His to Claim: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance - Taylor Vaughn Page 0,80

be seen. I push down my immediate panic. Perhaps she became tired and retired to our chambers.

I inwardly smile at the word, our.

Then, ignoring any other attempts to claim my attention, I head back to the rooms where we crafted the terms of the new New Terrhan Accord this morn. “Ki’Ra!” I call out upon my arrival.

However, she is not on the sleeping mats.

Perhaps she had to use the toilet. She mentioned that hu’man females go more frequently when they are with babe. I wait impatiently for a few moments, but she still doesn’t appear.

I head to the facilities but again I see that she is not there. I search each room in my quarters when I spy the holographic note hovering over my desk. The words are written in the New Terrhan language and I must use the translator on my desk to make sense of it.

My Kel,

Apologies. I can not be a mate to you. I miss my home, but I know I can not go back. I will live on the Amnesty Station instead. Please do not follow me. I will be perfectly happy without you. Good-bye.

My hearts stop beating as I realize. Ki’Ra is gone. She made me believe that she was in love with me and wanted to have a family, yet she ran off the first chance she got. A piercing loss ripples through me, threatening to unhinge my mind as I read and re-read the note.

Ki’Ra has…

Ki’Ra has played me for a fool!

22

Kira

Shortly after waking up on a cold floor in a pitch-black room, I discover the translator D’Rek gave me is universal.

“She is already pregnant according to our initial scans. This was not part of our deal,” says a voice in a language I’ve never heard before. It’s throat-based, like New Terrhan, but mostly growled and snarled.

“I was not aware of her pregnant state when I seized my one opportunity to capture her,” a Xalthurian monotone answers. “Besides, it truly does not matter if she is pregnant. There is no limit to how many children these hu’man females can have. They’re nearly the same as newets. My father tells me that one of the females in his lab has given birth to ten hybrids in as many solars.”

I don’t know whether to feel grateful or resentful for my translator. On one hand, I can understand everything the two voices on the other side of the unseen wall are saying. And on the other hand, I can understand everything they are saying.

“Ten hybrids. I cannot believe you speak true!”

“My father was a renowned scientist before he was appointed to prime minister. He would never exaggerate his results.”

My father…

I know in an instant who the Xalthurian monotone belongs to…N’Maryah, the activist, I’d thought to be a caring friend. I was wrong about that. So very wrong.

But I hadn’t found that out until it was too late, about an hour after D’Rek’s announcement that he planned to make me his Qel—which I’m pretty sure means queen, if all the shocked hisses were any indication. I’d been trying to hold it until the meeting was done, but when the argument had gone on three quarters of an hour, I knew I wouldn’t be able to wait. I’d gone into the hallway, figuring that the council hall had to have some kind of public toilet around here somewhere.

However, I was having a hell of a time figuring out which squiggly stood for Females Pee Here, when N’Maryah touched my shoulder.

“Oh my moons, N’Maryah! I’m sorry D’Rek kicked you out of your seat. He really shouldn’t have done that. But I didn’t know how to tell him you were my friend without getting you in trouble.”

With an angry pang, I recall how happy I’d been to see her. How I’d hugged her and actually asked her to come into the bathroom with me, so that we could talk after I peed.

She’d gone completely silent, but I kept on babbling as I cleaned my hands at the gamma sink. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a message to you. Thank the moons, you weren’t caught up in L’Than’s arrest. I mean, I know you were only trying to help the humans and the hybrids better understand each other, but I’m not sure D’Rek would have understood. I’m going to work with him on that and some of your other ideas about Xalthurian female rights, I promise...”

How stupid I was. How naïve. I actually had expected to