Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
He also had fangs, which led Mattie to believe that at least one of his ancestors had been a Blood Kindred. But his bearing and that wild black hair—which was currently pulled back neatly with a leather twist—made her think more of a Beast Kindred. The reddish tone to his skin was anyone’s guess and as for the black, curving tattoos that marched up both his arms and were visible on the sides of his neck, well, those were just a personal choice, she guessed.
Not that she would ever ask—her Protector had made it clear he wasn’t interested in the two of them getting to know each other. Grath was unfailingly rude and surly to her, which made Mattie—who had been raised to be polite—irritated in the extreme. When he did talk, it was always to make some sarcastic or biting remark in a deep, growling voice, which seemed to rattle her bones when he spoke.
They hadn’t gotten along from day one. Grath had barely agreed to shake her hand and had remarked that she seemed too small and fragile to be going to alien planets.
“Better stay home, little girl,” he’d rumbled condescendingly. “You wouldn’t make two mouthfuls for a Vargas or a Yid’rig or any of the trillion other predators out there in the big, bad universe.”
“At the moment Dr. Porter is only going to be visiting Class 1 planets,” Commander Sylvan had said smoothly, before Mattie could get out an angry protest. Class 1 planets only had small, non-threatening life forms—they were, in a sense—considered “Beginner planets” by the Kindred—good for humans who didn’t have any space travel experience yet.
“Class 1, huh?” Grath had asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Why do you need me, then? Let her go on her own.”
“I will go! Because I certainly don’t need a condescending misogynist coming along to interfere in my work!” Mattie had exclaimed.
“Oh, is that what I am, huh girly?” Grath had glared down at her from his great height. “Well what I see is nothing but a cute, curvy little doll of a girl who wants to go out and play scientist.”
“How dare you?” Mattie had demanded. “I have a PhD in Xeno-Cultural Anthropology, you know!”
“What I know is that you’re too little to be running around the universe, getting into trouble on alien planets,” Grath rumbled. “Go back to Earth, little girl—you’ll be safer there, out of harm’s way.”
At that point, Commander Sylvan had been forced to step in and break things up between them. Mattie was normally a non-violent person but she would have happily attacked the huge Kindred warrior then and there! She didn’t care that her head barely came up past his elbow and his shoulders were fully twice as broad as her own or that he was probably strong enough to break her in half with one hand tied behind his back—she had never been so insulted in her life and she was out for blood!
Finally, the Kindred Commander had managed to broker peace between them, with Grath giving an extremely stiff and half-hearted apology and Mattie just barely accepting it. But ever since, their professional relationship had been filled with tension.
Commander Sylvan had told Mattie that the two of them would get used to each other, but they had been on two missions together already and that didn’t seem to be happening. If anything, they were more at odds now than they had been in the beginning!
Mattie got the distinct impression that the big Kindred warrior didn’t like being around her—he never stood closer than he had to and he never touched her if he could help it.
She’d heard that Kindred—especially some kinds of Hybrids—had very acute senses. Grath’s stand-offish behavior made her wonder if she smelled bad to him—which caused her to question her whole hygiene routine—which was perfectly fine, thank you very much. She showered daily and washed her hair with a special shampoo for naturally thick, wavy hair. It brought out the red highlights in her hair, especially when she was out in the sunlight.
But still, Grath seemed to want nothing to do with her. It made Mattie wonder if he really would jump in to save her life if the occasion called for it. She had no idea since their first two assignments had been to Class 1 planets where there were no predators and all the animal and sentient species were small and innocuous. It didn’t matter where they were though—the big Hybrid just tried to stay away from her.
Just like he was doing now, Mattie thought resentfully. He greeted Sophie politely enough, but he barely even nodded in Mattie’s direction as he entered Commander Sylvan’s office. Then he settled himself on the chair farthest from her and stared straight ahead, not even trying to make polite conversation.