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She snorted in bitter amusement, ignoring the ache in the center of her chest. "Of course not, given that I'm your only route to having children of your own. Was that the plan?" She demanded. "Laythia couldn't give you kids, could she? So I'm the backup plan?"
"What is this fascination you have with her?" He surged to his feet, anger written all over his face.
"Not only do I not see Laythia in that way, but she is bonded to an alpha pack and only has eyes for them. Neither of us would ever," he snarled, looking disgusted. "… dishonor her bonds in that way."
She took an involuntary step back at the fury blazing in his eyes. She shivered again, the chill of the approaching night seeping into her bones. Her chest ached fiercely where the harness had tightened during the crash.
"I don't like being seen as just a piece of meat," she admitted in a whisper. "Like an animal to be tagged by its owner."
His expression softened and he moved closer, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her into the warmth of his body.
"I do not see you as a piece of meat or a broodmare, Sadie," he murmured. "Please… Never think that of me."
She settled closer against his side, comforted by his warmth and his words. "I just don't like being treated like property, tagged and tracked without my knowledge."
She looked at the bracelet again, turning it around and over on her wrist. She couldn't figure out how it came off. "Even by something so pretty."
"I'm sorry. I should have told you."
Lifting his hand, he tucked a finger under her chin to lift it, his touch impossibly gentle.
"My only desire to keep you safe, the idea of losing you..." His voice cracked, and he shook his head. "I made that bracelet just for you. Someone, a male with no honor, tried to take Prince Rohn’s new daughter. Females are so rare and prized that they are prepared to wait years if need be."
She looked at him, all the wind taken out of her sails.
"Oh," she breathed, her voice barely above a whisper. "I did think mine looked a little fancier than the others."
His expression softened, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. "I may have spent more time on yours. I wanted it to be special," he admitted, his voice a low rumble. "I wanted you to know how much you mean to me."
Her heart ached in her chest as she looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears. "Why didn't you just say something?"
He shrugged, then leaned over to place a gentle kiss against her temple. "Fear," he admitted. "The certainty that as soon as you signed up to the Mate Program, you would be matched with someone better."
"Hey!" She turned to him, a frown creasing her brows and glared at him. "I'll have you know that I am a very good judge of character and that I have picked the best possible mate for myself… without the help of some weird alien matching program."
His lips quirked as he looked down at her. "Is that so?"
"Yes." She lifted her chin in challenge. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, my lady, I most definitely do not." The quirk became a full, devastatingly handsome smile as he leaned down and claimed her lips in a hard, possessive kiss that took her breath away.
* * *
An hour later, Sadie wrapped herself tighter in the blanket, the soft fabric still carrying a faint burnt scent from the crashed escape pod. But it was warm and dry, and that was all she cared about at the moment.
She sat on the opposite side of the fire to Vaarn, her gaze locked on the board he had spread over his knees. He'd come back with more than just survival essentials from the escape pod, he'd also bought back what looked like a full engineering kit and half an electronic console. She watched fascinated, as he deftly stripped the console panel apart for components, lining them all up neatly on the board before he'd asked for her bracelet.
Now her bracelet lay in three pieces, as he worked on the inside with delicate tools that looked way too tiny for his large hands.
Her fingers played with the edge of the blanket, tracing the minute ridges in the fabric. The components he worked with were tiny, and they were more complex than anything she’d ever dealt with in manufacturing.
"How on earth did you get everything that small?"
He paused and looked up, his smile a brief flash of white teeth. He’d put contact lenses in to work, and they magnified one pupil, giving him an odd, otherworldly appearance that suited him perfectly. With the masses of silver hair, and the dark stubble on his jaw… he looked like a sexy mad professor.
"Miniaturization tech is my specialty," he said in a low rumble. "It's what I gained my engineering rating with at the Engineers' Hall."
Her eyebrow arched in surprise. "When I first met you, I thought you were just a warrior," she admitted. "I didn't realize you're also qualified as an engineer."
