Page 40 of Alien's Luck
“Remain calm. Do not attract attention.”
“Yes, because the space cops showed up, you started shooting like it was the Wild West, then you jumped over the edge into the ocean, but I should stay calm. I am calm. This is calm.” She poked him in the chest with a finger.
Despite her claims, her behavior was not calm. Ari had the good sense to keep that observation to himself.
“Running for my life is getting real old. My life on Earth wasn’t perfect, but it was safe,” she said.
“Sounds tedious.” Some good sense, but not enough.
“Don’t get an attitude with me right now. I’m not in the mood.” Another poke. “Explain. Start with the warrant.”
“Allow me to sit upright.”
“Nope. It’s talky time now. Be a good boy and spill your guts.”
“Human idioms are particularly violent. I am concerned.”
She huffed, as if amused. He hoped he had defused some of her anger. Alas, no such luck. She leaned forward, allowing him to see the fury in her eyes.
“Warrant. Talk,” she ordered.
“There is a warrant for my arrest, as I explained. I murdered my sire.”
CHAPTER 11
CARLA
Words left her. Okay, that was a lie. She had lots of words, but none of them were particularly helpful. She knew he wasn’t squeaky clean. People came to this lawless planet for a reason. Eventually, she settled on, “Did he have it coming?”
Ari sat upright, positioning her to sit on his lap. “My sire was a vain, arrogant male.”
Carla itched to make a snide comment about the apple not falling far from the tree, but she didn’t. Yay, personal growth.
Ari continued. “Lord Solivair is an old title, one of the oldest, and the estate is ancient, but that does not indicate wealth. My mother came from a family with the wealth needed to revitalize the estate. It was not a love match. It was a necessity.”
“That happens plenty of times on Earth.”
“My sire resented her. He was cruel.” Ari paused, as if to gather his thoughts. “To both of us. I believe because she was not his hondassa. Me? Because I simply existed.”
Ouch. That had to be difficult to admit.
“Hondassa. Is that like a fated mate thing?” she asked, partly allowing Ari a chance to shift the conversation if he wanted, and partly out of curiosity.
The universe was a big place. Hormones doing weird shit seemed to be universal, but each alien species had its own unique take on how weird the weird shit got. She heard about a species where their hormones randomly decided on a mate, whether you liked the person or not, and that was final. No takebacks.
Or mating fevers where the need to breed drove a person beyond reason. Or bites. Or psychic connections. Carla wasn’t sure she liked the idea of another person hanging out in her mind. Biology changing to match their partner seemed even worse, like a permanent “I heart you forever” tattoo but your entire body, not just a patch of skin.
Poppy said her people did that. She had a second heart that only kicked on when she bonded, for all the extra energy she’d need for making a baby presumably. Bodies were weird.
“A bonded mate, made by choice, not a biological imperative,” Ari answered. “The bond was never formalized, I believe. Obligation pressured him to take my mother as a mate.”
“That’s heartbreaking,” she said. Forced to marry when your heart belonged to someone else. That situation would turn anyone bitter.
“Do not find sympathy for the fiend. He made my mother’s life a misery.”
She pressed a hand to his arm. If there was one thing she understood, it was bad dads. “I believe you. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”
“I would like to tell you it was self-defense, but it was not. I saw an opportunity, and I seized it. He slept in his stone form, and I pushed him out of the aerie.” His eyes went hard, glowing a cold violet in the dim light.
