Ava keeps a hold of my arm, like we’re heading off for a night out not standing on a frozen river arguing with an alien who should be long dead. “Your what?”
“That’s pretty much what I said,” I whisper.
“She is my mate.”
“Leah is my medic. Where’s your crew, Paohl?”
Eskar stares at her. “Not here. It was my turn to wait by the ship for a lunar cycle.” He frowns and I can see him doing the math. He swears in what I can only imagine is his native tongue. “It has been one hundred and ninety-eight years.” He glances at his ship. “You did not come for us. No one has come.”
His tail droops a little.
That no one came after a Paohl destroyer and crew is concerning. “Why didn’t your people come?”
“I don’t know.” Then he smiles. “But you came, Leah.”
“You stung me, before you even knew me.”
Ava stops trying to draw me away. “Wait, he stung you?”
I’m torn. I want to learn more about who Eskar is and how he’s still alive, but I can’t leave my people and I don’t want to be his mate just because he saved my life. “Mating barb or something to the ass.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
It’s getting darker by the heartbeat and we need somewhere to stay. “Look, why don’t we stay here tonight, and we can figure this shit out.”
“I really don’t like it,” Ava says.
“Neither do I, and I’m the one mated to the Paohl, not you.” There are worse looking aliens in the galaxy. The Paohl are humanoid, pretty, artistic and were one of the first to allow trades with humans. It’s said they like humans a little too much and that in the early days they had tried to trade for human women, but that might be human propaganda designed to keep human women away from the Paohl. The government is always telling humans to stay with humans even though some aliens can breed with us—and even if they can’t what’s wrong with hooking up with an alien? Though a kiss, or even one night, is very different to mating with one. That sounds kind of permanent.
Ava releases my arm and turns to the others waiting to cross the frozen river. “Come over. We’re staying with the Paohl.”
I take a few steps and then I’m on the shore facing him. If I reach out my hand, I know he’ll be cold to touch. Frost gleams on his skin. I keep my hand by my side, but my fingers curl. “Are you dead? A ghost?”
“No…but being here has changed me.”
“How?”
He glances at his hands. “Water obeys me.”
I exhale. “That’s how you saved me. If you were supposed to be guarding your ship, why did you leave?”
“Because you crashed, and I could reach you.”
“You couldn’t reach the others?” Somewhere up in the mountains are Sawle and Daley, the crew of the survey ship.
He shakes his head. “I have to stay here. I shouldn’t have gone downstream. My captain would be displeased.” He said it in a way that implied his captain would be a lot more than displeased.
“I’m guessing he wouldn’t be happy you stung me either. How about you take the barb back and we pretend this never happened?”
“Pretend what never happened?” Calloor asks.
Eskar shakes his head. “I can’t remove the mating barb. Your body will have already metabolized it or rejected it.”
“How would I know which one has happened?”
“You will feel the need to be with me.” He smiles a little too smugly, like he knows that my body aches for his touch.
Calloor steps between us and takes my hand. “Larkin. I don’t care what he says, you’re human and humans stay with humans. There’s only five of us. And only you and Ava.” He lifts his eyebrows in case I didn’t catch on to what he’s implying. “I was kind of hoping you’d pick me.”
