Wyvern Protection Unit - Chapter 71: Chapter 71

“I told you,” she said, and pulled another delicious food ration from the bag her revolko had procured for her after they finally left the safe house.
“Now that we are mated, our bond can only grow. What is this food called again?”
“That’s a bagel, rosebud,” he grinned, and leaned forward to kiss a smudge of cream cheese from her mouth.
“Mm,” he growled, but she ended their kiss with a gentle nudge.
“If you do not stop, we will never make it to your pakein’s dwelling.”
“Ever since he retired and Medjed, that’s a buddy of mine, cured his cancer, Dad isn’t big on formalities, rosebud. So, if you want to go back upstairs⁠—”
“Drive,” she commanded, her cheeks heating with untampered desire.
Her revolko was an insatiable male. Thank the All Powerful, she thought with a smirk.
Yes, she wanted to go back upstairs. That was hardly a fair question. But after sating her heat with him with many, many rounds of lovemaking, she knew she had to devise a plan to rescue her apakein.
It would not do for the worthy male to suffer another minute under Commander Viper’s rule because she was selfish. She could not allow that.
“Fine,” her sexy mate growled, and turned the key to his vehicle.
She grinned at her ba-gel, approving the rounded shape. The promise from her mate that it was not deep-fried and would, therefore, not cause any more burp-ing was a plus.
Daeja did not want to meet her new pakein roaring like a regitor. She had to explain the reference to Heliodore, who merely nodded.
She was not sure why, but her mate seemed to tense whenever she mentioned something from Drakeinan. Every other thing she’d told him seemed to be taken in stride.
As if suddenly he believed her about her planet, her past, and her mission to save her apakein. It was almost too good to be true.
“Come on,” he told her. “Let’s get you home.”
Home.
The word sounded good. She wanted that desperately. To have a home here on Earth with him. An hour later, they entered the enormous grounds he called home.
Drakeinan had nobility, even royalty, but this sort of opulence was breathtaking.
“Even the most regal dwellings on Drakeinan did not have columns and marble, though we did have more technological advances. I think, I might prefer this.”
Daeja smiled when he reached for her, tucking her close to his side.
“I am glad you like it.”
“I do.”
“Come on.”
Heliodore gestured in front, and together they walked down the long corridor where she passed many still clips, photographs he called them, of Dor and his brothers throughout the various stages of their youth.
“Are these your Earth parents?”
“Yes, that is my mother, and you’ve seen my father,” he explained.
“She is lovely,” she said, and squeezed his hand to show support.
He’d talked about his family, and her heart squeezed for him. She understood all too well the pain of losing one’s parents. Her own loss still caused her pain, but right then, she focused on the present and on her brave, strong mate, and the fact she was working on getting her apakein back.
“Hello,” a bright feminine voice rang out, and Daeja glanced up to see one of the females from the medical center. “I’m Kimberley, mated to Larimar.”
The large male beside her nodded his greeting, but Daeja noticed he did not move towards her for a handshake. He simply watched her and tucked his mate to his side.
A protective stance she both recognized and approved of. But it was worrying he thought Daeja was dangerous to the female.
She dropped her hand back down when he made no move to take it, placing it in Dor’s, when he bristled angrily beside her.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
So, what did it matter if his brother did not want to shake her hand? It was new to her, and a silly thing anyway.
Daeja had to admit, the gesture surprised her when the male at the gas station offered her the greeting when she told him her name.
Thank the All Powerful Dor was there to explain, lest her Drakein take the man’s hand off for daring to touch a mated female.
Apparently, humans behaved strangely when it came to touch. No wonder there was such misery on the planet. Everyone went around, touching and grabbing what did not belong to them.
Respect and tolerance were in very short supply, in her opinion. She much preferred the Drakein way, and as Heliodore had confirmed, the Shifter way in general.
Mates were cherished and protected, and due to the highly possessive nature of Shifters, touching was not generally accepted by any other. Though sisters were not considered the same. And since she was mated to Dor, she was a sister-in-law, no?
It was all very confusing.
Does not matter, she told herself. Daeja did not want to be touched by anyone other than Heliodore, anyway.
Thinking of another male’s touch had her Drakein spitting fire and hissing in anger. She would have no one’s hands but his.
Agreed.
“Daeja, Larimar, and our father, Arthur,” Dor made formal introductions.
She could not help but notice his words were tight, and she wondered why.
“Hello.”
Daeja smiled, wondering at the somber faces that filled the room. Jasper, the eldest, and his heavily pregnant mate, the lovely Carolina, entered next.
The room felt chilled and tension spiked. Her Drakein hissed inside her mind’s eye. Suddenly, she felt like a tnedor caught in a trap.
“Heliodore? What is going on?”
Her mate exhaled heavily and stalked to the center of the room. Everyone formed a semicircle around her, and she pushed down the hysterical sob that threatened to explode from her lips.
Well, at least they had at least formed a rounded shape, and not one of their squares or rectangles.
“We have been patient with you, Miss Smith,” Arthur began.
“How did you know how to help Caro?” Jasper asked.
“Where are you really from?” Kim inserted.
“Daeja, we need some answers,” Heliodore said.
She knew what this was, and her chest tightened with the pain of her revolko’s betrayal. This was an inquisition. He did not believe her!
“I gave you answers, last night,” Daeja spoke between clenched jaw, the pain in her chest damn near heart-stopping.
It was right there in his carefully concealed expression. Heliodore, the male she had trusted enough to claim him as mate, thought she was lying.
“Did you think I was tricking you with my tales?” she asked, the realization breaking her heart.
“It’s just⁠—”
“You don’t believe me,” she finished for him, and an eerie calm settled over her.
“Daeja, come on. I want to believe you, rosebud⁠—”
“Do not call me that here!” she shouted and bit back a sob.
“Daeja—”
“Why? Why did you claim me?” she asked, heartbreak rising inside her like a tempest.
Kim stood to go to her, but her mate yanked her back to his side with stern, yet gentle, hands. Daeja looked around and saw the stern faces of the males and the unshed tears mirroring in the female’s eyes.
“I couldn’t not mate you,” Heliodore growled and took a step forward, but his father raised his hand, stilling him.
“You are my mate. Nothing will change that. But this story! I mean, it sounds crazy, rosebud.”
“Story? You think my life is a story? Where is Jennifer? She will tell you.”
“She had already denied all knowledge of you before she slipped off the grid with Zircon. Now, my son and a good friend are both missing. We think you know what happened to them,” Arthur Wessex spoke, and his gravelly voice was like a slap to her face.
“What? But I was there, in the medical center with her. How could she deny me?”
Daeja hated that her voice was shaking.
“Yes, you were there,” Mr. Wessex nodded. His lined face frowned at her, but his eyes were kind as he continued.
“Ms. Dylluan confirmed you were assigned to my boys’ unit and that you were suffering from some sort of trauma. She said you were being hunted by those who hurt you, and that is why you made up the fantasy of being from another planet.”
“And these,” she growled as her Drakein’s wings ripped through the back of the cotton top she’d borrowed from her mate.
“Am I fantasizing these as well?”
“We are not denying you came from some off-the-grid Wyvern Clan, Miss Smith. But I need my family back.”
Her tail tore through the baggy trousers she had borrowed as well. Pain lanced her heart. How could he? But Daeja’s anger would not allow her to shed tears. So, she crouched instead, snarling at the males who now circled her.
“No,” growled Heliodore. “No one touches her!”
“Stop this,” Carolina said to her mate, but Jasper moved in front of her, ready to defend his mate and unborn young.
“Please,” Kimberley echoed, but her mate was doing the same.
Daeja approved their actions. They were ones of honor, devotion, and protection. It was her own mate who caused her to grieve. How could he?
“I have not lied to you, revo—no! I shall call you that no more!”
She stopped, refusing to call him mate in her own tongue.
“Daeja, please.”
Dor’s face was an echo of the pain she felt, but she had no sympathy or peace to offer him. He had lied to her.
“You mated me. Accepted my claim. But now you dishonor me with your actions. I would die before I would do the same to you.”
Her heart was broken. Daeja wanted to wail and scream, to pull her hair from her scalp, and allow her Drakein’s fire to consume her like the females whose mates had fallen in the war.
She understood their actions now. Knew their heart’s wish to end the torment was not based on reason, but on this feeling as if she would die from this soul-searing hurt.
How could he do this? How could he doubt?
Daeja was not a typical female, though. Instead of crippling her, she felt her mien change. Her despair quickly turned to anger.
“Kevola,” he began, but she denied him, shaking her head.
“No, you do not call me that. You who do not trust in me,” she spat the words.
Foolish male, did he not see how she’d tried to protect him? To keep him from knowing the truth about Cass Viper and his manipulations. But he wanted truth, more truth, and she would lay it all for him now.
“Wait!” Arthur Wessex’s voice was strong and commanding, like a true pakein.
Still, she backed up a step. Anger and humiliation warred with the desperate heartache that welled within her. Daeja had never known love except that which she tasted last night.
And of course, that of her grandfather, whom she owed her life to. She cursed the All Powerful for granting her a glimpse of heaven, something she had always longed for, only to take it away.
How could something so wonderful turn into this foul and ugly feeling in her chest?
“Please, you have nowhere else to go, Miss Smith. I am welcoming you to my home. Any room you wish. Stay with us until we can locate Jennifer and Zircon. Help us find our family and bring them back here, then we can discuss things. Okay?”
“I would not feel welcome, Arthur Wessex, in a place where I am called a liar. But you are right, I need to speak to Jennifer. And while you prepare to find your family, I need to make plans to arrange for my apakein’s release. Commander Viper has allowed me five turnings to complete my mission. I have one left,” she said the last quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“When your government took me from my ship after I crash landed, Jennifer Dylluan was the only one astute enough to recognize my comm unit. She took it off my suit. I need that comm back. This is the proof I have that my claim is real. Since my heart’s mate has denied me,” she spoke to Arthur Wessex, ignoring Heliodore’s angry hiss.
“Daeja,” Dor begged.
“I have nothing else to offer,” she told his pakein, ignoring him though it hurt her.
“It could be in her office,” Larimar suggested, but he was looking at his brothers, not Daeja.
“Maybe,” Dor replied, turning his head to face his brother.
Good. She did not want his looks. Not now.
“Take me there,” she added.
And let us end this.
Her Drakein roared in pain. The animal wanted her revolko, but Daeja had allowed her heart to reign over reason too long already. She had to save her grandfather and the others from Cass Viper.
Later, she would face her mate and decide where they would go from here.
Honor demanded it.