Page 59 of Alien Mine

“No, beauty,” he said, his rumbling voice gentle. “You’re mine now. I’ll never let you go again.”

Her heart melted under the determination filling his words. “I do love you, Dyuvad.”

He stood slowly, took a half step across the room, and flicked a finger across a panel. The room’s door slid closed, sealing them inside. “I know.”

“But I can’t just leave Earth this way. There are the goats—”

“Already in the hold.” He stared down at her, his expression closed as he unbuttoned his shorts and slid them off, leaving himself gloriously nude under the room’s filtered lighting. “Fate stocked enough feed for the voyage to Abyw.”

“Um.” Her heart stuck in her throat and heat coiled between her thighs, and her thoughts scattered to the four corners like they always did when Dyuvad had loving on his mind. “I have to be there for Miguel’s trial.”

He crawled onto the bed and straddled her thighs, his expression unchanged. “I rigged a communication system between my ship’s AI and Fate’s computer. He’ll let us know when we have to come back. Anything else?”

“Clothes and school and…”

He slid his hands under her shirt and cupped her bare breasts, and her throat went dry. They could sort all that out, she reminded herself. Later, after the man who’d stolen her heart made love to her.

“Dyuvad?” she said.

“Yes, beauty?”

“I’m gonna love you forever.”

He grinned and leaned forward, spreading desire wherever he touched. “And I, you.”

And those were the last words they spoke for a very long time to come.

Epilogue

Kelly shifted from one foot to the other and clenched her hands together in the muff her new grandfather had given to her. Abyw was the coldest place she’d ever been. During the trip from Earth, Dyuvad had told her that there was snow where he lived all the time. Even in the summer, the mountaintops had snow, but in the winter months, like now, there was so much, she and Tiny could build snowmen every day and never run out of snow.

She risked slipping her hand out of the muff and scratched the tip of her nose. Beside her, Dyuvad stood tall and strong, holding a bundled-up Tiny on his hip. His head was bare and his cheeks and nose were red, but to Kelly, he was the handsomest next father a girl could wish for.

“Why we gotta stand in this circle again, Dooda?” she asked.

He glanced down and smiled. “So your mother will be able to find us when the Choosing starts.”

Across the clearing, Kelly could just make out her mama standing next to Dyuvad’s. Gramma Mhij hardly ever smiled, unlike Dyuvad’s daddy, Grampa Degar, who never quit smiling as far as Kelly could tell. Mama was looking at the ground and nodding solemnly at everything Gramma Mhij was saying. Kelly sure hoped she listened good. If Mama didn’t fight hard in the Choosing, she wouldn’t get to pick Dyuvad and then they’d all have to go back to Earth and never get to travel through the stars ever again.

Tiny leaned down and patted a gloved hand to the top of Kelly’s head. “Be ok, Sissy.”

Kelly beamed up at Tiny. That was a new change since they’d come to Abyw. It was like being here, in a place where everybody spoke a different language, had helped Tiny figure out English. She still didn’t make sense sometimes, but more and more often, she did.

Dyuvad draped an arm around Kelly and tucked her to his side. “It won’t be long now, sweet.”

Kelly wrapped her arms around his thigh and held on tight. If somebody had told her a few months ago that she’d someday have a second daddy, she never would’ve believed it, but here she and Tiny were, right next to a guy who loved them so much, he’d traveled across the whole wide galaxy to find them.

That’s what he’d told Kelly one day when they were alone on the bridge of his ship, studying the stars. “I love you and Tiny, sweet,” he’d said. “We’re a family now and I will never, ever leave you.”

And she knew deep down in her heart that he never would.

Across the way, Gramma Mhij cupped Mama’s shoulder, then turned around and left, and Grampa Degar did, too. A voice called out in a language Kelly hadn’t quite learned yet and the Choosing began, but Kelly wasn’t paying attention. Mama caught her eye and winked, then was lost in the crush of people rushing toward the inner circle where Kelly and Tiny and Dyuvad waited.

But Kelly wasn’t worried. Mama would be here soon to claim Dyuvad, and after that, Kelly would forever after have two fathers to love and watch over her.

And that was more than any girl could hope for, no matter what planet she called home.

Yasmin Olvera has a problem only Benar Q’Mhel can solve, but can he help her before the situation explodes, taking them both down with Yasmin’s stalker?

A Warrior’s Touch

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