He bit back his growl and grabbed one of the crates, heading for the door. The conversation was over. He didn’t want to talk about compatibility or permanent matches or any of the rest of it.
The house was dark inside. Cold. He hadn’t bothered to light the heating system yet this morning. It hadn’t seemed worth it when he’d be outside working most of the day.
Now the chill felt deliberate. Unwelcoming.
Good. Perhaps she’d get the message.
He set the crate down in the kitchen and went back for another. Gaauth was already carrying a box of linens, his face neutral.
They worked in silence. The supplies piled up in the kitchen until there was barely room to walk. Food, linens, something that looked like bathing supplies, a box of items Goraath didn’t recognize and didn’t want to examine too closely.
When the transport was empty, his uncle didn’t leave. Just stood in the kitchen, looking around as if he was cataloging everything wrong with the space.
“When’s the last time you cleaned in here?”
“It’s clean.”
His uncle snorted. “It’s functional. That’s not the same thing.”
Goraath moved to the cold storage unit and started putting food away. His movements were controlled. Everything in its place. Nothing out of order.
“You still haven’t prepared the guest room,” Gaauth said.
“I will.”
“When?”
“When I’m ready.”
“She arrives in four hours.”
His hand tightened around the container he was holding. Hard enough that the material creaked. “I know what time she arrives.”
Gaauth was quiet for a moment. Then he moved to the table and sat down heavily in one of the chairs. “You’re angry.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re angry you got drawn in the lottery.”
Goraath slammed the cold storage door shut. “I didn’t want to enter. I told them no. I told that draanthic Kaalden no. But the colony needed volunteers, and I’m apparently the perfect candidate because I have space and resources and no family obligations.”
“You are the perfect candidate.”
“I didn’t want this.”
“Yeah, well… None of us wanted the plague either. Or losing every female of our species. But it happened, and now we’re trying to survive.” Gaauth’s voice stayed level. Reasonable. Which made it worse somehow. “The humans are our best chance.”
“They’re desperate females who had no other options.”
“And we’re desperate males on a colony that won’t survive another generation without mates. Seems fair.”
The logic was sound. He hated it.
Turning, he walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway toward the back of the house. The guest room sat at the end. Door closed. It hadn’t been opened in years… not since his father died.
His hand rested on the doorknob. Cold metal against his palm. He could open it. Walk in. Prepare the space like he was supposed to. Or he could leave it closed and tell the warriors there’d been a mistake. That he’d changed his mind. That he wasn’t doing this. Give the female to someone else.
Except he’d signed the contract. Entered the lottery. Drew the short straw, or the long one, depending on perspective… and now a human female was on a transport ship about to land, expecting to be brought to his ranch.
