by Sadie Carter
She wiped away a few tears and the urge to comfort her grew stronger. Along with something else. Her scent surrounded him once more. His body tightened with arousal. What was wrong with him? She needed some sort of care, not for him to lust after her.
“Shall I contact Blue? Safan?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“You do not have a mate?” he asked. He thought it unlikely that her mate would allow her to wonder around alone. Not in her current state.
“Me. No.” She shook her head and let out a watery laugh. “No, I don’t have a mate. That’s not happening. Ever.”
“It could happen.” He had his doubts. Her, ah, health issues could make her a problematic mate.
“No,” she said in a cold voice “It couldn’t. See, I thought I had a mate. But it turns out he’s a dense, unfeeling asshole.”
She thought she had a mate? Who? He wondered what made her think this male was her mate? As far as he knew, the human females didn’t have any way of knowing who their mate was before they touched skin-to-skin.
“Would you like me to speak to him for you?” he offered. And while he was doing so, he could explain his thoughts on this female’s health and care. She should be monitored; clearly, left alone, she could not take care of herself.
“Speak to him? You wish to speak to him?” She started giggling. “Oh wow, that’s rich.”
“What is rich?” he asked in confusion. “You wish him to be rich?” Was she one of those females who wished to have a male of wealth? He knew such females existed. He frowned.
“What? Rich? No, I don’t care if he doesn’t have a penny to his name. All I want is love. I just want my mate to love me. I want to be the most important person in his life.”
“If he is your mate, then you will be,” he said confidently. “He will care for you, protect you, make certain all your needs are met.”
“What about love?” she challenged. “You left that out.”
He grimaced. “I cannot promise you that. Zerconian warriors do not believe in love.”
“So, if I was to mate with a Zerconian warrior, he would never love me.”
“There is more to life than love,” he said, defending his people. To him, love seemed to be a fickle emotion. These humans fell in and out of love. A mating was forever. Love was not.
“Is there? It’s the one thing I’ve been searching for all my life.” She shook her head tiredly. “I need to go. Hope you enjoy your dinner. I won’t bother you by bringing you more food or doing your laundry or trying to convince you that love isn’t a bad word. You can go back to half-killing yourself with work.”
She turned towards the door, but he could not let her leave like this. She seemed so sad. He didn’t know why he cared, but he did.
“I am going to need to insist that you give me the name of the male you believe to be your mate. Perhaps I can help you discover if he is indeed your true mate.”
“That won’t be necessary,” she called back without looking around. She walked through the door while he just stood there in stupefaction.
Had she actually just refused to give him what he had demanded? Perhaps she had misunderstood. She obviously thought she had a choice. He knew he needed to make allowances due to her mental state, but this disobedience could not be allowed to continue.
“Come back here,” he demanded, walking out into the passage. He looked back and forth and caught sight of her heading towards the door at the end of the corridor. It was an emergency exit.
“Fe—” He remembered her objection to him calling her that at the last second. “Come back to my office.”
“No.”
He reared back. No? No! She was not allowed to say no to him. He didn’t stop to think about why that upset him so much, just stormed after her as she walked away from him.
“You cannot say no to me.”
“Just did,” she said in a weirdly cheerful voice.
“I demand that you come back to my office. Now.”
“No.”
A wave of temper caught him by surprise. He was not given to bouts of anger. He was usually quite even-tempered. What was going on? He narrowed his gaze as the female continued to walk away from him. It was her. She had affected him in some way. He was not accustomed to out-and-out defiance. He was one of the leading healers on Zerconia. He was used to being obeyed.
Certainly, there were times when he was outranked. But not by a small human female who had no standing.
“You will obey me,” he ordered.
She turned. Finally, she was going to show some sense.
“I will?” she queried.
He gave a firm nod. “You will. Now come here.” He pointed at the floor in front of him. Once he had her back in his office, he would call Safan. Then she could become his problem. He ignored the way his body rebelled at that thought.
She tilted her head. “Huh. I always thought you were just a bit forgetful, in a world of your own. You know, one of those genius types who gets so involved in what they’re doing that they forget to pay attention to what’s going on around them. I didn’t realize that you are actually an arrogant, mannerless boor.”
He wasn’t certain what a boor was, but he knew that she was insulting him. He narrowed his gaze at her. “You go too far. I have been nothing but patient with you. You burst into my office—”
“To bring you food!” she yelled at him. “How terrible of me to want to make certain that you eat. How awful of me to want to make sure that you have clean clothes to wear. I am truly just the worst person alive. But don’t worry, you will not have to suffer me bursting in on you without invitation again.” She swirled around.
Why was she so angry at him? He was the one who had been insulted. Called names. Had his orderly evening interrupted. Yet she yelled at him.
“I am not finished with you, female!”
“Urgh!” Her scream of frustration filled the corridor. He was shocked that no one had come to investigate what all the yelling was about. “You are the most annoying man to ever be born!”
“I have had quite enough of you insulting me!” he yelled. He was shocked at himself and immediately wished he had not shouted at her. What if she became upset again? He had to admit it seemed to be a common thing for her to go from anger to tears in a blink of an eye, but that did not mean that he wished to frighten her.
She whirled, but instead of the fear or upset he had expected, she was defiant. Her hands were on her hips as she flicked back that gorgeous mane of hair.
She was magnificent.
He felt as though he had been struck by a blast from the sky. He was frozen. He could not move. Could barely breathe.
How had he not seen her before? How was it that she had come into his presence so many times and he had not noticed her?
Perhaps because you are so busy with your work.
“I have finished talking to you!” she told him. “I am leaving now. I am not ever coming back. Do not follow me. Do not yell at me. Do not speak to me. And just so you know, the acceptable response for when someone does something nice for you is to say thank you, not yell at them!”
With that, she turned and raced out of the emergency exit and into the darkness. Alarm bit at him. It was darker than he’d realized outside. Just how late was it? What was she doing walking around on her own at night? He knew that on Earth females did not have minders. They were very independent. They were not escorted around for their safety. The laws here had changed to reflect that.
But he did not think it wise for a female to walk around on her own in the dark. Certainly, there was little crime. It would be extremely dishonorable for any male to consider harming female. But that did not mean there was no crime. Other races lived here now. Just a couple of months ago, a visitor had attempted to accost Empress Zoey.
And a female as tiny as Ellie did not have any chance against a male who might seek to harm her. Ellie. Her name filled him with warmth. He did not know why. He did not know why calling he
r “female” had annoyed her so much. It was perplexing. He probably should have given her what she wanted. Should have humored her until help arrived.
It was not that he couldn’t remember her name. He wasn’t even sure why he had kept calling her female.
He ran his hand over his face as he looked around frantically. He knew what he should do, what the sensible option was. The practical option. He should go back to his office and call Safan, tell him what happened, and then go back to work.
It was the right thing to do.
She was not his to worry over. He had far more important things to do than race around after one foolish female.
What if she gets lost? What if she trips and falls? What if she walks too close to the cliffs’ edge?
His heart started to beat frantically with every thought. He could not allow harm to come to her. It was only because she was a female on her own. He would offer assistance to any female that needed it. It was his duty as a Zerconian male.
To protect.
But which direction had she gone in? He didn’t even know where she lived in order to check on her. With a sigh, he set out towards the Joyadan village. If she was not mated, then it was likely she lived in one of the houses there. Either that or she lived with Safan.
He would check the village first.
After searching around for twenty minutes and not finding her, he decided he could waste no more time and headed towards Safan’s house. He didn’t question why he didn’t just use his communicator to call the other male. He didn’t think too closely about the fact that he wished to see with his own eyes that the small female was well. He would not be able to concentrate on his work until he ensured she was all right.
And after he ascertained her physical health, he was going to speak to Safan about his concerns over her emotional wellbeing.
Clearly, she needed help.
She needed her bloody head read. What was she thinking?
Ellie fumed as she stormed towards the cliffs. She reached the edge and then started to climb down. Soon after arriving on Zerconia, she’d found this spot. Turns out, living among a lot of people, the vast majority of them arrogant, bossy warriors, took a lot out of you. Sometimes, she just needed a bit of peace and quiet, a place where she could think.
That couldn’t be the place where she lived. She didn’t really think of it as home. It was just a small house that she and Keely had been given to live in. When they’d first come here, they’d stayed with Safan and Blue, but nobody had wanted to cramp their style.
The big guy could be rather loud when he got excited. She blushed as she remembered the things she’d overheard while staying with them.
God, she wanted that for herself.
The Zerconians had been kind enough to take them in because Blue was mated to Safan. She should be grateful for a place to live, that she was safe. That her friends were safe. She was so lucky to have them.
Blue, their leader, strong and fearless. Tane, the warrior, the protector. Marc was the smart one, the inventor. Jack, Blue’s brother, was the one who kept everything running smoothly. And Keely was their negotiator. She’d gotten all their jobs for them.
And then there was her.
She straightened her shoulders. Enough. So he didn’t want her. Wasn’t the end of the world. Now that she knew how he felt, she could stop mooning after him.
At least no one else had seen what happened. Because that would have just been the nail in the coffin of her humiliation.
2
“Is the red-haired female here?” Racar demanded as soon as the door opened.
Safan stood on the other side, looking at him in surprise. “Red-haired female?”
“Safan? Who is it?” Blue appeared behind her mate. “Racar? What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”
“He is asking of a red-haired female,” Safan drawled, looking amused.
“Ellie? Do you mean Ellie?” Blue frowned as she looked up at him.
“Yes, that female. Is she here?”
“Why would she be here at this time of night?” Blue demanded. “She’d only be here if something was wrong. Is something wrong, Racar?”
“Um…well…” He was not quite sure how to answer that.
Blue pushed in front of her mate, her hands on her hips as she stared up at him. The fact that she was more than a foot shorter than he was did not seem to deter her one bit as she faced him.
“What did you do?”
He looked over her head at her mate. Safan was out and out grinning. Safan was very different from most warriors in that he had a sense of humor.
“Don’t look at him!” Blue dug her finger into his chest. He looked down at it in amazement. “I’m talking to you. You look at me. What did you do to Ellie?”
“I did not do anything to her,” he replied, insulted at the implication that he might harm her.
“Then why are you here asking about her?” Blue demanded once more. Why was he being yelled at by females today? How had he come to deserve this?
Enough was enough. He did not have time for this.
“I do not have time for this.”
“Time for what?”
“To find the female!”
Safan reached out and pulled his mate to his side. He was no longer smiling. In fact, he wore a fierce frown. “Do not raise your voice in front of my mate.”
Racar looked at him. Stars. What was he doing? The female had him doing things he would never consider doing before.
“I do apologize,” he said stiffly.
Safan watched him steadily. “I have never known you to get this upset over anything or anyone.”
“Maybe he’s finally gotten a clue,” Blue muttered.
He stared down at her, prepared for her to be upset by his poor behavior. Instead, she was staring at him thoughtfully. “What does this ‘gotten a clue’ mean?”
But Blue didn’t answer.
“Would you like to come inside, Racar?” Safan asked.
What he wished to do was go back to his office and pretend this night had never happened. He would like to continue on with his important research, not chase a crazy female around.
“I should not be here,” he muttered. “I should be working.”
“You’ve been doing that a lot, yeah?” Blue asked, not looking as though she approved.
“Doing a lot of what?”
“Working. Don’t you ever rest? Eat? Relax? Have fun?”
Racar and Safan were both staring down at her in disbelief.
“I do not have time for fun.”
“Mate, you are lecturing someone else on relaxing?” Safan said with disbelief.
“I know how to relax and have fun. Now. Before, I didn’t. I was too concerned with keeping my people alive. I know what it’s like to focus completely on work. Sometimes, that means you miss things. And sometimes, it doesn’t make you a very nice person. You can end up hurting people who care about you. Who only want the best for you.”
He did not understand why she was saying all of this to him. And he certainly did not have time to stand here and listen.
“If the female is not here, then I need to continue to look for her.”
“Look for her?” Safan asked, looking concerned now. “She is missing?”
“What? Ellie’s missing?” Blue repeated.
Racar sighed. He did not wish to explain what had happened. However, Safan was the closest thing Ellie had to a male Zerconian relative. He needed to know that she had disappeared.
“She may not be missing,” he allowed. “But I do not know where she lives in order to check that she is there. She left the research lab more than forty minutes ago and I do not know where she went. But it is dark and she should not be walking around on her own.”
“What was she doing at the lab?” Safan asked.
“She was probably there to check up on him,” Blue told her mate.
“Check up on Racar?” Safan asked “Why would Ellie do that?”
Instead, he appeared almost resigned.
But he did look down at his mate with his eyebrow raised. Blue nodded. Racar guessed they were communicating through their bond. It did irritate him slightly that they were leaving him out of the conversation, but he had more critical things to worry about.
“The important thing here is what Racar did to upset Ellie.” Blue looked up at him.
“What I did to upset her?” he asked.
“Yes. You. I’m guessing that’s what happened, since Ellie isn’t known to just disappear on people for no reason. And since you’re looking for her, I’m guessing she was pretty upset when she took off. Isn’t that right?”
“The female is emotionally unstable,” he said stiffly. Surely they must know that.
“Emotionally unstable? Emotionally unstable?” Blue repeated. “I cannot believe you just said that.”
He looked over at Safan, hoping he would explain why his mate was so upset. Or even better, calm her down. But Safan just watched him through narrowed eyes. “You upset Ellie?”
“I did not upset her. Or at least it was not my intention to upset her.” But he had, he admitted. He was just not certain how exactly. “She is a very emotional female, even for your kind.”
“For our kind?” Now Blue was glaring up at him.
“Yes. Humans.” He looked over at Safan to see him just shaking his head, a smirk on his face.
“What?” he asked impatiently. He was starting to regret ever coming here, especially as Ellie wasn’t even here.
“Do you not like humans, Racar?” Blue asked in a quiet voice.
He grew tense. “Of course I like humans.”
“Huh, ‘cause that’s not obvious from where I’m standing.”
“I am working day and night trying to find a way to slow the human females’ aging process so they can live longer lives with their mates. Why would I do that if I did not like humans?”