41. Taurex
TAUREX
Taurex had negotiated trade agreements while surrounded by armed warriors, fought battles on worlds where the air itself was poisonous, and once spent three days trapped beneath the wreckage of a transport with two broken ribs, but he could not remember ever being as thoroughly confused as he was while walking out of the Tampa police station with Terra’s arm tucked firmly through his.
He kept glancing down at her as they crossed the broad concrete plaza outside the building, trying to understand what had just happened.
Less than an hour ago, he had been sitting in a holding room large enough to accommodate his horns while two human detectives informed him that the forensic evidence from Viktor Orlov’s apartment made it quite clear that all four males had been killed with the same off-world energy weapon.
Taurex had seen no reason to insult their intelligence by denying the obvious, though he had refused to answer questions about exactly where he had obtained the blaster.
Then, without warning, the door had opened, his restraints had been removed, and he had been led into a room where Terra had thrown herself into his arms, called him “baby” and behaved as though having him arrested for four killings was merely some minor inconvenience they had encountered together.
Then the detective had wished them luck on their marriage. Their…marriage. Taurex could endure the confusion no longer.
“Terra,” he began as soon as the doors of the police station closed behind them, “What exactly did the detective mean when she—”
“Shhh!” Terra tightened her grip on his arm and looked quickly over her shoulder. “Just keep walking.”
Taurex frowned down at her.
“But—”
“Taurex, please. Trust me and keep walking,” she begged.
There was such urgency in her voice, he obeyed without question. Whatever she was doing, she seemed to have a good reason for it. So he kept his mouth closed and kept walking.
They continued across the plaza and down the sidewalk together, Terra moving quickly enough that Taurex barely had to shorten his stride.
Every few steps she glanced behind them as though expecting someone from the police station to burst through the doors and call them back, and Taurex began to wonder whether his release had been considerably less straightforward than Detective Ramirez had implied.
Eventually Terra led him into a parking garage and stopped beside a tiny silver vehicle.
“Okay, here we are,” she said. “Get in.”
Taurex stared at it…then at Terra…then back at the vehicle.
“This is yours?” he asked at last. He’d never seen her car before, since she’d always parked in the garage when she worked for him.
“Yeah, this is it.” She nodded. “Come on—we need to go.”
He regarded the small silver car with increasing concern.
“Are you certain?”
Terra gave him an exasperated look.
“Of course I’m certain. I drove it here, didn’t I?”
Taurex walked around the front of the vehicle, studying the interior through the windshield.
“I do not believe I will fit.”
“You’ll fit,” she said confidently.
“I do not think that statement is supported by the available evidence,” Taurex protested.
Despite everything, Terra made a small choking sound that might have been a laugh.
“Look, just get in.”
Taurex opened the passenger door and attempted to comply. His first problem was his legs—which were too long for the cramped space. His second problem was his shoulders, which were too broad. His third, and most serious problem, was the nearly five-foot span of his horns.
He managed to lower himself halfway into the passenger seat before the left horn struck the doorframe with a solid thunk. Then he stopped.
“Oh, my!”
Terra pressed her lips together and her eyes crinkled at the corners.
“You may laugh,” he told her darkly. “But it is no laughing matter to me.”
“I’m not laughing,” she protested.
“You are,” he accused.
“I am absolutely not,” she said firmly. But then her shoulders began to shake and something suspiciously like a snicker escaped her.
Taurex gave her a flat look.
“Oh, come on.” Terra finally surrendered and laughed outright. “You have to admit, this is kind of funny.”
“I have recently been arrested for four homicides and am now attempting to fold myself into a transport apparently designed for a child. I fail to see the humor,” Taurex said stiffly.
But for some reason, that only made her laugh harder.
To his surprise, Taurex found the sound did something painful and strangely wonderful to his chest. He had missed her laughter.
He looked away before she could see the longing in his face.
“All right,” Terra said, still smiling as she came around to the passenger side. “Move back.”
“I cannot move back. The seat is preventing me,” Taurex pointed out.
“No, I mean let me move the seat back.”
She reached beneath the front of it, found a lever, and pushed the passenger seat as far toward the rear as it would go. That at least gave Taurex enough room to get both knees inside. But his horns remained a considerable obstacle until Terra lowered the passenger window completely.
“Try turning your head,” she suggested.
Taurex did. One horn slid through the open window. He stared at her and Terra stared back.
“Well,” she said, “Technically you’re in.”
“My horn is outside the vehicle,” he pointed out.
“But your body is inside and that’s what counts,” she said firmly.
Taurex sighed but decided not to fight about it. It wasn’t so bad, being crammed into a tight space with the woman he loved…even if she didn’t love him anymore. The last few weeks had been terribly lonely.
A few minutes later they were pulling out of the parking garage with Taurex wedged uncomfortably into the passenger seat, one horn protruding through the open window, and his knees crammed against the dashboard.
Terra seemed to find the entire arrangement tremendously amusing, but Taurex was too preoccupied to care. He waited until they had turned onto the street and were well away from the police station before looking at her again.
“Now will you explain?”
Terra kept her eyes on the road.
“Explain what?”
“What the detective meant when she wished us good luck on our marriage,” he said. “Where did she get the idea that we were getting Joined?”
“Oh.” Her fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel. “That.”
“Yes. That.” Taurex frowned at her.
She was silent for several seconds. Then she drew in a deep breath and looked at him.
“I told her you were my mate.”
Taurex just stared at her.
“You told her what?”
“That you were my mate. Well…” She made a vague gesture with one hand. “That we were fated mates. Just like you said.”
For a moment Taurex wondered whether he had misunderstood the human language despite being nearly fluent in it.
“You told the authorities that you are my mate?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Terra glanced at him.
“Because there’s apparently some law called the Kindred Rage-Killing Act.”
“I am aware of the law.” He nodded as well as he could with one horn out the window.
“You are?” Terra looked at him in surprise.
“Of course.” He shrugged.
“Then why didn’t you tell them we were mates?” she demanded.
“Because you are not my mate.”
The words hurt far more than Taurex expected. He wished with all his heart that she was.
Terra’s head snapped toward him.
“Yes, I am.”
“No.” Taurex forced himself to remain calm.
“You are my fated mate. There is a difference between that and an actual mate. The Goddess chose you for me, but you chose not to accept me. Therefore, I had no right to claim protection under a law intended for males defending an acknowledged mate or family.”
“But you were protecting my family!” she protested.
“Yes.” He nodded. “But your family is not mine.”
“I don’t care. The law should still count,” she said stubbornly. “Detective Ramirez seemed to think it counted.”
Taurex studied her profile.
“You know she said that because you told her we had an acknowledged mating.”
“I told her we were fated mates,” she said, frowning.
“That is not the same thing as mates,” he argued.
Terra shrugged.
“She didn’t seem interested in the fine print.”
Taurex’s frown deepened.
“Terra, you swore to something that was not true in order to secure my release.”
“It wasn’t completely untrue,” she protested.
“You rejected the mating,” he pointed out. “You told me you did not want the Bond”
Terra gave him an exasperated look.
“I know that, Taurex, but the detective told me you could go to prison for the rest of your life!” she exclaimed.
“She said there was a law that would protect you if you were defending your mate or your mate’s family.
What exactly did you expect me to do? Sit there and say, ‘Well, technically I panicked a few weeks ago and told him I didn’t want him, so go ahead and lock him up forever’? ”
Taurex felt his heart tighten in his chest.
“I do not expect you to lie for me.”
“Well, it’s too late now!” she snapped.
“What happened to Orlov was my choice. You did not ask me to kill him,” he said. “I don’t like that you lied to save me.”
Her chin went up and she got that stubborn look in her eyes again.
“You killed him because he kidnapped my children. And I can lie if I want to.”
“I killed him because he threatened innocent younglings and because he would never have stopped hunting you.”
“That’s my point!” she exclaimed. “You killed for me—the least I can do is lie for you!”
Taurex shook his head.
“You owe me nothing for what I did.”
“I know I don’t, but I did. And for the record, I didn’t have to make up very much. You did tell me I was your fated mate. We did have some weird mental connection the first time you touched me. You did protect my children like they were your own. So yes, I lied for you, and I would do it again!”
Taurex narrowed his eyes at her, but Terra was staring determinedly through the windshield.
There was clearly considerably more to this story than she was telling him, but one thing had suddenly become painfully clear—she had claimed him as a mate out of gratitude only. The thought made his heart sink.
He had been careful after rescuing the children not to allow her gratitude to become confused with desire, and now she had placed herself in an even more difficult position because of him.
She had lied to human authorities and publicly declared a relationship she had already rejected, all because she believed she owed him for saving Cody and Lisa.
“Terra,” he said quietly.
Something in his voice made her glance at him.
“What?”
“You need not continue this deception.”
Her brows drew together.
“What deception?”
“The claim that you are my mate.”
She stared at him for a second and then looked back at the road.
“I kind of have to now. I swore to it.”
“I will not permit you to bind yourself to me merely because you fear legal consequences,” Taurex told her.
“I’m not binding myself to anything,” she said.
“The detective believes we intend to marry.”
Terra nibbled her bottom lip.
“Well…yes. That part got a little out of hand.”
Taurex’s chest tightened.
“Then we will correct it.”
Terra whipped her head around.
“What?”
“When the authorities contact us again, we will explain that there was a misunderstanding. You were under emotional strain because you feared I would be imprisoned, and you exaggerated the nature of our relationship.”
“No, we will not,” she said firmly, frowning at him. “And I don’t want to hear anything else about it.”
Taurex opened his mouth to protest again but the look she gave him was so full of foreboding that he shut it again quickly. Apparently Terra was determined to go through with this lie, no matter what risk she incurred.
He just wished that her lie was the truth.
At last, he spoke again.
“Where are we going?” Because they had left downtown before and were now driving through the residential area of Tampa Heights.
“My house,” she said shortly.
He frowned.
“Why?”
Terra gave him a look.
“Because my children have been asking about the Bull-man approximately fourteen thousand times a day, my mother thinks I’m an idiot for letting you go, and I am not having this conversation while one of your horns is hanging out of my Honda.”
Taurex stared at her.
Terra glanced back at him, and there was something in her expression he hadn’t seen in weeks. Something warm…something nervous. Something that made hope try very hard to rise in his heart despite his efforts to crush it.
“Besides,” she added, “if we’re supposedly getting married, we need to plan the wedding.”
Taurex’s heart seemed to stop for a moment. She really meant to go through with this! She wanted them to plan a fake Joining ceremony just to back up her lie to the human authorities.
He thought again of trying to stop her—of trying to get her to turn around and go back to the authorities and then decided it was futile. Terra had always been stubborn—if she set out to do something, there was no stopping her.
He just wished the Joining they would be planning was real.