I have to.
“And when Leigh returns to Earth… you think they will just accept this?”
“I think that Roth are smart enough to understand that even if I do not have my mate with me, they are lucky to have theirs. I am not simply speaking about making more young. I am speaking about an alliance that will keep everyone safe. The human females from being sold into the worst imaginable circumstance, and the Roth, to stop our marauding ways that end up in death and death alone.”
“Hmm,” Niki says, and her expression barely changes. “I see.”
“I have no need of a Suevan escort to Roth,” Nydo continues, his eyes flaring hot enough that the orange reflects off the comms tablet surface. “I am powerful enough on my own.”
“You’re taking her to Roth?” Niki’s wary expression turns to pure surprise. “And you don’t want help?”
Nydo leans forward, his teeth audibly grinding. “And you think the Suevans are the sign I need to send my people that this is best? The Suevans and the Roth do not get along. We never have. My species has a long memory, and the settlement wars were not long ago at all.”
“You got along well enough when you were here. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you came to be with us, Nydo,” Niki bares her teeth at him, the expression feral. “Don’t think that just because you spin a good story now, with Leigh at your side, I trust you will do what’s best for her. I know who you are.”
“You think you know. You know nothing,” he sneers, every inch the imperious jerk.
“Okay.” I put my hands up, annoyed. “I know you don’t like how he treated you and Draz, but he was low on options.”
“Do you know what he did to us?” Niki asks me, the veneer of command slipping away as worry—real, unfeigned worry—turns her mouth down. “Do you know who you’re with? He’ll do anything to get his way. I don’t trust him, and I’m worried about you.”
Nydo’s huge shoulders tense, and his hand drops away from my side. I bite my lip.
“I trust him.”
Do I? Do I really though? Well, I’ve made my bed, and I better fucking lie in it.
“He promised me he would take me home, and I believe him. He’s the best hope we have for Earth and Sueva alike. You should try to trust him more, too.”
His hand wraps around mine and he squeezes it, warmth spilling up my arm from where our skin meets.
“See? We have no need of a Suevan escort.”
“And the other two? Piper and Billie? None of you have answered comms.”
“We’ve been slightly busy,” I tell her, annoyance flaring again. “Piper and Billie want to go home, too. They’re with Nydo’s brothers. We split up and we’re trying to gain support among the settlements.”
“We sent escorts after them, too.” Niki studies Nydo’s face. “Do you want me to call them off, as well?”
Nydo’s fingers rub a circle across my palm, and I shiver under his touch. “No. Comm them again, and ask what they want. If they want to work with the Suevans at the settlements, that can be their choice. There are not too many left, anyway. You know Roth and Suevan numbers have waned almost impossibly in the last decade.”
Niki nods. “I will comm them and I will pull off the detail assigned to you.”
I sigh because I wouldn’t mind seeing another human face right now. But I don’t want any of the other women to get hurt in our bid for power on Roth. I don’t envy Niki. I wouldn’t want to have to be in charge of all that. Good thing I’m only playing at being the queen.
I don’t think I could handle it.
“Thank you,” I tell her, and it’s sincere. “Thank you for looking out for us. I promise I would tell you if we weren’t okay.”
A faint smile tugs her lips up. “Good. I wish you both luck on your mission. If it works, we’re looking at an entirely different universe.”
“We don’t need luck,” Nydo tells her, all arrogance. I roll my eyes. “We will succeed, because we are in the right, and the gods of Roth will be on our side. I can feel it.”
“Good,” Niki says, and then nods again before the comm ends.
I let out a massive sigh, pressing my hands into my face. Nydo rubs my back, and when I glance at him from between my fingers, his eyebrows are raised.
“Why are you still anxious? Do you not feel better after speaking with her?”
“I’m glad that we’re on the same page,” I hedge. “I’m hungry.”
He gives me a look, like he’s not going to let this go, but hustles over to the machinery the Roth equip their vessels with to make food.
I rub my temples, trying to process, well, everything that’s happened in such a short span of time.
Trying to process how the hell I feel about Nydo.
It shouldn’t change anything, his explanation of the Roth, of how he was raised… but I can’t help but feel sorry for him. Empathy for him. Like maybe, if the world had been slightly different, he wouldn’t be so fucking impossible.
I bite my lip.
Then he wouldn’t be him, though.
It would be idiotic to care about him. As more than friends. Sure, I’m using him to scratch an itch, but I can’t have feelings for him. That would be… such a supremely bad idea.
“I made the one you like,” Nydo tells me, and sure enough, he has my favorite Roth meal ready to go, steaming in front of me. It’s basically a vegetable and meat pie, though it isn’t like any I’ve ever eaten on Earth. My heart squeezes slightly with affection.
“You remembered which one I liked?”
He grunts. “It’s nothing,” he says, but his lips curl up, just a little, and I can tell he’s pleased I’m pleased. It’s adorable, and I grin at him for a split second.
Fuck.
I don’t need to catch feelings for him.
I need to get back to Earth.
But as I surreptitiously watch him prepare his own food, serving me before himself, I know that I’m already screwed, because… I do like him.
Friends. Just friends.
Friends who have mind-blowing sex, yes, sure, but that’s it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
NYDO
I can scent her over the smells of the food on the table between us. Her cheeks are bright pink, and her gaze is studious on her food as she eats.
But I feel it flick to me when I look away from her.
She’s trying to hide her arousal.
“Why are you ashamed of your body?” I finally ask, setting my drink down.
“What?” she sputters, her eyes wide. “I’m not.”
“You are acting shy about your needs again.” I fold my arms across my chest. “Why, when I can pleasure you so you sleep well all night? Why, when I already have?”
“Because it’s not normal to be so goddamn horny!”
I tilt my chin. “Horns? Do you grow horns? Is this a human thing I know nothing about?”
She scrubs a hand over her face, then lets out a hoarse laugh. “No. We don’t grow horns. It means I’m turned on.”
“Your cunt is wet with arousal,” I say approvingly. “If you have had enough to eat, I would not mind feasting on it again.”
She groans, and embarrassment is writ across her body, her face.
“Do you think it bothers me? That you are ready for my cock at all hours of the day?”
“No, but it bothers me. Don’t you think I’d like to have, I don’t know, a little more control over my body?”