Page 77 of An Alien for the Future

I growl, my claws shifting to grip her behind as I pull her into me. “You want young?” I dip my lips to her ear. “I’d be very happy to oblige.”

Donna slaps me, a playful tap that doesn’t even sting. “Now you stop that. I’m too old for such talking.”

“You are not,” I dip my face into her hair, inhaling her. Rearing younglings would simply be a bonus, not a necessity.

“My time has passed.” The way her voice drops, the way her whole body seems to sag with those words makes me draw back so I can see her properly.

“You know…” I hedge. “We can fix that.”

Donna’s brow furrows. “Fix what?”

“If you want young, there are many options we can take.”

She stares at me for a long moment. “I never…I stopped considering that for myself a long time ago.”

I tug her toward me. “This isn’t your homeworld, lira’an. If you want young, we will make it so.” Then I blow a breath through my nostrils. “You will have a long time to think about it. We Kari age very slowly.”

“Xarion mentioned something about that,” she whispers into my shoulder, and I can tell she’s thinking about everything I’ve said.

I nod, dipping my face into her hair. “I am ready to give you young whenever you want.”

That makes a laugh rumble through her. “You’re always ready.”

“Mm,” I growl. “I’m ready now, too.”

My shaft jerks, making her aware of its presence, and Donna jumps. With a chuckle, she distances herself, eyes wild with mirth. “No.”

But she shouldn’t have run. Because now I’m going to catch her.

She must see the change in my eyes because she squeals and heads toward the one place where she will definitely be claimed. The bedroom.

Whether she knows it or not, her body and her core-beat have already decided that I will take her this cycle. And as I rise and head after my mate, I know I will take her over and over and over again, until she cries my name, until the stars align, until she knows without a doubt that she will always be mine.

EPILOGUE ONE

DONNA

“I just need an upgrade,” I hear Tovan say on his comm as I head into the kitchen. He’s been trying to get in contact with this bounty hunter guy all day and finally, the ping’s gone through. I can’t help but feel nervous though. A bounty hunter? Tovan’s a good guy. How does he even know someone like that?

“Why don’t you go through the usual route, Kamesh?” The voice is rough, guttural, and when I pass by again, I’m sure I catch a glimpse of a metal mask, only the dude’s green eyes visible.

Now, what in God’s good name…? I want to tell Tovan to forget it, but he’s adamant that his translator requires renewal and this is the best source to get it through. Something about the guy being the one to upload English on Hudo’s servers in the first place. How or why a bounty hunter would do that, I don’t know.

What if it was because he was hunting a human and needed better coverage of the language?

“You know as well as I do that you’re the best source for this sort of tech. The council’s language implants take forever to update.”

The bounty hunter grunts.

“I’ll pay you double.”

Silence on the other line.

“Triple,” Tovan presses. “And there is something else. My mate…she sings beautiful melodies—”

There’s a low growl. “Not interested, Kamesh. Find someone else.”

Even from where I am in the kitchen, I can tell that the bounty hunter is about to hang up and I hear Tovan’s exasperated breath. The fact he’s trying to get the guy to help me, too, with broadcasting my songs, melts my heart. After having no one believe in my voice to having such support touches something deep. The fact that he’s being turned down actually makes me ache because he’s trying so hard.

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