With an annoyed huff, I roughly pulled him down onto my lap, determined to put this silly misconception to bed.
“Wearemates,” I growled, claiming his mouth with mine until he melted against me, licking and biting until he understood who he belonged to. “We are space fiancés.”
Micah laughed and playfully shoved me away. “Yeah, we are. Although…” He looked down at his bare hand with exaggerated disapproval. “I still don’t see a ring on this eligible finger.”
With another huff, I grabbed his hand and raised the finger in question to my mouth, biting down on the first knuckle with my blunt Earthling teeth, hard enough to leave a mark.
Since, apparently, he likes me to mark him up.
“There.” I met his shocked gaze with an innocent smile. “Now you have a ring.”
“Dammit, Zig,” he grumbled, although a smile twitched his equally abused lips as he admired my gift. “I really didn’t want to be rocking a boner when they opened the hatch for us.”
Opened the hatch…?
Myconfusion turned to alarm as the endless tundra outside the cockpit window shuddered so violently, the Lodger shook.
“Wait for it,” Micah murmured, grabbing my hand before I could reactively fly us from danger.
Trusting my stellar collision’s calm, I watched as a split appeared in the snow-covered ground before two massive, yet oddly silent, trap doors swung upward, revealing the neon orange glow of a city below.
Nuclei City…
“Knew it!” Micah crowed. When I eyed him curiously, he shrugged. “I did some research on the geological history of Ekistron and, apparently, the planet was oncecoveredin now-extinct shield volcanoes. At some point, an ice age hit, making the surface unlivable, but then the Eki realized the lava tubes left over from volcanic times created the perfect subterranean infrastructure for underground living. Pretty cool, huh?”
“Indeed,” I murmured, impressed as always with my impressive mate but also wondering how I’d missed this detail myself.
I’m losing my touch.
“The location of Nuclei City isn’t documented, Zig,” Micah added, either sensing my frustration or simply knowing me well enough. “I just made an educated guess.”
Of course, you did.
“More educated than me, sunshine,” I chuckled. “Hunting down undocumented intel is usually my specialty.”
He frowned, so I deposited one last kiss before gently sliding him onto his own captain’s chair. While Icouldfly the Lodger with my mate in my lap—as we’d done many,manytimes before—the angle with which we’d be entering the city required my full concentration to maneuver. I also wanted to pass through the hatch as quickly as possible, assuming the Eki would prefer to seal it up again before any passing ships spotted it from above.
The better to keep that intel undocumented.
At this point in my mercenary career, I’d visited dozens of technically-advanced planets—had materialized in the middle of New York City when I first arrived on Earth—but I had never experienced nose diving between two underground skyscrapers in order to land on an area the size of a helipad.
A helipad surrounded by flowing lava.
In fact, it appeared the entire city was powered by lava—from the ground-level streets to the towering buildings seemingly carved from the rock itself. Lava flowed in thin rivulets everywhere I looked, like a naturally-occurring alternative to neon tube lighting.
It’s fairly impressive.
Although still not as impressive as my mate.
“I… guess my educated guess was only half-educated,” Mach laughed nervously. “Maybe those volcanoes aren’t as extinct as I thought they were.”
“It’s all right, sunshine,” I soothed as we landed. “I’m assuming the Eki are using their powers to keep the lava under control.”
He chewed on his bottom lip, radiating nervousness. “I’ve never attempted to control something I didn’t create myself… Do you think they’ll teach me how to do that?”
Exactly how generous the Eki planned to be remained to be seen. While it was promising they had allowed us into their secret city—especially with the vague manifest I provided—their alliances and agenda were unconfirmed.
They better not try to hurt my mate.
