She grabbed me in a tight hug. “I’m good. Your guy, Kai, saved me. They were in our apartment.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” I pulled back, Kai’s seed running down my leg under the blanket was a bit of a distraction. I needed a quick shower and some clothes. I glanced at her new mate. “Warlord Tazo, I presume?”
“Yes, my lady. It is an honor to meet you.” He bowed slightly at the waist like I was a princess or something.
I waited for him to stand up and noticed the possessive hand he placed on the small of my baby sister’s back. Her skin was luminous, her eyes sparkled. She was glowing. Happy. Thank god. Neither one of us was going back to Earth anytime soon. What a relief. I didn’t want to be here if that meant I had to leave her to fend for herself, risk another hive attack back home. No way. Wouldn’t do it. But now she had Tazo and could live on The Colony with me. “Thank you for taking care of my little sister.”
“Caring for my mate is an honor and privilege.”
Lavender and I looked at each other. Our gazes locked. We both burst into giggles.
“Aren’t they freaking amazing?” Lavender asked.
“Yeah. They are. See you in a few. I need?—”
“To stop having hot sex and put some clothes on?”
“Yeah. That.” I closed the door on my sister’s laughter.
12
Larkspur
* * *
The dining hall was not what I expected. Although, really, what was an alien cafeteria supposed to look like? The room was large and filled with tables of various sizes. The smallest round tables were surrounded by six chairs. The largest, a series of long, rectangular tables, looked like they could seat up to twenty.
Every table was full.
I came to a full stop, Kai’s presence behind me in the entrance an oddly familiar comfort. “It is lunchtime or something?” I fidgeted with the hem of the navy tunic I wore over a pair of warm, stretchy, black pants and black boots. I knew Lavender was in a dress, but I wanted to be comfortable and wearing dresses always made me feel exposed somehow, like the wind could blow me away.
“No. It is not.” Warlord of little words. Oh well, he looked fabulous in his usual armor. Although I wasn’t sure why he was wearing it, as was every other male in the room. Did they expect an attack or something? Or did they wear their military garb out of habit? There was so much I didn’t understand about my new mate.
“Then why is it so busy?” Children ran around as well, ranging in age from infants to a young man who looked like he might be ten years old. There were far more kids than I expected to see. And their mothers. I wasn’t sure how many women were in the room. Perhaps ten or twelve? I’d have to count later. They were all human, all smiling and staring at me in the doorway like I was shiny and new.
“This is a small base, mate. Everyone is curious to meet you.”
No pressure. “What about you?”
“I live here. They all know me already.”
Right. This was his planet, his people. I took a step inside and my sister ran to me. Now that we were clothed, functional, and safe, we grabbed one another and burst into tears. We clung. My relief at seeing her safe and happy, at the fact that I could keep Kai and not leave her behind on Earth? Huge. Knee buckling, tear streaked face, out of control emotions level huge.
Intense silence surrounded us as if everyone was in shock. Then… cheers. Clapping. Whistles.
How embarrassing, but in a good way. I pulled back and wiped the wetness off my cheeks. “God, Lav. Can you believe this shit?”
“No.” She wiped her own tears away, her smile bright and happy. “You have to tell me everything.”
I glanced at Warlord Tazo, who stood slightly behind her looking unsure of what to do in the face of two emotional, sobbing females. “You, too. How did you end up with Tazo? How did you get here in the first place? You said the Hive were at our apartment?”
“Yes.” Lavender hooked her arm with mine and led me to a table where four seats had been left open for us and our mates. A lovely woman named Rachel, who introduced herself as the Governor’s mate, asked me what I wanted to eat and brought back a steaming plate of chicken tacos with spicy, chipotle salsa. Heaven.
Kai took a bite and reappeared a few minutes later with an even larger plate as Lavender told me everything that happened to her when the Hive showed up at the apartment, when Kai broke in, when the last one put a gun to her head and she thought she was going to die.
Tazo grumbled unhappily at that part of the story and I noticed my sister reached out and placed her hand over his knee to calm him. Adorable. The mating cuffs she wore were beautiful as well, but the design was definitely different. I would have to ask Kai about that later.
I burst out laughing when I heard about Tazo busting into the medical clinic—where Lavender had, apparently, been trying for several hours to convince them to let her come back to Earth for me while Kai was healing in something called a ReGen pod.
