She closed the bottle and stood up, turning her back to me. “It will! Because you don’twantto breed me. Other males could decide at any moment that I’m fair game and just…fucking abduct me!”
Her hand shook as she placed the bottle back on the shelf and I stood to follow, my heart back to being frantic.
“I want to.” I tried taking her hand but she pulled her arm back, turning sharply to level me with her teary eyes.
“Youdon’t. You say you do, and yet here I am—unclaimed. Not carrying your scent nor your child. I don’t understand you!”
I got a grasp of her hand then and did not let go when she tried to pull away.Fuck. This was it. Whether I would lose her here and there or we would find a common ground.
“I heard you,” I mumbled, equally embarrassed and upset. She looked at me with a mixture of anger, hurt and confusion. “When you were talking to yourself on the shore, that first morning. I heard you say you would be leaving as soon as you could.”
Her eyes widened and she tried to step back again. I did not let her. “I—”
“What is agranny, and why does it matter enough for you to want to go back to your dying planet instead of staying here? Instead of choosing to stay withme.”
She stared at me, anger gone, wetness spilling at the corners of her eyes. Her bottom lip wobbled. “I—Granny is my grandmother,” she croaked. “She raised me. She’s sick because of the polluted air andalone. With no moneyto fare for herself! I-Ican’tleave her to die! Ineedto go back, I-I can’t—”
There was no other male…I cupped her face between my hands, searching her eyes. No lies. No manipulation. Only hurt, confusion, fear…
“Why did you come here in the first place if you did not want to leave your grandmother behind?”
Her expression shifted then, gaze hardening. She pushed me back, her hands hitting at my chest. “I didn’t have a choice!” she yelled. “They abducted me, shoved me into a damn shuttle forweeksand said the only way I could go back in less than twenty fucking years was to give you a child!”
The sound of my heart shattering was loud in my ears, like pieces of glass clinking against each other as someone punched a hole through it.
“You…you did not come here willingly?”
I needed to warn the others. To avoid them the heartbreak of finding out their human bride did not want anything to do with them. That they wereforcedinto it.
Her face softened, but the pain remained. “I didn’t. But I…I don’tregrettaking their offer. I don’t regret becoming your wife and ending up here, not even for one second. But—”
“But you do not wish to stay once you have given birth to our child,” I continued for her.
Her hands that were reaching for me dropped, tears falling down her face. “I want to,” she sobbed. “IwishI could. Stay here. Stay withyou. But I can’t. I can’t leavemy grandmother to die on Earth. I need the money the program promised me to pay for her medical care.”
Hope flared in my chest, the crumpled vine heavy on my horn.
Shewantedto. Wantedme.
There was just one thing standing in our way, and it was not another male.
My back straightened in resolve and I took a step back. “I see,” I said. I turned around and started walking to the door.
“Ghauro…”
“I need time,” I said. “I will be back in the morning.”
18
I have requests
Ghauro
It took me a whole hour to reach the clearing the human base had settled in. I was sweaty and breathless when I finally stopped running, and charged into the rectangular building they used to monitor the back and forth between Taurus and their space base, startling a couple of human male enough that one of them fainted for a few seconds.
“I need to be brought up there,now,” I growled, pointing up and using my height to tower over them.
They exchanged one single glance and made two calls. Five minutes later, I was seated at the back of a flying box—Melanie called them shuttles—and the old human male—whose name I learned was Maxwell—was informed of my upcoming visit and waiting for me.
