“Oh. Okay. I thought so.”
I cocked my head to one side.
“What did you think?”
“That you were meeting someone.”
Why did I get the feeling she was bitterly disappointed?
Had I insulted her somehow?
Damn backward species!
“Would you like something to drink?” I said.
She thought about the question and nodded.
“Sure. Why not?”
“Next!” the worker behind the counter said.
He was a weedy-looking creature with a long face and wore a wimpy green apron.
He would have been murdered at the very first round of the Shadow’s training program.
What sort of effeminate race was this?
“What can I get you?” he said brightly, his smile faltering beneath my glare.
When I said nothing, the girl stepped forward.
“Caramel macchiato for me. And don’t skimp on the caramel.”
Then the effeminate man looked at me, clearly afraid.
“Regular coffee. Black.”
“That’s seven dollars fifty, please,” the worker said.
I reached into my pocket and extracted a bundle of paper.
I handed it to the worker and his eyes bulged.
He slipped one of the notes free and handed the rest to me.
Then he handed me some round metal coins.
I peered at them in the palm of my hand.
They still use ore to trade with?
I sneered at the worker.
“Please wait at the kiosk and your coffee will be with you shortly,” the worker said.
He looked grateful as he turned to the next customer.
The girl shuffled to one side and I followed her.
As she moved, the band of her heavy item of clothing drew tight over her ass.
It was pleasing and round, and for a moment, I considered slapping it.
It was how many treated their fated mates after they had become breeders.
But this was a new world, a new culture.
I didn’t want to make things more difficult than necessary.
If I carried her out of the shop under my arm, would anyone take notice?
Would they try to stop me?
We stood side by side and I wondered how I would go about kidnapping her.
The place was crowded and I had no idea what the technology level of this species was.
Judging by what I’d seen so far, very low.
I needed to get her alone, I decided.
Then I could hustle her onto my ship and begin the journey back to the Shadow Realm before the M’rora arrived.
Then I noticed movement out the corner of my eye.
“Your friend is trying to communicate with you,” I said.
The girl peered over at her and waved back.
Perhaps these creatures were so backward they communicated with physical signals.
Damn backward species!
“She’s just…” the girl began before looking up at me, and her eyes shifted away again.
“She suggested I should come and talk with you.”
“Why?”
“Because I just split up with my boyfriend. Well, friend.”
Boyfriend?
A shiver twisted the pit of my stomach as if I had passed through the eye of a black hole.
I felt sick.
Why should she dating an inferior species concern me?
“She wanted me to get over him quickly so she suggested I come talk to you, see if you’re single. But you’re not, so that’s it.”
“I am single.”
Her eyes snapped up to mine.
And it was the first time I got a good clear view of her face.
I was taken aback, suddenly surprised by her beauty.
Yes, her eyes were red and the tracks of her tears made furrows down her cheeks, but she was still beautiful, not merely pretty.
There was a strength in her eyes, something that foretold of confidence and stamina.
“What do you mean?” she said. “You said you were meeting someone.”
“I am.”
“A friend?”
“Not yet a friend, but I hope we will become more than that with time.”
“Then who? A date?”
“You could say that. Although, she doesn’t know it yet.”
My head didn’t know what to say, but my instincts apparently did.
I reached for her hand.
It was mostly covered by the sleeve of her baggy clothing.
I placed my other hand on top of it and looked her dead in the eye.
“You. I am here to meet you.”
Her face fell and I could feel her pulse quicken.
Her arm tensed as if she wanted to pull her hand from mine, but she didn’t.
She peered back at me, meeting my eyes the way no opponent in the past had ever managed to do.
Oh yes, she was a courageous little thing, all right.
Over her shoulder I noticed her friend motioning to her, jabbing a fist with her thumb sticking up.
My mate didn’t notice it.
She was still staring at me.
“Have we… met before?”
A look of curiosity crossed her face.
I was taken aback by her insight.
“No. Why?”
“I get the feeling we have at some point.”
It must be the bond, I thought.
It was a miraculous and mysterious thing.
“You don’t even know my name,” she said.
“Then tell me.”
“Ava. She said. Ava Green.”
“I’m Kayal.”
She cocked her head to one side.
“Is it foreign?”
“More foreign than you realize. But it won’t be for long.”
She smiled at me and a smoky look overcame her face.
“I hope so.”
I ground my teeth and growled at the back of my throat.
Mating with this creature was going to be more fun than I thought…
Then her attention shifted.
Over my shoulder and in the direction of the door.
My eyes followed hers.
I stared openly at the figure standing in the doorway, rain dripping from his shoulder-length hair, his eyes golden and blinking at me.
My exact opposite.
My twin born in the light.
The M’rora.
His eyes widened at seeing me there and then focused, turning angry at the sight of my hands wrapped over our fated mate’s.
He reached into his jacket and came out with his blaster pistol.
Ava
My eyes flicked over to the new arrival and then double took.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
I gawped at what had to be Kayal’s twin.
I could hardly breathe.
It was hard enough to believe there was one gorgeous creature like him, never mind two!
Twins.
And they both produced the same effect on my body.
Insane, strong, and overpowering.
Just as when Kayal had taken my hand and peered into my eyes and said I was who he had come to this coffee shop to meet, I knew it was a seminal event.
It wasn’t just words.
It was—and this was going to sound hokey—it was destiny.
It
