The Poltien looked back and forth between the alien and me and shrugged. “It’s not up to me.”
“I am Commander Eldron Gendovi. And Mia Jones is going with me.”
Panic began crawling up my throat. “I am not.”
The shuttle bay door opened, and the line of women began moving steadily inside, streaming into the bay to board the shuttle.
The commander reached down and took my hand, managing to hold it lightly but also firmly. He raised his other wrist to his mouth and barked out a code into the wristcom. “This is Gendovi. Get Vos on the com, please.”
This cannot be happening. I have to get home to Josiah.
My stomach twisted at the thought of staying here any longer than I already had. But if I caused a scene, it might raise even more questions than were about to be leveled in my direction.
Oh, God. What do I do?
My lips still burned where the commander had kissed me, and part of me wanted nothing more than to throw myself at him, ignore the world around me.
But I couldn’t do that. Not if I wanted to make sure no one figured out about Josiah.
Not if I want to make sure Frank doesn’t get to him.
My heart sank as my fellow rejected brides filed into the shuttle that would take them home.
What to do? Stay here and deal with whatever had just happened? Or try to fight my way onto the shuttle and get back to Earth?
I had to go home.
I reached up and grabbed the commander’s wrist. “Please, you don’t understand. I have to get home. It’s…”
I was about to say it was a matter of life or death. But I was interrupted by Vos Klavoii, appearing at the end of the hall and hurrying our direction.
“Commander Gendovi!” he exclaimed. “I am thrilled to see that you have found a mate—even if it was at the very last minute.”
I opened my mouth to protest, then realized Vos had been followed by several vidglobes, every single one of them focused on me.
All of them sending images of my face back to Earth.
So much for not getting noticed.
I am so screwed.
Chapter Eight
Eldron
“Are you sure you don’t want to simply join the current Bride Games?”
Vos sat behind his desk, his elbows resting on the broad expanse of Earth wood in front of him as he tapped his forefingers together. He had not asked me to sit, but I’d pulled a chair away from the wall, anyway. Station 21 might be Vos’s domain, but I outranked him. At worst, we were equals, and I was going to do everything I could to make sure he remembered that.
“I’m positive,” I finally replied after staring at him for a few long, silent moments. “I have several tech teams at work scanning nearby areas, particularly the Alveron Horde quadrants, for any new intel. I need to check in with them. Mia and I will simply have a mating ceremony and be done.”
I hoped that getting the ceremony over with quickly would help eliminate the expression of sheer terror I had seen on my mate’s face when she realized that rather than going home to Earth, she would be participating in the Bride Games with me.
As for whatever reason she had for wanting to go back to Earth? We could deal with that later. I would make sure she had everything she wanted.
There would be no reason for her to ever need to go back to Earth.
Of course, if she were homesick, we could visit occasionally.
Vos narrowed his eyes at me. “I agreed to allow you to join the grooms in this year’s games on the condition that if you actually found a mate, you would participate in the Bride Games.”
We held one another’s gazes for another long moment as I considered whether this was a battle I truly wanted to fight.
Finally, I gave a curt nod. “How would you feel about extending this year’s games? Let me finish my work, and then Mia and I can go through the Games separately.”
Vos flashed that signature grin of his. “Draw the Bride Games out longer? Fine by me. It ought to bring up the ratings.” He paused, an almost evil gleam in his eye. “But we will have a completely different set of games for you and your bride. I’ll put a team on it and see what we can find out about her background. We should be able to come up with something… suitably interesting for the two of you.”
I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that—but having seen the spanking ceremony that Cav and Natalie had engaged in, I knew I didn’t want to participate in the same games they had. Those sorts of foreplay games were far too intimate to be shown to the entire galaxy.
With any luck, Vos and his team would be forced to come up with something a little less revealing.
“In the meantime,” Vos continued, “we had to reassign one of your team members. Wex Banstinad, a communications officer, was assigned to Zont Lanov, the Khanavai warrior who has headed to Earth to track down Amelia Rivers.”
I ran the names through my memory, finally coming up with a connection. “The bride who ran? A warrior has decided to try to gain her as his mate?”
“Indeed, the bride who ran.” Vos’s smile seemed genuine, for once. “This is going to be the most exciting set of Bride Games ever.”
I rolled my eyes. He wasn’t wrong. But having found my mate, I wasn’t terribly interested in playing any of Vos’s ridiculous games.
Still, I had agreed to participate, and that agreement had gotten me access to Station 21’s equipment for my project.
“I’m going to check in with my team,” I announced as I stood. “I’ll see if I can find another technician to replace Wex Banstinad.”
Vos gave a little two-fingered salute and went back to plotting whatever it was he had in mind.
I was not certain he even noticed as I left his office.
Chapter Nine
Mia
In my dream, I stood at my kitchen counter, chopping onions as I prepared dinner.
I could tell Frank was angry the moment he strode through the front door, the dark cloud that hovered around him on days like this making my stomach twist and turn with a dread I couldn’t even put into words.
Josiah, not even a year old yet, played on the floor at my feet, banging pots and pans together happily, a cheerful sound, but one I knew I needed to silence.
Bending over, I spoke softly to him. “Baby, let’s go find another toy for you to play with.”
I took the pan lid away from him, and Josiah began crying. I tried to shush him, turning to look for something else he could play with.
But as I stood up, Frank was there, fist raised. “How many times do I have to tell you to make the baby shut up?” he snarled.
His fist came down with a sickening crunch against the side of my face. I heard the sound before I felt it, and even as I landed on the ground, I was thinking, “I have to get the baby to stop crying.” The first words out of my mouth were to comfort Josiah. “It’s okay, baby, it’s okay.”
I crawled toward him, the tile on the floor spattered with the blood I spit out my mouth.
Frank’s boot—all I could see of him out of the corner of my eye—reared back, aimed at Josiah.
With a burst of energy I didn’t know I had, I leaped forward and curled myself around my baby, protecting him with my own body, taking Frank’s boot in the small of my back rather than allowing him to hurt my child.
I awoke with a start, the feel of Frank’s boot throbbing in my kidneys and tears streaming down my face.
I could not allow him to figure out where Josiah was.
Of course, I hadn’t gotten back to Earth. I was still on Station 21, back in my overly lacy bride’s room. The shuttle had left without me while Vos had chattered about fitting us into the Bride Games.
In the end, I had stood by silently as Commander Gendovi drew the Games Administrator aside and spoke to him quietly and urgently. I didn’t know what about. All I knew was that I was standing to the side while two alien men kept me trapped and plotted out my future.
But it wasn’t the firs
t time I had been trapped. I had gotten away then, and I would get away now. I simply needed to make sure Josiah was okay—and then I would do everything I could to find a way back to Earth.
I was sure that’s what had prompted the dream. It was my subconscious reminding me that I knew how to bide my time.
I knew how to run away.
Oddly enough, the situation I was in right now—onboard Station 21 with no clear way home—didn’t feel any more stifling than I had felt married to a wife-beating cop, living in New Jersey.
This is just another situation to run from, I told myself.
I simply had to plan.
And to do that, I would need more information. I moved to the com in my dressing-table mirror and messaged Thorvid.
“Could you please tell me how to watch the last several days’ Bride Games on this thing?”
That afternoon, Eldron commed to ask me to attend a duel with him.
My mouth fell open at the request and I stared at him for a long, silent moment. “A…what?” I finally managed to get out.
“A duel,” he repeated. “Is that not what Earthers call it? Two grooms who matched with the same bride are going to engage in combat.”
I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. “Um. Duel. As in, to the death?”
Now Eldron was the one who gaped like a fish. “To the death?” he repeated. “I should hope not.”
“But they are going to fight?”
“Yes. Vos is arranging for spectators, and I would like to attend to give my support to one of the two men. Will you accompany me?”
Sitting alone in my room wasn’t getting me very far in my escape plans. Besides, watching the latest Bride Games vids had brought up a rather pressing question—one I suspected I needed to ask Eldron in person.
“Would you come by my quarters first?” I asked him.
I wouldn’t have expected someone with cherry-red skin to be able to blush, but I swear Eldron turned even redder with pleasure. “It would be my honor.”
By the time he arrived, I had been pacing the length of my room for half an hour. I inhaled, hoping to calm my nerves before I opened the door.
It didn’t work. My hands trembled as I waved Eldron inside. “Please come in.”
His enormous shoulders took up more of my room than I had anticipated. Even leaning back against the door didn’t give me enough space. I tried to figure out how long it would take for me to rip open the door and get out, as opposed to how much time it would take him to cross the room and pull me away from the only exit.
I found myself counting the steps from where he stood to where I stood.
“What did you wish to discuss?” His concerned voice snapped me out of my reverie—but not out of my terror.
It was stupid to invite him in.
“Mia? Are you okay?”
I swallowed, trying to work up the nerve to speak.
“We can discuss anything, my vanata.”
Just spit it out, Mia.
“They’re not going to make us do one of those spanking ceremonies, are they?” My voice shook as I forced myself to ask the question. “Like Natalie and Cav had to do?”
Eldron frowned as he examined my expression. “A spanking ceremony? That is a very old Khanavai tradition—and it is not one that I find necessary in our modern society.” He paused, his gaze traveling over my face as if he were trying to read what he saw there. “Especially since our two cultures are becoming more blended every year.”
All the air rushed out of my lungs at once. My head seemed to grow lighter, and my vision went entirely white.
When I could see again, Eldron was helping me sit down in the dressing-table chair, his touch tender.
“Why did that worry you so very much?” His voice was as gentle as his hands.
“I need you to promise me you’ll never hit me. Not even as a joke or in play. Promise?”
He dropped to one knee before me, as if he were proposing marriage, his voice going even deeper than usual. “I swear I will never raise my hand against you.”
“Even if the Bride Games demand it?”
He lifted one fist and tapped his heart twice, once with the end and once with his closed fingers toward his heart, a kind of salute I had seen Khanavai warriors all over the station give one another. “No one could ever make me hurt you. On my honor as a Khanavai, I give you this vow.”
Those words were oddly formal.
I wasn’t entirely certain what he meant, but I didn’t have to be—it was obvious this was the most serious promise he could give me. I leaned forward and clasped his fist in both my hands, bringing it up to my lips and dropping a light kiss on it. “Thank you.”
“You are most welcome, my vanata.” He moved as if he were about to stand, but then paused. “Would you prefer to refrain from attending the duel? If violence offends you…”
“No, let’s go. I need to get out of this room.”
With a nod, he finished rising and held his hand out to me to help me rise from the chair.
I swear I will never raise my hand against you.
If only I could bring myself to fully trust that promise.
Chapter Ten
Eldron
“Tell me about this duel,” Mia requested as we made our way to the auditorium. “Who is fighting, and why?”
“You have been watching the Bride Games, yes? That is how you know about the spanking games?”
She nodded, her eyebrows drawing down in a frown at the memory. “I didn’t really get past that part on the vids.” With a sidelong glance, she added, “I did see the part where you told Natalie she wasn’t your mate. How did you know?”
“I could tell from her scent.” I considered elaborating, but when she simply nodded, I decided it would be better to explain the Khanavai connection between smelling and mating another time.
“Ah. Well, Cav and Natalie have chosen one another. But Tiziani, the third male in that luncheon—”
“The yellow one?”
“Yes, the yellow one. He accosted Cav in the garden and challenged him to a duel.”
“Even after Natalie chose Cav?” Mia’s voice turned shocked.
“Some males have very little honor.”
“That’s for sure.” Her murmured words were barely loud enough for me to hear, and I had to wonder if who had shaped her low opinion of males. Had one raised his hand against her? The mere thought of it sent a surge of anger racing through my body, and I had to fight to suppress the growl that rose to my throat.
I would kill anyone who dared touch her in anger.
But no such male is here now, I reminded myself when Mia flashed an anxious glance at me, as if she could sense my rising agitation.
She’s your mate, that same inner voice pointed out. She almost certainly can sense your emotions.
I gave her a reassuring smile and led her into the arena where Cav would, I assumed, thoroughly trounce his opponent.
As we took our seats, Vos’s face came on the screens—both at our seat vids and on giant ones hanging in the air above the arena—announcing this as “the biggest fight for dominance in all the history of the Bride Games!”
My inner warrior bristled at that. After all, we Khanavai were a dominant lot. But I was civilized enough to push the instinctive response aside.
Cav and Tiziani met on the stadium floor, facing off against each other.
Glancing around the spectators, I found Natalie standing and clasping her two assistants’ hands. The vidglobes zoomed around her, flashing her anxious face up on the screens all over the arena.
About half the spectators cheered for Tiziani. I had to wonder why. Cav stood taller than the yellow warrior and was obviously the more honorable male.
But they were both trained, one as a soldier, the other as a guardsman, and both handled the traditional Khanavai sword well.
On the screen in front of me, an offer to place a bet through Vos’s offices appeared.
“What is that
?” Mia asked, leaning in closer to me.
“Gambling on the winner of battles like this is a time-honored Khanavai tradition,” I explained. “Bets on the Bride Games alone help fund Station 21. Would you like to bet on one of the warriors?”
She shook her head without taking her eyes off the contestants. “I wouldn’t want to risk wasting the money.”
I blinked, startled that she would assume I expected her to spend her own currency. “Allow me, then.”
“No, thank you.” Her voice was quiet, but I could almost taste her reluctance in the air around us, as if she feared being in someone’s debt.
Am I sensing her emotions now?
Quietly, I placed a large bet on Cav. If he won, I would gift it to the newly mated pair.
The two fighters began whirling around one another, their blades whistling in the air.
Tiziani was a skilled fighter, but Cav was larger and slightly faster, leaping across the mat, rolling on the floor and coming up under Tiziani’s guard, slashing at him once and then rolling away.
Tiziani’s fans gasped as he stumbled. Cav, overcome by his warrior’s instincts, lunged for him, but Vos blew his whistle, threw his hands into the air, and announced, “First point to Cav Adredoni.”
Tiziani held his hand to his side, and when he pulled it away, his hand was covered in blood. The cameras showed him snarling at Cav, who saluted him mockingly.
Mia watched with eyes like saucers.
“Cav needs four more points to win,” I explained.
In the next round, Tiziani scored a point by cutting Cav’s dominant arm, and beside me, Mia gasped.
“Would you like to leave?” I asked her, but she shook her head without taking her eyes from the fight below.
She’s not completely horrified by violence—this bothers her less than the spanking ceremony, I realized.
Tiziani gained a second point with a cut across Cav’s thigh, and onscreen, Natalie clasped her hands across her mouth. Next to me, Mia mirrored the other woman’s movement.
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