Page 65 of Fated to the Dragon Alien

The purple Zaruxian on the other bridge nodded. “Hello, Cerani.”

Stavian went stiff as steel beside her. His voice came out low. Rough. “Who are you?”

Cerani couldn’t speak. Her chest felt so tight, she could barely pull in a breath. It was him. The overseer of her old settlement and this ship—this impossibly huge vessel that had just rescued them—was his fortress.

But the overseer’s gaze had moved away from her and locked onto Stavian. There, it stayed. The other Zaruxians, whom she’d never seen before, shifted in tune with him. There were no weapons drawn, no signs of a threat.

The overseer placed one hand over his chest and inclined his head. “We are your brothers,” he said, in that smooth voice she’d only heard a few times. “We’ve been looking for both of you.”

NINETEEN

Stavian

Stavian stared at the screen like it had just cracked his spine. The figures standing on the other bridge were fellow Zaruxians, but they looked like him. Not a little. A lot.

Same scale pattern down the jaw. Same silver eyes. One even had the same frown as him.

Brothers.

His mind scrambled for details. His file said he was an orphan, taken into Axis training at a young age. No family was tied to his designation. He’d believed it. Swallowed it whole, because there was nothing else to believe. Now, four males stood tall in front of him, wings folded, gazes hard and locked onto him.

“Is this real?” he asked, more to himself than them.

“Yes. We are your brothers,” a male with crimson scales said. “For better or worse.”

Stavian’s pulse jumped. That voice—composed, relaxed—cracked something open that nothing else had ever reached.

He couldn’t get another word out. His hands had gone numb at his sides. His brain buzzed with questions. He had dozens of them jammed in his throat and no breath left to ask even one.

How?Fek, why?

Where were they when he was alone in the system, training with the Axis, rising through a structure built to wring his loyalty dry? What horrors had they endured before arriving here?

They stared at him like he belonged to them, and deep in his chest, he wanted it to be true.

Cerani stood frozen beside him. He could feel the sharp pull of her breath as she took it all in.

Then, the holographic screen flickered, and another face filled the center.

“Hello?” A Terian female with yellow hair so bright it looked like a solar flare, peered into the screen. “Cerani, are you in there?”

Cerani jerked beside him. “Sevas?” Her voice cracked as she surged forward, half tripping over the edge of the console. “Sevas!”

The other Terian let out a whoop, then covered her mouth. “I knew it! I swear on every star—I knew you were alive!”

Before Cerani could say anything else, another voice broke through.

“She’s there? Oh, sweet stars!” The screen widened again. A second female burst into frame. This one had blue hair, and bright green eyes that practically hit the projection like a bolt.

“Is that—Cera?” Yet another voice called from somewhere outside the screen visibility. “Oh! It’s her! It really is her!”

“Move over, will you?” drawled a different female voice. “I can’t see her.”

Cerani’s knees hit the floor and she covered her face with her hands. Stavian crouched beside her. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, but he could see her shoulders shake as tears took over—no shame, no filter. Great sobs of, hopefully, joy. He’d seen Cerani angry, sad, fierce, and passionate, but this emotion was new. Her shoulders shook silently.

“Cerani?” he whispered. He reached out and put a hand on her back, steadying her. “What would you like to do?”

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