The Alien's Equal (Drixonian Warrior #7) - Ella Maven Page 0,41

now, so I didn’t press. “We also want to know what was done to our warriors and where they were sold.”

He nodded. “I can get you all that information.”

“You get us to that hub safely and give us everything we want to know, and we’ll defeat the elite and let you live in peace.”

Gram smiled again; his fear gone. “We have a few more yoras until sundown. This won’t be easy, but we can get you into that hub.”

I leaned forward with my hands clasped between my knees. “I’m listening.”

Justine

Heights were not my thing. Apparently, Gar shared my distaste of leaving solid ground. The few times I’d flown on Earth, I’d required copious amounts of vodka and Disney songs blasted in my ears.

I didn’t ride roller coasters, and only just tolerated the hover bikes. Luckily, I’d been knocked out nearly the entire way to this galaxy on that damn spaceship, or I would have been a basket case.

So as Nero and I stood in that warehouse room while we waited for our hover vehicle ride to take us over three hundred feet in the air, I thought I was going to pass out. I wouldn’t, because I had pride, but that didn’t stop me from heavily leaning against Nero as my heartbeat against my chest like an angry ape.

Gram had detailed his plan to us, and now the sun was setting. As soon as the sky darkened, we’d hop into a waiting hover car which was posing as a Kulk patrol vehicle driven by an Uldani. Gram assured us we wouldn’t be shot out of the sky, but that didn’t stop me from picturing my demise as a fireball in the sky over Alazar.

Nero stood stoic, staring at the door while Gram and a few of his Uldani men waited with us. They were as tense as us, which drove the point home that this was serious for them too. Which was … great.

Simply great.

Not only were the lives of the Drix and my friends on my conscience, but now these Uldani lives were too, like Mags and the little ones I’d seen underground. I was confident in what Nero and I had to do, but we’d already found that so very many things could go wrong. What if we got up there and everything was in, like some foreign alien language Nero didn’t know?

Crap, I was sweating. I could feel it gathering in my armpits, that nervous sweat that smelled. The Drixonians didn’t sweat. Instead, their scales lifted slightly like little vents to cool their core temperature. I found that a pretty genius design. Whoever was in charge of human design on temperature control day did a shitty job.

Part of me wanted to turn around and go back underground to hide away in the furs with Nero. Just live there with these Uldani, even if I had to eat crappy meal bars for the rest of my life. When we’d been secluded in our little room, I’d been able to forget for a little while about this important mission hanging over our heads. I’d been able to pretend Nero and I had a future that wasn’t full of land mines.

That was just my luck though. When Nero finally broke through my walls and I welcomed him with open arms, we were being suited up and sent off to war. But I couldn’t focus on regrets. Maybe the timing was terrible, but it was the time that had worked for us. I wouldn’t have been receptive to Nero if he’d pushed me sooner. I needed the time, and the control in my own life before I could see everything that Nero was offering. And it was a hell of a lot—love, a future, maybe even little babies. I flattened my hand on my stomach and let myself pretend we’d made a little one in those furs.

And as soon as I let myself let that wisp of a dream enter my head, I knew I had to shut it down. It was too painful. All my life I’d taken a step at a time. I had goals, but they were always realistic. I refused to dream of things that seemed too far out of reach. And right now, a future with Nero was a fairy tale complete with flying pigs and magical unicorns.

Nero stepped closer to me. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” I answered, even though there was so much more I wanted to say. I couldn’t vocalize my hopes and dreams