Chapter Twelve

A short time ago

Darq

The insect keeping me company flew away, and moments later, the one person I wished to avoid pushed into the tavern.

“Hello,” Andrea said.

I bit off a curse and forced a smile. “Good afternoon.”

“Sunny is talking to her sister. Mind if I join you?” She poured herself a half tankard of ale.

“Not at all,” I lied. “Have a seat.” I’d chat long enough to be polite and then find an excuse to leave. “How’s Groman?” I inquired of her mate, the healer for their tribe.

“He’s well, but busy,” she said. “A woman broke her ankle, another suffered from hypothermia. Plus all the usual injuries and illnesses.” She sipped her ale and made a face. Terrans found our libation bitter. “I wanted to talk to you.”

I knocked back a gulp. “About what?”

“I know you took Romando’s chit.”

Play dumb—lie—confess. Options spun round and round in my head. Was this the moment I would lose Sunny? I couldn’t lose her, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I would do whatever it took to keep her. I drank, wiped foam from my lips, and bluffed. “If you check the record book, you’ll see my tribe had four draws.”

“I did check the record book—it’s wrong. Your tribe had three draws.” She tapped her head. “I remember. Starr is my closest friend. If you’d been from a different clan, or if yours had had fifteen or sixteen draws, I might not have noticed. Being in Starr’s tribe and only three draws? Not hard to remember. You didn’t get a chit.” She spoke with such confidence, I knew continuing with the pretense would be pointless.

My shoulders slumped. “I found it by the latrine. I didn’t know whose it was at the time.” I swallowed. “What are you going to do?”

“Do you care for Sunny?”

“She is everything to me.”

“Does she care for you?”

I recalled the heat of our mouth-meshing. Although she sometimes withdrew, she laughed and smiled. She touched me when we talked. She watched me, when she thought I wasn’t aware, but I noticed everything she did. “I think so.”

Andrea lifted a shoulder. “Then, nothing.”

I couldn’t believe it. She would keep my secret? “You’re not going to tell anyone?”

“No. Dakon is in the middle of a crisis. You need females, you need them quick, and you must produce more offspring. Your lottery is ridiculous, but it’s not up to me to determine who gets a woman and who doesn’t. On Terra, we choose our own partners. Men and women find each other, and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. It’s imperfect, but natural.

“The attraction and connection you have is important—not how you met. I’m not the chit police. Besides, you could say I’m more of a rule bender than a rule follower.” She laughed.

“Thank you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “However, if I find out you’re not doing right by her, not only will I reveal to Torg and Enoki what you did, I will personally kick your ass.” Though female and much smaller than me, Andrea knew how to fight, and she protected her friends. She’d overpowered an assassin sent to kill Starr.

It wasn’t wise to get on her bad side, but I took umbrage at her words. “I would never mistreat Sunny.” I glowered. “I intend to make her very happy.” The idea I could be capable of abusing my mate was insulting. Taking care of her was an honor.

“Good,” she said. “Then we have an understanding. Cheers!” She tapped her tankard to mine.

Andrea had been my last concern. Well, except for Sunny herself. “How do you think she’ll react if I tell her the truth?” I asked.

“I doubt she’ll care how you acquired the chit.”

I felt like the luckiest man on Dakon, and I was eager to get back to my mate. I pushed back from the table. “Are you going back to the lodge?” I asked.

“Yes, but first I need to visit the storage hut to inventory supplies so I can submit my next order to Terra.”

“We could use more skimmers,” I volunteered. “Our camp only has two, and both were in use today. We walked.”

“Vehicles are hard to get because they’re expensive and unusual and thus are subjected to closer scrutiny. I limit myself to a few at a time to avoid triggering an audit, but I’ll see what I can do.” She waved me off. “Since you’re on foot, you’d better get going. When I left the lodge, a storm was moving in fast.”

The storm had arrived. I opened the tavern door to a dark, overcast sky and snow falling hard and fast. I took off across the field, but visibility plummeted before I got even halfway across. The wind threw snow from every direction. Typical weather: sudden, changeable, fierce.

Sunny and I would have to hunker down until the storm passed; we couldn’t travel in this. The insect from the tavern joined two others to fly lopsided circles outside the lodge. As I pushed through the heavy flaps over the door, they zipped inside.

The fire had kept the lodge cozy and warm. My mate had shed her outer kel and sat with her back to me, blocking my view of the computer screen. “I’m almost done, Andrea!” she called.

I started to announce myself, but she spoke to the computer. “I have to sign off, but I’ll call again, I promise,” she said in a soft, tender, affectionate tone I’d never heard her use. “It won’t be much longer, and we’ll be together again. I love you, Handsome. You’re my man.”

For a moment, I gaped, in denial over what my ears were hearing.

I love you, Handsome.

You’re my man.

It won’t be much longer, and we’ll be together again.

Then her words and tone pierced through disbelief like an icicle through the heart. My hopes, my dreams shattered. If she had a mate—to whom she planned to return—then we were not mates.

No wonder she had been so eager to come to the meeting place. She had desired to talk to him, to see him! Her man. Handsome. The hurt was so great, I almost hated her.

I charged out of the lodge into a full-on blizzard. The storm had moved in exceedingly fast and fierce. Blinded by sleeting snow and my emotion, I almost plowed into Andrea.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” She grabbed my arm and peered at me. I’m sure my emotions were expressed on my face. How could they not be? I felt betrayed.

The wind whistled. I wanted to howl with it, shout out my pain and rage. “I-I can’t—I have to go—”

“Go where? What about Sunny?” White flakes clung to Andrea’s lashes and brows, knit with concern.

I could barely see the tavern.

Leaving the meeting place in the middle of a blizzard wasn’t safe, and I couldn’t abandon Sunny no matter what she had done, but I couldn’t confront her yet. I had to pull myself together first. “You’d better go inside. Tell…tell…her to stay put. I’ll come get her…when I can.”

“When will that be?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where are you going?”

“Back to the tavern.”