Chapter 5
Chapter five
Mia
Axel led me back through the palace, which was much more intimidating now that I’d be living there.
Everything seemed very controlled, restricted.
As if I was moving into a prison. My bags were deposited in a clean room for decontamination, and I assumed I was about to be decontaminated as well, but I tried to stay calm about it. How bad could it be?
“How long have you been with the Aunga’ri?” I asked as Axel pushed through a door and led me back to a suite of rooms that appeared medical, though the technology was unlike anything I had ever seen.
“I’ve been with the United Nations observation team since the beginning, and with T’ukka for almost two years,” Axel said.
“He has decided that makes me an errand boy of sorts.” He pronounced the prince’s informal name with a perfect accent, but it wasn’t a name humans were permitted to use.
Not according to the cultural documents I’d been given, anyway.
In the Aunga’ri culture, the informal name was one that would be reserved for immediate family only.
“Why can you call him that? Isn’t that improper?”
Axel shrugged. “His actual title is obnoxious. I refuse to say all of that every single fucking time I address him.”
“And he allows that?” I had thought the intimidating alien would be strict and by the book. I could not imagine him allowing such a thing.
“I think he likes me.” Axel’s grin was easy and relaxed, just like it had been when he picked me up at my house. I wondered if that was part of his nature, that easygoing attitude. His British accent made everything he said a little more charming.
“How do you know he likes you?”
Axel’s eyes were wide and twinkling as he glanced back over his shoulder. He pulled open a door and led me down a long hallway. “He keeps growling at me and slamming me against the wall by my throat.”
“Wait, what?” I yelped, and Axel laughed.
“You’d have to see it to understand. I can’t believe he picked such a tiny person for this, though. You’re like a tiny little fairy, and his dick is fucking huge.”
I studied him for a moment, ignoring the short jokes. “What will happen if I call him by his informal name?”
Axel shrugged and pushed open the door to a little room; an exam room, I supposed. He paused by the door, always a few yards away from me. “Just ask him how he wants to be addressed. You’ll be fine.”
“That’s what you did?”
“No, but I’m impertinent.” He winked, and it was the sexiest fucking wink I had ever seen. I found my eyes trailing down to the bulge in his fatigue pants, wondering how Axel’s cock compared to T’ukka’s.
The door opened, and a female alien with lavender-colored skin and silver hair walked in. She was wearing the same type of transparent medical face mask Axel had on.
“Why do they look so much like humans?” I murmured, studying the female doctor. Her face really had the same structure as a human woman’s, except for her coloring and her more defined cheekbones.
“This is Doctor Vralziks Yes’niet An’Ra’odah,” Axel said. I had to wonder how the hell he remembered that name. His pronunciation was impeccable. “Maybe she can explain it.”
The doctor smiled. “We’ve found a lot of commonalities between human and Aunga’ri genetic structure.
We think we share some common ancestors, though no one knows why.
It must have happened quite a long time ago.
It’s fascinating, really...” Axel cleared his throat, and the doctor glanced at him.
“Oh, is this one of those times humans don’t find something fascinating? ”
Axel shook his head, his eyes warm. “No, but we’re on a schedule, and I know how you get. Mia, this is also the doctor who will treat your brother. I’m sure she’ll want to talk to you more. But right now we need to prepare to meet with the prince.”
“I would love to talk to you again,” I agreed.
The doctor seemed pleased, though it was a little difficult to tell from her facial expressions.
Things switched rapidly to all business as the doctor began a series of tests and gave me instructions for maintaining quarantine for three days before beginning a second series of tests.
The tests were followed by an extremely unpleasant decontamination that involved crazy jets of some sort of chemical substance.
Afterwards, I slipped into some sweats that were folded up for me, which obviously belonged to a woman of normal height.
I was rolling the ankles up on the sweatpants when Axel walked in and snickered a little.
“Not short, huh?”
“I never said I wasn’t short. I’m Asian. It’s genetics,” I said, grinning.
He shook his head and led me down another hall to a suite of apartments, opening the door with a key card.
He bolted it behind him, using an old-fashioned hotel-style security bolt that someone had screwed onto the door.
I wasn’t entirely sure why. It wouldn’t prevent me from escaping.
It would only prevent others from coming in.
“T’ukka is in the room with the ridiculous gold door. He’s in, but you’ll need to maintain quarantine before you can interact with him. To the left is you, to the right is me.”
“How do you know he’s home?”
Axel hesitated for just a moment, but it was long enough for me to notice. “I can sense him.”
“Really? Like since you met him? Do they have some sort of psychic abilities?” I had heard nothing about psychic abilities, but it was interesting to hear. My research brain kicked into gear and Axel gave me a look.
“I don’t know. More recently, I think. Or maybe I’m just imagining it.
” I got the feeling that Axel wasn’t telling me the whole story, but I didn’t press the issue.
Instead I looked around my little apartment while Axel leaned against my doorframe, watching me as I poked through the drawers and tested the bed.
“Bounciness to your satisfaction?” he asked, smirking.
“It’ll do. Is it just the three of us here? Shouldn’t he have a guard or servants?”
Axel shoved his hands into his pockets. “There are servants and guards, but they are not allowed into the inner sanctum. It’s a security protocol that only his trusted inner circle can sleep near him, if anyone at all.”
“And you’re his trusted inner circle?”
“Yep.”
“Weird.”
Axel chuckled, shaking his head. “I know, but I can’t argue it. It’s like the sensing him. I’m not even sure if he’s aware of what he’s doing. He just acts like it’s all perfectly natural.”
“And me? How am I his trusted inner circle?”
“I told him he needs to establish that trust stat if he’s expecting you to let him stick his dick in you.”
“So you always talk like this?”
“Yep.” He grinned, crossing his arms over his chest and relaxing against the doorframe. “You like it, though.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
“It’s charming you. That and my dimples.” He flashed his dimples and I rolled my eyes.
“I think you need to work on your definition of charming.” I threw a pillow at him and he caught it, then flung it back at me, laughing. And for the first time since this insanity had started, I thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.