by Kate Rudolph
“Is she there?” asked Kenny. He was leaning forward in his seat, his elbows resting on his knees as he eagerly studied the women on the screen.
Nyco jerked his head from side to side, momentarily stunned into silence. This wasn’t what he’d agreed to, and it made him uncomfortable to study women like this.
Kenny sighed and pressed the button on the wall again. “Thank you, Bill, take the next ones now.” The women filed out of the room and hot on their heels were another half-dozen.
Nyco looked at these women longer, willing himself to find his mate among them. But the only one who caught his eye was wearing a blindingly green shirt, and he only looked at her twice because he couldn’t believe just how bright the hue was. “No,” he managed to say. Kenny understood his meaning and dismissed the group quickly before calling in the next. Nyco averted his gaze. “How many do you expect me to look at? How many are waiting? Did they agree to this?” Were women on this planet so desperate for mates that they would line up like criminals and wait for him to pass judgment?
“A few.” Kenny shrugged. He didn’t seem to understand Nyco’s objection. “Are you sure you don’t want me to bring any back? We had a few good ones in the last batch. Is there a problem with the view screen? Do you need to see her in person?”
“How many is a few?” How many dozens of women were lined up wherever Kenny had them waiting? How long was he expected to sit here?
“We’re going to find you a mate,” Kenny said instead of answering. That maniacal, determined look was back in his eye and even though Nyco had the martial prowess to take on a dozen men, a small part of him was intimidated by Kenny’s determination.
“Not by treating these women like, like...” He made a frustrated gesture with his hand and bit off a curse. “I’ll recognize her when I see her, but I doubt she would like me very much if I saw her like this.” He tried to put himself in one of those women’s shoes, and he knew that he would resent a mate who chose him out of a catalog like a piece of clothing.
Kenny hummed out a breath. “I see your point,” he conceded. “Why don’t we do one more lineup, just to eliminate the girls I have today? Then we’ll do something else.” He was already reaching for the button.
“No,” Nyco stopped him. “I’m not doing any more of these. Set up a date with your best match and I’ll be there. I am here to meet my mate, not this.” He jabbed a finger towards the screen and the claws that lived under his skin threatened to shoot out to emphasize his point, but Nyco was no undisciplined boy and he kept himself under control.
“Very well,” Kenny huffed. “I want you at Moon Base Gamma on Thursday. The arrangements will all be made. I’ve got a good feeling about this one, we’re going to find you your match.”
Nyco was too frustrated for hope, and Kenny’s proposal almost went by unquestioned. “Moon base? Is there not someplace on the planet that would suffice?” He had traveled the galaxy to get here and he liked Earth a lot. It reminded him of a home he had never known, of a planet that he had only ever seen in vids and photos.
“It’s very nice, very romantic,” Kenny said, a dreamy look coming into his eyes. “Trust me on this one, kid. We’re going to find you a mate.”
Nyco gave up, he was going to the moon.
THE CELESTIAL MATE people were going all out. How else could Ruby explain an all-expenses paid vacation to the most expensive and exclusive pleasure resort on the moon? It wasn’t Ruby’s first time off planet, but she had never dreamed of staying at Gamma Station. This place was made for vid stars and princes and other people rich enough to own entire systems. Her family had never hurt for cash, but a place like this had always been very far out of reach.
What kind of guy would fly her up here for a single date? Should she be worried?
Oh, no. Ruby slumped back into her seat on the lunar shuttle as she thought about just what kind of man would summon a woman off planet for a first date. He would expect her to put out, and while she had no objection to something casual, she liked to meet the guy first before she made that kind of decision. Was he bringing her here to show off? If he had this kind of wealth he might end up being some pompous ass who expected her to fall at his feet and thank him for the opportunity he was giving her.
She was going to kill Dee. Why had Ruby agreed to this? Oh, right. Decades of friendship and emotional manipulation. The next time Ruby moved apartments she was totally making Dee carry the heaviest boxes.
Maybe it wouldn’t be all bad, Ruby tried to reason as the shuttle moved ever closer to Gamma Station. Even if the date was a disaster she had a room for the weekend and enough station credits to keep her entertained before it was time to go home. She could deal for one night.
The shuttle began its descent and Ruby leaned towards the window to get her first look at the illustrious Gamma Station. Bright lights sparkled, tinkling like diamonds. It should have been gaudy, but Ruby was too full of wonder and excitement to care. Gamma Station! Her heartbeat kicked up and she had to grip the armrests of her chair to keep from bouncing in place. She was really here, she was really doing this. All her fears about just how bad her date could go were buried under an avalanche of excitement.
The shuttle landing was just like every other shuttle landing she’d sat through. The attendants warned the passengers that items in the storage bins might have shifted during transport and advised them of where they needed to go once they exited the ship. Ruby sprang up from her seat and bumped into the person standing in the central aisle, waiting to exit. He was a bright green alien with three eyes and a sweet smile. Was this Nyco? She tried to eye him subtly, but the way his grin curled into a full-fledged smile told her that her subtlety had failed.
“I’m Ruby,” she said. She would have offered a hand, but she was clutching her bag with both of them and her grip was awkward; if she let go with one hand she would probably drop the bag and crush someone.
“My ident is Gridollswqx,” the alien replied.
No way to get Nyco, the name of the guy she was supposed to be meeting, out of that name. Oh well, griddle... However you said his name, wasn’t too scary to look at, but she couldn’t go and attach herself to the first alien she met. They all slowly filed off the shuttle and ended up in a large terminal with sky high ceilings, the walls covered in green plants. The place had to cost a fortune to maintain. Terraforming and life-support technology had come a long way in the century and a half since humans began to explore the stars, but the moon would always be a somewhat inhospitable place, no matter how much they tried to tame it.
She scanned her ticket and was directed to a floating platform filled with other passengers. Once it was so full that breathing deep threatened to press her up against another passenger, they took off. Ruby tried to look around and get an idea of what Gamma Station was all about, but the people standing around her were tall and blocked her view. She glimpsed glass ceilings and more vines and plants. Birdsong sang around them and she thought she spotted a flash of yellow wings, but whether that was an illusion or a real bird she wasn’t sure.
The platform took them into the interior of the huge station. The exterior rooms with real windows and giant suites were the most expensive and Ruby wasn’t surprised to learn that her benefactors had sprung for something a little more cost-effective. She couldn’t blame them, not when they were already paying for everything else.
She exited the platform when it came to a stop near her assigned room and used her ticket to activate the lock on the door. It took her second to figure out how to program the biometric scanner, but when the light flashed green the door opened and she was let inside. Ruby dumped her bag on the bed and gave her room a look. The place looked a bit like every hotel she had ever stayed in before and she wasn’t impressed. That reaction had her blushing and she covered her face with one hand as if she had to hide from someone who could see her. Not impressed by something on Gamma Station? Who did she think she was? Thank God no one could see her now.
A
look at the clock told her she had a bit of time before she was supposed to meet Nyco in the central courtyard of this quadrant. She took the opportunity to wash up and get rid of the funk of space travel. Even in a nice shuttle like the one she’d taken from Earth, she felt dirty, covered in a layer of muck that wouldn’t go away without a steaming hot shower and plenty of soap.
Once she was clean, the room looked a bit better. The walls were freshly painted a muted blue and a media screen showed a feed of what it looked like out on the lunar surface. It wasn’t a real window, but it made the room feel bigger and reminded her of exactly where she was. It was hard to remember when she was inside like this. Gamma Station adjusted the gravity to make it like Earth, so there was barely any extra bounce in her step while she walked around the place. At least, no extra bounce from weaker gravity.
She changed into her first date clothes, a flirty purple dress and black heels. She left her dark hair hanging around her shoulders and didn’t bother to wear any jewelry. She paused before she headed out the door and glanced down at the long line of her shoes. Gamma Station was a big place and her feet might kill her if she walked around too much. But after a brief internal debate between the benefits of flats and heels, Ruby kept her shoes on. For one, these heels made her ass look awesome, and for two, she liked the boost of confidence it gave her to know that she looked this good. Even if her alien date didn’t turn out like she expected, she wouldn’t regret her outfit.
As she walked down the hall towards the central courtyard, Ruby spotted several aliens among the dense human crowd. Gamma Station was open to all, well, all who could afford it, but like most things on Earth the population tended toward human. She had no idea what Nyco looked like, other than that he was an alien. Her contact at the Celestial Mates had said that it was better to form her opinion in person than to prejudge him based on a photograph or a biography. Ruby wasn’t sure she believed that, but she was going to enjoy her free vacation anyway.
She walked into the courtyard and froze. Standing under a stone archway was a blue man a little over six feet tall. He had long dark hair, and something that might have been a tattoo peeking out from the collar of his tunic. Her heartbeat sped up and her hands started to shake until she balled them into fists and held them tightly at her sides. That was Nyco, certainty cemented within her. Because if that wasn’t Nyco, her date didn’t stand a chance. One look at that guy and she knew deep within her soul that she needed to see more. Yes, he would do.
CHAPTER THREE
GAMMA STATION WAS THE kind of port designed for travelers who wanted the excitement of space with all the comforts of home. Nyco was about to crawl out of his skin. He was used to ramshackle outposts that looked like they could fall apart if someone hit the wrong support post at exactly the right angle. Those kind of places never let you forget that you were in space, that you were in a place where the right to live had been wrestled from the elements and conquered. Gamma Station might as well have been Earth.
That said, he didn’t hate it. Life bubbled up all around him, excited humans and a few aliens all taking in the sights and enjoying the glamorous, if muted, space experience. Maybe he was getting jaded. Nyco scanned the crowd again looking for the woman he was supposed to meet. Ruby Ballard. He rolled her name around his mind, but he still had no idea who she was or what she’d look like. Kenny had tried to offer him a picture but with the memory of those potential mate lineups still prickling his brain he had refused any information about her except for her name. Nyco was going to do this right. Even if she wasn’t his denya, she still deserved his respect, and he feared that if he saw her photo and had already dismissed her as a potential mate that this date would end up even more disastrous than it was destined to be.
When had he become such a cynic? That wasn’t a mystery. It was the day after his brother died when he realized that he had no one left and little hope of survival. If Tank, the luckiest man he had ever known, couldn’t find his denya, what hope did Nyco have?
He glanced towards the exit and it was only years of discipline that kept him rooted in place when the only thing he wanted to do was retreat to his room and hide from another disappointment. That wasn’t who he was. He was a mercenary, a warrior, and one of the last Detyens left alive. He owed it to his people to see this through to the end, and he had suffered much worse than a little disappointment.
A foreign awareness tickled the edge of his vision and Nyco’s head turned as if pulled on a string. She was standing in the doorway wearing a purple dress, her long brown hair framing the bronze skin of her face.
Denya.
Soul searing recognition tore through him as Nyco’s existence tilted on its axis and realigned. He found new foundations in her soulful brown eyes and his lips yearned to taste hers. He hadn’t realized that he had crossed the room in swift steps, but she was standing only an arm’s-length away, frozen under the weight of his gaze. Did she feel it? How could she not?
Nyco hadn’t understood what all his elders meant when they told him that he would simply know his denya when he met her, but it all made sense now. Hope burbled in his chest, an effervescent and terrifying feeling that threatened to overwhelm him and send him crashing to the floor. Ruby’s hand reached out and clutched his forearm and Nyco had to bite back a groan at the absolute rightness of skin to skin contact. That soft caress obliterated any memory of the partners that came before, it was more satisfying than anything he had ever done.
He reached out with his other hand and weaved their fingers together, tugging his mate closer and pulling her out of her frozen daze.
“Hi,” she breathed, her mouth shaped into an absent, disbelieving smile. “Wow.”
Nyco couldn’t help but grin. He wanted to scoop her up and carry her out of the room, to take her back to his quarters and show her everything that he could do with her, give her every pleasure. But she wasn’t Detyen, and he knew that he had to tread carefully. He couldn’t mess this up, couldn’t risk losing her. It wasn’t even about survival anymore. No, now it was all about her, and Nyco would do anything to keep her. “Hi. I’ve been waiting for you,” for longer than she could possibly know, for a lifetime.
Her fingers squeezed his hand. “I’m here now.”
They couldn’t stop staring at each other, and the rest of the room had dissolved around them until it was only the two of them. It didn’t matter that they were on a fancy moon base surrounded by all of Earth’s luxuries, this connection would have been just as strong and true if they had run into each other in the middle of a random street in any city on any planet. But fate and the Celestial Mates had brought them together here.
Someone jostled him from behind and the spell cracked. The recognition of the denya bond still thrummed within Nyco, but he became aware of the room around them once more, and realized they were standing in the middle of the path and blocking the way of other people.
He tugged on Ruby’s hand. “Come with me?”
BUTTERFLIES. THAT WAS what she was feeling. Actual freaking butterflies fluttering around in her stomach when Nyco smiled at her. She couldn’t stop smiling, and she wanted to jump up and down for joy every time he leaned a little closer and she caught a whiff of the heady masculine scent of him. Was it cologne? Or did he just naturally smell so... lickable? Attraction settled deep into her bones, something sudden and permanent that she didn’t quite understand but welcomed with open arms.
She placed her hand in his and had to suppress the shiver of anticipation. “Let’s go,” she said. She had no idea what he had in mind, but she thought she would follow him anywhere. This was some kind of madness. Something she had never dreamed of, and had never believed that the Celestial Mates could find for her. Dee was going to give her so much shit and she blushed at the thought.
“Is something the matter?” Nyco asked, concern washing over his face. A few steps out of the courtyard and it was like they were in a different world. They left the crowd behind and found a small alcove to huddle
in. Ruby wanted to kiss him, but they had barely exchanged any words, and she told herself to hold back. She needed to wait, needed to make sure this was real before she let anything happen between them.
How could she explain it to him? She didn’t even know if he felt the same. How could he? Then again, maybe he was in exactly the same mental place as her, excited and unsure and full of anticipation. “I didn’t expect something like this,” she admitted.
Nyco leaned in close and used his free hand to swipe his thumb against her cheek. She leaned into the touch and wished he would close the distance between them to kiss her. “This is more than I ever hoped for.” He smiled. His eyes were intense, and something about him screamed predator, warrior, someone who could go out in space and fight battles hundreds of light years away. This softer side that he was showing to her was something special, something not everyone got to see. She couldn’t know that, she was spinning fantasies based on an overwhelming attraction and frustrated hormones, but it felt so right that she couldn’t believe it was wrong.
“Where we going?” His room? Hers? A different alcove with a little more privacy? No. Ruby tamped down those thoughts. No matter how much her body was screaming at her to lay back and open for him she had to keep her cool. She wasn’t going to fall into bed with the guy ten minutes after meeting him, not when this felt like something that could develop into something special.
“It’s a surprise,” Nyco responded.
A speck of trepidation trickled down her spine. “I’m not ready to sleep with you,” she admitted and was mortified to realize that she was almost lying. One heated look and she knew that all of her bluster would blow away.
“Well, we have the entire date planned so there’s no need to think about that right now.” Ruby didn’t know if she was disappointed or glad of Nyco’s response. What would she have done if he’d pushed? Obviously she knew what she wanted, and from the intense slant of his eyebrows she was sure that he wanted it too.
