More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
To all those who faced tragedies, dealt with terrible hardships, or lived in fear and refused to let it break you. Once you’ve reached the bottom of despair, the one path remaining is up. Whatever challenges are thrown at you, the only guarantee of defeat is giving up.
A single male among them held my attention. Unlike the others, he didn’t possess a beak, but a very sexy pair of human lips.
“She has stirred my mating glands,” I said matter-of-factly. “I failed to shield my emotions because I was fighting my soul’s attempts to bond with hers.”
“Like us, Temerns, the Zelconians are empaths. Unlike us, when they meet the one, they soul-bind. It is both a physical and spiritual reaction that can only occur with a single person in the entire universe. The moment you stepped into the room, Dakas felt the call of your soul and spent the meeting fighting the urge to bond with you.”
My chest constricted as I realized that none of them seemed overly distraught over my being offered as a sacrificial lamb. No one commiserated or expressed concern for my feelings. They only cared about how my change in status would affect them.
“Our respective peoples and the UPO see our union as a beneficial transaction for all parties involved,” I continued. “You are entering into it out of duty to your people. But I am entering it because it will make me whole. You will make me whole.”
“The minute you walked into the Council chamber this morning, you called to me. You are the other half of my soul. The situation with the Yurus and the promises of the UPO play no part in my consenting to this union. With or without this situation, now that I’ve found you, I would have come here to court you,” I said fervently. “Vyrax’s ambitions only rushed the process. But for me, it would have always been you.”
“You look so delicate, and sometimes appear quite timid,” he said pensively. “And yet, a bold, no-nonsense flame burns just beneath the surface. Your body is fragile, but your mind is not.”
“I like you, Luana Torres. If you weren’t Dakas’s soulmate, I might have courted you myself.”
“But for now, stop trying to tempt me, you seductress. I have distressed villagers to protect and evil to thwart before I can drag you to my lair and have my way with you!” Dakas said teasingly.
“Once you jump your alien’s bone, I will expect a full report. Call it medical research.”
“Luana Torres, under the eyes of the Ancestors, I pledge my life to you. You are the other half of my soul. As I bind my spirit to yours, and yours to mine, I promise to always strive to bring happiness to your heart, lift your spirits when darkness would engulf them, share the burdens that could weigh down your mind, and feed your soul with all that it needs and desires to grow and fulfill your deepest aspirations.”
And yet, she had bravely carried them until all danger had passed. Her breaking down in tears right this instant wasn’t a show of weakness, but the confirmation of just how strong she was to have withstood all of this with such strength when others needed her.
