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"It's my loss." Slye shrugs a heavy shoulder. "We were not meant to be."
"You'll find a mate, Slye. You're too handsome not too," I grin.
"Perhaps, I'm too much of a rogue for my mating gland to tingle for just one female." I'm not a bit surprised by Slye's saucy remark. I knew he was a player with a scratch to itch the same as I was.
"You've seen the Kaul morph into his beast?" Mordox calls out from where he shields the girls some distance away.
"Yes. More than once. He's promised not to hulk out even if you provoke him." Which I'd rather not put to the test. "All of you have to give me your word not to shoot him with your stun guns or try and take him captive. So, weapons down?—"
"Did he force you?" Drax lowers his stun gun only a fraction.
"No. I was a willing participant." I blush profusely as snapshots of my recent sex life flash back.
"But he took you captive," Drax's argues. "Or did you go with him willingly?"
"Um..." How to explain this without ruffling any scales? "At first, I was taken against my will. However," I say loudly over the angry grumbles that erupted, "I felt drawn to him the first time I laid eyes on him, much like what the girls described when they chose to mate with you guys. While everyone was busy at the picnic, I went to visit him in the cargo hold. Long story short, he morphed into his sivot and broke through the luminetric barrier and flew away with me in tow."
"We cannot allow an awakened Kaul to live with us on Crao. What about the safety of our females?" Zoe's mate, Mordox, hisses and addresses the other males. "History tells us the sivot is an indestructible beast. We left Zune to get away from danger, not to invite it here."
"If I remember correctly," I butt in, my temper on the rise—hell hath no fury like a pissed off redhead, "you were the one, Mordox, who suggested Qhix be taken captive."
"Only because we couldn’t fly his spacecraft without his biometric signature," Mordox fires back, and I know his growing anger isn't directed at me but out of concern over his little blonde mate, Zoe.
"His spacecraft, Mordox," I stress. "Are you even hearing yourself? You shot him with a stun gun and stole his property when all he wanted was another medical cuff. Qhix should be pissed off at all of you, but he isn't. He isn't here for revenge. He just wants to be here with me."
A wealth of emotions rolls through me, and my bottom lip starts to tremble. The hurt I'd seen in Qhix's cool gaze when I told him I wasn't ready to be his mate cuts me to the bone anew. It was a terrible thing to say to a male who looks at me like I hung every star in the sky. A mate to call my own was what I'd been daydreaming of, and now that I had one, I kept him at arm's length.
Gawd, I hated myself for hurting Qhix.
Once I convince these hardheaded Ziarians to allow Qhix to live with me on Crao, I plan to pour my heart out to him and beg for his forgiveness.
"Come on guys," Stacy says, pushing her way past Mordox and rushing toward me, wrapping her arms around me tightly. "If Tasha says he's good, then I vote Qhix can stay on Crao."
"Me too," Romy follows, as do all the girls until I'm surrounded by teary grins of welcome.
"Fuck!" one of the males curses.
Mordox tosses his hands up, shaking his head of green and black hair and ambling forward with his blaster gun at his side.
"So that's it?" Bruke lifts his shoulders. "The females have made the decision for us?"
"Thank goodness you're okay!" Romy pulls me in for a huge hug before stepping back to look at me. Her eyes are wide as she takes me in. "Nice dress."
"We were so worried about you!" Darcy is next to pull me into a relieved embrace.
Zoe grabs my hand, giving it a squeeze. "I can't believe the Kaul stole you right out from under our noses," she says with a shake of her blonde head.
"I did say there was a male out there for our fiery redheaded friend." Stacy smiles.
"You did, didn't you?" I hook arms with Stacy and start toward Qhix's ship. "And I'm so glad you were right. Come on, girls. Let's go welcome my mate to Crao. Oh! And I have gifts for all of you. Souvenirs from a place called the Gilded Orb."
Despite my wide smile, anxiety gnaws at me. I'm not sure what will happen between the Ziarian males and Qhix, whose presence here is not entirely welcome.
"Not so fast, Tasha," Drax barks, and I stop and turn to face him. "We haven't agreed to let him stay."
"You said Qhix was on Zune for another medical cuff," Bruke adds. "That was his second time at the prison?"
"He's not exactly innocent, now is he? Stealing from abandoned prisoners," Mordox accuses.
