by Kali Argent
“Is that a yes?”
At Mesa’s question, Star kept her head down, but shifted her eyes to the couple.
“Whatever you want, mishka. Anything.”
For big, kickass, alien warriors, these guys were huge pushovers when it came to their women. Reaching for Valen’s hand, Star squeezed it and laughed. She wouldn’t have them any other way.
Picking up a tablet from the desk, Mesa brought it over to Star and held the screen up to her. “Just press your thumb to it so I can record your contact information. Someone will be in touch soon.” Once Star had finished the task, Mesa stepped back and sighed as she ran her hands over the purple material of the dress. “I guess I should go change.”
“No.” Star shook her head. “Please, keep it. That color looks lovely with your hair.”
The darkness of the woman’s locks contrasted beautifully with the lavender tones in the dress, giving Star all kinds of ideas about future designs. Besides, if everything went according to plan, she’d have an entire wardrobe of dresses to choose from soon enough.
Mesa gripped her hand and thanked her, just as Director Wyeth dismissed them from his office. Star wasn’t quite ready to leave yet, though.
“There is one more thing.”
The director arched one golden eyebrow at her. Valen stiffened at her side. Mesa just smiled.
“Level 1.” There was a curse to her left, but she sidestepped out of the way when Valen reached for her. “Is there a way you can build something like that for the rest of the city? Not with all the tech stuff, but just like a dome where people can sit and see outside every once in a while?”
“Star,” Valen growled in her head. “This wasn’t part of the plan.”
Yeah, she was kind of winging it here, but it had been on her mind ever since she’d seen that gorgeous view at the top of the city.
“How do you know about that?” the director demanded, his tone fierce, his eyes narrowed. “Captain?”
Valen lowered his head.
A vein throbbed in the side of Director Wyeth’s neck, and the transparent scales that covered his arms gleamed in the overhead lights as his muscles writhed beneath his skin. When he started to yell, his words laced with intermittent growling, Star shrank back, afraid for the first time since arriving on Aleucia.
Since the director spoke in the Aleucian language, she couldn’t understand the words, but she had no trouble deciphering the context. Humans weren’t supposed to know about Level 1, weren’t supposed to see it, and Valen had broken the rules for her. He’d risked his position—and possibly his life considering the look the director leveled on him—to bring her just a small moment of joy.
Finding her courage, she took a deep breath and stepped in front of her mate, cutting off Director Wyeth’s view of Valen. “It was me,” she blurted. “It’s my fault, so if you want to be angry with someone, be angry with me.” Her pulse pounded in her temples, and her hands shook violently, but she refused to back down. “He just wanted to make me happy.” Her attention turned to Mesa, and she shared a knowing smile with the female. “Surely you can understand that.”
The director turned his steely gaze on her and advanced, but he stopped abruptly when Valen jerked her back against his chest and bared his fangs. Fuck, this was not going at all the way she’d imagined.
“Knock it off,” Mesa snapped, unfazed by the powerful display of testosterone. “I think building a dome adjacent to Level 1 is a brilliant idea.”
“You’ve seen it,” Star surmised.
Mesa nodded. “I have. I love it there.” She angled her shoulders to the side and glared at her mate. “I’d like it even more if there weren’t guards running around all over the place.”
Star smirked at the director. “I thought Level 1 was forbidden? Or do the rules not apply to you?”
Again, Valen tensed beside her, but Mesa threw her head back and laughed heartily. “I like you, Star. I think we’re going to be very good friends.”
“I don’t like this, mishka.”
Fisting her hands on her hips, Mesa huffed and rolled her eyes. “Add this to the very long list of things you don’t like.”
“The Council will never agree to it.”
“What if it was necessary?” Star asked, an idea blooming. “Could you convince them if it was for a medical reason?”
The anger ebbed from Director Wyeth’s visage, the harsh lines melting into an expression of contemplation. “What do you have in mind?”
Humans were given vitamin supplements so she couldn’t cite a vitamin D deficiency. “A reduction in sunlight can reduce serotonin levels in humans which can lead to depression. It also reduces the production of melatonin, which not only makes us all pasty white, but affects the quality of sleep.”
“Sleep deprivation can lead to mood swings, disorientation, hallucinations, and all sorts of bad stuff,” Mesa chimed in, right on cue.
The director sighed, and a strange little smile curved his lips. “I’ll speak with the Council.”
“Thank you,” Star said in chorus with Mesa, only with much less enthusiasm, and minus the doe-eyed stare.
“Until that time, this conversation does not leave this office.”
Star made a show of sealing her lips and throwing away the imaginary key. “I won’t say a word. I swear.”
The director nodded, but his attention was on Valen. Slowly, both males moved to the center of the room to stand directly in front of each other. Then Valen lifted his right hand, resting it on the director’s shoulder, and when the other male mirrored him, they both nodded. Some communication passed between them, and though Star didn’t know what was being said, she imagined the strange ritual meant the two were friends again.
She would never understand men, but at least it was comforting to know that they were all pretty much the same, no matter their race.
Once the connection was broken and Director Wyeth dismissed them with another warning about staying quiet, Valen turned to her with a huge grin and an outstretched hand. She took it, going to him readily, loving the feel of his hard, warm body pressed against hers. While slightly distracted, she did manage to mumble a goodbye to Mesa before following her mate out of the room.
“Where are we going?” she asked as Valen guided her toward the lifts.
“To our quarters.”
Oh, she liked the sound of that. It hadn’t fully sunk in that she’d be moving in with her mate, but she could think of nowhere else she’d rather be. Still, they both had duties to attend to that couldn’t be ignored.
“We have to work.”
“Not today.”
His enthusiasm was catching, so when he shoved her into the lift and pinned her against the wall, she didn’t try to fight him. She did have to ask, though, “What does that mean?”
“Director Wyeth is rearranging our schedules. We have the whole day to ourselves.”
His mouth landed on hers, his tongue sliding between her lips, but she turned her head to the side to break the connection. Before she lost herself in him, there was something she needed to say.
“I’m sorry about what happened in the office. I should have asked you before I said anything about Level 1. It was stupid, and I didn’t think. I’m so sorry, Valen.”
“You were so fierce,” he whispered, nuzzling against the side of her neck. “I’m proud of you.”
“I was scared out of my mind.”
“Yet, you still tried to protect me. I don’t deserve you, my ahna.”
There would be none of that. “This is a two-way street.” Cradling his face between her hands, she held him immobile, forcing him to look at her. “We protect each other. Always.”
Valen growled, and his mouth crashed down on hers again just as the lift doors slid open on Level 3. “I want to be inside you.”
Conversation forgotten, her body reacted instantly, her muscles tightening while her pussy slicked with need. “Hurry.”
Yanking her into his arms, Valen threw he
r over one shoulder as he practically sprinted through the corridor to the door of their shared quarters. Star laughed, her heart so full of love she wondered how it could contain it all.
Inside the room, Valen lowered her gently to the floor, then brushed her hair out of her face with his fingertips. “What are you thinking, ahna?”
It seemed impossible that just a week ago she’d been miserable, discontent with her life, and ungrateful for the second chance she’d been given after the destruction of Earth.
“I’m thinking that I love you.”
Words spilled from his lips in a language she didn’t understand, but the way he kissed her—sweetly, tenderly, with adoration and reverence—spoke louder than anything he could have said.
In the past year, there had been numerous moments that she’d let slip past without recognizing them for what they were. She’d begrudged her new reality, viewing it as a sort of captivity rather than the opportunity it was. An opportunity to start new, to change her future, and forge her own path.
As Valen lifted her easily and headed for the stairs that led to the loft, she stared up at him, amazed at the gift she’d been granted. And when he laid her on the bed and followed her down with another heart-rending kiss, she held on tightly, making a silent vow never to take another one of those moments for granted.
EPILOGUE
Standing just inside the doors of Level 17, Valen leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and smiled as he watched his mate call out orders to her new workers. Naturally, the city still needed clean laundry, but a lot had changed in the three months since their meeting with Director Wyeth.
Surprisingly, the Council had approved the plan for the new dome. How Raxcor had talked them into it, Valen could only guess, but he was glad the director had made it work. Construction was scheduled to start soon, but until then, he and Star were still sworn to silence about the new addition. Gods, he couldn’t wait to see the way her skin glowed in the sunlight.
“No, no,” Star called, shaking her head. “Over then under.” Taking the garment from a tiny, redheaded female, she twisted the fabric with expert hands. “Like this. See?”
The back half of the laundry room had since been converted into a workshop where Star created intricate and lovely wardrobes for the citizens of Hope. Director Wyeth had even ordered a pro-replicator for her. On the touch-screen panel, she could design anything she wished, or do away with it all and start over if that was her desire. Once happy, she needed only to press a button, and the pro-replicator would send her masterpieces down a conveyor belt, perfectly colored, sewn, and pressed.
Even with the advanced technology at her disposal, she still preferred to test out her new ideas by hand before inputting them into the system. Valen thought it was incredibly inefficient, but also strangely endearing.
Overhead, an alarmed blared, and a robotic voice called out the hour, announcing the end of the work day. Those who had been assigned to help Star seemed relieved, but his stubborn mate frowned as if annoyed by the interruption.
Gods, he adored her.
Once the room had emptied, he pushed away from the wall and sauntered across the room, sliding up behind his mate with a rumble in his chest that sounded more like a purr than a growl. Winding his arms around her, he closed his eyes and vibrated with satisfaction when she relaxed into him with a contented sigh.
“Hey,” she murmured, lifting her hand over her shoulder to press it to his cheek. “How was your day?”
“I missed you.”
“Mm, I missed you, too.”
“How are you feeling, ahna?”
“I’m okay.” Taking his hands, she pressed them to the sides of her rounded belly. “The little guy seems restless today. He’s been kicking me like crazy.”
Turning her, he caressed her silky hair and kissed her lips before kneeling at her feet and pressing another kiss to her stomach. “Are you so eager to see the world?” He rubbed soothing circles across her skin, grinning when the babe within her began to move. “Be nice to your mother, little one.”
Since Aleucian pregnancies lasted roughly half the length of human gestation, it wouldn’t be much longer before he could meet his son. Or daughter. Honestly, he didn’t care if the child was born with one eye and tentacles. As long as his babe and his mate were healthy, that was all that mattered to him.
“Remember that at three in the morning when he’s crying and needs his diaper changed.”
Valen nuzzled her belly, then rose to pull his ahna into his arms. “It will be my honor to care for our babe.”
She stared up at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “I love you, Valen.”
Pulling her closer, he smiled when she buried her face in his chest and sniffled. “Until the stars fall from the sky.”
“What do the stars have to do with anything?”
He smoothed her hair back so he could whisper in her ear. “That’s how long I’ll love you.”
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Born with a silver tongue and a pen in her hand, Kali spends her days crafting scandalous romances filled with flawed heroes and kick-ass heroines. When she's not writing, she can be found curled up in her favorite chair with a good book and a steamy cup of coffee.
Self-proclaimed introvert and supporter of the selectively social, Kali currently resides in North Texas with her insane family, including two lazy dogs and one tragically misunderstood cat.
Seriously, though, the cat is evil.
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