“Not like I have somewhere else to be or anything,” I grumble as Kes scuttles to the rear of the messy room and climbs up a ladder I previously didn’t see but hope I don’t have to use. For a short time, he disappears, but then he’s back, brushing down his fur.
“So?” I raise my eyebrows at him.
“So?” He looks back at me, his little dark eyes glittering.
“Yousavedme. Why and what for?”
MAGGIE
For a moment, I’m not sure Kes is going to answer, instead wringing his little paws.
“The Ulep don’t just take Sarkarnii. They take all species. I’m part of a task force from across the galaxy attempting to stop them and get back what was taken.”
“We thought they just had Sarkarnii.” My heart lurches in my chest for all the others who might have been caught up in what’s going on here.
“They have Sarkarnii here. But others, they have elsewhere. My…mate…my young.”
“They have your family?” Anger rises up inside me.
“They won’t let anything get in their way, and they take what they want,” Kes says, sadly.
“Driok was close to finding a way to get the Ulep out of this galaxy and keep them out. That’s the reason we are here.”
“Your Sarkarnii has such an ability?”
“Sort of, providing he gets his warriors and his ship back from the Ulep here on this planetoid.”
Kes sits down among the rubbish. “I did not think such a thing was possible.”
“He’s kept them off the Sarkarnii planet. He wants to do the same for the whole galaxy.”
“I have heard the Sarkarnii are capable of many things,” Kes says quietly. “They have had many victories in the past. They have taken from those who take.”
Yep, that’s my scaly space pirates!
“But if Driok is looking for me, he’s not concentrating on freeing the galaxy, which is why I need to find him first,” I suggest.
This is most likely bollocks. Why would Driok come looking for me, when this was all my stupid idea in the first place? If he just left me, I’d quite understand.
“You won’t need to do that, little mate.”
A voice all too familiar rumbles through the mess. I’m off my stool and into his arms in less than the blink of an eye.
“Driok.”
“Did you not think I would come for you, spitfire?”
“I’d have understood if you didn’t.”
“Then I would be no Sarkarnii warrior,” Driok growls. “And my ancestors would disown me for abandoning my mate.”
He curls his hand into my hair, and something akin to a purr runs through his chest as he places his forehead on mine.
“You are mine, spitfire. It is my honor to hold you in my arms, my fate to have you in my life, and my eternal delight to have filled you with sarkarnling. Nothing will ever keep you from me, not all the frozen wastes of space, not distance, not time. I will always find you, I will always be there for you, and I will never, ever let you go.”
I stroke my finger over his cheek, the tiny scales there glittering under my touch.
“My heart needs time to trust, but I believe you, Driok. Because you are here, now.”
