Six
Balvan scooped his little female into his arms, keeping his grasp on her light, not wanting to frighten her more than she’d already been this planet rotation.
He didn’t know what had happened while he was gone. Elyce clearly saw Paloma as a threat to her well-being for some not-yet-known reason, threatening to inject the girl with nourishment capsules if she didn’t leave the chamber.
Paloma wasn’t the easiest being to be around. She was in the emotional stage between offspring and fully grown female, had suffered the loss of her parents, had been forced to leave everyone and everything she knew. The girl was highly volatile, dangerously self-absorbed, and foolishly rebellious.
But Balvan had never witnessed her being overtly cruel.
He’d uncover the issue eventually. His higher-priority mission was to convince Elyce to stay in the Refuge, where he could best protect her.
“Is this acceptable?” He scanned his female’s beautiful face, looking for fear or discomfort.
“This is acceptable.” Elyce rested her cheek against him, that small act of trust squeezing his heart.
She was so soft, smelled so good, her unique fragrance teasing his nostrils. He wanted to lick her all over, touch every part of her.
That would scare his nervous mate. And she wasn’t yet fully healed.
Balvan ducked his head, carrying her through the doorway. Medic staff scattered, rushing into the nearest chambers.
“The medic bay is situated in the center of the settlement.” He walked with her through the structure. “The facilities and the medics are the best on Carinae E.”
He’d give his female a tour. The knowledge might decrease her fear and convince her to stay.
They exited the structure and the controlled quiet erupted into noisy chaos. Males fought. A merchant argued with a customer over the price of a garment. A weapons designer banged a flattening tool against a piece of metal, sparks lighting the shadows around him.
“There are too many males.” Elyce pressed her face against his bare chest, her tiny form shaking.
“None of them are near us.” A circle of open space surrounded Balvan. Beings took one look at him and moved out of his path, scurrying beyond the reach of his arms.
In the past, that reaction had irked him. Although he looked like a monster, he rarely acted like one. He could control his urge to crush skulls.
This planet rotation, he was glad for his fierce appearance. Elyce gazed around them, noting the wide berth residents gave him. Her trembling stopped.
“They’re scared of you,” she whispered.
“There’s no reason for you to be scared of me.” He reassured her. “I would never hurt you.” She was his mate. He’d protect her with his lifespan.
“Other males could hurt me.”
“No, they couldn’t…” Balvan strode toward the gates, holding Elyce. “…because you’re in my arms and under my protection. If a male touches you without your permission, I’ll rip his limbs off.”
“And crush his skull?” She peeked up at him.
“His brains will be mush under my boots.” His threats of violence against her enemies seemed to reassure, not frighten her.
His little female had been hurt badly. He cradled her in his arms. She needed a champion and that was a role he would gladly fill.
“And if a male touches Paloma?” She said the girl’s name with distaste, her nose wrinkling. “What would you do?”
“I’d inform my friend Orol of the situation, allow him to deal with the male.” It wasn’t his place to seek vengeance for the girl.
“She belongs to your friend Orol?” Elyce lifted her eyebrows.
“If Paloma belongs to anyone, she belongs to Rhea, her sister.” Balvan, having been enslaved by the Humanoid Alliance, had struggled with the concept of free will after he escaped. He understood his female’s thinking. “She is a child.”
“She looks like a grown female.” His mate frowned, her expression reflecting her doubt.
“She has sixteen solar cycles.” He had thousands. Alarmed, he glanced down at his female. “How many do you have?”
“Many more than Paloma has.” She sighed. “Sixteen is a child.”
Elyce wasn’t a child. Balvan relaxed. He’d thought she was a grown female but her ordeals could have given her a maturity other beings didn’t have.
“My abduction wasn’t her fault.” She muttered. “I’ve been hating her and it wasn’t her fault.”
“When I escaped the Humanoid Alliance, I hated all humans,” he confessed. And now a human female was the most important being in the universe to him. “I believed they were all alike.”
“I thought she had spurned him, knowing how he’d react.” His little female shuddered. Balvan yearned to kiss away her bad memories, fill her mind with pleasure and joy and him. “That she didn’t care he was taking his anger out on someone else. But she was a child. She didn’t know.”
Did he remind his Humanoid Alliance tormenters of someone? His female had asked him. “He wanted Paloma yet took you.”
“She escaped him.” Elyce dropped her gaze, her face turning pink. “I look like her so he abducted me instead.”
“You don’t look like her.” He climbed up the steps to the top of the wall, his second trek there this planet rotation. “I’ve seen thousands, perhaps millions of females, all over the universe and no one is as beautiful to me as you are.”
“I’m not beautiful. I have scars.” She touched her neck.
“Your scars are the most delicate pink.” The marks were a testament to his female’s strength and a reminder to him to handle her with the care she deserved. “If you gave me permission, I’d kiss each one.”
Her gaze met his, her light-blue eyes wide with wonder. “I have quite a few scars.”
“I’d devote planet rotations to the task.” They reached the top of the wall. Although warriors patrolled sections, they wouldn’t disturb Balvan and his mate. Due to his size, he was visible half a stretch of wall away. “No one will touch you here.”
He lowered her, sliding her curves over his muscles, tormenting his body, until her booted feet touched the white stone. Reluctantly, he released her.
She stayed where he’d put her, her form pressed against his. “How many gates are there?”
“There’s one main gate.” That was the gate he guarded. “The others are normally blocked.”
Elyce peered over the edge. “There are beings close to the walls.” She held onto his waist.
“The beings are there because Kralj allows it.” The Ruler of the Refuge knew everything. “He monitors terrain much larger than the settlement, doesn’t allow anyone inside the borders he doesn’t want there.”
“He erects walls of sand to keep them out.” She nodded, her curls bouncing against her cheeks. “I remember seeing those. They lowered for me.” Balvan’s female paused. “And then he spoke to me.” She touched her forehead. “Inside my head.”
“He reads minds, can move objects, kill beings with a thought.” He took a chance on telling her that, hoping Kralj’s powers would make her feel safe, not scare her.
She winced. “Does he know everything about me?”
Balvan inclined his head. “He knows everything about everyone within his terrain. I suspect he knows things about me I don’t know.”
“Oh.” The lines on Elyce’s forehead multiplied. She looked upward. “There are no walls of sand up there.”
“There is a ceiling of air above us ships can’t navigate.” No one could access the Refuge if its Ruler didn’t allow it. “Kralj’s terrain is a sphere around him, as high and as low as it is wide.”
Her lips parted.
“He has only left it once since the settlement was constructed.” Balvan answered what he suspected was her next question. “And that was because Dita, his mate, was in danger. Neither of them have left his terrain since that planet rotation.” It was too risky for everyone.
“You believe I’m safe.” It was clear from her expression she didn’t believe that. “But you don’t know Marowit. He’ll find a way to get to Paloma and if I’m here…”
If she was here, her abductor, this Marowit creature, would get to her also, hurt her. His female believed that and Balvan couldn’t convince her that wouldn’t happen. He didn’t know her enemy as she did.
The situation had to be approached from a different angle. “If you’re not here when he arrives, if you’ve left the Refuge, traveled to another planet, will he give you up, allow you to escape him, to be happy, free?”
She paused for a moment before answering. “No.” Her shoulders drooped. “He doesn’t truly want me. He wants Paloma. But he’ll kill me rather than allow me to be free. He’ll make that his mission.”
Balvan made killing Marowit one of his missions. The two of them would meet and only one male would survive, only one male would touch Elyce.
He would be that male. There was no doubt in his mind about that.
He’d trained his entire lifespan to protect his mate, had endured the harshest torment to hone his skills, better himself as a warrior. Thousands of solar cycles of battle would be utilized against his puny human enemy.
Balvan looked forward to that reckoning.
“In the Refuge…” he kept his voice soft, non-threatening, “…Kralj and hundreds of my brethren, my fellow modified humanoids, will protect you.” He would safeguard her wherever she was. “I know every hiding place, every darkened corner in the settlement. We have walls of stone and walls of sand surrounding us.”
The Refuge had been designed by Kralj, Orol, himself, and some of the other warriors. They’d been trained to infiltrate and destroy settlements. That knowledge had been utilized in their home’s construction.
It was as unassailable as a settlement could be.
“If we voyage to a new planet, what defenses will we have?” he asked Elyce. “How will we keep Marowit away from us?”
“We?” She blinked.
“I’m not leaving your side, little female.” Balvan crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You have control over every other decision but not that one.”
“You’re staying with me?” His mate tilted her head back to meet his gaze.
“I’m staying with you.” His future was with her.
The relief reflected in her eyes almost toppled him. “I won’t face Marowit alone.”
“You won’t face him alone.” He confirmed that fact.
“Thank you.” Elyce wrapped her arms around him, hugging as much of him as she could grasp…which wasn’t much of him. His female was tiny.
He yearned to touch her. “Can I hug you back?”
“You can always hug me back.” She gave him permission to respond and he didn’t hesitate, engulfing her with his muscle. “Only you, though. No one else.”
“No one else.” Warmth filled his big chest. His female had awarded him the exclusive gift of hugging her back. She didn’t view him as a monster. He was her protector, her partner, maybe even her friend.
She’d taken a couple more steps toward loving him.
They stood at the top of the wall, their bodies entwined. Elyce rested her cheek against his chest, her breath wafting over his bare skin, and he propped his chin on top of her head, savoring the softness of her golden hair, the sweet scent of her.
“Do you have more to show me?” Her tone was teasing.
If she were any other female, he’d think she was flirting with him. “I have much more to show you.” He lifted her into his arms.
She fit against him perfectly and didn’t hesitate to touch him, her fingers flattening against his pecs. A contented sigh escaped her lush lips, her reaction echoing his.
He hastened down the steps with her. Some of the stone crumbled under his boots, falling to the ground below them.
He jumped past the five remaining steps, landing on the packed sand, bending his knees, absorbing the impact. His female wasn’t jostled.
Beings rushed out of his way as he stalked through the settlement, his female in his arms. Balvan showed her the extra security inside the main gates, how well maintained the walls were, the barriers blocking the emergency exits.
He introduced her to some of his modified humanoid brethren. The males kept their distance, all of them having heard of his female’s trauma. They obligingly demonstrated their unique gifts, extending claws or displaying pointed teeth or shooting spikes from their palms. All of them were faster, stronger than any human male, he explained.
“You’re the largest, though,” she murmured, gazing up at him, her eyes glowing, her hands on his body. “No one compares to you.”
His spine straightened with pride. “I’m not the handsomest,” he joked. His friend, Orol, had that honor.
“Many beings think Marowit is handsome.” Lines appeared around Elyce’s lips. “They don’t see the evil in his eyes until it’s too late.” Her gaze locked with Balvan’s. “You have the most beautiful eyes. There’s good in them, hope, caring.”
He didn’t know what to say. No one had ever called any part of him beautiful, no one except her.
He moved with her along pathways, wondering where else to stop on their tour of the Refuge. What would convince his female to call the settlement her home?
“I could get accustomed to this.” She yawned, her fingers splayed over his chest, her innocent touching keeping him in a constant state of arousal. “I like being carried.”
He mentally kicked himself. His female had been through trauma, was recovering. She required rest. “I’ll carry you back to the medic bay.”
“We could rest in your domicile.” She dragged her knuckles over his right nipple and pleasure shot through him. “If it is closer.”
It wasn’t closer but he wanted her to see his private space. The vision of her blonde curls spread over his sleeping support appealed to him. Greatly.
“We will only rest.” He reminded his overeager body.
Her hands became still. “Oh.” Her gaze lowered, her eyelashes fluttering. “Okay.”
It had to be okay. She was fragile, required more time to heal. He would put her needs before his.
Even if it killed him, which it might. His balls felt ready to explode.
“My domicile was constructed for me.” He hoped she liked it.
“It must have high ceilings.” Her smile returned, her joy increasing his.
“It does.” He didn’t have to stoop in his own home. “It is also one level.”
“You don’t like heights?” She stroked her fingertips along his collarbone.
He struggled to track their conversation. “Big males don’t bounce when we hit the ground.”
She laughed.
He’d never heard such a wonderful sound in his long lifespan. It floated like bubbles on the breeze. Happiness engulfed him.
She stopped laughing too soon, looked bemused. “I haven’t laughed in…” The joy disappeared from her eyes.
Balvan would kill Marowit. He would smash the puny human’s skull with his fists, not his boots, watch his eyeballs pop out of his head.
He placed his palm on the control panel outside his home. The doors slid open. He carried her into his personal space.
A puffker yipped and Elyce jumped within the confines of his arms. “What was that?”
“A puffker.” He only tended to one at the moment. Azalea and Hulagu had been caring for the little creature while he cared for his female. “She’s trying to guard the domicile.” Puffkers were mostly circles of fluff. The beast couldn’t guard much of anything. “But one of her legs is damaged.”
It might never heal. The bone wasn’t fusing together.
“Is she dangerous?” Elyce gripped him tighter.
He liked having her hands on him. A little too much.
“You tell me.” He carried her into his makeshift medic bay for creatures. The puffker yipped. Its little butt wiggled against its padded cloth square. Its eyes shone.
His female gazed down at the creature, her expression partially enchanted, partially fearful. “She doesn’t look ferocious, but Marowit didn’t look ferocious either.”
Balvan would kill the human male, tear him apart piece by piece. “She isn’t ferocious, little female.” He lowered Elyce until her boots touched the floor. “She might try to lick you to death, however.”
He crouched down, held out an open palm to the puffker. The creature laved his finger with her little tongue.
“It doesn’t hurt?” Elyce watched his face.
“It tickles.” He reassured her. “Try it.”
She hesitated for a moment, then cautiously extended her hand. The puffker’s pink tongue flicked over her fingers. She laughed, that sound charming him. “It does tickle.” She kneeled before the tiny beast. It cuddled against her palm, purring.
Elyce leaned against Balvan as she petted the living ball of fluff, and his chest almost burst with euphoria. His female trusted him. She was in his home. She liked tiny creatures as he did.
“What’s her name?” She asked the question he dreaded.
“Some beings call her Sparkles.” He grimaced. “But that’s not her name.” He wasn’t certain what her name was, only what it wasn’t.
“Sparkles.” His female’s delight erased any other feelings he had about the name. “You look like a Sparkles, don’t you?”
The blasted puffker yipped, wiggling with excitement.
“Yes, you know your name is Sparkles.” She stroked the creature’s white furry head. “You own her?”
“I don’t own any beings.” He stressed the statement, wanting her to view him as her equal, her mate, not her master or captor. “She’s injured. I’m tending to her while she’s healing. When her leg is whole…” If that ever happened. “She might decide to leave me and I will have to let her go.”
That would hurt. Every loss did. But that was part of loving any being.
Except his female. His gaze fixed on her beautiful face. Loss wouldn’t be part of loving her. They would always be together, always be connected.
“What happens if she decides to stay?” Elyce’s voice was barely audible, even with his enhanced hearing.
Did she want to stay in his domicile, in the Refuge? Hope unfurled within Balvan. “Then she’ll stay. It is her choice.”
Whether or not they stayed in the settlement would be his female’s choice. He’d outlined the benefits and would allow her to decide, to have that control over their lifespans.
“Choice is good,” she murmured. She rubbed the tip of her nose against the puffker’s body.
He envied the little creature.