Mated on the Moon

by Kate Rudolph

  Her eyes met his and their gazes locked. The brown of her eyes bled into a molten chocolate that he could sink into; her pupils were blown wide with pleasure and sweat coated her brow. “Now,” she urged, “please. I’m ready.”

  Nyco needed no more encouragement. He sank in slowly, letting her swallow him whole until their bodies were joined completely. Already he could feel his soul reaching out, calling to her as the bond wrapped tightly around the two of them, linking them together in an ancient connection that not even his ancestors had fully understood.

  And then he moved, finding his rhythm with her and taking her quickly, every jerk of his hips a promise of the pleasure that he would always give her, every groan and moan given only to her. Ruby was the only woman in the universe for him now, and he would do everything that he could to make himself worthy of being her man, her mate.

  Her fingers dug in even harder against his arms and her head tipped back, her eyes squeezing shut as she gave a keening cry and shuddered around him, her breath heavy, labored with pleasure. With a growl and a final thrust, Nyco came, emptying himself and sealing them together in the denya bond.

  They collapsed together in a satisfied heap and Nyco couldn’t wipe the satisfied smile off his face. It was better than he could have ever imagined. He could feel the bond, pulsing just below his heart and reaching out to Ruby. He knew that if they were ever parted, he could follow it and his path would lead him to her. He didn’t need to be alone anymore. And with the haze of pleasure settled around him, he was sure he could convince Ruby to make her life with him. They already knew they were compatible in body, now he only had to convince her that his heart was hers for the taking, all she had to do was reach.

  “Sleep, denya,” he whispered against her ear. “It will all be okay.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE HEAT COMING OFF Nyco was like an oven behind Ruby, and he had her clamped to him so tightly she felt wrapped in a cocoon. A glance at the clock on the bedside table told her that the post-coital nap hadn’t been long, and her body still had that sated, well-used feel to it. She flipped over and buried her face against Nyco’s chest, breathing in his deep masculine scent and letting it coil through her. Her chest felt weird, not exactly pained, but there was an unfamiliar tightness lodged under her heart. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but she thought she might need to stretch to get back to normal.

  She could do that later, right now she was too warm and comfortable to do any more moving than strictly necessary.

  “You’re awake, denya,” Nyco murmured against her ear, his voice gruff and grumbly with sleep.

  “You keep calling me that.” She kissed his shoulder and pulled back so she could get a good look at him. “What does it mean?” She had a subdermal translator and spoke Interstellar Common, but she didn’t recognize the word, which meant it must be either rare or archaic. Or made up, but she doubted Nyco would call her by something nonsensical.

  Something shifted in his expression and wariness threatened at the door of Ruby’s sated bliss. Nyco sighed and Ruby almost told him not to say anything. She knew that whatever it was couldn’t be good. And after a bout of mind blowing sex, she didn’t want to deal with the disappointment he could deal.

  “I should have told you earlier,” he admitted.

  Okay, Ruby kept quiet, let him talk. Maybe they should have engaged in a bit more discussion before falling into bed, but she didn’t have regrets about that. Not unless he was about to reveal that he had a wife and kids back home and ‘denya’ meant ‘side piece’ in his language.

  She really hoped that wasn’t the case.

  “My people suffer from a curse,” he said, further bringing down the post-coital mood. “We die on our thirtieth birthdays unless...” he trailed off with a sigh and gave his head a little shake. “I agreed to work with the Celestial Mates in the distant hope that I would find...” he trailed off again and Ruby’s frustration grew.

  “You’re kind of freaking me out here, Nyco. Just say it. I just want to know what the word means.” Though part of her mind had hooked on what he’d said about dying. How did that work? How old was he? Was there any way to stop it? They might have just met, but she hated to think of what the universe would be like without him in it. Already he was a bright spot in her world, one she couldn’t wait to learn more about. One she might one day let into her heart the same way she’d let him into her body, without reservation or regret. She already liked him, and with a little more time, that might grow into love.

  “It means that you’re my mate. My denya.” His dark eyes held a plea and a promise.

  But Ruby’s mind scratched to a halt as she tried to wrap her brain around the implications of his confession. “What?” She barely breathed it. Sure, they’d met through Celestial Mates, but she’d taken the word as more of a metaphor or a goal. What Nyco was talking about... stuff like that wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. Humans didn’t work that way. “You mean like we click? We get along well and it could grow?”

  Now that Nyco had confessed, he seemed to gain conviction. “No, I mean that you are fated to be mine, to save me from the Denya Curse.”

  Ruby’s heart thumped heavily in her chest and the sweat on her skin that had been a pleasant reminder of their lovemaking only a moment ago was cooling quickly enough to make her shiver. Or maybe it was Nyco’s words and the intense look in his eyes. “Your... mate?” She still couldn’t get beyond that word. “And you didn’t think to tell me about this before we...” She couldn’t even say it. She pulled back, rolling off the bed and reaching blindly for her clothes. She couldn’t be naked right now, couldn’t deal. “I’m not ready for something like that. Why didn’t you tell me?” She’d only just determined that she liked the guy, she wasn’t ready to plan a wedding or get on his space ship and fly off towards suns unknown. And as her mind reeled with his confession, anger replaced confusion, grounding her with its steady pulse. “I’m not your mate, I didn’t choose that.” Even as she said it, her anger wavered and Nyco’s face fell, the wonder he’d been displaying transforming into dismay. Her cheeks flamed and she could feel the need to get close and comfort him, but now she couldn’t tell if it was something genuine, or whatever weird piece of fate he’d thrown her way.

  No, she couldn’t deal with this right now.

  “I have to go.” She backpedaled out of the room and only realized that she’d forgotten her shoes when she was more than halfway down the hall. Why had they retreated to her room? She looked back, but there was no way she was about to slink back in to grab her sandals while Nyco was still in there. It didn’t matter, the ship was all indoors and the floors were soft enough that she wouldn’t suffer too horribly.

  Ruby walked blindly through the halls, getting onto one of the shuttle platforms and exiting at random. She caught a look at herself in the mirror and tried to put her hair in order, but she looked exactly like a woman who had just rolled out of bed and fled her lover.

  Lover, what a joke. What even was a mate? Why did Nyco have to make it all weird when they were having a good time? It wasn’t like she would run away at the first sign of feelings, of wanting to take things further than the weekend. But there was a big difference between feelings and mating. Mate! Any sane person would run from that.

  Not that she was running, Ruby tried to rationalize. She just needed a little time to make sense of the last few hours, the last day, and the whirlwind that was Nyco.

  A buzzing sound interrupted her thoughts and Ruby reached into her pocket, realize that she’d accidentally brought her communicator with her. The call was coming from Nyco, but she couldn’t stand to talk to him so soon after she’d fled. Doubt assailed her as she remembered how he’d looked absolutely crushed when she pulled away from him.

  Ruby looked back the way she came. Maybe she should go back to the room, talk to him, let him explain everything. Had the secret really been so great? With a few minutes to cool off and a little bit of distance, she could admit to herself that
she might have slightly overreacted. Slightly. Maybe ‘mate’ meant something different to a Detyen. He hadn’t tried to whisk her away in his ship, never to see Earth again. He hadn’t proposed marriage. And she didn’t know if he would have if she hadn’t left when she did.

  Ruby stopped moving and paused to take a good look around. It took her a minute to realize that she was in the excursion port. Here tourists and travelers could board shuttles to take tours of the moon and nearby planets. A sign on the wall indicated that an hour-long tour of the original moon landing site would begin in a few minutes. Without giving it much thought, Ruby shuffled over to the line and boarded the shuttle with the rest of the passengers. Her resolve to stay away from Nyco was already failing, and she knew that if she stayed on the base she would go back to him in just a few minutes. An hour-long tour sounded like just the thing she needed. If she was on the shuttle, she couldn’t simply turn around and go back to her room. She could use the time to think and hopefully by the time she got back her thoughts would start to make more sense.

  Since she had gotten into the line so late, Ruby was forced to take a less than stellar seat right next to the bathroom. One passenger opened the lavatory door and it slammed into her elbow, causing her to yelp. Ruby pulled all her limbs in as best she could and tried not to take up too much space. She glared at the passenger’s retreating back as he left the bathroom and walked to his seat at the front of the shuttle.

  An attendant went over the safety features, but Ruby wasn’t paying much attention, her thoughts still occupied with the alien she’d left lying in her bed. She knew she had made the right decision to get on the shuttle because she could barely keep her legs still and her body wanted to spring up and sprint back to the station so that she could go and find Nyco. But she did no such thing.

  It was a pleasant tour, even if it was designed more for families than single adults. But after they flew by the site where the original human astronauts had first touched down Ruby tuned out the rest of the presentation about the history of human space exploration; she had heard it all in school and she wasn’t in a learning mood at the moment. The soft drone of the presenter was enough to lull her into a light sleep and it took an unexpected bit of turbulence to jolt her from her slumber. Ruby’s eyes snapped open and she looked around in confusion. How long had she been out? The tour was only supposed to be an hour long, but her arms and legs were stiff enough to suggest that she had been asleep for some time. The passengers near her all had worried looks on their faces and were looking out the windows as if trying to make sense of where they were.

  “What’s going on?” she whispered to the person sitting nearest to her.

  The woman glared at her and hissed that she should be quiet.

  All right, then, some help she was. Ruby unsnapped her safety harness and wiggled her way into the bathroom. Just as she had the door closed behind her, the ship jolted as if it was docking with something. Were they back already? Shouldn’t the attendant have said something? She reached for the door, but before she could open it a chorus of screams came from the main cabin and a chilling voice spoke over the loudspeaker. “Anyone tries to fight and they’ll meet my blaster. It’s modified, so none of you will be getting up.”

  AFTER WAITING IN HER room for twenty minutes, Nyco admitted to himself that Ruby wasn’t coming back anytime soon. He wanted to slap himself for the idiotic way he had explained the denya bond to her. What sane person wouldn’t react exactly the way she had? In the minutes after she had gone, Nyco had vacillated between anger and the desperate need to call her back to him, to explain things better and prove to her that they could make it work between the two of them. He still didn’t know if he should have told her last night or if he should have kept the secret to himself until their relationship developed into something more, something stronger.

  But what could be stronger than the denya bond?

  He tried calling Ruby’s communicator, but wasn’t shocked when the call was rejected. And as he stared at the call log, he admitted to himself that a strategic retreat was in order. His denya needed time to cool off, and once she was back he could try talking again, could try explaining things better. He couldn’t even celebrate the fact that his life was no longer limited to a short thirty years. In a strange way it felt like he had stolen the extra time from his mate. Nothing about the bond would hurt her. It connected them, soul to soul, but he didn’t steal her years. And if she chose, she could walk away forever with no harm done to her. But Nyco didn’t want that. Whether it was the bond or some sort of natural connection, he knew that there was a possibility between them, something so right that he would never find it with another person.

  He left her room and retreated to his own to gather his thoughts and come up with a better way to explain the bond to her. To explain his actions. There had to be a way to fix this. He hadn’t known Ruby for long, but he wasn’t willing to give her up because of one misunderstanding.

  A thorough shower left him feeling refreshed, even if his mind was still spinning and trying to come up with the right thing to say to Ruby when she got back from wherever she had gone. Though Nyco wanted to see her, wanted to hold her again, he wasn’t worried for her. Gamma Station was safe, and everything he had learned about his denya told him that she was a smart and resourceful woman. She would return when she was ready, and he would be here waiting for her, no matter how long it took.

  His communicator chimed and for a moment Nyco was hopeful that it was Ruby, but those hopes were immediately dashed when he saw Kenny’s picture on the screen. He almost dismissed the call, but some masochistic instinct had him answering even if he wasn’t ready to share what had happened between himself and Ruby. That information was for them alone.

  “Nyco!” Kenny greeted, all smiles and excitement. “You haven’t called me yet to tell me that the whole thing was a no go. Does that mean we had success?”

  Nyco immediately regretted his decision to answer the call. “We had a nice date,” he hedged. “Nothing else to report.”

  Kenny let out a curious little sound. “You told me that you would recognize your mate on sight. So did you? Yes or no.”

  Why had he told that to Kenny? Oh, right. So he didn’t waste his time. “I have an activity scheduled shortly,” he lied. “I need to give you a call back later.” He ended the call before Kenny could object to that excuse.

  Nyco threw himself back on the bed and bounced slightly as he landed, letting out an ‘oof’ of air. He could feel the bond thrumming in his chest and if he concentrated hard on it, it tugged him away from his room and down the outside hall. It would point him to wherever Ruby was hiding. So he didn’t concentrate on it. He had done everything wrong already, and he was not about to screw this up. She needed time to think, and he could give that to her now. He had all the time in the world. In all the worlds.

  He lost track of time as he lay there and was jolted out of a light sleep by a siren’s wail and an announcement over the station wide speaker system. “All guests of Gamma Station must immediately return to their rooms and wait there until further notice. Failure to comply will result in fines and be dealt with by the security officers. Station attendants are to follow protocol M. Thank you for your cooperation.”

  Nyco sprang up from where he was lying and strode across his room to the door. He yanked it open and looked outside to see several guests hurrying down the hall towards their quarters. When he tried to step outside, someone in a Gamma Station uniform appeared out of nowhere and waved him back into his room. He wanted to argue, wanted to ask what was going on, but from the harried look on the attendant’s face, he wouldn’t get anywhere by doing so.

  His long years as a mercenary had taught him that sometimes it was better to wait. Patience paid off. He retreated into his room and locked the door behind him, laying back down on the bed and pulling out his communicator. He tried to call Ruby to make sure that everything was all right with her, but unsurprisingly she did not answer the cal
l.

  The announcement repeated over and over until Nyco could recite it from memory. What was protocol M? He pulled up the search engine on his communicator and entered the term on the off chance that it was some universal signal. He didn’t expect to find anything, so when the definition came up, his blood ran cold.

  Protocol M: passengers in distress, hostiles sighted, abduction likely.

  He tried to call Ruby again, and when the call didn’t go through he got up off the bed and started to pace. The station was safe; if there was any enemy, it would attack one of the shuttles, not the easily defensible base. Why would Ruby be on one of the shuttles?

  She might have decided to head back to Earth without telling you. The treacherous thought whispered in his mind, but he rejected it out of hand. She had left the room with only the clothes on her back, she hadn’t even worn shoes. Would she really abandon all of her things like that? He had shocked her with his revelation, but he didn’t think she would run that far.

  He focused on the newly formed bond in the hopes that it would pull him just a little bit down the hallway back towards her room. Instead, it was like his chest was being pulled straight up through the ceiling, towards the space overhead. The pull was faint, as if she were some great distance away. As if she were on a shuttle somewhere, in distress and all alone.

  Nyco pulled on his shoes and grabbed his blaster from where he had each stored in one of his bags. Screw the protocol, he had to find his mate.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THERE WASN’T ENOUGH air in the bathroom. Ruby couldn’t draw in a deep enough breath, and her sight was going hazy at the edges as black dots danced over her vision. Hyperventilating. That was what this was. Just because she knew what was happening to her, didn’t make it easier to stop. She gripped the edge of the sink and the hard press of the material against her palms grounded her in the moment. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly before doing it again and again. It took several minutes for her heartbeat to calm down, and though her breathing was steady her hands still shook when she lifted them up.