Page 31 of The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate

“Indeed, milady. It is your personal interface.”

“Thank you. See you tomorrow?”

Jyrak bowed. “I am at your convenience. Peace be unto you.”

Mia glanced at Zoran, puzzled. Again, he tilted his head in a bare nod and said, as if he hadn’t noticed her hesitation, “And unto you.”

When Mia and Zoran were outside, away from prying ears, she said, “Milady?”

He responded without looking down at her. “Jyrak is of a lower rank than you.”

“Oh.”

She paused as they navigated out of the science center into deteriorating weather, under another overhang. Zoran ushered her through the driving rain into a personal vehicle parked only a few feet away. In the short distance between the two, rain soaked through her clothes and plastered her hair to her scalp. The temperature had dropped as well. Nighttime? The cloud cover was so dense, it was hard to tell what time of day it was. Not full night. Surely that would be darker.

She huddled in the seat beside Zoran as he started the vehicle and steered it away from the science center. Conversation. Maybe that would distract her from the cold until they reached shelter.

“In my country, we don’t stand on such ceremony,” she said. “Or mostly not. People are still polite.Yes, ma’amand all that. But we don’t have the same kind of caste system that you seem to have here. We’re more equal.”

Zoran waited until they were outside the town before responding. “We are not humans, mate, and you are no longer on Earth.”

The reprimand cut her to the bone. She turned her face to the darkened landscape scrolling by outside the window and lapsed into miserable silence.

Zoran stood inside his home, facing the security door covering the entrance. His claws dug into his palms. Mia had lost her natural exuberance on the way here, because ofhim. His intent had not been to maim when he’d corrected her. Perhaps he had not spoken gently enough. His own pride had been wounded by the conversation she’d shared with Thorian’s sister.

Was he not a good male, a strong warrior? Did Mia find his intelligence lacking in some way? Was that why she hesitated still, why she had not fully accepted him?

He could easily hear her under the storm raging outside and the shower she stood under in the bathing chamber, warming herself. Her energy had revived somewhat when he guided her into their home. It was a simple place, that of an unmated warrior, a one-room space that flowed from the entrance into a sunken living area before rising again toward the screened off sleeping space. Mia had taken one look and proclaimed it astudio apartment, though perhaps that had been an error in translation. This home was a freestanding residence, separated from others by a sluggish river and a broad swath of jungle.

Now he wondered if their home was adequate for her needs, if he had failed her somehow by not having built a larger space to accommodate whatever females did when they were at home.

He would not know. It had been many, many years since he’d resided with a female, and those had been his kin.

The water stopped. Fabric rustled, then soft footsteps padded out of the bathing area.

“Um, Zoran?” Mia said.

He forced himself to turn. She was peeking around one of the screens partitioning off the sleeping chamber. Her hair hung in damp waves past her shoulders, and she had wrapped a flimsy drying sheet around her breasts, baring the gentle curves of her shoulders.

Emotion twisted within him, and he crossed his arms over his chest to hold himself there, even as memory assaulted him. Of his hands on her skin, of the soft, breathy hitches she made when he cleaned her feminine folds. Unbidden, his cock hardened beneath his breeches. He clicked his teeth together, growling at the unwanted intrusion.

Would. Not. Touch.

He tried so very hard to gentle his voice, yet did it snarl and snap when he responded. “Yes, mate?”

Her expression fell, and she sighed. “I don’t have any clean clothes. Do you have something I can wear? Just until I can buy some more.”

“Choose from among my clothing.”

“Oh. Ok. Thanks.”

“You will purchase more on the morrow.”

“Do the local merchants take American money?” A short laugh fluttered out of her. “I mean, how does that even work?”

His control broke so suddenly, he did not realize he had moved until he stood before her, towering over her smaller form. Pressing his body into hers, herding her backward until she bumped against the raised sleeping platform, her eyes wide and uncertain as she dropped onto it.

Carefully, slowly, so that she would see the predator shining in his eyes and know him for what he was, he leaned forward and braced his fists against the bed, one on either side of her luscious hips. From this distance, he could bathe in her scent, drawing it deep into his lungs until it coated him inside and out. Sweet, fresh, feminine. He wanted to bury his face in her throat, nip her skin with his fangs, lick her until she writhed with pleasure and begged him to take her again and again and again.

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