Last night, I did not. Last night, if she had suggested it, I may have been weak enough to agree. But last night my body craved her, or at least the idea of her. Once again, I see human women cannot be trusted.
Yet my brothers trust their mates.
They found love and happiness and made a home.
It is me who is broken.
“You are a leader who will do anything for her people.”
“You are part of my team,” she hisses.
We should be talking silently, but I don’t want to touch her in case I agree to this foolish plan. “That is not true. I am tolerated by the colony. I suspect some will be quite happy if I did not return.” At least the other tribe killing me will be quick. “Going mad from the loss of my mate is a cruel death that I do not wish on anyone.”
“I will not abandon you.”
“You will sacrifice your own future happiness to save Erica? You will tie yourself to me, knowing that there are those in the colony who hate my kind?”
“They hate your kind because you mate for life, and you make them look bad.”
I snort. “They make themselves look bad. I had no hand in that.”
She laughs and looks away. “We cannot abandon Erica.”
We can abandon Erica. “We need to protect the ship and hope they have not damaged it, so it cannot fly.”
“I’m going to contact Charlie’s team. Then we are heading to the ship…will they have left and taken Erica to the settlement?”
I contemplate her question for a couple of heartbeats. “If there were five of them. It is likely that two will remain with the ship. It is possible that after they return to the settlement and discus the findings, they will send out search parties, as they will expect more than two people on a ship that size.”
“So the odds are that we will be found.”
There are only two options. “We are found, or we flee.”
“They are both shitty options. Because if we are found, you are killed. And if we flee, my people will return, and they will kill, and then any chance we had of learning something and possibly creating a trading partner is gone.”
“If your people arrive here with guns, and kill, it will not take long for word to spread. And when it does, more ships will cross the ocean. Your people are better armed, but there are more of us. It is a war that no one wins.”
She draws in a breath and clasps the back of her head with both hands, tipping her face to the sky. “We should’ve landed near one of your brother’s tribes.”
“That would not help. They may still have taken Erica, and any other woman. Especially after seeing that they can be taken as mates.”
“You’re assuming that everybody wants a human mate. You don’t.”
“Because I don’t trust…” That is the wrong word. “I trust you with this mission. But it is my life you are seeking to use.”
She steps in close so there is barely any space between our bodies. “Which I am trying to save you, you stubborn asshole.”
I glare at her. “You are trying to save Erica.”
“I am trying to save everyone. Including you. If they find you, the best protection I can give you is to say you are my mate.” There are only a few finger widths between our faces.
“You don’t even like me,” I growl.
Her eyes narrow. “I did yesterday. Today, not so much.”
“Same.”
“Fine.” She steps back and pulls out a packet of sludge and downs it while glaring at me, like it’s some kind of challenge to see who blinks first.
