Veyalor studied him for a long moment, that calculating look returning to his pale eyes.
“Interesting,” he murmured. “Most interesting.” He made a note on his display. “Although you may have misunderstood. The genetic material is provided via a blood sample. I. believe it is how my uncle was able to get around the issues with viability. However, I will take your request under consideration, Captain. Now, if there’s nothing else…?”
It was a dismissal. He accepted it, turning and striding from the office before he could say something he would regret.
The corridors seemed longer on the walk back and the shadows deeper. He tried to sort through the chaos of his thoughts, to find some order in the storm of emotions that Melissa had unleashed in him.
She’s not even Cire. She’s an alien, a human, a species you’d never even seen before today. This is madness.
But his tail disagreed. His tail, which had never responded to a female, which had been still and controlled through years ofwarrior training and discipline, kept reaching for a female who wasn’t there.
The mate bond,whispered something deep in his chest.This is what it means.
He stopped walking, pressing one hand against the cold stone wall to steady himself. It couldn’t be. The mate bond could only exist between two Cire. It was the fundamental truth of their reproduction, the reason they were dying. A Cire male could only truly bond with a Cire female, and there were no Cire females left.
But what if that truth is wrong?
What if everything they had believed was wrong?
He thought of her face. The fear she tried so hard to hide. The fierce protectiveness when she spoke of her son. The strength it must have taken to speak up, to demand fresh air and books as if she had any power in this situation.
She is magnificent,he thought again. And he was going to do everything in his power to make her captivity bearable. To keep his promise. To protect her, even from himself if necessary.
He started walking again, faster now. He had clothes to find, a datapad to procure, and a promise to keep.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The clothes turned out to be the easy part. The facility’s supply stores held standard-issue garments in various sizes, and Becsul had simply taken the smallest ones available, adding a few extra layers in case she found the stone corridors cold. Based on the data that had been collected so far, humans were more sensitive to environmental extremes.
The datapad had been more complicated. He’d had to go through the security protocols himself, removing access to any systems that might allow her to send messages or interfere with facility operations, but leaving enough functionality that she could read, watch entertainment vids, and access the educational databases. It felt inadequate, a small kindness in the face of everything that had been taken from her, but it was something.
He stood outside her cell again, the bundle of clothes tucked under one arm and the datapad in his hand, and tried to convince himself that his heart was not beating faster than it should. Then the door slid open at his command, and he stepped inside.
She was sitting on the bed, the child cradled against her shoulder. She looked up at his entrance, and he saw the way her body tensed—the automatic fear response of a prisoner seeing her jailer. But she didn’t flinch. Didn’t cower. Just lifted her chin and met his eyes with that defiant stare that made something clench in his chest.
“You came back.”
“I said I would.”
“A lot of people say things.”
He crossed the room and set the clothes on the end of her bed, then held out the datapad.
“Clean clothes. And something to read, as you requested. I’ve loaded it with several thousand texts because I wasn’t sure what you would prefer. It also includes a learning program.”
She stared at the datapad like he’d handed her a weapon.
“You’re serious.”
“I don’t make promises I don’t intend to keep.”
Slowly, carefully, she shifted the infant to one arm and reached out to take the device. Her fingers brushed his, and he felt the contact like an electric shock, his tail immediately trying to snake towards her waist. He pulled it back with an effort that made his muscles tense.
She noticed. Of course she noticed—she seemed to notice everything.
“Why does that keep happening?”
“I’m not sure, but it only happens with you.”
