“It would make sense.”
“It would mean a Kurian female might be responsible,” she murmurs.
“Well, Brock, Dax, and Damon have all found their women, and all of them have been found on Earth versus Kuria. It makes sense that the Kurian females might feel a bit put out, like they’re overlooked. It might make one of them go a bit crazy with jealousy.”
"I hate to think about it, but it's the only theory I have. Can you think of any Kurian females who might do this? Or any Kurians at all?"
“You don’t think it’s possible that an Earthling or a Novan did this?”
“The Earthling women have been here for decades and decades. Nothing happened in all of that time. Why wait until now? The same goes for the Novans.”
"But maybe one of the Novans is upset that he never found love here and wasn't given permission to go to Earth, so he's fed up with having to flamindulis all the time.”
Mom grunts. “It’s a terrible situation any way you look at it. I’ll work on letting those in charge know our theories, and you find Ava.”
“I’ll talk to her, but, Mom?”
“Yes, Rix?”
“Be careful.”
“You too. Matters of the heart are just as important as life and death.”
12
Ava
The scent of meat cooking wakes me, and I scramble to grab my bat. It’s my closest weapon. The sun has barely started to rise, and smoke from a fire swirls around a form that I can’t make out clearly. Squinting, I realize the form has to be a man, a very muscular one at that.
Rix.
What do you want to bet that he's here because of the device? He hasn't come around after I refused to let him have his way with me after that bogus date, and to think that the date had actually gone really well, too, up until that point. I hadn't any idea what to expect out of him, and he had surprised me… until he started to think with his wrong head.
Then he ghosts me for over a week. He shows up after his leader wants to buy my device from me. It’s too much of a coincidence for me, and without him even saying a word, I feel used and abused.
Still holding my bat, I stalk up to him.
“Are you hungry?” Rix asks cheerfully. “I know it’s a little smoky, but—”
“I’m not hungry,” I spit out. “Not at all.”
“You aren’t happy with me. I understand. I—”
“Let me guess. You can explain yourself?”
“Yes, I can. Or at least I can try. You… I… I was embarrassed.”
“Embarrassed?” I ask suspiciously.
“Yes, about how the date ended.”
“I wouldn’t have thought you felt embarrassed after. Frustrated, maybe. Doesn’t that sound more accurate?”
“Frustrated? Yes, with myself. I shouldn’t have tried to rush you. I should’ve considered your feelings more. You’re a beautiful woman, so intelligent, and I… I was wrong.”
“Hmm.” I cross my arms and eye him. “Did your overlord contact you?”
“Yes.”
“About the device?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s the main reason why you’re here?” I cross my arms. “Isn’t it?”
“No.”
“No? Not at all?”
“No.”
“Really? How damn gullible do you think I am? If you were really embarrassed and frustrated with yourself, you wouldn’t have waited until your overlord gave you an excuse to come over here. No, you would’ve come before now, or are you a coward? Is that it? Or maybe you decided to take your cock and shove it into other girls, but they all bored you because they're all basically carbon copies of one another, just women who fawn over aliens and who probably love to suck alien cock. I'm not any of that—"
“And that’s why I’m here, with you, and not with any of them. No, I haven’t fucked any female here on Earth. I haven’t slept with any, and I sure as ovian haven’t made love to any of them,” he says calmly.
“Oh, dear. You must be really getting a workout with your hand then.”
He narrows his eyes, and his nostrils flare. “I swear I’m not here about the device. Should I have come before now? Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I… I was ashamed. I didn’t know what to say, and clearly, I still don’t because I’m making a terrible blunder of all of this. You have every right to be flabbergasted by me.”
I blink a few times. Hearing him say blunder and flabbergasted is hilarious, but I’m too furious with him to have to worry about smiling.
“It’s been ten, eleven days, something like that,” I say with a wave of my hand. “What have you been doing all of this time?”
“I’ve made a few friends.”
“With benefits?”
“Well, you had a benefit from one of my friends,” he says.
I gape at him. Clearly, our wires are a bit crossed.
“The centuricar you drove on our date?” he reminds me.
“Oh.”
“You look confused. Oh, Ovian. You meant… No. No, no, no. Nope. Not friends with benefits. Ah, no.”
I just shake my head, not amused by his antics.
“I swear it’s not about the device, Ava. That doesn’t matter to me. It should, and my overlord will literally have my head if I don’t deliver, but the device doesn’t matter to me. You do.”
“I do? Really? You don’t even know who I am. You don’t know anything about me.”
"Yes, that's true," he admits, but there's a fire in his eyes as he stands up. "Not for lack of trying. You've asked me questions, and I answered all of them, but you haven't answered any of mine."
“I haven’t asked you questions.”
“Not many, no, but you can go ahead and start over.”
I can’t tell if he’s serious or not. My chin lifts as I appraise him. The date really had gone well. Maybe I can ask him a few questions, see if he’s honest. Give him a second chance.
That’s not something I normally do—give people a second chance. Hardly anyone has ever given me a second chance, and it’s not that I begrudge people that. It’s
