Page 10 of Legacy for the Alien Warrior

“He’s never seen space before,” Kara said quietly as she came to stand next to him. “Not like this, anyway. We were kept in a cell with no windows after we were taken.”

His jaw tightened at the reminder. He knew what it was like for one’s life to be ripped away.

“How were you taken?”

She sighed. Her gaze followed her son’s through the view screen but he didn’t think she was seeing the stars.

“I’d been working the night shift that week—I’m a nurse—and I arrived home to find Rory already awake. I’d promised to take him to the park and I decided I might as well go ahead and do it, even though it was just after dawn. It was a mistake.”

His tail went around her waist again, but she made no attempt to push it away.

“We’d been there hundreds of times, but it felt… different. But before I could tell Rory we would come back later, a man came out of the mist. At least I thought it was a man.”

There were a number of physical similarities between the Vedeckians and her race, especially from a distance. Perhaps that was why they had targeted her planet.

“I was so busy watching the one coming towards us, I didn’t even notice the one coming up behind me. The next thing I knew we were in that cell, and two males were arguing about our worth. They had given me some kind of translator because I had no trouble understanding that one of them thought that we weren’t valuable enough.”

“I do not understand.”

She shrugged, but the careless movement couldn’t disguise her anger.

“Apparently I was too old. And Rory was not only male, he was too… different.”

“They were wrong about your value,” he said firmly.

She gave him a quick smile, then patted his tail where it was still wrapped around her waist. An unexpected spike of arousal shot through him and he had the sudden urge to pull her into his arms.

What is wrong with me?

She was most certainly not Cire. He should not feel this way about her. But the urge to touch her didn’t lessen. For the first time, he understood the appeal of having a mate and why some warriors would risk their lives for their mates. If she were his, he would not let her be harmed.

“I am glad I found you.” The words escaped before he could stop them.

“Me too,” she said, smiling up at him and making his chest tighten. “I never thought we’d make it away from there. I’d stopped hoping.”

“Hope is a luxury in such places,” he agreed, understanding all too well the grim reality of survival.

“Thank you for taking us away.”

She patted his tail again and he forced it to drop away from her, although he immediately regretted the loss of contact.

“Were there others on the Vedeckian ship?” he asked, trying to distract himself.

“I think so, even though I never saw anyone else.”

“We should inform the Patrol. Perhaps they can trace them.”

“After six months?”

They had been trapped on Jellix V for that long? No wonder she had learned to be wary.

“Perhaps not,” he admitted. “It is difficult to monitor an entire system.”

She nodded and looked over at her son. He followed her gaze and realized that the child was tracing his fingers across the view screen, mapping the position of the stars over and over. He went to join the boy.

“The stars look different from every system,” he said. “But many believe the different patterns hold meaning.”

Rory turned at the sound of his voice, his gaze dropping to Thraxar’s tail. He reached for it, his small fingers hovering questioningly.

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