“It’s almost impossible to kill a Shadow,” I said. “Believe me, we’ve tried every manner over the eons.”
Emma hugged her knees close to herself.
She looked so small, so fragile.
“So what happens now?”
“We hide.”
“We hide? That’s your grand plan? I thought he can sense me wherever I go?”
“He can. But some places are harder to reach than others.”
“I can’t hide forever. I have a life.”
“We don’t need to hide forever. The mating cycle for our species is three days. If we don’t mate in that time, the bond will fade and you’ll be free to return home.”
There were other options and I considered sharing them with her.
She gazed into space, still absorbing the truth about her situation.
I wouldn’t burden her with the other options yet.
We still had time.
“Three days?” Emma said, peering at me over her knees. “And we’ve already had one, right?”
“That is correct.”
“So, it’s two days left. I can do that. So where are we heading?”
“To the Rift Minefield.”
“The what?”
“It’s a remnant from the Shadow Wars. With the Shadow stealing so many of our fated mates, we needed to act fast. There are ripples in the fabric of space that allow passage between our universes. We installed a minefield at the border so neither side can pass through easily.”
“Is it safe?”
No, it wasn’t, but there was no reason to tell her that.
“It is if you’ve been there before,” I said.
I stood up.
“Get some sleep. We should be there within the next few hours.”
I turned and left her in peace.
I paused at the doorway to peer back at her.
She sat peering out the large window that looked out on the infinite blanket of blinking stars.
That throbbing in my chest beat a slow, syncopated rhythm that doubled in speed when I looked upon her diminutive frame.
The curves of her dress tightened about her waist and ass as she raised her head to peer out at her new vista.
I saw myself in the reflection of the glass and realized she wasn’t really looking at the multitude of stars, but at me.
Caught staring at her, I turned and left.
I didn’t get half a dozen yards before Computer spoke in my ear.
“I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with the girl earlier.”
“Emma. Her name is Emma. And will you quit snooping?”
“It’s not snooping when I’ve been programmed to listen to every conversation that happens on the ship, sir,” Computer said sniffily.
“So what did you overhear?”
“It’s what I didn’t overhear that most concerns me. I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t tell her about the best way to end your Shadow’s pursuit. If she were to mate with you, he would lose interest immediately.”
“Yes, well. There’s no need to tell her everything about the situation right now.”
“There are only two days left in the mating cycle, sir.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped.
“Of course, sir. I only wanted to point out… Never mind. I guess I overstepped my bounds.”
I stomped around the corner and disappeared deeper inside the ship.
Computer was right.
I hadn’t mentioned it to Emma.
I couldn’t.
She’d already been through so much.
What would it sound like if I were to tell her there was a way to end this whole nightmare, a way for her to keep the wolf from her door, and the solution was not to sleep with my Shadow but to sleep with me?
She would never trust another thing I said.
But that might not be necessary.
If we could hide out in the Rift Minefield long enough, we could prevent Iav from ever getting near Emma.
I could smell her scent on me as I passed through the ship.
Or maybe she was now inside me and there was no letting go.
Emma
It took less time than I thought to fall asleep.
The ship was silent and glided through space.
The bed was firm—the way I liked—and the pillows were mushy and morphed to the shape of my head like memory foam.
The fact I’d been running for my life must have helped me hit my daily quota of ten thousand steps too.
Nothing made you sleep like the fear you might be murdered any moment and then raped to within an inch of your life.
These thoughts streamed like a bad TV show through my mind while I was asleep and yet, strangely, they didn’t overly concern me.
It didn’t hurt I had a fearless guardian watching over me too.
The green-skinned alien with his twisted bull horns and the body any WWF wrestler would kill for.
It took a moment for me to recall this room wasn’t mine at all.
It was staged, put in place so it made me feel more relaxed and at home.
But I wasn’t home.
I was in a spaceship hurtling through space at a speed I could scarcely even imagine.
Or maybe I just didn’t want to.
I lay in bed for a moment thinking over the situation.
Hunted by a horny monster across time and space because he believed I was his “fated mate”?
I snorted at the thought I could be anyone’s fated mate, never mind a member of an evil alien species.
Vai was intent on protecting me from the beast.
He had shot the creature in the chest three times—which actually failed to kill the damn thing!—and then rescued me from a police station under fire from the same creature.
Now he was taking me to a minefield somewhere in the galaxy because he thought it would keep me safe.
My first thought upon hearing his explanation of the events was to run as far away as I could so no one would ever find me.
Except, Iav had found me.
I had nowhere I could run to be safe.
Vai was my only chance of survival.
He seemed to know what he was doing.
He certainly knew a lot more about this evil Shadow species than I did.
My life and my hope were in his hands.
Until I saw an opportunity to escape and get away from both these creatures.
I would take it and never look back.
Three days, Vai had said. Three days in this
