The Alien’s Equal: Drixonian Warriors #7 Page 3
My knee still tingled where Justine touched it, and my cock remained hard in my hands. I ignored it, fantasizing about the day I’d sink into my mate’s sweet heat. When Justine’s pretty eyes would darken with lust and she’d whisper my name in her husky voice. Nero.
I fell asleep with her name on my lips.
* * *
Pounding on my door woke me up out of a dead sleep and I jerked from my chair, nearly toppling the whole thing over. Gaining my feet under me, I scrubbed my hands over my face. Squinting at the position of the sun’s rays through my window, I estimated it was about mid-morning. Fleck, I’d slept longer than I’d meant to. And that was probably Xavy or Sax wondering where I was.
I opened the door, expecting the blue face of a Drix warrior only to find the big brown eyes of the little human I couldn’t stop thinking about. Or maybe I was still dreaming. “Justine?”
“That’s me,” she held up a wrapped leaf bundle. “I brought you breakfast.”
I stared at her, still unsure what was happening. Justine was delivering me food? What kind of alternate universe did I wake up in?
“Breakfast?”
“Yeah. Between you and me though? It’s not that tasty. Tabitha tried some weird combination of spices in the taranta eggs, but Xavy threatened dismemberment if we made her upset, so we all stuffed it down and pretended it was great. I fed mine to Luna when Tab wasn’t looking. I brought you some, but don’t feel obligated to eat them. You can fill up on the fruit and biscuits. I made the sweet butter, so it’s pretty rad, if I do say so myself. Anyway, it’s all in there.” She held up a steaming mug. “Here’s some pula too.”
I’d never heard Justine talk this much. “Um. Thank you.” I took the bundle from her hands.
She didn’t leave. In fact, she remained standing in front of me expectantly. “Can I come in?”
Seriously, this was flecking weird. “You want to come in?”
“Yeah, that’s what I asked, wasn’t it?”
I took a step back and she brushed past me. Then I noticed a leather wrapped bundle strapped to her back. “Going somewhere?”
But she wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. Her attention was fully focused on the screens that took up two entire walls in my hut. She reverently touched the control panel, her fingers dancing just above the controls, and I was about to order her away from the important buttons when she withdrew her hands herself and clasped them at her back. Her head tilted left and right to take in my pride and joy. “Wow,” she whispered. “I knew you were the tech guy, but this is just … beyond.”
I walked over to my small table where I often ate and unwrapped the leaf. The scent of fresh, warm biscuits made my stomach rumble. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was, so I sat down and dug in as Justine continued to snoop around my room. She was right, the eggs were terrible. I was surprised even Luna ate them. But Justine had given me enough of the other food to fill me up until all but the eggs were left and I’d downed half the pula.
“Do you need something?” I asked. “Is there a problem with the feeder?”
“Yes,” she said quickly and then shook her head. “I mean, no. There’s no problem. It’s great. Bazel loves it.”
“Not that I mind you being here, but is there a reason?”
She hesitated and then eyed me for a moment before slipping the leather bundle off her back. She opened the top, which was cinched with a drawstring. “Yes, there’s a reason. I, um, wanted to thank you for making the feeder.”
“You already thanked me,” I rose to my feet and took a step toward her.
“Well, yeah, but with words. Since you gave me a gift, I wanted to give you a gift in return.” She pulled out a square plank of flat wood. Her eyes roamed the front of it before she took a deep breath and turned it around. “I made you a drawing.”
My lungs constricted in my chest and my cora stuttered. A roaring filled my ears as my head spun. I felt like I’d tumbled back in time one hundred and fifty cycles because I currently stared at my mother’s face. My knees buckled, and I would have hit the ground if I didn’t grab the back of my chair for balance. I tried to speak, but my tongue suddenly felt thick and uncoordinated.
Justine’s pale face appeared over the top. “Is this okay?” she winced as she took in my state. “Shit, I’m sorry. You mentioned your mother the other day, so I thought…” she let out a shaky breath and lowered the painting to wrap it again in the bundle.
I snatched it out of her hands before she could cover it up.
She let out a little squeak, but otherwise didn’t say a word.
I swallowed as I stared at it. Silence surrounded us until a few shouts from warriors training outside seeped through my walls and brought me out of my stupor. “How did you...?”
“Shep,” she whispered. “He knew your mother and described her to me.”
The resemblance was uncanny, from my mother’s warm eyes to her gray hair which she kept tightly braided on each side of her head. She wore decorative scalp jewelry down her center part, and a neck cuff. Her cheeks were pierced with shining black stones.
Justine had even drawn her eyes lined in black which she never left our home without. My mother had been beautiful, but her greatest accomplishment was advocating for warrior family benefits and raising her children to have lofty dreams.
“I have never received a gift like this in all my life.” My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat. “She looks just as I remember her.”
“So, you like it?”
I lowered the painting to gaze at Justine, who watched me with an expectant vulnerability I’d never seen from her. I nodded. “It’s now my most prized possession.”
She beamed, that genuine Justine smile I now craved. “Oh good.” She blew out a breath and her shoulders relaxed. “I worried I was overstepping. Shep had assured me portraits like this weren’t going against any of your beliefs or anything, but I was still unsure…” She blew out a breath. “I’ll stop babbling now.”
“I don’t mind your babbling.”
Her cheeks flushed. “Well, you’d probably be the only one.”
I sat the portrait on my desk with the intention of finding a place to hang it later. “I wouldn’t mind you delivering me breakfast every morning and babbling, as you say.”
She eyed me. “You’d get sick of me.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Everyone gets sick of me,” she retorted and as soon as the words were out, her eyes clouded over. The wrinkle between her brows returned, and she pressed her lips into a thin line. “Whatever,” she fluttered her hands away and started for the door.
I disliked her anger because I didn’t understand the cause. I knew it wasn’t me, but I also knew it was something that stood between us, a barrier I’d have to crash through if I intended to make any headway with my mate. “Justine.”
She stopped and turned, her expression closed off.
I strode toward her until my chest brushed her crossed arms. “I will tolerate anything from you. Your anger and your sadness. Your fears and your dreams. But I won’t tolerate you telling me how I feel.” With a knuckle, I lifted her chin, so she was forced to look at me.
Her eyes swam with unshed tears, but she kept her jaw clenched. “I will never be tired of you. You might not believe me, but I’ll prove it to you.”
She jerked out of my hold and turned her head, clearly avoiding my gaze. “It’s fine. I believe you. No need to prove anything.”
“I’ll enjoy every moment of showing you the proof.”
Her gaze slid to me and her eyes narrowed. “Why? We did each other a favor. Now, we’re even and—”
“You know why, Justine.”
“Nero,” she whispered, and closed her eyes right before I caught a wave of sadness in her brown eyes. “Please don’t.”
“I can’t fulfill that request,” I cupped the side of her head, and relished the tremble in her body. “Especially now that I know how you react to my touch.”
My cock jerked and my mouth filled with saliva as I yearned for her. I leaned down, intending on sampling her lips when my door flew open with so much force it slammed against the wall.
We jerked apart, and I whirled to find Xavy strolling through my doorway like he owned the place. “Hey, where’ve you been all morning?”
I was going to slam my fist right into his face. I imagined his nose bleeding as he crumpled to the floor for interrupting my time with Justine. I turned to apologize to her only to find her no longer in front of me. When I whirled toward the door, I caught the ends of her hair just as she fled my hut.
Xavy was at my table, shoveling the rest of my eggs in his mouth. “These are good, right? Tab made ‘em.”
I answered him with a growl.
Three
Justine
Thank God for Xavy and his aversion to knocking. I skated out of Nero’s hut by the skin of my teeth. At least, that was what I told myself when my body screamed at me to run back to Nero. Even now, his husky voice whispered in my ear, You know why, Justine.
I raced back to my room, keeping my head down and hoping I avoided detection from any of the busy bodies around here. Intending to stew alone, I’d just slammed the door shut behind me when it opened, and Tabitha breezed through. “Where did you run off to after breakfast?”
Speaking of busy bodies… This was the problem about living behind walls. There was no privacy. The women gossiped like hens and the men weren’t much better. And everyone was always in each other’s business.
On Tabitha’s heels was Hap, because if those two weren’t with their mates, they were with each other. I glared at my friends. “Hap, don’t you have something to do? And Tab, don’t you have more eggs to ruin?”
“They were terrible, weren’t they?” Tab wrinkled her nose. “Xavy told you all to eat them anyway, didn’t he?”
“He promised bloody retribution if we hurt your feelings.”
She clasped her hands to her chest. “That’s so romantic.” She flopped down onto my bed with a dreamy sigh.
I rolled my eyes at Hap who only laughed and joined Tabitha on the bed. Gesturing at them making themselves comfortable in my space, I huffed, “Is there a reason you two are here?”
“I saw you go into Hap and Shep’s hut last night, but he—” Tab pointed at Hap with a pout, “—won’t tell me why you were there.”
Nothing was secret in this damn place. “And I won’t tell you either.”
“Come on! Tell me,” she drew out the last word as she kicked her feet. “I’m bored. Xavy is always in meetings. I need some excitement and drama in my life.”
I fussed with a plant I’d hung near my window. “Make up a story.”
“I did, but real life can be stranger than fiction.” She batted her eyelashes at me and propped her chin in her hand. “So? Out with it. Does it have anything to do with you sneaking into Nero’s hut after breakfast?”
I spun to face her. “Are you spying on me?”
“No, but Rokas saw you and he told Val, who told Frankie, who told me.”
This place was worse than small town America. “That’s a ridiculously fast grapevine. I just left his hut, and I was there for ten minutes, tops.”
“So, you don’t deny you were there?”
“No, your honor,” I said dryly.
She wiggled with a little squeal. “I love when you’re feisty.”
“There’s no drama. It’s nothing exciting. Nero did me a favor and I made him something as a thank you. That’s it.”
“What you did was more than just a simple thank you,” Hap muttered.
“Hap!” I cried.
He clapped his hand over his mouth as Tabitha whirled on him, scenting blood in the water. “You told me you left her with Shep and didn’t return until after she left.”
“That’s true! But Shep told me…” he shot me a guilty look before falling silent.
I made a note that Shep and Hap had pillow talk like the rest of the mates around here. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I stomped over to my desk to pour a drink of qua. “I made him a portrait of his mother, okay? He mentioned he missed her, and I wanted to give him something he would cherish. He liked it a lot. End of story.”
Silence met my words, and I gulped down a whole glass before turning and leaning back on the desk. Tabitha’s mouth was open, gaping like a fish. I crossed my arms over my chest. “I would ask if you have any questions, but I don’t plan on answering them.”
She blinked at me and I could see the gears turning in her mind. “When did you talk to Nero about his mother?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“You drew him a picture? That’s … that’s a big deal.”
“It is not,” I reassured her quickly.
“Uh, yeah it is. And a portrait. That had to take you all night.”
I didn’t confirm because it in fact had. I would have been exhausted, but I was too wired at Nero’s reaction. My brain was moving a mile a minute trying to figure out what his next move would be. Because I doubted this was the end of his misguided pursuit of me. “Honestly, Tabitha. He did something nice for me, and I did something in return. As friends.”
“As friends,” she echoed with a smirk.
“Not everyone is like you, Tab.”
“What am I like?”
“Appreciative of touch. Open to love and feelings.”
Her expression went still, then it fell. She rose to her bare feet and padded toward me. “Jus—”
I held up a hand. “I’m fine. Everything is fine. I’m just … not like you. And please don’t try to make me.”
“I know you aren’t like me, but I also think you’re lying to yourself if you don’t want to be touched. I also think you want to be open to love more than anything, but you’re scared—”
“Are you a therapist now?” I snapped. “When did you complete your doctorate?”
She frowned. “Don’t be mean.”
I let out a long breath and counted to ten in an effort to calm my ragged nerves. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“I might not have had a perfect SAT score or whatever like you, but I’m not stupid.” She crossed her arms over her chest. Shit, now I’d offended Tabitha, who was just about the sweetest person I’d ever met.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “And I don’t think you’re stupid at all. You’re smarter than me when it comes to people. And emotions. And anything that requires social interaction.”
She didn’t respond, but her frown lifted and shifted to sympathy.
“I snapped at you because you maybe hit close to home, okay? But I have boundaries for a reason. I don’t like to be psycho-analyzed. I’ve been through a lot of therapy and it never stops feeling like someone is prodding my brain.”
“I’m sorry I overstepped.” She held out her hands. “Hug?”
Normally I’d shrug her away, but an embrace from Tabitha didn’t sound so bad. I stepped into her arms, and she wrapped them around my back with a tender squeeze. I propped my chin on her shoulder and closed my eyes, returning her hug. Her skin was warm, and her heart beat strong and steady against the stuttering rhythm of my own.
When we pulled away, Hap was smiling. “I like that you two resolve arguments with words. Warriors often just punch it out.”
Tabitha raised her eyebrows at me. “I mean, we could always mud wrestle…”
“No!” I shouted with a laugh, shoving her shoulder.
She giggled and stuck her tongue out at me. “I bet Frankie would do it with me.”
“Sure, when she’s not as big as a house.”
Tabitha twisted her lips to the side. “Okay, maybe I can recruit Naomi.”
I snorted. “Like Gar would allow that.”
“Shi
t. You’re right.” Then her eyes lit up. “Hap! Wanna mud wrestle?”
He shook his head. “Nice try. I’m not getting a beat down from Xavy for accidentally touching your boob.”
“He wouldn’t mind.”
Hap shot her a scathing look.
She huffed. “Okay maybe he would.”
“Where are your guys now anyway?” I asked.
“Council meeting,” Tab said.
“Shep too?” Usually Shep didn’t attend.
Hap nodded. “In case you haven’t noticed, plans are accelerated. Couple of scouts have reported increased Uldani army activity at Alazar.” He rose to his feet and placed his arm over Tab’s shoulders. “Enjoy the last bit of peace we have. Soon we’ll most likely be on lockdown as we send squads of soldiers out to battle. They’re working on the initial offensive plans now.”
My mouth went dry, and I could only nod as Tabitha and Hap said their goodbyes to leave me alone. When the door shut behind them, I sank down on my bed. I’d been so caught up in my inner turmoil over Nero I’d pushed aside the increasing tensions in the clavas. All the warriors had been walking around with the weight of the world on their shoulders.
I hated being in the dark about what was going on. Control was something I’d never had growing up—not when my father coasted in and out of my life until he knocked up my mom the second time before disappearing forever.
Not when my mother—who was a terrible parent on her best day—died of breast cancer within thirty days of being diagnosed.
And especially not when Fallon and I had to live with my aunt and uncle. My aunt resented our presence, and my uncle enjoyed our presence a little too much, especially when I sprouted boobs overnight.
I shuddered, pushing those memories away. As soon as I turned eighteen, I sought custody of Fallon, worked my way over six years to a bachelor’s degree, and never once let myself feel trapped in an out of control situation again. Well, except for my relationship with Bradly… I shuddered, slamming the door on those memories.