Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31116 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31116 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
My lungs feel as if they’re being crushed in my chest. He’s right. Naomi tried to leave—she slipped away and I followed her. She wasn’t the one that contacted me. I went to her. “I think I see what you are saying, sir.”
“I’m not saying that you’re in trouble,” Rektar says, his voice kind. “I’m just saying that humans are sometimes afraid to tell us what they want. They might say ‘yes’ when they truly mean no. Look at what they have come from. As those with a position of power in this settlement, we must be extremely certain that we’re not abusing that power. Do you understand?”
I’m devastated.
He’s right. Of course he’s right. How many humans have I seen that skitter away from the sight of an alien male? That tell us that everything is fine when it is clearly not? So many of them are still in survival mode, saying whatever is necessary to get out of an uncomfortable situation. I felt like Naomi was stronger than that, that she knew her own mind better than that, but what if I’m wrong? What if all she truly did want was my seed? What if she was just humoring me when I showed up because she didn’t know what else to do? She couldn’t call the authorities, after all.
I am one of the authorities. She wouldn’t expect them to protect her from me.
I’m silent, my tail limp. I don’t know what to say. Shame infuses me. Shame and self-loathing.
“I could be wrong,” Rektar says in a careful voice. “And if I am, I apologize. But for now, I think it’s best that you let her initiate the next contact, Ainar. If she wishes to truly be with you, she will pursue you, not the other way around. Understand?”
I nod. He’s right. If Naomi wants to see me, she’ll contact me.
Until then, all I can do is wait and hope that she felt what I did. That I didn’t just make the biggest mistake of my life. That I didn’t hurt her when all I wanted to do was love her.
I want her for my mate, but if she doesn’t feel the same…
If she doesn’t feel the same, then nothing else matters. I’ll leave the planet. Ask for another outpost. Get as far away from her as I can so she doesn’t feel pressured when I’m around.
It’s the least I can do.
Chapter
Eight
NAOMI
One Week Later
Men suck.
“You ready?” my friend Martina asks as I hop up on the table at the clinic. She assists the local doctor after hours, handling a lot of the “human emergencies” since the doctor himself doesn’t want to be troubled with them. He’s kind of a dick, but I don’t care. Martina will help me out.
“Hit me with it,” I say, waving her on with a hand. “I can handle whatever the results are.”
She gives me a wry grimace. “Fingers crossed that you’ll have an easier time than I am.”
I don’t say anything to that. Martina has paid for four shots now and all four failed. Recently, her praxiian boyfriend left the planet and hasn’t been seen in months. Something tells me he’s given up on Martina, but she won’t say anything about it. I haven’t pried, either. Some things you just don’t want to talk about with anyone.
Like the fact that my mesakkah boyfriend abandoned me after declaring himself. What the fuck is wrong with men? You don’t show up with flowers, raving about how you want nothing more than to eat a girl’s pussy and then ghost her. Here I’d thought Ainar wanted to get to know me. That after a couple rounds of earth-shaking sex and some awesome cuddling that we could see if there was anything between us. That maybe him and I had potential.
Nope. He’s just like every other shitty man on this end of the universe. He hit it and quit it.
Martina holds the wand against my arm and a needle flicks out, jabbing me just enough to draw blood. “Ow!”
“Don’t be a baby,” she tells me as the needle disappears, replaced by a small suction pipe that pulls away the droplets of blood and leaves a tiny hickey behind on my skin. “Blood’s the easiest reading here. I told my boss that back home humans peed on a stick indicator and he looked at me like I was crazy. Said we were disgusting and unsanitary creatures.” She makes a face. “So I licked the rim of his mug when he wasn’t looking. I hope he likes human cooties, the bastard.”
I chuckle, my hand going to my belly. “I haven’t felt anything yet,” I confess. “I don’t even feel different.”
“It’s too early for you to feel anything,” Martina replies, studying the readouts on the machine. She gives me a sideways look. “Or so I’m told.” She holds the indicator out to me. “See that goofy-looking little character on the screen? That’s the base hormone stuff for human females. If you’re pregnant it’s going to double and show a second character.”