The Iriduan’s Mate by Susan Trombley
Thirty-Seven
Molly couldn’t believe she was actually on a Lusian ship. So few people had ever been on one who weren’t Lusian that Molly had never met a person in her life who could brag of having had such an experience.
Save for Shulgi himself, although he hadn’t told her about his affiliation with a Lusian crew until they’d sat down to seriously discuss their future.
That talk had been a long and, at times, painful one. Shulgi revealed all his secrets to her, and all of his past. He explained the mission he’d been on Za’Kluth to perform. He’d also explained how he’d failed, and Molly could see the toll that feeling of failure took on him. Even though he insisted that he didn’t regret his choices, and that he never would have sacrificed Molly to keep Namerian from getting the code, she now understood just how much that decision had cost him.
Her beloved turned out to be far more complicated than she’d imagined, and his life had been one of struggle and sacrifice. Much like her own. Shulgi wanted to do good things, but he’d had to resort to bad methods more than once to achieve his goals. She could certainly relate to that and told him about the things she’d not only witnessed in her role as mouthpiece, but had actually been a party to, in her role as one of the leaders of Zaska’s organization.
Neither of them was coming into this relationship with clean hands. Both of them had done things that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Both of them sought their own kind of redemption. They found forgiveness in each other and believed they would find that redemption in love.
As for their future, when Shulgi suggested they leave Za’Kluth for good, Molly hadn’t hesitated to say yes, even though she had no idea where they could go. Shulgi had a suggestion, but he seemed reluctant to voice it. When he finally did, he confessed that he wasn’t certain it was a good idea, given that it meant living the rest of their lives with the enemies of the Iriduans.
“You’ll love Hierabodos V!” Ava insisted as she gave Molly the tour of the Lusian ship, one arm locked in Molly’s in a companionable fashion.
Molly had instantly liked the other human woman who’d greeted them the moment she and Shulgi had been teleported to the ship, along with a drastically different looking Nemon. As bizarre as she found the change in Nemon’s body from an amorphous mantle with tentacles to a handsome Iriduan male—at least from the waist up—she found it even stranger that Ava was the mate of not only one, but pretty much the entire crew of Lusians that ran this ship.
Ava’s enthusiastic friendliness and engaging manner quickly put Molly at ease, though she was grateful that she didn’t have to spend much time around Ava’s mates, some of whom engaged Shulgi in conversation she wasn’t privy to. She suspected that discussion was about the cure that Shulgi had been entrusted with and hoped he wouldn’t be in any trouble from those who had given him that responsibility.
The Lusians themselves unnerved her, though Ava insisted they were wonderful. She would think that, after all.
“All my friends live on Hierabodos V,” she continued as Molly searched for the right way to express her doubts and concerns without giving any offense.”
Ava paused, shaking her head with a smile. “I mean, not all my friends! Some of my buddies are scattered throughout the galaxy. But some of my closest friends live on Hierabodos.” She waved her hand vaguely towards the teleportation room. “And you’ve already met Nemon, who is one of the strangest inhabitants.” She squeezed Molly’s arm in her infectious enthusiasm. “I heard all about the battle and Roz even showed me some footage from it, but it’s never the same as being there. It must have been very scary for you!”
Molly smiled ruefully. “I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it. Things happened so quickly that we didn’t get the chance to be scared until it was all over.”
“You’re so brave!” Ava said, staring at her with a wide-eyed and admiring expression. “I think you’ll really like my friends on Hierabodos. They’ve been through some really crazy things too.” Her gaze grew thoughtful as she studied Molly’s dyed skin. “My bestie is an artist. I think she’ll really dig your tattoos.”
“They’re actually just dyes.” Molly held up one hand to study her skin critically. “They’ll fade in a few months. It’ll be strange to see my skin without them for the first time in years.” She touched her face, tracing by memory the lines of Zaska’s “markings,” the artfully coiled tentacles writhing over her violet skin in a strong green shade. “I hope Shulgi still thinks I’m pretty when he sees me without all of this.”
Ava impulsively hugged her. “You’re absolutely beautiful, Molly, and it’s obvious Shulgi’s crazy about you! He will always think you’re beautiful. No matter what!”
Molly’s smile widened into a genuinely pleased grin as she returned the hug with a fierce one of her own. Ava’s bubbly and upbeat attitude seemed so out of place on this austere ship, yet Molly could completely understand why the Lusians loved having her around them. It was a pleasure to be in the company of someone who always searched for the bright side and looked for the goodness in others.
Ava was also a full-blown romantic who still believed in “happily ever afters.” That belief had no doubt been reinforced by the fact that she’d found her own—albeit in an unconventional way that wasn’t quite like the fairy tales Molly had been told.
Molly wanted to believe that she and Shulgi would get their happily ever after too, and she wished she had Ava’s unwavering faith in such a possibility. She still had fears and doubts. She still worried that the darkness of her past would return to haunt her, or that Shulgi’s past would come for him.
Then there was the fact that Hierabodos was in Akrellian territory, and the Akrellians weren’t fond of Iriduans, though they apparently extended a welcome to Iriduans who defected from the Iriduan Empire and actively worked to thwart it. Shulgi wouldn’t be the first Iriduan who’d sought refuge with them, but even the ever-positive Ava had to admit that there could be occasional rough spots while the Akrellian pioneers on Hierabodos got used to Shulgi’s presence.
They really didn’t have a lot of other options that would guarantee the same degree of safety. Despite being a dangerous world in its own right due to the untamed wilderness that covered most of the planet, its location deep within Akrellian space made it nearly impossible for the Iriduan empire to reach, and the exact star map to it was a well-guarded secret.
Shulgi’s enemies wouldn’t find him easily there, and the Akrellians were apparently already working with the Iriduan rebellion to overthrow the emperors, so they weren’t completely against working with one more of their number. As for Shulgi, he would be killed on sight by imperialist Iriduans for mating illegally, so if he went anywhere else in the galaxy where he might encounter others who served the empire, he would have to conceal his mated status as much as his identity.
The Akrellians had communicated through Roz that they welcomed any efforts she or Shulgi could make towards finding and rescuing slaves from the CivilRim, as well as anywhere within Syndicate space. This gave them the chance to continue Molly’s work, and they would even make it possible for her to coordinate with Briana and the others of Zaska’s organization.
The offer was a good one, though they would be confined to Hierabodos V indefinitely until the Akrellian leadership decided they could be trusted to travel within Akrellian space. Ava seemed to think that wouldn’t take long, but Molly knew her optimism might blind her to the cold reality of the political and social difficulties they’d be facing with Shulgi living among his former enemies.
But what had really sold Molly on the idea of moving to Hierabodos V was that it had beaches, and a sun that was not much different from the one that warmed Earth. In fact, apparently the world of Hierabodos wasn’t much different from Earth in many ways, falling well within the same Goldilocks zone to its star and boasting a dense variety of ecologies that rivaled Earth’s diversity.
Ava showed Molly to the cabin she would be sharing with Shulgi, promising with a wink that there wasn’t any surveillance in the cabin and that the Lusians would respect their privacy.
“I know you’ll want to spend most of your time with Shulgi,” Ava said after that promise, her own cheeks red even though Molly was unfazed by the suggestion that she would make love with Shulgi.
That certainly was her plan the moment she had him alone, and she felt no shame for that. She also felt no shame about the life she’d led, nor how she’d leveraged her own sexuality for power. Fortunately, no one had made any judgmental remarks about her former profession, and she highly doubted a sweetheart like Ava or the enigmatic Lusians or Nemon would say anything negative about the life she’d lived. They all had showed her nothing but respect and admiration. She hoped Ava’s friends were as welcoming and lacking in judgement.
“If you decide to leave your cabin,” Ava continued with a broad grin, “I have a bunch of Earth stuff in mine if you want to check it out. I have comic books, movies, some video games, lots of romance novels… you know, all the good stuff! It sometimes helps when you’re feeling homesick for Earth.”
Molly sank down on the firm mattress in her surprisingly spacious cabin. “I was taken from Earth when I was so young that I don’t remember much about it, but I will definitely stop by during our trip because I’d love to see some human-made things.” She sighed. “It was so expensive to import true human artifacts to Za’Kluth. Most of the things we found in the markets were fakes, or poor copies of the originals.”
Then she regarded Ava curiously, her head cocking to the side. “When would you be available for visiting, Ava? It seems like you have a lot,” Molly raised her brows as she gestured to the surrounding cabin with the intent of indicating the entire ship, “on your plate, so to speak.”
Ava’s grin broke into tinkling laughter that made Molly want to laugh too, especially as she spotted the blush rising to the other woman’s cheeks again.
“I do stay busy,” Ava said in a sly tone, her smile still playing around her lips, “but you can drop by my cabin anytime. Don’t worry about catching me in the middle of something. My mates know when I’ll have time for them or when I’ll be otherwise occupied—even before I do.”
This raised Molly’s brows, causing Ava to giggle at her startled expression.
“Roz can see the future,” Ava said casually. Then she shrugged her plump shoulders. “To a certain extent. Don’t ask me how he does it or what his limitations are, because once he starts talking about paradoxes and alternate dimensions and parallel timelines and the flux, I get a headache. I’m not entirely sure the human mind is ready to comprehend a lot of these concepts involving time.”
“He can really predict the future?” Molly blinked several times in surprise, then realized why the Lusians were considered by many to be the most powerful species in the Syndicate.
After all, they’d created the Jumpstations that made intergalactic travel so much faster and easier. Bending time and space didn’t seem to be a problem for them, so telling the future was probably child’s play for them too.
Ava slowly nodded. “Don’t ask him for lottery numbers though, or you’ll get a lecture on the dangerous futility of gambling.” She flipped her blond hair over one shoulder as she leaned against the sliding door of the cabin. “He can get a bit pedantic, but I usually just tease him until he gets over it.” She tapped her temple. “Since he can read my mind, I just imagine the last erotic scene I read in a romance novel, and he completely loses track of what he was saying when I project that image to him.”
Molly laughed aloud at Ava’s expression as she wriggled her well-groomed eyebrows. “You’re wicked, Ava. Now I know why I instantly liked you the moment I met you!”
Ava pressed a hand to her chest. “Aw, thank you! I like you too, Molly.” She clapped her hands together. “I’m so excited to have another human woman on this ship for a while. I do miss visiting with all my girlfriends when Roz decides we need to travel all over the galaxy doing Lusian things.” Her brows drew together in a slight frown as she stepped a little closer to Molly, glancing at the sliding door that currently closed the cabin off from the rest of the corridor.
“I’m kind of…,” she bit her lip, “jealous for the first time in a long time, about the other woman we’ve just brought on the ship.” She held up both hands. “Not that I think my mates would ever be unfaithful to me, but she’s… she understands them like I never could. She’s one of them! Only she’s also like a human in a way. It’s….” Ava slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be dumping my issues on you like this. You just got here and I’m sure you’re completely wiped out. Plus, Shulgi’s on his way, and I’m sure you both want to catch up.”
Ava turned back towards the door as Molly jumped to her feet to catch Ava’s shoulder. “Wait! Listen, Ava, I haven’t met this woman yet, but I don’t need to see her to know that you shouldn’t be jealous. You’re a wonderful person, and just talking to you has brightened my day—and we just met! I can’t imagine any male who’d be fool enough to consider another woman over you.”
Ava turned to give Molly another hug. “Thank you, Molly! You’re so sweet!”
“If you want to talk about it, I’m more than happy to lend an ear,” Molly offered readily.
She missed Jenice so badly, and already felt lost without Briana and the others—like Jusa—who had been there for her to talk with whenever she needed a compassionate ear. She welcomed having another female friend like Ava to talk to.
