Page 9 of Starfighter’s Salvation

“In hospital years, that’s sixty-eight.”

Damn her, Alisha laughed at me. “Your computer died. You got the ceremony. They wanted you. Something must have come up. Delayed him coming to collect you.”

“You make me sound like curbside recycling.” Left out with the trash. Old, used up stuff no one wanted. Yep. Sounded about right.

“Gina, don’t. I’m sure there’s a reason you haven’t been abducted by a grumpy, stone-cold alien yet.”

“He's not cold, he's efficient. And I can’t believe we are even talking about this. It’s crazy.”

“It’s not. It keeps happening. Vesh is real. Priya was the seventh person to beat the game, and the seventh to go missing. I bet the FBI is losing their shit. Anyway, it's all real. Corvan is real. Priya is alive. I just know it. Let me come out there. I’ll bring my laptop and finish the game at your place. Then we can wait for our alien boyfriends together.”

She wanted to come to Denver two days ago. I refused. Alisha was one mission away from finishing the infiltration track, and if this insanity was real, I wanted her on the same side of it as Priya as quickly as possible. Apparently, Corvan wasn’t coming for me.

“No. That's a waste of time. Go home and beat the game as fast as you can. One of us needs to be with her.” Maybe Corvan was dead. Killed on his last mission. Maybe he was trapped behind enemy lines with no way to get to me. I could play this guessing game all day. Better than sitting with a broken heart, rejected by a video game avatar. Sheesh. I was truly pathetic.

“But—”

“No. She needs us. Finish the game,” I told her. “Then go find Priya and get a message to me so at least I can stop worrying about her.”

“Okay. But when I get out there, I’m going to find Corvan and kick his ass.”

I laughed. “Go for it.”

Alisha hung up. My break ended and I worked three more hours. At just after seven, I walked into the staff parking garage carrying my work bag, my empty lunch container, and a bad attitude. A man I’d never seen before leaned against the concrete pillar beside my car. I stopped. Holy shit, he was big. That was my first coherent thought. The second was that there had to be some kind of mistake.

That man wasn’t from around here. His clothes were some kind of body-hugging camouflage armor that looked like it belonged on a bounty hunter from Star Wars. And he clearly was not Corvan. This man had golden hair and eyes the color of good whiskey. He was gorgeous, but not anyone I recognized.

He looked at me like he knew exactly who I was. “Georgina Reyes?”

Holy. Shit. He did know me. His accent was strange. Was that Velerion? “Yes.”

He placed one arm across his waist and bowed. “I am Dekker, Elite Starfighter from the planet Velerion. You completed your training. I am here to escort you to your new home.”

Surprise. Surprise. Surprise. Well, better late than never? So, I wasn’t completely crazy? Well, maybe I was, but not for believing Velerion was real. The fact that my heart was an aching, bloody pulp under my ribcage left plenty of room for the insanity argument. Here I was, meeting an alien, a real fucking alien, and all I could feel was disappointment that this gorgeous, sexy man wasn’t Corvan.

I looked him over, this Dekker from Velerion. The golden hair. The smooth, lightly tanned skin. Bedroom eyes. The muscles. The height. The strange armor and boots that were identical to those in the game. The insignia on his chest. An Elite Starfighter’s sigil. I’d seen it thousands of times. He was gorgeous. I’d give him that. And I was going with him, no question. I had to make sure Priya was alive and well. More than that, I had nothing left to lose. Nothing holding me to Earth if my two best friends were going to be living on another planet. “Just a sec.”

I pulled out my cell phone and sent Alisha a text.

* * *

Brazil was right. Someone’s here. Not C. I’m leaving. See you soon.

* * *

I put a heart emoji on the end so she wouldn’t think I was being abducted against my will.

“Dekker, is it?” I slipped my phone into my pocket and looked at him out of the corner of my eye. The closer he stood, the bigger he seemed. Guess aliens didn't come in a small.

“Yes.” He followed me as I opened the trunk of my car, kept talking as I threw the empty lunch box inside and pulled my go-bag free. “I am here to escort you to the Velerion moon base, Arturri. Once there, you will be briefed on your new role, and we will make our partnership official. If you will accept me, of course. There are other males to choose from, if you do not feel I am a good fit.”

I turned to stare up at him. Was he saying what I thought he was saying? "What does that mean, exactly? A good fit?"

He lifted one hand and gently, reverently, ran his fingertips along one side of my jaw. “I assure you, Georgina, if you agree to be my bonded mate, I will take very good care of you.”

Oh. My. God. He totally did mean what I thought he did. He wanted me to be his mate? After all of sixty seconds together? And I thought I was the crazy one. Was he staring at my lips? Did he want to kiss me? But…

Don’t fucking ask. Don’t. Just don’t.