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What had he done to that bond by choosing to obey his father’s command?

No, he must not dwell on the past, not now with his own mate yet unclaimed.

He stored the bulk of the food he had brought, then knelt beside her and touched the pause button on her narration. “Drink and eat, littleklika. Soon we must rest.”

She absently took a compressed cereal bar from him and bit off a corner, her gaze never leaving the console as she dutifully chewed and swallowed. After a moment, she glanced back at him, her eyes wide. “Sorry. It’s just so interesting.”

“You will find the jungle itself more than interesting. After all, it is part of your new home.”

Her eyebrows drew together. She spun back toward the console and savagely bit off another chunk of the cereal bar, grinding it furiously between her teeth. When she’d swallowed, she said, “I have a home, thank you, and I miss it.”

“You have not been away from Earth long enough to miss it,” he chided gently, amused despite the heavy sorrow lingering in hiskii.

“Fat lot you know,” she muttered.

He rose on a sigh, unfastened his skinsuit, and shrugged the sleeves off.

“Oh, my God!” Mia squawked, her gaze glued to the broad expanse of his bare chest. “What are you doing?”

“Undressing. It is time for rest.”

“Over my dead body!”

He cocked his head, puzzled by the expression. “Why would I want to rest with your dead body lying beneath me? Should death find you, I would not rest. I would seek revenge on the thing that had taken your life, be it foe, illness, or time.”

Her jaw snapped shut. “That is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard anybody say. And I was just kidnapped by an extraterrestrial.”

“It is true. Once we have mated—”

“We are not rutting.”

“Rutting is not the same as mating.”

She sniffed and turned back to the console, chewing on the cereal bar.

He took that as consent to continue undressing, which he would’ve done anyway. A skinsuit might protect him from the weapons of his enemies, but it was uncomfortable to rest in. Once it and his boots were off, he stored them in the cleaning closet tucked into the wall near the foot of his bed. A bed he’d brought along forher, he thought, disgruntled. A bed she did not seem to appreciate at all, or she would be coaxing him into it, as a Xeruvian female would in the same situation.

But his littleklikawas not a Xeruvian; she was human, small, and entirely too fragile, though not as helpless and delicate as he’d first thought. She had no understanding of their ways, nor of the honor of mating with a warrior of his standing, and apparently had no care for the strength and honor he could impart to their children. His mother had counseled patience, and patience he would use.

Until his patience wore thin and he could freely act on his first impulse to claim her in every way possible.

Zoran ignored the redness of her cheeks as he stalked into the tiny bathing chamber attached to his quarters. The room was barely wide enough for him to walk past the toiletry functions and into the shower stall. He adjusted the temperature on the wall outside, then activated the spray and washed quickly, all too aware of the ship’s limited water supply.

His planet, like Earth, was rich in liquid water. Would his mate appreciate that, or disdain it as she had his bed?

He could not help the humor that thought brought, and allowed it to lighten his mood and the fatigue that had been hounding him since his people had nearly been destroyed by the dual strokes of disaster and virus.

When he finished cleansing himself, Mia had finished the cereal bar and now sipped water. Her gaze swung automatically to him, then her cheeks heated, and she sputtered and spun on bare feet, putting her back to him.

“Do you have to walk around naked all the time?” she demanded.

“You will learn to enjoy it,” he countered calmly. “As I will enjoy your nudity.”

“As if!”

By way of an answer, he took her drink from her, stored it next to the bed, and lifted her into his arms. She squawked in an entirely too appealing way and clung to him, sputtering out nonsensical phrases like, “Oh, my God!” and “Never. In. My.Life!”

Her spunk pleased him.Shepleased him, with her wide-eyed gazes and the hint of pink in her cheeks and that little wiggle she did when something he said or did irritated her. The latter threatened his control, but he would never tell her so lest she cease wiggling and end his pleasure.