Pradorian Mate (21 page)

The tall Pradorian female stopped before a building that was tall in comparison to the rest. “This is one of the houses.” She looked quizzically at Sara. Without another word, Toria turned and quickly paced away.

Sara hesitated for a minute before climbing the four steps leading to the open entrance. Taking a deep breath, she entered. Small pieces of furniture were spread around the room. White, deep-brown, and orange cushions seemed to strangely match the contrast of the metallic-plated floor beneath them. Even stranger, though, was how the cushions floated above the floor, as if suspended by some invisible force.

A perfect arrangement of orange, yellow, and white flowers was held by a clear oval container that rested upon a perfectly polished table across the room. The floor beneath her feet emitted an opal light wherever she stepped, but the surface wasn’t hard like the one at the palladium. Instead, with every step she made, it felt like her feet sunk slightly into it, making her feel as if she was walking on water.

There was no one around, and she wondered if she should call out to announce her presence, when a door on the far side of the room opened, and a familiar Pradorian woman entered the sitting room.

“
Oh! Good, you have arrived.” Irina spoke as if she’d been expecting her.

As much as she liked Irina, Sara was not in the right mood or emotional state to deal with her.  “What are you doing here, Irina?”

The woman looked patiently at her before smiling gently and raising her hands as if to show off the room. “This is my house.”

Sara sighed in frustration, thinking Toria had brought her to the wrong place. “Well I’m truly sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I’ll leave.” She turned around and  moved toward the main entrance.

“Sara, wait. We need to talk. I asked Toria to bring you here.” Irina had reached Sara by the time she’d finished talking. Gently holding Sara’s hand, Irina led her back toward the living room.

“
I really don’t have time at the moment, Irina. Maybe another time.” Sara tried to pull her hand away.

The Pradorian woman regarded Sara carefully. Her deep eyes seemed to penetrate Sara’s with a pressing warning. “Sara, there will be no time to talk later. We need to talk now, or all my plans will come to naught.”

Sara looked at her with concern as she noticed the urgency in her voice. “What do you want to talk to me about that’s so important?”

Irina watched her intensely as she uttered a single word. “Archail.”

“No!” Sara almost yelled in pain. Her wounds were still fresh, and she couldn’t stand to even think about him without feeling pain. There was no way she could talk about him with someone else, let alone his sister.

“
I see you are just as stubborn as he is.” Irina’s disappointment showed in her yellow eyes.

“
I’m not like your brother in any way,” Sara stated coldly, pacing away from Irina. “He’s a deceitful liar and a hateful one at that! He used me without any regard as to how he would hurt me.”

“
You love him, don’t you?” Irina stated more than asked as she made eye contact.

Sara felt her soul had been opened for everyone to see, and unable to stand it anymore, she once more turned to leave the house.

“Sara, what would you do if you knew he loved you as well?” Irina called after her, waiting when she halted a few feet from the exit.

Sara turned around. Her voice cut like ice. “He doesn’t.” Sara’s mask broke at the admittance, and pain coursed through her.

“On the contrary, Sara, he does. He loves you much more than he does himself. He loves you enough to let you go, even though doing so means torture for the rest of his unending life.” Irina spoke with more urgency.

“
How can you be so sure?” Sara struggled to ignore the hard, unrelenting beat of her heart.

“
Because I know him.”

“
It isn’t enough,” Sara stated coldly. “Did he tell you he loves me?”

“
No, not in those exact words,” Irina admitted.

“
Then this conversation is meaningless.”

“
No!  I can prove it. I can prove to you that he loves you.”

“
How?”  

Irina tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “First of all, think carefully about his words to you last night. In all the things he told you, did he ever deny his feelings for you?”

Sara backed away in pain as she recalled the previous night. “I… I cannot do this, Irina. I’m sorry.”

“
Yes, you can. Try to remember, Sara. This is very important.”

“
He…he said it made no difference how he felt,” Sara almost whispered, as she recalled the scene in her mind.

“
Yes, that sounds like Archail.” Irina sighed. “What else did he tell you?”

“
He said he had no right to want me and that he never had,” Sara recounted, feeling a trembling sensation run down her spine again.

“
Don’t you see, Sara?” Irina said softly now. “He never once denied his feelings for you in the words he spoke. He merely admitted that even though he has feelings for you, he cannot allow himself to give in to them.”

“
That’s not all he said, Irina.” A small ray of hope had started to shine within the depths of her soul.

“
What else then?” Irina inquired patiently.

“
He said he was to be life-mated with another.” Sara tried to sound calm and collected, but the trembling in her voice betrayed her true feelings.

“
Yes, I’ve known this for a very long time now. Regardless, I can prove to you, beyond any doubt, that Archail loves you. Are you willing to listen to me now?”

Sara moved to one of the floating cushions and sat down cautiously. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I want to see my brother happy with the one he loves,” Irina stated without a moment’s hesitation and moved to sit on the cushion opposite Sara. “My dear, sweet Sara, if you only knew what Archail has done for you, you would not doubt his love either,” Irina said with certainty.

At that moment, soft steps sounded outside the entrance of the house and both women turned in unison to see who was approaching. They stared at a tall Pradorian male who was looking back at them.

Irina was the first of the three to break the awkward silence. “You took your time getting here.”

The Pradorian male took one tentative step, watching both of them cautiously. “You asked me to come at this time.”

“Oh yes, I did,” Irina said, as if just remembering.

“
What is it you want, Irina?” the male asked coldly. He looked again at Sara as if he was annoyed by her presence.

“
What
I
want is for you to tell her exactly what you said to me.”

Chapter 17

The palladium overflowed with Pradorians, and even the main entrance to the great hall was congested. Women from Earth were also there, all dressed in colorful Pradorian gowns, and one after another, they moved up the line leading to a giant table. At this table, a particularly large Pradorian held a diamond-shaped syringe. As each Earth woman approached, he would take her hand and inject the grey liquid into the veins of her arm. The crowd buzzed around the women who descended the steps of the platform after they had been injected.

Archail observed the proceeding females as he stood behind the large table, his face an expressionless mask. He recalled the time when he had returned to the Palladium three moon risings ago. His thoughts were troubled and filled with painful memories. Sara was his main concern, and he recalled their last conversation. The memory of her frozen expression when he had informed her of his preordained life-mating still hurt. In a moment of weakness, he had wanted to go once more to her and tell her his true feelings and how they would never change. He had walked decisively in long, fast strides toward the bedroom, but on opening the door, he found an empty room. Sara was gone. It was Toria who later informed him that she had left earlier that morning. Sara had said she would stay at one of the homes that had been built for her kind.

In a fleeting moment of insanity, Archail considered going after her, but then he remembered the reality of the situation. He wasn’t free to offer her anything other than pain and disappointment. Stopping himself in his tracks, Archail decided Sara had done the right thing by leaving. It was for the best after all, although he couldn’t suppress the pang of pain in his chest at the thought.

Now he needed to witness the ceremony, and so he waited, his heart thudding painfully against his ribs, in anticipation of seeing Sara one more time.

The procession before him continued. He watched in silence as the last woman in line approached the table. Archail waited in agony to see Sara, but to his dismay, she never appeared. He remained standing as the male Pradorian who was administering the injections turned and looked at him questioningly. “My great Vasil, we are finished.”

Archail remained frozen in place on hearing his words, certain the other Pradorian was mistaken. “But there is one more.”

“No, my Vasil, that was the last of them.” The male Pradorian seemed confused by his leader’s words.

“
That is not possible.” Fear grew within him. He turned around toward the crowd standing to the left of the platform, desperately searching for Sara. He was ready to leave the platform and go search for her when the crowd at the entrance began to whisper among themselves. They then parted, separating as if to let something pass. Five council members entered followed by a petite figure that was covered from head to toe.

Archail knew what was coming. He considered the irony of the situation as he looked at his preordained life mate. She had always been small by Pradorian standards, and had the situation been different, the council would have never approved of him mating with such an untypical female.

The council’s female member, known as Bretat, led the contingent steadily up the platform. Glancing at Archail, she nodded toward him in salutation before turning to the crowd of Pradorians. She spoke in a loud welcoming voice. “Today is a historic dawn for Prador, because we not only welcome a worthy species among us, but it is also the day when our great Vasil will accept his chosen life mate.”

A massive roar sounded from the crowd at the Pradorian woman’s words, and low growls could be heard all around the room from the male Pradorians showing respect and approval for their leader. Bretat lifted her covered hands from the long silver sleeves of her ceremonial robe and signaled for everyone to quiet. “This brave woman has consented to take part in our testing ceremony and prove herself worthy of standing as our leader next to our Vasil. She has proven her leadership qualities to the council already, and now she will prove her strength to be equal as well. I now ask our great Vasil to escort us to the chamber of transition where we will witness his life mate’s strength, as our tradition demands.”

Archail’s face had become a mask of stone as he listened to Bretat’s speech, but his mind constantly wondered why Sara had not come to receive the immortality serum.
What in Prador had happened to her?

He approached Bretat. His eyes betrayed nothing of his agonizing thoughts as he leaned close to the Pradorian councilor and whispered, “I will need some time before we start.”

Bretat’s cold, golden stare informed him of her denial before she even spoke. “My Vasil, if you require time, you may take it after the test of courage has been completed.” Her voice had come out low, and the warning hidden behind it did not escape him.

Archail was ready to argue the matter with her, but two male council members then approached and positioned themselves on either side of him, proclaiming to his people that the ceremonial trial of his life mate was about to begin. Left without a choice and feeling like a death-claimed man, he led the party toward the open door leading to the Palladium’s great hall.

The small female was covered with a silver hooded veil that hid her face from all who watched. It was embroidered with small, sparkling white stones, and a long-sleeved silver robe covered her entire body, even her hands. She took small, careful steps as she followed behind the Pradorian group, trying not to trip over the lengthy robe that touched the floor. The robe displayed the three Pradorian moons, and it spread around her feet, ending in a long trail that slid behind her over the white-tiled floor.

Following behind, Dar escorted Irina. Both were dressed in ritual silver-black outfits that matched the colors that Archail and his chosen mate wore. They were to be witnesses to the female’s bravery so they could verify it for the Pradorian crowd who would be waiting for the announcement.

In the long Palladium corridor, the leading group halted before the black door that had been kept locked all this time only to be opened now for the ceremony. The heavy door creaked and groaned in protest as the inside of the room was slowly revealed.

A trumpeting sound blasted, informing the crowd of the group’s entry into the transition chamber, and all fell silent within the great hall in anticipation.