Homecoming

Until he leaned forward on his chair, Miri didn’t see the elder. Bathed in shadow, his smooth, dark scales blended into the water-wall behind him. His mate was even further in shadow, at his back until her mate evaluated any threat to her.

Miri stopped short, trying again to escape Aleeks’s hold, her breathing going ragged as the elder came to his full height and stared down at her. His ridge plates extended in show. That stopped her retreat, though her knees shook. Every instinct screamed at her to sink to the submissive. As if Aleeks could scent the thought, he gripped her arm to keep her standing.

The elder’s forked tongue peeked past his barred teeth and took her scent. His eye slits narrowed. “I scent an old ally in this one... Uuumaal.”

Miri’s knees threatened to fold. *An old ally? Seir-god lives! When he learns I’ve killed that ally--*

Aleeks saved her the attempt to explain herself. “I fear your old ally has not treated his daughter honorably, Gran-Seir.”

Daahn’s head cocked to one side, and his nose slits widened, then narrowed again. “Daughter? Uuumaal took another mate in his waning years?”

“No. Neither did he gift Miri his name.”

Daahn’s ridge plates came out to their full extension, the frill spikes of a Grea Elder warning that his anger was fierce and uncompromising. His growling sent Miri under Aleeks’s arm and to his back. He didn’t stop her, which frightened Miri even more.
“Tell me,” the elder demanded.

Aleeks reached his hand back and covered one of hers with it. “They created Miri in their labs. She was starved, beaten, uncared for... And when Miri balked at Uuumaal’s duplicity and deception to his own blood, he ordered her killed.”

Miri chanced a look around Aleeks’s body at a rush of movement. Her mouth went dry at the sight of Daahn holding the ancient weapons of a Xxanian warrior at the ready. The zuahhhbeahhh and s’saahhta were sharp enough to skin an enemy, she was certain.

She dropped to her knees, making herself as inconspicuous as possible, waiting for Aleeks’s signal to hide herself while he fought. That signal didn’t come, and the room went so silent that her breathing and clamoring heart were the loudest noises, drowning out even the babbling of water.