Page 16 of The Alien's Major Dilemma

“If you’re still in custody, they try and get the information out of you. If not, they let the human scientists loose. We probably won’t be able to figure any of it out either but I promise they’ll break it in fun and interesting ways.”

“And when my people show up to find me gone and my ship torn to pieces after I sent a call for help? The Orvax may have come in peace, but my people won’t. Especially if it looks like I’ve been attacked while I was here.”

The smirk fell off her face and he could feel the panic starting in her mind.

“There’s no need for that,” she said.

“And there’s no need to lead them straight to my ship,” he said. “So, on your feet, and we’re going to run for it. If we need to contact them to make a deal, we will, but I’m not about to let anybody into my ship without a damn good reason.”

She took the bag he thrust at her and added the last few items he thought it might need while he filled another one.

He pushed the button to open the blast shields and trusted her to follow him. If she were another Chelion, he would have done his best to broadcast his thoughts and directions. Some of the humans he’d encountered had responded well enough to mental commands. Marissa’s mind would let him caress her, would let him feel things, but anything he did to try and push at her slid right off.

Every failed attempt to force her to follow him, to give her directions without talking to her, just increased his conviction that she was his mate. Everything he knew about an organic pair bond scared him to the bottom of his soul. He was leery about the ones that had a facilitator. Any couple that decided they were compatible enough to only mate with each other and live together outside of the clutching grounds were suspicious.

Giving up his mate was impossible. He’d figure out how to make it work but the war raging between his instincts and his training threatened to tear him apart. He realized it had crept into his voice when he turned to ask her a question and snapped at her for not following his directions instead.

“What directions, asshole?” Marissa demanded. “You told me to follow you and keep up. I am right behind you. What else do you freaking want?”

“I want this planet to make sense,” he shouted. “I want to have some sign, some indication that I’m not jumping blindly into my destruction. I want that fucking buzzing to stop!”

“What buzzing?”

“You can’t hear it? It sounds like a swarm of angry bees and it’s getting so loud it’s giving me a headache.”

“Angry bees? Where is it coming from?”

He waved vaguely in the direction they’d come from to get to his ship. “Over there. We need to get out of here.”

“Yeah, we’re out of time,” she told him. “That’s not a sound we’re really going to be able to outrun. I can’t hear it yet but if you can, we need to take cover.”

Everything he’d learned about the military on the base he’d snuck on to ran through his head and he cursed. “Back on the ship,” he said.

When he grabbed her arm to help her move faster, he stumbled as all of her thoughts, emotions and panic slammed into him. The cacophony of sound was overwhelming and he wanted to let go but couldn’t.

Her steps faltered a moment later and they barely managed the few steps up the ramp into the ship before the blast shields closed. Once they were inside, he forced himself to let go of her.

“What the hell was that?” she demanded.

“That was the fucking pair bond,” he said. “It’s not supposed to work that fast. I mean, we haven’t even done anything but spend time together and I’m shielded. You shouldn’t be able to affect me like that.”

“You’re shielded, great. You don’t want to pair bond, also great. So, how do we stop it?”

Cooper shook his head. “We don’t.”

“Not a great answer,” she said. “There’s got to be a way to undo this. The Orvax said all their mates have a choice. It’s the whole point of that stupid tour thing they were doing, to show a human and an Orvax choosing to come together and all that bullshit.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the Chelion are not Orvax. We do things a little differently. And, fuck, for all I know you do have a choice but I don’t. Whatever happens now, I’m fucked.”

The reality of his situation hit home and Cooper sat down. Now that he’d said it out loud, he knew it was the truth. Whatever happened from this point on, he was fucked. If he stayed on Earth, he was fucked. If he went home, it was probably going to be worse.

And he’d already called for a ride to come get him.

“What happens if I walk away?” Marissa asked quietly. She was leaning against the divider between the control room and his kitchenette with her arms crossed.

He looked up at her and felt a flare of despair. She was his prisoner, he should have her locked up somewhere, locked away from everything she could use to hurt him. Unfortunately, the thing she was most likely to do that would hurt would be to walk away.

“Nothing much, really,” he said and watched her shoulders relax. “For you, at least. I would likely lose control of my disguise, go slowly insane and end myself in a murderous rampage. If we time it right, I can at least aim the rampage in the correct direction.”

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