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Evie found it all a bit overwhelming to be honest.
A pregnant Cordelia and Ezul had nearly been separated permanently last year due to these dissenters, and it had been a major reason as to why Aragnok had made contact with Earth; to get Ezul’s mate and child back.
Since then, the Aragnokan government had been dead-set on eliminating the threat the dissenters presented, but each time they took out one faction, more spawned.
It was all being contained so far, but who was to say how long the peace would last before something else crazy happened? If it did, at least Evie was living among the mated women and their warrior mates. She was in one of the safest places.
Evie lifted her glass in agreement with something else Cordelia said, though she didn’t quite catch the words, her mind wandering elsewhere. The glass tipped too far, and she nearly spilled the contents before deciding it was best to quickly drink what was left. She downed the liquid, humming happily at the strong taste of carbonation and cherries.
According to Cordelia, Evie’s kind of sister-in-law, this stuff used to be extremely potent before Cazar made a less intense version for the humans to coincide with their slower metabolisms. But based on the way less than eight ounces of liquid goodness had Evie feeling all sorts of intoxicated, she was going to say that the formula still needed a bit of tweaking.
Maybe she’d let Cazar know, if he ever decided to take his hot alien head out of his own ass.
Ugh, of course Evie couldn’t go more than thirty minutes without thinking about that idiot. The smartest idiot ever, considering he refused to see her but still unknowingly provided her with the finest things she could ask for.
Like wine crack.
He’d also inadvertently given her an amazing support system here on Aragnok, consisting of the men in his family and their mates.
Before coming here, Evie had only ever really had her brother, Tristan, to rely on. He was her rock. Her anchor. Everything that mattered. But after the last several weeks, Evie had come to lean heavily on the women in her new family.
Alex, who she’d met on the ship traveling over here, was mated to Kylok. He wasliterallyto die for, and always extremely disgruntled by something or another. Seriously. The guy was more likely to snarl in your face than to say a nice word.
But he treated Alex like she was the most precious thing in the world, which was swoonworthy.
Cordelia, Evie’s new wine crack bestie, was mated to Ezul, the warrior who always seemed a bit disinterested in everything unless Cordelia was in the room with him or he was holding their newborn baby, Lita.
Cordelia loved showing off Lita any chance she got, which was more than fine with Evie because she loved holding babies.
But Ezul? Once he got ahold of their daughter, he refused to let anyone interrupt his cuddle time, keeping Lita strapped to his chest in a cloth carrier, constantly giving her little head of black hair kisses any chance he could.
It was clear to see he was enamored with the miniature version of his wife. In fact, Lita looked almost exactly like Cordelia, but her skin was a dark gray, just like Ezul’s. It was the only discernible feature that he shared with his tiny offspring, but he didn’t seem to give a damn if the love shining in his eyes when he looked at Lita was anything to go by.
Delilah, who was already asleep upstairs, was mated to Sahin, another warrior who literally had these crazy vine-tendril things attached to the length of his spine. Theymovedand apparently had freaking knives stashed inside them that popped out to kill people.
It seemed horrifying. But based on the way Delilah had flushed when one tendril had wrapped around her waist the other day, Evie was willing to bet those bad boys were multi-purpose.
Delilah and Sahin also had a newborn named Kiara, but unlike Cordelia, who was happy to share her daughter so she could be admired by all, Delilah and Sahin kept Kiara with them at all times, barely letting anyone get too close. It was a little weird, but Evie didn’t have kids, so she wasn’t going to judge someone for being protective over their newborn.
“So what’s your plan with Cazar,” Alex asked bluntly, taking Evie’s empty glass and bringing it into the kitchen before returning.
“There’s a plan? I need to hear this.” Cordelia came fully into the room behind Alex, taking a seat across from Evie on the couch while Alex took up residence beside her. The press of Alex against her helped ground Evie as her vision swam from too much alcohol.
“Oh, I’m sure there’s a plan,” Alex answered. “Evie is a bit of a mastermind.”
Evie smiled serenely. “I wouldn’t call myself a mastermind.” She ignored Alex’s first statement. The last thing she wanted to discuss was Cazar.
He’d gone through something traumatic, and now he had a parasite living inside of him permanently. She could only imagine how freaked out that must have made him feel. How he must still be feeling. It kind of scared her, too, a little, if she were being honest.
But she’d come face to face with the parasite already, both as a cute little flubbery mass contained in a glass jar and then again as a monster come to life, as it had molded itself to Cazar’s body until he’d been close to eight feet tall. Both times, the parasite hadn’t tried to hurt her, not even once. If anything, it had been eager to listen to her demands when she’d ordered it about, even going so far as to carry Kylok to safety when he’d been injured and unconscious.
At first, it had been terrifying, and then slightly exhilarating as the monster taking over Cazar had heeded her demands.
She could understand why Cazar needed space to adapt to this monumental change–God, she would have needed her space, too–but it had been weeks of no contact from him, even though she stopped by the lab almost daily in the hopes of seeing him, only to be shooed away by capitol guards.
How many times could she suffer the sting of rejection from Cazar?
Now should have been the time when she comforted him, when she helped him come to terms with his new life. Made him realize this was not the end of himself, just a new version.
