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“As a race matures, nata’tai gives its people the ability to sense their tanash’ae—what you would call their soul-mate—even over great distances. To ensure a mingling of races, nata’tai directs the spirits of tanash’ae—soul-mates—to be born in different races on different planets.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you’ve brought me here because you think I’m one of these tannashays?” She sucked in a breath. “Do you think that you and I…” Her finger flicked between them. “That we are…soul-mates?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Would that be a problem for you?”
No, a voice inside insisted, but she ignored it and sucked in a breath.
“Yes! Of course it would. I don’t even know you. I don’t intend to marry a man I don’t even know.”
He flashed a devil-may-care grin. “Who said anything about marriage?”
“Oh, I see.” A blush crept up her cheeks. “When you said soul-mate I assumed you meant, you know, love and marriage.”
This was all too much for her. The reality of the situation was finally sinking in. She didn’t even want to think about what he actually meant. That image of the chain and the bed swept through her brain again and not as an attractive fantasy this time. Her head sagged forward as tears pooled in her eyes.
“Aria, I’m sorry. I was teasing you. I’m not your tanash’ae.”
“Then why—?”
“Your tanash’ae is our king.”
Her head jerked up.
“I’m supposed to marry a king?”
“Does the thought appeal to you?”
“If I believed you, which I don’t, I would be honored, of course. It’s like a fairy tale, in a nightmarish sort of way, but I’m not going to marry some stranger on another planet, king or not. I don’t want to leave my family and friends behind.”
He leaned toward her, his silver gaze piercing her delicately maintained composure.
“Aria, you don’t have a family. You were separated from your mother at a very young age and she refuses contact with you.”
She felt as though he’d stabbed her heart. The pain of long, lonely years in an orphanage, then a group home and foster care, slammed through her.
Of course, anyone would understand why her newly widowed mother might decide to give up her young baby when she barely had the resources to care for her other four children. It had been the responsible thing to do, given the situation. Supposedly, she’d wanted Aria to have a better life than she could provide—but wasn’t being surrounded by brothers and sisters and a parent who loved her a much better choice than leaving her all alone in the world, rejected by the one person who should love her no matter what?
Logic dictated that her mother could not have truly loved her.
Aria stiffened her back against the debilitating pain, refusing to meet the man’s gaze.
“I don’t want to leave my world behind.”
He leaned toward her, his hands folded between his knees. “If he weren’t a king, you could have negotiated where you’d live. Our home world or yours. But in this case, nata’tai has given you no choice.”
No choice. Déjà vu or what? She knotted her fingers together and sighed heavily. “Will I be expected to have sex with this guy?”
He smiled, kindness lighting his eyes. “That’s usually what two bonded people do.”
She glared at him. “Why do you think I’d have sex with a strange man after being abducted?”
He smiled broadly. “You mean, you’d have sex with a strange man if we hadn’t abducted you?”
She stared at him blankly. She couldn’t believe it. This alien captain was teasing her.
Alien.
Oh God. Although he looked quite human, he was an alien. A man from another planet.
