The tunnel made one last turn and the end shimmered with light.
Finally, the end had come.
I pulled my legs back to catch myself once I emerged…
Big mistake.
I should have jammed my heels into the floor instead of trying to catch myself.
I came out too fast, lost my balance, and slid across the floor, rolling end over end a dozen times before I came to a stop.
Ras emerged from the tunnel and stopped the moment he came out.
He reached down to help me up.
“Can you please tell me what’s going on?” I said.
“We just came down a tunnel—”
“I know that! I mean, what’s going on? Why can’t I feel the Shadow out there anymore? Is he dead?”
“He’s not dead. But the connection you share with him is. When we mate with our fated mates, the bond between you and my Shadow is severed.”
“And you’re telling me this now?”
“I didn’t remember until a moment ago! I didn’t have time to go through every memory I forgot!”
It was hard to remember he had memory problems—as ironic as that was.
“Fine,” I said. “But what are we doing here?”
He pointed to something over my shoulder.
“That’s why we’re here.”
It was a small ship, not much bigger than a large pickup.
There were four of them, each lined up facing a large window.
“A shuttlecraft?” I said. “How’s that going to help us?”
“They’re incapable of jumping into hyperspace. The Shadow would catch us easily.”
“I repeat my question: How’s that going to help us?”
“We’ll take it across to one of the Shadow’s ships.”
I skidded to a halt.
“Are you kidding me? They’ll kill us!”
“Not if they don’t see us coming. All shuttlecraft are fitted with stealth technology. And this ship might have lost power, but the shuttlecraft haven’t. They have their own power source.”
It made sense.
What use was a shuttlecraft if it didn’t have power?
The best part was after Ras had filled me with his seed (such a romantic way to put it…) his Shadow couldn’t track me.
I could move as I pleased and he would never notice me.
I followed Ras onto the nearest shuttlecraft.
“And what do we do when we reach a Shadow ship?”
“We’ll disable the other ship and get to the M’rora empire.”
He grinned at me, far too satisfied with himself.
“And it’s a long journey to the empire…” he said.
He gave me a wink and I couldn’t help but blush.
My pussy was already beginning to ache from our earlier exploits.
It was going to be seriously smarting by the time we reached his empire.
“Can’t we return to Earth first?” I said.
“The empire first,” Ras said, pressing buttons on the control panel and taking a seat.
“Why?”
“We have an advanced security field to protect us from the Shadow. If we can reach that, the Shadow will never reach us.”
“And will I be able to return home?”
Ras looked up at me.
He took my hands in his and kissed my fingertips.
“We will go wherever you wish. Your planet, mine, or a million others. All I ask is to be by your side.”
With those words and the way he was looking at me, it made my knees weak.
“I’ll think about it,” I said.
He grinned at me before falling back into the seat.
I took the seat beside his—what he referred to as the co-pilot’s chair.
The shuttlecraft locked down and the outer hatch door cracked open.
The air was sucked out, and an iron tool, what looked like a socket wrench, skidded along the floor and disappeared into space.
“Releasing clamps now,” Ras said.
I thought he was speaking with me except he kept his attention focused outside.
It was a habit, I supposed.
We drifted into space, letting non-gravity shift us outside.
Ras took hold of the controls and arched us around toward the awaiting Shadow ships.
They were huge.
We watched them closely, hoping they wouldn’t notice us before we boarded one of them.
Behind us, the ship we’d just vacated.
Now I could see why it took them so long to get to the main bridge!
It was colossal.
We floated around the nearest Shadow ship until we were perched underneath it.
Ras breathed a sigh of relief.
“Now we put on spacesuits.”
Okay, so that blindsided me.
“Excuse me. Space what? Nobody said anything about spacesuits.”
“How else do you think we’re going to walk around in space? Come on.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Don’t tell me we’re getting out of this shuttlecraft before getting into one of the Shadow ships?”
Ras shrugged—shrugged!
“There’s no other way inside. We have to open the hatch door like we did at the garage.”
I was beginning to change my mind about this whole plan.
I put the spacesuit on.
It swamped me.
It might be the standard size for a Shadow but I could barely even see out of the thing.
Ras looked great in his.
Of course.
He nodded to me and opened the shuttlecraft door.
The hatch was right there.
I clung onto the rail with both hands.
He guided the shuttlecraft forward so it locked onto its side.
Then he reached for the door lock and turned it.
The hatch hissed open.
Ras stepped inside like he was out for a leisurely stroll.
He noticed I wasn’t at his side.
“Come on.”
I ordered my hands to release the rail but they wouldn’t obey.
And who could blame them?
Open space about a yard wide stood between me and the ship.
“Hurry up!” Ras said.
“Don’t rush me!”
“We’re on a clock here!”
I unfurled one set of fingers and then another.
My gloved hand shook as I pushed off the shuttlecraft and sailed slowly forward.
I reached halfway across the void…
And floated.
Story of my life.
“Argh!” I screeched.
I flailed but my arms and legs couldn’t make contact with anything.
“All right, don’t get over-excited,” Ras said.
He reached across the void, grabbed my arm, and pulled me into safety.
I held on tight to his arm like a limpet.
Ras slapped a button on the wall, the lights flashed, and the outer door began to shut.
My feet returned to the floor, along with my heart rate.
“Better now?” Ras said, leaning forward so our helmets connected.
“Much.”
“Come on.”
Come on.
This way.
Hurry up.
Who died and made him king?
Ras removed his helmet and held it under his arm.
The inner door whirred open, leading
