discovered that they weren’t actually willing to go along with his megalomaniac plans for the future.
He wanted to be the one to show her how good it could be.
And he could because they were clearly on the same wavelength. She just wanted him for sex. Or so she said.
First, he needed to take a few safety measures, then…
After heading down the ramp, he took the same route back. He lit his wand, returned to where they had turned off the main tunnel and cast a spell. If anyone came down this way, they wouldn’t even see the entrance to the tunnel.
Then he turned around and returned to the spaceship.
Looked like he wasn’t going anywhere for a while. Destiny was sitting cross-legged at the top of the ramp, munching on a donut and waiting for him. He could feel the heat and intensity of her gaze as she watched him approach. He could hardly believe the change in her in only a few days.
“Are you hungry?” she asked as he halted in front of her.
He shook his head. Not for food anyway.
He studied her for a long moment. There was that hint of familiarity again, just a glimmer of something. The high cheekbones, flawless skin, the wide mouth. Dark blue eyes. He stared into them. They were the same color as Kinross’s eyes. And there was a certain similarity in the shape of the bones.
Could she be related to Kinross? Was that why they wanted her back so badly? Some sort of surrogate birth on the Trakis Four perhaps. But why? He’d looked into Kinross’s background. The man didn’t have children—did that gall? That he was building an empire and had no one to hand it to? He’d been married once, but there had been no offspring and his wife had died of cancer ten years before the exodus from Earth. Maybe Destiny was meant to be the heir apparent. But why had she been locked in a cell? And she claimed she had never met Kinross. It just didn’t gel.
He was betting Dr. Elvira Yang had all the answers. Maybe as soon as he found out what was going on, he would pay the doctor a visit.
“What are you thinking?” Destiny asked.
“Just wondering where you come from. Who you are.”
She jumped to her feet. “Does it matter?”
“Not right now.” But he had a feeling that it did matter. That it was important and that she might be the one thing that would get them off this planet alive. Because before this was over, they would need every advantage they could get. Would he use Destiny?
He didn’t know. But he was betting Dylan would. The werewolf liked her—he could tell—but he very much doubted that would make a difference if Dylan’s survival was at stake. Or the survival of his pack. Dylan was an alpha, so his main function in life was to protect his pack, and they would always come first.
Suddenly he felt restless, his skin too tight, his muscles jumpy. He wanted to be out of the tunnels and into the open air. He wanted to lay Destiny down under the stars and make love to her. As he admitted it to himself, the tightly wound tension inside him unraveled. Who knew what tomorrow would bring? But they had tonight. “Let’s get some fresh air.”
“Can we go for a swim?”
“Why not.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Ah, lips that say one thing, while the heart thinks another,”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
They walked side by side without touching, but she could sense a resolve to him. He’d made a decision, given up the fight, and she hugged her arms around herself.
When she’d woken from cryo, all she had asked for was the chance to live a little, to experience life and love. And tonight, here and now, was more than she could have ever dreamed of. There was a niggle at the back of her mind, that this would change everything. That this would forever alter her perception of the world and where her loyalties would lie going forward. But she wouldn’t think of that now.
Whatever the future held, she would have this night.
Darkness was falling as they headed out of the tunnels. She glanced around in case her new canine friend was there, but they were alone. Beside her, Milo paused and took a deep breath of air then stretched, raising his arms above his head. He was all long, lean muscle and power, and an ache started low down in her