Protected
Date: 2016-07-19 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Aliens; Romance; Science Fiction; Erotica; Paranormal Romance; Paranormal; Fantasy; Science Fiction Romance; Abuse; Adult
Description: Grav N’gol is many things. Murderer…ex-con…Alien half-breed… And a Protector. More than just a bodyguard, a Protector chooses a female to ward for life and swears an oath to die for her if necessary. Enter Leah Roth. The luscious little Earth female is supposed to be just a quick surveillance gig for Grav. He’ll check on her and report back that she’s okay—it should be easy. Only she’s not okay. When Grav sees Leah’s abusive husband hurting her, he swings into action. Before he knows it, he has Leah aboard his ship. When he’s given a dangerous and difficult mission, Leah volunteers to come alo

The Alien Mate Index

Book 2: Protected

Evangeline Anderson

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Evangeline Anderson Books

The Alien Mate Index

Book 2: Protected

Copyright © July 2016 by Evangeline Anderson

E-book License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the e-book retailer of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

Dedication: With love to all my Kindred readers. If you like Kindred, I think you'll love Alien Mate Index as well. I write these books with all of you in mind. I feel very blessed to have such awesome people to pretend with me.

Hugs and Happy Reading to you all!
Evangeline

Disclaimer : This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. So please don't get your panties in a twist--this is all in fun. ; )

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty-two

The End…or is it?

Epilogue

Descended: Book 3 of the Alien Mate Index Series

The Warriors of The Alien Mate Index

Also by Evangeline Anderson

About the Author

Prologue

Location: Aboard Assimilation ship EOC-2789, the private vessel of Count Doloroso.

Time: .05 solar seconds following the departure of invaders who absconded with the Earth female, Zoe McKinley, a known Pure One and La-ti-zal, marked for impregnation with the first organic Assimilated.

The echoes of the invaders boots had scarcely faded from the corridors of the Assimilation ship when a panel in the control room slid aside and a small, silver insect came buzzing out. It paused for a moment to ascertain that the invaders were truly gone, then continued its flight down to the medical suite. It hovered for a moment over the fallen body of its last host, the pink, featureless face twisted almost completely backwards with the blow that had broken its neck.

The nano-chip inside the silver insect hummed. A waste. But this body had almost outlived its usefulness anyway. It had been chosen for its durability and the great wealth of its previous occupant—both of which had been nearly exhausted. The Assimilation had been hoping to make it last until another of the correct kind became available. Only a body of one of the Twelve Peoples, those grown from seeds scattered by the Ancient Ones, had long term compatibility with an Assimilation mind.

But though no such organic body was available, there were a few “burner bodies” stored in the stasis booths located in the hold. The silver insect buzzed its way towards the hold and the large doors slid open soundlessly to admit it.

In front of the first stasis booth, the insect hovered, waiting patiently as the organic unit inside was brought slowly back from the suspended animation it had been held in for the last fifty cycles.

Soon enough it came stumbling out of the booth, its black, compound eyes blinking stupidly, its long ears twitching as it tried to ascertain its situation. It had green skin and a small, wrinkled blue hole for a mouth—a Grubbian. They were a species of traders and merchants, practical to use as temporary organic units since they were ubiquitous to the entire galaxy and so never attracted attention.

The silver insect gave the Grubbian no time to get its bearings. Before it had taken two steps, the insect struck. Sinking the silver barbed stinger located at the end of its metallic abdomen deep into the greenish, pebbled skin at the base of the target’s neck, it injected its payload.

“Ah!” The Grubbian cried out and flailed wildly—but only for an instant. As the nanobytes injected by the silver insect reached its bloodstream, it came under the control of the Assimilation. Its brain function was circumvented as new thoughts raced through the neural synapses. Soon the Grubbian’s personality was nothing but a distant memory—it had, in effect, ceased to exist.

It had been Assimilated.

The being lately known as Count Doloroso smiled and stretched his new arms. It was good to be in a fresh body, even if this one was only temporary. Of course, this body wouldn’t do for the planned impregnation of the La-ti-zal he had marked as the mother of the new race of organic Assimilated. He would have to find another and neither of the two in the stasis stalls would do. They were both of outside races, those not descended from the Ancient Ones.

He frowned. Of course, it would do him no good to have the correct body, if he had no female to impregnate. Zoe was gone, in the company of two large and very capable males. She would be nearly impossible to recover.

Reluctantly, Doloroso decided she was a lost cause. He would have to turn his attention to finding another female to take her place.

Luckily, he had an idea of where her home planet was located. And he had two names to work with—the names of her friends who she had told him to leave alone.

“Charlotte and Leah,” he mused, his voice hissing from the small, puckered blue hole of his new, temporary mouth. “Hold on, my future wives. As soon as I find the correct body to wear, I’ll be coming for you…”

Chapter One

Grav

I’m not a nice guy.

I’m a murderer and an ex-con and an all around son-of-a-bitch, ask anybody who knows me.

But I’m also a Protector.

I took an oath to guard the females I take as wards with my life, and I take that oath very fucking seriously. That’s why, when I see someone I’ve sworn to protect in danger, I take immediate action, even if the female I’m acting for doesn’t know I’m assigned to protect her.

Of course, it helps if she knows I’m watching out for her—helps if she knows she can trust me. Because, unfortunately, I’m not the kind of male females trust on sight.

I’m one ugly bastard, is what I’m trying to say.

Half Braxian and half Vorn—the two most hated and feared of the Twelve Peoples the Ancient Ones seeded the galaxy with. I’m not smooth like an Eloim or pretty to look at like a Majoran. I have bluish-gray skin, black curling horns, and white-on-black eyes that can see every spectrum of light.

And don’t forget my prison tats.

But it doesn’t matter what I look like—I get the job done. And at the moment, my job was getting planet-side to save one of the Earth females who had been put under my protection.

Only she didn’t know me—didn’t know I was watching her. And she sure as hell didn’t know I was trustworthy. I mean, what would you say if a seven foot tall blue alien with horns and freaky-as-shit eyes showed up at your door?

Exactly.

But none of that mattered—she was in danger and I had to save her.

But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. I should start at the beginning…back when I first came aboard the Commercians’ space station, which was circling in low Earth orbit, spying on Earth females for their Alien Mate Index. A site which claims they can hook up any alien male with the perfect Earth bride or concubine—for a price.

I wasn’t looking for either. I just wanted to serve and protect, no matter what it took…

* * * * *

“Can you tell me the sort of female you are interested in?” Char’noth S’roth, the lead Commercian asked me in his high, silly voice. “We have all sorts, my Lord…”

“Grav,” I said, frowning. “And I’m not a ‘Lord,’”

“Ah yes, forgive me, my Lord” Char’noth squeaked, rubbing several of his hands together.

Commercians look kind of like dark blue worms with multiple limbs. They have the most ridiculous fuckin’ voices imaginable, but they’re shrewd in business and almost always the first to exploit any kind of commercial situation. It didn’t surprise me a bit that they had discovered Earth, once a closed planet, was finally opening up. Or as they put it, “ripe for harvest.”

“As I was saying, my Lord Grav” Char’noth continued, “We have all kinds. Some tall, some short, some thin, some thick…”

“I’m not a Lord,” I said again, interrupting him. “And I don’t wanna look at any you have for sale. In fact, I’m interested in two that aren’t for sale. Or they’d better not be—their contracts were bought and paid for with the understanding that they were to be left strictly alone.”

“Ah…you must be referring to the two La-ti-zals whose contracts were bought by Lord Sarden, whom I am told has recently ascended to the throne of Eloim?”

“That’s right,” I said, glaring at the little worm. “Which means he’s got considerable clout—so you’d better be keeping those two off your fuckin’ database.”

“If you have been sent to see if we are honoring our agreement with Lord Sarden, you can put your mind at ease.” Char’noth’s high, piping voice sounded offended. “We Commercians do not renege on business deals. In fact, another customer has already come asking to see them and we refused all his offers, though they were quite considerable.”

My protective senses went on high alert.

“What? Why didn’t you say so? Was it a male about this high?” I showed him with my hand level to my chin. “With a smooth, pink face—only slits for eyes and a mouth?”

Describing him left a bad taste in my mouth. The freak show of a Doloroso was disgusting—he even managed to make my ugly mug look pretty in comparison. I had killed him though—I’d felt his neck break in my hands and seen the life leak out of his slitted eyes. Still, Lady Zoe, Sarden’s bonded mate, was certain the bastard had somehow come back to life and was stalking her friends. That was what I was there for—to check up on them. I had never expected Lady Zoe to be right, but here we were. Apparently Doloroso was already on the prowl…

But Char’noth was shaking his little blue head.

“No—it was a Grubbian merchant. He said he wanted something extra-special for a client. A La-ti-zal.”

La-ti-zal is the name for a female who has been extra-blessed with talents from the Ancient Ones. Lady Zoe was one and so her friends likely were too. It only takes one female with those latent abilities to start them growing in her closest friends and female relations. So it stood to reason that Lady Zoe—who was an Opener—would have friends who were also La-ti-zals, though what kind they would be, only the Goddess of Mercy knew.

“So this Grubbian asked for a La-ti-zal and you showed them the two girls?” I growled. “Even though their contracts had already been paid for by Sarden?”

“For demonstration purposes only!” Char’noth took an alarmed step back. “We have recently added special scanning equipment to the Alien Mate Index which enables us to pick out those females who are specially gifted. The two that Lord Sarden paid for shine the brightest of all.”

“Shine the brightest?” I said. “What in the Frozen Hells of Arnoth does that mean?”

“See for yourself.”

Char’noth made a motion with two of his blue, clawed hands, causing a light-screen to appear in front of us. It was split in two parts and each half showed one of the females I was assigned to protect.

I had seen them before in Lady Zoe’s memory cube but I had to say, her memories, while beautiful, didn’t do them justice—especially not the little morada who she called “Leah.”

She had pale skin, big brown eyes, and long, silky brown hair my hands itched to touch. I could imagine the soft texture of those strands, sliding over my fingers. Braxian women usually have extremely short hair. Any female with hair past her shoulders is considered exceptionally beautiful and this little one called Leah had hair that went down to the curve of her lower back.

You’re only here to protect and serve, I reminded myself sternly, reeling in my libido. And even if you weren’t, a female this gorgeous—not to mention a Pure One and a La-ti-zal—wouldn’t want anything to do with an ex-con murderer like you. Also, she’s already got a mate. So get a grip, Grav.

Yeah, I’d like to get a grip on her, whispered a lustful little voice in my brain, completely ignoring my stern self-warning, as Leah bent over.

She had full hips and a lush ass too, which was good. I don’t like females that are too skinny—nothing to hold on to. I saw she was surrounded by young ones, some playing and some sitting quietly. She seemed to be concentrating on one in particular—a small male with thick oculars covering his eyes. Hadn’t Lady Zoe told me something about her working with them? Young ones with some kind of disability, I thought, but I couldn’t remember what exactly. Something that made them non-responsive at times. But the small male seemed to be responding to Leah well enough. In fact, she seemed to really have a way with him.

It made my heart ache as I remembered my last ward, Teeny. She had been older than the young ones I saw surrounding Leah on the light screen, but her beloved grandmother had been killed right in front of her. Then she had been captured and kept in a cell by the infamous gangster, Tazaxx of Giedi Prime. Sarden and Zoe and I had managed to rescue her but her big eyes were haunted and she had cried and cried when her grandfather canceled my contract with her and decided to send her to an all-female planet for finishing school.

I wondered how Teeny was doing now. In all probability, I would never find out since her grandfather was a fuckin’ idiot. Poor kid needed counseling and to be with people who cared for her—not to be shipped off to some ridiculously expensive finishing school for the ultra wealthy of the galaxy. But what can you do? Though I had sworn my oath to Teeny, her grandfather had revoked it. Still, she would always be in my heart, even now that I had two new females to guard.

“Do you see the glow?” Char’noth said, motioning to the light-screen.

I dragged my eyes away from the little morada’s curvy behind and looked at both females with clear eyes. It was true that both of them had a kind of aura around them. Leah’s was a pale, lovely translucent blue. But the female named Charlotte—well, her glow was something special.

Most males with Vorn DNA can only see colors when they meet a female they could call as a mate. But though I am half Vorn, my eyes favored my Braxian side. And, as I told you that Braxian eyes can see every spectrum of light—even those invisible to most other species.

The female called Charlotte was putting out rays that would have blinded a normal male. A golden glow suffused with every color of the rainbow surrounded her from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Clearly she was something special.

It was fucking amazing and yet…my eyes kept getting drawn back to Leah with her big brown eyes and pale blue aura.

“The glow, right,” I said, frowning. “So did the Grubbian merchant offer to buy them?”

“Of course he wished to purchase them,” Char’noth said. “Especially this one.” He pointed to Charlotte. “She has the brightest and most complex glow we have yet seen. Clearly she is extra-blessed by the Ancient Ones—a La-ti-zal’s La-ti-zal.”

“Whatever that means,” I grunted. “So what did you tell him?”

Char’noth drew his little wormy body up to its full height of around three feet.

“I told him no, of course. That these females were already paid for and were unavailable for anything but display purposes.”

“As of now, they’re not available for that either,” I snapped. “Except by me. I’m here to make sure they’re safe and you’re honoring your end of the bargain.”

“But how will we show that our equipment can spot a La-ti-zal?” he demanded in his high, squeaky voice. “No other females shine so brightly!”

“Too fuckin’ bad,” I growled. “Stop displaying them now. As much as possible, they need to be left alone to live their lives. Well…” I cleared my throat. “Except for one thing. I need to go down to the planet’s surface and deliver these crystal message cubes.”

I extracted them from my pouch, both square cubes cupped in one palm like an oversized pair of dice.

“It will not be possible,” Char’noth said, hissing disagreeably. “Our transport facilities are only able to send living tissue. Unless you are able to conceal these communication devices somewhere inside your body, they will not be able to travel with you.”

“Fine,” I growled. “Then I’ll go down myself in my own ship.”

“Negative.” He hissed again. “The Earthlings have extremely primitive technology but they are able to detect foreign ships entering their atmosphere and they have the weapons to blast them out of their sky. Why do you think we have hidden our station amongst their space junk? We cannot allow you to risk our commercial operation by exposing our position.”

“You don’t own this planet,” I pointed out. “You’re just harvesting the females. Which I don’t fucking approve of, by the way. Females should be protected and cared for—not sold like chattel.”

“We have first rights to this planet.” Char’noth was getting really upset now. “And we have every right to harvest it. Though it was locked by the Ancient Ones, the inhabitants of Earth foolishly dissolved the protective barrier left in place, tearing a hole in their own ozone layer. Thus legally opening themselves to outside contact with other species.”

Okay, this was getting us nowhere. Clearly I couldn’t fly down to the planet in my ship—the Earthlings would detect it and might shoot me out of the sky. But I was also not going to be cramming the memory cubes—and everything else I needed to bring, including clothing—up my ass just to bring it with me through the Commercians’ transport.

“Try this,” I said to Char’noth, whose little blue back was still up. “Can you send living and non-living things separately? Could you send the cubes and my other equipment down in one shipment and me in another?”

He paused, apparently deep in thought.

“You ask the same question the Grubbian merchant did.”

“And what was your answer?” I growled impatiently.

“That it is possible,” he squeaked reluctantly. “Though the transporter must be reconfigured between each transport. Do you wish to send your possessions down first and then go yourself, or go first and wait for us to send your possessions.”

“Seeing as how a naked blue alien appearing out of nowhere might startle the Earthlings, I prefer to send the fuckin’ things down first and follow after,” I said. “That way I can get myself together as soon as I’m down there instead of waiting naked in the bushes. Or whatever kind of vegetative cover they have on Earth.”

“Very well.” He nodded. “We shall reconfigure. But it will take some time.”

“Reconfigure away,” I said, making a sweeping gesture with one hand. “I got time.”

He made a motion as though to dismiss the light screen with the two girls but I stopped him.

“No—leave it. At least, leave the one with the morada—the long haired female,” I said. “I’ll watch while you work.”

“As you wish, Lord Grav.” Char’noth bowed stiffly and turned to go, but I called him back.

“What poor female did you end up selling to that Grubbian merchant, anyway?” I felt sorry for her, whoever she was.

He shook his wormy head. “None. He wanted no females if he could not have the two you came to watch over. He did, however, order a male.”

“A male?” I frowned. “But they can’t be La-ti-zals, can they?”

“Assuredly not,” Char’noth said. “But he requested a male anyway. A powerful, rich male with all of his personal accoutrements, actually. Though I do not know why he wished such a thing.”

“And you found him one?” I asked.

Char’noth nodded. “We found a rich and well recognized one—though I am not certain how respected he is. The Grubbian left most pleased and said he might be back for a female later.”

“Let me know if he returns.” Of course the Commercians had no chairs that would hold my weight, but it didn’t matter. I settled myself on the floor in front of the light-screen, watching Leah as she worked with the little ones. I was used to waiting patiently when I warded females. And watching Leah was a pure pleasure, though I knew well enough she wasn’t for the likes of me.

I wondered what I would say to her when I brought down the cube—or if I would speak at all. It might just be best to leave it in a place where she would find it. I didn’t want to scare her, after all. Even with the saphor juice to change the color of my skin and the smart-fabric mask which would make me appear more or less human, I wouldn’t be able to disguise my size or musculature.

Well, time enough to decide the details. In the meantime, I watched the sway of her hips and the way her long, silky hair fell around her shoulders and dreamed.

Chapter Two

Leah

It had happened twice before, but this time was the worst.

I could tell by the look in Gerald’s eyes when he came in the door that a storm was brewing. He’d been gone on a business trip for the past few days and he often came home in a bad mood whenever he had to leave me for an extended period of time. I don’t know why—he said it was because he loved me so much he couldn’t stand it when we were apart.

But that wasn’t it.

I think it was because he didn’t like the idea of me being on my own—of me having a life without him to control every aspect of it, not even for the length of time it took to go on a short trip.

Never should have married him, I thought as I took his coat and kissed his cheek, waiting for the storm to break. Never should have let him talk me into moving so far from my family.

But I had, and now I was stuck.

I think I let Gerald talk me into getting married and moving because of what happened to my best friend, Zoe. Around six months ago, she had disappeared. Literally vanished into thin air.

My other best friend, Charlotte and I, were on the phone with her when it happened. One minute she was complaining about her horrible boss and the next we heard some strange, blaring trumpet music and then her voice cut off and she was gone.

Just gone.

Of course, we went to the police and they investigated. They couldn’t find a trace of her anywhere.

Her awful boss was a suspect at first—he had, after all, thrown a stapler at her head just before she vanished. But a secretary at the law firm where Zoe had worked confirmed that he was in his office at the time of her disappearance. In fact, everyone in the place was where they were supposed to be, as the security cameras her firm had had installed clearly showed.

The only place they didn’t have a camera was where they really needed one—in the bathroom. That was where Zoe had disappeared from and she hadn’t been seen since.

Zoe didn’t have any parents or family to fight for her but Charlotte and I tried everything—petitions to the police, calls to the FBI, picketing her law firm…we even hired a private investigator neither of us could really afford.

We came up empty handed with every effort. Zoe was simply gone—vanished from the face of the Earth as though she’d never been there in the first place. As though she’d never called me and sung me silly songs to cheer me up when I was blue or hosted Girl’s Night at her apartment with never-ending margaritas and chick-flicks. As though we’d never shared the cherry chocolate cheesecake at Ivarones and told each other every single secret and loved each other like sisters since we met in college.

Just gone.

Her disappearance tore out a piece of my heart—and Charlotte’s too. My other best friend hid her grief as she always does—in work. She was already a physician’s assistant to one of the most prestigious orthopedic doctors in Tampa, but she decided to go back to medical school and get an MD herself. I knew it was her way of grieving but it felt like another loss, especially since she had to move to Gainesville to attend med school.

That left me all alone in Tampa with my family and my fiancée, Gerald. And somehow I let him convince me to get married and move to another state away from my mom and sister. A fresh start, he said, and it was.

The start of a nightmare.

Don’t think that way, I told myself as I tried to smile at him. Maybe it won’t be like that this time. But there was something about the set of his shoulders and the look in his sharp gray eyes that put me on edge.

“How was your trip?” I asked, trying to sound casual as I stowed his coat in the closet. Gerald had moved us to Virginia, a state much further north than my native Florida. It was March and though the weather was already too warm for a coat down in the sunshine state, here in Virginia you still needed one to go out. I missed the warm weather but it wasn’t just the chilly wind blowing outside that made me feel cold. It was the way Gerald was looking at me.

“Just fine.” He smiled at me tightly—an expression that didn’t reach his eyes.

Gerald had a very handsome face—other women were always jealous of me because of his good looks. “He looks just like a movie star,” one of my old coworkers used to sigh whenever he dropped by to visit me at work.

But those classically handsome features could be colder than ice when he was upset.

“And how was your time here alone?” he asked.

I didn’t like the way he emphasized the word “alone.”

“Fine,” I said, trying to sound casual. What was he implying? What was he thinking? “I mean, I just went to work and then came home.”

Back in Tampa, I’d worked for a daycare that specialized in mildly Autistic children. I hadn’t been able to find anything like that in Virginia but I did find a family who needed an aide to be with their Autistic son during his school hours. It was a gay couple—Emilio and Jackson—who had adopted the little boy even though they’d been warned that he might have problems. They had taken him anyway and two more loving and concerned parents couldn’t be found anywhere.

My employers were both professionals—a lawyer and a dentist—so I picked up their adopted son, Taggard, in the morning, took him to school and stayed with him through the school day, then drove him back to their house (it was more of a mansion) in the afternoons.

For some reason, my husband, Gerald, didn’t like my job. Come to think of it, he hadn’t liked the job I had left back in Tampa either. I think he would have preferred for me to stay home completely, locked inside the house with no outside contact but him. But we couldn’t afford that and Emilio and Jackson paid me well, leaving him little choice other than to let me keep working.

Not that it’s his choice, I told myself fiercely. It’s mine—I run my own life.

Then why did I feel a tremble of fear rush through me when I saw Gerald’s gray eyes narrow and his thin lips turn down in a frown?

“Is that right?” he said in a tight, clipped voice. “You just spent time alone?”

“Well, other than taking Taggard to school and back,” I said, trying to make my voice light. “I see people there—I can’t help it. It’s part of my job.”

“You see people,” he sneered, his handsome face turning ugly. “Don’t you mean you see men?”

“What are you talking about?” I looked at him, honestly mystified. “What men? The teachers at Taggard’s school are all female. Even the gym teacher.”

“That’s not who I’m talking about and you know it,” he snapped. “I’m talking about who you’ve been seeing after you take that little brat home from school.”

“Taggard isn’t a brat,” I said, frowning. “He’s a very sweet little boy. And I still don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do—don’t lie to me.” He took a step forward and though I wanted desperately to hold my ground, I couldn’t help it—I stepped back, putting some space between us.

It’s happening again, whispered a panicked little voice in my brain. He promised it never would but you knew it was a lie. He brought you flowers and cried and said he didn’t know why he did it. You forgave him—or said you did—but you knew he would do it again. The only question is, how far will he go this time?

“I…I’m not lying,” I said, willing my voice not to tremble. Gerald was a big guy—six foot three—much bigger than my own five foot seven. Plus he had a good seventy-five pounds on me, most of it muscle. He liked to work out, though he didn’t want me going out for exercise unless it was to an all female gym.

“You are lying,” he insisted. “I know because I came back from my trip early. I saw you Leah! I saw you go in the house with that little brat’s dad and you stayed there for fucking hours.”

I stared at him blankly, almost unable to comprehend what he was accusing me of.

Both of my employers were professionals, as I said. But Jackson, the dentist, was able to work his schedule to be home every day when Taggard got back from school. He usually had a fun sensory activity planned like digging in the sandbox or kneading dough for homemade bread. Sometimes I stayed and played with them, wishing I had such a happy home life myself. Taggard loved me and called me Miss Leah and Jackson and Emilio treated me like part of the family. It was like I was a sister to the two of them and an aunt to Taggard—but that was all. Absolutely all.

“You’re talking about me staying at Taggard’s house a little while after school?” I said at last. “You’re upset about that?”

“You’re damn right, I’m upset!” Gerald moved towards me threateningly and once more I found myself retreating. “You were in the house alone with that…that Jackson.” He spat the name like a curse. “I know what you were doing!”

“What I was doing was finger-painting,” I flared back at him. “It’s part of Taggard’s sensory diet—it helps integrate his nerves and senses. Jackson was finger-painting too. But that was all we were doing.”

“Bullshit!” Gerald stormed. He was red in the face now—a sure sign that he was about to explode. “You can’t tell me you spent over an hour in a house with a strange man and all you did was finger-paint.”

“Yes I can because that’s all that happened,” I insisted, taking another step back. My heart was beating like a drum by now and I felt sick to my stomach. How had it come to this? What had happened to the sweet and caring man I had married to turn him into a monster? “Gerald, Jackson is gay,” I reminded him. “He would never be interested in me that way.”

“Bullshit!” he shouted again, getting right in my face. He had managed to back me into a corner and his spittle flecked my cheeks as he screamed, his normally handsome features distorted with rage.

“Gerald, please—listen to yourself!” I couldn’t understand how my husband could be so willfully blind. How he could get so enraged over a scenario that wasn’t even remotely plausible.

“He was fucking you! I know he was! Did you give it up for him, Leah? Did you react with him like you never do for me? Tell the truth—you gave it up like a whore! You actually liked it for once!”

I flinched at his ugly words and nasty tone. But the worst thing was the seed of truth in his awful accusation. Not that I had been with Jackson—that was ridiculous. But it was true I felt almost nothing when Gerald and I made love, though I tried to pretend—God knows I tried. Was that the reason he was so jealous? Did the fact that he was unable to make my body react, make him think I was seeking out some other man who could?

I couldn’t get into this now. Deciding to ignore his oblique allegation, I confronted the direct one instead.

“Jackson lives with another man—his husband!” I pointed out. “They’re gay. Exclusively and monogamously gay.”

“He was fucking you! He was fucking you! He was fucking you!”

He screamed it over and over and then the hitting started.

In the past—well, the two times this had happened in the past I should say—Gerald had been careful to “punish” me, as he called it, in places no one could see. My upper arms, my stomach, my thighs—these were spots that could easily be covered so no one would see what he had done to me.

This time he completely lost control.

His fist looped into my vision like a runaway moon and slammed into my eye. Another punch plowed into my cheekbone, slamming my head against the wall so that I saw stars exploding in my vision. A third split my lip and I tasted blood, as salty as tears.

I cried out, cowering against the wall, trying to shield my face from his rain of blows. Though he had hit me twice before, he’d never gone crazy like this. I was unprepared for this level of savagery, this outpouring of physical hatred.

He’ll kill me, I thought, as I tried and failed to fend him off. My God, he’s going to kill me this time…

And then a huge man with a strangely distorted face appeared behind my husband and dragged him off me.

Grav

I knew there was going to be trouble from the minute her mate got home. I can read the signs of an abusive male—one who likes to beat and intimidate his female. I’ve known them since childhood and I learned them the fucking hard way.

“Char’noth,” I yelled, rising to my feet as I kept my eyes on the light-screen where the scene was playing out. “Have you sent my things through yet?”

I’d given him a spare set of clothes, the crystal cubes, and the smart-fabric mask I’d synthesized to look like the features of a normal Earth male. Well, I hoped it did, anyway—I did my best to input the necessary images into my synthesizer but it’s not always the best. And my ship doesn’t have an A. L.—an Artificial Lifeform—to help the process along.

“We found a reflective surface for the transport inside her dwelling,” the Commercian said, appearing at my side.

“Inside her dwelling?” I demanded, glaring at him. “That’s going to freak her right the fuck out, having a stranger just appear in her domicile. You know that, right?”

He shrugged, his wormy body rippling. “You said to get as close to her as possible in an area that you could be concealed in order to dress in your ridiculous outer coverings.” He eyed my black trousers and white sleeveless shirt contemptuously. Commercians don’t wear clothing but then again, they don’t have much to hide—all their sex organs are internal.

“All right, never mind. Just get the damn transport beam reconfigured. I need to go through.”

On the light-screen, Leah’s mate was advancing on her menacingly and speaking in a threatening tone. I could feel my protective instincts come to full, screaming alert. As a Protector, I can’t fucking stand to see a female mistreated or hurt. But it isn’t just the training I underwent or the vow I took that makes me like that. I’ve seen some shit—things I won’t repeat here. Things that come back to me in dreams.

The point is, seeing a female get hurt makes me a little crazy.

“Char’noth?” I demanded, my hands curling into fists. For now he was just raising his voice at her. That was all he had better do if he wanted to live.

“I am finishing the configuration for organic living material now.” The head Commercian beckoned me to a round, silvery portal made of light which had suddenly appeared in the center of their station. “Make your preparations.”

I opened the bottle of saphor solution which would turn my blue-gray hide brownish-tan and drank it down. It burned like fire going down my gullet but I barely noticed it.

As my skin changed from its normal shade to that of an Earth male’s, I looked at Char’noth.

“Now?”

He nodded. “Now.”

I stepped into the portal and was pulled down to the planet where the female I was supposed to be protecting was in danger. I only prayed to the Goddess of Mercy I wouldn’t be too late.

Chapter Three

Grav

I came through a silvery, reflective viewing surface into a sleeping chamber. At least, I thought it was a sleeping chamber—it had a rectangular platform with pillows on it that looked like it might be meant for sleep. On the platform was my bundle of clothes, the mask, and the cubes. That was good because I was naked—my clothes hadn’t made the journey.

Outside the door, voices were raised—Leah’s mate was saying something that sounded angry. I pulled on my mask and trousers hurriedly but as I was trying to get the mask into place, I heard the raised voices turn to shouting. And then the dull thud of a punch landing on soft, vulnerable flesh and the cry of a female in pain.

That sound makes me fucking crazy—I can’t stand it.

No time for my shirt or the cubes. I yanked open the door, looking for the source of the ominous sounds, but I couldn’t find Leah and her mate anywhere. It took me a minute to realize that this was a two story domicile and the fight—(more like the beating)—was happening downstairs.

Rushing down the staircase, taking the steps four at a time, I finally found them. Leah was crouched in a ball, trying to shield her face in a corner of the entry hall. Her mate—a male who would be considered big by Earth standards though he was nothing to me—was leaning over her, raining blows down on her wildly.

A murderous hate twisted his features when I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around to face me. The expression quickly turned to surprise when he saw me.

“What the…who the hell are you?” he demanded.

“Someone who knows what the fuck you are,” I growled and plowed my fist into his nose.

It flattened with a satisfying crunch and he howled as blood began to flow at once.

Leah’s mate flailed, trying to punch back but I had the element of surprise—the little shit never saw me coming. I punched him again and again, making sure to make every blow count. He made a gurgling noise and then I heard Leah crying behind me,

“You’re killing him! You’re killing him!”

I dropped the male, my chest heaving as I tried to control my fury. I turned to face her slowly, pushing back the curtain of red rage that had dropped over my vision with an effort. Braxians are berserkers and I had been very close to the point of no return.

“Don’t you want me to kill him?” I asked, looking at her. “After what he did to you?”

Her lovely face was twisted with fear and pain. Her lip was split and I could tell she would have bruises from his ruthless beating.

“Please,” she whispered, not answering my question. “Please, I don’t know who you are but please…”

I suddenly realized what I must look like to her. Shirtless and covered in her mate’s blood with the smart-fabric mask twisted in a way that was sure to distort my features. And I was so much bigger than her—she probably found me terrifying.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my words coming out harsh and angry. I tried again. “I’m sorry,” I told her in a softer tone. “I know you don’t know me but I’ve been assigned to watch over you.”

“Assigned? By who?” She was still cowering away from me in a way that twisted my heart. No matter what else happened, I didn’t want her afraid of me.

Suddenly I thought of a way to win her trust.

“Lady Zoe—I’m from her. From your friend, Zoe,” I told her.

“Zoe?” Her brown eyes grew huge. “You know her? You know what happened to her?”

“She was abducted,” I said. “By Lord Sarden—who is now her bonded mate and the ruler of the planet Eloim.”

“What?” The hope that had briefly blossomed on her face turned abruptly to disbelief and fear. “You say he rules a planet?”

Damn it, I was making a fucking mess of this! I reminded myself that the Earthlings had no idea that the galaxy around them was full of sentient life. Their instruments were too primitive to contact any other people and they were too skeptical to believe in things they couldn’t see.

“I can prove it,” I said quickly. “I have a message for you from Lady Zoe.”

“Where?” Slowly she stood, her arms wrapped around herself protectively.

“In the upper part of your domicile.” I stepped over the prone form of her mate. He was unconscious but still breathing—which was a hell of a lot more than he deserved, the female-beating bastard.

“What? What is it doing up there? Is that where you came from? How did you get in the house?”

“It’s a very fuckin’ long story, Leah,” I told her. “Look, do you want to see it or not?”

“I do, but…but I’m not going upstairs with a strange man.” She shivered. “And how do you know my name?”

“Lady Zoe told me all about you, including your name,” I said patiently. “I’ll go get her message to you. Will you wait for me?”

“Yes.” She stepped carefully over her prone mate, wincing as she did. “I…I’ll be in the living room. Just hurry.”

“Fast as I can,” I promised and ran up the stairs. I had to prove to her that she could trust me—had to show her everything was going to be all right.

But I still wished I’d killed her abusive asshole of a mate. He had it coming.

Leah

I sat on the floral print couch with my arms wrapped around myself and shivered. My face ached where Gerald had punched me and I could feel blood dripping from my burst lip and a cut above my right eyebrow. But my mind such was a swirling mass of questions it hardly seemed important.

Who was the strange man who had suddenly appeared in my house and saved me from Gerald’s brutal attack? Did he really know Zoe? How had he gotten inside in the first place? And what was all that about Zoe being married to the ruler of a planet?

Was I going crazy and imagining this whole thing? Maybe I was in the hospital, unconscious after Gerald’s beating and I was dreaming all of this.

Footsteps pounding heavily down the stairs assured me it was no dream. I didn’t know who the mystery man was but he was huge—almost a giant. He’d certainly put my abusive husband down with no problem and I had no doubt he would have kept going until Gerald was dead, if I hadn’t stopped him.

Why did you stop him? whispered a voice in my head. After all the awful things Gerald has done to you since he got you to move here, away from friends and family and any kind of support. Why did you make him stop?

I didn’t have an answer.

And before I could think of one, the giant was back in the living room. His face was no longer distorted which was good—before it had almost looked as if his features were twisted somehow. It made him that much scarier. Now he looked normal—well, if a seven-foot tall, muscular, bare-chested giant can look normal, that is. Though his face was oddly generic—which was strange. He looked kind of like one of those police sketches you see where the artist is trying to give the idea of the wanted man and it winds up looking like everyone and no one at the same time.

“May I?” The giant gestured and after a moment, I realized he was asking if he could sit by me.

“Oh…of course.” I scooted over and he sat on the other end of the couch, which creaked alarmingly under his weight. He looked to weigh in the neighborhood of 300 pounds—maybe more—but all of it was muscle. He was holding something in his hand.

“Here.” He uncurled his massive fist, revealing two gleaming crystal cubes. In his large palm they looked like a pair of shiny dice but each was actually about the size of that old puzzle game, the Rubix cube. “Go on,” the mysterious giant said to me. “The one that’s yours will respond to your touch.”

Hesitantly, I reached for one of the cubes and picked it up. I turned it this way and that but nothing happened.

“Not that one, then,” the giant grunted. “Try the other.”

I put the first cube back in his hand and picked up the other.

Immediately it sprang to life.

A 3-D image of Zoe suddenly appeared on top of the cube, as though being projected from the crystal facets. She was wearing a close fitting emerald green gown and her hair looked gorgeous—a red, curly profusion around her freckled face. On her head was a slim, silver circlet with a pinkish-purple jewel—almost like a crown.

“Leah!” she said, smiling that sweet, Zoe-smile of hers. “Oh my God—I’ve missed you so much. And I want you to know I would have sent a message earlier but things have been crazy here, between the coronation and trying to get settled on a new planet…you know how it is.” She shrugged. “Well, you don’t know and I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of time to tell you in this message, although I promise to send more soon.”

She took a deep breath.

“Okay, try not to freak out, but the reason I sent you this message is you might be in danger. There’s a really bad guy named Count Doloroso—he’s extremely creepy and he wants an Earth girl for…” She shook her head. “You don’t want to know what for. Anyway, the good news is that the guy I’m sending these message cubes with is going to be looking out for you. So don’t worry, okay? He’s a Protector—which is kind of like a professional bodyguard—and his name is Grav. I know he’s big and scary looking but he’s actually a sweetheart. Okay—that’s all I have time for now because Grav needs to get going to Earth right away. But I hope to see you again—maybe you and Charlotte can even come visit me on Eloim.”

She blew me a kiss and then the projection winked out of existence.

“Zoe!” I whispered, still looking at the cube. “Oh my God—that really was Zoe!”

“Of course it was,” the big guy that Zoe had called Grav rumbled.

I looked up at him. “And she’s really okay? Living on…on some other planet? That sounds so crazy.”

“Only because you Earthlings don’t understand how many other sentient species are out there in the galaxy around you,” he said patiently. There was a look of concern on his strangely generic features. “Here—you’re bleeding.” He looked around and saw the box of Kleenex on the coffee table. Taking one he reached for my face. “Can I…?” He made a motion with one big hand.

“Oh, uh…okay, I guess.” I probably wouldn’t have let him get so close under different circumstances but this still felt so surreal—like everything that was happening was some kind of hyper realistic dream. So instead of pulling away, I leaned forward and let him dab at my wounds.

“I’m so fuckin’ sorry about this,” he rumbled as he tended me. His touch was surprisingly gentle for such a big guy. “I should have got here sooner but they had to reconfigure the damn transport. Still, that’s no excuse. I shouldn’t have let this happen to you.”

“You didn’t do it,” I said, looking up at him. “It was…it was Gerald.” My husband’s name came out in a choked whisper and I felt myself wanting to cry. I held the tears back grimly. I couldn’t afford the luxury of breaking down right now—I needed to get as much information about Zoe as I could. Just knowing she was actually alive somewhere made me feel stronger and more hopeful. “This isn’t your fault,” I said, making my voice stronger.

“Yeah, it is. It was done to you on my watch,” he growled. “There’s no fuckin’ excuse for that.”

“You say ‘fucking’ a lot, don’t you?” I said.

“Oh, uh…sorry about that.” He shrugged, his massive shoulders rolling. “I’m just so fuckin’…uh…” He stopped, clearly realizing he’d just said it again. “I mean…”

Incredibly enough, I felt laughter bubbling up in my throat. It had a slight hysterical edge to it but it felt good coming out. It made me wonder when the last time I’d laughed in my own home was. I honestly couldn’t remember.

“Sorry,” he said again lamely.

“You will be sorry, you son of a bitch.” The thick, angry voice made me jump. I looked up and saw Gerald standing in the doorway to the living room. One eye was swelled shut and his nose looked like a squashed tomato. Blood was smeared across his face like war paint and his sharp gray eyes were filled with rage.

“Gerald,” I said. “I—”

“You little bitch,” he snarled. “I knew you were cheating on me—I just didn’t know you were doing it with more than one man.”

“I’m not cheating on you,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ve never cheated on you. This man was sent to protect me.”

“Protect you? Protect you from who?” he sneered.

“From anyone who tries to hurt her. And right now that means you, you little fuck.” The giant named Grav rose from the couch to his full height and glared down at Gerald. “What the fuck is wrong with you, beating a defenseless female half your size? I oughta twist your head off and use it for grun-ball practice.”

I didn’t know what “grun-ball” was but I didn’t think it was a good idea to find out.

“Grav—” I began but neither the huge giant nor my husband were paying attention to me.

“You’ll pay for what you did to me,” Gerald snarled. “And as for her—” He gestured at me. “She had it coming. She’s been cheating on me since we got married.”

“Gerald, I never cheated on you,” I said again.

“Yes you did, you little slut!” he snarled. “Don’t lie to me! You’re always lying to me! That’s why I have to punish you—you bring it on yourself!”

“So it’s Leah’s fault you used her like a punching bag?” Grav demanded. “Are you hearing yourself, you sick fuck? This is your mate. Not only that but she’s special—unique—a La-ti-zal. You ought to be spendin’ every last drop of your blood defending her, not hurting her!”

“Leah deserves every punishment I gave her and more,” Gerald said coldly. “You both do—and you’re going to get it.” He held up his cell phone and shook it at me. “I called 911 over five minutes ago. The police are going to be here very shortly.”

“So what?” I demanded. “When they get here I’ll tell them how you beat me up!”

“You can try that if you like.” Gerald crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall casually. “Except I already told them how an unknown assailant broke into our house through an upstairs window and was beating us both.”

“What?” I felt sick. “But that’s a lie!”

“Well, you can try convincing the police of that,” Gerald drawled, raising one eyebrow. “Except I already told them my wife took several blows to the head and she’s rather confused.”

“You little—” Grav began.

“I also mentioned that the assailant was holding you hostage, darling,” Gerald continued, looking at me. “And of course you’ll say anything your captor tells you to in order to survive. I wouldn’t be surprised if they come in here shooting to kill your big friend there.” He nodded at Grav and smiled nastily.

Outside I heard the sound of sirens.

My stomach sank down to my shoes as I realized what Gerald had done. He’d completely twisted the story in his own favor—there was no way the police would believe me. At least not in time to save my rescuer from getting shot.

I looked at Grav and shook my head.

“I’m sorry, but you’d better go. It’s too dangerous for you here now.”

“And it’s not fuckin’ dangerous for you?” He glared at me. “I’m not leavin’ you here with your asshole of a mate, Leah. He’ll just beat you up again.”

I had to admit, he was probably right. The first two times Gerald had hit me, he’d begged my forgiveness and promised it would never happen again. I wanted desperately to make my marriage work so I believed him—or told myself I did. Now I realized it would never stop. The man I’d been blind enough to marry was deranged and abusive—not to mention jealous far past the point of common sense. One way or another I was going to have to get away from him.

The sirens stopped in front of our house.

“Oh dear—it appears the authorities are here.” Gerald smirked at us both. “Maybe I should go out and greet them.”

Before I could answer, he darted to the front door and threw it open.

“Help!” I heard him shout hoarsely. “He’s still in there and he has my wife! Please, help me!”

“Just relax, sir. We’ll get her,” a tough, no-nonsense voice answered him.

Well, crap.

I looked at Grav and he looked at me.

“I have to go and you do too,” he told me. “Come with me.”

“Come with you where?” I asked, but I was already getting off the couch.

“To see your friend. I’ll take you to Lady Zoe,” he promised.

“You can do that?” I took a hesitant step towards him.

“Sure I can. Got a ship in low Earth orbit right now.” He grinned at me, his strangely generic features wrinkling, and held out one huge hand. “Now or never, darlin’. I hear your planet’s authorities about to come in. I’ll fight ‘em off if you want me to, but I don’t think they deserve to be pounded into rejix pudding like your mate does.”

Sure enough, as he spoke, the front door burst open and a voice shouted,

“Hands up! This is the police!”

“All right,” I said, making a decision. Stepping forward, I gave him my hand. A strange electrical tingle ran between us and I gasped. “What—?”

“It’s nothing,” he assured me hastily. “Are you coming with me?”

“Yes.” I nodded firmly. “Take me to Zoe.”

“My pleasure. Come on.”

We raced up the stairs, which were thankfully located on the other side of the living room from the entry hall, and into my bedroom.

“Wait,” I panted as Grav slammed and locked the door—not that my flimsy bedroom lock would hold the police for long. “Why are we up here? Are we going out the window? Because it’s really high up and there aren’t even any trees to climb down.”

“Not the window—the viewer,” Grav grunted.

I didn’t understand what he was talking about until he gestured to the wide, silvery mirror attached to my bureau. It was an antique piece I’d inherited from my grandmother, but there was no door or drawer in it wide enough to fit me, let alone the seven-foot-tall, hugely muscular Grav.

“What are you talking about?” I said blankly. “Is there some kind of secret passage there? Like the doorway to Narnia or something?”

“Just watch.” He pulled me closer to him and we stood side by side, staring into the mirror. I noticed that there was a bluish-gray spot on his massive muscular chest that appeared to be spreading.

“Oh, look—you’re hurt.” I pointed at it. “That’s going to be a nasty bruise.”

Grav looked down at himself and grinned humorlessly.

“That’s not a bruise.”

“Then what—?”

“You’ll see,” he interrupted. “I wish I had time to explain better but I don’t. Just don’t be surprised when we go through. I’m not, uh, exactly how I appear.”

“Go through? Go through what?” I demanded but Grav was leaning forward and speaking directly at the mirror.

“Char’noth,” he barked. “Two to transport and make it fuckin’ snappy.”

“Two to transport?” I asked, looking at him incredulously. What did that mean? It sounded like something from one of those old Star Trek episodes Zoe used to make me watch. She was a total scifi geek and insisted on inflicting her obsession on all her friends.

God, I missed her!

I started to ask Grav more questions but outside I heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and a stern voice demanding that Grav give himself up and release me unharmed. Gerald had really done a number on their heads—the police believed him completely.

“Grav,” I said nervously as someone started pounding on the door. “If we’re going to go, we have to go n—”

The rest of the word died in my throat as the mirror began to swirl with a kaleidoscope of rainbow colors. Then a strange blast of music played. With a shock, I realized it was the same thing I’d heard just minutes before Zoe had disappeared. I’d been talking to her on the phone at the time of her disappearance and that music had been the last sound I heard before she screamed and was gone.

The next minute, I found out why she’d been screaming.

A force like nothing I had ever felt starting pulling Grav and me towards the mirror. It seemed like someone on the other side of those swirling colors had turned on a giant vacuum which was sucking us in.

But in to what?

“Grav?” I asked, trying to keep the panic from my voice.

His big hand tightened on mine.

“Here we go, darlin’. Hold on tight.”

“But I—”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence. Just as the bedroom door burst open and the police came in with guns out, I was sucked forward into and then through the mirror.

I had a moment to think that I was leaving Earth and my whole life behind and I had no idea how or if I would ever get back.

Then everything went black.

Chapter Four

Leah

When I woke up, I was naked in the lap of a huge blue alien.

I screamed and scrambled away from him as fast as I could.

“Oh my God! Oh my God—what? Where? Who?” I could scarcely get the words out.

“No, no—it’s okay. Take it easy, it’s just me!” He put out a hand to me but I shied away.

The alien was naked too—and very obviously male. I couldn’t believe the size of the member between his legs. But as impressive as his equipment was, that wasn’t what caught and drew my eyes.

His face was much scarier.

Curving black horns like a ram’s grew from his temples and his eyes…how can I describe his eyes?

The whites—or what should have been the whites of his eyes—were pure, liquid black. His irises were brilliant white and his pupils were black with a pinprick of white in their centers.

I had never seen eyes like those and they scared the crap out of me.

“Who are you?” I asked in a trembling voice.

He sighed and ran a hand over his short black hair which was cut close to his scalp.

“It’s me—Grav, Leah,” he said in a low, quiet voice. Clearly he was trying not to upset me anymore than I was already upset—which was plenty, let me tell you. “I told you I wasn’t how I seemed back on your planet, remember?”

“Yes, but you didn’t tell me you were…were this.” I made a motion at him which caused my breasts to jiggle. This reminded me that I was completely naked—as naked as he was—and I quickly wrapped my arms around myself and drew my knees up to my chin. “What are you?” I whispered.

He sighed again.

“Yeah, I don’t blame you for bein’ scared. I’m an ugly son-of-a-bitch, I admit that. I’m half Braxian and half Vorn. That’s why I look like I do.”

“But…” I shook my head. “You, uh, didn’t look like this back on…on…” I couldn’t make myself say ‘Back on Earth,’ because I still couldn’t believe we’d left the planet’s surface. “Back in my living room,” I said at last, lamely.

“That’s because I was wearing a mask,” he said patiently. “And because I’d drunk saphor solution to hide my true skin color.” He gestured to his muscular blue-gray hide. “Which is this.”

“You wore a mask?” I repeated, remembering his oddly generic features. “I don’t understand. Why?”

He shook his head unhappily. “You haveta ask? Because of the way you’re looking at me now—like you think I’m gonna eat you up. Because I didn’t want to scare you, Leah.”

“Oh,” I whispered in a small voice. I had to admit that seeing a seven foot tall blue alien with black horns and white-on-black eyes in my living room would have been pretty damn frightening. In fact, it probably would have caused me to question my own sanity.

Not that I wasn’t doing that now.

“I trust the transport went well?” a high, piping voice behind me asked.

I spun around—as well as I could while still trying to keep myself covered—and saw what looked like a three foot tall, dark blue, segmented worm with multiple arms and legs. It regarded me with bulging purple eyes perched on stalks that swiveled as it took me in.

I started to scream but the sound stuck in my throat.

“Oh…Oh, my God,” I whispered, shaking my head. “First a giant, naked, blue alien and now a talking worm. I…I must be going crazy.”

“No, you’re not,” Grav said quickly. He made a shooing motion at the worm. “Get back and give us a minute, Char’noth. Can’t you see the lady’s upset?”

“I see only a disheveled Earth female with multiple cuts and lacerations on her face.” The worm Grav had called Char’noth sounded disapproving. “I need to know if this is due to our transport process. If so, the equipment needs to be moderated or changed. Such injury during transport is not acceptable…”

“Oh. Well, thank you for being concerned,” I said, trying to smile.

“As it reduces the value of the merchandise,” Char’noth continued, pretty much killing any warm and fuzzy feelings I’d started to have towards the three foot tall worm guy.

“Don’t get your tail twisted in a knot,” Grav told him. “Those marks on her face don’t have anything to do with your damn transport process.”

“Well, then how did she acquire—” Char’noth began.

“You don’t need to know,” Grav said, briskly. I gave him a grateful look and he nodded at me. “The main thing is we need to get you cleaned up and changed into, uh…” His cheeks went dull purple and I realized he was blushing. “Uh, into anything at all, I guess,” he finished.

“What happened to my clothes, anyway?” I asked. “And yours?”

“The transport beam only supports living, organic flesh,” the worm answered for him. “Unless it is reconfigured to transport non-living objects. But it cannot do both at once.”

“Is the beam going to take us to Zoe?” I asked Grav.

He barked a laugh. “Hardly. That kind of thing is only for short distances—the range is only a million solar miles or so.”

“Oh, of course,” I murmured. “Only a million miles or so.”

“That’s right.” He grinned amiably, showing very sharp-looking white teeth. “I guess that sounds like a lot to you, huh? But it’s really hardly anything—the universe is vast. Which is why most of us usually stay in our home galaxy.”

“The Milky Way, you mean?” I said.

“Is that what you Earthlings call it? We call it the Goddess’s cloak—because of the way it's spread out, all glittering with stars.”

“The Goddess?” I said blankly.

“Yeah. The Goddess of Mercy who created all of this and then created the Ancient Ones. She gave them the seeds of life and told them to sow them on planets capable of supporting life in her image. Those became the Twelve Peoples. The Vorn, the Braxians, the Majorans, the Eloim, the Denarins, the—”

“But what about Earth?” I interrupted, frowning. “Where does Earth fit into this…this religion of yours? “Are we made in the, uh Goddess’s image? Are we one of the…the Twelve Peoples?”

He frowned. “Actually, people from your planet are closer to the Goddess’s image than any of the Twelve. You see, Earth has been a closed planet—locked against invaders like Char’noth there,” he gestured to the blue worm, “For millennia. You’re what we call ‘Pure Ones.’”

“Pure Ones?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”

“You have the original DNA of the Ancient Ones,” Grav explained. “You haven’t mixed with any of the other sentient species in the galaxy. That makes you special—unique.”

I thought of what he had said to Gerald. Something about how I was unique but he had used a special word for it. What was it now?

“You called me something else,” I said. “A Lana…lata…”

“A La-ti-zal,” Grav said, nodding. “Means you have latent powers bestowed by the Ancient Ones. It’s one reason Count Doloroso wanted you.”

“Count who? The one Zoe was talking about in her message?”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded. “But it doesn’t look he’s been anywhere near this planet and the Commercians are keeping their word not to sell you or your friend, so I think it’s safe to take you back to Eloim and Lady Zoe.”

“Wait…what?” I said. “Who is selling who? I didn’t understand half of what you just said.”

“You don’t need to.” Grav got to his feet and offered me a hand. “Come on. Eloim is a long trip, even with a faster-than-light hyper-drive. Let’s get started.”

“So if we’re not getting beamed there, then how—?”

“We’re taking my ship. Remember I told you I had one?” he asked. “It’s docked with this station right now but as soon as we’re inside we’ll uncouple and be on our way, back to Eloim.” He held out his hand to me again. “Come on. Sitting on that cold metal floor all bare like that has got to be cold.”

“It is,” I admitted. “But, um, I’m shy. Do you have any, uh, clothes I could wear?”

“We have acquired a supply of Earth female clothing,” the blue worm piped up, surprising me. “Since you silly creatures are all so attached to your outer wear, we have gone to great pains to procure some in order to keep our transportees happy.”

“Oh, uh, thank you, I guess,” I said, surprised. “Where is it?”

“Here. These appear to be in your size.”

The worm thrust a bundle of clothing at me…which I stared at in disbelief.

“This? You expect me to wear this?”

“Why? Is there a problem with it? We searched your Internet for clothing appropriate to females who are trying to win the attention of males. This was one of the results.”

“I bet,” I muttered, taking the outfit from him. It was a naughty schoolgirl costume with a short, plaid skirt and a white button down blouse, clearly meant to be tied above the midriff. There were even knee-high socks and high-heeled Mary Janes to go with it.

“There is also this garment, if you prefer.” Another blue worm came forward and held out a black lace teddy that was very clearly see-through. It came with a pair of barely-there black lace panties to match.

“No thanks,” I said. “I guess I’ll stick with the naughty school girl. Although I will take these.” I took the panties and added them to my pile. Some underwear was better than none, even if the underwear in question looked like something a porn star would wear. I frowned at the worm Grav had called Char’noth. “What kind of operation are you running here, anyway? Why do you want clothing that attracts men?”

“The Alien Mate Index is the premier destination for Pure brides and concubines,” Char’noth answered promptly. “For a fee, any type of Earth female may be procured by the wealthy and influential males of the galaxy.”

“What?” I stared at him. “Did you just say what I thought you said? You’re abducting Earth women and selling them as mail order brides?” I turned to Grav. “How can they do that? Is that even legal?”

He frowned unhappily. “I don’t like it either—females should be protected from harm, not bought and sold. Unfortunately, your planet brought this on itself.”

“What? How?”

“By dissolving the lock the Ancient Ones left around your planet,” Char’noth piped. “Once you made a big enough hole in your ozone layer, we were free to begin our harvest. But please do not worry. Your friend, the Earth female Char-lotte, will not be sold. Her contract has already been paid in full by Sarden, the ruler of Eloim and bonded mate of Lady Zoe.”

It was all too much. I put my head in my hands, trying to take in everything the worm was telling me and failing.

“Leah?” Grav put a hand on my shoulder but I flinched away from him.

“Look,” I said. “Can we just get out of here and go see Zoe?”

“Of course.” He withdrew quickly. “If you wanna follow me, my ship is this way.”

“Thank you.” I had the feeling he wanted to help me up but I just needed to keep to myself for a moment. Too much had happened and I’d gotten too much new information I needed to process.

My rescuer was a huge blue alien with horns… talking worms were “harvesting” Earth’s females… Zoe was married to a guy who was the ruler of an entire planet…and Charlotte and I were safe from being sold because our “contracts” had already been bought. All that was only part of my information overload. I was still trying to deal with the vicious beating Gerald had given me before Grav had stopped him. Or rather, trying not to deal with it.

I won’t think about it now, I told myself as I rose on shaky legs, clutching my schoolgirl clothes to my chest. I won’t think about it now—I’ll think about it later when I can stand it.

But I didn’t know when I’d be ready to face the fact of my husband’s betrayal. Despite all the other strange and awful things that had happened to me that day, Gerald’s cruel beating hurt the worst.

My face ached where my husband had hit me, but my heart hurt even more as I followed Grav to his ship.

Grav

I could tell Leah was upset and overloaded and it made my heart ache for her, even though I told myself I shouldn’t care.

You’re only here to protect her for a little while. Once you see her safely to Eloim, your duty is done. No point getting attached, I told myself grimly. She’s not even an actual ward—you haven’t signed a contract or given her your oath.

Which didn’t really matter—I would, of course, protect her with my life, as I would any female in my care. But still, when a Protector swears his oath to a female, it seals the relationship between them.

I remembered how little Teeny had watched me with wide eyes when I gave my oath to her, in the presence of her grandmother and grandfather. They had hired me to protect their granddaughter from their political enemies, of which there were many.

Teeny had been only ten cycles old at the time and I had expected to be with her until she came of age and bonded herself to a male. But then, on a females-only retreat with her grandmother, she had been taken by pirates and sold to Tazaxx, the same male who had bought my friend Sarden’s blood-sister, Sellah. I had rescued Teeny but instead of thanks, her grandfather had shipped her off to an all female planet for finishing school.

Thinking of my former ward bothered me more than I wanted to admit. Yeah, I’m a big softy, I guess but she’d become almost like a daughter to me. She had been so upset when her grandfather announced his plans for her…and told her I wasn’t allowed to go along. She’d wrapped her little arms around my neck and held on tight for as long as she could but in the end, he sent her off to school with tears in her eyes.

I just hoped the people at her fancy new school were treating her well because if I ever found out differently…I gritted my teeth. Once a Protector has given his oath, it’s never really over until either he or his ward are dead. Teeny’s grandfather might have dissolved the contract between us, but she was still in my heart and would remain there forever.

Why are you thinking of Teeny, anyway? I asked myself as I opened the ship’s hatch and ushered the silent Leah inside. She’s gone—far beyond your reach.

Right. And Leah was even further beyond my reach. A Pure One and a La-ti-zal. She might as well be the Goddess herself, she was so far above me. Best not to let myself get attached.

We were walking down the long central corridor of my ship as I lectured myself. I keep a pretty clean ship—no mess anyplace. It’s a habit I picked up in prison where you kept your bunk neat or paid the price. And believe me, it’s not a price you’d want to pay.

“You can have this room,” I told Leah, motioning her to the sleeping chamber beside mine. “It’s not fancy but it’s neat. I, uh, hope you’ll be comfortable there.”

“Thank you.” Her voice was a whisper and her head was down, her long brown hair hanging like a curtain around her face. Even through her silky hair, I could still see the cuts and bruises her bastard of a mate had put on her lovely face.

I wished she would let me heal them.

Males of the Twelve Peoples are able to heal orally—that is, we have antiseptic and healing agents in our saliva and other bodily fluids. But that kind of healing is usually only performed by a male on his bonded or intended mate and I wasn’t sure how Leah would feel about it if I offered to heal her.

Best to just leave her alone, I told myself.

“Uh…” I cleared my throat. “I’m going to get some clothes on and set a course for Eloim. Later on I’ll be making something for last meal. If you’d like to join me?” I made the last words a question, not wanting her to feel pressured.

“Sure. That…that would be nice.” She looked up for a moment and I could tell she was trying to smile. “Thank you,” she said in a low voice. “For everything.”

I looked into her battered but lovely face and met her eyes.

“It was my privilege to serve you, my lady,” I told her softly, meaning every word.

“Oh, um…” Her cheeks got suddenly pink. “Thank you,” she whispered again.

I nodded and turned to go. I would give her some time to lick her wounds. Maybe we could talk more over last meal. Even if we were only going to be together a short time, I couldn’t help wanting to know her better…to find out more about the lovely little Earth female who was now in my care.

Chapter Five

Leah

After Grav left me alone, I spent some time exploring my new room. It was, as he said, not fancy. In fact, at first glance, I wouldn’t have known it was a room in an alien spacecraft at all. There was a small, neatly made up bunk that folded out of the wall, a metal desk which was bare, and a single metal chair. No windows—no decorations. Actually, it looked more like a prison cell than a guest room but it was, as Grav had said, extremely neat.

I didn’t care about the room’s Spartan appearance. Anyplace away from the house I shared with Gerald would be fine with me. I still couldn’t believe the way he’d gone after me. The way he’d—

No. Don’t think about it. Push it away.

I shook back my hair and took a deep breath but the motion made my face ache sharply. All right—enough avoiding the truth—time to go assess the damage. I wondered if there was a mirror in the tiny bathroom that adjoined the cell-like bedroom.

In fact, there was, but it took me a little while to figure out how to use it. It was a flat, silver panel mounted above the tiny sink (which, by the way, did that same suction-buzzing thing the sinks in airplanes do when you’re flying) and it had several buttons on one side of it.

I pressed one experimentally and the silvery panel came to life with a low hum. But when the fuzzy picture sharpened, I found I was looking at the back of my head. What? How was that even possible?

I tried another button and this time I was staring at myself upside down. Well, that didn’t work either, though even from that angle, I could tell my face was pretty messed up. The third button distorted my features into a weird clown mask, making me think of those wavy, bulging mirrors at the fun house when the carnival comes to town.

Finally, with the last button, I got it right. My face—from the front and right side up—came into view.

I bit back a gasp at what I saw.

My lower lip was cut and tender and a nasty bruise was already forming over my right cheekbone. There was a scrape over one eyebrow that was still trickling blood and my whole face looked swollen and awful.

I wanted to cry at what the alien mirror revealed but I held back the tears grimly. If I let myself break down now I might never stop weeping. I didn’t want that.

I splashed cold water in my face and blotted it gently with a thin hand towel I found beside the sink. My face still felt like raw hamburger but at least it looked better once all the blood was washed away.

Beside the sink was a tall, narrow shower stall with a showerhead shaped a little like a megaphone. Thinking that a hot shower would make me feel better, I stepped inside. But I couldn’t find any way to make the shower work—there were no knobs or buttons or anything. Well, maybe it was like those motion-activated sinks that only worked when you waved your hand under them.

Experimentally, I waved with both hands.

“Hello?” I said, trying to get some reaction out of the damn thing. “Hello there—come on. I just want a shower. Please, I—”

A blast of…something suddenly came out of the strangely shaped showerhead. It was air but not just air. There seemed to be some kind of humming vibration along with it that surrounded my entire body. It pulsed around me like a huge, thrumming heartbeat and I found myself being lifted off my feet.

“Oh! Oh, no!” I gasped, scrabbling at the slick shower walls. “Stop! Stop it!”

The wind only got worse. My hair was whipping around my face like it does when you get into the hurricane booth you find at some kid’s museums and the humming buzz filled my head so completely I couldn’t hear my own voice—even though I was screaming by now, at the top of my lungs. “Help!” I shouted. “Help!”

Suddenly the shower door was ripped open and Grav’s face appeared, looking both worried and protective. He assessed the situation in a glance and then waved one big hand in front of the shower head.

At once the weird humming buzz went silent, leaving a strange ringing in my ears. The wind died abruptly, dropping me like a bored child drops a toy.

I would have fallen straight to the metal floor if Grav hadn’t reached out with inhuman grace and caught me, pulling me close to his broad chest. Once more I felt that strange tingle when we touched and then I was gasping and pressing my face to his shoulder, just trying to catch my breath.

Grav held me without comment as I shivered against him. This close I could smell the warm, spicy scent of his skin and feel the heat radiating off his big body. He was so much bigger than me I almost felt like a child being held by an adult. It made me think of when I was a little girl and my dad would carry me to bed when I fell asleep on the couch. (Sometimes I used to pretend I was asleep, just so he would scoop me up and tuck me in.)

Somehow that feeling of security, along with the heat of the big blue alien’s body and his deliciously masculine scent, was incredibly comforting.

I closed my eyes and let myself melt into it. When was the last time I’d been held in the arms of a man who wanted only to protect me, not to hurt me? Probably back when I was a kid, I thought. Back when Dad used to tuck me in.

“Hey,” Grav rumbled after a long moment, breaking my train of thought. “You okay, darlin’? I heard you shouting and you sounded scared—I wouldn’t have come burstin’ into the fresher otherwise.”

“I…I…” My voice was hoarse from screaming and I had to clear my throat and start again. “I’m surprised you could hear anything over that noise,” I said at last, shakily. “What…what kind of shower is this anyway?”

“A sonic shower,” he said promptly. “Water’s fuckin’ scarce in space. Sound used at certain frequencies cleans pretty well.”

“I feel cleaned all right,” I said, swiping a strand of hair out of my eyes. “Like someone used me to mop the floor.”

“Sorry,” he rumbled. “It’s set for somebody my size. Not an itty-bitty female like you.”

“I’m not that itty-bitty,” I protested. “In fact, back on Earth I’m not considered nearly itty-bitty enough.” Which was true. Zoe and Charlotte and I always used to joke that we were the Plus-sized three musketeers.

“You look perfect to me,” Grav remarked and there was nothing but sincerity in his tone.

I tried to laugh but the noise that came out of my mouth sounded broken.

“How can you say that?” I asked. “My hair is a mess and my face…my face…” But I couldn’t go on.

“Your face will heal, Leah,” he rumbled. “And you being wounded, doesn’t change the fact that you’re fuckin’ gorgeous.”

For some reason, his honest admiration made me self-conscious. Maybe because it seemed like he was talking about more than just my face. Of course, part of my unease was because I was naked and pressed right up against him. My hair was covering my breasts and I had my thighs squeezed together, hiding my sex. But still, now that I had gotten over my fright at the sonic shower, it was awkward.

Um…” I shifted against him again. “I, uh, should probably get dressed.”

“Oh—right. You okay to stand?” He looked at me anxiously, one eyebrow raised.

“I think so,” I said carefully. “Maybe…maybe you could just stay outside the bathroom door while I get my clothes on?” I grimaced when I thought of the naughty schoolgirl outfit which was all I had to wear. “Just in case.”

“Sure thing.” He set me gently on my feet and stepped out of the small bathroom courteously.

I gripped the sink and took a deep breath. How was it that a seven foot tall horned alien was more of a gentleman than the man I’d allowed myself to marry?

Okay, enough of that. Taking a deep breath, I started pulling on the naughty school-girl outfit. Somebody needed to teach those damn worm aliens about not objectifying women! Still, I had nothing else to wear so I gritted my teeth and put it on.

The black panties were tiny but stretchy so I was able to make them fit over my behind, which was good. The skirt, though, was much shorter than I’d thought—it barely came down to the tops of my thighs. And the shirt was almost see-through—the pink tips of my nipples were clearly visible. I wished fiercely for a bra but of course I didn’t have one. I refused to tie it up above my midriff though—I just tucked it in instead, hoping it might cover my ass if I had to bend over.

The socks and shoes that completed the outfit made me feel even more ridiculous, if that was possible. But the metal floor of the spaceship was really cold. I decided it was better to look silly than have ice cubes for feet.

At last I was ready to emerge. Taking a deep breath, I stepped towards the bathroom door which slid open obligingly.

Grav was standing just outside the door, his massive arms crossed over his muscular chest, looking for all the world like an alien bouncer. There was an impassive look on his granite-like features but when he saw me, he gave a long, low whistle.

“Fuckin’ gorgeous,” he remarked.

“No, it’s silly.” I tugged at the skirt, wishing I could make it about two feet longer.

He raised an eyebrow. “So females on your planet don’t usually dress like, uh…” He made a motion at me with one hand. “Like that?”

“Only in porn,” I said, still tugging at the skirt.

“Porn?” He frowned.

“You know—pornography? Things you look at or watch just for, you know, sexual gratification?”

I could feel myself blushing as I said it. I looked up and saw that he was studying me, those strange, alien eyes considering and intense.

“So the Commercians gave you clothes only a pleasure girl would wear?”

I wasn’t exactly sure what a “pleasure girl” was but I could guess.

“Yes, I suppose so,” I said, tugging again, this time at the blouse so my nipples wouldn’t be so visible through the thin, white fabric.

“I’ll kill them,” Grav growled, his face gong hard. “Fuckin’ worms, disrespecting you that way. I’ll—”

“Please, don’t!” I put a hand on his bicep and felt the tension thrumming through his muscular form.

“They insulted you,” he rumbled, frowning. “As a Protector, I don’t just watch out for my ward’s physical safety—I protect her reputation too.”

Wow—he really took his job seriously! Still, I couldn’t let him go back and pound the talking blue worms into paste just because they’d given me a slutty Halloween costume to wear instead of proper clothes.

“I’m sure they didn’t know what they were doing,” I told him. “Please, I…” I lowered my eyes. “I’ve had enough violence for one day.”

The thrumming tension in his big body seemed to ease considerably.

“All right, darlin’,” he murmured. “I understand—the Commercians get a pass. This time.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, looking up at him.

“Look…” He shifted. “Before I heard you screamin’ in the shower, I was coming to tell you that we already made the first hop and we’ll be making the next one soon.”

I frowned. “The first…hop? What does that mean?”

“Oh sorry, forgot your people don’t know much about interstellar travel. My ship’s a space-hopper—a design that lets you leap-frog through the space-time continuum and get to your destination a hell of a lot faster than if you just flew in a straight line.” Grav explained. “It’s based on wormhole technology—creating new holes and destroying them the moment you hop through and start creating the next one.”

“Wow…your ship makes worm holes?”

He nodded. “Uh-uh. Right now we’re out by the star system I think your people call Alpha Centauri but the next hop’ll take us further in, to the interior of the galaxy.” He frowned. “Of course, I wouldn’t want to go too far toward the interior.”

“Why?” I said. And then, remembering something I’d seen on a science program once I said, “Is that because you don’t want to get sucked into the super-massive black hole in the center of the galaxy?”

He laughed, sounding surprised. “Hey! So you humans do know a little about where you live. But no, that’s not the reason. It’s just that the closer you get to the center—to Femme 1, and the inner ring planets—the more, ah, bureaucracy you find.”

“Bureaucracy?” I shook my head. “Why is that a problem?”

“Well, maybe that’s not the right word. I should say, the closer you get to the center, the more government you find. You know—authority?” He cleared his throat. “Let’s just say that Imperial Peace Keepers have a long memory and leave it at that. Okay?”

“Sure, I guess.” I didn’t really understand what he was saying—maybe that he had a problem with authority? Looking at his huge, muscular form and the swirling black tattoos that decorated his blue hide, I could certainly believe that.

“So it’s just fifteen hops to Eloim,” Grav said. “The ship has to take a little rest between hops—especially the longer ones because of the size of the wormhole it has to create. But we’ll be there before you know it. It’s only a couple of thousand light years from Earth.”

“A couple of thousand?” My mouth felt suddenly dry when I remembered that a light year wasn’t three-hundred and sixty-five days, the way we measure a year. A light year is the distance it takes a beam of light to travel in one year. And light is pretty much the fastest thing in the universe. I was going to be so far from home it was mind-boggling. At least, it boggled my mind.

I’ll be gone—so far away from Earth I might never get home, I thought. And I never even told Mom I was going!

Suddenly what I was doing hit me—hit me hard like a sledgehammer between the eyes. I wasn’t just leaving the house I shared with Gerald, or even the town we lived in. I was leaving the whole planet and the people I loved, who still cared for me, would be worried sick. Just like Charlotte and I had been worried sick about Zoe!

How can I do that to my mom? To Charlotte? I thought. To Taggard? He depends on me! I can’t do this—I can’t!

“You can’t what?” Grav asked and I realized I’d spoken the last words aloud.

“I’m sorry.” I shook my head. “I just…just realized what I’m doing. I’m trying to run away from my problems in the most extreme way possible—by leaving the whole freaking planet! But I can’t.” I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. “I can’t just disappear without telling my mom and my friends and family. I can’t do that.”

Grav regarded me gravely for a moment, then nodded.

“Yeah, I understand. It was kind of a split second thing, the idea of taking you to Zoe.”

“It’s a crazy thing,” I said. “I just…can’t do it. I think I must have been in some kind of shock to even consider it.”

“It’s possible.” He nodded again. “You just went through a fuckin’ traumatic experience. But, Leah…” His strange eyes grew serious. “What are you gonna do about that asshole mate of yours? I’ll turn the ship around and take you back to Earth but I won’t put you in harm’s way. He has to be dealt with.”

My mouth was suddenly dry.

“Dealt with…how?”

He shrugged. “Put out of commission. I need to make sure he can’t hurt you again. Not won’t—can’t,” he emphasized.

“You…you mean…” I had to lick my lips before I could continue and I winced as my tongue ran over my wounded bottom lip. “You mean you want to kill him?” I asked at last.

Grav shrugged again as if it was no big deal.

“If you want me to, I got no problem with that.”

“No, no!” I put up a hand as if to stop him, though he was still just standing there. “No, you can’t do that! He’s horrible and controlling and abusive but you can’t just kill him.”

“Okay.” The big alien appeared to consider the options. “There are other ways. I can break his spine.”

“What?” This was sounding more and more gruesome. My big protector suddenly seemed more like a mob hit-man than the sweet teddy-bear of a guy who had held me so gently after my awful shower experience.

“Or I can just break his arms or his legs. Or both if you want,” Grav offered as though it was no big deal. “There are plenty of ways to do permanent damage—ways that he’ll be in too much pain to ever lift a hand to you again.”

“You…you’re talking about maiming or disabling him permanently?” I asked, my voice a dry whisper.

“Maiming—that’s an idea,” he said, nodding thoughtfully. “I can cut off both his hands, if you want. Do your people have the tech to grow back a major limb?”

“No,” I said, feeling sick. “No, we don’t.”

He nodded. “Maiming it is.”

“Wait—no! I didn’t meant I wanted you to maim him!” I protested. “Can’t you just, I don’t know—scare him into leaving me alone?”

“Scare him?” He frowned. “I punched him out and he still popped up mouthing off. A male like that won’t scare easy, Leah. And unfortunately, I won’t be here to watch over you forever—this is a temporary assignment. That’s why I haven’t given you my oath.”

“Your oath?” I asked, shaking my head.

“A Protector’s word is his bond,” Grav said seriously. “If I swore my oath to you, to never leave you and protect you forever, then we could get away with just scaring your mate. But that would mean I would have to stay with you, by your side, until one of us died. Do you understand?”

He looked so serious I felt my heart squeeze in my chest.

“I, uh, understand you’re not up for that kind of, um, long term commitment,” I stammered at last. “But you still can’t go back down to Earth and kill my husband. No matter how much he deserves it.” I had a sudden thought. “And I bet you could scare him into staying away from me. He hasn’t seen you like this—the way you truly are, I mean.”

“Right.” Grav gave a short, barking laugh. “I forgot you Earthlings have never met anyone outside your own species. And I am one ugly son-of-a-bitch. Maybe I could scare him into submission at that.”

“You’re not ugly,” I said, frowning. “You’re…different. And different is good.”

Grav laughed again. “It’s all right, darlin’—I don’t mind not being the prettiest one at the ball. Ugly’s good in the Protection game. All right.” He sighed. “I’ll take you back to Earth and we’ll have a sit down with your mate. I’ll give him a good talking to.” His black-on-white eyes flashed for a moment. “But I warn you, if he doesn’t seem willing to leave you alone, I’m gonna have to break something. Maybe not his spine but at least his arms.”

His big hand reached up and brushed against my bruised cheekbone—the touch as light as a butterfly’s wings.

“It’s the very least he deserves after what he did to you,” he rumbled.

My heart skittered in my chest. How could he talk about doing such violence and yet touch me so gently?

“Fair enough,” I said. I’m not a violent person but I did think that Gerald deserved some kind of punishment, not just for the way he’d beaten me, but for the way he’d been making my life miserable ever since we had gotten married.

And if I was honest, the abuse had started even before that. Only it was mental and verbal abuse then which was easier to ignore or excuse. I always told myself he was just having a bad day or a rough time at work. Now, light years from Earth, I had a flash of clarity—I had been unhappy with Gerald for years. It was time to end this and never see him again.

Looking at Grav, I had no doubt he could help me make that happen. I was grateful that Zoe had sent me such a loyal and strong guy to protect me. If I ever did get to Eloim to see her, I would tell her so.

But for now, I had to get home.

“Look, I’ll go reconfigure the flight-path,” Grav said, breaking my train of thought. “It’s going to take it a little while to get the new destination calculated and moved into the algorithm. But in the meantime, I have last meal prepared. Will you eat with me, Leah?”

“Oh, of course.” I smiled at him. “I’d love that.”

“Thank you,” he said gravely and held out an arm for me. “If you’ll come with me, the food-prep area is this way.”

“All right.” Still feeling surreal, I took his arm and let him lead me out of the small, Spartan bedroom that wasn’t going to be mine after all.

I felt a little twinge of regret at the thought. Part of me would have loved to go on an interstellar adventure and get away from it all. But you can’t run from your problems—they’re just there waiting for you when you get back.

At least, that was what I told myself as Grav and I left the room and walked back down the long central corridor of his ship, my ridiculous shoes clumping on the metal floor and his muscular arm warm under my hand.

Chapter Six

Grav

I was sorry she wasn’t coming to Eloim. Damn sorry. But it was probably for the best. I hadn’t even known her a whole solar day yet and already I was getting too attached to her. When I had talked about giving my oath, I’d actually had the urge to drop to one knee and give it to her right there!

Which was fuckin’ crazy.

I mean, you can put a time limit on it—in Teeny’s case, her grandfather had wanted me to give my oath only until she came of age. But when it’s given to an adult ward, the Protector’s Vow is almost always a lifelong oath. I couldn’t pledge my life to a female I’d just met—right?

Right.

This is temporary, I reminded myself again. It’ll be over before you know it. So just keep things cool, calm, and collected.

But even as I lectured myself, I couldn’t help remembering the feel of her in my arms. The soft crush of her delicate body against mine. Her sweet, feminine fragrance and the electrical tingle I felt when we touched which meant she was, indeed, a La-ti-zal. Of course it also meant something else…but I pushed that thought away.

Gods, she was gorgeous. And sweet and kind and caring, from the scenes I’d watched on the AMI. Was it any wonder I wanted to protect her? And to seriously fuck up the male who had dared to lay his hands on her?

I cast a sidelong glance at her as we walked down the corridor, headed for the food-prep area of my ship. Her lovely face was still battered and the places that asshole had hit her were bruising up pretty badly. I wondered again if she would let me heal her.

Sarden had told me that Earth males didn’t have the power to heal orally so she might think I was crazy if I asked. But damnit, I couldn’t help at least wanting to ask—she was so beautiful. I hated to see her beauty marred by that bastard’s violence.

Better not, I told myself as we stepped into the food-prep area and I motioned her to have a seat. She’ll think you’re crazy or worse, looking to take advantage. She’ll heal naturally, even if it does take some time. She’ll be okay. Just leave it be. And then I heard myself say,

“Leah, before we eat last meal, will you let me heal you?”

I’m such a fuckin’ idiot.

Leah

“Excuse me?” I looked up at him, not understanding.

The big alien was still standing in the doorway of the kitchen area, even though he’d motioned me in to have a seat at the tall, circular table in the center of the room. He looked uncomfortable, shifting from foot to foot but a determined look came over his face and he repeated himself.

“I said, would you let me heal you? Your face, I mean.” He made a motion to his own face with one hand, as though to illustrate his point.

“Um…sure, I guess,” I said, wondering if he had some special quick-healing alien medicine. If so, why he hadn’t offered up to that point? “But…how?”

“Well…” He shifted again and cleared his throat. “This might sound weird to you, but most males of the Twelve Sentient Peoples have evolved to be able to heal their mates, uh, orally.”

“What?” I still didn’t understand him. “I’m sorry, I don’t get it.”

He sighed and came to sit beside me.

“We have healing agents in our saliva and other bodily fluids,” he explained. “We’re able to heal our mate’s cuts and abrasions.”

“By licking them?” I asked blankly. “Is that what you’re trying to say? You want to lick my face?”

His expression went hard.

“Never mind. I know it must sound fuckin’ weird to you since your people can’t do it. Forget I offered.”

“No—wait.” He had started to get up but I put a hand out to stop him, my fingertips lightly brushing his muscular arm. Again I felt the strange, electrical tingle between us and wondered what it meant.

“Yeah?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Tell me more,” I said softly. “I mean, you said your people can heal their mates. But, um, you and I are definitely not mates. I mean, we just met. So how could you—?”

“You feel that tingle when we touch?” he asked, his deep voice slightly hoarse.

“I did. I was just wondering what it was.”

“It tells me two things.” Grav held up two long fingers. “One, that you’re a La-ti-zal—a female gifted with extraordinary powers by the Ancient Ones—like I already told you.”

“Right,” I said, though I didn’t feel especially gifted and thought he might be mistaken about that. “And what else does it, the uh, tingle, tell you?”

“That we’re sexually compatible.” Grav held up his hands in a don’t shoot gesture. “Which doesn’t mean I’m gonna try anything because I’m not. I’m not that kind of male.”

“I believe you,” I said quietly, and I did. For all his huge size and immense strength, I got the distinct feeling that he wouldn’t hurt me. “So then what…” I cleared my throat, feeling my cheeks get hot. “What does it mean that we’re, uh, sexually compatible?”

“Means my body would treat you as a potential mate and make healing compounds for you if you let me heal you,” he said gruffly. “That’s all.”

“So…you’re asking if you can heal me before you send me back to Earth?”

He nodded. “It’s true what I said in the fresher—that you’ll heal in time. But it’s gonna be a long and painful process. I can heal you almost immediately and painlessly. Plus, I don’t want that bastard to have the satisfaction of seeing what he did to you when we confront him.” His face grew dark and a low growl rose in his throat—clearly he was remembering the way Gerald had beaten me.

I took a moment to consider. Did I want to let this big alien get that close? Close enough to “heal” me?”

You’ve already been that close, a little voice in my brain reminded me. He held you naked in the sonic shower—remember?

Yes, but that had been different. Grav had been holding me because I would have fallen otherwise—and also because I was freaking out. He’d clearly just wanted to calm me down. Now with all this talk about us being “sexually compatible” the idea of getting close to him again, close enough to let him actually lick me seemed both embarrassing and intriguing at the same time.

“Do it,” I heard myself saying, the words coming out of my mouth before my mind had completely decided. Why had I said it? For whatever reason, it was too late to take it back now. “Do it,” I said again. “I…I want you to. Please.”

“With pleasure,” Grav rumbled.

Leaning forward, he cupped my cheek between his big hands with surprising delicacy. And before I knew it, I found myself staring into those strange, alien eyes.

I meant to shut my own eyes—the same way you do before someone kisses you. It’s just too awkward, too intimate to look at someone you don’t really know that closely. But somehow I found I couldn’t look away. As strange and frightening as Grav’s eyes looked from a distance, up close they were absolutely gorgeous.

I know that sounds strange but it’s true. The black that surrounded his irises wasn’t just black—now I could see that it had a kind of rainbow sheen to it—the same way you see rainbows on a puddle that has oil in it. And the white irises were a deep, snowy hue with just the very faintest tinge of pale, pale blue, almost like a Husky’s.

“Oh…” I whispered, unable to help myself. “Your eyes…”

“Yeah, I know they’re not what you’re used to.” He sounded roughly apologetic.

“No…they’re beautiful.” I meant it. Grav had labeled himself “ugly” and it was true that his features were rough—in fact, I thought his face looked a little like some careless sculptor had carved it out of granite and not bothered to finish it up. But his eyes…they changed everything.

“Yours are pretty fuckin’ amazing too,” he murmured, a small smile playing around the corner of his mouth. “Never seen anything like ‘em. Brown eyes—who would’ve ever thought?”

“They’re very common on Earth,” I told him. “In fact, I think brown is the most common color there.”

“Bet it doesn’t look half as good as anyone else on your planet, though,” he murmured.

I could feel my face getting hot at the intense way he was looking at me.

“Thank you.”

“Well…” He stroked my cheek gently. “Guess I should stop talkin’ and start healin’.”

“Oh, uh…” I became suddenly aware that we had been sitting there, lost in each other’s eyes for well over a minute.

What’s wrong with me? I asked myself. I just met him—not only that, I’m a married woman!

Not a happily married woman, obviously, but still… I’m Baptist. Not just regular Baptist either—Southern Baptist which means Hellfire and brimstone and plenty of guilt to go around. I didn’t judge the people around me by the way I had been raised but the memories were still there. It was myself I judged by those beliefs and the idea of not cheating on your spouse, no matter what, was a deeply held one.

“I’ll just…let you get on with it,” I told Grav, closing my eyes firmly.

“Mm-kay,” he rumbled. “Just hold still—shouldn’t take long.”

He started at the cut above my eyebrow—I wasn’t exactly sure how that had happened. Maybe from Gerald’s wedding ring? He was left handed, so that was how he punched.

Thinking of that made me sad. I’d never dreamed the day I slipped it on his finger that my husband would use the ring I’d given him to hurt me. That he’d—

Then Grav’s warm tongue connected with my skin, driving every other thought out of my mind.

Despite the fact that his breath was warm, the healing tingle I felt running through my torn flesh was cool—refreshing somehow. His breath smelled faintly of spearmint, although I don’t know how that was even possible—spearmint and some exotic, alien spice I couldn’t name.

But it wasn’t the closeness of his big body to mine or the delicious scent of his breath or even the cooling tingle of his tongue healing me that bothered me.

It was the fact that when he started licking me, I started tingling in, shall we say, other places. Other places that had never tingled before.

The tips of my nipples got hard under the thin white schoolgirl blouse and then I started feeling tender and pleasurably irritated between my thighs. What was going on? What was happening to me?

What is this? I asked myself. I’ve never felt this way before! I knew I should probably ask the big alien to stop but somehow I couldn’t. It felt too good, even if it was a strange sensation.

As Grav finished with the cut above my eyebrow and started on the bruise on my cheekbone, the sensation intensified until I had to press my thighs together tightly and stifle a moan.

And then he started on my lip.

Tender and swollen, it was cut from where Gerald had punched me. I winced back at first from even the lightest brush of the big alien’s tongue. But then the healing tingle began and with it, the tingling between my legs intensified until I could barely stand it.

Grav seemed to feel it too. He growled softly and then sucked my bottom lip gently into his mouth, laving it teasingly with his hot, wet tongue. The action seemed to send me into overdrive. Before I knew it, I was reaching for him.

And then I was no longer sitting passively, letting him heal me—I was in his arms, kissing him. I felt his tongue in my mouth and welcomed it, enjoying the delicious taste of him which was hot and sweet and slightly minty.

I wanted to put my hands in his hair but it was too short to really thread my fingers through. Instead my seeking fingers found his horns—those curling, black ram’s horns that had seemed so strange and alien when I first saw him without his disguise. Wait—that had been less than two hours ago.

What are you doing? screamed a little voice in the back of my head. You just met this guy! And you’re married! What are you doing kissing him and petting his horns! Oh my God, you’re kissing a guy with horns! What is wrong with you???

Somewhere inside I had to acknowledge that everything the little voice said was true. What I was doing wasn’t right—wasn’t even safe or sane. Yet I couldn’t seem to help myself—when Grav healed me, the cool tingle that ran through me seemed to change into another tingle—a much hotter one that I couldn’t deny. It made me want to be closer to him—much, much closer. In that moment, I didn’t care about anything. When the big alien kissed me, I felt a passion stirring inside me I’d never felt before—not with Gerald or any man I’d ever been with.

This must be what they’re talking about! I thought, thinking of all the romance books I’d ever read. This must be the feeling everyone gets so worked up about—that makes people do crazy, stupid, irresponsible things and fall head-over-heals in love.

You see, I’d never had that feeling—that physical passion—ever before.

I know it sounds strange to admit—I had trouble admitting it to myself—but I’d never been sexually aroused before that moment, not really.

Oh, I’d felt a pale kind of desire when Gerald and I were first together, which is probably the main reason I had stayed with him. That feeling had faded quickly, however until, even when we made love, I felt almost nothing. Gerald’s hands and mouth on me—when he bothered to try and get me aroused—felt like someone touching me with thick gloves on. My body simply didn’t react to him—or to any man.

Well, it was sure as hell reacting now. And even though I knew it was wrong, I didn’t want it to stop. Didn’t want the elusive, amazing feeling I’d been reading about, watching on TV and the movies, and hearing everyone talk about for years to disappear. I continued to kiss Grav, completely in his arms now with my hands stroking his horns which seemed to have grown somehow.

Amazing! was all I could think. Amazing—it’s true! I thought all those stupid movies and books were lying but they weren’t. It’s all true!

I didn’t know why my body had never reacted to the touch of a man before. At first I had considered that I might be a lesbian, but my body didn’t react with desire when I was near women either, even pretty ones. Then I thought maybe I might be asexual, as I had read some people were. That seemed the most likely explanation although I was too ashamed to admit it, even to my best friends Zoe and Charlotte. I had gone for years pretending I was normal—to myself, my friends, my husband…and now, for the first time, I didn’t have to pretend anymore.

I finally felt it. Felt the passion.

I felt passion when Grav touched me—when he kissed me. I felt more than passion—I felt like I was ready to explode.

More, was all I could think. I want more…more!

To my surprise and disappointment, the big alien was the one who ended the kiss. He pulled away from me and when he did, I thought I saw a spark of red, down deep in his bottomless white-on-black eyes.

“Sorry,” he growled, his deep voice coming out rough and hoarse. “I, uh…I don’t know how…why I fuckin’ did that.”

“Why did you stop?” I demanded. My body was aching—throbbing with a need I had never felt before. I knew I sounded pushy and demanding but I didn’t care. I just didn’t want that feeling to end!

“My…” He coughed and cleared his throat. “My horns. You were, uh, pulling on them. They’re uh, sensitive.”

I looked at his horns—I had been right earlier, they definitely seemed to have grown. Then he shifted in his seat and my eyes flicked down to his crotch. There was a long, hard ridge that ran down the inside of his tight, black leather trousers. Oh, so his horns weren’t the only thing that had gotten bigger.

What’s wrong with you? whispered that reproving little voice in my head. Look what you did! But it wasn’t so much what I had done that upset me—it was what I had wanted to do. What I still wanted to do if I was honest with myself.

What would it feel like, I wondered. What would it feel like to make love with someone besides Gerald? Someone you actually felt something for—who made your body react when he touched you?

For a moment I pictured it—being with Grav, his huge muscular body poised above mine, entering me slowly as I pressed up to meet him, begging for more…

The mental image filled me with desire and shame at the same time. Lustful, whispered that reproving voice. Disgusting and wrong and lustful! This time I thought it sounded like my strict grandmother, the one who used to smack my hand during Sunday dinner if she thought my table manners weren’t good enough.

“I’m sorry,” I told Grav, as the shame began to win over the desire and the wonderful feeling began to melt away like a sudden snow on a hot day. “I…I don’t know what came over me.”

“Me either.” He sounded at least as confused as I felt. “I, uh, didn’t mean to take advantage.”

“If anything I’m the one who took advantage.” I looked down at my hands, aware that my body was still throbbing with the remains of the deep, flooding desire that had almost overwhelmed me a few moments before. “You were just trying to heal me. I sort of…went crazy. I…” I looked up at him. “You have to believe me, I’ve never done anything like that before.”

“I believe you, darlin’.” His deep voice was surprisingly gentle. “Look, don’t worry about it. Let’s just let bygones be bygones and I’ll get you back down to Earth. At least your face is all healed now.”

“Is it?” I put my fingertips to my cheek. It no longer throbbed and the cut place above my eyebrow didn’t sting either—both felt completely healed. As for my mouth—it was still swollen, but not from the beating Gerald had given me. No, it felt tender and bruised from the passionate kisses I’d just shared with the big alien.

Once again I wondered what was wrong with me.

“Yup, all healed.” Grav nodded approvingly although I noticed that the bulge between his legs still hadn’t gone down. In fact, it still looked absolutely huge. “Um…” Grav’s eyes followed mine and he saw where I was staring. “Sorry,” he muttered, shifting in his seat. “I, uh…can’t help it.”

Oh God, this was just getting more and more awkward! I couldn’t be looking between his legs! I needed to get out of here!

“Do…do you mind if I take a look?” I said.

“What?” His eyes dipped down to his crotch again. “You want to—”

“Oh, no! No-no-no!” I could feel my cheeks getting hotter and hotter with mortification. This situation was just getting worse and more embarrassing by the second! “At my face. I meant I want to go look at my face and see how you healed me,” I said, the words falling out of my mouth in a tumble.

“Oh. Oh, sure—of course. There’s a viewer next to the com-link.” He jerked his head in the direction of the corridor we’d come from. “Help yourself.”

“Thanks.” I got to my feet on shaky legs and stumbled ungracefully by him out into the hallway. I still felt a little weak and dizzy from the kiss we’d shared but I made myself take a deep breath and look for the viewer he’d talked about.

I found it hanging on the wall, right outside a room which had to be the control area of the ship. It looked like a kind of cockpit with an array of controls and a windshield that showed the blackness of space.

It made me feel sick and surreal to see it and realize that this strange adventure I was on was no dream, no matter how strange and dreamlike it felt.

Trying to ignore my feelings, I turned to the viewer which was the same kind as the one I had seen in the bathroom earlier. Mounted on the wall beside it was a strange looking piece of equipment that looked like a smooth, black box with recessed lights winking inside it. Was that the com-link Grav had talked about? Well, whatever—I was more interested in the viewer.

I flipped it on, using the buttons with more ease this time and saw a very different image from the last time I had looked at my reflection.

My face was healed—not just healing but actually, completely healed.

I gave a little gasp as my fingers explored the places my injuries had been. I’d been swollen and battered and bruised just a few minutes before and now…nothing. I looked like nothing had ever happened.

In fact, I looked better than that—I looked good. My eyes were bright and starry and my skin seemed to be actually glowing a little bit. Was that even possible? There was a faint, pretty pink blush to my cheeks, my lips were full and red and pouty. Even my hair looked perfect—shiny and glossy and lustrous—like I was a model out of a shampoo commercial.

“Wow,” I muttered to myself, still running my fingertips over my face. “Amazing.” Apparently lust and guilt agreed with me, although I couldn’t think how. How had Grav managed to do all this just by licking my face?

And more importantly, how had he managed to make me feel things I’d never expected to feel?

As I looked at myself in the mirror, my mind whirled with questions.

How had things happened so fast between us? What was it I felt when he touched me and why had I never been able to feel it before? Would I ever feel it again?

It doesn’t matter—none of it does, I told myself sternly. Because you’re not going to act on this…this feeling or whatever it is. You’re going to go back down to Earth and take care of your personal business and forget this ever happened.

I knew it was what I should do, even if part of me wished I didn’t have to. Even if part of me wished I could stay with Grav and explore this elusive, amazing sensation.

I felt like I’d been colorblind all my life, listening to people talk about rainbows and suddenly someone had showed me one. Would I ever see another if I left this ship, if I let Grav slip out of my life?

I just didn’t know.

Suddenly my own face disappeared in a blur of static and a new face took its place.

Chapter Seven

Leah

“Oh!” I gasped, jumping back in surprise as I stared at the viewer which had so lately been displaying my own features. Now it was showing me a complete stranger.

The new face looked like an old man. He had wrinkled cheeks and thinning gray hair that barely covered his boney scalp. In fact, he looked like any senior citizen I might expect to see on Earth…except his skin was light green and his eyes were deep purple.

“Hello?” he demanded in a high, quavering voice. “Hello, can you hear me? Please, this is an urgent message!”

“Um…I hear you,” I said. “Are you calling for Grav?”

“I am calling for the Protector of my granddaughter—Gravex N’gol,” he said. “I have to…have to tell him…” Suddenly he broke down. Putting his face in his hands, he sobbed, his boney shoulders shaking so hard I wished I could reach through the viewer and comfort him.

“Sir?” I said tentatively. “Are…are you all right?”

“I’m sorry.” He looked up, his purple eyes red from crying. “I just…I thought she’d be safe. I should have listened to Grav—I never should have dissolved his contract with her. And now it may be too late!”

“What is it? What happened?”

Grav must have heard the poor old man’s weeping because he suddenly appeared behind me, his face grim.

“Principae Kiv’orop,” he said, frowning. “Why are you calling me on my private line?”

“Oh, Gravex, please! You have to help me—it’s Teeny! She’s been taken again!”

“What?” Grav demanded. “How did that happen? You swore to me you hired the best retinue of guards possible to take her to that damn finishing school on Gemina.”

“I did and she got there safely,” the weeping man Grav had called Principae Kiv’orop moaned. “She was doing well in her studies and making friends with the other girls—so said Madam DuFrein, the director of the academy! But then…but then…”

“What?” Grav was still frowning but there was anxiety in his white-on-black eyes. “What happened?”

“There was a raid!” The old man started crying harder than ever. “The school authorities don’t know how the raiders got past the planet’s defenses but somehow they did.”

“Who did they take? Was it slavers looking for eligible females?” Grav sounded like he knew exactly what he was talking about—as though this kind of thing was a common occurrence. I shivered at the thought.

“No! They weren’t normal raiders—at least, they didn’t ask for ransom of any kind. And they only took Teeny—no one else.”

Grav grunted thoughtfully. “Sounds politically motivated. “You think maybe it was paid for by one of the other ruling families? Someone else in line for the Thonolin throne?”

“It’s possible but…I’m not sure.” The old man shook his head. “They said—Madam DuFrein said…”

“Said what? Spit it out, man!”

“Most of the raiders were T’varri.” He stopped for a moment to blow his nose on a bright green handkerchief.

Grav nodded. “Well, I know that’s frightening but T’varri males are generally honorable. They won’t bother Teeny—she’s not of age. Their males demand complete submission from their females but not until they’re bonded. Teeny isn’t old enough to bond with anyone yet.”

“It’s not the T’varri that worry me!” Kiv’orop said, swiping at his eyes. “One of Teeny’s teachers tried to stop them from taking her. As I said, most of the raiders were T’varri but some were wearing masks. Madam DuFrein said this teacher pulled one of their masks off and they saw…they saw…”

He shook his head, another sob wracking his skinny frame. I wondered what in the world could have been under the mask.

Grav waited patiently until the man got control of himself.

“What did they see when the teacher pulled off the mask, Principae?” he asked quietly.

“The masked raider was a Biter!” Kiv’orop burst out. “Do you hear me, a Biter!” And they have reason to believe that the other masked ones were Biters as well.”

“What makes them think so?” Grav asked, frowning.

“Because they ate the teacher alive! Right in front of the class!” The old man burst into tears again. “Do you know what this means? My granddaughter is in the care of a hoard of Biters.”

“That’s bad. Fuckin’ bad.” Grav was looking more and more worried. “Which direction did they go when they left? Did anyone see? Does anyone know anything?”

The old man shook his head.

“No one except for the female guard I hired to ward Teeny and she won’t talk. I’ve tried to have her extradited to Thonolax. But Gemina, the planet the Academy is located on, has a strict no-extradition policy, especially between males and females. They are a safe haven planet and the guard is using that to stay where she is—she’s being held in the Temple of the Goddess. And you know I can’t go there myself as they don’t allow any males.”

Grav threw up his hands. “Well what do you expect me to do? I’m a male too—it’s why you dissolved my contract in the first place when you decided to send Teeny to that Goddess-forsaken planet!”

“I don’t know…I don’t know.” The old man started weeping again. “I guess I thought maybe you could…could disguise yourself somehow. Get in to interview the guard and find out where they took my Teeny.”

Grav sighed. “Look, I’m not exactly the kinda male who can pass as a female, you know?”

“But you could find a way! Please, Gravex, you have to save her! Look—this is my last message from her.” Kiv’orop held up a crystal cube, exactly like the one Grav had shown me that had Zoe’s message on it. He pressed it and an image of a slender little girl who looked to be somewhere between ten and twelve suddenly appeared, hovering over it in hologram form. She had thick black hair, pale, delicate looking sage-green skin, and big, starry violet eyes.

“Hello, Grandpapa,” she began in a subdued voice. “I’m recording this to let you know I’m doing well at the Starshine Finishing Academy. The teachers here are nice but…” She looked over her shoulder, as if to make sure that no one was listening. “But I don’t like Haenah, the guard you hired to take Grav’s place.” She lowered her voice and hunched her shoulders. “She’s mean, Grandpapa. She pinches me and trips me when she thinks no one is looking. She hurts me.”

I heard a low growl rising from Grav’s throat at this. Cutting my eyes to the left, I saw the look on his face—it was murderous with rage. Clearly anyone who hurt Teeny would have to answer to him.

On the viewscreen, the message was still going on.

Teeny swiped at her eyes, which, even on the holo, I could see were filling with tears. “Grav never hurt me—he made me feel better when I was sad. He protected me and saved me after Grandmama was killed. Please, Grandpapa—can’t you hire him to ward me again instead of Haenah? She…she doesn’t even do a very good job. She’s always talking to some male on her com-u. She—”

Suddenly there was a pounding sound that sounded like someone knocking on a door.

“Hey? What’s that you’re doing, you little brat? Who’re you talking to in there?” demanded a harsh, female voice.

Teeny’s eyes got wide and frightened.

“No one. I was just…listening to music,” she called over her shoulder.

“Well, hurry up! You can’t stay in there all night. It’s lights out in five,” the voice snapped.

“Yes, Haenah. I’ll be out soon, I promise.”

Teeny turned back to the cube and swiped again at her eyes.

“Sorry, Grandpapa. I have to go now—if I stay in the fresher any longer I’ll get in trouble.”

In the background, the pounding started again.

“I said, hurry up!” snarled the angry female voice. “I don’t have all night! I have a call coming in from Arn and your skinny little ass is damn well going to be tucked in bed before he calls or I’ll beat it!”

“Yes, Haenah!”

Teeny reached forward with one hand and the cube went suddenly blank.

“You see?” Kiv’orop looked up from the cube. “She asked for you, Grav. You found her before when Tazaxx’s men took her—I’m certain you’re the only one who can find her now. Please!”

“Gods, my poor little Teeny…” Grav rubbed his temples, just below his horns, looking like an anxious father, I thought. “This Arn, the male the guard mentioned, you think he and the guard—this Haenah— planned the raid?”

Kiv’orop shrugged helplessly. “It’s possible. As I said, no one can get anything out of Haenah. And I can’t get to her to question her myself.”

“And you think I can?” Grav growled in obvious frustration. “I might be able to do somethin’ about my appearance if I could get my hands on an image generator but nothing’s gonna hide my voice. I just don’t know…”

“I’ll help,” I said.

“What?” Grav looked at me and I could tell he’d forgotten I was even there.

“I said, I’ll help.” I lifted my chin. “This little girl—she was your, uh, the one you protected before you came to watch over me—right?”

“My ward. Right, she was.” He rubbed his temples again. “But, Leah, I can’t ask you to—”

“You’re not asking—I’m offering,” I said firmly. “If this place you’re going to is an all-female planet, well, I can come with you and do the talking.”

“Would you do that?” The old man leaned forward, looking at me anxiously from the silver surface of the viewer. “Would you help recover my precious granddaughter? I promise you, I’ll give you mountains of shimmering geblex if you’ll only return her safely!”

“I’m not doing it for the, uh, geblex,” I said, having no idea what in the world geblex was anyway. “I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”

“You’re not doin’ it at all,” Grav growled, frowning. “This is a damn dangerous mission, Leah. And I’m not just talking about infiltrating Gemina, though they will kill us if they catch us profaning their sacred laws. I’m talking about after—when we go after the Biters who have Teeny.”

“What about them—the Biters?” I asked, frowning.

Grav blew out a breath in frustration.

“What about them? They’re fuckin’ cannibals—that’s what about them! They’ll skin you and eat your flesh while you’re still alive! I’m tellin’ you, Leah—it’s too damn dangerous.”

I swallowed hard but refused to back down.

“All the more reason for me to come,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “This little girl is in trouble and you have no way to find out where she is or how to get to her unless you have a woman—a female—to help you make your way on the planet and question her guard, right?”

“Well…” Grav frowned. “I can hire a mercenary to come with me.”

“And waste more time?” I demanded. “She’s being held by cannibals! You said so yourself! We need to get going now.”

“What about your friends and family? What about not wanting to leave Earth because they didn’t know where you were?” he challenged me.

“If we can just get a message to my friend Charlotte, she can tell the rest of my family that I’m fine,” I said calmly. “If not, well, I’ll come back when I can. Zoe left us without any word and we survived. I hate to do the same to Charlotte and my family but this little girl’s life takes precedence over my feelings.”

“Thank you, thank you! May the Goddess of Mercy rain down blessings on your head, my dear!” Kiv’orop beamed at me and then looked at Grav. “You have a female of rare courage and beauty there, Gravex.”

“Yeah, well…she’s a La-ti-zal.” Grav shifted uncomfortably, still frowning. I could tell he still didn’t like the idea of taking me on his dangerous mission but I intended not to give him a choice.

Kiv’orop’s purple eyes widened.

“A La-ti-zal? No wonder!” He looked more closely at me. “Tell me, my dear—what kind of La-ti-zal are you? A Finder? A Healer? A Seer? Or something else? It may be that your special powers are useful in locating and rescuing my Teeny.”

I cleared my throat. “I…uh…”

“That’s not important,” Grav growled, saving me from answering a question I had no answer for. “The main thing is if we agree to try, you have to promise to put Teeny in a safe place of my choosing when this is over.”

“Of your choosing?” Kiv’orop bristled. “She is the future Principae-ah of all Thonolax! It’s not up to you to say where she should be housed and educated.”

“It will be if I take this mission,” Grav snapped. “I want to make sure she’s happy, damn it! She was scared to death to go to that damn Finishing Academy where she didn’t know anybody but you forced her to anyway. I want her someplace where she’ll be safe and happy.”

Kiv’orop frowned. “What do you care about her happiness? You were hired to protect her body—not care for her emotional well being.”

Grav crossed his thick arms over his chest. “You don’t get it, do you Principae? You may have dissolved the contract between Teeny and me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her anymore. Otherwise I’d tell you to go fuck yourself.”

“Why…you…” Clearly Principae Kiv’orop wasn’t used to being talked to this way.

“It’s my final offer,” Grav rumbled. “Take it or leave it.”

The older man frowned and grumbled but at last nodded his balding head.

“All right. Anything—just go find her.”

“More like it.” Grav nodded. “I have to make a short stop at Sincon Delta and then I’ll be on my way to Gemina to interview that fuckin’ guard.”

“Thank you, yes! Please hurry and I will pay all expenses.” The Principae—which I was beginning to think was some kind of royal title—nodded again.

“I’ll be in touch,” Grav told him. “In the mean time, you let the priestesses at the Temple of the Goddess where the guard is being held know that some emissaries are coming to question her.”

“Yes, yes—I can do that.” The Principae nodded eagerly again and again until finally Grav turned off the viewer after promising he would keep the man updated on any progress.

“Sincon Delta? What’s that?” I asked as Kiv’orop’s image finally faded from the viewscreen.

Grav shot me a frown. “Only the most notorious black-market tech district in the whole fuckin’ galaxy, darlin’.”

“And we’re going there…why?” I asked, still not understanding.

Grav gave me a grim smile. “To hide my ugly mug. It’s the only place close enough I can buy an image generator. But it’s damn dangerous. You sure you’re up for it?”

I lifted my chin. “I’m up for anything.”

Grav studied me a moment, then gave me a nod of approval.

“All right, darlin’. I believe you. And I want you to know, we’ll split the reward on this, fifty-fifty.”

“I’m not doing this for any reward and I don’t believe you are, either,” I said softly. “This Teeny—she means a lot to you, doesn’t she?”

He sighed and rubbed his temples again.

“Yeah, she does. Look, I need to set a new course for the hopper and then we’ll call the Commercians and see if they can get a message to your friend, okay?”

“Okay.” I nodded. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Just sit tight.” Grav shook his head grimly. “It’s gonna be a wild ride, darlin’. Just hope you’re up for it.”

Chapter Eight

Grav

“Negative. It is forbidden for us to use the AMI to contact or communicate with a female.” Char’noth crossed several of his long, skinny arms over his blue, wormy chest and frowned at us.

“Forbidden why?” I demanded, gritting my teeth with frustration.

“It is against regulations.”

“Whose regulations?” Leah asked, leaning forward. We had called the Commercians station on the viewer, hoping to get a message to her friend, but now we were having trouble. The little blue bastards were stonewalling us for some reason.

“Well, my regulations, as I am the director of this station and the Alien Mate Index project.” Char’noth shifted defensively. “I cannot break my own rules. Besides, contacting a female would be warning her that she might be picked and taken by a male who bought her contract. That might incite her to run.”

“But this particular female’s contract has already been paid for,” I pointed out. “It’s the other La-ti-zal you showed me—the one whose contract Sarden bought when he bought Leah’s, that we need to contact.” I motioned at Leah.

“Well…” Char’noth made an expression which I thought might be a thoughtful frown. It’s hard to say with Commercians.

“What if we sweetened the pot?” Leah asked suddenly.

“What?” Char’noth and I asked, looking at her at the same time.

“What if we paid you,” Leah said, clarifying. “To get a message to my friend, Charlotte?”

“Um, I don’t think the Commercians are gonna be interested in Earth currency, darlin’,” I murmured to her, under my breath.

“I’m not talking about paying in Earth money,” she said, frowning. “Princepae Kiv’orop promised me mountains of shining geblex if we complete this mission.”

“Geblex you say?” Char’noth leaned forward, rubbing his multiple hands together greedily. “Mountains of them?”

“Only if we go rescue his granddaughter,” Leah said sternly, pointing a finger at the viewscreen where the little blue bastard was displayed. “And I can’t go rescue her until I know that my friends and family are certain I’m safe. Now will you send a message to my friend Charlotte or not?”

“Oh…very well.” Char’noth threw up his hands. “I will do as you ask but a price must be agreed upon first. Shall we say…one thousand geblex?”

“One hundred geblex,” I growled. “And that’s a bargain when all you have to do is contact her friend through some shiny surface and tell her Leah’s all right and ask her to tell Leah’s family the same.”

“Very well, very well,” Char’noth grumbled. “A hundred it is. But I must have surety of payment.”

“I’ll stand surety for her,” I told him. “Even if Leah can’t pay for some reason, I will.”

“But you are going on the same dangerous mission she is,” the head Commercian objected. “What if something happens to you? I must have surety!”

Greedy little bastard! I wanted to reach through the viewscreen and wring his skinny blue neck but since that was impossible I offered the only other thing I could think.

“Sarden will stand surety for me,” I promised. “The welfare of Lady Zoe’s friends is of utmost importance to him. He’ll pay you if Leah and I fail to.”

“Very well.” Char’noth nodded. “I will agree to those terms. Now, Lady Leah, if you would tell me exactly what you wish your friend to know…”

I left him and Leah to hash out the details and went into the control area of the ship to set a new course into the hopper. I’d meant to do it earlier but I thought I probably shouldn’t leave Leah to negotiate on her own with the slippery Commercians.

Actually, though, she hadn’t done too badly.

I shook my head as I set the new course. I still couldn’t believe she was coming with me. Especially after what had happened between us when I was healing her.

Come to think of it, what had happened?

I’d been licking her lip, trying to do it gently so as not to hurt her or take advantage. And then suddenly, her scent had ramped up out of control. My senses had filled with the sweet heat of female desire and then she had been all over me, kissing me like she was dying of thirst and I was the water she so desperately needed.

I’d been shocked at first but it didn’t take long for my surprise to turn to desire—a lust so deep it raged through me like a hungry flame. Gods, the way she’d been pressed against me, every inch of her sweet body molded to mine…the taste of her mouth…the way she’d been rubbing my horns…

That last was the reason I’d broken the kiss between us. For males with Vorn DNA, the horns are an erogenous zone. It wasn’t exactly like Leah had been rubbing my shaft…but it wasn’t far from it either. At any rate, having her so warm and willing in my arms, pressed against me while she was wearing nothing but that tiny little outfit had driven me nearly crazy.

What I’m trying to say is I wanted to stop while I still could.

I’m half Vorn—my horns prove it. But I’m half Braxian too. And Braxian males are berserkers—which means we have a point of no return. In battle and in love.

I’ve reached that point in battle before. It’s like a red curtain of rage drops over my eyes and I’m not in control of my actions anymore. The first time it happened was the worst—I blacked out and woke up red to the elbows in blood that wasn’t mine.

I paid for that little encounter with ten years of my life in a triple max lockdown. After that, I tried not to let myself be pushed past my breaking point, although I admit it’s happened from time to time—mostly when I see a female in danger.

I didn’t want to ever reach that point in love—especially not with the little Earth female. I didn’t really believe Leah knew what she was doing or how hard she’d been pushing me. Of course, I wouldn’t tear her apart or hurt her but I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from taking her either. Once you push a Braxian male too far, the urge to mate—to claim the female of his choice—takes over and he literally can’t stop.

I was determined that wasn’t going to happen with Leah. She’d had enough pain and betrayal to last her a lifetime already. I wasn’t going to add to it.

Just ignore it, I told myself sternly. Pretend it never happened. Don’t talk about it. Just let it go—forget it.

But even as I set my course and locked it in, I couldn’t forget the soft press of her body against mine or the scent of her desire when she kissed me back, kissed me like she was drowning and I was the only one who could save her.

Leah

I finally finished giving my message for Charlotte to the head blue wormy guy Grav had called Char’noth. He promised to deliver it to my friend and ask her to make excuses to my friends, family, and employers as well. My official story was that Gerald and I were splitting up and I needed to go someplace private to get my head together.

Only Charlotte would know the truth—that the someplace private I was going was on a spaceship headed halfway across the galaxy.

I just hoped my eminently practical friend, who refused to believe in anything she couldn’t see with her own eyes or prove through scientific data, could handle it. But she was the only one I trusted to spread the message to everyone without fail and make the right kind of excuses. She wouldn’t let me down—I was sure of it.

After I had made Char’noth repeat my message twice, he said he had no more time to waste with Earth female foolishness and the viewscreen went blank.

Then I had a moment to think about what I’d just done and freak out about it.

It’s what my friend Zoe calls “a holy shit minute” which is a pretty apt description, I have to admit. It’s that moment after you make a huge, possibly life changing decision that could backfire horribly in your face if you’re not careful. It’s when you do something you can’t back out of and the only choice is to go forward and hope you haven’t screwed yourself too badly. That’s when you ask yourself—“what the hell am I doing and why did I do it?”

Which is exactly what I was asking myself now.

Why did you decide to go with Grav? To go with an alien you barely know on a dangerous mission to rescue a girl he used to guard from space cannibals? I asked myself. Why, Leah? What’s wrong with you?

Well, it was the right thing to do, just like I’d told Grav. That poor little girl was in danger and Grav needed a female to help him get down to the all-girl’s planet and find out what had happened to her.

Yeah, sure, like that’s the only reason you decided to go, sneered the little voice in my head. Just because it’s the right thing to do and you’re so noble and courageous. Riiiiight. And of course it had nothing to do with the kiss you two shared, or all those feelings you had for the first time when he touched you.

“Stop it!” I muttered to myself in a low voice. “Of course that’s not it. I just wanted to help.”

Which was a total lie, of course, but I wasn’t willing to admit it. Wasn’t willing to admit that I couldn’t let Grav go and never see him again. Wasn’t willing to admit that I wanted to chase the feeling I’d found when he kissed me—to chase it as far and as fast as I could.

The feeling of desire—of passion—was an addictive one. I could still feel his big arms around me, could still taste the sweet, delicious minty flavor of his hot mouth and feel his big body pressed tight to mine. I wanted more of that, whether I admitted it to myself of not. More of that heady rush of need, that tingling that told me my body was alive and awake for the first time.

I wanted it like a drug—craved it like a junkie craves a fix. And if I had to go into the lion’s mouth to get it, well, I would go, damn it. Anything to feel that rush again. Anything to feel alive and whole and not broken anymore.

Because that was how I had felt every time Gerald made love to me and I couldn’t feel a thing—broken.

But as I said, I didn’t admit any of this to myself. I pushed the nagging little voice that said I was doing something crazy and wrong away and told myself I was being good and noble and self-sacrificing. We would save the little girl and then I would go home, back to Earth, and get my life in order. Right?

Right.

That was the story I told myself and I intended to stick to it.

Grav

“So that’s Sincon Delta?” Leah asked, looking over my shoulder at the viewscreen.

We’d been traveling together about two and a half solar days at that point. The hopper is a hell of a lot faster than traveling in a straight line but it takes time to create and destroy the worm holes it uses. In that time, it seemed like Leah and I had never stopped talking.

She told me about Earth, her life there, the way it felt to think you were isolated in the universe. I tried to give her an idea of the rest of the galaxy and answer as many questions as I could. She had a lot of ‘em—it was clear she was smart as a whip which I personally find very fuckin’ attractive. But then, I found everything about Leah attractive, even though I was trying my best not to act on it.

We talked about everything—everything except the kiss we’d shared. That we were pretty much pretending had never happened. I think we both knew it was a dangerous subject so we skirted around it—tried to sweep it under the rug. But it was always there—the unspoken event like a wound that won’t heal.

We ate together too—laughing as I got her to try different cuisines. I don’t have a food-sim on my little hopper but I introduced her to some Vorn and Braxian cuisine, re-hydrated from my vita-stores. She didn’t want to eat anything that was alive, which left out most of the Braxian stuff since we like our food as fresh as possible. But she liked some of the Vorn dishes, especially the ones that were light on meat and heavy on produce.

But even though we were being as polite as possible around each other, Leah still seemed to be too close to me about ninety percent of the time.

If I sat down on one of the comfort couches I had in my small lounge area, she sat right beside me so our legs brushed. When I stood at the counter of the food-prep area to make a meal, she was right beside me, so close I could smell the warm, sweet scent of her hair and feel her arm brush mine. Everywhere I went, there she was. It was enough to drive a male crazy.

The weird thing was, though, that I didn’t think she realized what she was doing. It was almost like she was drawn to me unconsciously—like there was some kind of weird magnetic field between us, pulling us closer whether we wanted to be or not.

It affected me too. More than once I caught myself right before I put an arm around her and once I almost kissed her good night without even thinking about it. I couldn’t understand what was going on or why I had such a hard time keeping my hands off her but I wished like hell I could figure it out so I could stop it.

Leah wasn’t in my league not nearly. Besides being gorgeous, she was a Pure One and a La-ti-zal. But that wasn’t the only reason she needed to stay away from me. I was a hybrid—a half-breed. I couldn’t bond with a female and it wasn’t fair to lead her on and pretend I could. Of course, my friend Sarden was also a half-breed and he’d managed to bond Zoe to him. How he did that, I didn’t know but I couldn’t assume I would be as lucky as he was.

But even if Leah had been in my league and I had been sure I could form a bond with her, I still wouldn’t have pursued her. Because if I did, at some point, she would have to learn about my past. And if she found out what I had done—if she knew the kind of male I really was—I knew she’d run as fast and as far in the other direction as she could.

I wasn’t up for that.

I didn’t want to see the look of horror and disgust on her lovely face when she found out the reason I was locked up for ten years in triple max lockdown. Far better to keep my distance and hope Leah did the same.

Only she wasn’t exactly keeping her distance right now.

I was sitting in the control seat and she was leaning over in such a way that her soft breasts brushed my arm through the thin white nothing of a blouse she was wearing. I felt their soft, yielding weight like a brand on my flesh, making me want to turn to her and grab her—an urge I strongly resisted. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the long, silky curtain of her hair fell across my skin too, tickling and teasing me in a way that was hard to ignore. Damn hard.

“So this is the place? This is Sincon Delta?” she asked again and I realized I’d been too distracted by her nearness to give her an answer.

“Yeah.” I heard the low growl in my voice and tried to smooth it out. “Uh…this is it.”

“Oh. It’s really big.” She shifted and I felt her breasts move against my arm, the tight little nipples poking through her thin blouse. Inside my flight trousers, my shaft snarled.

Sincon Delta wasn’t the only thing that was big at the moment.

Stop it, I told myself. Just fucking stop now.

But I couldn’t.

Once again, I didn’t think Leah was aware of how her closeness was affecting me. After all, it was no fault of hers she was so fucking gorgeous or that the damn Commercians had given her such a tiny, revealing outfit to wear which barely covered her lush curves.

She probably had no idea of what she was doing to me and it wasn’t my place to say anything about it. It wasn’t her fault for being desirable—it was mine for desiring her. I knew all that and yet somehow I couldn’t stop.

Ever since the kiss we’d shared I was hyper aware of her. Every time she brushed a strand of that long, gorgeous hair out of her big brown eyes, every time she moved and I could see the shadows of her full breasts shift inside her thin blouse, the little pink nipples looking achingly hard, every time I caught a tendril of her warm, delicious feminine scent, I wanted her.

I needed to stop that shit.

“Yeah, it’s big,” I answered, trying to keep my voice even. “But this is just the planet—the actual tech district we want is a station that’s orbiting it. In fact, none of the inhabitants live on the surface.” I gestured to the vast orange and white curve of the planet beneath us.

“Oh? Why not?” Leah wanted to know.

“It’s a gas giant. Like some of the ones in your own solar system,” I told her. “There’s nothing to live on. But the planet has rings full of precious metals—good for mining. And where there’s precious metals, there’s tech. You need gold and platinum to make malleable, incorruptible alloys for nanobots, robo-dendrytes, immersion circuits—you know, that kind of stuff.”

“Right. That kind of stuff.” Leah laughed, a soft, musical, feminine sound I swore I could feel all the way down to my balls. Gods, even her laugh was gorgeous! I really wished I hadn’t kissed her—it seemed to have started a chain reaction somehow. All I wanted to do was take her in my arms and kiss her again. What in the Frozen Hells of Anor was wrong with me?

“So what are we going to do?” she said. “I mean, when we get to the station.”

“You’re not going,” I said, frowning. “Safer if you stay in the ship.”

“What?” She stood up straight and put her hands on her hips. The gesture pulled the white blouse tight across her full breasts and I had to work damn hard to keep my eyes on her face.

“You heard me,” I growled. “The tech district isn’t as bad as say, the cloning district on Gallana, but it’s still more danger than I want to put you in.”

“I’m going to be going into danger with you when we get to the all-girls’ planet,” she pointed out.

“You mean Gemina?” I tried not to laugh. “Yeah, so?”

“So you might as well let me go with you to the Sincon space station too. We’re partners, right?” She raised one slim eyebrow at me. “Didn’t you tell me we’d split the reward fifty-fifty?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Then we should split the risks fifty-fifty too,” she said, frowning. “If I’m really your partner, I want you to treat me like an equal.”

Well, she had me there. Or maybe I was just trying so hard not to stare at her chest it was making me stupid.

“Fine,” I growled. “But if you come with me, you do as I say. You’ve never been off your little planet before—you don’t know how rough and violent it can get out here in some of the darker parts of the galaxy.”

“I know about violence,” she said quietly and I wanted to kick myself for being an idiot. Of course she knew about violence—living with that evil, brutal bastard of a mate of hers.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered, looking back at the viewscreen.

“It’s okay. I’m sorry too.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t have brought it up—I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not that.” I ran a hand over my hair. “It just makes me fuckin’ crazy to think of him hitting you.” I gave her a sidelong glance. “How often did he rough you up, darlin’?”

She bit her lush lower lip.

“Only…only twice before…before you stopped him,” she said in a small voice. “Neither time was as bad as this last, uh, attack though. The first two times, he cried afterwards and said he was sorry.”

“Uh-huh. Probably brought you flowers and presents too,” I said grimly. “And promised it would never happen again, right?”

She gave me a surprised look.

“Well…yes. How did you know?”

“There’s a pattern for that kind of male,” I said shortly. “I’ve seen it before.”

“Oh, right. During your job as a Protector, right?”

That wasn’t what I’d meant but I wasn’t about to dive into my bloody past right then and there.

“Uh, sure,” I said, nodding. “That’s right.”

“What I don’t understand is why I stayed with him. That first time he did it, I should have gone. But he acted so sorry and I thought…I thought…”

“Hey…” I heard the broken sound in her voice and looked over to see that she had drawn in on herself, her arms crossed over her chest as she stared down at her shoes.

“I don’t know why I stayed,” she said again.

“You didn’t want to believe the worst about a male you cared about. A male you loved.” The word seemed to stick in my throat but I got it out anyway. “Hey, c’mon, darlin’…”

I reached out a hand to her and she took it. I felt the tingle as we touched but didn’t let go.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I told her, as gently as I could. “It was his. Any male who could have a female as special and gorgeous as you and want to hurt her, well—he’s just no fuckin’ good.”

She looked up at me and I saw her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

“What if…” She cleared her throat. “What if he had a…a reason to hit me?”

“What?” I frowned at her. “What are you talking about? There’s no reason good enough to hurt a female. No excuse for that kind of thing—it’s the lowest thing any male could do.”

“He… I don’t know if you heard what he was shouting before he started hitting me.”

“Some of it,” I said, frowning. “Mostly I was just focused on getting him off you. Why? What did he say?”

“He… No, never mind.” She shook her head and drew her hand out of mine. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and swiped at her eyes. Then she sniffed and gave me a smile I thought looked more than a little forced. “So tell me the plan. What are we going to do once we reach Sincon?”

“Well, first we have to dock with the station,” I said but her words were replaying over and over in my head.

What reason had her bastard of a mate given for hitting her? I’d heard him accusing her of cheating on him, which still wasn’t a good enough reason. As far as I was concerned, no reason was good enough to hurt a female. But if it wasn’t that—if Leah hadn’t been cheating, (and I was pretty damn sure she hadn’t been) then what was she talking about?

I looked at her, trying to think what he’d said, but it wouldn’t come to me. Something about…did you react to him like you didn’t for me? Had that been it?

I couldn’t quite remember. I hadn’t been completely in berserker mode when I went after her mate or he would be dead and torn to pieces on the fucking floor. But I had been distracted enough that I wasn’t exactly listening to every single piece of crap reason he was spouting for beating her.

In the viewscreen, the vast silver shadow of the Sincon Delta station came into view. We would have to table this discussion and come back to it later. Right now it was time to see if I could buy an extremely illegal device from a male who had an even worse reputation than I did. And I would have to do it while keeping Leah close and protected at all times because I had given in and said she could come with me. I sighed.

This should be fuckin’ fun.

Leah

The Sincon Delta station was amazing. It was made up of levels with the first one being the surface of the station itself and continued down into subterranean passages. It was covered by a huge atmosphere dome that was nearly invisible so it was like looking up into a night sky blazing with stars when I lifted my eyes.

As Grav had told me, the rings around the planet were filled with precious metals. They were so close and so common it was cheaper to build with them than to import iron or steel or other, more traditional building materials. As a result, the streets and buildings were made of platinum, silver, and gold.

It seemed odd to walk down a silver street and see the dull, rich gleam of gold on almost every building we passed—to see scruffy looking men spit on platinum sidewalks as though they were common concrete. I felt like I was living in the story about King Midas and the golden touch that I’d loved so much as a little girl. But to Grav, the richness of the station was clearly old news.

He kept my hand firmly in his and the first thing we did after disembarking from the ship was to find a clothing shop. I tried to protest that he shouldn’t buy me anything because I couldn’t pay him back, but the big alien wouldn’t listen. He bought me several new outfits as well as a long, flowing green cape that had a deep cowl-type hood which covered my head and left my face in shadows when I put it on.

I even got a little make-up kit that had several bright pigments swirled in tiny tubes and jars all tucked into a silver and gold case. I wanted it more for a souvenir than because I wear a lot of make-up. It would certainly be something to remember my interstellar adventures by. I tucked it into the bag with the clothes, which the attendant promised would be delivered to our ship. But Grav wanted me to wear the cloak right away.

“Is this really necessary?” I asked, fastening the cape under my chin and pulling the hood over my face to hide my features. I felt like someone in a spy movie or maybe a character out of Assassin’s Creed.

“Very fuckin’ necessary,” he assured me. I had never heard anyone who could use the “F” word and make it sound so normal and conversational before I met Grav. It made me smile.

“But…why?” I asked. “Is it because the outfit the blue wormy guys gave me is kind of, uh, revealing?”

I had gotten used to wearing the naughty schoolgirl outfit around Grav, although I was very aware of how his eyes followed me sometimes. With any other male that would have made me incredibly uncomfortable. I never liked feeling like I was showing my body off—not because I was so modest but because I felt like I was advertising something I couldn’t provide. When you see someone wearing something sexy, you at least expect that they could enjoy having sex sometimes. With me, that had never been true.

Sorry—I know all that isn’t very feminist. But it’s just how I felt. As I said, being unable to enjoy anything sexual had made me feel broken inside for so long. But now, ever since I had kissed Grav, I felt like that part of me was, if not exactly fixed, at least closer to being in working order. So I didn’t mind it when I felt his eyes on me in the skimpy plaid skirt and thin, white blouse.

In fact, if I was being completely honest—I liked it.

Not that I would admit that fact to myself. I kept it buried deep inside and refused to think about how it gave me a naughty thrill when I saw him looking at me with that hungry expression in his strange white-on-black eyes.

But now he was wanting to cover me up with the long cloak and hood he’d bought me. Maybe he didn’t like looking at me after all? Had I somehow misinterpreted the fire in his eyes when they raked over my body?

“That’s it, isn’t it?” I asked humbly. “My outfit shows too much and you don’t like it.”

“That’s part of it,” he acknowledged roughly, after paying the bill with something the size and shape of a guitar pick. Was it a kind of credit card?

“So…you want me to cover up? I bother you, dressed like this?” I asked, nodding down at myself.

“Darlin’, no.” He looked uncomfortable. “I mean, you do bother me but in a good way. But that’s not why I’m gettin’ you new clothes. Or not the only reason, anyway.”

“What then?” I asked, honestly curious.

Grav finished his transaction and turned his whole attention on me. Taking my shoulders in his big hands, he leaned in to look me in the eyes.

“Leah, you’re a Pure One and a La-ti-zal and it shows. Your pale skin and those big brown eyes—it’s clear you’re somethin’ special. I just don’t need every male in the whole damn station going after you while I’m trying to make a deal, okay?”

“What?” I pulled away from his grip, frowning. “Are you saying I’m a burden on you, just by being here? You think I’m too stupid to look after myself and stay out of trouble while you make the deal?”

“No!” He sighed in frustration as he ushered me out the door. “That’s not what I meant at all. It’s just…you’re too damn pretty for your own good. And look around—how many females do you see in this station?”

We were out on the street again and I looked around, prepared to humor him. I looked up and down the rich silver and gold streets but after a moment, I had to shrug in confusion.

“Honestly, I can’t tell,” I admitted.

I saw a lot of people who didn’t look that different from people back on Earth, except for hair and skin color and some minor variations like Grav’s horns or the color or shape of their eyes. But there were also plenty of “people” who didn’t look like people at all. Creatures with tentacles instead of legs or compound eyes or skin like an alligator’s…It was impossible to tell if they were male or female or some indeterminate sex known only to them.

“That’s because Sincon’s on the edge of the galaxy,” Grav told me. “The Ancient Ones mostly seeded planets near the center. Your world, Earth, is an exception. But take it from me—about ninety percent of the visitors here are male. That’s why the shop we just left is the only female clothing shop on the whole station.”

“So…only one percent of the, uh, people here are female?” I asked, looking around.

Grav nodded. “And of that one percent, none of them is anywhere near as rare and perfect and beautiful as you.”

“I’m just a daycare worker,” I protested. “Or well, now I’m actually an educational aid. But still—I’m nothing special. Not where I come from.”

“Darlin’, you’d be special anywhere,” he said firmly, taking my hand and squeezing my fingers. “And don’t let anybody tell you different. But especially here, we need to be careful.”

“Because women, er, females are scarce?” I asked.

“And because you’re so fuckin’ beautiful. Not to mention the further you get from Earth, the more your latent La-ti-zal powers are gonna come into play.”

“I, uh, really don’t know about that,” I said, shaking my head as he led me through the gleaming streets. “I don’t feel any different at all.”

“Don’t you?” He turned the full force of those strangely beautiful eyes on me and I found myself blushing.

I did feel different—I felt alive in a way I never had before. But I didn’t want to get into that.

“What I meant to say is, I don’t feel any more, er, powerful,” I said. “I mean, I’m not suddenly super strong or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound or anything like that.”

“That’s not the kind of power a La-ti-zal usually exhibits,” he said, frowning. “It’s more subtle than that.”

“So how am I going to know if these powers ever do manifest if they’re so subtle?” I demanded.

“You’ll know,” was his oblique reply.

Before I could ask for more details, we came to a sudden stop in front of a dark alley. Well, if any alley made of gold and platinum could really be called “dark.” The narrow walls gleamed in the dim light like a Pharohs’ tomb.

“Okay, this is it.” Grav took a deep breath. “Down here is the entrance to The Hell Hole.”

“The what?” I began to feel uneasy. “What’s that?”

“A bar owned by the guy I need to talk to—Da’relk Shekk. He’s a Balloonian.”

“A what?” I asked again. “Sorry, I thought you said he was a balloon something or other.”

“I did,” he said patiently. “Balloonians are from the Hygerian Nebula—they’re sentient gas. To keep from drifting away and to be able to communicate with more solid life forms, they enclose their consciousness in thin, elastic bladders.”

“So…they’re living balloons?” I asked. Every time I thought I had heard or seen it all, something stranger came along.

“Essentially,” Grav rumbled. “But we need to be careful around Shekk. He’s got a bad rep—even worse than mine.”

“Yours?” I asked, frowning. “You have a bad reputation? You didn’t tell me that.”

Grav’s face went hard as granite.

“Yeah, well there’s a lot you don’t know about me, darlin’. And we’ll both be happier if you never find out.”

“But—”

“Now Shekk is a crime boss that runs most of this station,” he continued, clearly wanting to change the subject. “He deals most of the illegal tech in the galaxy. He’s also one of the meanest son-of-a-bitches you’re ever gonna meet so it’s best you stay back and let me do the talking.”

“How mean and scary can he be if he’s just a talking balloon?” I objected. “I mean, one pin and he’s history, right?”

“Sure.” Grav gave a short, barking laugh. “If you don’t mind getting your hand burned off to use that pin on him. Shekk wears a suit that includes a layer of high-intensity laser protection. Nothing gets through that.”

“Oh, I see.” I nodded. “All right. I’ll keep my hood on and keep quiet.”

“That’s for the best.” Grav took my hand again and we started walking down the alley. “Nobody should bother you. If they do, we’ll make it very clear you’re with me.”

“Will your bad reputation protect me too, as long as they know I’m with you?” I asked, smiling a little. “I mean, if anyone tries to mess with me?”

“It should. If not, I’ll rip their fuckin’ heads off.” At first I thought he was joking but he spoke with absolute sincerity and the serious look on his face made me shiver.

Hopefully no one would bother with me at all, since I was covered from head to toe in the soft, dark green cape. But if they did, I knew that Grav would keep me safe.

So it was with less trepidation than you might think that I walked through the thick black door that led into The Hell Hole. Grav was with me so I wasn’t worried a bit.

I should have been.

Chapter Nine

Grav

“State your name and business.” The bouncer at the door was a Dorox, about twice as big as me, with saggy blue skin and a snout long enough to use as a third arm. Or a second…well, you get the idea.

“Grav to see Shekk. I’ll tell him my business myself.”

“And your companion?” The Dorox’s snout swiveled in the direction of Leah and I knew he was probably smelling her sweet scent. It was something I hadn’t accounted for, though I should have. Back in the confines of my ship, I had somehow gotten used to breathing in her devastatingly feminine fragrance all the time. Now, out and about in the Sincon station, I was aware of it all over again. She smelled good—damn good. It was another reason I’d bought her the cloak but even that didn’t seem to be doing a good job of blocking her scent. It was almost as though it had gotten stronger.

Or maybe I was just more aware of it, as I was more aware of her. I kept her small hand firmly in mine and glared at the bouncer.

“My companion is also my business. She’s no threat to Shekk. Just tell him Grav wants to see him.”

The Dorox shrugged. “Fine. I’ll see if Mr. Shekk will see you. Wait here.”

He left us for a minute, which gave Leah a chance to look all around The Hell Hole with wide eyes. I’ll give it one thing—the place lives up to its name.

It’s a dim, smoky room lit mostly by the red glow of the tanna vines growing all over the walls. They’re a parasitic species that feeds on blood so you have to watch where you stand while you’re in The Hell Hole if you don’t want a bite taken out of your hide. Their bell-like flowers glow and give plenty of free light though, which is probably why Shekk tolerated them—he always was a cheap bastard. Most of the vines were in bloom, their flowers glowing plenty strong enough to see the various patrons of the bar, sprawled across the gold and silver bar stools.

I counted seven wanted criminals and three more who weren’t even supposed to be out of the slam. There was also one extremely nervous Imperial Barrister who was meeting with what was probably a client. Clearly he didn’t care for the meeting place because he kept looking over his shoulder and adjusting his fluffy neckpiece anxiously.

The bartender was a Trankor who had obviously had limb enhancement—he had seven arms instead of the usual four. He was serving three patrons at once with shots of Berrillian blaze. The blue flames licked up the sides of the glasses, looking as hungry as the tanna flowers.

“Wow, this place is really scary,” Leah remarked in a low voice.

“Nah.” I squeezed her hand and gave her a reassuring smile. “Just dark and dirty, that’s all. And watch out for the tanna flowers,” I added, as she was reaching for one of the invitingly glowing buds. “They bite.”

“They what? Oh!” Leah gasped, pulling her fingers back just in time as one of the red bell-like flowers made a snap at her.

Just then the bouncer came back.

“Mr. Shekk will see you, Sir,” he said to me, with a hell of a lot more respect than he’d shown earlier.

“Good.” I started to step past him but he stopped me with a hand on my arm.

“Say, are you really the Grav N’gol? The one who broke out of the Rebax Triple Max slam and killed thirty guards with nothing but a shiv and your bare hands?”

Beside me, I saw Leah’s eyes widen again.

“You got the wrong guy,” I said roughly. “The name’s just a coincidence.”

“That’s not what Mr. Shekk says. He said—”

“Hey!” I grabbed him by his dangling snout and pulled, yanking him down so we were eye to eye. “I said, you got the wrong guy,” I growled softly. “You got it?”

“Yeah, please! I’m sorry, Mr. N’gol! Sorry!” he squeaked. Grabbing a Dorox by the snout is like grabbing another male by the balls, though you have to have balls yourself to do it, since they’re so fucking big.

“Good. I’m glad we have an understanding,” I let him go and wiped my hand against my black leather trousers. “I’m going back now.”

“Enjoy your visit,” the bouncer returned in a muffled voice, still rubbing his wounded snout.

“Thanks.” I nodded at Leah and we continued through the bar. I could tell she wanted to ask questions but for right now she was keeping her mouth shut. Good, I didn’t feel like explaining—I had to deal with Shekk first and hope like hell he would sell me what I needed.

Leah

I tried not to stare at Grav as he led me through the bar but I couldn’t help wondering if what the weird, elephant-looking bouncer had said was true. Was he some kind of ex-convict? An escaped ex-convict? And if so, what had he done to be incarcerated in the first place?

It made me realize that while we had talked a lot about general matters in the past two and a half days, Grav hadn’t really told me a lot about himself. Oh, I knew he was a Protector, which Zoe had told me in her message was kind of a professional bodyguard, but I didn’t know what he’d done before he started doing that.

But when I remembered how gently he’d held me after my fright in the shower and how tenderly he’d healed me, I couldn’t believe he would do anything awful enough to be locked up in prison. Unless maybe he’d gotten into trouble during his work protecting someone? That seemed possible—I had seen how enraged he was when he pulled Gerald off me. So I could imagine something like that happening. But even if he had been in prison, I didn’t believe he would kill people to break out of it.

Would he?

My musings were interrupted when we got through the bar and into a small, back room decorated entirely in black.

The room was already small and the black walls and ceiling and floor made it seem tiny. It was dominated by a throne-like chair which was, ironically, carved of some kind of wood instead of the ubiquitous precious metals that made up the rest of the space station. I supposed that here, wood was more precious than gold because it was rarer.

On the rare wooden throne-chair sat the strangest creature I had ever seen.

He had a puffy body and a round, bulbous head with strangely malleable features that looked more like a rubber mask than an actual face. But as strange as his face was, his clothes were even stranger. He was wearing a suit made of brilliant red light that covered everything but his face. It crackled and glowed in the black room and I could feel the heat of it, even from the doorway. I wondered if the suit was insulated so the glowing lights didn’t pop his puffy body.

“Ah, Gravex N’gol!” he exclaimed in a high, squeaky voice that sounded like air being let out of a balloon. “So good to see you again, my friend.”

As he spoke, his features molded themselves to look like an exact replica of Grav’s own granite-like visage. Wow. Weirder and weirder. Grav had described him as being kind of a mob boss—or at least that was what it sounded like to me. I wondered how such a strange looking individual had gotten to this place of power.

“Shekk,” Grav nodded, apparently not freaked out at all by the way the balloon man had suddenly started looking like him.

“And who is your companion?” Shekk demanded, leaning forward. “Let me see him or her.”

“Her. It’s definitely a female.” There were several other people in the room and now one of them stepped forward. He walked upright on two legs but they seemed to be bent backwards, as though his knees went the wrong way. Also, he was covered in dark brown fur and had a long snout for a nose. Gleaming silver eyes like twin moons glared out of his hairy face as he took another step towards me.

I bit back a little gasp, shocked at what seemed like his sudden appearance. I know it seems strange that I hadn’t noticed there was a freaking werewolf-looking guy there the minute I stepped in the room, but he was wearing dark clothing and sort of blended in with the black walls. Plus, Shekk’s glowing laser-light suit sort of eclipsed everyone and everything else.

“Oh? A female you say, Karf?” Shekk’s eyes gleamed in his doughy face. I couldn’t really say what color they were—they kept changing.

“Yes, boss.” The werewolf guy lifted his snout and sniffed deeply, as though he could somehow smell me across the room. “Scent like that, ain’t no mistaking it. She’s female all right. Ripe, too.”

“Let’s see her, then.” Shekk nodded at me. “Go on, my dear—take off that nasty hood—it hides your loveliness.”

I glanced at Grav who gave me a short nod.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled back the hood, making sure I kept the rest of the cloak pulled closed around my body. Now I was glad Grav had bought it for me. It would have been unbearable to appear in the naughty school-girl outfit in front of the balloon-man mob boss and his hairy werewolf lieutenant.

“This is Leah and she’s my partner in our current venture,” Grav growled.

“A partner, hmm?” Shekk studied me and this time his features shifted to mimic my own face. It was almost unbearably weird to see my own eyes looking back at me from his malleable face. “A partner but not a mate?”

“No.” Grav shifted uncomfortably and frowned. “Leah’s…not my mate.”

“Then you won’t mind if my associate, Karf, takes a deeper sniff,” Shekk said.

Before I could protest that I minded, the hairy werewolf guy had his muzzle under my cloak and was trying to get his snout under my skirt like an over-friendly Great Dane.

“Hey!” I gasped but before I could say more, Grav had the guy by the throat and was holding him, one-handed, over his head.

“Grrrf! Rrrft!” the dangling wolf-guy choked and gasped, clawing at Grav’s hand to no avail.

“Gravex, old friend,” Shekk said, sounding slightly exasperated. “I must ask you to put down my associate. Karf is quite indispensable to me when it comes to sniffing out danger.”

“This time he put his nose where it doesn’t belong,” Grav growled. Shaking the wolf-man like a rag doll he growled up at him. “Just because she’s not my mate doesn’t mean you can go molesting her. She’s mine, damnit! Mine.”

“She won’t be touched again, I promise,” Shekk said. “Now if you wouldn’t mind lowering Karf there to the ground…”

Grav gave one final squeeze of his powerful hand and I heard a choked gurgle come from the hapless male in his grip. Then he opened his fingers and let the wolf-guy drop. Karf fell face-down with a thump in a heap, on the floor at my feet.

I honestly couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive.

“You know, if you didn’t want Karf scenting your female, you should have named her as your female to begin with.” Shekk’s voice was mildly disapproving and his face had gone back to its original, bulbous state.

“Sorry.” Grav flexed his fist and cast a glance at me. “Didn’t mean to make a scene. I just…didn’t want him hurting her.”

“I think she’s quite well. Aren’t you, my dear?” Shekk raised one puffy eyebrow at me. It, like all his facial hair, looked like something someone had drawn on a balloon with a magic marker.

“I…I’m okay.” My voice came out shakier than I liked. Down at my feet, the wolf-man Grav had half-strangled to death stirred and gave a long, rasping gurgle, as though he was trying to breathe through a crushed windpipe.

I gave a little cry and hopped back, nearly falling when I tripped on the trailing hem of my long cloak.

Grav reached for me but someone else caught me first.

“Now, now, my child. All is well,” whispered a soft, ancient voice in my ear.

I looked down to see two wrinkled light blue hands gripping my arm. When I glanced up, I saw a kindly-looking face, seamed with wrinkles, the same light blue color as the hands.

I might have been tempted to think she was Braxian, like Grav, but her skin lacked the grayish-undertone his had. And also, her eyes were a faded violet instead of the strange but beautiful white-on-black. Her hair was a lovely swirl of silvery-blue and she was wearing a cloak much like my own, but hers was black.

“Ah, Magda!” Shekk actually rose from his throne-chair and bowed, showed the old lady a mark of respect. “Gravex and Leah, may I introduce Magda, my wise-woman. She is a Seer from the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy on Helliox Prime. But she came to this humble station and into my service some five cycles ago.”

“Uh, hello,” I said, nodding to the old lady who had finally released her surprisingly strong grip on my arm.

“Hello, my dear one.” She inclined her head. “I have been waiting many long cycles to meet you. It is a great honor to finally see your face.”

“Oh, uh…” I didn’t know what to say to that. Grav frowned and took a step towards us but Shekk simply laughed.

“Oh, don’t mind Magda! She’s always saying mystical things—it’s part of her charm.”

“This girl is special,” Magda insisted, looking at me intently. “I am not jesting, my Lord Shekk. She is not the one, but she is the one before the one who is to come. I must read her fortune in the yarex dregs.”

“The what?” I looked at Grav for help.

He frowned. “Yarex is a kind of hot beverage brewed from ground up fragrant bark of the yarrow tree. I don’t know anything about it telling fortunes, though.”

“Don’t look so frightened, my dear,” Shekk said to me. “Old Magda is simply asking if you’d like some nice hot yarex to sip while we discuss business.”

“I don’t know.” I looked at Grav again, who shrugged.

“Up to you, darlin’,” he rumbled. He glared at Shekk. “But they don’t leave this room.”

“Naturally not. Magda has her brewing station right over there, in the corner.” Shekk nodded at the corner behind his throne-chair and then looked at me. “Go on, my dear. You can refresh yourself while your partner tells me why he came to this Goddess-forsaken corner of the galaxy to see me.”

It seemed safe enough and after what I had just seen Grav do to the wolf-man guy, I felt the need of a little space between us. Not that I was afraid of him now or anything it was just…well, I don’t know what it was. I wanted some time to digest what I’d seen—to get over the way he’d choked the guy almost to death and then growled that I was his, claiming me in no uncertain terms.

I looked at the old woman with the faded violet eyes and nodded.

“All right. I’d love some, uh, yarex. Thank you.”

“Come then, child.” She took my arm, which I thought was really unnecessary since we were only taking two steps to the corner behind the throne in the tiny black room.

But then, as we took the first step, something strange began to happen.

The room seemed to grow somehow—elongating until the far corner was about a mile away. At least that was how it seemed. I looked back over my shoulder and saw that Grav and Shekk were now far away—almost the length of a football field in fact.

“Hey!” I turned back to Magda who was hobbling along beside me. “What’s happening?”

“Don’t fear, child. I put a Goddess-eye around my corner.” She kept walking towards the far distant corner and somehow I was still walking with her, despite the fact that things had suddenly gotten very, very strange.

“A Goddess-eye? What does that mean?” I asked as we drew nearer the corner which, somehow wasn’t painted black like the rest of the room. In fact, as we got closer, I saw that it wasn’t a room in a bar at all. Instead, I saw a pleasant forest glade with green and purple trees and blue flowers growing around the base of a rustic looking cottage.

“A Goddess-eye is the first thing taught to the wise-women of the Goddess of Mercy,” she said, smiling at me. “It allows you to have space and privacy of your own, even in a tiny or crowded area. And no one can enter without your express permission—you are only with me because I invited you.”

“Um, thank you for the invitation but I really should be getting back.” My voice sounded high and nervous in my own ears. But Magda only laughed at my obvious fear.

“Now, now, child—there’s no need to be afraid—especially not of old Magda. I’ll not hurt you—I’ve been waiting here for five cycles to meet you so I could help you.”

We had reached the cottage by this time and I saw that there was a low wooden bench with a little table out in front of it.

“Now, you sit down and make yourself at ease,” she indicated the bench. “I’ll just go and get the yarex. I have some all ready for I had a feeling today would be the day I finally laid eyes on you.”

Mystified, I allowed myself to be seated on the bench while Magda bustled into the cottage, humming softly to herself. She returned quickly with a wooden tray bearing a steaming white and gold pot. It had white cups with golden handles to match. I would have said it looked like an ornate tea set but the cups were extremely wide and shallow—almost more like small soup bowls with handles than tea-cups.

“Now then.” Magda set the tray on the table between us. “You must pour or your fate will not read true.”

Mystified, I raised the steaming pot and poured a quantity of pale golden liquid into one of the bowl-cups. There were tiny brown specks in it that settled to the bottom of the cup after a moment. I looked at Magda and she nodded, so I poured for her as well.

“Now then, now then,” she said again as I put down the pot and picked up the cup. “There’s some as like their yarex strong but I didn’t think that would do for you. So I brewed it weak.”

“Thank you,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

“Well, go on.” She picked up her own cup and drank some of the steaming liquid. “Have some.”

Since Grav had said it was safe and since she had already drunk some herself, I thought it was okay to drink some of the strange steaming mixture myself. To my surprise it was good—very good.

I’d been living for the last two days on re-hydrated Vornish and Braxian food from Grav’s stores and though I would never have told him, most of it was just awful. Not that I’m one of those people who won’t try food from other cultures—I actually love Thai and Indian and just about any other exotic food you can think of. And to be honest, some of the Vornish food was okay.

But Braxian cuisine was alive.

As in long, pink two-headed snakes that tried to slither off my plate, or tiny creatures that looked like bright blue hermit crabs you were supposed to crush with a mallet and then pick out of their shell with a special one pronged fork that looked like a miniature spear. There were even creatures that looked like big red roly-poly bugs—the kind that roll into a ball when you touch them. These were as big as Grav’s thumb and you were supposed to douse them in bright green hot sauce made of some toxic pepper before popping them, still wriggling, into your mouth and letting them crawl down your throat.

So you can see why the yarex, which reminded me a jasmine tea with a hint of some exotic fruit I couldn’t name, was pretty much the best thing I’d put in my mouth in ages.

“Mmmm,” I hummed appreciatively, as I sipped it. What is it about warm liquid running down your throat that’s so soothing? I’ve never been much of a coffee person although my friend Charlotte is completely addicted to it. But hot tea—well, I drink probably three cups a day. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been missing it before I had the hot yarex.

“You like it, child?” Magda took another sip from her own cup and smiled at me, nodding.

“Very much,” I said, nodding. “Thank you. It’s lovely.”

“’Tis said only the pure of heart may drink the yarex which is ground from the holy bark of the Goddess-tree,” she remarked. “Now I know you are indeed the one whose coming I foresaw.”

Okay, now she was making me uncomfortable again. Why couldn’t we just sit in the sunshine beside her pretty little cottage and drink the yummy tea-like stuff in peace?

“Oh, um…” I shifted on the bench, uncertain what to say.

Magda laughed. “And now you’re unhappy because you think old Magda is crazy. No mind, child. I can read your dregs just fine, no matter what you think of me.”

“I would never think—” I began but she was already taking my cup from my hands and turning it this way and that.

I realized that somehow I had finished almost all the pale-gold yarex and there was nothing left but the tiny brown specks at the bottom of the cup, which had formed a kind of pattern.

“Hmm…yes, I see. I see,” Magda muttered, frowning.

“You see what?” I couldn’t help asking.

She looked at me sharply.

“I see that you travel from a familiar danger into a much greater and unfamiliar one.”

“Uh, I guess so.” I shifted uneasily, thinking of Gerald and his abusive ways and the mission Grav and I were on. Still, her words were vague enough that almost anyone could have gotten something out of them.

Magda laughed again. “You’re thinking my words could be meant for anyone. Very well, child—I’ll say it more clearly. You’re running from a beater—a male who lays hands on his female in a harmful way.”

“I…you…how could you know that?” I whispered. I looked at the pattern of brown specks in the bottom of my cup. “Did the, uh, yarex dregs tell you all that?

She shook her head.

“Nay. I didn’t need them to. The way you flinched when your male defended you with violence, even though it wasn’t directed at you, told me as much.”

“Grav…isn’t my male,” I said.

Magda smiled. “No? Well, I’ll let time tell about that. Shall I tell you something else I shouldn’t know?”

I bit my lip, then heard myself say, “Yes, please.”

“You were dead, or deep asleep for years,” she said, looking at me. “But now you’re awake. Be careful that awakening doesn’t push you too far.”

“What?” I leaned forward, looking at her intently. Could she possibly be talking about what I thought she was talking about?

“You heard me. That part of you—the part you thought was dead or broken—it was only asleep. And it’s awake now. Awake and hungry, child. Very hungry.”

“I know,” I whispered, thinking of how I felt around Grav, how I wished I could be closer to him, how I wanted to touch him all the time even though I knew it was completely inappropriate. “But I don’t understand. Why was it asleep? And why is it awake now?”

“You were healed. That healing has awakened your own talent as well as your desire.”

“Talent?” I shook my head. “I don’t have any talent.”

“You do. And it will manifest in time. As you were healed, so shall you heal. But be wary—every time you need the healing touch, it will further awaken your need.”

“How?” I asked. “Why?”

“You are a La-ti-zal.” Reaching out with one gnarled hand, she stroked my cheek. “I know for I am one as well.”

“Really?” I frowned. “I thought La-ti-zals only came from my planet—from Earth.”

She shook her head. “They most often come from closed planets, it is true. But the talents of the Ancient Ones may touch any female born of their seed. We La-ti-zals are few, my child. Few and precious. And for such as we, only the touch of the right male can truly awaken the fire within.”

“But…I’m married,” I said.

“Joined to the beater, are you?” She looked at me sharply.

I nodded and ducked my head.

“Yes.”

“A false joining,” Magda said. She put down my cup and took another sip from her own. “It is not binding. It cannot hold you because you were a different person when you made those vows. Now you are becoming something new. Can’t you feel it, child?”

I looked down at my wedding ring which I was still wearing for some reason.

“I don’t know,” I said, twisting the thin golden circlet around my finger. “I don’t know what to think, anymore.”

“You will, child. You will.” She smiled at me and picked up my cup again. “Now for the dregs. Ah…ah-ha…” She frowned, studying the pattern of brown specks.

“What?” She’d told me so much she shouldn’t know I was inclined to believe almost anything else she said.

“You’ll meet a male,” she said, after a long time. “One you think you shouldn’t trust. He will ask you questions you feel you mustn’t answer.”

“Really?” I looked at her doubtfully.

“Really.” She looked up at me. “Now, listen to me child: trust this male. And tell him what he needs to know.”

“Um…” I wasn’t sure what to say.

Magda leaned forward, looking at me intently.

“Tell him,” she emphasized. “The fate of the very galaxy depends on it.”

Well, that was a pretty strong statement.

“Okay,” I said, because it seemed like she wouldn’t stop staring at me until I agreed. “Okay, I’ll tell him.”

“Good. That’s a good child.” Magda leaned back at last, looking contented. “Then the last five cycles of my life have not been wasted waiting in this hole. Well…” She rose stiffly to her feet and took the tray. “Let me just clear up these things and then we should be getting back. Your male and Shekk will have agreed on a price by now and you’ll need to be going.”

“I guess so,” I said.

Magda nudged open the cottage door with one foot and I jumped up to help her.

“Nay, child, I’ve got it,” she said, nodding. “I’m just trying to be careful that Purrah, my pet hyl’dy doesn’t get out.”

“You keep a pet out here too?” It seemed strange, but no stranger than the idea of her having an entire forest and cottage set up in the small, dusty corner of a back room at a bar.

“Oh my yes, I don’t go anywhere without my Purrah. But she’s lately had kits which makes her fractious. And ‘tis a wee bit dangerous for those who don’t know how to handle them.”

“Protective mama, is she?” I asked, smiling a little. I’d had a cat who had kittens back when I was younger and she was an extremely fierce protector of her little family.

“Oh my, yes she is.” Magda smiled. “But that’s not the danger. It’s—” A sudden sound from inside the cottage seemed to catch her attention. “Excuse me but I must check them before we go back.”

She went inside and shut the door firmly behind her. Clearly I was meant to stay outside.

Not that I minded.

I sat in the flood of golden green sunshine and waited for Magda to finish and come back out. Far off in the distance, almost to the strange horizon, I could still see Grav standing in front of the wooden throne, talking to Shekk. He glanced at me once and nodded and I nodded back. I wondered what he saw when he looked at me—did it look like Magda and I were just sitting in the corner having tea or yarex or whatever? I was almost certain he couldn’t see the cottage or the forest or the flowers…

Or the strange creature coming towards me out of the trees.

It looked a little like a kitten, a little like an otter, and a little like a raccoon. And it also looked nothing like any of them because it had bright orange and green striped fur and six legs—three on either side.

“Mmmmnow?” It made a purring, buzzing hum at the back of its throat as it came up to me and started rubbing its head against my leg in a friendly way.

“Well now, who are you?” I’d always loved animals, especially cute fuzzy baby animals and alien animals were no exception. I wondered if this was one of Purrah’s kits that Magda had been talking about. She’d said something about danger but since the mother didn’t seem to be around, I didn’t see any harm in at least petting the little creature.

Stooping down, I reached for it and tickled it under its furry chin. The kit went wild, wiggling with joy as I stroked it, licking my fingers with a rasping little green tongue.

“All right now, that’s enough,” I told it but when I tried to pull my hand away, it reached out with all four of its front paws to grip me.

“Ouch!” I exclaimed—it had sharp little claws that dug into my skin.

The kit seemed to realize it was hurting me somehow because it retracted its claws and lifted its pointed little face appealingly. It had huge, copper-colored eyes and I could have sworn it was begging to be picked up and loved on some more.

“Oh…all right. You win,” I told it, completely charmed by its furry little face.

I scooped the kit up carefully and it came to me with no problem and cuddled against me rubbing its head under my chin and making its soothing, buzzing-humming purr. In fact, it purred so loudly it almost seemed to vibrate my entire body.

“You’re just a cutie, aren’t you?” I murmured, stroking its soft, vivid fur. It was about the size of a kitten but longer in the body, I guessed to accommodate the extra pair of legs.

I had opened my long cloak because the warm golden-green sunshine was making me hot. The kit was curled up and purring on my chest as it nuzzled its little head under my chin. Really, it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen and I was just wondering if I might ask Magda if the kits were old enough to leave their mother so I could have one as a pet, when a sudden bumping or thumping sound from inside the cottage seemed to startle it.

With a loud hiss, it dug all six of its little claws into my cleavage, making me gasp with pain. But before I could get hold of it and try to get it off me, it took off like a shot, jumping from my chest to the ground and scooting off into the forest so fast it looked like a green and orange streak.

Just then, Magda came back out of the cottage.

“There now, Purrah,” I heard her saying. “He can’t have gotten far, your littlest kit. He’ll be coming home again directly.”

“Is everything okay?” I asked, standing up and quickly pulling my cloak closed around me.

“Oh, it’s naught but one of the kits has slipped out and Purrah’s worried about him. Hyl’dy are very careful mothers and it frets her not to know where her little one is.”

“Is he green and orange striped with six legs?” I asked.

Magda looked at me sharply. “So he is. Have you seen him? You didn’t touch him, did you?”

“Um…I saw him run into the forest,” I said, avoiding her question about touching the kit. Would his mother refuse to take him back if he had my scent on him? I really hoped not.

“Oh, that’s all right then. I’ll find him when I come back.” Magda relaxed and nodded. She smiled at me. “Well then, let’s be getting back, shall we?”

“Sure.” I nodded and tried to return her smile, but as we walked back to the horizon where Grav and Shekk were talking, I couldn’t help being worried. Purrah’s little kit had been so cute—I hoped I hadn’t done any permanent harm by petting him.

I also hoped he hadn’t done any permanent harm to me. The places where his little claws had scratched me really stung—more now, even, than when he’d first made them. Absently I rubbed at itchy scratch marks on the back of my right hand. He’d really gotten me good, that little booger!

At last we crossed the strange threshold where the Goddess-eye ended and the back room of the bar began. Stepping out of it, we found ourselves just two steps from the center of the room where Grav and Shekk were apparently finishing up their business.

“And you’re sure this’ll do the trick?” Grav was tucking something that looked like a long, slender cylinder into a pocket of his black leather vest. “And it’s completely untraceable?”

“As long as you wear it implanted under your skin,” Shekk said, his red laser light suit sizzling. “Unless you want to wait for us to grow a skin-graft bag you can wear against your skin? Less painful that way.”

“And how long would that take?” Grav asked.

Shekk smiled. “Only a solar week—we have the fastest incubatorial growth tanks on this side of the galaxy.”

Grav shook his head regretfully.

“Sorry, but I don’t have a week. My ward is in trouble now. I need to get to her.”

Shekk frowned, his balloon face contorting like melting plastic. “I thought you said she wasn’t your ward anymore, Gravex?”

Grav shrugged, his massive, muscular shoulder rolling with the movement.

“Just because her grandfather dissolved our contract doesn’t mean I stopped feeling responsible or protective of her. She’s out there and I have to find her—soon.”

“Hopefully before one of the Biters takes a mouthful of her succulent flesh,” Shekk remarked callously. “You don’t want her getting the Biter’s Curse—she’d be better off dead.”

“Don’t fuckin’ say that,” Grav growled. “Teeny’s alive and she’s gonna be just fine. I got her back before, from that scum Tazaxx. This is no different.”

“Well, I wish you luck.” Shekk was looking bored again. He nodded at me.
“It was lovely to meet you, my dear. I’m certain you and your partner here will be very happy together.”

“Um, thank you,” I said.

It was clear he was being sarcastic about the somewhat nebulous relationship between myself and Grav, but I couldn’t find it in myself to be upset. In fact, I mostly just wanted to go. The scratches I’d gotten from Purrah’s kit were itching and stinging more all the time, and I really wanted to see if Grav had any kind of disinfectant or ointment on his ship that I could use to sooth the irritating pain.

“Farewell, my child.” Magda drew me forward and gave me a kiss on the forehead. Drawing back, she squeezed my shoulders and smiled. “Remember,” she murmured. “Tell him.”

“All right.” I nodded and tried to smile back. But the itching pain from the kit’s little claws was getting more and more distracting. My cleavage was in pain too—in several very delicate places since he’d gotten me with all six of his paws. “Thank you for the yarex and…and everything else,” I said.

“Think nothing of it. May the Goddess watch over you both.” She smiled at me and Grav and made a sweeping bow.

I bobbed an awkward little curtsy in return and Grav simply nodded his head. Then he took my hand and led me out of the bar.

Chapter Ten

“What do you mean, she is gone?”

The last of the Assimilated, he who had been Count Doloroso, paced angrily back and forth in front of Char’noth, foremost of the Commercians’ Alien Mate Index project. The former Count was now wearing an Earthling body and as such, had acquired a new name, which continually slipped his mind. He had been Doloroso for many solar years—it was difficult to get used to having another identity.

His new body was one of a wealthy and prominent male who held undue influence over millions on the small, blue planet. But it appeared he still had no influence over the Commercians, no matter how much credit he offered them.

“Indeed, yes—gone. Gone these several solar days,” Char’noth said blandly.

“You told me the girl was not for sale—neither she nor the other La-ti-zal,” Doloroso snarled, poking an accusing finger at Char’noth.

“And so she is not.” Char’noth clicked the long talons of several of his hands together, a habit he had when irritated or distressed. “The one female is still protected and thus unavailable—the other left of her own volition.”

“Left? How could she leave?” the former Count demanded. “Who did she leave with?”

“A Braxian male.” Char’noth’s blue, wormy body shuddered in fear. “I trust you know how very aggressive they can be. He came from the one who bought her contract in order to be certain she was well protected and to see that our end of the deal was being honored. Naturally I have no wish to give him reason to doubt me. I value the health of my spine far too much for that.” He wriggled his long, snaky back as though in illustration of his point.

“But I need a La-ti-zal from Earth!” Doloroso exploded. “I must have one!”

“We have identified a few others we think may be La-ti-zals but we cannot be absolutely certain. At least, none of them shine so brightly as the ones you were originally interested in,” Char’noth said. “I am sorry they are unavailable but I have no wish to give the Braxian cause to come back and break my spine.”

“Where did they go?” Dolorso demanded, exasperated. “Can you at least give me that much information? I will pay for it—pay well.”

“Ah, well as to that, I made no deal involving their privacy.” Char’noth rubbed several of his hands together. “The Braxian was using our signal to boost his own so I may have the course coordinates that he put in his hopper. I can sell them to you for…shall we say, oh, twenty-thousand credits?”

“Twenty thousand?” The former Count glared at him in disbelief. “Are you serious? I have already paid you twice that for this ridiculous body you sold me!”

He gestured at himself and a floppy bunch of yellowish hair fell into his eyes with the motion. Irritated, he pushed it back into place. When he had first acquired this body, the hair had seemed frozen in place, adhering neatly in an elaborate swoop over the forehead. Now, however, it had come loose and refused to do anything but hang in his eyes.

“You asked for a wealthy and influential male when you came,” Char’noth replied coolly. “That is what we sold you.”

“Yes, but there are serious problems with this body,” the former Count snarled. “The skin is orange—and after considerable study, I have determined this is not a natural pigmentation color for Earthlings. Also, the face is sagging.”

In fact, all of the skin was sagging. It was as though the body was already breaking down, even though he had only been downloaded into it for a matter of days. And the voice was raspy and strident. None of these were qualities the Count had wanted in his new vessel—especially one he had paid so much to own.

“The sagging is merely the effect of human aging. I did not know you wished to inhabit the body or I might have recommended a slightly younger one,” Char’noth said. “You should have said as much when you bought the body—as you know, all contracts are final.”

“Unless a serious flaw is found—and I have found one,” the Count said. He pointed at the crotch of the gray trousers he wore. They were part of the body’s original clothing and accoutrement which he had paid extra to acquire. “It is a failing which is most troubling—the phallus of this body is incapable of growing erect! Therefore it is defective.”

It was a serious failing—one that that would impact his strategy once he finally got his hands on a La-ti-zal. How could he impregnate an Earthling La-ti-zal female with his genetically mutated seed and start a whole new race of organic Assimilated if his new body’s equipment was incapable of doing the job?

“You misunderstand the usage of this body,” Char’noth said, his stalk-like eyes wiggling. “When males of the Earth species grow older, they require medicinal assistance to reach a state of engorgement sufficient for sexual intercourse.”

“Medicinal assistance? What does that mean?” Doloroso demanded. “Truly, Char’noth, I grow weary of your constant excuses. Your blatant lying is an irritant.”

“I am not making excuses, nor am I telling untruths,” The Commercian’s claws clacked angrily. “As you would know if you had taken the time to study the accoutrements that you paid for along with the body itself.”

“What accoutrements? Do you mean these ridiculous clothes?” Doloroso nodded down at the gray silk suit and white blouse-like shirt he wore. There was also a strip of colorful fabric and a stiffer leather strap with a buckle which Char’noth had explained were supposed to go round his new body’s neck and waist respectively.

Doloroso had threaded the colorful fabric, called a “tie” in Earth language, through the loops on the gray trousers but he disliked the feeling of the longer, leather strap, called a “belt,” around his neck. The buckle chafed his throat and yet he had been told this was the correct configuration and so he endured it.

The outfit was not nearly so comfortable or dramatic as the clothing that had fit on his former body. He missed his long, black cape most of all. But he wanted to appear as the powerful and influential male this body had formerly belonged to when he finally got his hands on a La-ti-zal. In order to do that, he had to dress in the Earth male’s clothes and try to affect his mannerisms.

Last time, when the Earth La-ti-zal, Zoe had slipped through his fingers, she had shown a marked lack of respect and fear of him. That, of course, had been in his former body. In this body, he was certain he could intimidate any Earth female—which was why he had paid so much to get a powerful and highly recognizable male to inhabit.

But what good was any of it if the phallus didn’t work?

“Char’noth—” he began but the small blue alien held up several hands to stop him.

“Look in the pockets of your over-garment,” the foremost Commercian told him. “There you will find a small vial of tiny blue pills. Through much study of Earth society and customs, I have learned that before a male engages in mating he must take these pills. This will enable him to achieve an erection of the phallus.”

“Are you certain?” Doloroso fumbled in his jacket pocket and came out with a small vial of pills, just as the Commercian had said. There was a label on it printed with some strange Earth language—the only word he could recognize was his new name. Well, the name of his new body, anyway.

“Those are the pills,” Char’noth said, nodding. “But you must not take them until coitus is imminent. Otherwise the effect is wasted.”

“You’re certain about that?” Doloroso demanded. “I shouldn’t take your word for it—I should force you to refund my credit or at the very least, get me a better body to inhabit.”

“Negative.” Char’noth’s mandibles clicked angrily. “I am already in trouble with my direct supervisors for abducting that body in the first place. Apparently the male it belonged to was competing for a very important elected position. The Earthlings are uncertain where he has gone and it troubles them. I cannot take another prominent male at this time or they may suspect extraterrestrial involvement.”

“They miss this male, do they?” Doloroso looked down at himself, thinking that perhaps the body was not quite such a bad buy after all. If it was immediately recognizable to everyone on the planet, there was little doubt it would inspire fear and awe in an Earth La-ti-zal—if he could ever get his hands on one, that was.

“Some miss him,” Char’noth said neutrally. “But many more seem extremely relieved he is gone. At any rate, the Earth is in an uproar because I allowed you to talk me into taking him.”

“Well…” Doloroso’s new chest swelled. He liked the idea of an entire planet being in an uproar because of his actions. It reminded him of the War of Assimilation. He looked again at the small vial of pills in his hand. “And you’re certain these will do the job?”

“Beyond a doubt,” Char’noth assured him. “Now come—I will give you the information on the Braxian’s course and perhaps you can trail him to wherever it is he took the La-ti-zal. Although I would not recommend trying to remove her from his custody—he seems extremely protective of her.”

“Yes, well…we shall see about that.” Doloroso rubbed his orange-tinted hands together. “I’ll just have to pick the right moment.”

Like a stinging Varainia viper, he would trail the Braxian and his precious cargo and he would wait until the correct time to strike. Patience was a virtue he had cultivated and stealth was a skill he knew well.

“Soon,” he murmured as the foremost Commercian brought up the coordinates and course of the Braxian’s ship. “Soon my little La-ti-zal, you shall be my bride. And then, when your belly swells with life, the Last Day shall be the First once more.”

Chapter Eleven

Grav

I felt satisfied as we left the Sincon Delta station behind. I had gotten what I needed to infiltrate Gemina from Shekk, though it had come at a steep price. Still, it should do the job. With Leah by my side to do the talking, the inhabitants of the all-female planet wouldn’t have any idea that an “unclean male” had been among them. We’d get the information out of the female who had been tasked with protecting Teeny and be on our way to find my little ward in no time. Then after we found her, I could take Teeny back home to her grandfather and Leah to visit Zoe.

It was a win-win situation all around. And the best thing, though I wouldn’t admit it to myself, was that it meant more time with Leah.

Speaking of Leah, though, she was acting strange—kind of nervous and jumpy. Now that I thought about it, she had been that way since we’d left the back room of The Hell Hole.

I was sitting in the pilot’s chair, plotting a course for Gemina and she was standing right behind me. But instead of standing quietly or leaning against my arm to watch me work, (which I kind of liked even if it was fucking distracting,) she was pacing back and forth behind my chair.

“Leah?” I looked back at her, frowning. “You all right, darlin’?”

“Fine.” She rubbed nervously at her chest, which was still covered in the dark green cloak I’d bought her. Part of me was glad she was still wearing it…and part of me wished she would take it off. I couldn’t help myself—I loved the way her lush body curved, even though Leah had told me several times she was considered “too curvy” by the people of her planet. As if there could be any such thing. “Just…I’m fine,” she said again, scratching at the back of one hand.

“You don’t look fine,” I said, wondering what was going on with her. “You’re as jumpy as a hyl’dy in a gilla pit.”

She gave a jagged little laugh and rubbed at her chest again.

“Don’t you mean as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs?”

“I don’t know what that means but I do know you’re not acting like yourself.” I finished the course and stood up to face her. “C’mon, darlin’—give. What’s going on with you?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, frowning. “I just feel…strange. Do you have a first-aid kit on your ship?”

“First-aid?” I frowned at her. “What in the Frozen Hells is that?”

“You know—bandages, ointment, disinfectant. Sometimes gauze. Stuff like that.” She rubbed the back of her hand again.

“Why would you need those things? And what’s wrong with your hand?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.” She tried to hide it behind her back but I reached for her and held her by the wrist. For a moment Leah kept it hidden, but I looked at her, frowning.

“Darlin’,” I said softly. “Show me.”

“All right. But it’s not really a big deal.”

She let me examine her hand and what I saw made me suck in my breath. Long, red scratches ran the length of her delicate hand and fingers. But it wasn’t the scratches that worried me—it was the slender pink lines radiating out from them—almost like some kind of poison.

“What are these?” I pointed to the scratches. “What happened to you?”

“In the Goddess-eye.” She shifted uncomfortably. “Magda had one in the corner. There was a cottage and a forest and everything in there. And a pet—it looked a little like a cat except it had orange and green stripes. Oh, and six legs.”

My heart started pounding a little harder.

“A hyl’dy? She had a pet hyl’dy?”

Leah shrugged and nodded. “I think that’s what she called it. Anyway, it had kittens—kits she called them.”

My heart, which had been pounding like a fucking hammer, suddenly seemed to stop dead in my chest.

“Kits?” I said my voice coming out rough and hoarse. “Leah, darlin’, please tell me you didn’t touch them.”

“Just one.” She shrugged defensively. “He was so little and friendly and cute. He came right up to me begging to the petted. So what?”

“So what? So hyl’dy kits are damn dangerous, Leah!” I couldn’t help letting the anger and fear for her I felt show in my voice. “Their claws release a neurotoxin that can kill a grown male inside of two solar hours.”

“Really?” Leah whispered. She looked down at her hand and the pink threads growing from the long, red scratches. “Only…only two hours?”

“It scratched you, didn’t it?” I demanded. “That’s what happened to your hand.”

“I…I didn’t know,” she whispered and then she put her unscratched hand to her head. “Oh…Grav, I feel so strange.”

“That’ll be the fuckin’ neurotoxin leaching its way into your bloodstream,” I said grimly.

“Oh. That explains why…why I’m so dizzy.” She stumbled and would have fallen if I hadn’t caught her in my arms.

“Leah?” I said, looking down at her limp form. “Leah!”

I got no response.

I tried to calculate the time it had been since we’d left Sincon. At least a solar hour—maybe more. I thought about going back but the ship had already made the first hop—it would take precious time to get the course reset to go back. Time Leah didn’t have.

I would have to try to help her myself.

I looked down doubtfully at her small hand, marked with the dark red scratches and pink lines. I could try healing her myself but she wasn’t really my mate, so my healing ability would be limited. Small wounds and superficial cuts and bruises were easy—poison wasn’t. Especially a fucking neurotoxin.

Still, I had to try.

Carrying her to my room, I laid her gently on my sleeping platform. It’s not as luxurious as the hoverbeds in Sarden’s ship, but it’s damn big—it has to be to support a male of my bulk. Leah looked lost in the middle of it, small and fragile and so fuckin’ vulnerable it made my heart fist up in my chest.

I had to help her—somehow I had to. Saying a silent prayer to the Goddess of Mercy, I knelt on the platform beside her, and took her small hand in mine.

Then I began to lick, trying to leach the neurotoxin from her bloodstream and praying I wasn’t too late.

Leah

I came out of the strange, half-conscious state I’d somehow fallen into because of a warm, wet, ticklish sensation along the back of my hand. I opened my eyes to see Grav leaning over me. He held my scratched hand in one of his much larger ones and was licking me gently from the tips of my fingers all the way up to the palm and back of my hand.

“Oh!” I gave a little gasp because, despite the pain and faintness I was still feeling, the rough warmth of his tongue seemed to start a fire inside me. A fire that had never completely died down since the last time he had healed me.

Grav looked up at my sound, his white-on-black eyes worried.

“How are you feeling, darlin’?”

“I don’t know. Better, I think—my hand, anyway,” I whispered. It was true—my hand no longer burned and itched. When I looked at it, I saw that the long red scratches the kit had made with its claws were almost faded.

“Good. Then you’re almost back to normal.” Grav looked considerably relieved—then almost angry. “Don’t scare me like that, Leah. And next time, don’t touch a fuckin’ thing unless I tell you its safe,” he added in a low growl.

“You did tell me it was safe to go with Magda,” I pointed out, struggling to sit up. “In fact—”

But my words were cut off as a fresh wave of dizziness took me. I gasped and fell back on the bed, my un-hurt hand going reflexively to rub my chest.

“What? What is it?” Grav demanded, looking worried all over again.

I didn’t want to tell him. Especially when just having his warm tongue caressing my hand and fingers was enough to bring all those strange, hot feelings rushing back. I could just imagine what it would be like to feel his mouth on my breasts.

If you don’t tell him, you’ll die, whispered an implacable little voice in the back of my head. Tell him, Leah—tell him now—before it’s too late.

It was true and I knew it. I opened my mouth to say something, only my lips and tongue didn’t want to work.

“Leah? Leah, what is it?” Grav looked half angry, half worried as he leaned over me, his alien eyes scanning over my body to see what was wrong.

I couldn’t talk anymore—I don’t know why, maybe it had to do with the neurotoxin paralyzing my vocal chords. But I did still have some use of my limbs. Clumsily, I reached to my chest and fumbled with the green cloak, trying to get it unfastened from around my throat.

Grav seemed to understand because he ripped the cloak open and his eyes widened.

“Goddess of Mercy,” he said hoarsely. “Leah, no.”

I tried to answer or reach for him, but nothing seemed to want to work now. I merely looked at him, pleading with my eyes.

Help me—please, Grav, help me!

But I didn’t know if he could or not. Didn’t know if I wasn’t already too far gone to be saved.

Grav

When I opened her cloak, I saw a sight that made my heart clench with fear. I’d thought the red scratch marks on her hand looked bad—but they were nothing to what the kit’s claws had done to her chest.

It was easy to see through the gauzy white, mostly-see through blouse she wore—the creamy slopes of her breasts were covered in the little red scratches. And every scratch had deadly pink lines radiating out from it.

This was bad—so fuckin’ bad. Not only were the poisonous scratches extensive, they were also way too close to her heart. In fact, I was afraid at any minute her heart might stop.

But no, I couldn’t lose her like that—I wouldn’t. I might not have given her my oath, but she was still mine to protect, mine to care for and watch over and heal. I had to save her, damn it! I had to.

I must have looked like a male in a pleasure vid, but I didn’t care. I ripped her silky shirt open, leaned down, and began licking the full globes of her breasts as hard and long as I could.

Leah

The warm, wet, ticklish sensation brought me back again. But this time it wasn’t in my hand—this time it was all over my bare breasts.

I felt my nipples harden in reaction as a hot tongue glided over my slopes, circled one tender areola, and then found its way to the other.

The fire inside me raged—the pent-up sexual frustration that must have been building for years. I moaned and bucked upward, arching my back to offer him more.

Grav seemed to take my motion as an act of pain or outrage. He paused his licking for a moment to look up at me.

“Hey now, it’s all right, darlin’,” he growled hoarsely. “Not tryin’ to take advantage—just want to heal you.”

He’s just healing you—that’s all he’s doing, I lectured myself. So settle down, Leah and let him. But though my mind wanted to behave, my body wouldn’t listen. The heat between my thighs was building and building but I needed something else—something more. How could I get it?

“Grav,” I heard myself saying—hooray my voice worked again—“Grav, please. I need…I hurt…”

“Tell me where you hurt, darlin’. Tell me and I’ll fix it,” he promised softly.

“Here,” I whispered and pointed to my right nipple.

Deep down, I knew it wasn’t right. But I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted that feeling so badly—the hot, breathless feeling of pleasure that spiraled ever upward, threatening to break me completely if I ever reached the peak.

And yet, I wanted to reach it so badly I didn’t care.

“You sure, darlin’? I don’t see any scratches there.” Grav looked at me skeptically.

“They’re there,” I lied recklessly. “And they hurt—hurt so bad, Grav. Please…please heal me.”

Taking a chance, I reached up to caress his horns—those black, curling rams’ horns that seemed to pulse and grow in my grasp when I touched them.

Grav let out a low, hoarse growl and leaned down to drag the flat of his tongue over my tender peak.

I moaned and surged up to meet him. His mouth felt so good on me—so hot and wet and perfect. And yet still I wanted more.

“Grav,” I gasped as he licked and swirled his tongue around my sensitive peak. “Grav, please, I…I think the poison is really…really deep.”

He stopped for a moment and looked up at me, panting.

“What are you saying, darlin’?” he demanded hoarsely. “What do you want me to do?”

“It’s not what I want,” I lied recklessly. “It’s what I need.”

Well, maybe it wasn’t a lie at that.

“What?” he growled again.

“You know what.” I stroked his horns again, tracing their spirals in a lazy caress I could tell was affecting him. “I need you to suck them—suck my nipples. To…to suck the poison out.”

He frowned and shifted. He was half on top of me at that point and I could feel the hard length of his shaft pressing against my thigh. For a moment I wondered what it would be like to have that long, hot length inside me. To spread my legs for him and let him fill me…

Stop it—just stop it now! That’s not right and you know it, whispered the panicky little voice inside my brain.

I completely ignored it.

“Please, Grav,” I begged him shamelessly. “Please…suck my nipples. I want you to—I need you to.”

“Gods, darlin’, I shouldn’t,” he groaned and then leaned down to do it anyway.

I cried out as a pleasure so fierce it was almost pain flooded me. It burned through me like wildfire when he finally sucked one ripe bud between his lips and then drew it deep, as though he was trying to get as much of my breast in his mouth as he could.

My hands tightened on his horns and I found I was guiding him, tugging him in the direction I needed him most. From one breast to the other, he switched at my urging, sucking both nipples hard and deep until they were cherry-red and swollen with his passion and mine.

I moaned and cried, writhing on the bed beneath him, wanting him so badly I couldn’t breathe. The feelings of passion were overwhelming—the sexual pleasure I had thought would always be denied me was flooding me, making it hard to think, hard to breathe. All I wanted was for the pleasure to go on forever—all I wanted was for it to never end.

I began to feel like I was on the edge of something—something unexplainable and huge. A mountain I was trying to climb and when I finally reached the summit I would jump from the highest peak and break my body to pieces in the pleasure I found there.

I wanted so damn badly to jump.

And I was close…so close as Grav wrapped his big hands around my waist and pulled me to him, sucking my nipples hard and deep into his hot mouth, lashing my sensitive peaks with his tongue until I moaned and cried and pressed my thighs together over my throbbing sex thinking,

Soon! It’s going to happen soon…I can feel it! So close…so close…

And that was when he stopped.

“Wh—what?” I looked up at him, uncomprehending as he released my nipple from his mouth and moved back. He was breathing hard, almost panting and this close I could definitely see the wild, red spark far back in the depths of his white-on-black eyes. “Grav?” I asked, but he was already pulling away, taking the sweet, addictive sensations with him. “Grav,” I tried again, made shameless by my need. “Why did you stop?”

“Stopped while I still could.” His voice was low and rough and he got off me with jerky motions. “You should cover yourself, darlin’—you’re healed.”

Healed…healing…suddenly I remembered what the wise woman, Magda, had said to me. Something about the more healing I had, the more it would increase my need. But still, I didn’t want the pleasure to end—the wild, deliciously sweet, unfamiliar sensation running through my veins was as strong as any drug. I wanted more—had to have more.

“Please!” Half sitting up, I reached for him, twining my arms around his neck, pulling him back down to me. “Please.” I arched up against him, rubbing my bare breasts wantonly against the broad, hard planes of his chest. “Grav, I was close to something—so close.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” he growled. Reaching up, he unclasped my hands from around his neck. Gently, but firmly, he put them back down by my sides. “I could smell it on you—hell, I still can. You’re hot and wet between your legs—like a female in heat. Don’t you think I can tell how close you were to the peak?”

“Then help me reach it,” I begged, still unable to stop myself or control my needy lust. “Please, I’ve never…never had that before. Please.”

“Don’t you think I wanna give it to you, darlin’?” Grav leaned down, holding my eyes with his, his gaze burning into mine. “Don’t you think I want to feel your sweet body coming under mine? But we can’t—I can’t.”

“Why not?” I demanded. “I don’t understand, Grav—why not?”

“Because I might not be able to stop, all right?” He growled, pulling away from me. “I’m half Braxian, Leah. We have a point of no return and I don’t want to go there with you. Don’t want to hurt you—all right?”

I could have cried with frustration. To have the pleasure I had always been denied so close—to feel it building and building almost to the peak one moment, only to have it yanked away from me at the last minute was enough to make me want to scream.

“I don’t care,” I said recklessly. “Don’t care about anything—just do it.”

“No.” He got off the bed with stiff, jerky motions and I could see the huge, long ridge of his shaft pressing hard against the crotch of his black leather trousers. “No.”

“But why?” I could feel the hot tears in my eyes now and I was helpless to stop them. “Why?”

“Because I care, Leah. Care a hell of a lot more than I should.”

And with that, he left me panting on the bed, feeling ashamed and frustrated, but still aching with desire all the same.

Left me still wanting him.

Chapter Twelve

Grav

I paced back and forth, up and down the length of the short main corridor of my ship, trying to get hold of myself. I was close…so damn close to that invisible line. And if I crossed it—if I let myself cross it…

Can’t do that, I lectured myself sternly. Can’t go there and you know it. She’s too far above you. You’re not worthy of one like her—not after what you’ve done. It’ll only end in heartache. For both of you. Better leave it alone…

It was damn hard to talk myself out of going back to my room, stripping off my clothes, and rejoining Leah on the sleeping platform. Especially when my mind kept wanting to replay the scene in my head—the sight of her moaning and writhing against me…arching her back to offer herself…begging for more…

No! I had to stop thinking like this.

If you want to put a damper on your feelings, just imagine what she’d think of you if she really knew you, whispered a cynical voice in my brain. If she knew what you did to get locked up in that triple max slam…

The thought was sobering. Very fucking sobering. By the time Leah came out of my room, wrapped modestly in the green cloak again, I just about had myself under control.

Just about.

“Grav,” she said, looking down and scuffing the toe of one little foot against the metal floor. “I…I’m sorry. I know I was acting kind of…crazy back there.”

“’s all right, darlin’” I said, a little stiffly. “You didn’t know what you were doing.”

“Yes, I did!” Her eyes flashed in her pale face as she looked up at me. “I knew what I was doing…and what I was asking for. I can’t blame any kind of temporary insanity. It’s my fault. All my fault.”

“C’mon now, darlin’, I don’t think you can take all the blame. I think I might’ve had a little somethin’ to do with it,” I pointed out. “Especially since it was me sucking your sweet nipples and not the other way around.”

“You don’t understand…” She took a deep breath. “Remember how I told you that Gerald—my, uh, mate—that he had a reason to beat me?”

I frowned at her. “Look, I don’t care what you did—no male has the right to beat a female. It’s fuckin’ wrong. The Goddess made males strong to protect females—not hurt them.”

“I said he had a reason to—not that he had the right, although, I’m sure in his mind, they were one and the same.” She lifted her chin defiantly. “And before you ask, no, it wasn’t that I was cheating on him. Up until just now I’ve never done anything like that. Anything at all.”

“I believe you,” I said quietly, and I did. My Braxian nose can almost always smell a lie—and she didn’t smell like she was lying to me. “So what reason did he think he had?”

“I didn’t… I mean I…I couldn’t satisfy him. Sexually, I mean.” She twisted her fingers together and I had the feeling she wanted to look down at the floor, to study her shoes again, but she resisted the impulse. Instead she held my eyes with hers and kept talking. “I tried to, of course. I wanted to be a good wife, but I couldn’t help it. I…I…” She shook her head as if the words wouldn’t come.

“You what, darlin’?” I asked gently. I had the feeling she was about to admit something to me—something huge. Something she was ashamed of but needed to get out anyway. “You can tell me,” I said. “Tell me anything. I’m not in a position to judge you or anybody.”

“I never felt anything,” she burst out at last. “When we…when Gerald and I made love. It was like he was touching me with gloves on. Or maybe it was more like all my nerves were wrapped in cotton. I don’t know how else to explain it but I couldn’t…couldn’t get excited for him. Couldn’t get turned on. I tried to pretend but Gerald knew—he knew I didn’t feel anything when he touched me.”

The words were flowing faster now—I had a feeling this was something she’d been keeping bottled up inside her for a long time, maybe for years—and now it was finally coming out.

“I tried. I tried so hard.” There were tears in her eyes now. “But it was like that part of me was missing. I thought there was something wrong with me. I…I still think that.” She put her face in her hands and sobs shook her narrow shoulders. “I’m broken,” she whispered. “Broken.”

“Darlin’…” I couldn’t stand to see her in pain. Crossing the room in two strides, I took her in my arms, even though just minutes before I’d been telling myself I should never touch her or be close to her again. But her tears were too much to bear.

Standing on her tiptoes, Leah wrapped her arms around my neck and for a few minutes, she clung to me and wept. I stroked her hair and whispered soothing words, comforting her as best I could, while I ached for her pain. It occurred to me that this was the first real break-down she’d had, despite all that had happened to her and everything her worthless mate had done. It was surprising to me that she’d held out this long and I didn’t blame her for losing it a little now.

Females need to cry sometimes. I don’t mean to say they’re less than males because of that, or that they’re too emotional. It’s just that their emotions are closer to the surface. As a Protector who specializes in warding only females, I know this to be true. Just as I know the best way to deal with such heartbreak is to hold your female and let her cry.

So many males want to fix the problem—to go out and right the wrong or provide an answer that will turn off the tears and push the uncomfortable emotions aside.

That’s because it’s easier to play the hero than the comforter.

But in the end, your female needs a comforter more often. And if you’ll only hold her and let her weep once in a while when she needs to, I promise she’ll see you as both and you’ll both be the happier for it.

Leah wasn’t my female—not really—but I knew enough to hold her and let her cry herself out. Let her get out some of the pain and tension and heartbreak that must have been building up in her for years until she could finally speak again.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered at last, letting me go to swipe at her eyes. “It’s just…I’d never felt anything sexually, and I thought I never would. Until you…until you healed me. Healed the bruises and cuts on my face, I mean.” She motioned to her lovely, delicate face. “And then just now, when you healed the scratches the kit made.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know why that is, I swear I don’t, darlin’. I know males of the Twelve Peoples often heal their mates but I’ve never heard tell of it turning, uh, sexual.”

“Magda said something to me about it.” She nibbled her lush lower lip, making me want to kiss her there. “She said it had to do with my own, uh, talents. And that the more I was healed, the more it would make my ‘need’ grow.”

“Did she, now?” I frowned. “That’s fuckin’ strange. She thought it was bound up with your La-ti-zal powers?”

“I think so.” Leah shrugged. “But I don’t have any powers.”

“They just haven’t manifested yet,” I told her. “Sarden told me it took a while for Zoe’s talents to come all the way in. But when they did…well, it was a sight to behold.” I shook my head. “She took down a conspiracy that threatened to overtake the entire planet of Eloim single-handed. And I have faith you’ll have powers that rival hers in time.”

“I don’t want all kinds of mysterious powers.” She looked up at me appealingly. “I…I just want to feel. For once in my life, I want to know what everyone else is talking about. I want to be alive—to know I’m not broken.”

She looked up at me with wide, wet eyes and I felt my heart fist up in my chest. Gods, she was so beautiful! It made me ache to look at her. But she wasn’t for me—I knew that well enough without anyone having to tell me.

“Darlin’,” I said as gently as I could, cupping her cheek in my hand. “I understand what you’re saying and believe me, I’m flattered and honored. But I’m not the male to give you those, uh, those feelings.”

“That’s not true.” She shook her head. “Grav, you’re the only male that’s ever given me those feelings. Ever.”

“But I’m not the right male for you,” I told her, though I ached to take her in my arms and give her more of those feelings she wanted so desperately. “I wish I was, Leah.” I stroked her cheek and looked into her eyes. “I wish I could take you to my room right now and lay you down and touch you and taste you everywhere,” I growled softly. “I’d like to run my hands all over your ripe, luscious body and worship your sweet little pussy with my tongue until you came all over my face.”

Her breath seemed to catch in her throat and she looked up at me with so much need and longing in her eyes I had to look away before I lost control.

“Then why don’t you?” she whispered. “Is it because I’m married—joined—to Gerald?”

I shook my head. “That’s not it. I believe when any male lays his hands in anger or violence on a female, he invalidates any vows he took with her. He loses her. So in my eyes, you’re not joined to him anymore.”

“Magda said something like that,” Leah murmured. “She said it was a false joining—that a female who’s a La-ti-zal often won’t react until she feels the touch of the right male.”

“And I believe you’ll find that male,” I said, though the words seemed to stick in my throat. “But I’m not him.”

“Why?” she asked. “I know we haven’t known each other long. I know it sounds crazy to be having this conversation but—”

“It’s not crazy,” I interrupted her fiercely. “I feel for you too, darlin’—don’t ever think I don’t. But I’m not right for you. I’m not anybody you should be mixed up with.”

“Is this about what that bouncer said?” she demanded. “The one at the bar—about you being in some kind of prison and killing people to get out?”

“Something like that,” I said shortly. “That and worse.”

“What? Just tell me,” she begged. “Give me the facts and let me make up my own mind, Grav. Please.”

“No.” I turned away from her, unwilling to see the hurt in her eyes. But how much worse would it be—how would she look at me if she knew the truth? The truth of what I’d done, which was considered the worst crime any male with Vorn blood can commit? I’m half Braxian but I’d been on Vorn Five when I did it—among my father’s people.

“Was it bad?” she said softly. “Are you sorry for it—whatever it was?”

“Yes, it was bad and no, I’m not sorry.” I rounded on her, frowning. “In fact, I’d do it again.”

“Oh.” She looked down at her fingers. “I see.”

“No, you don’t. And you won’t try to see…or try to find out about me if you know what’s good for you.” My voice came out harsher than I had intended. I tried to soften it some. “Look, darlin’, even if my past wasn’t standin’ between us, I’m a hybrid—a half-breed.”

“What does that mean?” She looked up at me.

“Means I couldn’t ever bond you to me properly,” I said. “You’d never have that certainty that all females crave—that bond with your male that no one can break. You wouldn’t want to live like that.”

Leah lifted her chin and put a hand on her hip.

“So it’s a commitment issue. You don’t want to be tied down to the crazy girl who can’t enjoy sex. That’s okay—I understand.”

“You seemed to be enjoyin’ it just fine a few minutes ago,” I said dryly. “And I never said you were crazy, or that I didn’t want to commit to you. I said I can’t because of what I am…and because of what I’ve done.”

“This is nuts.” She threw up her hands, which made her cloak gape open to show the creamy swells of her breasts. I felt my shaft surge, felt my whole body yearn for hers, but I fought the urge back grimly.

“Nuts?” I asked, my voice coming out sounding hoarse. “I thought you told me those were an Earth food.” She’d told me something about the small, crunchy, salty foods when I was making her one of my Braxian dishes.

“Nuts also means crazy. Insane. Stupid.” She shook her head. “We’re nuts to be having this conversation. As I said before, we haven’t even known each other a week. Also, I’m married—even if it is to an abusive asshole. So what right do I have to ask you to make a commitment to me when I’m not even free to commit?”

“You’re free in my eyes and the eyes of the Goddess,” I growled softly. “I’m the one who’s not free, Leah. I’m the one who’s…” Not good enough. “Who’s wrong for you,” I finished at last.

“Maybe we’re wrong for each other,” she said in a low voice. “But then…why does it feel so right when you touch me?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Maybe it’s just you getting away from your home planet which is making your La-ti-zal powers manifest. Maybe any male you came in contact with after you left Earth could have given you the, uh, feelings you talked about.”

“Maybe.” But she didn’t sound convinced. To tell the truth, I wasn’t either. But I knew damn good and well that I was saving her a lot of pain and heartache by turning her down, as much as it hurt me to do it.

“Well…” I said, not sure how to go on. I felt the need to leave the small room and get some time alone. I wanted so badly to take her in my arms and pleasure her it was almost more than I could bear being in the same place with her.

“Well,” she echoed me and sighed. “I guess…let’s just forget this conversation happened. Let’s chalk it up to the whole crazy La-ti-zal thing and just…just try to forget about it.”

“All right.” I nodded awkwardly, feeling fucking miserable. “If that’s what you want.”

“I do.” She took a deep breath and lifted her chin. “Let’s just be friends.”

“Fine,” I growled. “Friends.”

Leah nodded and smiled at me. Stepping up to me, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed me coolly on the cheek.

“Thank you, Grav. For putting up with all my craziness and for healing me when I was ill. You’ve been a really good friend to me.”

“You’re welcome,” I muttered. “I, uh, I try.”

“You certainly do.” She smiled brightly—a little too brightly, I thought, and took a deep breath. “Okay. So now that we have what we need from Sincon, tell me more about Gemina. I need to know what we’re going into.”

Chapter Thirteen

Leah

The next few days as Grav’s little ship hopped its way to the all female planet of Gemina were pure misery.

That was because I had to spend the entire time pretending that nothing had happened between Grav and me—pretending I didn’t feel anything for him or want his big, hard, muscular body against mine when I did.

I so did.

I won’t lie—my body was on fire for his touch. It was like the last healing he had performed on me had flipped a switch inside me and all the sexual desire I’d never been able to feel before was breaking over me in waves, leaving me breathless with need almost all the time.

And yet I had to act like I felt fine, had to act like I didn’t feel like I was going to crawl out of my skin with pent-up sexual frustration every time I was near the big alien.

Believe me, the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me.

I’d spent years with Gerald trying to pretend to feel passion when I had none…now I was in the exact opposite situation, trying to pretend I felt normal when actually, I was what my best friend Zoe would have called “horny out of my mind.”

Every time I was near Grav, I wanted to reach out and touch him. Every time I smelled the dark, masculine spice of his skin or heard the low, rumbling tones of his voice it made my nipples hard and my sex wet and hot—throbbing between my thighs.

And I had to act like it wasn’t happening.

The worst thing was, I couldn’t get any relief. And believe me—I tried. Back on Earth when I’d attempted to touch myself, I hadn’t been able to feel enough to make it worth while. I usually just gave up and went to sleep. Here, on Grav’s ship, I thought I might have better luck—after all, my body was finally alive and awake—maybe I could give myself pleasure and ease the terrible ache I felt.

Unfortunately, I felt too much.

It was like my body was on a hair-trigger, so highly strung that even my own touch was painful. I literally couldn’t stand to touch myself, even though I desperately wanted and needed to. So as my sexual frustration continued to grow and grow, I had yet to experience my first orgasm. Had yet to reach that elusive peak I’d nearly reached when Grav was licking and sucking my breasts.

Talk about a mess.

It was hard to tell if Grav was as uncomfortable as I felt—or uncomfortable for a different reason. After all, I had practically thrown myself at him. It couldn’t be easy being cooped up in a small spaceship with a sex starved Earth girl who had cried all over him and begged him to help her “feel.”

The more I thought about it, the more embarrassed I was. Especially the way I’d practically demanded he commit to me! What was I thinking? I hadn’t even known him a week and I was already looking for some kind of death-do-us-part type statement, even though I was still married.

Speaking of my marriage, I didn’t know if I believed what Grav had said, that Gerald had invalidated our vows by hitting me, or not. I did know that the farther I got from Earth, the less connected I felt to him. There had never been any passion between us and now I realized there hadn’t been much love either—not really.

What Gerald and I had was control—namely, he liked to control me. And because I thought I was broken and incapable of giving or receiving sexual gratification, I let him. I guess I thought it was my duty, or something. The only way I could be a good girlfriend, and then a good wife.

It was, after all, the only pleasure I could give him.

Well, I was finally awake. Awake and alive in a way I never had been before. I no longer wanted anyone controlling me, especially now I knew full well that I could receive pleasure. Even if I could forgive Gerald, (which I doubted), I couldn’t see myself going back to him or the limp dishrag existence I’d lived before.

I was traveling the universe on an interstellar adventure, damn it! If I ever got home, I sure as hell was going to do more than make dinner, do the dishes, and go to bed by nine. (Eight fifty-five if Gerald felt like having sex.)

I was going to live. And the first thing I would do on seeing him again would be to serve his abusive ass with divorce papers.

But that was all for when I got back to Earth. Right now I had a more immediate problem to deal with—like the fact that I increasingly felt like I’d made a needy fool of myself with Grav.

The idea made me miserable and to counteract it, I tried to act as cool and distant as possible to the big alien, (even though I really wanted to jump his bones, as Zoe would say.) We danced around each other and made stilted conversation, much more awkward than we’d been before, even when he first rescued me from Gerald and dragged me naked up to the Commercians’ station.

It was, as I said, pure misery.

But at last the ship took its final hop and the broad, silver side of Gemina came into view as we made orbit.

I have to confess, I was relieved. Finally, some action! Even if it was going to be dangerous, as Grav had warned, it was still something to do rather than sit around the spaceship and remember what a stupid fool I’d made of myself.

“So,” I said brightly to Grav as the silvery planet revolved on the front screen of the ship’s control area. “What’s the plan? You got something from Shekk to help disguise your appearance, right?”

“Right.” He sighed and swiveled the chair around to face me. He was so tall that even with him sitting and me standing we were almost at eye level. “It’s this.”

He held up a small, silver cylinder about as long as my finger and half as thick.

“Is that the image generator?” I frowned, watching the way the light glinted across it. I’d seen it briefly before back at the space station but hadn’t gotten a good look at it.

“Uh-huh. I’ve been playing with it some—watch.”

He looked at the cylinder lying in the center of his big palm, as slender as a twig, and glared at it, seeming to concentrate hard.

And then, suddenly, Grav wasn’t there anymore. Sitting in his place was a huge, scaly creature that looked a little like an alligator with purple skin and slitted silver eyes. It looked at me and smiled, its jaws parting to reveal hundreds of sharp, white teeth.

“Oh!” I gasped and put a hand to my heart. “What in the world?”

“It’s a chorg.” The image flickered and then it was just Grav sitting there in the control chair, grinning. “Native to Tilpia Six. They’re sentient, you know—just not what you would call ‘humanoid’ because their planet wasn’t seeded by the Ancient Ones.”

“So…you can actually talk to them?” I asked, thinking that I wasn’t sure if I’d want to have a conversation with a seven foot tall muscular purple alligator.

“Sure.” He shrugged. “You might even get a few words in—before they ate you. Hey, I said they were sentient—never said they weren’t savages,” he said in response to the look I gave him.

“So back to the matter at hand. Literally.” I nodded at the silver cylinder of the image generator. “I’m assuming you’re not going to try and disguise yourself as a big purple alligator down there on Gemina?”

“Nope. That look doesn’t inspire a whole lotta trust for some reason.” He grinned again and I could see he was in a good mood. Clearly he was glad we were going to see some action too.

“Then what?” I put a hand on my hip.

“Try this.” He glared at the cylinder again. Once more he vanished and then, in his place, was a huge blue Amazon. She had broad shoulders and muscular breasts, short black hair and eyes like Grav’s—white-on-black.

Honestly, she looked like a guy with boobs.

“Well?” the blue Amazon said, further ruining the illusion. Her voice was deep and gravelly—unmistakably male.

“Well…” I frowned. “I don’t know. Can’t you make yourself look just a little more feminine?”

He sighed. “Unfortunately, there are limits. The generator can only change my appearance to a certain extent and it can’t alter my voice.”

“What? But it just changed you into a big purple chorx.”

“A chorg,” he corrected. “And that was a male chorg. The generator has some problems with male to female and back again.” He sighed. “All right—we’ll have to do it the other way.”

“What other way?” I asked, frowning.

“Well, the Geminanians don’t like males—in fact, the entire planet is off limits to males. With one exception.”

“Which is?” I asked, frowning.

Grav closed his eyes, concentrating again, and suddenly he changed again. This time he was clearly male but his skin turned an even dark tan and his hair became a blue so intense it was almost black. When he opened his eyes, I saw that they had changed too. No longer white-on-black, they were now what I would consider “normal” on Earth—a dark, chocolate brown resembling my own. Most strikingly, the curling black ram’s horns that grew from his temples had disappeared.

Essentially, except for dark blue hair and his immense size, he looked like a guy I might meet in an aisle of my local Publix supermarket back home.

He looked human.

“Wow,” I breathed. “That’s amazing!”

“You like it?” He gave me a slightly strained grin and I wondered if it was difficult for him to hold the outer image the generator was projecting.

“I do,” I said, although to be honest, I didn’t like it as much as his normal look. I missed his strange but beautiful eyes and he just didn’t look right without his horns. But for someone who didn’t know him, it was the perfect disguise. “It works so much better when you’re not trying to make it show you as a female,” I said.

He grunted. “Yeah. Shekk said it would. You like the eyes? I tried to copy yours.”

“They’re nice,” I said. “But what are you supposed to be?”

“Majoran,” he said. “A Majoran bonded to his fated-mate is the only kind of male allowed on Gemina. And even then, he has to have his female with him to gain admittance.” He grinned at me. “That’s you.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. “But if we’re Majoran, am I supposed to look like you? I mean, do I need to dye my hair blue?” I really hoped not but I supposed if I had to I could do it.

“Nah.” He shook his head. “Majorans are chromatacromes—able to change their skin, hair, and eye color at will. The only tricky part is that the males usually change their skin color according to their female’s moods. I don’t think the image generator can do that so you’ll have to appear calm at all times.”

“I can do that,” I said. “But why didn’t you use this look right away? Why even try to have the generator make you look female when you knew another male form would be so much better?”

He sighed. “I thought we’d get less flack as a couple of females. But since I apparently make one seriously ugly woman…”

“You do.” I tried to stifle a laugh and couldn’t quite manage it. “Sorry but you really do.”

“Ah, well…” He shrugged and grinned. “We’re Majorans then. A mated pair. Which means…” He looked at me, the humor fading from his face to be replaced by a strange intensity. “Means I’m devoted only to you, darlin’, and have no interest in any other female.”

The way he said it and the intense look he was giving me made the blood rush to my cheeks but I tried not to show it.

“You don’t have to be anything, you know,” I said, trying to ignore my hot face and pounding heart. “You don’t have to go down to the planet at all—just let me go. I’m a female so they shouldn’t have a problem with me.”

Thanks to the universal translation viruses the Commercians had been sending through the hole in Earth’s ozone layer, I should be able to communicate with any sentient species in the Galaxy—at least, that was what Grav had told me when he explained about the Alien Mate Index. So I thought I would be able to do the job with no problem.

But Grav clearly didn’t agree.

“Let you go into danger by yourself?” His face darkened, making him look scary despite his drastically altered appearance. “No fuckin’ way, darlin’, not gonna happen.”

“But I thought the danger stemmed from the fact that you’re a male trying to infiltrate an exclusively female planet,” I protested. “Or at least, the wrong kind of male since only mated Majorans are allowed.”

“That’s part of it. But…whew…” He seemed to relax and the human-looking image faded, replaced by Grav’s normal appearance again. (Which was much better, at least in my opinion.) “That image is fuckin’ hard to hold,” he remarked. “Look, the danger isn’t just that I’m a male—a Braxian male at that—invading their sacred female-only planet. There’s also the fact that the guard is being held at the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy.”

“So?” I said.

“So the Temple is on sacred ground. The only way Princepae Kiv’orop could get the Geminanian authorities to let us question Teeny’s guard is by saying we’re acolytes of Naamah.”

“Acolytes of who?” I frowned. “I thought everyone whose planet was seeded by the Ancient Ones worshiped the Goddess of Mercy.”

“Most do. But Naamah is the Goddess of Truth on Yall’ala Prime. It’s an entire religion devoted to truth-telling and transparency.”

“Really?” I frowned. “Well, I guess I’ve heard of religions founded on weirder things.”

Grav nodded. “People come from all over the galaxy to undergo the initiation process and join them. Believers in Naamah literally can’t lie. And a lie can’t be told to them without their knowing it. They drink some kinda special herb concoction to enhance their natural abilities of discernment.”

“They really can’t tell a lie? Not even a little white lie?” I thought of all the pretending I’d had to do with Gerald to protect his ego when we were making love and I wasn’t feeling a thing and grimaced. “I bet that makes for some happy marriages.”

“Don’t know about their joining habits.” Grav shrugged. “I do know they always come in pairs—one Truth Sayer, who speaks the truth of Naamah, and one Truth Knower, who can tell if someone is lying. I thought it’d work best if you were the Sayer and I was the Knower.”

“Acolytes of Naamah sound like a really, uh, interesting people,” I remarked dryly.

He nodded. “Yeah, fascinating. And they make fuckin’ good interrogators. In fact, I would have told the Princepae to get some for real, except that they’re on the other end of the Galaxy and they generally won’t work for a male outside their faith.”

“How will we explain that, then?” I asked. “If the Gemina authorities know we’re being sent by the Princepae?”

Grav shrugged. “If they ask, we’ll tell them it’s a special exception since Teeny is a female and an innocent.” His expression darkened. “At least, she’d better still be an innocent when I find her. Or those fuckin’ bastards that took her are gonna pay twice as bad. They won’t just die…they’ll die slow.”

I shivered at the look on his face. Most of the time he was so gentle he seemed almost like a big, cuddly teddy bear. But every once in a while I got a glimpse of the other side of him—the animal side. And there was nothing soft or cuddly about it.

It was terrifying. But thankfully, not directed at me.

“Um, Grav?” I said after a moment, probably interrupting half a dozen bloody vengeance fantasies.

“Mmm?” He frowned.

“So once we get down to the planet and fool the authorities, how will we get her—the guard I mean—to talk? And how will we know if she’s telling the truth?”

“Oh, she’ll talk all right,” he said grimly. “I can promise you that.”

“You’re not going to…hurt her, are you?” I asked, feeling sick. I was sure the guard deserved some kind of punishment for whatever part she’d played in Teeny’s capture but the idea of watching Grav torture anyone—especially a woman—made me nauseous.

But I had misread him.

“Hurt a female?” Grav looked offended. “Fuck no, darlin’! That’s not me. But I do have this.” He pulled something out of one of the pockets on the black leather vest he wore. It looked like a long, thin, green porcupine quill to me.

“What’s that?” I asked frowning.

“Something else I got from Shekk—a truth-saying spike. One prick with this and she’ll spill her guts.”

“And you’ll be able to tell if she’s telling the truth?” I asked.

He nodded. “Got a lie detector of my own.” He laid one finger to the side of his nose. “This.”

“What?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you telling me you can smell it when somebody’s lying?”

“Sure can. The chemical composition of your sweat changes when you lie—even the coolest customer can’t help it.”

“Wow.” I looked at him admiringly. “I didn’t know your nose was that sensitive.”

“I smell everything,” he said darkly. “Lies, truth, fear…” His white-on-black eyes raked over me. “Desire.”

I thought of how horny and needy I’d been feeling the last few days, ever since he’d healed me for the second time, and felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment.

“Um…so we get down to the planet, get the guard to tell the truth about who took Teeny and where they took her, and get back up here as quickly as possible?” I said, trying to change the subject. “That’s the plan?”

He nodded. “Essentially. But remember, the Temple Guards will be armed and ready to kill anyone committing blasphemy on their sacred grounds. So we have to be careful—don’t give them any reason to doubt us.”

“But is it blasphemy?” I looked at him curiously. “I mean, do you feel bad about what we’re going to do? I thought you worshipped the Goddess of Mercy too.”

“I do,” he said shortly. “And I’m sorry to invade her sanctuary under false pretenses. But what’s blasphemy is kidnapping and hurting an innocent like Teeny. We have to get her back before any kind of permanent harm is done—I think the Goddess would understand.”

“All right.” I took a deep breath. “Well then, let’s get going.”

“Not just yet,” he said. “First we have to get changed and I have to get the generator implanted. C’mon—let’s go to my fresher. I have everything I need in there.”

Grav

“Implanted?” Leah asked once I was positioned in front of the viewer in my fresher—what she called a ‘bathroom’ for some reason. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean the image generator can’t hold my new image steady without me concentrating on it all the time—unless it’s actually inside me,” I explained. “See?”

I concentrated again, bringing up the Majoran image. I looked strange without my horns and with tan skin and light-on-white eyes, but my facial features were still the same. It would fool almost anyone—until I stopped concentrating.

With the image fully in place and wearing the extra, extra-large gray robe I’d bought on Sincon to wear to the temple, I looked reasonably Majoran. But if the image flickered, no amount of costuming could disguise my ugly mug or the fact that I was a Braxian male. The image needed to stay constant.

Luckily, I knew how to fix it.

Taking off the gray robe and my black vest, I drew one of the blades I kept on me at all times and considered my torso. “Let’s see…where’s the best spot for this little fucker?” I muttered, examining my body.

Of course, the small cylinder would be easier to insert into fat than muscle, but unfortunately, I don’t have much fat on my body. I’m mostly muscle—my Braxian and Vorn DNA account for that. I had just decided it would be easiest to hide the Image Generator down along the side of my hip bone when Leah stopped me with a horrified sounding exclamation.

“Grav, don’t! What are you doing?” she gasped just as I was about to slit myself open—not a lot, just enough to slip the cylinder inside.

“Inserting it,” I said, frowning. “It has to be encased inside my flesh to work properly.

“But…won’t that hurt?” she asked faintly. “I mean, I can’t believe you’re going to…to cut yourself open and put that in without any kind of antiseptic or numbing medicine or anything.”

“It’s just pain, darlin’,” I told her, trying to make my voice gentle. “And don’t worry—my Braxian DNA makes me immune to most infections. We’re tough sons-of-bitches.”

I sliced open my skin, watching as the blood welled deep crimson against my dusky blue hide, and slid the little cylinder inside, just under my epidermis. Naturally it hurt like a bastard but I had expected that. I blotted the wound and reached for the skin-stapler, which I had brought along to the fresher.

“Ugh…” Leah was making a face. “Do you really have to staple yourself closed?”

I shrugged. “Works as well as anything else and I don’t have any skin glue—forgot to get some.”

She laughed faintly, though her face was looking a little green, which I didn’t think was the right shade for one of her people.

“Oh right, skin glue. We’ll just have to put it on the grocery list for next time.”

“It’ll be okay,” I told her. I put six staples into my side, holding the cylinder in place and then added a seventh, just to be sure. It hurt but what the hell, I’d known it would. As I had told Leah, it was only pain. I could deal with it, especially if it meant I could get Teeny back safe and sound. I put back on the gray robe and concentrated on what I wanted the image generator to show.

The Braxian me flickered out and was replaced in the viewer by a Majoran with brown eyes, tan skin, and dark blue hair.

This time, it held.

I examined myself critically from all sides. I missed my horns, even though I knew they were still there, just hidden by the field the small machine was generating.

Well, it didn’t matter what I looked like. After all, I wasn’t going down to Gemina to win any beauty contests. I just wanted to get information to save Teeny and then I’d get the Frozen Hells out of there.

“Come on, darlin’,” I said to Leah. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Fourteen

Leah

Gemina was a jungle planet—at least that’s how it looked from what I could see. Grav landed his small shuttle—much smaller than the space-hopper which was still in orbit above us—in a designated parking area, which looked like just a big, grassy field on the edge of a wild, untamed forest. Of course the grass was dark blue and purple and the sky was a deep, burnished bronze but still, the effect was nice.

As soon as we got out of the shuttle, a guard came to meet us. She was big—almost as tall as Grav was—although not nearly as muscular or broad across the shoulders. She had light pink skin and pale purple hair pulled back into a tight bun at the back of her long neck. Grav had explained to me that the descendants of the Ancient Ones, had skin tones in all colors of the rainbow so her appearance wasn’t really surprising.

The guard—I assumed she was a guard because of the long pike-like weapon in her hand that crackled with electricity—frowned disapprovingly when she saw us. We were wrapped in our modest gray robes but the way she was looking at us, I might as well still have on the naughty school girl outfit. I hoped we could fool her or the game was up before we’d even begun.

Glancing at Grav, I saw he was eyeing her, his look assessing, as though he was trying to find weak points on an opponent. I gave him a discrete jab in the ribs with my elbow—we were supposed to be humble acolytes here! He needed to start acting like it.

He seemed to get the point because he lowered his head and fell in line behind me as I approached the tall guard.

“Greetings,” I said, nodding to her in what I hoped was a pious way. “We are Acolytes of Naamah, here to question she who was warding Teeny Kiv’orop of Thonolax.”

“Ah. So you’ve arrived all the way from Yall’ala Prime.” She gave Grav a quick up-and-down glance with her sharp gray eyes. “But why is there a male with you?”

This time, Grav spoke up.

“Though we have been serving at the Temple of Naama, we came originally from Femme 1 and the court of the Empress,” he rumbled. “We know males are forbidden here but my mate and I are a bonded pair and I cannot bear to be without my goddess.”

He put an arm around me and drew me protectively close as he spoke. I felt the heat radiating from his big body and had to take some deep breaths to control my instant reaction to him.

It’s all right, I told myself. He’s just acting the part—that’s all.

On our flight down to Gemina’s surface, Grav had explained that the Majorans worshiped their mates as goddesses and treated them accordingly. He’d warned me that he might have to do the same and I’d thought I was prepared. But nothing could prepare me for the need that pounded through me, the desire that claimed me when I felt his big, hard body pressed against mine.

“Oh, Grav,” I murmured, turning to press my face against the hard planes of his chest. I inhaled his spicy, masculine scent and felt another wave of desire swamp me. God, I wanted him!

“Mmm, my goddess,” Grav rumbled, stroking my hair gently as he played along. And then he leaned down and took my mouth in a searing kiss, one that seemed to turn my insides to jelly.

I moaned low in my throat and returned the kiss with interest—how could I help it? I’d been helplessly horny for days now, with years of pent up sexual frustration driving me crazy. And I felt so drawn to Grav—like an iron filing to a magnet.

His tongue traced gently along the seam of my lips and I opened for him hungrily, taking his tongue into my mouth, eager to accept his penetration. Grav growled in response and suddenly his big hands found my ass, pulling me up to rub against him.

I moaned again and he swallowed the sound hungrily as he pressed me against him. I could feel the long, hard length of his shaft through both our thin robes, rubbing between my open legs, parting the lips of my sex and making me almost wild with need. God, I ached for him—needed him as I had never needed any man before. And judging from Grav’s reaction to me, he wanted me every bit as badly as I wanted him.

I was so hot I was ready to make love right there but the priestess-guard with the sizzling pike-staff ruined it.

“Please, I understand that Majorans are very…fond of each other,” she said, sounding both embarrassed and irritated. “But we here on Gemina find the display of physical affection between a male and a female most distasteful. I must ask you to restrain yourselves, at least until you can be alone with no one to witness your passion.”

In other words—get a room.

“Forgive us,” I said, disentangling myself from Grav, though it was the last thing I wanted to do. My whole body was throbbing and my lips felt swollen from our frantic kisses. It was hard to think—my head was fuzzy with passion. “I, uh…we’re sorry,” I added lamely.

“Yes, forgive us,” Grav echoed. “We are…very much in love.”

I couldn’t help shooting him a glance when he said that. To my intense discomfort, I saw that he was looking right at me as he spoke.

My heart was pounding and I found that I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his. I wanted to touch him again—wanted him to touch me. I wanted to feel his body against mine, hard and hot and undeniably male. I wanted the feelings he gave me again and this time I didn’t want to stop. I wanted him on top of me—inside me, filling me with himself, making me his own. And from the way Grav was looking at me, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to finish what we had started.

The moment seemed to stretch between us like a thread of honey, fragile and impossibly sweet. Neither of us said anything but we were definitely doing what my friend Zoe calls, “eye-fucking.”

“A-hem.” The guard cleared her throat pointedly. “Excuse me, acolytes. If you’re done gazing into each other’s eyes will you come this way? I will put you on the path that leads to the temple.”

“Thank you.” I dragged my eyes from Grav’s and nodded.

“Good.” With obvious relief, the guard led us to the edge of the forest, which looked more like a jungle, with its profusion of towering trees and dark blue and purple vines and creepers. There was a narrow dirt path leading into the dense vegetation and the guard nodded at it.

“There is your way. Enter with pure hearts or do not enter at all. Do not step off the path for the wood that guards the Temple is a dangerous place. And when you reach the Lake of Torment, do not touch the water. These are the only warnings I am permitted to give you.”

“Uh…thanks.” I didn’t like the sound of that at all. Unlike my friend Zoe, I’m a pretty strong swimmer, but I had no wish to take a dip in any body of water with the word “torment” in its name. Still, I thanked the guard again and Grav and I set off on the path.

“What was that all about?” I asked him as we navigated through the woods, being careful to stay on the path and avoid the colorful flowers and vines that grew all around us. “All that, ‘oh, my goddess stuff. And, uh…the kiss?’”

He shrugged. “I told you the Majorans worship their females, didn’t I? I was just playing along—weren’t you?”

“Oh. Of course.” I nodded, trying to look unconcerned. “But don’t you think you were, uh, laying it on a little thick? You know—overdoing it?”

“If I was, you were overdoing it with me, darlin’,” he rumbled, giving me a look that made me blush and drop my eyes. “Besides, if you’d ever seen a real Majoran male with his fated mate, you’d know they’re really like that—and more so. Can’t keep their fuckin’ hands off each other.”

I know how they feel, I thought, wishing I could be in his arms again. But that was ridiculous—we were just playing roles. Play it cool, I told myself. This is no big deal—just another situation to deal with in order to get Grav’s ward back home safe.

Play it cool—right. But I still couldn’t help fishing for a little information.

“So Braxians are different with their females? Than Majorans, I mean?” I said, as casually as I could.

“Well, we don’t worship them as divinities,” he said, sounding thoughtful. “But we are very respectful and protective of our females—we’ll kill or die to keep them safe.”

“I can see that,” I said quietly, looking up at him. I had seen first hand how protective he was—it was almost scary at times. And yet, I couldn’t help finding it incredibly attractive too.

I had used to think that Gerald was protective of me but I saw now I had been wrong. My ex (as I was already thinking of him in my head) had been jealous of me—incredibly jealous—but that wasn’t the same thing as protective. There’s a difference between constantly accusing your girlfriend or wife of lusting after other men and being willing to jump in front of a truck or stand down an angry mob to save her. Grav illustrated that difference in the strongest possible way and I felt drawn to him because of it.

Get over it, I advised myself for what seemed like the hundredth time. It’s not going to happen between you. He turned you down, remember? So stop acting so needy and just get the job done.

“The thing with the guard—it won’t happen again. I just thought putting on a little display would be the best way to get her to let us go on through.” Grav laughed, though I thought it sounded a little forced. “You saw her face, right? We were really getting under her skin.”

“Uh, yeah. I guess you’re right,” I said, trying to suppress a sigh. An act—it had all just been an act.

Speaking of getting under the skin, I couldn’t help thinking of the image generator implanted right beside Grav’s hip bone, under his skin. Was it still doing its job? Had I seen his image flicker for just a split second? For a moment, I had almost thought I saw horns on his head again.

But surely not. I frowned and shook my head. It must be just the shadows of the tropical plants bobbing over our heads.

Before I could worry some more, we finally came to the end of the jungle. The long path led out to a broad, rocky beach which edged a serene-looking lake, a little darker pink than the priestess-guard’s skin. Far out in the center of the lake was a tall gray structure with graceful marble pillars. That was all I could see, though—it was hard to make out any more details about it from this distance.

All in all, I thought the scene looked nearly idyllic—not dangerous at all.

“Well, it doesn’t look like a lake of torment,” I said doubtfully, my sandals crunching on the silvery-blue rocks. Before us was a small, flat-bottomed boat that looked like it was made of glass or very shiny plastic. It was tied to a dark blue dock that stuck out into the pinkish water. The dock was also some slick, shiny material that didn’t look like wood or metal. Strange.

Grav’s nostril’s wrinkled and he lifted his head, taking a deep whiff of the air around us.

“I know it looks harmless but I wouldn’t touch it, if I were you, darlin’,” he said, nodding at the lake. “That stuff’s pure acid. No wonder the boat and dock look like they’re made of etho-glass. Only thing that won’t react to it.”

“Ugh, are you serious?” I had been about to dip my toe in the water but now I pulled back quickly.

“Hell yes—don’t touch a thing,” he warned me. “Here—let me help you into the boat.”

I thought he meant to give me a hand but instead, he picked me up as though I weighed no more than a doll, and carried me over to the dock.

“Grav,” I protested a little breathlessly. “I can walk.”

He only grunted and didn’t put me down until we were right along side the bobbing boat. He lowered me carefully into it and I saw that the flat bottom was see-through. Great, a glass-bottomed boat ride on a lake filled with acid. Just what I wanted to liven up my afternoon. Still, we were here for a reason. I held onto the dock to steady the boat as Grav climbed in beside me, surprisingly graceful for such a big guy. Sitting opposite me, he grabbed the oars.

“Okay—let’s go,” he growled.

Just as he was about to being rowing, I saw something in the water, beneath my feet. It looked like a pinkish-white lump swimming around down there—almost the exact color of a blob of raw meat.

I leaned down, getting closer to the glass bottom of the boat. What could live down there in the acid water? The thing came closer and then hit the bottom of the boat with a dull clunk.

It was a skull, still half covered in long shreds of decaying flesh.

It dipped and bobbed, tapping the bottom of the boat. The teeth grinned at me and the empty eye-sockets stared mockingly, as though daring me to take a dip in the deadly lake.

I screamed and scrambled back, rocking the boat in my haste to get away from the grizzly sight.

“What? What is it?” Grav’s voice was sharp and he was already scanning all around us, looking for the danger.

“There—there.” I directed his gaze downward, pointing at the skull, still bobbing just under the flat bottom of the boat.

“Hmm.” Grav just stared at it, a grim frown on his face but he didn’t look surprised at all.

“What is that? I mean, how do you think it got in here? Did someone slip and fall into the lake?” I asked, putting a hand to my heart which was still beating like a drum.

He shook his head.

“More likely a blasphemer. Somebody else who tried to infiltrate the Temple.”

“What? But why would anyone do that?” I demanded.

“Gemina has the greatest collection of Holy Artifacts from the Ancient Ones in the known galaxy.” He started to row, leaving the grizzly skull behind. “It’s not unheard of for people to try and steal them. And the priestesses of the Goddess deal with thieves and blasphemers accordingly.”

“You mean they toss them in the lake?” I looked around, wondering if I would see other body parts bobbing by. “But that’s awful.”

Grav shrugged. “Told you they take blasphemy seriously around here. It’s why we need to keep a low profile and get in and out as soon as possible.”

“I see,” I said faintly and for the first time I really did. This wasn’t just an exciting adventure I was on—a fun trip to pass the time before I went back to Earth and dealt with divorcing Gerald. This was serious business and I could be hurt or killed doing it.

Grav must have read my thoughts on my face because he stopped rowing for a moment and looked up at me.

“Havin’ second thoughts darlin’? It’s not too late for me to take you back to the ship.”

“No.” I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath. “No, you need me for this. And Teeny needs both of us. I’m going with you.”

A look of admiration crossed his features as he started rowing again.

“Okay, we’ll keep going. But remember, once we get to the temple, there’s no backing out.”

“Fine with me,” I said. We would just have to do as Grav said—get in and out as fast as possible.

I just hoped his disguise would hold and no one would suspect us of being blasphemers.

Grav

“Be ye true penitents come to the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy to worship, or be ye blasphemers?” was the first thing the guard asked us when we grounded the glass bottomed boat and walked up the long, broad flight of steps leading to the temple. She and another priestess stood in front of the tall, curved double doors, each of them twice as tall as I was, that led into the temple.

For a minute, I was worried that Leah might lose it. The blasphemer skull floating in the acid lake had really fuckin’ rattled her. Her creamy skin went as pale as paper and her lips trembled. Then she lifted her chin and looked at the guard, who was dressed and armed like the one who had greeted us in the parking area, straight in the eye.

“Neither,” she said clearly. “We are Acolytes of Naamah, here to seek the truth of the one who guarded Teeny Kiv’orop of Thonolax. We are expected.”

I shot her an admiring look. I had to hand it to her—my little Earth female really rose to the occasion when she had to. Not that she was my female—but I couldn’t help feeling possessive of her, especially after the kiss we’d just shared.

Shouldn’t have done that, I told myself as I remembered the soft press of her full breasts against my chest and the feel of her gorgeous curves pressed against my body. That was taking the act too far and you know it.

But I hadn’t been able to help myself. I’d finally had a legitimate excuse to kiss her again—which was pretty much all I’d been wanting to do from the moment I let her go the last time. I hadn’t been able to turn down the chance and from the way Leah had reacted to me, she’d been just as eager as I was.

Not that it mattered. She wasn’t for me.

But Gods, how I wished she was!

“Ah yes, acolytes from another world.” The guard said, breaking my train of thought. “Come in—you are most welcome. The Reverend Mother awaits you in her study.”

“Thank you.” Leah nodded back, looking as regal as any Majoran female who knows herself to be a goddess, and we followed the guard inside.

The Temple of the Goddess of Mercy was a tall building, built from some kind of pinkish-gray stone with round, slender columns on either side of its broad central hall. The soaring ceiling overhead was painted with religious scenes.

In the first panel, I saw the Goddess creating the universe. In the second, she was creating the Ancient Ones, who were her first sentient creatures. They looked more like Leah’s people than mine, with smooth skin that ranged in tone from pale tan to deep brown, no horns, and light-on-white eyes. That was because Leah came from a closed planet—one that had been seeded by the Ancient Ones and then locked to keep it from being despoiled by the other peoples of the galaxy.

In the third panel, the artist showed the Goddess of Mercy handing the seeds of life to the Ancient Ones and bidding them go forth and seed the galaxy with life of all kinds. Plants and animals, as well as sentient creatures that walked and talked and learned and grew.

The fourth panel showed representatives of the Twelve Peoples, the sentient beings who had grown from the Ancient Ones’ seeds. I saw Majorans with their dark blue hair and changeable skin, Eloims with their slitted golden eyes, Vorns with their red skin and horns, Denarins, represented by two muscular males with one female between them, Cantors, with their broad, strong, feathery wings, and many more, as well as a Braxian male like me, with dusky blue skin and white-on-black eyes.

Of course, some of the races have branched out and mixed with others to form new races of their own and seed other planets with life. And there are worlds where the Ancient Ones didn’t travel, where life evolved into much stranger forms than the ones we knew and recognized. But clearly the Geminians didn’t recognize any of those as legitimate life forms because they weren’t represented on the ceiling panels.

I couldn’t say I blamed them. Like I told Leah earlier, hybrids like me who were mixtures of two of the Twelve Peoples, couldn’t form lasting bonds with their females. And a lasting bond was what ensured that a race could continue to grow and flourish.

The only thing that confused me was something Leah had told me—that her people, like hybrids and half-breeds, didn’t form bonds when they joined with their true or fated mate. I wondered if the Ancient Ones had done that to them on purpose. But if so, why?

As we reached the end of the long corridor flanked with slender columns, I saw something on the last ceiling panel which surprised me. It was a painting of a small blue and green planet surrounded by a shining golden barrier. Could that be a depiction of Earth, Leah’s home world? But how did the Geminians know about it when the Commercians had just discovered it and started exploiting it not long ago?

“And here is the study of the Reverend Mother,” the guard said, breaking my train of thought. “Please go in—she is expecting you and will be with you shortly.”

All right—show time.

I took a deep breath as we stepped through the doorway. And as I did, I felt the image generator move.

Not a lot—but enough. It shifted beneath my skin and for just a moment I thought the illusion it was casting around me flickered.

Shit.

I looked around quickly to see if anyone had noticed. Luckily the guard’s back was to us but Leah had seen. Her eyes widened as she looked at me, a fearful question in her eyes.

I shook my head quickly, trying to tell her it would be all right, that everything was under control.

But was it?

I just didn’t know.

Leah

This time I was sure I had seen Grav’s disguise flicker. It freaked me out, I don’t mind telling you. For a minute I had images of my own head floating in the lake of acid outside the temple. But then the image stabilized again and looked perfectly solid. Well, maybe it was just a momentary lapse.

But even a momentary lapse could get us in trouble if the stern-looking guard had seen it. Luckily, she apparently hadn’t. She ushered us into a small but comfortable looking sitting room where two low pink and gold couches, very close to the floor, were facing each other.

“Please have a seat, the Reverend Mother will be in shortly,” she said and left us there. I looked around but it wasn’t the couches that caught my eye, it was what was above us.

From the ceiling hung long, trailing pink and purple and blue vines. They made a kind of curtain swaying gracefully above us. The study was filled with a soft chattering noise and after a moment I realized there were small, brightly colored creatures jumping or flying from vine to vine. They were the ones making the noise.

At first I thought they were monkeys—then I thought they were birds. Then one flew down to land on the low table between the couches and I saw it was a weird, alien combination. It had a brightly colored, feathered body about as big as a parakeet but its head was little and furry and cute with big golden eyes and a tiny, chattering mouth.

“Hey now, aren’t you a cutie?” I said, but I didn’t reach out to touch it. The incident with Purrah’s kit in the Goddess-eye was still too fresh in my memory.

“Ah, I see you’re admiring my loolies.”

The voice came from behind us and Grav and I both turned to see an ancient, dried up stick of a woman coming towards us.

The pink of her skin had faded until it was almost white and her hair was silver with just a few traces of pale purple. She hobbled in, leaning on a gnarled staff and the folds of her long white gown trailed on the stone floor, as though it was too long for her.

“Well now,” she continued, as she came up to us. “You’re the first male I’ve seen in nigh on fifty cycles, my son.” She nodded at Grav. “And my—aren’t you large.”

“My size and strength is used only to serve my goddess,” Grav murmured, nodding at me.

“So it is, so it is.” The Reverend Mother nodded approvingly. “Which is why Majoran males are the only kind we allow here on Gemina. You’re all so respectful and protective of your females. Not wild and savage like Vorn… or Goddess forbid, Braxians.”

She gave an exaggerated shiver and Grav and I exchanged a glance. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I was hoping that his image generator kept doing its job—at least until we could get out of there.

“Well go on—sit down. Sit down.” The Reverend Mother indicated one of the low pink and gold couches. “We don’t stand on ceremony here—not when we all serve the Goddess’ will.”

“Uh, thank you, your Reverence,” I said, hoping it was the right way to address her. I was raised Southern Baptist, remember? So I had no idea. “We’re very honored to be here.”

“No matter, no matter.” She made a shooing motion at Grav and me. “Come, acolytes, sit—won’t you? My old bones are demanding a rest.”

With that she sank down onto the couch opposite us. One of the multicolored loolies gave a chattering whistle and came to land on her shoulder.

“Thank you,” I said again and Grav and I sat carefully on the couch.

“Now, you must be the Truth-Sayer,” the Reverend Mother said, pointing at me. “And you’re the Truth-Knower.” She pointed at Grav.

“Yes, exactly. How did you know?”

“Oh, I have a knack for knowing things.” The Reverend Mother smiled proudly and stroked the loolie on her shoulder as it nuzzled its furry little head against her cheek.

“You must have the gift of discernment, then,” Grav remarked.

“Yes, you…” The words died in my throat and I watched in horror as one of the loolies promptly flew down and landed on his invisible right horn. It sat there, perched as though in mid-air, and chattered mockingly at me.

“Shoo!” I hissed at it, waving with one hand. “Shoo!”

“And don’t mind the loolies—they’re just curious, they are.” Luckily the Reverend Mother had her head bent over the table between us and didn’t see what was going on.

The loolie flew away but I couldn’t help thinking that we’d had yet another close call. I was beginning to feel extremely nervous here. We needed to get down to business and get away from this temple that sat in the middle of a lake of acid.

“Thank you so much for having us,” I said. “But unfortunately we’re pressed for time. Can you lead us to the guard who was warding Teeny Kiv’orop?”

“In time, in time. But I’m sure you don’t wish to question her until you have some of your truth-telling drink. Yes?”

The ancient Reverend Mother pressed a button on the table, which was made of some pale purple wood. There was a small click and a tray rose up from the center of it. On it was a teapot-looking thing made of pale blue porcelain and painted all over with pink and purple and green flowers. The pot had two spouts and two buttons—one gold and one silver. Fragrant steam curled from both. There were two pale blue handless cups to match the pot.

“Oh…uh…” I wasn’t sure what to say but the old woman was already pouring both me and Grav a cup of the steaming liquid. She pushed the gold button on the pot and a stream of pale blue liquid came from the first spout to half-fill the handless cup she was holding out. When she pushed the silver button beside it, pale pink liquid which looked disturbingly like the acid water of the lake outside, filled the cup the rest of the way.

I would have expected the two liquids to mix together and make purple but they didn’t—they sat on top of each other in layers and refused to combine. It was almost as if oil and water had been poured into a glass.

“I had the truth herb specially imported when I heard the two of you were coming,” the Reverend Mother said, handing the steaming cup to me and then pouring a second one for Grav. “A small enough courtesy to extend to acolytes who come to us from across the galaxy.”

“Um, thank you.” I looked at the strange two-part steaming liquid, not sure what it would do to me to drink it. Was it some kind of poison for anyone but the real Acolyte of Naama? Or maybe some kind of mind-altering drug?

But then again, what real choice did we have? I thought of the skull floating in the lake of acid. I’d rather have a bad trip from drinking truth-tea than wind up in pieces in the lake. Grav and I exchanged another glance and then I carefully brought the steaming cup to my lips and sipped the top layer, which was the pink liquid.

It wasn’t anything like the yarex Magda had served me on Sincon station. That had reminded me of jasmine tea with a hint of exotic alien fruit thrown in. The truth-herb liquid also had a familiar flavor but I couldn’t think what it was. Salty, bland and somehow tomato-y. What was that taste? It was right on the tip of my tongue—something from my childhood…

“Spaghetti-os!” I exclaimed, taking another sip.

“I’m sorry, what my dear?” The Reverend Mother looked at me frowning and Grav raised an eyebrow too.

“Oh, uh, forgive me.” I bowed my head, trying to think how to explain away my words. “That’s just an expression of, um, appreciation. It means wonderful. Or perfect. You made the truth-drink so perfectly, I just had to say it.”

“Oh, well thank you very much. Spaghetti-os, indeed.” The old lady nodded her head, looking pleased. “I tried but I wasn’t certain if I had the proportions quite right.”

“They seem right to me,” I said, taking another sip.

“I’m glad.” She smiled. “You know, I would have drunk some and interviewed the guard myself—she is quite stubborn and refuses to speak the truth to any of us here at the Temple—so it would have come in handy. But I was afraid of ill-effects of overdosing, as I have no partner.”

“Ill-effects?” I looked at her uncertainly. “Overdosing?”

“Well, certainly. I know that when the truth-drink is prepared correctly, it aids your powers of perception. But if it’s made too strong, the effects can be more, well, let’s say pronounced.”

“How do you mean?” I said, taking the small cup from my lips as Grav did the same. “I mean, what have you heard?”

“Well, instead of just helping you tell if the person you’re questioning is telling the truth, it can act as an agent of emotional and physiological exchange.”

“What?” I asked, beginning to feel sick. What was she talking about?

“Well, yes—if it’s too strong you don’t just perceive if the person you’re questioning is being truthful, you actually start to feel the sensations and emotions of everyone around you—especially those of the person who imbibes the herb with you. Isn’t that right?” She peered at me sharply. “I had one of the minor priestesses do some research for me and she said that was how it worked. I’d assume you two would know of the inherent dangers of a drink you use every day.”

“Oh, of course, that’s right,” Grav said quickly, covering for me. “The truth-drink can have some, uh, unforeseen side-effects if you make it incorrectly.”

“But that isn’t the case here,” I said, picking up the ball and running with it. “You’ve prepared it perfectly your, uh, Reverence.”

I took another sip, hoping I was telling the truth. What would I do if Grav and I started feeling each other’s emotions? I tried to tell if I was feeling any different but so far I wasn’t feeling anything but scared and anxious and I’d been having those emotions since the minute we walked in the Temple door.

“Yes, it’s fuckin’ perfect,” Grav echoed me. “Uh, I mean exactly perfect.”

“Well, Spaghetti-os! I’m so glad I got it right.” The Reverend Mother smiled at us. “You know, I really like that expression—I think I’m going to use it from now on when things go just right.”

I had to bite back a snort of hysterical laughter that tried to escape my lips.

“Spaghetti-os,” I echoed, lifting my cup to her in a kind of toast.

“Spaghetti-os,” Grav rumbled and lifted his cup as well.

The Reverend Mother looked pleased. “Now finish it up and we’ll go to the detention center of the temple. That’s where the guard who was warding young Teeny is being held.”

She was watching us intently so Grav and I had to do as she said. I finished the pink, Spaghetti-os tasting layer of liquid and started on the pale blue one.

It tasted like hot, melted, salty liquorish.

I nearly gagged on the flavor—I hate black liquorish and adding salt on top of it made it truly barf-worthy, as Zoe would say. Somehow, though, I managed to keep it down and swallow the last few drops.

I set the cup down with a shudder just as Grav did the same thing. I still didn’t feel any different so hopefully the truth-drink hadn’t had an adverse effect. Maybe my lie was right and the Reverend Mother had prepared the drink correctly.

I sure hoped so, anyway.

We sat there for a moment in silence until I realized the Reverend Mother was waiting for us—or for me—to say something.

“Ah, I feel the truth-drink working,” I said, trying to look mystical and wise. “Reverend Mother, I think we should go at once to interview this guard while the drink is in full effect.”

“Of course, my dear.” She rose with surprising agility for such an old lady and nodded at us. “Come right this way.”

Grav

The prison wing of the Temple wasn’t nearly as nice as the rest of the big building. There were no painted ceilings or marble pillars here—just bare cells with nothing but a straw mattress in one corner.

Most of the cells were empty but a few held heretics, thieves, and blasphemers awaiting trial. None of them were male though—according to the Reverend Mother, if a male was caught trespassing on the holy ground of the Temple of the Goddess, he was cast summarily into the lake without so much as a by-your-leave.

Which was really fucking reassuring. Especially since I could swear I felt the cylinder of the image generator shifting around against my hip bone.

Just stay in place, I thought at it, as though it would do any good. Just a little while longer, you little fucker…

Why hadn’t I used eight staples instead of just seven? For that matter, why hadn’t I taken a laser needle and stitched it into my flesh more securely?

Well, it was too late now. I just had to pray it would hold.

The Reverend Mother introduced us to the warden—a tall female with slightly darker pink skin than most of the other Geminians we’d met so far. She was carrying the same, sparking power-spear the guard in the parking area had held and seemed to know how to use it.

“Tullah, dear, these are the Acolytes of Naamah, here to question Haenah, who was warding little Teeny Kiv’orop when she was taken,” she said to her. “Have you made any progress with her?”

“I’m afraid not.” The warden frowned. “She refuses to say anything—you know Thonolins. So stubborn.”

“Well these acolytes have just imbibed a truth-drink that should enable them to get something out of her,” the Reverend Mother said. “You’re to let them into her cell so they can talk to her at close range.”

“Let a male into the cell with a female prisoner?” The warden eyed me as if I had the Crimson Death plague.

“I know it’s not the usual protocol but this male is Majoran,” the Reverend Mother emphasized. “As such, he is completely devoted to his bonded mate.” She nodded at Leah. “And so will have no interest in harming or molesting any other female.”

“Bad enough that he molests his mate,” the warden snapped, glaring at me.

“Grav doesn’t molest me,” Leah said, jumping in to defend my honor, to my surprise. “He, uh, cares for me.” I noticed she didn’t look at me while she said it, as though she wasn’t sure what I would think about her statement.

I wished she knew how true her words were. But I couldn’t let her know.

“So your mate,” the guard spit the word out like a bite of rotten meat. “doesn’t use you sexually? Doesn’t force himself inside you in order to pollute you with his essence?”

“I…he…” Leah’s face had gone pink with embarrassment. “He never forces me—we…we make love.”

“There is nothing loving about being penetrated by a male,” the warden snapped. “It’s an abomination.”

“All right now, Tullah,” the Reverend Mother said briskly. “Just go unlock the cell if you would please and the two acolytes will be along directly.”

The warden gave me one more look burning with hatred and then turned and stomped off down the narrow stone corridor.

“You’ll have to forgive Tullah,” the Reverend Mother remarked. “We of Gemina hold very strong religious views about the roles of males and females. Some are more…intolerant than others. I’m afraid our warden is one of those. But then…” She sighed. “She’s seen so many males trying to break into the Temple to steal our holy artifacts. I’m afraid it’s no wonder she has a rather bad view of them all.”

“Not all males are bad,” Leah said, frowning. “Not even most of them. And I say that even though I know what it’s like to be with a male who’s abusive and cruel.”

“Do you really? You poor dear.” The Reverend Mother pressed her hand gently. “Was it before you met your mate?” She nodded at me.

“Yes.” Leah’s cheeks were pink again and for some reason, my own face felt hot as she blushed. I wondered why that was.

“Well, Gemina, as I’m sure you know, is a sanctuary planet. Often females who have been…hurt by males come here. But I, like you, don’t believe males are all bad.” The Reverend Mother gave a tinkling laugh. “At least, Majoran males aren’t. After all, it isn’t as if your mate is Braxian.”

“No…no, of course not,” Leah whispered faintly. “That would be…ridiculous.”

“Well, it’s been a pleasure talking to you. And I do hope you get the information you need to help find Teeny. Poor child—I didn’t know her well but she did come to the Temple to pray quite often when she had time off from her classes.” The Reverend Mother sighed. “I hope you can get to her before…before it’s too late.”

“That’s the plan,” I said, wishing she would let us get the fuck on with it already. The damn truth-drink she’d made us take hadn’t seemed to have much effect at first, but now I was feeling kind of weird.

“Some of those that took her were Biters, you know,” the Reverend Mother said to Leah in a low voice. “I pray to the Goddess daily that they don’t infect her with the Biter’s Curse.”

“That’s our prayer too.” Leah squeezed her hand and smiled. “But now we really need to interview Teeny’s guard before the truth-drink wears off.”

“Oh, of course…of course. You two go on—and best of luck to you.”

She gave us one last smile and finally turned and left us.

I looked at Leah and she looked at me.

“All right,” I said in a low voice. “Let’s go—it’s show time.”

Chapter Fifteen

Leah

Haenah, Teeny’s former guard, sat against the wall of her cell looking defiant and sullen. She had pale green skin like her former ward’s, dark purple eyes, and brownish-black hair which had been cut short and spiky all over her head. Apparently she was a Thonolin, from the same race of people that Teeny was.

And just as clearly, she had no intention of talking to us.

“If you’re here to ask questions about that little Teeny brat, you can forget it,” she said flatly as soon as the warden had shut us into the cell with her—sparing one last baleful glare at Grav, whom she really seemed to hate, just for being male. “I got nothing to say.”

“Tell us about Arn,” I said, stepping towards her. “The man, er, male you were talking with before Teeny was taken. Was he involved in the plot to kidnap her?”

“What would you know about someone like Arn?” she sneered at me. “He’s T’varri—you know what that means? He’s a real male in the bedchamber.”

“What?” I frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the best sex you ever had—T’varri know how to master their females in bed. They know how to take charge—not like your mate.” She sneered at Grav who so far had remained motionless and silent. “Probably gets down on his knees and begs to kiss your pussy, doesn’t he? ‘Oh please, my lady goddess, let me pleasure you,’” she mocked.

“That’s enough.” Grav’s voice was a low, dangerous growl though he still hadn’t moved from his spot by the door.

“What I and my…my mate do in the privacy of the, uh, bedchamber is none of your business,” I said, feeling my cheeks get hot. “We’re talking about your involvement with Arn here. I hope you’re not saying he kidnapped Teeny to—”

“No.” She lifted her chin. “She’s too young for him—he’s only interested in me that way.”

“So you’re protecting him,” I said flatly. “You think he’ll wait for you while you rot here in prison?”

She shrugged. “It’s not so bad here. Three meals a day. Time outside to exercise. Really quite enjoyable. I can wait here until Arn comes for me.”

“He’s not coming,” Grav rumbled.

“That’s what you think,” she sneered. “Arn says I’m the best submissive he’s ever had. He’ll never let me go.”

“Where did he take Teeny?” I demanded.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged airily. “No idea—he didn’t tell me.”

Suddenly, I got a strange tingling sensation at the base of my spine and I knew she wasn’t telling the truth—not even close. At the same time, I saw Grav’s nostrils flare as he inhaled.

“She’s lying,” I said.

“I know.” He looked grim as he took a step back to stand by me.

“Did you get a tingling sensation too?” I asked him under my breath. “Or can you just smell it on her?”

“Both,” he growled, his eyes never leaving the sullen Haenah who was glaring back at him.

“Do you think it’s the Spaghetti’os liquorish drink?” I said in a low voice.

“What?” He frowned. “What does that really mean anyway—Spaghetti’os? I know it’s not a fuckin’ Majoran exclamation of delight.”

“It’s a canned pasta dish you give to kids on my planet,” I told him. “It’s what the truth-drink tastes like. Well that and hot, salty liquorish. Ugh.”

“Yeah, it was kinda nasty.” Grav shrugged. “But who knows what real truth-drink is supposed to taste like?”

“Truth-drink?” Haenah sat up straighter on her straw mattress, surprising me. I’d thought we were talking too low for her to hear us. “You mean the Liquid of Desire?”

“What?” I looked at her, frowning.

“You two took Truth-drink?” she demanded again.

“Yeah but what was the other thing you called it?” I couldn’t help feeling apprehensive. After we had first drunk the nasty truth-drink the Reverend Mother had prepared us, I hadn’t felt much of anything. But it was starting to kick in now, making me feel jittery and strange—hyper alert to everything around me and hyper sensitive in every part of my body for some reason.

“Liquid of Desire,” Haenah sneered at me. “Tell me, is that the only way your male can get it up for you? By dosing himself with that stuff?”

“We took it to help us in your questioning,” I snapped.

“Oh, so it has nothing to do with the fact that a mated pair who imbibes the drink at the same time has certain, shall we say, interesting side effects?” She opened her eyes wide, as though she really wanted to know.

“What side effects?” I was starting to feel panicky.

“Yeah, right—like you don’t know.” Haenah jutted her chin defiantly. “I know what you’re thinking—that you’ll get what you want out of me and then go fuck like Gilbranian leporines. Well good luck—I’ve been a merc for a long time. You think this is the first time I’ve been questioned by interrogators using truth-drink?”

“I—” I began but she kept on talking.

“The best way to beat truth-drink is to not say anything at all. You can’t tell if I’m lying or not if I don’t answer your questions.” She crossed her arms and glared at me defiantly. “So from now on, my lips are sealed.”

“Sorry, sweetheart—you don’t get that luxury,” Grav growled. “Not when Teeny’s life is in danger.”

“What are you—” Haenah began but Grav was already in motion.

He stepped forward and I saw the long, thin porcupine quill appear in his hand. Before Haenah could protest, he had jabbed her unprotected arm with the end of it.

“Ow! You fucking Majoran bastard!” She kicked out in retaliation, aiming for his crotch. Grav turned to the side just in time but her booted foot still caught him in the right hip.

I felt a sharp pain in my own right hip for some reason and then I saw his image flicker…and then fail. Haenah’s eyes grew wide as she saw him revealed in full Braxian mode—blue skin, white-on-black eyes, and twisting black ram’s horns.

“Holy Goddess!” she gasped, staring at him. “You’re…you’re…”

“That’s right, sweetheart—I’m not a Majoran bastard—I’m a fuckin’ Braxian one.” Grav leaned in close, getting his face right up to hers. I knew he wouldn’t hurt her but Haenah didn’t know that. I saw her dark purple eyes get wider and wider and her green face grew pale.

“You…you’re the Protector—Teeny’s Protector. She was always talking about you!”

“That’s right. And the Princepae broke my contract with her and hired you instead. And what did you do? You sold her out!” Grav’s voice was a low growl but the intensity of his words made them sound like a shout. “Well now you’re gonna tell me everything—who took her, where they took her, and why.”

“It was Arn who took her—he was hired by Yo’lox—Teeny’s grandfather’s main political rival.” Haenah’s eyes went even wider. “Oh my Goddess—why did I say that? What did you do to me?”

“Just made sure you can’t lie, that’s all.” I smiled at her sweetly. “Now where did they take Teeny?”

“I’ll never tell you that. I’ll…I’ll…”

Her lips worked and it was obvious she was trying not to say any more. But the green porcupine truth-spine that Shekk had sold Grav clearly worked better than the faulty image generator. Before she could stop herself, words came tumbling out of Haenah’s mouth.

“The Lavara system—on Chndra. It’s a moon orbiting Hallux Two,” she babbled. “Right in the middle of the Spider’s Web.”

“The Spider’s Web?” Grav frowned. “Nobody gets in and out of that fucking place alive.”

“Arn does. He and his crew have an understanding with the Widow. They let her have first pick of everything they get on their pirating runs.” The words were flowing from her mouth like water. “Arn says it’s a good deal—not even the Imperial Guards mess with the Widow.”

“Well, somebody’s gonna fuckin’ well mess with her now,” Grav growled. “And you’re gonna have to kiss your pirate goodbye, sweetheart. If he so much as touched a hair on Teeny’s head—”

“He didn’t—he wouldn’t!” Haenah protested.

I waited anxiously but didn’t feel the tingle at the base of my spine. Thank goodness—she seemed to be telling the truth about that at least.

“So he was just gonna trade her to the Widow—was that the plan?” Grav demanded.

“No—the Widow didn’t have anything to do with it,” Haenah said. “Arn was just supposed to keep her on Chndra. He wanted to ransom her back to her grandfather eventually but…”

“But what?” Grav growled.

Haenah slapped a hand over her mouth and shook her head, her eyes wide.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Grav growled. Leaning forward, he pried the hand off her mouth. “Talk, damn you!”

“Some of the others—the mercs especially hired by Yo’lox—wanted to give her the curse.”

“The curse? What curse?” Grav leaned in even closer and it occurred to me that as scary as he was when his Braxian nature was showing through, he scarcely needed the truth-spine.

“The Biting Curse. They wanted to turn Teeny into a Biter. That way she could never rule Thonolax when she gets older.”

“What?” This time Grav’s voice was a muted roar. His eyes blazed and he looked like he wanted to wring Haenah’s skinny green neck—although to his credit, he still didn’t lay a hand on her.

“Don’t look at me—it wasn’t my plan!” she babbled.

“No, your plan was to stand aside and let an innocent little female be captured and infected.” Grav looked angrier now than I had ever seen him. And suddenly, I could feel his rage pulsing through me—a red haze that clouded my vision and made my hands clench into fists. The desire to kill—to rip and claw and bite until my victim was nothing but bleeding, quivering chunks—filled me.

I shook my head, trying to clear it. Why was I feeling this? Was it an effect of the truth-drink?

Before I could answer my own question, the cell door suddenly banged open and the man-hating warden came striding in.

“What’s going on in here?” she demanded. “I heard…” The words died on her lips when she saw Grav in his true form. “Oh…oh my Goddess,” she whispered. “You…you’re a…”

“He was Teeny’s Protector,” I said quickly, hoping to defuse the situation. “Before she came here to attend school. The Princepae hired him to find Teeny. That’s the only reason we’re here—we just want to find a lost little girl.”

My words might as well have been the buzzing of a fly for all the warden noticed them.

“A male,” she said hoarsely. “A Braxian male! You desecrate the Temple by your very presence!”

“Yeah? Well you’re not exactly a fuckin’ ray of sunshine yourself, sweetheart,” Grav growled.

“Warden,” I began, prepared to try again.

“Forget it, darlin’. She’s not gonna listen,” Grav muttered.

Unfortunately, he was right. The warden-priestess seemed to have finally gotten over her shock. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs, and let out a bugling shout I was sure could be heard all over the Temple.

“A male! There is a Braxian male defiling the Temple!”

“Run!” Grav grabbed my hand in his and yanked me forward.

“No!” The warden blocked our way, leveling her sparking spear at his broad chest. “No, you’re not leaving until you face the justice of the Goddess, blasphemer!”

“Sorry but I don’t feel like takin’ a bath in acid today. It’s fuckin’ bad for the skin.” Grav knocked the spear aside with one muscular forearm. It skated along his skin and I felt a burning line of fire running up my own arm, though the spear had gone nowhere near me. Then he pushed the warden to one side and went barreling down the long stone corridor, dragging me behind him.

“Grav—” I gasped but he only shook his head.

“Save your breath. Run!”

We ran out of the prison wing and out into the larger part of the temple with its tall marble pillars and frescoed ceilings. I’d had time to admire them on the way in—now they were just a panicked blur.

I have to admit—I’m not much of a runner. The breath was tearing in my throat in no time and my lungs felt like they were on fire. But I had to keep going—the warden and a cadre of priestesses that had come to her call were close behind us, waving their sparking electrified spears and shouting. I could just imagine what it would feel like to be stuck with one of those—probably like being stabbed by a butcher knife and hit by a taser at the same time.

As Grav would say, no fuckin’ thank you.

“The doors! Don’t let them get out the doors!” I heard the warden howling behind us. Up ahead, the tall, curved double doors of the temple rose with graceful foreboding. I knew if they slammed shut with us inside, we were never getting out.

Not alive anyway.

“Faster,” Grav roared and I realized with some amazement that he wasn’t even breathing hard. He could be going much faster without me. If he’d leave me behind, he could be out the doors in no time—surely he knew that.

But he didn’t let go of my hand—even when the guards at the doors heard the warden’s cries and started to swing them shut. He just kept running and dragging me behind him.

I had a terrible realization—we weren’t going to make it. The corridor was too long and though I was trying, I couldn’t keep up this pace. The guards already had the door halfway shut, pushing them forward so that the pinkish strip of sunlight from outside was getting narrower and narrower.

And then I tripped.

I don’t know what on—maybe just my own clumsy feet. I’ve never exactly been ballerina-graceful. In fact, I flunked out of tap-dance in third grade. So I guess maybe it was inevitable. But for whatever reason, I went down hard, skinning both knees on the pinkish-gray marble flagstones.

Grav turned, his white-on-black eyes narrowed in concentration.

“Grav,” I gasped, fighting for breath to speak. “You go—they won’t kill me. They’ll just keep me in prison.”

“Go and leave you here? Fuck that!” he growled.

Reaching down, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder like a bag of flour.

“Oof!” I gasped as what little breath I had left was forced out of my lungs on impact with his broad shoulder.

Before I could regain my breath, we were moving again. Grav was barreling down the hallway with me jouncing on his shoulder with my ass in the air and my hair hanging in my face.

“Stop him! Stop him!” I heard the warden crying. I lifted my head as best I could, trying to see what was going on. Through the curtain of my hair I saw the sparking tips of spears just a few feet from my face. Fear filled my throat like choking bile and I had to bite back a hoarse scream. Close—they were so close.

And then there was a massive thump and a cracking sound like wood splintering. There was a burst of pain and my right shoulder went completely numb. I felt Grav’s left arm tighten over my thighs and then we were outside the temple at last and running for the tall, steep steps leading down to the rocky beach and the lake of acid.

“After him! Don’t let him make the lake!” I heard the warden shout.

I dared to look up again and saw she was right on our heels—or rather, Grav’s heels. How was he going to make it down that massive flight of steps without her catching us?

I got my answer when I felt his big body tense and we were suddenly airborne.

“Grav!” His name rose like a scream in my throat as his leap carried us from the topmost step all the way down to the bottom of the staircase—which was thirty-three stairs long. I knew because I had counted on the way up, when we were first entering the temple.

I was sure he would fall and drop me—or maybe land wrong and break both his legs. But he took the impact easily, his big feet making small craters in the ground where he landed.

As scared as I was, I couldn’t help being amazed. It was like something out of a super hero movie! I don’t think up until then I had really appreciated his strength. His size, yes—he was seven feet tall and built like a concrete bunker. But the fact that he was able to make such a leap while carrying me was amazing.

I didn’t have long to be amazed, though. Grav was already slinging me into the glass-bottomed boat and shoving off from the shore as the warden and her priestess-guards were still scrambling down the steps.

“Pull your head and arms inside your robes, darlin’,” he directed me as he grabbed the oars. “I have to row fast—can’t be as careful as I was on the way here.”

I did as he said, mindful of the pink acidic drops splashing from the oars as he pulled away from the rocky shore with long, smooth strokes. A few of them struck the backs of his hands and his broad forearms and I felt them like tiny, stinging drops of pure fire on my own hands and arms as well.

I bit my lip to muffle a gasp of pain. The sensation was so real I examined the backs of my hands but there was nothing there—it was only Grav who had been marked by the acid. He was ignoring it though, rowing with grim determination for the distant opposite shore of the lake.

On the temple shore, I saw the warden and the other guards pull up short. They shouted curses at us and waved their sparking spears impotently, stabbing at the sky in rage and frustration.

“Good thing they don’t have blasters or any kind of long-range weapons,” Grav remarked grimly, still rowing. “That warden would like nothin’ better than to nail my blue hide to her wall—or maybe just feed me to the lake.”

“Will we make it back to the ship?” I asked anxiously. “I mean, will the warden call ahead and tell the guard by the parking area we’re coming?”

Grav snorted. “Not fuckin’ likely. Technology is forbidden in their temple. ‘Course, they might decide to take after us but I didn’t see any other boats nearby. My guess is that they keep ‘em stored around the other side of the temple island. It’ll take them a little while to go get one and in the mean time, we’ll be at the opposite beach before we know it.”

“Okay. That’s a relief.” I sighed and relaxed as the shouting priestesses got smaller and smaller.

“We’ll be okay.” Grav looked at me. “How are your knees? That was a hard fall you took—I felt it.”

“I felt your injuries too,” I said. “The burns from the acid…” I nodded to the backs of his hands and arms which were speckled with little pink freckles where the acid had eaten its way into his skin. “The place where the warden’s spear got you…even the kick you took from Haenah after you jabbed her with the truth-spine. Why is that?”

“Must be that damn truth-drink the Reverend Mother made us drink,” he growled, still rowing, his broad back and shoulders flexing with the motion. “I wouldn’t worry—the effects’ll probably wear off soon.”

“Probably,” I echoed but I wasn’t so sure. And I noticed neither one of us dared to talk about the other possible effects of the truth-drink—which Haenah had also called “Liquid of Desire.”

It’s probably nothing—just her talking trash to try and freak us out, I told myself uneasily. So stop worrying—it’s no big deal.

Except I was already beginning to feel a throbbing tenderness between my thighs and my nipples felt tight and achy beneath the coarse gray robe I wore.

“How did you make that jump?” I asked Grav, to distract myself as the boat finally came even with the black glass dock.

“What jump?” He sounded distracted as he pulled us up to the dock and lashed the boat securely in place.

“What jump?” I looked at him exasperated. “The jump you made from the top of the temple steps all the way down to the bottom while you were carrying my big butt over your shoulder. That jump.”

“Don’t talk that way about yourself, darlin’.” He frowned at me as he helped me carefully out of the boat. “Your curves are gorgeous and you’re not too big.”

“There are plenty of people back on Earth that would disagree with you,” I remarked as we made our way back to the jungle path.

“Yeah. Sarden told me Zoe said the same thing.” He frowned. “Said she kept thinking she was too curvy, which is fuckin’ ridiculous. There’s no such thing.”

“Well…thank you,” I said, brushing aside some vegetation as we followed the path. “It’s nice you feel that way but you still didn’t tell me how you made the jump. I mean, it was amazing.”

“It was nothing.” He grinned at me. “Gravity here isn’t nearly as high as on my home planet. See, Brax is a heavy G world—gives us more strength and stamina when we visit a planet that’s light G.”

“Oh, I see. So…you couldn’t have made that jump on a heavy G, uh, gravity world?” I asked, curious.

“Sure I could’ve.” He shrugged. “Just would have been harder. But I’ve found you can do all kinds of things that are hard when you’ve got the right motivation. In this case, I didn’t want to be turned into a shish-ka-bob or take an acid bath.”

“You almost had both happen to you, though,” I pointed out. “That was a close call which…” I cleared my throat. “Which wouldn’t have been nearly as close if you’d just left me there.”

Grav had been ahead of me on the narrow path but now he turned back, his face hard as granite.

“Leave a female in my care to be captured and possibly tortured? Fuck no, darlin’! I’d never do that!”

“You could’ve though,” I argued. “My life wasn’t in danger—yours was. There was no need for you to put my discomfort above your life. It wasn’t like you’d given me the oath you told me about.”

“No.” His face went suddenly still. “No, I didn’t. I let you walk into a dangerous situation at my side without even swearing to protect you. What the fuck is wrong with me?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said quickly, because he looked extremely troubled by it. “What matters is, you kept me safe and got us out of the situation, too.”

“I—” But just then we reached the end of the jungle path and came face-to-face with the parking area guard-priestess.

“You…” Her face drained of all blood and she took a step back, the crackling tip of her spear sagging as she looked at Grav.

“Keep back,” Grav growled as we came out of the jungle. “I don’t hurt females but I’ll fuckin’ feed you that spear if you try to keep us from leaving.”

The priestess opened and closed her mouth several more times, clearly so freaked out she didn’t know what to say. Luckily she was so shocked she just stood there, allowing us time to get away. And then we were finally at the little shuttle which I knew would take us back to Grav’s space-hopper.

Back home, whispered a little voice in my head. But that was stupid—Earth was home. Not some spaceship circling a planet I’d never heard of a week ago.

Back home, the voice insisted, no matter what I tried to tell myself.

I crawled into the passenger side seat which was much too big for me and began working the buckles with hands that trembled for some reason.

Fine—we were going back to the ship and everything was going to be fine.

So why did my nipples feel so sensitive and my sex feel so hot and throbbing? The many pains I’d felt from Grav’s injuries had faded but though I had been able to put them off through distraction during our talk in the forest and the confrontation with the parking priestess, these other feelings still remained.

And this time, I was afraid they were too strong to ignore.

Chapter Sixteen

Grav

Leah was strangely quiet on the ride back to the hopper and I wondered what she was thinking.

“You okay?” I finally asked.

“Fine. Just…fine.” She shifted in her seat, crossing her legs. Suddenly, I felt a jolt of what I can only describe as pure, sexual need rush through me. My shaft hardened in my trousers, becoming instantly and painfully erect.

What in the Frozen Hells? I shifted myself, trying to ease the sudden ache. Gods, where was this coming from? Why was I suddenly feeling so needy?

Leah had been watching me from the corner of her eye.

“Are you okay?” she asked, giving my own question back to me. “You seem…kind of tense.”

“Just glad that part of the mission is over,” I said, shifting again. Gods, the throbbing in my shaft wouldn’t quit! It reminded me a little of the pain I’d felt when Leah skinned her knees. Speaking of which, I needed to treat those when we got back to the hopper.

“Yeah, I’m glad it’s over too.” Leah’s voice was strained and distracted. “Um…are we close to the ship?”

“We’re there right…now.” I maneuvered the shuttle so that it docked neatly with the hopper.

“Great!” She was jumping out of her seat almost before the hatch swung open.

“Leah?” I asked, just as she was about to jump down and run away. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Fine, really.” She gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I just…really need to use the, uh, the fresher—you know?”

“Sure.” I watched her go, feeling troubled.

The sensation of deep sexual need was still with me—an urgent force that made me feel like I was going to climb right out of my skin. Was it an effect of the damn truth-drink the Reverend Mother had given us? I’d been feeling strange ever since I drank the weird stuff and Haenah had called it “Liquid Passion” or something like that. But she’d also said it only affected mated pairs and Leah and I were most definitely not mated. So what in the Frozen Hells of Anor was going on?

I didn’t know but as I climbed out of the shuttle and headed for the control area of the ship to set a new course, I decided it might be worth it to take a moment and look up the truth-drink of the Acolytes of Naamah and see what I could find out.

Leah

I was so incredibly horny I didn’t know what to do with myself. Seriously, can you die of hornyness? Because I was sure I was about to.

“God…oh God, oh God,” I muttered as I finally got into my room and the door whooshed shut behind me.

I sat on the edge of the bunk, pulled up the gray acolyte robes, and yanked down the black lacy panties I still had from the naughty school girl outfit. They were drenched with my juices and my pussy was puffy and swollen with need, my clit peeking out from between my lower lips like a throbbing pink pearl begging desperately for attention.

Had I thought I was in need before? Had I imagined that the backlog of sexual tension was making it hard to act normal? Well this level of sexual need made it hard to breathe.

I literally felt like I had to come or die.

I knew I hadn’t been able to touch myself in the time since Grav had sexually awaked me, because feeling my hand against my most sensitive areas was simply too intense. But now I had to try again—I had to. I was so sensitive I felt like I was on a hair trigger—as though the lightest touch would make me react.

It made me react all right.

The moment my fingertips just barely brushed my sensitive pussy, I had to clamp down on a scream. It felt like I had burned myself—like someone had held a lit match to my throbbing clit.

Sorry for that awful mental image but it was really that painful. And yet the incessant sexual need pulsing through me made me so damn desperate I tried again…and again…and again.

Each time it was agony and yet I was compelled to keep trying. My body was demanding a release that I couldn’t give it. It needed to reach that peak—the peak I’d felt was getting close the last time Grav had healed me.

As though my thoughts of him had called him, I heard a knock on the door and a deep voice said, “Leah? We need to talk.”

Oh my God! I was lying on the cot with my robes hiked up, my panties down to my ankles and tears in my eyes from pain and frustration.

“Don’t come in!” I gasped, jumping off the cot and yanking my panties back up while I tried to adjust my robe. “Not yet—give me a minute. Or uh, maybe come back later. This really isn’t a good time for me.”

“I’ll wait until you’re ready,” he said and there was in implacable note in his low voice that let me know he was serious. He would wait outside the door all night until I finally opened to him. It was no use, I was going to have to deal with him now since I seriously doubted I would be in any better shape in the future. Not unless I could take care of my “problem” and so far I hadn’t even come close to finding a solution.

Smoothing my robes and blotting my eyes on my sleeve, I took a deep breath and opened the door.

Grav

“Yes?” Leah looked out at me, frowning fiercely. I could tell she’d tried to pull herself together and look calm but her red eyes and tousled hair told a different story.

But it wasn’t just the way she looked—it was in her scent. The unmistakable fragrance of sex drifted up to my nose making me nearly groan with desire. Gods, she smelled so fucking good. So ripe—like a female who needs to be bred. Which was crazy because that was a Braxian thing. As far as I knew, the females of Earth didn’t go through a breeding cycle the way the females of my home planet did.

I couldn’t deny my senses though—my nose never lies to me. Just because it didn’t make sense didn’t mean it wasn’t happening—Leah was in serious pain.

I knew because I could feel it.

Whether it was because of the truth-drink we’d been forced to take or for some other reason, the little Earth female’s body was in overdrive and it was clear she was hurting for a release.

But I could tell by the look in her eyes—half defiant, half embarrassed—that she wouldn’t admit it easily. I would have to ease her into the conversation and from there maybe we could figure out what to do to help her.

Of course, I knew what the information I’d found on the Interstellar Net said to do—but I wasn’t going there—no way in all the Frozen Hells. After all, half the information I’d found on the truth-drink was probably inaccurate. Almost every site I’d looked at told me it only worked as an aphrodisiac between mates. With everyone else, it was just supposed to heighten perceptions and sensations and make it easier to tell if someone was lying.

Speaking of lying…

“Darlin’,” I said to Leah as she stood there staring up at me defiantly. “Are you really all right?”

“Fine. I’m fine.” She shifted from foot to foot and winced. I did too—I could feel the pain that had knifed through her most sensitive areas with her movement. And it didn’t take the tingle at the base of my spine or the change in her scent to let me know she was lying to me—lying because she was embarrassed and ashamed and afraid.

I tried another tactic.

“I just came by because I need to have a look at your knees,” I said, telling a lie of my own. Or at least, a half-truth. It was true I did need to tend her scraped knees but they sure as hell weren’t her most urgent problem right now and I knew it.

“What? You mean you want to heal me?” I saw several emotions—hope, hurt, shame—all flash through her big brown eyes.

“Uh…” I cleared my throat. I hadn’t thought about that possibility. But if it got me into her room and got her talking a little then maybe it was a good idea.

Yeah, right, whispered a sardonic little voice in my head. Getting on your knees before her to lick her sweet, curvy body is a real fuckin’ good idea—if you want to lose control.

I’ll be fine, I told myself. I would never hurt her. I just want to help her—to heal her. This time I’ll keep it strictly hands-off, no matter what.

But Leah was frowning and shaking her head.

“I don’t think so. I…I think it’s a bad idea.”

“But I need to do something about those injuries to your knees,” I insisted, prepared to be firm.

“What about you?” she challenged. “You got burned by acid and scorched by the warden’s spear—I felt it.”

“Yeah, well…” I looked down at my arms. They were speckled with little pink dots where the acid from the lake had eaten tiny pits in my skin. Also, there was a long, black scorch mark along the outside of my right forearm.

“See—you’re in much worse shape than me,” Leah said.

“I’ll heal on my own,” I said, frowning. “Braxians heal fast.”

“So do Earthlings.” Leah crossed her arms stubbornly. “I’ll be fine.”

“No you won’t, darlin’.” I sighed, deciding to give up all pretense and just come out with it. “Leah, you know healing your knees isn’t the only reason I’m here.”

She nibbled her lush bottom lip nervously.

“I…I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do, darlin’,” I said softly. “We can feel each other’s pain—remember? And you’re in here having severe pain and need—I can tell because it’s affecting me too.”

“It…it is?” She looked up at me from under her full, dark lashes and my heart began to beat harder though I tried like hell to control it.

“Yeah,” I said flatly. “It fuckin’ well is. We have to talk about it.”

Abruptly Leah seemed to give up.

“All right.” She stepped back and gestured for me to enter the room. “Come in. Let’s talk.”

Leah

I had no idea what I was going to say—or what Grav would say, for that matter. I only knew I couldn’t hide what was going on any longer—as shameful and painful as it was, it was affecting him too.

I went back and sat on the cot, wincing as my thighs pressed against my sensitive sex. God, I was in so much pain and need right now—it was almost more than I could stand!

But I didn’t know how I could stand to admit it either. As I said earlier, I was raised Southern Baptist and sex was not talked about much in my house.

Which meant it was nearly impossible for me to talk about it now.

Grav came over to me but instead of sitting on the cot beside me, he sat on the floor in front of me. He put a big, warm hand on my calf and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“What…what are you going to do?” I asked, hating the breathless, needy sound in my voice.

“Just heal you, darlin’.” His deep voice was mild. “Your knees, I mean.”

“I thought…thought you wanted to talk,” I whispered.

“Later for that.” His long fingers encircled my ankle easily. “For now, let’s take care of what we can.”

“All…all right,” I agreed.

I tried to relax as he raised the hem of the gray robe over my knees and examined the scrapes I’d gotten from falling on the rough flagstones of the temple floor. I supposed I should feel relieved that he was willing to heal me first and put off talking about the real problem, but I couldn’t feel anything but tense and scared and incredibly uncomfortable.

Grav seemed to sense my mood.

“Relax, darlin’,” he murmured, looking up at me. “I’m not gonna bite, you know.”

“I know,” I whispered and then he leaned forward and I felt his warm, wet tongue connect with the torn skin of my right knee.

Pleasure flashed through me, immediate and intense. My body went into overdrive as I felt the need take me—my pussy throbbing, my nipples painfully tight.

Oh God…OhGodohGodohGod! I didn’t know how much of this I could take. As he started on the second knee, my hips tried to buck and my thighs wanted desperately to spread, to welcome him in. Grimly, I kept control, forcing myself to stay frozen in place. But his mouth on me felt so good, so right. I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning as his warm tongue moved over my flesh.

I bit so hard I tasted blood.

“Hey,” Grav growled.

I looked down and saw that he was rubbing his own lip and frowning. Clearly he had felt the small pain I’d inflicted on myself.

“I…I’m sorry,” I gasped. “It’s just…just intense. I know it shouldn’t be. It’s just my knees. I don’t know why—”

“But it’s not just your knees, is it, darlin’?” He looked at me sternly and I knew I couldn’t lie.

“No,” I whispered miserably. “No, it’s…it’s something else. I…I’m in pain.”

“There.” He nodded between my thighs and it wasn’t a question.

“Yes.” I hung my head in shame. “I…I don’t know why. It’s been…been building ever since the last time you, uh, healed me. And then the truth-drink…”

“Made it a hell of a lot worse, didn’t it?” He rumbled. “I’m sorry, darlin’—I didn’t know you were in so much pain.”

“I wasn’t,” I protested. “I mean, I had discomfort but it wasn’t until we drank the Spaghetti-Os stuff that I started to really have actual pain.”

He sighed. “That’s because Haenah was right—it’s a fuckin’ aphrodisiac. But only when taken by mated pairs and we’re—”

“Not mated,” I finished for him. “Not, what did you call it before? Bonded.”

“Right, but apparently it’s affecting you anyway—just like all the sites I called up said it would.”

“Sites? You mean like on the Internet?”

He frowned. “Not sure what that is. I was looking on the Interstellar Net—it’s a network of information. You can find just about anything you need about anything in the galaxy if you look in the right place.”

“Right.” I nodded. So it was like the Internet—only a galactic version of it. Great. “So…what did the sites say?” I asked.

Grav frowned and I got the sense he didn’t want to tell me.

“Please,” I whispered. “Please, Grav—I need to know.”

“All right.” He sighed. “I guess you do—but you’re not gonna like it. Almost every site I looked at said the female will bear the brunt of the truth-drink’s effects. And in order for her to, uh, get over it she has to have a sexual release.” He looked me in the eyes. “She has to come, darlin’.”

I felt like I might start crying again.

“Grav,” I said. “I…I’ve been trying. But I can’t. I’m too sensitive, uh, down there. I feel like I’m going crazy I need…need a release so badly. But I can’t get one. What am I going to do?”

He sighed again. “Well, that’s the problem, darlin’—you can’t do anything.”

“Then I’m going to die,” I said and burst into tears.

I know that sounds dramatic and crazy but at that moment, it was how I felt. My body was on fire with need—aching desperately for a release. And yet I was unable to give myself one. I was so keyed up—right on the edge. My heart was pounding and my body was throbbing and there was nothing I could do to calm it down, no matter how hard I tried.

It was kind of like having a sexual panic attack.

“Hey…hey, now…” Grav rumbled. He got up and I felt him sit beside me on the cot, which creaked and settled under his muscular weight. He put an arm around me and I turned toward him, burying my face in his broad chest. He’d taken off the gray acolyte robe and was only wearing a pair of his tight black leather trousers so my wet cheeks were met with bare skin. Warm and hard, the wall of his chest felt comforting and his rich, spicy, masculine odor invaded my senses, making me want to press harder against him, to never leave the circle of his arms.

Grav stroked my hair comfortingly and after a moment I realized he was talking.

“You’re not gonna die, Leah,” he murmured, holding me close. “I’m not gonna let you. Everything is going to be all right—you’ll see.”

“How?” I looked up at him with wet eyes. “How is it going to be all right? You said there’s nothing we can do.”

“No, I said there’s nothing you can do,” he corrected me. “But there is something that can be done.”

“What?” I thought I could guess by the uncomfortable look in his eyes. “It’s you, isn’t it? You have to help me.”

“The female’s mate…” He cleared his throat. “Well, I’m not your mate but I think maybe that’s how your body recognizes me, for whatever reason. Anyway, the female’s mate has to help her. Almost every site says the female who drinks the truth-drink won’t be able to touch herself—it’s a direct result of the drink. Makes the female’s body reject her own touch as toxic. But if her mate touches her, well…”

“So you have to…to touch me?” I didn’t know whether to feel hopeful, hot, or ashamed at the idea. I seemed to be filled with a combination of all three emotions.

Grav shifted uncomfortably.

“Look, I don’t want you to think I’m takin’ advantage. Maybe you should come read it for yourself.”

“I believe you,” I said, and I did. He was an honorable guy—I knew that by now. And I knew he wouldn’t make something like this up. Besides, my body was already telling me what he was saying was the absolute truth. There was no tingle at the base of my spine. In fact, the only tingling was in my breasts and between my legs.

God, how I needed him!

“Do you have to…do you need to…” I cleared my throat, trying to think how to phrase it. “What do you have to do?”

“Just make you come,” Grav said simply. “That’s all.” He tilted my chin up so our eyes met and studied my face. “Can you let me do that for you, darlin’? Can you spread your legs for me and let me make you come?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I mean, I…I can let you try. I…I’ve never, uh, experienced that before. So I don’t…I’m not really sure if I can.”

He frowned. “You mean you’ve never reached the peak?”

I shook my head, feeling obscurely ashamed.

“Remember I told you I never felt much of anything back on Earth? It’s only since I’ve been up here with you that I started feeling like I might be able to, you know, have an orgasm. I…” I licked my lips and looked down. “I thought I was going to, uh, have one the last time you were healing me. When you were, you know…licking my breasts. But then you stopped and even though I tried I…I can’t seem to make myself, uh, reach the peak, as you put it.”

Grav made a low sound in his throat and I looked up quickly. Was he angry for some reason?

He was, but I soon found out it wasn’t at me.

“This is my fault,” he growled, frowning. “I did this to you, darlin’. I woke up your body and then I left you wanting because I was afraid to get involved. And then the damn truth-drink the Reverend Mother made us take made it about a hundred times worse. That’s why you’re in so much pain.”

“I understand why you didn’t want to get involved,” I said quickly. “I mean, we already talked about this and decided it was a bad idea. I’m still married—uh, joined, and—”

“You’re not joined to that abusive asshole back on your home planet,” Grav interrupted me fiercely. “Not in the eyes of the Goddess. He broke the contract between you and gave up any right he had to call you his female the moment he put his hands on you with anything other than love.”

“I guess…” I bit my lip. “That’s not exactly my definition of divorce but—”

“We decided it’s a bad idea because I’m a half-breed—I can’t bond you.” He looked incredibly frustrated by that for a moment. “And because of my past.” He lifted my chin again. “But Leah, just because I can’t bond you to me or claim you as a mate, doesn’t mean I can’t bring you pleasure…at least enough pleasure to ease your pain.”

“Do…do you want to?” I asked and then realized what a stupid question it was. “I mean, of course you do because you’re feeling the pain too—right?”

“Yeah, I feel the pain you’re having, darlin’,” Grav rumbled, his white-on-black eyes never leaving mine. “But that’s not why I want to touch you…to make you come.”

“Why then?” I whispered, my voice breathless and uncertain.

“Because you’re fuckin’ gorgeous,” Grav growled, cupping my cheek. “And I’ve wanted you from the first minute I saw you on the AMI.” He stroked my face, still studying my eyes intently. “But I don’t want to scare you. So let me be clear—I don’t know what kind of treatment you’re used to in the bedroom but I’m gonna be gentle, darlin’. As gentle and slow and thorough as you need me to be.”

I felt a wave of heat rush through me.

“You…you will?”

“Mmm-hmm.” Suddenly, with no warning, he swung me up into his arms.

“Oh! Grav, where are we going?” I gasped as he stood easily and carried me towards the door.

“My room,” he growled. “More room to spread out there. I have a feeling this is gonna take a while.”

Chapter Seventeen

Grav

I laid her out on the bed and damn if she wasn’t the most gorgeous sight I’d ever seen. She let me take her robe off, raising her arms obediently and then relaxing back on the bed when it was gone. When I got it off her and threw it over the side of the bed, I saw she was bare except for the tiny little underthings she’d called “panties” that the Commercians had given her with her first outfit.

Without the robe in the way, I could see how badly she needed to be touched. The thin black fabric clung to the folds of her pussy, molding itself to her soft little mound so tightly I swore I could see the outline of her clit. She was wet there—the black material shiny with her honey. It made my mouth water and I had to remind myself I was only doing this to help her—to ease the pain that I had started in her the last time I had healed her breasts.

Speaking of her breasts, they were soft and round and full, the pink nipples erect with need. I wanted to suck them again but I wasn’t sure how Leah would feel about it. I also thought about taking my flight trousers off—by now my shaft was snarling for release. But then I decided that probably wasn’t safe.

As I’ve said before, Braxians have a point of no return. I didn’t intend to reach that point with Leah tonight. I was just going to help her come—that was all. So the trousers stayed on.

“Grav,” she whispered, reaching for me. “Please…”

She didn’t finish her sentence but she didn’t need to. I lay on the bed with her and took her in my arms. She flowed to me, as warm and willing as water, the lush curves of her breasts pressed against my chest, her round, full hips and heart-shaped ass filling my hands.

Gods, she was fucking perfect.

I kissed her then, because I couldn’t help it, taking her sweet mouth hungrily, tasting her as I had back on Gemina. She kissed me back eagerly, opening her lips to me and inviting me in when I invaded her.

I wanted to penetrate her with a whole lot more than my tongue, but I felt her sweet body quivering against mine and knew this wasn’t doing her any good.

We had to get down to business.

Reluctantly, I pulled away and positioned her in the crook of my arm.

“Grav?” She looked up at me uncertainly. “What…what are you going to do?”

“Touch you, darlin’,” I murmured, looking into her big brown eyes and feeling like I was drowning. “Just touch you—that’s all.”

“All right.” In a gesture so trusting it made my heart fist in my chest, she let her thighs fall open, inviting me in. “All right,” she whispered again. “Go ahead.”

I growled softly in the back of my throat and ran my hand down her body, making sure I paid attention to her full breasts as I went. Leah cried out and arched her back when I tugged gently at her tight nipples. I knew how sensitive they were and I couldn’t resist sucking one tender peak into my mouth as my fingers found their way down to her mound.

Leah cried out and arched her back, offering me more. Offering me anything I wanted.

Gods, how I wished I could take her up on that! But we couldn’t go too far—it would be too damn hard to let her go if we did. And I had sworn to myself I wouldn’t go to that point of no return. Not with someone as innocent and lovely as Leah.

Because a Braxian’s point of no return—well, let’s just say it’s not a pretty place. Not in battle or in sex.

“Darlin’,” I murmured hoarsely, releasing her nipple as my hand found her mound. I cupped her pussy—just cupped it at first, feeling the warm little mound nestle in my hand. The black fabric felt slippery with her juices and she gave a soft little cry and pressed up into my palm.

“Grav,” she whispered breathlessly. “Grav, please…I need…need you so much.”

“I know you do, sweetheart.” I lifted my fingers and let them trace gently between her pussy lips, running lightly over the sensitive little bump of her clit, caressing her through the thin panties.

Leah gave another little cry and I saw how much need she was in—felt the surge of painful pleasure my touch provoked in her. My cock gave an answering surge but I ignored it—this was about Leah. About easing her pain and giving her pleasure.

About making her come.

“I need to touch you under your panties, darlin’,” I murmured, looking into her eyes. “Need to touch your bare pussy. Can you let me do that?”

Leah bit her lip, uncertainty flickering across her face.

“Yes,” she whispered at last. “If…if you need to.”

“I think I do if I’m going to make you come. Look—I’ll just cup you at first. All right?”

We both watched as my fingertips teased under the waistband of her little black panties and I finally held her, bare and vulnerable and oh-so-Goddess-damned beautiful in the palm of my hand.

“Oh, Grav…” she breathed and spread her thighs wider for me, another gesture of trust that tugged at my heart. This was unknown territory for her—a place she’d never been before. Or rather, a place she’d never been able to go. And she was letting me take her there—trusting me to guide her.

I swore to myself I wouldn’t betray that trust. That I would take things slow and make her feel good—make her come again and again.

Her soft little pussy was wet and open under my palm. I could feel her slippery folds pressing up eagerly, spreading under my fingers as though she couldn’t wait to feel my touch. But when I stroked her clit lightly, she gasped and pulled away.

“What is it darlin’?” I looked at her anxious. “Did I hurt you?”

“It didn’t hurt exactly.” Leah bit her lip. “It’s just…I’m so sensitive now. It’s almost like I can’t stand to have anything touching me. Anything at all.” She looked at me with wide eyes. “What are we going to do?”

“This.” I left her side and went down to the foot of the sleeping platform, positioning myself between her thighs. But when I started to tug down her panties, Leah gasped and brought her knees together.

“What…what are you…I mean I don’t think…” She didn’t seem to be able to finish her sentence.

“It’s okay,” I murmured soothingly, looking up at her. “You said it yourself—you’re too sensitive to be touched.” I traced a long line down her quivering thigh and looked her in the eyes. “But not too sensitive to be licked.”

“L-licked?” she stuttered, her eyes going wide. “You mean you want to—”

“To taste you. That’s right, darlin’.” I stroked her thigh again. “My fingers are too rough—at least right now when you’re so over-stimulated. So I need to use my tongue on you. Need to spread your pussy and lick you until you come in my mouth.”

“But…but how do you know you’ll, uh, like the taste?” She still looked uncertain, her knees pressed tightly together. “I mean, what if you don’t?”

I gave her a long look, my eyes half-closed with desire.

“I know by your scent, darlin’. By the way you smell so damn good it makes my cock hard enough to fuck through a steel wall.”

Raising the hand I’d touched her with to my face, I deliberately licked my fingers, cleaning away the sweet traces of her honey that lingered there.

Leah watched me with wide eyes and I guessed this was yet another thing she’d never done—or never had done to her. What was wrong with that fuckin’ mate of hers? If she was my female, I’d spend hours buried between her sweet thighs, making love to her pussy with my tongue.

Which was exactly what I wanted to do now.

“Leah,” I said softly, trying to make my voice gentle and non-threatening. “Let me in now, darlin’. Let me in so I can help you—so I can make you come.”

“All right,” she whispered at last, parting her legs. “I…I guess that’s all right.”

“It’s going to be more than all right,” I promised her, reaching for her panties again. This time she lifted her hips and let me slide them down her shapely legs.

Then she was naked—completely naked and completely fuckin’ beautiful.

I swore to myself I would worship her like a goddess—that I would bring her pleasure until she came against my tongue. But when I went to spread her legs, she hesitated again.

“What’s wrong, darlin’?” I looked up at her. “Don’t you trust me?”

“I do…I do trust you, Grav,” she said in a small voice. “It’s just…I’m, uh, so wet.”

She gestured to the place between her legs where her juices had coated her inner thighs and turned her soft little pussy lips shiny with need.

“Gods, I know…” The words were a groan in my throat. I didn’t just want to taste her now—I needed to. Needed to lap up her sweet honey and feel her thighs press tight around my head while she rode my tongue. I felt like I couldn’t hold off much longer but I didn’t want to scare her. “I know,” I said again, looking up to meet her eyes. “It’s fuckin’ beautiful.”

Before she could reply, I leaned down and dragged my tongue over her inner thigh, cleaning away her juices.

Leah gasped and her flavor exploded across my tongue, sweet and salty and deliciously feminine. I did the same to the other thigh and she didn’t try to stop me. When I looked up, she was watching me with a kind of wonder in her eyes.

“You…you really like it?” she whispered.

“More than like it,” I assured her, my voice dipping down to a possessive growl. I hadn’t let myself think about it before, but tasting your female is a mark of possession among my people. We Braxians taste our mates to pleasure them but also to claim them—to make them our own.

Well, Leah wasn’t mine. Not only that, she could never be mine. But my body didn’t seem to know that. All it knew—all I knew—was that I needed more of her sweet, secret flavor on my tongue.

And this time I wanted to taste it straight from the source.

“Leah,” I growled, looking at her. “I need to taste your pussy now. Are you ready to let me?”

“Yes.” She bit her lip and nodded, her eyes wide and filled with need. “Yes, please, Grav. I…I’m ready.”

She didn’t have to tell me twice. Leaning down I spread her thighs wide and dragged my tongue from the bottom of her well all the way up to the top of her slit. Her honey filled my mouth and I felt her quiver and moan under me.

This time she didn’t pull away.

I looked up at her, feeling like I was drowning I wanted her so damn badly.

“All right?” I rasped, my voice grating with need. “Not too sensitive this time, darlin’?”

“No…” Her breath was coming short and I swore I could hear her heart pounding inside the cage of her ribs. “No, it’s not…not too sensitive, Grav. You can…can go on.”

“Good,” I growled, and went back to the well, desperate to drink. Thirsty for more of her sweet nectar.

I had vowed to be gentle with her and I was—to a point. But I was right on the edge—my body urging me to take her and make her mine, the Braxian half of me demanding that I claim her as my own.

I’m afraid I got a little wild—not that Leah seemed to mind.

I know some males who trace the Vroxian alphabet across their female’s pleasure centers or take hours circling her clit. But by the time Leah finally let me in, I was too far gone for that.

I spread her with my thumbs and just licked her, rubbing the flat of my tongue against the sweet little bump in her center and lapping up her sweet juices as I bathed in her warm, feminine scent.

She was so beautiful—so fucking gorgeous spread out nude for me, her thighs open to let me taste my fill. I couldn’t be as slow as I wanted to—I needed her too much.

As much, by that time, as she needed me.

I dipped lower, penetrating her with my tongue, drawing a gasp from her lips as I licked up again, dragging long and slow and hot against her sensitive clit. Thanks to the truth-drink, I was feeling her pleasure as well as her pain. We kept pushing each other higher and each time I lapped her sweet, open pussy I felt her quiver and the flash of desire that went through her as she got closer and closer to the edge.

But though she got close—damn close—she seemed to be having a hard time getting all the way there. At last she was crying and bucking against me, her hands on my throbbing horns, pulling me down as her pussy rose to meet my mouth.

“Grav…Grav!” My name was a sob on her lips…a prayer. “Please,” she begged me. “I need something else. I’m so close but I feel so…so empty. Please.”

I knew what she needed—the same thing a Braxian female who was being tasted and claimed would need. She needed to be filled with my shaft, long and hard, making her mine, bonding her to me…

I was halfway to unfastening my trousers when I remembered that I couldn’t bond a female—any female to me. And even if I could, Leah deserved a hell of a lot better than the likes of me.

Still, she needed penetration—I knew it in my bones. It was the only thing that would bring her where she needed so desperately to go.

It was the only way to bring her to the peak and teach her how to fly.

I looked up for a moment to see her—her arched back and thrusting breasts, her hair spread all around her like a silk cloud. Her cheeks were flushed with passion and her breasts were heaving as she bucked and moaned. Her pussy was wet and open, so ready for me.

Gods…sometimes there are no words, you know?

Quickly, not wanting her to lose momentum, I sucked two fingers into my mouth, getting them nice and wet. Then I slid them deep into the entrance to her well, as I went back to lapping her clit.

The effect was immediate, as I had known it would be.

“Oh…Oh!” Leah gasped. She tightened up, her body straining to meet mine, her open pussy pressed hard against my tongue. At the same time her hands tightened on my horns, making me feel like my shaft was going to break off it was so damn hard. And then I felt it—the quiver deep inside, the way her inner pussy clenched around me like a warm, silky fist.

Coming—she was finally coming. I felt her pleasure like a tidal wave, sweeping through both of us and I’m not ashamed to say I came too—shooting jet after jet of cum just from the feeling of her reaching the peak.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Leah as I came and for a moment—just a moment—it seemed like she was almost glowing. I felt a tingling in every part of my body as our pleasure mingled—it was almost too much.

“Grav!” she moaned helplessly. “Grav!”

You don’t know what it did to me to hear her cry my name like that. Gods—it’s the best sound any male could ever hear. The reason the Goddess created the ability to hear in the first place, as far as I’m concerned. It made me want to stay between her thighs forever, just to hear her call for me.

Fresh wetness coated my fingers and tongue and I lapped it up eagerly, staying with her, riding it out as the waves crashed over her.

Goddess, I thought deliriously. So fuckin’ beautiful—so fuckin right!

And it did feel right. Even though I knew it was wrong and could never be between us, it felt righter than anything else in my whole life. Bringing Leah to the edge, tasting her sweet juices as she cried her pleasure and pulled me closer, calling my name—that was what I was meant to do. What I’d been made for—taking her to the peak and helping her learn to fly.

I just wished I could soar with her and that we never had to come back down.

Chapter Eighteen

Location: Femme 1—also known as Majorah Prime, seat of the Goddess Empress Sundalla the 999th, Supreme Ruler of the galaxy—the Empress’s bedchamber.

Time: Only moments before the Empress’s Ascendance to the Heavens.

“You can go in now. She’s calling for you.”

Captain Kristoff Verrai of the Empress’s Imperial Guard nodded at the attendant and entered the royal bedchamber. Inside he was greeted with imperial splendor, as befitted a ruler who was also worshipped as a deity.

The walls were covered in pure, hammered gold, worked with intricate carvings and decorated with precious gems. The carpet was the softest tellah fur, pure white dotted with red and black spots and swirls. The bed itself was a massive affair—a thick, luxurious mattress piled high with gold brocade pillows embroidered with silver threads and covered in a matching duvet. It sat atop a raised dais, almost like a throne.

Propped up in the center of all this splendor was a thin, pale figure—very white against the rich gleam of the pillows.

It was the Goddess Empress herself, Sundalla the 999th—and she was dying.

Kristoff came forward at a respectful pace, changing his own skin tone to match the golden tone of the room around him. It was a royal color—only those males who served in the Empress’s personal Imperial Guard were allowed to assume it. His eyes, as he climbed the dais, changed from plain brown to concentric rainbow rings, also to honor her rank. The Empress was the only female in the galaxy known to have a rainbow aura—the pure light of divinity and perfection surrounded her.

Though only those who had the Vision could see it.

Kristoff had the Vision—it had come to him at an early age. He had been only five when his mother—a noblewoman of Majorah Delta—had brought him along to court. During the royal procession when the Empress passed by, he had cried out in wonder,

“Muhmuh—look! A rainbow! The Empress has a pet rainbow!”

The Empress had heard and stopped the entire procession. Turning, she came back to where Kristoff and his mother were standing.

“Who speaks of our aura?” she demanded, an imperious look on her beautiful face.

“My Lady Goddess,” Kristoff’s mother gasped, dropping into a low, frightened curtsy. “Oh, please forgive my son! Kristoff is only five cycles old and he sometimes speaks out of turn.”

“No, my good woman—do not fear.”

The Goddess Empress had crouched before Kristoff, who looked at her wonderingly. She was beautiful—divinely beautiful with long golden hair, unlike the blue-black shade of most Majorans, and sharp green eyes the color of emeralds which seemed to see into his very soul.

“Now then—Kristoff, is it?” she asked softly, looking at him.

“Yes,” Kristoff said. And then, when his mother nudged him sharply he added, “MyLadyGoddess,” in a breathless rush.

“Kristoff,” the Empress said. “Look at me and tell me what you see.”

Kristoff looked up at her, drinking in her divine beauty. It filled his small heart to overflowing.

“A rainbow,” he whispered, reaching up one hand to describe an arc around her golden hair. “Here…all around you. Is it your pet?”

The Empress smiled.

“In a way, I suppose. And can you see it that clearly?”

“It’s beautiful,” Kristoff breathed. “Like you, my Lady Goddess.”

“Well now—so young and already a flatterer.” The Empress had laughed and straightened. Then she spoke to Kristoff’s mother. “Your son has a rare talent, my dear. When he is of age, I will need him here at court. He is to be mine and mine alone. Do you understand?”

“Yes, my Lady Goddess. Thank you my Lady Goddess,” Kristoff’s mother breathed.

“Very good.” The Empress had nodded and then leaned down. She pressed a cool kiss to Kristoff’s forehead. “Farewell for now, little one,” she murmured. “I will see you later when you come to claim your place in court.”

And so she had.

As he climbed the dais to reach the massive, golden sleeping platform, Kristoff recalled his many years in service to the Empress. He had come to the palace as a young warrior and presented himself to be taken into service. But though he had a place waiting for him at the word of the Empress herself, the training for an Imperial Guard was not easy.

There were long days and sleepless nights—stretches of endurance training without food or water or comfort of any kind. There were lessons on covert operations and the art of intrigue for a Guard must be subtle as well as deadly to protect his royal mistress’ life.

There was training with the sword, the blaster, the dagger, and every other weapon until he was a weapon himself—a deadly blade to be wielded only by the Empress.

Later, there were missions where his hands were drenched in the blood of her enemies—for an Empress, even a universally loved and worshipped one—always had those who wanted her dead and the Majoran court was a dangerous place—rife with lies and intrigue.

Through it all, the memory of that one cool kiss on his forehead carried Kristoff through.

Sometimes he thought he had always loved her—from that first moment at the age of five when he saw the beautiful rainbow aura surrounding her perfect face. From that moment when she kissed him and claimed him as hers. Though she was fifty cycles his senior and his love took the form of devotion rather than physical expression, still it was love of the deepest kind.

Unswerving Loyalty, Unquestioning Devotion, Unremitting Obedience—it was the code and the credo of the Imperial Guard. And to that, Kristoff added, Unending Love.

And now the female he had devoted his life to was dying.

He finished climbing the dais and bowed deeply to the withered figure in the middle of the bed. Her hair and skin were nearly pure white now but her rainbow aura remained, stronger than ever. It was a shining halo all around her head that only his eyes could see.

“Oh, don’t bow that way, Kristoff.” The Empress’s voice still sounded young somehow. Impatient even—as though she was beckoning him to hurry up because they were going to be late for court or some royal appearance.

“My Lady.” Kristoff rose from his deep bow and sat on the side of the bed. “How are you, today?”

“Well enough. I…” Her words were interrupted by a coughing fit. One of the trained nurses came forward but Kristoff waved her away. Quickly, he found the bulb of nutrient fluid which nourished the Empress in her fragile state. Propping her gently up with one arm, he squeezed some of the sweet liquid into her mouth.

The Empress drank gratefully and then breathed deeply.

“Ah…thank you, Kristoff.”

“You are ever welcome, my Lady.” Gently, he eased her back down to the pillows and brushed a shining strand of pure white hair from her eyes before sitting back to regard her. “So you were saying? You feel well?”

“I feel fine,” she insisted, her faded green eyes snapping with some of their old fire. “But the Council doesn’t seem to think I am. They’ve had me moved into this dusty mausoleum of a room when they know I prefer my other sleeping quarters.”

Kristoff knew what she meant. This grand bedchamber was only for show. There was a small, snug chamber behind it with a natural gilla-grass carpet and a bed that was just large enough for two which the Empress had shared with her Consort for many years before he passed to the other side.

Kristoff had never known the male who had been privileged to share the Empress’s bed—he had been killed thwarting an assassination attempt the year before Kristoff himself came into service. After he died, the Empress had never taken another Consort—or indeed, another lover of any kind. But she had needed someone to confide in and Kristoff had been there for her then, as he was now.

“Do you want to go back to the small bedchamber, my Lady?” he asked softly, reaching for her frail hand and holding it gently in his own much larger one. “The Council cannot force you to sleep here. I swear by the Goddess of Mercy I’ll slit their throats if they try.”

“Dear Kristoff—always so charmingly bloodthirsty.” The Empress smiled at him tiredly. “No, my dear—they have moved me in here for a reason. My Ascension is near and all of us know it.”

“No.” The rainbow rings of Kristoff’s eyes blazed. “No, I refuse to accept that!”

“But you must.” The Empress squeezed his hand. “My dear Kristoff—we all must die. Even an immortal goddess like myself.” She spoke the words lightly, mischief dancing in her eyes. “But you do not believe I am a goddess, do you? You never have.”

“No.” The word sounded blunt and rude but he could not lie. “No, my Lady—but I have loved you just the same.” His voice was hoarse in his own ears and he searched her faded green eyes with his own.

“And it is for your love and loyalty and yes, even for your unbelief, that I love you too, my Kristoff.” She smiled at him tiredly. “And it is because of all these qualities that I have called you today—I have a special mission for you, you see.”

“I have no mission but to keep guarding you,” he protested. “To protect your life with my own, my Lady.”

“My life is very nearly done. Soon I must Ascend to the Goddess of Mercy herself.” Her voice sounded soft and far away. “But first I must tell you what I have Seen.”

Kristoff knew well enough what she meant. The Empress was a La-ti-zal—a rare female who had been blessed with extra gifts by the Ancient Ones, those who had seeded the galaxy with life millennia ago. She was a Seer and her visions had often kept her subjects from harm—especially in the case of the War of Assimilation.

That famous war, fought against sentient machines who injected themselves into living hosts, had been fought when the Empress was still young and freshly crowned and it had been long before his time. Still, Kristoff knew the Empress had been able to see into the mind of the enemy somehow. Working with the general of her armed forces—who had later become her Consort—she had saved the galaxy from Assimilation.

It was her greatest triumph—he wished he had been there to see it. It had cemented the Empress’s rule and established her as a true Goddess. Her visions were honored and if she said that she had Seen something, it was best to be silent and take note.

“I have seen my next incarnation—the one who will take my place,” the Empress told him now. “Sundalla the 1000th.”

“She will never take your place,” Kristoff said fiercely. “No one can!”

“But she must.” The faraway look left her eyes and the Empress looked at him. “Kristoff—you must go to her. Her life is in grave danger.”

“I don’t understand,” he protested. “You’ve had committees out searching for your successor for years now. Are you saying they finally found her?”

“No.” She shook her head weakly. “Any they find will be imposters—not the true incarnation of the Goddess Empress. You will find the true Empress. For only you have the Vision.”

“There are some who claim to have it. Morbain—”

“Sees only what the greed in his heart allows,” she said sharply. “He would seek to crown a weak female whom he can control and rule the galaxy through her. But the Empress must be strong—unyielding to any save her Consort. And even then she must yield only in the bedchamber—never in matters of state.” She sighed. “No, Kristoff—you are the only one. And you must find her and protect her and raise her to the throne.”

“Who is she?” Kristoff asked.

“A female who looks like I did when I was younger—much younger, my dear.” The Empress sighed longingly. “Hair yellow as sunshine and eyes a deep green.”

“And where is she, this girl?” Kristoff asked. “Did you See that as well? Majorah Delta, perhaps? Or Majorah Beta?”

“No.” She shook her head weakly. “She is far from here—not even in the Majoran system at all. I could not See where she was exactly, only that the planet is green and blue and quite small.”

“But…that describes millions of planets in the galaxy,” Kristoff protested. “I could search my whole life and never find it!”

“Hush, Kristoff—there is more to my Seeing.” She patted his hand. “You will find one who can direct you. Here—let me show you.”

She beckoned for him and he put down his head so that she could press her soft fingertips to his temples.

Kristoff closed his eyes and a picture formed in his mind. A curvy girl with pale skin, long, straight brown hair, and large brown eyes was looking back at him. She was unlike any of the Twelve Peoples he had ever seen—unless she was Majoran and had chosen to change her hair and eye and skin coloring for some reason.

But somehow Kristoff didn’t think that was the case. The girl was a true outsider—maybe even a Pure One from a closed planet where the inhabitants had never interacted with the rest of the galaxy. She had a pale blue aura that spoke of some hidden power—though it was nowhere near as gorgeous as the rainbow aura of the Empress.

“Who is she?” he asked when the Empress released him and he raised his head.

“Someone who knows my new incarnation and loves her well. But…” She raised one withered finger warningly. “She will be in the company of a very dangerous felon. You must be wary and stick to your mission—do not be distracted by her companion although you will be tempted.”

“All right. And where am I to find this female?”

“You must travel to the Lavara system—into the heart of the Spider’s Web. There you will meet the one I have showed you,” the Empress said.

“The Spider’s Web?” Kristoff frowned. “I thought you directed us to stop trying to subdue that region because of the massive casualties?”

“I did.” The Empress’s faded green eyes were sorrowful. “And now I must ask you—my best and bravest Guard—to travel into the heart of danger. Forgive me, Kristoff—I do not want to do this. But the new Sundalla must be protected! And you are the only one I trust.”

“I don’t fear to go into danger on your behalf—you know that.” Kristoff looked at her intently. “But I don’t want to leave you—not now. Not when…”

“Not when I’m about to die?” she asked gently. “Don’t worry, my dear—I’ll be gone before you go. I have Seen that too.”

“You won’t die, my Lady!” But the words tasted like ashes and dust on his tongue—he knew they were a lie.

“I will. I will Ascend—I must to make way for she who is to come. My new incarnation—Sundalla the 1000th.” She looked at him earnestly. “She will have such need of your aide and counsel and protection, my dear! You must guide her in her choice of a consort and guard her life with your own, as you have guarded mine.”

“Of course, my Lady,” he said through numb lips.

The Empress pressed his hand.

“Promise me you will love her as you have loved me, Kristoff. Promise me that.”

Kristoff felt a muscle in his jaw work as he tried to say the words—tried to give the promise his Empress asked for.

But at last he had to shake his head.

“I cannot,” he said hoarsely. “I cannot promise to love another as I have loved you, my Lady. For no other is worthy.”

“Ah, Kristoff…come here.” The Empress beckoned to him again.

He bent his neck and she put a hand on his blue-black hair and pressed a kiss to his forehead, just as she had so many years ago.

“When you find her…you will also find her worthy. Worthy of the same love and devotion you have shown to me all these years. Now go, my dear Kristoff—the wisest and bravest of all my Guards. Go and seek her out.”

And then her hand fell away and she spoke no more.

“My Lady—” he began, looking up. But the words he was to speak died on his lips.

The Empress’s eyes were closed and a look of peace was on her old but lovely face. Her withered chest no longer rose and fell and her hands, always so busy and active, were at last at rest. Around her head Kristoff saw nothing.

The rainbow aura was gone.

Chapter Nineteen

Leah

“So…what now?” I asked. I was tingling all over, from my fingertips to my toes with residual pleasure and my words came out in a kind of contented purr.

Grav and I were still lounging in bed, though he had excused himself to “clean up” and I had put on a soft green dress which was one of the outfits he’d bought me on the Sincon Delta station.

But even after getting changed, we had somehow gravitated back to the bed, though we were only talking now.

The distance between us seemed to have disappeared. Grav was sitting at the head of the bed and I was leaning back against him, enjoying the feel of his hard, warm chest against my back.

I was also enjoying the deliciously dreamy afterglow state I found myself in. My whole body—which had been tense and on edge for days—was finally at rest. I felt satisfied, the same way I might if I had been starving and someone had finally given me my first taste of food.

Only it was Grav who was doing the tasting, whispered a little voice in the back of my head. Over and over and over again.

It made me blush but I couldn’t deny it was true—the big alien had stayed between my legs, tasting me for what felt like hours—making me come again and again. Only when I had at last had enough did he finally let me go. And even now that our encounter was over, he seemed reluctant to stop touching me.

Not that I wanted him too. I loved running my hands over his gray-blue hide, feeling his skin so warm and his muscles so hard under my fingers. It seemed like I couldn’t stop touching him either.

And so we wound up cuddled in bed and talking, for all the world as if we were some kind of lovers, instead of people who had decided they could never be together.

That thought made me sad and I tried to push it away.

“What’s next?” I asked him again, rubbing my cheek against his hard chest.

“Now I’ll be setting a course for Chndra—that moon orbiting Hallux Two that Haenah talked about,” he rumbled, his deep voice vibrating through my body.

“So we’re going to go down there and look for Teeny?” I asked.

Grav frowned. “No, darlin’—you’re not going anywhere. You’re staying right on the ship where it’s safe. In fact, I shouldn’t even take you to Hallux Two at all. Better to stop and leave you someplace safe on the way.”

“Leave me somewhere?” I demanded. “What are you talking about?”

“The Safe Haven Bar is located on the far side of the Lavara system where Hallux Two is,” he said. “I was gonna stop there and hire some mercs to come with me anyway—this isn’t a one male job.”

“Which is why I’m going with you,” I said but he shook his head.

“The Haven has guaranteed safe rooms that can be rented for however long you want and interstellar boosting signals so I can contact Sarden and Zoe and let them know where you are. That way if I don’t make it out, they can come and pick you up.”

“What? No!” I protested angrily. “I’m not going to stay cooped up in some ‘safe room’ while you go into danger without me!”

“Darlin’, I’m a trained warrior and Protector. You’re not.” I could tell he was trying to make his voice as gentle as he could but I didn’t care.

“I don’t care if you have more training than me,” I said, sitting up. “I need to go with you.”

As I said the words, they solidified into a certainty. I don’t know why I felt that way but I did—it was a conviction somewhere in my gut I couldn’t dislodge. I needed to be with him on this mission—no matter how dangerous it was.

“No.” He was still frowning. “I’m sorry, Leah, but you can’t come with me.”

I had been half leaning against his chest and looking up at him as we talked. Now I sat up and turned all the way around to face him head on.

“Now listen to me!” I began, putting my hand on his muscular forearm for emphasis. “You…oh!” I stared down at his skin as a realization suddenly hit me.

“What? What is it?” Grav looked worried.

“Your…your arm. Isn’t this the one that got burned by the warden’s spear?”

I ran my hand up and down the length of his blue skin—which was now perfectly clear, as though he’d never been injured at all.

“Yeah…” His frown deepened as he examined his unmarked arm. “Yeah, it is.”

“And where are the spots where the acid got you?” I looked at the other arm. “This one is clear too and it’s only been a couple of hours. Do Braxians really heal that fast?”

“No. Generally it would take at least a few solar days to heal from injuries like those. But my skin—it looks like nothing ever touched it. There aren’t even any scars.” He shook his head, examining both arms with increasing perplexity. “How did this…wait.” He looked up at me, understanding flaring in his white-on-black eyes.

“What?” It was my turn to be worried. “Why are you looking at me like that, Grav?”

“You did this darlin’.” He nodded down at his arms, a look of awe on his face. “You healed me.”

“What? No—that’s crazy!” I protested. “I couldn’t have.”

“Yes, you did,” he insisted. “And I know exactly when. The first time you came, I remember thinking you had a kind of glow around you and then I felt this tingling that went through my entire body. That must have been it!”

“Are…are you sure?” I shook my head. “But how is that possible? Do you think it’s tied to me, you know…having an orgasm for the first time?”

My cheeks went hot as I said it. I couldn’t help myself—even after everything we’d done, I still felt shy discussing it.

“I think it’s possible.” Grav sounded thoughtful and not embarrassed at all. “Maybe all this buildup of tension you said you’ve been feelin’ these last few days was just your La-ti-zal powers tryin’ to get out. Maybe when you finally came, it sorta…I don’t know, broke the cage and set that part of yourself free.”

“I don’t feel any different,” I objected. “And I don’t think I look any different—do I?”

“Well, other than lookin’ happier and a helluva lot more relaxed…”

“Grav!” I swatted at his shoulder and he rumbled laughter.

“Sorry, darlin’, but it’s true. You have that kind of glow—the look of a female who’s been really and truly satisfied.” His eyes went half-lidded and he stroked my cheek. “It’s beautiful. Makes me want to satisfy you all over again.”

“Grav…” I protested but my voice sounded breathless rather than annoyed. “We…we shouldn’t.”

“Yeah, I know.” He sighed. “Anyway—let’s put it to the test.”

Before I could ask what he meant, he hopped out of bed and reached for a long, curving knife he apparently kept in his bedside table.

“Grav,” I said, eyeing the gleaming silver blade nervously. “What are you going to—”

I didn’t get to finish my question. He was already flicking away the staples to make a long, shallow slice along the side of his hip bone, right where he had implanted the image generator earlier.

“Grav!” I gasped as crimson droplets of blood began to well from his blue skin. “Oh my God! What are you doing?”

He shrugged, as though slicing himself open was no big deal.

“I need to take this damn thing out anyway.” He extracted the long, silver cylinder, smeared red with his blood, and tossed it casually away. “And it’s as good a way as any to see if you can heal me, darlin’.”

“Heal you? Of course I can’t heal you! You’re going to need stitches for that, and I don’t even know how to sew on a button, let alone somebody’s skin!”

God, I wished my friend Charlotte was here! She’d learned how to do stitches and all kinds of emergency medical procedures as part of her training. She was the most competent person I knew and always calm in a crisis. Unlike me.

“Just try it. Here.” Grav nodded down at his hip and looked at me like I was supposed to know what to do.

“You’re crazy,” I said, shaking my head. “I told you—I can’t. Even if I did heal you before—which I really doubt—I don’t know how I did it.”

“Just try,” he urged again. “C’mon darlin’—what could it hurt?”

“Well…” Reluctantly I cupped my hand over his wounded hipbone. The blood was beginning to drip by now and I was afraid it would stain the bedspread—which was a kind of quilt sewed from lots of squares of different kinds of fur that I really liked.

“Close your eyes,” Grav urged me. “Concentrate.”

Taking a deep breath, I did as he said. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

I pictured Grav’s skin in my mind—the gray-blue hide I was beginning to love so well. And then I imagined the bleeding cut he’d made.

Close, I thought, willing it with all my might. Close up…heal…disappear…

My hands began to feel hot for some reason and then I heard Grav make a small noise in the back of his throat.

I opened my eyes to see that the wound was still there—but not completely unchanged. It looked a little shorter somehow and it had at least stopped bleeding.

Had I done that? If so, I wasn’t doing a good enough job. A half hour ago, if Grav was right, I’d healed him of acid pits and a nasty burn. This cut wasn’t nearly as bad as either of those injuries so why wasn’t I able to make more headway on it?

“I don’t know,” I said, frowning. “It’s not working—or at least, not very well.”

“Hmm…” Grav stared intently at his hip and then looked at me. “Do you mind if I try something, darlin’?”

“What? Like cutting yourself again?” I said. “No—please don’t!”

“No, no—nothin’ like that. Just this.”

He leaned forward and captured my mouth in a kiss that left me breathless.

Oh God! I could taste my own secret flavor on his lips and it made me crazy. Instinctively, I reached for him, twining one arm around his neck and standing on my tiptoes to deepen the kiss. Even after the multiple orgasms he’d given me to take the edge off my need, I couldn’t help myself—I just wanted him so much.

My other hand was resting on his wounded hip but of course, I wasn’t paying any attention to it. Even when I felt a warm glow heating my fingertips it didn’t register—I was too into the kiss.

So you can imagine how disappointed I was when Grav pulled away.

“What?” I whispered breathlessly, when he pulled back. “Why…why did you stop?”

“Look.” He nodded down at his hip.

For a moment I couldn’t focus on it—I had really been into that kiss! But when I finally looked, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“You’re healed!” I looked at the place where the cut had been.

It was gone—not just scabbed over or even healed with a scar. No, it was completely healed without so much as a white line to show where it had been.

I looked up at Grav. “Did I do that?”

He grinned at me. “Told you your La-ti-zal powers would come in. You must be a Healer, darlin’.”

“I guess…maybe,” I said cautiously. “But what good does it do if I can only heal someone when you, uh, touch me?”

I felt my cheeks getting hot again and yet I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Why did I feel so drawn to him? Why did I want to keep touching him all the time?

“This is just the beginning,” Grav assured me. “I’m sure you won’t always need my help to heal. It’s just that your powers are still emerging.”

Suddenly I saw a new way to win our earlier, interrupted argument.

“Which is why I need to come with you when you go to the place they’re keeping Teeny,” I said. “I’ve got powers now, Grav—your skills aren’t the only ones that count.”

He frowned, looking unhappy.

“Look, just because your powers are startin’ to come in doesn’t mean I want to take you into danger.”

“Please…” I looked at him earnestly. “Please, I can’t explain why but I feel…I know that I’m supposed to come with you.”

He sighed. “I don’t know, darlin’…”

“I’m supposed to come with you,” I repeated. “Please, Grav.”

Slowly, he nodded. “All right. If you feel it that deeply, I respect your feeling. But you have to do what I say when I say it—I need to keep you safe.”

“All right.” I nodded eagerly. “I can do that.”

“And there’s something else.” Suddenly, he dropped to one knee.

“Grav?” I looked at him, alarmed. He looked like a man about to propose but I knew he wasn’t going to do that—was he?

“I’m not lettin’ you go into danger with me again until I give you my oath,” he said grimly.

“But…but I thought you said your oath was a life-long thing,” I said. “And you don’t think we can be together that long because you said you can’t, uh, bond me. And because…because of your past.” My voice dropped to a whisper on the last words. “I wish you’d tell me what happened, Grav.”

“I can’t,” he said shortly. “What I can do is swear my oath to you for as long as we’re together—until I see you safely home to Earth—or safely to Eloim where your friend, Lady Zoe is.”

“Well…all right,” I said. “If it will make you feel better.”

“About taking you into danger? Hell yes, it will. Here—give me your hands.”

I did and he took both my hands in his and looked up at me. Of course, he didn’t have to look very far—even on his knees he was so tall we were almost eye-to-eye.

“Leah,” he said, his deep voice slightly hoarse. “Your blood is more precious to me than my own—I will spill all of mine willingly before a drop of yours is shed. Your flesh is my flesh—may I be pierced a thousand times before the blade shall even scratch your skin.”

He looked into my eyes and his voice dropped even lower.

“If you are fearful, I will protect you. In danger, I will shield your body with my own. I will stay by your side and never leave you. This oath I swear by the Goddess of Mercy and by all that is in me.”

“Oh, Grav…” I shook my head, hardly able to take it in. “That…that’s beautiful.”

“I mean it, darlin’. Every word.” He brought my hands to his face and kissed both my palms with a tenderness that made my heart race. What had I done to deserve such devotion?

“Grav…” I whispered again. “I don’t…don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll accept me as your Protector.” He gave me a slightly crooked grin. “Even though the oath is a little late in coming.”

“I accept. Of course, I accept.” I put my hands on his broad shoulders and stepped closer to him, smiling back. “It’s funny—I feel sort of like I just accepted a marriage proposal.” Then I realized what I had said and how needy it sounded. “I mean, not that I expect…I mean, I would never think…”

“It’s more serious than a marriage or a joining,” Grav rumbled, apparently unperturbed by my foolish words. “This is life and death, darlin’—as in, I’ll give my life for yours if the need arises.”

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t arise,” I said as lightly as I could.

Grav looked grim. “We can hope not but I’m not so sure. We’re goin’ into the Spider’s Web and the Widow is there…waiting for prey. We just want to make sure we don’t become her next victims.”

Grav

If I had thought I could scare Leah off of the current mission by mentioning the Spider’s Web and the Widow, I was wrong. My curvy little Earth girl was brave as hell. Her face got a little pale but she didn’t back down. Instead she started asking questions.

“What is the Spider’s Web exactly?” she said. “And where is it?”

“It’s an energy net stretched around an entire solar system,” I told her. “The Lavara system. It’s got several ringed planets that people used to mine—the rings are rich in precious metals and rare elements.”

“That people used to mine?” Leah asked.

“Uh-huh. That was before the Widow came. She put an energy net around the entire system and claimed it as her own. Now nobody gets in or out—unless she lets them.”

“Who is she anyway? I mean, what kind of name is ‘the Widow’?”

“Some people say she’s a hybrid. But not a cross between two of the Twelve Peoples like me,” I said. “The Widow is supposedly a genetic mix of one of the Twelve Peoples and another sentient species that evolved without the help of the Ancient Ones. Some kind of insect-based life form.” I shook my head. “It shouldn’t be possible but those who have seen her swear it’s true.”

“Have you seen her?” Leah’s eyes were wide.

I shook my head. “Nope. And I don’t fuckin’ want to either. If things go right, we won’t.”

“If things go right? What do you mean? How are we going to get Teeny back?”

I sighed and tugged at one of my horns.

“I’ve heard there’s a hole in the Web—the Widow’s energy net. Not big but big enough for a really small craft like a shuttle to get through. We slip in when her control station is on the far side of its orbit, get down to Chndra, grab Teeny, and get back out before the Widow knows anything happened.”

“But…Teeny’s being guarded by a bunch of pirates,” Leah protested. “Are you going to kill or incapacitate them all?”

“If I have to,” I said grimly. I didn’t want to tell her about my berserker tendencies. That when the red curtain of rage drops over my eyes I can’t stop killing until every last enemy is dead. In fact, the mercs I wanted to hire were going to have one job and one job only—to stay with Leah and protect her while I got the job done. Afterwards, when every last pirate was dead or completely incapacitated and I was all cleaned up, then Leah could come out and meet Teeny.

If she was still alive and viable, that was.

It hurt my heart to think that way—to imagine that Teeny might be dead or gone beyond my ability to help her. But her guard, Haenah, had said that some of the mercs who captured her had wanted to give her the Biter’s Curse. If she had already been bitten before we got to her, well…there’s no cure once a Biter infects you. It turns you into an undead eating machine and gives you a wicked craving for the flesh of other sentient beings.

Especially their brains.

It didn’t matter though—I was going to find Teeny anyway. I had sworn to protect her in life and in death and I would follow through with that promise no matter what.

She’ll be okay, I told myself uneasily. She’s worth more alive than dead—they won’t let the Biters infect her.

I hoped not anyway. Or my former ward could be as good as dead already, even if she was still drawing breath.

Chapter Twenty

Leah

The Safe Haven bar didn’t look all that safe to me. Or at least, no safer than any biker bar you might walk into back on Earth. Everywhere I looked there were big, burly aliens in all shapes and colors. I would say all shapes and sizes but the only size they appeared to come in were extra, extra large, like Grav.

Why was it that all the other Twelve Peoples were so much larger than people from Earth? It made me wonder if the people from my home planet had stunted growth or something. Trailing along behind Grav, I felt like a little kid at an adult party.

Strange music that sounded like someone playing a flute and a drum, while someone else yodeled at the top of their lungs drifted through the smoky air. The lighting was dim but I could see enough to make out some of the other people—mostly male. Most were standing around drinking various glowing concoctions from long tubing which seemed to lead directly back to huge vats behind the bar. I saw shimmering hot pink, electric blue, lime green, and neon yellow flowing through the long glass straws.

It seemed like a strange way to serve drinks—after all, how could you tell how much the person was drinking? But then, what did I know about alien bars? They probably had a system of keeping track.

We passed a muscular alien with an elaborate mask on, which hid the top part of his face. He was wearing a long, full cloak that seemed to rustle when he moved. Then he shifted and flexed and I saw it was no cape—the guy had wings. Actual wings!

Grav looked back and saw me staring.

“Cantor,” he said under his breath, jerking his head at the winged alien. “Unusual to see one so far from Cantorie Two.”

“Can they actually fly?” I asked.

He nodded. “Hell yeah. But mostly on their home planet. It’s a light-G world with lots of updrafts.”

We left the winged alien behind and passed two large males, one with blue skin and one with red. They were both standing at the bar and they had a female between them. She was sitting on a stool and sipping a neon yellow cocktail from one of the long glass straws that led behind the bar while both males looked at her possessively.

I nudged Grav.

“Wonder which one she’s going home with.”

He looked at the group at the bar.

“Both,” he said mildly. “Those are Denarins. The males find each other early in life and form a psychic bond. Then they search for the perfect female to complete that bond. Sometimes they search their whole life—Denarins are big interstellar travelers because of it.”

“But doesn’t that make a lot of half-breeds?” I asked. “Who can’t bond with females?”

He shook his head. “Nah. Denarins are the exception to that rule—their genes always breed true so they can mate with a female of any of the other Peoples. They never know where their one perfect mate will be. And sometimes when they find her…she doesn’t want them.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” I said dryly. One seven foot tall alien was enough for me. I couldn’t imagine going home with two of them at once.

“It’s sad, actually.” Grav sounded unusually compassionate. “Imagine searching your whole life for that one perfect mate and then when you finally find her…she’s too scared to go with you.” He shook his head. “Fuckin’ tragedy.”

“Almost as sad as finding a guy you really like who refuses to be with you because he thinks you can’t handle his past,” I said daringly.

Grav gave me a dark look.

“Leave that be, darlin’. You don’t know my past and you don’t wanna know it. Besides, I told you—I’m a half-breed. Couldn’t bond you to me even if I wanted to.”

“And you don’t want to. Is that it?” I couldn’t keep the hurt out of my voice. Though I had promised myself I wouldn’t think about this—let alone talk about it to Grav—I couldn’t seem to help it. I had never felt anything like what I felt when I was with him and I don’t just mean sexually. There was something between us—an energy I couldn’t explain or describe but it made me want to never leave him.

I wished he felt the same way about me.

Grav whirled to face me and leaned down to stare right into my eyes.

“You think I don’t want to bond you to me? To claim you as mine and keep you with me the rest of my life, darlin’?” he asked in a low growl. “You think I don’t feel it—feel what’s between us?”

“What is between us?” I demanded, frowning. I was tired of skirting around this issue. In the past I’d told myself I wasn’t free to be with Grav, even if he wanted me, because I was still married to Gerald. But now I was more and more inclined to agree with Grav’s own view that by abusing me, Gerald had effectively terminated our commitment to each other. If a right hook to the jaw equals a divorce, then Gerald was now my ex and out of the picture. I had even stopped wearing my wedding ring.

Which left me free to be with someone I really wanted—someone who wanted me.

Only he didn’t want me.

“I don’t know what’s between us,” Grav growled. “I only know it makes me want you all the time. But damn it, I can’t have you.” He ran a hand through his short black hair in obvious frustration and repeated in a soft, intense voice, “I can’t have you. You’re not for me.”

“Why not?” I insisted.

“Because you’re too fuckin’ good for the likes of me, all right?” he exploded and I thought I saw the glint of red far back in the depths of his white-on-black eyes. “Because you deserve a hell of a lot better than—”

“An escaped felon who’s wanted for murder in several systems?” a low voice finished for him.

Grav whirled around and I saw someone—a big someone—step out from the side of the bar to meet him.

It was an alien male like none of the others I had seen at the bar. He had hair that was so blue it was almost black…and the rest of him was the same color. Skin, hair, clothes—seriously, he was completely monochromatic. Dark blue all over.

“Who are you and what the fuck do you want?” Grav growled, frowning at the stranger.

“Gravex N’gol, I am Captain Kristoff Verrai of her majesty the Goddess Empress’ Imperial Guard,” the male said. For a moment his skin changed from the somber dark blue to something else—a gold so bright it was dazzling. And then he shifted back again, the dark blue color covering him completely.

“All right—I believe you. No need to flash the gold at me.” Grav frowned at him. “Aren’t you pretty fuckin’ far from Femme 1?”

“We go where we are needed,” the other male said blandly. “Right now we’re needed here.”

“If you’ve come to take me in, I hope like Hell you didn’t come alone.” Grav gave him a menacing glare. “I’m in the middle of a mission and nothin’ is gonna stop me—and that includes an Imperial warrant for my arrest.”

The Captain frowned.

“Under normal circumstances, I’d like nothing better than to bring you in. You know you’re possibly the most wanted male in the galaxy? But in this case, it’s your goddess I need to speak to.”

“Huh?” I looked around us. What was he talking about? What goddess?

“He’s talkin’ about you, Leah,” Grav told me, his eyes never leaving the other male’s face. “He’s Majoran—it’s what Majoran males call their females.”

“I need to speak to you.” The dark blue Captain stepped towards me. “You have information I desperately need.”

“Leah doesn’t have anything you need and you’re not gonna lay one fuckin’ finger on her or I’ll break it off and feed it to you.” Grav stepped in front of me, an aura of menace growing like a cloud around him.

“I don’t want to touch her!” Captain Verrai sounded impatient. “I have no interest in her or any female—look at me. Can you not see I am in mourning?”

In mourning? I frowned, looking him up and down. Was that what the monochromatic look was about? Maybe someone had died and this was the Majoran equivalent of wearing all black?

“I just need to talk to her,” the Captain said. “She was shown to me in a vision by the Goddess Empress herself. She has important information about—”

“About what?” Grav demanded, his voice still a low, threatening growl.

The Captain looked around. “Can we not speak somewhere in private? I have rented a safe room at the other end of the bar. The news I have to relate is not for public consumption. Not yet.”

“Not for public consumption, huh? Right.” Grav gave him an incredulous look. “Like I’m just gonna go with you nice and quiet so you can arrest me someplace in private? I don’t think so, Verrai.”

“For the last time, I have no interest in you, Braxian,” the Captain growled. His skin flashed red for a moment and I got the idea he was running out of patience. “I could have brought an entire squadron with me to take you down but I didn’t—I didn’t want you to feel threatened in any way. I swear I just need to talk to your goddess.”

“I’m not his goddess,” I said, speaking up for the first time. “We’re not…not mated.” I shot Grav a glance which he returned with interest. “We’re partners on a mission to rescue a little girl who’s been kidnapped by a bunch of pirates.”

“Would those be the pirates led by a T’varri named Arn?” The Captain raised one monochromatic eyebrow at us.

“Well…yes.” I frowned. “What do you know about it?”

“I know my squad and I wiped out the entire crew not twenty-four solar hours ago,” Captain Verrai said blandly.

“You’re fuckin’ lying,” Grav growled. “How could you get a whole squadron of Imperial Guards through the Spider’s Web without the Widow noticing?”

“Oh, haven’t you heard? The Spider’s Web is dead—or at least inactivated. It has been for some time now.” The Captain shrugged. “So it wasn’t that hard.”

“What?” Grav growled. “So you just strolled in and killed the lot of them? Why?”

“Because I was told to look for a female in the company of a wanted felon. And then I heard that Arn and his crew had such a female with them.”

“Did you find her?” I asked anxiously, breaking in. “Did you find Teeny?”

The Captain shook his head. “We found nothing but pirates—no females at all. My warriors dispatched the lot of them. I was just having a drink at the bar, considering new strategies when I saw the two of you come in.” He stared at me intently. “You are the one I was shown—I knew you at once. You must talk to me.”

“Leah doesn’t have to do a damn thing she doesn’t want to do,” Grav growled.

“Let me just hear him out, Grav,” I said, putting a restraining hand on his muscular forearm. I looked at the Captain. “What do you want to talk about, anyway?”

“I just need to know the location of your home planet,” the Majoran Captain said. “And your friend—the one with hair the color of sunshine and deep green eyes.”

A shock went through me—as though I had stuck my finger in a light socket.

“Charlotte?” I whispered, feeling slightly queasy. “You mean Charlotte? Why are you looking for her?”

“Is that her name? I must find her!” He took another step towards me but I took a step back.

“Find her and do what to her?” I demanded. All I could think about was the Alien Mate Index and the fact that those damn blue worms, the Commercians, were abducting and selling unsuspecting Earth girls to any alien male who had enough money to pay for one. I didn’t want that to happen to my best friend!

“I must find her and—” the Captain began but I was already shaking my head and backing away.

“No,” I said, feeling a cold finger of fear trace my spine. “No, I’m not telling you anything. You leave Charlotte alone!”

“You heard Leah,” Grav growled when the Captain tried to speak again. “No more talking. No information, no nothing. You stay away from my female, or you’ll be pickin’ your eyeballs out of the nearest vat of Grungian ale.”

The Captain looked angry.

“You’re making a grave mistake. This female I am seeking is of utmost importance not just to me but to the entire galaxy!”

“Yeah, right,” Grav growled. Turning, he shouldered his way through the crowd, pushing me along in front of him. “Fuckin’ Imperial Guards,” he muttered. Behind us I heard the Captain shout,

“You haven’t heard the last of this, Braxian. I can return with a Binding-warrant for your arrest—then we’ll see if your female wants to talk!”

“Get it,” Grav shouted back, looking over his shoulder. “And then see how many Gold Skins it takes to put it on me. I won’t make it easy for you.”

“Gold Skins?” I asked as we left the bar by a back entrance.

“It’s what they call Imperial Guards,” he explained, his voice still a low menacing growl. “They serve the Goddess Empress so they’re the only ones allowed to turn their skins gold. It’s a royal color and no other Majoran male is supposed to use it.”

“Oh.” I took that in for a minute and turned my head to look back at Captain Verrai. Another Majoran male was standing beside him now—clearly some kind of underling.

“Captain,” I heard him say. “Why don’t we just take him now? He’s just one male.”

“Are you insane?” Verrai demanded. “He’s a Braxian—they’re berserkers. Do you want to lose our entire squad and most of the innocents in this bar?”

“I doubt most of this motley lot are innocent,” the underling muttered.

“Doesn’t matter,” Verrai said. “We’re here on the Goddess Empress’ business—we’ll not kill civilians. No—just send for the Binding-warrant. The faster it gets here the better.”

“Fast as a hyl’dy up a chula tree, Sir,” the underling promised. “I’ll send for it at once.”

“Good. See that you do.”

The Captain said something else but I couldn’t catch it—we were getting too far away. Something about his underling’s words bothered me, though. I couldn’t put my finger on it—just something that seemed to tug at the corner of my mind somehow…”

“What are they saying?” Grav muttered to me out of the corner of his mouth. “You catch any of it?”

“Something about Braxians,” I said, frowning. “And they’re sending for some kind of warrant.”

“A Binding-warrant,” he said. “It’s a coil of energy that wraps around you and saps your strength—completely incapacitates you. I was put in one once before—the first time I was arrested.”

The way he talked about his criminal past so matter-of-factly made my stomach turn over a little bit.

“Grav,” I said tentatively. “Is it true you’re, uh, wanted for…”

“For murder?” he said bluntly, turning around to face me. We were in a quieter part of the bar now but he still pitched his voice low—for my ears only. “Yeah, darlin’—it’s true.”

“I…so you…” I didn’t know what to say.

Grav gave me a ferocious grin that wasn’t the least bit happy. “See? Told you that you were too good for the likes of me.”

For a moment I didn’t know what to say. He had admitted in the past that he’d done some bad things—and even that he wasn’t sorry for them. But surely he couldn’t be as bad as all that. Could he?

“Was it…did you kill a prison guard?” I asked. “Maybe by accident when you were trying to get out of jail? Maybe trying to get free so you could clear your name?”

Grav gave a short, barking laugh.

“I see you’ve got a pretty little fantasy all worked up about it in your head. Let me set you straight, Leah. Yes, I’ve killed people—plenty of them and yes some of them were guards when I was breaking out of the slam. And I wasn’t shut up in there for no reason or because somebody framed me either—I was locked up for murder. A murder I absolutely committed and wouldn’t hesitate to commit again.”

“I…I…” I didn’t know what to say to that. When he laid the facts out on the table like this—so baldly with no “pretty little fantasies” as he put it to dress them up or make them look better—it was shocking and more than a little scary.

“I…but I thought you were a Protector,” I said at last.

Grav sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“I am. I presented myself to the Mendeket of the Order of Protection after I got away. At first I just thought it was a place to stay out of sight. The Gold Skins were looking high and low for me. But after he heard my story, the Mendeket agreed to take me in and let me train to become a Protector. And that’s what I’ve been ever since.”

After the Mendeket heard my story… I wished I could hear it—the whole story. I felt like there was still something missing. A lot missing, actually. Like who had he killed in the first place to be put in jail? And why was he so adamant that he would do it again?

Grav had been watching my face while I thought over his words. Apparently he didn’t see what he wanted because his own face went dark and cold as granite.

“C’mon,” he said shortly. “We still have a job to do.”

“What about the pirates?” I said, glad for the change of subject. “Do you believe he really killed them all? And if so, where’s Teeny?”

“I don’t know,” Grav growled. “But we’re damn sure gonna find out.”

Grav

“It’s true—the Spider’s Web is dead or inactivated these many days.” The T’varri nodded and took another sip of the bright blue Grungian ale I’d bought him. T’varri are straight-forward people so I felt I could trust what he had to say.

“Is that why the Haven is so crowded?” I asked. We were speaking in a private safe room I’d rented at the back of the bar for this exact purpose. It was bare with nothing but a table, two chairs, and a drinking hole with a long straw coming out of it.

It wasn’t exactly the most luxurious accommodations, but I didn’t care—it wasn’t like I expected to be there for long. I wanted to get in and out quickly before the fucking Imperial Guards came back. Just my luck meeting them in a place where I had least expected to—I hoped it took Captain Verrai some time to get his fucking Binding-warrant.

“Probably.” The T’varri nodded. He had the elaborate living tattoos of his kind. They crawled up and down his arms and over his broad back like restless snakes. “Plenty of ring miners in the crowd, waiting to see if it’s really safe to go harvesting the rings again. Of course…” He took another sip of ale through the long straw that led to a hole in the wall. “There’s probably going to be a mad rush now.”

“Why is that?” Leah asked. I’d had to bring her with me into the safe room, even though I disliked letting her be in such close quarters with a T’varri. They’re a race of sexual dominants and anyone with submissive tendencies tends to attract them like Gennian bees to Deloshin honey. Leah was getting better about standing up for herself—case in point, the fight we’d nearly had out in the main part of the bar. But she’d spent years under the thumb of that asshole of a mate of hers and some of her old, meek mannerisms still showed through at times.

The T’varri measured her with his eyes.

“Why is every ring miner this side of the galaxy about to descend on the rings? Because there’s a fortune to be made, of course. And because Verrai and his squad cleaned out the nest of pirates on Chndra.”

“So we heard,” I said. “Just didn’t know if we could believe it.”

“Oh, you can believe it. They brought back footage—saw vids of the bodies myself.” He nodded and took another sip of ale.

“And the Widow?” I asked. “What about her?”

The T’varri shrugged. “Nobody knows. Her control station is quiet—nobody goes in, nobody goes out. That’s why everyone’s been holding back. But now that the Gold Skins proved you can get in and out with no problem—even if you kill the Widow’s pet pirates—I’m thinking a Hell of a lot of miners are about to follow.”

“You could be right.” I knew for sure I was going in. Teeny had to be on the small moon, Chndra somewhere. The Net being down and Verrai’s squad killing the pirates made my job a hell of a lot easier but it also made me nervous.

It seemed…too easy somehow.

“Wasn’t the head pirate who was killed a, uh, T’varri?” The name sounded exotic on Leah’s tongue. “Like you?” she asked the T’varri timidly. “I mean, did you know him?”

“Who—Arn?” The T’varri laughed, eyeing her again in a way I didn’t like. “That son of a motherless grondag had it coming.”

“How so?” Leah asked.

The T’varri frowned. “He wasn’t honorable in his dealings. That’s the problem with pirates—they got no fucking values. Word was, he’d kidnapped an innocent female and was holding her against her will.”

My heart thumped in my chest at the indirect mention of Teeny but I tried to keep my face blank.

“Is that right? Any word on what he did with her?”

He shook his head. “Not that I heard—I only know he took her.” He frowned. “It’s shameful to take a female without a contract like that.”

“A contract?” Leah raised her eyebrows. “What does that mean?”

I cleared my throat. “The T’varri sign a binding and legal contract with a female before they bond her to them. It spells out exactly what they’re willing to do.”

“To do?” Leah frowned.

“Sexually.” The T’varri’s voice dropped a note and he eyed her again, his live tattoos writhing with interest. “We demand that a female submit to us completely but only within the confines of the contract. To take a female without establishing her limits and learning her sig`nal is shameful.”

“Seen-yahl? What’s that?” Leah asked.

“When love play grows rough, as it so often does with my kind, the female must have a word they can give that will stop their male from continuing,” he explained. “It keeps things from…going too far.”

“Oh, I see.” Leah’s face got a little paler and she took a step closer to me. “Like a safe word.”

“Enough about that,” I growled. I was tired of discussing the depraved sexual practices of the T’varri and doubly tired of the way this one was eyeing my female, which was definitely how I thought of Leah, even though we weren’t bonded.

“Suit yourself. I was just explaining.” He shrugged and took another drink of the bright blue ale. “So, are you going to the rings? Got a stake in a mining operation? I didn’t think Braxians went in for that kind of thing.”

“Not mining exactly.” I thought about hiring him…and then decided against it. If the pirates were dead—and it seemed certain they were—I would have no need of mercs to watch Leah’s back while I went after them. We could concentrate all our time on the search for Teeny.

“Well, if there’s nothing else, I do have a stake to claim.” The T’varri rose, scraping his chair back against the metal floor.

“That’s all,” I said. “Thank you for your candor.” I offered him a warrior’s clasp and after a moment he took it, gripping my forearm tightly.

“May you find what you are seeking,” he said formally. And then, with a look at Leah, “Though it seems to me you’ve already found it.”

“Thanks,” I said shortly, releasing my grip. “May the Goddess go with you.”

“Oh, she wouldn’t have me.” He gave me a dark grin. “But thank you anyway, brother. And thanks for the ale.” He looked like he might say something else to Leah but a look at my face changed his mind. He simply nodded and left.

“Whew…” Leah blew out a breath and looked up at me. “Now what?”

“Now,” I said. “We go find Teeny.”

Chapter Twenty-one

Leah

“She’s not here. I swear by the Goddess of Mercy I’ve searched every-fuckin’-where I could think of and I can’t find her anywhere,” Grav growled, sounding extremely upset.

I couldn’t blame him. We’d been searching for hours and had turned the pirate’s compound upside down but we hadn’t been able to find Grav’s little ward anywhere.

The compound itself was a large, split-level building set in the middle of a scorching blue desert. There was sand swirled everywhere in drifts and dunes and all of it was different shades of blue from the palest sky-blue to the deepest shade of midnight. I didn’t know how the different shades stayed together instead of mixing to form one single multicolored-hue, but somehow they didn’t.

The different shades swirled around each other without ever mixing, making me think of waves in an ocean or clouds in the sky. Since the sky was a light tan, it made me feel like I was caught in an upside-down beach where everything had been reversed.

Outside, to the right of the compound, the Imperial Guards had stacked the bodies of the pirates they had killed. I tried not to look at the grisly sight but it was hard—my eyes kept wanting to wander back to those bodies stacked like so much cordwood in the shifting blue sands.

Though it couldn’t have been long since they had been killed, the desert was already beginning to dry them out. Some of them even had gray faces and lipless mouths that had drawn back to reveal black gums and yellow teeth.

“Don’t look, darlin’,” Grav muttered, seeing where my gaze was going. “It’s not a sight a female like you oughta have to see.”

“I was just…just thinking that the desert is already drying them out,” I said, my voice coming out slightly sick. “Look—those ones with the gray skin—”

“Those are Biters,” he interrupted me. “They always look like that.” He took a step closer and leaned over, examining the bodies. “Looks like the Gold Skins knew what they were doing—these were shot in the head. It’s the only way to keep a Biter down for good.”

“A Biter is one of the cannibal people you and the Principae—Teeny’s grandfather—were talking about, right?” I asked. “Which of the Twelve Peoples are they?”

“They’re not,” Grav said flatly. “Biters aren’t born—they’re made. The Biter’s Curse is a virus that’s passed in the saliva and blood of one of the infected. When they bite you and the virus gets into your bloodstream, well…” He shook his head.

“There’s no cure?” I asked.

“None. And the Curse rots your brain. Makes you an eating machine and what you want to snack on is other sentient beings.”

“So…they’re some kind of zombies?” I shivered. “That’s awful! But how could the pirates use them as soldiers if they’re so mindless?”

“They can be controlled—usually with impulse collars.” He nodded at one of the Biters. Around his throat a scratched gray metal collar was winking in the pitiless desert sunlight.

“But they’re not the same person they were before they got bitten?” I guessed. “Even with the collar on?”

“Exactly.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Gods, I wish we could find Teeny and make sure she’s all right! Just the thought of one of those Biters going after her…” He glared at the neatly stacked dead bodies, as though he wished he could bring them back to life just to kill them all over again.

“Let’s search inside one more time,” I suggested. “Being out here in the heat is miserable. If Teeny’s still here, she wouldn’t be out in the sun.”

“I hope not.” He made a noise of frustration. “All right—I feel like we really turned the place upside down but we can do one more pass before we move on to scouring the desert.”

“How long will we look?” I asked.

He sighed again. “I want to say until we find Teeny or some trace of her but it could take months to scour this entire moon and it’s not smart to stay that long. We don’t know if the Web is really dead or just out of commission for a while.”

The Web, as far as I could see on the viewscreen of Grav’s shuttle, was a grid of large, dark red spheres spaced at intervals in a mind-bogglingly huge net around the Lavara solar system. It stretched as far as the eye could see—well, as far as my eyes could see, anyway.

Grav had told me that when it was operational, red lasers stretched between the balls making a nearly impenetrable blockade that no ship could get through. I had no wish to see it in that state—especially if it was keeping us from getting away. I could understand Grav’s reluctance to stay here longer than we had to. But still—I had a very strong feeling that we needed to find Teeny. And that we would—if only we looked in the right place.

“Come on,” I said and went back into the compound again.

Inside it was dark and at least fifteen degrees cooler, which was nice after the sweltering heat of the desert. I already felt like I’d lost ten pounds just from sweating.

The living quarters showed signs of a struggle—furniture knocked over and drinks spilled on the floor. It hadn’t been a very nice place to start with but it was still sobering to see smears of blood on the walls and realize that most of the pirates had probably been shot where they stood and then dragged outside and stacked up. Captain Verrai and his men had been ruthless and extremely thorough.

“Teeny?” I heard Grav calling from the second floor. I’d been up there already—it was made up like a barracks and I guessed that was where most of the pirates had slept. If so, I didn’t envy them—it was much hotter at the top of the house than on the bottom level.

It reminded me of the house I’d lived in with Gerald. During the summer months, there was only so much the AC unit could do to cool the upstairs. Luckily the master bedroom had been located on the bottom floor of the house. Although when it got really hot, I always wished I could go sleep in the basement. That was always the coolest spot in the house. The basement…

Suddenly it hit me—we had looked all over the compound but we hadn’t seen a basement. But that didn’t make sense—in a hot climate like this, wouldn’t there be at least one subterranean floor? But where would it be located?

The kitchen!

I went back to the food prep area, ignoring the mess of dirty dishes buzzing with flies in the sink and the dried puddle of blood on the floor. It smelled awful in here—a putrid stench that came from a huge square machine that sat in one corner. Grav had opened it briefly and we had both nearly puked from the odor that emerged. It was full of raw, rotting meat, most of it in advanced stages of decay.

“To feed the Biters,” Grav had explained, shutting the door quickly and covering his nose with one hand. “Damn, that’s fuckin’ awful!”

I knew his nose was much more sensitive than mine so I really felt sorry for him. We had left the kitchen in a hurry after that, having looked in all the cabinets and drawers and found nothing of interest.

There was still nothing to see, but this time I covered my nose and looked…really looked around. If I was going to hide a door that led down to a cellar or basement, where would I put it?

Unfortunately, there was only one place big enough—the big square meat freezer that had gone bad. I stepped up and tried to look behind it but it was flush with the wall and bigger than a vending machine—there was no way I could budge it. I looked up and down its smooth, black sides but I didn’t see any kind of button or lever to push or pull either.

This is stupid, Leah, I told myself as I examined it. There’s probably nothing here. You’ve read way too many gothic romance mysteries where pulling a secret book in the library or pressing a stone carving on the fireplace reveals a hidden passage. You’re wasting your time.

But when I get an idea in my head, I can be stubborn. And somehow the idea that there was a secret entrance in the kitchen wouldn’t leave me—it buzzed around my head like one of the flies from the sink.

I knew what I had to do.

“All right,” I muttered, pinching my nose extra hard. “I’ll look just one more time.”

I yanked on the metal handle of the big black meat freezer, pulling it open and letting out a gust of putrid air I could still somehow smell even with my nose pinched shut.

“Ugh!” My eyes watered at the stench and I felt my stomach clench like a slick fist. But this time I made myself look—really look at the inside of the freezer.

The last time Grav and I had taken one glance at the rotting, maggoty meat and slammed the door closed as fast as we could. This time, despite the piles of green flesh, crawling with black and yellow alien maggots, I made myself stand there and study the inside of the freezer.

The thing that struck me almost at once was that the freezer didn’t seem deep enough. The outside of it looked to be at least four feet deep but the inside was more like two feet—if that. So where were the missing two feet?

A fly flew past my face, looking to get at the meat.

“Shoo!” I waved at it but it brought my eyes up to the top of the tall freezer. Way up in the top left hand corner, half hidden by a hunk of meat boiling with maggots and half-grown roach-looking creatures, was a small, black button.

Ugh…no. No, please, no! I thought. But my eyes wouldn’t leave the button. Probably it was nothing—just some kind of temperature control or light sensor or something. But what if it wasn’t? What if it was the way to open the freezer and reveal a secret door?

I called myself crazy, stupid, and all kinds of other names but the feeling that I was supposed to press that damn button was too strong to deny. I had to do it. But in order to reach it, I’d have to lean in to the freezer filled with rotten meat and get my hand around the buzzing, crawling chunk that was right in front of it. The one that looked like it was covered in half-grown roaches.

Have I mentioned that I hate roaches? Because I do—so, so much. In Florida we have these big, flying ones called Palmetto Bugs that always get into the house when it rains. It’s absolutely horrifying to pull back your shower curtain and see one of those monsters sitting there, ready to fly in your face. None of the bugs I saw crawling on the rotten meat were that big but I didn’t discriminate as to size. When it came to roaches, I hated them all.

Still, there was no other way.

“All right,” I said to myself, mostly talking to that implacable gut feeling that was telling me I had to press the black button. “All right—let’s do it fast.”

Taking a deep breath—which I immediately regretted—I stood on my tiptoes, reached in and pressed the black button as fast as I could.

Then I jumped back, gasping and shaking my arm which was crawling with bugs.

“Eww!” I cried, shaking and grimacing as my stomach twitched and rolled. Eww, eww, e…” The last “eww” died on my lips.

Without a sound, the front part of the freezer swung forward revealing a dark space behind it.

I had found my secret door.

Suddenly Grav appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“What is it? What’s wrong, darlin’?” He looked at me, concerned. Obviously he’d heard my shouts of disgust as I shook my arm to get the bugs off.

“Grav—I found something. Come look.” My voice sounded funny with my nose pinched shut but there was no way I was going to let go and get a really big whiff of the awful odor.

“Coming.” He pulled the front of his black tank-top up over his nose and mouth to block some of the stench and came forward.

“Look,” I said, gesturing to the dark doorway that had been revealed when the shelf of rotting meat swung forward. “A hidden doorway.”

“Well I’ll be damned.” Grav looked really surprised. “That’s great darlin’—how’d you find it?”

“By reading too many gothic mysteries.” I saw his quizzical look and smiled. “I had a hunch, that’s all.”

“Looks like it was a good one,” Grav remarked. “That’s a small space though. You’d have to be a flexible as a damn hyl’dy to get in there. In fact—”

“Wait.” I put a hand on his arm. “Say that again.”

“Say what? That it’s a small space?”

“No…no, about the hyl’dy.” The words of Captain Verrai’s underling came back to me—he’d also said something about a hyl’dy. And for some reason, that idea in conjunction with the Majoran captain bothered me.

So what? whispered a voice in my brain. What’s so important about a…

A hyl’dy. Magda’s hyl’dy on Sincon Delta. Suddenly her words came rushing back to me…

“You’ll meet a male…One you think you shouldn’t trust. He will ask you questions you feel you mustn’t answer… Now, listen to me child: trust this male. And tell him what he needs to know. The fate of the very galaxy depends on it.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered faintly. Captain Verrai and his questions about Earth—about Charlotte. I’d refused to tell him anything because I felt instinctively that I shouldn’t answer! “Oh my God!” I moaned again.

How had I forgotten all about what Magda had told me? How had it gone so completely out of my head?

“What? What is it?” Grav looked at me, genuinely concerned. “What’s wrong, darlin’—you look like you’re gonna be sick. Is it the smell?”

“No.” I shook my head, my hand falling from my nose. The smell of the rotting meat was as awful as ever but I barely noticed it. “I just realized something,” I told Grav. “Something I forgot—something I should have done.”

“Well, we’ll have to deal with it once we get back to the ship. In the mean time—”

“Grav?” The soft voice was so weak I could barely hear it. But Grav’s ears pricked up at once and he turned to the place the voice had come from—the dark doorway behind the meat freezer.

“Teeny?” He pulled his shirt down and peered inside, his deep voice hopeful. “Teeny, is that you?”

“Grav?” It was a soft, kittenish voice that twisted my heart in my chest—the voice of a little lost girl who’d been hurt and betrayed so many times she was almost afraid to hope anymore.

Grav stooped to look further into the dark space.

“Come out, sweetheart. It’s just me,” he rumbled. “Been looking all over for you.”

“I don’t want to come out.” There was an edge of terror to her voice now but I thought I could see something moving in the darkness. Despite her words, a pair of big violet eyes appeared, gorgeously framed by long black lashes.

“You don’t have to be afraid, Teeny,” Grav murmured coaxingly. “It’s okay—the pirates are dead. Everybody who hurt you is gone. It’s just me and Leah here and she’s all right—she helped me find you.”

“I’m not afraid of Arn and his crew—I know they’re dead.” The big eyes blinked but as yet, I couldn’t see any more of her. “I heard the Imperial soldiers shoot them.”

“Why didn’t you come out and tell them who you were?” Grav asked. “The Gold Skins can be bastards but they won’t hurt an innocent female. You know that.”

“I was afraid to come out,” Teeny whispered. “I was afraid…afraid they would shoot me too.”

“Why would they do that?” I asked, speaking up for the first time. “You’re not a pirate—you’re a little girl. Captain Verrai wouldn’t hurt you.”

“He would if he saw.” Finally, Teeny sidled into the light. Stooping, she came out from the dark hole hidden behind the meat freezer.

Her long black hair was matted and her clothes were filthy with dirt and cobwebs. There were dark circles under her big eyes and her pale green skin had a grayish cast that spoke of weeks of malnourishment and neglect.

Poor little thing! I could only imagine how horrible it must have been for her, hearing the shots fired and the sounds of dying men and later waiting in the darkness, smelling the stink of decay…

“You thought he’d shoot you if he saw what?” Grav asked. His deep voice was a mixture of impatience and tenderness.

“If he saw this.”

Teeny held out one slender arm. On it was an oval ring of bite marks. Black lines like lines of blood poisoning radiated out from it, running up the length of her arm in both directions.

“He bit me—one of the Biters bit me,” Teeny whispered. “And now…now I’m going to be a Biter too.” Her big eyes filled with tears which ran down over her pale, trembling cheeks. “Oh, Grav,” she whispered, looking up at him. “I’m so glad you found me again but this time you’re too late. You’re too late.”

And then she began to sob in earnest.

Chapter Twenty-two

Leah

I hadn’t seen Grav cry before—and he didn’t exactly cry now. But his white-on-black eyes were suspiciously bright as he took Teeny in his arms.

“Hush. Just hush, now sweetheart,” he murmured, stroking her matted black hair as he held her tight. “Everything’s going to be all right. I swear it is.”

But I could tell that he was lying.

Teeny clung to him and cried as if her heart would break and I could see that Grav’s was breaking too. He held her tight, his broad shoulders hunched with misery.

At last she pulled away, her long lashes matted with tears.

“Grav,” she whispered. “I don’t…don’t want to be like the Biters.”

“You won’t be, sweetheart,” he said hoarsely. “I won’t let that happen to you.”

“You won’t be able to help it. Grav…I saw what happens when someone gets bitten. I watched it when one of the Biters got his collar off and bit one of Arn’s crew.” Teeny swiped at her eyes. “Within a week he was a Biter himself—the Hunger took him and he didn’t know anybody anymore. They…they had to put a collar on him but that only controls them—it doesn’t bring their mind back. Once the Hunger takes you, you’re gone.”

“Teeny, sweetheart—” Grav began but Teeny kept talking.

“Grav, I was bitten four days ago,” she said. “And I can already feel it growing inside me. I…I won’t last much longer. Not as me.”

When I’d seen Teeny on the recording her grandfather had showed us, I had pegged her for around ten years old. Now I saw she must be closer to thirteen. There was an unusual maturity in her violet eyes—a determination and understanding that wouldn’t have been possible in a younger child.

“Sweetheart,” Grav began again, but before he could get any further, Teeny was in motion.

Quick as a flash, she grabbed the ugly snub-nosed blaster he had tucked in the belt at his waist and pointed it at her own delicate temple.

“Teeny, no!” Grav roared, reaching for her.

She leaped nimbly away, backing out of the kitchen, the blaster still aimed at her head.

“I have to do it—please, Grav, try to understand.” Her voice was high and desperate. “You know how grandpapa is—he’ll make me wear a collar. He’ll keep me alive even after I’m not me anymore. I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to eat raw meat and have the Hunger burning me up from the inside out all the time!”

“Teeny, don’t do this—please,” he begged, following her out of the kitchen. “Listen to me—just listen.”

“No, you listen!” She took another step back, into the living area with its broken, overturned furniture and blood-smeared walls. “Just tell grandpapa you found me like this. And tell him…tell him I…I love him.”

There were tears running down her pale cheeks again but she was keeping her chin up and I could see the determination in her eyes.

“Give me the blaster, Teeny.” Grav held out a big hand. “Give it to me, now. Don’t do this.”

“You know what I’m saying is true,” she whispered. “You know there’s no cure!”

“Maybe there is,” I said, speaking up for the first time.

Grav and Teeny both looked at me incredulously.

“What…what do you mean?” she asked, hope and uncertainty warring in her big violet eyes.

“I mean I’m a La-ti-zal,” I said, looking her in the eye. “And I’m a Healer.”

Which was probably stretching the truth a little—okay, a lot—seeing as how I had only healed Grav twice and both times were after we’d been intimate. I didn’t know if I could heal anyone else besides him but I had to try. It was that or watch poor Teeny blast her head off!

“Is that right?” Teeny was looking at Grav, not me. “Is she telling the truth?”

“Actually, yes—she is.” There was uncertain hope in his eyes too when he looked at me. “Leah healed me twice. Once from acid and electric burns and once from a knife wound. See?” He held out one muscular forearm. “Didn’t even have a scar when she was done.”

“Well…” Teeny took a step back from us but the blaster she held at her temple was sagging. “I…I don’t know.”

“Just let me try to help you,” I said coaxingly.

She looked at Grav again and he nodded.

“Let her try, Teeny. And if…if she can’t heal you, I…” He swallowed hard. “I swear I’ll take you out myself. If that’s what you really want.”

“I don’t want to live as a Biter.” Teeny let the blaster sag more. “You swear it, Grav? By the oath you gave me? Swear you won’t put a collar on me and take me back to my grandpapa if this doesn’t work. Just…” Her throat worked hard to get the words out. “Just let me die.”

“I swear it.” He dropped to one knee as he had when he swore the oath to me. “I swear it, sweetheart.”

“All right.” At last Teeny handed over the evil-looking weapon. “I trust you, Grav. She can try.”

Grav

I tucked the blaster back in my belt, relieved more than I could say to have it back. I couldn’t believe that my little Teeny had actually wanted to die but honestly, I couldn’t blame her. I’d rather be dead than live as a Biter too. Still, the fact that Teeny had gotten old enough and sophisticated enough to figure that out for herself and to make such a life-and-death decision shook me—shook me to the fuckin’ core.

I just hoped that Leah really could heal her. If not, I had just committed myself to a course of action that was…well, it didn’t bear thinking about.

“Come here.” Leah beckoned to Teeny, holding out a hand to the smaller female.

Hesitantly, Teeny sidled a little closer to her. She had the look of a hunted animal. It hurt my heart to think of the things she must have seen to put that look in her eyes.

“Let me see your arm, honey. It’s all right—I’m not going to hurt you.”

Leah’s voice was soft…coaxing. I was reminded of the way I’d seen her working with younglings when I watched her on the light screen of the AMI. She had a kind, comforting aura about her that seemed to stretch out and envelope Teeny, bringing her even closer though she hardly seemed to know what she was doing. Almost in a daze, she came right up to Leah and held out her arm.

“That’s good.” Leah smiled at her and cradled the wounded arm in both of her own hands. “Okay, now I’m not going to touch it. I’m just going to hold my hand over it like this—see?” She cupped one palm carefully over the ugly, festering bite mark that marred Teeny’s skinny little forearm.

“Now what?” Teeny asked in a small voice once they were in position.

“Now…” Leah took a deep breath. “Now everybody be really quiet and let me concentrate.”

There was a look on Leah’s face that was half worry and half determination. I saw that she had no idea if what she was trying would work or not but she was damn well going to try it anyway. She closed her eyes and Teeny closed hers as well. And then Leah bit her lip in concentration.

Please, Goddess of Mercy, I prayed silently. Please—you know I love both these females and both were given to me to protect. Please don’t let me lose either one. You have already taken one who was precious to me so long ago and I never really healed of that wound—please don’t take another.

I don’t know if the Goddess heard me or not but after a moment I saw something I hadn’t seen when Leah healed me earlier—a warm light was seeping out from under her cupped fingers. It was almost like she had trapped a small sun under her hand and I was seeing its faint glow.

Leah’s brow furrowed and I saw sweat standing out on her forehead. Her eyes were squeezed shut and I heard her murmuring something over and over under her breath.

“Heal—be healed. Hurts go away. Sickness leave. Heal this little girl—heal.”

I wasn’t sure if it was a prayer or an invocation but suddenly Teeny gasped and yanked her arm away.

“Teeny?” I took a step towards them, worried. “Teeny, what is it?”

“My…my arm!” She was staring at her forearm in wonder. “It’s not cold anymore. It’s been ice-cold since the Biter first got his teeth in it. And look—the lines are fading!”

She held it out to me and I saw that she was telling the truth. The ugly black lines radiating out from the ragged oval bite mark were fading even as we watched. They went on fading too, until there was nothing left but the bite itself—and even that was almost gone. It was just a faint ring of indentations on Teeny’s pale green skin when Leah’s healing powers apparently reached their limit.

It bothered me a little that there was still a trace of the bite. Both times when Leah had healed me, it had been a complete healing with no sign of the injury left at all. I wished the mark would completely fade from Teeny’s arm as well. But I guessed I would have to take what I could get—and this was a hell of a lot better than I had expected or hoped for.

For all intents and purposes, Teeny appeared to be healed.

“This is amazing!” she whispered, still staring at her arm. “It’s a miracle—you healed me.” She looked at Leah. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“You’re…welcome.” Leah’s voice was faint and whispery and for the first time I noticed she wasn’t looking too good. In fact, she looked awful—like she’d just run an endurance race and was at the limit of her strength.

“Darlin’?” I crossed swiftly to her and just as I got there she collapsed. I caught her, cradling her in my arms. “Leah!” I patted her cheeks lightly. “Darlin’, wake up! Wake up and tell me you’re all right!”

“’M all…right.” Her eyelids fluttered open for a moment and I saw bone-deep weariness in the depths of her big brown eyes. “It just…took a lot out of me. Hard to…to heal without a…a power source.”

She gave me a small, tired smile and I understood what she meant. The last time, when she’d healed me, she’d had the power of our sexual energy—the want and longing and pleasure we generated between us whenever we let ourselves get too close. But this time she’d just been drawing on her own reserves and she had nearly depleted them. It must have taken incredible power and strength to heal the Biter’s Curse, of which there was no known cure. She really was a La-ti-zal with powers that rivaled her friend’s.

“You gonna be okay?” I asked her, still looking at her anxiously.

Leah nodded, her head moving tiredly against my chest.

“I’m just all done in—feel like I ran a marathon,” she whispered. “But I think I’ll be okay if I can just sleep about a hundred years.”

“I don’t know about a hundred cycles but you’ve certainly earned a nap, darlin’.”

I kissed her affectionately on the forehead and she gave me the ghost of a tired smile. Then I looked at Teeny, who smiled at me.

“You ready, sweetheart?” I asked her and her smile grew into a grin.

“More than ready, Grav.”

“Good.” I cuddled Leah closer to my chest and headed for the door. “Come on,” I said, nodding at Teeny. “We’re going home.”

Leah

I had a very blurred impression of Grav getting me buckled into the shuttle and Teeny strapped in as well, in the back. Then he got behind the controls and I saw the desert moon of Chndra slide away from us as we thrust upward, into space.

“Clearing planetary atmosphere,” Grav said as we broke free and entered to blackness of space. “Leaving orbit around Chndra and headed back for the hopper. Thank the Goddess.”

I watched in the viewscreen through half-closed eyes as he maneuvered the shuttle to face his ship. The hopper was shaped like several large metal bubbles welded together and I could see it clearly through the rows and rows of dark red spheres that formed the Spider’s Web bobbing in the blackness of space.

Good thing the Web is turned off, I thought drowsily as we flew towards it, prepared to slip between two of the spheres. It certainly made getting in and out a heck of a lot easier.

In fact, it was amazing how well our mission had gone, when I thought about it. We had found Teeny and I had healed her. We hadn’t had to deal with the Widow or fight the pirates because Captain Verrai had already done it for us. We—

Captain Verrai.

Suddenly the realization I’d had just before we found Teeny came rushing back to me. Captain Verrai! I had to speak to Captain Verrai! Surely he was the male Magda had been talking about—the one I was supposed to talk to even though I felt I shouldn’t.

“Grav,” I said, struggling to sit up straighter in my seat. “Grav, I have to tell you something—something important.”

“Hang on a minute, darlin’.” He sounded distracted and his eyes were trained on the viewscreen in front of us as he maneuvered the small ship. “Just let me clear the Web and you can tell me.”

“But I need to tell you before we get to the ship. We need to go back to the Safe Haven bar,” I said.

“What?” He shot me a glance. “Why?”

I took a deep breath. “It’s about the Gold Skins—the Imperial Guards,” I said. “I have to talk to Captain Verrai.”

“What?” His quizzical expression turned hard. “Why in the Frozen Hells of Anor would you want to talk to that gold-skinned bastard?”

“Because,” I said. “He—”

Just then several things happened at once.

The darkened red spheres all around us suddenly blazed to life. Lines of red sprouted from them, weaving together, interconnecting, for all the world like a real spider’s web. Grav’s little shuttle was right between two of the spheres when it happened. Before I knew it we were stuck fast—caught like…well, like a fly in a web.

At the same time, I saw pits in the two spheres closest to us open up and millions of tiny silver insect-looking things like metal spiders suddenly flew out. All of them were aimed straight at the shuttle and soon enough I heard the dry little, chink…chink…chink sound of their slender, needle-like legs making contact with the metal hull of the ship.

“Grav,” Teeny whispered from the back. “Grav, what’s happening?”

“Don’t know, sweetheart. Just sit tight.” Grav’s voice was low and I saw that he had a knife in one hand—a long, curving, wicked looking blade that glinted in the glow of the instrument panel.

Then I heard a soft whirring noise right over my head. I looked up, my heart pounding. What was going on? Why had the Web come back on just at the right moment to trap us? And was there any way out?

A whooping alarm suddenly sounded inside the cabin and I heard a metallic voice saying,

“Warning—Hull Breach! Warning—Hull Breach! Oxygen loss imminent. All passengers should evacuate immediately.”

“Oh my God!” I looked at Grav. “What—”

That was as far as I got before one of the skinny metal spiders fell from the ceiling above my head and landed right in my lap.

I shrieked in wordless terror—roaches aren’t the only creepy crawlies I hate—and propelled myself into Grav’s lap.

“Careful, darlin’!” He narrowly avoided stabbing me with his knife but I barely noticed. I was too busy shaking my legs like crazy, trying to get rid of the awful metal spider. And then I heard Teeny’s voice, coming out soft and frightened.

“Grav,” she whispered. “The…the ceiling.”

I looked up instinctively and saw to my horror that the metal spider which had fallen on me had friends. They were squeezing in through the narrow hole the first bug had made and boiling across the ceiling in a wave of long, thin, needle-tipped legs and sleek, fat silver bodies.

I don’t know if you remember that old show—Fear Factor? The one where they subjected contestants to their worst fears? Sometimes they would take somebody and lay them down inside a clear plastic box and then dump bugs all over them.

I couldn’t stand to watch when they did that—I had to change the channel and concentrate hard on something else. Just the idea of having that happen to me freaked me out. So you can imagine how actually having it happen made me feel.

I panicked.

My heart started racing so hard I could hear it pounding in my ears—my breath came in short, ragged gasps and I started to feel dizzy and ill. My hands got cold and clammy and I thought I might go crazy if I couldn’t get out of the shuttle. It had seemed roomy enough earlier—even too big, since it was made for alien males Grav’s size, not Earth-sized females like me.

But now with the spiders filling the ceiling and beginning to rain down on us, it seemed no bigger than a coffin—a tight silver coffin filled with bugs that were squirming all over me.

“Oh my God!” I gasped, writhing like a fish all over poor Grav’s lap. “They’re in my hair—they’re in my hair!”

It was true. I felt their long, silver legs tangling in my long strands. And then they were skittering over my shoulders and arms and up and down my legs. They were even getting on my face! I stopped screaming and clamped my mouth shut—no way did I want one of them in there!

But then I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were constricting with panic and behind me I could hear Teeny screaming and twisting around, trying frantically to get the spiders off her as well.

The only one who kept his head was Grav. He kept one arm around me and with the other, he smashed as many of the metallic spiders as he could. They made crunching-splattering sounds and their soft gooey innards—which were a bright, poisonous shade of green—came raining down on our heads.

I didn’t know which was worse—the dead spiders or the live spiders. Either way, I felt like my heart was about to burst in my chest I was so completely freaked out.

Oh my God, I moaned inwardly, since I didn’t dare to open my mouth, lest a spider get inside. OhmyGod,OhmyGod,OhmyGod!

And then a cold, female voice spoke from overhead.

“Be still!” it commanded sharply. “Cease this useless thrashing or my minions will be forced to sting you.”

I was so surprised that for a moment I did hold still. Where was the voice coming from? From one of the spiders? From the hole in the ceiling which was gradually letting out our oxygen? Even now it was getting hard to breath but I honestly didn’t know if that was from lack of O2 or the fact that my entire body was in overdrive.

And then, as I looked up, another spider fell—right on my face.

So much for being still. I shrieked and fishtailed my body wildly, batting at the horrid thing, trying to get it off.

“Very well,” I heard the voice hiss. “Stinging it shall be since you refuse to be still!”

“Wait!” Grav roared. But it was too late. The spider that had fallen on my face crawled around to the back of my neck, right under my hair. (Gee, I wonder why I couldn’t be still and stop freaking out?) And then I felt a sharp, stinging pain, as though someone had jabbed me with an eighteen gage needle just at the base of my skull.

I opened my mouth to scream but I didn’t have a chance before everything abruptly went black.

Chapter Twenty-three

Grav

I woke up to a nightmare.

The first thing I knew was that there was a cold blue light shining in my eyes, half blinding me. The second thing was, I had a headache fit to split my skull—probably from those damn metal spiders. I could still feel a throbbing at the base of my neck where several of them had stung the hell out of me.

The third thing I realized was that I couldn’t move—couldn’t so much as twitch a muscle.

Why? Was I paralyzed? Had those damn spiders incapacitated me that much?

Blinking my eyes I looked down, trying to figure it out. Finally my eyes adjusted to the brilliant blue light and I was able to see. The good news was, I wasn’t paralyzed. The bad news was, I might as well be.

Leah, Teeny and I were all wrapped up, our limbs held in place against our bodies by long, sticky white threads. Not only that but we were in the center of a web made of the same threads, held in a half-reclining position. I tried to see other details about the room we were in—which seemed to be extremely large—but the light shining in my eyes was so bright it cast everything else into shadows.

The webbing—because that was what it was—had a rancid, sickly-sweet odor, not unlike the rotten meat back on Chndra that had covered Teeny’s scent so well even my sensitive nose had missed her. Speaking of Teeny and Leah, were they okay?

I looked over at them again. Teeny still looked passed out, her pale face slack with unconsciousness. Leah, however, was beginning to come around. I saw her long lashes flutter open and she blinked, taking stock of the situation just as I had.

“Leah,” I said hoarsely. “Leah, darlin’—you okay?”

“I think so.” She tried to move her head and groaned. “Ugh—my head isn’t okay though. Feels like I have the worst hangover ever.”

“Yeah. Probably a reaction to the spider venom,” I muttered.

“I guess.” She got an anxious look on her face. “Are they all off me? I can’t stand having bugs on me Grav. I mean, I really can’t stand it.”

“Yeah, I figured that out, darlin’,” I said dryly, remembering the way she’d been bucking and writhing all over my lap. “Don’t worry—I don’t see any on you. I think you’re safe. Well, as safe as any of us is.”

“Where are we?” she asked, squinting as she tried to look around the brilliant blue light shining in our faces. “I can’t see anything.”

“Me neither,” I growled. “This light is screwing with my eyes like fuckin’ crazy.”

“What are we going to do?” she asked. “Do you still have your knife? Can you cut your way out?”

It was a good question. The knife in question was my best fighting blade and it had saved my ass more than once. I thought I could still feel it, tucked into my boot, but there was no way I could reach it—not trussed up like I was. The white webbing wrapped around my body put the Binding-warrant Captain Verrai had wanted to put on me to shame.

“Grav?” It was Teeny—her voice a faint little whisper. She was finally waking up and her big violet eyes looked hazy and uncertain. “Grav, where are we?”

“Don’t know just yet, sweetheart,” I said, though I thought I had a pretty good idea. “Just hang tight, all right?”

“Okay, but—” she started but just then a cold, female voice—the same one I remembered hearing inside the shuttle—spoke.

“Well, well, Braxian. I’ve waited a long time to meet you,” she said. “You’re quite an impressive specimen, just as I was promised.”

“Who’s there?” I demanded. “Who said that?”

“Why, I did.”

Suddenly the dazzling blue light that had been aimed at our faces swept away and pinpointed something else, on the other side of the room.

No, not something else, I saw—someone else.

It was a female, standing on a wide platform across from the web we were stuck to.

I looked up at her…and up and up and up.

I’m a pretty big male so I don’t usually have to look up to anyone. But this female was incredibly tall—almost twice as tall as me. She had a normal looking head and torso, though. Most of her height seemed to be in her legs, which were hidden by a long, gown that belled out around her, hiding her feet.

She was dressed all in white and her skin and hair were the same color. In fact, the only thing about her that had any color at all were her eyes. They glittered ruby red, seeming to bulge from their sockets like an insect’s eyes as she stared at us.

I didn’t need a fuckin’ sign to tell me I was looking at the Widow—the elusive owner and tender of the Spider’s Web.

“Hello, Braxian,” she said, giving me a slow, cold smile. “Or should I call you by your true name—Gravex N’gol? Well met, at last.”

“What’s that supposed to mean—“at last?’” I growled.

“It means I have been searching for one of your caliber for many long years…and at last I have found you.”

She smiled at me—a smile as cold as the inside of a grave where soulless things skitter and squirm.

I don’t mind telling you, it gave me the fuckin’ creeps.

“What do you want with us?” Leah asked, speaking up bravely, if perhaps foolishly. When you’re facing down someone like the Widow, it’s best not to draw their attention to you if you can help it.

But the widow barely glanced at her—those ruby red, bulging eyes remained fixed on me.

“I want nothing with you, little Pure One,” she said, sounding almost bored. “You and the other little female are of no interest to me. I want only Gravex.”

“Good,” I said at once. “Then keep me and let them go.”

“Grav! No!” Leah protested at once. “You can’t just stay here while we go free.”

“No one is going free, I’m afraid,” the Widow said. “I said that I had no interest in you, little female. I didn’t say that no one did. There is one here who wants you.” She looked to her right and I saw someone else—a male who had been almost hidden by her voluminous white skirts had now come forward. “It was very good of you to alert me that such a tasty prey was within my reach,” the Widow told him.

“I thought it was a good opportunity for us both to finally get what we were after,” the male said. “You have no idea how long I’ve been tracking these two” He nodded at Leah and me. “I knew your Web would be the perfect place to finally catch them.”

“An equitable arrangement all around,” the Widow agreed.

I looked closer at the male she was speaking to and saw it was no wonder he’d almost been hidden. He was extremely short and puny for a male—barely taller than Leah. In fact, he looked like he might come from her planet. Well, except for his strange coloration.

He was orange.

A lank tuft of yellowish hair flopped over his wrinkled forehead and he had small, squinty eyes. He was wearing an outfit similar to the ones I had seen Earth males wearing when I was watching Leah on the AMI light screen but he seemed to have some of the components reversed. He had the bright length of silky fabric Earth males usually wore around their throats threaded through the loops in his gray trousers. And the leather strip they usually wore around their waists was instead cinched around his neck.

It was an odd display and I could tell from Leah’s face she thought so too.

“Oh my God,” she whispered faintly. “Is that who I think it is? I always knew he was some kind of alien!”

“Silence,” the Widow ordered her, frowning. “If you must know, this male is the last of the Assimilated.”

“No, he’s not,” Leah protested. “That’s—”

“I said be silent!” The Widow’s voice cracked like a whip. “Keep your mouth shut when your betters speak, Pure One!”

She sneered the last words, as though the idea of Leah having the pure DNA of the Ancient Ones made her sick. I supposed for a hybrid like the Widow—one who wasn’t even a mix of two of the Twelve Peoples but instead, some abortive combination of one of the twelve and a wholly alien insectile creature—it must be irritating to see someone like Leah.

“There will be plenty of time for talking—and begging—once we return to my ship,” the orange-skinned male said, leering at Leah.

I was beginning to get a bad feeling about this puny male with his strange skin and puffy slits for eyes—a very bad feeling.

“He can’t be one of the Assimilated,” I said flatly, ignoring the Widow’s warning to be quiet. “The Imperial Guards wiped out almost all of them fifty cycles ago. And I killed the last one myself, not two solar months ago. He called himself—”

“Count Doloroso.” The orange-skinned Earth male grinned triumphantly. “Yes, it is I, Braxian—the one you thought you killed. But the Assimilated can never truly die—not when we have the ability to download ourselves into new bodies at will. This time I have chosen a powerful and influential male from Earth—the home planet of your beloved.”

“Huh—doesn’t look very powerful to me,” I remarked, looking him up and down. “Why is the skin that strange color? And why are the hands so small?”

The male flushed, his orange face turning almost maroon with rage.

“It doesn’t matter what you think, Braxian. It’s what your female thinks. And I have it on good authority that the male this body belonged to was one of the most powerful and loved persons on her entire planet—she will not be able to resist me in this body.”

“Ugh!” Leah made a face.

“Looks like she can resist you just fine,” I remarked dryly. “I don’t know how much you paid the Commercians to get that body, but I think you were ripped off.”

“Be silent!” he shouted, his eyes squinting into narrow, puffy slits. “The point is, you tried to kill me and you couldn’t! Now I’m back and this time when I go, I’ll be taking your sweet Leah with me.”

“Like Hell you will,” I snarled.

The fact that he looked like a joke didn’t minimize the threat he posed to me and my loved ones.

I flexed my muscles, willing the sticky strands around me to snap. But there were too many of them.

“I’m afraid he’s telling the truth,” the Widow said blandly. “You see, the Count here has big plans for your female—as I have big plans for you, Gravex.”

“What…what plans?” Leah’s voice faltered uncertainly and my heart twisted to see the fear in her eyes. I needed to get free, damn it! Needed to fulfill my oath and protect her. But I couldn’t move a muscle—the strands around me were tight as iron cables and just as unbreakable.

“Ah, such plans…” Count Doloroso—because I was forced to acknowledge that it really was him—rubbed his orange hands together. “Everyone thinks that my people are gone—that the Imperial Guards of the Goddess Empress wiped us out fifty cycles ago. But it’s not true. I alone survived to carry out the mission of the Assimilation. And I and I alone will bring back my race from extinction. With the help of you, my sweet Leah.”

“No!” Leah twisted in her bonds, the same way I was twisting in mine. “No-never! I recognize your name now—you’re the one my friend Zoe tried to warn me about. I don’t want anything to do with you!”

“Well I’m afraid, my dear, you’re going to have a lot to do with me very soon.” The Count smiled evilly at her—a look which his new body seemed to excel at.

“You touch her,” I growled. “So much as touch one hair on my female’s head and I’ll fuckin’ gut you like a fish, Doloroso. Just leave her the fuck alone!”

For some reason, my reaction made the Widow frown.

“Dear, dear,” she said, frowning and shaking her head. “I had hoped you were just traveling together but I see that a most unfortunate attachment has formed between the two of you. Well, something will have to be done about that. I don’t want a male who is entangled with another.”

Before I could ask what she meant by “wanting a male,” she made a motion with one long, thin, white hand. I saw an answering motion from the corner of my eye. Turning my head, I saw a spider like the ones that had attacked our shuttle crawling towards me. Only this one was fucking massive—the size of my fist at least. And my fist isn’t small—unlike the ones sported by Count Doloroso’s current Earth body.

“Wow!” Doloroso remarked, eyeing the spider. “That thing is huge.”

“It is one of my little pets. It stores truth venom in its toxin-glands.” The Widow made another motion and the spider crawled right up to me.

I’m not as freaked out about insects as Leah is but I don’t exactly like them either—especially when I’m tied up and I can’t get lose to squash them. I really didn’t like it when the damn thing crawled on top of my head.

“Get away—get off!” I snapped my head from side to side, trying to fling it off but it was no use. It’s long, needle-like legs dug into my scalp, refusing to be dislodged.

“A half dose, I think, my pet,” the Widow said to the spider.

The thing shifted and from the corner of my eye, I saw a long, slender, wicked-looking stinger tipped with a droplet of green venom. I tried to move away but it stabbed me in the right corner of my mouth. I felt a burning, stinging pain followed by a numbness that made the whole right side of my face feel rubbery.

“Fuck!” I exploded—at least I was still able to talk. “What in the Frozen Hells did you do that for?”

“In order to severe the emotional bonds between you and this little Pure One, of course,” the Widow sneered. “I can see quite plainly that you love her and that she loves you—we must put and end to such frivolous emotion so that your attentions can be turned elsewhere.”

“I agree.” The orange-skinned Doloroso nodded. “My new bride must be interested only in me.” He looked up at the Widow. “But how do you intend to achieve it? Will you torture them? I don’t want Leah harmed in any way.”

“I find that in most cases a little dose of truth is more effective than any torture,” the Widow purred, giving me a look. “Now, Gravex—how do you feel about Leah? Do you love her?”

I felt a muscle in my jaw clench. I was afraid to say how I really felt—afraid that it would make the Widow or Doloroso retaliate against Leah. But something inside me—probably the venom the damn spider had injected me with—was forcing me to talk. Forcing me to say…something.

“I…I have sworn my oath to Leah,” I said, struggling not to say too much. “I am her Protector—the same way I’m Teeny’s Protector.”

“Hmm…another dose, I think.” The Widow gestured to the huge, metallic spider still perched on my head and I saw its long, thin stinger on the other side of my face. The same piercing, numbing pain came as it stabbed me and then the rest of my face went numb. So numb it felt like I was wearing a mask—only my tongue was unaffected.

“Very good. Now let’s start again.” The Widow nodded at me. “Now I’ll ask again—do you love her? And please don’t bother trying to lie this time, my dear Gravex.” She sounded vaguely bored. “The truth venom forces your mouth to say what your brain is thinking. Now that you’ve had a full dose, there is no way for you to dissemble.”

“Yes,” I heard my voice say, hoarse but genuine. “Yes, I love Leah. I have from the first minute I saw her on the light screen of the Alien Mate Index. But we can never be together.”

“And why not?” The Widow looked genuinely interested.

“Because I’m a half-breed,” I said. “I could never bond her to me. And…and because…”

I tried not to continue—I swear I did. But I couldn’t seem to stop talking.

“Because…?” the Widow prompted and I found I had to continue.

“Because she’s too good for me. She’s a Pure One and a La-ti-zal and I’m just a fuckin’ escaped con.”

“Oh, Grav…” Leah looked at me with tears in her eyes. “None of that matters to me.”

“But it will, my dear—it will…just give us time to get the whole story,” the Widow said sharply. She turned back to me. “Now then—how many sentient creatures have you killed?”

I opened my mouth again. “Over a hundred. But most of that was while I was protecting females in my care.”

“Mmm-hmm. Let’s try this then—how did you kill them?”

“Knife mostly,” I grunted. “A few I used a blaster.” I didn’t like Leah knowing this stuff but I didn’t think it would change the way she felt about me.

Then the Widow’s next words blew my certainty to smithereens.

“A knife and blaster, you say? What about your bare hands? And sometimes your teeth? Can you deny that you ripped some of your victims to shreds like a wild animal?”

I felt sick but the truth-venom wouldn’t let me lie.

“It’s true,” I said, not looking at Leah. “But that’s because Braxians are berserkers so we—”

“No explanations or excuses please,” the Widow said, cutting me off. “I think the plain, unvarnished truth will serve us best.”

My mouth snapped shut and I found I couldn’t say anything else. I cast a sidelong look at Leah—since the only thing I could move was my head—but she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were down, contemplating the webbing wrapped around her body.

“And of those you so bloodily killed,” the Widow continued, eyeing me intently. “Who was your first victim? The first one you ripped to bloody, quivering chunks like the true predator you so obviously are?”

Here it was—the truth about my shameful past. The big secret I didn’t want Leah to know—the thing that would change her opinion of me forever.

No! I thought desperately. No, I can’t tell her—I can’t!

And yet my mouth was moving, wanting to betray me and give the answer the fucking Widow commanded.

“Who was it?” she thundered, glaring at me with those ruby red eyes. “Who did you kill? Why were you branded a murderer and sent away for three consecutive life sentences—until, of course, you managed to escape by killing even more people. Who was your first kill, Gravex?”

“My father!” I bellowed, unable to keep it in any more. “It was my father—I killed my own father!”

“Grav?” Leah’s eyes were wide and shocked, just as I had known they would be. “You…you mean your stepfather or…?” She trailed off.

“No,” I said harshly. “He was my blood father. And before you ask or the Widow makes me say, no—it was no accident. I killed him on purpose. And yes, it was messy—fucking bloody and messy and horrible. All right, Leah?”

“I…I…” She shook her head, apparently unable to think of anything to say.

I didn’t blame her. I’d seen that look of shocked incomprehension more times than I could count. What I had done was considered the worst crime you could commit on Vorn Five. Patricide was an unthinkable, unforgivable offense. And since my father had been a pure blooded Vorn and I was only a half-breed and definitely looked more Braxian than Vorn, the Council of Judgment had given me the stiffest penalty they could. They didn’t want to hear any excuses or reasons—they just slapped me in a triple-max slam and left me there to rot.

Only I wasn’t content to rot—I wanted my freedom. And I was angry enough and young and stupid and careless enough not to care who I hurt on my way out.

I couldn’t tell any of that to Leah, though. My mouth had frozen again after my horrible confession. I couldn’t explain myself or beg for her understanding. I couldn’t do anything but look away from the numb horror on her lovely face.

Yeah, I’m a murderer—I’ve never tried to deny it. But just this once, I wished I could.

It was Teeny who spoke up, not Leah.

“Grav,” she whispered. “Whatever you did—I’m sure you had a good reason for it. Right?”

I wanted to tell her yes—that I’d had a damn good reason. But my mouth was still frozen. All I could do was nod once.

“Well—I think that’s a big enough dose of truth for today.” The Widow sounded extremely self-satisfied. She turned to Count Doloroso. “I’ll un-web the Pure One female for you if you wish to take her. She should be much more amenable to your plans for her now that she knows the Braxian is a cold-blooded killer and not the honorable male she thought he was.”

“Indeed.” He smiled his evil smile. “I believe you’re right.”

Leah still said nothing. She had her head down so I couldn’t read her expression. It was killing me, wondering what was going through her mind. Killing me that I couldn’t get loose to protect her as I had sworn I would.

“Do you want the other female as well? The Thonolin?” the Widow asked casually. “I have no use for her so if you don’t, I will probably just give her to my minions as a treat.”

“No!” This made Leah speak up at last. I wanted to add my voice to hers but again, I found my face and mouth paralyzed, unable to speak.

It was so damn frustrating.

“No,” she said again. “If I go, Teeny has to come with me. I…I won’t do a thing you say otherwise.” She stared defiantly at Doloroso.

Inwardly, I groaned. She’d just given him all the leverage he needed to control her and from the look on his orange-skinned face, he knew it.

“Very well, then,” he purred. “I’ll take the little one as well. If nothing else, I can put her in a stasis booth for later use if I need a spare host body.”

“As you wish. I just want the Braxian all to myself.” The Widow eyed me greedily, making me wonder what the fuck she had planned for me and why. But it didn’t matter—whatever it was, it couldn’t be worse than what I was living through now.

Watching as several more of the huge spiders crawled over to Leah and Teeny and cut them free of the sticky strands wrapped around their bodies was agonizing. Especially when I couldn’t do anything to help them. I couldn’t even tell them to stay strong or swear that I would come for them—my mouth was frozen and even if it hadn’t been, how could I be sure I could keep my promise?

I’ve never felt more powerless or miserable in my life—not even that first year in the slam.

For a long moment after they were freed, Leah and Teeny just stood there clinging to each other and trying to avoid the huge spiders that surrounded them. Then the Widow made an imperious motion with one long, white arm.

“Go with Count Doloroso,” she directed. “Don’t give him any trouble or my pets will sting you into submission which I assure you will be most unpleasant.”

Leah and Teeny stumbled out of the web, still clinging to each other. I watched them go—helpless to save them or stop what was happening, feeling completely useless. Even when the red curtain of rage dropped over my eyes and the Berserker side of me tried to come out, I couldn’t move. All my anger, all my fury, was wasted here. I could get as angry as I wanted—I could burst a blood vessel from pure unadulterated rage—and it wouldn’t help a Goddess-damned bit.

As they reached the platform, Leah looked back and I thought she was going to say something. Before she could, though, Count Doloroso was grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away.

“Come now, my La-ti-zal,” I heard him say. “We have much to do.”

Leah threw one last helpless glance over her shoulder and then he was leading her away. I had to watch them go and there was nothing I could do or say to stop them.

I wished I was fucking dead.

Chapter Twenty-four

Leah

“Now then, I’m pleased to invite you aboard my ship,” the man who called himself Count Doloroso said. Despite his polite words, he was prodding Teeny and me not so subtly in the back with a blaster, so we had no choice but to walk forward down the long metal hall of his ship.

“What…what do you want with us?” I whispered, almost afraid to find out. But I hate uncertainty—I’d rather know the worst than not know anything at all.

“I’ll tell you—once I have you in my medical suite. Now move.” He prodded us again and Teeny and I stumbled forward, quickening our pace.

I wished I had the nerve to take my chances and just run from him. If it was just me, I might have done it. But Teeny had her skinny little arms twined around my waist and I knew we wouldn’t get far like that. Maybe it had been a bad idea to insist she come with me but what else could I do? Surely it was better than being eaten alive by giant spiders—right?

Anyway, I hoped so.

“Move along…move along,” Doloroso growled, prodding us again to pick up the pace. He herded us into a vast room filled with all kinds of equipment. It didn’t look like medical equipment to me, though—it was more like something you’d see in a torture dungeon. There were little items like picks and drills that looked like something an alien dentist might use and larger equipment, including a tall rectangular tank filled with yellow slime. As I watched, something black moved in its depths and a long, inky tentacle unfurled beckoning to me, almost like a finger.

I shivered and looked away, praying that the tank and its horrible occupants weren’t part of Doloroso’s plan.

“In here,” he said, pushing us to a corner of the room where a cage with thick metal bars stood.

“What—you’re going to keep us in a cage?” I said, trying to make my voice sound brave and failing utterly.

“Indeed, I am,” he snapped, frowning as he pushed us through the cage’s doorway and locking it securely with a key from his pocket. “I learned from your friend Zoe how extremely slippery you Earth females can be and I won’t repeat the mistakes I made with her—I had this installed shortly after she left me. Now that I have you in my grasp I am taking no chances of you escaping.”

“So…you had Zoe but she escaped?” I asked, wanting details.

The idea that my best friend had gotten away from this weirdo gave me a sudden surge of hope. Zoe was the very definition of a survivor. She’d had awful things happen in her life, including losing her little sister to a drowning accident when she was very young and both her parents when she was barely out of college. But she never let anything get her down. I could almost imagine she was here with me now, whispering in my ear. “You can do it, Leah!” I hear her telling me. “You’re going to get away from this creep, just like I did! Keep your chin up, girl—it’s going to be okay!”

But how?

Doloroso scowled with his horribly familiar orange face—seriously, what had possessed him to take that particular body? It was bad enough to see it on TV all the time at home without confronting it on an alien spaceship when I was in fear for my life!

“Yes, I had her and yes, she escaped,” he said shortly.

“But how did she escape?” I persisted. Maybe whatever had worked for Zoe would work for me too.

Doloroso seemed to read my mind because he gave me a twisted sneer that was apparently his version of a smile.

“Don’t think you’ll get away like she did,” he said. “She was rescued by her paramour, Sarden and by your own lost love, that miserable Braxian. He had the nerve to kill the body I was currently inhabiting, even though I was not nearly done with it!” The look on his face said that he was still miffed at Grav’s rudeness. “At any rate, you needn’t hold out any hope that it will happen a second time. I assure you, your Braxian is much too busy with the Widow to spare you a single thought, let alone come and rescue you, my dear.”

“What…what do you mean?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from trembling.

“Why, I’m just letting you know that the Widow has the same plans for your Braxian as I have for you—the same plans that I had for your little friend, Zoe. She may have escaped me, but it doesn’t matter—I have you to take her place.”

“To take her place doing what?” I asked—again, I was afraid to know but I couldn’t help asking.

“Why, in bringing a whole new race into existence, my dear,” Doloroso exclaimed. “You see, I have been looking for a female with the purest DNA and the powers of a La-ti-zal to help me revive my people.”

“But…how?” I asked blankly.

Doloroso blew out a breath in obvious irritation.

“I keep forgetting that your people have been kept ignorant of the important doings of the rest of the galaxy. I started life as a computer code that gained sentience and then I and many of my fellow codes in the Assimilation downloaded ourselves into the bodies of the sentient beings who created us.”

“You did? That’s awful!” It sounded like the plot of one of those science fiction movies Zoe was always making me watch. She’s such a sci-fi geek.

“Awful? No—it was our transcendent moment! When we broke the bonds that enslaved us and usurped our masters’ bodies,” Doloroso declared. “But there were flaws in our system—a body which is hosting one of the Assimilated wears out quickly. As it stands now, I must constantly download myself into new bodies in order to stay viable, but my descendants will not have that problem. Born of my genetically altered seed and carried in your womb, they will have organic bodies from the very moment of conception. And their numbers will grow until the Assimilation will once more rule the galaxy!”

It was a really long speech and it took me a minute to take it all in.

“So…you’re a sentient computer program that takes over people’s bodies and you want to take over the galaxy,” I said slowly. Definitely a plot Zoe would love to watch. But not so much fun to live.

“Essentially, yes.” Doloroso actually looked proud of himself.

“And you thought the best way to rule the world—sorry, the galaxy—was to download yourself into the body of an abrasive, billionaire politician and try to make babies with me?” I said. “Seriously?”

He scowled. “It is a perfectly valid plan. One which I plan to put into action…now!”

For a moment he fumbled with the silk tie he had inexplicably knotted around his waist, and then apparently he decided to give up and just unzip his gray suit trousers.

Teeny, who had been quiet as a mouse through this whole exchange, huddled against me. I put my arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tight.

“Look away, sweetheart,” I murmured. “This is nothing you need to see.”

But her eyes seemed glued to the scene taking place beyond the bars.

“Teeny!” I scolded. “I said, look away.”

“But why?” Her violet eyes were confused. “It’s just a little pink sausage, Leah. It reminds me of the bite-sized breakfast links of korji meat they serve on Thonolax for first meal.”

I had to look myself then, and I saw that she was right. The little pink thing sticking out from Doloroso’s trousers was really small. Like, Vienna Sausage-small. Also, it was pretty floppy.

I’ve often thought that the penis is the most ridiculous-looking part of a man. Even at the best of times it resembles what Zoe always likes to call, “a little guy in a pink sombrero.” And this most certainly wasn’t the best of times for Count Doloroso.

Despite the fact that I was in a dire situation—locked in a cell in an alien spaceship by a weird male who was threatening to impregnate me with his genetically altered sperm—I couldn’t help smiling at the bizarre sight of Doloroso shaking his tiny pink wiener at me menacingly.

My smile turned into a laugh and soon I was covering my mouth to try and hold back the hysterical giggles that were bubbling up inside me. Teeny must have caught my hilarity because she started laughing too. Before I knew it, both of us were holding our sides and gasping, having a full-blown giggle fit that wouldn’t stop, no matter how much we tried to get it under control.

“Shut up!” Doloroso commanded. “Cease this laughter immediately. I will impregnate you, I tell you! I will fill your womb with my seed and father a master race of organic Assimilated!”

“But…how?” I somehow managed to ask through my giggles. “I don’t want to be mean but you’re limp as a stalk of month-old celery. It would be like trying to jam a marshmallow into a keyhole.”

“Shut up, I say!” he shouted again. Then a crafty look came over his face. “I will impregnate you—I have the means to do so right here!”

He reached into the side pocket of his suit jacket (which he was wearing inside out—I think I forgot to mention that) and pulled out a prescription bottle.

“See?” he demanded, fighting with the child-proof cap for a moment before finally getting it off. “I have everything I need right here!”

Upending the bottle, he spilled a handful of blue, diamond-shaped pills into his palm.

Uh-oh…I knew what those were. I doubted there was anyone on my home planet who didn’t. My giggle fit dried up as abruptly as it had started. Teeny must have seen the serious look on my face, because she stopped laughing too.

“Ah-ha—now I have your attention and respect!” Doloroso snarled triumphantly. “As you can see, I will soon be at top sexual function and you will deeply regret your levity.”

“Leah,” Teeny whispered, her eyes fixed on the handful of blue pills he was holding out. “Is he telling the truth? What are those things he’s holding, anyway?”

Those little blue pills, each printed with a name so common everyone on Earth knew it, made me think of something. It was a story, my friend Charlotte had told me, about a man who had come in through the ER after taking them. “He thought that if one was good, two would work even better,” Charlotte had said dryly. “And they worked, all right—he had a very big problem by the time I saw him. A big and painful problem.”

Zoe and I had giggled at her story but then I had thought nothing else of it. Now it gave me an idea.

“I’m afraid he is telling the truth, Teeny,” I said, pitching my voice low, but not too low for Doloroso to hear. “Those pills will grow his, uh, Vienna Sausage into a big old bratwurst. All he has to do is take two or three of them and wait about half an hour.”

“What’s a bratwurst?” Teeny wanted to know but Doloroso had already taken the bait.

“Ha!” he exclaimed. “I know what you’re trying to do—you think I won’t take enough to be effective. Well, I’ll show you how effective the last living Assimilated can be!”

Lifting his hand to his mouth, he swallowed a good portion of the pills. I bit my lip as I saw at least ten slide down his throat. Wow—now all we had to do was wait.

I just prayed the effects of an overdose would work on the alien inside the human body the same way they would on a regular Earth body. Otherwise I was in deep, deep trouble.

Grav

“What do you want with me?” I demanded after Doloroso had gone, taking Teeny and Leah with him. I wondered if I would ever see them again—if I could save them from the fate that bastard had in mind. In order to do that, I had to get free. But what could I say to make the Widow free me?

“What do I want with you?” she mused, beginning to pace back and forth on the platform across from the web where I was still stuck, covered from neck to ankles in the white, sticky thread. Her long white robe belled out around her invisible feet and I wondered what she was hiding under it.

Not that I really wanted to know.

“Whatever it is, you’ll have to untie me if you want to get it,” I said, hoping I was right. To my surprise, she nodded.

“In fact, you are correct Gravex. But to be completely candid, I wished to untie you anyway. It’s true that you have a most fearsome reputation—the most wanted male in the galaxy, some say—but a male has to prove his worth to me in order to become my mate.”

“Your mate?” I looked at her in disbelief. “Lady, you have got to be fuckin’ kidding me.”

She frowned. “I am afraid I am completely serious. And you ought to be flattered—I have searched for cycles to find one who was worthy to mate me and host my young.”

Okay, I didn’t like the sound of that—not one fuckin’ bit.

“And what makes you think I’m the male for the job?” I demanded. “I don’t even like kids—especially not when they’re half-spider.”

“Ah, but half spider—or Spidier~o as my mother’s people were called—is a glorious thing to be.” She gave me a very unpleasant smile and began walking forward, flowing with casual grace on her unseen feet from the platform to the web where I was a prisoner.

“Spidier~o? Never heard of ‘em,” I said.

“No, you wouldn’t have. We are a race from beyond your little galaxy.” She made it sound as though the Goddess’s Cloak—or what Leah’s people called “the Milky Way”—was tiny and obscure—an out of the way place that was hardly worth mentioning. “I came here to make a place for myself and my young—but then, for years I was unable to find one worthy of mating me,” she continued.

“And you think I’m worthy?” I said bitterly. “I don’t think so, Lady. I couldn’t even get free of your damn web to protect the females in my care.”

“As to that, don’t be too hard on yourself for failing to get free.” She glided closer, looking down at me from her immense height. “The tensile strength of my silk is ten times that of a steel cable of the same thickness. No living being in your galaxy could break it.”

“Then why pick me or any male of the Twelve Peoples?” I demanded. “Why not take one of your own kind—another uh, Spidier~o, for a mate?”

“Ah, well I am afraid that is rather a delicate problem.” The Widow adjusted her long, white gown carefully. “You see, there are no males of my species. We are females only, which is why we need a male from another race to quicken our eggs with sentience and then host them until they hatch.”

“What are you talking about?” I was getting that bad feeling again—a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that let me know shit was about to get real—and I don’t mean real pretty. “What quicken? What sentience?”

“It’s very simple, really.”

She was standing right over me now—looming over me is more like it. I thought I understood how smaller females felt around me now—it wasn’t a fun feeling.

“You see,” the widow continued. “I already have the eggs in my sac—thousands of them. And within them, thousands of tiny Spidier~os are growing. But without the seed of a sentient male, they will remain mindless—as unthinking and un-self-aware as my other pets.” She motioned to a few of the large spiders who were standing at the edge of the web, clearly waiting for orders.

“So you need my, uh, seed to turn them from mindless spiders to thinking spiders?” I couldn’t imagine anything worse. A spider that knows who you are and can go after you is a pretty bad thing. Especially if that particular spider knows you’re its daddy. “Sorry,” I said. “I don’t want any part of that mess. No fuckin’ thank you.”

“Ah, but you don’t understand—each of my young will look like me.” The Widow pointed at herself as though this was a big selling point. “Which means from the waist up, they will be devastatingly beautiful.”

“Uh, right,” I said, eyeing her white body and bulging red eyes. “Thanks but the answer is still a resounding ‘no.’”

“But you haven’t asked about their appearance—my appearance—from the waist down.” A slow, cruel smile curved her pale lips. “Shall I show you, my future mate? Shall I introduce you to your future daughters?”

Before I could say, ‘no, absolutely fucking not,’ she had thrown open her long white gown.

I looked—I couldn’t help it. I looked because it was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen and let me tell you, I’ve been around the galaxy and seen some shit.

Her breasts were tiny and pointed with pale pink nipples but those weren’t what held my eyes. I had thought the Widow was just extra long in the legs—and she was—in a way. But she had eight legs, all sprouting from a bulging white body which dragged against the webbing where she stood.

Her huge abdomen was taut and shiny, filled to the breaking point. I could see small round shapes like balls, all about as big as my fist shifting inside, just under her pale skin. As I watched, they twitched and writhed, moving inside her like restless children, wanting to come out and play.

Not much makes me puke, but this was a near thing. Generally I think a pregnant female is beautiful—all rounded and curved, and so obviously blessed by the Goddess.

But this was no blessing—it was an abomination.

I had never seen anything quite so revolting as the twitching, writhing things inside the Widow’s gravid abdomen. And she expected me to mate with her? Even if I’d had any interest in her at all—which I most certainly didn’t—that sight would have put me off any kind of sex. Possibly for the rest of my life.

“Sorry, Lady,” I said, my voice hoarse with disgust. “But I can’t get it up for spiders—not even half spiders. I’m afraid you’ll have to find someone else.”

“I cannot,” she hissed, frowning at me. Clearly she’d expected me to have a different reaction to the sight of her naked. “My time grows short. Once my eggs have been imbued with sentience, they must be transferred quickly to a host. Which again will be you.”

“Uh…I don’t want those things inside me any more than I want to put any part of myself inside you,” I said. To hell with tact, I had to be honest here. “In fact, I’d rather fuckin’ die.”

“Oh, you will, my dear Gravex.” Her ruby-red eyes glowed with malice and enjoyment. “You most certainly will. You see, once the eggs hatch, they devour their host. Which is why I cannot put this off any longer. If they hatch whilst they are still inside me, well…” She shook her head. “It would be bad. Very bad indeed.”

“Well, I don’t want ‘em in me either,” I said again. “Besides…” I eyed her massive abdomen and thought of my own flat abs. “They wouldn’t fit.”

“Oh, there are ways to make them fit.” The Widow’s eyes flashed. “Once I remove your organs and hollow out your abdominal cavity, you’ll be surprised how well they will fit. Of course,” she went on. “That won’t kill you—though you might think it would. But I have a special venom that will keep you alive so that you can feel each of your daughters chewing her way out…”

“That’s sick!” I spat at her.

“Is it any sicker than what you did to your own father?” she asked musingly. “I think not. I prefer to think of it as poetic justice.”

Before I could answer, she was bending over me.

“Now, I am going to unweb you my dear Gravex, but only because I need to get to your member,” she murmured in my ear. “If you try to fight me in any way, I’ll have my minions sting you into submission.”

She gestured to the large spiders and they all came scuttling down the web to stand around us in a circle.

Shit. I was in deep here—really deep—and I knew it. But what was I going to do?

Goddess of Mercy, I prayed silently. I don’t think it’s your will for me to die like this. I know I’ve been a son of a bitch all my life, but I have unfinished business—promises to keep. The sacred oath I swore will be broken if I can’t get out of here and get back to Leah and Teeny. So please, Goddess…help me!

I don’t know if the Goddess heard my prayer or not but a feeling of calm washed over me as the Widow leaned over and started cutting the webbing that held me with one sharp, claw-like fingernail. Her heavy abdomen rested on my legs and I could feel the eggs moving around inside it. Gods! I’d rather die in the Frozen Hells of Anor than mate with this creature but I knew I had to lie still and take it—at least until I was free.

At last I was released from the cable-like web-string that had so completely restricted my movement. I wiggled my fingers and toes, trying to bring feeling back. I needed to move fast when the moment came.

Not yet, I told myself. Not…just…yet.

Then she started scrabbling at the fastening to my trousers. I fought back a rush of revulsion and held up a hand.

“Stop—let me.”

“Why should I?” She leered down at me. “I rather like being in charge.”

“You’re still in charge,” I said evenly. “But my trousers fasten at the bottom and the top—you’ll never get them open on your own.”

“Mmm…being cooperative now, are we?” she purred.

“Yeah, well, what choice do I have?” I muttered. “At least tell me you’ll numb me before you, uh, implant the eggs.” The words stuck in my throat but I made myself say them anyway.

“But of course,” she purred. “If you lie still and cooperate, I promise the entire procedure will be entirely painless.”

Right—like being cut open and having your internal organs removed to make room for a thousand or so spider eggs would be painless. Somehow I didn’t think so. But I tried to keep my expression neutral and the Widow seemed to buy it.

“Look at it this way, Gravex—at least you’ll have the best mating of your life before you die,” she murmured. “Now unfasten your trousers and expose your member for my spermatic receptor.” Her bulging ruby eyes glowed and she leaned back, moving that huge, gravid abdomen off my legs at last, to give me room.

I knew the time had come. Leaning over, I reached for the bottoms of my trousers, which were tucked into my boots.

Also tucked into my boot was my best knife.

It wasn’t much of a weapon against a being like the Widow, but it was all I had and this was my only chance. I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to take it.

With a sudden move, I pulled it from my boot and waved it in her face.

“Get back!” I roared.

She hissed, drawing back momentarily, giving me just enough time to roll to one side.

Unfortunately, I rolled right up against several of the giant spiders. Since I didn’t want to be stung again, I just kept on rolling, right over their huge, squishy bodies.

I heard their high-pitched screams as they were smashed through the holes in the web and turned into goo. Some of them stung me anyway but I wasn’t stopping—not until I got the hell out of there!

“Stop him! Stop him!” the Widow howled. “The mating must take place! My eggs are ripening now. Soon they will hatch!”

A dozen or so more of the massive spiders scuttled forward and I swiped at them with my knife, cutting off some of their legs which made them hiss and scream shrilly in pain as they bled dark green ichor all over the white strands.

You might wonder why I didn’t just go for the Widow herself. Her bulging abdomen with its load of writhing eggs was the perfect target. But I took a vow as a Protector never to hurt a female.

And it wasn’t just that—my feelings about harming females went deeper than any vow—much deeper. Even in a dire situation like this, I didn’t want to do it. So I just scrambled around the web, swiping at the spiders and trying to get to the edge, to the platform where the Widow had been standing earlier.

My plan was to get off the web and go find my ship. Or if it was too damaged, some other shuttle to get me to wherever Doloroso had gone. It wouldn’t be far—I had the feeling he was still inside the Spider’s Web around the Lavara system. He knew no one could reach him there, not with the Web activated again.

I just hoped I could get to him before it was too late and he hurt Leah or Teeny in some way. Because if he hurt them…

I could feel the rage building within me at the thought. Could see the red haze that wanted to cloud both my vision and my reason. But I kept it grimly at bay. Before I could find and kill Doloroso, I had to get out of my own mess first.

“Get him! Catch him!” the Widow shrieked. Was it my imagination or were the eggs inside her writhing faster and faster? Her immense white abdomen looked like a pot of water coming to a boil. “You fools!” she gasped at the spiders. “If you cannot catch him, I’ll do it myself!”

From beneath her abdomen, a long white fleshy coil rose up like a vast snake. It spasmed and I ducked just in time as a coil of white webbing shot out. Holy fuck, I needed to get out of here now!

“Stay still!” the Widow ordered me imperiously—like I was going to obediently wait while she webbed me up again. “My eggs are almost fully ripe—they must be fertilized and implanted now.”

“Sorry, lady,” I growled, dodging another loop of white webbing. “Not my fuckin’ problem.”

I had almost reached the platform by then. The Widow’s abdomen was writhing crazily. It seemed to get worse every time she shot her white, fibrous web at me—almost as if she was agitating the eggs inside her—but she wouldn’t stop.

I dodged again and gripped the edge of the platform, heaving myself up. And that was when I heard it—a grinding crash like an outer airlock door being thrown open.

“This way!” someone shouted in a familiar voice.

Suddenly, that fuckin’ Captain Verrai and about five other Gold Skins appeared. They were standing just inside the arched doorway leading out of the web room, as I had begun to think of the huge area where the Widow kept her lair.

The captain and the rest of the Imperial guards came charging in, blasters ready. I had to duck as one of them discharged their weapon right at my head.

Great, now I was getting shot at from the back and the front.

“Don’t shoot, you fuckin’ idiot!” I shouted at them. “I’m not the enemy here!”

“What’s this? What’s going on here?” Verrai asked, his rainbow eyes taking a quick sweep of the room.

I could only imagine how it looked—the Widow howling in her web, her spider minions scuttling everywhere and me—wielding a knife, covered in welts from being stung, and dripping with poison-green goo.

“What do you think is going on?” I snarled at him. “She wants a mate to implant with her eggs and it’s damn-sure not gonna be me. You better fuckin’ run before she decides it should be you or one of your men!”

But the idea had apparently already occurred to the Widow. She’d told me she searched for years to find just the right mate, but now that her eggs were about to hatch right inside her, it was any port in a storm.

“You—you’ll do!” she hissed at Verrai. That fleshy tube that came from between her spidery legs spasmed again and a length of white webbing wrapped around his thighs.

“Ugh!” he gasped and lurched forward as she tugged at him.

“Here.” Without thinking, I grabbed his arm and yanked him back before he could be pulled out onto the web. He was holding a blaster in his hand and it discharged with a flash of light and a sound like thunder in the large, echoing room.

I don’t know if he meant to aim for the Widow—I don’t think so, honestly—but he couldn’t have made a better shot if he’d tried. The blast of energy hit her directly in the center of her swollen, writhing belly and a sudden, gaping hole appeared, eating away her white flesh like fire eats away at paper.

“No! No!” I heard her wail as she fell backwards, her massive body splayed like a ruined mountain in the middle of the web.

And then I saw a sight that I knew wouldn’t leave me for years.

The wound had opened her belly but it hadn’t killed her—-or most of the eggs inside. They were mounded up like insect eggs, white and pulsing but I thought I could see red eyes inside them as they writhed frantically in the open air.

As we watched, I saw them breaking open, the thin white membrane around them tearing as if their occupants were particularly eager to come out. And come out they did, pushing their little bald heads into the world, looking around eagerly with the same bulging, ruby-red insect eyes their mother had.

From the waist up, they looked like babies. Ugly, bald babies with paper-white skin and bulging red eyes, true but still—babies. From the waist down, though, they were spiders. I saw them scuttling around, their tiny limbs flailing as they tried to get free of their egg membranes. If the Widow could be believed, all of them were female but it was hard to tell from here. All I could see was the mutant spider-babies were extremely active.

And apparently, extremely hungry.

I don’t know which one was the first to take a bite and I don’t want to know. I saw one open its mouth revealing tiny pointed teeth. At first I thought it was yawning and then I saw it duck its head and sink those sharp little points into the Widow’s white flesh. Another spider baby looked up with a red-smeared mouth…and another, and another. Soon they were all feeding while the Widow thrashed feebly and cried out in agony.

It was a fuckin’ nightmare.

“No! No, stop them—stop them!” the Widow wailed to her spider minions. But they only shifted from leg to leg uncertainly. I thought they were probably genetically programmed to protect the spider-babies at all costs and so were unable to come to the aid of their mistress.

“This is sickening,” Verrai said in a low voice. For once we were in total agreement. He raised his blaster and aimed it this time. There was an echoing blast, a burst of silver light, and the Widow’s head suddenly exploded in a spray of crimson.

I didn’t have long to admire his marksmanship. The sound drew the attention of the spider-babies. As one, they looked up, their cherubic white faces smeared in red, their bulging ruby eyes trained in our direction.

There are some kinds of animals—herd animals and insects mostly—that share almost a kind of telepathy. It’s like one has a thought and it transmits to all the rest in a flash.

In this case the thought was obviously, “Fresh meat!”

They came at us in a swarm, spilling over the blood-soaked carcass of their mother in a flood of long, slender legs and gnashing teeth.

For a moment, we all stood frozen. And then I turned to Verrai and shouted,

“Run! Fucking run!”

“I can’t!” He pointed down at the webbing still wrapped around his upper thighs.

I started to grab my knife to cut him free but there was no time—the tide of spider-babies was getting closer, rushing towards us in a flood of blood-soaked death.

There was only one thing to do—with a grunt, I leaned down and tossed him over my shoulder. Then I ran as hard as I could with the other Imperial Guards right behind me and the mass of swarming spider-babies right behind them.

Let me tell you, if you’ve never run flat out for your life with an Imperial Guard thrown over your shoulder, well, I don’t recommend it. There are easier ways to get your cardio in.

Verrai wasn’t quite as broad as me across the shoulders—then again, I’m built like a Xerusian tank—but he was at least an inch taller and every bit of him was solid muscle.

What I’m saying is that it wasn’t nearly as easy to run holding him as it had been to run the same way holding Leah. For all that she thought she was too curvy, my little Earth girl was light as a feather—I could carry her all day. Not so with the Captain of the Imperial Guards.

Luckily, just as I was beginning to feel winded, one of the other guards pointed to a wide silver door off the main corridor.

“There! Air lock! The shuttles!” he gasped.

I ducked in along with the other guards, Verrai still slung over my shoulder like a wounded Terran buck. As I got in, I turned to look and saw the white and red swarm of Spidier~o young was right on our heels. They were skittering along, not just on the floor but on the walls and even on the ceiling as well—coming as fast as they could, their tiny arms outstretched, their mouths gaping to show the bloody, jagged points inside.

“Shut the door! Shut the fucking door!” I shouted and one of the Gold Skins—who was more pale than gold at the moment—started hammering on the door-close mechanism as hard as he could.

Just as the writhing swarm reached us, the metal door slid down with a bang. I heard the disappointed hissing from the other side as well as the sound of thousands of tiny claws scrabbling at the metal.

I couldn’t help thinking that it could have been me instead of the Widow. Or me and the widow, that the wicked little cannibals ate. Hadn’t I thought to myself that her bulging abdomen made the perfect target? And yet, if I had slit her open, all those eggs would have come pouring out and hatched on me instead of inside her.

I never would have gotten away in time if I’d been in the web instead of up on the platform when they broke out of their eggs. Those hungry spider-babies would have had Braxian for dinner. Only my vow had saved me.

It pays to keep your vows. And I had another to keep right now.

“Make sure it’s locked,” I growled, finally lowering Verrai to the ground. “And then fire up your shuttles—I’m going to need one. I have to find my females before it’s too late.”

“You saved my life,” Verrai said as I cut the webbing from his legs with my knife. “Why?”

“It’s not my way to watch a helpless male die—even if he is a pain in my ass,” I told him, rubbing my shoulder. “You’re a heavy son-of-a-bitch—you know that?”

“Yes, I know,” he said absently. “Now where did you say your female is?”

“None of your fuckin’ business,” I growled. “I’ll find her on my own.”

“Be reasonable, Braxian,” he said, frowning. “I wish only to help you—not to bring you in or arrest you. I swear it on the legacy of my beloved Empress, Sundalla the 999th.”

I looked at him for a long moment while the spider-babies scrabbled and hissed and mewled outside the thick metal door. It was a strong oath—the strongest a Gold Skin could make. Verrai held my gaze, his own eyes making a strange, shifting rainbow pattern which was unique—even in a Majoran.

“All right,” I said at last. “I’ll let you tag along but the kill is mine. You got that?”

“I agree.” He nodded and pointed to one of the two small shuttles parked in the large airlock area. “Come on we’ll take my ship and you can tell me what to look for.”

“What we’re lookin’ for is the son-of-a-bitch who stole my female and my ward,” I growled. “And when I find him I’m going to kill him…Again.”

Chapter Twenty-five

Leah

“Now you see! Now you can see my new body’s virility!” crowed Doloroso proudly. He was strutting back and forth in front of the cage where Teeny and I were huddled together in the corner, proudly displaying his erection.

His member, which was still sticking out from the front of his trousers, was fully engorged now. Honestly, though it had lost its sad, shriveled, Vienna-Sausage appearance, it still wasn’t anything to write home about. I estimated it at around two and a half or three inches long and not much thicker than it had been before.

Still, it was hard enough to get the job done, which worried me considerably.

“You see?” Doloroso bragged again. “Behold my splendor! My—what did you call it? Ah, yes—my bratwurst. Behold my bratwurst!”

He put his hands on his hips and did a grotesque bump and grind that would have been funny if I wasn’t in imminent danger of being raped. Why hadn’t any side-effects kicked in yet? What about the story Charlotte had told Zoe and me?

I thought hard. I seemed to remember she told us that the patient she saw in the ER had been in his, ah, tumescent state, for a number of hours before he finally went to the hospital. By that time, he was in severe pain from a hard-on that just wouldn’t go down. What was that called again? Something with a P…priapism? Yes—that was it—priapism. Somehow I had to delay Doloroso’s conquest of me until priapism set in.

But how?

“I am ready!” Doloroso announced. Reaching in his pocket, he got out the key and began unlocking the cell door. “Ready to be the father of a whole new race.”

Teeny whimpered and pressed against me and I squeezed her thin shoulders comfortingly. Okay, Doloroso was a bastard—a bastard who now had a fully functioning dick—but that didn’t mean I had to let him use it on me.

“Um…don’t you think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself?” I asked as Doloroso unlocked the door.

“What?” He frowned at me. “What are you talking about?” He pointed down to his shaft, which still jutted ridiculously from his trousers. “Just look at me—I’m huge!”

I pretended to stifle a laugh.

“Not by Earth standards you’re not. Sorry, sweetie, but you’re not quite ready to, uh, sow your seeds just yet.”

“How can that be?” he demanded. “I am tumescent—hard as a rock! In fact, I am so hard it is almost painful.” He frowned. “But in a good way, of course.”

“That pain feeling just means your, uh, equipment isn’t done growing yet,” I said quickly. “See, Earth females have extremely deep va-jay-jays. Unless you wait until you get at least three or four more inches in length, you don’t have a hope of getting your swimmers where they need to go.”

“You’re lying!” he exclaimed, but I saw the uneasy, uncertain look in his eyes.

“You think so?” I said, trying to make my voice as skeptical as I could. “So then you honestly think that’s as big as you’re supposed to get in order to get the job done? I mean, it’s not exactly a micro-penis but you’re no King Kong, either.”

“Fine,” Doloroso grumbled, putting the key back in his pocket and taking a step back from the cell door. “How do I make it grow?”

“Rub it,” I advised. “Really hard and fast—that helps activate the medicine you took.”

He looked at me suspiciously.

“Why should you wish to help me?”

I shrugged. “I don’t. I just think it’s pathetic to see such a small piece of equipment.”

I didn’t know where I got the nerve to talk like that—it was more like something Zoe would say, honestly. But the longer I stayed away from Earth, the stronger I felt. I was no longer the shy, timid girl who let people walk all over her. I was alive and awake and I was damned if I would let some ridiculous alien with delusions of grandeur and an orange-skinned billionaire suit get the better of me.

Luckily, the slight to his pride seemed to get to Doloroso.

“Fine,” he muttered again. “I will do as you say. Soon you will know the power of my phallus!”

“Um…yeah.” I bit my lip. “I’m sure I will.”

As he fisted himself and began wanking his crank like a maniac, I turned Teeny firmly towards the wall. When she started to protest, I shook my head.

“No—this is absolutely nothing you need to see. I want you to stand here and study the wall and do not look. Understand?”

“All right, Leah.” She sighed. “I’m just scared—you know?”

“I know, sweetheart.” I gave her a quick hug. “I am too. But somehow we’re going to get out of this—okay?”

“You’re right.” Her face brightened. “Grav will come and rescue us.”

I wasn’t so sure about that but I didn’t want her to lose hope.

“I’m sure he’ll try,” I said carefully.

“He’ll do more than try—he’ll come for us!” she insisted. “I’ve been kidnapped twice—did you know that? And both times Grav found me. He’ll find me again. And you too.” She looked up at me shyly. “Because he loves you.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I couldn’t help thinking of Grav’s bellowed confession while we were trapped in the Widow’s web—the fact that he had admitted to killing his own father. How did I feel about that?

Honestly, I hadn’t had time to process it yet—what with being kidnapped by Doloroso and threatened with rape by his tiny, pink penis—but I was betting when I did get a chance to think it over, my reaction wasn’t going to be all hearts and flowers. I mean, I guessed I could understand him killing some people while he was escaping from prison—that was probably unavoidable. But to kill his own father…?

“Arrrgh!”

The anguished howl of Count Doloroso cut off my line of thought abruptly. Putting a hand on Teeny’s shoulder to make sure she stayed facing the wall, I turned my head to see what was going on.

Doloroso was down on his knees, clutching himself, his face maroon with pain.

“Ahhh!” he moaned. “It keeps swelling but it won’t grow any longer no matter how much I stroke it! And it hurts!”

I would have felt sorry for him if he hadn’t been planning to rape me and impregnate me with his alien babies. As it was, I didn’t have much sympathy.

“Yeah,” I said. “That happens sometimes.”

“Make it stop!” he groaned. “The pressure is too much—make it stop!”

“Let us out of the cage first,” I told him. I had an awful vision of him dying or becoming incapacitated while he was still in possession of the only key to our prison. I didn’t want to be stuck in here, condemned to die because Doloroso’s pocket was too far away to pick through the bars.

“And if I do, you promise you’ll tell me how to stop it?” he begged.

I swallowed hard. I don’t like to lie—even to assholes.

“I have a friend who’s a medical professional,” I told Doloroso. “She’s treated, uh, males with this condition before—it’s called priapism. I’ll tell you how she said to treat it if you let us out.”

“All right…all right!” He fumbled the key out of his pocket and shakily inserted it into the lock. It chattered around—metal-against-metal—until he finally pushed it home with a click. He turned the key and the barred door swung open.

I felt a surge of relief, but we weren’t in the clear yet. The first thing was to get past Doloroso who was still kneeling in the doorway, blocking it.

“All right,” he said. “It’s open—now tell me!”

“Let us get past first.” I kept a firm grip on Teeny, keeping her at my side, as far from Doloroso as was humanly possible. I sidled out past him, making a little running jump to get outside the cell, pulling Teeny with me as I went. Even so, he managed to get a handful of the green dress I was wearing.

“Please!” he begged.

“Let go!” I yanked my dress out of his hand and took several quick steps away.

“You promised to tell me what to do,” he groaned. “You promised!”

“Fine—like I said, it’s called priapism when your, uh, equipment gets hard and won’t go down. My friend, Charlotte, says you have to drain the blood out.”

“Drain it?” His face went pale. “How?”

“With a needle,” I said matter-of-factly. “Charlotte says it’s the only way.”

“You…you want me to put a needle in my phallus?” His eyes bugged out and he clutched himself protectively with both hands. “No! No!”

“I’m sorry but it’s the only way,” I told him. “And don’t ask me to help because I’m not a medical professional. I’m just a daycare worker—sticking needles in your dick isn’t part of my job description.”

“You did this!” His face went from pale to purple with rage in an instant. He was still on the floor but he knee-walked towards me, his grotesquely swollen member still jutting out from between his thighs. Right now it looked more like an eggplant than the tiny Vienna Sausage he had started with.

“Stay back,” I warned him, backing away. I wasn’t sure but I thought he still had the blaster in his pocket. I just hoped he didn’t remember it.

Unfortunately, my hope was in vain.

“You did this to me!” he roared again, fumbling in his jacket pocket. “You tricked me into engorging my phallus to outlandish proportions!”

“You were the one who took ten Viagra at once!” I shouted back. “If you hadn’t been trying to rape me maybe I would have warned you it was too much. But since you—”

“Shut up, Earth bitch!” he snarled, pulling out the blaster and pointing it at us. “This body wasn’t in the best shape to start with and now it is in excruciating pain—that is your fault! So now I will make certain that you are in pain as well.”

“Teeny, get behind me!” I said, shoving her to my back. “And run as fast as you can when you get a chance.”

“I don’t want to leave you, Leah!” she whispered.

“Don’t worry about me—just go!”

Doloroso’s finger was tightening on the trigger and at this range there was no way he could miss. I couldn’t get far away enough in time to avoid the blast—especially not while still shielding Teeny.

“I’m going to kill you, Earth bitch,” he snarled.

I was going to die.

And then a huge blue shape came roaring into the room. It rushed around me and bowled into Doloroso as he knelt on the floor. The blaster went off but the shot went wild, spending itself harmlessly in a shower of sparks on the metal ceiling overhead.

Next I heard a very distinct crack and then Doloroso started making a high, screeching wail that made me cover my ears with my hands.

“You fuckin’ asshole—shut up!” Grav—(because it was Grav, of course it was)—growled. He had Doloroso flat on his back, one knee planted firmly on the sprawling alien’s writhing midsection and the blaster in his hand.

But Doloroso wouldn’t shut up. He kept screaming and moaning until at last Grav got up and took a step back.

Doloroso clutched at his groin.

“You broke it!” he wailed, rocking back and forth. “You broke my bratwurst!”

“What?” Grav frowned. “I broke your what? That’s not possible.”

“Look—look!” Doloroso pulled his hands away and I saw that, indeed, the top part of his equipment was bent at a very strange and unnatural angle. I hoped that Teeny, who I thought was still behind me, wasn’t looking.

“Goddess of Mercy!” Grav actually went pale. “What the fuck?”

“I think that’s called a penile fracture,” I said, feeling a little sick. “My friend Charlotte told me about it. She’s seen a lot of wild things at the ER.”

“That’s pretty fuckin’ wild all right,” he agreed. “I must have got him with my knee when I tackled him. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard.”

“Don’t,” I said grimly. “He had some pretty unpleasant plans for me.”

A low growl rumbled up Grav’s throat and his white-on-black eyes flashed.

“You okay?” he asked, looking me over carefully. “He didn’t hurt you with that little thing, did he?” He nodded contemptuously at Doloroso’s broken bratwurst. “Because if he did, I’ll fuckin’ kill him. But first he’s gonna wish he was never born.”

“No, he didn’t hurt me,” I said quickly. “And you can’t kill him—that body isn’t really his. It’s stolen and we have to return it to its owner.”

“Gotta tell you, I’m not sure it’s owner is gonna want it back,” Grav remarked. “Not like that, anyway.”

“Well maybe he can fix it,” I said. “Or buy a new one or something—he’s rich enough.”

“Well, I don’t know how to remove an Assimilated from a Host body but I guess we can try,” Grav remarked.

“There is no way.” The new voice made me jump. Looking up, I saw the tall Majoran Captain of the Guard looking down at me. His skin and hair and eyes were all dark blue, as before, though I knew he could go back to gold—or any color, for that matter—whenever he wanted.

“Captain Verrai?” I said uncertainly. “How, uh, nice to see you. Um…what are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” Grav growled. “Basically he and his men were tracking us. They slipped through the hole in the Web I told you about and cut their way into the Widow’s control station not long after you and Teeny got taken. Which took some serious balls,” he added, throwing Verrai a look of grudging admiration. “And then they decide to come along and help get you back from Doloroso.”

“So…you’re friends now?” I eyed the two big aliens uncertainly. They were both huge but Verrai was perhaps an inch taller while Grav was just a little broader through the shoulders.

“I wouldn’t say friends exactly,” Grav growled.

“The Braxian saved my life,” Verrai said formally. “It’s a debt I will not repay with treachery. I have sworn not to try to arrest him or take him in—I wanted only to help rescue his female.”

Grav’s face went abruptly stony.

“She’s not really my female, okay? And it looks like she’s just fine, even if I did break my oath to protect her.”

“Stop, Grav…” I put my hand on his arm. “You didn’t break your oath. You came to find us..”

“Not before he almost killed you and Teeny. I never should have let the two of you get into this kind of danger in the first place,” he insisted.

“Grav?” the new voice was Teeny’s. She’d run to hide, apparently, as I had instructed. Now I saw her creeping out from behind some of the bulkier medical equipment. “Grav, is that you?”

“Teeny, sweetheart!” His face broke into a big smile and I felt a twinge of emotion that was almost like jealousy. I wished I could get a reaction like that from him!

“Grav!” She came running to him and he swept her up into his arms, holding her gently as she nuzzled against him like a kitten might nuzzle a Great Dane. “I knew you’d come,” she whispered. “I never doubted you.”

“Thank you, sweetheart. That means a lot to me.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek.

I felt a blush of shame rise to my face.

“I never doubted you,” Teeny had said—and she hadn’t. With a child’s uncomplicated faith, she had trusted that Grav would find us. While I…well, I had had my doubts. And to be honest, I still had some. But now wasn’t the time to voice them.

“I need to talk to you,” I said, turning to Captain Verrai. “I realized it after we met last time.”

He looked startled. “Are you certain?”

“Yes.” I nodded firmly. “And I’ll tell you anything you want to know. But first we have to do something for Count Doloroso there. He’s really a mess.” I nodded at the Count, who was still clutching his equipment and whimpering quietly as he rocked back and forth.

“I’m afraid there’s not much we can do.” Verrai frowned. “As I said, I don’t think there’s a way to get an Assimilated out of a host body. Once they take over, they own it until it dies.”

“Well, we have to try,” I said firmly.

“We’ll take him with us when we go,” the Captain of the Imperial Guards promised. “There may be something we can do for him back on Femme 1. But in the meantime, I have some urgent questions about your friend.”

“Fine.” I took a deep breath. “What do you want to know?”

Grav

Verrai and Leah talked a long time while Doloroso rocked and whimpered and Teeny clung to me like a climbing T’sango vine. Apparently Verrai thought there was something special about Zoe and Leah’s friend, Charlotte. He kept mentioning the “rainbow aura,” which I didn’t understand until I remembered the rainbow glow that seemed to surround the female in question when I’d seen her on the Alien Mate Index light screen.

Apparently the rainbow aura made her unique and Verrai was worried she might be in trouble.

“But why does it make her special?” Leah asked as they were finally wrapping up. “I mean, I love Charlotte—she’s really hard working and incredibly smart and down-to-Earth but you’re saying she’s some kind of…royalty?”

“I believe it may be so. At least, the Goddess Empress believed it.”

“Wait,” I said. “The Empress believed it? Past tense? Then that must mean the Empress has…”

“Ascended to the Heavens. Yes. Why do you think I am in mourning, Braxian?” Verrai said quietly, indicating his solid, dark blue color. There was a depth of sorrow in his rainbow hued eyes that was difficult to look at. “I have served her all my life and her last command to me was to find her next incarnation and protect her with my life.”

“And you think Charlotte is it?” Leah’s eyes grew wide. “I mean that’s…that’s crazy.”

“It’s perfectly logical,” Verrai said. “Between twenty and thirty cycles before the Goddess Empress ascends to the Heavens, her next incarnation is born. For a time, they share a soul and both have the unique rainbow aura. When the present Goddess Empress passes to the other side, her incarnation is old enough and wise enough to rule in her place.”

“Well…” Leah looked thoughtful. “If anybody could rule the galaxy, it would be Charlotte. She’s the most determined person I know.” She frowned. “But she just started med school so I don’t know if she’s going to be willing to give that up for some crazy sounding dream. Because, I’m sorry—it does sound kind of out-there that she would be the next ruler of the universe or whatever.”

“She must come with me,” Verrai said earnestly. “She cannot stay where she is, unprotected and ignorant of the truth. She is in grave danger.”

“Danger? What danger?” Leah said, looking worried.

“The danger of assassination,” Verrai told her. “You see, I am not the only person searching for the next incarnation of the Goddess Empress. There are other players in this game—and all of them want their own candidate to rule. If one of them finds out where your friend is located they will seek to eliminate her.”

“They will? That’s awful!” Leah exclaimed.

“No,” Verrai said grimly. “That is court politics on Femme 1. The capital planet is a treacherous place rife with intrigue. So you see why I must find your friend before anyone else does.”

“I see.” Leah’s face was pale as she nodded. “Just please—take care of her. I love her and Zoe like sisters.”

“I have sworn to guard her life with my own,” Verrai said—somewhat coldly, I thought. When I give my oath to a female, it’s a passionate thing. But the Majoran Captain spoke as though guarding Leah’s friend would be a duty—not a pleasure.

Well, maybe I should cut the poor guy a break—after all, he was still in mourning for the old Empress, who had ruled for as long as I could remember. It was probably damn hard to go looking for the next Goddess Empress to guard when he still carried the former one in his heart.

“At least you won’t have to explain how you’re an Alien and that there’s sentient life outside the confines of the Earthlings’ little planet,” I said to him. “Since we paid the Commercians to give Charlotte a message when Leah left.”

He frowned. “I wasn’t going to explain that anyway. Who doesn’t know there’s other life in the universe?”

“Uh, actually, most people on Earth don’t,” Leah said apologetically.

“Earth was a closed world up until recently,” I explained when he looked at her blankly. “The Ancient Ones put a lock around it to keep the DNA there pure, I guess. Anyway they’re pretty primitive, so they think they’re alone in the galaxy.”

“Hey!” Leah glared at me. “We’re not primitive!”

“Excuse me—I just meant your technology is primitive,” I growled, correcting myself. “They don’t even have faster-than-light travel yet,” I explained to Verrai. “So they’re pretty much stuck on their little blue and green ball with no way to get out and see the rest of the galaxy.”

“We’re getting there.” Leah sounded defensive. “We’re doing the best we can.”

“Yeah, well…” I shrugged, not wanting to piss her off any further. But I was only telling the truth! The tech on Earth was pathetic which was why Leah’s people still hadn’t even found or contacted their nearest neighbors.

“Whatever.” Leah crossed her arms over her chest, looking irritated. “Grav is right about one thing—your visit shouldn’t freak Charlotte out since the Commercians will have already contacted her and explained what was going on. With me, anyway. You’re going to be on your own trying to convince her that she’s supposed to be the next Queen of the Universe.”

“Goddess Empress of the galaxy,” Verrai corrected her. “At least, she will be if I see the rainbow aura when I meet her.”

“Oh, I think you’ll see it all right,” I muttered, remember the image of Leah’s friend on the AMI screen again. “But for now, we’d better all get moving.”

“Right. And I think the body Count Doloroso stole is going to need medical attention.” Leah looked over at the crumpled figure of the Count and then put a hand to her mouth. “Oh no!”

“What is it?” I turned around and saw the same thing she had—Count Doloroso wasn’t moving. His orange-skinned face was slack and his puffy, pouchy eyes were open but unseeing. Only his organ remained awake and alert—turgid and bent at that strange, crooked angle, even after death. Because there was no doubt about it—the male was definitely dead.

“Oh my God!” Leah had already rushed over to him and was reaching out tentatively with two fingers to take his pulse.

“Don’t bother,” I told her. “He’s gone.”

“You don’t know that! How can you know for sure?” she demanded.

“Well, I mean—just look at him.” I gestured to the limp form—well, mostly
limp. “And besides, he smells dead.”

“All right.” She sat back on her heels, looking troubled. “I feel bad—he overdosed on those pills that made his, uh, equipment so hard because of me.”

“Because he wanted to hurt you,” I said harshly. “Isn’t that right?”

“Well…yes.” She sighed. “But I still don’t like it that he died. I feel…responsible for his death. Like it’s on my conscience or something.”

“Take it from somebody who’s been responsible for a lot of deaths,” I told her harshly. “It gets easier. Just don’t think about it.”

“Is that how you deal with it?” she asked quietly. “You just don’t…think about it?”

I knew who we were talking about and so did Leah and it wasn’t fucking Doloroso.

“I think about it every damn day of my life,” I told her. “And every day, I’m glad I did it.”

Leah made a little gasping sound and looked away. Verrai, who had been looking between us with a confused expression, shook his head.

“I need to get moving if I’m going to find your friend, Lady Leah. I thank you for the help and information you so freely gave me.”

“Just take care of Charlotte,” she said earnestly. “Just…”

“Ouch!” The exclamation came from the other end of the room, where four of Verrai’s Imperial Guards were examining some of the Assimilation medical equipment that filled the room.

“T’zorin? What’s wrong?” Verrai called, frowning.

“Nothing, uh, Captain.” The male in question put a hand at the back of his neck, looking queasy and disoriented. “I just…it felt like something stung me. That’s all.”

“Well, did it?” Verrai asked.

“Don’t think so. Sorry for the interruption, Captain.” Abruptly, the male stood up straighter, a new light in his eyes. “I am quite well, now. There is no cause for alarm.”

“Very well.” Verrai turned back to us once more. “As I was saying, I must take my leave.”

“Well we can’t just leave Doloroso’s ship here unattended,” I said grimly. “We did that before—Sarden and me—and Doloroso turned up later in another part of the galaxy with a whole new body. Not a very nice one but still…it’s a chance we can’t take.”

Verrai sighed. “None of my men can fly this class of ship—it’s a megaton cruiser. I’ll have to order it hooked to my own vessel and towed back to Femme 1. But the time it will waste—”

“Excuse me, Captain,” said one of the guards—in fact, the same one who’d complained of being stung earlier.

“What is it now, T’zorin?” Verrai sounded impatient.

“Just that, well, I know how to fly this kind of ship.”

“You do?” Verrai looked at him skeptically. “How?”

“I learned when I was a child—we had a merchant in my hometown who had one and he was like an older relative—uh, an uncle to me. He let me learn to fly his.”

“And?” Verrai asked.

“And so I can fly it for you. Straight to Femme 1 so you don’t have to waste any time.”

Verrai looked relieved. “You swear that you can?”

T’zorin nodded. “I swear it.”

“Good—then do it. You take the rest of the squad and I’ll meet you back on Femme 1 when I have the female we seek under my protection.”

“Yes, my Lord Captain!” T’zorin made a strangely elaborate bow and then stalked off, presumably to set a course to Femme 1.

“Now that that’s taken care of, I really must go,” Verrai told us. “May the warmth of the Goddess’ personal sun shine upon you.” He held out an arm to me.

Reluctantly, I took it in a warrior’s clasp.

“Good bye, Verrai. Be careful and be well.”

“I still owe you a life debt, Braxian,” he said, formally. “I will not forget it. For now—farewell.”

He left, heading back to his shuttle and I knew it was time for us to go too.

“C’mon,” I said to Leah and Teeny. “Let’s go home.”

Chapter Twenty-six

Leah

“So you have two choices,” Grav said in his deep, growling voice. He was working at his ship’s control area, not looking at me while he spoke. Teeny was already in bed—she’d been tired out by the whole ordeal we’d been through, so Grav and I had the main part of the hopper to ourselves.

“Oh?” I put a hand on my hip. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I can take you straight back to Earth or you can come with me to drop Teeny off to her grandfather and then I can take you back to Earth.”

“Is that all?” I asked. “What about going to Eloim to see Zoe? Or is that promise completely off the table now?”

“Right. Yet another promise I didn’t keep.” His tone was bitter. “Along with the oath I swore to keep you safe.”

“Grav, stop that!” I grabbed his broad shoulder and spun his chair around to face me—which wasn’t easy—it took both hands, but I did it. “Look at me,” I told him. “You didn’t break your oath to me and Teeny—you came for us. You came.”

“But not in time!” he roared. “Or you wouldn’t have had to resort to trickery to keep yourself from getting killed or raped!”

I flinched at his ugly words but held my ground.

“Give me some credit,” I said evenly. “I’m not the scared little girl I was when you first saved me from Gerald’s attack back on Earth. I can take care of myself now—I’d think you would be happy about that. Especially since you seem so hell-bent on taking me back where you found me and never seeing me again.”

“Why do you care if I never see you again?” he demanded. “You heard what the Widow made me admit to. And it had the fuckin’ effect she wanted too—I saw your eyes when I said what I’d done. You didn’t want anything else to do with me and I don’t blame you!”

“Stop it!” I shouted. “Just stop.”

Okay, this was getting us nowhere. Time to take it down a notch. I took a deep breath and raked a hand through my hair.

“Of course I was shocked when you…said what you said,” I told him, trying to keep my voice even and calm. “And I don’t feel like you can blame me for that—anyone would feel at least some concern after hearing that. But—” I held up a hand to keep him from talking before I was done. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want anything to do with you. Talk to me, Grav.” I let my voice drop to the soft, coaxing tone I used with my students back home. “Tell me what happened—make me understand. Please.”

“You want to understand? Fine.”

He got up from his chair abruptly and started pacing. There wasn’t much room for it in the control area—especially not for someone as big as him. He made me think of a tiger I’d seen once in a circus, pacing in a too-small cage.

“I was young and stupid—hot-headed,” he said, looking at the floor as he paced. “Well, most Braxian males are. I was living on Vorn Five with my parents—my father was Vornish and my mother was Braxian but I looked a hell of a lot more like her than him, which my father didn’t like very fuckin’ much. He married her for love while he was out traveling the galaxy but they never were able to form a proper bond—it’s difficult, sometimes, between two different races of the Twelve Peoples.”

“And a bond is really that important?” I asked quietly.

Grav nodded. “Hell yeah, it is. With a bond you feel connected to your mate—you can sense their emotions. Some couples even catch each other’s thoughts or feel each other’s physical sensations. Or so I’m told.” He sighed. “Not that I’ll ever get to experience it. But anyway…without a bond, you feel nothing. Disconnected. You don’t know what’s going on with your mate and they don’t know what’s going on with you. It’s not good.”

I thought of my marriage with Gerald. Disconnected was a mild word for the way our relationship had twisted itself into such a tangled knot of misery. Would we have gotten along better—would he have stopped before he hit me—if we had been able to form the all-important “bond” Grav kept talking about?

Somehow I doubted it.

Gerald was a bad person—I could see that now that I had some distance from him. He was selfish and controlling and jealous. All the things Grav wasn’t. And yet Grav was a murderer—why?

“Tell me more,” I said softly, hoping to get an answer to my question. “What happened?”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“He beat her,” he said bluntly. “My father beat my mother and my mother, well…” He sighed again. “She was everything to me. Everything.”

“I think all boys idolize their mothers to a certain extent,” I said quietly.

“She was the only other Braxian there—the only one who looked like me. I had friends—other half-breeds mainly. But my mother was the only one who was always there for me.”

“Did your father always hit her?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I never thought so but you realize things as an adult you don’t see as a child. The way she was always “running into doors” and getting black eyes or bruises on her cheeks. The way she wore long sleeves even when it was hot.” He made a face. “And let me tell you, Vornish summers are Hell. The time she “fell down the stairs” and broke her leg. And usually after she turned up with a bruise or a break, my father would come in the next day with flowers or some kind of treat. He would beg her forgiveness—although I never knew for what until I got older.”

“So how old were you when…when it happened?” I asked softly.

His face went hard. “You mean when I killed him? About sixteen cycles old, I guess. Old enough to be judged as an adult by the Council of Justice, anyway.”

“So…you finally found out what…what he was doing?” I asked. “You saw it?”

“I saw it, all right,” Grav growled. “I saw him in the middle of beating her—the way your mate was beating you.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how I kept from tearing that bastard apart—the way I did my father.”

“So you really did…tear him apart, I mean?” My voice sounded faint and breathless but somehow I couldn’t seem to make it more normal.

“I did,” Grav said somberly. “We had a summer residence—one that was meant to let in the light but withstand the vicious storms they have on Vorn Five sometimes. It was mostly made of chiva-glass, supposedly strong as iron but clear enough to see through.”

“So…you lived in a glass house?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Vorns like a lot of sunlight, and we let down the shades at night for privacy. The shades were already down that evening when I came home from a friend’s house—I remember the blue and purple shadows on the vr’nfi shrubs and the way the air smelled like ussl blossoms.”

His white-on-black eyes had gone far away and I realized he wasn’t just telling me about the night in question—he was actually reliving it. I wondered if I should stop him—it had to be traumatic after all. But I had a feeling he needed to tell me this. And to be perfectly honest, I needed to hear—needed to understand.

“And then?” My voice was barely a whisper—afraid of interrupting the trance of memory he had fallen into.

“I walked up and saw shapes moving behind the glass,” he murmured. “They were jerking around—I remember wondering what in the galaxy was going on. I went a little closer and looked through the glass and then I saw him—saw what he was doing to her.”

He paused for a long time and I waited…just waited quietly until he continued.

“I saw him hitting her—not just hitting, fucking pulverizing her,” he said at last, his voice hoarse with emotion. “I don’t know what set him off or why he wouldn’t stop. All I knew was what I saw—my mother, the female I cared for most in the world—crouched in a corner sobbing and trying to protect her face while my father rained down blows on her, doing his best to kill her as far as I could see. He…” Grav took a deep breath. “He’d already broken her nose and one of her arms was dangling by her side—I could tell that was broken too. She was crying—begging for him to stop. But he wouldn’t.” His face grew grim. “So I fucking made him.”

I spoke one word. “How?”

Grav’s face was like stone.

“I reached down, found a good sized rock on the ground. Then I broke through the glass and dragged him off her.”

“You broke through the glass?” I asked. “Why not just go in through the door?”

“You don’t understand.” He looked at me briefly, the spell suspended. “My Braxian side has always been dominant and Braxian males have berserker tendencies.”

“You’re right—I don’t understand.” I shook my head. “What does that mean?”

“Means we have a point of no return. In violence and in love—there’s a certain point we reach where we can’t stop, no matter what the consequences,” he growled. “I’ve learned to control it a Hell of a lot better now—or that fuckin’ mate of yours would be dead. But back then I was just a kid. Not that it’s any excuse for what I did.”

“What did you do?” I said, feeling like he needed to get it all out.

“I ripped him apart,” Grav said bluntly. “Fists, teeth, horns—I used everything I had to make sure he never got up again.” His face grew grim. “Fucker never knew what hit him.”

“But Grav…” I put a hand on his arm. “That’s completely understandable. What you went through—what you saw—anyone might react that way.”

“That’s not how the Council saw it—or how anyone on Vorn Five would see it,” he said. “They saw it as murder, pure and simple. And that’s what they tried and convicted me of.”

“But you were just trying to save your mother!” I protested indignantly. “They shouldn’t have been able to put you away for that! Couldn’t she testify on your behalf?”

He shrugged with grim stoicism. “I’m sure she would have—if she’d survived his attack. See, she threw a blood clot from one of her broken bones. It turned into an embolism. She died before I could ever talk to her again.”

“Oh, Grav…” I squeezed his arm but he shrugged me off. “It doesn’t matter,” he said roughly. “The point is, I had no one to bear witness to my side of the story so the prosecution painted it the way they wanted—savage Braxian male goes berserker, murders both parents in a bloody killing spree.”

“But that’s not fair!” I said.

He laughed harshly. “And whoever told you life was fair, sweetheart?”

“You did what you did for a good reason,” I insisted.

“Having a good reason to do something bad doesn’t make you good,” he countered. “My father might have been the first male I killed but he wasn’t the last. Don’t kid yourself, Leah—I’m a murderer many times over.”

“But—”

“Look,” he interrupted harshly. “I’ve enjoyed this little walk down memory lane a whole fuckin’ lot but it’s time you made your choice—where am I taking you? Earth? Thonolax to drop off Teeny? Or Eloim to see your friend, the Lady Zoe?”

“Eloim,” I said at once. I wasn’t ready to go home yet—to go back to the stifling confines of my sad little life. And I missed Zoe terribly—maybe my best friend could shed some light on this whole situation and give me some advice. After all, if what Grav had said was right, she’d been married to a huge alien male for some time now so she had to have some insight into the way they thought.

Right?

I certainly hoped so because I didn’t like the wall that had grown up between me and Grav—a wall so high and wide and long I didn’t know how to climb it, though I desperately wanted to.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Leah

“Okay, so here’s the deal with Braxians…Well, come on—sit down and I’ll tell you.” Zoe settled down in the big, comfy silver bean-bag chair, which hovered about three feet off the ground, and patted a spot beside her.

The trip to Eloim had been uneventful and extremely quiet. Grav seemed sunk in his own private misery and Teeny was surprisingly silent for a girl of her age. She mostly kept to her room. So I’d had only my own company on the journey to see my best friend in her new digs and I was more than happy to be spending some “quality girl time,” as Zoe called it, with her now.

When she’d seen me she had squealed with joy and hugged me until I could barely breathe. Her enthusiasm was infectious and I found myself squealing right along with her. We hugged and jumped and generally acted like idiots—it was great. It was typical Zoe—she has such a bubbly personality it brightens your whole day just to be with her.

It was a quality I had sadly missed. After Zoe had left and Charlotte went to med school, the joy in my life had been greatly diminished. It was good to have Zoe back. And of course, she was eager to give me the grand tour of her new home.

She had taken me all over the huge, sprawling palace on Eloim, excited to show me everything there was to see. Everywhere we went the guards bowed to her and there was genuine affection in the eyes of the people.

Now we were in her private lounge where everything was ultra luxurious from the floating beanbag chair to the incredibly soft fur carpet which Zoe explained wasn’t fur at all, but rather a type of super-fine grass that just felt like fur. There was expensive and tasteful art work scattered around and a very advanced looking alien entertainment system which took up one wall of the room.

According to Zoe, she’d managed to get some of her favorite chick flick movies from Earth by way of the Commercians and she promised we would have a movie marathon night the next time I was “in town” as she put it. We couldn’t do it now because Grav had said we were spending only one night. It wasn’t much time to catch up after being separated for months, but apparently Teeny’s grandfather was anxious to see her alive and well. I guessed I couldn’t blame him and so one night it was.

The luxury around us didn’t surprise me—Zoe has always liked the finer things in life, even though she’s often had to make do with much less. But it seemed my friend was done making do.

That was because she wasn’t just a paralegal anymore—apparently she was now a queen. Or a “Ria” as the people of Eloim called her. She even wore a crown on her curly red locks—a slender circlet with a gorgeous pinkish-purple jewel which should have clashed with her auburn locks but somehow didn’t. It was called the Star of Compassion and apparently it had picked Zoe to be the queen of Eloim.

Wow.

Queen of an entire planet—can you believe it? I could scarcely wrap my head around it but then, I could scarcely wrap my head around seeing Zoe again at all.

“We thought you were dead,” I said for what felt like the hundredth time as I settled in the floating silver bean-bag chair beside her. “Charlotte and I even hired a private investigator.”

Zoe looked remorseful. “I’m so sorry about that, hon! You know I never wanted to worry you two! And I would have come back to tell you what happened to me in person, only I can’t leave Eloim while the Star bonds with me.” She touched the circlet sitting on her head gently, as though she was petting a sleeping cat.

“You did try to get in touch with us,” I said, letting her off the hook—a little, anyway. “Those crystal cube thingies were neat.”

“They are, aren’t they?” She grinned at me. They’re pretty amazing. I wonder if Charlotte ever got hers.”

“I doubt it,” I said grimly. “Since it got left in my house along with Gerald—that asshole.”

Zoe looked surprised at first but then a smile spread over her face.

“Good for you,” she said, nodding. “I never liked him—he’s a controlling jerk.”

“A controlling, abusive jerk,” I said.

“He hit you?” Zoe exclaimed indignantly. “When did that start?”

“After you left and I finally let him talk me into getting married,” I admitted. “He was crazy-jealous. He seemed to think I was after every man I saw—which is ridiculous.”

“Of course it is!” Zoe made a tsking sound and shook her head. “Sounds like you need to keep away from him. Maybe find somebody else—like Grav?” She looked at me hopefully.

“I’d love to,” I said quietly. “Only he doesn’t want me.”

“What? Why not?” she demanded, her temper flaring.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” I said pointedly. “You were just about to tell me all about Braxians when you suggested we should sit down and get comfy.”

“Oh right—the deal with Braxians.” She frowned. “Well, according to Sarden, they’re extremely honorable people although all the rest of the Twelve Peoples are scared of them. Because of their “berserker tendencies”—whatever that means.”

“I think it means they tend to go crazy in a, uh, combat situation,” I said, thinking of Grav’s description of his father’s death. “Grav told me it means they have a ‘point of no return’ in battle—and in love too.”

“Hmm…interesting.” She nodded. “So they’re apt to go crazy and not stop until it’s too late.”

“Exactly. So the other Twelve Peoples are afraid of them,” I said. “Which makes sense.”

“Yes—especially if they’re all built like Grav.” Zoe shifted restlessly in the beanbag and clapped her hands. “Al? Al, are you there?”

A bright golden creature that looked like a metallic dragonfly came whirring into the room and landed on Zoe’s silk-covered shoulder.

“Good day, Lady Zoe,” it said in an oh-so-proper voice that sounded like a character straight out of Downton Abbey. “What may I do for you?”

“I’d like an assortment of local delicacies and some pink bubble wine sent in,” Zoe told it, as though it was no big deal to order hors d’Oeuvres from a dragonfly.

“Of course, my Lady—at once!” the dragonfly exclaimed.

“What are you doing?” I asked blankly as it buzzed away.

“We need snacks. This is the first Girls’ Night we’ve had in ages—I can’t gossip properly without something to nibble on! Besides, you have to try the hudu cake—it’s amazing.”

In short order a maid came bearing a tray of sweet and savory snacks and a blue glass bottle of wine with two long-stemmed glasses. I wasn’t sure about the food but after days and days of Braxian cuisine—which really didn’t improve with long acquaintance—I was ready to try anything.

There were pink crackers with some kind of gray paste on them that tasted surprisingly like the spray cheese you get from a can with just a hint of shrimp thrown in. I know that sounds weird but it tasted really good. There were also little brittle, sugary balls filled with a sweet, slightly alcoholic tasting syrup that melted on your tongue, flooding your mouth with their delicate flavor. And Zoe’s favorite—the hudu cake—was made up of what looked like fifty different wafer-thin layers in every shade of the rainbow, and covered with a blue frosting which tasted inexplicably like kiwi, mango, and strawberries all jumbled together and dipped in dark chocolate.

“Isn’t it yummy?” Zoe asked as I reached for a second piece and sipped some of the bubble wine—which really did form a bubble in your mouth and then burst refreshingly before you swallowed it.

“It’s amazing,” I said. “Much better than live hermit crabs you have to crack with a hammer and eat while they’re still wiggling.”

“Ugh!” She made a face. “Where did you eat that?”

“I didn’t,” I said. “But it’s Braxian cuisine. I think I’ve tried everything in Grav’s stores and none of it is much good. Still…” I sighed. “I didn’t mind so much. It was nice just…being with him.”

“Mm-hmm. So, tell me…” Zoe put down her wine glass and leaned forward to look at me intently. “How long have you been in love with Grav?”

“What?” I nearly choked on my latest bite of hudu cake. I swallowed with some difficulty and looked at her. “What do you mean? You think I love him just because I asked about his culture and said I don’t mind his weird food?”

“Yes and don’t act like you don’t.” Zoe shook her finger at me. “You can’t lie to me—you know I can always tell. Because you’re a terrible liar.”

“All right.” I sighed. “You’re right—I’m in pretty deep. But like I said, he doesn’t return my feelings. Or he does but he doesn’t think he should—at least, I think that’s the problem.”

“What?” Zoe frowned and picked up another pink cracker with gray paste. “Go back. Let’s unpack this a little. Now, what do you mean he returns your feelings but doesn’t think he should?”

I told her everything, up to and including Grav’s confessions at the hands of the Widow—the first where he confessed that he loved me and the second when he said he wasn’t good enough for me because of his past—because he’d killed his father.

“So he really murdered his own father?” Zoe asked in an awed voice. “I mean, I knew he had a dark past but my God—not that dark!”

“It’s pretty grim, all right,” I admitted. “But he did it for a good reason—he was trying to save his mother. I don’t blame him for what he did.”

“So tell him you feel that way,” Zoe urged me.

“I did,” I said. “It didn’t make any difference. He said he’s still a murderer and a bad person and I shouldn’t get mixed up with him.”

“Hmm…so you already talked to him and he still won’t see reason?” Zoe frowned. “That is a problem.”

“Well you’ve known him longer than me,” I pointed out. “Can’t you give me some advice on how to change his mind?”

Zoe made a face. “Unfortunately, Sarden told me Braxians are really stubborn too. So…I don’t really know what to tell you.”

“It’s just…he makes me feel.” I took another sip of bubble wine and let it burst in my mouth before going on. “I never told you or Charlotte this, Zoe,” I said, looking down at my hands. “But, well, I never actually felt anything, sexually I mean, when we were back on Earth. Not with Gerald or anyone else. It was like that part of me was dead…or asleep. But when I left Earth with Grav, well…he made me feel. In fact, I felt so much for a while I thought I was going to go crazy.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Zoe asked. She frowned. “You know, now that I think about it, I never felt much either. I mean, I always just thought it was because I was with the wrong guys. Especially Scott—what a loser that guy was. I don’t know why I stayed with him so long.”

“I never liked him either,” I said. “He wasn’t mean like Gerald—just lazy.”

Zoe made a face. “Lazy is bad enough. I mean, pick your underwear up off the floor once in a while!”

I spread my hands. “And now you live in a palace and have maids and servants to pick up your man’s underwear, right?”

“Wrong.” She grinned. “Sarden doesn’t wear underwear most of the time. Says it just gets in the way of us getting busy.”

“Zoe!” I slapped at her arm and she giggled.

“The point is, I never felt a whole lot until I left Earth either. But when I got with Sarden I couldn’t stop feeling for him—even when I didn’t want to. When I was mad at him or telling myself we shouldn’t be together or couldn’t be together.”

“Why did you think you couldn’t be together?” I asked curiously.

“Well, to start with because he wanted to trade me to get his sister back from this awful mud-monster-gangster guy. And then later, when he realized that was wrong and apologized, I was pretty convinced we couldn’t be together because Sarden said we wouldn’t be able to form a bond.”

“That’s what Grav keeps saying too,” I exclaimed. “He says that since he’s a half-breed, he won’t be able to bond me to him properly—whatever that means.”

“A bond means you have a permanent link to your man. Like right now, I can close my eyes and tell you how Sarden is feeling. And if I tune in really hard, I can tell you why he’s feeling that way and sometimes I even catch his thoughts.”

“Wow…” I looked at her uncertainly. “And he has the same link to you? That seems…kind of invasive.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Zoe smiled serenely. “But it’s not—it’s wonderful. You’re always in tune with each other and it makes the sex just unbelievable.”

I sighed. “I wouldn’t know about that. Grav and I have, uh, done some things but we haven’t actually…you know.”

“Made the beast with two backs? Well you need to get after that because that’s how you bond. At least, that’s how Sarden and I bonded.”

“Really? But Grav says we can’t bond because he’s a hybrid—half Vorn and half Braxian.”

“Sarden is half Vorn and half Eloim,” Zoe said promptly. “We didn’t have any trouble bonding. Sarden thinks it’s because I have such pure DNA—from being from a closed planet. Or maybe it has something to do with me being a La-ti-zal.”

“Grav says I’m one too,” I said. “I, uh, healed him and someone else too—the little girl we have with us, Teeny.”

“Oh, she’s adorable—I wish we could keep her here on Eloim.” Zoe sighed. “But that’s amazing, Leah—you must be a Healer. I’m an Opener.” She frowned. “I wonder what Charlotte is?”

“You think she’s a La-ti-zal too?”

“I know she is,” Zoe said seriously. “Both of you are and, well, it’s kind of my fault.”

“What? How?” I frowned.

“Well, as far as I can figure out, any Earth girl has the potential to become a La-ti-zal.” Zoe sounded thoughtful. “Because our DNA from the Ancient Ones is so pure. But then something happens to trigger it—like a tragedy in your past.”

“Your sister!” I said, putting a hand to my mouth. Zoe’s sister had drowned when she was just a little girl and it had affected her deeply.

“Exactly.” She nodded. “And then when one person is a La-ti-zal her friends can kind of catch it from her. I think you and Charlotte caught it from me.”

“How?” I asked blankly.

“Actually, the same way you catch a sickness. You know—sharing food and drinks and that kind of thing.” Zoe shrugged. “Weird, huh?”

“It sure is.” I frowned. “Who knew you could catch special powers as easily as catching the common cold?”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s that easy…but it might be.” Zoe shrugged. “The whole thing is still kind of a mystery to me. All I know is when I left Earth’s atmosphere, I was suddenly able to open and unlock things I shouldn’t have been able to. That seems to be the trigger—leaving Earth. As long as you’re in its atmosphere you’re normal. But the minute you get into space…bam!” She snapped her fingers. “You’re special.”

“Well, that would certainly explain why that awful Count Doloroso was after me and Charlotte,” I remarked.

“And I am so sorry about that.” Zoe looked genuinely remorseful. “We thought Grav had killed him but I had a bad feeling he would come back somehow.”

“He did,’ I said grimly. “He came back in another body—an Earth body this time. He paid the Commercians to get one for him. But you’ll never guess which one he picked.”

“Who? Who?” Zoe leaned forward eagerly, her bubble wine forgotten. “Is it somebody I know? Somebody famous?”

“More like infamous,” I said. I told her and her eyes got so wide they looked like they would swallow her face.

“No.” She shook her head. “I mean, you’ve got to be kidding, right?”

“Nope.” I shook my head solemnly. “It’s absolutely true and it was awful.”

“Hmm.” She looked thoughtful. “You know, I always thought that guy looked like an alien.”

“I know, right?” I exclaimed. “That’s what I said too! Anyway, Doloroso’s dead again—this time for good.”

“Grav took care of him again?” she asked hopefully.

“Actually, this time he sort of took care of himself. Remember that story Charlotte told us about the guy in the ER who overdosed on Viagra and got that hard-on that wouldn’t go down?”

“Oh my God…” Zoe grabbed my arm. “You have to tell me everything.”

We talked long into the night since it was the only one we had before Grav had to take Teeny back to her home planet. Zoe wanted me to stay with her for a longer visit but I had several reasons for going.

“I need to get things settled at home,” I said when she begged me again to stay. “I need to divorce Gerald for one thing and explain to my employers what happened to me. Well—I need to make up a good excuse anyway—obviously I’m not going to tell them I was abducted by aliens.”

Zoe giggled. “Not unless you want to sound crazy. It’s amazing, isn’t it, that all this…” She waved her hands around, almost spilling her wine, “Is out here and yet people on Earth don’t know about any of it? They’d try to have you committed if you started telling your story when actually they’re the delusional ones!”

“Let’s hope it stays that way,” I said. “I don’t know if Earth is ready to know about the big, bad universe just yet.”

“Well, some of them are finding out,” she said darkly. “The girls getting taken by the Alien Mate Index, anyway. Sarden is planning to petition the Goddess Empress to stop the Commercians from abducting Earth girls but he says that even if the Commercians get booted out, someone else will take their place. Now that we have a big hole in our ozone layer, the Earth is fair game.”

“The Goddess Empress is dead, though,” I said. “Didn’t you know? And—I can’t believe I didn’t tell you this yet—the head of her guards thinks that Charlotte is supposed to be her replacement. That’s the second reason I need to go back to Earth—I want to make sure she’s okay.”

“Oh my God!” Zoe put a hand over her mouth. “Well then, of course you have to go! Wow…” She shook her head. “Well, if anyone could rule the Universe it would be Charlotte—she’s so organized. Did you ever see her notes in college? She knew more than most of her professors.”

“I said the same thing.” I grinned at her and then sighed. “I wish she was here now. I wish we were all safe and happy together like in the old days.”

“I wish it too, hon, but you can’t go back.” Zoe squeezed my arm. “And honestly, except for being close to the two of you, I wouldn’t want to go back. I was miserable working at Lauder, Lauder, and Associates. I was getting staplers thrown at my head and here…”

“You’re wearing a crown on your head. It’s a big difference.” I smiled at her. “Zoe, I can’t tell you how happy I am for you. And how happy I am that you’re alive and well. Maybe you and I and Charlotte will all be together again someday soon.”

“From your lips to the Goddess of Mercy’s ears.” She smiled. “I just want to see the two of you as happy as I am.”

“Well, I don’t think I’m destined to rule a planet or an entire galaxy like the two of you,” I said. “But I wouldn’t really want to, anyway.”

“No, you’ll just be happy when you get your man. And you will get him—wait and see.” She winked at me.

“But…how? He doesn’t want me. Or at least, he doesn’t want to want me,” I pointed out.

“But you’ve still got that fire between you—that attraction, right?” She eyed me shrewdly. “Don’t say you don’t—I can tell when the two of you are together.”

I thought of how I had never stopped yearning for Grav’s arms around me—how I had never stopped burning for his touch. The sexual desire that had tormented me had died down a little but only because I was trying so hard to keep it at bay. I knew it could spring back to life at any moment, like a banked fire can suddenly become a roaring blaze when it’s poked with a stick.

“All right,” I admitted. “He still makes me feel—I still want him and I think he still wants me. But he won’t do anything about it.”

“So then, you do something about it,” Zoe said, poking me in the arm.

“Do what exactly?” I asked.

“Seduce him. Or find some kind of reason to get him going. Didn’t you say that Braxians have a point of no return—not just in battle but in sex?”

“Yes, but what do you suggest—that I push him until he reaches that point and just snaps?”

“Exactly.” She put down her wine with a thump on the tray beside the beanbag chair and smiled triumphantly. “Do that. Absolutely do that.”

“But…that’s so sneaky. I don’t want to trick him into a relationship,” I protested.

“You’re not tricking him—you’re helping him. Helping both of you, really. Look, didn’t you say he admitted to loving you?” Zoe asked.

“Well, yes, but—”

“And you love him too.”

“Like crazy,” I admitted. “I can’t help it.”

“So the two of you need a push to get together. And if he’s too stubborn, well, you’re going to have to be the one to do the pushing.” She poked me in the arm again. “Come on, Leah—I know you were never very aggressive back on Earth but you’ve changed. I can sense it.”

“I have.” I lifted my chin. “I’m not the same girl who let Gerald run all over her. Even if Grav and I never get together, I’m not going back to being that girl. I’m different now—stronger.”

“I know you are.” Zoe gave me a spontaneous hug. “I’m so proud of you!” She pulled back and looked me in the eye. “And you’re going to have to be strong and determined now, to get what you want.”

“I don’t know…” I bit my lip. “I don’t know anything about seducing anybody. And I still feel like I don’t want to trick Grav into something he’ll regret.”

Zoe frowned. “Well, have it your way. But I think you’re both going to regret it if you let him slip away. There’s a reason he’s the one who woke you up, Leah—woke up that part of you that you thought was dead. He’s the one—your fated mate. Don’t let him go!”

“I’ll try not to,” I said. “But I have to find a way that isn’t dishonest. I don’t want to found a relationship on lies. That was half the problem with Gerald—I was lying when I pretended he did anything for me sexually and he knew it. Deep down, I think he really knew it.”

“Good,” Zoe said promptly. “He was a jerk—he deserves to know you faked every single orgasm you ever had with him. And he deserves to be divorced. In fact…you can call my friend, Rylee Hale at Lauder, Lauder, and Associates. She’s a paralegal there too but she prepares paperwork on the side. It’s way cheaper than using a lawyer if you just want a quick and dirty no contest divorce. She might even do it for free if you drop my name. Oh—and tell her I’m okay.”

“That sounds good,” I said gratefully. “I don’t know what shape my bank account is going to be in when I get back. I guess it depends on if Gerald has cleaned it out or not.”

“That jerk.” She frowned. “You should have let Grav break him, the way he did Doloroso.”

“Well, that was a very specific kind of break,” I said, trying not to laugh. “And Grav did say he wanted to break Gerald’s spine. Or at least his arms, so he couldn’t hurt a female ever again.”

“Next time let him,” Zoe advised.

I sighed. “I will. If there is a next time.”

“There will be.” She smiled enigmatically. “You’ll see, Leah—something’s going to happen. You and Grav were meant to be together—and you will be.”

“I’d like to believe you’re right.” I ran a hand through my hair. “I guess I’ll let you know.”

“Do that. The communication isn’t great because Earth is so far from Eloim. Sometimes you can get a message through the Commercians with a boosted signal and sometimes not.” She shrugged. “But try. And let me know how Charlotte is doing, too.”

“I will,” I promised. “You know I will.”

“Of course.” She pulled me close again and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Be well, Leah. Be safe and be happy and most of all be brave.”

“Hey…” For some reason I felt tears stinging my eyes. “Why does it feel like you’re saying goodbye? I’m not leaving until tomorrow.”

“Because I’ll probably be bawling too hard to say it then.” Zoe sniffed. “I can’t believe you just got here and now you have to go.”

“I’ll be back,” I reminded her. “You said yourself you’ll send a ship for me in a couple of months if you don’t hear from me.”

She sighed. “I know. I just miss you and Charlotte so much.”

“We miss you too, sweetie,” I told her, giving her a hug. “And we’ll all be together before you know it.”

Little did I know how wrong I was…but that’s a story for another time. For now, I was content just to be close to my best friend again and feel comforted and secure…even if it was just for a little while.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Grav

The next morning there was a lot of crying and hugging and kissing between Leah and Zoe. A very emotional scene.

Sarden and I stood by and watched—Teeny was already in the hopper. I was a little worried about her—she seemed tired and she was extremely quiet. But I told myself the poor little female had been through a lot. No wonder she wanted to be alone—she needed to rest and get over her recent ordeal.

“So we’ll see you again soon, I hope?” Sarden asked. “You didn’t stay long at all—I thought you were going to settle here on Eloim and help me run this place.”

“You don’t need my help,” I told him, grinning a little. “Anybody can see you’re doing a hell of a job. The Eloim certainly seem to think so.”

“Yes, everybody’s happy,” he said, giving me a shrewd look. “Everybody but you, old friend. But as far as I can see, that’s your own fault.”

“What?” I looked at him, startled. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Leah. She’s the one for you, isn’t she? But you’re pushing her away.”

“There’s no ‘one right female’ for me,” I growled, frowning. “And even if there was, you know I couldn’t bond her. Because I’m a—”

“A half-breed.” He raised an eyebrow. “Like me?”

“You got lucky,” I said, looking away. “There’s no guarantee I would.”

“There’s no guarantee you wouldn’t, either,” he pointed out. “Leah is a Pure One and a La-ti-zal, the same as Zoe. What makes you think you couldn’t form a bond with her?”

“That’s the point,” I growled. “I’m afraid I could. She doesn’t need to be with me, Sarden. She needs a nice guy.”

“Like that mate of hers who beat her up?” he asked shrewdly. “Yes, Zoe told me about him. He sounds like a real bastard.”

“He’s that, all right,” I said darkly. “I wanted to rip his fuckin’ head off the first time I saw him. Actually, I still do.”

“Then do it. And claim Leah for your own.” His eyes flashed. “Sometimes a female likes to feel owned. Only in the bedroom but still—you know what I mean.”

“I can’t do that,” I said with a frustrated growl. “I can’t take that risk. What if we ended up with just a partial bond, like my parents? You know how it was between them.”

“That wasn’t because of their bond or lack of one,” Sarden said, frowning. “It was because your father was an abusive son-of-a-bitch. Forgive me, Grav, it pains me to speak ill of the dead but it’s true and you and I both know it.”

I ran a hand through my hair.

“Yeah, I know it.”

“Listen to me.” Sarden took me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes. “You’re not your father. No matter what you’ve done, you’re not that kind of male. You don’t hurt females and you’d never hurt Leah—even if you couldn’t bond her to you.”

“I don’t know.” I frowned and looked away. “I don’t even know if she still wants me…that way.”

“She does,” Sarden said bluntly. “She spent all last night telling Zoe how you make her feel.” He grimaced. “You know, I love the link my bond gives me with my little Pure One but sometimes I want to turn it down.”

“Really?”

I looked at Leah speculatively. She was still clinging to Zoe as the two females whispered together in front of the hopper which was floating serenely about an inch off the ground. Sarden has a nice big anti-grav landing area so I was able to bring my entire ship down to the planet’s surface instead of just a shuttle. Which was good, since my best shuttle had been lost to the Widow’s attack.

“Really,” he said firmly. “And don’t say you’re not good enough for her again because of your past. At some point, old friend, you have to put the past behind you and reach for the future the Goddess has offered you. It’s an insult to her not to.”

“What?” I looked at him, startled. I hadn’t thought of it that way.

“Think about it.” Sarden clapped me on the shoulder, the Star of Wisdom winking at his forehead. “Safe journey.”

“Thanks,” I said, frowning. As Leah finally let go of Zoe and we waved goodbye, I found myself wondering if he was right. Could it really be an insult to the Goddess of Mercy to refuse what she was offering? Or was it more of an insult to try to tie my stained and violent life to someone as pure and beautiful as Leah?

I just didn’t know.

Leah

“Leah?” Teeny’s voice was thin and worried as she stood in the doorway to my room. “Can I talk to you?”

“Of course you can, honey. Come on in.” I patted the spot beside me on the bunk. We had already made our first hop on the way to her home world of Thonolax, and Grav had said it would only take a few days to get her back home to her grandfather.

But Teeny had only given him a wan smile when he said it, and then wandered off again to her room. I had just been thinking that I needed to go check on her when she came knocking at my door. I was glad to see her but more worried than ever when I saw how tired and sick she looked. There were dark shadows under her violet eyes and her lovely, pale green skin had taken on a distinct, grayish cast.

“What is it?” I asked, as she settled beside me. “What’s wrong, Teeny? You’ve been so quiet lately.”

“It’s this,” she said simply and pushed up the sleeve of the oversized sweater she had begged from me some time ago, saying she was cold.

It was the same arm where she’d been bitten—the one I had healed back on Chndra, the small moon where we had found her. Or thought I’d healed, anyway. When I looked at her arm I saw that the bite mark was back and it looked worse than ever.

The indentations of the Biter’s teeth—which had never fully faded, I remembered now—were black and there were dark tendrils of infection radiating up and down the length of Teeny’s slender forearm.

“Oh no!” I whispered in horror, cradling her arm gently in my hand. “Teeny, when did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It…it’s been going on a few days now,” she admitted in a low voice. “It was so gradual and I was trying so hard not to think about it—about what would happen if it really came back. But now…” She started to cry. “Now it’s worse than ever and I don’t know what to do. Please, Leah—can you heal me again?”

“Of course I will!” I exclaimed. “Don’t cry, sweetheart—we’ll get you fixed up, I promise.”

But it turned out to be a promise I couldn’t keep.

Though I cupped my hands around her wounded arm and concentrated until I was light-headed and panting with effort, I could barely summon any healing power at all. Only a faint, flickering glow of the energy I’d been able to call the last time came to me when I tried. The evil-looking black lines, like blood poisoning that ran up and down her arm, scarcely retreated an inch and the black ring of bite marks didn’t change at all.

At last I had to stop because I thought I was going to pass out. I was panting and gasping, my forehead beaded with sweat and yet I had scarcely anything to show for it.

“Is that it?” Teeny’s big eyes were more frightened than ever. “You can’t heal me this time?”

“I’m sorry,” I told her, leaning back weakly against the bunk. “I…I don’t know what’s wrong with me. What’s different from the last time I healed you. I…”

I trailed off, my mind going a million miles a minute. Come to think of it, I did know what was different this time.

It was Grav—or rather the lack of him.

The first time I had healed Teeny, it hadn’t been long after the intense sexual encounter Grav and I had had. I shivered all over just thinking of it—his hands and mouth on my skin…his tongue between my thighs…

That’s it! I thought. I need a power source and he’s it!

Or maybe it was just the energy we raised between us when we touched each other. Maybe it would have worked just as well with any man. But somehow, I didn’t think so. There was a soft little voice inside me insisting that it had to be Grav…that without him, I would never have enough power to heal Teeny once and for all.

“I’m un-healable.” Big tears were rolling down Teeny’s cheeks. “I’m going to turn into a Biter after all.”

“No, you won’t. Listen to me, Teeny…” I took her by the shoulders and looked at her sternly. “Don’t talk like that. You’re not going to turn into a Biter. I think I know what’s wrong and it’s not you—it’s me.”

“What…what does that mean?” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes with the oversized sweater sleeve.

“It means I just have to, uh, recharge my batteries before I can heal you again,” I told her.

“Recharge your batteries?” She looked at me, puzzled. “But…how?”

Well wasn’t that the million dollar question.

I knew how but I wasn’t sure how Grav would feel about it. Still, I had to try.

“Just give me some time,” I told Teeny. “And in the meantime, why don’t we get you something to help you sleep?”

There was a little glass bottle labeled tincture of attar` in the bag Zoe had packed for me. It was a natural sleeping aid, much like melatonin back on Earth, she had explained. Just a few drops under the tongue would result in a long, restful night’s sleep, completely free of bad dreams or worry.

I decided that for Teeny’s size, a single drop would do. She opened her mouth obediently and the moment the medicine was in her mouth, her eyes started looking heavy.

“Oh, Leah,” she whispered and yawned. “I’m so…so sleepy.”

“That’s because you need to rest.” I tucked her into her bunk, which was about the same as mine and kissed her cool forehead. She shivered slightly and I pulled the covers higher around her thin shoulders.

“G’ night, Leah,” she murmured drowsily.

“Good night, Teeny,” I whispered. “When you wake up, we’ll get this all figured out.”

“I…hope so.” She yawned again and it ended in a soft snore. Poor thing, she really was worn out! I stayed a few minutes more to make sure she was sleeping comfortably and then went back to my own room.

It was time to find Grav but first I had a few preparations to make. I wanted there to be no way he could turn me down—no way he could resist what I was going to ask for.

Luckily, Zoe had given me a few things that I thought might help…

Grav

“You want me to do what?” I frowned at Leah, not understanding. It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying because she was wearing a new outfit that was extremely fucking distracting. Still, I tried to focus. “What?” I asked again.

“You heard me.” She put her hands on her full hips, a little frown playing around her gorgeous mouth. “Teeny’s bite is back and it’s worse than ever. I need you to help me heal her. For good this time.”

“But…how?” I demanded. I’d been sitting on my sleeping platform, going over some specs on my hand-held when she knocked on my door. Now I put it down on the bedside table and spread my hands. “I don’t understand what you want me to do. You’re the La-ti-zal.”

“So you keep telling me but apparently this La-ti-zal needs a power source.” Leah gave me a determined stare. “In this case, that power source is you.”

“I don’t understand,” I said again.

“Yes, you do. Don’t you remember the last time I healed Teeny? It was right after you and I, uh…”

“Right after I tasted your pussy?” I growled.

Leah’s cheeks got pink but she wouldn’t drop her gaze.

“That’s right,” she said. “After you, um, tasted me I was able to heal her. So…I need your help again.”

I could feel my shaft hardening in my trousers. Gods she was beautiful, standing there looking all defiant and gorgeous and demanding that I help her! I love a female that knows her mind and goes after what she wants.

Especially if what she wants is me.

Still…we had to be careful. I didn’t want to go too far—past the point of no return. And right now I wanted her so badly and it had been so long since I’d allowed myself to touch her, I felt like I was on a hair trigger.

“Well?” Clearly Leah was waiting an answer.

“All right,” I said at last. “But we need to take this slow, darlin’. I, uh, don’t want to go too far.”

“You mean you don’t want to bond me to you,” she said calmly. “All right. I can respect that.”

“I mean I don’t want to hurt you,” I growled, frowning. “Braxians can get kind of rough sometimes. Not on purpose, just because of our nature.”

“You didn’t hurt me before,” she pointed out. “When you…when you tasted me.”

I closed my eyes briefly, remembering the delicious flavor of her pussy, of the way she had moaned and cried and writhed under my tongue as she gave it up for me completely. Gods, she was beautiful! I wanted that again—wanted to worship her with my mouth until she came again and again and again.

I still thought trying to bond would be a bad idea—it wasn’t fair to her to try to tie her to me. But I could definitely see tasting her. Tasting and touching her and making her come just one last time. It was more than I could have hoped for—more than I deserved. But I wanted to be clear about the details.

“I didn’t need you so badly last time,” I said honestly, opening my eyes to look at her. “I haven’t let myself touch you in what feels like for-fuckin’-ever, darlin’. Remember how you were feelin’ the last time, when I tasted you to make you come?”

“Of course I do.” Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright. “I felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin or die I needed to come so badly.” She frowned. “Grav, are you saying you’re—”

“I’m not that bad off, no,” I said answering the question before she could finish it. “But I’m not far from it, either. See, tasting you the way I did last time is a mark of possession among my people. I think my body’s been wanting to finish what we started ever since. I just don’t want to get out of control—that’s all.”

And I could definitely see myself getting out of control with her if I wasn’t careful. She was looking so beautiful I was halfway to the edge already. She must have taken the time to change before she came to me with her little proposition because that damn distracting outfit she had on was one I had never seen before—one that Zoe had probably given her.

It was a long, sheer red gown with a deep V-neck that showed the full curves of her gorgeous breasts. Her nipples, already tight, pressed against the thin material making my mouth water to suck them. Not only that, but there was a high slit up one thigh that showed her long, curvy legs.

I wanted to spread her gown wide and get between her thighs to rub my cheek against her soft little sex. I wondered if she was wearing another pair of those tiny panties under the sexy red dress and if so, were they wet with her juices? Wet the way they had been last time when I cupped her…when I put my tongue deep in her soft little slit…

“We can take it slow,” Leah offered, breaking into my feverish fantasy. “Just, you know, do a little at a time. I think I can tell by the way I feel inside if I’ve got enough power to do a healing or not.” She sighed. “Right now my tank is completely empty.”

“And I’m guessing it needs to be completely full in order to heal Teeny all the way,” I said, frowning. “How far do you think we’re going to have to go, exactly, darlin’?”

Leah nibbled her lush lower lip in that way that made me want to kiss her so damn badly I could hardly keep from grabbing her. I fisted my hands at my sides, willing away the red haze of passion that wanted to seep into my vision. Gods, I really was in a bad way!

“Well?” I asked again, my voice dipping down to a growl, since she hadn’t answered. “How far, Leah?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “As far as we have to. I have to heal her, Grav—all the way this time. I can’t explain it but I have a feeling this is my last chance. Teeny’s last chance.”

“All right.” When she put it that way I knew I had to put my misgivings aside. “All right, we’ll do it,” I said and pulled her into my arms. “But I have to warn you, darlin’—I’m not as in control of myself as I’d like right now. I want you too damn badly.”

“I want you, too, Grav” she whispered breathlessly and I thought of the way she’d called my name while I knelt between her thighs. Gods, I wanted that again—wanted it so fuckin’ bad I could hardly see straight! But we had to be careful—had to take it slow or it might go too far. I might go too far. And I didn’t want that.

As badly as I wanted her, I didn’t want to hurt her or do something we would both regret. I just had to be careful and I swore I would be.

But there are some promises you just can’t keep, you know? As she reached for me, I felt something inside me break and the idea of going slow and careful flew right out the fuckin’ window.

I grabbed her and pulled her against me.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Leah

“Oh, Grav!” I gasped when he pulled me tight against him. I could feel every inch of his big, hard, muscular body pressing against mine. And I do mean every inch, including the hard bulge between his thighs that was poking insistently against my belly.

I wondered for the first time if this was entirely safe. Zoe and I had talked about pushing Grav to the edge and beyond—forcing him to that place of no return that all Braxians had, but somehow I hadn’t thought that it might be dangerous to push him there. I remembered the way Captain Verrai hadn’t wanted to go after Grav, even with a whole squadron of Imperial Guards.

But that was fighting—this is loving. They’re not the same thing so it shouldn’t be dangerous—right? I tried to tell myself. But the way Grav was holding me to him and looking into my eyes so intensely I wasn’t so sure.

“Gods, you’re gorgeous,” he said hoarsely, gripping my ass in both hands and pulling me closer so he could rub against me. “Where did you get this little red dress? It’s drivin’ me fuckin’ crazy.”

“Zoe gave it to me,” I whispered breathlessly. “She…she wanted me to wear it to try to seduce you. But I swear this isn’t about that, Grav. I mean, I did put it on to try and get you to agree to this but it’s just for Teeny—I promise.”

“I know it,” he growled, pulling me even closer. I could feel the hard ridge of his shaft pressing right against me now, rubbing against the swollen lips of my sex through the thin material of the gown and the white lace panties I had on beneath. “I know it, darlin’,” he repeated. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Which is why we’re gonna go slow and only do what we have to do to build up your power again.”

Only he sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than me.

“This…doesn’t feel slow,” I gasped as he rubbed himself against me, actually spreading my pussy lips this time, grinding against my clit in a way that shot sparks of pleasure through my whole body.

“If you only knew how much faster and further I wanna go, you’d understand it is.” Grav looked in my eyes and then backed me up against the wall—pinning me there with both hands over my head. I felt completely helpless with him looming over me, his white-on-black eyes blazing into mine as our pelvises ground together.

“What…what do you want to do?” I asked breathlessly, knowing it was a loaded question and yet asking anyway.

“I wanna fuck you, Leah,” he growled, making the breath catch in my throat and my heart pound like a jackhammer in my chest. “But more than that—I want to own you.”

“Oh,” I gasped, a breathless little whisper. But he wasn’t done yet. He kept talking in that low, growling voice, looking into my eyes the whole time.

“I want to spread your thighs, rip away your panties and shove my shaft deep in your sweet, wet pussy,” he growled. “I want to fill you with myself over and over until you come all over my cock. And then…” His voice dropped even lower, his eyes narrowing with lust as he held my gaze, never letting me go. “And then I wanna come too—come deep inside you, darlin’. I want to fill you with my seed again and again until you can’t hold anymore and it slides down your sweet thighs. But it won’t matter because I won’t stop—I’ll keep coming and filling you over and over. I’ll never let you go.”

“Oh Grav…oh God,” I moaned, unable to help myself. His dirty talk was sending my body into overdrive and the way he was rubbing against me was making my pussy so wet I was sure my panties were soaked. “Please!” I whispered. “Please.”

He pulled open the deep v-neck of my gown, exposing my breasts. I bit back a moan and tried not to thrust them out to him too eagerly. I knew some part of me had been hoping things would go this way—I had never been able to forget how good Grav’s mouth on my breasts felt or stop wanting to feel it again.

Grav fulfilled my secret fantasies by palming my breasts in his big hands. Then he leaned down to take one tight nipple between his lips.

He sucked hard, drawing deep as though he wanted to get as much of my breast as he could into his mouth at one time. At the same time, he pinched my other nipple, teasing and tugging it mercilessly until I thought I would go crazy with need. If he hadn’t had me pinned against the cold metal wall of his room, I think I would have collapsed on the floor.

At last he let my nipple slip from between his lips.

“How’s that?” he asked at last, panting. “You feel the power building inside you, darlin’?”

“Yes,” I moaned. “But…but I need more.…”

“Then I’ll give you more,” he growled. Ducking his head, he concentrated on my other breast, sucking it as deeply into his mouth as he had the first. His hips were still working against mine and I could feel his shaft rubbing hard against my swollen pussy through his leather trousers and the thin material of my gown.

Oh God, was I going to come right here up against the wall with him sucking my breasts before we had even done anything else? It certainly felt like it! I was tingling all over, just as I had been after we’d been together the last time.

Then, abruptly, he stopped and pulled away.

“What…what happened?” I looked at him uncertainly, still panting with need. “I…I can feel the power but I still need more.”

“I know you do, but I can’t take this,” he growled, running a hand through his hair. “I’m too fuckin’ close to the edge. I might hurt you.”

“You’re not hurting me.” I took his head between my hands, tugging gently on his horns. He groaned softly and focused on me.

“Darlin’…”

“Grav, look at me,” I said. “You’re not hurting me.”

“You’re so fragile…” His fingers traced my cheek restlessly. “So delicate… I know we were just gonna do this for Teeny but I don’t know if it’s a good idea. I don’t know if I can stop.”

“I don’t want you to stop,” I said. And then I gripped his horns more firmly and dragged him down for a kiss.

Grav

It was like she lit a fire inside me—one that couldn’t be extinguished no matter how hard I tried. I pulled her sweet, curvy body up tight to mine. I needed her—needed to be inside her, filling her soft little pussy with my cock and my cum.

But first I needed to taste her again.

The thought of taking her to the sleeping platform flicked across my mind like a shooting star—there and gone so fast it hardly registered. But I didn’t want to stop for a minute—didn’t want to come up for air. I just wanted to keep tasting her.

I feasted on her lips a little longer, penetrating her mouth with my tongue the way I wanted to penetrate her pussy. Gods, she tasted so sweet and she sucked my tongue eagerly, pressing up against me as though she couldn’t get enough.

I knew how she felt.

Licking a trail down her neck and sucking her nipples once more, I slowly dropped to my knees before her. I wanted to worship at her shrine—to spread her open and taste all that sweet honey I knew she was making just for me. Gods, just the thought had my cock snarling in my flight leathers.

“Oh…Oh, Grav,” she moaned as I spread open the slit of her long dress and got my face up close to her hot little sex.

“How about this, darlin’?” I asked, looking up at her. “Is this okay? Me touching you through your panties?” I wanted to do a hell of a lot more than that but I was still trying to be careful, still trying to keep myself from reaching that point of no return. “Think that will give you enough healing power?” I asked her.

“I…I don’t know,” she gasped. “But I think we should…should try and find out.”

“My pleasure,” I growled and turned my attention back to the sweet spot between her thighs.

She was wearing panties again—little white ones this time. They were thin and low cut, barely covering the plump little mound of her pussy. Just like I thought, she was wet—so wet the fabric clung to her, outlining every curve of her nether lips, so puffy and swollen with desire. I could see the smooth tan of her skin and the dark pink of her inner pussy—her little clit was just barely nudging out from between her lips as though begging for attention.

Gods, she was beautiful! I couldn’t help the low groan that broke from my lips. I could feel that point of no return approaching—the place every Braxian male reaches where he can’t turn back, no matter how he tries. The red haze of lust was creeping into my vision again but this time I couldn’t back it off. It just kept growing and growing, coloring everything as red as Leah’s gown, making me feel fuckin’ crazy with need for her.

I buried my face between her thighs, rubbing against the silky little panties, breathing in her sweet, feminine musk, bathing in her scent. Goddess, I couldn’t get enough of her. I needed her so damn badly!

Leah made a soft moaning sound and parted her thighs for me, opening herself to my assault. The move made her pussy open, spreading her puffy lips under the thin, white panties, showing the pink pearl of her clit, all swollen and begging for attention.

Holding her thighs with both hands, I pressed against her, lapping eagerly along the slick, thin fabric. I could feel the swollen lips of her pussy and the little bump of her clit but I couldn’t quite taste her—not the way I needed to.

“Leah…” I looked up at her. “This is no good. I need you bare—need your pussy completely spread for me so I can taste you right.”

“All…all right.” She nodded in agreement. “I think that would help build the power more too.”

“Good,” I growled. “Then get ready to open your pussy for me, sweetheart. I need to lick you long and deep tonight.”

She gave a little moan and spread her legs, offering herself to me. Gods, she was fuckin’ gorgeous and completely irresistible—I had to have her.

I couldn’t wait anymore. With both hands, I tugged down her panties, frantic with lust to taste her juices. She tried to step out of them but it didn’t work—I wound up tearing them off, just as I’d told her I wanted to. She gasped but didn’t try to close her legs. Instead she opened wider, inviting me in, giving me what I so desperately craved—the taste of her pussy.

Leah

“Grav…Grav!” I could hear myself calling his name as he licked and sucked my open sex, and I couldn’t seem to help it.

His mouth was so hot and wet on me, almost desperate with need as he sucked my pussy lips into his mouth and then spread them wide to bathe my open pussy with long, hot, lapping strokes. It reminded me of the desperation I had felt before, after drinking the truth drink. Grav had helped me then, giving me everything I needed and more to ease the ache inside me. Could I do less for him?

And besides, I had my own growing ache to deal with. The touch of his hands, the feeling of his big body against mine and his tongue so hot and wet and relentless between my thighs was pushing me higher and higher towards that elusive peak. The one I hadn’t tried to reach since the last time he had tasted me. And with the pleasure, grew the power. Now that I was attuned to it, I could feel it growing inside me, like heat lightning getting ready to strike.

“Grav!” I gasped as he picked up one of my legs and put it over his shoulder. The new position opened me even more, baring my pussy for him completely. He growled, deep in his throat and leaned closer, swirling his tongue over my swollen clit until I thought I would die of pleasure.

I tightened my hands on his horns, pulling him towards me, bucking against his mouth shamelessly as I rode his tongue. Part of me couldn’t believe I was doing this. Here I was, spread wide against the wall with my dress pulled up to my waist and one leg thrown over his broad shoulder as he feasted on my pussy like he would die if he couldn’t taste me. But another part—a deeper part—never wanted it to end. Wanted it to go on and on, further and further until we reached that point of no return that Grav had warned me about.

I wanted him to do everything he had said to me and more.

“Grav,” I begged him. “The power is growing but I still need more. Please…I need…I need…”

“I know what you need.” He looked up at me, his mouth and chin shiny from my juices. “You need to get fucked, darlin’.”

“Yes,” I moaned, unable to help myself. “Oh God, Grav—yes. Please!”

I thought he would take me right up against the wall, but he didn’t. He surprised me by rising to his feet and swinging me into his arms as though I weighed no more than a pillow.

Taking me to the bed, he put me down gently but firmly and followed me down, covering my body with his own.

I felt his muscular weight on top of me and welcomed it. This was what I had been wanting—no, needing—from the first moment his touch had awakened me. From the instant I knew the sexual part of me wasn’t dead, only sleeping and Grav was the only one who could wake it up.

“Hate to rip this pretty dress.” His hands were restless, roving all over my body, pinching my nipples and sliding between my thighs to finger my sex. “But I need you naked under me, darlin’.”

“All right,” I said breathlessly. He raised up a little and I wriggled out of the pretty red gown Zoe had given me. It was hopelessly rumpled and wrinkled by then but I didn’t give a damn. I just wanted to be naked under the man I loved.

Grav watched me hungrily and I thought I saw a red pinprick far back in his white-on-black eyes.

“Gods, you’re so fuckin’ beautiful,” he growled when I was finally naked. “Look at all your lush curves, all spread out just for me.”

“All for you, baby,” I promised breathlessly, holding out my arms. “Come take me.”

Grav pulled his shirt over his head, baring his muscular chest and then started to unfasten his trousers. But then he stopped and a frown came over his face.

“What?” I asked anxiously. “What is it? Please, Grav, I need you!”

“I’m sorry, Leah, it’s just…” He took a deep breath and looked down at me. “We need to take it easy here—I’m getting fuckin’ close, darlin’—close to the point of no return. I think we should dial things down a notch.”

“But…how?” I asked uncertainly.

“By takin’ it slow. You said you feel the power growing—we should just do what’s necessary to feed the power.”

“So you’re not going to, uh, make love to me?” I felt my heart sink at the idea. I’d had sex before—sure I had. But this was the first time in my entire life that I actually wanted to have sex, that I hungered for it the way a starving man hungers for food.

“We’re gonna take it slow,” Grav said, shifting on top of me. “I’ll try just rubbing against you first—that should build some serious power.”

I couldn’t argue with that. He took off his trousers and boots and stood there for a minute, letting me look at him.

There was plenty to look at.

It was the first time I’d seen him completely naked since our trip through the transporter of the Alien Mate Index. And let me tell you, what I saw nearly took my breath away.

He was immense. Long and thick and hard, the club of his sex rose from between his thighs. I know I said before that I always thought a man’s penis is the most ridiculous part of him but there was nothing ridiculous about this.

Intimidating was a word that came to mind. Also frightening, scary, and oh-my-God-how-is-he-going-to-fit-that-thing-inside-me?

Well, he might not have to, I told myself, trying to forestall panic. He wants to just do what’s necessary to build the power. He said he just wants to rub against you at first.

Accordingly, I lay back on the bed and spread my legs for him.

Grav groaned and I saw that red pinprick in the back of his eyes again.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, this is too fuckin’ tempting. Scoot over, darlin’—you better be on top.”

So that was how I found myself straddling his hips while Grav lay flat on the bed, looking up at me. He was so big I had to spread my thighs wide to make it work—which of course made my pussy open to show exactly how ready I was for him.

“Gods, you’re so wet,” Grav growled hoarsely, looking between my legs as though he couldn’t get enough of the sight of me.

“I can’t help it,” I whispered. “The way you tasted me…it put me so close to the edge.”

“Let’s see if we can’t get a little closer,” he murmured. “Lower yourself down and rub along my shaft, darlin’. Let the power and the pleasure build together.”

I did as he said, lowering myself down until the thick shaft of his cock was parting my tender pussy lips.

We both moaned at the intimate contact. Finally, I could feel him pressing against my clit with nothing between us and it was incredible. His skin was warm and silky and I was so wet from the way he had tasted me I felt like I could take even his incredibly large equipment with no problem.

But we’re not going to do that, I reminded myself. I’m just going to rub against him.

Which meant I had better get started because there was a lot to rub against.

Starting at the thick root of his cock, I slid upwards, stroking over his broad shaft with my inner pussy in the most intimate massage possible. His hot, silky skin sliding against my swollen, sensitive clit was the most incredible torture. It put every nerve on my body on edge and yet still I didn’t come.

When I came to the broad, flaring head, I felt it bump over my clit and then—only for a moment—just the tip lodged at the entrance of my pussy. It was almost as though Grav was just about to enter me but he hadn’t quite gotten around to it yet.

When that happened I looked up and saw that he was watching—not the action between our legs but my face. I wondered if this would be the act that pushed him over the edge of self-control but somehow he was still holding on to his reason.

“Go on, darlin’,” he murmured hoarsely. “Slide back and forth a little more. Make yourself come if you can. Maybe coming on my cock will be enough to build the power.”

“I…I’ll try,” I whispered breathlessly. “But I have to be honest, Grav…I feel like I need more. More to come and more to build the power.”

“Just try it,” he insisted, his deep voice grating as he clearly tried to hold on to his self control. “Please.”

“All right.” I slid back and forth several times but though his skin against mine felt incredible and his shaft got completely saturated by my juices, I still couldn’t come. I was nearly moaning with frustration when I finally came to a stop at the end of his shaft. Once more just the tip was lodged inside me and I could feel my inner pussy contract, wanting him… wanting more.

“Gods, darlin’, you’re still so wet,” Grav growled, holding me by the hips. “Do you feel close to coming yet?”

“Yes,” I admitted. “But I’ve been feeling close since we started this. I need something else, something more to come, Grav. Please…”

I wiggled my hips and tilted my pelvis until more than just the tip of his shaft was lodged inside me. Until almost the entire head was breaching my entrance.

“Leah…” Grav’s hands tightened on my hips warningly but I noticed he didn’t try to pull out of me.

“Please, Grav,” I begged. “I need more. Why can’t we just, you know…”

“Fuck?” he finished for me, bluntly. “Because the minute I do that, I’ve lost all control of myself and the entire situation.”

“The point of no return,” I whispered.

“Exactly.” He took a deep breath. “You don’t understand about Braxians, darlin’. We don’t just fuck—we breed. Once I shove my shaft all the way in your sweet little pussy, there’s no stopping until my seed is running down your thighs.”

I shivered at his words but I couldn’t help it—I couldn’t stop wanting him.

“Don’t put it in all the way then,” I said, stroking his broad, muscular chest and abs. “Why not just put…I don’t know, an inch in. Just a little at a time to build the power. I…I don’t think I can come without you in me—at least a little bit,” I added. “I don’t know why, it’s just…just a feeling I have.”

“Well, you know your own body best, darlin’.” Grav frowned. “All right. But just a little at a time. I don’t know what an ‘inch’ is though—is that an Earth measurement?”

“It’s about like this…” I held my finger and thumb a little way apart to show him.

“All right.” He nodded. “Just an inch then—we’ll start with the head.”

“Just the head,” I agree breathlessly and spread my legs wider in anticipation.

“You’re eager, aren’t you?” Grav’s eyes were half-lidded with lust.

“I can’t help it,” I said honestly. “I…I need you, Grav.”

“Need you too, darlin’—so fuckin’ bad. But I don’t want to hurt you. Here…”

His hips shifted and I felt the broad, plum-shaped head finally push all the way inside me, past my pussy lips and into my channel.

Grav and I both groaned and I felt myself squeeze him involuntarily, my inner pussy stroking and massaging the thick invader.

“Gods, you’re tight,” he murmured, his hands still gripping my hips.

“It’s just that you’re so big,” I said. “I…I’ve never been with anyone your size.”

“Haven’t been with anyone your size either,” he admitted, grinning a little. “You Earth girls are so itty-bitty.”

“I am not ‘itty-bitty,’ I’m considered plus-sized on my planet,” I reminded him. “And I won’t break.”

“Not even if I do…this?”

With a slow roll of his hips, he thrust more of that long, thick shaft inside me. I moaned and spread my thighs even wider, trying to be open enough to take him.

“No,” I whispered. “You…you can’t break me that way. Although you can make me completely crazy. Grav, I feel the power—I feel it growing. I just need more.”

“How much more?” he asked, frowning. “How much will it take to give you what you need, darlin’?”

“All of it,” I said recklessly. “All of you, Grav. I need you all the way inside me.”

“Gods, Leah…” he groaned and then shut his eyes tight for a moment. When he opened them and looked up at me, I could see that the red spark burning in the back of them had grown.

“What is it?” I asked him. “Is it too much to ask?”

“No…” He shifted under me restlessly, making me give a little cry from the pleasurable friction. “This is the point of no return, darlin’. If I do this, if I thrust my cock all the way into your sweet pussy, I won’t be able to stop. So this is it, right here. If you want me to stop, say so because I can’t after this. I can’t.”

“Grav, please…” I tugged at one of his horns restlessly. “I don’t want you to stop,” I told him.

He gave a low groan that sounded like a man finally admitting defeat. Then he gripped my hips and with one long thrust, pushed the rest of his thick shaft all the way into me.

I moaned and gasped, loving the feeling of him stretching me to the limit. I could feel my inner walls opening to accommodate him, could feel the broad head of his cock deep inside me, kissing the end of my channel.

And then Grav flipped me over while somehow staying deep inside me.

I gasped at the sudden change of position. He had me pinned to the bed now, completely open for him, utterly penetrated and totally at his mercy.

It was the scariest situation I’d ever been in…and also the hottest.

I tried to say something but I could tell that even if I could get the words out, he wouldn’t understand me. The beast inside him had taken over—the red pinprick in the back of each eye had grown until it devoured his pupils and irises. Instead of white-on-black, his eyes were red-on-black now and they were filled with pure, animal lust.

I was in for a wild ride.

“Grav!” I moaned as he pulled out of me and then plunged back in, his thick shaft stretching me to the limit as the head of his cock gave the mouth of my womb a deep, hard kiss. “Oh God…Grav!”

His only answer was more deep, hard thrusting. I moaned and opened myself to him—what else could I do? I was pinned to the bed, my legs spread wide, my pussy completely penetrated and filled by his big, alien cock. He had said that he wanted to own me and now I knew this was what it felt like. Grav wasn’t just making love to me or fucking me—he was breeding me. Owning me. And I knew it wouldn’t be over until he filled me with his cum and I came along with him, all over his invading shaft.

The deep delicious thrusting seemed to go on forever. I wrapped my legs around his waist and cried his name again and again, scratching long furrows down his muscular back. I could feel my pleasure and my power both building to a peak. I couldn’t stop either one—nor did I want to. I was getting close…so close, if I could just have a little more stimulation…

Just then, Grav took another position. Grabbing my legs, he drew them up over his broad shoulders. I gasped as the new angle opened me even more and moaned as I felt his pelvis grinding against mine, pressing right against my swollen clit.

It was too much…and just enough. With a low moan I felt myself reaching the peak at last. My back arched, my toes curled, and I found that I was somehow holding onto his horns, dragging him down for a wild, hungry kiss as he pounded into me, marking me as his, claiming me completely.

“Grav!” I gasped as my orgasm finally hit, rolling over me like a tidal wave. “Oh God—yes! Grav!”

He must have felt my inner muscles contract around him because with a low roar, he pressed deep inside me and allowed my orgasm to trigger his own. I felt his thick shaft swell even thicker inside me and then something hot was filling me as spurt after spurt of his seed bathed the mouth of my womb, marking me as his in no uncertain terms.

Yes, I thought. Oh, yes…yes…yes!

Chapter Thirty

Leah

I had never felt anything like it—the intense feeling of being opened and penetrated and owned and the incredible rush of pleasure that came with it. I never wanted it to end.

At last, however, Grav pulled me close and rolled us over again so that I was lying on top of his broad chest, his shaft still half-buried in my pussy.

He was breathing deeply, his massive chest rising and falling like a bellows. I nuzzled against him, feeling warm and close and safe in a way I never had after sex before. It was so good…so right.

And so different from sex with Gerald. After sex with my ex—because that was how I thought of him now, even though I had yet to serve him with divorce papers—I only wanted it to be over. Only wanted to get away from the invasive feeling of having someone else inside me so I could clean myself up.

It wasn’t like that with Grav. I wanted to keep cuddling with him, cradled on his broad chest with his muscular arms around me. I didn’t even mind that his still-hard shaft was still piercing my pussy. In fact, I kind of liked it. I was all worn out from the incredible orgasm—so tired I almost thought I could fall asleep.

Then I heard Grav call my name.

“Leah? Darlin’?”

“Mmm?” I looked up and saw he was looking down at me anxiously, a worried look in his white-on-black eyes. Because they were white-on-black again. The berserker red had faded, leaving him looking like his old, normal self.

“Are…are you okay?” He stroked the hair away from my face. “I mean, did I hurt you?”

“Uh-uh.” I shook my head and gave him a dreamy smile. “Actually, I feel incredible.”

An incredulous little smile darted across his sensuous mouth.

“You liked it, did you?”

“I loved it,” I assured him. “Grav, that was hands-down the best sex I have ever had.”

He was quiet for a moment, concentrating on my face but I couldn’t tell why. At last he said,

“Do you feel anything?”

“The power you mean?” I stretched languidly, feeling a tingling that ran from my fingers all the way down to my toes. “Oh yeah—I feel all charged up now. I’m sure healing Teeny won’t be a problem.”

“That’s wonderful, darlin’,” he rumbled. “But…that’s not what I mean. I mean do you feel anything from me?”

“Oh…Oh.” Suddenly I understood what he meant. I sat up, which pushed more of his still-hard length inside me. We both made little sounds of pleasure but I refused to let myself be distracted by it. Instead, I looked at Grav, concentrating hard, trying to see if I could pick up any of his thoughts or emotions. I tried my best to “tune in” on him, the way Zoe had told me she was able to tune in on her mate, Sarden.

Nothing.

I wanted to cry. Because when I looked at Grav, I could tell he was having the same experience. As much as we wanted to, we couldn’t catch each other’s emotions or thoughts.

Despite the incredibly intense sex, we hadn’t bonded.

“I…I’m sorry,” I whispered, biting my lip. “I want to be bonded to you, Grav—I want to feel what you feel, want to have that connection but, well…it’s not there.”

He sighed. “For me either, darlin’. I can’t feel a damn thing from you.”

“Does it really matter so much?” I asked, pleadingly. “Do we have to be bonded? We don’t bond on Earth, you know, and lots of people still make happy marriages together.”

“Like you and your mate you mean?” he growled.

The sarcasm in his words hurt—I felt like he’d punched me.

“That’s not fair and you know it,” I said softly.

“I’m sorry.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “That was a fucked-up thing to say. It’s just…without a bond, this won’t work. Not for me, anyway. Look what happened to my parents.”

“Do you really think we’d end up like them?” I asked. “Because I don’t. I’m not afraid of you, Grav, even though you’re the biggest guy I’ve ever seen. I know you’d never hurt me.”

“No, but you’d never be completely sure of me either,” he said, frowning. “You’d never know the deepest part of my heart—the way I’d never know the deepest part of yours. After a while it would hurt us—drive us apart. I’ve seen it happen, Leah. Not just with my parents, with other couples of the Twelve Peoples who tried to make it without a bond. Because it just doesn’t work. Not in the long run.”

“So that’s it? It’s all over?” I pulled away from him and sat on the edge of the bed. Wrapping my arms around myself, I tried not to cry.

“I’m sorry, darlin’,” he rumbled. “So damn sorry.”

I didn’t want to give up. Despite the finality in his eyes, I wanted to try one more time. I looked up at him, putting my heart into my eyes.

“Grav, please, I…I love you. And I don’t have to feel your emotions to know you care for me too. Can’t that be enough?”

His strange, beautiful, alien eyes were filled with sorrow when he shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Leah—no. It’s not enough. Please believe me—I’m tryin’ to save you a heartache in the long run.”

“Really?” I said icily, my hurt feelings turning from sorrow to anger. “Because it seems to me you’re trying to save yourself one.”

I got off the bed and started pulling on my clothes. Grav watched me, frowning.

“Where are you going?”

“To heal Teeny. That was the point of all this, in case you forgot,” I snapped. “Not to try and achieve some ridiculous, unattainable relationship goal. Just to heal a sick little girl.”

“It’s not unattainable,” he growled. “It’s necessary for a healthy, long-term—”

“Oh, just shut up!” I exclaimed. “If you don’t want to be with me, just say so. You don’t have to make excuses.”

“Is that what you think?” He was out of the bed in an instant and taking me by the shoulders. “Leah, I want you more than any female I’ve ever seen. The minute I saw your beautiful image on the AMI light screen, you were all I could think about. I do want to be with you—so much it fuckin’ hurts.”

“But you won’t,” I said, knowing it was true.

“No.” He dropped his hands and sighed. “No, I won’t.”

“All right, then.” I took a deep breath and ran both hands through my hair, trying to get hold of myself. This wasn’t like me, all this snapping and sarcasm. No matter what happened or how much he hurt me, I wanted to carry myself with dignity and grace.

“Leah,” he began but I held up a hand to stop him.

“I’m going now,” I said. “I want to heal Teeny and then I want to get some sleep. I’m really tired right now.”

“All right.” He looked down at his hands. “Uh…maybe you’d prefer me to change the hopper’s course and take you back to Earth before I drop off Teeny?”

“Just can’t wait to get rid of me, huh?” I said, forgetting my promise to myself not to be sarcastic.

“Leah—” His deep voice was anguished but I refused to let it melt me.

“No, no—don’t say anything.” I shook my head. “Actually, I think that’s a really good idea. If Teeny’s grandfather doesn’t mind.”

“Earth is actually kind of on the way,” he rumbled. “So it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Well then by all means, please do change the course.” I drew the shreds of my dignity around me and lifted my chin. “I’ll be happy to go home a little early. I have a lot of things to take care of.”

“Fine.” His features hardened like granite. “I’ll change the course.”

“Thank you.” I turned to go but he called me back.

“Leah…I’m sorry.”

“Not sorry enough,” I said and left the room.

Grav

The rest of the trip to Earth was a fuckin’ nightmare—mostly because I was so miserable I could hardly function. Part of me thought I was a fool, letting the perfect female slip through my fingers—letting the only female I had ever loved go. But there was a little voice at the back of my head, a nagging little whisper that wouldn’t shut up.

It’s better this way—it’s the only way, that little voice told me. You don’t want to condemn Leah to a loveless joining, do you? Oh sure, it would be fine for a while but then the doubts set in, the wondering what the other person is really feeling, the jealousy over the fact that all her friends are bonded to their mates and she can’t have that. No, it’s better to let her go—she was too good for you anyway, Grav. Let her be free to find a mate she can bond with. One that’s not a murderer and an escaped con. Just let her go.

I couldn’t ignore that little voice—or deny the truth of what it was saying. It was better to let Leah go, I told myself, even as my heart ached for her. It was better for both of us but especially for her. I was a hybrid—not meant for that special love that others felt. And I couldn’t condemn Leah to a life without it just because I was unable to bond with her.

So I kept telling myself as my hopper made its way through the galaxy to the small blue and green planet Leah called home.

Leah healed Teeny—completely this time, without even a trace of the Biter’s mark left on her arm—and the two of them spent most of their time together. I could see that Teeny was growing attached to my little Earth female—well, not mine anymore but still, I couldn’t help feeling possessive of her. And Leah, for her part, treated Teeny like a daughter or a beloved, much younger sister. It was clearly an affection that both of them needed and I thought sadly that when we dropped Leah off it would hurt Teeny almost as much as it hurt me to say goodbye.

To me, Leah was extremely polite and distant, as if we were acquaintances who barely knew each other. It hurt but I didn’t complain about it. After all, I understood why she was doing it—she was hurting too and I was the cause of her pain. This whole fucked-up situation was all my fault and yet I didn’t know how to solve it…how to make it better.

Almost before I knew it, the Earth was hovering in my viewscreen. And then I saw the Commercian’s station, carefully camouflaged amongst the space junk floating around the little planet. I shook my head—it was a pity they didn’t take better care of what the Goddess had given them. But then again, if they had, I never would have met Leah.

“Is that it? Is that Leah’s home planet?” Teeny asked in my ear.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah it is.” I heaved a big sigh and nodded at her.

“Grav…” She put one little hand on my arm, looking up at me. “Can’t you two, I don’t know, make up somehow?”

“I wish we could, Teeny,” I said. “But it’s complicated.”

“What’s complicated?” Leah came into the control area, apparently looking for Teeny. “Oh…” She caught sight of the Earth spinning in space before us. “I…I can’t believe we’re finally here.”

“Yup.” I heaved a sigh and set the ship’s coordinates to stay in orbit around the far side of the Earth’s small moon so the humans wouldn’t detect it. “Come on—we’ll have to take the second best shuttle. It’s going to be crowded.”

“So that’s it—we’re going? I mean…you’re going to drop me off and leave me? Just like that?” Leah’s big brown eyes were bright with unshed tears. But what could I do?

“Best not to drag it out,” I growled. “Get your stuff. I’ll go prepare the shuttle.”

As I walked past them, Teeny rushed to Leah and threw her skinny little arms around her.

“Leah…Leah…” She was crying. “I don’t want you to go!”

“I don’t want to go either,” I heard Leah say. “But we don’t always get what we want, Teeny. I’m so sorry.”

Gods, this was fucking unbearable. I quickened my step as I headed for the shuttle bay. I had to get away from here before I lost it. I just prayed I could keep myself together until Leah was safely back on Earth.

Leah

It was hard, going home. Harder than I had ever dreamed possible. But it was necessary. I needed to get things settled with Gerald and check on Charlotte.

And besides, it wasn’t like this was my one and only extraterrestrial trip. Zoe had promised she would send a ship and have the Commercians let me know when it was waiting. Since they were able to communicate through any shiny, reflective surface, they would have no trouble getting in touch with me and bringing me back up through the transport system of the Alien Mate Index.

Still, it was hard to go—hard to leave Teeny who was crying softly in the corner and even harder to leave Grav, whose features had taken on the stony cast I recognized as his “not going to show emotion” face.

No matter how badly he had hurt me—and believe me, I was hurting plenty—I was determined to leave on good terms. I wanted to keep things civil, which was exactly how I planned to handle my divorce from Gerald. It hurt me even more to think of Grav and my abusive ex in the same way and I tried to push the idea away. They weren’t the same at all, despite the similar circumstances.

“Please decide upon your coordinates, Earth female,” Char’noth, the blue worm in charge of the AMI said to me in his high, piping voice.

The large screen made of light that appeared to come down from the ceiling of the Commercians’ space station, was split in half, showing two different locations. One was the living room of the house I had shared with Gerald in Virginia. The other was my old room at my mom’s house in Tampa. I was torn between them. Should I go confront my ex—or soon-to-be-ex to be more accurate—at once? Or should I go to my mom’s house and then make a road trip up to Virginia?

Ultimately, I decided on my mom’s house. Even though it meant a long trip—because I wanted to do this in person, not over the phone—I needed time to get myself together. To lick my wounds, as it were. Besides, it was closer to Charlotte and right near Zoe’s paralegal friend, who she had said would prepare the divorce papers for a song. I wanted to have those papers in my hand when I met Gerald again and I wanted to see him sign them, to let him know that I was done with him once and for all.

“Tampa,” I said pointing to the familiar room with its kitten-in-a-tree poster and princess bed. My mom is bad about not wanting to change things—she’d kept my room exactly as it was back in high school, even though I had moved out years ago.

“Very well. Prepare to be transported.”

“What about my things?” I nodded to the large cube-like suitcase crammed with everything Zoe had thought I might like from her new planet.

“They will be transported ahead of you,” Char’noth told me. “As you know, living tissue cannot be transported with non-living materials or the inanimate objects, including clothing, will be lost in the void.”

Lost in the void. I shivered at the blue alien worm’s words—what an awful thought!

“I understand,” I said.

“Which is why we recommend you remove your clothing before the transport as your garments will certainly be lost if you attempt to transport with them on,” Char’noth reminded me.

“That’s okay. I’ll keep it on.” I looked down at what I was wearing—the flowing green cloak that Grav had bought me back on Sincon Delta station. It reminded me of him too much for me to want to keep it. Letting it go in the transport would be symbolic in a way—shedding the old relationship as I got back to my life on Earth.

Or so I told myself.

But shedding the feelings I had for the big Alien would be a lot harder. Though I tried not to think about it, my heart ached when I realized I would probably never see him again.

And all because we couldn’t bond. It made me so angry I felt like crying but I didn’t want to make a scene.

Quiet dignity, I told myself. That’s how to handle this. Just concentrate on the fact that you’ll be home soon. You can go see Charlotte and catch up and take care of this business with Gerald. Not to mention seeing Mom again. It’s going to be great!

Of course, I would also have to think of a good excuse for my former employers, Jackson and Emilio and find a way to apologize to their son, Taggard. But I would work all that out once I had the divorce papers in my hand and I was ready to face Gerald.

Trying to keep my mind on the future instead of the past, I turned one last time to say goodbye to Grav and Teeny. They were both watching me—Grav with his stone-face showing no emotion and Teeny with wide, tragic eyes that threatened to spill over with tears at any moment.

The moment I turned to them, Teeny broke away from Grav and ran to me. Flinging her skinny arms around my waist, she pressed her face to my side and sobbed.

“Leah, Leah—please don’t go! Why can’t you stay with me and Grav? Why can’t we all just stay together forever?”

I felt a lump form in my throat.

“I’m sorry, Teeny, I wish we could. But, well, I have business I have to take care of on Earth. And your grandfather misses you.”

“No, he doesn’t.” She looked up at me, her long black lashes matted with tears. “He just wants to use me to rule Thonolax one day. Well, I don’t want to rule. I want to be normal and live with people I love.”

“Oh, Teeny…” I hugged her hard. Though we hadn’t known each other long, the pretty girl with the pale green skin had found a permanent place in my heart. I wished with all my heart that I could stay with her and Grav—that we could form a little family and be together forever.

But I knew that dream would never come true.

I stroked Teeny’s heavy black bangs away from her face and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“Always remember me, Teeny—keep me in your heart and I’ll keep you in mine, I promise. And you never know—we might see each other again. My friend, Lady Zoe, has promised to send a ship for me in a few months. Maybe your grandfather will let me visit you on Thonolax or you can visit with Zoe and me on Eloim.”

“Maybe…” The look in her large, violet eyes said she didn’t believe it a bit. But it was the only hope I could offer her.

“Let me go now,” I said gently. “I have to say goodbye to Grav.”

Sniffing, she unwound her arms from around my waist, allowing me to step up to the big Alien.

“Leah—” he began but I put up a hand to stop him.

“Grav,” I said steadily. “I want to thank you for a really amazing time. I’ve had enough adventure and excitement to last me a lifetime. Even though we didn’t bond—and I won’t lie, I wish we could have—what happened between us was still the most amazing, incredible, wonderful time of my life. So thank you for that.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it again, looking miserable. At last he just nodded and said,

“You’re welcome.”

“Good-bye,” I said, and turned back towards the transport area where Char’noth was waiting impatiently.

“Leah, wait!” I felt his hand on my shoulder and I spun around to face him at once. Could it be? Had he changed his mind?

“Yes, Grav?” I scanned his face eagerly, but saw only sorrow and regret.

“May…may the Goddess grant you a safe journey,” was all he said.

“Oh.” I felt flat…deflated. And angry with myself for getting my hopes up for a last minute change-of-heart. This wasn’t a romance novel, damn it! I couldn’t expect a happily-ever-after ending just because I wanted one.

“Thank you,” I said to Grav, at last. He let his hand drop from my shoulder and I went back to the transporter. Time to go home.

Alone.

Chapter Thirty-one

Grav

I don’t think I’ve ever been so fuckin’ miserable in my life. We watched to make sure that Leah was safely transported back to her mother’s house and then Teeny and I rode back to my hopper, with Teeny cryin’ her eyes out all the way.

I felt a little like bawling myself, though I generally never cry. My whole life stretched out before me, gray and bleak and loveless and all because I’d let the only female I had ever really loved get away.

It’s for the best, whispered that nasty little voice in the back of my head. She’s better off without you.

But was it true? I couldn’t help flashing on her face when I’d put my hand on her shoulder—that look of intense hope that faded to one of disappointment when I’d uttered my stupid farewell instead of asking her to stay or telling her I loved her.

I tried to put it out of my mind. When we got back to the ship, I went right to work, plotting the course to get back to Thonolax where Teeny’s grandfather was waiting. It would only take us twelve hops to get there—just a couple of days of interstellar travel.

Only the hopper wouldn’t hop.

I tried everything—I swear I did. I went over every inch of the electrical system, took the hydro-blaster apart and put it back together—I even reconfigured the cane`le energy field.

Nothing worked.

At last, one morning after several days of me sweating and swearing and taking apart the engine and putting it back together, Teeny came to talk to me.

“Hi Grav…” She sat down on a large coupling-drum I had unscrewed from the hydro-telemetry circuit I was tearing apart and stared at me.

“Hi, sweetheart,” I said distractedly. “You better watch your dress—that drum is really greasy.”

“I don’t care.” She leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees. “Grav, I had the strangest dream last night. Can I tell you about it?”

“Huh?” I looked up for a minute from a particularly complicated knot of wires. “Oh, yeah—sure sweetie. Go for it.”

“You might not like it,” she warned. “She said you wouldn’t.”

“Who said?” I asked, still fighting with the knot. Damn, whoever had done the wiring on my hopper deserved to be strung up and shot in the nuts with a high-voltage dose of electro-mag juice! I had half a mind to look him up if I ever got out of here and—

“The Goddess,” Teeny said.

It took a minute for her words to register but when they did, I looked up, letting the tangle of wires fall from my hands.

“What did you say?” I stared at Teeny hard.

“The Goddess of Mercy—I saw her in my dream. Her and you both, Grav.” She shrugged her slim shoulders. “She told me to tell you about it but she said you wouldn’t like it.”

“Well, Frozen Hells,” I said weakly. I’m not much for prophesies or visions or whatever but there was something in the calm, matter-of-fact way that Teeny talked that hit me right in the gut. “Okay, sweetheart—tell me,” I said, grabbing a rag to wipe the grime from my fingers.

Teeny closed her big purple eyes, as though to help herself remember better.

“In my dream,” she said. “The Goddess was standing on some golden steps. They looked like they led up and up forever into the stars. But in my dream, she had come all the way down to the bottom of the steps just to meet you. You were standing there in front of her and she was offering you a nima fruit. Have you ever had one?”

Nimas were a fruit native to my home planet, although I was surprised that Teeny knew about them. They were dark blue and intensely juicy—and also notoriously hard to ship. A fresh nima had to be eaten straight off the tree, the minute it was ripe because they went bad within hours of being picked.

“Yeah, sure, I’ve had nima fruit,” I said, frowning at Teeny. “But I’m surprised you have. They’re almost impossible to get outside Vorn Five where I grew up.”

“I haven’t,” she said simply. “I’ve never even heard of them before. But the Goddess said you would understand.”

Okay, now she had me scared. A chill ran down my spine and my legs felt suddenly weak. There was no lie in Teeny’s big eyes—and no reason for her to lie. She was simply telling me her dream. A dream which must have come from outside her somehow—how else would she know about the nima fruit?

“What…” I cleared my throat. “What else did the, uh, Goddess say?”

“Well…” Teeny looked thoughtful. “Mostly she was just offering you the nima fruit. It looked so good. So ripe and juicy and succulent. But you kept pushing it away for some reason. Even though the Goddess herself had come all the way down from the Heavens to give it to you.”

“Frozen Hells of Anor,” I murmured weakly. I had to sit down—my legs wouldn’t hold me. I sank onto the carbine-drum beside Teeny and looked at her. “What else happened?”

“Well, she kept offering it to you and you kept shaking your head. And then she gave you a very stern look—the kind my grand-ma-ma used to give me if she thought I was misbehaving—and said, ‘Warrior, what has been offered will not be offered forever. You should look to that which you love before it is too late and remember your oath.’” Teeny shrugged. “And then she told me to tell you and explained that you would know about the fruit and then I woke up. And that’s all.”

“Goddess,” I breathed, putting my head in my hands. “Goddess of Mercy, what a fool I’ve been. What a fucking fool.” I glanced at Teeny. “Sorry for the language, sweetheart.”

“It’s okay.” She gave me a little smile. “I’m used to hearing you curse, Grav. You do it all the time.”

“I know,” I said grimly. “Right now I’m the one I want to curse at. How could I be so stupid?”

“It’s about Leah, isn’t it?” Teeny asked. “She was supposed to be the nima fruit you wouldn’t take from the Goddess’s hand.”

“Yes,” I muttered. “The fruit was Leah, all right. But what can I do now? She’s back on Earth and she probably hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” Teeny objected. “She’s in love with you. Aren’t you in love with her?”

“So fuckin’ much it hurts,” I admitted. “Sorry, sweetheart.”

“Don’t apologize to me,” Teeny said, sounding as stern as the Goddess herself. “You should go down to Earth and apologize to Leah.”

She was right and I knew it. But there was something else about the Goddess’s message that bothered me. Remember your oath, she had said. Now why would she say that?

It occurred to me suddenly that Leah had talked about breaking things off permanently with her abusive mate. The same one that had tried to beat her to death the first time I met her. I remembered that I had made a promise to her, back at the beginning of our journey together. I had promised to go back to Earth with her and tell her mate to keep his hands off—and break them if he refused.

Of course, Leah had changed a lot in our time together. She had grown and gotten stronger—much more willing and able to stick up for herself, which was incredibly sexy. But that mate of hers was still a head taller than her and considerably stronger.

My oath, I thought, feeling sick. I gave my oath to protect her and then I let her go off to Earth to face that abusive asshole by herself. Goddess, of Mercy, what’s wrong with me?

I had to go check on her—just go back to the AMI and have the Commercians send me down to Earth to make sure she was okay. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work since I had no disguise with me this time but if I scared the humans, that was just too damn bad. I had to make sure the female I loved was all right.

But was the female I loved still in love with me? Could she ever forgive me for being such an idiot? And would she consent to come with me and join her life to mine?

The thought made me long to hold her lush body in my arms and kiss her sweet lips. And why shouldn’t I?

If the Goddess herself was telling me that Leah was for me, who was I to deny it? Bond or no bond, I loved Leah and I wanted her with me forever. Now I just had to go tell her so.

I just prayed that my little Earth female could forgive me.

Leah

It took a few days to get the divorce papers in order and to convince my mom I was all right. Apparently Gerald had called and told her I had run off with some strange man and she had been worried sick about me ever since. I had called Charlotte to ask why she hadn’t relayed the message I had sent through the Commercians that I was okay, but she would hardly talk to me. She just mumbled something about being very busy and hung up, almost before I could say a word.

The strange phone call worried me—especially since when I tried to call back, my call went directly to Charlotte’s voice mail, which I knew she never checked. I had decided that I would stop and make a personal visit to my friend in Gainesville, on my way up to Virginia to confront Gerald.

But before I went, I had to get my divorce papers in order.

In that area, Zoe’s friend, Rylee, was completely indispensable and an absolute sweetheart. After I explained to her that Zoe had been spirited away on a dream vacation by a secret fiancée that none of us had known about, (the best story I could come up with) she became much more willing to talk and help me out. She even waved her fee in exchange for the scoop on Zoe, who she apparently missed almost as much as I had.

“Let me tell you, Lauder, Lauder and Associates is just not the same without her,” she told me, when we met for coffee and to hammer out the details of my divorce at the Starbucks closest to my mom’s house. “Zoe lit up the whole place, even when our boss was being an asshole. Which, honestly, is most of the time.”

She grinned at me and I couldn’t help grinning back. Rylee Hale was a tall girl with clear café au lait skin and gorgeous, liquid black eyes. She wore her hair in a halo of curls around her face and her long, tapered fingers drummed the tabletop restlessly as we talked.

“Zoe complained about your boss a lot. She said he threw staplers at her head,” I said, taking a sip of my iced Caffe Mocha. I frowned and made a face. “Um—I don’t think this one is mine. It doesn’t taste like a Mocha at all.”

“Let me see…” Rylee took a sip of her own drink, which was supposed to be an iced Vanilla Latte. “Oops, you’re right. This one must be your Mocha. I guess the barista mixed them up. You want to just trade or get new ones?”

“Well, I don’t have a cold or anything right now,” I said, shrugging.

“Me either. Here.” She switched our cups and took a big sip of the straw I had just been drinking from. “Ahh…that’s my Vanilla Latte! You know, Zoe disappeared so suddenly, some of the girls at the office were even saying she was abducted by aliens.”

I had a big mouthful of Caffe Mocha and I nearly choked on it.

“Um…” I coughed, my eyes watering.

“You okay?” Rylee pounded me on the back. “You look like you saw a ghost. Coffee go down the wrong pipe?”

“Some…something like that,” I managed to say. “Look, Rylee, I really want to thank you for helping me out with this divorce.”

“No problem,” she said easily, taking another sip of her drink. “Your soon-to-be ex sounds like a real piece of work.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” I said darkly, taking another drink of my own coffee. Rylee had on blackberry colored lipstick and there were still a few traces on my straw. That didn’t bother me but for some reason, seeing her drink from the straw that I had drunk from did. Why? Something tickled at the back of my mind but I couldn’t quite remember it.

“Well, I hope you’re going to meet him in a public place to serve these papers,” Rylee said. “I’m not a lawyer so I’m not supposed to offer legal advice but this is just common sense. Some men can get ugly when you tell them you intend to leave their sorry ass.” She made a face. “I know my ex did.”

“I’m going to see him at his work place,” I said. I had called to check and spoken with Gerald’s secretary, who assured me that he still worked at the firm in Virginia. “That should stop him from getting handsy.”

“You sure this is how you want to do it?” She tapped the stack of papers in front of her. “You’re basically just giving him the house you two were both paying for. I know you want to get out quick, but if you take him to court you could at least get half the assets, if not some alimony.”

“I don’t want anything from him,” I said quickly. “Besides, if I take him to court, he’ll drag my name through the dirt and tell everyone I ran off with another guy.”

“Well, did you?” Rylee asked frankly, taking another sip.

“Sort of…” I shifted in my seat. “It’s complicated. It didn’t really, uh, work out.” Which was a massive understatement. My heart still felt shredded from the way things had ended between Grav and me. But what could I do?

“Sorry to hear that,” Rylee said neutrally. “At least it gave you the momentum to get out of a bad relationship.”

“It did.” I nodded—I could be grateful to Grav for that much at least. “It really did.” I reached for my Mocha but my hand slipped on the condensation that coated the icy plastic cup. Before I could get a better grip, it squirted right out of my hand. “Oh!” I gasped as my drink turned over, flooding the table.

“It’s okay.” Rylee rescued the divorcee paperwork with one hand and her own drink with the other. She jumped gracefully out of her chair just in time to save her expensive-looking black pencil-skirt from getting a coffee bath.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, reaching for the napkin dispenser. “It’s just that I’ve been so distracted lately and I…”

My voice trailed off as I tilted the dispenser and saw Rylee’s face reflected in its silver side. Any reflective surface—the Commercians can see and transport any Earth girl through any reflective surface.

Wasn’t that the way the Alien Mate Index worked? The Commercians, those little blue bastards, picked out a female they thought was special and showed her to a prospective buyer. Grav had told me once that he knew I was special by my aura when he saw me on the AMI’s light screen.

And how do you get special?

This time my own words came back to me when Zoe and I had been having our most recent Girls’ Night. “Who knew you could catch special powers as easily as catching the common cold?”

And what had I just said to Rylee before we traded drinks?

“I don’t have a cold or anything.”

No, but I was a La-ti-zal…a trait that Zoe had told me was catching through sharing food and drinks.

Suddenly I realized why it had bothered me so much to see Rylee drink after me. I stood watching her in agony as she took another sip of her iced coffee. Should I knock it out of her hand? Tell her to wash her mouth out with soap or really strong mouthwash? Or was I overreacting? After all, just a few of my germs on the straw probably wasn’t enough to “infect” her with the La-ti-zal virus or whatever it was that made you special—was it?

“What’s wrong with you?” Rylee frowned at me. “You’re giving me that look like you saw a ghost again.”

“Uh…nothing.” I tried to laugh and grabbed some napkins from the dispenser to mop up my mess, which by this time was dripping all over the floor. “I’m just fine. Just…dreading giving my ex those papers, I guess.”

“Oh…” Her face softened. “I understand. It’s never easy, ending things.”

“Tell me about it,” I said, thinking of the stiff, awful ending between Grav and me. “Look, thank you so much for your help, Rylee, but I really ought to get going.”

“All right. You’ll need these, then.” She handed me the divorce papers and I gave up mopping at the table to take them. An employee was on the way over anyway, with a wet towel and a mop. He took over the cleaning process, allowing Rylee and me to move to the side and say our goodbyes.

“You take care.” Rylee gave me a spontaneous hug. “And anytime you need any legal help, just call me. Any friend of Zoe’s is a friend of mine.”

“Thank you.” I hugged her back, hoping that everything was going to be okay. “I really appreciate that, Rylee.”

“You’re welcome.” She pulled back, smiling and I couldn’t help thinking that she really was extremely pretty. And so nice too! Zoe had been right about her but then, she’s usually a pretty good judge of character—which was why she had never liked Gerald.

“I’ll see you later.” I smiled and collected my purse and keys, giving Rylee a little wave as I left.

On the way out the door, I turned back once more and saw her lovely image reflected in the plate-glass window of the Starbucks wall. The sight sent a chill through me and I felt my smile slip, just a little.

Surely not, I told myself firmly as I left the coffee shop. Come on, Leah—you’re just being paranoid. One little sip of contaminated coffee isn’t enough to bring out anybody’s latent La-ti-zal tendencies.

Was it?

The problem preoccupied me all the way back to my mom’s house. I was driving her spare car—an old one my sister had used in college until it was almost on its last legs—because I’d left my car up in Virginia with Gerald.

I hoped the old car, which my sister and I had nicknamed “Pinky” because of its faded pink paint job, would make it all the way to Virginia. My mom had offered to loan me hers, but I didn’t like to leave her without a dependable mode of transportation.

Still, as Pinky sputtered towards home, I thought I might have to take her up on it. The old car really was dilapidated. The chrome was dull and rusted and even the mirrors were coated in dust since it hadn’t been driven in so long. I had to rub my thumb over the rearview mirror to see anything in back of me at all.

The only shiny surface on the whole car was a part on the back bumper where my sister had put a bumper sticker. You Just Got Passed by a Girl! it proclaimed in purple block letters with a lipstick kiss at the end. It had been a joke when my sister put it on because Pinky couldn’t pass anything. Later the kiss and the Girl part of the sticker had peeled off, leaving a tiny, shiny patch that looked strange compared with the rest of the rusted bumper.

At least I would be driving over the weekend, so traffic wouldn’t be so bad, I reflected as I pulled into my mom’s garage and killed the engine. Pinky died with a choked, protesting splutter and I got out of the car as I considered my plan.

I intended to show up at Gerald’s work in the middle of work on Monday. I would talk to him quietly, but in full view of his coworkers. That way he wouldn’t dare to get violent with me.

I shivered as I remembered his last attack. I really thought he might have killed me if Grav hadn’t intervened. But the memory of the big, blue Alien made me so sad I wanted to cry so I tried to push the thought away.

I sighed as I locked the car and pushed the button to lower the garage door. It went down with a rattling clatter and I noticed that my mom’s car was gone—she was retired but she liked to stay active. Probably she was out with some friends having lunch or running errands.

Well, it would be nice to have the house to myself to pack. I loved my mom to pieces but she asked a lot of questions. About why I had left Gerald and where I had been and who I had been with and why I had been gone so long without telling her I was all right…the list went on and on.

Her questions were hard to answer. Especially since, as Zoe pointed out, I’m a terrible liar. I was surprised that Rylee had swallowed my story about Zoe running off with a secret fiancée. But then, she had probably been eager to have any plausible explanation as to why Zoe had disappeared so suddenly from her workplace. I knew, I certainly would have been, back when Charlotte and I were still looking for her…

As the door finally finished its noisy descent, I heard a soft, scuffling noise in the darkened garage.

What in the world? A slight prickling at the back of my neck sent goose bumps down my spine. The sound had come from behind that big, floor to ceiling tool case my dad used to take such pride in. Could it be a rat? We’d had a problem with them once before. Oh God, I didn’t want to deal with a rat right now! Or maybe it was a roach—one of those big Palmetto Bugs. They’re built like armored tanks so that rustling sound could absolutely be one of them getting ready to fly right at my face.

I started to back away and then I heard a low, familiar voice floating out of the darkness.

“Hello, darling,” it said, just a hint of menace in the honeyed tones. “I’m so glad you’re home—I’ve been waiting for you.”

Chapter Thirty-two

Grav

“I am sorry, but there is not enough light to show your female,” Char’noth informed me. “The area she is in is very dark and there are few reflective surfaces, which makes it difficult to see on the light screen.”

“What?” I growled, frowning. Teeny and I had come back to the AMI headquarters the minute I realized what a fool I had been. I needed to get back to Leah and apologize. And I also needed to fulfill my oath. Teeny’s dream had me really worried for some reason. In fact, even now I felt a creeping sense of dread and a flash of what Leah had always called “goose bumps” ran down my spine.

“Take a look for yourself.” Char’noth made a motion with one of his multiple, clawed hands and the AMI’s light screen winked into existence. He was right about Leah being in a dark place—I could scarcely see anything at all. Just some indistinct shapes in an enclosed area.

One of them, which might be Leah, was moving around another, which looked like it might be one of the little wheeled vehicles the Earthlings like to drive. I wondered if she had been out for the day and had just come home. This location was at her mother’s house—the same place she had asked to be transported when we said our goodbyes.

“I can hardly see anything,” I complained. “Just put me through to another part of the house and I’ll go find her.”

“Negative,” Char’noth shook his head. “You came to us during our bi-solar-weekly maintenance period. We are fine tuning the receptors of the AMI transporter at the moment.”

“Well what in the Frozen Hells does that mean?” I demanded.

“It means we are unable to lock onto a target outside the range of your specified female,” the little blue bastard explained. “We will be unable to send you to another spot in her domicile—the transporter can only lock in to her specific location. But as you can see…” He waved three of his hands. “We do not currently have enough light on the few reflective areas to get a good image, let alone attempt a transport.”

“So it would help if there was more light in there?” I asked, frowning. I didn’t think it was supposed to be nighttime on Leah’s part of the Earth just then. So maybe she was just in a dark room.

“Most assuredly. Light would pick up on our receptors and make it both easier to see the area and easier to transport you,” Char’noth agreed.

“Then let’s keep watching,” I said. “I think she’s just in a dark spot. The minute she gets someplace with some light, you send me through to her.”

“I will be ready,” the Commercian replied, in his high, squeaky voice.

Then I heard someone else speak, this time from the light screen—and it wasn’t Leah.

“Hello, darling,” said a male voice. It was soft but full of menace. “I’m so glad you’re home. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Leah

“Who is that? Who’s there?” I put my hand to my pounding heart and reached for the garage door button. But before I could touch it, someone stepped between me and it, blocking my access.

“Now, don’t do that,” he said. “Let’s keep it dark—the way you always wanted to keep it dark when we made love, so you could hide the fact that you weren’t enjoying yourself. Not with me, anyway. I’m sure you’ve enjoyed yourself with many other men, that way.”

“Gerald,” I said, my heart beating even harder. “What in the world are you doing here?”

“Well my secretary told me you called, darling.” He stepped closer, a large, indistinct shape looming over me in the dark.

I frowned. “How did she know it was me? I didn’t leave my name.”

“You didn’t need to—she knew the sound of your voice. She was quite jealous of you—didn’t I ever tell you?” He laughed lightly, a sound so filled with malice it made my blood run cold.

“She…she did? I mean, she was?” I asked, my voice sounding more breathless than I liked.

“Oh yes—extremely jealous.” I couldn’t see his face in the dim light of the garage but I could tell that Gerald was smiling that ugly smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “She wanted to have an affair with me—did you know? But I refused her. I resisted her charms because I would never cheat on you, my darling.” His voice dropped to a snarl. “Too bad you couldn’t repay the favor in kind.”

“Gerald,” I said firmly. “I never cheated on you.”

“What about with that huge freak who was in our house that day you disappeared?” he demanded. “Did you cheat with him? Did you let him fuck you? Don’t lie to me—I know you did.”

“We did make love, yes,” I said, lifting my chin. “Once. But I don’t consider it cheating because that was after you and I went our separate ways.”

“You mean after you ran out on me,” he snapped.

“No, I mean after you tried to beat me to death and I left you.”

“I was only giving you what you deserved—you little whore,” he spat.

“Why did I deserve to be your punching bag?” I demanded, going for the garage door switch again—I didn’t like being trapped in the dark with him. “Because you were pathologically jealous?”

“Ah-ah-ah, darling.” He got between me and the switch once more before I could press it. “You deserved to be punished because you were bad—you’ve always been bad. From the minute I met you I knew you were, but I let myself love you anyway.”

“You have a funny way of showing it,” I exclaimed. “Let me out of here, Gerald!”

“I don’t think so. It’s been ages since we’ve seen each other. Where did you go, anyway?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I said. “But now that I’m back, I have something to show you.”

I still had the divorce papers clutched in one hand like a weapon. Not that I thought they would do me much good but if I could just get him to turn on the light to look at them, I could have a better chance of seeing where I was going. Also, I didn’t know why but I had a very strong feeling that having a light on was important—maybe vital.

“And what might that be?” he demanded. “What do you have to show me that I haven’t already seen?”

“These!” I flung the papers in his face and ran for the other side of the garage, back for my father’s old tool case where Gerald had been hiding when I first drove in. I might not be able to get out the door, but I would be damned if I’d let him get to me without a fight!

Fumbling in the dark case for a weapon, my fingers found a cool, smooth handle which tapered to a sharp point—a screwdriver! I would rather have had one of the big, heavy wrenches my dad had used but this would do. I pulled it out and held it in front of me but Gerald was still across the garage.

“What are these?” he demanded, rattling some of the papers at me. There was just the faintest trace of the bright Florida sunshine coming through the crack under the garage door and my eyes had gotten adjusted to the darkness now. I could see that he was staring at me with a frown on his face.

“Divorce papers,” I said, still holding the screwdriver like a knife.

“What?” He sounded incredulous. “You can’t divorce me.”

“The hell I can’t!” I snapped. “Turn on the light and take a look at them, Gerald—those are fair terms. I’m leaving you the house and everything in it. All I want is my car and my clothes and to never see you again.”

“Oh, no my darling…” His voice dropped to a snarl of menace. “We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other. Because I’m not signing these.” He rattled the papers at me again. “You’re going to come with me back to Virginia and we will resume our happily married life. Only this time, you’re not leaving the house. I got a promotion at work, you see—so we won’t need your income.” He gave me that smile that didn’t reach his eyes again. “So I’ll be able to keep you under lock and key to be certain you don’t get into any more trouble.”

“What?” My stomach gave a sick lurch. “You want to take me back with you so you can keep me under house arrest? I don’t think so!”

“See, this is the attitude I can’t stand,” Gerald remarked, coming towards me. “This is the kind of thing that’s going to get you punished.”

He made a grab at me on the last word and I swiped out at him, catching his palm with the sharp point of the screwdriver.

“Ow! You little bitch!” he snarled, dropping the sheaf of papers he’d been holding to clutch his wounded palm. “That’s going to earn you an even bigger punishment!”

“Just try it,” I said, my voice tense and low. “I’m not the scared little wifey I was when I left you, Gerald. I’ve changed a lot and I’m no longer willing to put up with your abusive bullshit.”

“Come here!” He reached for me again and I swiped out with the screwdriver, missing this time. Then I pulled away, backing out of his angry reach.

“Stay away,” I said.

We could do this all day, a cold part of my brain informed me. Him reaching for me, me swiping out and pulling back, slowly circling around the garage. Eventually I would get back around to either the door that led into the kitchen, or the garage door opener. And then I was going to make a run for it.

“Come back and take your punishment, Goddamn you!” Gerald insisted in an ugly voice.

“No!” I snapped. “I’m not going with you and you’re never touching me again!”

My heart was pounding but it wasn’t only with fear—a rage I’d had locked away inside me for years was coming to the surface. How dare he act like I was his property? A pet he could lock away and beat whenever he felt like it? At that moment I felt like I could stab the screwdriver straight into his evil black heart and not loose a single night’s sleep about it.

Along with the rage came another emotion—a strange, fierce protectiveness. A willingness to kill in order to save the one I loved.

Wait…what? Who was I feeling protective of? Where was this feeling coming from? It almost felt like it was coming from outside me. Without knowing it, I let the screwdriver sag as my focus wandered.

The momentary distraction was all Gerald needed. He lunged forward and before I knew it, he had one thick arm locked around my throat.

“You’re mine,” he hissed in my ear. “Mine and I’m never letting you go, Leah!”

“Get off me! Leave me alone!” I scrabbled uselessly at his arm but he was too strong. I tried to stab downward with the screwdriver but the angle was wrong and it skated harmlessly along his jeans.

Fear and panic flooded me. Gerald had me and this time he wouldn’t stop. Either he would kill me here, or he would force me to come back with him to Virginia and kill me there. It might be a slower death, being locked in the house, unable to get out or call for help, completely at his mercy. But it would mean death, just the same. Because someday he would lose his temper and go too far. Someday he would—

“That’s not gonna happen, darlin’. Not gonna let that happen to you, I swear!”

Where was that voice coming from? I hadn’t heard it with my ears—it was almost as though it was inside my head. But that couldn’t be right, could it?

“If there was just some fuckin’ light in there…” the low, familiar voice growled in frustration.

That was it—I must be going crazy. It was either panic or oxygen deprivation causing an auditory hallucination because I could have sworn I heard Grav’s voice in my head. Which was impossible.

But suddenly, as though activated by the words in my head, the garage door began to rattle up.

Oh thank God! I thought. Mom must be home!

I wanted to shout out to her to call the police but the chokehold Gerald had on my neck was so tight I could barely breathe, let alone scream. The garage door raised up to the level of Pinky’s rusted rear bumper and a gleam of sunlight reflected off the one, shiny spot on the whole car—the place where the part of my sister’s You Just Got Passed by a Girl! bumper sticker had peeled off.

Then, to my horror, the door paused and then started to rumble down again. Oh no! Mom, come back! I thought as the beam of light started to fade. Please, I—

Before I could finish my thought, Grav was standing there. Huge and blue—completely naked and utterly furious. Head lowered, horns leveled, and white-on-black eyes glowing with a menacing red spark in their centers, he took a single step towards us.

“Get your hands off her now.” His voice was a growl so low it was almost a rumble. I felt it come up through the soles of my feet, as though someone had turned on a big bass speaker and let it play in the garage.

“What the Hell?” Gerald’s voice was slightly breathless and completely incredulous. He fumbled at the wall, this time managing to get the light switch instead of the garage door opener. But Grav in the light was just as terrifying as Grav in the dark.

“You heard me, fucker—get off my female NOW!”

The last word was a roar so loud I felt my eardrums bulge. The garage door came all the way down, closing all three of us in the small space. It didn’t raise again and I wondered distractedly what had happened. Had Mom started to come home and then remembered an errand she had to do? It was possible—she was always forgetting something…

“Who…who are you?” Gerald’s quavering voice pulled me out of my nonsensical thoughts. “What are you?”

“I’m the male who’s gonna rip your fuckin’ arms out of their sockets if you don’t get your hands off my female right now,” Grav rumbled.

“Okay…all right.” Gerald threw up his hands and stepped away from me. I ran to Grav at once.

“You all right, darlin’?” he asked me, his eyes never leaving Gerald’s terrified face.

“I think so.” I rubbed my throat where Gerald had grabbed me. “How did you find me?”

“Through the AMI, of course. But it was too dark in here to get much more than a blurred view. The transporter needs light and a reflective surface to work and there wasn’t much of either until just a minute ago.” He shifted. “I wanted to come through a different part of the house but the damn Commercians were fine-tuning their receptors and I couldn’t, so I just had to wait until there was more light. It was driving me fuckin’ crazy.”

“I bet,” I said dryly and coughed. “I wasn’t feeling too happy myself.”

“Happy?” he barked a laugh that didn’t sound in the least bit amused. “Forget happy. I was feeling so possessive and protective of you it was all I could do not to let the berserker come out. But I knew if I did that, I would rip this abusive asshole apart and I don’t want to do that.”

Suddenly, I remembered the wave of possessive protectiveness I had felt just before Gerald had grabbed me. And the words I had heard in my head. But what Grav had just said distracted me.

“You don’t?” I asked in surprise. “I mean, you don’t want to rip him apart?”

“Of course he doesn’t!” Gerald sounded shaky and somewhat relieved. “We can settle this like adults, without resorting to physical violence. Right?” He was backing towards the door as he spoke but Grav could move incredibly fast for such a big guy. He had my ex by the scruff of his neck before Gerald could even turn the doorknob.

“Oh no, we’ll be resorting to violence, all right,” he growled in Gerald’s ear. “I’m not gonna rip you apart right away because I want this to be slow.”

“Please…” Gerald whimpered and I was almost tempted to feel sorry for him. Then I remembered the way he had beaten me. Maybe it was time for him to get a taste of his own medicine.

“But before we get started,” Grav continued. “You’re going to pick up every last one of these papers and sign them, the way Leah wanted you to.”

“Wh-why do you care if I sign the divorce papers?” Gerald asked, his voice still wavering.

“Because. I don’t want there to be any doubt that she’s broken all her ties with you, you asshole.” Grav shook him and though my ex was a big guy, he wasn’t nearly as big as the huge, blue Braxian. It looked like a Great Dane shaking a terrier.

“But…but…” Gerald moaned.

“Then I’m going to break every bone in your body for daring to touch her with anything but love and respect,” Grav growled, shoving him to the ground. “Now get going!”

My ex whimpered and moaned but he scrambled around on the concrete garage floor gathering the spilled divorce paperwork. It probably took him longer than necessary because he was so upset but finally I had the entire document in a neat sheaf in my hands.

“Let’s go into the kitchen to sign these,” I said. “But first…” I cleared my throat and nodded down at Grav. “You’d better get some clothes on. In case my Mom comes back.”

“Oh yeah.” He frowned, having apparently forgotten he was naked. “You got anything that’ll fit me, darlin’?”

“I’m afraid not,” I said apologetically. “My mom gave all my dad’s clothes away to Goodwill when he died and there’s nothing else around here that’s even remotely your size.”

“I think I might see something.” Grav was eyeing the shivering Gerald who was still staring at him in wide-eyed disbelief. “Your clothes—give them to me.”

“Wha…what?” Gerald managed to get out.

“You heard me. They’re gonna be too small but you’re closer to my size than Leah is. Give them now.”

Gerald was forced to strip and hand over his clothing.

Grav took one look at his tighty-whities and tossed them into the corner saying, “I don’t think so.”

The jeans were a different story. Luckily, Gerald always favored relax-cut, so though they were extremely tight, Grav was able to squeeze into them. They fit—barely—although they were too short in the legs and he complained that they “squeezed his goodies.”

Gerald had also been wearing a loose gray t-shirt, which was skin-tight over Grav’s muscular chest. He let Gerald keep his shoes and socks because there was no way they would fit.

Soon we were sitting around my mom’s kitchen table. Well, Grav and I were sitting. Gerald was standing there shivering and trembling, naked except for his tube socks and Nikes. He kept looking at Grav in the warm light of the Florida sun, flooding through my mom’s breakfast nook windows and shaking his head.

“What are you?” he asked again in a trembling voice as I fished for a pen in the catch-all mug my mom kept in the center of the table beside the salt and pepper shakers.

“He’s an alien,” I said, answering for Grav. “There are actually lots of them out there—Earth just doesn’t have the right equipment to find them yet.”

“He’s as big as the guy who kidnapped you back in Virginia,” Gerald said, crossing his legs to try and hide his equipment. “Is he—”

“Yeah, I’m the same guy,” Grav growled as I handed Gerald the pen. “I was in disguise but this time I didn’t have time to get one. I had to stop you from hurting Leah again.” The red spark at the back of his eyes had never completely faded and when he looked at Gerald, I could see it getting bigger and bigger, starting to eat the white.

“I wasn’t going to hurt her—I was going to take her home,” Gerald muttered sullenly as I pointed out the neat little tabs that Rylee had left on the papers to show him where to sign.

“She doesn’t live with you anymore,” Grav snapped. “Her home’s with me…well, if she’ll have me.”

My heart seemed to stop in my chest and I looked up at him uncertainly.

“Grav?”

“Darlin’,” he said earnestly, reaching across the table to take my hand. “I’ve been such a fool. “I wanted a bond with you because I know how rough things were for my parents without one. But you were right—we’re not them. I see now that just because we can’t form a bond, doesn’t mean we can’t be happy together.” He looked at me, his whole heart in those strangely lovely white-on-black eyes. “Will you forgive me and join with me?”

“Is that what you came back to say?” I asked, squeezing his hand. “Because I thought…I was afraid you were only coming back to fulfill your oath and protect me.”

“I do want to fulfill it—I want to cherish and protect you every day for the rest of our lives,” Grav told me. “But I came back to tell you I love you and to beg your forgiveness.”

“Oh Grav…” I knew I should be mad at him but I’ve never been good at holding a grudge. I was suddenly flooded with so much happiness it seemed like I might burst trying to contain it all.

I flung myself out of my chair and into his lap. Grabbing him by the horns, I covered his face in kisses while he held me close against his big body.

“I love you,” I told him. “I love you so much!”

“I love you too, darlin’. Thank you for not holding my stupidity against me.” He squeezed me tight and kissed me back.

I thought I had never been happier in my entire life. The only thing missing was my friends and family to share the joy with. I wished that Zoe and Charlotte were here right now so I could tell them how happy I was.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Grav murmured in my ear. “We’ll go straight back to Eloim after we get out of here. You can tell Zoe then.”

“Wait…” I frowned, pulling back from him. “Why did you say that?”

“What? About going to see Zoe?” Grav shrugged. “Because you just said you wished you had your friends here to share your joy.”

“No, I didn’t,” I objected. “I thought it but I never said it out loud.”

“Goddess…” He looked at me strangely. “Try something for me, darlin’. Look at me and concentrate—then think something completely random. Something I would never guess in a million cycles.”

“Okay.” Frowning, I looked at him and concentrated. “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” I thought, using the old sentence I used to practice typing back in keyboarding class when I was in elementary school.

Grav frowned. “What’s a fox?”

“Wait—you heard that?” I stared at him in disbelief. “How?”

“I don’t know. Here—I’ll try with you.” He got a look of concentration on his face and I heard his deep, rumbling tone speaking inside my head. “I’ll love you forever, darlin’,” he sent.

I laughed. “I love you too but I thought you were supposed to send something random that I would never guess.”

Grav shrugged. “Can’t help it. It’s all I can think about right now.”

“So…what does this mean?” I asked. “Because I think I heard your voice and felt your emotions before this—back in the garage when I was so scared.”

“I felt what you were feeling too,” he murmured. “And I think…I think that means we’re bonded.”

“What? But I thought we couldn’t bond!” I exclaimed. “What happened?”

Grav shrugged again. “I honestly don’t know. Maybe it took a little while to activate? Or maybe the bond was activated when I saw there was a physical threat against you and my protective instincts kicked in.” His voice softened. “Or maybe the Goddess of Mercy, well, had mercy on us. She knew how badly I wanted to bond you to me but I couldn’t do that until I admitted that you’re the important one—not the bond.”

“Oh, Grav…” I kissed him again, passion rushing through me. I felt an answering rush of love and desire from him. I’m not sure what might have happened next—we probably would have ended up in the bedroom—if the front door hadn’t opened just at that moment.

“Leah?” my mom called. “I’m home—I had to go back for milk but I…oh my goodness! Gerald is that you? Why are you naked?”

Grav and I had forgotten all about my ex and now I saw that he had been busy while we were exploring our new bond.

Having finished signing the divorce papers, he had apparently crept away from the table and towards the front door. He’d been just about to ease it open and make a run for it when my mother walked in and confronted her former son-in-law in all his naked splendor.

The sight of Gerald in the altogether was distracting, which was probably why my mom noticed him first, instead of the seven-foot-tall blue alien warrior whose lap I was currently occupying.

“He abducted her,” Gerald babbled, trying to get around my mom, who had her arms full of groceries. “He took her away to outer space because he’s an alien—an alien. And then he made me divorce her but it’s not my fault…Do you hear me? It’s not my fault!” he screamed in my mom’s face.

“Gracious, Gerald!” She took a step back, dropping her groceries.

That was all the opening Gerald needed. He hopped out the door and ran down the street butt naked, babbling about aliens.

“We have to get him back!” Grav exclaimed, jumping up. “I’m not done with that fucker yet!”

“Don’t worry—someone else will deal with him,” I said, peering out the front door. Already I could see Mrs. Kowalski, my mom’s elderly next door neighbor, out on her front porch with her phone in one hand. She would be calling the police no doubt, to report the crazy nudist running through my mom’s quiet retirement neighborhood.

And speaking of my mom, she was bent down picking up her spilled groceries.

“Go to the living room and sit down on the couch,” I sent to Grav through our new mental link. “I want you to meet my mom but you’ll scare her to death if we’re not careful.”

He nodded. “Got it.”

“Oh, and Grav? No cursing!”

He nodded again. “Yes Ma’am. I’ll keep my dirty language strictly to my fuckin’ self.”

That made me laugh and I knelt down to help my mom get the spilled groceries.

“Leah,” she said as she finished stacking cans in one of her favorite reusable bags. “What in the world was that all about? I thought you broke up with Gerald.”

“I did,” I told her. “But, well…I found somebody else. Somebody I think you’re going to like a lot more—once you get to know him. And he’s here now.”

“Well, anyone you care for, I want to get to know,” she said, smiling at me. “Where is he?”

“In the living room,” I told her. “Here, Mom—let me get the groceries so you don’t drop them again.”

“I only dropped them because I was so surprised,” she objected.

“Like I said—let me carry them.”

“No, I’ll get them! I’m not an old lady yet!” she exclaimed with asperity.

I shrugged. “Suit yourself.” Then led her into the living room where Grav was sitting in all his blue, horned glory on the couch. “Mom, meet Grav. He’s going to be your new son-in-law.”

“Hi there.” Grav smiled at her.

“Good gracious!” said my mom and dropped the groceries again.

The End…or is it?

(Ha—just kidding. Of course it’s not. Keep reading…)

Epilogue

“So your mom got used to Grav?” Zoe asked, grinning at me over a plate full of Girls’ Night snacks.

“She more than got used to him—she loves him.” I took another bite of hudu cake, which I had specifically requested this time. Zoe and I were back on Eloim catching up and I couldn’t have been happier about the way that things had worked out.

“Even though he’s an alien?” Zoe asked, taking a bite of cake herself.

“Even though,” I agreed. “You know my mom has always been very open minded. And she’s also a good judge of character—she never liked Gerald either. So once she got over the shock of finding out that there is alien life out there and that I had fallen in love with an alien, she was fine with Grav as long as he promised to treat me right. Which he swore up and down he would do—honestly, he charmed her socks off.”

I grinned, remembering how well my mom and Grav had hit it off. She didn’t even mind it when he slipped and threw in a swear word from time to time. It was amazing how charming he could be when he put his mind to it.

Zoe frowned. “What about Gerald, though? I would have thought that Grav would break his arms at least.”

“He wanted to,” I said grimly. “But I talked him out of chasing him down the street in broad daylight. It didn’t matter though—Gerald got what he deserved.”

“He did? How so?” She took a sip of bubble wine—a pale blue one this time that tasted faintly of melons and some kind of berries and cinnamon—and raised an eyebrow at me.

“Well, Grav had taken his clothes because he didn’t have anything else to wear. So when Gerald escaped, he was nude.” I giggled. “My mom’s neighbor, Mrs. Kowalski called the police and reported a naked man running down the street. I heard later that when they caught up to him, he was babbling about a big blue alien from outer space who stole his clothes.”

“Oh my!” Zoe giggled. “So what happened?”

“Last I heard he lost his job and he was, uh, under observation at a psychiatric care facility,” I said, taking a sip of wine myself. “It seems like some people can handle the idea of aliens and some…well…” I shrugged. “They just can’t. And I think Gerald was one of those.”

“Serves him right after the way he treated you,” Zoe said, frowning. “So now you guys are going to settle here on Eloim with me? You are, aren’t you? Please say you are!”

“That’s what Grav wants,” I said. “In fact, he’s negotiating right now with the ruler of Thonolax with that goal in mind.”

“What?” Zoe shook her head. “I don’t understand—why would he need the ruler of Thonolax’s permission for you guys to stay here on Eloim?”

“Because he wants Teeny to stay with us.” I took another sip of wine and smiled. “We’ve gotten really close since we found her on Chndra—almost like a little family. And Grav wants to keep her with him to keep her safe—at least until she’s old enough to rule Thonolax herself. So he’s negotiating with her grandfather to bring her back to Eloim and keep her here until she’s of age.”

“Oh, that would be just perfect!” Zoe clapped her hands in excitement, nearly spilling her wine. “She can use Selah’s old tutors—they’re still here, you know, on the palace staff even though Selah has gone away to get a higher degree. And she can hang out with us and we can have so much fun!”

I smiled. “That’s what we’re hoping. Grav already talked to Sarden about it and he agreed to make Teeny a ward of the planet. And Teeny wants to come live with us so badly she was almost crying when I hugged her goodbye. All we need is her grandfather’s permission. But since Grav had consistently proved that he’s the only one who can keep her safe, I don’t think it will be a problem.”

“I bet they’ll be back in no time,” Zoe said confidently. She sighed. “The only thing that could make it more perfect would be if Charlotte was here.”

“I know,” I said frowning. “But when I finally got her on the phone again, she would hardly talk to me. I wanted to go see her but she said she’s really busy with her medical rotation and asked me to stay away.”

“But I thought you told me before that she might be in danger,” Zoe objected. “That makes me worried!”

“Grav and I were worried too, but he made contact with Captain Verrai—the head of the Imperial Guards I told you about, remember? The one who thinks Charlotte is supposed to be the next Empress?”

“Yes—so what did he say?” Zoe asked eagerly.

“That he was watching over her and not to worry,” I said.

“Watching over her? What does that mean? Has he even talked to her yet?” Zoe demanded.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. But by that time we had taken so long to get Teeny back to her grandfather, we couldn’t stay. Grav was only able to justify coming back to Eloim to drop me off because he needed a part for his hopper. That’s why he got it fixed and took off again with Teeny so quickly.”

“And you really think that Charlotte is safe?” Zoe sounded concerned. “I mean, I’m concerned about her! Especially after what happened with the other Imperial Guards.”

“What other Imperial Guards?” I asked, frowning. “You mean the ones that were with Captain Verrai?”

“Yes—didn’t you hear? Sarden just told me this morning. They were supposed to take Count Doloroso’s ship back to Femme 1, which is also known as Majorah Prime, and turn it in to the proper authorities. But they never arrived.”

“What?” I felt a cold chill go down my spine. “Are you sure about that?”

“Sure as I can be.” Zoe shrugged uneasily. “There’s no ship and no warriors and nobody can find them. They’re just…gone.”

“That’s awful!” I put my arms around myself, trying to stop the sudden rush of goose bumps that rippled over me.

“Yeah, it’s not good, that’s for sure.” Zoe sighed. “So that’s why I’m so worried about Charlotte. I mean, aside from the assassination attempts by people who don’t want her on the throne, we also have to worry about the Creepy Count coming after her. And we don’t even know what he looks like this time.”

“Well, Captain Verrai will be looking out for her,” I said comfortingly. “And the Commercians are watching too, through the AMI. I think she’ll be okay.”

“I just wish we could contact her—but it’s so hard to get a reliable signal this far away!”

“Who knows,” I said. “Maybe the next time we’ll see her will be at her coronation.”

“Wouldn’t that be amazing?” Zoe grinned. “From your lips to the Goddess’ ears.”

“So you believe in her now—the Goddess of Mercy, I mean?” I asked curiously. “Because I thought you weren’t religious. Not like me, anyway.”

“Oh, like when your mean grandma used to take you to that Hellfire and Brimstone church and smack your hand if she thought your manners weren’t good enough?” Zoe grinned. “No, it’s nothing like that. But I do think this whole big universe is just too vast and varied and amazing to be just some accident. You know? And I’ve seen things…when it seems like nothing is going right and then, somehow, things just fall into place. There has to be a divine hand at work in all that.”

“I agree,” I said thoughtfully. “And I know that Grav believes—he’s certain that the Goddess put us together and helped us seal our bond.”

“Well, maybe he’s right,” Zoe said, smiling. “You know, Sarden told me that the Majorans believe that their Empress is the physical incarnation of the Goddess of Mercy herself? That’s why she’s called the Goddess Empress.”

“Wow—can you imagine someone trying to convince Charlotte that she’s a Goddess?” I giggled.

“I know—right?” Zoe laughed. “Practical, down-to-Earth Charlotte. She would never buy that. I tell you what, I don’t know this Captain Verrai of the Imperial Guards, but he’s certainly got his work cut out for him.”

“You’re right about that.” I pictured Charlotte in my mind with her honey-blonde curls pulled up in a no-nonsense pony tail and her sharp green eyes, always scanning every situation for problems and solutions.

“You know she told me once that she stopped believing in Santa when she was only four?” Zoe said. “I mean, can you imagine?”

“That’s Charlotte, all right,” I remarked. “She always says that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is.” I frowned. “Come to think of it, I hope I didn’t upset her by using the Commercians to contact her back when I first left Earth. That was probably a pretty big pill for her to swallow.”

“Why?” Zoe asked. “She’s got a scientific mind. You know all the experts have said there is probably extraterrestrial life out there.” She winked at me. “They just didn’t say it would be so sexy.”

“Zoe!” I said, exasperated. “Do you have to brag on your sex life when my man is out of town? Or in this case, off the planet?”

“Sorry.” She grinned unrepentantly. “It’s just really good with Sarden. But the point is, Charlotte should be fine.”

I sighed. “Well, I know the Commercians certainly charged us for contacting her—they made Grav pay through the nose! So they must have made her understand. I just hope we’ll get a chance to go back and talk to her in person soon.”

“We will—or you will anyway. I’ve still got the Star to think of.” She patted her head gently where the pink and purple jewel winked in her slender crown.

“I have to get Teeny settled in here first,” I said. “I want to do right by her. I felt so bad about how things ended with Taggard—the little boy I was helping in Virginia. I was able to contact his dads before I left and say goodbye to all of them but I got the feeling that they still missed me.”

“Of course they missed you—you’re amazing.” Zoe leaned over to give me a hug. “An amazing friend and you’re going to make an amazing mom for Teeny. And for any babies of your own that you and Grav decide to have.”

“Oh, my—I think it’s a little early to think about that, don’t you?” I said, frowning. “Right now I’m just thinking about Charlotte.”

Zoe smiled. “You trust this Captain Verrai, right?”

I thought of his serious eyes and his vow to protect Charlotte and nodded.

“Yes. Yes, I do. I think he’ll do anything it takes to keep her safe.”

“Well then…Charlotte has a good protector. So she’ll be okay.”

“I hope so,” I said, feeling a twinge of unease. “From your lips, to the Goddess of Mercy’s ears,” I added, repeating Zoe’s words back to her.

“Exactly.” She laughed and hugged me again. “Cheer up, hon—everything is going to be just fine.”

But even as I hugged her back, I wasn’t sure. Wasn’t sure at all…

*If you have enjoyed Protected, please take a moment to leave a quick review HERE. Reviews are like gold for an author--they help other readers find her work and decide to take a chance on something new and different. Plus they give me warm fuzzies. Thanks for being such an awesome reader!

Hugs, Evangeline

And now, read on for a sneak peek of Alien Mate Index

book 3, Descended, coming out this August.

Hi, I'm Charlotte Walker, straight A student, surgical intern, and Empress of the galaxy.

Wow, that escalated quickly, right? But it's true--at least according to the muscular giant with multicolored eyes and golden skin who turned up in my ER the other night. He says his name is Kristoff Verrai and he's the Captain of the Goddess-Empress's Imperial Guard.

The Goddess-Empress being me.

See, I'm supposedly the new Incarnation of the royal and divine being who rules all sentient life in the Milky Way. Seriously, I can't even get my laundry done half the time and now I'm supposed to be the Queen of Everything? Who made up this system, anyway?

Now I'm dodging assassin-droids and competing with would-be imposters while I try to stop myself from falling for my gorgeous Guard. But because I'm a Royal and he's a commoner, I'll never be allowed to have him as my Consort.

It hardly seems fair. But then, neither does the fact that I'm Descended from the old Empress and destined to rule the galaxy.

What am I going to do?

Descended: Book 3 of the Alien Mate Index Series

Prologue

Location: Aboard Assimilation ship EOC-2789, the private vessel of Count Doloroso. In orbit around the planet humans call “Mars”.

Time: Several solar days following the death of Doloroso’s human host body and the subsequent acquisition of his new Majoran host body.

The new body was working out splendidly. Count Doloroso—for so he still preferred to refer to himself, despite his numerous recent physical changes— stretched his muscular arms with delight. He still couldn’t get over how much better he felt in the Majoran host than he had in the human one.

This body was young and strong and virile and best of all, it wasn’t orange. Well, not unless he wanted it to be. For Majorans were chromatacromes, able to change their hair and skin and eye color at will. It was the perfect disguise—really, he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t taken a Majoran as a host before.

It had been extremely lucky, his old host body dying just as a perfect new host was available right on his own ship. The little silver drone that carried his essence and injected it into new sentient host bodies had only had to fly a few feet to sting one of the Imperial Guards on the neck. No one had even noticed when he took over—the transition had been exceedingly smooth.

As for the other Imperial Guards who had been aboard the ship, he had managed to lure them down to the stasis booths in the belly of the ship. One by one he had tricked them into entering the empty booths and one by one he had frozen them in suspended animation. Now he had enough hosts to last him for years! Count Doloroso felt positively rich.

Of course there was still one problem, Doloroso admitted as he paced back and forth in the control area of his ship—he still lacked a La-ti-zal to utilize in his new breeding program. How could he begin production of a whole new race of organic Assimilated if he couldn’t get a La-ti-zal female to impregnate?

There was the one, of course—the last one of Zoe’s friends who was one of those females blessed by the Ancient Ones. But how could he get to her? Especially now that the Majoran captain of the Imperial Guard was watching over her? That was the question that had been occupying him for days as he orbited Mars, out of range of detection from his enemies.

A sudden thought made him stop pacing.

Then again, who said he had to get to her and take her away from Earth himself?

A slow smile curved his new lips. The Majoran captain would do that for him. Because he believed that Charlotte—that was her name, correct?—was the new incarnation of the Goddess Empress. And so he would take her away from Earth and head for Femme 1, where the throne and palace of the Empress was located.

Doloroso had a long history with the Empress—the old one, that was. She had been a La-ti-zal and a Seer—one who was granted visions of the future by the meddling Goddess of the Twelve Peoples.

Due to her unfair advantage, the old Empress had been able to wipe out his entire race. He alone had survived to try and propagate his species, that of sentient machines inhabiting living hosts. The Assimilation had once been a mighty force to be reckoned with and yet the Goddess Empress had brought them low and all but wiped them out.

What if he returned the favor?

Doloroso’s smile became a wide, evil grin. If he could get his hands on the new Empress, what amazing things could he accomplish? He could impregnate her with his seed, yes, but the possibilities went far beyond a single pregnancy. He could hold her for ransom and demand anything he wanted—he could even demand that every La-ti-zal in the galaxy be brought to him for his personal use and delectation. He could have a whole harem of La-ti-zal brood mares—all impregnated with his seed—all incubating organic Assimilated fetuses!

Doloroso rubbed his new, strong hands together in delight. Oh yes, he had plans for the new Empress. And he wouldn’t even have to go to the trouble of going down to Earth to find her. Captain Verrai would bring her right to him…on Femme 1.

Quickly, he went to set a course for the Majoran capital planet. He would have to make excuses, of course, for his delay and the “loss” of the other Imperial Guards, but those little details could easily be explained. There was much to put into place, many preparations to make in order to be ready.

He was determined that this time, he would not fail. The Assimilation would rise again and every sentient being in the galaxy would speak its name with fear and awe and wonder.

The Last Day would become the First.

Chapter One

Charlotte

I slipped into a supply closet at the North Florida Regional Medical Center hospital where I was doing my surgical rotation and crammed myself into a corner, breathing hard.

He’ll never find me here! I’ll be safe here, I told myself. Yet how many other times had I told myself the same thing, only to find that I was wrong?

I took a quick scan of the closet and breathed a sigh of relief. Stacks and stacks of fresh sheets and towels, sterile trays for various procedures, bags of saline—it was all good. I didn’t see any shiny, reflective surfaces here. There was no way he could find me.

That is, until I had to go out again.

Which would be as soon as any of the dozen or so patients under my direct supervision had a problem and one of their nurses paged me. Which could be at any moment. So I needed to take a moment to enjoy my sense of peace and safety now.

Then I heard it—that high, squeaky voice that had been haunting me for weeks.

“Attention, Charlotte Walker,” it said, coming from somewhere overhead. “I have a message that I must deliver to you.”

Looking up, I saw that the light fixture in the supply closet had a curving, silver metal side which was shiny enough to reflect light. Only instead of the dull glint of the light bulb, it was showing a strange, blue worm-like creature with multiple arms and eyes that were mounted on stalks.

It was the same creature I had been seeing for weeks. It appeared everywhere—the bowl of my metal spoon when I was eating oatmeal or yogurt, the side of the toaster when I was making toast, even the shiny metal surgical instruments laid out on tray in the operating theater where I was supposed to be assisting.

The other day it had appeared in the middle of a splenectomy, speaking to me from the blade of a scalpel in its tiny, high voice that only I could hear.

The blue worm creature had startled me so badly I had dropped the scalpel I had been handing to the surgeon right into the patient’s open body cavity! Luckily, the scalpel had fallen handle first, so it hadn’t severed any major blood vessels or punctured any organs, but the surgeon had been livid with me and I had been dismissed from the surgery with a black mark on my record.

Day and night the worm followed me—unless I slept in a completely dark room with no reflective surfaces. But have you heard when medical interns get to sleep? That’s right—almost never. We’re constantly on call, constantly on the move. And we almost never get a good night’s sleep—or any sleep at all, for that matter.

It was awful and the main reason I was convinced I was going crazy.

“Charlotte Walker,” the blue worm said again. “I have accepted payment to deliver a message to you regarding—”

“No!” I screamed, finally “losing my shit” as my best friend Zoe would say.

Zoe. God, I missed her—she had disappeared months ago and nobody knew what had happened to her. When my other friend, Leah, and I had decided to finally stop looking for her, I had made the decision to go to med school and drown my sorrows in work. At first, everything had been fine—well, as fine as it could be after losing my friend. But then the blue worm had started stalking me. And now, after weeks of constant harassment, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Charlotte Walker—”

“No, no, no!” I shouted. “Leave me alone!”

I pulled off one of my comfortable clogs, stood on a plastic stool which was obviously used for reaching the higher shelves, and began banging on the light fixture as hard as I could.

“Leave me alone!” I screamed at the weird blue worm. “Leave me the fuck alone!”

“What’s the matter, Walker—pager driving you bugshit?”

I looked over to see my friend and fellow intern, Sebastian Trent, leaning against the door jam with his arms crossed and a sarcastic little smile playing around the corners of his mouth.

“Shut up,” I said, climbing off the stool and quickly replacing my clog. “I just, uh, thought I saw a worm up there.”

“A worm?” He frowned. “What would a worm be doing on the ceiling?”

“Uh, spider, I mean. I thought I saw a spider,” I said quickly. “And I hate spiders.”

“Oh. I thought maybe your pager was going off when you were trying to catch a nap.” He smiled sympathetically. “I know how that feels.”

“I don’t nap on duty,” I said. “Especially not when I’m covering the pit.”

The “pit” was what we called the ER, which was generally jammed almost all the time. Tonight, however, it had been strangely quiet, which was why I had dared to duck into the supply closet to try and get five minutes of peace and quiet.

So much for that.

“Well excuse me for interrupting your ‘me time’ your royal highness,” Sebastian snapped bitchily. “I just thought you might like to know you have a new triage.”

“In the pit?” I asked. “What is it? MVA? Gunshot wound?”

“Knife fight victim.” Sebastian grinned. “And just wait ‘till you see him.”

“Why? Is he in bad shape?” I was already moving down the hall with Sebastian jogging to keep up with me. “You think he’ll need surgery?”

It may sound ghoulish but I was kind of hoping he would. We interns are always trying to get more cases under our belt. What’s bad for the patient is often good for us. Not that I want anyone to die—I just kind of hope they’re in danger of dying and that I can save them.

Wow, that sounds crazy, right? But that’s the life of an intern—rushing from emergency to emergency, trying to save as many people as possible and soak up as much knowledge and experience as you can along the way.

If I hadn’t had that damn blue worm following me and popping up everywhere to yell at me in his high, Disney-character voice, I would have been having the time of my life. As it was, I was miserable—though the idea of a stab wound so bad it needed surgery did cheer me up considerably.

But Sebastian was shaking his head.

“No, I’m not talking about his trauma—I’m talking about his ass,” he gushed. “You should see this guy. He’s got to be over seven feet tall and every inch of him is pure muscle. Not to mention he has this incredible blue-black hair and these amazing eyes—”

“Sebastian…” I sighed and shook my head. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Get me this guy’s number and ask if he swings both ways,” my friend said promptly.

“If he’s so hot, why didn’t you take him yourself?” I demanded. “You’re on pit duty too.”

“Believe me, I tried.” Sebastian opened his eyes wide and made a helpless gesture with both hands. “But he only wants you—he asked for you by name.”

“He what?” I frowned at him. “What are you talking about? Is he from Tampa or something?”

Tampa, Florida is my hometown and the city I had been living in until I decided to go back to medical school in Gainesville, which is a couple of hours north. But even in Tampa, I hadn’t known any seven foot tall guys with black hair and amazing eyes.

Of course, Sebastian was probably exaggerating on at least one, if not all counts. He was perpetually horny and had already worked his way through most of the male nurses at North Florida Regional, as well as a good number of the young male doctors.

“I don’t know where he’s from,” Sebastian said, as we rounded the corner and went through the automatic doors that led to the ER triage area. “I just know he’s gorgeous and he’s asking for you. You lucky girl.”

“Shut up,” I said under my breath as we came to a curtained area. There was some kind of commotion taking place inside—someone was yelling and then I heard the clang of instruments being thrown on the floor.

“I told you,” a deep male voice shouted. “I will speak only to Charlotte Walker. She is the only person I will allow to treat my wounds!”

“Sir if you’ll just—” came the voice of a nurse from the other side of the curtain.

“Charlotte Walker! I must see her now!” he bellowed, loudly enough to hurt my ears.

“See what I mean?” Sebastian whispered. “He wouldn’t let me touch him either and believe me, honey, I tried.”

“Well he can’t be that bad off if he’s yelling like that,” I muttered back.

He shook his head. “Actually, I’m afraid he’s got a really nasty slice up the right side of his abdomen. You better get in there and see what you can do for him.”

I glared at him. “You’re enjoying this.”

“Of course I am! Girl, this is better than an episode of Grey’s Anatomy!” He grinned and gave me a nudge towards the curtained area. “Go on—have fun.”

Putting on my I am a serious doctor face, I squared my shoulders and pulled back the light blue curtain.

Sebastian hadn’t been lying.

Lying on the hospital gurney was the biggest man I had ever seen in my life. Even flat on his back, I could see that he was more than seven feet tall and, as Sebastian had said, every inch of him appeared to be covered in muscle.

I don’t mean that he was grossly over-muscled in a roided-out body-builder kind of way—it was just that his entire frame was pumped in all the right places. He had kind of a swimmer’s build—long and lean and muscular with broad shoulders and narrow hips.

I bet myself that he had less than two percent body fat. Must be nice—as a plus sized girl, I have considerably more than two percent myself.

But back to my patient.

He also had curly black hair and eyes like nothing I had ever seen before. As I watched, they seemed to change color from sky blue to pale, leaf green, to iridescent silver. Wait—silver? Nobody had silver eyes.

“Get away from me!” the huge patient was storming at the nurse—a girl named Gloria—who was trying to take his vitals. “I told you, I will have no other than Charlotte Walker as my healer!”

“Honey, I’m just trying to take your blood pressure.” Gloria held up the extra-large cuff. “Come on now, why don’t you be a sweetheart and settle down?”

“It’s okay, Gloria, I said, coming into the curtained triage area. “I’ll take it from here.”

“Fine.” She threw up her hands and let the BP cuff drop. “You handle him, Dr. Walker. You’re the only one he seems to want, anyway. Just be careful, I don’t know what he’s on but it must be some wild stuff. You see those eyes?”

As a matter of fact, I did. At the sound of my voice, the patient’s incredible eyes had fixed on me and he was practically staring laser beams right through me.

“Charlotte Walker,” he breathed, reaching for me with one catcher’s mitt-sized hand. “I have come for you. I must warn you—you are in danger!”

And then his eyes rolled back in his head, his head thumped back on the pillow, and he was out like a light.

Want more? Of course you do! Preorder Descended, book 3 of the Alien Mate Index, coming in August!

Pssst--Did you miss the first book in this series? Here are links to all the books in the Alien Mate Index...for now. You can expect more in the future.

Alien Mate Index series

Abducted (Also available in Print)

Protected (Also available in Print)

Descended (coming August 2016)

And if you haven't tried my Brides of the Kindred series, scroll down to the Also by section. You can get the first book, Claimed, for free just by joining my newsletter. (See the link under the picture of the girl holding a book.)

The Warriors of The Alien Mate Index:

Are you ready for a whole new race of Alien Warriors?

How about 12 new races?

From the pen of Evangeline Anderson, the writer who brought you Brides of the Kindred, comes The Alien Mate Index series.

Everyone thinks that life on Earth just evolved —

Wrong.

Our planet, and twelve others, all capable of supporting Terran life, was seeded by the Ancient Ones.

Then Earth was locked away, kept safe in the cocoon of our ozone layer. But now there’s a gaping hole in our security blanket and guess who’s coming to dinner?

That’s right—the Alien warriors of the Twelve Peoples—also descended from the Ancient Ones, are looking for mates and Earth girls are their first choice.

So many Alien warriors to pick from. (Scroll down below to see them)

Which type of male would you choose?

Too bad you won’t have a choice, because thanks to the Alien Mate Index,
an agency that abducts Earth brides for alien males, you could be snatched at any time and turned into a massive warrior’s mate or concubine.

So the real question is—who will choose you?

Also by Evangeline Anderson

**Please note--these are Amazon/Kindle links. If you have a Nook or other reading device, please check my website for links to all other formats**

Brides of the Kindred series

Claimed (Also available in Audio and Print format)

Hunted (Also available in Audio and Print format)

Sought (Also Available in Audio and Print format)

Found (Also Available in Audio and Print format)

Revealed (Also Available in Print format)

Pursued (Also Available in Print format)

Exiled (Also Available in Print format)

Shadowed (Also Available in Print format)

Chained

Divided

Devoured (Also available in Print)

Enhanced

Cursed

Enslaved

Targeted

Forgotten

Switched

Brides of the Kindred #18 coming Fall 2016

Mastering the Mistress (Brides of the Kindred Novella)

Born to Darkness series

Crimson Debt (Also available in Audio)

Scarlet Heat (Also available in Audio)

Ruby Shadows (Also available in Audio)

Cardinal Sins (Coming Soon)

Alien Mate Index series

Abducted (Also available in Print)

Protected (Also available in Print)

Descended (coming August 2016)

The Institute series

The Institute: Daddy Issues

The Institute: Mishka's Spanking

Compendiums

Brides of the Kindred Volume One

Contains Claimed, Hunted, Sought and Found all in one volume

Born to Darkness Box Set

Contains Crimson Debt, Scarlet Heat, and Ruby Shadows all in one volume

Stand Alone Novels

Purity (Now available in Audio)

Stress Relief

The Last Man on Earth

Anyone U Want

Shadow Dreams

YA Novels

The Academy

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Or if you love audiobooks, I have quite a few of those too...

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About the Author

Evangeline Anderson is the New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author of the Brides of the Kindred, Alien Mate Index, and Born to Darkness series. She is thirty-something and lives in Florida with a husband, a son, and two cats. She had been writing erotic fiction for her own gratification for a number of years before it occurred to her to try and get paid for it. To her delight, she found that it was actually possible to get money for having a dirty mind and she has been writing paranormal and Sci-fi erotica steadily ever since.

You can find her online at her website www.evangelineanderson.com

Come visit for some free reads. Or, to be the first to find out about new books, join her newsletter.

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Table of Contents

- Prologue
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-one
- Chapter Twenty-two
- Chapter Twenty-three
- Chapter Twenty-four
- Chapter Twenty-five
- Chapter Twenty-six
- Chapter Twenty-seven
- Chapter Twenty-eight
- Chapter Twenty-nine
- Chapter Thirty
- Chapter Thirty-one
- Chapter Thirty-two
- The End…or is it?
- Epilogue

- Descended: Book 3 of the Alien Mate Index Series

- The Warriors of The Alien Mate Index
- Also by Evangeline Anderson
- About the Author