Page 12 of 80% Beef 20% Cake (Alien Fated Mates #2)

12

T he thick leather of the mantu hide glided over my fingers. I ran a reverent thumb over the bumps of each tiny stitch, traced the reinforced knees, then picked up a soft rag from the table to buff the hide until it shone. Standing from my chair, I snapped a picture of the awesome pants I’d made for JayJay, careful to keep the rags I’d used as a template out of the camera’s frame.

As I added the pictures to my portfolio’s gallery alongside my best work, a longing for home overcame me, so intense my knees grew weak. The last film director I’d worked with had friends in powerful places. Maybe she could get me off this planet.

I slumped into the overstuffed chair tucked in the corner of Makir’s spare-bedroom-turned-workspace and buried my face in my palms. Not willing to do anything illegal, I put that plan to rest. Would I ever need to send my portfolio out again?

A loose chain mail shirt JayJay would wear over a vest lined with white linobee fur fell off the armrest beside me. As I bent to pick it up, my knuckle slipped through one of the lightweight copper-colored rings made from the lunal plant. It grew under the moon’s light and rampaged across the wastelands, another curious mutation from the Fires That Cleanse. It had taken a lot of trial and error to soften the fibers enough to knit them without diminishing their integrity. As it turned out, the bitter javae had its uses after all, softening the weed when soaked and drying to a steely hard finish.

A stray tear slipped past my nose, but underneath the sadness, a sense of pride emerged. Even if it didn’t win me any awards, this was the first real armor I’d designed. Protecting JayJay meant something to me after all the times he’d saved my life. Someone had to protect him. He was shit at it. That was worlds more important than looking good on a set or stage. But he would look damn fine in it.

I smiled, imagining the brown leather dyed a deep plum from hiscus flowers, clinging to his muscular legs, and the copper chain mail revealing the grooves of his biceps and forearms through the sleeveless vest. An image of JayJay’s rich pewter skin against the coppery lunal came to mind, making my mouth water. Strangers who laid eyes on him would know he was a man to be listened to when he wore this. Everyone else already knew, even in his rags.

But that didn’t mean I wanted to have sex with him. It just meant I admired him.

A prescription for sex. Of all the fucked up…

A loud knock disturbed my internal rant before Geo opened the door carrying a food tray. Hiti mushrooms floated in a rich broth. The thought of JayJay slipping Makir some fungi so he could take care of me in his absence made my stomach do a little flip. Pika and Charz circled Geo’s feet before they landed on my lap, slathering me with kisses.

“It’s time you quit hiding in here, Ginge. It’s been a week.” He set the tray in front of me, and my mouth watered at the soothing scent of chicken soup. A welcome surprise. My appetite had abandoned me since my visit to the doctor.

I sipped my soup while I waited for the inevitable intervention. How would Geo smooth over the fact that my life would never be the same?

“Wow, Ginge, this is amazing.” His gaze drifted over the armor I’d created for JayJay. “I know you win awards for your costumes, but this is incredible.” Geo straightened his shoulders, sat cross-legged beside me on the floor, and took a deep breath.

Here we go.

“This isn’t you, Ginge.” He fingered my limp hair, and I pulled away—I hadn’t washed it in days. He eyed the ratty leggings I’d taken refuge in. “I’m mad at you, you know.” He pressed his lips into a flat line. “How could you not tell me you’re sick?”

I dodged his soulful gaze, taking a sudden interest in my mismatched socks. Why did he have to look at me like that, with his heart beating on a platter, when his anger would be more welcome?

“I’m sorry.” I peeked up as a tear tracked down Geo’s cheek. He was killing me. I set my soup to the side, scooted forward until our knees touched, and leaned in, my forehead tucked into his chest. Then I wrapped my arms around his soft waist, not able to reach all the way behind his back. “I’m having a hard time accepting it.”

“Of course you are. Queen of the stubborn.” One of his hands cradled the back of my head, and the other rested on my folded knee. “I’m not going anywhere, ’kay? We’re doing this together.” His rough voice soothed the raw edges of my nerves.

Tears rolled over my cheeks, soaking into Geo’s soft T-shirt, and my tight chest heaved. I might never return to Earth. Pika nudged my knee with her wet nose.

Geo’s dogs wriggled between us, tipping the bowl of soup over as an email alert flashed on my borrowed wristport. Hot liquid seeped into my leggings. Weird, I’d only programmed a few contacts to come through while I was on Tern. I blotted my wet wrist with my soup-stained T-shirt and opened the message.

“Holy shit, Geo. The Global Design Guild has selected me as a finalist for this year’s competition.” My hands shook, and fresh tears leaked from my eyes. All my life, I’d aspired to be among the thirty competitors selected each year. “Here, read this.” I stripped the wristport from my arm and shoved it at Geo. “Am I hallucinating?”

“Nah, Ginge.” He squeezed my knee. “It’s the real deal.” Geo scrolled through the email, reading aloud. “All competitors must meet in Vancouver in three months.”

I looked down at my soggy lap, lank hair falling into my face, and the urge to have a shower drove me to my feet.

“Come on.” Geo stood and tugged me toward him, our fingers intertwined. “There’s no time to waste.” He opened one of my suitcases and placed JayJay’s armor inside. Then, his new alpha side took control, and he narrowed his eyes. “Pack.”

“You know I can’t go home. I’ll have to decline,” I whispered, swiping at my never-ending tears. “Shit! Why am I crying so much?”

“I’m not talking about home. Makir and I are taking you to JayJay.” He stared at me with a knowing look, as if I had access to the crazy-ass thoughts in his head. “It’s the only way to get you better and back on time.”

“I can’t fucking think right now.” The need to escape from my overworked mind and soothe the uneasiness stirring inside was eating at me. I started braiding and unbraiding my hair as I rocked on my heels. It was either that or run. But my bullshit excuse for a body wouldn’t get me far. “Do you think it would work?”

To my dismay, he spun and began stuffing clothes into a suitcase. “Dr. Ten’s report said you must share semen with a Rock Dweller to improve. C’mon, Ginge…you have to.” His voice softened to pleading. “We need to get you on that next shuttle to Earth. You can’t miss out on this.” He snapped the suitcase closed with a bang. “You’re going to spend some quality time with JayJay.”

“But—” I sputtered, searching for some argument I might win. “There are other Rock Dwellers. Why can’t it be someone else?” No other Rock Dweller boiled my blood quite the way JayJay did. “He’s too… Loud,” I shot back weakly, when really, I was worried this might destroy the fragile relationship we’d begun to build.

“Too loud.” Geo snorted, rolling his eyes at my antics. “All Rock Dwellers are loud, Ginge. If you need a reason, Sully’s married, and all the rest are too young.”

I added some underwear to the suitcase. If I left it to Geo, I’d be commando the whole time. “But what about a Lizzard? Dr. Ten said their sperm would work, too.”

Geo whipped around so fast I thought the handle of my suitcase might tear off. “Are you fucking kidding me? Raz is the only Lizzard on Tern. He terrorized Makir, and you know it. And you’re thinking about being alone with him… Naked?”

I threw both hands up. “You’re right. Sorry.”

Jaw clenched, Geo carried on, “Plus, even if Raz had a shred of decency, he’s not playing for your team or species. He has a hard-on for Lornian males.”

“All right, I get it. I wasn’t thinking.” With cautious steps, I approached the angry bear and squeezed his hand. “I love Makir too. I just got a little caught up on the…er…whole sperm donor to get healthy thing.”

“Ginger, no offense, but you smell.” Geo slung a towel over my shoulder and ushered me to the bathroom. “Even JayJay might run from you now.”

I glared at him.

Geo backed away, a smile sneaking up the edges of his mouth. “Too soon for jokes?” He jammed his hands into his pockets. “But in all seriousness, I know this is a fucked-up situation, but if you have to have someone’s sperm to get better, then JayJay’s a good choice. He’ll treat you right.”

With my chin dipped to my chest, water pounded the back of my head and wet hair hung in a curtain around my face. Warmth worked its way into my swollen joints where I sat in the shallow basin. The thing was, I didn’t want to force a guy to ‘treat me right.’ I gripped my knees while my chest rose and fell.

A trickle of hope started to thread its way through my despair. If Geo had convinced JayJay and he was willing…what could it hurt?

My life had never been one filled with indecision. Whenever I wanted something, I’d throw every part of me into it until I succeeded. That was how I’d carved out my path to date. If I failed, only one person was to blame, and I did not fail. But this, this fucking sickness… It literally killed my red blood cells, and it showed no sign of stopping. Goddamn it. I drove my fists into my thighs. I couldn’t fix it on my own.

Depending on JayJay went against everything ingrained in me. I’d already relied on him too many times.

“Five minutes, Ginger.” Geo’s authoritative voice rang out over the shower’s blast.

“Goddamn interfering men!” I muttered while turning off the water, even though without him I’d still be stuck wallowing in indecision. After toweling off, I shrugged on my warmest sweater over a plain T-shirt and a pair of boring beige corduroys. Geo had flagged the email, and “Response Required” flashed green on the wristport lying on the beautiful worktable he’d made me. I stared down at the message as if it held the answers to all my hopes and dreams.

I strode into the kitchen, strapping the band around my wrist. “Okay. I’ll do it. Whatever it takes.”

Makir stood there with a smile on his lips. His blue tail bounced up and down. “Geo told me about the competition. I’m so excited for you.” Two giant bags hung from his hands. Dark leafy greens sprouted from the tops of both.

Internally, I gagged at the thought of choking down more chalky green smoothies, but I smiled at his thoughtfulness all the same.

Makir flipped through my sketchbook. “I’m here to run through design ideas with you. You should showcase your linobee creations. It’ll give you that off-planet edge.”

A hundred ideas came to my mind as I moved toward Makir and pointed at a drawing. “What do you think of—”

Geo stood behind me with my winter coat, distracting me and nudging me toward my boots. He plucked my toque from the hook on the wall and stuffed it on my head. “We’ve worked it out with Sisip. JayJay has his own room at the temporary battle station, and you’ll be staying with him while he’s off duty for the next few days.”

That was weird. I wondered why he was off duty. “Shit.” I fumbled with the zipper as a bout of nerves sent my stomach haywire. “You told Sisip!”

“Um…well…” Geo floundered. “There was no getting around it really. But she just knows you have to be near him for health reasons.”

Geo and Makir’s forced smiles put me further on edge while they pulled their boots and coats on.

“So, I’m heading into the middle of a war zone filled with monsters to have forced sex?” I didn’t think I could’ve sounded crazier if I tried.

Geo grabbed my suitcase and opened the front door. “If it’s any consolation, Ginge, the volcano has been totally transformed. It’s a fortress now, and I built the door to JayJay’s room myself. The hellsna can’t get in.”

Makir’s wristport pinged. “Geo, we have to leave now. Sisip says a disturbance has distracted the hellsna, and the entrance is clear.” His blue tail twitched erratically against the floor.

Geo passed me a helmet. “You heard my husband.”

In a flash, my suitcase and their many bags joined a trailer full of hoverbike parts and building materials. Two dog harnesses secured Charz and Pika to the trailer, and we were off.

All too soon, we arrived at the base of the Starry Volcano. I hunched beneath my oversized helmet as fear replaced the threads of hope I’d felt while flying. Enforcers darted back and forth, many sporting bandages. Makir’s trailer was unloaded in minutes, and Sisip put him to work repairing damaged hoverbikes in the temporary bay at the volcano’s base. Even to my untrained eye, the number of dings and dents on the fleet of once-sleek silver machines seemed concerning.

Loaded with groceries, Geo rushed me toward the entrance. A sliver of volcano too narrow for the hellsna to penetrate had been carved away, and a type of elevator shuttled people and supplies up and down, thrusters whirring underneath it. An enforcer with his arm in a sling joined Geo and me in the elevator.

OMG, how has all this happened while I stewed in the guest room for a week, sewing?

The elevator stopped in the cave entry, and my arms trembled under the weight of the grocery bags. Damn, I’m weak. A picture of a future where I needed help to brush my teeth flashed in my mind. Nope. I pushed the thought away. The treatment would work. I’d get to compete with the best designers in the world.

Sisip shouted commands to her team leaders in a lilting Tig accent. She stood over a giant map projected into a natural bowl on the volcano’s floor. Her gaze never wavered from it. Green dots zoomed over the wastelands, blue hovered in the trees, and white darted through the crevices of the rocky outcrop to the east. A three-dimensional landscape jutted up from the bowl, displaying Tern’s valleys and peaks from a bird’s-eye view.

“Ginge?” Geo placed his hand on my elbow to focus my attention. “Efred will take you to JayJay’s room, okay?” He tipped his head toward the young male Drack with his arm in a sling. He’d already scooped one of the grocery bags into the crook of his uninjured arm, highlighting my uselessness. Sensing my nerves, Geo looked me in the eye. “It will be okay. It’s JayJay. You can trust him.”

“Uh-huh.” I nodded, then shook my swollen arm to minimize the pressure in my throbbing fingertips.

The next second, Geo turned all business once more. “Efred will show you where everything is, and I’ll return to check on you tonight.”

Efred’s purple scales shone in the low light as we descended the same tunnel JayJay and I had walked just over a week ago.

“So, you’re staying with Protector JayJay?” He said JayJay’s name with reverence. “Are you his mate?” The squeak in his voice betrayed his youth.

Oh God, how would I explain my presence in JayJay’s room to a teenage boy? “No, I’m not his mate. I’m his…friend?”

Efred laughed. “Are you asking me if you’re his friend?”

I cleared my throat. “No. JayJay’s, uh…for sure, my, er…friend.”

“Even more convincing.” He snickered, and I swore a plume of smoke swirled from his nostrils. “So, what exactly does friendship entail on Earth?” Efred chattered on, intent on rattling me. “Because a Drack only shares a nest with their mate.”

“Well, friendship on Earth can mean many things,” I said weakly, then stiffened. When had I ever let a teenage boy get under my skin? If he wanted to tease, I could play that game. “Will I be meeting your mate?”

He stumbled, scales lifting a fraction of an inch. “I…I don’t have a mate. Yet.”

If I ignored the bone-deep exhaustion rolling through me, bantering with Efred was almost fun.

The tunnel ended, and the mossy turquoise ground rolled like a waterbed under my boots.

“Your nest awaits, Ginger.” He placed the groceries on the ground and dramatically spread his arm toward the door. “Enjoy your night of friendship with Protector JayJay.” He beamed and ducked away, dodging the swat I aimed at him. “When you’re settled, come find me, and I’ll show you the wash house and kitchen,” he shouted as he ran backward.

Goose bumps prickled my arms, even though the humid air dampened my brow. The same little hollow JayJay and I had shared, this time with a sealed door, loomed before me.