Chapter 135
Tempest was on pins and needles.
She felt like a fugitive.
When everything was put into perspective, she actually was one. She’d gone against what the High Royals wanted her to do, and she was putting herself and her friends at risk if they were to get caught after this was all said and done.
Still, it felt like the right thing to do.
The journey to Skoq was much longer than she thought it was going to be. As it stood, she’d been in the transport for more than a few hours, and she was starting to feel her energy wane. Her eyes slid closed a few times, but she didn’t want to go to sleep.
"It’s probably best that you get some rest now while you can. There’s no telling what we are going to be faced with when we get to Skoq." Rynax leaned close to Tempest and whispered in her ear.
"That’s okay. I’m fine. I don’t need to." Just as she uttered those words, her body betrayed her, and she yawned wide.
Rynax scoffed and leaned back in his seat.
She was too on edge to sleep peacefully. She had so many questions.
"Have you been to Skoq before?" She turned slightly to talk to him.
He sighed. "Just to the outskirts. I didn’t dare make a whole mission out of it."
"Why were you there?"
He smirked at her. "I had a delivery to make."
That was code for he was doing something he probably shouldn’t have been doing. There were a few worries when it came to Rynax joining them. Both Mexyn and Gerax were concerned that maybe, even with him being an alpha, he wouldn’t be the right person to accompany them. Maybe he wasn’t brave enough.
Tempest knew that wasn’t the case. She’d never seen Rynax fight before, but she was nearly positive that he would be just as formidable as Dron. There was something dangerous about Rynax that she could see just under the surface.
"What do you think will be there waiting for us?" Tempest asked.
"Creatures we wouldn’t want to see anywhere else. Natives who want nothing to do with us. Nightmares only made for the worst dreams. Or it could be full of magical creatures that spit sparkling credits out of their maws. I don’t know, Tempest. Like I told you earlier, I only know what we’ve been told." He shrugged his shoulders.
Tempest wanted to be annoyed with Rynax, but he was right. None of them knew what to expect. She just had to get used to going into the unknown.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" Rynax turned to look at her.
Tempest quickly shot a glance at Mexyn and Gerax. Mexyn was already sleeping in her seat, but Gerax was staring at Rynax like it was his job to monitor every last breath the alpha took in their presence.
"I don’t know how personal it’s going to be." Tempest gestured in Gerax’s direction, but Rynax didn’t seem to be concerned with the fact that they had an audience.
"The personal question isn’t for him," Rynax continued.
"Go on." Tempest nodded once.
"When you met Dron, did you know that he was your fated mate? Meaning, did you have a feeling, or was this something he told you and it grew with time?"
Tempest’s eyebrows furrowed. "No, I absolutely had no idea. In fact, when I first started to feel as I do for him, I tried to reject it. There are just too many things that could go wrong with me having a mate from this planet. The people on my planet don’t have the same ideals about being linked to someone forever."
"What do you mean by that?"
Tempest did her best to put into words what she felt a fated mate would translate to on Earth. "Fated mates on Earth are something like soulmates. It’s a pretty idea, something little children think about. Most of the time, people have more than a few soulmates in their lifetimes."
"So you’re saying you don’t believe in fated mates?" Rynax seemed more than a little put off by that.
"No, I’m saying I wasn’t brought up to believe in it. And maybe on my planet it’s different, but I can definitely feel it here. It’s like a part of my very essence is connected with Dron. I don’t know how to explain it correctly, but I think what your kind has is very real."
Rynax leaned back in his seat as if he were taking in what she was saying.
"Now it’s my turn to ask you a personal question," Tempest continued.
"Of course."
"Do you want to find your fated mate, or are you just feeling like you are missing out on something someone else has?"
His eyes brightened a little at that question. "Are you asking me if I’m envious of Dron?"
Tempest tilted her head.
"I’m not going to sit here and pretend I understand why the moon goddess would bless him and not someone else thought to be more deserving. It’s foreign to me. All my life, I’d been told that Dron was the lowest of all the alphas because of his parentage and markings. It was said as law and not opinion. Then again, I’m finding out that most of the laws the High Royals have made are turning out to be wrong. I never thought finding a fated mate was possible, but now that I know it is, I can’t help but want that for myself. A goal, so to speak."
A goal.
Tempest thought long and hard about that.
She wished there was a way to help everyone find their fated mates. To help everyone feel the way she felt for Dron. For everyone to be happy.
It wasn’t possible. It’s not like she could create a Match.com site for the people of Thraqe. What happened between her and Dron was completely out of her control.
"How much longer do you think it’ll be until we get there?" Tempest asked, wanting to change the subject.
"It’ll be quite a while. Rynax is right. You should get some rest," Gerax interjected.
Rynax glared at the man but didn’t say anything more. In fact, Rynax closed his eyes and feigned sleep himself.
The dynamic between the two men would be a problem later on. Hopefully, it would be one that she could calm down before anything more happened.
She would try to sleep as Gerax suggested, but before she could, she looked down at her wrist device. Every day, she tried to get in contact with Dron. Maybe now that they were closer, she would have some luck. She clicked on the holographic screen and moved over to Dron’s contact information. The device buzzed a few times, but it didn’t connect.
Tempest sighed and closed out the device.
Soon, she’d be with him soon.
She had to believe that.
She had to believe that she was only a few hours away from the man that she loved, or she didn’t know how she was going to get through all of this.
She didn’t know how she was going to get the rest of them through this.
All she knew was if she didn’t get to Dron soon, there wasn’t much she would be able to do but go out of her mind.