Page 22 of Time Traveling Space Bastards
“You could have. You ruined her life when she was a kid. Another version of her could have taken one look at all of you and wanted nothing to do with you.”
“That’s true,” Enix said. “She was pretty mad about the food.”
“If the exchange rate between our planets hadn’t been so extreme, she probably would have kicked you all out of her place. I looked it up. Do you know what the equivalent of four million earth dollars would be in Nova Credits to someone who isn’t royalty? That’s enough to set you up comfortably and if you invest it right, you’d never have to work again in both galaxies. It would have calmed me down.”
“I wish I would have known that before I suggested having a male tell her to calm down,” Enix moaned.
“Based on how she’s looking at you lately, she’s forgiven you,” Omi giggled.
Just then Torrek came striding out of her bedroom alone with no shirt on. Baxter wasn’t with him, which wasn’t shocking. It didn’t matter if they were male, female, or somewhere in between, sex with the Saki tended to be exhausting. The Saki were also really big snugglers, so I didn’t know why he left her.
“Listen, you’re in charge here. I don’t know where your brother is, but he’s an idiot and he’s never going to be king. You’re going to be the one that approves anyone immigrating to our planet. We can’t leave her. I didn’t know it was possible since she’s human, but I imprinted and she responded. She might not even be aware of it because she’s never felt it before, but she’s my Zovea.”
“No shit? Congrats, big brother.”
Every race on my planet had a similar concept and a similar bond. Not everyone found theirs. Some people had a fierce love without that connection. Others took partners for power or money. Some planets in my galaxy had concepts like that and others didn’t. We didn’t exactly understand it, no matter how much we tried to study it. It was a primal thing.
“Isshegoing to understand that?” I mused.
I could see from Enix’s eyes that he was scanning the data from this planet and could give us some kind of answer.
“It’s not the same and not all humans believe in it, but they have a concept called soulmates. It’s another being who completes you, but they don’t get the same perks. They can’t feel when each other is in danger and they can’t sense emotions. They are like Enix in that regard. They just have to watch and guess and sometimes get it wrong.”
So, not only did we have to save her life, we had to convince her to come to an entirely different galaxy where she’d be the only one of her kind. Torrek couldn’t be parted from her now and he couldn’t exactly blend here. He would forever be in danger.
Thing is, I still hadn’t puzzled out how to save her and stillknowI needed to come back at this time to save her. And I didn’t know how to convince her to come with us if she didn’t want to.
Iwoke up alone, and I was a little disappointed about that because apparently Saki gave amazing snuggles, but not mad about it. I mean, I should probably be in there trying to figure out how not to get murdered instead of sleeping, but that was probably the best three hours I’d ever slept in my entire life.
When I joined them in the living room, they were all crowded on the ugly couch I found on the side of the road and I knew they were talking about me because they stopped when they saw me. I didn’t make a huge deal about it. It was probably alien business. They needed me to write, but I wasn’t one of them. Torrek fucked me within an inch of my life, but he never made any promises to me.
So, why was there like this homing beam drawing me straight to him? I tried to resist, but I was like Ineededto touch him. And I’d never needed anyone before. They tended to let me down or have me committed, so I kept my distance. And even when I waswith someone before I ghosted them, I wasn’t like this. I didn’t even get stupid if a guy didn’t respond to a text.
So, what the fuckity-fuck was this?
Torrek just opened his arms with a ‘come hither’ look and I ran straight to him like I hadn’t been a self-respecting commitment-phobe for nearly a decade. He pulled me into his lap and started that rumble again and instead of being terrified and wanting to run away, I was just…content and settled in.
“We don’t know who kills you and I haven’t figured out how to save your life, but I’m working on it.”
“I had to get through some firewalls, but I think I found something,” Enix said.
“You’re pretty amazing. I hope these guys tell you that enough.”
“They do. One of the numbers on your phone belongs to a senator’s son. His father disowned him when he was eighteen because of his behavior and pretends like they aren’t related, but he sends him a stipend on the condition he never mentions they are related and doesn’t behave in a way that comes back to bite the senator. As soon as they realized who he really was, they contacted the senator and buried it. The entire investigation is compromised and I don’t know how much of what’s in the police records is actually true.”
“What? I never ghosted a senator’s son. If someone was violent or weird, I could figure that out pretty fast.”
“His name is Owen Harper.”
“Owen? We bonded over the fact that we both hated our parents, but we never talked about why. It was one of the things I liked about him. We could just listen to each other rant and agree with everything without needing an explanation. He might have done some bad things when he was younger, but he wasn’t like that when I met him.”
“Hrm, spoiled politician’s son whose daddy swooped in to cover up your murder?” Omi said. “He didn’t grow up like you. Most men like that expect to be the one who leaves and don’t take it well when they are the ones left. He could have completely changed when you disappeared and ignored him.”
“She’s right. I’m surrounded by men like that. My brother is like that. It’s fairly well known on our planet if he sets his sights on a woman, she just has to tolerate him until he’s done with her because he’ll retaliate if she leaves first.”
“So, we should just find Owen and kill him,” Torrek said.
“No one is killing Owen! I still don’t think he was the one who killed me. I mean, it all works out on paper, but I was the one who fucked him for two months and he’s not like that anymore.”
