Page 41 of Elas

“Got a man you haven’t told me about?”

“No,” I say automatically, but the mark on my hand flares in annoyance under my glove, reminding me of the deliciously sweet human waiting for me in my bed. “Maybe?”

“Well, that’s a non-answer if I ever heard one.”

“It’s complicated.”

Urul snorts, clapping me on the shoulder as we approach our new watch station. “Love usually is, my friend.”

I shrug him off with a glare. “You expect me to take relationship advice fromyou? There’s probably a bleeding trail of broken hearts behind you, all of them hypnotized by that fucking tusk ring and thinking they’ll be the one to tame you.”

“Hey, now,” he says with a barking laugh as he shoves me, and this time I can’t help my grin. “I’m notthatbad.”

“Oh,” an unfamiliar, feminine voice says in surprise, and I glance up to find a soldier staring wide-eyed at my partner. “Hey, uh, Urul. It’s, uh, been a while since I… since we…” She gulps and tries to smile, but it’s all terribly awkward. Finally, she puts everyone out of their misery and flees through the door we just entered, head ducked.

“Not that bad, huh?” I ask, and he punches me in the arm as we settle in to our station.

“You going to tell me about this latest conquest or not?”

“He’s not a conquest,” I snap, and Urul snorts.

“Not the type to kiss and tell? Fair enough, I can respect that, even if I don’t understand it.” He gives an exaggerated thrust of his hips, and I sigh as I ignore him.

“There’s nothing to tell,” I mumble, and he stops humping the air to grab my arms and force me to face him.

“You’re this bent out of shape about a man you haven’t even fuckingkissed?”

August’s face pops into my head in a replay of the times we’ve been close to each other, breathing in that shared air. The pillow-soft pink lips that are always upturned, and the way it makes his hazel eyes crinkle. That perpetual smile on anyone else would mark them as either naïve or an idiot, but not him.

Despite the ugliness of this fucked-up life, he views it through August-colored glasses and finds beauty in this wasteland of a world.

I wonder how those lenses color his impression of me.

And then there’s the cryptic file he saw at the clinic. Ljómur…glow. I stare at my palm through my glove, clenching and unclenching my fingers. A flyer warning the public about a glowing mark can’t be a coincidence. We were told the story of the mate’s mark, and instructed by our commanding officers to report it immediately if we or anyone we knew developed one. But that’s never happened…

Has it?

In a hundred years, there’s never been a reported case of mates. It’s why we all thought the prophecy was a hoax.But if those flyers are as old as he said they looked, it means the military has been actively searching for them for a long time. They’ve just kept it hidden.

Maybe this is the first breadcrumb that anyone has ever dropped.

“Elas? You fucking daydreaming over there?”

Urul has a snarky grin on his face, and I shoot him a glare as I huff, crossing my arms over my chest as I turn away. “Of course not,” I mutter, as I fall back into my thoughts and do exactly that.

A few uneventful hours later, I haven’t gotten anywhere with conspiracy theories, other than convincing myself there’s more here than what meets the eye. The sun is freshly set when a Cavese in uniform approaches. I tense as my mind immediately identifies them as Xeni, but as soon as they step into the dim light of the watchtower, I realize it isn’t him.

“Officer Elas?” they ask, and I nod. “Commander Khors sent me to relieve you.”

“Relieve me?” I parrot, and they hand over an envelope stamped with an intricate wax seal. It tests my willpower not to snort at the show of extravagance. I move under the light as they take my position at the northern-facing window of the tower and I tear open the envelope. I rip it from the side out of spite, just to avoid his fancy little seal.

Elas,

You are relieved from this watch rotation. Report to my office at 0800 tomorrow morning to discuss your next assignment.

~Commander Khors

That doesn’t bode well. I think back to our last conversation and my offer to help track Ronan. Does that mean there are updates on his location or what happened to him? How far will I have to go to ensure my best friend’s safety?

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