Page 8

Way to go, I’d really put my foot in it, it seemed.

Whatever I’d said about those pretty glowing marks had made Artek snap out of the cozy, sharing mood and race off like his tail was on fire.

I missed him already, but his scent—salty and sweet—still lingered in the air.

Before I could think better of it, I lay down with my head on the pillow he’d just vacated and breathed in deeply.

Yeah, that was him, and it was so good. Why had he left?

Zap nudged her head against my arm, then against my slightly rounded belly, and snuffled deeply.

She snapped her head up, snout turning to look at me, then she turned and jogged across the seating area.

When she paused to glance over her shoulder, I knew she wanted me to follow her.

I seriously didn’t want to get up, suddenly tired and much more interested in lying there, surrounded by Artek’s scent. Her mournful gaze made me move, though.

It wasn’t like I was sick, just a little groggy from stasis, and Zap clearly wanted something.

I hadn’t been allowed to give her berries, but I could give her this.

With a groan, I rolled to my feet, and Zap made a gleeful noise that brought a smile to my face.

Now it didn’t feel so bad to follow her deeper into the greenhouse garden.

Though I balked for a moment when she leaped into a plant bed between two tall, beautiful red and purple plants, much like rhododendrons.

Artek might not like it if I went off-roading in his garden, but Zap really wanted me to follow.

When I ducked under the shrubbery, the badger with all the quills on her butt chortled with approval.

She turned around the trunk of a tall, pale gray tree with feathery branches, and there it was—a nest. Twigs, feathers, moss, and even scraps of fabric had been twisted together in a bowl shape.

The fine coating of black and white hairs told me Zap had been using this spot, maybe not alone.

Then I got it. “Oh. You miss your babies, Zap? Did you want to show me yours?” I touched my belly.

Zap put her paws on my knees where I knelt between the plants.

Her nose came up to snuffle my chin, my throat, then my belly again with a firmer nudge.

“I’m sure they’re happy and healthy, wherever they are, sweetie,” I said, though I knew that Zap was probably fine; it was me who was suddenly all choked up with emotion. Stupid pregnancy hormones.

That’s how Artek found me not much later: bawling like a ninny, snot all over my face and in Zap’s fur.

I was pretty sure I was upset about losing my life on Earth, about losing my friends and my carefully planned future.

About the mess Athol had made of my life, not because he was a criminal, as it turned out, but a rebel fighting for the freedom of his people, the Terafin, and humans too.

These were tears for the parents who had fought so hard to pay for my school so I could have a better life, only for me to end up pregnant, fake executed, and lost on an alien planet so far from home it might as well not exist.

I didn’t hear the Shaman until he hissed behind me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise.

He was still on the path, raised high on his tail so he could look over the shrubbery and bushes.

His eyes were wide and glowing, but I wasn’t sure if his regal features were displaying dismay or worry.

Embarrassed to be caught like that, I wiped at my cheeks with the edge of my sleeve, heat stealing across my face and singeing my cheeks.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to mess up your plants. ”

Another hiss shivered through the air between us.

If possible, his expression turned even more intense.

Now I couldn’t even tell what it was he was feeling.

The tip of his tail whipped wildly through the air at his side, then abruptly curled over the edge of the bush.

Like a cobra, he struck. Not to hurt me, though for a moment my brain didn’t catch up with that fact, and a scream ripped from my throat.

His tail curled around my body, beneath my arms, around my chest. I was lifted into the air, plucked from the ground like I was a toy.

It happened so fast I barely had time to process; my scream was still tapering off by the time he pulled me from his tail and into his arms. Warm, strong arms that cradled me ever so gently against that wide slab of muscle.

“You are…” he began to say, his voice low, edged with a growl that felt like it came from deep inside him.

An instinct that rode him hard but that he was trying to control.

It was in the way his mouth grew tight, his tongue flicking out, which was awfully long and split at the tip.

He tried again, and this time the growl was absent.

“You are leaking… Crying, I mean.” His brows lowered; silvery, made up of sharp nubs and jagged edges.

The expression was stern now, impressively so, and it made my heart skip a beat inside my chest.

“Crying,” I concurred a little guiltily.

I wiped again at the streaks still on my face, wincing when it left a trail of mucus on my sleeve.

That was gross; it was embarrassing. I hadn’t expected to break down like that at the sight of an empty nest. I didn’t quite understand what about that sight had triggered the spill of emotions, but it was intense and still sat heavily, like a rock on my chest.

The tip of his tail had released me when his arms had taken over.

Now, it suddenly appeared in front of my face, curled around a piece of bright fabric the same hue as the blue sash he wore.

I took it slowly, uncertain whether he was offering me a handkerchief or if it would be rude to use it to blow my nose.

The nudge of the tail against my fingers, urging it toward my face, answered those doubts.

It smelled like him when I cleaned my cheeks and buried my nose in the soft scrap.

“Why?” Artek demanded, and I bit my lip, uncertain how to answer that question.

He turned on the path, still not putting me back on my feet, and began moving through the lush greenhouse.

The humid air was making the tips of my hair curl, and now I’d made even more of a mess of my appearance.

I felt extremely self-conscious, especially since the Shaman did not appear to need his eyes to know where he was going; his gaze remained locked on my face.

When they did finally release my eyes, it was to let them slide down my chest to the gentle curve of my belly.

“You lost her father. Are you mourning him?” The words were spoken coolly, like he was asking about the weather, but the fine hairs on the back of my neck rose.

I felt like I was about to step into a trap, caught in the crosshairs of a predator.

This trip through stasis had really messed with my head; I’d gotten all fanciful.

But no, I needed to remember that I was dealing with an alien I knew absolutely nothing about.

Maybe his kind really hated dads… or couldn’t tolerate the offspring of another.

My breath stuttered in my chest as that thought crossed my mind.

Artek halted abruptly, his head lowering down to mine.

Long strands of silver and gold hair fell forward, brushing against my cheek and collarbone, trapping my face so I could not look away.

“Shh,” he said. “You are safe with me. Do not fear.” The words were uttered in that same kind voice I’d heard from him when I’d just woken up.

It made something ease inside my chest. Surely, a healer, a man who had that kind of kindness was not the type to harm a woman.

I was suddenly very certain that he spoke the truth. I was safe. With him.

“Okay,” I whispered. “I wasn’t crying for my baby’s father.

I was just a little overwhelmed with everything that’s going on…

” My mouth couldn’t stop running then, the whole story spilling from my lips before I could censor any of it.

Through it all, Artek moved, carrying me through his garden and back into the tunnels beneath the mountain, an endless, winding path that made something at the back of my mind wonder suspiciously where he was taking me.

Another part suggested hopefully that maybe he just wanted to keep holding me, and that’s why he kept moving, so he didn’t have to put me down.

My money woes began when my job abruptly ended, the struggle to pay the rent, and Athol’s timely appearance in my apartment.

I’d made a deal with the devil: hide him, and he’d pay the rent.

His nearness, week after week, led me to fall for his charms, just one night of passion. He was gone the next day.

Then I was pregnant, scared for the future, though Athol had promised to support us.

And then… That was the worst part, and it made me struggle to put it into words: the sudden arrest, a dozen armed men dragging me from my office, not a care for my pregnant state.

The bruises that had covered me as I’d been thrown in jail.

Then the sham of a trial that declared me in collusion with a rebel.

The imminent knowledge I was about to die.

And then… suddenly, I was here with him.

“Yes,” he agreed quietly. “All you humans have similar stories. Trials, executions that did not happen. I am sorry you went through that, Shavire.” He hesitated, as if what he’d called me was a petname he hadn’t meant to use.

My blood thrummed in my veins in excitement, my eyes latching onto the sharp angle of his chin, the bright glow of silver shining against his pale scales.

I didn’t know what Shavire meant, but damn if it didn’t sound absolutely gorgeous from his lips.

I wanted it to mean something nice. I wanted him to use it for me.

I rolled a shoulder, trying not to let all those feelings show on my face.

“I’m okay. I’m gonna be okay. Athol was…

a stranger, and not exactly a nice one, though he never treated me wrong.

” That was a lie, he’d broken into my house, and he had damn well rummaged through my underwear drawer.

Rebel for a good cause, yes, but a total pervert at the same time.

The way Artek narrowed his eyes at me made me feel like he saw right through that lie.

“This is it,” he announced then. “Private quarters for you. And then I will set up a call with Haven so you can meet the other humans.” I wasn’t ready for that announcement, and even less ready for him to put me down, and yet, that’s what he did.