Page 19 of A Mate for Vasek
Dawn couldn’t tell him the truth. What if she did and Vasek alerted the depot or the authorities of their escape plan? She’d never give up her fellow humans. If they failed because of her, she’d never ever forgive herself.
She clamped her mouth shut, knowing that it was going to earn her some horrible punishment.
“Is it for a male? A lover?” The question ended on a low growl.
Vasek thought she was trying to get back to a lover? That was unexpected.
“Answer me.”
Dawn just stared at him, open-mouthed, and at a complete loss for words. She was flabbergasted that he thought she was escaping because she had a lover back at the port. Eventually, she found her voice. “No, no lover.”
He leaned in close and sniffed her. “You are not lying.”
So Vasek had a nose sensitive enough to detect lies. That was good to know. Some Talleans could, some couldn’t, but all of them could outsmell a human any day of the week. Kotch couldn’t really, but he claimed he could. Dawn had known the truth. Kotch relied on other clues in conjunction with his nose, and half the time he was guessing.
Morad, on the other hand, was pretty darn good at it, which was probably why he’d believed her back at the clearing. Was Vasek as good as him?
“Then where were you going? I don’t believe you are stupid enough to try to survive in the wilds with no food, water, or weapon.”
Should she pretend that was what she’d been about to do? She was a decent liar, but somehow, she doubted it would work. So she kept quiet. The more she talked, the bigger a hole she’d be digging. She was fucked enough already.
“Tell me. I promise I will not be angry.” Vasek held her firmly by the shoulder and gave her a light shake. Not the violent wayBakum had done, but softer, like he really needed to get through to her.
But promise or not, Dawn knew she couldn’t say a word. This hadn’t been just her chance to go home, but for others as well. Others like her. She would not jeopardize their mission.
Vasek moved and she braced herself, expecting a blow that never came.
Instead, Vasek just let out a low growl and stomped away.
“Don’t bother trying to escape or stealing my shuttle. It won’t work. Once I return, we are leaving New Rhea.” The door to the shuttle closed behind him, and Dawn was left alone, still completely naked.
Shit! Leaving New Rhea? That meant she wouldn’t have a chance to try again, though she highly doubted Vasek would give her such a chance in the future. She was going to miss her one and only chance to get back to Earth for a very, very long time. What if she never found anyone else willing to take the chance? What if she never saw home again? Had she seen the sun and moon of her childhood for the last time already?
Ever since learning of this plan to steal the depot’s ship and make the big trek home, it had been all she lived for. Every time she wanted to give up she thought of that, and it kept her going. She didn’t even have anyone left to go back to, but just the thought of returning to see the places she once knew was enough.
“I just want to sit on a bench in Central Park and watch the fucking squirrels. It’s not that big an ask!” she screamed into the empty shuttle.
But now she’d never make it back on time. She would miss her chance.
Refusing to give up the thin, barely-there thread of hope that had been nourishing her soul, she went to the shuttle’s door and tried to open it. It did not budge. Next, she tried the navigational screen, but it too refused to react to her. It was like she didn’t exist.
Angry, she slammed her hand down on it.
Oww! That freaking hurt!
The screen stared back at her, unchanged and undamaged, and it only made her even angrier. She wanted to hit something, break something. But there was nothing. Try as she might, she couldn’t open any of the cabinets, and the chairs were magnetized to the floor. In the end, the only thing she could find to take her anger out on was the singular pillow.
Dawn hadn’t allowed herself to cry for years, refusing to show any weakness. But here, faced with the loss of hope and completely alone, the tears streamed down her face.
Chapter 11
Vasek
Vasek trudged through the woods, stomping his booted feet on the forest floor on the path back from the perimeter alarm Morad and his males had barged through. He’d finished setting it back up and was on his way back to the shuttle.
When he’d left, he’d been certain that there was no way for Dawn to escape or hurt herself, but now he wasn’t so sure. He’d been monitoring her through his comm unit, pulling up the video feed from his shuttle. She’d done everything he’d predicted she’d do. She’d tried the door, then moved to the navigational panel before trying to get into his cabinets, which were all locked. And finally, she’d screamed something about fornicating rodents—that he’d not expected—and sank down to the floor of the shuttle and started crying.
He had not been ready for that. Especially when he’d turned on the sound and heard her pitiful sobs. It had made his chest feel so tight that he’d looked around to see if a patch of gasweed had sprung up in the area. It hadn’t.
