“Don’t believe I am an alien? Then let me show you.”
I reached up and tore my disguise off, revealing my true form underneath.
Her eyes roamed over my muscular torso and square jaw, the scars that lashed my body head to toe and came to a stop at the twin horns jutting from my forehead.
“Every word I have told you is the truth. And soon, he will come, grab you, and drag you away. Maybe I can defend you against him, maybe I can’t. But your best chance of escape lies with me.”
The shock was evident on her face.
Her lips quivered but no words came out.
She held up a hand and edged toward me one inch at a time.
She never blinked, never took her eyes from mine.
Her hand pressed against my chest and ran over my skin.
She ran a fingernail at it to see if she could scrape the body color off as if it were paint.
But she couldn’t.
She reached up, her hands running over my face, and I crouched down so she could feel my horns.
I turned my head to one side so she wouldn’t see my eyes roll into the back of my head and my body shiver beneath her touch.
Touching a Qyah’s horns was a sensual and erotic act.
I should have probably told her that but I was enjoying it too damn much.
“It’s… it’s real…” she whispered, so faint I could barely hear it.
“Yes. The M’rora looks the same beneath his disguise too.”
“It’s real…”
She repeated it in an effort to make herself believe it, I realized.
“Why me?”
“There is no reason, other than the universe thinks you would be perfect together.”
“Couldn’t it just send him my profile?”
I didn’t know what that meant but she took some comfort in it.
“Why are you helping me?” she said.
I had another canned response all prepared and ready to fire off but I hesitated again.
Our canned responses were hammered into us during our military training.
It didn’t matter who our fated mates were, which alien species they belonged to, it only mattered we tell them the truth.
Again, my senses told me that was not the right response for this particular fated mate.
“Because he’s my other half. I must take responsibility for his actions, as he must take responsibility for mine. We’re each half of a whole, after all.”
It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either.
She nodded her head in understanding, if not quite accepting, the reality of her situation.
“How long will he chase me for?”
“Five days. After that, the bond you share with him will disappear and there will be no way for him to track you. More than that, he won’t have the desire to.”
I heard the rustle of leaves over Ava’s shoulder and froze.
I reached into my jacket for my plasma pistol.
Ava backed away from the hedgerow and edged toward me.
It was a good sign she reacted that way.
At least now, she might find it in her heart to allow me to protect her.
Instead of the M’rora I expected to erupt from the foliage, a small furry creature with four legs and a wet nose peeked out from under the hedgerow.
A human held a piece of rope that wrapped around the creature’s neck.
It was an odd sight.
But it wasn’t the M’rora.
I relaxed.
When I looked over at Ava, I noticed she was already calm.
“Can you feel him?” I said. “The bond that exists between the two of you. Can you feel it?”
I had long since smothered the bond between us, pressing a thick pillow of blackness over it to shield it from her.
If she was to trust me, she didn’t need to know I was after her for the same reason as the M’rora.
To claim her.
I turned her around and faced her in the rough direction I believed him to be.
“Can you feel something tugging on you out there? A throbbing in your chest?”
After a moment, she shook her head.
“That’s just my heart beating.”
“Beside that, or very close to it, almost so close you could easily mistake one for the other. That’s the bond. And, unless I missed my guess, it would have only come alive within the past few weeks.”
She blinked at that and nodded her head.
“Yes. I… thought I was getting heart palpitations. It felt like two hearts were beating in my chest instead of one.”
“That’s the bond. It connects you to him.”
And to me.
But I opted not to mention that part to her.
Not right now.
“Can you sense him out there?”
She nodded.
“Yes. He’s getting closer.”
My heart rose into my throat.
I tightened my grip around my plasma pistol.
“How far away is he?”
“He’s moving pretty fast. I think… I think he’ll be here soon. I don’t know how long it’ll take him.”
He’d managed to escape the enforcers.
That meant he was free to give chase.
I extended my hand to her.
“Come with me and I’ll keep you safe.”
A serpent couldn’t lie better.
But Ava appeared fooled by it.
She stared at my hand like it was a bear trap.
She hesitated before putting her hand in mine.
I felt its softness, its warmth, and a grin spread across my face.
I didn’t have to claim her here and now.
I could do it at the ceremony.
I just needed to get her to my ship and our fates would be sealed.
“Follow me.”
Ava
My head might have been stuffed with cotton wool for how clearly I was thinking.
I could hardly believe I was in this situation.
I wasn’t even sure I could believe what Kayal had told me.
What he said defied all logic.
But the alternative was far scarier.
If all this was fake, a product of my imagination, it meant I had completely lost my mind.
It happened, they said, when the patient suffered a serious emotional shock.
Was breaking up with Jason strong enough for me to lose my mind?
I didn’t think so.
But having experienced the same broken relationship over and over again…
Could that do the trick?
Possibly.
Yet another reason never to date ever again, I thought.
The alternative was this reality was truly happening.
Everything Kayal told me.
It was quite a leap.
But when
