Page 19 of Baiting the Alien

I’m about to say something when my marks burn again, screaming for me to slow down instead of hurting her with my rage. “How do humans claim their mate?”

“Well, we don’t do the mate thing like you do. Most of us aren’t crazy enough to kidnap whoever they want and demand them to agree to be their mates.”

Is she calling me crazy? I—

She continues, “We ask if that’s what each other wants. Imposing our wishes on others is considered rude. Even the males don’t do that.”

Oh... Maybe that’s because those males are too weak and they don’t care for their mate. When kuqnils find our mate, we claim them as ours and we protect them. There’s no imposing our wish when the mate bond should have put us together already. She is just delusional and trying to resist me.

I suck in a breath. I’m a pretty amazing kuqnil. How can she act like I’m not good enough for her? I stand when she stumbles to take steps back, putting distance between us.

I head to her. She is soon backed up to the wall. I stop when I’m a few steps away from her. “Are you scared of me?”

She nods, and she is shaking. The cape on her makes it obvious. My mate should enjoy my presence, not act scared of me.

She says, “You are a lot larger than me and it looks like you want to crush me.”

I shake my head. “No, that’s not what I want to do. Like I said, I just want you to understand that you are my mate, and we are meant to stay together. I don’t know why you are hesitant about that.”

She sighs. “I guess you really don’t understand. All you want is to lock me up and make me your mate, whatever that means to you. You don’t care to ask and you don’t care how I feel about that.”

My mate seems to be incredibly stubborn and not very smart.

Hm... Maybe that’s because she’s a human.

I’ve met humans that are pretty smart though.

I rub my temple. “I don’t understand what your problem is. But if you want some space for yourself, you can stay in my room.”

She shakes her head. “I want to stay here on my own.”

No, she should—

Maybe I should do the thing that she calls listening to her. “Fine, if that’s what you want, you can stay here. I will come back later.”

It hurts me to see her upset, but it also hurt when it looks like she doesn’t want me.

I head to the door, pressing the button for it to open. I glance at her when I put a foot out of the door. She sits on the chair again, looking at the wall that’s away from me, not even caring that I’m leaving.

How rude...

Chapter 9

Zoe

Iletoutabreath when Iechon is gone. I check the door after it slid closed just to make sure I’m alone.

That’s some crazy stuff there. Does asking for permission not exist among kuqnils? He is so mad that I don’t feel the same way as him and he has been trying to make me feel something for him.

I pull the cape and rest my head on my arms on the table. What is happening? Why am I here? I don’t want to be his mate. He is such a manic male that... nothing feels good about this.

It feels like he would lose control at any moment and he will destroy me.

I sniff as tears drop. I’ve tried so hard to hold back my tears when it seems like he will just be even more pissed.

I just want to get back there on Earth, even though he despises my own planet.

But I’m locked here and there’s no place for me to go.

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