“Something we’ve been searching for for a long time,” Dante says as he watches the crew of the scout ship leave. “Something which might help synthesize something as a permanent cure for our mutation.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
He turns to me with a smile, but not one of his usual unhinged ones.
“You missed the morning meal. Would you care to join me in my quarters for refreshments?”
I think I nearly got whiplash. Dante is chaos, and then he is not. His crew are the epitome of mayhem, and then they are not.
And this is just the first day. I’ve got an entire month yet to go.
ROSALIE
Dante either has a standing order for food or he has somehow arranged for it to already be in his quarters when we arrive. If I was expecting a mess, I am pleasantly surprised. His quarters are similar to mine, with a depression in the floor where he will sleep. A few functional pieces of furniture. Not the chaos I would have imagined he would live in.
In fact, when I think on it, none of Dante’s ship is cluttered or filled with anything less than function. There are plants everywhere, in every atrium and every abandoned corner. All of them have a use, all of them are carefully cultivated in a way no one would expect from Dante or his warriors.
It’s like Dante is trying to make things as good as he can for his crew, but from what I’ve seen, they’re at their absolute best when they know what they should be doing.
I take a platter from Dante and fill it up as he does the same alongside me before gesturing for me to join him in the comfortable seating area. I eat slowly, contemplating the insanity of this morning, and it takes a while before I notice Dante’s eyes on me.
“What do you think?” he asks.
“About what?”
“About whether you want to stay or not.” He blinks slowly at me, and I notice his food is untouched, which is very much unlike any Sarkarnii I’ve met so far.
“If this is about the ultimatum Dalox gave you, then…”
Dante puts his platter to one side and is next to me in what seems like a single movement.
“It has nothing to do with Dalox. You are mine, Rosalie, my little flame. You were mine from the moment I set eyes on you. I wanted you, so I bit you.”
“That isn’t really how things are supposed to work,” I say, but I don’t move away from him.
“I know.” Dante dips his head, and I lose sight of his stunning eyes for a moment before he brings them back to me. “But it wouldn’t have mattered what Dalox said. I would have still wanted you. Please say you’ll stay.”
His heartfelt plea catches me by surprise.
“I…”
Dante wraps one hand around mine and puts the other on the side of my face.
“When I thought my warriors had hurt you, little flame, I was ready to tear them to pieces, but it was only because of you, because I wanted you to want to be here, I didn’t do it,” he says, desperation panting through his voice. “I’ve never been good at controlling myself and with the mutation…” He tails off before rallying. “But having you here, near me, makes things…easier.”
He stares at me, unblinking, for what seems like a long time.
I want to say I haven’t anywhere else to go. I can be in his sector as much as I could be in any of the warlords’ sectors.
Only it’s not like that. It hasn’t been from the moment he bit me. Not because of any venom or anything he’s done to me. The thought that he might have accidentally claimed me, or somehow made a mistake, made my heart turn over in my chest.
Dante stares down into my eyes, his handsome face a crease of worry and concern. No one has said what happens if a Sarkarnii is rejected by a mate, but I can’t imagine it would be pleasant.
I have no desire to reject Dante. It would seem my heart wants him far more than my head understood.
“I want to stay,” I say, my voice cracking. “At least until the end of the month.”
Which is when his lips brush over mine, a soft, hot touch which sends an almost electric shock through every hair on my body. Like the time we were in the atrium, all humidity, all closeness, it is as if this is the very moment…
