"I believe you," I whispered, my thumb unconsciously stroking the back of his hand in a slow, soothing rhythm, tracing the ridges of his knuckles.
His eyes widened, genuine surprise flickering across his alien features. "You do?"
"Yeah." A small, slightly hysterical laugh escaped me, bubbling up from somewhere deep in my chest. "Which probably makes me as crazy as this whole situation, but... yes. I believe you."
Maybe I was crazy. Maybe the logical, rational thing would have been to run screaming from the store, call the police, check myself into the nearest psychiatric facility, and beg for medication, for something to make this all make sense. But looking into those mesmerizing purple eyes, feeling the solid warmth of his palm pressed against mine, the steady strength radiating from him like a physical force, I knew with bone-deep, unshakeable certainty that Xabat was telling the truth. About everything.
And more unsettling than that? Despite his green skin, his alien features, the impossibility of everything he'd just told me—I was still incredibly, undeniably attracted to him.
Chapter 11
Xabat
I pressed my face against the cool glass of the window, peering through the boarding as I watched the palm trees that had been thrashing violently just moments before, their fronds whipping like desperate hands clawing at the sky. They were still swaying, but the movement had become almost gentle, a slow, hypnotic dance in the aftermath of chaos. The howling winds that had filled my ears for hours had faded to a low whistle that threaded through the shutters.
Soon we would be able to leave our sanctuary... a prospect that filled me with more dread than delight.
I thought of Harper and our conversation earlier. I'd reached for the cuddwisg device, ready to activate it, to slip back into the human disguise so she would feel more comfortable.
But she'd stopped me, her small hand covering mine, her touch sending electricity racing up my arm. "No," she'd said, her voice quiet but firm. "I like your real face."
I'd stared at her, my breath catching in my throat as I searched for the lie, the politeness, the fear. But there was nothing. Just her, looking at me, really looking at me, and meaning every word.
Words that in that moment, simple and unadorned, meant more to me than anything ever had before.
I was in such trouble.
I was no novice when it came to females. In my younger days, I'd had many partners, brief and intense connections that burned hot and fast. Quick pleasure exchanged in darkened quarters. Couplings for one purpose only—sexual gratification, physical release without the dangerous entanglement of emotion.
But I'd never wanted a female like I wanted Harper.
I'd never wanted anything like I wanted Harper.
That primal, ancient drive written into my DNA by millennia of evolution screamed that she was mine. My mate. The one my soul recognized even when my mind rebelled against the impossibility.
But how could it be true? Xytol had claimed her. My brother, my blood, had marked her as his intended. Could the goddess be cruel enough to give one female to two brothers, to set us against each other in the oldest conflict? Sure, there were some species where that was standard practice, where siblings shared mates without discord, but Kaelaks were not among them. We were possessive, territorial, built for singular devotion. For me to feel this pull toward her—this need that clawed at my insides and made my chest ache with longing—it defied all logic.
But logic had nothing to do with it.
Every time she smiled, something in my chest tightened—constricted like a fist closing around my heart and refusing to let go. Every time she touched me, my skin came alive with recognition, every nerve ending singing out in response. And when she'd looked at me with those eyes, bright blue and infinite, and told me she liked my real face? The bond had snapped into place with such force I'd nearly staggered from it.
I was in so much trouble.
Because if Harper was my mate, then I was bound to her in ways that transcended customs, transcended worlds,transcended even death itself. Losing her would destroy me more completely than any weapon ever forged, would shatter me into pieces too small to ever reassemble. But claiming Harper might mean losing my brother if he still lived, might mean severing the bond that had sustained me through countless battles and endless loneliness. An impossible choice that was tearing me apart.
Yet when she announced dinnertime, surrounded by brightly colored packages with absurd names likeCheetosandDoritosand something calledFlamin' Hot Funyuns, it felt more meaningful than any formal dinner I'd ever attended.
We settled on the floor, our backs against the wall, the bags scattered between us like offerings at an altar to poor nutritional choices.
"You and your junk food," she chuckled as I picked up a bag and opened it, studying the neon-orange powder clinging to the twisted shapes inside.
Harper handed me something called Mountain Dew, a beverage so artificially green it practically glowed in the dim light.
"Tell me about it," she said, pulling her knees up to her chest. "About life out there. Among the stars."
So, I did. I described the vastness, the infinite darkness punctuated by light, the feeling of standing on a ship's observation deck, and knowing that thousands of worlds existed within a single glance. I told her of space stations and markets where memories and experiences were traded like commodities, of worlds where physics bent and warped in ways impossible to describe. I told her of planets and moons—some so beautiful they surpassed description, others so deadly the air itself was designed to kill with a single breath. Pleasure moons where any vice could be fulfilled. Prison moons where the gravity was so strong it crushed hope as surely as it crushed bone. Gardenworlds where the plants were sentient and sang to each other at dawn.
I told her about the crystalline beings who communicated through light. About the Vorrath merchants who had three sexes and elaborate courtship rituals that lasted decades. About nebulas that sang if you had the right equipment to hear them. About quantum drives that folded space like paper and made the impossible possible.
