Had he regretted it?
…She hadn’t.
As the hover car slowed down even more the closer it came to Riv’s energy fence that surrounded the property, Nia pulled her gaze away from him.
She could see figures within the yard.
Riv and Lauren suddenly looked up, their heads angled in the hover car’s direction.
They were staring at the approaching vehicle and she could see when Lauren realized it was them.
The woman didn’t even hesitate. She was hastening down the path heading toward the barrier.
A string of guilt passed through her.
She’d made them worry so much. While she’d been out there being cuddled, protected, and having sex with the man beside her.
Her gaze fell back on him. He wasn’t looking at her now. He was focused on Lauren as she hastened down the path, a strange look in his eyes.
As Lauren drew closer though, Nee-ya realized she’d been mistaken.
He wasn’t looking at Lauren. Well, not directly. He was focused on Lauren’s rounded belly.
The wind was pressing Lauren’s dress against her frame, highlighting the bump in great detail.
She was even bigger than Nia had first realized.
“Nia!” Lauren almost stumbled and Riv caught her.
Back up at the house, two more people appeared, Sohut and Cleo, and they too started heading toward the barrier.
As the hover car stopped, Nia hopped out and rushed toward them, just as the energy barrier stopped zinging.
“Lauren!” Nia hopped out of the vehicle and gripped the other woman, throwing her arms around her neck while trying not to squish Lauren’s belly.
“Oh my God, Nia!” Lauren sobbed. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
“Sorry for what?”
Lauren eased back enough so they were looking at each other. “We didn’t see…we didn’t hear.” Tears were flowing freely down the woman’s face and they prompted her own tears, which Nia tried to hold back.
“It wasn’t your fault. Just a really freaky accident. But I’m safe now.”
Sohut and Cleo arrived and Cleo immediately joined the embrace, turning it into a group hug.
“Can’t believe we almost lost our little sister,” she said.
Nia smiled. “Can’t get rid of me so easily.”
Riv made a sound behind Lauren, one that sounded like a shocked gasp, and when Nia’s gaze met his, he looked horrified.
“We weren’t trying to get rid of you. That morning, when I complained about you being a pain in my—” He cleared his throat and his scowl deepened before he ran a hand through his hair. “This is your home. We weren’t trying to get rid of you.”
Nia couldn’t help it. She grinned.
Riv’s scowl deepened but it was clear he was getting used to his humans’ display of teeth every now and then, for he didn’t flash fangs back.
“I was only joking, Riv.”
“Are you all right though? Did they hurt you?” Lauren was looking her over and Nia smiled.
Lauren was going to be a great mom.
“No, I’m fine. I got lucky.”
“Lucky Ka’Cit was there. I agree,” Sohut finally spoke and that’s when she realized that Ka’Cit hadn’t said a word yet.
When she turned, she realized why.
He’d exited his hover car and he was leaning against it, looking their way and listening to the conversation, but he hadn’t crossed the barrier to enter the compound.
“Was he…weird with you?” Lauren whispered. “I know he’s Riv’s friend but he’s a strange guy. If he was bad to you in any way…”
Nia was shaking her head before Lauren could finish. “No. No. He was…perfect.”
She glanced back at him once more and stepped out of the embrace of the two other humans.
As she headed back his way, that horrible feeling that had been weighing her down from before came back and when his gaze met hers, the feeling only intensified.
“Are you going to come inside?”
He barely shook his head, as if he was holding himself rigid, and when her gaze fell to his arm still holding on to the hover car, she realized she was right in that assumption.
His arm was flexed so hard she could see the veins pop out against his skin.
“Ka’Cit?”
“I have to go.” He looked away from her. “Now.”
Hurt filled her and it filled her deep, hitting right against the base of her heart.
“Yea,” she tried to smile but it was hard, resulting in a smile that was hardly even there. “I guess you have…other jobs. I don’t want to cause you to be late for those too.”
She saw, rather than heard, the sigh that left his body.
He still wasn’t looking at her as he got back into the hover car.
Fuck.
What was happening right now and why was it so hard?
Tears were filling her eyes for some reason and she was having a real hard time holding them back.
“This was…fun.”
Ka’Cit grunted. “It was but…you’re better off here. This is your world.” He sighed. “You are better off here.”
The fact he’d said she was better off there, twice, was something she noted and she opened her mouth to say something, but no words came.
“This is…”
“Where it ends. Where everything goes back to the way it was.”
There was such heartache in his voice, she wondered if she was hearing her own words being spoken.
A big fat raindrop fell from the sky and landed smack in her face, masking the first tear that slid down her cheek.
Nia wiped it away and looked up.
The dark cloud had spread and the wind had picked up, whipping the fabric of her coat.
Another fat drop hit her squarely on the forehead.
“Go in,” Ka’Cit said.
His gaze was still averted and it made something wring in her heart.
“Ka’Cit?” she whispered.
“You will get wet,” he continued.
Maybe she was an idiot.
She’d thought there’d been something there, something more than…she didn’t even know…
But…this was it.
This was it. The end.
Turning, she swallowed hard and steeled herself as she began walking back toward the group of aliens and humans waiting for her.
That’s when she heard him call her name.
“Nee-ya…”
Nia’s heart thumped in her chest, hope rising within her like an ocean wave. Glancing behind her, her gaze fell on him and the ocean wave crashed.
Her heart fell.
In
