Page 98 of King of Serpents

A nestling who died with its mother. Therxian’s heart ached for the male. He had lost everything.

“My poor daughter,” Zathexa sighed as she leaned heavily with her grief on Jathella. “I never knew. She could have come to me. I would have been on guard to protect her. Even if I had to give her up to the Uralial to save her, I would have, rather than keep her confined in a dangerous prison with me.”

Luoa looked at her in surprise. “You would have truly done that?” He retreated further into the water and hung his head. “She wanted to tell you, but I asked her not to,” he admitted hoarsely. “Not before the hatchling came. I was afraid that you would separate us.” Sighing heavily, he looked around the bath, sorrow filling his eyes. “But now this is all I have. Coming here is the only way I can still be with her. Because of that, I took note of it when you brought your mate down. You were not yet mated then, but I recognized the signs, and could taste them in the air,” he added with a sad chuckle. “When you left, I kept an eye on her. And when the hybrid entered the wyrda to find a safe place for his injured alien mate to recover, I had informed him of it. He too has watched over her and even ignored my advice and attempted to feed her—though we see how that went.” He gave Therxian an amused look. Settling back, he waved to the water absently. “With the immediate threat on her life, he took her.”

Therxian’s hearts sank numbly. She was no longer within the elder palace.

“Where did he take her?” he whispered.

Luoa laughed quietly. “The safest place an Uralial can be in this age. Home. Of course, you will never find the wyrda on your own. It is hidden better than your own shinara if you are not properly anatomically equipped. But I can guide you if you promise to help me find the answers I long for.”

Therxian gave him a skeptical look. “Can you manage?”

The male grinned, the first sign of real life he had seen yet from him. “You can just try to keep up.” His gaze, however, shifted to the rapidly weakening queen and softened with kindness. “But for the sake of Mother, we will take it slowly. Your mate is not going anywhere. She is safe,” he reiterated, and something clenched tightly within Therxian’s chest slowly eased.

His mate was safe.

Chapter 67

Alex wiggled her toes in the sand as the cold water lapped around her calves. It was far colder than anything she had ever felt on Earth, but she seemed to be slowly adjusting to it. The cold of the air had long ceased stinging so long as she kept her core temperature stabilized with clothing, and her feet weren’t going number in the cold water.

“You know that humans get horribly wrinkly if we stand in water that long, right?” Vi called from the shore.

The corner of Alex’s mouth pulled upward in amusement, and she looked over her shoulder at the woman who was closely becoming counted as a friend. “Let me guess, you horrified the locals?”

Vi barked a laugh and grinned shamelessly. “Maybe just a little. They all assumed the pruny human was just going to shrivel up and die in the middle of the water.” She grinned at the memory and shook her head. “It was some funny shit. Speaking of—are you ready to eat?”

Alex’s eyebrows arched as she turned toward her and began to slowly wade back to the shore. “When you put it like that, I’m not really sure.”

Vi snickered. “The food does look questionable, but I do have another amusing story about trying to eat it for the first time. Unless you are too scared to try it.”

Alex shook her head. She didn’t have any difficulty believing that. For someone with such a reputation for being a hardass in the colony, Vi had an odd sense of humor once she decided to open up around someone. And as the only human in the wyrda, Alex appeared to have been designated her new BFF.

“I’m game for just about anything,” Alex replied.

“And that’s why I like you. You do realize I selected you as my pilot for a reason... because you’ve got grit, cupcake.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “As if I need any between the two of us. You have enough grit for ten people, cheesecake.”

Vi laughed and then promptly groaned. “Cheesecake. I fucking miss cheesecake. I would sell my soul to take a shuttle straight to the New York non-gratas compound so that my grandmother could make me a for-real honest to god cheesecake from the rations. Hell, even the blasphemy that the cook in Raza calls a cheesecake would be welcome right about now.”

“You know,” Alex said thoughtfully as she continued to wade toward the other woman, “I kind of wondered why you chose me. I didn’t even think most people even knew that I’m a pilot when assignments go out. The fact that I was also trained as a mechanic has meant that I’ve been stuck in the hangar more than outside of it.”

Vi snorted mirthfully. “That fact wasn’t lost upon me. I’d been looking over contract files for weeks and saw your background and where you were assigned. Seemed like a damned shame to me, especially given your record—the last trip excluded,” she amended with a wry grin, “but we all survived so I can’t call it a major loss. But for a delicate mission going into the Vir Mountains, I needed the kind of quick thinking and adaptability you have. It is not something that all of the guys seemed to be particularly blessed with, despite snapping up all the rotations. It seems like a good call in retrospect because I’d probably be dead and, from what you’ve told me, who knows what would be going on in the shinara now if you weren’t there.”

Alex’s smile slipped as she sobered. “We still don’t know what’s going on in the shinara.”

Vi winced. “Good job, Vi, just open mouth, insert foot. I’m sorry, Alex. Lori always did say I have about as much tact as a ballistic missile. But you know having you along served another purpose because who else would be riding Therxian’s massive d—what the hell?” she muttered as the hatchlings squealed with excitement and rushed deeper into the water.

“Luoa has returned,” one of the hatchlings shouted in reply before diving into the water, which told Alex all she needed to know about how the Uralial were adapting to Vi’s case of potty mouth.

Wait... Luoa!

Without a word of warning to Vi, Alex spun around and charged back into the water, excitement rising brightly inside her. The pale Uralial crested first to the excited shrieks of the hatchlings, but just behind him—

“Therxian!” Alex screamed as she splashed through the water.

Her mate’s eyes widened as they fastened on her, and he smiled with relief as he broke rapidly through the water, his tail thrashing hard enough that his gavo sent up sprays of water that made the hatchlings shriek even more. It doused Alex, too, but she didn’t even mind it. There was only heaven waiting for her when she leapt into his arms, and his wings snapped around her, holding her tightly as if he planned to never let her go. Dragging his head down, she kissed her mate with desperation, happiness, and simply just relief.