Page 56 of The Ozar Triad

“It’s more than I ever could imagine. It’s… it’s… the most precious gift in the universe.” She struggled to find the right words. They didn’t seem to be enough.

Instead, she tried to send them what she felt. That indescribable wholeness, that complete acceptance and understanding. Four souls, fused together. It was the most beautiful thing she could ever imagine. A surge of warmth and love washed over her in return.

She could finally say she was grateful for being abducted, because without the worst thing that had ever happened to her, she would never have found the absolute best thing to happen.

With a happy sigh, she settled in the one place she wanted to be the most—deep in the ease of her mates’ arms, comforted with the knowledge that she would be loved and would love in return for the rest of her life.

Epilogue

Setzan

Six of their adversaries stood in two hostile groups, in the middle of their sun-drenched meeting room. The golden-hued light was at odds with the dark and desperate mood between the nine of them.

To say this day was an historical event was a vast understatement of the millennium and all it had taken was the theft of each Homeland’s crystals and the abduction of one small human woman.

The royals of the Arabis and Erion Triads had come to see Riley, of course. The disbelief had yet to fall from their faces each time their eyes wandered to the Ozar Tower, easily seen through the floor-to-ceiling windows that graced the room, radiating with healing golden energy once again. For the first time in a decade, there was new hope, and it was that hope that had drawn them to traverse their planet, head into Ozar Territory, and swallow their pride and hostility between their Homelands. They wanted the same thing for themselves, for their lands were still dying and desolate. No new Quads. No mates. No children.

Rujali, Klaej, and Setzan had let them come. All nine had a chance to change their planet once and for all.

Now they’d found their mate, they no longer cared for wars that went on for decades, and endless darkness and death. They had something to live for, and if the energy of the Ozar Crystal would prevail as it once did, they would have children of their own.

Setzan, for one, didn’t want to bring his child into a war-torn planet. Finding Riley was cause for celebration and he could think of nothing short of planet-wide peace as apt commemoration. It would be the first time in their history that something like that could ever happen, and in Setzan’s mind, it was long due.

Since the birth of their modern civilization, their three Homelands had bickered and fought over frivolous arguments, rising and falling between years of ignoring to all-out warfare. Riley had told them it was similar on her planet, only there were far more countries that fought between themselves. It was only trade that had enabled peace between her nations and she was sure it would do the same for their planet.

Setzan wanted to make their Homeplanet a better place for her. He thought the lure of finally finding their mate and returning fertility to their lands was more motivation. But he was forward thinking, and once their crystals were found and mates impregnated, he was sure the two Triads standing before them would feel the same way. They’d all been born into war, and he was sure they were as sick of it as they were. They would all want peace for their children. He would hold nothing back if it helped them restore their crystals and find their mates.

Paxt, the blond alpha of the Arabis Homeland spoke. “So tell me, how exactly did you trace the Ozar Crystal?”

Setzan had never come face to face with the kings of the Arabis and Erion Homelands before and was surprised to find them as tall and as big as him and his brothers. In the battlefield, they would be evenly matched, however Setzan would be sure to beat them. He had more to lose than they did now, and that would give him an edge. Satisfied he could protect his mate if needed, he sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Klaej chipped a section of the Ozar Tower and it lead us across the Galaxy. As soon as we stepped foot on the planet, we saw our mate,” Rujali said.

“And she is… not Negari?” Coltan, Paxt’s Triad brother, asked. His almost-white brows met as he frowned.

“She calls herself human,” Klaej said. He was full-blown crimson and in full protection mode. Setzan heard the growled undertones in his voice. Whenever Klaej spoke about Riley, he sounded like that, but it was to be expected. Klaej was the most protective of Riley out of all of them, if that was at all possible.

The only reason Klaej had let Riley out of his sight, was that she was spending time with their younger sister Jaiya, who had taken it upon herself to design Riley a wardrobe fit for a future queen. Their mother had also joined in with the textile designers and he had left her in a room filled with rolls of material and an excited sister who lived for mirrors and makeup, ignoring the stunned expression on their mate’s face. The only way she’d agreed to it was the promise of a pair of battle boots. In her size. Apparently, she’d been eyeing their boots since she’d first seen them.

“Setzan? Setzan!”

He jolted as Rujali bellowed his name, sending his brother an apologetic look. It seemed he had lost track of time a lot lately thinking of Riley and what a lucky bastard he was. “Yes?”

“Tell our Homeland brothers about Earth.” Rujali sent Setzan a pointed look.

Setzan cleared his throat and forced his attention back to the meeting. “We don’t know where her planet is located. It’s never been mapped, despite centuries of space travel. Apparently there are several billion humans, half of which are female, living on her planet. They seem to be as technologically advanced as we are in some aspects, and not in others. They are an intelligent species, with a penchant for war. Our Riley has told us that men typically run her world and that women are not valued well.”

Anger boiled across Ashir’s face. “What!”

“As unbelievable as it is, it’s true. I know Riley well enough now to know she does not lie. Not about things like that. She found our society quite unusual for her,” Setzan said.

“Do you think, if we were able to track down our crystal, we would also find our mate?” Kyel, the Erion’s quiet alpha, asked. His eyes glinted a deep aquamarine, the only indication he was interested. That male gave nothing away.

“It would be our hope that you would, although I don’t know if she would be human, or Negari,” Rujali said. “Riley has no idea how she came to be here, or if other females came with her.”

“And what of the scaled one you captured?” Paxt asked.

Setzan shifted. “Our lead scientist, Anjev, developed a translator to communicate with the creatures. It seems its story is far-fetched, but despite that, we have proof in our mate that the tale is indeed true. The scaled one had nothing to lose by telling us and everything to gain by keeping his life.”

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