Alien Conquest (Fated Mates of Xaensskar #2) - Jude Gray Page 0,35

his voice. I wiped my eyes and then took his hand. “Who did you lose?”

“My mother. She was tortured and killed by a…” He hesitated.

And suddenly, I understood. “By a Drimuti,” I whispered.

“Yes. He was one of the wingless Drimuti, but he did not lack their strength or speed.”

“And you?” I asked. “Were you very young?”

His stare was cold, so cold. “He began beating her almost immediately. She believed she was in love with him. I have no recollection of my father. He died when I was an infant.”

“What of your mother’s family? Surely there was someone she could have turned to for protection?”

“She was banished when she accepted a Drimuti. Not even her father would help her then.” He blew out a long breath and gently squeezed my arm. “We will not dwell on a painful past. Soon I will move you to Eastmeadow and you will know only joy.”

My heart sank. “Dexx…”

“Yes?”

“I don’t want to live at Eastmeadow. I want to live here. With you.”

He lifted me to my feet. “I understand your hesitancy, but we cannot live here. I won’t have you living in this wild, dangerous place when I can surround you with luxury.”

“But I—”

“No. As soon as I have cleared your name and gotten XCRU off your back, I am taking you to Eastmeadow.” He softened his voice. “You will come to love it there, Kreia. I will see to it.”

I should have told him right then that the whole XCRU thing wasn’t true, that there were no invincible bounty hunters coming for me. Two things stopped me. One, Bo was in enough trouble as it was, and two, I wanted to put off returning to the city. I knew that when he was able to get his communicator to a working location, he’d call the head of XCRU and find out for himself about the lie, but I’d delay that for as long as possible.

“I’m not that person. I’m…” I gesture widely at our surroundings. “I’m this person. I love this place. I feel like I belong here. With you. I don’t want the city or luxury and certainly not to live in the same house as Vihn’s cunt of a mother. The city holds nothing for me. I’ve lived there my whole life. I want this now. I’m alive here.”

“You’ve only ever lived on the streets and with this…this Ilen. It will be different for you at Eastmeadow.”

“I had parents and a home once,” I said, with a touch of anger. “I was not so young that I don’t remember.” I didn’t want to strike out at him in my anger and pain, but I did anyway. “You chained me in a back courtyard, and I thought I was dying. I was beaten and frozen and parched at Eastmeadow, and I didn’t think Vihn would survive the night. Eastmeadow holds nothing good for me, either, Dexx.”

He recoiled, his face paling. “I am sorry for that,” he said hoarsely. “Those demons will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

I relented at once and took his hand. “No. No more guilt for either of us. It’s just…I’ve never been so happy or felt so peaceful as I have here. Especially last night. I don’t want it to end.”

He dropped his stare to my lips. “It will not matter where we live, little one. This cannot end, and I will see to your happiness wherever we are.” He leaned forward and kissed me, and for those few moments, I could forget that soon, I would have to leave Corsov.

And whether he understood it or agreed with it or not, things would certainly change when we left Corsov. I remembered the way he was in the city, where his work and his responsibilities weighed him down, the city air stifled him, and he became the cold, angry man who would chain two street children to a tree and leave them to suffer.

He wasn’t that man.

It shouldn’t have mattered where we lived. I should have been content to live anywhere as long as I was with him.

But it did matter, and I wasn’t content to go back to the city.

If I were being totally honest, Corsov wasn’t the best place for me. I understood why he didn’t want us to live here. But it was better than the city. I just had to get him to change his mind.

But then I thought of Vihn, and how much he needed to live in a place like Eastmeadow, and