Scaled Heart: A SciFi Alien Romance (Project: F5 Book 2) by Jade Waltz (ereader android .TXT) 📕

“It is a good thing we have been summoned here. We will make sure our sons get the help they need.”

It was clear these two were Xylo’s fathers, but I wasn’t going to leave them uncorrected. Their history and rank meant nothing to me, no matter how distraught they were.

“You are mistaken—and rudely so,” I snarled, not caring for once if my hair displayed my emotions for all to see. “Your assumption is insulting, and the fact you think so little of us, goes to show you’ve worked unchecked for too long. For your information—not that it matters anymore since you claim that we left your sons unsupervised—your sons’ readings are streaming on my implant with an alarm set to alert me if something goes awry.”

“Kaica—” Chyox sputtered.

“No, she is correct,” V’dim announced, glancing between me and the fathers. “I understand tensions are high—you don’t need to be sworn to our mental web for me to pick them up clearly—but to claim our team has provided ill treatment to your sons without even seeing them yourselves is not only absurd, but highly offensive. Healer Kaica was well within her rights to speak up the way she did.”

“I second Prince V’dim,” Oeta interjected, crossing her arms as her wings shuffled briskly. “I have done everything within my power to keep Destima running, including helping your sons’ nestmates, the Circuli royalty of this moon, by relieving some of the stress of managing their mental web. You do know that not only your sons’ lives are in danger, but theirs, too?”

Xylo’s fathers stared at her with mouths agape. Oeta was right; they had never considered what might happen if Selena didn’t return in time.

“Have you heard any news about Selena?” Odevlyn asked, staring directly at me. The gray-striped green Ulax male was in my implant’s database from his encounter with Selena on the space station. Kaede had been gracious enough to share the information with us over our family network. Still, Xylo’s fathers’ IDs were not in our system, since Circul was a relatively low-tech, isolated community compared to the rest of the galaxy. When I had asked them to hasten their travel plans to Destima because their sons were in jeopardy, there was no other option but to contact the planet with a written message. “My partner Suvax and I had the… pleasure of meeting your brother, Agent Kaede. If anyone has updates on our sons’ nestqueen, it would be you.”

I didn’t miss the glimpse of hope that flooded the princes’ stares, as if they thought I might have been hiding news of Selena.

“Sadly, I have no updates,” I sighed, shaking my head and watching that hope instantly fade. “My brother left shortly after he sent her away, hoping to catch her before anyone else could. The Sovereign sent my sister, B, and her assistant, Q, this morning to guide my other sisters who were already hunting for her. From what I’ve gathered, she lives but is still missing.”

“She still lives,” Z’fir muttered, closing his eyes. “I may not be able to hear her, but…” He tapped his forehead. “I feel her.”

“Have faith that the Stars will guide her back where she belongs.” Oeta snaked an arm around my waist, pulling me close. Her fuchsia wing encircled me as if to comfort me or perhaps protect me from the males surrounding us. “Kaede is alive, too… His mind is determined. All he can think about is his prey, Selena.”

“Sounds like him,” I breathed as the weight of the stress pressing down on me lifted slightly. “If anyone can find Selena, it’s him—and perhaps Z, but we all know he can’t leave his empire in its current state.”

I was glad Oeta was able to keep tabs on Kaede, even though he disconnected from our family network. There were so many questions I wanted to ask him; why he left, where he was, and whether he needed help.

“But to answer the question that many of you are wondering about,” Oeta continued. “No, my father can’t pick up Selena’s mental signature either. He reports the same things I’ve heard from Kaede.” She laughed harshly, shaking me in the process. “Kaede wasn’t as welcoming to him as he was to me; he dared to snarl at my father. I don’t know what happened between those two, but we haven’t reached out to him since. Perhaps he was getting annoyed that we both were checking on him.”

“But you will be able to tell us if he…” I looked at her, unable to finish my sentence in fear my words may come true.

“Dies? Yes.” She nodded, pursing her lips. “However, if he moves out of my range or his mental signature is somehow hidden like Selena’s, I will be as blind as you about his future.”

Silence met her.

What a welcoming party we were.

“Let’s continue this discussion in the infirmary,” Chyox announced. “You had a long journey, and I know you want to see your sons before you do anything else.”

Four

USTHU

Introductions were awkward, to say the least.

While I was used to working with the two recent female additions to the villa’s healer team, my old mentors weren’t, judging by the way they struggled through conversations with them.

Female Circuli healers were uncommon, mainly because nestqueens didn’t want to worry about accidentally leading on an injured, unmated male, or worse, offending another clan’s nestqueen by seemingly mistreating her nestmate.

I had witnessed a case where an Ulax male in his courting stage was injured and his nestqueen accused the female healer who had cared for him of trying to steal him away, acting out of jealousy that she hadn’t been able to provide her nestmate with the care he needed. Some Circuli nestqueens even threw degrading insults at female healers, claiming they would rather work than let a clan full of males fulfill their needs.

And yet, two fully capable females served on our team uncontested.

I didn’t mind that neither was Circuli. Oeta’s mental strength was probably