Page 25 of Draevan

The city quickly grew larger in the viewport. Thousands of Vaxxlian males and their human mates called the city home, and from above, the white stone buildings seemed to emerge from the lush vegetation that grew between them. Fruit-laden trees lined the streets and walking paths, their branches heavy with colorful produce. Nearly every rooftop was covered with gleaming solar panels, and many also featured gardens teeming with fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

Other Vaxxlian cruisers zipped through the sky around them, some heading for the city’s central hangar while others descended toward the landing pads attached to larger homes. Beyond the city, an enormous forest stretched in every direction, its dense canopy eventually giving way to towering mountains capped with snow.

Draevan guided the cruiser toward the outskirts of Starzzia, where his three-story white home stood nestled among thick vegetation. His home had its own landing pad, allowing him to come and go without needing to use the city hangar.

He glanced at Cora again, wondering what she thought of her first glimpse of the city she would now call home.

To his relief, she appeared awestruck. Though she was strapped into the co-pilot’s chair, she leaned forward as far as the straps would allow, staring at everything with wide eyes, her gaze darting from the houses to the forest to the mountains and back again.

“It’s beautiful,” Cora finally said. “And the sky is so blue. I-I’ve never seen such a clear blue sky. In person, that is. I’ve seen pictures, of course, of what Earth used to look like. But this… this is amazing. The city is also beautiful. It looks sort of old-fashioned yet technologically advanced at the same time. The white stone buildings are lovely, and the rooftop gardens are a welcome sight. Do you have a garden on your roof?” She glanced over at him with a smile.

As he held her gaze, he released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He’d hoped she would like New Vaxx, and her reaction meant more to him than she probably realized.

“Yes, I have a rooftop garden, as well as a garden behind my house that is fenced in to keep any dangerous animals that might venture in from the forest out. There is also a bird-feeding station along the garden’s perimeter that I am certain my neighbors find annoying, but Meela seems fascinated by the birds and likes watching them flit from the bird baths to the feeders. The entire area is fenced in to keep predators out, so it will be perfectly safe for you to take my niece back there during the day while I am gone.”

“I can’t wait to see it.” Cora turned to peer out the viewport again, and her eyes remained wide, her expression still awestruck. “Are there many dangerous animals to worry about in Starzzia? Or do they rarely enter the city?”

“It’s very rare that a wildcat or a bear ventures into the city. It never happens during the daytime, though on occasion, it happens at night. The residents who live on the outskirts of the city, like us, need to remain most vigilant, however. Just to be safe, I don’t want you going outside at night without me. During the day, you may go wherever you wish in the city, but you are not to enter the forest without me. There are walking paths in the forest that I will eventually show you, but I want you to use them only when I am with you.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s rare for a predator to come inside the city. I grew up in the country, in a rural area of Pennsylvania, and we had to worry about bears. Sometimes they would come in our front yard to eat the bird seed, and we always had to use bear-resistant trash cans.” She smiled wistfully. “One time, my father caught a bear ripping a brand-new bird feeder he’d just brought home off a tree branch, so he grabbed a rake and ran straight at the bear and screamed that it owed him thirty dollars. I glanced out the window just as it happened. The bear seemed completely confused by my father running toward it with a rake. It stood there for a few seconds, almost as though it was trying to figure out what kind of crazy person it was dealing with, before finally darting into the forest with the bird feeder.”

She laughed, and the tinkling sound warmed his insides. Draevan leaned closer to Cora, enraptured by the way she was telling this story. He suddenly wanted to know more about her life. He wanted to know everything. All the details, good and bad. All the experiences that had shaped her.

“I fussed at my father afterward, of course,” she said with another laugh. “I couldn’t believe what he’d done, and I made him promise never to do anything so foolish again. And then, as it would turn out, the whole thing was caught on our security cameras. He shared the footage with a friend, who edited together the different angles to make one video, and uploaded it to the Internet. It went viral, as you might imagine, and random strangers started mailing us bird seed, bird feeders, and rakes.”

“He sounds like a brave man,” Draevan said with a grin, wishing he could’ve met the man who raised Cora. It pleased him that she spoke of him so fondly. Her mother might’ve died when she was a toddler, but it sounded as though she’d had a happy childhood, nonetheless.

Another wistful look filled Cora’s eyes. “Yes, he was brave, though I think in this situation, foolish is a more apt description.” She turned to him, her expression suddenly serious. “It was a big bear.” Then she cracked a huge smile.

Draevan couldn’t help but laugh. “I believe you.”

Her playful smile caused warmth to unfurl inside him. He enjoyed seeing this side of Cora, the way she could be playful and laugh so easily. As they flew over the white stone buildings of Starzzia, her presence made this homecoming feel different somehow. Better.

The cruiser descended toward the landing pad atop his home, and Draevan guided it into position before gently setting it down. He powered the engines down, and the bridge suddenly went quiet.

He unbuckled himself, then turned to Cora, unable to suppress another smile. Perhaps having a mate would be more enjoyable than he had ever thought possible. He rose to his feet, closed the short distance between them, and bent down to unfasten her restraints.

“Come,” he said, helping her stand up. “Let’s go get Meela, and then I’ll show you around your new home.”

Chapter 12

As Cora stood on the roof of Draevan’s house, her new home, tears of happiness burned in her eyes. Goodness. This place was magical. She gazed across the city, captivated by the beauty of Starzzia. Draevan approached her, holding a sleeping Meela in his arms. She’d offered to carry the baby, but he’d insisted on holding his niece, claiming that she felt heavier when she was sleeping.

Cora watched as he gently rocked the baby, pleased by his willingness to share parenting duties even though his main motivation for signing up for the VAMOB program had been to acquire a mother for his niece.

She turned her attention back to the sprawling city and sucked in a deep breath of the freshest air she’d ever encountered. She saw no signs of pollution anywhere. Not a speck of trash on the streets below, a cloud of smog hovering in the sky, or even a polluted stream winding through the city.

And even better than the pristine condition of the city was the peacefulness. She heard no explosions in the distance, saw no piles of smoldering rubble where buildings had once stood, and observed no signs of war or distress anywhere. After a year of living in Skyline Towers all by herself, fearing that the well-protected building might one day be targeted by rebels who could circumvent the security measures, she felt a profound sense of relief unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

“Are you all right, Cora?” Draevan asked, a note of concern in his deep voice.

She glanced at him with a smile, and her heart contracted when she briefly peered down at Meela, who was still sleeping soundly in his arms. “I am all right,” she said, then paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. “I know I probably look like I’m about to cry, but I’m not sad. It’s just that this place is so wonderful, so clean and peaceful and beautiful, and I haven’t even properly explored it yet. To know that this is my new home… well, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, but in a good way. Overwhelmed, relieved, and grateful, if that makes sense.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Draevan said, his eyes glimmering with warmth. “And I am pleased that you like it here. When I saw tears in your eyes, I feared that perhaps you were missing Earth.”

She sighed. “I think I can honestly say there’s not much, if anything, I will miss about Earth. I signed up for VAMOB because I was desperate to leave. The war…” Her voice trailed off. It wasn’t just the war that had prompted her to sign up for the mail-order-bride program. The truth was, the frightening drone advertisement was the precipitating event that led her to fill out the application, along with the fear that M would somehow breach the security of Skyline Towers.

Draevan shifted Meela into one arm, cradling her as though she weighed nothing, then reached for Cora’s hand. He laced his fingers through hers and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. His eyes gleamed with understanding.