“I love you so much,” she whispered as tears streamed down her cheeks. “You gave me life, but I will only bring you death. You cannot stop them with me. This is the only way, my love.”
I tried to scream, but my mouth wouldn’t move. Nothing worked on my body. Even gravity didn’t seem to affect me since I was poised in mid off-balance run.
Eve reached up and touched the button for the airlock, and the door slid open.
I tried to scream again, but her powers were too strong.
“No,” she answered the question in my mind. “We cannot fight them when I am one of them. They got in our minds through me. You are in danger because of me. You are the only one who can stop them. Good bye, my love.”
Eve took a quick step toward the door, and I felt my heart stop beating. Thousands of emotions slammed into me, and I pushed against her power with every gram of muscle I possessed, and every part of my soul.
I loved Eve. I needed her. She needed me. The only reason I lived was because of her. The only reason she lived was because of me.
I wasn’t going to let her kill herself to protect me.
I protected my women.
I was Tiger.
I felt her power break around me, and then I had my arms wrapped around her bare shoulders. I yanked her away from the airlock violently and then pushed away with all the strength in my legs. We slid across the cold metal floor, and I squeezed her to my chest so that she couldn’t escape.
Then we lay still for a moment.
“I began with you, and I will end with you by my side,” I whispered. “Those were my vows to you.”
Eve didn’t speak, but her body began to shake, and her warm tears dripped onto my bare chest like a tropical rain.
“I remember,” she finally whispered.
“And you said that nothing would stand in our way as long as we were together. ‘Our love will lead us, and it will not allow us to be defeated,’ is what you vowed.”
“Yes,” she sobbed.
“So let our love lead us here,” I whispered as I stroked her hair. “Let it defend us from harm. We are powerful together. They won’t defeat us. They can’t. As long as we are together.”
“But--”
“No,” I interrupted her. “It isn’t just me. It is Zea, Paula, Kasta, Madalena, Sivaha, Aasne, and Elana. We all need you. The other women who Elaka Nota experimented on need you. The galaxy needs you. You said that we owed them. We haven’t finished paying our debt. We haven’t finished what we started that day. They can try to attack us again through you, and we’ll win again. As long as we are together.”
Eve continued to cry, and I saw my other wives standing a respectful distance away. They had to guess what was going on, and I gave them a quick nod before turning my mouth down to Eve’s ear.
“You are the strongest woman I know. You think of everyone else before yourself, but this isn’t the answer. The answer is that we get stronger, and we figure out how to use this against them. The answer is that we do this together.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, my love, you are right. I just never want to cause you to be hurt, and--”
“Shhh,” I said as I hugged her tighter against me. “I know what you were thinking, but don’t think that anymore. We can fight them. Please, Eve. Let’s fight them. We’ll beat them in space around Uraniel. We’ll find every planet they are on and beat them there. We’ll fight them in our dreams and win every time. They serve evil and darkness, but we serve love and light.”
“Yes,” she gasped, and then she leaned her mouth up to kiss me. It was soft and sweet at first, but then her kiss became more passionate. When our lips finally parted she let out a light laugh and then leaned her head against my chest again. I felt her body relax against me, and I knew that it was over.
“I am quite the fool,” she sighed.
“Nope,” I chuckled. “You just want to save the people you love. You know that I understand you.”
“Yes,” she whispered, “you always have.”
“Can you stand?” I asked. “Our friends and lovers want to know we are okay.”
“Yes,” Eve sniffled and then wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.
She slid off my chest, and I stood before helping her to her feet. She wiped her face a few more times with the back of her hand, let out a grateful laugh, and then sighed when I wrapped my arm around her slender shoulders.
Then we walked together across the hold toward my wives.
None of them spoke, but Zea was the first one to step forward and embrace Eve. The two of them kissed passionately, and then the blonde hacker kissed me with the same intensity while Paula and Kasta hugged Eve. A few minutes later we had all finished embracing each other, and the group of wonderful women turned their attention to me.
“How long have we been unconscious?” I asked Kasta.
“Seventy-seven hours and thirty-four minutes,” she answered.
“Alright,” I growled as I wiped my hand over my face. “You’ve all probably guessed that our enemies have a way to attack me through Eve now that we are bonded. It was one of those dreamscapes again. Eve and I defeated the woman that seems to be the cause of these attacks, but I don’t know if she is dead or if I just ejected her from the dream.”
“I doubt that she is dead,” Eve answered. “She seemed much less powerful than the one we fought on Uraniel though. The male was able to paralyze all of us, but she used none of her magic on us, and her physical strength was about equal to mine.
“She might try to attack us again,” I said, “or she might not. Either way, we must be prepared. I just don’t know how to do that.”
“There might be someone who could help us,” Eve said, but even as she spoke, her lips curled into a frown.
“Uhh, no fucking way,” Zea sighed. “Not that asshole.”
“Who?” Elana asked.
“Yu,” Eve answered. “I dislike the man, but he said that I would betray you, and I… well…”
“You did not betray me,” I growled. “You didn’t know this would happen.”
“Still,” Eve said. “He may know how to better prepare against them. He is a terrible man, but we fight the same enemy.”
“I’ll think about it,” I grunted, but the words tasted sour in my mouth. “We need to move forward with the plan to unite the clans. Have you all done any research?”
“Yes,” Elana said after she cleared her throat. She glanced at Madalena and Sivaha and then continued when both of them nodded at her. “We have combed through the Jotnar information data points that we have between the four clans which are now Vaish. We believe that there is one mining planet which will serve our purposes: Nsling -24 - f. It is a Goldilocks planet that never needed terraforming, but the deposits of platinum and rhodium are slightly higher than average. It is one of Jotnar’s older mining settlements, and that could mean that security is either relaxed or tighter, but our last piece of intel said that they do accept trade ships landing on the planet, and they also make direct shipments to the Jotnar home sector.”
“It isn’t much to go on,” Sivaha filled in. “The data is somewhat old, and there is a chance that they either won’t let you land, or they will try to attack you as soon as you exit warpdrive, but it is the most likely hole in their defensive network.”
“There are too many variables to the plan,” Madalena said. “I am uncomfortable with the risks.”
“I’m gonna agree with Madalena for once,” Zea said. “We have to find a random ship. Then we have to fly it to this old mining colony. Then they have to let us land. Then we have to find a way to get on one of their ships that is making a delivery to the Jotnar sector. Then we’ll need to figure out how to get on the battle fortress. Then we are going to have to find King Uffe. Then kill him. There are way too many ‘if’s’, ‘buts’, and ‘this could all go sideways’ parts to the plan.”
“The other plan puts millions of my people and the galaxy at risk,” I said. “We have had tougher missions and emerged victorious.”