Linette’s aggression faded away as she took in my appearance. She hadn’t fully recognized me, but she knew I’d never harm her. I was topless and barefoot, wearing nothing but the thigh-length training shorts of the Vanguard. The glimmer of approval in her eyes prompted me to extrude my wings and hold them spread wide. Her eyes followed their curve before sliding back to my face. Her mind was still confused, but her lips stretched in a discreet smile and a single word resonated in her head.
“Mine.”
I puffed out my chest and smiled in return. “Yes, my little Firefly. I am yours.”
Her smile broadened and, turning to face the wall in front of her, she resumed hoisting herself up on somewhat shaky legs. Her hands reached for the polished stone wall of the shower. Claws digging in to help steady herself, my woman slightly spread her legs and, standing in her glorious nakedness, she began spreading her wings to dry them. Long, thin, and translucent with dark ribs binding them, my mate’s wings looked as deceptively fragile as mine, but I immediately noticed the viciously sharp edges that could easily behead an enemy.
As she began to flap her wings in slow motion, Linette turned her head to the side to look at me. I could sense her seeking my approval of her—as if the opposite was even a remote possibility. I rose to my feet and came to stand right next to her. With a gentle, careful movement, I brushed her damp hair out of her face, hiding none of the emotions currently coursing through me and just how breathtaking she was to my eyes.
“You are stunning, my mate,” I said before caressing her lips with my thumb.
I reached out for one of her hands clinging to the wall and gently pulled it away. She frowned, a sliver of aggression rising within her with the beginning of a perceived threat. Her mind was still operating in primitive mode and—if she was anything like me—would continue to do so for the next twenty minutes. When I placed her hand on my right shoulder, her eyes widened with sudden understanding, and she allowed me to place her other one on my left shoulder. Turning on shaky legs, she faced me and rested her head against my chest as she continued the slow flapping of her wings.
With my arms around my woman’s waist to help hold her up, I wrapped my consciousness around Linette’s and whispered words of love and encouragement as she familiarized herself with her new body.
Chapter 15
Linette
I had a motherfucking pair of wings! The claws and the cute fangs were all gravy. Finding out I could spit the same acid Khutu had wrecked our shields with when we were escaping his dragonfly vessel was freaking badass. Knowing that my fangs could inject small amounts of a paralytic that did not numb anything the victim could feel was giving me all kinds of very naughty ideas. I intended to make good use of them in the very near future.
The change in the texture of my skin was extremely subtle but highly beneficial. I had grown paler, as milky white as Tabitha—which meant serious usage of sunscreen—but I was now able to breathe through my skin in water with high oxygen saturation. I couldn’t go in a deep dive without equipment, but if I remained relatively close to the surface or in shallow bodies of water, I could hang out there indefinitely.
As an added bonus, I was now strong enough to pick up Wrath and carry him around. I couldn’t sprint doing that—I wasn’t THAT strong—but still, it was awesome bringing him down a notch when he would call me Half-Pint. I just needed to hide that I actually loved that nickname from him because he always said it with bone-deep affection.
But the bottom line was that I had some freaking awesome wings, and I loved my new look.
After I’d recovered from my initial confusion upon emerging from my chrysalis, Rogue abused me with a never-ending series of tests. Once liberated, I gorged on a gargantuan meal before falling into a food coma—to my utter annoyance. It wasn’t until the day after that I began harassing my mate about us flying around using our true wings. While they were different from the ones we’d had in the simulation Varnog had made for me, the realistic attention to detail he’d invested in building the scenario really paid off. I took to my wings as if I’d always had them because, for the past couple of months, I’d learned how to fly the proper way, and that muscle memory remained.
The Dark Moon of Dogeer sucked the big one to the extent that the air outside was unbreathable. The biggest area for us to practice in was the massive ship hangar the Workers had been preparing for our incoming allies. But with new ships arriving regularly, my playground would be shrinking a bit more every day. Until then, we made extensive use of it at every opportunity. Reklig joined us frequently in our flying frenzy.
The Dragons were amused by me teasing them about the fact that we Scelks were now the coolest kids on the block. It was odd to now consider myself as both human and Scelk, even though I hadn’t inherited their mind-reading and mind-control abilities. However, I had changed enough to now be ‘other’ but not so much to no longer be human.
Rogue telling me apologetically that the changes could not be undone, and that I could not reproduce with a human anymore actually made me smile. I didn’t want to change back. I loved that my mate was now an intrinsic part of me, and with major benefits. As for the kids, why would I want to reproduce with a human when my mate wasn’t? There would be no other man for me but my Varnog. As long as we could have our own little brats when the time came rolling in, we were all good.
But ankle biters would not be on the menu for the foreseeable short-term.
With the bulk of our troops having finally arrived—and after some rather emotional reunions with everyone wanting to have a look at me—it was finally time to put an end to the nightmare that had been plaguing the galaxy for nearly a century. We were all packed inside the Gathering Hall the Kryptids had set up for us. As it was nowhere near big enough to accommodate the thousands of troops we had brought, the meeting’s feed was being directly broadcast to the various ships docked with our secret base, landed on the surface, or hovering in orbit.
For some silly reason, I felt particularly proud to see my Warrior being the one leading the meeting instead of Legion or Chaos. Wrath had always been content to take the back seat and play more of a support role for the others, but people needed to realize just how awesome he was. My man stood proudly next to me, waiting for our respective turns to address the troops. We would present the plan that we had ironed out with the Vanguard leaders prior to their arrival and over the two days since.
“My sisters and brothers of the Vanguard and allies from the Coalition, welcome to the Dark Moon of Dogeer,” Wrath said in a warm tone. “I am not a man of many words, so I will merely thank you for coming all the way here in the heart of Kryptid space to help us put an end to Khutu’s reign of terror. And to our Kryptid hosts, their Queens and Generals, we thank you for trusting us with this alliance. May it restore a long overdue peace.”
He turned around to activate the giant holographic projector behind him. The 3D image of a green planet appeared, rotating on itself. It zoomed in on a massive mountain range and then to an artificial crater dug in the middle of an impassable terrain.
“This is the planet Tomeka located half a day’s flight at warp speed from here,” Wrath said. “Our scouts have confirmed that it is Khutu’s current hideout. We were led there by reports from the Kryptids of multiple shipments in that sector. Our probes have indicated that a large base has been built within the crater—or at least what looks like one. Unfortunately, we are unable to get more details without our equipment malfunctioning, or various scramblers rendering it blind. It is our belief that he is unaware that we have found out where he is. This will give us a major advantage when we launch the attack tomorrow.”