Page 28 of Seized by the Alien Space Warrior (Alien Romance #8)
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“C an I get you something to eat, Ava?”
Katie’s sympathetic smile broke through Ava’s haze. Her eyelids were heavy as she blinked at the happy blonde whose smile was clouded by concern as she peered down at her. Ava murmured her thanks as she accepted a hot drink that tasted like tea.
Disbelief still fluttered through Ava as Katie took the seat next to her. Someone had brought in an extra chair to sit with her when it was clear Ava wasn’t going to leave the hospital room where Aekon had yet to wake.
It was so normal, having someone sit next to her. A human. A happy woman that was one amongst many on board the Mercenary Star. It was one of the ships that had come when Aekon had double-backed his communication from Venturi.
It still startled Ava to see human faces. She didn’t think it would, but after days of being the only human in sight, it gave her shivers to see others of her species—as well as a heavy heart knowing they’d been abducted as well. All of these women had been torn from their lives by the Reptiles species and displaced across the universe. These were the women who had been found. Who knew how many were still lost, or who had perished. If Aekon hadn’t rescued her, there was no doubt she would be an unknown statistic by now.
At least they’d found their happily ever after. At first she was shocked, seeing these women with their non-human mates, but it soon was apparent that their mates doted on them the way human males never would. There was a level of connection that was undeniably there. A mate-bond. Fated mates. Just as she and Aekon were. Only now, looking at his still form in the bed, she didn’t feel their connection at all.
The warmth, his fire, his glow was just…gone. It had been three days since they’d been taken from that hole in the asteroid and back to the Mercenary Star. Three days since a Dhasu doctor had swept in and took over his care as soon as the soldiers who had come to their rescue had them on board. She’d watched in horror as the doctor had cut his clothing away to see the ravaged wound on Aekon’s back.
Even worse were the multiple scars that criss-crossed his body. Older scars caused by god-knew what. Although they’d made love, she hadn’t really seen his body. There was a part of her that hadn’t fully understood why he’d refused their mate-bond. That was until she saw the evidence of his life.
Her beautiful, damaged mate had suffered and it broke her heart to see it.
“I can’t stomach the thought of food right now.” Ava smiled at Katie. She was trying her best to accommodate Ava, since she’d refused to leave Aekon’s side.
Katie put a hand on Ava’s shoulder. “He’ll pull through. Dhasu are tough.”
She might also have been trying to make Ava feel better. Dhasu were tough, but even though the doctors had said his wound had healed, Aekon still had yet to wake. He’d spent one day in the medi-bed where a mist filled with medicine and nutrients had healed his body. Then they’d moved him to a regular bed and waited for him to wake.
They were still waiting.
“Tell me about him, Katie.”
Katie and her bond-mate Treega, the commander of the Mercenary Star and somewhat of a high-ranking officer in the Interspecies Council, knew Aekon well.
“He’s a hero, Ava,” Kate said gently.
Ava knew he was a hero. Katie had told her about many of Aekon’s battles.
“Tell me about the slave planet.”
That was where he’d received those horrible scars across his back. She wanted to know about that. She needed to know about that.
“He helped the Rasidian brothers Rhilax and Veri rescue their brother Rase who had been taken by the crime lord Xataxi. Not only did he rescue Rase, but he also rescued several other women held prisoner there, as well as Rase’s mate Lexi at great danger to himself.” Katie spoke quietly, as though speaking the words out loud would he too hard for Aekon.
But Ava knew Aekon didn’t dwell on that mission.
“Tell me about Onda,” Ava said.
Katie shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know…”
“I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” Ava said. “I’m not prying. If Aekon wants to tell me, he will. One day. Tell me about him before he lost her. Please. I…I need to know.”
Katie drew in a deep breath. She looked at Aekon’s still form and her gaze went soft. “He was always a warrior. Formidable. Someone who put duty before anything else.”
Ava huffed a small laugh. “Yeah. I can see that. He hasn’t changed in that respect, I don’t think.”
“Not at all.” Katie chuckled, shaking her head. “When Onda was alive, he was a lighter version of himself, if you can believe that.”
“There was a lighter version?” Ava smiled.
“I would see flashes of it, especially when Onda was by his side. But only then. He took his duty as a warrior as seriously as he took his duty as a bonded-mate,” Katie said.
“‘Duty’ seems to be the way you most describe him,” Ava said.
Only there was another side to him. A side he kept so close to his chest, she might think he didn’t even know he possessed it. One she only knew because she’d felt it.
Maybe that was part of the reason he’d resisted. She’d felt like another ‘duty’ to him. She worried her fingers in her lap.
“He’s a good male, Ava. Onda gave him purpose. Their mate-bond focused him. There was no denying when she was killed, it changed him. It was like he lost himself without her,” Katie said.
“Did you know she was pregnant when Zavis killed her?’ Ava said.
Katie nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “He told Treega and I. Two lives taken by one evil bastard.”
“I don’t feel guilty I killed Zavis,” Ava said. “I’d do it again and again if I could. That being went too easily. Did you know Aekon didn’t kill him because he wanted to bring him in for questioning? He had the chance and he didn’t to do. He left him alive. Then Zavis repaid him by shooting him in the back.”
Ava wiped the tears away, but more fell before her cheek dried.
“You shot his face off. That would have to be satisfying,” Katie said.
The image of Zavis’ head exploding over the rock wall flashed through her mind. She hadn’t thought anything about it, let alone satisfaction. Her entire focus had been on Aekon as he’d lost consciousness in her arms, the look of shock, pain, and despair flitting across his face. Despite everything Zavis had done, Aekon had still shown him mercy by sparing his life. She would not spare Zavis any of her emotions or her time thinking about him. To her, he was nothing more than a piece of dirt under the rock he’d crawled from. There were much more important things she needed to be concerned with.
As much as Aekon had loved Onda, fate had seen fit to mate-bond Ava to him. She wasn’t like Onda. She didn’t want to be. Onda had been precious to Aekon and she respected that, but Ava was a different person. A different species.
The fact was, she would have chosen Aekon if fate hadn’t stepped in and decided for them. She wanted more than that. Much more.
She wanted Aekoon back and she wanted him now. She wanted him to be awake. She wanted him to kiss her. She wanted to make love without the threat of death hanging over their heads. She wanted him to make love to her because he wanted to. She wanted him to love her because it was his choice , and despite everything they’d gone through, she wasn’t sure if he knew he had that option.
“I don’t want to be a duty to him, Katie,” Ava whispered. “However we were brought together, that’s not good enough.”
“I can vouch being the bonded-mate of a Dhasu myself. He sees you, Ava. Don’t doubt that,” Katie said.
Ava nodded, outwardly agreeing. But inside, well, she just didn’t know. The mate-bond had gone dead. In the centre of her chest was a hole and it was getting bigger with each passing moment. Bigger and deeper, filling with frigid darkness so thick she might become lost in it one day. The bigger it got, the more she thought it might never be filled again. If this was what Aekon felt when he’d lost Onda, she didn’t know how she would function. Or survive. Or feel anything ever again.
If she lost Aekon, she would lose everything.