His Mate to Keep by Ivy Sparks

16

Xavier

I liftedthe two packs we had put together, despite Merrit’s insistence that she carry one of them. As a compromise, I let her carry the lighter tent canvas, and from there, we moved away from the runner.

Morning mist filled the woods and made it impossible to see where we were going, so we hiked straight downhill the way we planned. We left the wreck behind until we came to a tiny stream winding through the very bottom of the gully.

Merrit smiled at me when I glanced back to check on her. She looked happier and more relaxed than I’d ever seen her, but I still worried about her and her injured arm.

We followed the stream down, and after a few hours, I heard Merrit panting for air. I turned around. “We’ll stop here and take a rest,” I insisted.

Merrit sat down on a fallen log and set the canvas down. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. It’s you I’m worried about.” I studied her. She was smiling, but something was wrong with her. She shouldn’t be this winded by walking downhill. She was stronger at the lab.

She pulled open her pack. “I want to try the tracking configuration. It might work to give us a bearing on our location.”

“What will you use for a power source?”

She pulled out what looked like a pistol. “I took this from the medical kit. It’s an ultrasound cauterizer. I’m going to use the power cell from this to power up the tracking configuration.”

I frowned. “You can do that?”

She laughed. “Of course. Power is power. It doesn’t matter where it comes from.”

She did something with the wires and I distinctly saw her fingers shaking. Something was definitely wrong with her, but she tried to play it off. She ran wires from the cauterizer to the configuration, and the device switched on.

She frowned at the readout. “That’s odd. This is showing…”

“What?” I asked. “It’s showing what?”

“Nothing.” She ripped the wires off and stuffed both contraptions into her pack. “It’s malfunctioning. I’ll deal with it when we get back to the camp.” She stood up. “Let’s get out of here.”

I hesitated, but she shot me one of her devil-may-care grins and strode forward. I brought up the rear, but I stayed focused on her. She stumbled more often now. Whatever was going on with her was rapidly weakening her, and now we were too far away from the runner.

I listened with every fiber to the rasping strain of her breathing. She was getting worse. After an hour, she stumbled again and pulled to a stop. She stood still, gazing into the trees. She wavered slightly on her legs.

I inched up next to her and peered down into her blank face. She didn’t register my presence. “Merrit?” I murmured.

She glanced up at me, but she didn’t seem to recognize me. I looked around fast. I had to get her somewhere I could pitch another camp. I didn’t want to leave any of our hard-won gear behind, but I had to carry her. Something about her being in such a state filled me with newfound strength, and I swept her off her feet while still towing the two bags on my shoulders.

I headed down the stream, knowing it was bound to open out eventually into some kind of bank. She rested her head against my shoulder, and when I looked down, she had her eyes closed. Her body relaxed. She must have been exhausted and didn’t realize it.

How could this happen? How could she become so weak, so fast? Was she bleeding internally? I had heard of people getting injured and not collapsing until days later. Did something happen to her when the runner crashed? Maybe that creature harmed her somehow.

The dense jungle thinned out. As I expected, the stream wound into a sunny clearing with a nice grassy bank. It would have been the perfect campsite, but the instant I set foot on the grass, I heard footsteps approaching from downstream.

I froze. Merrit jerked awake and turned toward the sound. “Put me down,” she whispered. “Quick!”

I swung her feet to the ground, and she ripped the blaster out of her pack straps. I took the second one from my pack and we both rotated our guns toward the sound. The footsteps grew closer every second. They would be coming through those trees right about…

The leaves parted and a large figure stepped into view. I almost dropped my gun when I beheld a tall female with curved horns and graceful tattoos on her shoulders, chest, and neck. She was the first Kavian I’d seen since fleeing my home planet.

The next instant, two enormous Kavian males broke through the foliage behind her. They stared at me and Merrit pointing our blasters at them. Then, almost inexplicably, the two males stepped apart and a human female appeared between them.

All four blinked at us in silent shock. No one moved. No one so much as breathed. I was too surprised to lower my gun or to say a word.

Merrit’s dry croak broke the silence. “Who… Who are you?”

The human female hesitated one moment longer, then strode toward us. I had to note the differences between her and Merrit. While Merrit’s hair was a wavy bronze, this woman’s hair was straight and auburn. Her skin was tanned, and her expression was bright and healthy, unlike my poor Merrit’s, whose condition was in a rapid decline.

The human female acted like she didn’t see our guns at all. “My name’s Daphne—Daphne Clarron. You’re…” She looked back and forth between Merrit and me. “You’re the ones from the Bigviat runner that crashed, aren’t you? I’m the one who answered your mayday call. We came out to find you.”

“You!” Merrit roared. “You betrayed us to the experimenters! You told them where we were!”

Daphne frowned. “What? What experimenters? We didn’t betray you or anyone else. I was talking to you and the signal died.”

“Then who shot us down?”

“I don’t know. We saw your craft heading for the meeting coordinates I sent you, then something attacked you. We didn’t see what it was, but we saw you fall through the atmosphere. We came out to find you and bring you to safety.”

Merrit and I exchanged glances. After our ordeal at the lab, I wouldn’t have believed her if she didn’t have Kavians with her. I glanced at the three standing behind her. “How did you get here?” I almost hesitated to ask. “Are you alone here?”

“Not at all,” Daphne answered gently. “This planet is a haven for all the scattered Kavians in the galaxy. We have thousands of Kavians living in the cavern.” She saw me looking behind her, then waved to her comrades. “This is Nissaya, my sister-in-law. This is Tennar and this is…”

Merrit gasped out loud. “Your sister-in-law! But she’s…”

Daphne burst into a brilliant smile. “I’m mated to our Clan King, Garath vas Turra. Nissaya is his sister.”

Merrit’s jaw dropped. “You’re… mated… to one of them? That’s possible?”

Daphne blushed, but she didn’t stop smiling. “Don’t sound so horrified. I specifically answered your distress call because you said you were human and Kavian. I’m so glad you weren’t killed in the crash. Come back to the cavern with us. Garath will be delighted to make you welcome.”

She motioned behind her to invite us to follow her. A wave of emotion almost knocked me over. I was with Kavians—at last. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but before I could move, Merrit collapsed. Her knees gave out, and she folded. She almost dropped onto the grass, but I caught her in time.

I swept her up in my arms. Her blaster fell from her hand. Daphne darted in front of me. “Follow me. We have a safe place you can take her. This way…”

I couldn’t think. I couldn’t do anything but go with them. I had to trust them, anyway. They were Kavians. I didn’t care about anything else.

We walked for the rest of the day. The Kavians went first, with Daphne following me in the rear. She kept up with the others a lot better than I expected for a human female. The Kavians in the lead climbed up another mountain and then led the way into a tunnel hidden in the undergrowth.

I almost didn’t believe what I was seeing when it opened into a cavern lit through cavernous openings in the roof. Daphne hadn’t been exaggerating when she said they had thousands of Kavians living here.

“Welcome to Caverncall,” she said as she led me up and down a scaffolding of catwalks, runways, and platforms. “The healer’s tent is over here. She’ll take care of your mate. You have nothing to worry about.”

I stiffened when she mentioned my mate, but she didn’t act like she’d said anything out of the ordinary. She held the healer’s tent open so I could put Merrit inside. Patterns, designs, and drawings decorated the interior the same way I remembered from Kavius.

Daphne laid her hand on my shoulder when I put Merrit down. “Leave her here. Garath will want to greet you. She’ll be all right. You have my promise on that.”

I drew back with difficulty. I didn’t want to leave Merrit alone, but Daphne was right. Hanging around worrying about her wouldn’t help her, and I needed to give the healer space to work.

I straightened up and Daphne let the tent flap fall. “What’s your name? What clan do you belong to?”

I couldn’t look at her. I kept staring around the cavern in stupid silence. “Xavier—Clan Ruger.”

“I’ve heard of it,” she replied, “but I…”

“This place… Caverncall, it’s amazing,” I blurted out. “I’ve never seen this many Kavians in one place. Not since the invasion.” I glanced at her. “Sorry. You’ll have to excuse me.”

She only smiled. “That’s okay. I understand only too well. We’ve been trying to contact any other scattered Kavians, but it’s a little difficult without technology. We traded for a new defense turret, but it looks like we got ripped off, because it’s extremely unreliable. We’re hoping to make Caverncall the de facto safe haven for all Kavians.” She cocked her head to study me. “Where have you been? How did you meet your mate?”

I stiffened again. “How do you know she’s my mate?”

Daphne only laughed. “I might be human, but I’ve been living with Kavians for five years. I think I can tell when they’re mated to someone. How did it happen?”

I looked away. “It’s a long story.”

She startled me by laying her hand on my arm. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to tell us when you’re ready. Come with me, and I’ll introduce you to Garath, my mate, and our king.”

I followed, sending one last glance at the healer’s tent. Two guards stood posted outside, and I could see the healer hard at work with various herbs and elixirs. She was in good hands. I just hoped the king here was a kind and just one.

* * *

Daphne escortedme to one of the nearby houses and walked in without knocking. It didn’t look any different from the others. The two male Kavians and the female who met us in the jungle surrounded another male. I recognized his tattoos instantly. He was Clan King of Clan vas Turra.

The other three drew back as he strode toward me with all the bearing of a king. He clasped my hand as though he’d known me all my life. “I just heard you were here. Thank the stars you’re all right. I hear your mate is in the healer’s tent. How is she faring?”

“She will be fine,” Daphne interrupted. “She had a cut on her neck from a Xibian vine.”

I spun around. “What?”

“The Xibian vine,” she repeated. “It has one-inch thorns that scratch the skin and inject their poison. But we have a cure for it. Your mate will make a full recovery.”

I rubbed my eyes and heaved a massive sigh. “Thank you. I had no idea. I never would have allowed anything to happen to her if I knew.”

“Of course you wouldn’t.” Garath waved toward the room behind him. “Sit down. I want to talk to you. Where have you been, and how did you get here?”

I dragged my feet to where he sat down by a fire pit. The entire scene reminded me so much of home that I almost couldn’t believe it was real. I prepared myself for the vision to evaporate at any moment.

Garath crossed his legs and started pouring something into a bunch of cups. Daphne and the others took their places near me. They all waited for me to tell my story.

Garath handed me a cup, encouraging me further. “Take your time. We’re all friends here in Caverncall. You’re Clan Ruger, aren’t you?”

I looked down at my cup and nodded. “I know your clan, but I never thought I’d ever see one of you again—any of you.”

“You’re hurt too,” Garath remarked. “You should go to the healer’s tent. Tennar, will you please…”

“No, I’m fine. I would rather…”

Garret shrugged casually. “As you like, then.”

“The lab…” I stammered. I didn’t know where to begin. “I was captured and taken to a lab. They experimented on us. Merrit was a prisoner there too. We escaped and now… I supposed the experimenters must have followed us here. I’m not sure who else would have shot down our ship.”

Garath remained stoic. “If these experimenters followed you, we’ll deal with them. You are with us now, and we protect our own.”

I shook my head. “You don’t know what they’re like…”

“They can’t be worse than the Vorlax,” Tennar interjected.

I looked over my shoulder toward the door. “I should go see Merrit. I should make sure she’s all right.”

Daphne jumped up. “I’ll go check on her. Make yourself comfortable here. You’ve had a long journey.”

I watched as she left us, then turned my gaze toward Garath. He nodded calmly. “She will watch over your mate,” he said. “Please, let me show you to a room of your own, so that you can rest. We’ll discuss things further another time.”

A sudden exhaustion took over me, as if I had been fighting it off the entire time. Now that I knew I was safe, I could let it come. I nodded and gratefully followed the king.