“They don’t have to kill you to hurt you.”
“They cannot hurt me without hurting you.” His eyes met hers, and she saw the absolute certainty there—the unshakeable conviction that had carried him through millennia of dormancy and awakening and the loss of everything he’d ever known. “And I will not allow that.”
“Enough.” Martin’s voice had gone sharp with impatience and something else—jealousy, she realized, hot and bitter. He was staring at their joined hands, at the way Rhyx positioned himself protectively at her side. “Step away from him, Alina. This doesn’t have to involve you.”
“Everything involving Rhyx involves me.”
“Rhyx.” Martin spat the name like it tasted foul. “You’ve named it. How touching.” His eyes narrowed. “How long has this been going on? How long have you been hiding this creature from the colony, from your colleagues, from me?”
“That’s not your business.”
“It is absolutely my business! I’m the lead xenobiologist on this mission. Any alien life forms fall under my jurisdiction. You should have reported this to me immediately—instead you’ve been, what, playing house with a monster?”
“He’s not a monster.”
“Then what is he?”
“He is my mate.”
The words came from Rhyx, not her—clear and firm and completely without shame. Alina felt her breath catch, felt her heart stutter in her chest. They’d never used that word in front of anyone else. It had been their secret, their private truth, something too precious and too vulnerable to expose to the harsh light of external judgment.
Now it hung in the thin Martian air between them, impossible to take back.
Martin’s face went white.
Then red.
“Your mate?” The word dripped with disgust. “You’ve been mating with this thing? Alina, for God’s sake?—”
“It’s not what you think?—”
“It’s exactly what I think!” He was shaking now, his composure cracking like ice on a warming pond. “All this time, I’ve been trying to show you what we could have together, and you’ve been whoring yourself out to an animal?—”
“Don’t.” Rhyx’s voice had changed. The calm was gone, replaced by something cold and dangerous. “Don’t speak of her that way.”
“Or what? You’ll growl at me?” Martin laughed, high and ugly. “You’re an impressive specimen, I’ll grant you that. But you’re still just a specimen. A thing to be studied and catalogued and eventually disposed of when we’ve learned everything useful from your corpse.”
“Martin, stop.” Alina stepped forward, putting herself more firmly between the two males. “This isn’t helping anyone. Just… let us go. Pretend you never saw us. I’ll disappear, leave Border Town, you’ll never have to deal with me again?—”
“Let you go?” Martin’s voice cracked again, this time with something that sounded almost like grief. “After everything I’ve done for you? After all the time I’ve spent waiting, being patient, letting you play your little games? You think I’m going to just let you go with that… that creature?”
“I was never yours to let go, Martin. We were never together.”
“We could have been! We should have been!” He was advancing now, closing the distance between them with quick, jerky steps. The guards moved with him, keeping their weapons trained on Rhyx. “You’re brilliant, Alina. Brilliant and beautiful and everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner. We could have done great things together—discovered things that would change history. But instead you’ve been wasting yourself on this… this animal?—”
“Stop calling him that.”
“Why? It’s what he is. A beast. A relic. Something that should have stayed extinct.” Martin was close now, close enough that she could smell his cologne—too strong, as always, failing to mask the sour scent of his sweat. “You deserve better, Alina. You deserve me.”
“No.”
The word came out flat, final. She held his gaze, refusing to flinch, refusing to back down even though every instinct was screaming at her to run.
“I don’t want you, Martin. I’ve never wanted you. Not when you asked me to dinner, not when you offered me a partnership, not when you threatened me with GenCon’s resources. The answer has always been no, and it will always be no, because my heart belongs to someone else.”
She reached back without looking, found Rhyx’s hand, and laced her fingers through his.
“My heart belongs to him.”
