worthy didn’t matter. A world devastated by a rogue storm was what mattered. My brother’s death, and the abduction of a human woman, was what mattered. The grief rocking our family was what truly mattered.
“Come, let’s go to our rooms. This isn’t the place to get reacquainted,” my father said, trying to draw Mother carefully from our arms, as if she was a fragile piece of glass.
For a second I fought him. Holding Mother was all that was keeping me sane in this moment, and my father wanted to take her away from me? Hadn’t I lost enough?
But the impulse to cling lasted only for that second. As my brothers slowly relinquished their possession of our beloved female, I did the same. Mother’s wellbeing was the most important thing right now. She didn’t need to be standing around a busy spaceport where gawking eyes judged us or speculated on what big Danans were doing showing weakness like this.
Those eyes weren’t other Danans, of course. Our kind would know. All of them would know what had happened. They would understand.
Mother wouldn’t let go of us, though. She allowed herself to be turned, but her arms wouldn’t let either Nial or I go. So, we walked with our arms around her, Meida acting as rear guard, a big paw on her shoulder, as our fathers took point in front. Even in a place where no danger existed, we automatically formed ourselves into a protection detail around our most valuable member.
The trip to our quarters didn’t take long. No one spoke to us as we moved through the milling crowds. So much chaos still existed everywhere, even here. The south, where we had been until a few hours ago, had been madness.
Getting a transport back to the capital had taken almost a week to arrange. Or that was the excuse we were given. Maybe we’d been stopped from leaving the protection of our instructors until our parents returned to Varga. Maybe they thought we might get it into our heads to set off alone to search for the murdering scum who killed our brother. I had to admit, the idea had crossed my mind. But as soon as news came that our familial pod had landed, we were put on the first transport heading north.
We were just about to enter the domestic dome of the government compound when we saw the blur of a tall, white figure racing in our direction. My dad halted our progress to wait. If I’d let myself, I could have believed Rian was running towards us. Now we were fully grown, only the lack of brands distinguished us from our fathers from a distance and at speed.
Why was Rhain running? He wouldn’t feel guilty because he’d missed our homecoming, would he? He had to know we’d understand. His grief would be equal to Mother’s in intensity. Maybe more, because he would blame himself for not seeing this possibility ahead of time.
“Marissa and her pod have news,” he said as he reached us.
Pods with a podmate were always described this way. Mother said that on Gaia the male would define a couple. It would be Mr. and Mrs. Whatever his last name was. It didn’t make sense to me. But then, Gaian males didn’t value their mates the way we did.
From the messages we’d exchanged with our familial pod since Rian’s death, we knew their return had been delayed by several days due to an emergency at the Hub. They’d been forced to detour to assist in settling a rapidly escalating dispute that had drawn military craft from several planets into the Confederate Hub space. The situation had been defused without incident, but the delay had meant that Marissa and her pod had been only a few hours behind my parents when they finally arrived back at Varga.
Rhain’s words galvanized us all. As one, we turned for the conference room in the government dome, where most strategic gatherings took place.
Part of me resented this intrusion. We’d barely set down and been reunited with our familial pod. Couldn’t this news wait? Another part of me was eager to hear anything that might get my mind off my pain. I needed action, any kind of action, or I knew I’d go mad from grief and fury.
Once we were settled around the conference table that seated thirty, Kius addressed us all. And by all I meant our grandparents, who had returned from the Hub with our familial pod, Marissa’s pod, us, and