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CHAPTER THREE
Stephanie
Istared at the swirlingmeteorological data on the ship’s scanners, my shoulders relaxed and a smile on my face. A smile because of the news Chapman had given us a few nights ago: Priya was fine. So was Oxriel, who’d stayed behind in the mountains. Apparently, she’d found her mate out there. I was a bit surprised by that – Priya, like me, had been on the quieter side, absorbed more with her work than social stuff. She definitely hadn’t seemed like she’d cared about the whole mates thing. But I supposed that didn’t matter much if you found the right person.
A frown took over my smile as I mulled over how I would respond to having a mate. The concept was so foreign to me. I mean, that makes sense. It’s an alien planet after all...But even so, the idea that some mystical dragon creature could just make a man fall in love? It was weird to me.
If an outside force like the Lavrika makes it happen, how do you even know it’s real?
Not like I was the one with answers to questions like that. I couldn’t even say for sure if I’d ever been in love in my 23 years. I’d dated a few guys back on Earth, but they’d always gotten fed up with how much time I spent at the ranch. I may have been a bit of a horse girl cliché, but I’d always cared more about the horses than I did about guys.
Well, human guys, at least.
Would things be different if some alien giant came up to me here and told me I was the one for him?
I sighed. Somehow, I doubted it. The idea didn’t give me any spark of excitement. It just exhausted me.
I’m exhausted and it hasn’t even happened yet!
Yet... But it had to eventually, right? The math told us there were only so many women left for the many, many single dudes on this planet.
I was saved from my circling thoughts by the squeak of boots on the metal floor behind me. I spun my chair around to see Chapman striding into the room.
“Do you have a few minutes to chat?” she asked. Like usual, her ginger hair was pulled neatly back into a classic military bun. Her smattering of freckles gave a cute, carefree edge to a face that was otherwise firm and serious.
“For sure. Everything OK?” I replied.
I gestured to a spare office chair which she grabbed and dragged closer. She spun it so the back of the chair faced me, then straddled the seat, resting her forearms and elbows on the back of the chair.
“For the moment, yes. I came to talk to you about the new settlement we’ll be starting out in the Deep Sky mountains.”
Ah. Right. They’d mentioned that at the fire when they’d come back. But I hadn’t caught all the details. After the news of Priya and her mate, our little human group had erupted into titters and gasps that had drowned out the following announcements.
“We’ll be using Valeria’s ship as a sort of home base tech hub out there. We’re going to park it in neutral territory near their Lavrika’s – the Vrika’s – mountain.”
“Vrika?”
That explained how Priya had ended up with a mountain mate, then, considering no one from way out there had come to visit our Lavrika’s caves.Just how many magic love juice gods exist on this planet?
For the briefest flicker, before Chapman’s next words dragged me back to the present, I wondered not only about this planet, but beyond it. What else was out there? I knew more human missions like ours had been flung out among the stars. What bizarre worlds had they found?
“Yes. The Vrika. It also healed Varrow when their group was first attacked, so thankfully it seems to be at least somewhat on our side. Anyway, I came here to ask if you’d be willing to join the mission as one of the humans stationed at this new settlement.”
My eyebrows rose. I hadn’t expected that.
“Shouldn’t that be, like, you? Or Valeria or something? Someone with some military or leadership experience?”
