Growing up an outsider, desperate to fit in with my peers, should have driven me to work hard for the approval of demi-humans, but I felt no such drive. Was it because I now felt secure in my clan, accepted for who I was, not what I was?
Everyone in my clan was a misfit, oddly stuck together by the will of the Fates, led together as a unit by the Stars.
Xylo, the cosmic-colored Wudox Master Scholar, constantly driven to study the biology and history of all species, who had decided against following his fathers’ footsteps and researched his own.
Odelm, the violet, feminine-colored Ulax Master Musician who loved music so much he’d turned away from his chance at a permanent mating bond and lived for years as a severed male, wasting away.
V’dim and Z’fir, the traditionally colored Ulax and Wudox princes, whose appearance was envied by many other males, were turned away by Circuli nestqueens because they were a nestbrother bonded set, feeling an undeniable pull to each other since birth. Their military achievements had earned them the respect of other warriors.
Zirene, the ideal Aldawi prince, feared by all, respected by many. Somehow he’d become connected to me as his Nova, the first outside of their species.
The five of us were all unique in our own way, but together we were kindred spirits, tied together as a clan.
We had returned to the villa right as the sun was setting. The princes had told me they had something to do and suggested that I go wash off the saltwater lingering on my skin.
Oddly, none of my other mates greeted me in our bedroom. I felt Xylo in his infirmary, and Odelm in his music room, so I knew they were around. The princes seemed to have wandered off to the warehouse, doing only the Stars knew what. Zirene was nowhere to be found.
As I entered my bedroom in a green cut of my favorite nightgown, Kaede waited for me, leaning against the far wall.
“Is something the matter?” I asked him, studying him intently as I fixed the braids of my crown. “You’ve been acting strangely since yesterday.”
“It’s not my place to tell you this, but I am going to anyway,” he announced, crossing his arms. “Zirene has been ignoring summons from his father, the Aldawi Sovereign. He has given various excuses about how he needed to investigate skirmishes along the nearby border or oversee the development of some new technology, but his father has finally had enough. He’s calling Zirene’s bluff and demanding that he return to the palace tonight, or he will intervene with force. You, your clan, and your cubs will be used as game pieces of his sick game. For everyone’s good—including yours—you need to tell him to go, to let him go. If he disobeys his father again, I fear for you, Selena. The Sovereign doesn’t regard females as equal to males. Look at Masmi,” he hissed. “You know why we only saw her face on the call? Her father mutilated her body, shipped her to a female colony, and left her to die.”
“No,” I gasped, covering my mouth in horror. “Why would a parent do that?”
“Because females are nothing more than Seedbearers to him, useful only to provide offspring. Zirene’s mother saw the monster his father was and slept with a guard during her heat. She would’ve gotten away with it, except that she became pregnant with Vagren and Pavryn. That was all the evidence he needed to order her execution. The only reason he kept the cubs was that he felt they would be good fodder to send on suicidal military missions. What more honorable way to die than for your empire?”
“And he’s supposed to just to go face him? Alone?” I shook my head. “Kaede, you and your sisters must go with him. I don’t want to hear days from now that the sire of my cubs was executed by his own father.”
“We can’t escort him,” Kaede snapped. “Believe me, I’ve already had this argument with your dreamscape male. That stubborn prince refuses to allow us to leave you unprotected. I am under direct orders to flee with you if he doesn’t come back. He has allies in high places—”
“Mwe would take me in—take us in. He wouldn’t allow—”
“Chamber Master Mwe has no rights outside his space station,” Kaede growled. “That male may be the strongest telepath in our galaxy, but he’s useless when it comes to disputes beyond his territory. That male’s moral compass is too strict, and he fears the Fates themselves would beam him up or something, returning him to the Stars.”
“So, what do you want me to do?” I demanded. “Kaede, I’m lost when it comes to these political games. What do you need me to do?”
“Zirene is waiting in the hatchery right now. Go to him, fuck him, and send him away.” He waved me off. “The sooner you do this, the safer the people of Destima will be.”
“Fuck him?” I hissed, waving my arms. “How can I do that knowing that this may be the last time I see him?”
“It will certainly be the last time you see him if you keep dragging your feet, Selena,” he warned. “Don’t make me bite you and teleport you to the hatchery, because I will if that’s what it takes.”
“You’re an ishing frax, Kaede,” I snarled. “I hate you when you act like this. Can’t you have some compassion for once?”
I stormed off, not missing his shocked expression as I spun away. I’d thought that maybe he and I had come to a mutual understanding—a mutual friendship—but like always, we took two steps forward and one step back.
Gripping my four nestmates’ golden threads, I pulled them into one conversation. “Zirene is being summoned.”
“We know,” Xylo replied.
“That’s why Z’fir and I brought you home before dinner; Kaede warned us that he was leaving tonight,” V’dim added.
“You all knew?”
“We
