Page 38 of Time Traveling Space Bastards

O ne thing I’d learned about my Zovea is that if you properly fucked her, she slept like the dead. The only reason I’d left her bed with her in it was because I had work to do. If it had been up to me, I would have just laid there and watched her sleep while I marveled that she was mine. But I had time for that now.

I didn’t know why Kuka was sneaking out of her bedroom. I’d been his bodyguard long enough to know that he was incredibly lonely. He was kind, considerate, and probably the most brilliant person in our entire galaxy, but nearly everyone didn’t give a shit about that. They only cared about his title. The people allowed to get close to him treated him the same as they did Valtens.

Maybe that was why my instincts weren’t screaming to rip him apart when he came out of her bedroom smelling like sex and my Zovea. She didn’t know he was a prince when she met him, and she still turned him into a hero and love interest when she decided to write things down. He deserved someone to see him that way, but I really didn’t know why he looked so unhappy when he joined us.

“I need to tell you something and I don’t want you to think it was intentional. If you want to kill me after, that’s fine.”

I couldn’t see any reason to hurt Kuka. I was hired to protect him and I took that oath seriously, but he also became one of my best friends. Kuka was like a brother to me.

“So, first of all, I didn’t think this was possible, but she said something to me. You have your Zovea, and I have my Velne, but there’s something in her that lets her have that, too. We don’t know the first thing about how it works in humans. You and I get one bond, but we know there are races in our galaxy that have more than one.

“She’s like that. She’s your Zovea, but she’s also my Velne. I didn’t try to steal your Zovea, and I wouldn’t even know how to make a Saki’s Zovea my Velne in most cases. But Baxter Holmes is your Zovea and my Velna. I also told her and let her consent before I sealed the bond.”

I…wasn’t upset about that. In fact, I thought since the first time I met him, I might have figured something out before Kuka.

“No, it makes sense. If she were a Saki, she wouldn’t have any interest in anyone else once we bonded, but if I thought she did, I’d be making a total ass of myself and probably getting violent. She’s not Saki. She’s not even from our galaxy, so I would probably even be pushing her away and making her reject me for looking at other men.

“It’s never been like that. I’m completely fine with you and Enix being with her. That’s because she’s mine and I’m hers and my instincts know that. They also know Kuka and Enix aren’t mine, but they are Baxter’s. You have bonds with her and my bond recognizes that. Which means all those people who said they bonded with a cyborg weren’t lying or crazy. I don’t even know what it would be called if a human bonds to a cyborg, but I’m fine with Enix because he has that with her.”

It made sense. There had been plenty of people over the years who claimed to have bonded with their Enix, and everyone thought they were sad, lonely people who’d given up on finding their bond or marrying someone who was close.

I used to think that myself until Kuka stole one and I got to know him.

“You really think so?” Enix said.

Omi shot me a filthy look because if I was wrong, it was going to break Enix.

“I’m pretty sure Torrek is right,” Kuka said. “He’s not jealous of you. I’m not nearly as territorial as the Saki, but if you weren’t hers, my instincts would be screaming at me to flip your kill switch, so you were never an option for her, no matter how much we are friends. I’m not interested in that. I want the two of you together because it would make her happy.”

“And I’m so not jealous about it that I’m happy for you,” I said. “I think you deserve to be happy.”

“Why are we happy?” Baxter asked, stumbling into the living room. “Has anyone even had coffee yet to be happy?”

“We figured out how the contraption works, and it should be waiting for you,” Enix said.

“That’s why we have this alien bond thing. You make sure I have coffee. You’re next, Enix. But only if you want to.”

Enix was the pleasure model, but after we stole him, he stopped wanting to. A few people around the palace asked Kuka if they could borrow him and Kuka left that up to him. He never wanted to. We’d never make him, even if some of the people who asked promised Kuka money or political favors.

I loved that she was respectful of his boundaries. She didn’t start touching him until he initiated it. Baxter wanted him, but only if he wanted the same thing. She’d never force him, either. And since she was important to the Enix, she was probably the one person he’d feel like he’d have to have sex with if they asked, even if he didn’t want to do it.

“Yes,” he said. “But not now. I know we have a solution, but I don’t like not knowing where Valtens is.”

Ugh. Valtens. He could manage to ruin my day even if he wasn’t in the same room.