Page 20 of The Alien's Private Redemption

"In your head," he said, cutting her off. "There is another voice that you respond to in your head and it does not sound like you. Who is it?"

Angela shrugged, her stomach roiled at the question. "Doesn't everybody have a voice of reason in the back of their mind?"

"Why are you afraid to talk about it?" Zoric said, and reached out to touch her.

She flinched. "I'm not afraid," she responded. "But why can you read me when I can't read you? Did you block me out or something?"

His grip on her arm was gentle but it made her tremble for reasons that had nothing to do with excitement or desire. When she refused to be pulled towards him, he simply held her. "Some people do have a voice of reason, as you call it, but they don't usually analyze the guards for escape. And most people don't argue with them."

"I hate when you do that," she said. "We've known each other for less than forty-eight hours and I already hate a conversational tic. This is not going to go well."

Zoric sighed and stepped in to her space. His grip on her arm was firm but he raised his other hand to her face and his voice was gentle. "I did not want to scare you with my thoughts, nor did I want to risk triggering your self-destruct, so I created a barrier. It's something I can teach you to do later, if you'd like. Even the happiest, most secure couples need privacy occasionally."

Angela sniffed and he wiped the tear away that she hadn't realized was falling. "I don't like feeling shut out."

A flood of concern rolled over her, along with affection, curiosity, and desire. There was no anger, no hint of dislike or hate.

Her shoulders relaxed and she let him pull her into his embrace. They didn't have long but she was going to take the comfort she could.

"I'm not usually a mess like this," she explained. "I don't know why I'm so emotional. Or why I feel like I need to defend myself."

His acceptance wrapped around her like a warm blanket and she relaxed into him.

"I believe you," he said. "I also know that you've gone through several shocks recently, and our Bond is another one. Having emotions isn't a sign of weakness and showing them to me is an indication that something in you knows that I am safe."

"Being detached helps me do my job," she protested. "I can't-"

"Right now, your job is to get better," he said. "And to allow us to help you any way we can."

Angela nodded and sniffed again. Her tears had stopped but her emotions still felt raw.

"Now, I need you to answer my question before we get back to the meeting. I don't want to ask this in front of the others but I need to know the answer and we don't have much time."

"Alright," she said. "I'll do my best."

"Who does your voice of reason sound like?"

"What do you mean?" Angela pulled back and looked up at his face.

"When I heard you arguing with the voice in your head, it didn't sound like your voice. If it is a manifestation of your internal thoughts, you've given it the voice of someone you trust to get you out of trouble. Who is it?"

She frowned at him, thinking hard about his question. It made sense, the logic behind it was sound, but she couldn't quite grasp the answer.

"I don't remember," she said. "I mean, I do, but I can't…I don't…I should know who he is."

"Is there anybody else in your life you were able to talk to the way you talk to me?" he asked. "Someone who showed a special interest in your life while you were growing up?"

Angela shook her head. "No, not really. It was just me and my mom, most of the time, but most of our neighbors were cousins to some degree or other. Everybody was in everybody's business, it seemed like, but nobody more than anybody else. Except-"

She shivered and each breath became a struggle to pull into her lungs. Panic overwhelmed her and she knew the suffocating would start soon.

Zoric's hand on the back of her neck combined with his mind sliding into hers stopped the panic and the difficulty breathing. A name slipped tantalizingly out of reach but she saw something.

Green eyes.

Ones she'd always looked into with a sense of trust, of home, of safety. They'd never hurt her. They were there to protect her.

Angela looked up to see Zoric's eyes and they felt similar, but not the same. Zoric would protect her but he wasn't safe. A thrill shot through her at that realization and she tried to put the words together to tell him.

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