Molly glanced off at the Xeo again. It was such a beautiful ship, if she was into that kind of thing.
She heard a knock at the door, and a minute later it slid open. “Molly, can I come in?” Oz’s quiet voice came from the hallway.
“Yes.” She looked up shyly. “It’s your room.”
“What’s happened?” he asked as he sat beside her.
“I’m sorry about before. Haze just—” She broke off frustrated. She didn’t want to speak the words out loud about what she’d learned. A tear clouded her vision, and before she could wipe it away, it rolled down her cheek.
Oz leaned back, going stiff.
“I will break him,” he said, standing up. “I shall rip him from limb to limb. I am so sorry, mah lo ma. I must get someone for you — Seban — but then, I promise, you shall be avenged.”
“Break who? The Suhlik?”
“The — wait, you said — Haze — that he…?” His voice dropped off.
She held her hand up and shook her head. “No. Haze told me what happened to my brother. I asked him to, but I don’t think I really wanted to know.”
He sat back down. “This was the brother that died?” he asked.
“Yes, they—” Molly still couldn’t say it. Her insides were like a painful, hollowed-out shell.
Oz drew her into his arms, holding her tightly. She rested her head against his chest, hiding from the truth a little longer.
“You don’t have to tell me until you’re ready. I understand.”
Molly pulled away from him. “I don’t mean to be so angry with you all the time.”
“I know,” he said, his voice going soft. “You want to go home.”
If only it were still that simple.
“Will you sit with me, just until I fall asleep?”
Oz lay down beside her so she rested on his chest, her tears falling every so often to splash on his shirt.
After a while, she wiped her eyes clear and rolled over. She’d been putting something off for too long. Molly dug her mother’s note out of her pocket to read.
Molly,
I will miss you so much.
You are my pride and joy, and you have all of your family’s love.
Be brave and strong and kind.
Have an adventure!
Look back on Earth.
Know that we are thinking of you and so proud of the woman you are and the mother you will be.
Love you,
Mom
This was where her brother Max got it from, knowing just what to say and when to say it. Her mom had always had it too.
Molly reached over to place the note on the stand beside the bed before leaning back against Oz, closing her eyes.
Oz wrapped an arm about her, lacing his fingers through hers. “If you aren’t pregnant, I can get you home again.”
She leaned against him. “You could really send me back; I could go home?”
She felt his nod against her hair. “It’s normally locked down, but I know how to override the setting.”
Molly laughed a little at that. “Of course you do.”
Oz shrugged. “I have my moments.”
“Would you get in trouble?” she asked, pressing against him.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” he said, his voice soft against her ear.
“And so, you’d let me go? I could really go back to Earth.”
“Yes.”
She rolled over to face him, not speaking, just looking at his beautiful face, memorizing the shape of it. It’d been like that with her family, when she’d had no choice, when she’d thought she’d never have another choice about her life.
He was offering her now, all the choice in the world. She could choose to see her family again, or she could choose something else entirely.
“My mom’s note. She said to ‘have an adventure’.”
“There’s certainly plenty of that around here.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek, whispered in her ear, “Do you think you’d ever want to stay?”
“Me. On a spaceship?”
“To be fair, it’s not all the time spent trapped in a spaceship. We stop places; see the universe. It’s—”
“—an adventure?” Molly asked.
He kissed her hand and looked at her seriously. His words came out hushed, and he leaned back slightly from her. “I can’t promise that it would always be safe, but I would do my best to protect you and our son.”
“Son.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m not even pregnant.”
His lids grew heavy and hooded, and Molly felt a warmth sweep through her body as she realized what he was thinking about.
“I could never resist you for long, mah lo ma. So yes, a son, eventually. Probably soon.”
Molly’s face flushed as he rested his hand on her hip, and he leaned down to kiss her softly. A thrill ran through her.
He leaned forward to whisper in her ear again. “Maybe that’s what I want, for you to never get pregnant so I would know that, every day you stayed, it was because you chose to be with me another day longer.”
Molly’s whole heart clenched up. She reached up to touch his face, tracing his cheek.
She shrugged her shoulders helplessly, her mom’s words replaying in her head.
His gaze dropped to the bed, and he leaned away from her, giving her space.
It was there for her, in that look in his eyes, the warmth of his smile, the soft touch of his hands. His voice was like the most beautiful music in her head. She’d spent so long trying to fight what she couldn’t believe she’d been given.
She had only to decide to take it.
“I don’t want to leave,” she admitted. A burden she didn’t even know she carried, lifted.
He froze, glancing over to her, then his face broke out in a beautiful smile. He reached over to touch her cheek.
“I don’t think I can leave, not if it means I’d never get to see you again.”
“You do like me,” he said with a smirk. “I knew it.”
Molly rolled her eyes. “Maybe a little…” she ventured.
For a long, breathless moment, they kissed, and the need pulled through her belly, the happy sense of everything being right and the most wonderful man in the universe loving her.
“Walk with me?” he asked. “I can show you the station.” He smiled sideways at her again. “Later, the universe…”
“Awww.” She grinned. “You’re so sweet.”
33
Oz
The next day, after Oz had carefully supervised the undocking procedures and all the adjustments he’d made to the ship, he felt it was time to show Molly his surprise. He felt a bit giddy, like his academy days when he’d gone to present the designs for Xeo to his instructor, knowing for sure that they would find their way to the council and approval.
But he’d learned, in his time knowing Molly, that she was not one he could easily figure out. All he could do was see.
When he picked her up from their room, she was laying her clothes into the little compartments he’d set aside for her. Pride ran through him that she would always be there, that he would get to see her every night, hold her in his arms and sleep beside her. He couldn’t believe his luck that he would find someone like her. He’d never thought that he could be so happy with a girl matched to him randomly from another world.
As they walked down the hall, she slipped a warm hand in his. He squeezed it gently and looked down to see her smiling at him. It was so different the way she walked beside him now, not frightened of the walls or the viewports or of him, but content and secure.
She was wearing the little skirt again, not suitable for ladders, so he loaded into the supply elevator again.
“I wasn’t thinking,” she said as she paused outside the elevator.
“It’s okay.” He smiled as he pulled her in beside him. “I don’t mind.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and used his tail to push the down button. His tail went to wrap around her ankle possessively.<
br />
As the door of the elevator slid open, he led her toward the front of engineering and into one of the larger storage rooms.
Molly drew in her breath as she looked around. “Is this going to be a garden?” she asked. She went down the rows of garden bays, touching the soil and holding her hands under the warmth of the sunlamps he’d placed over them.
“I’ve asked the captain if we could requisition some Earth seeds. You’ll need to let him know what to request. And there’s this—” Oz reached over and enabled the viewscreen. It settled on a distinctly Earth visage: a large field of yellow plants waving in a breeze with a bright yellow sun overhead. “I was able to download this from the Mahdfel database. It says it’s from a Kansas wheat field. I thought you might like it, and this way you could work here. Near me.” He held his breath, waiting.
She didn’t say anything at first, just looked around, but when she finally turned to him, she had a sunlit smile on her face that filled his heart with joy.
“Oz, it’s incredible. It feels like a bit of home.” She rushed into his arms and gave him a big hug. She stood on tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for doing all of this. Now—” Molly slapped him on the butt. “Let me work.” She rubbed her hands together. “I think I’ll need rosemary and thyme… hmm.” She glanced over at him with a smirk of challenge on her face and looked away. “…And over here maybe some…”
Oz watched for a moment, smiling, then pulled her back into his arms. He would need a little more thank you than that.
She acted surprised then leapt into his arms, pulling his face to hers. “I love it.” She giggled. “I love you…” Her voice grew tentative and dark with intimacy as she struggled with the words. “…shah la van lo va.”
He watched the words form on her lips, a tenderness piercing through him.
She had called him her mate.
My Molly, my mate, mah lo ma.
As he leaned her against the wall — his tail wrapped around her leg, his hands through her hair, her soft moan like music to his ears — his tattoos glowed bright enough to rival the sun.
Afterword
Would you like to read more stories about the Telorex Pact men?
Book 2, Haze, is now available!
Warrior Haze doesn't have time for his new matched mate Vi, no matter what his DNA says.
Sure, he wants her. Has to have her.
But his mission comes before everything, even when it puts his feisty little mate at risk.
Vi is no man's toy. She's done with losers. Been there, done that, burned the t-shirt.
And a new life with a sexy alien warrior is just what she needs. But instead of a bride, Haze needs an undercover plaything.
When Vi promises Haze that she’ll kick his ass if she gets sent to the auction block — him, the greatest fighter the Mahdfel have ever seen — it sends an excited zip through him.
He’s doing his best to play it cool, but she’s distracting him from the mission.
And the harder they fight the attraction, the harder it is not to succumb...
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Thanks for reading,
Phoebe
For a list of science fiction romance stories from Phoebe Fawkes:
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Oz (The Telorex Pact Book 1) Page 12
