making you think that…that I was giving up on you, on us. And for almost completely messing up your trial. There’s a lot I’m sorry for.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked softly. “You are the reason I got pardoned in the first place. Do you not realize that?”
Erin inhaled a slow, ragged breath. “Can you forgive me?”
“Tev,” he rasped. “Tev, rixella. Of course I forgive you.”
She let out a shuddering, relieved sigh, another weight lifting off her shoulders. Forgiveness was the only way they could move forward. Move on. Together.
“Thank you,” she whispered. He tilted her face up and she gave him a wobbly smile.
“I do not even know how to start making the past lunar cycle up to you,” he confessed to her. “I think about it constantly.”
She tightened her arms around his shoulders. “Then how about we make a deal?”
“Rebax?” he questioned, interest shining in his gaze.
“No more trying to make it up to one another. I propose that we start fresh. Everything wiped clean. All of it.”
Jaxor’s swallow was audible. “You…you would do that?”
“Absolutely,” she whispered. “Of course, we can remember all the good bits still. Like getting drunk on Otalian Brew during that storm—”
“You got drunk, rixella,” he murmured, his lips quirking.
“Or kissing you for the first time,” she continued, making him growl. “Or spending that night in the hot springs. Or those nights we spent around the fire just talking. You taking me to see the Lopitax Sea…and that temple where all the orgies took place.”
He chuckled and Erin was glad to see that playful warmth in his eyes, especially when he murmured, “We still need to act out that sacrifice scene at the altar.”
Erin grinned even when she grew aroused at the memory. “Yes, you’re right. So we can remember all of those good things, but anything having to do with the Mevirax, or the Jetutians, or the trial…let’s just forget those. All right?”
Jaxor dropped his forehead down to hers again and he rasped, “What did I do to deserve you, rixella?”
Erin smiled, her belly fluttering. “I was wondering the same thing. What did I do to deserve such a handsome, strong, protective, caring mate? One who makes the whole world disappear when he kisses me? One who loves me?”
His voice was ragged when he asked, “Real?”
They still had so much to figure out together. Like where they’d settle down, when they’d perform their mating ceremony, how they would prepare for the child, what their lives would look like after that moment.
But Erin wasn’t afraid. How could she be when she had Jaxor by her side? How could she be when she had faith that everything would fall into place, just as it was meant to?
Erin grinned and then she kissed him. Against his lips, she whispered, “Kekevir.”
When she pinched him for good measure, his soft laugh made that night shine even brighter.
Chapter Fifty-Two
One week later…
Erin had never known the docking bay existed, but it was accessible only by hovercraft and was hidden within the mountain to the right of the command center.
There was a small group gathered to see Bianca off. The Luxirian spaceship was fueled by one of the most powerful Luxirian crystals in existence and there was an armed escort, not to mention at least twenty warriors that would be accompanying her on her journey. They were already onboard, but Bianca was lingering as they said their goodbyes.
The males hung back. Jaxor, Vaxa’an, Lihvan, Rixavox, Vikan, Kirov, and Cruxan were all on the outskirts of the docking bay, giving the women time to say goodbye.
Bianca’s eyes were glimmering in the bright morning sun. She was nervous, but excited, sad but joyful. This was the moment she’d been waiting for all these long months: to return home.
“This is harder than I thought it’d be,” she confessed to the seven women, standing in a small, semi-circle around her. They were lingering at the base of the ramp leading up to the massive spaceship.
Erin avoided looking towards the north of the docking bay since she saw the Jetutian spaceship on her periphery. It was under command of the Luxirians now and, thankfully, it wouldn’t be the vessel Bianca was returning home on. The Luxirian spaceship was smaller and its design was sleeker.
Kate pressed a kiss to Bianca’s cheeks, whispering something in her ear. All the women did the same in fact, but over the course of the last week—after Jaxor’s trial had concluded, after Vaxa’an had finally been able to make a formal