Page 22 of Her Alien Delegate (Necia Alien Warriors)

Chapter twelve

Broma

" Y our ormete are discolored," Romek said offhandedly like it was basic conversation to talk about something I didn't want to be discussing with a traitor.

It's been over a Dan star since I could feel the ends of them, but even knowing that the ormete that had been reattached were nothing more than ornamental at this point didn't pain me as much as feeling the last bit of my bond with my mate disappear from absence.

It had been long enough without being around her that I knew I wouldn't be able to feel the warmth of knowing she was near, even if she was.

I knew the day she left the Blue District by the way my ormete ached from the loss.

It was like my every fiber rejected letting her go.

The nerves were dying, and I could barely lift even the parts of my ormete that were closer to my skull.

"You should cut off the dead parts before it spreads," he offered unsolicited advice.

"After you, then," I goaded him. Being stuck in the same room with him was becoming unbearable. We haven't even been able to use the lav station to clean ourselves, and his smell was making my nose burn.

He sighed. "We both know there is only one cure for your condition. You need to let go of the mate bond. It's already been rejected by being away from her for too long. Either you cut off the rot of being rejected, or you need to be close to her again. And soon."

"Lucky for us, our confinement is up as soon as our current blood samples are cleared," I dismissed his concern for my wellbeing.

"You can just bond with her again; there's no need to cling so hard to a broken bond."

"As soon as I felt her leave, I knew I couldn't let go. She may not have my essence anymore by now, but as long as I keep the bond, then I'll know when I'm close to her again."

He lifted a brow.

We hadn't talked much, but knowing I'd be rid of him soon seemed to loosen my lips.

"You wouldn't recognize her otherwise?" His confusion turned into understanding. "You don't even know her name, do you..."

"There was only one name that matched the criteria available. Her name is Violet."

"I wouldn't say her name unless she has given it to you herself," he warned with his tainted trill beliefs.

"Good thing I'm not you, then. You'll be returning to AsunGor with me to re-earn your right to representing the unGor on Trillume. You'll have to prove your motivations are for AsunGor, and not the trill."

A bang sounded off from the lav station, that had both of our gazes staring at the door. I opened the door to see what we had both feared as a possibility. The garrant's skin was in a fleshy pile scattered around a purple creature that huffed and stared forward like it saw straight through me.

Romek hovered behind, before he pressed the button to close the door again.

"If we want to leave today, we won't open that door again," he advised.

"Sedation initiated," the AI announced. "Your results are still negative. You will be released to a representative shortly."

Wooziness made me slowly crouch to the floor as I watched Romek collapse onto the bed. The light above the lav station was blue for locked, and I swiveled to see the door that had been blue moments before towards the hallway turn red. Someone was coming for us.

I struggled to stay conscious to know who was on the other side of the door. To my relief, I saw the familiar eyes of Pheyal and Vaquel.

"You smell like shit," Vaquel joked, but he wasn't wrong.

"You said you wanted to verify his vitals, not mate with him," Pheyal teased back. Smelling a warrior ripe after an ordeal was considered an intimate experience.

I closed my eyes, but replied with a croak barely above a whisper as I yawned, "I've honored you with the first sniff."

Pheyal laughed and said, "Right you have. You're a bit more ripe than anticipated. The fact that either of us still has a nose at all is proof enough that we will be brothers beyond death."

"I haven't agreed to join his delegation—speak for yourself," Vaquel denied with a chuckle that spoke of the opposite truth. He risked his life for me, and as far as I was concerned, he was already my brother in delegation, but it wasn't a decision that was up to me.

"He's hanging on longer than expected," Pheyal said.

It was the AI that replied to him, "Yes, he seems to be fighting the sedation I gave him."

"You opened the door anyway," Vaquel noted.

"It isn't necessary for the unGor Broma to be sedated. Please confirm which of you will be transferring the unGor Romek to the arena. The other will be free to leave the Blue District with the commissioner."

Before I could ask what was happening, the heaviness inside took over.

‘Don't leave,’ I thought as my ormete ached for my mate.

"He's coming to," Vaquel stated.

"As expected of the Mad Commissioner Broma," Pheyal said with pride.

"Mad is an understatement," Vaquel grumbled. "He should know how much it cost to program the nanomeds to stop his ormete from falling out after all the effort I made to fix them to begin with."

"Based on the way he's tensed up from your statement, it seems he already knows."

"What have you done?" I demanded.

"You will bond again," Pheyal assured. "We are already catching up to the necia ship as we speak."

"And she'll appreciate that you don't smell like rot," Vaquel added.

I groaned as I sat up, and the clear absence of her essence was disturbingly pain free. They'd made me sleep through the worst of it.

"I've never seen anyone hang on to a rejected bond so long when you can simply try again." Vaquel didn't understand.

"I thought you had mated with a trill?" He should know.

"Do not remind him," Pheyal warned, but I had already noticed the way Vaquel turned his attention fastidiously to arranging vials that did not need arranging.

He grumbled, "She was promised that I was someone I was not, with a title that I did not hold."

"I'm sorry." And I truly was, because it seemed by his response that he had liked her before knowing this and losing her. I would have welcomed any mate that brought him joy into my delegation. "Will you pursue it again?"

He shook his head to the negative. "I was infatuated with my own imagination. She was merely the current vessel for it."

Is that what I felt for my mate? Was I under an illusion of sharing a bond? She did leave when I was clear that we were mates, and that I had every intention of claiming her contract. Perhaps it was one sided? I would soon find out.

"How close are we?"

Pheyal eyed me curiously, and I realized I had instinctively reached for the empty space at my neck. I did not think it was possible to still feel such a pull when the bond was severed so soon, but I craved to be marked by her.

"You have a contract with her. There is time to bond again," Pheyal reasoned, but the long drag of his muscles showed he too understood losing the bond like I have means I no longer held a binding agreement with my mate that was enforceable by unGor law.

By unGor law, if I had held on to the bond in my own body, then my mate was required to reject or accept my claims after I've performed a ceremony of Gengaktor to prove myself.

It would have been easy to find her by the warmth in my chest and the glow of my ormete, regardless of my ability to see her features.

Vaquel was less diplomatic in his words, and said what all of us were thinking, "A contract means nothing." He paused, considering the situation, and then his ormete twitched like they were shocking his mind into action. "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Pheyal urged for him to continue as I leaned in like his words would be the spring of new hope after a windstorm.

"Unless we can prove she didn't leave you by choice," he finally breathed out.

My shoulders sagged at this realization.

Pheyal shook his head and queued up a video surveillance.

I watched as a group of new human arrivals on Trillume departed, one after the other, with their hosts.

Two humans remained, waiting for some time together; neither of them showed signs of distress, or made any action towards requesting assistance from the trill security.

Then they were approached by a necia warrior—one of great honored standing in their tribe— who escorted them without any force. In fact, the warrior seemed reluctant to be there at all, even arguing with the human whose hair resembled red-colored ormete.

"Hope," I said.

"It isn't enough," Pheyal admitted. "By all appearances, the exchange was voluntary, and both humans left of their own choice."

"Which one is my mate?"

It wasn't like I could tell by an image alone without being around her in the flesh.

"The red-ormete, they call it hair."

But as the image froze, I tried to get a better look at the shorter human, who seemed to hide behind the other.

"And the black-ormete?" I questioned.

"Contracted with the necia warriors for a Rakture ceremony upon arrival. You should prepare yourself for the possibility that your mate has bonded with one of the necia warriors on the ship already."

I growled involuntarily, like my whole being rejected the idea of not being the first to mate with her. Calming myself, I replied, "As the future primary delegate of AsunGor, she has the right to choose who she mates with..."

"And if she's already with offspring?" Vaquel interjected with his usual pessimism and yet very possible assumptions.

"Then we will raise the offspring and make sure we convince her mate to leave his tribe for a new one within her delegation," I said through clenched teeth.

It would not be ideal. My brother would use that situation to try to take control of AsunGor.

The first born of the Commissioner's delegation isn't even the commissioner's blood.

It would not go over well with the clans.