Page 70 of Alien God

But...

I straightened, the air feeling suddenly colder and sharper as an idea began to take shape inside me. I could not track down my true mate for fear of triggering her death, but the only way to access the Council of the Gods was as a mated male. But what if I married someone who wasn’t my true mate? There was no way to know for sure a male was mated. Not unless you caught him rutting his woman with his knot swollen for her and only her. Although, there was the lingering threat of mate-madness and star-darkness... But neither of those things had touched me yet. If I acted quickly enough, they might hold off long enough for me to join the council. I’d be able to learn what was going on in there and find out where Skalla was.

I didn’t have a bride, of course. But I did have one human female in my grasp who was just desperate enough to strike a bargain with me.

“There is one way we might find your friends,” I said, my words fast and tight. I lowered my head to speak directly against her hair. “I will require something of you first. But if you do it, and we succeed, I will not only assist you in finding them but also give you your freedom.”

Her spine went hard and straight against me. Her hands, which had been in her lap until now, curled around my forearm, her short blunt claws pressing into my skin.

“What do you want me to do?” she asked, her breath quickening, and once again I detected that battling mixture of wariness and hope.

I expected that the wariness would win out this time, but I answered her without hesitation anyway, my words at once a question and a statement and a vow.

A question with only one answer.

A statement of fact.

And a vow that I would not be denied.

“Marry me.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

Torrance

“Marry me.”

Everything went still. Even though the sontanna kept plodding along, and Wylfrael continued creating a path ahead for her, all movement seemed to cease. Even my own breathing stopped for a moment, which brought an irritated question of, “What is wrong with you now?” from behind me.

“What’s wrong...” I stammered, staring at the snow ahead. “What’s wrong is that you just... you just...”

“Told you to marry me. Yes.”

“Told me to!” Anger at his arrogance helped burn away the numbing shock. “Where I come from, you’re supposed to ask. You get down on one knee with a ring and you ask. You don’t tell someone to! God, why am I even trying to explain this? Let me off this horse – shit – sontanna right now!”

“The snow is deep here,” Wylfrael said, a deep rumble from his chest penetrating the thick fur of the cloak. “You cannot run.”

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