Chapter 22
Do you ever regret?
Wendy
The boys looked ready to kill everyone, destroy everything and fly me away from the station, shuttle be damned.
“What do you mean, not yet?” Nitochi growled.
Maxwell had the decency to look terrified.
“Well, it should have happened like this for Wendy too, you see?” he explained, all bravado and annoyance from earlier now gone and replaced by utter fear. “Melanie was supposed to spend a few hours with her before we would have introduced you.”
It would actually have been great. At least, I wouldn’t have been thrown into the situation like I had. I hadn’t even known who Nitochi was when he rescued me…I couldn’t abandon the next girl to her fate.
“It’s fine, habanshi,” I said, using their favored pet name.
Soul of mine. I wasn’t sure I was using it right, but the way both Baelor’s and Nitochi’s face relaxed told me it didn’t matter.
They liked it. “I’m happy to meet the next girl.
I was terrified when I met you. Not because you were scaring me, but because I had no idea who you were or what to expect.
Meeting with the previous girl would have made things so much easier. ”
Baelor didn’t say anything but kept casting glances at Nitochi, waiting for him to talk. Was it another lead thing I didn’t understand?
“Can we stay with you?” he finally asked, though his tone was clipped.
I turned to Maxwell, imploring. “Can they?”
The old man didn’t seem to like the idea, but one look in their direction got his throat bobbing. “If Tamara agrees, then—”
“Thank you!” I quickly said, grabbing both of my men’s hands and turning away before anyone could change their mind.
The first thing I noticed before she even opened her mouth was that she was gorgeous.
Her long, dark brown hair was woven in dozens and dozens of intricate braids and braided away from her face, short and rebel curls still framing her forehead and ears. Her brown eyes were wide and lips parted as she took in the two winged and horned men at my back.
“I—Are you—uh…”
“I’m Wendy.” I stepped forward to grab her hand, limp at her side. When I started to shake it, she brought her gaze back to me, still looking in shock. “You must be Tamara?”
“I—yes, that’s me. Hi.” Another glance up. Yeah, I feel you, girl. I’d been in shock too. “Who-who are they?”
I smiled. “This is Baelor and Nitoch. They’re my alien men.”
Nitochi frowned. “Alien? You are the aliens here, not us…”
Tamara’s eyes widened. “Men? As in…Plural?”
Oh. Right. “Gemins men share a soul,” I explained. “From what I gathered, the other species are just…I mean, there will only be one man.”
“The Virgons’ bride will have two males too,” Baelor pointed out. “But you are to marry a Canco.”
And that was the end of his explanation…Tamara looked even more confused. “What he meant was that you will only have one husband,” I reassured her. “Filbur, if I heard his name correctly.”
Baelor nodded. “You did.”
“Oh,” Tamara said, awkwardly playing with her fingers. “I wasn’t given his name yet. Thank you.”
I grabbed her arm and pulled her with me through the corridor, toward where John said the cafeteria was. Although I thoroughly enjoyed Gemin’s food, I did crave some human pastry and John mentioned lemon cakes.
Yum.
“So, are you nervous?”
Her features hardened but she forced a smile. “Not really. I was when I thought it would be two men, but I’ve made my choice.”
Her choice? Could she be any more cryptic?
“Where are you from?”
We took a left. Then a right. When we reached the door of the cafeteria, she still hadn’t given me an answer.
“If you’re not comfortable talking about something, just tell me. I’m here to answer your questions, I was just curious.”
The door slid open. “Thank you.”
The next ten minutes were awkward as hell as we sat in silence, her sipping a cup of tea and me munching on a lemon pie—no cakes today, I nearly cried. Baelor and Nitochi remained silent, sitting farther away and not drinking or eating anything, worried it wouldn’t be edible for them.
“Do you ever regret?” she finally asked.
Does she? “I don’t. I was happy on my planet, but I’ve never felt like I belonged more than I do with them,” I confessed. “When they offered me to join the program, they said I was one hundred percent compatible. I didn’t understand what it meant at that time, but I do now.”
I looked at them over my shoulder. Baelor smiled. Nitochi’s look was more…hungry. Yeah, you and me both, habanshi…
“And I don’t know if they told you how I arrived, but it could have gone very wrong.”
“They did. You must have been terrified…”
“I was. But my big and scary dark knight saved me,” I said, pointing at Nitochi over my shoulder. “I don’t know how the Cancos are, but if your man is anything like these two, prepare for the Princess treatment.”
That brought a real smile to her face. “I guess I’ll see.”