Out of the Ashes (Maji 1)

“How can we be so different but the same too?” I wondered aloud.

“Maji and humans,” Mikoh began. “Our bodies are similar, yes?”

“Apart from skin colour and how freaking huge you all are… yes.”

Kol’s lips twitched, but I ignored him because I knew he knew exactly what part of him I thought was huge, and it wasn’t the head on his damn shoulders.

“Humans are the only other species we have found that resemble us with such detail. As you said, we’re different, but we’re the same, too. Species of the cosmos cross-breed all the time; it is how many species are born. Maybe Maji were once humans, or maybe humans were once Maji.”

“Humans would have come from Maji, I think,” Surkah thoughtfully interjected. “Our race is a lot older than theirs is.”

Mikoh nodded as he leaned back in his chair.

“I think so too, but maybe another species has diluted their blood so much, and that’s why they slightly differ from us, or perhaps they’ve evolved on their own… but not entirely… Nova has bonded with Kol as any other Maji female would have.”

It was an irrational thing to do, but I slammed my teeth together and began to breathe heavily at the thought of another woman touching my husband. A frightening sensation of possession filled me from head to toe.

He’s mine.

I jumped when I felt Kol’s purr rather than heard it.

“Yes, shiva.” He smiled and reached for me, pulling me onto his lap. “I am yours.”

He nuzzled my neck and inhaled.

I could scent her forever… my female.

“I’m going insane!” I said as I lifted my hands to my face. “I hear and feel you all the time, and now I’m getting possessive like you. Am I turning into a Maji? Is that what your essence is really doing? Is it taking the human out of me?”

Everyone’s laughter only grated on my nerves, but instead of being angry, I felt emotional. It sounded funny to them, but I was so confused and scared about what was happening to my body, and I didn’t know what to do about it… so I began to cry.

“Shiva.”

No, don’t shiva me, I sobbed. You think this is funny, and it is to you, but it’s not to me. This is all as natural as breathing to you, but it’s one new thing on top of the other for me, and I’m just so scared, Kol. Nothing like this happens in my world.

Kol tightened his arms around me.

“I did not think, shiva, and I am so sorry. Please, do not cry. It pains me when you cry.”

He meant that literally. I could feel how upset my tears were making him.

“Do you want to pilot the Ebony? You keep asking me, and if you stop crying, I will allow it.”

I heard male laughter. “Your father was right; our mates will have us under their thumb.”

“Quiet, Mikoh!”

Mikoh only laughed louder.

I pulled back from Kol, sniffling and hiccupping.

“You’ll… You’ll let me fly the c-craft?”

“If it makes you stop crying, shiva.” He nodded frantically. “Yes.”

I wiped away my tears. “Okay.”

Mikoh’s laughter aggravated Kol, and I could sense he was about to attack him.

Please don’t, I pleaded. I can’t handle seeing you fighting with him right now.

We must leave then, Kol almost growled in response. His impatience to have Surkah is pushing him to challenge every male he sees.

I don’t want to go back to our quarters, though. We’re always there.

Surkah had told me that newly mated males would go to great lengths to hide their females from peering eyes. Everyone was a threat to a newly mated male, even a female. It was in their instincts to keep their females hidden where nothing could harm them, and to Kol, that meant us holed up in our quarters all day, every day.

We reach Ealra in less than one Earth hour, Kol hummed as his fingers stroked my thigh. What do you want to do if not return to our quarters?

I perked up. “I can fly the craft since we’re getting off it soon.”

Kol glared at Mikoh when he laughed again, and without a word, he stood and brought us to our feet.

“We’re going for a walk,” Kol said, his tone clipped.

Surkah smacked Mikoh’s chest with the back of her hand to stop him from saying whatever it was he was about to say in response to Kol, and the distraction worked wonders. She became his primary focus, and it enabled me and Kol to slip away from the table without Mikoh noticing our departure. When he was looking at Surkah, the world could have ended around him, and he wouldn’t have noticed.

When Kol and I left the mess hall and walked side by side down the identical hallways, I slid my hand into his, and his expression of awe made me giggle like a little girl.

“I can’t believe it was only a few days ago,” I mused, “that I would have pushed you off the craft if I was given the chance.”

Kol’s laughter caused my heart to leap as he squeezed my hand. “A mating changes everything, shiva.”

It really had, the hard-headed Kol I had first met had been replaced with the most caring male I could have ever have wished for. While he was still a typical male, he went about his alpha ways with a little more consideration for me. With every passing hour, I became more and more infatuated with him, and I knew it wouldn’t be long until I had fallen head over heels in love with him.

He was perfect, and I didn’t have to have the chemical bond the Maji had to become addicted to him. I was already knee-deep in my obsession with him, and like everything else, it scared me half to death. I was terrified that things would change when we landed on Ealra, and our time together would be cut in half. It was a fear I couldn’t shake no matter how often Kol told me it would never come true. All I had ever known and loved had been taken away from me, so I couldn’t see how the pattern would suddenly end just because Kol said so.

“Are you really letting me fly the Ebony?” I asked Kol when we stepped onto the bridge.

The crew on the bridge did their

fist over the chest and bowing thing to Kol, and they did it to me too, but none of them looked at me. He nodded to me as he led me to a large control panel where someone was always stationed even if the ship was on auto pilot. The male moved away without a verbal order from Kol, though I knew he probably told him to move through their comms. Kol stationed me in front of the control panel, and he positioned himself behind me. He put his hands on mine and placed them flat on the control panel.

“You do not know how to physically pilot but just about anyone can do it mentally,” Kol explained, his hands still pressed on the back of my hands. “I have given you clearance to fly. You don’t have a comm of your own, but your translator has frequencies that my comm has just finished rewriting so you can think your commands to the ship.”

I was suddenly terrified to fly the ship.

“This is a bad idea,” I said, panicked. “I shouldn’t have asked for this.”

I noticed the males on the lowered section of the bridge suddenly grabbing the closest sturdy thing to them, and a few of them even laughed and said something that made Kol tense.

“Say a single word further,” he growled to the males on the bridge, “and I will allow Surkah to do her annual assessment early this year.”

Gazes quickly dropped, and bodies busied back to work. All except one.

“And early assessment is worth it.”

“Nero—”

“That little human has you, as the humans say, by the balls.”

I choked on air as I laughed. I looked to my right and found Nero, a male who I had met a few days earlier when I tried to escape the Ebony, and from his conversation with Kol, it was easy to tell that this was another one of his close friends.

“Get back to work,” Kol growled.

Nero winked but did as ordered. When my attention left him and returned to what I was about to do, I tensed all over again.