Page 2 of Rhaz’s Redemption (Shifters of Valo Prime #6)
Rhaz
The entire dekes gathered together in the main cavern. Space was tight so I kept to the far wall. I did not like to be penned in. The beast within grew irritable and the feeling reminded me too much of death and how small your soul can feel when it crosses to the other side, a feeling I knew well.
Tarak stood at the front of the room. He looked to Axon who was sitting with his arm around Ashley, and gave him a slight nod. Axon rose from his seat and joined Tarak in front of our dekes.
“I have learned of troubling news,” our leader began. Tarak might be the same age as the rest of us, but his wisdom far outweighed the rest of us.
“Axon and Ashley came across an abandoned village during their recent travels, and I will let Axon describe what he saw.”
He directed us to give our attention to our brother shifter, the spider who could hear an enemy a forest away. What had he discovered that could cause so much concern?
I looked to Ashley for a hint of what was to come and did not like the pained expression she wore on her face.
“I discovered ruins that our people have never spoken of before,” Axon began. “There are sculptures of our goddess everywhere. It is clear that we lived there once and I thought it was just a forgotten place, a forgotten village. But then I found a ship similar to the one the humans came here on.”
Interest turned to concern as everyone started to whisper of what this could mean.
“We couldn’t open it, so we had to go to the valley.
Kahina refused our request, but Holey unlocked it for us.
Inside we found memories stored on a device.
It was our own people speaking to us. They chose to leave the home world they called Ozinda and start a new life without technology.
They feared that if we lived near the ship we might never truely leave technology behind.
So they left the village they had made and built a new one in the valley.
“But we are here because of a miracle. The goddess brought us here,” Karo spoke. I could see from his expression that he was processing what he had heard and finding it a hard truth to digest.
I’d seen the afterlife and there was never a goddess there to greet me. So finding out that our origin story was a lie came as no surprise. If anything it was a relief to find that it was my bloodline that cursed me and not the goddess herself, but I knew that already.
“The evidence says otherwise,” Axon gently argued.
“I would like to see the ship,” Brexl requested. He more than any of us felt that he’d been cursed by the goddess. I couldn’t imagine what he must be feeling. So much of our belief in the goddess existed on the idea that she brought us here. Could she be real if we came here on a simple ship?
“Me too!” Drondia added.
“We will all go visit the ruins and ship together. We will send word to Holey asking her to meet us there,” Tarak cut in doing his best to assure his people.
Tabby began to cry which drew his attention to his child and mate. “That is all we know. You may go back about your business.”
Our Savrix stepped into the crowd and held out his hands for his daughter. Gabby smiled and lifted their baby into his arms.
“She likes it when you hold her,” the calm mate of our leader commented.
There was truth to her statement. Tabby stopped crying as soon as she was in her sire’s arms.
I looked at Beatrice and for a fleeting moment let myself wonder what it would be like to father a child with her.
She would want for nothing. I would meet the needs of my family and more.
Beatrice would look upon me with pride in her eyes and our youngling would smile when I drew near.
Our child would have her brown skin, and horns as tall as mine.
They would be happy and full of life just like their mother. I would make sure of that.
It was a fantasy though, a dream that would only live in my heart and never be a reality.
A cursed male should not want for more than what he deserved.
I carried a curse in my blood and would die before letting it pass on to another.
I was a shifter, which meant a beast lived inside me, but it wasn’t the beast I feared, but the monster that lurked underneath.
The same monster that looked at me through my father’s eyes can now be seen in my own reflection.
It was just a matter of time before I too descended into the same madness.
Beatrice
The mood in the dekes was somber. It’s usually pleasantly loud in the caverns but this afternoon it’s been quiet. Everyone is thinking about what this ship could mean. For the sirret’s, their world was just turned upside down. Everything they thought was true about their past might be a lie.
The other human women and myself were in the storage cavern where many of us still slept.
Gabby, Julie, Kayla, Taylor, and Ashely were all mated now and slept in private caves with the one’s they loved, but myself, Fatima, Anusha, Hai, Sarah, and Talia still slept in the shared cavern.
I wondered if one day I would be the only one left.
Would I wake up one day to members of the dekes stepping over me in the early morning as I slept?
Would they want to return this place to the storage cavern it once was if I was the last unmated female left?
Was I doomed to be alone since the male I was bonded to refused to even speak to me?
We sat together as Ashley and Kayla took turns braiding Gabby’s hair. Taylor held Tabby and spoke softly to the baby as she gently rocked her back and forth.
“Have you and Brexl thought about having one of your own?” Gabby asked Taylor.
“A little,” the side of Taylor’s mouth curled up in a sly smile.
“Are you pregnant already?” Hai asked.
“Maybe.” Taylor’s cheeks turned a bright red. A round of soft cheers swept the room as everyone took turns hugging our friend.
“How did Brexl take the news?” Kayla asked.
“He nearly passed out,” Taylor laughed. “But after his light-headedness passed he took me to bed to show me exactly how thrilled he was.
“Four babies,” Talia cut in, her voice filled with awe and wonder. “In five months we’ll have four new babies in our dekes.”
“It’s an exciting time, that’s for certain,” I commented. Our little community was expanding in the best ways possible.
“It’s a troubling time for some,” Gabby frowned. “I can’t imagine how difficult the news of the ship must be.”
“It hit Brexl pretty hard,” Taylor confessed. “For better or for worse, so much of his identity is wrapped up in the goddess. The idea of her not being real is quite unsettling for him.”
“It’s the same for Tarak,” Gabby confirmed.
“Orsu hasn’t talked to me about it yet, but he’s been more quiet since the news broke. I think he’s still processing,” Julie added.
“Drovo says I’ve been his goddess since the day he met me,” Kayla laughed, but her smile quickly faded when she added. “But I can tell it’s effecting him too.”
“I think they’ll land on their feet,” Ashley was more hopeful than the rest of us. “Their identities might change with this news, but they’ve adjusted to things much harder than this before.”
We all nodded. The loss of a goddess they’d never seen might not prove as difficult as being exiled from their home as children.
“What about you?” Taylor turned her attention to Ashley in an attempt to change the subject. “Should we expect an announcement from you soon too?”
She looked at the baby in her arms in silent indication of the kind of announcement she was referring to.
“Maybe,” Ashley blushed. “We were certainly pretty active during our luminescence.”
“Five babies in six months,” Talia adjusted her count from earlier.
I looked at Tabby and wondered what it would be like to hold a child of my own in my arms. I’d like that, but just one, any more than that might feel overwhelming, but I think one child would do nicely.
My chances of actually having a baby were very low, however.
Rhaz had no desire to mate with me and I don’t find any of the other males attractive.
My mind keeps circling back to the idea of us coming to an agreement.
That would solve so many issues. We could explore the possibility of having a child and ease each other’s suffering during luminescence.
It was a win-win. All I needed to do was convince Rhaz and I feared that would be easier said then done.