3. Ryoch
3
RYOCH
G ravod was droning on at the males in the bar about being patient, responding calmly to Thylor’s ranting, while I’d lost feeling in my limbs. My heart stung in my chest, pinched and piercing. Every muscle in my body stretched toward the door she’d just run out of.
Mate.
After all this time, it was true. My mate was on Earth, and tonight she’d walked into the fucking bar.
Charlotte. The moment she entered, her sweet scent had alerted me, overwhelming my senses. It reminded me of the gosca berries that grew in the woods behind my parents’ summer home. My head had lifted instantly as I looked for the source.
Two women made their way inside the suddenly quiet bar, but I knew it was her . Beautiful. She had long, blond hair, in a mix of pale yellow and honey-colored strands. Wire-rimmed glasses gleamed around her blue eyes. A simple black top and jeans hugged her slender body, taller than average for a human female. The way she moved was elegant, graceful.
And her melodic voice… The bright sound of her laughter still rang in my ears. We’d only spoken a few moments, not nearly enough, but I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect mate. A writer. Smart and witty.
I was gone, enraptured. When my arm brushed against her, the touch sent fire racing through my blood. She’d smiled, and my heart stuttered at the sight.
The way she carried herself, with those long limbs, had me imagining how flexible she might be. I groaned into my beer, thinking of all the ways I wanted to move her with my ta’laps while I entered her.
But she’d run away. From me.
Thylor stood at the bar, red hair tousled like he’d been running his hands through it. His loud, angry words interrupted my musings as he commanded the attention of everyone present.
“We should return to Vytaris. I only need one strong Lydaxian male to help me pilot. If even one of you wants to abandon this foolish mission, we can go home.”
I glanced around the bar to judge the effect of his words on our crew, finding them frowning, conflicted. The human shifters who were here—wolves—listened curiously but didn’t react. Except for their alpha, Jake. He was glaring at Thylor.
Gravod stayed calm, self-controlled. As our former ship’s captain, his balanced leadership had earned the crew’s trust. They looked up to him.
He’d already declared the obvious, that two mates had been found. His and mine. All eyes were on him now. His expression remained steady as he faced a seething Thylor.
“We don’t have Lydaxian mates waiting for us on Vytaris. We have no chance of becoming fathers there. Remember that. It’s why we’re here. And now, we have proof. We will find mates on Earth. I’ll say it again. Have patience.”
Thylor erupted. “I’ll believe it when you have a pregnant mate. You’re all delusional.” He growled, stomping through the bar and out the back door, letting it slam.
Jake sat a few stools away from me, and an agitated rumble sounded from his chest. “You’d better watch that one, Grav. I’ve got a bad feeling about him.”
Was he right? So many personalities shared this space, but all of us were motivated by the same thing. Finding our mates.
We’d landed here almost a year ago, fourteen of us. All of us xa’xans , unmated outcasts. A tiny, cursed minority of Lydaxian males who could never mate, never bond. Except, we’d been given hope that we might find our fated matches on Earth.
It meant giving up everything. Traveling to another galaxy, shifting to look human, and hiding our true forms forever. But every eligible xa’xan had readily volunteered, myself included. They needed a doctor, so even if I didn’t find my mate, I would be useful. It was better than staying on Vytaris and being broken.
Our instincts had led us to buy this bar.
The wolf shifters stumbled onto the place shortly after we arrived. Once they got over the shock of finding aliens in their midst, they realized they had the same instinct. That the bar was somehow key to finding our respective mates. Jake was here almost every day.
Thylor was the only member of the crew who wasn’t here willingly.
Well, he’d had a choice. Stay in prison the rest of his life, or be our ship’s engineer and possibly find his mate. He was brilliant with tech, a needed asset for the mission. Despite having such an opportunity handed to him, he’d been angling to go back ever since we got here. Something about clearing his name.
But he was a xa’xan too. What did anything else matter if his mate was here?
I felt nausea rise up. I’d found my mate, and she’d already rejected me. One moment, I’d scented her arousal, my lithis swelling with sagar in response. Then I scented her fear. I shuddered at the memory of that acrid scent, the wrongness of it.
As a Lydaxian male, I was driven by the impulse to pleasure and protect my female. Frightening her went against everything I’d been taught, the core of who I was. My dominant nature pushed me to soothe her, wrap her in my ta’laps . It had been torture to let her leave.
But I had to. If it was what I suspected… There was too much at stake, and I didn’t want to make the situation worse.
Had she seen me? Was it possible?
We understood that humans were likely to be repulsed by our true appearance, so we would always remain shifted here. I hadn’t given much thought to the warnings that our mates might sense our camouflage.
If Charlotte knew I wasn’t human, if she had any idea of my real form, that would explain her fear. What could I do about that? I might have come all this way, only to find and lose her in the same moment.
I swallowed the last of my beer and hoped it would settle my stomach. The nausea, the pain in my chest, the numbness… Fuck . It was separation sickness.
Being apart from an unbonded mate could result in symptoms of illness. It wasn’t common on Vytaris, where bonding was usually swift once a match was made, although I’d encountered patients suffering from it in my practice. The fix was easy. A bonding bite cured it.
But since I wasn’t going to be marking Charlotte anytime soon, I had medication on the ship that would help. A little. I was glad I’d had the foresight to bring it.
Our captain didn’t look ruffled at all. I scowled at him.
“How can you be so calm, Gravod? I feel like I’m about to fall apart.”
He grasped my shoulder. “I feel the same, my friend. But I know my mate will return.”
“How?”
He picked up the credit card sitting by the register. “Because. Jessica Smith will want her card back.”
“Fuck.” I shook my head. “What about Charlotte? I don’t even know her last name.”
Maybe I was truly cursed. I’d made mistakes in my life, and this was how I would pay for them.
It would be the ultimate punishment, because I was certain my heart would shatter if I never saw her again.