It had taken a long, glorious soak in Vadir’s bathtub to banish the worst of the aches and stiffness from Lisa’s body. Two days of marathon sex had left her feeling deliciously used and abused in all the right spots.

The time alone had given her a much-needed chance to ponder everything she’d learned over the last few days. The Scorching had fogged her mind for much of the time, but Vadir had answered all her questions, clarifying things until she finally understood the basic issues. Pyros had a population problem. It had started as a minor dip in the number of girls being born, but instead of self-correcting, the anomaly had increased with each new generation.

Now, there were seven men to every woman born on the planet, and their population was dwindling rapidly. Vadir’s species could only reproduce with their true mate. So far, there was only one exception to this rule. Humans. To the Pyrosians, it was a miracle that there was another species they could interbreed with. No one had expected the pairings to be true matches. They hadn’t been prepared for either the Spark or the Scorching. Reports would have to be made, and future expeditions would take that into consideration.

Future expeditions. She didn’t like the way that sounded. Now that she was thinking clearly, she had more questions for Vadir. A lot more. And a small, worried voice whispered to her that no matter how amazing the last few days had been, she might not like his answers, or what came next.

She rose from the water and towelled off, still organizing her thoughts. She could hear Vadir speaking indistinctly from the other room. He must be talking to Cas, though the only voice she could hear was his. By the time she was dry and had the knots combed out of her hair, she could hear him clearly, loud enough to pull her out of her musings and focus on what he was saying.

“I’m going to need to buy a different house when we get home. Something airy and light, with a studio for Lisa. In the capital would be best, then she can still see her friend whenever she wishes.”

She listened to him mutter to himself and wondered if she should make a noise to let him know she could hear him.

“Yes, that’ll work. That way when I’m gone, she won’t be lonely. If our children have her gifts, they’ll need training. Protection. Flames, so will she.”

Gifts? What gifts? And what did he mean when he said he’d be gone? She stomped back into his bedroom, intent on asking him what he meant, but there was no one there. “Vadir?” She called, despite the fact she could see the room was empty.

“I need to talk to Joran once communications are back up. Confirm he claimed his mate. Then let Kash know there’s a problem with the roommate. How did that get missed? If this were my operation, the entire research department would be fired. Too many details got overlooked. It’s sloppy.”

She could still hear him clearly. As if he were standing only a few feet away. She spun around, confused and a little alarmed.

“Cas, where’s Vadir?”

“He is currently in the engine room, facilitating repairs.”

“Where’s the engine room?”

“Lower deck, forward compartment. Do you wish to join him?”

Hell, yes, she wished to join him. Maybe he could explain why she could hear him even though he was on the far end of the ship. “Yes.”

“Follow the orange lights. I will guide you there.”

Lisa grabbed the shirt Vadir had left out for her, pulling it on as she headed for the door. Vadir had taught her how to activate the doorways and instructed Cas to give her free range of the ship.

Once out in the corridor, she followed the series of strobing, orange lights that Cas used like electronic breadcrumbs to show her the way. She could still hear Vadir, but it slowly dawned on her as she walked that she could hear him better when she concentrated on what he was saying…or thinking. It was obvious that she wasn’t really hearing him at all. Was this something else Vadir had forgotten to mention? Would he know what was going on or react with unease when he found out what she could do?

She stepped out of the lift and turned left without even looking at the guide lights. Now that they were on the same level, she could feel his presence and walked towards him with total surety. He was still musing to himself, but his focus seemed to be on repairing a power coupling. At least, that’s the little she understood. Apparently, she didn’t need to speak his language to understand his basic thoughts, but technical jargon was beyond her.

The air down here was stale and warm. The narrow passageway walls were barely far enough apart to let her walk through without side-stepping, and the ceiling was lined with an array of pipes and conduits that stretched the length of the ship.

“Vee?”

Vadir’s head popped out a door at the end of the corridor. “Hi. Cas and I have almost finished repairing communications. The broadcasting array on the hull was wrecked in the crash, and it took longer than expected. I didn’t intend to leave you alone so long.”

“I was fine with being on my own for a while. We’ve been in each others’ constant company for the past two days. I’ve never experienced anything that…intense.”

“Me, either.” He came out to join her, eyeing her with open appreciation. “You look better in that shirt than I ever did. I see you didn’t bother with the footwear I found for you. Is there a reason for that?”

“I like being barefoot. But that wasn’t the real reason. I was in a hurry to see you. Something weird happened.” She touched her temple. “I could hear you. I thought you’d come back, but there wasn’t anyone in the room. It took me some time to realize it wasn’t your voice I was hearing. It was your thoughts.”

He stared at her. “You read my mind? Are you certain? What was I thinking?”

“You weren’t impressed that no one had noticed I had roommates, and that if they worked for you, you’d fire the entire research team. And you were thinking about buying a house, one with a studio because I’d need something to do while you were gone.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “And we’re going to talk about that issue once we deal with the fact I woke up telepathic.”

“We can’t test my theory since there’s no one else around, but I suspect the only mind you can read, is mine. I told you that true mates form a bond between them.” He touched his chest, then reached out to tap a finger over her heart. “Ours is stronger than most. Likely because you are psychically gifted.”

“Does this mean you can read my mind, too?” She wasn’t sure how she felt about any of this, but if she could sense Vadir’s thoughts, it seemed only fair he could read hers.

“I don’t know.” He gave her a perplexed look. “How would I even try?”

“I was thinking about you when it started. So, try focusing on me.”

Vadir’s lips curved into a sexy grin that made her clit throb and her breath catch in her throat.

“I think I can manage that.”

“Let’s start with something simple. I’ll think of a word, and you tell me if you hear it in your head. Ready?”

He nodded, and she tried to stay focused on a single word.

A split second later, Vadir’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open in shock. “Alien. I heard you, even though I was watching your mouth and you never said a word. This is the strongest version of the bond. No matter how far apart we are, we’ll always be able to connect with each other.”

“You mean all those times you plan on leaving me alone, I will still sense your thoughts?” She didn’t mean for the words to come out quite so acidic.

“We haven’t had time to discuss that, yet. We still need to negotiate terms and work out a deal so that both of us are happy.”

She didn’t like his cool tone or the even colder words he was using. “This isn’t a deal you’re brokering, Vee. This is my life. I understand that you can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous for you to do that. But I’m not about to follow you across the galaxy to live in a strange world if you don’t even plan on being there with me. At the very least, can’t I come back home to Earth when you go away?”

“No, you can’t. That’s one of the things we need to talk about.” He ran a hand through his hair, frustration pouring off of him in waves.

“What do you mean, I can’t come back?”

“We’re not supposed to be in this part of the galaxy at all. And there are rules against making contact with races before they’ve reached certain milestones. Your race isn’t ready. We’re here in secret to save our race from extinction. In doing so, we might be saving humans, too. You’re a primitive, destructive species, and it’s more than likely you’ll destroy yourselves before long.”

“Primitive? You think I’m primitive?” She took a step back as his words slashed a hole in her heart. She knew better than to fall for someone fast. It was a sure fire way to get hurt, but it hadn’t stopped her from starting to care about him. Had she made a terrible mistake?

“I think you’re an amazing, gifted female who happens to be from a primitive race. But you are also Pyrosian. Your eyes and our bond prove that. That bond is a two-edged sword, though. If something happens to you, the consequences are significant. I have to make sure you’re protected at all times so that I never have to face that. I intend to give you everything you could ever want and keep you in the greatest luxury imaginable, but it will be somewhere I know that you’ll be safe.”

She could hear a whisper of pain threaded through his words, but she was too furious to pay it any heed. She didn’t want to. Not after what he’d said. “I’m a person, not a possession. You can’t lock me away and expect me to be grateful. I won’t live my life that way.”

Vadir’s eyes were hooded and his brow furrowed into deep lines. “You don’t have any choice, tani. We’re mated. Connected. You said it yourself, this is your destiny. The deal is done, you can’t renege now. I promise I will take care of you and give you everything you wish.”

“What if I wish to be able to return to Earth? Or explore Pyros, or travel with you to other planets? Then what happens to your promises? What if I don’t stay in this gilded cage you’ve offered me and I go out exploring on my own because you left me alone?”

“Then I will find you and bring you home again,” he said, his words clipped and his tone flat and cold.

All the hope and joy she had found in the last few days faded away to despair and heartache. Her father had talked that way. Treating Lisa and her mother like possessions to be jealously protected and confined. His conviction that he owned them had driven him to violence over and over again. Until finally her mother had taken Lisa and fled. There was no way she would ever make the mistake her mother had. She would not stay with a man who saw her as a possession.

“Earth is my home. Until you understand that, we don’t have anything more to discuss.” She turned her back on him and walked away. His thoughts started to pour into her head, but she shut them out, visualizing a wall so thick and tall that nothing could get through it. She didn’t want to know what he was thinking right now, and she didn’t want him to catch even a glimmer of what she intended to do next.

That didn’t go as planned. Vadir had miscalculated. His head said he needed time to rethink his plan and come up with a new offer, but his heart wanted to go after Lisa and do his best to fix the pain that had flashed in her beautiful eyes as she turned from him. He tried to read her thoughts, or at least get a sense of her emotions, but he couldn’t get anything. It was as if she’d sealed herself off. He didn’t like the way it felt.

He stayed where he was, watching in silence as she walked back to the lift and vanished through the doors without looking back even once. He knew this move. She’d walked away from the bargaining table, and it was up to him to find a reason for her to come back.

Negotiating tactics were something he could understand. The deal was in freefall, and it was his fault. He’d failed to explain things to her clearly, to make her understand why he needed her safe.

Since meeting Lisa, he had finally started to understand why his father had succumbed to the Fading and followed his mate into the afterlife. The Scorching was more powerful than he had imagined, and the newly formed bond he had to Lisa was already changing his life in a hundred different ways.

He had come to Earth because he’d been ordered to. He hadn’t been prepared for any of this. Not the bonding, or the desire, or the need to protect the woman who had become the centre of his world in a matter of days. When they had children, he would do better for them than his father had done for him. They would never have to face the pain of growing up without their mother. He’d see to it.

All he had to do now was to find the right leverage and finalize things with Lisa. His research had led him to believe that offering her riches would have been enough. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. Worse, he was running out of time. Communications would be back up soon, and once a few more parts were delivered from the mother ship in orbit, they’d be leaving. He needed to have Lisa’s agreement to come with him to Pyros before that happened.

Whatever it took, he’d give it to her.

He was still no closer to figuring things out when Cas interrupted his train of thought.

“Our passenger has disembarked. Will she not be returning to the Firebrand with us for the journey back to Pyros?”

“What? What do you mean she disembarked? I gave you orders not to let her off the ship!”

He dropped the calibrator he’d been working with and scrambled to his feet. His mate had left him. He’d never heard of such a thing. It didn’t make any sense. Everyone knew Pyrosians mated for life. Where did she think she could go?

“You also ordered me to allow her free run of the ship and access to all doorways. Did you not intend for that command to include the exits?”

“No, I did not! Are you tracking her right now? Where did she go, Cas?”

“My external sensors indicate she is moving down the mountain we crashed on. At her current rate of descent, she will not reach the bottom before nightfall. I am concerned she may be in danger from the local wildlife. I have detected large predatory carnivores in the area.”

“Flames and fury, what is she thinking?” He bolted out of the engine room and made for the airlock on this deck, bouncing off the walls of the narrow passageway more than once along the way.

“I believe she is thinking she is done with arrogant aliens, busted ships, and controlling, possessive assholes. At least, that is what she muttered prior to her departure.”

“Not helpful, Cas. When we get back home, remind me to look into giving you an empathy subroutine.”

“That might be wise. Perhaps a relationship counselling program might also be—“

“Shut up, Cas.”

Fear and anger churned in a bitter stew in his stomach as he activated the outer doors and leapt to the ground. They’d crashed into a stretch of grassy meadow, which was the only reason either of them was still breathing. If Cas hadn’t managed to restart the engines at the last minute and make a desperate course correction, they’d have hurtled into the thick woods that surrounded them. The impact would have torn the ship, and them, to pieces.

He spotted a flash of bright blue at the bottom end of the meadow and started to run towards it. He knew instinctively it was her, though the colour confirmed it. That was the shirt he’d left out for Lisa this morning. Shirts and a pair of thick socks were the only things he’d left for her because it was all he had that fit. She wasn’t dressed for a walk in a cultivated park, never mind a hike through the wilderness.

“Lisa!” He bellowed her name as he pounded through the blend of tall grass and wildflowers, sending petals and seeds flying in all directions.

She turned to look at him, and he stumbled when her voice rang inside his head at full volume. “Leave me alone!”

“Never.”

He didn’t know if she’d get the message or not, so he called out to her as well. “We’re bound together for life. I couldn’t leave you alone if I tried.”

Her bitter laugh floated to him on the breeze. “Try anyway.”

There was so much pain, and anger tangled up with her thoughts, it made his heart ache. As much as he wanted to run to her, he recognized that wasn’t the right thing to do. When he was still fifteen meters away, he slowed to a walk, then came to a stop when they were near enough to talk without having to yell.

She stood and watched his approach, every part of her tensed and ready to bolt despite the fact she was wearing nothing but his shirt. Her hair was bound back in a tight braid, and her glowing eyes were full of wary distrust.

“I don’t want to try and leave you. I want to try and understand why you left,” he told her.

She snorted with derision. “It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out. How would you feel if someone came to you, made you feel special, and then told you that you were now their possession with no rights and no say in your own life?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Yes, you did. You couched it in pretty words, but it all means the same thing. You’re just like my dad. You think people are things to be owned and controlled. You tried to negotiate a deal with me. You tried to offer me trinkets in exchange for giving up my freedom, my friends, and my life.”

“I am not like your father. He murdered your mother, correct? I don’t wish to hurt you, Lisa. I want to protect you.”

“No, you want to control me. That makes you very much like him. You even threatened to hunt me down and bring me back if I left you.”

“I don’t want to control you. I…” He gave a frustrated snarl and threw his hands out as the truth exploded out of him. “I don’t know what I want. I never expected to find my mate, and now here you are. Vulnerable. Beautiful. You hold my heart, and my life, in your hands and you don’t even know it, yet.”

“What are you talking about? I slugged you once and crashed your damned ship. How vulnerable can I be?”

He didn’t want to talk about this. Didn’t want to revisit the dark memories he kept so carefully buried, but it was the only way she would understand why he needed to protect her. Reluctantly, he sank down into the sweet-smelling grass and gestured for her to join him.

“You’ve told me about your parents. I think it’s time I told you about mine.”