Chapter 22
To our home
Melanie
Iwas such a nervous wreck that most of my nails were raw as the shuttle boarded the large station. Ghauro, holding one of my hands to try to prevent me from turning my fingers into a bloody mess, brought my knuckles to his lips with an affectionate look.
“What are you worried about, assa perti?” he asked as the pilot stood, preparing the doors to open.
Assa perti…It had made me melt before I even knew what it meant. Someone that is yours and more precious than air. How fucking cheesy.
“What if Maxwell lied?” I asked. “Maybe he didn’t bring my grandmother here. Maybe she died before they could get to her!”
“He said the human male named Ernesto lived with her after you left. You trust him.”
I did. But I still didn’t understand how that came to happen.
I’ve had a couple of drinks with Ernesto back when I wasn’t a…
felon yet. I knew he had some money issues—we all did—but I never would have thought it was that bad.
Bad enough for him to keep working for my grandmother for free and live with her instead of paying his own rent.
“Yeah, I know.” I nodded.
“Everything will be okay, Melanie. And if Maxwell lied, well…I will just act on my threats and tell the other species about the questionable way they are choosing our brides.”
I arched a brow, turning to him as the pilot waved at us to stand. “Are you not happy about your own bride?”
He smiled, standing up and pulling me with him. “I am more than happy about my bride,” he crooned. “But if said bride had been willing from the start, it definitely would have been a bonus.”
Would the others share Ghauro’s values, though?
We were led through corridors and to the familiar room Ghauro and I met for the first time.
He frowned as voices rose inside the room.
The argument happening on the other side didn’t stop the man from knocking and opening the door, only for me to freeze, eyes wide, and Ghauro to grunt his displeasure.
“What is—”
“Gemin,” he muttered.
All eyes turned to us. To me.
The alien male standing in the middle of the room was huge and terrifying.
Not that his body was deformed or not proportionate, but large, white feathery wings were spread wide behind his back.
Two sets of long and huge horns grew from his head and extended far behind, his pointy ears, not as long, following the curve on the sides of his face.
His skin, leathery and textured with patterns like it was an armor, was pearly white.
But his eyes…
Entirely white, and staring at me like it was judging my soul, before turning his face back toward Maxwell, who was cowering in a corner.
“What do you mean, you lost her?” he snapped.
Maxwell’s throat bobbed. “I-I don’t know what happened. The shuttle that brought her back from one of our colonies was attacked straight as it flew over Gemini and we lost contact with the whole crew as it crashed on your planet. She was supposed to arrive yesterday, but—”
“It crashed? You are telling me that our female is stuck in a metal box that crashed?”
Maxwell nodded. “It—we still have its signal, but no one is answering inside.”
The terrifying winged man took a step forward and Ghauro moved to place himself in front of me. “Give me its location,” the male growled. “If she is dead or I do not find her, prepare for Nitochi’s wrath.”
“I-I thought Nitochi didn’t even want to be part of this whole thing,” Maxwell said, trying to retreat into the wall.
“I wanted to, so he is part of it. If our bride is not found, Nitochi will be more than happy to display the unyielding side of our shared soul to your whole station.”
Maxwell’s face turned ashen. “Y-yes sir Baelor.”
As the winged man walked to the door, Ghauro pulled me aside. But Baelor stopped at our level, ignoring the man who had opened for him to leave. His white eyes rove over me from head to toes. Assessing. Studying. His jaw clenched and he left without saying another word.
The room temperature came back to normal, everyone exhaling a charged breath as soon as the door closed behind him.
“Consider yourself lucky for not facing Nitochi instead of him,” Ghauro drawled as he led me to a chair.
Maxwell cleared his throat. “Nitochi isn’t allowed on the station anymore. Not without restraints.”
Wow. Considering how scared I had been facing this one, I wondered if I would have fainted if I had to face that other one.
“So, since Miss Winsbur is missing, let’s move directly to the medical side of this meeting.”
I guess if she wasn’t here, there was no need for me to reassure her it was going to be alright…Something I wouldn’t be able to do anyway after seeing the alien this girl had been paired with. Utterly terrifying.
“I’ll go straight to the point,” he continued. “Any chance you might be pregnant from your first ovulation on Taurus?”
I shook my head and he narrowed his eyes at me, studying my face for a few seconds before going back to his tablet. “Okay. How are you feeling? Has anything happened since we last talked?”
“Nothing. I’m perfectly fine.”
“No sickness, allergies, bad reaction to food…” he listed.
“Nope. I’m all good.”
He gave a short nod and typed a few things before a new page appeared.
“How was your last period? More or less painful than usual? How long did it last? Was it a heavier or lighter flow than what you used to have on earth?”
I answered each question, Ghauro grumbling but staying still at my side.
“I’m assuming sir Ghauro won’t allow us to do a blood test to ensure—”
“No blood test,” I said before my mate got mad. “There’s no need for now.”
Maxwell nodded. “Alright. We will need to do one once you suspect a pregnancy, it’s better if he can mentally prepare now,” he said, casting a wary look to Ghauro. “Okay, I guess we’re done with that. You can go back to the shuttle, and—”
“Where is my grandmother?” I asked, stopping him as he started to rise.
He gritted his teeth. “Mrs. Traynor and Mr. Alvarez are waiting for you in the shuttle. She has been given medical care on the station the last five days, and is being sent to Taurus with medicine in case her Asthma acts up. Which probably won’t happen, because there is no pollution at all on the Tauri’s planet. ”
Ghauro helped me stand, my legs and whole body still sore from our intense morning.
“Let us get them to their new home,” he said, a soft smile on his face.
“To our home,” I countered, taking his hand.