Page 18 of Earth Girls are Easy… To Dominate
Bralix scoffed in exasperation. “Would you make up your mind? One minute you’re urging me to make her my mate, and now you’re telling me I shouldn’t?”
Phyrax held up his hands in surrender. “I did nothing of the sort. I believe the point I made was that earth-born humans were not meant to be pets.”
“You’re splitting hairs.”
“You’re avoiding the question.”
Bralix glared at Phyrax, but faced with putting his feelings into words, he couldn’t answer. He rubbed his hands over his cropped scalp and stared at the ceiling. “You’re right; she’s not a pet. Any intelligent animal can learn a command and be conditioned to obey; if she obeys, I want it to be because she wants to please me.
“I want to know her mind; and I want her to know mine.”
“And our dairy farm?” Phyrax arched an eyebrow. “If you’re going to become a strictly one-human Nef’eal, where does that leave your farm? Your breeding herd of dairy humans with a bull or two to service them?”
Bralix sighed. “I still want my farm; I’m not quite ready to just give up on that dream. But if I have to choose between it and Samulin, I’d choose her.”
Phyrax smiled. “That’s good enough for me, brother.”
Bralix slipped the jar with the symbiote into his bedside drawer and stood. Every instinct told him to go find her, but he held himself back, Phyrax was right; she couldn’t choose him if he was her only option—and he so desperately wanted her to choose him.
“Emery,” Phyrax said, drawing Bralix’s attention to the door.
“Hey,” she said softly, walking into Phyrax’s embrace. She rested her cheek on Phyrax’s chest, and after a moment of savouring her mate’s embrace, she opened her eyes to look at Bralix. “I’ve explained everything as best I can,” she said. “She knows about the symbiote and what it means. I also promised that if it was what she wanted, we’d take her home. She’s asked for a little time to think about it.”
Bralix’s heart clenched, and he hugged himself to try and contain the pain. “She won’t choose me,” he whispered. “I’d taken her against her will. She’ll want to go back to earth, back to her old life.”
Emery put her hands on her hips and frowned at him. “So you’ve made up her mind for her, have you? She might not have given you an immediateyes, but she also hasn’t given you ano, either. She asked for time to think, so give her time to think. Humans can take years to decide on a mate; she’s had two days. She’s gone back to the cargo area—and we’re leaving the door open. It’s a room, not a prison.”
Phyrax put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay, brother?”
Bralix nodded; what other option did he have?
He’d give her time to think—even if it killed him.
CHAPTER TEN
Emery had given Samulin much to think about.
Option One: Go home, back to all her problems.
Option Two: Leave Earth forever, allow a painful procedure to implant a creature in her brain, and marry an alien.
She shifted position on the narrow bed in the cargo hold. One end was still raised like a back-rest on a couch, but it was still far from comfortable.This bed has to have the lowest snuggle-index for any bed found outside a jail cell,Samulin thought.
Right that moment sheneededthe comfort of snuggling.
And she knew of an alien lap that was excellent at snuggling, and was at that moment empty.
She slid off the bed, wincing at the cold of the deck under her bare feet. She considered taking her duvet with her, but decided to leave it behind.
She remembered turning right when she’d left the hold before. She’d been in Phyrax’s quarters before, not Bralix’s, but perhaps it was in the same area?
The corridor was a boring grey and rang with a hollow metallic sound when she knocked on one of the bulkheads with her knuckles. The floors were lined with something rough andscratchy underfoot that felt like industrial carpet. The design just felt sohuman, yet with a hint of alien.
The first door she found was locked. The second was open, and when she peeked inside, she saw Emery snuggled in the bed under the covers, holding something that looked like a tablet. When Emery noticed her, she sat up. “Hey Samulin—did you need something?”
Samulin shook her head, then looked down the passage and licked her lips before looking back at Samulin. “Um, do you know where I can find Bralix?”
“I think the guys are in the cockpit doing pilot things,” Emery said. “Do you want me to help you find him?”
