Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
But even Hold’s distant behavior was better than the way Fierce was acting. The Dark Twin had clammed up entirely and seemed to be pretending Celia didn’t exist. He wouldn’t even look in her direction, though she was seated right between him and Hold in the front of the ship. It was like she was invisible to him.
Celia had the urge to give the Dark Twin a vicious dig in the ribs with her elbow—let him try and ignore her then! But she decided not to do it and just ignore him too. If this was how he wanted to end things, then fine—let him. They could pretend like they’d never even known each other—never held each other in the night to keep warm…never opened up in a way she never had to anyone else…
Stop it Celia! she scolded herself. Don’t be ridiculous—you haven’t even known Fierce and Hold a whole week. It’s not like they’re the love of your life—Peter is. He wanted you—asked to marry you—long before those two showed up. So stop acting like a baby and get over it. You’ll be home soon and you can just forget the last few days ever happened.
So she said nothing and kept to herself until they were up in space and headed for the giant multicolored wormhole that would take them home.
“There’s the wormhole,” Fierce said, staring straight ahead at the whirling vortex of colors and not even looking at her as he talked. “As soon as we come out the other side, I’ll take you directly back to Earth, if that’s what you want.”
“Yes, that’s what I want,” Celia said stiffly. “Thank you,” she added as coldly as possible.
“Your wish is my fucking command, sweetheart,” Fierce growled. “Preparing to enter the wormhole.”
Celia looked at the mass of swirling colors on the viewscreen and frowned. Was it…different somehow? The colors she saw looked muted, as though someone had added a dab of gray to every one. Before, the wormhole’s brilliance had startled her. Now it just looked drab.
“Hey,” she said. “Does the wormhole look off to you?”
“What are you talking about?” Fierce growled. “A wormhole is a wormhole.” He shot her an angry look. “And we wouldn’t have to use one to get home if you weren’t afraid you might be pregnant with some other male’s brat.”
Celia sucked in a breath.
“You hijo de puta!”
At the same time Hold shouted,
“Fierce! That was completely out of line!”
“Well, what the fuck do you want me to say?” Fierce growled, glaring at his brother over Celia’s head. “It’s true, isn’t it? If she wants to go back to that stupid weak human and have his fucking human baby, that’s her choice!”
“I’m sitting right here!” Celia snapped. “Stop talking about me like I’m not right beside you! And I never said I was pregnant—Kat just told me to take wormholes instead of folding space!”
“Fine. So let me navigate this wormhole now and take you back where you came from!” Fierce snarled.
“Fine!” Celia crossed her arms over her breasts, fuming. The big hijo de puta! How could she have ever thought that she liked him? He was the most selfish, insensitive—
And they then flew into the wormhole and everything went wrong.
25
FIERCE
Fierce knew something was wrong the moment they entered the wormhole’s mouth. All the instruments on the panel started going crazy, varying wildly and flashing alarms.
If that wasn’t a big enough indication, the long range shuttle also began rocking violently, as though it was being battered from every direction. He nearly lost control of the steering yoke as some strange force tried to rip it from his hands.
“What in the Seven Hells is going on?” Hold shouted and Fierce could feel his urgent fear through their Twin Bond. Celia, meanwhile, had gone silent but her eyes were huge and dark and she was clutching the straps of her harness with both hands.
In fact, it was a good thing that all of them were strapped in—otherwise they would have been flying all over the cockpit together!
“Warning…warning…warning…” a mechanical voice began speaking over the Com-link. “Hull breach imminent…life support systems failing…Nav-com off-line…”
Grimly, Fierce held on to the steering yoke and tried to keep the ship in alignment. Somehow the perfectly stable wormhole they had used to get to Tranq Prime must have destabilized itself. If he didn’t get them through it, the ship was going to be torn apart!
Taking a breath, he punched the fuel—they had to get out fast or they were going to disintegrate right here in the guts of the wormhole!
For a minute, it seemed he had made everything worse. The shaking became so violent it was all he could do to hold on to the yoke. He could hear the furniture in the living area behind them being thrown around and the forces being exerted on his body were almost too great to bear.