Page 7 of Starfighter’s Salvation

I told myself the waiting didn’t hurt. Told myself not to worry, a serial killer would show up soon and solve the mystery. Corvan wasn’t real, and I was fine with that. No sexy alien was coming for me. I was alone and I was fine with it. Just fucking fine.

Corvan, Ready Room, Moon Base Arturri

On the fourth day, Priya Anand found me. I sat in the ready room with flight logs open on my console, though I had read nothing. I had stared at the same page for two hours. She looked at the wall, looked at the console, and looked at me.

“Productive morning?”

“Starfighter Anand.”

“Starfighter Corvan.” She set a data slate directly over the flight log. “Georgina Reyes completed her training.”

“I am aware.” Gina’s face filled the screen and my body answered before my discipline could stop it — a hot jolt of need going straight to my groin. My traitorous cock got hard and heavy for her, same way it did every time I watched her train. Four days I had kept that female’s face out of sight. Not mine to want. I wanted her anyway.

“Then what the hell are you doing sitting here? Why didn’t you go get her already?”

“This does not concern you.”

“Gina is my best friend. It concerns me.” She sat across from me without asking permission. Earth women had a habit of doing that. “You completed the same training program we did. She’s yours and you are hers. What are you waiting for?” She waved her hand between herself and Vesh, her bonded mate. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest and stared in silence, clearly willing to allow his female to berate me.

“You understand the bond is optional. I neither want nor need a mate. She is far safer where she is.”

“She needs you.” Priya sighed like I was the biggest idiot in the galaxy. Perhaps I was.

“No. I am the last thing she needs.” My beautiful mate needed to remain on Earth, eating her granola bars and taking care of her fellow humans where she would never be torn from the rear hatch of a rescue ship and burned alive.

“Someone else will go get her. There aren’t enough Starfighters. Velerion needs her.”

“I disagree.”

“God, you can’t be this big of an asshole. You just can’t.” Priya leaned over the table, palms flat, dark brown gaze locked to mine. “They will send someone else. But she wants you. Whoever they send won’t be you. They can’t be the man she chose for herself.”

“She did not choose me. She selected characteristics from a list in a digital simulation. None of it was real.”

“That’s what Vesh said. Almost word for word. You two should start a club for all the men who think women don’t know what they want.”

“Clearly, Vesh was wrong.”

“So are you.”

I should have left the room. Couldn’t move. Priya tapped Gina’s file. “Do you know what she does?”

“She is a trauma nurse in one of your medical facilities.”

“No. That’s her job. What she does is show up and take care of people. Every day. Strangers bleed, and Gina shows up. Her best friend disappears off the face of the Earth, and Gina finishes the game, even though she knows it’s going to put her in danger. She beats it anyway because she is determined to find out what happened to me.”

I had watched her for months, learned exactly how stubborn she was, how selfless, and then made her wait, alone. “She is safer on Earth. I will not risk her life by bringing her here.”

Her voice changed. Less sharp. Worse. Soft. Filled with pity. “That’s not your choice to make. Right now, she’s sitting in an empty apartment, all alone, wondering why you didn’t show up for her. Wondering why you didn’t want her.”

“That’s not—" I looked away from the screen. It changed nothing — I had every shadow and curve of her face memorized. Not want her? “She deserves someone better than me.”

“Probably. You’re kind of an asshole. Too bad she’s stuck with you anyway.”

I raised my brows. Was she insulting me?

“What? You want me to tell you you’re secretly perfect? I watched you in training for months. That’s you in that game. Grumpy. Scowling. For some reason, Gina fell in love with you. Someone has to call you on your bullshit. You’re still sitting here while my friend is sitting home waiting, wondering what went wrong.” She walked over to Vesh and leaned her head against her mate’s shoulder. “I don’t have to like you. You’re Gina’s mate. Not mine. She’s stubborn as hell. Maybe you’re perfect for each other.”

“She’s safer on Earth.”