I chew a lip and nod to myself. “Sounds accurate.”
“So this net is to keep you safe from discharges?” he asks.
“Yeah, high-output engines require more amperage. Many people think it’s the voltage that kills, but it is the flow—the current. It’s why a hovercar battery can kill a person, but a lightning strike might not. The average person can’t take much more than ten milliamps. This gives me the ability to endure a lot more.”
“That’s fucking hot, you know that?” Aura growls, giving my ass cheek a squeeze. “You’re speaking my language.”
I tense under his touch, little sparks of electricity zinging through his fingers into my skin. Aura’s hungry affection steals my breath.
As we enter the central race field and the timer dings, Aura clutches my thighs and nips at my hip. He rumbles a low note as titillating tingles curl up from his gentle bite. I can’t help but kick and wiggle at the unexpected contact.
“Mine,” he growls.
“She looks like she has scales,” someone snarls.
Aura carries me toward the mingle celebration, and I notice the dragon guy squinting at Aura, a pink-banded woman under his arm. She’s chatting with another couple, and I think the women are friends.
Electronic dance music fills the colorful hall as Aura steps inside. He gently sets me down. As much as I know he’s built to battle monsters, I can easily sense his care and caution with me.
“Is it painful, your net?” he asks as we weave between dancing couples.
I look up at him and find genuine interest in his eyes. “Not anymore. The first months were rough. But they dose us with nanocytes which repair and maintain the merge. Once we’re healed,we only need boosters if we’re seriously injured. Now, I have to ask you something.”
Aura motions to a padded bench seat running along the edge of the room. I sit, and he joins me. On the table is a screen with a menu for drinks and food.
I set my flower on the table and clutch my hands together, trying to find the courage to ask.
Aura points to a screen above the bar. “They paired us.”
I see my name beside his and blurt what’s on my mind. “Did you know I was going to be here?”
He shakes his head. “No. Not specifically. My Storm wants a human. I can’t really explain it except that it gets excited with human females, not my own kind or any other alien species I’ve ever worked with. My blood-brother found a mate last month through ABR, and she is great. So here I am. And I found you. We made the orb. We are a match.”
“I appreciate the honesty. Sounds like you’ve checked your boxes.”
He grimaces a little and scans the room.
“But?” I ask.
Aura’s jaw muscles flex. He sighs deeply. “My people have not mated outside their species. I am breaking the rules.”
“That you know of.” I figured something was up since ABR listed this as his species’ first race and had little information on them.
“What are you saying?” Aura asks.
I drum a finger on the table, wishing I had my gauntlets so I could have something to fiddle with in my nervousness. “My experience is that there are always people who smile to your face and do what they want behind your back. Maybe Amphirans aren’t like that, but I find it hard to believe that being the first species into space, giving you far more time to explore other worlds than most of us, not a single Amphiran has ever been disloyal to your species. I would wager they were just silenced or disappeared.”
“That’s a terrible thing to say.” Aura looks at me like he’s offended.
I don’t want to push Aura away. But I don’t want him worrying the entire time he’s here. Even if we don’t end up together, he’s a protectorand deserves a mate. “I’m trying to tell you that you probably aren’t the first and aren’t alone.” I scroll through the drink menu, feeling like I need something to take the edge off, and pick out a Galactic Gypsy, some mix of fruity alien alcohols.
Aura is quiet for a moment. When I’m done, he picks out a drink that looks like beer to me but has a name I can’t pronounce, then sits back and nods. “You are probably right. As much as I’ve wanted to deny that my mothership and the others would disagree with my attendance, I wager someone else in the last few centuries has found a different mate. My people are just increasingly focused on power and maintaining hierarchy, one I’m not interested in.”
“So you’re arebelAmphiran?” I ask as the server sets our drinks on the table.
“Yeah.”
I like the sound of this. “Have your own ship?”
