Slag: Book Four in the Galaxy Pirates Alien Abduction Romance Series (Shifter) Alana Khan (love letters to the dead .txt) 📖

“I got no sleep last night,” I confess, thinking that as soon as we’re in our cabin I want to take my beautiful mate to bed.

Her gray eyes sparkle at me, one eyebrow lifting as if I told a little joke. She can’t wait to join me.

A few minutes later, I’m clean and waiting on the bed for her as she leaves the shower. I strain to hear what she’s saying as she talks to herself. Did I hear her correctly?

“What are you saying, mate?” I’m so interested I leave my spot on the bed and pad into the bathroom.

“I’m just scolding myself.”

“You’re perfect. What could you possibly be scolding yourself for?” I’m interested, but I also want her to repeat what I think I just heard her say. A strange buzzing sensation flies through my body along with a feeling of anticipation that isn’t sexual. I can’t explain it.

“I was telling myself that was a little too much excitement and wondering if my heart can handle pulling another caper in the future.”

“Tell me, mate,” I coax, my lips nibbling the lobe of her ear, “please tell me exactly what you just said.”

“You want a direct quote?” Her hand splays across my chest and she nips my collarbone.

“Yes. Exact.”

“I said, ‘Riding Oz through the palace almost got you killed. Doing that again would be crazy, KJ’.”

I press her hand harder against my chest with one hand while my other hand tips her beautiful head so I can look into her eyes.

“Say it again,” I demand. I didn’t mean to be harsh, but by the look on her face, I was.

“I called myself crazy.”

“No. Your name.”

Her eyes shift to the right as if she’s replaying her words in her head.

“Kylie? I go by KJ, but it’s short for Kylie Jean. I always knew I was in big trouble for something I had done when my mother called me by my full name. Sometimes I scold myself as Kylie.”

Something cracks open inside my heart. I know instantly what it is. The chains of sickness and confusion and hatred that bound my golden self inside my heart unfold and open in a burst of golden light that is warm and healing and fills my chest with peace.

The pain of toiling in the mines for a decade locked my true self inside, hidden deeper and deeper over the years, replaced by a body that could tolerate the heat and radiation and physical pain and a heart that was just as impervious.

The young male from To’mah got lost deep inside, hiding from the misery, and was replaced by Slag. After all those years, he was buried too deep to find his way out of the maze. He needed to hear the magic words of the high priest, spoken from Kai-Lee’s own lips before he could break the chains and come back. To me. For me. For all of us.

Kai-Lee. It was the word the high priest used to awaken my shifter abilities. She is my good luck, my charm, my talisman, my magic. When he said the name, did the priest know she’s a person? That I’d find her and fall in love with her? That she would bring me out of the darkness and into the light? The Gods surely knew.

“A’Zul?” Kai-Lee says, her eyes wide in wonder as my shape shimmers and the true A’Zul emerges from Slag’s green form.

To make certain I’m not dreaming, I glance into the mirror and see myself—my true self.

“You freed me, Kai-Lee,” I tell her, beaming in happiness.

“The Greek God of the Sun,” she says on a sigh.

I don’t know what that means, but she’s happy, which makes me happy.

KJ

Being this close to A’Zul in his true form reminds me of Daedalus and Icarus of ancient lore who flew too close to the sun. My heart stutters with overwhelm and my spirit fills with awe as I take in his beauty.

He’s tall and muscular, his body is the perfect shape of wide shoulders and slim hips. But his face. It’s perfection personified with his eyes the blue of the inside of a flame. His lips are tipped in happiness.

My mind tells me my beloved green A’Zul is inside that gorgeous body, but I feel shy. I don’t really know this Greek God.

He leans to kiss me, but pulls back when he feels me stiffen.

“You said you would like me in this form, Kai-Lee.” He tips his head to the side and I marvel again at how handsome he is.

“My head knows you’re my A’Zul, but my heart . . .”

He sweeps me into his arms, sits on the edge of the bed, and rocks me. It instantly soothes me, reminding me of his kindness that second night in the mine.

“I’m the same male who fought for you in the mines and pleasured you in the cave when your body demanded it. I flew you to safety from Daneur Khour, and carried you on my back out of King Gollub’s palace.”

I nod. “I know, it’s just . . . I’ll need some time.”

He doesn’t loosen his grip as he leans to the bedside table and extracts something from the drawer.

“Lean your head on my chest and close your eyes, my Kai-Lee,” his deep voice rumbles in my ear.

I chant to myself that this is the male I’ve fallen in love with, that the heart beating inside his golden chest belongs to my A’Zul.

And then I hear the flute. The beautiful strains of the flute that lilt and soar and come back for soft landings. The flute that plays for me now, just as it played to allay my fears in the mines and the cave. It’s played by the lips that have