Page 55 of Scars & Starlight
We watch them leave, the trio a little too long not to be suspicious.
“Does Melinda have a partner?” Jorik asks first.
Sorin throws him a narrow-eyed look. “She wasn’t looking at you, she was looking at me.”
“How about we have her tested for a match before you piss around her in a circle?” Zane asks through gritted teeth.
“Jeez, guys, calm down,” I say with my hands up placatingly. “No. Stacy’s dad isn’t in the picture. He left them when Stacy was born. We don’t even know if he’s still alive.”
“He doesn’t deserve to be,” Jorik growls, and the other Avaren males nod in agreement.
“Oh boy,” I say with a giggle. “I pity the man if you ever come across him.”
“Let’s liberate this planet of the Ghorvek before you organize a hunt,” Kai commands, though something about his tone tells me he’s eager to have some one-on-one time with the man who abandoned this child at birth.
I take one last look at the place I called home these last few years before I turn my back on it. Only in the physical sense, though.There’s still too much work to do here on Earth, and I’m not abandoning it or the hope of finding out what happened to my family.
“Good luck, Commander,” Zane says.
My prince throws him a look that could peel paint off the walls. “Why would I require luck, Zane?”
The soldier looks like he regrets being born. “Oh! I mean, with Zeriah, and your brother, and…” He gulps heavily and takes a deep breath. “I just meant, safe travels.”
“Right,” Kairen says in a very patronizing way.
I chew on the side of my thumbnail. “What did he mean with that, Kai?”
Zane’s neural filaments start flickering wildly, and his fellow soldiers abandon him mercilessly, walking off to their fighter jet with a final nod in our direction.
“I’ll tell you aboard,” my prince answers with a dry tone.
“Apologies, Commander,” Zane says with a wince.
Kairen sighs. “You’re dismissed, Zane. Take care of getting an AU to the child, and you may test her mother if she agrees to it.”
Zane bows deeply. “Thank you, my Prince.”
“Let’s go before Zane divulges my entire romantic history. I’d need a bottle of spirits for that.”
The soldier in question scrams with bright red ears and a lowered head. Curious and impatient, I follow Kai and Kiko up the ramp to the Talon. The ship has been a mobile home of sorts for weeks, even though we spent plenty of time in different fortified bases.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I murmur once the doors close behind us.
He turns and grins at me. “Yes, I’m sure you don’t want to know at all, and that is why you brought it up immediately.”
I feel my cheeks burning as we move to the cockpit, Kiko storing himself in his compartment without a word.That’s not a good sign.
“I told you how some Avaren wait for their matches, and somefind partners outside of that guarantee, hoping that a miracle might occur?” Kai begins.
Wide-eyed, I nod at him, taking my seat blindly and thankfully not missing it with my ass.
“And I told you how in the past, females would… court me, thinking only of the status of bearing royal heirs would bring them.”
I purse my lips. “It’s hard to believe they’d look at you and not see what an amazing catch you are.”
He grabs my hand and brings it to his lips for a kiss. “Well,” he continues. “Zeriah attempted to gain that status first with me and then, when I began to spend more time away from Avaris, with my brother.”
“What a bitch,” I mutter, already hating the faceless bimbo.
