But at least this time, I know for sure that we come from two different worlds.
A snort of laughter escaped me at the thought.
“What do you find amusing?” Dax asked.
“I’m not going to find you fucking someone else in the bathroom on our wedding day, am I?”
He frowned for a moment as he worked through the meaning of what I had asked, and then his expression turned to outrage. “Once we are mated, I will never fuck anyone but you. As far as where… Well, we have lovely bathing pools on Drovekz. I would be happy to take you there, if that is what you desire.”
His exaggerated leer and wink left no doubt about what he meant by “taking” me.
This time, my laughter was full-throated. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to go home. I don’t know if I want to race off to some other planet. This morning I was supposed to marry someone else. How can I be sure what I want?”
He squeezed my hands gently. “I can be certain enough for both of us, at least in the beginning.”
Could he? Really?
We stared at one another for a long moment, Dax’s gaze growing more heated by the second. We leaned in toward each other, and just as his lips brushed against mine, the computer announced, “We have arrived at our destination.”
Cursing under his breath, Dax dropped my hands and spun around to check the console. “Computer, verify location.”
“Verifying coordinates.” The computer rattled off a series of numbers and letters that made no sense to me, but left Dax cursing more loudly.
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
“This is not our programmed destination.” His fingers moved over the control panels, and a display opened up in front of us, showing a field of stars glittering in the darkness.
“So where are we?” I asked.
“I’m still working that out.” Deep furrows of concern lined Dax’s brow as he continued examining a readout scrolling up one side of the viewscreen. “That’s not right,” he muttered. “Can’t be.”
“Where are we?” I asked again, a knot of dread forming in my stomach.
“According to this readout, we are on the outer edges of the Karlaxons’ territory. This is the last place we should be.”
Looks like the computer got more wrong than just allowing Dax to choose me as a mate.
“Can we get out of here?” I was almost afraid to hear Dax’s answer.
“I certainly hope so. Computer, set a hyperspace course for the Battleship Lavelek at the coordinates I am inputting now.” He tapped away at the console, double checked the scrolling numbers, and said, “Please verify coordinates.”
The ship rattled off another string of numbers, and Dax nodded. “Engage hyperspace engines now.”
This time I was prepared as the stars I was looking at stretched out in front of me, and I felt like I left my stomach behind as we jumped again.
When we next came out of hyperspace, Dax didn’t even have to wait for the readout. Something about the stars outside projecting onto the viewscreen made him start cursing immediately.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked tentatively.
Dax’s gaze flickered between me and the viewscreen. “Not unless you have some magic way to convince the ship to get us out of Karlaxon territory.”
“I’m afraid I’m not going to be very useful to you out here.” I was beginning to realize exactly how much I loathed feeling helpless. I had felt that way all day. Helpless to save myself from the heartache that William inflicted. Helpless against the mugger in the park. Helpless, even, against Dax when he appeared in his cat form.
It was just so…stereotypically female. Yuck.
“Wait here,” Dax ordered. “I’m going to go back to the computer core and see if I can figure out what has gone wrong.”
“Are we safe here?”
He shrugged. “We are still on the very outer perimeter of Karlaxon territory. If we are lucky, they will not spot us.”
“And if we’re unlucky?”
“Then maybe we will not notice them before they blow us out of the sky.” He flashed a rueful grin in my direction.
I recognized that sort of grim humor as a coping mechanism.
Helpless again, dammit.
As soon as Dax left the bridge, I moved back to the cabinet containing the weapons.
I might be helpless, but at least I can be armed.
For all the good it would do.
Chapter Fourteen
Dax
For the first time, I understood what Jalek had meant when he said his mate was deciding whether or not they would be together—because now my mate was making that decision, too.
As I jogged toward the engineering bay, I considered what that might mean for me.
I could feel Nora’s emotions through the mate-bond. I knew she was mine. But she had not even recognized what that meant. Her people had no mate-bond of their own.
And yet she can be bonded to a mate. That was interesting—the idea that she was receptive to a Drovekzian mate-bond, that I could bond her to me.
Of course, I could still sever that bond if Nora decided she didn’t want to be with me. But with every touch, every kiss, it bound us together more tightly. If I let it go much longer, let our bond grow stronger, I would end up devastated if she left.
When Jalek had told me that his human female, Lucy, was still deciding whether or not they were to become lifemates, I had brushed the claim away as a ridiculous idea. Only now did I recognize its significance.
I want to make Nora my mate.
I need her.
If I were honest with myself, I would have to admit that losing her now would be devastating, even though we had not yet mated. And I did not know if I really could sever that bond. There were stories in Drovekzian culture about mates who had bonded so quickly that their entire lives had been destroyed when they were parted from one another, bonds that were so strong they stood the test of separation for
