Stolen and Seduced - Christine Pope Page 0,431

difference between him and human men, wasn’t it? She believed him when he said this. Human men said it to avoid things; they didn’t want to upset her, mostly because she’d learned the best way to get them to treat her with basic respect was to inconvenience them when they didn’t. But the alien man in front of her? No, he did his absolute best to make sure she never felt like she had to assert herself.

He was apologizing a little more than he needed to, that was for sure, but that was a welcome change from human men who rarely apologized even when they actually should, so he definitely had that going for him.

When they walked into the main room, the other three aliens froze in place. Well, R’gu and Clyrick did, at least; Wyzard stared into the abyss, as was his norm, in a way that Nova figured meant he had somehow already focused ahead on their task to come rather than worrying overmuch about what Nova and F’ght’r had or had not done behind the door.

“I don’t suppose you thought this through,” R’gu began.

Clyrick held up his hand. “It is not our place to tell F’ght’r who he should or should not mate with,” Clyrick said.

“I wasn’t telling him who he should mate with. I was telling him he should think his actions through. There’s a difference.”

It was Wyzard who held up his hand this time. “Silence,” he said, and when he spoke they listened. “This is the way it was always destined to be, and it is too late to argue the specifics of how we got here. It is in our best interests to put on our focus on where we’re going next now.”

R’gu rolled his eyes but did not argue, seeming to know better by now. Clyrick nodded in sage agreement. F’ght’r pulled Nova more tightly to him, then spoke.

“And where might that be?” he asked.

“Planet 2251 will be destroyed,” Wyzard said, drawing his fingers over something like a large expanse of wall that turned out to be a screen. On it, something Nova could only assume was a map of galaxies emerged before them. He glanced toward Nova—or, at least, moved his head toward her in a way that seemed to simulate a glance—before continuing, in a way that as far as she could tell signified he was explaining in more detail for her sake. “Planet 2251 runs on a power cube. It was never meant to be hospitable, but the Bhuslies were forced to set up a refuge and was desperate. Their power cube is now running out and the others are being held hostage.”

“So what’s in it for us?” R’gu asked.

“We get to be valiant heroes?” F’ght’r said.

R’gu shrugged. “We’re already ‘valiant heroes.’ Pretty sure our time spent elsewhere solidified that. I’m talking specifics. Gold? Titles? Could we finally return to Base Planet?”

“Perhaps I should remind you that there’s only one of us not allowed on Base Planet,” Clyrick said, though more amused than scoldingly. “They tend to not be overly fond of pickpockets there.”

“I only pickpocketed in the first place because we needed coin to save the city. ‘The ends justify the means’ or something? Isn’t that how you humans say it?” he gestured to Nova.

She threw up her hands. “I’m not getting into the middle of this. I wasn’t there. And I don’t know your laws. Also, weren’t you just saying that I shouldn’t have mated with F’ght’r-”

“Aha! So you did mate with him! I thought as much with that corny smile on his face.”

Nova glanced at F’ght’r, who tried to wipe the smile off his face as quickly as he could when the other alien pointed it out.

“You’ve, uh, gotta be careful with him,” F’ght’r said, “he lays traps like that all the time.”

“I suppose I’ll learn,” Nova said with a smile. “We have a long road ahead of us, don’t we?”

“We do,” he agreed. “And this is only the beginning.”

The End

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About the Author

Edeline Wrigh is an eccentric storyteller with a penchant for swearing, drinking too much caffeine, and spending more time with cats than people. She writes fantasy, romance, and love stories without happy endings from her house in the Midwest. When she's not putting words on paper, she's busy up leveling her martial arts game or taking in stories in