Page 48 of Possessed By the Dragon Alien
“I’ll bet,” Lilas muttered into her cup, earning a sharp elbow from Sevas.
Nena busied herself with filling the plate from the impressive spread of food. Real fruit, actual bread that still held warmth from baking, proteins she couldn’t identify but that smelledincredible. The abundance felt surreal after so many years of scarcity.
“Where are the others?” she asked, noting the absence of the Zaruxian males.
“Strategy meeting,” Turi said, her expression growing more serious. “We usually attend those together, but we decided to wait for you this time.”
Sevas shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I hate missing tactical discussions. But Takkian said there would be another full briefing later, after Rien and Madrian shared all the Axis intelligence data they have.”
“You are more important,” Fivra added warmly. “It’s strange being on this ship, isn’t it? After all those cycles of seeing it up on that cliff as the overseer’s fortress.”
It had taken Nena more time than it should have to recognize this ship as the overseer’s fortress, but after all she’d been through since their abduction on the eve of Turi’s bondmating ceremony, very little shocked her. She took a bite of some red fruit that burst in her mouth in a pop of sweetness. “Just about now, normal would be strange.”
“That’s the truth.” Lilas crossed her arms and sat back. “The males and Rien are discussing the data that you three had loaded into the shuttle you arrived on and…wow. We knew from Bruil that the Axis killed their mother and promised to keep the six Zaruxian babies alive, but not that they’d plopped their base right on Zarux itself. They’re talking about what comes next.”
“And whatdoescome next?” Nena asked between chewing some smoked meat, though part of her wasn’t sure she wanted to know. The brief respite of safety and reunion had been precious, but she knew it was over.
“That depends,” Sevas replied. “On whether the Axis finds us. On whether other oppressed worlds are ready to fight.On whether Rien and your Madrian’s information about our homeworlds is accurate.”
Our homeworlds. The weight of that phrase settled over the table like a heavy blanket. Zarux and Teria, their peoples’ birthright, now occupied by the very empire that had scattered them across the galaxy.
“It is accurate,” Nena said with quiet conviction. “Madrian doesn’t lie and Rien has been working for the rebellion for a long time.”
“Hmm,” Cerani said gently, studying Nena’s face with her artist’s eye for detail. “You look…different this morning. Happier. More serene, if that’s possible.”
The others leaned in slightly, sensing the shift in conversation. Nena stifled a squirm under their observant gazes, but these were her sisters in all but blood. If she couldn’t speak freely with them, then with whom?
“I am different,” she admitted softly. “Last night, I finally understood what a true bonding feels like. What it’s supposed to be.”
Silence fell over the table, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Her friends had all found their own mates among the Zaruxian brothers. They had experienced their own revelations about love and connection.
“We understand that, and we’re happy for you. Tell us something, though.” Cerani reached over to squeeze Nena’s hand. “What about Niratt? You were assigned to him, but…how do you feel about that bond now?”
Nena’s chest tightened, not with the old fear, but with clarity. Her friends all knew Niratt. They had seen how he treated her during their time together in the settlement. They’d witnessed the bruises. They knew how she’d learned to make herself small and quiet around him.
“That wasn’t a bonding,” she said firmly. “Bondings are supposed to be consensual. Two people choosing each other freely, entering into a partnership based on respect and affection.” She shook her head. “What Niratt and I had was an assignment. I was given to him like property, with no say in the matter. I never chose to be his mate.”
“The settlement elders called it a bonding ceremony,” Fivra said quietly. “That doesn’t make it true.”
“They called it many things.” Nena’s voice grew stronger. “The first time he struck me, I felt something break inside. Not just my jaw, though that took so many cycles to heal properly. Something deeper. Whatever false connection the settlement riests thought they’d forged with their ceremony just…severed. Like cutting a rope that was never properly tied.”
Sevas nodded grimly. They all remembered those dark cycles, the way Nena had become more withdrawn, more careful.
“For a long time, I believed I was bound to him, that I had no choice but to endure,” Nena continued. “But I was wrong. It was captivity with ceremony attached.”
“That’s how I felt, too,” said Cerani, who had come to Settlement 112-1 as a bondmate, but her male had died. “When Stavian and I chose each other, my heart opened up for the first time.”
“Exactly. I wasted much of my life accepting something that was never legitimate in the first place.” Nena straightened, meeting each of their gazes in turn. “But last night, with Madrian, I finally understood what a real bonding feels like. What it’s supposed to be.”
“Choice,” Cerani said with understanding.
“Exactly. Madrian chose me, and I chose him. Freely. Willingly. With full knowledge of who we both are. When we joined…” Heat flooded her cheeks, but she pressed on. “It waslike coming alive for the first time. Like finding the other half of my soul I didn’t know was missing.”
“That’s how it should be,” Fivra said warmly. “That’s how it is with all of us and our mates. The Axis tried to break our people’s ability to form true bonds, but they couldn’t destroy it completely.”
“No,” Nena agreed, thinking of the way Madrian had held her afterward, the wonder in his silver eyes, the careful reverence in his touch. “They couldn’t.”
Sevas raised her cup in a toast. “To choosing our own fates.”
