His Human Rebel (Zandian Masters 4)

He bowed to Lily. “Congratulations on your mating.”

Lily touched the crystal studs and beamed, blushing a little. “Prince Zander sent them to Rok so he could mate me in the Zandian tradition.”

Desire swept through Lundric like wildfire. Mate Cambry. The urgency to bind Cambry to him forever in this and every other way possible nearly blinded him. He wanted the union recognized by Prince Zander, by his fellow species and pod mates. By every human on the pod.

And, most importantly, by Cambry.

But how? How did this Zandian-human mating occur? Prince Zander had bought his mate. Rok had rescued his, although Lundric had heard through some

grumbling by Rok’s Stornigian foster brothers he’d bartered weapons for her.

“Here.” Lily held out a fist-sized raw Zandian crystal, and a shudder of energy went through him. No wonder he’d felt stronger just being in the room. He took it into his palm and wrapped his fingers around it, closing his lids to savor the spike of energy.

“Rok is trying to come up with some kind of light-bathing room here, like you have on Prince Zander’s pod, but it’s hard when we’re so limited on space,” Lily explained. “Of course, if necessary, you can just fly back and forth to use Prince Zander’s, but Rok doesn’t want to attract Ocretion attention with too much traffic.”

He held the crystal up to the stab wound and swore he could feel the blood beneath it heating, energy shifting and rearranging to bring his flesh back to its normal, unmarred appearance. “Mind if I take it?” he asked. “I have an idea where it might be installed for all of us to use.”

“For all of you purple-skinned giants. Sure.”

“Thank you.” Lundric bowed and led Cambry out of the room, clutching both the bath products for his female and the crystal.

In the hall, Cambry eyed the crystal. “So, what’s with the rock?”

Even though she was human and wouldn’t understand, his need to provide for his female made him offer the gem to her. She took it, examining the different facets and whistling. “This must be worth a fortune.”

“It is. Zandian crystal is the reason our planet was taken over by the Finn. They are valuable throughout the galaxy because they have wide applications in laser and light-bending technologies.”

Cambry tossed it in the air as if testing its weight, and he winced, snatching it before it landed in her palm again.

“It’s sacred to us.”

“Oops.”

“King Zander and his queen refused to sell the crystals for technology. So the Finn invaded and committed mass genocide, killing off every member of my species they found on the planet. Only those who managed to escape or were off-planet at the time survived.”

They’d arrived in front of Cambry’s door again, and Lundric shoved it open, bringing in the bottles of luxury products and arranging them in a neat row along the wall.

She took over and shoved them under her cot.

“I can build you a shelf in here, if you like.”

She stared at him as if he had two heads. “Yes...maybe. Thank you. But back to your story. Why were you off-planet when they invaded?”

The familiar deadness swept through his chest. He hated this part of his life story. The worthlessness he’d felt as a boy, before Master Seke had given him purpose.

As if sensing his darkness, she stepped forward and laid her slender palm on his chest.

He looped an arm around her waist and pulled her snug against his body, letting her feel how quickly his need for her regenerated. “My mother didn’t want me. She’d sent me away to live with her grandparents on Aurelia. My grandfather was the Zandian ambassador to the United Galaxies.” Aurelia was a neutral, peaceful planet, near Ocretion territory, that housed the United Galaxies.

To Cambry’s credit, she quickly hid the flash of pity that sprang to her face. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “I’m not. I wouldn’t be alive if she hadn’t been a selfish beast. I would never have been trained by Master Seke, who is an incredible master of battle arts. I wouldn’t be Prince Zander’s chief of security, or a captain of the royal guard who protect and serves the prince. So being unwanted was the best thing that ever happened to me.” He heard the touch of bitterness in his voice and hated the weakness in him the wound still bore.

“Are they still alive? Your grandparents?”

He shook his head. “No. They died of old age within one planet rotation of each other about ten solar cycles ago. They couldn’t live without each other. Theirs was truly a love match.” He smiled, despite the tug of sadness still echoing through him at their loss. They’d been good to him, doing their best to raise him, despite their old age. When Master Seke had invited him to move into the palatial pod to train with the prince himself, they’d been so proud. When he pictured winning Zandia back for their species, it was for them—to honor their love of the planet from which he personally didn’t bear any happy memories.

“Why are the crystals sacred? And what bath was Lily talking about?”