“As that was not amusing in the slightest, I must assume my NPU is malfunctioning and I do not understand the use of that word.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you for real right now?”Alien. Alien. Alien.How could he be so sexy and irresistible and so…weird?
Right. He was a freaking alien.
In response to my question, he took one of my hands and held my palm over the place I assumed his heart would be. If he was human. Or human-ish? “I am very real. And I am yours.”
The moment I touched him our gazes locked. My mind went blank. All I wanted to do was melt into him again. Kiss him. Touch him. Beg him to put me back on that table, spread my legs wide open and—
A forlorn howl filled the ship, breaking the spell.
“You are lethal,” I whispered. Absolute truth.
“Very. I hunt. Sometimes, to protect our people, I am forced to kill.” His gaze darkened and I felt something like fear flash through our strange bond. He squeezed my hand, pressed it more firmly to his chest. “To protect you, mate, I would destroy worlds.”
What the actual hell was I supposed to say tothat?My usual go-to in tense situations was to crack a joke. But when an alien was threatening to blow up planets, being a wise-ass didn’t feel appropriate. He was serious. His sincerity throbbed in my blood in time to the pulsing of the marks on our palms.
“How about you finish the hunt for your bad guys and leave the destruction of planets for another day?” I lifted my free hand to the base of his neck and ran my fingers through his dark hair. My touch seemed to help. He lowered his head until our foreheads touched, a pose I was rapidly becoming addicted to.
“First I must take care of you. Are you hungry?”
Another long howl filled the air.
I smiled. “A little. But I think Lilah is. I fed her this morning but she doesn’t like to skip meals. And I don’t know the last time she was outside.” I walked the short distance to Stark’s bedroom and opened the door. Lilah bounded out and into my legs like a tank, nearly tipping me over. Big lug. I bent down and wrapped my arms around her in a calming hug. First she needed to take a trip outside to relieve herself. Unless she had the weird recycling going on, too? But food. My poor baby needed food and water and she didnotlike to skip meals.
“Your pet has been taken care of. I give you my word.”
I smiled a thank you at my big space boyfriend and stood. A step and a half and I had my hand on the panel next to what he’d told me was basically the front door of his ship.
“No!”
Stark reached for me but it was too late. The door slid open and I stood, uncomprehending.
Blackness.
Pinpoints of light.
And…nothing.
No.This couldn’t be. It had to be my imagination. I was in a dream. That’s what this was. A dream.
Lilah came to me and sat at my side, as she’d done thousands of times. She whimpered, her huge head nudging me for attention. That felt real. Too real.
No, no, no, no, no.
5
Stark
I should have toldher the moment she woke. But she’d already been panicked, breaking the ReGen pod and injuring her leg.
I’d touched her then. Gods help me, I hadn’t been able to resist taking her. Claiming her. Making sure she could never escape our bond, even after she discovered the truth. I was an Elite Hunter. I had a duty to my people and several more years on my enlistment. I had a duty to the Coalition, to the billions we protected on hundreds of member planets. I could not remain on Earth with her. And I could not live without her. Be alone. Not now that I knew she existed.
She would need to leave her home, her world and everyone she loved to be with me. I’d been a coward, terrified of her choice.
“Are we…are we in space?” Rebecca turned to me, her dark eyes wide with shock. Lilah nudged her, offering comfort. My mate did not respond to her beloved pet. That alone told me I’d made a mistake.
A huge fucking mistake.
