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“You’re probably safe, love,” she said, nodding sagely. “Like, if he doesn’t nearly break his back doing a billion weighted squats to impress you, can he really be your mate?”
We all burst into laughter at that. Damn, it felt so good to laugh. Especially about a situation that had been a huge pain in the ass so far. Thatsituationbeing a broad-shouldered, mouthy, sinfully handsome idiot of an alien king.
“What are you gonna do when he gets back here?” Fiona asked me once our laughter died down.
I slumped in my seat and tipped my head back to stare at the shuttle’s metal ceiling.
“No clue. Just... Ignore him? I don’t know.”
Fiona snorted.
“Don’t think he’ll be easy to ignore. Lad’s gonna be looking for a new boulder out here. An even bigger one.” Her tone grew more serious. “But you do know we’re with you no matter what, right? If you don’t want him near you, he’s not coming near you.”
I brought my chin down to look at my friends, finding them all nodding in agreement.
“Thank you, guys. Luckily, even though he’s extremely stubborn, he hasn’t pushed me too far or anything. I mean, he told me that I’m wrong about my own feelings and that I’m apparently going to fall in love with him somehow. But he hasn’t done anything like... Icky. I don’t think I’ll need any actual protection from him.” I smirked. “Maybe just some earplugs for when he starts droning on about what a catch he is and how any other woman would ‘rejoice at the chance to be his mate.’”
“He did not say that!” Fiona gasped.
“Oh, he one thousand percent did,” I confirmed, aware of just how cringey it sounded.
“Cheeky bastard,” she said, shaking her head.
“Delusional bastard, more like,” I said with a laugh.
The conversation died down for the moment, and I tipped my head back against the seat once more, closing my eyes.
Could there be anyone else less suited to me?I wondered.Probably not.
Although...
An image of stony Gahn Thaleo flashed through my mind. I hated to admit it, but he was probably someone I’d want as a mate even less than Gahn Errok. Gahn Errok was his own spectacular brand of obnoxious, but somehow it felt more manageable and was now more familiar, than Gahn Thaleo’s eerily quiet power. Every once in a while during our conversations, Gahn Errok’s face would go flat and unreadable, but for the most part I could tell exactly how he was feeling as the emotions played out wildly on his features. I would take the dramatic, pouty sincerity of those expressions over the cold stare of Gahn Thaleo any day.
Not that I’ll take Gahn Errok, of course! I’m just saying that he’s maybe not the absolute last guy I could stomach being with.
But he’s still low on the freaking list.
Hell, there wasn’t even a list at all! I didn’t need or even want some big alien boyfriend. I hadn’t had crushes or close connections with any of the men here. I’d barely put any effort into dating on Earth, and there’d been absolutely no reason to put more effort into it on a literal alien planet where every other day presented some catastrophic problem we’d had to solve.
“Alright, we’re here,” Valeria called back to us. My eyes snapped open.
“That was fast,” Nasrin muttered, leaning forward in her seat to see out the cockpit viewscreen. I did the same, but I couldn’t make much out.
The landing was similarly smooth to our earlier one, and soon enough we were all getting off the shuttle – first the Bitter Sea guys, then the Sea Sand warriors, then us humans.
My boots hit hard, smooth stone. I looked down to see more of the translucent, ice-like stone from the other valley beneath our feet. But unlike the long, splitting valley we’d come from, this stony clearing area was a nearly perfect circle. Mountain peaks ringed the clearing, pointing upward like spikes on a bear trap.
Directly ahead of us stood a small group of warriors. Five of them, all with bows strung across their chests and various blades strapped to their torsos. The one in the centre stepped forward.
“I am Warrek, Gahn Thaleo’s commander,” said the warrior. His long, inky hair was tied back in a tight, neat braid. “We’ve been commanded to show you into the hall upon your arrival.”
“Should we wait for Gahn Thaleo?” I whispered to Valeria. It felt a bit weird to go into his mountain after beating him back here.
She pursed her lips, thinking about it, then shrugged.
“I don’t think so. Clearly, the other guys knew we were coming so we’re not surprising them or anything. And the Gahn must have known we’d beat him back here even though he left before us.”
“Fair enough,” I replied.
