“Privanax, I need to speak with Beks,” Cruxan said.
Privanax inclined his head, casting her a look, and left the room.
Why was she suddenly so nervous?
Cruxan crossed his arms over his chest, managing to take up almost the entire medical bay with his sheer bulk.WereallLuxirians built like absolute tanks?
“Is this the ‘what are your intentions with my friend’ talk?” she tried to joke when he didn’t say anything.
His gaze narrowed in what she now recognized as Luxirian confusion.“What?”
“Never mind,” Beks mumbled, her gaze straying to Lihvan.“What did you want to talk about?”
He cut right to the chase.“Do you know about Luxirian mates, Beks?Did he explain it to you on Jalun?”
Her fingers twitched, heart aching.She remembered Lihvan finally telling her whatluxivameant…fated one.It had hit her.Hard.
She’d completely spiraled out of control for him in that moment.He’d beendyingand she realized that love had very much entered a part of their equation right then.
“Yes,” she said softly.“He did.”
“There are four kinds of partnerships on Luxiria,” Cruxan continued, like she hadn’t answered.“The first, mating partners…or pleasure partners.Not for the purpose of producing children, as Breeding partners are.Then, there are joined mates, individuals who chose to live their lives together until the span they enter the blackworld.Finally, fated mates.The most rare partnership on Luxiria and the most special because it combines all three forms.Pleasure, breeding, but most importantly…choosing.”
“What’s your point?” she asked.
“I heard him,” Cruxan stated slowly.“I heard him call youluxiva.Back on Jalun.”
Beks swallowed, tears springing into her eyes.Jeeze, she was a crying mess lately.She’d never cried so much in her life than in the past week.
“I know what I am to him,” she said softly.“He told me.”
Cruxan’s head tilted back, studying her.She couldn’t get a read on this guy.One moment, he seemed kind, the next…closed off.
“The span after our planned arrival onto Luxiria, a vessel will be departing.All the human females from the Pit that wish to return to Earth will be on that vessel.We offer safe passage to your home planet, a chance to resume your life with your family and friends,” Cruxan said.He walked to the door of the medical bay and Beks looked at him with her heart in her throat.He glanced back at her and said, “I suppose what I wish to know is whether you will be on it or not.”
With those parting words and with one last cursory look at his friend, the Luxirian left.But his question remained inside the room, lingering, filling out the empty, quiet space.
She’d been asking herself that same question for the better part of the past two days, when she wasn’t fussing and worrying over Lihvan.
Beks imagined it.She imagined boarding that space ship once they reached Luxiria.She imagined turning around and seeing Lihvan wave her off, knowing that she would never see him again, knowing that she would return to her life on Earth.
She missed her home.She missed the city she’d grown to love and her apartment that she’d painstakingly decorated over the years.She missed the guys at work who always taped silly little jokes onto her three desktop screens.She missed her morning coffee shop runs and the ridiculous amount of aisles in American grocery stores and she missed driving around, blasting music, singing at the top of her lungs.
She missed her best friend, Kate, who wouldn’t be there anymore, who had either been kidnapped by aliens and auctioned off to God knows what or she was…gone for good.It was something Beks couldn’t think about.
She thought about her mom, in her home town, working at the local deli.She thought of their yearly calls, just to check up on one another and she wondered if her mother had ever regretted the way their relationship had turned out, like Beks always had.Beks wondered if she was lonely or if she was happy.
She looked down at Lihvan and watched the soft rising of his bare chest.She traced the defined muscles, the scars she’d come to memorize.The sure, steady pounding of his heart reassured her, calmed her.
Then she let herself imagine a life with Lihvan…the good, the bad, the difficult.
By the end of it, the truth became clear to her, a truth that had begun to shape and take form on Jalun.It was a gut feeling, something that had driven her her entire life and had never let her down when it mattered.
She’d never taken the easy road…so why start now?
* * *
Lihvan woke that evening, when the space ship was quietly humming along as the stars seemed to part for them.
