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I know that I hurt her badly. It wasn’t what I meant to say but it did come out all wrong and no matter how I say it now, she can’t seem to forget it.
Or forgive it.
I stalk out of the ship and immediately am surrounded by my men.
“What’s going on? Was the trip bad?” Varnak asks, his eyes locked on Lacey’s curvy figure walking away from us without a word.
“Yeah. It was bad,” I say and walk away. I walk to my quarters, my heart and head hurting so badly that I don’t see anything in front of me. I’m not even sure how I get there. But I’m standing in my own quarters and I can see where Lacey should be sitting in the room on the couch, laughing at something on the vid screen, chatting with her friends and smiling. She should always be smiling.
I took that away from her.
My vid screen rings and I pull it up, not surprised that the council has already heard that I’ve returned.
The leader studies me and sighs. “It didn’t go well, Commander.”
It’s not a question and I want to lie and say that I did get some information. Which I did. And I want to leave out the fact that I’ve found my mate and she hates me. She would rather I was dead than even speak to me.
I shake my head and gulp a swallow. “It did not.”
“Which part? Finding any more human females or the mate question?”
I whip my head around and the leader laughs at me. “You don’t really think I won’t find out anything that affects all of us. And to find that an Arkadian male has mated with one of these human females is a welcome surprise.”
My head falls back to the couch. “Not if she’s not interested.”
There’s a gasp. All of us are aware that if your mate refuses you, you don’t have the choice of finding another one. You are tied to them for the rest of your lives. Only if she dies will you get another chance.
And I would never wish that on Lacey. On my kora.
“That is disappointing. Did she have reason?”
“She’s had children. She lost them.”
She nods her head. “That would leave a hole that would be hard to fill.”
“I don’t want to fill it. I just want to make her happy.”
“Did you tell her that?”
“I tried to.”
She laughs. “That isn’t what you said, is it?”
“No.”
“Perhaps she just needs to cool down, as the humans say.” I study them, surprised. “We’ve all been studying this strange planet since they were found. They seem so backwards with their wars and their lack of understanding of other planets but in some ways they are very advanced. Their families are very interesting. They have very strong bonds. Although we did see something about divorce which seems strange. They just cut off the other person and go on to find another.”
Perhaps Lacey can do that if I go away. I’ll have to think about that.
“So how did the mission go? Did you find out about any human females?”
I sit up straight and push my shoulders back. “Yes. But they are scattered in all the vrecking galaxies. It will take forever to try and hunt them all down. And a lot of manpower.”
“It may be worth it if they are possible mates for our different species.”
“I think it would be worth it even if they weren’t. They are innocent victims. Speaking of which, the auction ship was a mess of different species of females entrapped by those monsters. They even had the slave prostitutes.”
She sighs and sits forward, her face coming into view and I shiver when I see the scar on the side of her jaw. “I know that they have them. Believe me, I know. But we do not have the necessary fire power or forces to take on Calon 5 and the rest of those pirates right now. We’re too spread out.” She sighs and rubs at her jaw. “Hopefully one day.”
