotion—anger, sorrow, guilt—and his vines extended nearly straight out from his body, shaking.
“How many times?” he demanded, his voice full of rage.
I crossed my arms over my stomach defensively, trying to hold myself together and looked down at our bodies on the bed. All the anger, all the pain, all the sorrow had drained out of me. I didn’t know how to define what was left.
Embarrassment? Shame? Dirtiness?
“How many times?” he repeated, implacable.
“Just once,” I murmured.
His strong arms pulled me onto his lap. I felt his vines pull the blanket up, cocooning us together in its warmth. Choked sobs continued to escape me as I burrowed into him, laying my head back on his chest.
I wasn’t afraid. I felt comforted by him; his presence made me feel safe. I could hear the thumping of what sounded like multiple hearts and his breath tickled my ear. Closing my eyes, I sucked in a deep breath.
Listening to his heartbeats, breathing in his unique scent, I gradually calmed. And that calm slid straight into exhausted sleep.
“That’s all it takes,” he whispered gently. “And that is what matters...”
Chapter Five Xylo
Xylo hurried from Selena’s room, hoping to catch the princes for a private discussion before she woke. He had checked her vitals via her medical bracelets before leaving—thankfully, she had not tried to take them off earlier. They were linked to his medical equipment.
He was still in shock she had cried herself to sleep in his arms, wrapped in his vines. He could already feel his body starting to biologically sync with hers. Typically, he had firm control over his vines, but during such an emotional conversation, they had instinctively tried to comfort her—even when he had willed them down so he would not scare her.
He could not believe everything she had been through. It pained him to learn of all the horrors the Yaarkins had perpetrated on humans—especially those Selena had been subjected to.
He was amazed at her resilience.
For her to be able to trigger a courting bond with him—accidental or not—was nothing short of remarkable. She was the first being outside the Circuli to engage in a courting bond—there was no record of any outsider bonding with either Ulax or Wudox. Granted, their isolation from CEG prior to the war with the Yaarkins could be why. A simple lack of opportunities? But his court bond with Selena further proved Earth had been a planet the Creators had used as a playground.
Of the 117 sentient species registered with CEG, twenty-seven were so-called ‘Children’ species from worlds on which the Creators were known to have experimented. In every known case, the Children had dominated their home planet and eventually, traveled outside their star system. They had conquered neighboring star systems, massacring many lesser sentient species and had expanded their territories. They had waged many wars over many millennia. Over time, alliances had formed until eventually, CEG was created. CEG’s objective—to bring order and peace and protect the Euph Galaxy from those beyond.
The Ulax and Wudox were the most recently recognized of the Children. They had been added to CEG as Secondaries, allowing each a representative in the committee, with the Aldawi as their Primary Officer. As long as the Ulax and Wudox remained in Aldawi territory—the most extensive in CEG—they would remain Secondaries.
Before the war with the Yaarkins a hundred years ago, the Circuli had only been considered one of many minor sentient species under Aldawi protection—though Aldawi protection was not without cost. The Ulax and Wudox were required to provide soldiers for the Aldawi military and maintain an Aldawi outpost within their star system. Once they were granted membership to CEG, they were further required to patrol their star system’s sector on behalf of the Aldawi and CEG.
The Ulax and Wudox leaders didn’t believe there was a need to expand outside their star system since the Aldawi protected them, especially given what had happened to the unprotected humans. Their home planet, Circul, provided for their species’ needs
