Marriage Contract with my Cursed Alien Mate

Chapter 197: Chapter 197

Light filtered into Tempest’s eyes.

Softly at first and glowing more and more until she could focus on her surroundings.

She was outside in the desert, except it wasn’t nearly as hot as it once had been.

She stretched her arms and realized that nothing hurt, in fact, it felt as if she had just finished a full-body massage. Everything was perfect.

"I was waiting for you to get here." Dron whispered from right next to her as he nuzzled against her neck.

It was only then that Tempest realized that she was actually still sleeping. They were in one of those shared dreams that they had whenever they connected.

"Best dream ever." Tempest mumbled as she turned into Dron’s embrace and pressed her lips against his. They stayed touching each other for a long while until Tempest sighed and turned so that she could cuddle up against him.

"I feel like there is so much that I’ve missed. There never seems to be enough time."

Dron held her tightly as they lay back against a rock and simply took in the landscape.

"There’s more than enough time now. No one here to disturb us. Our secret place." He rubbed the pads of his fingers up and down her arm.

He was absolutely right. Right then, the dream world would probably be the only time that they get to themselves for a long while.

"You’re right, so tell me what’s happened. I want to know all about your journey." Tempest turned slightly so she could look into his face.

"There’s not really much to tell. It was long and hard, but I got to you."

"True, but that wasn’t the mission, was it?" Tempest chuckled and pushed him gently.

"No, it definitely didn’t start out that way, but it was always going to end that way. Me finding a way back to you."

The words hit Tempest like a Mack truck. There truly wasn’t anything that was going to stand in Dron’s way when it came to him finding her.

If it were any other man saying something like that, she’d think it was creepy, but it was Dron. When the words came from him, they were reassuring.

"What about the soldiers that you have with you? You didn’t leave Thraqe with them."

"No, My Senior Mark Chief designated me leader of that group. There were only a few of us to start with but slowly over our travels we picked up more. There was a small settlement that we passed, well actually they snatched us up on our travels. It’s lead by a woman named Tine. I think you’ll like her." Dron nodded his head.

"Oh, and why is that?" For the briefest of seconds, there was a flare of jealousy raging in Tempest’s gut. Who the hell was this woman that he thought she would like.

Sam thought she would like a whole lot of women but it had always been clear to her that the women were only after Sam in a sexual manner.

Tempest shook the thought out of her head. Dron wasn’t anything like Sam. He’d shown that to her on more than one occassion.

"Well, she’s nothing like the omegas that are in Thraqe. She’s a little aggressive."

"Harsh? Yeah, sounds like a woman I would definitely get along with." Tempest chuckled and waited for him to continue.

"Yeah. That’s what I thought. Anyway, she’s set up a settlement for all those who basically have no where else to go. There are people from Skoq there. People from Thraqe."

"So it’s like a refuge?" Tempest perked up at that. She thought that the human settlement was the only of it’s kind but if there were others than that meant there could be more still. Tempest briefly wondered how many settlements around Skoq there truly were and how many of them had people in them that would help their cause?

"Yes, exactly. Unfortunately, they didn’t have much of a military so it’ll only be a matter of time before the settlement is wiped off the map." Dron sighed and looked down.

"Oh, no. That’s horrible. Isn’t there something that we can do?"

"She’s already asked." Dron mumbled.

"What do you mean she’s already asked?"

"I mean as part of the deal for letting me leave the settlement and for giving me resources she wants me and you to come back and help her train the people in her settlement. She wants to join up and go after the high royals."

Tempest shook her head in disbelief, "Wow, talk about one hell of a deal. You know what I don’t get... if there are so many people who don’t like the high royals and think they could be doing better than why has it taken you and I to say something before anyone else will try to take them down."

"It’s tradition. No one wants to go against generations of people who are supposed to be in charge. It’s been part of our culture for so long, I’m not sure anyone thought there ever was another option."

"Yeah, I get that but there had to have been something that came before this? A different people?"

Dron didn’t answer her right away.

Tempest felt him shift against her, his fingers stopping their slow path up and down her arm. His attention moved away from her and out toward the desert in front of them. It was strange watching him think about something that seemed so simple to her. There had to have been someone before the High Royals. Governments didn’t just appear out of thin air. Even monarchies had beginnings. Someone had to be the first person to declare themselves king, queen, emperor, or whatever the hell the people on Ustea wanted to call themselves.

"There were others," Dron finally said.

Tempest perked up immediately. "I knew it."

Dron glanced down at her, his lips twitching slightly before his attention returned to the horizon. "It was a very long time ago. So long ago that most of what we know is passed down through old records and teachings. There were other families that held power. One family in particular was considered Royal long before the families that rule Thraqe now."

Tempest pushed herself up slightly.

That was interesting.

More than interesting.

It was the kind of information she couldn’t believe no one had mentioned before.

"What happened to them?"

"They lost their position."

"That sounds suspiciously simple."

Dron shrugged. "Because that is how it was taught to us. Their influence weakened. Other families became stronger. There were disagreements over how Thraqe should be governed, then there was fighting. By the time it ended, the families we recognize as the High Royals had control."

Tempest stared at him. "So they were overthrown."

Dron’s brow furrowed.

"I suppose that would be your word for it."

"Usurped would be another."

Dron gave her a questioning look.

"Someone else had the throne. The people in charge now took it from them."

Dron was quiet again.

Tempest could practically see him going through everything he had ever been taught and looking at it from a different direction. She was beginning to realize how much of Dron’s understanding of his own world had been built around simply accepting things because they had always been that way. It wasn’t stupidity. Tempest had done the same thing on Earth. There were probably a thousand things about her own government, history and culture that she had never bothered questioning because they didn’t directly affect her.

Until something did.

Then suddenly every answer created ten more questions.

"There are old stories about them," Dron continued. "Not many. Most are considered legends now. Some say the old Royal family became weak. Others say they became too sympathetic to the lower classes and allowed disorder to spread. I remember being taught that Thraqe nearly collapsed because they did not have the strength to maintain control."

"And who taught everyone that?"

Dron looked at her.

Tempest raised her eyebrows.

"The people who replaced them?"

Dron slowly nodded.

"Well, that doesn’t sound biased at all."

A low chuckle escaped him.

Tempest settled against him again, but her mind was racing now. If the High Royals hadn’t always been the High Royals, then their position wasn’t some sacred thing ordained by the Moon Goddess. They were just people whose ancestors had won.

That changed things.

At least it did for Tempest.

Apparently, Dron was coming to the same realization.

"There was something else that changed," he said after a moment.

"What?"

"The markings."

Tempest immediately looked at his arms.

The black markings were there even in the dream. She wasn’t sure why that surprised her. The entire place existed somewhere between their minds, so she supposed Dron saw himself with the markings deeply enough that even his subconscious carried them.

"What about them?"

"Gold and silver markings are associated with the High Royals now. The brighter the markings, the more important the bloodline is believed to be."

"Yeah, I picked up on that."

"It wasn’t always that way."

Tempest sat up again.

Dron’s expression had become more serious.

"Generations ago, gold and silver markings were considered lower markings."

Tempest blinked.

"Wait. What?"

"They were common among laborers and families without much standing. At least according to some of the oldest records. The colors that are praised now were not always considered desirable."

Tempest stared at him.

Her gaze immediately dropped to his arm again.

"And black?"

Dron shook his head. "I don’t know."

That wasn’t the answer she expected.

"You don’t know?"

"There are gaps. Much of the oldest information is incomplete. Some of it contradicts itself. We were taught the history that mattered to modern Thraqe. I never had a reason to look deeper."

He knew something.

Maybe not everything, but something.

Tempest opened her mouth to ask, but Dron continued before she could.

"The strange part is that some of the markings associated with the families ruling Thraqe now would have been considered cursed many ages ago."

Tempest’s mouth fell open.

"No fucking way."

Dron nodded.

"So let me get this straight. The people who call you cursed because of the color of your skin come from families whose markings used to be considered cursed?"

"When you put it that way, it sounds ridiculous."

"It is ridiculous."

Dron smiled slightly.

Tempest couldn’t.

Her mind was moving too quickly.

A former Royal family.

A takeover.

A complete reversal in which markings represented status.

Generations of history being taught by the families who benefited most from the version everyone currently believed.

She let him pull her back against him, but the questions remained. She wanted to know who the old family was. She wanted to know what their markings looked like. She wanted to know what happened to them after they lost power. Families didn’t simply vanish. Even if they were killed, there were cousins, children, distant relatives. Bloodlines continued.

At least, they usually did.

There was something there.

Tempest could feel it.

She just didn’t know what.

Dron’s fingers started moving over her arm again.

"There is something else I need to tell you."

Tempest groaned. "At this point, I’m starting to think you had a much more interesting trip than I did."

Dron’s expression changed.

"You met Mikael."

Tempest froze.

Of all the things she expected him to say, that wasn’t one of them.

"What?"

"Mikael. Aixen’s son."

Tempest pushed away from him so quickly that she nearly stumbled despite the fact that they were sitting down.

"He was at Tine’s settlement."

Tempest couldn’t believe it. Her heart immediately started pounding even though none of this was technically happening to their real bodies.

"How? Why was he there?"

"He and his brothers weren’t at the house when it was attacked. They were hunting."

Tempest stared at him.

Alive.

Mikael was alive.

Some of them had survived.

Her eyes burned before she could stop it.

Dron reached for her, but Tempest grabbed his hand first.

"He’s okay?"

"He is alive."

That wasn’t exactly the same thing.

Tempest heard the difference immediately.

Her excitement faded.

Dron explained what he knew. Mikael and his brothers had been away when everything happened. They had returned to destruction, death and a life that no longer existed. Eventually Mikael had ended up at Tine’s settlement with others who had nowhere else to go.

Tempest listened to every word.

She could picture him. She remembered Aixen. Pinat. That little house. The wheelchair Dron had made because she had refused to accept that Aixen should spend his life dragging himself across the floor.

She remembered believing that helping them was enough.

Then everything burned.

"Mikael blamed us at first," Dron admitted.

Tempest’s stomach twisted.

She couldn’t even be angry.

Part of her had blamed herself too.

"He believed our involvement with his family brought attention to them. That encouraging the Poor class to demand more painted a target on everyone."

"Maybe he was right."

Dron tightened his hand around hers.

Tempest didn’t argue with whatever silent disagreement he was trying to give her. They could debate blame another time.

"Does he still hate us?"

"No."

Something in Dron’s expression softened.

"He traveled with us. I got to know him."

Tempest smiled despite the ache in her chest.

There was something strangely comforting about that. Dron had been separated from her, but somehow he had found someone connected to the people they had both tried to help.

"Is he the little boy who tried to volunteer for patrol?"

Dron nodded.

Tempest laughed softly.

Of course he was.

"He has been through too much," Dron said. "All of them have."

The humor disappeared from Tempest’s face.

Dron looked back across the dream desert.

"That is why I don’t think I can return to Thraqe and pretend none of this happened."

Tempest studied him.

"I have spent most of my life serving Thraqe. I followed orders because I believed that was what I was supposed to do. Even when I hated the High Royals, even when I knew how they viewed me, I still believed protecting Thraqe meant protecting my people."

"It did."

"Maybe." Dron sighed. "But Thraqe is not only the High Royals. I understand that now."

Tempest remained quiet.

"There are people in Tine’s settlement from everywhere. Thraqe. Skoq. People who have been discarded. People who left because there was nothing for them to return to. People like Mikael who lost everything because someone more powerful decided their lives did not matter."

Dron looked down at his hands.

"I can’t go back knowing they are there and do nothing."

Tempest felt something warm spread through her chest.

She had always known Dron was good.

He didn’t believe it about himself. Maybe that was part of the reason she felt so strongly about reminding him.

"I told Tine I would consider helping her. I thought I could return to you first and decide later."

"But you’ve already decided."

Dron looked at her.

Tempest smiled.

"I know you."

He released a long breath.

"I have to try."

"Then we try."

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