Krayter worried that the sudden appearance of Ruwen and his denya would take away from his time with Penny. But they both understood without being told that he needed time with his mate. Kayleb, for his part, stepped into the role of host like nothing had ever been wrong with him. Days slid by, Penny fitting in like she’d known them all for years, and every night she slept beside Krayter in his bed.
Free of obligation, Krayter took Penny out of the apartment on a mission. “Do you have some aversion to telling me where we’re going?” she asked as they descended a staircase to the subway.
Krayter gripped her hand tight and grinned. She was smiling even as she chided him. “We’re going shopping.”
“And you couldn’t say that before we left?” She brushed close to him as several people rushed by in the other direction, exiting the station.
“I told you now.” But he made a mental note to tell her where they were going before they left in the future. Unless he meant to totally surprise her. “You didn’t ask where we were going,” he couldn’t help but point out.
They made it to the platform, where a few dozen other people waited for the train. The schedule indicated they had a few minutes to wait. There was a bench, but neither of them made a move to sit. Penny’s eyes flicked around, taking in all of the people near them. She glanced down at their joined hands but didn’t let go.
Krayter tried not to let his grin look too satisfied.
“Asking questions never really got me anywhere back home,” she said quietly. “After a while I just stopped.”
“Ask me anything and I’ll answer truthfully.” No matter how devastating the answer. He wouldn’t lie to her. And his decision to withhold the whole truth about their mating cut his heart to bits.
He needed to tell her. Before it got worse.
“I’ll hold you to that,” she said. “What do we have to buy?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to play coy, but he wouldn’t. Not after he’d just promised not to. “You said you needed a communicator. Now seemed as good a time as any.” He squeezed her hand and pulled her in close, hooking his other arm around her in a loose hug. “Besides, I wanted you all to myself.”
“There are fifty people here.”
“But only one that matters.” He bent down to kiss her, but she turned her head at the sound of the train and his lips brushed against her cheek instead.
Penny let out a delicate gasp as the hover train floated silently into the station. The door slid open with a gentle pop and passengers disembarked. “I never knew they were really that quiet,” she said with wonder. “How could something so big move that gracefully?”
“You’ve never been on a train?” During Krayter’s first week in the city, he’d spent hours and hours riding the rails, learning the layout of the city and getting lost in the gentle lull of a swaying carriage.
They stepped into the car with several other people. This time Penny did grab two open seats and Krayter sat beside her. “No trains,” she said. “No jets. No spaceships. I think my father would have banned cars if he could, but the territory is too large and they need them for supplies anyway. He should have been born in a different time. The modern world wasn’t meant for men like him.”
She said it like she’d heard it repeated many times. Krayter couldn’t excuse him so easily. Kidnap and murder couldn’t be explained away by temporal displacement. He’d been born a hundred years after his own planet ceased to exist and traveled the galaxy on the faint hope that he might live beyond his thirtieth year. And never once had he felt the urge to murder anyone because they were different than him.
“Is something the matter?” Penny asked. She was turned around so she could watch out the window. The dark walls offered little view, but she didn’t mind.
No lies. “I’d say that your father’s problem is much deeper than you’re saying.”
“Oh, yeah. He’s a fucking psycho.” She said it casually, not even bothering to look away from the window. Perhaps it was easier to say it that way. “I can understand some of what he thinks. But that doesn’t mean I agree with it. I never have.” She turned her whole body towards Krayter and held up their joined hands. “You’re the only man I’ve ever wanted. And any hesitation, it’s not because you’re an al—because you’re Detyen. It’s just all new, and things are changing so quickly.”
Krayter cast his eyes around the quiet subway car and internally cursed the mother and small child on the other end. If she hadn’t been there, his lips would be on Penny’s, promising her that he’d always be the only man for her.
They rode for two stops before getting off and climbing into the bright light of day. Their destination was only a block away from the subway station, and even though it was hot out, neither of them had a chance to break a sweat by the time they made it inside.
A service drone floated up to Penny and started playing vids of the current specials. Penny poked at it with a curious finger and it turned around and floated away.
“I didn’t break it, did I?” she asked.
Krayter huffed out a laugh. “No. It’s okay to push them away if they get annoying.”
Penny found the display of communicators on the wall. They were all holograms, the actual stock stored at a nearby warehouse. But she was able to make her choice and he keyed in the payment details and scheduled the drone delivery while she was distracted by another sales bot.
“I can pay for it,” she said when he handed her the shipping slip.
“Consider it my thanks. For saving my life.” It would be months, perhaps years, before Krayter and Kayleb ran out of money, and neither of them were particularly thrifty.
When he thought she would argue, she relented. “Okay, I guess I can take that. But I don’t want this to become a thing. I don’t have a lot of money—or any money—now, but I can get a job. Or something. I can pay for stuff.”
“The job is a problem for next week.” They had her mother’s dinner to attend and plenty of catch up to play with Ru and Lis and Kayleb. They could deal with what the future held in the future.
***
“You’re sure that you don’t mind leaving your brother and cousins behind so soon?” They were back in the vehicle and heading towards her mother’s compound. At least this time, neither of them was under threat of enemy fire, though Krayter did seem a little green.
“My brother will be fine for a single weekend. And Ruwen and Lis know how important you are to me. They won’t mind.” He smiled gently, as if his words didn’t have the power to pull her heart out of her chest and leave it exposed and vulnerable.
“Good,” was all that Penny could manage. She kept her eyes on the road in front of her as she navigated the heavy traffic of the city. Truly, the autonav did most of the work, but touching the steering wheel made her feel like she was doing something. Left to her own thoughts, she’d be obsessing. And it was bad enough to do that when she was alone, even worse when Krayter sat a foot away.
Over the past few days, she’d spent more time with him than she’d ever spent with any other man. And more time than she’d spent with any other person since she became an adult and more or less moved out of her father’s house. And never once had she felt constrained. Krayter seemed to understand her moods as well as she did, backing off when she was about to snap, and holding her tight when she feared she might break. Even stranger, she could sense the same things in him.
One night, when Kayleb disappeared on one of his lonely walks, Krayter had been fit to climb the walls… or punch them. And then Penny stepped in and forced him to watch a silly vid show about a child inventor who solved crimes. It was made for kids, but they’d both been laughing and cuddling by the time Kayleb walked in hours later, and Krayter had calmed down enough not to snap. But this weekend, tonight, would be the real test of their relationship.
And that was one hell of a word. Less than two weeks in, and she wanted to give everything to him. Every night she’d been on the verge of telling him yes. Every one of his sweet kisses had taken her closer to that edge, but Penny forced herself to hold back, as if he might pull off a mask at any moment and reveal that this was all one big con to get her into bed with him.
She didn’t really think that. She knew Krayter better. She trusted him. It was her father’s training, his poison, that made her hesitate.
“Are you worried about your sisters?” Krayter asked. He reached over and took her hand in his, playing his fingers across her knuckles.
Penny curled into his palm, the warmth of his skin comforting and achingly familiar. “I talked to them last night. Nicole is doing well. She and Mom are bonding over their shared love of violence. I think Resa is going to need some more time to adjust.”
“And what about you?” His thumb traced over her ring finger and Penny’s mind raced as she imagined what he was trying to hint at. Did Detyens have wedding rings? Did he know about them?
Still, she answered truthfully. She didn’t lie to Krayter; she found that she couldn’t bring herself to do it. “I never thought about what I would do once we got out,” she confessed. “All my time was spent planning the escape and making sure that Nicole and Resa would be okay that I never stopped to think about what I could do when I was no longer in Highland Settlement. And now you’re saying that we’re mates, and that if we have sex we’ll basically be married, and I…” want it so bad I could jump you right now. She stopped the last part from coming out. Barely. She didn’t lie to Krayter, but that didn’t mean that she gave him her every thought.
But Krayter was smiling. He pulled her close and Penny slid across the bench of the front seat. The autonav could handle the drive, she needed the cuddle more. “Kayleb and I became so focused on coming to Earth, on finding our mates, that I feel as if my whole life has focused on this one issue. I want to save my people, but until I met you, I never thought of what it meant to truly live.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Saying what?” He hooked his arm over her until she was held flush against his side.
“That you’re saving your people.” Now that he’d mentioned it again, it reminded Penny of a question she’d had before. “Why do you need mates? From what I understand, your people can still procreate without us.”
Us. Mates. She’d become so used to the thought that she belonged with Krayter that it didn’t even feel weird to call herself a mate anymore.
But Krayter had stiffened under her, and not in the good way. His body was held taut and she feared he would shove her away. She tilted her head up and saw his eyes shining with the bright red of emotion. His brows were drawn down and his mouth hung open as he sucked in a deep breath.
“What is it?” she asked.
Rather than push her away, Krayter held her shoulder tight. “Without mates we die when we turn thirty. That’s why we need you.”
If Penny hadn’t been flush against Krayter, she would have slammed on the car’s brakes. “WHAT?” Her stomach threatened to rebel and her heart pounded loud enough to drown out the sounds the car made while it drove. “Why didn’t you—how old—why…?” She couldn’t get a full question out as desperation and fear piled up inside of her mind.
“I didn’t want to force you into anything,” Krayter said, interpreting one of her questions correctly.
But that didn’t make Penny feel any better. How could it? “You think that I’d rather have you die than have sex? You think I want to lose you because of your pride?” She pushed out of his embrace and pulled the car to the side of the road. Now that they’d left the city, there was no one but the two of them and the trees for company. Penny got out of the car and slammed the door behind her. Her feet wanted to run, her heart was rooted to Krayter.
Krayter was more careful and let the door close quietly behind him. He came around to her side of the vehicle but made no move to touch her. Penny paced in a tight circle, mind reeling as she tried to come to terms. “You should have told me,” she finally managed to say. She stopped moving and placed both of her hands on Krayter’s chest. “I can’t be your partner if you don’t tell me the truth.”
He clasped his hands over hers and leaned down. “I’m sorry. At the beginning, I knew it would be too much for you. And after that, I was… afraid.”
The apology did more than she thought possible and her heartbeat settled into something like order. “Is there anything else? Any weird alien shit?”
He thought for a moment. “If we have children, I don’t know if they will also suffer the Denya Price. Ruwen and Lis were the first human and Detyen mated pair. This is all new.”
Their children. Of course, if she accepted Krayter, he would be the father of her children. They’d only be half-human. That didn’t bother her, but she hadn’t ever considered having a family of her own. She’d already been a mother to her sisters for so long.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for kids,” she said.
Strangely, that made Krayter smile. “I am in no rush.”
No rush, except for the fact that his life would be cut short in a matter of… how long? “How old are you?” He’d become one of the three most important people in her life and she didn’t even know his birthday.
“Twenty-eight. So we have time.” He rubbed his thumbs over her index fingers.
“Two years isn’t a lot of time.” Another thought occurred to her. “How old is Kayleb?” They seemed to be close in age, but they weren’t twins.
Krayter winced and his eyes were enveloped in darkness. “He’s twenty-nine. His birthday is in three months.”
Compared to that, two years was a lifetime. Penny glanced between Krayter and the hood of her car. They were on a deserted stretch of road and more likely than not, no car would pass them by for an hour or more.
“I’m not making love to you on the hood of a car. Well, not the first time,” Krayter said, reading her thoughts.
“We’re going to deal with this,” she said.
He slid his arms around her and hugged her close. Penny melted into him, letting herself be comforted for the moment. It would be alright. Even before he’d told her, she’d chosen him. Now all she needed to do was make sure he understood that she wanted him, deadline or not.