Chapter Four
Taryn
The world had dropped out from under me, and I didn’t know what to do.
“Taryn?”
My aunt’s voice broke through the fog, drawing my focus to her. Her brows were creased, a frown on her face despite our company.
“Are you okay?”
My brain seemed to be functioning in slow motion. It took a moment to process the question, then a few more to find an appropriate answer.
Was I?
The conversation with the Morraki had happened so fast I hadn’t had time to do more than react. Something about him felt like he was in as tough a position as I was, and despite his attempt at being menacing, I didn’t think he was a danger. Not physically.
I shoved thoughts of him from my mind. It didn’t matter how I felt about him. Or being chosen. I had put myself in this position, and I was going to have to face the consequences if he went through with his threat.
“I’ll be fine.”
The other diplomats we’d been speaking with were watching us and I didn’t want to create more of a scene than I already had, so I forced the best smile I could manage onto my face and nodded as if that validated my response.
“Taryn...”
I flicked my fingers, cutting off my aunt without fully raising my hand so the others wouldn’t notice.
If she started offering ways to back out I’d be tempted, but I wasn’t that kind of person.
I’d agreed to be offered as an option, and it was my own fault I’d let my mouth run away and get me tangled up.
Plus, it wasn’t as if I had figured out anything else to do with myself.
I’d placed about half of the dogs with security companies throughout the North American Alliance, had leads to follow up in the European Union for a few more, and I’d accepted that two of my charges were too unstable to release to anyone.
I only had a few days left before my access to the base and facilities was revoked, and then…
Then it looked like I wouldn’t be on Earth to worry about anything else.
I turned to the others, my cheeks straining from the fake expression I forced myself to maintain.
My head still felt fuzzy, whether from the interaction with the massive, scarred alien, or the fact that I could barely breathe in the ridiculous dress I’d let my mother talk me into wearing.
I hadn’t had time to go shopping for myself, so I’d roped her into doing it for me, and while the dress fit, it was far too… feminine, for my taste.
“I still have a few more dogs who need new jobs. It’s a minor investment considering the training that’s been put into them, and they’re versatile enough to fit a variety of needs.”
The men blinked a few times before catching the hint and going back to our prior conversation. I collected the contact information for two of them before my aunt and I broke away from the group.
“Taryn, I can’t remain silent. The way he spoke to you, your best option is to use the new clauses and back out before the injection.”
I regretted not reading all the information she’d given me since I didn’t know what clauses she meant, or much out the injection, but it was too late for it to matter. I was already shaking my head before she finished.
“If he chooses me, it’s my duty to follow through. If I back out, someone else will have to go in my place, and that’s not fair to them. It’s not fair to those who truly have a reason to stay.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but another councilor approached and she was forced to greet them.
I’d planned to circulate through the party and find more contacts to approach about the dogs, but I was feeling shaky.
Scanning the crowd for earthy brown skin and broad, black-clad shoulders, it should have been easy to spot his towering form among the Humans, but I only found the other three in attendance.
Their height and the protrusions on the top of their skulls made them stand out even without their glowing markings and odd eyes, and even though I couldn’t find him, my skin crawled with the sensation of being watched.
As soon as my aunt freed herself I placed a hand on her arm although I kept my focus on the crowd.
“Am I required to stay the entire time?”
I didn’t need to see her frown to know it was there. My aunt had always been empathetic and wore her emotions where anyone could see. It was something I’d almost been jealous of when I was younger, that she could expose herself so much without fear.
“No, nothing says you have to stay the entire night.”
Meeting her eyes, I gave her a tight smile although I knew she could read me better than most.
“Then I’m going to go. How long...?”
I didn’t want to admit I had only skimmed the information she’d sent me, but her expression shifted and I knew she’d guessed.
“They will send out notices to those selected in the morning, and then they’re expected to report to the North American Alliance building in New NewYork for the injection. The next day they would confirm if the injection worked, which means they should be leaving for Morrakan on Tuesday.”
Two days.
If the alien selected me and I received notice in the morning, I’d have less than two days instead of five to find placements for the rest of the dogs and get them sent off.
Plus pack my belongings and wrap up my own life here on Earth.
“I’ll let you know if I receive the notice. Just… let me tell Mom.”
My fingers had tightened on her arm, pleading with her to agree.
My mother wasn’t going to take the news well, and I could have pawned the revelation off on Aunt Hannah, but that wouldn’t have been good for any of us.
I would face my mother and tell her myself, but I wanted to do it in person, and that meant finding the time to drive out to their place again.
My aunt sighed and patted my hand, nodding. Leaning in, we hugged, hanging on a little longer than necessary.
“I’ll be at the appointment with you. Then we can talk to your mother together.”
I’d have preferred to wait so there would be less time for her to fuss and worry, and more time for me to handle everything that had to be done, but I agreed to her plan anyway. The dogs were important, but so was my mother, and in the end, she was the one who mattered most.
The ride home in the shuttle passed faster than the ride to the gala. There was enough traffic between the continents for there to be others with me, and I got a few curious looks over my dress, making me wish I’d brought clothes to change into.
Tugging my coat tighter around me, I pulled the pins from my hair, letting it fall around my face as my mind drifted.
Why me?
Even the mental version of me sounded exhausted.
I had stiffened as soon as I’d noticed the Morraki beside me at the bar, turning away so I wouldn’t seem interested. I had still expected him to talk to me and had been relieved when I’d managed to slip away, but I hadn’t anticipated him following me.
“I choose for endurance.”
His words had shocked me into revealing more than I usually would have, but it was what he said after that kept playing in my head.
“…you’re strong enough to withstand more.”
Was I, though?
Most of my time was spent too busy to think about anything beyond the problem in front of me, but in the few moments I got to myself, I felt like I was falling apart.
My life was slipping through my fingers, one thing after another that I cared about, stripped away.
First my career, my identity, and now everything else. My home. Family.
Could I go through with it?
I didn’t know, but I had no choice.
I sat straighter, rejecting the thought of backing out. At least in this, I could be useful, instead of drifting without a purpose. It wasn’t something I’d have chosen, but I’d made the decision that led to this point knowing the risk.
Exiting the shuttle with the others, I walked to my car, then drove home. No matter how I tried to focus on trying to make plans, my thoughts kept drifting to the Morraki.
He’d dwarfed me. I wasn’t a short woman, but the top of my head barely reached his shoulder.
With the protrusions on the top of his skull, he had to be eight feet tall, and twice as broad as anyone I knew.
His rich, earthy-brown skin made his orange markings stand out, the way they shifted and flickered with bursts of yellow making it look like fire danced beneath his skin.
Skin that had been littered with scars.
Some were faint and barely visible, but others were thick and gnarled, bisecting muscle that was dimpled beneath. The kind of scars that came from deep, painful wounds.
He also had a wariness that reminded me of the dogs when they came back from a bad mission, and he spoke as if he had no hope of whatever woman he chose being happy with him.
At least he knew this wasn’t going to be romantic.
Part of me settled at that realization. If I looked at this as what it was, an arranged marriage for the mutual benefit of both parties, it was easier to accept.
The phrase, only the poor married for love, was truer than many realized.
Marriages of convenience happened all the time amongst both the political and business worlds, and if he already knew that was all this would ever be, then I had nothing to worry about.
Satisfied with my justifications, I let the dress fall in a puddle on my bathroom floor.
My mother would have been horrified over letting the fabric wrinkle, but what did I care?
I would never wear the thing again even if my life wasn’t being upended, and if I was leaving Earth in a matter of days, the state of one dress fell low on my list of priorities.
Even after coaching myself into acceptance, I still groaned when there was a buzzing from my front door a few hours later, dragging me from bed to find another drone waiting with an envelope.
“There are more efficient means of communication,” I muttered as I accepted the delivery, trying and failing to make light of the situation.
The drone zipped off without a response, and I sighed before I broke the seal. I wouldn’t have received a notice about not being chosen, so I knew what it said before I slid the card out.
They hadn’t given me much time to get ready before the shuttle they’d booked me on left the station, so I tossed the card on my bed and stepped into my closet.
I didn’t have many options that weren’t scrubs or comfy sweats, so after a few minutes of digging I gave up and settled for my least faded pair of black tights and a jewel blue blouse my mother had bought me that I’d hardly worn.
I didn’t bother with makeup or doing anything more to my hair than twisting it up in the same bun I wore to work each day.
The alien needed to know what he was in for.
I might have gotten dressed up to blend in at the gala, but I wasn’t a girl who spent an hour in front of a mirror every morning.
I didn’t own a curling iron, or a straightener, and barely had enough makeup to fill a small bag that fit in one hand.
On the ride to New NewYork I read through the information my aunt had sent me before I gave her my sample, paying more attention to the details.
The injection I was on the way to receive was a serum that would alter my DNA, adding chromosomes from the Morrak that would give me the secondary sex-trait they referred to as an omega.
It was supposed to change my reproductive process, so I would have heats rather than monthly cycles, and would make it possible for a Morraki alpha to claim me.
Apparently that meant more than simply stating I was his or putting a ring on my finger.
I had to read through the section twice to be sure I hadn’t imagined the information.
My background in veterinary medicine made it easy enough to accept going into heat and the instincts that came with it, but a public mating ritual seemed a little barbaric.
As did the practice of biting the omega on the neck to leave a physical mark that she belonged to an alpha.
And I couldn’t quite believe the whole psychic bond that supposedly happened after the bite.
Looking up from my phone, I realized we were already approaching the skyscrapers of New NewYork.
I dug out the card that had arrived to tell me my life was indeed changing and double checked the transportation information.
I had a speeder to catch and another fifteen minutes to get to the North American Alliance Building before I did something irreversible.
Closing my eyes, I took a moment to settle myself. Once the dogs were taken care of, I had nothing left to lose. I could break my lease, leave my car with my parents, and they would be the only ones to miss me.
By accepting this, I was providing a necessary service to Earth. Something far more important than anything else I could have done with the rest of my life.
Holding that reminder close, I firmed myself against the arguments I knew my aunt would have and solidified my decision.
I was going to accept the injection, accept the Morraki warrior’s claim, and whatever else came along with that.