Page 78 of You're Not My King!

“They will be watched. Not trusted.”

I nodded in understanding, and Vo’ak led me closer to the aliens in question, a hand on my lower back for support. I wasted no time. The whole thing was barbaric enough without me dragging out my choices right in front of them like we were at a meat market. I pointed to the warrior who had let Tanner heal me, and basically anyone who hadn’t guarded the chief closely and didn’t resemble a rat.

I debated just pointing to all of them, but Vo’ak would probably see through it. This was a compromise.

I still hated the idea of being the deciding figure of their execution, but Vo’ak could not show total weakness, not after what had happened. They had committed treason, and that was dealt with more permanently here than on Earth, which I would have agreed with, if it weren’t me being the judge. Whether I liked it or not, some of them had to die, and judging by the hateful sneers on two or three of their faces, that outcome was preferable to mercy.

I managed to save ten from the chopping block. The rest were to be left as prisoners for the time being, which would give me another chance to convince Vo’ak to spare a few more. It was a big ask—he was already bending the rules for me, and even if they swore fealty to him, they couldn’t be trusted. The last thing I wanted was to be the reason one of them slipped through the cracks and hurt my mate, but I’d seen enough death and pain to last a lifetime.

Call me a softy, but I was kinda rooting for a sunshine-and-rainbows existence from now on.

“Thank you,” I said again, standing back to let Vo’ak bark out his orders to Ok’tna. The remaining rebels were forced to their feet—their heads hanging low and shoulders slumped in defeat—before being escorted to the other side of the camp, hopefully to be tied up and left there, and not…

“Do not worry, my Roo-bin,” Vo’ak assured me, tucking a few stray hairs behind my ear. “No more death today.”

I sagged against his chest, sighing happily as his arm circled my back, hugging me close, bathing me in warmth. It was crazy how everything ebbed into the background—my pain, my worries, just all of it secondary to him. It was the type of shit I’d have expected in a chick flick. One of those over-the-top montages of what love really was. But I had to admit, they were pretty damn accurate.

“What will happen with the humans?” I asked, and Vo’ak hummed in thought.

“I am unsure,” he admitted before tipping my chin to lift my gaze to his. “What would you suggest, my mate?”

Chewing my lip, I pondered. My first call would be to have them decide their fate, but I wouldn’t have the heart to tell them that going back to Earth was not included in the price package. Maybe they wouldn’t want to? But that was a stupid thought, because it was human instinct to flock home, even if their outlook was better here. “They could return with us, for now? We have the space and the resources, and it might be good for them to be anywhere other than here. Just until they’re more settled—and know that we mean them no harm—then we can spread them across the other clans to keep numbers even.”

Vo’ak didn’t even mull it over, he just stroked the side of my face and nodded. “You wish to return. With me?”

My brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

He bent forward, pressing a kiss to my forehead, my nose, my lips. His eyes were sad and glassy when he finally looked at me again. “If you wish to return to your Earth life, then I could be sure you arrive safe.”

“I don’t…” I blinked up at him in confusion, turning his words over and over in my head. “You… You would let me go?”

“Yes,” he said, his voice cracking, and guilt slammed into me like a ton of bricks, knocking the air from my lungs.

I had spent so much time planning my escape, not really living in the moment, and I hadn’t realized who I would hurt. I hadn’t cared. Whenever I’d imagined running, it had rarely involved agonizing over the impact it would have on those left behind. Part of me—that little voice lingering in the back of my mind—had always thought that Vo’ak clung to the bond. That his feelings went only as far as instinct, and that once he’d mourned my loss, he would take those berries I had, find another mate, and be happy again. Regardless. But that just wasn’t true, was it? It may have started that way, or maybe it hadn’t, but now it was obvious that there’d be no one in this world for him if I wasn’t in it.

As it was for me.

My throat clicked as I asked, “What about the bond?”

A single tear rolled down Vo’ak’s cheek, and the uncharacteristic show of emotion had my heart aching. “Your contentment matters more. I was selfish, keeping you at my side against your will, barring you from exploring all that is yours, but my feeling for you is greater than any bond. I am your servant, c’karuucha, I will do as you ask. Anything.”

Standing there, staring up at him with the weight of an actual choice on my shoulders and his love pouring through every one of my veins, was all I’d needed to be sure of where I wanted to be. Since I got here, every decision had been made for me, even things posed as an option were underhanded and shadowed by the invisible chain around my neck. I wasn’t free, no matter how many times they told me I wasn’t a slave, it didn’t erase the fact that I couldn’t leave.

But now… Now I really did have a choice. Vo’ak would go against his instincts, ignore an entire life’s worth of custom to take me back to Earth if I wanted it. Even if it caused him immeasurable pain, he would let me go on with my life as if he’d never existed, and that meant more to me than any gesture of devotion.

It made me more confident than anything that I’d made the right decision to stay.

“I don’t want to leave,” I said, voice wavering, reaching up to cup his face. “Not anymore. I have everything I could ever have wanted right here, and I’m sorry it has taken so long for me to realize it. This is my home. You are my home.”

Vo’ak’s ears pricked up, and the look of genuine pleasure that passed over his face made me feel ten feet tall. “Truly?”

I nodded, sniffing through the tears gathering in my eyes. “I want to be with you, Vo’ak. I love you so fucking much.”

“You are my heart, my world,” he said, and tugged me even tighter to his chest, pinning me there as if afraid I’d change my mind. “I will protect and care for you, always. You need never grieve for freedom. You have it. It is yours, as am I.”

I beamed up at him. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Vo’ak leaned forward, capturing my mouth with his, so soft and gentle at first, but after three days without, neither of us had any patience. I buried my fingers into his braid and moaned, licking over the seam of his lips to gain entry, to deepen the kiss. He allowed it, growling low in his throat as if tasting me for the first time, his tongue meeting mine and claiming all the blissed-out noises vibrating between us.

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