by Amber Bardan
“No, I’m not going to do that.” My gaze darted to the drone, then to him. Fuck, fuck, fuck . He now crouched a few short paces from the drone. He’d take the knife from me before I could do anything with it, if I made it that close.
“Macca, send the drone to me.”
The drone rose into a hover.
His attention darted to the movement and he leaped. Metal crunched. He pounded the roof with his fist. The shell crumpled like tinfoil.
My heart somersaulted.
Oh, shit.
“Did you not hear what I said?” My hand shook. More blood trickled down my throat. Dribbled down my chest.
“Said, not closer.” He rose to his feet. “Not closer.”
No. He’d moved sideways, no nearer to me.
I held my wrist tighter. Damn Baratican’s and their literal interpretations.
I stared at the wreckage. “Please tell me there’s another done?”
“There is another, however it must pass the Baratican to reach you, and you have established you will not hurt yourself over the destruction of a drone.”
I swallowed. There was only one thing to do.
“Thor,” I yelled. “Help, Thor.”
The other Baratican paced lengthwise where he stood. Not coming an inch closer. Not moving an inch farther.
“Thor, help,” I yelled. The sound bounced around the cave, amplifying and expanding.
Just how good was his hearing?
My stomach churned. It better be freaking excellent.
“Knife down.” The Baratican tugged off his helmet.
The blade nearly went through my neck.
I squealed. This warrior was not like Thor.
My legs turned jellied like someone yanked out my quadriceps. His skin gleamed lime green. Two slits fluttered on either side of his neck.
Gills, he had fucking gills.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “Is that even a Baratican?”
“Has it not occurred that each Baratican has his own unique genetic linage?”
I licked my lips. It had—but I’d assumed that Baraticans were like the brown eyes gene, they dominated .
That Thor was standard.
Maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was the exception not the rule.
Maybe he was special .
“Shall wait.” He stopped his pacing to face me.
His features were bold and just as masculine as Thor’s.
Strangely attractive, even with the gills.
“Go ahead and hold your brea—” I groaned. They didn’t even really need to breathe. “Just you go on and wait then. I can do this all damn day.”
“Crestonian will fatigue. Will require rest.” He pointed one long knobbly finger at me. “Baratican not.”
Dammit .
“Surrender, and will make careful mating.”
My bicep already strained. I was fucked. Literally . I’d be boned before nightfall.
I cleared my throat. “Not going to happen.”
He folded his arms in a gesture so Thor, my heart nearly broke from it. Oh Jesus. I didn’t want to be fish-man’s bride.
There was only one space dude I wanted to be mated by.
I sniffled. Damn, not this again. Space messed with my hormones. What even was the lunar cycle in here?
Phase crybaby?
Probably designed to mess with a female’s mind like everything else on the sneaky manipulative planet.
Everything that smelled good wanted to poison you.
Everyone who looked good wanted to hijack your uterus.
I switched knife hands.
My arm stung where I’d sliced it, the throb demanding attention. I ignored it. It definitely hurt less than a Warrior boner would in my lady parts.
Another growl joined the sound.
I glanced at the tunnel.
My chest concaved with relief.
He wore his helmet and cape, but even with them I knew him at a glance. “Thor.”
He stared at the other Baratican, and snarled.
The other warrior turned to Thor, and made a gesture with his arm. They both froze.
Thor threw back his head, and unleashed a sound that boomed through the cave. Vibration thundered under my feet.
I dropped the knife, clamping my hands over my ears.
Movement swirled around me.
Baratican’s emerged from tunnels like a wave of ants summoned by the sound. They flooded the cave. Cloaks and horned helmets blocked my view.
I scrambled up onto a large boulder, peering over the swarming crowd. “Thor!”
A Warrior in the crowd glanced at me.
I raised a hand but he turned away. A circle formed around Thor and Gill Guy.
The other Baratican placed his helmet back on.
“What’s happening, Macca?”
“A challenge has been issued.”
My churning stomach clenched. “He’s going to fight another warrior for me?”
No. What had I done?
“He must.”
A large, even larger than the rest, Baratican, moved to the center of the circle. Long dark dreadlocks hung out of his helmet, swishing around his waist with movement. He drew two long swords from his belt, and plunged the tips into the dirt, then retreated.
The two Warriors lunged for the swords, each grabbing a hilt, and yanked them from the ground.
“That’s Baratican steel isn’t it?” I raised up onto my toes, frantically trying to see. “They can hurt him…”
Lumps formed in my throat.
The swords clashed, sending warbling sounds rippling. The crowd shifted, cutting off my view.
I jumped off the rock and shoved through the people, bursting through the front. Hands clamped on my shoulders.
I glanced up.
A woman held me—an actual woman .
She shook her head, long floaty white hair swirled around her. The alien woman drew me back against her lithe body, and held me with an arm across my chest. Firm, but protective.
Steel sung.
My attention jerked back to the fight.
Thor lunged. The other Baratican jumped, rising high into the air, and landed on the other side of him.
Thor moved in a whirl, black-flipping to face his opponent.
Gill Guy’s sword dashed out.
Thor’s cloak fell to the ground, but he dodged, and spun. His elbow connected with the other Warriors face.
The Baratican fell back, landing on the ground. His helmet disintegrated.
Then things got fast.
Flashing movements I couldn’t keep up with—until everything seemed to come to a stop.
The green alien sword crossed Thor’s chest.
His skin parted like it had a zipper, falling open an inch to reveal bright red flesh underneath.
I screamed and lunged for him.
The arm around me squeezed tighter. A soft ticking fluttered against my ear. The woman tried to tell me something.
I glance behind me. The taller woman’s striking features rippled with expression. Three round swirling marks raised on her right cheek like tattoos.
Or a brand .
She pointed a pale elegant finger at the warriors.
I looked again, my stomach seizing.
Thor still fought, his skin broken, but—
But, he didn’t bleed…
My head whirled. Macca’s words came back to me.
Baratican’s Cardiovascular system is non-comparable to humans. He has no heart.
I sagged into the other woman and watched.
A Baratican was never going to bleed out from a wound. The couldn’t be staked through the heart.
Husband not so easy kill.
No, he wouldn’t be. Not easily killed at all.
His sword swiped at the other warrior. Something went flying and landed at my feet.
My breath froze.
A fucking lime-green finger—severed at the damn joint.
I covered my mouth and watched
the fight. How freaking horrendously would they maim each other in order for one to win?
What would it take?
Decapitation?
My vision blurred. Thor took another hit, this time the skin at his shoulder gaped.
No. He couldn’t be hurt, hacked to pieces, because of me.
I struggled in the female alien’s grip.
Thor staggered, but fought back.
My indestructible, gorgeous, Thor was getting injured because I’d tried to leave. Pain ruptured my middle.
Gill guy gave another leap. His foot met Thor’s throat, sending him sprawling.
“Thor,” I screamed.
He didn’t react. But he heard me. I knew he could hear me.
I cupped my hands around my mouth. “Thor, you’ve won mating.”
My chest heaved. He had won. He’d wooed me right in love with him.
“Finish this, and come get me,” I called, and everything in me meant it.
He had me completely.
Even if I was only a biological imperative to him. He wasn’t for me.
He had my whole heart.
I blinked, and scene flipped. Thor was no longer on the ground, he whirled. Gill Guy’s sword flew into the air—his hand still wrapped around the hilt.
The tip of Thor’s blade touched the other warrior’s throat at the dip that would be a collar bone.
Both Baratican’s stilled.
The giant warrior who’d provided weapons reentered the circle, and gestured to Thor.
Thor dropped the sword and turned to me.
My body unclenched all at once. He won . The woman released me and I ran to him.
He lifted me into the air mid leap.
I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my face into his neck. “I’m so sorry.”
He held me tightly, but didn’t respond, just carried me from the crowd.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I clung to him.
He’d stopped walking but I couldn’t let go yet. I gripped him as though he might turn to dust in my arms.
This all felt like lucid dreaming.
How could something as wonderful as he be?
He set me down. My feet met the floor.
I ran my hands over his damaged chest. The skin already closed. The wounds were big and ugly, but not gaping. “You’re going to be okay?”
“Will heal,” he said, but something about his voice made my gaze shift to his.
His features set hard and closed.
I swallowed. Of course . He had every reason to be furious with me. I deserved a little wrath.
The blocking me out of his expressions I couldn’t take.
Of all the beautiful things about him, the thing I loved most was the way he let me in.
“I meant what I said, you’ve won. No more bases.” I stroked his chest.
Wouldn’t he just look at me properly?
“You’ve won it all,” I whispered, and brushed myself up against him. “Just take me to our cave, and I’ll show you.”
He removed my touch from him. “Must fulfill ritual first. Have bargain.”
The bitter edge to his voice chilled me.
“Have accept final quest.”
I cleared my throat. The Baratican’s were so committed to their deals. “Okay.”
He released my hand.
I placed it back to his chest where it belonged. “No need to wait, preform the final quest now.”
He was about to tell me who I was to him.
His brow furrowed, a slip in his shield.
Didn’t he expect that?
Had he thought that I’d find a sneaky way to delay?
Macca’s silence proved that even the resourceful super computer realized there was no way out of this now.
“It’s okay, there’s no wrong answer, only the truth.”
He stared at me. “Do see you.”
Did he? I swallowed, and my chest clenched. As a breedable uterus?
“Do see you, La La. Beyond mate.”
My fingers curled into his chest. Hope swung through me.
“Thor see La La say true—honesty, sincerity, feelings, commitment, not free shared.”
A falling sensation slammed into me. Like stepping into a void.
His honest face stared at me. “See La La have false affection.”
My hand flew to my chest.
“La La not care Thor. Want only leave. Want only go.” His nostrils flared with his last statement.
“Thor, I…” But what could I say? That it hadn’t been true at one time?
Hurt built below my ribs.
“See you, La La—false sayer.” He leaned closer and his attention, always warm on me, contained icicles. “Deal breaker.”
I flinched. Those words from him were more terrible than any curse. “I’m so sorry…”
He didn’t respond, but his gaze moved faster and faster over me. As though he truly did perceive me, and did not like what he saw.
I shuddered, and a sob hiccupped through me.
Oh, god. There were a thousand punishments I’d rather take than the expression he wore. A thousand tortures that wouldn’t be as cruel as this man who looked at me as though I were heaven, who touched me as though I were dreams come true, looking at me this way.
He glanced at my tears. “La La, know how make false ouch.”
I gasped, and cried harder. Hadn’t I before? Hadn’t I faked pain to manipulate him?
He wasn’t stupid.
His jaw hardened. Now he didn’t trust anything from me, not even my tears. “Summon ship, La La.”
“What?” I straightened, shock halting my tears. No…
He stepped back from me. “Thor not mate you.”
No . He couldn’t .
My insides twisted with agony.
He couldn’t break up with me. It shouldn’t be possible.
Nausea churned through me.
He was genetically, biologically, compelled to want me.
Could he hate me enough to resist?
I sucked in air, shaking my head.
No . He’d already bonded with me. He’d never have another mate. If we weren’t together, he’d be alone forever.
“Summon ship,” he repeated, fists closing. “Go, La La. Go.”
A wound burst inside me. Apparently eternal loneliness was preferable to me.
What the fuck had I done?
“Hold yourself, Leila. The spare drone has already collected the pallets and comes for you.”
I trembled and each twitch wrenched the hole inside me wider, spilling out more pain. The cave turned to a haze around me and it was like looking and talking through thick venomous fog. “It’s on its way.”
He nodded in one sharp movement, but didn’t leave.
He was going to stand there and see me gone.
Make sure he was truly rid of me.
I couldn’t take another second seeing him. I turned around, and did as Macca said—held myself. Held my arms crossed over my chest as though my vital organs were falling out.
Had I always been so completely unlovable?
Was this why…
The drone glided into the cave. The hatch whirled open. I stumbled over to it and scrambled through the opening into the tight cargo hold inside.
The door lowered after me, but not before I caught a glimpse of him, standing there straight and stoic.
A warrior not mine.
Was this why everyone let me go?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Now you have processed your emotions, I have something for you.”
I rolled onto my back in the bottom of the drone. It was hard to tell how long I’d been back inside the ship.
My best guess was an entire night and most of a day. Not that it made any difference.
At least until now Macca hadn’t rushed me.
Nope, a sobbing snot covered leader wasn’t exactly going to inspire confidence in passengers.
I sat up keeping my h
ead low and pushed open the hatch.
I’d run dry. There wasn’t anything left. No tears. No feeling. I was the same as the drone—empty and mechanical.
I climbed out.
Vertigo hit me in a wave.
I swayed. The glowing blue orb bobbed in front of me.
I held onto my head. “You’re intensely creepy hovering there you know that?”
“I insist you take sustenance before joining the passengers. Follow me.”
“Sure, Mom.” I followed Macca though the cargo hold, bypassing the door to the passenger bay, and entered a small room full of flashing lights and screens. “Is this the escape pods command center?”
“Yes.” The orb moved to a row of cabinetry on the wall. “Eat something from here.”
I opened the cabinet, and took out a box. “What is this?”
Dozens of wrapped packages filled most of the box.
“Health bars.”
“And you couldn’t give these to the passengers?” I unwrapped a block and sunk my teeth into the bar, letting out a sigh. It wasn’t horrendous, just tasted a little like dates.
“Heath bars are medically formulated for those with additional nutritional needs.” The orb sunk lower. “Reserved for cabin crew or those facing excess physical demands.”
“Well, I guess I count then.” I put the box back, and took another bite. “What with the risking life, limb, and vagina, to get supplies.”
My throat went dry. Not to mention I was physically tapped out.
Mentally exhausted.
Emotionally depleted.
Could the bars help with that?
“Precisely. You are not simply a passenger.”
I swallowed painfully, then scoffed the remaining bar. “What are you up to?”
The orb moved down to the end of the cupboards to the last long locker. “There’s something for you in here.”
I strode over and tugged open the door, then paused, and drew out a full-length body suit. “Oh…”
I glanced down at myself—still dressed in a petticoat and belt—then looked at the suit again.
The suit was a black and silver mash-up of alternating structured and a webbed fabric.
“Well at least this fashion is something we might be able to agree on this time.” I put the suit down, and removed my belt. “I was under the impression Crestonian women only wore dresses.
“Crestonian Lady’s only wear dresses.”
I tugged off the petticoat. “I thought all Crestonians were female.”
“I said Lady’s, not women.” Macca fluttered a little higher. “Lady’s are of the ruling class. Others dress for practicality.”
