by Zoe York
Aldric, on the other hand…she hadn’t been overestimating when she said she had more experience at this than he did. His first step nearly toppled him sideways. The relative strength he had on the ship felt ten-times stronger on the moon, and lifting his knee practically launched him into the air. Falling on a jagged rock and ripping his suit open wasn’t his idea of a good time, so he focused on baby steps until he found his space legs.
The coordinates had been very specific. Two hundred meters from the landing spot they would find a heat-activated door disguised in a rock face.
If it was true, someone would have gone to a significant degree of difficulty to hide here.
Aldric moved slowly to the back of the ship to collect the pallet of boxes. It had large rubber wheels that should roll over the surface no problem—if he didn’t shove it too hard and send everything flying. Or falling slowly, maybe. He kind of wanted to drop-kick one of the crates to just see what would happen.
Breathing slowly, he restrained that inner boy and gave the pallet a slight push. Perfect.
It didn’t take them long to reach the rock face and, sure enough, when Navena waved a flashlight over the “rock”, a door appeared. She found the sensor panel and held her flashlight there long enough to trigger the open mechanism.
It was an elevator.
Aldric’s skin crawled at the thought of trapping them in such a thing, but Navena proceeded forward in a way that made him feel foolish for lingering.
It would be fine.
He repeated that twice before his feet moved beneath him. She shifted out of the way, making room for the cargo, and as soon as he was inside, the doors closed.
From a distance, an alarm sounded—a long, slow warning noise that did nothing to reassure him this was fine. A dark screen lit up, beeped twice, then English words started scrolling.
Visitors, please stay inside the decontamination zone. Weapons detected. All areas monitored. Act accordingly.
Too weird.
Their descent was slow and quiet.
Arriving at station level, the display read out. Artificial atmosphere maintained. Helmets may be removed.
His tablet confirmed that fact, but in case it was a trap, they didn’t remove them just yet.
As the door hissed open, they both hugged the walls, out of direct line of fire from the…brightly lit lab. Full of people paying them zero attention.
The alarm they’d heard still sounded. But now that the elevator had arrived, it was clearly more of an alert that a decontam shield was in place, rather than a paramilitary warning sound. An almost invisible shield shimmered in the air between them and the lab.
Cautiously, Aldric stepped off the elevator, Navena by his side.
“They’re human,” she gasped, but her helmet was still on, so Aldric was quite certain he was the only one who’d heard her.
He tapped the release seal and lifted his own helmet off his head, drawing the attention of a few workers nearby. He waited until two of them approached, then he lifted his hand. “Greetings. We have a delivery for you. A purchase made on behalf of a Drendali scientist?”
The closest person, a woman, gasped and lifted her hand to her mouth. “Dr. Fews? Do you have him with you?”
Aldric shook his head. “Just the bones.”
Beside him, Navena’s shoulders shook as she also de-helmeted.
“What?” he asked her under his breath.
“Remember that whole cultural sensitivity thing we talked about?” She rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the now growing throng of scientists. “I am Navena. This is Aldric Gunter, of Midgard.”
“You are human, too?” The spokeswoman frowned. “Dr. Fews sent word that he’d hired Verveenians.”
“Right. It’s a long story, but you get us. And the shipment is behind us on the elevator.” Indecision warred across Navena’s face, then she gave in. “Can I ask… Who are you? What is this place?”
The other woman flicked a look across at Aldric. “You said you’re from Midgard?”
He nodded, and Navena answered honestly, “He is. I am—was—a FedNat soldier until very recently.”
“What happened?”
“I was abandoned on a prison planet. So I’m not feeling super warm and fuzzy toward them right now, if that’s your concern.”
“Of course it is,” the other woman said, still obviously worried. “They can’t know that we’re here. And you should forget that you’ve seen us, too.”
“That’s going to be hard.” Navena said, blinking as she took it all in. It was massive, bright and clean and modern.
And completely full of humans.
“With all due respect, it’s none of your business. Do you have documentation of the shipment?”
Aldric held out a data plug and stepped out of the way as she moved through the decontam shield. She took the plug and approached the pallet with her tablet. She was older than them, middle-aged, and seemed no threat them. Not a friend, either, but no threat.
“Thank you,” she said firmly, tapping her tablet screen dark. “You may go now.”
“Wait!” Navena said, glancing around. She opened her mouth, then closed it again.
Aldric understood what she wanted to say. He stepped forward and held out his hand, still inside the glove of his spacesuit. “If you are human, then we are kin. Know that, for our kin, we would do anything.”
The scientist shook his hand. “With all due respect, Mr. Gunter, we don’t know you and it has been our experience that our kin can sometimes do awful things.”
“Are you talking about the FedNat?” Navena shook her head. “You aren’t alone in thinking they’ve gone too far. On Midgard—”
It pained Aldric to interrupt his wife, but she couldn’t speak for his king. He could—barely—but had to be very careful. “We aren’t talking about governments. I don’t know what your history is here. My wife obviously would like to know more—everything, even. But I understand the desire for privacy. Can we convince you to perhaps share something of your journey to this moon? And in turn we would share how we came to be here. Perhaps our stories are not that different.”
The other woman shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s not for me to say. I could perhaps speak to the director, but you will need to return to your ship.”
They didn’t have enough supplies to stay much longer. He could feel Navena’s anxiety growing beside him.
This puzzle would need to be solved at another time, and as that would cause his wife distress, it pained him, too.
Something else she could take out on him with her fists.
“On that data plug is a confidential subspace code you can use to contact us at any time. It also includes my pertinent information. Please share it with your director. We would like to return.”
“Aldric!” Navena put herself between him and the elevator. “We can’t leave.”
“We must. Nobody is in distress here. We have not been asked to intervene in any way.”
Her eyes blazed at him but she held her tongue. Slowly, he set his helmet in place and she did the same—a brief reprieve from the conversation that would definitely continue once they were back aboard the ship.
Chapter Eleven
The first growl came before he’d stripped off his spacesuit. Navena stomped ahead of him into the common room and pulled two dehydrated meals off the shelf, muttering under her breath the whole time.
He followed, giving her the space she needed to process what they’d just seen. To the best of his knowledge, and he assumed Navena’s as well, Midgard was the only human colony outside of Earth and its moon.
To find a group of human scientists in an obscure corner of space, working on something top-secret—that shook Aldric. And he already distrusted the FedNat with every fiber of his being.
“I know your sworn loyalty is to the organization these people are hiding from,” he started, but stopped when she threw her spoon across the room at him.
“Stop it
,” she cried. “You don’t know where my loyalties lie. And I get it, okay? I get that this ship isn’t designed for deep space travel and we’ve already pushed it to its limits. I know we need to head back to Midgard and that there’s no drama down there.” She gestured madly at the floor of the ship and the moon’s surface below. “So take your damn meal and start the lift-off systems check, okay?”
So this was what it would be like to be married. Aldric understood better now why Reinn couldn’t just let his wife yell at him. Two people with two different perspectives were bound to butt heads, and it was hard to bite one’s tongue.
“Don’t look at me like you want to figure out how to tell me I’m overreacting,” she warned, rounding the counter and approaching with his dinner.
“Don’t assume I’m going to judge you for the overreaction. That’s just human nature. I’m am trying to figure out how to tell you that—” He cut himself off as she shoved his meal packet into his chest. Her dark eyes glinted up at him from a flushed, angry face. And now he understood why arguments in the Ragnarson household didn’t last long. His insides warmed as his wife’s frustration pulsed around them, becoming his own frustration. “I’m on your side, Navena. But when you’re upset, I need to be the voice of reason. Like you would for me.”
“You think I would?”
“I know you would.”
“I haven’t had a chance yet.”
“You will.”
Her face crumpled, but she didn’t let herself cry. “Go. Get us off this moon before I launch another protest.”
He did as she requested, giving he space as he went through the pre-flight check and fired up the engines. It wasn’t until they reached the edge of the solar system, a few hours later, that she came to him.
He felt her presence before he heard her footsteps, and he felt her pain before she inhaled roughly and started speaking. “I’m sorry, Aldric.”
He sighed and turned his chair, holding out his hand to her. “Come here, woman.”
She folded herself into his lap and buried her face in his neck. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.”
“You’ll be my wife.”
“And…”
“And anything else you want to be. Unless it is still to be a FedNat soldier, because that I might forbid.”
She laughed quietly. “You can’t forbid anything.”
“I can try.”
Silence stretched between them until he wondered if he’d gone too far. But then she sighed. “On this point, I will let you.”
“Thank you.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. “We will go back. When we are invited.”
“That’s not very Viking of you.”
“I’m Viking where it matters most. When it comes to protecting my people.”
“And who protects you?”
He craned his neck back so he could see her face. “I don’t need protecting.”
“Neither do I, but I’ve been thinking about the day you rescued me.” She swallowed hard, her gaze pinned on his face. “And what you said to me.”
His pulse grew heavy in his neck. Perhaps he hadn’t been as subtle as he’d intended.
“Like you said when we got back to the ship, I’m on your side. I’m sorry it took me so long. I’m sorry…” She squirmed out of his grasp and sank to her knees, kneeling before him. “I’m sorry I didn’t know you were making a serious vow to me the day we were married.”
She shouldn’t apologize for how he tricked her. It felt wrong, but he couldn’t speak. His insides were all lodged tight in his throat, and the feeling intensified as she opened her hand, letting a length of twine fall loose against his thigh.
“You kept this for a reason, Aldric.”
He nodded. I love you. It wasn’t enough to just think it. He tested his voice. It cracked. He kept going anyway. “I love you, Navena. I’ve loved you for years. You are my mate.”
She nodded, her eyes soft. “I owe you my own vows, husband.” She laced the fingers of her left hand into his, and with her right hand, slowly tied them together with the twine.
“I will not hurt you. Your pain is my pain. Your…” She trailed off.
“Joy,” he whispered, his voice rough as he shared the vow he’d held inside.
A smile crawled across her face as she beamed at him. “Your joy is my joy. I will take care of you.”
“Min smukke kone,” he murmured, overwhelmed and consumed by his love for her.
“I love you, Aldric. I am your mate, forever and always.”
Want more sexy second chance romances?
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Also by Zoe York
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Copyright 2015
Zoe York
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