Page 21 of Ravenous Alien Mate

“Sorry about that,” she said, still smiling. “I must have eaten too much. I’m feeling perfectly fine now, though.”

His face brightened and he placed his hands gently upon her shoulders. It was dark outside, but the sconces lining the walls inside his quarters shone brightly, accentuating the lines of his sculpted muscles. He’d already gotten partially undressed and was missing his shirt, though he was still wearing pants. The black pants were form-fitting though and didn’t leave much to the imagination. A glance down and she could easily notice the bulge of his sudden erection.

Her heart skipped a beat. Despite their little argument, if it could even be called that, he desired her in this moment. Of course, they’d just gone a few hours without mating, the longest time since he’d first claimed her six days ago. Maybe his mating lust was returning. She could only hope. It would provide the perfect distraction. Perhaps she could make him forget all about Miranda and the water pitcher.

Cupping her face in his hands, he leaned closer, until his forehead was touching hers. She breathed in his masculine scent, musing that it was tinged with the aroma of the eucalyptus-like herb he always added to their baths. His nearness brought her comfort, muting the intensity of her worries, though they didn’t quite abate.

“My sweet Leah,” he said. “You are my mate. It doesn’t matter to me where you came from.”

“I-I’m from Zone 12. The city of Richmond. I swear that’s the truth.”

“I know you’re from Zone 12,” he replied. “For that is where the spaceship that delivered you to Mars six days ago departed from. All the brides aboard the ship were from Zone 12.”

She fell silent, unsure of what she ought to say. She didn’t want to lie to him unless he pressed her harder for the truth she desperately wished to conceal.

“Before you came here, you lived alone in Zone 12?” he asked in a calm voice.

“Yes, as I’ve told you. I lived alone and I worked in a factory.” Her stomach twisted.

“And the clothes you were wearing upon your arrival,” he said, “why did Miranda mention your clothing? And why would your attire prevent her from speaking to you on the spaceship?”

Her mouth went dry. She peered into Jav’s dark gaze, wishing she was someone else right now. Anyone else. Anyone but the stupid girl who’d let her boyfriend convince her into serving as a lookout that night. When she’d hesitated, he had promised her an even split of the galactic credits they stole. Desperate to please him and also eager for a payout that might be large enough to lead to financial security, she had acquiesced to his demands and in doing so made the biggest mistake of her life.

“Leah?” Jav prompted, his tone gentle as ever. “I would like to understand. Tell me. Please.”

“All the other women aboard the spaceship were wearing their nicest clothing,” she blurted. “Most of them were wearing dresses. Many of them spent some time before we landed putting on makeup and doing their hair. But I-I didn’t have anything similar that I could bring with me. I think the other women looked down on me because of the poor way I was dressed and that’s why Miranda didn’t talk to me. As I told you, I worked in a factory, but my hours were cut and I could no longer afford rent.

“To make ends meet, I sold all my belongings, including the few items of clothing I possessed, in hopes that I could find another job with more hours before my rent was due. But I wasn’t able to find another job. So, I went to the Martian Affairs building, wearing the last outfit I had left, which I kept because it was the warmest, and signed up to become a mail order bride.

“Based upon how I looked, Miranda and the other women probably thought I came from the streets, and they probably worried I was a pickpocket or something. There’s a high level of crime in Zone 12 and I don’t blame them for being wary of me. I suspect that is what Miranda had been about to say. But I didn’t push the water pitcher on her on purpose. That truly was an accident.”

The lie escaped her lips much easier than she had anticipated. It seemed once she started telling the fabricated story, the rest of it just flowed out of her. She pushed away the guilt she felt over telling Jav such an elaborate untruth.

“I see.” His eyes gleamed with compassion and he drew her closer, brushing his fingers through her hair. “Why were you late boarding the spaceship? Miranda mentioned that, too.”

“I-I was the last bride to go through processing in the Martian Affairs building, and the clerk was having difficulty with her computer.”

Jav nodded, his visage thoughtful. “I believe I understand now.” His eyes filled with regret in the next moment. “I am sorry for accusing you of knocking the pitcher over on purpose.”

Leah waved a hand in the air in a dismissive manner. “Oh, it’s all right. I’m not upset with you. It happened so fast.” She exhaled a deep breath and felt utter relief when Jav seemed to accept her elaborate story.

She prayed he never discovered the truth, and she also promised herself she would never lie to him again. She wanted to be a good mate to Jav. She truly wanted Mars to be her second chance.

Never look back.

Chapter 18

It saddened Jav to learn Miranda, as well as the other human females aboard the spaceship, had refrained from speaking to Leah simply because of the way she was dressed, simply because they thought she might’ve been living on the streets and stealing to survive. It bothered him that the females had judged her so harshly, especially when the majority of them were probably fleeing bad circumstances as well. He hadn’t known human females could be so concerned with appearances and his heart ached for how alone Leah must have felt during the journey to Mars.

When he’d contacted the Martian Affairs offices in Zone 12, he hadn’t been able to reach anyone who might help him find Leah’s mail order bride application. The first clerk he’d spoken to had transferred him to another worker who’d informed him they were having technological difficulties and could not provide him with any assistance today.

Now that Leah had confessed what had happened on the spaceship, he decided not to follow up with Martian Affairs. But his desire to surround her in luxury and shower her with expensive gifts remained. He would contact Nassia again soon and ask the woman to pick out elegant jewelry to match all of the new dresses she was making for Leah.

He studied her while she sat next to him in bed, a book in her lap. A short while ago, a servant had knocked on the door with a gift from the queen—a box of books written in Leah’s native language. Leah had immediately started reading one of the books, a thick tome that had a picture of a human woman standing on the deck of a ship, the sea breeze blowing through her hair.

“There are many bookstores here in the city,” he said, reaching for her underneath the covers. He gave her thigh a gentle squeeze. “Most of them contain books written in Galactic Common, as well as some human tongues.”

“Really?” she set her book aside and turned to stare at him. “I’d had no idea. I thought perhaps Queen Esmay had brought these with her from Earth, or perhaps sent back home for a shipment of books.”

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