Page 16 of A Monster’s Future

“Oh fuck, if she’s your mate, that means…” Ashtrr’s eyes were wide. “The rut.”

I couldn’t stop the menacing growl that tore from my throat at the thought of him sharing his rut with her.

I lunged for him, but he danced away. Trsak came to stand between us.

“She didn’t know, and neither did he.” Trsak glared at me. “If you’d just let fate take its course, it would’ve never happened. Now that the bond has formed, I assume you will not be fighting it.”

“I am not suicidal.” And that was what fighting a formed bond would be. I wasn’t that stubborn.

“Good.” He slapped me hard on the shoulder.

“You’re an idiot for trying to fight it in the first place.” Ashtrr had a smirk on his face I’d love to wipe off with my knuckles.

“Now stop looking like you’ve swallowed a sandwart sideways and start watching the screens. Since you’re no longer a threat, it’s your turn at the helm. But first—” Trsak narrowed his eyes. “What the hell is a kukee doing on board?”

Trsak had handed the creature over to his mate, Kat, before dragging my sorry ass out of the mess hall.

“It hid in my tool bag. He is the reason why I am out of nullvein. He ate it all.”

“She,” Ashtrr corrected. “It’s a female.”

I frowned. “How do you know?”

“It’s the way she holds her tail.”

“How?” Trsak asked. “I don’t see the difference.”

“It’s just... you can tell by the way it is.”

I still had no idea what he meant, and by the look on Trsak’s face, he didn’t either. All the kukee tails looked the same to me. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“We need to contain it before it destroys anything else on the ship. It has already chewed through my tool bag.” I hated putting anything in a cage, but I also worried it would injure itself if it got into anything it shouldn’t.

“Still working on that hoverbike?” Trsak asked.

“It’s mostly done. That’s why I brought it along. It might come into use.”

Halcyon Station was massive, and our research showed that they allowed personal vehicles to get around. We had one of Ellaston’s transports, but nothing beat the speed and maneuverability of a hoverbike.

“Good idea.” Trsak stepped back. “I’ll go find this kukee and see what I can do.”

“I’m going to take that nap,” Ashtrr said. “Wake me when we’re far enough from the system to go into hyperspace.”

When I was alone on the bridge with nothing but the ever-changing screen and my runaway thoughts, the weight of what had happened finally dropped.

Ashtrr was right; I was an idiot. I, of all people, knew that a mate bond could not be stopped. It was woven into our very physiology, an unstoppable need that defied all attempts at logic and willpower. Now that it had finally been triggered, there was no fighting it. Julie was mine, whether I liked it or not. And I was hers.

The only thing left to do was accept it. I’d need to convince her to spend more time with me. The bond would do the rest. We’d witnessed it again and again—our pheromones worked extremely well on human females. Even though they couldn’t feel the mate bond the way we did didn’t mean they were not susceptible to it.

I already knew that Julie found me physically attractive by the desire I often smelled when we were close. It was only a matter of time before she succumbed to the pull.

But then I thought of her and the look of shock and denial on her face when she realized she was my mate. Her body had tensed like she’d been physically struck.

I clutched my hand to my chest and the coiling tightness there that threatened to stop my heart.

Fuck! It hurt more than I dared admit.

She’d recoiled from me, disgusted by the thought of being mine. She’d looked at me like I was the last person she’d ever want.