“What are we going to do now?” I said, coming back to tuck myself into his other side.
He took a deep breath. “We are still in the same sector as we were when I sent word to my people. They will find us. What worries me is surviving long enough to be rescued.”
I leaned away from him to meet his eyes.
“What do you mean? We have water, and I’m sure this dust bowl of a planet has got some sort of life on it. We’re breathing the air right now, so that means it’ll have life, right?” He nodded yes. “So we hunt for food and stay close to the crash site so it’ll be easier for them to find us.”
He brought his hand up from where he’d wrapped it around my waist to run the back of his fingers along my cheek, shaking his head. “‘My brave Rijiteranursang.” He lifted a tangled lock of my hair and rubbed it between two fingers. “We have more to fear than the struggles of surviving this planet. Did you not wonder how smugglers as incompetent and weak as the Vrax could capture one such as me?”
I snorted, “Yeah, they didn’t seem like they were up to the task.”
Though one did escape and blow up the ship.
“So, how’d you end up on their ship?” I snuggled back into his body, not caring about how hot it was making me. It felt good to be close to him. A mating bond made you ache to be close to your mate. It was much worse before it was completed. It would eventually push me beyond my capabilities to deny it, but for now, I was content to just be in his arms.
He wrapped his arm around me and paused, like he was gathering himself. “I was ambushed outside the orbital station of the Unity planet, Axsia. I was called there by an informant’s promise of proof that Councilor Fennes Vero had found archaeological artifacts that were supposedly destroyed thousands of years ago. Artifacts belonging to the Unity’s ancient enemy. An enemy with technology even more advanced than we have even now. A scourge upon the universe. My ancestor, At’ens the Liberator, oversaw the complete destruction of anything to do with the enemy. Whole worlds were destroyed.” His voice dipped lower in what I thought might be sadness.
His grip tightened for a moment before he gave himself a little shake and let out a deep breath. “Vero has been quietly looking for artifacts and plotting war for decades now and the Unity has turned a blind eye to it. He has amassed weapons, soldiers, and allies in the criminal underbelly of many planets, yet still they do nothing!” He growled out between clenched teeth.
I pet his chest to soothe him. That growl did things to me, and I was trying very hard to ignore it. We had just crashed, my friends were injured, and he was telling me a story!
The mating bond did not care about any of that and was waking back up. It was pushing against the wall of my whirling emotions like a pacing tiger, just waiting for its chance to pounce.
“I was shot from a great distance with a sedative. I awoke on board the Vrax ship. I don’t know why they didn’t just kill me. It would have been the intelligent thing to do.” His hand drifted up my back, slid under my hair, and gripped the back of my neck. He pulled me away from his chest and made me look at him. “But then I would not have found you. I don’t think you understand the miracle it is that you exist. Or that it was me that found you. It is as if it was fated.”
I was really confused right now. It must have shown on my face. Ohem laughed. A genuine laugh. It startled Patty awake. She glared at us and sat up. I winced and mouthed ‘sorry’.
“What are you, Jack? Where are you from?” He asked, pulling his arm away from Patty to twist towards me, using both hands to cup my face.
I put my hands over his and in a really, really confused tone of voice, I answered, “I’m a Rijitera. I’m from New Mexico in the United States of America. Earth.”
“And what is a Rijitera?” He murmured.
“Um, a shapeshifter?” I answered with a question because now I didn’t know! He had me second guessing what the hell I was and where I was born!
He bent to press his forehead against mine. “The Rijitera, myursang, were our ancient enemy.”
Chapter 7
Back the fuck up!
My people were from Earth! We’d been there just as long as humans. There were hundreds of myths in every culture mentioning us.
I pulled his hands from my face and got up to pace. “You said your ancestors wiped them out. Maybe we’re distant cousins like monkeys are to people.” There was no way my people were aliens.
No way.
We’d have had stories about it or something! No one had ever mentioned being some ancient alien race that came to Earth. No one! Not even my Memaw, who remembers everything and lets everyone know about it. She wouldn’t be able to sit on a bomb like that and keep it a secret. I’d traveled all over the world and met many of my kind in other countries, and none of them had said anything. Oh god, the nausea was coming back. I pressed a hand to my stomach to stave it off. Maybe the sharks didn’t agree with me.
He stood and grabbed my arm, stopping my pacing and made me face him.
“They were destroyed, yes. We pulled apart their home planet and burned their technology. Destroyed their cities and temples on planets they’d conquered, erased anything they had made. We put them into our history recordings, where we thought they belonged and tried to forget, and yet here you are! Some must have escaped the purging. I have never come across a human before. Your Earth must truly be on the far reaches of the universe. It would have made an excellent hiding place. With their empire and armies destroyed, they would have needed somewhere no one would know them. To start over.”
Patty was looking between us, her face scrunched up in confusion. She cocked her head to the side and raised her hand like she was in class. “If Jack's supposed people were so advanced and so savage, why didn’t they use their shit to conquer Earth? I’ve seen this woman trussed up in a jail cell more times than I can count. Doesn’t seem like the behavior of a superior race to me.”
I looked at her with narrowed eyes, mock offended. “Hey! I was innocent!” I said, and we grinned at each other before she returned her attention back to Ohem.
“All I’m saying is that if her people had been the locust of the universe, why isn’t Earth some intergalactic empire right now? They’ve had thousands of years to set shit up. I’ve met Jack’s mom, and while she’s one scary bitch, she’s not some warmongering super villain,” Patty continued, pointing at Ohem.
