Page 28 of Mated to the Alien Rogue

And Wrin cut straight through all that human-male bullshit and sawme.

“Thank you.” The words emerged as a whisper, my throat tight with emotion.

And right then I wanted all of this to be real so desperately that tears prickled my eyes. I wanted Wrin and everything he’d told me to be true, alien mating thing and all.

Because the thought of him looking at me with such warm regard every day for the rest of my life?

That didn’t sound half bad. Nope. Not bad at all.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Wrin

After feeding my mate breakfast, I made her sleep for six hours.

I’d put her in my old bedroom, tucking her into the clean linens and leaving her with the kreecat for company. Walking out of that room had been one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do.

But I’d pushed too hard earlier. Even hearing the males of my crew talk about how Hyoo-mons took time to woo hadn’t been enough. My need to start the mating heat, to knot and bond her, had overwhelmed me.

I set the alarm on my comp and stretched out across the bed in the guest room, willing myself to rest so I’d be ready for whatever the evening brought. A warrior learned to sleep whenever and wherever so as to stay sharp, but I tossed and turned, all my mental discipline failing me.

I’d only slept beside Vivv for one night out of all the nights of my life, yet I already yearned for her.

I got up and lifted the heavy wooden bed frame, grunting with the strain of its weight. Several staggering steps carried me across the room, and my shoulders groaned with pain as I fought to lower the bed gently to the floor instead of dropping it and waking her.

Once I had it in place, I lay back down with my upper horns pressed to our shared wall. My rulaa tingled, close enough now to feel Vivv. My muscles unclenched, and I finally drifted off, comforted by the nearness of my soul’s breath.

When my comp chimed an alarm, I woke and leaped from the bed to hurry next door. Evening light poured through the window to paint the room in a soft glow. The kreecat raised his head from where he’d curled up against Vivv’s side. Max watched me with a singular focus but seemed to trust me somewhat, because he didn’t wake her.

She lay sprawled, all four limbs flung outward until her small body took up a large portion of the bed. A grin tugged at my lips. My little hellcat. Even in sleep, she demanded you realized she existed. She took up space.

As if I could ever forget.

Her delicate features were relaxed, all of her fierceness hidden away for now. She looked lovely like this.

But she looked ravishing when fire snapped in her eyes.

I brushed my fingers over her forehead, marveling once again that she didn’t feel my presence as I felt hers. My rulaa hummed at her nearness, and my tail vibrated to match.

Her pink little lips parted on a sigh that made me long to join her on that bed. Then her eyes snapped open, filled with her fierce intelligence. “It’s time?”

“It’s time,” I said.

I seared strips of kranar steak and yula vegetable and rolled them up in the thin pieces of pualaa bread made from the traditional Zaarn flour instead of the breeseed we used on theDaredevil. It was another taste of my lost home, one I’d forgotten about until our earlier meal.

One I didn’t linger over now, either. We ate quickly, anxious for the flight to come. My eyes kept flicking to Vivv beside me. This trip to Zaar had given me something far more precious than a glimpse of my lost home.

It had given me my soul’s breath and the promise of a real future.

My tail snaked over to touch her calf, my body needing to feel the reality of her.

She swallowed her last bite and met my eyes. “Let’s go.”

I left the dirty dishes and skillets where they sat. It might be petty, but I wanted to leave behind some mark that I had been here. My old room upstairs had been stripped of all personal belongings, as was the habit when a male was banished. I wanted my presence in this place to be more than a single sculpture of a tree. Even knowing the next person here would clean away these dishes in only a few moments didn’t matter. They were still something I’d used, something I’d touched. I still existed, no matter how much all of Zaar wanted to pretend I didn’t.

No matter how much my family didn’t return my calls.

Max ran up to us as soon as we left the house, circling Vivv’s calves and meowing.

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