for release.
I stared at Krey, silently imagining how he would look with my fist in his face. I loved my best friend, but he had the worst fucking timing in the world.
“Stop looking at me like you want to punch me in the face, and answer my question,” Krey said. “Why did you take the thief from her room and fuck her?”
“I did not take her from her room. She broke into my room and was hiding in my closet.”
“Krono,” Krey said. “That little human is more trouble than she is worth. Why did you fuck her?”
“You know why,” I said.
He studied me as I drank more gallberry juice. “I cannot understand your attraction to her, Galan. She is so small and thin. If I had not just seen it for myself, I would not believe she could even take your cock. Was her pussy tighter than other females?”
“Stop talking about her pussy,” I said.
Krey glanced at my obvious erection before rolling his eyes. “She is a thief and as soon as the war is over, she will be returned to Earth prison. It is a mistake to sleep with her.”
“I know,” I said. “I will not do it again.”
“Will you not?” Krey said.
I hated how well Krey knew me. Keeping my tail perfectly steady, I said, “I will speak with the human and tell her it was a mistake that cannot happen again.”
“I know you seek a mate,” Krey said with sympathy in his voice, “but the small thief could never be your mate. Tomorrow the waiting period ends for the females employed at the castle. There must be one who catches your eye.”
“They are all breeding compatible,” I said. “I will not take a breeding compatible female for my own when so many of our kind yearn for children.”
“The one named Candala is not breeding compatible,” Krey said. “She is very pretty and already has a child of her own. You should spend time with her.”
“Perhaps.” I drank more juice. Krey was right, the female was pretty, even with her odd pink hair, but I had no interest in her. I had no interest in any female who was not Ellis.
I stiffened, the bottle of juice halfway to my mouth. Krono, if that was how I truly felt, I was in real trouble.
“Galan? What is it?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I will speak with Ellis and tell her it was a mistake.”
I stuck the bottle of juice back in the fridge. I didn’t wish for Ellis to be my mate, I just wanted sex. I hadn’t been with a female in moons, and the feelings Ellis drew from me were based on lust, not love. No sane Draax fell in love with a female he barely knew.
* * *
Ellis
It was dinner time before there was a knock on my door. It opened and I jumped off my bed, smoothing down Galan’s shirt with quick nervous jerks of my hand as Galan stepped into my apartment.
He was holding a tray of food in his hands and he shut the door with his tail before carrying the tray to the table. I hurried over, the hope that maybe Galan didn’t completely regret what happened dying when I saw the look on his face, and the way he stepped back like he thought I might be infested with fleas.
I stood behind the chair with my heart thudding and shame billowing inside of me. “Hi, Galan.”
“Hello, human.”
“Um, how are you?”
“Fine. Sit and eat.”
I sat down. “Will you join me?”
“I cannot. Human, what happened earlier was a,” he paused and for a moment that stupid bubble of hope grew in my chest again, “mistake. I should never have fucked you and it will not happen again.”
The hope bubble popped like it’d been poked with the needle-sharp point of a freshly sharpened pencil.
“Technically, we didn’t really fuck,” I said. “I mean, there was no actual fucking, just you making me orgasm until I saw God, and then, uh, penetration, right?”
His face darkened with embarrassment, and holy shit, what was wrong with me? I seriously needed a goddamn off button.
“Anyway, you’re right. It was a mistake and it’s my fault and I apologize. I’d be really grateful if you didn’t tell your king about me breaking out of my room. I won’t do it again,” I said.
I couldn’t do it again. My damn tools were still in Galan’s room.
“What happened between us is not your fault,” he said. “It is mine. I will not speak of this