Page 16 of Entangled by the Alien Mercenary (Monster Mercenary Mates #4)
Tasseloris
We lay curled together inside my bedroll on top of the soft moss. Elyssa’s naked body was pressed all along my flank—her breasts against my ribs, her thigh thrown over my belly, and her head tucked beneath my chin. I couldn’t see it, but I knew she was smiling. The faintest niggle of worry that had plagued me when nobody from the Varakartoom had come to find us was growing, blooming into full-blown concern. But the languorous mood was still winning out. I’d discuss options with my mate once we’d rested.
“How did you know this place was here?” Elyssa asked drowsily. We’d napped a while after the last round of earth-shattering sex, but the past days had taken their toll on her—on me too. I was beginning to feel better, but the wound on my thigh had been very deep, and it wasn’t fully healed yet. Flexing my leg experimentally beneath the covers, I was happy to feel only slight twinges. The spring had done me good, and I felt more like myself—more in touch with my roots.
“Nelly,” I said, and I nodded in the direction of the little Entling. She was sitting at the edge of the cave, staring out into the rain still pouring from the sky in an endless sheet of gray. A collection of flowers, leaves, and berries lay in neat piles around her. She’d been busy all night, coming and going as she foraged. “The presence of an Entling meant a grove had to be nearby. The Entlings aren’t let out of the groves without a Sire. I’ve never seen one outside of a grove, in fact. On Viridara Eight, I grew up in Petal and visited all the groves that surrounded the port city. I suspected the locations on Viridara Three would be similar.”
I didn’t want to go to a grove, but that would be the next step. It was closer than returning to Bloom to get to a working, untapped communication device. At a grove, the caretakers would be able to help us, and technically, as a plantist male, I was welcome to visit. Technology also protected a grove and would likely even keep Jalima’s males from invading. They wouldn’t be able to find it without insider help anyway. Going to the grove would mean facing my past and my failure as a plantist to harness my powers.
Curling one of my vines, I undulated the tip through the air and smiled. Not such a failure now. Meeting Elyssa and facing the dangers she was in had finally drawn forth the right seed. I’d made the earth tremble last night, and then she’d rocked my world. Things were different now, and I wasn’t alone. Unlike my family—particularly my mother, who had shunned me after I’d failed to master my powers—I knew Elyssa would stand by my side. She’d been willing to give up the data to save me, and she must have known De’tor would kill her as soon as she handed it over.
“A grove meant sacred hot springs for cleansing. Then it was just a matter of getting a sense of the land. Any plantist worth his salt could locate a spring. That was always the one skill I was good at.” I hadn’t meant for that last bit to come out, but there it was. I’d been a terrible student, unable to perform even the simplest of tasks that my peers mastered within days—a disappointment to the priests and to my family. I had been warned that I was a failure to the Sires and to Viridara herself, though, oddly enough, I had never felt like the Sires judged me. The last thing I wanted was for Elyssa to discover what a failure I’d been in the eyes of my people. I did not want her to think of me as a failure at all. This was why I worked twice as hard to prove myself aboard the Varakartoom. I wanted everyone to see me as competent, because I’d never once been considered good at anything before the captain recruited me.
“I’m willing to bet there were plenty of others,” Elyssa murmured, and her words spread across my skin in warm tingles—not just from her breath, but for what they meant to me. When she propped herself up on her elbows, her eyes first trailed over the natural purple lines that webbed my green flesh. Then she raised them to my face, and she smiled. “We’re alike, you and I. I never felt like I was worth much. My brother kept me locked up in his home or aboard his ship, never far out of his sight. Only rarely could I convince him to let me do what I wanted, and any interests I picked up were always wrong in his eyes.”
Not in mine, and I knew she could see that. She was right—she’d heard a lot in that single statement, and she understood it exactly. We had recognized that in each other—scars that matched. I cupped her chin and gently nudged the Caratan chain on her cheek with my thumb. “Family is all-important to the Elrohirian, as is status.” It was displayed right there on their cheeks for everyone to see. There were two small medallions with her first and last name, along with her family sigil and her clan sigil. She was missing the one that declared her profession, despite her age, a clear sign of how her life had been marked by her brother’s control.
I tapped the family medallion, which had come to represent only her and her brother after her parents had passed away. It was this medallion that she’d “defaced” by altering it to hide the data chip everyone was after. The symbolism in that wasn’t lost on me. “We’ll make our own family,” I swore, and watched in awe as that made a radiant smile bloom across her face. Then she twisted her head to look at Nelly, at the entrance to the cavern, and raised an eyebrow in question. My answering smile faltered a little, and I shook my head. “No, Nelly can’t come with us when we leave Viridara Six. We will return her to her Sire inside the grove; that’s where she belongs.”
Elyssa did not like this answer, but she did not object. I had a feeling that Nelly wasn’t all that pleased with it either. The Entling began stuffing her gathered supplies beneath her swaying pink leaves and tendrils, and she did it with a fierce little furrow between her brows aimed my way. Fine, I got it—I did not like it either. Nelly had grown on me; I did not want to say goodbye to her either. But stealing an Entling from her planet and Sire was punishable by death. If anyone saw us with her—other than to return her to her grove—we would be arrested immediately and receive a short, swift trial.
Dawn light was beginning to shine into the cave at a low angle, filtering through the trees and, for the first time in hours, not hindered by rain. As much as I wanted to linger here—bathe again with my female inside the sacred spring, make love to her lithe, sexy body—I knew it wasn’t possible. We had to start moving; we had to reach the grove and its safety today, and I absolutely had to reach the Varakartoom. Our food supplies were running dangerously low as well; I had only ever counted on being down here for a few days.
Elyssa shuddered as she drew her stained jumpsuit back on. It was the only clothing she had, and though she’d given it and her underthings a washing last night, they were not entirely clean and were still slightly damp. That dampness was not going to go away, considering the season on Viridara Three and the fact that we were deep in the jungle. Everything would feel clammy and wet until we reached the grove—maybe even then. My armor was self-cleaning, and even with a few unfortunate tears and gaps, it still functioned to keep my body warm and dry. Because of that, extra clothing was not one of the items I’d packed in my previously well-stocked backpack.
“Do you think it’s far?” Elyssa asked when she joined me at the mouth of the cave to look out over the wet but verdant landscape. Nelly had settled herself against my leg, several of her tendrils and vines wrapping around me in what felt like a hug—maybe a search for comfort. It felt like I was not the only one who dreaded visiting a grove when, to Nelly, that should be a homecoming.
“No. Not far at all,” I told Elyssa. “And without the tracker, De’tor should not be able to find you again. If we avoid obvious places, they won’t get another chance to get their hands on you.” She seemed reassured by that and, with a determined look on her face, allowed me to lead the way for what was hopefully our final trek through this forest.
Like I had told my female, I had never before been to Viridara Six, but as each planet was terraformed following the same blueprint, I might as well have been. Some parts of the landscape were slightly different, affected differently over time by the weather. Some rock formations had not been drastically altered by the terraforming and were left in place. Those were the unique features of each planet, but they did not drastically change the locations. We had left the Takchaw-infested cliffs behind, which were a tourist attraction only by day. So, it was no surprise to me when I found the hidden entrance to the grove exactly where I expected it to be.
Between the trunks of two large trees that stood like a pair of ancient sentinels, a shimmering curtain of silver-green vines dangled down from their largest branches. It appeared as if the same jungle stretched out beyond and around these trees, but when I lifted the vines, Nelly hissed in displeasure, and the shimmering became a rippling, like water in a pond. “This way. Hold your breath,” I said to Elyssa, and she curled her fingers around my hand and held on as we plunged through the protective barrier together.
A strange new world opened up beyond the veil, though to me, it was also incredibly familiar. This was a homecoming to me, as much as it was to Nelly, despite having never visited this particular grove before. Groves were always warm and humid, with a nurturing stream, but the types of plants that grew in them could wildly differ. It all depended on the needs and interests of the Sires that inhabited the grove. This particular grove was a long, rolling stretch of green, a thick moss cushioning our steps as we walked. Insects buzzed everywhere as they did their important work of pollinating.
I could see hives shaped in intricate organic patterns in the distance, where the Ekra would make their sweet syrup. The Ekra was the biggest export of Viradara—a luxury food desired all across the Zeta quadrant, the secret of whose production was closely kept and guarded. This grove had chosen to home dozens of pinkish flower species, so I was not surprised to see a Sire in the distance with an abundance of pink flowers cascading down its back in waves, almost like long locks of pink hair.
There were also various ancient types of trees, some of them fruit-bearing. A knoll where the Sires and Entlings would rest at night, and, in the distance, a grass-roofed home for the priest or plantist who guarded this grove. I suspected that whoever lived there already knew of our arrival and would soon show up to show us the door—or, hopefully, greet us. My belly clenched tightly with unease. I had declared to Elyssa that I was a plantist and that I would be welcome here, but the truth was that I had been thrown out of the training grove without completing my training.
Stretching out the vine that I’d grown from my shoulder, I made sure it was clearly visible. Then, I concentrated on growing a matching one from the other. It would feel more balanced and look better to the grove’s guardian. Hopefully, that would be enough to convince whoever it was that we should be free to visit and that I was here to return Nelly, whom I’d found wandering, rather than steal the Entling. I’d never heard of a stolen Entling before, but it was my society’s biggest fear. It would not surprise me if there was interest in such a purchase on the black market.
I thought I had fully prepared myself for meeting the guardian of the grove, but when I spotted the hem of a green robe behind some large, flowering bushes, my stomach clenched painfully. When he stepped out from behind the shrubbery, his hands open at his sides, vines weaving behind his back, I felt ten years old again, on the verge of being kicked from the only home I’d ever known. Elyssa’s small hand clenched around my fingers, reminding me that I was not alone. That was all I needed.