by Cara Bristol
“Yes, you are.” She halted my furious pacing by wrapping her arms around my waist.
Her soft embrace mollified me somewhat, but not completely. I’d overcome a lot of challenges to get here, but facing a competitor hadn’t been anticipated. I buried my face in her fragrant hair and held onto what was mine.
“You don’t need to worry about him.” She rubbed her cheek against my shoulder. “You’re my mate. Nobody else.”
“You don’t often call me that,” I said. Almost never. Boyfriend, lover, her man—though laden with affection and intimacy, her Terran references didn’t carry the same weight as mate. Grudgingly, I admitted maybe Caid’s unexpected appearance had solidified the nature of our relationship for her.
“Well, we are,” she said. “That’s how I feel about you. You’re my partner, my other half. Together, we’re creating a new whole. Part Dakonian, part Terran.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Then can you stop growling now?”
“You said my growling was arousing.” She’d told me so many times. Hot was the word she’d used.
“When we’re being intimate—not when you might rip out some guy’s throat.”
“Oh.” That was exactly how I’d felt.
“Besides—he didn’t like me. When I informed him there’d been a mistake, he looked relieved.”
I scowled. “How can he not like you? What is wrong with him?” I resumed stomping. “He needs an attitude adjustment.”
She laughed at me. “First, you wanted to beat him up because you thought he wanted me—and now, you want to beat him up because he didn’t?”
“Well…well…” She was right; I was acting irrationally. My mouth twitched with reluctant amusement before I folded my arms. “Still, his arrival is upsetting. On Dakon, no male would ever attempt to lay claim to another man’s female.”
“I blame the Intergalactic Dating Agency,” Toni said. “First, Jessie gets me excited by telling me I have a match. Next, she reports your visa was denied, and you won’t be coming at all. When you get approved, she sends you over but doesn’t bother to tell me.” She threw up her hands. “Finally, she forgets you’re here and sends over another guy without any warning at all. What’s next?”
I hadn’t explained in great detail how I’d gotten to Earth, but I thought I’d been clear, and she’d understood. Apparently not.
She grabbed her phone. “It’s time Jessie and I had a talk.”
I removed the device from her hands and set it on the table. “Before you do, there’s something you should be aware of.” I raked a hand through my hair. I didn’t know all the Earth customs, rules, and laws, but I was pretty sure I’d broken a lot of them. Where did I start?
Begin with the beginning. “Remember I told you my friend had slandered me so my visa wasn’t approved?”
“Yes, and then it got worked out.”
I shook my head. “No, it didn’t. When Earth authorities forced me off the spaceship, they informed me I wouldn’t ever be allowed on this planet.” They’d warned my name would be flagged, so I didn’t bother to reapply, but took matters into my own hands. I couldn’t permit alien authorities to overrule the Fates, to destroy my chance at happiness.
“But… you’re here—so you did get a visa.”
“No.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Then how did the Intergalactic Dating Agency get you here? You can’t set foot on Earth without documentation.”
“The agency didn’t bring me. I came on my own.”
“On your own? How?”
“I sneaked aboard another ship.” The spacecraft had been sitting in the field outside the Meeting Place, waiting for an unexpected storm to clear so it could finish loading its cargo and launch. Whether passenger or freighter, every ship landing on Dakon departed with a load of illuvian ore. I hid in a cart of rock, and robos rolled it onto the craft. After takeoff, I emerged from the cargo bay and blended in with the other passengers.
Toni’s face went slack then she blinked and her jaw dropped. “You stowed away? You’re here illegally?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get off the ship? They would have checked your visa credentials.”
“I hid in a cart of illuvian ore again, and robos rolled it off the ship. Night came. The guards were fewer, and it wasn’t hard to slip past them.”
“This explains why you have no clothes, why you didn’t get housing, why the IDA didn’t seem to have their act together.” She paced the room. “What are we going to do?”
“Why do we have to do anything?” I asked.
“Because Caid will go back to the Intergalactic Dating Agency.”
“So? They’ll find him somebody else.”
“It isn’t him I’m worried about. You’re here illegally—technically, you’re a criminal. And I’m aiding and abetting, harboring a criminal.”
Her comment hit like a slap to the face. “Oh. I see. That makes a difference to you.”
“Yes…no…I don’t know. This puts me in a complicated situation.”
I thought it was pretty simple. We were Fated to be together.
“I’m an attorney. I could be disbarred over this. I wouldn’t be able to practice law. I could be arrested. I’d lose my firm, my reputation. The negative publicity would affect my entire family.”
I died a little inside. Could I lose Toni over this? I had assumed I only needed to get to her, and our bond would supersede all else. Despite her previous declarations of affection, obviously she didn’t feel the strength of our coupling as much as I did.
On my planet, females could break the mating bond, but almost never did. Terran customs were much different. Here, people broke their vows for any reason at all. A muscle twitched in my cheek. “You don’t wish to be my mate.”
She finally looked at me. “That’s not it at all.” She clasped my hands. “If I didn’t love you, this situation wouldn’t matter so much.”
It was what I needed to hear, but I could no longer trust words. I withdrew and moved across the room. Her wounded expression made me feel terrible; I never wanted to hurt my female. No matter what happened—even if she sent me away—I would always regard her as my mate. There could never be another for me. However, devastation cut so deep, the pain made me angry. “You’re more concerned about your work than us being together.”
“That’s not true!”
“Isn’t it?”
“No. You’re not being fair. You’ve known from the start you broke the law—this is the first I’ve heard about it,” she accused.
“I never kept it a secret. I told you what had happened.” I had explained how my former friend had betrayed me, and I’d been removed from the ship.
“Not so I’d understand.”
“How much plainer could I have made it?” Anger suppressed other emotions. “Your planet is the one with the confusing laws. If anybody should fail to understand—it should be me.”
“You understood the law enough to figure out how to circumvent it.”
“I did what I had to do to come to you.”
“You should have told me!”
“I did tell you.” I wanted to grind my teeth. “Maybe you should have asked more questions,” I flung back at her.
“You had me so bowled over, all I could think about was you, how you made me feel, and how lucky I was.”
“What if you had known the truth? What if I’d said I had to break a few of your all-important rules to get here? What then?”
She didn’t answer.
“That’s what I thought.” Heart shattered, I charged for the door.
She ran after me and grabbed my arm. “Where are you going?”
I stared over her head, unable to meet her eyes for fear of what I might see—or what I wouldn’t see. The sweet, soft looks wouldn’t be there. I wouldn’t be able to bear the emptiness. “I don’t know,” I replied.
I shook of
f her hand. She’d said she couldn’t think—well, neither could I. I needed space. Maybe in aloneness I would find clarity. I strode to the exit.
“Aton—”
I slammed the door.
Chapter Nine
Toni
I thought I had it together, but as soon as my sister appeared on the picto-phone, I burst into tears.
“Oh my god, Toni, what’s wrong?”
“A-a-a-ton left. We had a fight,” I sobbed. “I said and did all the wrong things. Now he hates me.”
“Oh, sweetie, I’m sure he doesn’t.” She motioned at Darak who hovered in the background. “I need to speak with my sister,” she whispered before turning her attention back to me. “He went to cool off. That’s what men do. Didn’t you and Phillip ever fight?”
“Phillip and I rarely talked.”
“No Dakonian would abandon his mate,” Darak said.
“Please? Could we be alone?”
He shook his head but then lumbered off.
“What did you fight about?” she asked.
“I can’t tell you. It’s better if you don’t know.” I buried my face in my hands. “I screwed up, Lexi. He surprised me with…with some…information, and I didn’t react well.”
“He doesn’t have another mate, does he?”
“No!”
“Did he get fired?”
“He doesn’t have a job to get fired from.”
“Right. Dakonians are independently wealthy.”
They might have only a set of buckskins to their name, but due to the planet being loaded with illuvian ore, every single Dakonian was filthy rich.
My sister widened her eyes with mock horror. “His mother’s not coming to live with you, is she?”
Despite my anguish, I laughed. “Most mothers aren’t like ours,” I said.
“Thank the Fates!”
Her usage of the Dakonian phrase brought my mind around to my screwup again. “I’d asked him to move in with me, and then we got into a fight. Now, he probably doesn’t want to.”
“Toni, Darak is right. When Dakonions meet their mates, they bond. It’s forever for them. Whatever you did or said you’re afraid might cause him to leave—well, it won’t. He’ll be back, and you’ll work this out.”
“I wish I could believe it. I hurt him, made him believe I cared more about my job than him.” I’d lost perspective for a few moments, become preoccupied by the legally awkward situation his revelation had created, but I’d never considered not being with him.
“All couples argue. Look at it this way—you got your first fight out of the way.”
“What should I do now?”
“Give him a little space. He’ll come back soon on his own. If he doesn’t, then call him.”
“He doesn’t have a phone yet.” I should have set him up with one. With my head in the clouds, practical matters had fallen by the wayside. Maybe this fight had been a wake-up call that we needed to pay attention to practical matters, too.
“Go to his apartment.”
What if he didn’t want to see me? What he slammed the door in my face?
I wished I could confide more in my big sister, but it was better she remained ignorant. I wouldn’t want to implicate her in anything illegal. Besides, when you’ve committed a crime, the fewer people who were aware, the better your odds of getting away with it. The stupidest thing you could do was shoot off your mouth.
With a start, I realized I had decided how to handle this development: do nothing. Provided he forgave me, Aton and I could continue as if nothing had changed. I was pretty sure I’d never mentioned him by name when I’d surprised Jessie with the news of my date’s premature arrival. I realized now, she’d assumed I meant Caid.
Caid had seen Aton, but I hadn’t introduced them. He’d relay to the IDA I’d hooked up with somebody, but he might not mention he was Dakonian. If Aton’s origins came up, I could say I’d gotten tired of waiting and met a guy on my own. Other organizations besides the IDA were bringing aliens to Earth.
Immigration, obviously, had no idea Aton was here. So, why alert them? All we had to do was keep our heads down and our mouths shut.
I felt a little better about the situation, and I couldn’t wait to make amends, but when he’d stormed out, he given the impression he wasn’t going straight home.
“I’ll go see him in the morning before work,” I said to my sister, taking reassurance from the insistence Dakonians bonded for life. Darak had said Aton would find a way to get here, so maybe he was right about this, too. “Thanks for listening. You helped me to clarify what I need to do.”
“Hey, what are big sisters for? Besides, I owe you. You got your friend Maridelle to hook me up with the macha flour from Dakon. Customers love my macha muffins. They’re selling like hotcakes!”
Maridelle! Why hadn’t I thought of her? She’d worked with a few women who’d gone to Dakon through the Terra Dakon Goodwill Exchange Program, and had been taking on immigration cases. It wouldn’t hurt to bounce this situation off her for a reality check and advice—in case I came to need her services.
“No big deal. All I did was make a phone call. Your cupcakes are delicious. I’m glad this new flavor is a hit. Thanks again for listening. Tell Darak he can come out now.”
* * * *
Maridelle was on vacation and not due back for another week, so I left a message for her to call me about a “professional matter,” but didn’t go into details. When you were contemplating breaking the law, attorney-client privilege didn’t hold up, so it was best not to leave any written or verbal recordings that could be subpoenaed.
The next morning, I left early so I could stop by Aton’s apartment. My stomach churned with nerves. Would he have cooled down enough to speak to me? I hoped Darak and my sister were right about his level of commitment. I’d entered uncharted territory; I’d never been in love before, never had a relationship that mattered as much as this one, never fought with a lover. Aton marked a whole bunch of firsts, and I hoped, onlys. I prayed I hadn’t screwed up our relationship too badly to fix. An apology would be the first words out of my mouth when I saw him.
I rode the elevator to the eleventh floor of the swanky high-rise. Often poor immigrants tended to crowd into decrepit tenements. Not so, the illuvian-ore rich Dakonians. If the building had been a hotel, it would have rated five stars. I breezed by the doorman who must have alerted Aton’s roomie, because Rojak was peeking out of the apartment as I approached.
“You just missed him, Toni,” the Dakonian said. “Aton left a little while ago.”
“How do you know who I am?” I’d always dropped Aton off outside, so Rojak and I hadn’t met.
“I recognized you from his description. He talks about you a lot,” he said.
That gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling, although after yesterday, Aton had probably told him what a coldhearted bitch I was.
“Do you know when he’ll be back?” Maybe I could still catch him. I didn’t have anything on my schedule until 9:00 a.m.
“He didn’t say.”
“Do you have any idea where he went?”
“Didn’t say that, either. He just said he was going to ‘make it right.’”
What did that mean? Make it right with me, maybe?
“If he comes back, please tell him I was here. Tell him—” I’m sorry. The apology needed to come from me, not via his roomie. “Ask him to drop by my office.”
“Will do.”
If Aton had decided to seek me out, would he have gone to my house? I glanced at the time on my phone. I couldn’t drive home and be back in my office for a nine o’clock—let alone have a heart-to-heart in between. Hopefully, Aton knew enough about my schedule to go to my law firm.
I called Megan. “I don’t suppose Aton is there?”
“No, I haven’t seen him.”
“If he shows up, tell him to stay put. I’m on my way.”
“Go
t it—don’t have him Tasered.”
“Right.”
“Did you two watch Sunny Weathers’ Excellent Adventures?”
Watching the reality show together had been the start of a perfect afternoon—until I’d ruined it. “We did. We both enjoyed it—for different reasons. Thanks for suggesting it.”
I ended the call, dropped my phone in my bag, and got on the elevator. The doors closed. My phone rang. I dug it out, recognized the number, and my heart rate went through the roof.
“This is Toni,” I answered formally, buying time to devise a response.
“This is Jessie. Aton is here. So is Caid. We need to talk.”
“I can be at your office in ten minutes.” This level of damage control would require a face-to-face meeting.
“Perfect.”
“Could I speak to Aton for a moment?” If Jessie was smart, she’d refuse.
“Uh…yeah. I can get him. He and Caid are in the waiting room. Hopefully, they’re not punching each other out. Hold on.” Music played in my ear.
The elevator opened, I exited to the lobby, and moved off to the side.
The music quit. “Here he is,” Jessie said.
“Toni?” Aton sounded so glad to hear from me, it soothed my fears I might have irreparably damaged our relationship. We’d survived our first fight. We were okay.
“Yes! Oh, Aton. I’m so sorry for everything that happened last night. I didn’t react well.”
“I’m sorry, too. It was my fault, and I want to make it right.”
“Yeah, about that…I’m going to ask you some questions, and I need you to just answer yes or no. Is Jessie standing right there beside you?”
“Yes.”
“Did you say anything to her about not having a visa or about how you sneaked on board the spacecraft?”
“No…not yet.”
Oh, thank goodness, the Fates, or sheer luck. “Don’t—don’t say anything to her. I’ll be there in a few minutes. We’ll talk to her together.” And by we, I meant me.
