I had my unharmed mate, I had her sister, her friend … and I had many more human female eyes staring back at me as one by one they inched closer to our group after leaving the building they had been hiding in.
“Levi?” a badly scarred female said tentatively. “Is he dead?”
My mate shook her head. “He ran away like the coward he is, Nell.”
All the human females looked down at the ground, and I saw in them what Levi had finally rid herself of. Fear. They were not at the freeing place my mate had reached, they had a long way to go before they achieved that.
“Females,” I said, gaining their attention. “That wasteful male no longer has hold over any of you. You’re all free, and the Maji would be overjoyed to offer you haven on Ealra. We would welcome you into Maji society and protect you as our own.”
Levi gasped and Nicah began to cry.
“We can’t understand you,” Nell said, and I was reminded that they were not fitted with translators. I looked at my mate, and she nodded and relayed my message to the humans.
The females all looked at one another, then their gazes darted to the female Nell, as if she was their unspoken leader. Nell looked at each of them individually and when each human female gave her a firm nod, she looked back my way and exhaled a deep breath.
“We would be honoured to accept your offer of haven,” she said. “We want to go to Ealra with you … my prince.”
When the human females bowed their heads to me, and to my brothers, Levi’s breath caught in her throat.
“It is done.” I looked around. “Let us leave this planet,” I issued the command. “The humans’ defence force did not detect our entering the atmosphere. These males have paid for their crimes with their lives. Let us bring my female and the rest of the females here back to Ealra where they belong.”
My brothers sent up a roar of agreement that somewhere, off in the distance, a creature answered with a call of its own. It was as if a mighty beast took our victory on as his own, like it was sending a message to the aliens who had taken over its planet.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ezah
Two days later …
“Why must I leave?” I asked my mate, tugging on a spiral of her curly dark hair. “I want to see this ensemble that will ‘wow’ me.”
“You cannot.” My mate giggled as she pushed me towards the exit of our wing. “I mean to woo you the first time you see me in it.”
“You’ve already wooed me, beauty. You woo me every day.”
“You woo me too.” Levi grinned. “But you’re still not seeing the ensemble.”
“Get out.” A small object struck my head. “Leave with your annoying self!”
My gaze switched to my sister. I growled, but the little pest wasn’t bothered.
“This is my wing. You leave.”
“No, you!” she hissed. “We’re making an ensemble, and you’re a stupid male who can only wield a sword and eat platters of food. This is a female activity so leave.”
Offended, I said, “I can do much more than fight and eat.”
“Oh yes, you can.”
My focus returned to my mate, and I growled as she sent me projected images of what it looked like to be fucked by me from her point of view.
“Later,” I almost snarled. “I’ll feast on every bit of you.”
“Can’t wait.”
I leaned down to kiss my mate, and she laughed against my lips when another object smacked against my arm. I tore my mouth away and growled at Surkah.
“Stop throwing things at me!”
“I’ll throw my fist at you if you don’t leave right now.”
I huffed a laugh at the empty threat.
“I’m leaving,” I said to her. “But I’ll be back.”
“Of course you will, like the lovesick little mate you are. I bet you’ll cry when you leave because you’ll miss Levi so much.”
“I will not.” I looked at Levi. “I won’t, I swear. That’d be unmale like.”
Levi laughed, kissed me some more, then I found myself outside my wing after Nova dipped inside, laughing as she went. As annoyed as I was to have my time with my mate interrupted by other females in my family, hearing her laughter was music to my ears when just two days ago I held her in my arms as her heart stopped beating.
The mystery of what happened to Levi’s birth father was constantly on my mind. He was alive, somewhere on Terra, and we had made an enemy out of him. He thought Levi was dead, but Nicah and Asia were still in danger of him, as were the twenty-three human females we rescued from his property. He would come for them all just like he had come for Levi before. He could not let them go because they were the only humans who he had control over, and he needed that control.