Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“Oh…” Celia frowned. “I mean, I don’t think I am but I did run out of birth control recently and I haven’t had a chance to get more.” She didn’t want to tell her new friend about how Peter had flushed her pills—it made him sound awful. And really he wasn’t that bad—was he?
“Hmm. You’d better tell your guys to take wormholes on the way there and back again, then,” Kat told her. “Just to be on the safe side, you know?”
“Oh…okay.” Celia nodded. “So you just want us to go to Twin Moons and get a sample of this glowing moss and bring it back?”
“And then we’ll replicate it and decorate the whole Mother Ship with it! Oh, and it’s called ‘jewel moss’ by the way,” Kat said. “I hope you don’t mind—I’d go myself, but I try not to do overnight trips on school nights. Things can get pretty chaotic with three boys to take care of.” She rolled her eyes again and laughed.
“I understand.” Celia nodded. “And I don’t mind as long as Hold and Fierce will take me. Actually, it sounds like an amazing adventure!”
“It’s going to be a cold adventure,” Kat told her seriously. “I’ll have to replicate you a warm suit so you don’t freeze over there.”
“I actually love cold weather,” Celia told her. “I’ve often wished I could move away from Florida and go someplace colder.”
“Yeah, the sunshine state is not the place to live if you like cold weather,” Kat agreed. “As a native Floridian, I can definitely confirm that. But you’ll get as much cold weather as you want on Tranq Prime.”
Celia clapped her hands eagerly.
“I can’t wait!”
She just hoped that Hold and Fierce wouldn’t mind going with her on this little decoration-finding mission. But if they really wanted to spend time with her, they were going to have to be okay with it.
It was time to put their interest in her to the test.
12
CELIA
“What do you mean we need to take wormholes because you can’t fold space?” Fierce asked, looking up from the instrument panel of the sleek silver ship to frown at her. “Are you fucking pregnant?” His nose wrinkled. “I can still smell that fucking human’s stink on you so I guess you might be,” he added with a disgusted look.
“That’s a rude question!” Celia snapped, glaring up at him. Despite his apology that morning, the Dark Twin still rubbed her the wrong way.
“Yes, it is,” Hold agreed, frowning over her head at his brother. “It’s also none of our business.”
“Also, I took a shower this morning, so I know I don’t stink,” Celia added, still offended.
“Nobody said you smelled!” Fierce protested. “It’s that human you’re with—he stinks. I don’t know what kind of artificial scent he wears, but it stings my Goddess-damned nose! And under that he just smells weak—like a male who’s never worked a day in his life.”
“But…how could you possibly still smell Peter on me when I’ve had a shower? Not to mention the bath last night when I nearly drowned,” Celia added dryly.
“It’s a scent you acquire when you’re…intimate with another male that we smell,” Hold explained delicately. “Kindred have a much keener sense of smell than you humans do—I believe we’ve been compared to the Earth animal called a ‘bloodhound’ in that department.”
“Really?” Celia looked at him, wide-eyed. “But why? I mean, why would you need to be able to smell if a woman has, er, been with another man?”
“It lets us know which females are already taken so we can avoid them when we’re looking for a mate,” Fierce growled. “Less fighting between unmated males that way.”
“Fierce is right,” Hold confirmed. “Women are always in short supply for us, since our species is 95% male. If we didn’t have a way to identify the fact that a particular woman already belonged to another male, we’d constantly be getting into conflicts with each other.”
“But if you two can smell Peter on me and that means I’m already taken, then why come get me at all?” Celia asked, feeling bewildered.
“My lady, we couldn’t not come for you,” Hold told her gently. He held her eyes with his own as he went on. “We’ve been Dream-Sharing with you for months. I know you don’t remember much of what we shared, but Fierce and I do. When a warrior Dream-Shares with a female, it’s a clear sign that the Goddess means for them to be together.”
“So…you believe in the Kindred Goddess?” Celia asked, trying not to think of how the way Hold was looking into her eyes was making her heart pound faster. Why did he and Fierce both have to be so handsome?
“Don’t you believe in a deity?” Hold countered. “I’ve heard you call on him—you say, ‘Dios’ often. That’s Spanish for ‘God’—right?”
“Yes, but it’s just a saying.” Celia shrugged and looked away. “I’ve been disappointed too many times in my life to really believe there’s a God or a Goddess. Or that they give a damn about me, if there is one.”