This was true judgment, and he was about to be tried.
The warriors escorting him brought him to a stop in the center of the chamber on a circular platform grown of woven vines and roots. It was not a cage, exactly, but it might as well have been. Brux could feel every eye in the room on him.
He stood as straight as he could, though the restraint cuffs still glowed around his wrists and the weight in his chest felt heavy as iron.
Commander Rarev looked down at him gravely.
“Brux, the Lykan Monstrum, you are here on several charges today,” he says. “First, you are accused of stowing away on the Monstrum Mother Ship when you knew that your kind—the Lykan Monstrum—were expressly prohibited from the Mother Ship. Secondly, you are accused of endangering the life of a female by spending time with her in your primal form, when Lykans are known to be the most mindless, aggressive, and dangerous. You could have killed her at any time and since every female life is sacred to us, this is the most serious charge by far. How do you plead?”
Brux hung his head.
He could feel the shadow growing in his heart and the yawning void trying to suck away his sentience. Even here, in his humanoid form, with all his memories and reason mostly intact, the old guilt was enough to make the darkness stir. The more he thought of Kiera alone on Plo’nix without him, the wider the void seemed to yawn at the edges of his mind.
Still, he forced himself to answer.
“It’s true, I stowed away,” he admitted. “My…my mate had been killed and I saw no future left on our home world. I don't know why, but I still wished to live. And so I hid in one of the lifeboats of the Mother Ship. When it came through into this universe, I jettisoned the lifeboat, thinking to fly away to safety. But I didn't expect the loneliness the loss of my mate would cause…it stripped me of my mind and by the time the alien scientists found me, I was locked in my primal form, little better than a beast.”
There was a low murmur among those gathered in the chamber.
The Bear Monstrum frowned deeply but said nothing. The Fox Monstrum’s sharp eyes narrowed thoughtfully. The Panther’s tail flicked once against the roots beneath his chair.
Commander Rarev nodded slowly.
“Well, at least you’re being honest. Continue—what happened next?”
Brux drew a breath.
What happened next? How could he possibly explain Kiera? How could he put into words what it had meant to scent her for the first time, to feel her kindness pulling him back from the void, to know with utter certainty that she was the one thing in all creation that still felt right?
He opened his mouth.
“I can answer that!” a voice called out.
Brux turned in surprise–the voice belonged to Iyanna–the human woman who was friends with Kiera. He recognized her more by her scent than her face, since he had been locked in his primal form the last time he saw her.
She was standing just inside the chamber entrance, her brown skin glowing warmly under the flower—light, her expression earnest and intent. One hand was pressed to her chest as though she had hurried to get here and her heart was pounding.
“Please, Commander Rarev–I was there when he met my friend, Kiera. I’m actually going to go get her so she can speak for him, but I wanted to be sure my voice was heard first before I left.”
Commander Rarev nodded gravely.
“Very well, you may speak, Iyanna, mate of Dra’vik. You are known to us.”
“Thank you.” Iyanna nodded. “A few months ago, we went to the BAR ship—the Ba’ltzian Animal Rescue—so Kiera could collect some more animals for her sanctuary. And that’s where she found him.” She nodded at Brux. “He looked like a giant wolf at the time, and it was clear right away that he wanted to be with her–he gave her the saddest eyes. And, well, Kiera wanted to be with him, too.” She sighed. “That’s how she is–she just loves animals–even big, scary ones. She adopted him right away and took him back to live with her on the animal sanctuary.”
The Tiger Monstrum let out a low rumble of disbelief.
“She took an unknown apex predator home because it looked at her sadly?”
Iyanna winced a little.
“When you put it like that, it sounds bad, but that’s just how Kiera is.”
“It was bad,” the Panther Monstrum said flatly. “A female alone on a frontier moon with an unstable Lykan locked in his primal form? It is a miracle she survived!”
Brux felt heat fist in his chest. He took a step forward before the warriors at his sides tensed.
“She survived because I would have died before harming her,” he said hoarsely. “From the moment I scented her, I knew she was the one who could save me–the one who could bring me back into the light.”
