“What does that mean?”
“For generations, our mates have rejected us and we’ve gone mad. Or fate stole them from us early. To get around this, my sire contracted a female to bear my brother and me. I have never met my mother. It was the only way.”
That was a lot to take in.
She didn’t really believe in things like bad luck and curses. Oftentimes, they only seemed to exist because of the person’s own actions, kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it seemed to have affected him anyway because according to him, he had already lost his mate. Maya wasn’t sure whether she should tell him. What if it made things worse? Especially since she had no information about this mysterious woman and couldn’t answer any of his questions. What if she’d misunderstood and told himthe wrong things? It was better for him to remember on his own; that way, all the memories would be his and his alone. She didn’t want to accidentally influence him. So, despite it not being the ideal solution, she kept quiet.
“I don’t know how to react to that news,” she finally said honestly. “My kind can’t form mating bonds at all. Instead, we rely on love alone, and sometimes that goes sour. It’s just something we have to deal with, a fact of life.”
As Ranek mulled that over, Maya could see the gears working in his head. “You cannot form a mate bond to me,” he finally started.
“That’s right. I cannot.”
He grinned, the smile making him look devastatingly sexy. “Wonderful. I might have found a solution to my curse.”
“I don’t…” But even as she shook her head, she understood what he meant.
The curse might overlook her simply because she was incapable of forming a bond. If a curse did exist, perhaps it would consider her inability to bond with him as an acceptable outcome, regardless of how she really felt.
“I think I understand,” she said. “You think my inability to form a bond could be a loophole.”
“Exactly! I could bond with you, and you can love me. And…”
“Wait! Stop!” Maya put her hand up. “I could be the solution, or I could not be. We don’t know for sure. Don’t get too excited. Let’s just take things one day at a time, okay? Please?”
When he remembered his past, he’d understand her hesitation. Maya didn’t want him disappointed when things didn’t work out.
“Of course,” Ranek said, a little more reserved. But Maya could see and hear the excitement simmering just under the surface. “Let’s focus on getting out of here. I must find my brother and run it by him. He’s very smart. If I’m out here, then he must be as well.” His eyes went back to the map on the wall, but this time with renewed energy.
“There and there.” He pointed to two large areas shaded in blue. “Those are the two supply hubs serving this continent.”
“Back on the road, there was a fork,” Maya said. “The one we took went to one of the hubs. It has to be this one, because the other one wouldn’t make sense.”
“Your reasoning is sound.” Ranek agreed. “And this must be the relay station. How long did it take for the pirates to get back to the hideout from the mining station?”
Maya tried to remember the ride from this morning. “I’m not good at estimating time, but not too long. It must be the closest station. And…” She scanned the map again, looking at the terrain. “Here’s the swamp my pod landed in, I think.”
Ranek sent her a confused look, clearly not remembering the pod or their meeting at all.
“I think we found our mining station,” she continued. “But we didn’t have any pirates on our tail on the way here, which must mean they went back that way, thinking they’d catch us there. How safe is it to actually go back there?”
“They probably know by now that we didn’t go in the right direction. If we loop around and travel fast in the morning, we might be able to avoid them.”
This was as good a place as any to settle down for the night. If the pirates here valued their hides, they’d be hiding out too.
Whoever had once worked here had lived here as well, and alone too, because they found his living quarters at the back of the trailer. It was nothing more than a bed to sleep in and some personal storage, all ransacked.
They didn’t have a scrap of food, and all the water they had was the package Maya had been clutching in her hand as they escaped the brig.
“There is still light. Stay here, I will see what I can hunt down.”
“But you were passed out most of the day, you shouldn’t…”
But Ranek was already stepping outside, leaving her with Commander Chaos who was already falling asleep at the foot of the bed. He’d run a long way, and he was exhausted.
Maya was too. She’d planned only to sit down for a second, but the moment her ass landed on the mat, exhaustion rolled over her, and she started to doze off immediately.
She was jolted awake by the sound of something stepping into the trailer. Ranek held up a handful of old food bars, packages that looked like alien MREs, and water packets.
