Stolen and Seduced - Christine Pope Page 0,34

He moved toward some kind of computer pad attached to a wall. “We are not. We are orbiting your planet in my spaceship.”

Totally bat-shit insane. Definitely.

Jalek tapped in something on the computer screen and the metal wall before me folded in on itself, opening to show Earth far below.

I stared at my home planet below, then glanced back at the naked…man?

“Oh, hell,” I said, covering my mouth with one hand as my mind raced. “That leopard isn’t your pet, is it?”

He tilted his head and frowned, but I didn’t wait for him to answer, my mind flipping through all the information I had almost faster than I could put it all together.

“That was you. You’re the cat. Because you’re not human, are you?” I froze, almost more afraid to say the next words than I had been when I thought Jalek was a crazy man.

Still, I managed to spit them out. “You’re an alien.”

I thought I’d been as stunned as possible for one day, but the alien’s response turned my knees to water.

“Yes. And you are my mate.”

Jalek

I wasn’t entirely certain how to read my mate’s facial expressions yet, but somehow I didn’t think her wide brown eyes and circular mouth shape denoted joy.

What had I done wrong?

Perhaps her people didn’t recognize their mates as easily as mine did.

“I can show you our DNA scans,” I offered. “We’re a perfect match.”

She didn’t reply, instead huddling into herself even more.

“Are you cold?” I asked.

She nodded her head. “Yes.”

I filed away the motion as an affirmative signal. I’d heard that sometimes mates from different planets had difficulty communicating, and I was determined to overcome that problem as soon as possible.

I pulled a blanket out from a storage unit in the wall and moved to wrap it around her. The closer I got to her, the more her scent drew me, her distinctly feminine scent overlaid with something like sweet calavon spices.

Mine, my beast insisted again. My entire body agreed.

“Can you not tell we’re meant to be together?” I asked quietly, reaching out to touch the skin of her neck with one finger.

She jerked away. “We don’t even know each other.”

With a frown, I pulled back. “On my planet, that is not an issue. When we meet our mates, we simply know. It’s instinctive.”

She snorted in something that might have been humor—or maybe derision. I would have to observe more to decide. “Yeah, well, on my planet, we don’t.”

I raised a block from the floor panels to sit across from her. “Are you not drawn to me?”

Her eyes turned wary. That look I recognized. I’d seen it from prey as I hunted in my animal form. “That doesn’t matter,” she said.

“Of course it does. It’s the first step in finding a mate.”

“Even if I’m drawn to you, it doesn’t mean we’re …mates.” She all but spit out the last word. “I’ve been drawn to plenty of men in my life, and I didn’t end up marrying any of them.” She paused. “Unless you just mean sex?”

“Not only sex, no. Though that’s the next step, of course.”

Burying her face in her hands, she shook her head. “Of course it is.” She pulled her face up again. “Oh, no. Is this the part where I get probed? Is that where all those stories come from?”

“I’m not sure what stories you’re referring to. But I would very much like to probe you. With your permission, of course.” Anxiety swirled through my stomach as I waited for her answer.

Again, she made that snorting noise.

That was no answer.

I had to show her what I meant, let her feel our connection to one another. Otherwise, I was certain she would soon demand I return her to her wastehole of a planet. I couldn’t allow that to happen. She was the reason my beast had returned to me, and already I knew I couldn’t live without her.

I held out both my hands to her, palms up. “Will you place one of your hands against mine?” I asked, keeping my voice low so as not to frighten her. “I promise I will not move my hands without your permission.”

She stared at me for a long moment, then muttered, “Oh, what the hell.” The phrase didn’t translate, so I suspected it was some kind of curse in her language.

Her eyes remained wary, but she reached out with one hand, holding her blanket around her with the other. I fought to stay perfectly still as she gently placed her tiny fingers in my