Loralia & Bannack's Story: Alien Warrior Mates IV, #4

By Grace Kensington

Bannack has been devoted to battle his entire life, but there is something that he knows is far more important to him, and he doesn't want to wait any longer. Remembering the question that he had asked when he first bonded with Loralia, he starts planning to give her the tying ceremony that she has always wanted. Even though it can't be anything that either of them ever imagined, he knows now that there is no such thing as a perfect moment, and that they truly have everything that they need.

As more of the mystery of the hybrids unravels around them, Bannack turns to the one person who may be able to give Loralia back some of her past and the promise of her future

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grace Kensington
• Release date: May 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393330882

Book preview

1

A re you alright? Loralia asked as she watched Bannack pull another box from the top of the shelving unit and place it on the stack that he was creating on the floor beside him.

I’m fine, her mate responded brusquely without looking her direction.

Loralia struggled with her urge to tune into Bannack’s emotions, to let herself feel what he was feeling. It was a capability that she had been born with, one that she had never realized set her as far apart from the rest of her kind as it did. This was a gift not from the Irisa who had raised her and who she thought was the only species whose blood ran through her veins, but from the mysterious father, the Eteri who she had never known and who she had only just seen for the first time. This was something that had always been a part of her, a way that she went through life and how she understood those she encountered. It had been the way that she knew that she was able to trust the Denynso when they entered her underground home and how she had known that the same could not be said for the gruesome, skeletal creatures that had invaded before and forced her into hiding. It wasn’t until she had bonded with Bannack and gotten used to life outside of the loneliness of the reflected realm that she learned not to use it with every interaction.

There were some moments when this gift had brought great value, such as when she was able to comfort Eden about the health of the child she had been carrying within her and tell her that she would soon bear a son who would be strong and powerful like his father. There were also moments, too many moments, when she felt that she was intruding in the lives of those around her and suffered intense emotions and thoughts she didn’t want to have within her. She discovered that she and Bannack couldn’t communicate with each other through their minds in the way that the Denynso could usually do with their mates, even those born from other species. It was then that she began to question this way of exploring the world and learning from others, and soon after taught herself not to reach out in that way, to give others the privacy that their emotions deserved and connect with them on their level first.

At this moment, though, she craved the clarity that came from when she was able to detect exactly how her mate was feeling. He seemed closed and angry, lost in his own thoughts as he followed the instructions that Pyra had given him as they all worked to prepare for when they would leave the laboratory building and head for Penthos. He took another box from the shelf and placed it on the stack. Apparently satisfied that he had taken enough, he reached down and scooped the entire stack into his arms. He carried them out of the room and she knew that he was bringing them back to the section of the emergency chamber that Pyra had designated as the central location where they would gather all the supplies for the trip to Penthos and the conditions that they might face there.

Loralia stood in the room where Bannack had left her, waiting for him to return. She didn’t want to walk away without knowing what was going through his mind. With everything that they had been facing since arriving on Earth, she knew that he was under a tremendous amount of strain. He was struggling with something and it was drawing him away from her. Loralia knew that she couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t simply walk away and allow the tension and pain that was pressing in around them fracture the bond that had held them so closely on Uoria. Finally, he came back into the room and stopped short when he saw her still standing there. They stared at each other for a few moments before he went back to the shelves and started pulling more of the boxes down.

What are those? Loralia asked, wanting to start a conversation between them just so she could hear his voice.

Bannack glanced over his shoulder at her. The expression on his face was angry at first, but then softened before he turned back to the boxes.

Food, he said. "Whoever built these chambers really must have thought something terrible was going to happen and that a