by Renee Rose
She giggled. “Are you going to bet against it?”
He gave her a chagrined smile. “No. I fear it’s inevitable.”
“So let’s bet on how long it takes her.”
Paal threw back his head and laughed—a rich hearty sound that sent pleasure winging through every part of her. All the while, he kept perfect time with his feet—their feet, since he guided her steps, too. “Two more songs.”
She shot a glance over at his mother to gauge how much physical contact she had going with her suitor. “I give it three. But I’m not sure I can keep dancing long enough to find out. I’m getting dizzy.”
Paal laughed again and led her to a hoverchair where he sat down and pulled her into his lap. “We’ll watch from here, then.”
She melted into him, the heat of his body warming her skin. Their closeness made her bold. Maybe she would tell him about the pregnancy tonight. “Did you ever want to become a parent yourself?” she asked.
The comms unit in Paal’s collar blinked. “Update required from palatial pod. Go to a secure channel.”
Paal stiffened. “It’s the prince.” He stood, lightly setting Leti on her feet. “I’m sorry, I have to go. You’ll stay to tell me who wins the bet?”
Disappointment blew through her but she forced herself to nod and smile. “Of course.”
He grasped her nape and tipped her head back, brushing his lips lightly over hers. “Thank you for the dance.”
Her heart proceeded to dance and glide around the room, spinning beneath his violet gaze.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
So what if she lost her heart? Her old plan of never caring had ceased to exist the moment she found out she was carrying their baby. It was time to make up new rules.
Paal jogged to the flight deck and switched on a private communication line. “Palatial pod to carrier. This is Paal.”
“Message received, Paal. This is Zander. Have you received any communication from the other troop?”
“No, my lord.”
“Shanli was a diversion. There are no Finnian ships here. We are changing course for Zandia. We lost communication with the other troops. If you receive any transmission from them, I require immediate notification.”
“Yes, my lord. Of course.”
“Anything to report from the pod?”
“Twenty-two Zandian refugees have joined us. No other news to report.”
“Good. You have your orders.”
“Yes, my lord.” Paal ended the transmission and sagged against the control panel. All the lightness of his evening with Leti drained away.
He attempted to connect with Master Seke, but like Zander, received no answer.
Veck.
Vecking bad news.
He hated to break it to Mina that her father had gone missing. To any of them. He definitely didn’t want to return to the Great Hall with the news. Especially not when everyone had worked so hard to lift each other’s spirits.
What had Leti said? You had to find flow. But flowing around the loss of this battle would be pretty vecking hard.
It would mean the end of their species. The next generation would consist solely of Eslyn’s three Zandian young and Lamira and Bayla’s two halflings. Hardly enough to repopulate. And if they lost their bid for their planet, there wouldn’t be a place to repopulate, anyway.
No, they had to win this war. One way or another.
He just wished he didn’t feel so vecking helpless stuck on the palatial pod while the rest of his species fought.
Leti watched Paal’s mother slip away with her suitor after three dances. She’d seated herself beside Bayla to watch and she stood after they left. “I think I’ll head to sleep,” she murmured to Bayla.
“I’m exhausted too. I’ll walk with you.” Her new friend also rose and they left the Great Hall together, walking down the corridor in the direction of Bayla’s chamber and the lift. They stopped outside Bayla and the doctor’s chamber.
“You haven’t told him yet, have you?” Bayla asked.
Leti shook her head. “No.” She didn’t want to go into all the reasons why she hesitated. “There’s just a lot going on.”
“Yes, but considering the uncertainty now, wouldn’t it be better to secure your future? You’re sure to get Paal to mate you when he finds out you’re carrying his young.”
Her stomach twisted. Bayla’s line of thinking made sense logically. Under normal circumstances, it would’ve been her exact thought.
But these circumstances were far from normal.
Her heart was in play, and “securing a future” with Paal if he didn’t want her felt dead wrong.
“Well, I think you should tell him, but it’s up to you. I won’t say any word until you tell me to.” Bayla gave her a quick hug and opened her door. “Good night.”
“Good night,” she mumbled and stepped around the corner to the lift, only to run right into the solid form of her master.
And he’d never looked so fearsome.
Her stomach lurched.
Cold anger darkened his face. “Tell me what?” His words came out cold and crisp.
She attempted to suck in a shaky breath, but it didn’t come. “I’m pregnant.” She forced the words out over numb lips.
She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but his expression darkened even more. “I see. A clever strategy to secure your future.”
The corridor tilted. It was a wonder her feet stayed planted on the floor with the way her head swam. Clever? Strategy?
She tried to shake her head, but had no idea if she was successful. “No, that’s not what this is,” she managed.
But of course he would think so. Bayla had just said as much aloud.
His mother had accused her of strategizing at dinner.
And after growing up with a mother like that, of course he’d believe the worst.
In fact, it explained why he grew so outraged every time she tried to seduce him. He always believed he was being played.
He took one menacing step toward her. “No?” Ice splintered through his words. “Then what is it?”
And she supposed she had been playing him. Using her body as a weapon was the only trick she had in her bag. Since she’d been put into sex slavery, it had been her only means of survival. She’d used it at every turn.
But that was before Paal had made her believe something else was possible.
Well, she wasn’t going to prove him right. She lifted her chin and jabbed a finger in his chest. “Fuck you—or veck you, as you’d put it. I’m not looking to secure a future with you. This baby probably isn’t even yours!”
She stepped through the open lift door and smacked the button to close it. In the three interminable seconds that followed, she watched Paal’s pallor turn from peach lavender to pale purple and the lines of his face go wooden.
Then, just as the door shut, it flooded with violent color. “What the veck do you mean—”
The door slid shut as she choked on a sob. She leaned her forehead against the door, forcing in a slow breath.
This was for the best.
This was definitely for the best.
She couldn’t be with a male who didn’t trust her. Who believed the worst of her in every moment.
Even if she deserved that belief.
She wouldn’t harangue him into a relationship he didn’t want.
She knew from the start what happened to slaves flawed enough to believe in love.
Heartbreak.
The only inevitability.
At least she got hers over sooner than later.
The door slid open and she ran to Paal’s chamber. He’d given her a code to enter to get in and she used it. She rushed in to grab her things—which really consisted of a few borrowed items of clothing, then quickly left, running back down the hall.
Should she take the lift? No, what if he was coming down?
She raced the opposite way down the corridor, jogging through the maze of halls t
hat made up the center level of the pod. She just needed to find a place to hide.
And she needed it quick—before the tears started to fall.
Rage rocketed through Paal. He slammed his fist into the wall beside the lift to keep himself from tearing after his female and demanding to know exactly what was going on.
This baby probably isn’t even yours.
Was it true? How had she even been impregnated? Weren’t all sex slaves altered to prohibit conception? Those who weren’t breeders, that is?
Had she known she was carrying another male’s baby whilst she tried to seduce him?
But if so, why not pretend it was his?
Nothing made sense.
All he knew was the sickening sense of being duped, being trapped when he’d heard her talking with the other human about securing her future made him certain he shouldn’t follow her.
Whatever was in play here, it would end in disaster.
He’d be the chump his father had been, left cold the moment the situation changed or a better opportunity came along.
His own mother had seen it clearly that night at the weekly meal, hadn’t she?
She looks like she wants to get her hooks into you.
He forced his feet to start walking and made his way to the deck, hoping to the Zandian star something—anything—would require his attention there.
8
Leti ignored the female voices around her.
Maybe they’d go ahead if she just left her head under the pillow.
Some being pulled the covers off her and gave her leg a little shake. “Come on, Leti. You can’t cry in bed all day, even if it’s the nicest sleepdisk you’ve ever slept on.”
Bayla.
Sigh.
She emerged from under the pillow and shoved her tangled hair out of her face. Her eyes still stung from all the crying she’d done the night before. Or had it been an entire planet rotation ago? She didn’t know how long she’d been buried in Mina’s covers hoping to wake up to a new reality.
One in which it didn’t feel like her heart had been put in shackles and whipped with an animal hide strap until it gave up and just stopped working. And, of course, that image brought memories of Paal rushing back to the forefront.
“Guess what?” Bayla sat on the sleepdisk by her feet, Mina near her head. “Mina has the ability to project holograms in her chamber.”
Leti rubbed her swollen eyes. Bayla’s words made no sense to her overslept mind. “Huh?”
“Holograms. For entertainment. Some of them are funny, too. Want to watch?”
“Oh. No, I don’t think—”
“We’re watching,” Mina insisted, crawling up on the sleepdisk and sitting beside her. Bayla scooted onto the other side.
Leti had ended up at Mina’s door after running from Paal’s chamber, and had told her the long, sordid story.
“And guess what else?”
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“I brought food. I know you haven’t eaten for an entire planet rotation. That can’t be good for the young. You need to keep your strength up.” She pushed a bowl of sweet-smelling custard in front of her. “Try this. It’s heavenly.”
“I’m not hungry,” she groaned, pushing it back.
“Try it,” Bayla said more firmly. “You’re going to love it.”
Leti took a bite, only to stop the woman from talking any more. Her head ached with a vengeance. Okay, it actually was delicious. Sweet and creamy goodness. She took another bite.
“See? What did I tell you? Now, let’s watch.”
Mina flicked on a hologram depicting a Zandian family. “These are old. From when I was a child. Before Zandia was taken.”
Leti sat up straighter, commanding her eyes to focus. Her friends were trying to help her. But watching at the strong, good-looking male Zandian on the screen only reminded her of Paal.
So much more handsome. So much stronger. More capable.
She remembered how adept he was in a crisis. When he’d rescued her. When they’d been attacked.
She remembered the way he’d kissed her like he wanted to devour her.
Before she could stop them, tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m just not up for company.”
“The hormones don’t help,” Bayla said kindly. “They can intensify your emotions.
She sniffed, wiping at a tear. “That must be it.”
That, or she’d truly lost her heart to Paal, even while she thought she’d been protecting it.
“He’s going to realize what a colossal mistake he made,” Bayla said.
She shook her head. “No, he won’t. I told him it’s not his young.”
“Why would you say that?” Mina demanded.
“Because… “
It sounded stupid now. “I didn’t want him believing I got pregnant to trap him. Because I didn’t.”
“Of course you didn’t. I don’t even know how it’s possible,” Mina said.
“Me neither, but you should probably get checked out, too. You might be fertile, too.”
The hope that bloomed in Mina’s eyes made Leti remember what was more important. A tiny life grew within her. Her very own child.
And Paal’s.
The damn tears started again.
“Let me ask you this,” Mina said. “If Paal hadn’t acted like an idiot and accused you of trapping him, would you have wanted to mate him?”
The tears came down faster. She wanted to lie and say no. Wanted to make that true. But she couldn’t.
She nodded miserably. “I’ve never come alive the way I do with him. Not just sexually, but as a being. I feel real when I’m with him. Not a slave. Not a pet. Like there’s more to me than just my body. He cared about what lay beneath it all.”
She rubbed the center of her chest as if she could make the ache go away.
“Then just tell him the young is his. Give him some time to adjust to the idea and see what happens.”
“No.” She shook her head stubbornly. “I’m not going to tell him and I forbid either of you to tell him, either. Using the baby would be trapping him. If he wants to be with me, it needs to be without dangling a child in front of him.”
Her friends looked at her like she’d gone mad.
“Promise you won’t tell him.” She screwed up her face into a severe expression.
“Only if you promise to get out of this sleepdisk and get into the washtube,” Mina said.
She sighed. “Fine. Yes. I’m getting off.” She dragged her heavy limbs to the edge of the sleepdisk and stepped off. “I’m going to the washtube.”
She hoped to the stars it would wash off the darkness weighing down her very soul.
Paal smashed his fist through the wall of the flight deck. He’d already punched three holes in the wall in his chamber. It hadn’t done a thing to take the edge off his nerves.
Leti had disappeared entirely. She’d moved out of his chamber and he hadn’t seen her since. For the first planet rotation he’d been too vecking stubborn to ask where she was. But after another sleepless night without her—with her scent fading from his hoverdisk sheets—he was going mad.
He couldn’t help but believe he’d made a terrible mistake.
If having Leti leave him—yes, she’d vecking walked out on him—made his chest feel as if it had been sliced open by a vecking laser gun, then would being trapped by her have been any worse?
It couldn’t be.
Because, veck, at this point, he wished to the Zandian sun he’d been ensnared by that wiley female. He wished to the Zandian sun she’d sunk her claws deep into him and refused to let go.
Wouldn’t that be far better than this? The empty ache of having her gone and not even understanding what had gone wrong?
Except he had a nagging, itchy sense he should understand what went awry.
Whatever it was, it had been his vecking fault.
The door to the flight deck slid open and Lady Taramina strode in, mo
uth tight.
Alarm rocketed through him. Had something happened to Leti? Did something go wrong with the pregnancy? Stars, humans were a weak species, what if the pregnancy killed her?
Lady Taramina just looked at him, cocking her head to the side as if she might decipher some deep meaning from the set of his horns.
“What?”
“You think you’re too good for a human? Is that your hang up?”
He nearly choked on his own spit. “No! What are you talking about? Is this about Leti?”
Pure scorn danced across Taramina’s face. “Of course this is about Leti. I want to know what your objection is to her. I see attraction between you two, sometimes affection. But it’s like you fundamentally hate who she is. Is it because she was a sex pet?”
His throat tightened at the word hate.
He didn’t vecking hate Leti. How could she say that? He loved her.
Holy Zandian star. Was that true?
Yes, it was.
He loved his little female.
Mina strode forward with long, purposeful steps. She stopped two paces in front of him. “Leti told me you mistrusted when she tried to please you. Like you thought it was a trick or something.”
His stomach churned. The tingle crawling over his skin told him he was about to get his ass handed to him, but, like an idiot, he still hadn’t put it all together.
“Let me tell you something, Commander. If you think a sex pet has any options available to her besides performing as trained and pleasing her master’s every wish before he even wishes it, you’re dreaming.” She got up into his face, her eyes flashing a bluish-purple with anger. “So if you resent Leti working hard for your pleasure, if you think it’s a sign you can’t trust her, then you need to find yourself a different female.” He swallowed under her furious gaze, so similar to her father’s, it made him shift in his boots. “And furthermore, if you’d ever bothered to ask her anything about her life as a slave, you would know that her fertility has never been under her control. So the idea of her getting pregnant on purpose to trap you?” Lady Taramina made a scoffing sound. “Asinine.” She started to march away, apparently concluding her lecture, but then she whirled back for another round. “And don’t you think if she meant to trap you, she would’ve told you that baby was yours?”