Out of the Ashes (Maji 1)

“Mating right away is not my intention, but Vorah did ask me out earlier.”

“Vorah?” Kol repeated. “That young silver-haired tail chaser?”

Tail chaser?

“I guess,” I replied, looking up at him once more.

Kol growled to himself then to me he said, “He is not a good match for you. He is too young to be searching for an intended. He is only forty years old! A single moon cycle older than Surkah.”

“You do realise that forty years is a lot to humans, right?” I quizzed. “I’m only twenty-three.”

“Yes, but we have a longer lifespan than humans. Vorah is barely out of his minor years. He is three moon cycles shy of becoming a grown male.”

“Well, he wants to see if we’re suitable.”

Sharp intakes of breaths were taken around the room, and I thought something was wrong with the Ebony until I looked around Kol and realised all eyes were on us… or him. I looked at Mikoh when he slowly approached us. I hadn’t realised Kol’s arms went around me, but they did, and they were squeezing me tightly.

“I’ll kill him,” Kol growled, his voice sounding so unlike himself that I wouldn’t have believed it came from his lips had I not been looking at him when he said it.

“Who?” I asked, unsure of what was happening.

“Vorah,” Kol snarled and stretched out the ‘rah’ on Vorah’s name.

“What did he do?” I asked, confused and a little frightened.

“He’d dare present himself to you as a mate when I—”

“Easy, my friend,” Mikoh said softly, cutting Kol off. “Vorah is young, and he did not know Nova was… unavailable.”

I’m unavailable?

“Is it because I’ve been difficult?” I frowned. “Am I un… mateable or something now?”

I didn’t think I truly wanted to mate with a Maji but being told I wasn’t allowed didn’t seem very fair. I behaved wrongly, like a real bitch, but my emotions fuelled my anger and the whole being kidnapped by aliens thing really freaked me out. Surely, I couldn’t have been the only human woman to act out?

“Kol,” Mikoh said firmly, ignoring me completely. “Remember what we said? Offspring steps for the human females so we don’t scare them with their transition to the Maji way.”

Kol growled at Mikoh, but then he looked down at me, and his features softened once more.

“Vorah wants to… share sex with you to see if you desire him as a mate.”

I was mortified for so many males to be listening in on our conversation.

“Yes, I know. He told me so, but he also said he would take baby steps with me.”

Kol’s hold on me went extremely tight.

“You wish to… mate with him?”

I didn’t know whether he sounded mad, disgusted, or disheartened.

I cleared my throat. “You were the one who told me I’d have to take a husband.”

“I never said you were to go out and seek a mate straight away!”

That was true.

“Look, I’m just as surprised as you that this is going down,” I expressed. “Vorah surprised me. I mean, who comes out and asks someone they just met if they want to have sex?”

“We shouldn’t do that?” an unfamiliar male voice asked.

I looked around Kol to the orange-haired male that spoke to me, but before I answered him, Kol let out a vicious snarl.

“I beg your forgiveness, my prince,” the male suddenly said and dropped to his knees with his head bowed.

I looked at Kol. “Stop that. He did nothing wrong.”

“He spoke to you,” Kol growled, his body shaking.

“I’m not Surkah,” I informed him. “I’m not a princess. I’m just me. He can ask a question if he wants to. How will Maji and humans learn about one another if we don’t ask questions?”

“He can ask another human, not you.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

“Wow,” I said with a shake of my head. “That’s really mature.”

“Being mature is not something a male remembers when his—”

“When his what?” I cut him off.

Kol looked like he was fighting an internal battle.

“Nothing,” he eventually said.

I raised a brow. “For someone who wants me to accept that you’re saving my people and that mating with your people is a good idea, you aren’t very happy that one of your males wants to see if I could be his wife.”

“We will discuss this later,” Kol said, the muscle in his jaw rolling back and forth.

He turned to Mikoh and said something in his own language. I gasped when the translator didn’t give it to me in English, and I knew straight away that Kol disconnected my translator with his comm again.

“Hey!” I said, frowning. “It’s rude to talk in front of me in words I don’t understand.”

Kol ignored me as he continued to speak back and forth with Mikoh in a heated tone until Mikoh grunted and nodded once. Kol turned backed to me then, and he looked mad. No, scratch that, he looked pained.

“You’re dismissed, Nova.”

I blinked. “I’m dismissed?”

Kol nodded. “You sought out my forgiveness, and you now have it.”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“But what?”

I swallowed. “You’re one of three Maji who I’m comfortable with being around.”

“Four if you include Vorah, which you have,” Kol responded.

I flinched. “Don’t be mad at me, Kol. I’m trying to fall in line and do what’s expected of me.”

“I’m not mad,” he replied. “I’m happy you agreed to Maji terms for sanctuary.”

He didn’t look like he was happy.

“It’s not like that, though,” I explained. “Vorah understands that I—”

“I don’t want to speak of this anymore, Nova,” he clipped. “Vorah is not going to be your intended.”

I leaned back.

“Why the hell not?” I demanded.

“Because I have declared it!”

I jumped at the volume of Kol’s voice, but instead of leaning into him for the comfort he provided before, I stepped away from him.

“You’re to return to your quarters and meet with no males unless it is myself, Mikoh, or Nero.”

I felt my lower lip wobble, but I refused to cry.

“What did I do wrong that Vorah—”

“Nova, enough!”

Kol was spitting mad. I could practically feel the anger radiate from him in waves. I took a hearty step backwards and swallowed. I didn’t know him enough—virtually at all—to reassure myself that he wouldn’t attack me no matter how much I was told that Maji didn’t harm women.

“Yes, sir,” I said, trying my best to keep my voice even. “Thanks for your time. I won’t bother you again.”

I turned away from him and walked towards the exit of the bridge. I didn’t dare look at Mikoh or anyone else, for that matter. I kept my eyes straight ahead until the doorway opened and gave me a view of the hallway. The empty hallway.

“Nova,” Kol’s said from behind me, his voice still thick with anger. “Mikoh will escort you back to your quarters… I will speak to you later about this matter.”

He wasn’t threatening me; he was promising me … and I’d be damned if it didn’t have the same effect.

The Maji way.