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She sighed. “The Borg are fictional.”
“Then why do you mention them?” Yas’kihn asked. “Are humans so lacking in adversity they feel the need to create it?”
“God, no!” she blurted, then took a breath to compose herself. “Do your people not tell stories featuring monsters and the great heroes who conquer them?”
“Ah,” Captain Ashtul said with a nod. “The Ogranox remind you of those Terran fables.”
“Exactly!”
“Foolishness,” Yas’kihn muttered. “There are sufficient dangers in the universe without inventing more for entertainment.”
“Ah, but you see, Jax, most of Earth doesn’t even believe aliens really do exist,” Louella pointed out. “I only know because I was … um … hired.”
“Hired?” Ashtul prompted.
“Erm, yes. I applied for a job and discovered in the last part of the interview process that I was offered the … er … job.”
Yas’kihn frowned. “You thought being a bride was ajob?”
“Iappliedfor ajob,” Louella explained. “Then I found it wasn’t a job, per se, but an opportunity to have what I’d not likely get in my home neighborhood, a husband and security.”
The captain nodded. “I heard there was some duplicity among our human liaisons, but that has been rectified. My beta’s bride was one duped much like you were, except she did not know she was being sent to Kaan as a bride.”
“That’s it!” Louella said with a relieved smile. “One of the women in my … er … group—Evangeline, I think her name was—didn’t know what was going on. Boy, was she pissed when she found out.”
The captain frowned. “She urinated on herself?”
Louella shook her head. “No, it’s Earth slang. It means she was really, really angry.”
Jax listened and thought of his two encounters with the feisty human female who had secured the affection of two of Ahn’hudin’s most formidable warriors and mated them.Yes, Lady Evangeline was a good match for Horas and Sarus.The old emperor had greatly appreciated word of her suspicion of the ambassador’s duplicity in sterilizing human brides so they would not bear Ahn’hudi young. The ambassador and all embassy personnel who had survived the Sivuulian attack had been banished back to Earth. He wondered if they had survived the harrowing return trip through the wormhole and decided he didn’t care.
Chapter10
In a no-frills cabin located within Captain Ashtul’s ship, Louella sighed with relief as she let the cool mist of the sanitizer cleanse her dirty skin and hair. A hot shower would have been better, but that wasn’t an option on the Kaanian vessel.Cat people probably don’t like immersing themselves in water anyway. Regardless, she appreciated being clean. The cleansing mist left her skin squeaky clean and glowing and her short hair soft and shiny. She wiped herself off with the small towel allotted to her, emerged from the sanitation compartment, and squeaked in surprise.
“Jax! What are you doing here?”
He turned from the panel he was reading and focused those yellow eyes on her. Louella’s skin prickled and she clutched the towel to her chest, although it wasn’t large enough for modesty.
“Captain Ashtul assigned us this room,” he explained.
“Us?”
“You’re my mate,” he said as he slowly advanced toward her.
“Uh …” Louella backed up a couple of steps, angling away from the sanitation compartment. “Jax, I’m not so sure about this.”
Her back hit the wall. Yas’kihn stopped, barely a hand’s breadth away from her. His enormity made her feel small and dainty and oh-so-feminine against his overwhelming masculinity. His back bowed as he bent down to nuzzle her neck. The wafting of his warm breath over her tender, richly hued skin made her shiver. Goose pimples erupted. A breathy moan escaped her mouth as she sighed his nickname, “Oh, Jax.”
Yas’kihn inhaled and purred as the sweet musk of her arousal rose in the air and filled his nostrils. He murmured against her skin, “You want this. You wantme.”
Louella’s elegant hands, dainty compared to his big, taloned mitts, clutched at his upper arms as her body pressed against his. She struggled to resist his overwhelming allure. Her voice was breathy as she managed to say, “I’m not sure this is wise, Jax.”
He nuzzled the sweet column of her neck again, the tip of his tongue tasting her skin and making her shudder again with suppressed passion. The luscious scent of her arousal thickened. His voice felt uncharacteristically hoarse as he murmured, “My mate. You aremymate andeverythingto me.”
This is what you wanted, what you signed up for, Louella’s inconvenient subconscious reminded her. She leaned her head against the wall, angling her mouth away from him, and admitted aloud for the first time, “I’m tired, Jax. I’m so tired of struggling.”
He lifted his head and met her gaze, the glowing yellow of his eyes meeting her dark brown gaze. “Then struggle no more. Give yourself to me and I will give you all that is mine to command: my heart, my strength, my honor, and my fortune.”
