Page 5

Talyn nodded. He knew the feeling of being constantly exhausted but didn’t have an infant to blame. “I hear it gets easier.”

“You’ll find out if that’s true when you find the love of your life and have a family of your own.”

“Don’t get started,” he said. “So far, the females I’ve met on Prodigy are too excitable for my liking.”

“How many have you met?”

“One.”

Laya laughed. “You need to broaden your horizons. They’ll all be different. Don’t close the door on this before you’ve given it a chance.”

Talyn rubbed the space between his eyebrows, a headache brewing, the combination of the trip through space and too much caffeine. At least, that was one thing humans did well; they knew how to brew a decent mug of coffee. He’d seek some out as soon as he could.

“Talyn, I know this isn’t easy for you,” Laya said. “I wouldn’t have pushed so hard if I didn’t think it was worthwhile.”

“Some of us just aren’t great in couples,” he said. “I don’t mind being on my own.”

“Deep down, you do. What you need is a bright, bubbly human who’ll distract you from everything else. You get too fixated on bad feelings. We all have them, but we don’t need to linger on them.”

“People do.” Talyn tapped the side of his head. “I hear them all the time.”

“Then filter them out.”

Talyn was glad their empathic ability didn’t work over comm links. Laya would discover how little he felt. He shut everything out, not just the dark stuff. He did it deliberately, putting up blocks to stop those fluttering, poorly developed emotional states from breaking through and overwhelming him. Nearly every alien race he’d encountered had the same frantic emotions in their heads. Very few had calm, clear minds that were a pleasure to be around.

His parents had always told him he was sensitive. He wasn’t sure what that meant until he was older and had quizzed Laya about the different emotions she picked up on.

She’d told him about the rainbow of feelings, from despair to delight. But Talyn could never focus on the delight. He was drawn to the darker side.

“So, tell me about Prodigy. I hear it’s had a few upgrades.”

“It’s like most other space stations,” Talyn said. “There are a lot of humans on board. I sense them.”

“Excellent. Humans make great mates. Three of our friends are joined with humans, and they’re happy.”

“They make noisy mates. When I saw Lolo and his mate a few months ago, her frenetic emotions gave me a migraine.”

“She was excited to meet you,” Laya said. “She’d heard so much about you, but it was the first time you’d put in an appearance.”

“She squealed,” Talyn said, “in her head and out loud.”

His sister laughed. “When a human squeals, it’s a good thing. Get used to it since you’re being paired with one.”

“I’m not mating with a squealing female. I need someone placid and calm. Someone who’s not going to irritate my frantic mind.”

Laya shook her head. “Your mind is not frantic. That’s the trouble. Stop resisting. If you stop fighting your ability, it makes it easier.”

He sighed and shook his head. They’d had this conversation so many times. He’d never found it easy to accept that he could sense another person’s feelings. It had freaked him out. The first time his ability flared, he’d been six years old. His best friend was telling him one thing but feeling the opposite. When Talyn had questioned him about it, they’d gotten into a fight.

Since that day, Talyn had found it odd and intrusive that he could look inside another individual and see how they truly felt. That was when his troubles had begun, and they’d never stopped. It wasn’t until he was a teenager that he learned to block feelings. He could keep out the emotions of others when he focused.

“Have any of these hectic, noisy human females taken your eye?” Laya asked. “You must have seen a few when you walked through the station.”

“There’s no one. I’m having some sort of induction tomorrow. Maybe the females will be on display there.”

Laya laughed again. “On display? One of these women could be your future mate, and you’re talking about her like she’s an artifact to study.”

“Maybe it will be like that. I’ll get a chance to interact with them and see if I like them. I can study them before I make a decision. It will be better that way. I can find one who is emotionally calm and knows her own mind.”