Page 94 of Havik: Warlord Brides
If he understood that reference, he made no comment. Instead, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and happiness zipped through her. “Come. Let us present our superior gift and prove that we are the best mated pair.”
She snorted at his unexpected competitiveness. “Love you too, Danger B. Let’s do this.”
Life wasn’t without problems, but it was small potatoes. She had been sold at auction, stuffed in a freezer, and woke up years later on the other side of the galaxy. Somehow, she found the love of her life in a grumpy red alien. They were good together. Better than good. They were better together.
You reap what you sow.
Thalia hoped so. They had a lifetime of love and laughter to harvest.
Epilogue
Havik
One Year Later
A frail maleshuffled into the room. With his shoulders bowed and deep lines on his face, he appeared sunken into himself.
This was the male who tormented his mate?
“He looks so…old,” Thalia said. She made no move to enter the visitors’ room.
The guard made an impatient sigh, and Havik tossed the male a glare. He made a small squeak and muttered about taking all the time they needed.
“I thought I wanted to talk to him. I don’t know. Brag. Show him that he didn’t destroy me,” she said.
“I believe you wanted to gloat.”
“I want to stick a knife in his heart. He shot a man right in front of me. The blood sprayed on me. Who does that?” She shook her head, as if clearing unpleasant memories. “I want him to suffer.”
He did not understand Terran justice. They wanted criminals and wrongdoers to suffer but they had so many rules regarding fair treatment, housing, and food. Had he found the male before the Terran authorities; his mate would not be agonizing over whether to speak to the male who tormented her. They would be standing over a grave.
Well, he’d probably be pissing on the male’s grave, but that was a small detail.
He did not want to visit the correctional facility, but Thalia claimed she needed something called “closure.”
Ridiculous concept. He happily let the desert take his father’s body. He did not require a ceremony to get on with his life. He had his clever mate and a good position in a thriving clan. While he and Ren had been the first of Rolusdreus to join theJudgment, they were not the last. The clan had a healthy mix of warriors from every Mahdfel-allied planet, but the majority were Sangrin-born. While Kaos had been tearing his clan apart, Paax had been building his. He would have enjoyed boasting about this to Kaos, but he could not, for obvious reasons.
He ran a hand down his braid. Perhaps closure was not such a ridiculous concept.
Mais remained on Rolusdreus, continuing her wildlife rescue mission. She sent the sporadic update, complete with a video of the egg hatching and photos of infant kumakre. The best video, in his opinion, captured the young kumakre wrestling and tumbling in the sand with the fully grown Stabs’ tail. Ren continued tracking poachers and smugglers. The auction house raid disrupted one cell in a network. There were many more cells to uncover. As for him, he was recruited as a pilot. TheJudgmenthad many crafts that lacked the necessary headroom for the horns of the Sangrin-born warriors. Sometimes he flew Ren on a mission. Other times he patrolled in the depths of dark space.
The solitude suited him, surrounded by starlight.
He was a fortunate male. He had a mate he loved and a position he enjoyed in a good clan. Every day, he saw the outcome of his work. He protected his family and all the families in the system.
The male sat at a metal table; his hands bound by chains to a fixture on the floor. He looked toward the door, waiting.
“Can he see us through the glass?” Havik asked the guard.
“No.”
Thalia stirred. “Fuck Nicky. We have better places to be,” she said.
He agreed.
Thalia
A cold wind blew. A light layer of snow covered the ground, and the heavy gray clouds promised more snow. Havik adjusted the woolen scarf wrapped around his neck but did not complain.
