Page 21 of A Mate for Vasek
Kean chuckled. “You say that like a human female just suddenly fell into your lap.”
“That sounds about right, ” Vasek said, remembering how Dawn had felt in his lap during takeoff. “Is your compound still taking in escaped slaves?”
“You’re not keeping her yourself? You’ve worked hard, you deserve someone.”
Of course Kean would say that. He was completely enamored with his human mate. The poor sap. Luckily for Kean, the mating had only increased his reputation for being ruthless since it gave him something more to protect on top of everyone else in his compound.
“I have no way to protect something so precious. She will be better off at the compound.”
Vasek wondered if Kean knew about his family’s luck with matings. He might, since he was also ex-Dominion, and Goddess knew how rumors spread through the ranks.
“I’m sure we’ll find a position for her. When will you be here?”
“I’m leaving New Rhea now.”
“Good. Then we will expect you soon. And you will be just in time for the big celebration. You never did reply to my invitation.”
Fuck. He’d forgotten about that. Kean had been throwing these big bashes every year since he took over all the major ports and cities on the planet. It was a celebration of the unification and development of a planet that had once only been home to outlaws and thieves, and everyone who was anyone was invited. There was usually at least one attempt on Kean’s life, so it was the perfect way to lure out any disloyal players.
Vasek wasn’t the type for big parties, but he was stuck with it now.
Chapter 12
Dawn
Dawn had never been so confused by someone before. For one thing, her fight or flight—or in this case, freeze—response had burnt itself out. That intense, uncontrollable fear she’d had of him before she’d stormed off now seemed almost silly.
Yes, he looked terrifying. Yes, he’d murdered people right in front of her. And yes, he’d gone after her like she was prey, but he hadn’treallyhurt her. Maybe she was wrong about being wrong about him.
Ugh! See, totally confusing.
Her anger at losing the chance to be on that ship tomorrow had also fizzled out. She was still upset and disappointed, but there was nothing she could do about it now. No amount of trying to break things was going to make it any better.
Also, it was nearly impossible to stay terrified or angry with Vasek when he’d just offered her an olive branch in the form of a slice of pizza.
Where the hell had he gotten it anyway?
She’d noticed the food replicator on the ship. Kotch didn’t have one because the Fiete girls took turns cooking, but the Dominion captain had one in his quarters, and she’d been taught to use it. But that machine couldn’t make Earth-style dishes. Vasek had alsocalledit pizza.
She stared at it. It looked like pizza from afar, but upon closer inspection, she saw that it wasn’t a slice out of a round pie, but a triangular piece of flatbread with toppings. Close enough. She recognized the crumbled meat that was a replicator staple. In this case, it was used to simulate sausage crumbles.
Dawn knew that Reka 5 now produced tomato sauce from real tomatoes, and pouches of it were readily available all over the outer planets. Kotch had been curious about the savory sauce made from the red fruit and had asked her once to make a meal with it. She’d made pasta with Tallean-style noodles they’d had on hand, and ground meat from the market. It had come out close enough, though the noodle texture had been different. Too bouncy.
She sniffed the flatbread. It smelled like pizza. Kind of. She didn’t know what the “cheese” was made of. Maybe a creamy sauce of some kind? Talleans had that in their many types of cuisines. Did some of their cultures have cheese too? There were, after all, as many cooking styles as there were habitable planets.
That was one thing Dawn had realized about these aliens. They weren’t just one broad homogenous group, but an amalgamation of many, many different people, with varying cultures.
The shuttle rumbled to life, and Dawn grabbed the platter before the whole thing went flying. Alarm filled her briefly until she realized they were lifting off. Vasek had meant it when he’d said they were leaving right away. It was probably the bestthing to do since there were currently several dead Talleans in the area. It would be a matter of time before someone came looking for them. There was still the other half of the group. And of course, Morad was free, so he’d be coming back with reinforcements.
There were also the wild animals and scavengers that the dead bodies would call in. She had caught a glimpse of the giant land-bound birds that they’d passed on their way back to the shuttle. Imagine if a shoebill stork mated with a cassowary, then mixed in a dash of hellhound.
Shudder.
She didn’t want any of those poking around the shuttle. Just because they liked to eat carrion didn’t mean they only ate carrion. She was pretty damn sure that if they were hungry enough, they would find her a decent meal as well.
After several long minutes, the shuttle stabilized, and she dug into her pizza look-alike.
And hey, what do you know! It was actually pretty freaking good.
