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Draz shifts guiltily, and I brush his hair off one shoulder. “I did that, too,” he finally says.
“Why didn’t you wait for me? I would have gone with you. What he says matters to me and my people, too.” It stings, and I swallow it down, waiting. Draz has proven worthy of my trust.
“You’re right,” he says easily. “I thought time would be of the essence, however, and you were busy with your crew. You are welcome to come next time, if we try again. The Roth failed to offer up any information. We’re sending a contingent of warriors to protect the tech transport all the way to Earth.”
“Oh, wow,” I say, my eyes widening. “Do you have the people to spare?”
He runs a thumb across my cheekbone, the touch so tender that I smile at him, regardless of the seriousness of the situation. “It is not about sparing my people, but about protecting the future of both of ours.”
I lean into his touch, my eyes half closing. “My crew’s translators don’t work.”
“I heard.”
“We need to fix them.” I open my eyes fully, pi
“What? What do you mean?” He looks truly dumbfounded at the notion. “Do your crew wish to leave with them? I was under the impression that no other couples had bonded.”
“No, not as far as anyone said.”
“Then why would you even ask—” He stops, staring at me with incredulity. “Your females will be easy to convince to come to Sueva, if this is how human males treat them.”
“Is that part of the plan?” I laugh, sure he’s joking. His eyebrows raise, and my laugh dies. “You want to convince more women to come here?”
“I want you to convince them.”
“Draz,” I say, about to refuse… but then I think about it. Really think about it. If I’d come here to start a new life, not been tricked here with a lie, with the possibility of marrying a Suevan warrior, maybe I would have been more open to all of this? Who’s to say women on Earth would be opposed to it?
“Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking that I would want to discuss it with my crew.”
He waits, tilting his head.
“It doesn’t sound like the most terrible idea in the whole world.”
“High praise,” he says seriously, then grins at me, wrapping his hands tight around my exposed midriff.
I lean against him, sighing at the familiar, welcome hard warmth of his chest. He’s my home now.
“Tell me it’s going to be okay,” I say, knowing it’s a stupid thing to ask. “Tell me the Roth aren’t going to win.”
“They have already lost,” he says into my hair. “We have each other, and we have a plan. The Roth will never see us coming. We will do our best to protect Earth, and the Suevans would rather burn all of Roth than lose their mates.”
My hands tighten around him. He speaks like it’s the truth, and for a moment, it feels like it is the truth.
Earth’s going to be protected. My crew will be fine. Gen will find her way home to us. The Suevans will get what they want. We’re going to be okay.
We’re already okay, because we have each other.
His lips graze my forehead in a slow kiss, and then he pulls away from me.
“Ni-Kee,” he says, clearing his throat. “I have a surprise for you. I know you did not like the surprise this morning, but I think you will like this one. I hope.”
He’s so dang cute when he’s flustered, his yellow scales on his abdomen flushing with light orange.
I make a show of smoothing my light blue top, pretending to ponder his words.
“Is there food involved with this surprise?”
“I will feed you,” he says gravely, his tail twitching.
“Hmmm…. Is there sex involved?” I flutter my eyelashes.
Draz makes a choking sound, his diamond pupils flaring. “Not during the surprise, no. After? As much as your little human body can stand.”
“I suppose I can work with that.”
He laughs then, the sound pleased and amused. “Come, my heart, let me take you to your surprise. I worked hard on it today.”
“Oh, so it wasn’t all warlord things?”
“I ca
A flutter of anticipation settles in my stomach, and Draz curls his hand around mine, tugging me out of the myza.
Music floats through the air, and Draz grins at me when I squeeze his hand, looking around for the source of it. Night’s begun to settle across the sky, fiery orange streaking the sky, purple playing on the horizon.
He tugs me around the corner, a direction I haven’t been yet, and I cover my mouth with my hand. Yellow orbs float around the space—a manicured garden park full of night-blooming flowers. Moon white petals unfurl, spreading a spicy floral aroma that mingles with the unmistakable scent of Suevan cooking.
Tables line the mossy ground, and my crew lets up a cheer when they see me. They seem happy, truly happy, and most have one of the watermelon lime ice drinks in their hands, their loose Suevan clothes painting them in all shades of the rainbow.
There are Suevans here, too, of course, Cephi beams and waves at me from across the way, and a group of burly Suevan warriors cast longing glances at my chattering crew. Their husbands, I realize, and swallow hard.
Draz tucks me into his chest, and I melt into him.
“I thought you would like to relax with your people and mine tonight.”
“And not have to fight off giant Crigomar with toxic snails?”
He snorts, tipping a finger under my chin. “I suppose if you truly would like to do that, I can arrange that for your warlord trials.”
“I’m sure whatever you normally do will be fine,” I laugh, gripping his waist with my hand. He lowers his mouth to mine, and desire winds through me as his lips brush against mine chastely.
“Come, little mate, let us celebrate our union.” He leads me into the crowd of Suevans and humans, and the energy is so joyous, so alive, that I want to seize it with both hands and never let go.
It feels like maybe, just maybe, with our two species working together, we can make sense of all our troubles tomorrow.
It feels like hope.
OceanofPDF.com
EPILOGUE
One week later
OceanofPDF.com
NIKI
Tension rides my shoulders, pushing them tightly together. My head aches from spending the morning with Tati and Carmen and the Suevan medics, working through the mystery of the translators and acting as a translator myself.
And not a very good one, either.
I groan, trying to work out the kinks in my neck.
“There shouldn’t be a problem with them,” Tati says, still exasperated. “They should be working.”
“Finding out they’re not just an implant does shed some light on the situation,” Carmen says, rubbing her eyes. “A symbiont.” Carmen shoots me a calculating look.
“Why is hers working? It just doesn’t make sense,” Bex says, walking alongside me, clutching the watermelon lime drink we’ve all grown quickly addicted to.
“She’s our superior officer. Superior in every way,” Tati says, and Bex and Carmen laugh.
“What if that is why?” I say slowly. “What if I just… accepted our situation and rolled with it, instead of trying to fight it?”
The laughter dies, and the three of them stare at me as if I’ve grown another head.
“You mean… you had to consciously accept the symbiont instead of fighting against it?” Carmen taps her fingers against her chin, her mouth screwed up. “I guess it’s possible.”
“Did you think to yourself, ‘I accept my fate, sold like cattle to an alien’ and then bam, it worked?” Bex asks, a
“No, what? No. I don’t know… We were just stuck out there, in the jungle, and I realized that my only hope of getting out of there was working with Draz.”