by Zoey Draven
The male had known English. He’d said those words with such hate that she felt it in her very bones.
Suddenly, she stumbled against her friend, who held her up. Vaxa spotted them and he abandoned the stall immediately, leaving the food behind, and pushed towards them.
“Kat,” he said, reaching out to take her cheeks. “What happened?” he snapped at Keriva.
“She said she does not feel well.”
Kate looked at her mate’s concerned features, seeing the worry in his gaze. She knew that he sensed something was wrong. She could feel him reaching out to their blood bond, but she shook her head, cutting him out.
“I’m fine,” she tried to assure him, touching his forearm. “I just need to sit down.”
Vaxa frowned, looking towards their hovercraft, which seemed miles away. “I will carry you.”
Kate stepped away. Luxirians already thought humans were weak. How would it look if Vaxa had to carry her out of the market?
“No, I can walk,” Kate protested. “Just take me back.”
Vaxa’s nostrils flared, but then he began to guide her through the market. People parted for them, all of them staring. She felt the weight of a hundred eyes on her, but she made herself smile.
Keriva touched her arm as they neared the hovercraft. “Are you sure you are well, Kat?”
“Yes,” Kate murmured, plastering on another smile. “Go. Don’t worry about me. I’ll see you when you get back.”
Keriva hesitated for just a moment, but then nodded. “The Fates are with you,” she said and then she stepped back, watching as Vaxa got them both into their hovercraft and powered it up. They left the market behind a moment later. Kate couldn’t help but peer down at the crowd, searching for the man. He was no where in sight.
“I should not have taken you here, luxiva,” Vaxa said, his tone gruff. He was angry with himself. “Not in your state.”
She leaned her head against his arm, feeling his hand clasp her hip. Her wrist throbbed and she knew there would a nasty looking bruise in the morning. She tucked it against her side, concealing it in the folds of her dress.
“It just happened so suddenly,” she murmured. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he growled.
Kate blew out a breath, feeling a little bit better now that she was away from the crowd, away from that man. Under any circumstances, Vaxa could not know what happened down there. He had enough to deal with. It would only enrage him and there was no telling what he would do if he found out.
No, Kate decided. It was best if he didn’t know.
“Will you take me back to the archives?” she asked. “I have those—”
“Nix. You will rest at our dwelling.”
“But I promised Bruxilia that—”
“Do not argue with me, female,” Vaxa rasped in a tone that Kate recognized. She wouldn’t win this argument, so there was no use in fighting.
Kate nodded, pressing herself closer to his comforting body, wondering how the hell she was going to hide her bruise from her very protective, very observant mate.
FOUR
Vaxa’an summoned Privanax the moment they arrived back to their dwelling, despite his Kat’s protests that she was fine.
He wouldn’t take any chances when it came to the health of his mate. He remembered the way his stomach became heavy at the sight of her pale face in the middle of the market and he cursed himself for the thousandth time, for leaving her.
Privanax arrived swiftly. The doctor held his scanner and screen, but not much else. After a distracted, mumbled greeting at Vaxa’an, he hovered the scanner over his mate’s stomach, slowly running it up and down.
He was silent for a moment, checking his scanner, while Vaxa’an paced around the hub. Then Privanax said, “The offspring is growing very rapidly. It has only been a few span since I last monitored you, but at this rate…I would guess that there is another three, maybe three and half, lunar cycles before you will be birthing. Perhaps the rapid growth is weakening you, making you more sensitive to our environment.”
“What do you recommend?” Vaxa’an asked.
“Rest,” the doctor said, turning his head to address him. “As the offspring grows in size, your mate will have a more difficult time. Her physiology is not meant to fully gestate young in as quickly a time as Luxirians.” He turned his eyes back to Kat. “You will begin to feel more tired soon, weaker. The offspring will begin to grow at seemingly astonishing rates to you.”
Kat didn’t say much and Privanax didn’t offer much more. Vaxa’an walked the doctor out to his hovercraft once he gathered his supplies.
Just as they stepped outside his dwelling, Vaxa’an caught his arm, stopping him for a brief moment.
“Prime Leader?”
In Luxirian, Vaxa’an murmured quietly, “I want to be clear about one thing. If you believe that the health of my mate is threatened by the offspring in any way, you must always put my mate first. Am I clear?”
The doctor’s expression sobered, but he nodded. “Yes, Prime Leader. I understand.”
“She is my life now,” Vaxa’an continued, feeling a swell of emotion. “We can always try again for a child, but I will never be able to get her back. I know that you are interested in the study of her pregnancy and in our child, but you will always make her health your priority.”
Privanax said slowly, “I would never endanger her life for the pursuit of research, Prime Leader.”
Vaxa’an released him. “I needed to hear you say it.”
Privanax inclined his head, looking back briefly at the dwelling. “Please have her come see me in a few spans. I can run more substantial testings at my lab.”
Then the doctor boarded his hovercraft and left.
Turning back to his dwelling, Vaxa’an realized that he had forgotten how fragile his mate truly was. She was a human carrying a Luxirian child. Of course, she would be in a weakened state.
When he returned to her, she was leaning back against the cushions near the fire pit. She looked so beautiful—her once-strange features morphed into something familiar and warm—that he immediately went to her, not able to stand another moment without touching her.
“I should have known better,” he murmured, pulling her into his lap.
“Vaxa, I’m fine,” she said, a hint of exasperation in her tone. “I don’t feel weak. You’re just overreacting.”
“For good reason. Sometimes I forget the limits of your body.”
She blew out a sharp breath. “I don’t want to argue right now. And the direction that this conversation is headed is definitely towards an argument.”
“I want you to stop your work at the archives.”
“Vaxa, I already said no!” Kat said, her temper rising.
“You heard Privanax. He says that you need to rest. The child will only continue to take more and more of your strength. What if something happened when you were away from Bruxilia?”
“Something could happen here,” she argued, pushing at his chest to scramble off his lap. She stood, glaring down at him. “You’re gone all the time. It’s the same thing. At least working at the archives, I have something to do.”
“I will have Bidan stay with you whenever I am not here.” Bidan had served his family since before his birth. He would gladly watch over his mate.
“I do not need a babysitter, Vaxa,” Kat said, her jaw clenched. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I will find a way to get to work even if you make me stay. You don’t control me.”
His Instinct told him to tread carefully. His blood bond told him that his mate would not take kindly to his orders. But she didn’t understand how taxing this pregnancy would be on her body. Even Privanax did not know what to expect.
“I will not change my mind about this, luxiva,” he rumbled, shaking his head. He was the Prime Leader. He was not used to his orders being ignored.
“And I won’t either, Vaxa.”
“You will,” he s
aid, lowly. “Even if I have to tie you to our sleeping platform.”
Her eyes narrowed, an angry flush marring her cheeks. “I was your prisoner once, Vaxa. I will not be again.”
Kat turned away, heading for their quarters, but he was not finished speaking about this. He shot to his feet and grabbed her wrist, but dropped his hand in alarm when she hissed, as though in pain.
His gaze darkened and shame spread in his chest, heavy and searing. Sometimes, he forgot his own strength when it came to his small mate. He hadn’t thought he was grabbing her hard, but the way she cradled her wrist against her breasts told him otherwise.
“Luxiva…” he started, his voice nothing more than a pained rasp, reaching for her, but then stopping himself. “I did not mean—I did not…”
Kat shielded her wrist from him, turning her face away for a brief moment, her long brown hair falling over her fine, delicate features. He’d woken with that hair tickling his chest and had threaded his fingers through its lush, soft length.
“I am ashamed I have hurt you, Kat,” he said, inclining his head to her. His Instinct clawed at him from the inside until he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
He had only made things worse for his mate. He had driven her to retreat and then had physically harmed her. By prolonging his presence in their home, when he was in this state, he was worried he would only do more harm in trying to make amends.
“I will leave you to give you time to rest,” he said, turning his gaze away.
“Vaxa…” Kate said, her voice trailing off as he turned to the door. His pace was quick, urgent. He didn’t even stop to breathe until he had boarded his hovercraft and left their terrace.
With the wind at his back, he raced towards the training pits. He needed to focus his mind and punish his body before he could return to his mate.
* * *
Regret weighed Kat’s body down as she slipped into their bed. After the incident at the marketplace and the somewhat heated exchange with Vaxa, she felt drained. She’d looked forward to taking a little nap snuggled up to her warm mate, but now she faced the large bed alone.
She cursed herself for not stopping Vaxa. Now, he believed he’d hurt her, when in reality, he’d just accidentally touched the sensitive flesh where that man in the marketplace had actually hurt her.
It had been on the tip of her tongue to just tell him. He had looked so…stricken. So pained.
Kate felt tears drip down her cheeks. What she wouldn’t give to be able to talk to her best friend, Beks, who was millions and millions and millions of miles away on Earth. Beks always had answers for any kind of predicament, especially when it came to men.
And she probably thinks that you’re buried in a ditch somewhere, she thought with a fresh wave of sadness.
Beks would’ve been the first one to realize that she’d been taken. The two had talked every day, had seen each other almost every day. They’d only just lived down the street from each other in Chicago.
She wondered if there was some possible way to send a message to her. In choosing Vaxa, in choosing to remain on Luxiria even though Vaxa’s spaceships could return her to Earth, she’d abandoned her best friend and left her wondering what the hell had happened. Guilt ate at her almost every day whenever she thought about it.
Miss you, Beks, Kate thought, hoping that somehow, some way, her friend would just instinctively know that she was alive and well. Kate had to believe that one day, they would see each other again.
Pressing her nose into the furs, she inhaled the comforting smell of her mate. She wished that they hadn’t argued. But she also wished that he would drop the whole ‘going to work’ thing. She didn’t like people telling her what to do. She never had. Her mate was no different, but unlike a lot of people, she cared about his opinions, about what he thought about her.
Kate was so used to her independence, so used to being single, that she’d forgotten what it felt like to be cared for, to be protected. Eventually, she knew that working might be out of the question, especially if the baby was going to be as big as Privanax believed, but for now, she enjoyed it. Vaxa would understand. They’d just both been a little on edge since the marketplace. She’d talk to him about it in the morning.
Kate just wished they hadn’t left things the way they did.
* * *
It was night time when she woke next, surprisingly enough. And she woke when Vaxa slid into their bed. He was nude, his hair wet from the bath.
Kate remained still, coming out from the heavy, disorienting daze of sleep. So, she was confused when he didn’t immediately pull her close, wrapping her in his arms, like how they usually slept. He stayed on his side of the bed, close to the edge, lying on his back.
Kate frowned.
“Vaxa?” she whispered, reaching out her hand to touch his bare forearm.
He touched her hand. “Sleep, luxiva,” he murmured. But he didn’t roll over to embrace her. The wrongness of it struck her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting up, the furs pooling around her larger belly. She peered through the darkness at his face. He didn’t look like he was injured even though she could see fresh cuts and bruises that would be gone by morning. Luxirians healed fast.
Vaxa blew out a breath. “It is nothing, Kat. Rest.” Still, he didn’t move to touch her. For the first time, she actively tried to reach out to their blood bond, to try to glean his emotions. But he must have felt her doing it, because he said sharply, “Nix.”
“Vaxa?” Kate asked, wide awake. She hated the way her throat burned. “Why are you being like this? What’s wrong?”
She remembered their argument from earlier, how upset he had been when he’d left, but nothing that would warrant this.
She scooted towards him until her hip pressed against the side of his chest. “Please tell me.”
“Kat, I just want to rest,” he snapped.
She sat still for a brief moment. Hurt and the feeling of rejection made her eyes burn.
Still, she whispered, “Is it something I—”
“Kat,” he growled, “For once, just obey me.”
“Okay,” she whispered, stunned. For a moment, she didn’t even breathe. Once she was certain she hadn’t misunderstood him, that lump in her throat only got bigger and dread pooled in her stomach, making her feel sick.
The furs were impossibly loud as she returned to her side of the bed. They shifted around her, rustling with every small move she made. Her own little symphony. She lay completely still once she was settled, listening to Vaxa’s breaths. Gently, slowly, she cradled her growing belly in her hands, finding comfort in the warmth of her own skin, knowing that her baby was safe underneath her palms. Vaxa usually held her belly as they drifted off to sleep and she’d grown used to it these past few weeks.
Her ex-boyfriend back on Earth, Peter, had once been the love of her life, or at least she’d naively believed. Growing up as an orphan, going from foster home to foster home, Kate had almost fallen in love with him too easily. When she’d met him, he’d been kind, gentle, protective, much like Vaxa. He made her laugh, he’d given her butterflies in her stomach when he brought her silly gifts and dandelions. For close to three years, they’d had a good, happy life.
After that third year…everything began to change. He began pulling away from her little by little, working longer hours, waking up before she did and coming home after she went to sleep, postponing dinner plans, deciding to push off their Europe trip until the next year when he could get more time off work. It had all happened so gradually, tiny little baby steps to the eventual blow-up of their relationship, that she hadn’t even realized anything was happening at all. She’d been stupid. She’d been blind.
He began losing his temper more easily, began suggesting that she lose a little weight, that she shouldn’t wear leggings and tennis shoes to the grocery store. Little things that added up over time and made her self-conscious.
When she discovered that he’d been cheating on
her, it honestly shouldn’t have come as a surprise. But it had. A big, ugly surprise, except his new girlfriend certainly hadn’t been big and she certainly hadn’t been ugly.
Kate hadn’t dated since and it had been a couple years.
She thought about Peter in that particular moment because right around the time she calculated he’d started the affair, he had come home late. He’d come to bed and when she woke up, he’d pushed her away, much like Vaxa had.
Of course, she didn’t believe that Vaxa would ever, ever cheat on her. But she couldn’t help but feel those similar feelings of self-doubt creep up on her. She’d kept herself strong for so long. She’d disregarded every little thing that Peter had said to her, knowing that if someone couldn’t respect her enough, their opinion shouldn’t matter to her. With the help of Beks, she’d built herself back up and she hadn’t felt that way since.
Entering into a new relationship—and her relationship with Vaxa was very new, despite the mating ceremony, despite the pregnancy—with someone was always a tricky battlefield. You had to know where to step, when to push forward, where to retreat.
It became obvious to her that when it came to Vaxa, she didn’t know how to navigate this battlefield. Not yet.
And maybe it was just the hurt or the hormones that were making her feel this way, but that night, as she finally drifted off to sleep, she didn’t feel good about the state of their relationship. She didn’t know why he was suddenly putting some distance between them.
And Kate didn’t know why she was letting him do it.
FIVE
Vaxa wasn’t in bed the next morning when she woke up. She stared at the vague imprint of his body and then pushed out of bed, slowly making her way to the bathroom, where she bathed and dressed.
Bidan was in the living room when she ventured out of the bedroom. Vaxa was no where in sight.
“Good morning,” she greeted, but she couldn’t find it in herself to conjure up a big smile.