Page 38 of Alien Jeopardy
A human woman, petite but seriously muscled, stands next to the Roth host.
“Hi,” she says softly, a careful smile on her face. “I’m Billie. You must be…” She trails off, then glances down at some kind of tech pad in her hand. “That’s right. You’re Ellison?”
“That’s me,” I confirm, completely taken aback by another human woman’s appearance.
“Don’t be scared,” she says confidently. “I developed this tech. It’s perfect now. Follow me.” Billie glances up at where Rex looms over me.
“I’m sorry,” I start, then stop, trying to figure out how not to be rude. “Who the hell are you?”
I wince. So much for the not being rude bit.
I wince again, because now that I’m not amped up on adrenaline, my feet really hurt, and I’m freaking tired.
Rex rumbles something ominous-sounding, then he grabs me by the waist and hauls me into his arms.
“Awww,” Billie says, one hand on her chest. “That’s so cute.”
“What?” I swat Rex’s hand away from my sore foot on reflex, but he ignores me completely, plucking a piece of gravel out from between my toes.
“He said that you will not walk a step while you are injured, not while he’s around.”
I swing my gaze back to my big alien, who is still scowling down at me with a purely mutinous expression.
I blink up at him, totally thrown off. “He doesn’t think I’m disgusting?”
Billie laughs. Actually laughs, and when I frown down at her from my perch in Rex’s arms, she covers her mouth.
“Oh. You weren’t joking. No, nope, he does not think you are disgusting at all.” She sighs, as though we’re the cutest thing she’s ever seen.
I don’t know how to respond to that.
“Come on, let’s get you fitted.” She trots off, motioning for us to follow her, the Roth host still talking to Rex in another language.
“How are you here?” I ask, trying not to fidget, afraid that if I move while he’s touching me, I’ll spontaneously orgasm again.
“Oh, that’s what you meant when you asked who I was. I was Federation. My unit was taken by the Roth and held captive for months.” She delivers this news in a cheerful tone at complete odds with what she’s saying.
“What?” I explode. “Are you a prisoner? I can get you out of here?—”
She waves a hand. “No, the Suevans rescued us. I work with the Roth now, the ones who overthrew that last asshole. My best friend is the queen, actually, and my other one is a princess. Wild times, huh?”
“Wild,” I agree. It seems like a safer response than the other floating to the top of my brain, the one that wants to scream: what the actual fuck?
“Anyway, me and Bex—” she glances back at us to make sure we’re still following, “we’ve been working on improving the Draegon-to-human omni-language translator for years now. Bex was Federation too, now she’s married to a Suevan warlord.”
“Are you?” I ask, gaping at her. “Married to an alien?”
She flaps a hand at me, her cheeks pinkening. “No, no, I’m just here to facilitate interspecies relationships.” She coughs delicately, glancing at the Roth host still trying to talk to Rex. “This whole show, it was not exactly part of the plan, but I’m here to help anyway.”
I’m not sure what to say to that, so I don’t say anything.
“The plan,” she continues, leading us into a sprawling building I hadn’t noticed hidden in the trees. “The plan was to build a human understanding of the alien species post-Roth-emperor-death, you know? And then to help match willing human women with alien mates.” She doesn’t quite meet my eyes. “Then the Roth guys heard about the whole public relations thing after binge watching old human reality shows and here we are.”
“I didn’t know I was going to be mated to a Draegon,” I tell her.
Her eyes narrow, and any hope I had of getting out of my mating bond and getting some kind of antivenin for the heat ramping up under my skin again fades.
“You signed the paperwork.” Her voice is sharp, and I hate that she’s right.
