Just thinking of that colony made a shudder run through her, but she didn’t want to distract the line of conversation.
“Tell me what happened,” she ordered, placing a hand on his forearm.
“Her name was Arvalla,” he replied.“Her blood brother and I were in the same training unit for many rotations, but we did not like each other.”Cara got a sick feeling in her gut.“We were more like rivals than friends.Pidixa was ambitious.He wanted to be the best in our unit.”
“But you were?” she questioned.
“My ranking was higher,” he said, too humble to answer her question outright.“We barely spoke, but I could sense his frustration.Shortly after we completed training, once I returned home after my first battle in the Third Quadrant, I met Arvalla.I knew that she was Pidixa’s blood sister and I knew even then that I should stay away.Yet, I couldn’t.”
Cara swallowed, blowing out a slow breath, wondering if she wanted to hear this part.But she knew that she needed to.
Hesitantly, Devix reached out with his opposite hand to touch her fingers, still resting on his forearm.“I freely admit that like any young Luxirian warrior, I was…lustful.”
Which roughly translated to…
“Let me guess, you were hooking up with any female that looked at you twice?” Cara asked, her brow inching a little high, wondering why jealousy was beating at her chest so hard.
That would be a whole lot of females, Cara thought, considering that he looked the way he did.Even she could see he was brutally handsome and they were from two completely different parts of theuniverse.
Devix’s chest rumbled and even he knew he should tread carefully inthesewaters.“Before Arvalla,tev.”
“Did you…” Cara could hardly get the words out, “love her?”
“I thought I did,” he confessed softly.“I learned later that whatever was felt was not love.It was the farthest thing from it.”
“So you and Arvalla began having sex,” Cara said, her voice a little strained.“Did her brother know?”
“Nix, he did not.I knew his feelings for me, so we kept it a secret.We would meet whenever I returned to Luxiria.It went on for almost a full rotation.”
“And then what happened?”
His voice darkened when he said, “I was off planet when I heard that our females on Luxiria were dying.”
Cara’s eyes widened.“From the virus?”
Devix jerked his head.“We raced home, fearing what we would find.Arvalla survived.But my mother had already journeyed to the blackworld,” he said softly.“My sire voluntarily joined her shortly after.”
“What?” Cara whispered.His father had…killedhimself to join his partner in death?
Devix cast her another unreadable look, but it was intense.“As fated mates do.One cannot live without the other.”
Fated mates? she questioned, feeling her head begin to spin, something squeezing in her chest.She shook her head.Another time, she’d ask him about that.
“I’m so sorry, Devix,” she whispered.“To lose one parent is hard enough, but to lose both at the same time, I cannot imagine that.”
Devix was quiet before he said, “Suddenly, Rixavox was my only family left.I decided to take a hiatus from my duties as a warrior, to grieve with him and our species.It also allowed for more time with Arvalla, who lost her own mother.We…comforted each other.
“Then we were discovered,” he continued, “by Pidixa one night.As we were mating.I can only imagine the rage he felt.He had just lost his mother, had come close to losing his blood sister.Then he discovers a warrior he has considered an enemy for many rotations is fucking her…hadbeenfucking her in secret.We fought.It became violent.Arvalla’s screams finally broke us apart, but the council had already been alerted by then.”
Cara squeezed his arm, silently urging him to continue.
“The council comes to find a hysterical female and two bloody warriors.Pidixa told them he had found merapingArvalla and fought me to protect her and defend her honor.”
“Devix…”
“Arvalla said nothing,” he said, his jaw gritted so hard that Cara saw the muscles tense and jump.“She said nothing.At all.Even when they took me prisoner that night.Even when I was locked away for multiple lunar cycles.Even when I was waiting for a tribunal.Evenduringthe tribunal and my sentencing.She said nothing.”
Cara’s heart twisted in her chest and her throat burned.“She failed you.And you thought you’d loved her.”
