I tug a long sleeve shirt on to cover my peeling arms and then jerk on a pair of jeans from my bag.
“I can’t handle this right now.” I look up at Shak, who is still standing in the bathroom doorway. “I can’t handle being anywhere near you right now. I’m leaving right now and don’t you dare follow me.”
Without another look back, I storm out the door. And Shak, for once knowing what’s good for him, doesn’t come after me.
Chapter Eighteen
Shak
Juliet does not want me to follow.
Juliet does not want me.
And Juliet does not want my kit.
Of course she does not. Who would want the kit of a bastard nobody of no caste?
I roar in anguish and throw the mattress off the bed. The mattress where not so long ago, Juliet gave her body so freely to me.
Even here, on her planet, I am but a lowly shopkeeper.
I thought my station and caste would not matter to Juliet but of course they do. They matter to everyone. It is the lesson I have learned all my life.
I fall to my knees on the floor, hands to my head.
Societies are bound by order. Else all would be chaos. Juliet is wise. She looks at me and does not see a male who can provide for her. She looks to the future and sees only uncertainty.
I did not prepare her. After she told me of her con dom, I did not consider that our coupling might conceive a kit. I was even somewhat pleased that she wanted me for pleasure’s sake alone. We would work our way towards wanting a kit, I thought. After I told her everything.
But now it has all happened backwards and she is furious with me.
But ancients, the transformations to her body, what a miracle. She may not be happy to have such a kit as mine inside her but she carries the future of an entire race. Here, on this primitive planet, billions of light-years from our home, we have found the secret of rebirth.
Juliet has given us this gift.
She will be the First Mother.
But will she ever come back? She told me not to follow. She was adamant.
She carries my kit, though. And what if danger befalls her? My feet take me towards the door. Protecting her is my new first directive.
I open the door, easily catching her scent I know so well now on the air. She went to the right. I start to take a step in that direction but then pause.
You were stalking me!
Like a hunter does prey?
Yes. Exactly like that.
I frown heavily. I am larger than her and a male. Her last male abused her. If she considers me her hunter, that means she is afraid of me in the same way as she was of him.
I remember the taste of her fear. In our last coupling, during the moment of ecstasy, I felt deeper into her than ever before. I glimpsed her childhood. Hiding with her sibling in the dark while a man raged outside. Her father. She was afraid of him.
So much of her life has been spent in fear. Afraid of the people who were meant to care for her.
I cannot be one more on that list.
But I must protect—
Then I swallow hard. She has lived many years on this planet and survived well enough without me. I eliminated the threat of Robbie and his family.
And if I follow her now, I might lose her forever.
I slam the wall with my fist in frustration and the wall breaks beneath my force. But then I close the door and pray to the ancients that she returns to me.
Chapter Nineteen
Juliet
I bang on Giselle’s door until she finally lets me in.
She is a smiling and looks relaxed, in a black cami and pajama pants, cup of coffee in hand.
“Is Ana here yet?” I ask, pushing my way past her into her apartment. “You told her it was an emergency meeting, right?”
Giselle rolls her eyes at me. “Don’t tell me you caught Ana’s bug. Seriously guys, enough with the emergency meetings. You can just come over because you want to.”
I ignore Giselle and focus in on Ana who is lounging on the couch, also with a cup of coffee in hand.
“Cappuccino?” Giselle asks. “I just got my new fancy espresso maker in last week and I’m having fun experimenting.”
“God yes,” I say but then my hand shoots to my stomach. Shit. “No, scratch that.” Oh dear God, what the hell am I doing?
“I’m pregnant,” I blurt out.
Giselle knocks her cup of coffee over on the counter and Ana leaps up off the couch but I hold out my hand. “But there’s more. So much more.”
I look at Ana. “You were right. About the aliens. They’re here. And…and one knocked me up.”
“Bullshit,” Ana says. “That’s not funny, guys.”