“Absolutely not.”
I realized they were repeating the exact same words they’d said to me at the palace, and my heart melted. These two were mine, and it was time to make it permanent.
14
Niklas
“You make us proud, mate,” I said, holding Lucy’s hand as Sambor followed, one step behind. She could sense our satisfaction in her through the collars.
A near-death experience filtered out the things that weren’t important and added value to those that were. Like Lucy. She was the most crucial thing in the universe.
We’d been given a second chance. Our feelings, the depth of them, couldn’t be hidden. Not now. Not when we were all prepared to focus on what really mattered.
All the time stuck on that asteroid, I’d wondered of Lucy’s true feelings. She’d made it clear we were just a fling, as humans called it. We were disposable.
No longer. We didn’t need the collars to know her heart. The look on her face when she’d first seen us in the canteen told us everything we needed to know.
I saw her love, felt it through the collars, but hearing the true depths of need when she’d said the words aloud filled my heart completely. I’d thought it full before, but there had been something missing.
No longer.
Perhaps our time apart had solidified her intentions, and voicing them aloud and in such an intense, forceful manner couldn’t allow her brain or any Earth ideals to stand in the way.
She was ours now. She knew.
We knew it.
We’d been showing her all along. Even through separation, we were still one.
Now we would claim her. Make it official.
She led us to her quarters, a small set of rooms that held no personality. The space was plain and stark. I thought of my residence on Prillon Prime. It was the same way. A place to go between missions. To sleep. Eat. It wasn’t a home.
“We will need larger quarters,” I said, seeing the bed in the other room. It was small, not meant for a female and her two Prillon mates.
She glanced at the bed, then me. Then Sambor.
“You wish to live here on The Colony?” she asked, her voice soft. The tears were gone, but her eyes were red-rimmed from crying.
Sambor stepped forward, took her hand and raised it to brush his lips over her knuckles. “We will live where you are. It matters not.”
Her pink lips parted as she stared up at him. “Your work.”
I sliced my hand through the air. “My work is not as important as you. A mate comes first. Everyone knows that—”
“Everyone but Helion,” Sambor finished.
“If this is where you wish to reside, we will be pleased to make The Colony our home.”
Her hair was wild down her back, far from the sleek styles we’d seen when she was on Prillon Prime. I liked this… natural look of her. The freckles, the curls. The real Lucy.
“I’m only here because of Olivia. It’s not where I should be. I didn’t know until now where that was. I… I want to live on Prillon Prime. The days I thought… when you were gone”—she swallowed hard—“I realized I had nothing here.”
“Olivia and Wulf. The children,” Sambor offered.
“It isn’t the same as being with you. Prillon Prime is where you both belong. Where I’d like to be. It… fits me.”
“My home is not a palace,” I shared. I had means and could easily take care of Lucy in a deserving nature, but I was not royalty.