Page 17 of Guardian's Soul

"Why are they setting up a colony there? For what purpose?"

By the stars, could that female, for one second, allow me to just explain where we were headed and why withoutcounterquestions? I sighed, feeling the weight of her gaze. "For humans like you. Refugees. It's a chance to start over, away from the Cryons. They even try to reunite families when possible."

"And I'm supposed to believe this is all out of the goodness of your hearts?" Hannah scoffed, but I could see a flicker of hope in her eyes.

"The Pandraxians hired the Ohrurs to collect as many humans who have been… dislocated by the Cryons as possible. It's my job, as a Space Guardian, to do what the Ohrurs order me to do."

Her spork stopped midway to her mouth. "So you work for the Ohrurs? And the Plandarxians hired?—"

"Pandraxians," I interrupted with an out-of-place smirk, but by the supernova, it felt good stopping her for a moment and reveling in her scowl. The way her face scrunched up was nothing but sexy.

Her glare didn't stop her flow of words. "Hired the Ohrurs."

She drummed the fingers of her free hand on the table's surface. "Again, why?"

By all the grueling fires, she wasn't going to make this easy, was she? "Some of the Pandraxians have found their mekarries." Before she could interrupt, I hastened, "Soul mates with humans."

Her eyes moved to the marks on my arm, "Like ours?"

"I don't think they have experienced bond marks, but yes. The mekarry bond is very similar."

Her entire body grew in front of me as she took a deep, steadying breath. Skepticism was written all over her face.

"I take it humans don't believe in soulmates?" I wagered.

"There are some," she allowed, "who do, but for the most part, no."

"It's something very much revered in the universe," I assured her. "Perhaps your culture is close to the Pandraxians. They, too, evolved to a point where they didn't believe in the mekarrybond any longer. Until some of their leaders realized human females were their mekarries. This is the reason Emperor Daryus is so set on rescuing as many humans as possible. To him, every human lost means the loss of a mekarry for his people."

For a moment, she ate in silence, digesting my words. I remembered how I had scoffed at the mekarry bond when the news broke about the Pandraxians and humans. Had called thempoor fools, even after meeting Lord Protector Garth and his mekarry Silla. Their obvious love for one another still hadn't given their soul bond any credibility in my eyes. Not that my beliefs had changed because according to legend, I should be completely in love with the female across from me. After all, the truth of our bond was written on our skin. I desired her, that part was true, but I had desired many females without ever having marks appear on the female's or my skin. I gave Hannah time to come to terms with what I told her, ate a few sporkfuls of food, and tried hard to ignore my aching cock.

While the silence drew on, I became increasingly aware of her presence. The way she opened her lips for her food created havoc inside me. My balls joined my cock in their craving for her. The scent of her—sweet and something uniquely human—filled my senses. My eyes kept drifting to her lips, and I found myself wondering what it would be like to kiss her, to taste her…

"All right, so your job is to take me to Astrionis." She made a point of staring around the room, at the empty tables. "Seems to me like a lot of wasted resources on one human."

Frygg, nothing was going by this female.

"I'm not particularly thrilled about this assignment," I confessed. "Before I… picked you up, I swore I would not rescue any more humans."

To my utter amazement, she laughed. "That bad, uh?"

"You have no idea," escaped me before I could stop myself.

"I think I might. Let me guess,are we there yet? I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. I need a bigger room. My head hurts. I want to go home. Why can't you just take us back to Earth? My clothes are dirty. Am I close?"

I stared at her. "Pretty much, yes."

And then the most amazing thing happened. She began to laugh and so did I. I didn't know for how long we both laughed, but every time one of us was close to stopping, the other got us going again.

"Priceless," Hannah finally pushed out breathlessly, wiping tears from her eyes that made me curious. I had learned that humans cried when they were upset, but I had no idea they did that when they laughed, too.

"So even at the end of the world, people still whine, moan, and complain." Her face sobered some. "You know. I'm sorry. I suppose I wasn't that much better."

I didn't want to lie to her, but I also didn't want to ruin the fragile truce between us. So I simply shrugged as if it hadn't been a big deal, which, in reality, it hadn't. It had been easier making it into one.

HANNAH

I still hadmany questions burning a hole inside me, but first, I needed to digest the information dump Thrax thrust at me: Astrionis, I mused—a colony for human refugees. As little as the possibility appealed to me, I knew I had to consider it. But first, I needed to come to terms with the hard truth: I was never going back to my old life. My days at the gym were over permanently.

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