A louddingfrom the nightstand saves me from my thoughts. It's our bonus reward—a glowing silver comms tablet. I snatch it up, then faceplant onto the velvet bed, my thumbs flying across the screen.
Poppy:Oh my god, are you alive? My translator just kicked in. I am so sorry about, well, everything. Please don’t murder me.
Lily:I am hiding behind a giant rock because Zan won't stop singing an off-key alien version of ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall. He also tried to make me shoes out of a dead animal. I want to die, Poppy. I am going to skin you alive when I get off this fucking moon.
Ellison:Rex is actually lovely, but alien heat uh… it’s not great, okay? And what do you mean FOREVER? my feet are a shredded disaster. Poppy, I love you, but I also want to punch you in the throat.
Lucy:My guy is holding me like a giant scaley teddy bear. Settle down, girlie pops. The prize includes a mansion. I'm choosing to focus on the real estate. Better than Earth. Plus… he’s kind of cute.
I let out a messy sob of relief. They’re alive. They’re miserable, and Lily is definitely sketching out my murder, but they’re safe. I text back a quick string of hearts before setting the screen down, the guilt in my chest easing up just enough for me to breathe.
"Pah-pee?”
Vael-Torin’s baritone rumbles from the doorway.
I look up, my breath catching. He washed the mud off his face, his dark hair falling loose around his broad, red-scaled shoulders. His eyes locked onto me.
Whew. That’s hot.
"The translation matrix has achieved full calibration," he announces, the words stilted but loud and clear.
I beam at him. “Hi,” I say. “It’s POP-ee. Not Pah-PEE.”
“Poopie.”
I blink. “No. Not that. That means… shit. It means shit. My name is a flower, please try again.”
Not once in my life has anyone mispronounced my name as poopy. Starting off strong here.
“POP-ee.”
“That’s better.” I shrug. “Am I saying yours right? Can I call you Vael?”
“I like this Vael, yes,” he says, nodding. “I am so glad to finally have your words and not just your sounds.” His gaze travels down my body. “Though I liked those very much too.” A fanged grin punctuates the remark, and I feel heat rising in my cheeks.
It’s funny how suddenly self-conscious I am now that I can understand him.
He marches toward the bed, his tail swishing behind him. "Now that we possess the translators, I must demand clarity on a biological matter."
I arch an eyebrow, leaning back on my elbows. "Oh? Demand away, Vael." If I try to say it enticingly, so sue me. If I flutter my eyelashes and make my boobs heave as I breathe in, my bad.
A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
He stops at the foot of the bed, puffing out his chest.
"Last night, in the cavern of the root, you placed your mouth around my cock and brought me to a state of bliss. It was... highly satisfactory." A deep violet blush creeps up his neck. "It is the way of an honorable warrior to return a debt.”
Oh yes, I’m glad we can communicate. I like where this is going.
“I wish to place my tongue upon your cunt and clean the delicious honey from your skin until you scream my name again."
My jaw drops, my core tightening with a hot, throbbing spike of heat. God, he is direct.
"Whoa, Vael. Slow down," I laugh, a breathless sound as I fan my face. "You have to take me to dinner first."
Vael-Torin goes still. His eyebrows knit together, his forehead furrowing beneath the curling horns arcing over his head.
"Take you to dinner?" he repeats. "The sustenance has already been retrieved from the automated receptacle. It issitting upon the steel table. Why must I move you to a secondary location before I am permitted to kiss upon your cunt? Is this a requirement of human mating?"
