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He was frightening her, and it killed him.
Their eyes met, and an indeterminate sound came from her throat. Shakily pushing into a sitting position, Kimber searched his face. Her expression softened with awe.
“Your eyes. They look like little galaxies.”
Elliptical pupils. Heavy lashes. No eyebrows. A wide forehead, cheeks, and lips. His face was so different from hers, yet it was his eyes that seemed to awe her.
“Your hair is so different.”
The long cords hung down his back. His endtax growing around his heart wasn’t the only change his body made after claiming Kimber as his.
“Would you like to touch it?”
Trembling slightly, she nodded. A’zal bent down so she could reach and as she touched the cords, they came apart, each one unfurling into a flowing lock of hair. Gasping in surprise, she ran her fingers down another cord, then another until half his head was a mane of free-flowing hair. Only the touch of a mate could unlock the cords—yet another sign they were fated to be together.
“It’s beautiful. You’re so big and… purple.”
Moving slowly to avoid scaring her, he released her legs. “I’m Luxxorian.”
Kimber pulled her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, closing herself off from him. Wide eyed and shaking, she was still pulsing with fear. “What are you going to do with me?”
The question came from her experiences with her father’s abduction by the grays. It would take time for her to realize that the Luxx weren’t interested in performing experiments on humans or harming them. But the truth in front of them now is that she could not give birth to their child on Earth. What if the newborn had his skin color and pattern? The humans would rip the child away from Kimber and exploit him.
She needed to have the baby on Luxxor. But would his father allow it?
“I could find a remote place on Earth, somewhere the child can grow safely until I can fit him with an internal hologram to appear human. Maybe somewhere in Ireland if you want to stay there.”
She arched a brow. “Him?”
A’zal looked at her questioningly. “Yes. All Luxxorian firstborns are male.”
Moving her legs, she cupped her small belly. “Do they all grow this fast?”
He shrugged, a very human trait he’d become accustomed to. “I am a warrior and a prince. I know little about these things, but the women on Luxxor will know, of course.”
Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Kimber looked up at him with a wry smile. “The castle you told me about–the one I dreamed of–it’s in Luxxor, isn’t it?”
He nodded.
Kimber reached for him. Eager to help her, he took her by the hand and helped her off the bed. The swell of her abdomen was more pronounced once she was upright. A’zal longed to touch his palm to his growing child, but she moved away, letting her hand slide from his.
She swallowed hard and turned to face the wall. Crossing her arms as if to protect herself, Kimber’s shoulders turned inward. “My father wasn’t crazy, was he?”
Her voice was thick with tears. He wanted to pull her into his arms, to feel the swell of his child against him. But she hadn’t yet accepted him.
“No.”
“Seeing you like this should be more of a shock, but I think… all these years, I knew in my heart that we weren’t alone in our small slice of space. I swore I didn’t believe him, but I did.”
Scrubbing her hands over her eyes, she turned to face him. “He didn’t need the world to believe him that aliens are real. He just needed me to.”
She sobbed for a few seconds, and he gave her space to deal with her grief. Wiping her eyes with the cuffs of her sleeves, she cleared her throat and came toward him. “I don’t even know your name.”
She reached for his other hand and threaded their fingers together. His hearts soared with hope.
“A’zal Ost Hilstra, crown prince of Luxxor. Your mate.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
