Page 40 of Tortured

EPILOGUE ONE: LACEY

Ieye Jenna again, sadness washing over me. She still hasn’t talked. Gardon watches her like a hawk and he’s never away from her but her gorgeous blue eyes are still vacant and she doesn’t even move. She’s still being fed through a tube that is attached to her but she doesn’t even seem aware that it’s happening.

Gardon says something to her softly but she doesn’t move, doesn’t even blink and he sighs, his own dark eyes sad. He tries and tries, refusing to give up on her.

I turn around and head back to Koehn’s cabin, where I have moved in with him. I sit down and sigh, leaning my head back. The door whooshes open and I can feel Koehn in the room with me. He sits down beside me on the couch and growls, picking me up and sitting me on his lap.

“Mate. Why are you so sad?”

“I was down in the med section with Jenna. She’s still not responding to anything. Poor Gardon doesn’t have any idea what to do I think.”

He nuzzles into my hair which is twisted in some fancy way that I don’t understand. But Ruby loves nothing more than playing when she gets annoyed with Zaycor. The two of them can’t seem to stop arguing with each other. But it’s more like brother and sister so I don’t really know what’s going on there.

“I think that Gardon will eventually figure it out. He’s a very smart male and very determined. Something about Jenna calls to him and he will not give up.”

I nod my head. I’m almost sure that Gardon is in love with her but he’s never even met her so I’m not sure how that works. Like he just thinks she looks pretty. That’s not all she is. She’s more than pretty.

“So how are things going with Alex and Varnak getting ready?”

They’re on their way to the planet that we found out has a human female living there. I don’t understand how space gossip gets out there but this traveled all over the galaxy to reach the main base and now Alex and Varnak are heading out to see if they can find her. If they can manage to keep from killing each other long enough to make it there and investigate.

Koehn snorts. “They are like little young ones. They can’t seem to stop themselves from annoying each other.”

I laugh. “Yeah. Alex is too stubborn to deal with Varnak telling her what to do! She’s more than capable of telling him off.”

“Yeah.” Koehn pulls me close and grins wickedly at me, smiling at the tattoos that I’ve had put on one of my arms. They match his mating marks exactly. “But I have other things on my mind than those two.”

I lean back and smile at him. “And what would that be, my mate?”

“I want to make love to my kora.”

“You just want to breed me,” I snort.

His pansy eyes sparkle. “Any chance I get. But I do not want to push you into that if you don’t want to have young ones. I understand why you might want to avoid that.”

I smirk. “Well, I can’t avoid it anymore. I’m already bred, my koree.”

The way his eyes lights up makes my heart flutter in my chest. But then his brows scrunch. “Are you sure that you’re alright with having young ones?”

“I am fine, Koehn. I haven’t had any nightmares for months. I think it’s the big blue guy that I sleep with every night, keeping me safe.”

He hugs me tight. “Remind me to thank this guy.”

I lean into him and then his lips caress mine and I moan, my body firing up like a jet engine. “I need you, my mate.”

“I need you too, my kora. You’ve given me so much and now you’re giving me the biggest gift I’ve ever received. I love you. You are my whole world, my galaxy, my everything.”

“That’s good because you are my galaxy too. Now…how about you show me how that knotting thing works again. I love learning new things.”

He laughs and picks me up to carry me into the sleeping cabin portion of our little apartment, tossing me on the bed. “And you are such a good student, my kora!”

He falls down across me and we lose ourselves in the subtle slide of our bodies against each other, skin to skin. The feel of his lips on my body caressing me. He touches me and my hands dance along his spine, creating sparks that flare under my fingernails. We come together, twisting, turning, groping and kneading. Every touch brings us closer to the ultimate. The fiery finish that we always reach for. I crave it and the way we fly into the farthest reaches of the galaxy together, spinning into a vortex of pleasure like nothing I’ve ever experienced before and ever will.

Only Koehn. He’s given me a reason to live. A new life together. A new future with him and our family.

I’ll never forget Eric, Lyssa and Charles. But I will always have my memories. The pain has faded to a dull ache that will never go away completely.

But I have hope now.

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