“If this is how you are going to treat her after all of these years, I am disappointed in you. I have my own star system to rule,brother,and you have wasted my time and resources assisting you.” Royak squeezed Zirene’s shoulder. “Fix things. Or don’t. But stop making things harder for her. The poor female has been through enough.”
Zirene rolled his shoulder, freeing himself from his brother’s grasp, and turned to face him.
“I worked so hard to get my Nova, only to fail…”
“You failed because you didn’t believe in Selena,” Odelm barked. “Maybe you should trust her more. For someone who had a connection with her for nine years, you fail at knowing who she is.” He took a step back and turned toward the direction Selena left. “She has an inner strength that shines so brightly, her golden aura lights up the room. Sometimes, I wonder how I deserve such a nestqueen.”
Zirene sighed and turned toward Odelm and Xylo. “How do I fix this?” he asked, his eyes pleading.
Odelm lowered his tentacles and eyed Xylo as his coloring started to return to normal.
“You need to give her space,” Xylo said, crossing his arms. “She needs time to adjust to all the changes in her life. The Fates keep throwing things at her with no chance to recuperate.” Xylo glanced over to both Circuli princes. “And we need time to fix things with our nestqueen as a clan.”
“This isn’t the place to speak freely,” Royak said, studying the bystanders and the few present Royal Guards. “Let’s return to the Royal Aldawi Commons and continue there.”
The group nodded in agreement and made their way together.
Z’fir hadn’t had a chance to spend much time withSelena on theDestiny. His focus had been on commanding the ship, along with V’dim, while managing the crew. The things he knew came from his discussions with Xylo and when he searched her memories. She was fair and kind, with great inner strength. Her major fault was her social awkwardness, paired with extreme emotions that got her in trouble. He hoped Xylo was right, saying she would calm down as her hormones balanced out and as she learned more about communicating with others.
Xylo and Odelm were protective of her, borderline territorial—with good reasons. She had been through enough, as Prince Royak said, joined with the fact she had many species interested in using her for their own goals.
If being permanently bonded to her was everything Xylo and Odelm said, it would be worth it in the end. Consistently handling theDestiny’s thread network was tiring, even with V’dim co-managing it with him.
What worried him was the state of their clan dynamic after they solved the problems with their nestqueen. Until then, he wouldn’t start to entertain how it would be when he got the chance to settle down—both as crew and clan.
“What will become of us?”Z’fir asked, glancing at his lifelong partner.
“Do you believe sharing Selena as our nestqueen will affect our relationship?”V’dim replied, meeting his gaze. “Look how close Xylo and Odelm have become since becoming nestbrothers. They were barely acquaintances before joining with Selena.”
Z’fir knew those two had formed an intimate connection together as nestbrothers, similar to the one he shared with V’dim. It made them a strong united front in taking care of Selena, taking the personal sacrifice in allowing another, outside of your nestqueen, to roam shallow parts of your mind freely.
“Do you think they would want to form a nestbrother bond with us?”
Traces of V’dim’s thoughts flooded through him as he tried to come up with a reply. Z’fir smiled as V’dim tried to sense their new nestbrothers current mental status as they waited for their lift access.
“Xylo may,” V’dim hesitated. “But Odelm is battling some hostile emotions coursing through him.”
They stepped onto the lift and V’dim grabbed his arm, sensing what he was about to do.
Z’fir closed his eyes and focused on the mental net that surrounded both V’dim and himself. V’dim’s turquoise shield hugged his emerald one, wrapped tightly together by their intertwined thread. Together, they shared the same sworn threads that branched out to each crew member. Their sworn threads were faint compared to those of their Queens, but worked well enough to command their ship.
Each sworn thread to a nestqueen allowed them to instantly connect to their clan, for each nestqueen had a similar setup with their clan. This was how they had known when Xylo formed a courting bond with Selena and how they felt a faint ripple from her through both Xylo and Odelm at times when they focused on them.
If the princes didn’t focus on any crewmember—or vice versa—they would hear a continuous chatter and overall flood of a variety of emotions. It took a lot of energy from both of them to constantly shield the sworn crew’s net in order to try to go through the day with little disturbance.
Z’fir’s new court bond connection with Selena was faint and muted by the Chamber Master, making it harder for him to use that connection to scan Odelm. Once—or if—Selena decided to become permanently bonded, his nestqueen thread with her would allow him to have stronger connections to his nestbrothers, using her as their clan’s central hub.
Z’fir traveled along his sworn connection with Odelm and was instantly assaulted by the thoughts and strong feelings attached to them.
Anger. Disappointment. Jealousy. Shame.
Odelm’s thoughts were full of disappointment that he had followed Zirene’s plan and anger that he didn’t push for them to tell Selena about the trial and what waited for her on her moon. He was ashamed he’d failed Selena—so much so, he felt like she was punishing him by not gracing him with siring her next offspring. Jealousy raged at both princes for being publicly granted permission to be the clan’s next fathers.
Odelm felt inadequate.
The intensity of Odelm’s thoughts and emotions jerked Z’fir’s gaze away from him. Z’fir swayed, disoriented from the sudden ejection, combined with the jolt of the lift coming to a stop.
Z’fir leaned his head onto V’dim’s shoulder, clinging to his arm as V’dim held him. He glanced around the cabin and saw no one noticed his current position.
