Saving Verakko: The Clecanian Series Book 3 by Victoria Aveline (books to read for teens TXT) 📕

Alice, the two humans he knew who had relationships like that, were mated. For another, it was only two humans. He couldn’t assume they all thought the same. Lily herself had told him she didn’t want to get married. Where did that leave him? Marriage was all he had to offer, and he couldn’t even offer that at the moment.

His mind kept revolving around the same problem, always leading back to the same disheartening conclusion. He couldn’t have her. At least not for a long while.

He’d signed a marriage contract. If he backed out, he’d be punished. Sent away to work on a Clecanian space barge, transporting goods to and fro. The length of his off-world assignment would be dictated by the spurned female and local authorities.

How severe would Ziritha be? She was a reasonable female, but she was also in the public eye, and it’d color Mithrandirian’s perception of her if she were slighted by a male and then went easy on him during sentencing. He’d likely be sent away for years.

Aside from his off-world service, the real issue arose from city laws surrounding a breached marriage contract. If he broke his agreement without cause, he would never be eligible for marriage again. The Tremantian Queen had been kind to the humans, allowing them to not participate in the marriage ceremony unless they chose to, but he wasn’t so sure his people would feel the same. And he was only eligible for marriage with a citizen of his own city. If he led Lily to anywhere but Mithrandir, she would be out of his reach entirely.

But was taking her to his home too risky? Lily didn’t want to get married, yet they had the right to force her to participate. The question was, would they? And if they did, would he be able to handle watching her with another male? The throb of his fangs said no.

Maybe he could convince his city to give her enough time to acclimate to the planet before negotiating a marriage. That way, he’d be done with his marriage by the time she chose someone, and she could choose him.

He peered over to her. Her gaze was trained on the river and surrounding land, and her eyes were squinted so tightly he could barely make out any white or iris at all. It wouldn’t surprise him to learn she’d expect her unwavering loyalty to be returned in a relationship. He ground his jaw and scanned the clear blue sky again. She won’t wait.

There was one other possibility, but it was out of his control. If he recognized her as his mate, everything else would work out. Even a change of his eyes indicating a recognition of a potential mate was enough to be released from a marriage contract with no consequences. He sighed, trying to stifle the hope that slithered into his chest. To have a mate? To never have to enter into temporary marriages? It’d been a fantasy out of reach to Clecanians for centuries before the humans had appeared and turned their world upside down.

He glanced toward her again, and his heart constricted, as it had begun to do whenever he looked at her. He needed to learn more about her life and human courting in general, then go from there.

Lily’s eyes widened a moment before she sprinted away from the tree line. Verakko’s gaze shot to the sky and he bolted after her. “Lily, that’s it! We are traveling in the forest. That was my last warn—”

She halted at the edge of the river and removed her shoes. She began to lift the corner of her top over her head, but he reached her just in time, halting her movements. Hints of her flesh were enough. Seeing her clothed only in her thin undergarments in the daylight might be his undoing.

“Let go,” she said, struggling in his grip. Her eyes never strayed from a spot across the river. Verakko followed her gaze, and to his utter shock saw what looked unmistakably like a small, torn piece of fabric, waving in the wind like a flag.

He swayed without thinking. “Let me go across.” The current seemed to be calmer here, as the land had leveled out, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

She blinked up at him, unaffected, but nodded. “Hurry.”

Undressing fully, he held out his clothes to Lily and smirked at her turned head and crossed arms. He pulled at her hands, drawing her attention, and dropped the clothing into her arms. Her unblinking stare stayed glued to his face. “I don’t mind you looking.” He grinned.

She bit her lip to keep from smiling. “Just hurry, please.”

He let out a noncommittal grunt, then waded into the water. When he reached the other side, he examined the small flag propped into the crevice of a tree, amazed.

“What is it?” Lily called from across the river; the hope in her voice was like a living thing.

He hadn’t done anything at all to cause it, but the fact that he’d be the one to deliver such good news to her made him happier than he could remember. “Someone made it, and there’s writing.”

Lily sank to her knees, tears of relief springing from her eyes. Her smile was wider than he’d ever seen it, and she let out a sob, then another. He grabbed the flag and the flat log with the foreign, carved writing, also wedged into the tree, and waded back over to her.

He couldn’t seem to cut through the chest-high water fast enough. When he finally reached the shore, he plopped down next to her, uncaring about his current state of dress, and pulled her into his arms. She dropped his clothes onto his lap, then reached over to the log and read the jagged, carved symbols silently.

“What does it say?”

“It says, ‘Alive. Hit my head. This sucks.