Page 13 of Rule

Ask him to keep the lights off. Hewon’t see the bruising.

Good plan, but how exactly did I do that ifwe couldn’t even understand each other?

The Draax was waiting in the doorway and helooked me up and down before staring at the hail falling. I was surprised whenhe took off his cloak and wrapped it around me. It was deliciously warm fromhis body heat and I didn’t object when he buttoned it and then pulled the hoodup over my head. It was miles too big and dragged on the ground. For amoment, I half expected the Draax to pick me up like the one did with Sabrina,and my face turned red when he raised his eyebrows at me before making a ‘comewith me’ motion with his hand.

I followed him out into the storm. Acombination of hail and snow was falling, and I winced when one particularlylarge piece of hail slapped me on the shoulder.

I flailed my way down the slick stairs ofthe ship, hanging onto the handrail in a tight grip. The Draax was movingquickly and I couldn’t really blame him for it. His thick cloak was doing apretty good job of protecting me from the brunt of the storm, but his largebody was being pelted with hail.

Ignoring the pain, I hurried after him ashe headed to the back of the ship. Another Draax, he was wearing a uniformwith the name of the docking bay on it, was standing next to my backpack and alarge trunk. One of the Draax who had left with Sabrina, picked up the trunkand carried it toward a large land vehicle.

The Draax in the uniform handed over mybackpack to the Draax with me. The possible king said something to the Draaxwho shrugged and nodded. He turned and looked at me and I nodded too.

“Yes, that’s mine.” The wind whipped awaythe sound of my voice, and I watched as the Draax said something else to theone in the uniform.

The uniformed Draax shook his head andpointed at the backpack again before, bending his head against the hail and thesnow, heading toward the building about twenty feet away. The other Draaxwho’d been in the ship with us was just opening the door of the building and slippinginside.

The maybe-he-was-a-king Draax held mybackpack in one hand and walked toward a land vehicle. He opened the back doorand threw my bag in before slamming it shut and opening the front passengerdoor. I swallowed nervously and moved past him to slide onto the seat.

He closed the door and moved to thedriver’s side. I stared in fascination at the steering wheel as he shut hisdoor and pushed a button on the dashboard. The vehicle rumbled to life and myeyes widened when the alien pushed a pedal on the floor, and we moved forward.

I never thought I’d be in a vehicle in mylifetime and now, not only had I been in two vehicles, but one of them was agas powered one that you steered yourself.

Despite how tired I was, despite the painthat just wouldn’t go away, I smiled in delight as I watched the Draax driveaway from the ship.

We’d only driven a few minutes when he saidsomething in his low voice. I had no idea what he said, it sounded likecomplete gibberish, but it made my stomach clench with something that wasalmost lust. I jerked in my seat and then bit back my groan as pain radiatedacross my back. I’d never had such a visceral reaction to a man’s voice before.

He was waiting for me to reply and Icleared my throat. “Um, my translator isn’t working yet. I don’t understandyou.”

He stared at me before scowling andpointing to my throat. I nodded and touched the spots where the translatorswere embedded in my throat and behind my ear. “Yes, I have a translator, butit isn’t working yet.”

Feeling slightly stupid, I put my handsover both spots and shook my head. “Not working yet.”

He scowled again and while I was no experton the Draax language, I was pretty sure he was spitting out an expletive.

“I’m sorry,” I said as he gave me an angrylook.

He stared out the windshield. I folded myarms across my shivering torso and stared at the falling hail and snow.Hopefully it wouldn’t take long to get to the palace.

Chapter Four

Bran

I eased the door shut to Bella’s nurseryand returned to the living room. My home was decorated similar to the humans’dwellings, as were all Draax homes. My grandfather had told me once that whenour kind and the humans first made the breeding agreement, we’d mimicked thehuman’s furniture and decorating choices to help the females feel morecomfortable and entice them to stay even after bearing us a child.

I sat down on the couch, picked up theremote and pushed a button. The fireplace lit, and I stared moodily at theflames. Not that it had made a difference with my female. Dana had nevertruly been happy living on the Draax planet, even though it was her choice tojoin me and Court. Her misery was not eased by similar housing décor.

I pushed the memory of Dana and herunhappiness out of my head. In the last two years, I’d become very good at notthinking of her. It helped that Bella looked very little like her mother, butever since I’d made the decision to hire a human as a nanny, thoughts of Danakept creeping back in.

I stood and paced in front of the fire.The storm was getting worse and I was worried about Court. We may have beenpushed apart in the last few years and it felt awkward between us even thoughhe’d returned home as soon as I needed him, but he was still my best friend andalways would be. The thought of losing him was almost as bad as the thought oflosing Bella.

I grabbed my tablet and was just logging into hologram him when the front door slammed. My hands turned sweaty and mytail flicked back and forth in nervous agitation. I remained by the fire,hoping I didn’t look as nervous as I felt, as Court’s boots clomped down thehall.

“Bran? Where are you?”

“The living room,” I called.

He stepped into the room. His cloak was missing,and his shirt and pants were covered in snow. “We barely beat the storm.”

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