Wrong Alien (TerraMates Book 6) (35 page)

A warm hand squeezed his, and he looked over at Mia, who was
smiling at him.

"You can do this," she whispered. "They've
been waiting for you."

"I knew I was right about her," Abon said with a
smile and Mia huffed.

"Yeah well. We'll talk about that later. Go on,
Asher."

With them behind him, his confidence flared. Asher straightened
up, rolling his shoulders back and held his head up high and proud. He kept his
grip on Mia's hand, not wanting to let go of her for a second.

"I am home," he said, and his voice rang out in
the tunnels, echoing and reverberating all around. "I am home, and I take
my place as King of my people."

For a moment nothing happened. His voice died away, and he
bit his lip, barely daring to breathe. Then, like a great ripple, the people
shuddered, their chests heaved and they sucked in the first deep breaths they
had taken in years. Some of them coughed and groaned, and the small children
started to cry, confused and disoriented.

In front of Asher, his mother stirred. Color returned  to
her cheeks and she blinked open her eyes slowly, glancing around. When she
looked at Asher, she smiled, and he let out a breath. Even though it had been
years, and he was a man now, she knew him.

"My son," she said, holding a hand out to him.

Asher helped her up to her feet, letting go of Mia's hand to
throw both arms around his mother. She sobbed against his shoulder and then
pulled back, hands cupping his face. "My boy. My
kithroi.
You've grown
so much, I barely recognize you."

There was a sadness in her eyes, and Asher knew that the
fact that she hadn't gotten to see him grow up was hard for her. "It's still
me, Mother," he murmured to her. He was taller than she was now, by a full
head, and he kissed her forehead and pulled her back into his arms. "It's still
me, and I'm home now."

And that was all that mattered.

Clearly some of the Nalyi knew about the legend, because the
older ones were explaining to the children what had happened. All around them,
people were hugging their loved ones and crying, rejoicing the fact that they
were alive.

Abon moved among them, soothing and offering information to
fill in any gaps in their knowledge. Whenever someone called him ‘your Majesty'
he shook his head and pointed to his nephew. "The Nalyi have a new king now.
You woke for him, not for me."

Almost as one, the people looked at Asher. He could feel
their eyes on him, and he blushed, but stood there with one arm around his
mother. "I am your king," he said, trying hard not to let his voice waver. "I
know I was just a little boy when you went to sleep and that there's still a
lot for me to learn, but I want to learn it all. I want us to be great again.
We can rebuild and get stronger. We can learn how to fight and how to craft. We
can keep this from ever happening again."

"King Asher," someone in the middle of the crowd said and
then the cry was taken up, bouncing off the sloped tunnel walls until it was
ringing in Asher's ears.

"King Asher! Long live King Asher!" The people went to their
knees, kneeling in front of their new king with their heads bowed, and Asher
was just about floored.

He caught Mia trying to kneel to him as well, and caught her
hand, drawing her up and pulling her close. "Not you," he murmured. "You don't
bow to me."

"I'm not your queen yet," she pointed out softly, and the
word ‘yet' made hope claw at him.

"Doesn't matter. You're not one of my subjects. You're more
than that." And then, not caring who saw it, he kissed her right then and
there.

There was going to be a lot of work to do before things were
settled. Homes needed to be rebuilt, the palace needed to be repaired, patrols
needed to be sent out because the Shaddoc weren't going to go away just because
there was a new king. Hopefully they would leave Earth alone now that Abon was
back where he belonged, and if it came to fighting again, which it likely
would, Asher would deal with that.

He already had ideas for how to make the Nalyi stronger. How
to combine the old ways of fighting and conquering with the ways of being peace
loving and focused on creation. He wouldn't have his people defenseless.

Mia leaned against him as the people rose and began forming
a line to get out of the tunnels. "Not bad, your Majesty," she teased with a
smile, and he smiled back.

Not bad at all.

Epilogue

"Oh my god,
yes,
" Mia cried as she arched her back,
fingers tangled in the sheets under them. She was on her hands and knees on the
bed (well, really her elbows and knees), back arched and bowed inward while
Asher knelt behind her, hands on her hips as he pushed in and in, driving her
crazy.

They were in their bedroom in the newly rebuilt palace, and
this was the first time in weeks that they'd been able to be alone together
like this for more than five minutes or when they weren't both sleeping.

In the months since Asher had returned to the Nalyi, there
had been plenty to do. The palace had to be repaired and most of the buildings
had to be rebuilt. They'd had to find allies from other clans to come and teach
the Nalyi how to defend themselves properly, and as the King, Asher had been at
the forefront of it all.

He'd been learning and working and doing as much work as
anyone else, and Mia was terribly proud of him.

For her part, she'd had a lot to learn as well. She'd been
eagerly accepted by the people once they say how crazy their King was about
her, and though she hadn't yet become queen or even really brought the topic up
again, it was well established that she was Asher's partner.

People came to her with their questions and their gripes,
and Mia tried to be open and understanding as she helped as best she could.
After all, she knew better than most how it felt to be ignored and dismissed,
and she never wanted anyone to feel like that because of her.

Asher's mother had taken her under her wing, and the two
could often be found conferring about something or just walking and talking
together, and after five months of this, Mia found herself thinking fondly of
the woman.

She also found herself thinking of her own parents.

She could only assume that by then they'd found her note,
and she could just imagine how they'd react to it. Mia had told them not to
look for her and that more than likely she wasn't coming back. Part of her
wished she could have been there to see the look on their faces when they found
her note, but a much bigger part of her was glad to be done with it.

This new phase of her life felt so good, so right for her,
and she was happier now than she'd ever been.

The Shaddoc were still a present threat, but Asher said that
they were definitely better equipped to deal with them now than they ever had
been, and that having the king back here would make them leave Earth alone.

It wasn't an ending to the conflict, but it was a good
start.

Things were bigger, brighter and better than they had been,
and everyone had pitched in to make it so. It was easy to see the pride on the
people's faces as they went about their days, reclaiming the lives that had
been stolen from them.

Mia was proud to be a part of it herself.

"Creators, you feel so good," Asher panted in her ear,
breath hot on her skin as he moved inside of her, draped over her back. "Missed
you so much. So much."

"
Yes
," she gasped, working her hips in time with his.
"God, can't go this long again. I'm so. So close."

She tipped over the edge and into her orgasm with a cry that
she tried to muffle in the pillows, and from the way his hips were speeding up,
she could tell that Asher was right there with her.

He groaned her name and then slumped over her back, panting
hard.

For a moment they stayed like that, and then they were
separating, Asher pulling out so that Mia could flop to the bed. He laid down
next to her, fingers stroking through her hair as they both regained their
breath.

"If only every council meeting could end like that," he
teased with a grin, and she laughed.

"If only. It was a productive one, this time, though. So you
really can't complain."

His golden eyes were warm as they held hers, and he stroked
her hair behind her ear. "No, I really can't. I wouldn't dream of it."

In a few hours, they would have to go to dinner and report
on what had been done in the last couple of weeks. In the morning, there would
be more lessons, more work to be done, more people to speak to.

For the moment, though, there was just this. Mia and the
king she had somehow managed to snare and the warmth that built in her chest
whenever she looked at him.

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