Page 23 of Taken By The Alien Warrior Pirate

I placed my hands on my hips and released a deep sigh. “So far, so good.”

Carmela sat on a crate next to me and planted her elbows on her thighs. She rested her chin in her hands.

“Is everything alright?” I asked.

Carmela arched her shoulders into a half shrug and sighed again. She stared straight ahead with her eyes fixed to the wall. “Yes.” Her voice was flat.

I didn’t believe her, but I knew better than to demand an answer from a female. It was always safer to tread lightly. “Do you want to talk about anything?”

She straightened her posture and took another deep breath, finally looking my way again. “No, I’m okay.”

I sat down next to her, feeling like it was important to take a moment to just sit and be with her and let her vent if she wanted to. If she didn’t want to, that was fine also.

“I know this must be hard for you,” I mentioned, placing a soothing hand to her back. I began to softly stroke it up and down.

Carmela glimpsed my way. “What? Watching everyone get to go home but me?”

I tried not to look pained on the outside, but her words cut deep. I thought she was more eager to stay with me, but I guessed that seeing her fellow humans on their way to freedom was probably more of a tough pill to swallow than I’d initially realized.

“Everything is going to work out, I promise.”

Carmela’s jaw tightened and she looked away, saying nothing.

Apparently, I had said the wrong thing, or maybe it was just her not believing me this time.

I brushed my fingers through her soft, brown hair. “You have me.”

She turned my way and her eyes flickered with more brightness. “Yeah. You’re right.” She paused reflectively and then laughed. “Don’t worry. I won’t always be this depressed. I’m just having a moping moment. It won’t last long, I promise.”

She looked at me with an apologetic bat of her eyelashes. She looked cute and vulnerable. I wanted to protect her mindset and make her feel better at any cost.

Her attitude was way better than Amada’s ever was, and she was under a lot of pressure in a new environment. It just went to show how much more evolved Carmela’s character was as opposed to Amada’s, who threw a tantrum when even the slightest change of plan didn’t go her way.

“It’s okay to show your emotions and talk about them,” I said. “Sometimes venting helps.”

“How did you get so wise?” she teased, bumping her shoulder against mine.

“I’ve lived a long time.”

“Yeah,” she joked. “What was it? Sixty years or something?”

“Sixty-eight to be precise.”

“Well, you don’t look a day over thirty if you ask me.” Carmela chuckled, rolling her eyes. “That’s so ironic and typical for a male. You guys always age like fine wine while us women fret over plastic surgeries and makeup and creams to make our faces look ageless.” She paused and gave me an apprehensive glance. “Don’t worry… no plastic surgery for me. I’ll confess to wearing makeup and creams though.”

“Your natural beauty is stunning,” I admitted.

“You still look more ageless than I will at sixty-eight,” Carmela said with a hitch of her shoulders into a chagrinned shrug.

“It has a lot to do with my species,” I confessed. “We aren’timmortalso to speak, but—”

“You have a longer life span than a human, obviously,” Carmela finished my sentence for me.

I nodded. “Correct.”

“It happens on Earth, too, though,” Carmela declared. “Only it’s on a much faster scale. I guess it’s just a guy thing.”

I grinned at her, and she grinned back. I was just happy to see her smiling at least. If I could successfully comfort her, even if it was just a little bit, then I was doing my job correctly as her new mate.

---