Ripples In Time (Maji 2)

She reached over and wrapped her arms around me, crying as she squeezed me so hard it made my heart want to burst. I felt broken. I couldn’t cry even though the pain in my chest was suffocating. I held Kovu’s body to my chest with one arm, and my mother’s in the other, and I felt a darkness seep deep into my heart, blackening it almost.

I knew then that the all-consuming pain I felt was one I would carry with me always.

Chapter Three

Ezah

Present day on Ealra …

This day needed to come to a swift end.

I was irritated and in no mood to be surround by others. Using my comm, I mentally scanned my eyes over the names of the females who would be attending the herbalism lesson that I had to assist as group healer. Nero, my only kin, was the lesson guide, which made it a little more bearable, but only just. I would rather have been hunting or training instead of being around a bunch of alien females or females in general.

I hated being in groups and always had, but my being here was necessary. My younger brother Kol would reject me as his brother and publicly denounce me to the people if I did not meet the conditions he had set. His conditions were that I immerse myself in with the humans. I had to spend time with them, learn about them, and find peace with them in my heart.

This was what I deserved for poisoning his mate’s mind against him and stealing her away. My punishment for such a crime could have very well been death, my father had put the decision of my fate to Kol as it was his mate I had stolen. He passed on giving me the death penalty and gave me his conditions instead.

When I thought of how I almost succeeded in ruining the bond of true fated mates just a few moon cycles ago, it made my stomach churn. I thought I was protecting my younger brother and doing him a service when I stole his mate because I truly believed human females were not a good choice for Maji males. I didn’t want my sister-in-mate, Nova, to die and leave my brother to suffer the pain of a mate loss. What I did hurt him just as bad because it sent him straight to the edge, and he almost ended my life. If it wasn’t for Nova’s determination to save me from him, I would be bowing at the feet of Thanas, trying to explain my crime so he would not send me to the Underworld where the only thing worse than the place itself was its ruler, Kuat.

I thought about this as I walked at the back of the group until a small, brown-skinned female tripped over a rock piece. I leapt forward and caught hold of her arm before she hit the ground. I told her to watch her step, and out of nowhere, she stared up at me with her big, wide, duo-coloured eyes and dropped to her knees before me. It took a lot to genuinely shock me but watching the tiny female before me on her knees did exactly that. I stared down at her, my own eyes wide. My focus on her momentarily blinded all of my other senses, and I failed to notice that the entire group had stopped walking. Everyone was staring at the female before me, too.

Kin, Nero said to me through our comms. What’s going on back there?

I’m not sure. A female is on her knees before me, and she is scared.

“You need not bow to me, female,” I said to the alien, softening my tone because she reeked of fear. The sickly sweet scent stung my nostrils. “Today, I am just the group healer … not a prince, okay?”

She didn’t move so much as a muscle, and her stink of fear grew stronger by the second. It made me regret coming to this educational class more and more. I only agreed to attend this class as a healer because it was a condition of Kol’s.

“I’m so sorry,” a fair-skinned female with bright orange hair said, looking me in the eye as she placed her body in front of the kneeling human. I dropped my eyes to small dark hands as they reached up and gripped the flaming haired female’s waist. “She is very shy, baja.”

I flicked my gaze back to the standing female’s face, and while she looked a little worried, she didn’t scent of it. There was a dark determination in her forest green eyes, and a quick glance at her hands showed them balled into tiny fists. If I didn’t know any better, I would guess this tiny female to be challenging me as she protected her friend.