“Okay. So what’s the plan then? How do you protect my world, Thuliak?”
“We do have a way to get in front of the pirates,” he said. “We have a small fleet of small launch pods. I will be taking a handful of my strongest warriors, and we’ll be launching at extreme acceleration toward Eden. We will be just in time to brake and setup a small defense in orbit around Eden.”
“I can’t come with you, can I?”
He shook his head. “Your body couldn’t withstand the g-forces. Our bodies are much stronger than yours,” his eyes looked down toward my chest, and he licked his lips. He ran his hand gently up my side, and then he cupped my breast and squeezed. “But I like you soft, Airlock Eve.”
“You just called me Eve!”
“I called you Airlock Eve.”
“It’s a start.”
“I need to launch now. Seconds count here. Do not worry about my safety, little Airlock.”
“I’m going to worry. No matter how much you tell me not to.”
“I will be safe against such a weak threat.”
“What about the people you were worried about in your pack?” I whispered.
Thuliak shook his head. “Eriok is in range now. He’d never allow a mutiny over me. I owe him too many favors.”
“Was making him Second your way of paying back all of those favors?”
He grinned and nodded.
I bit my lip and looked at him, mulling something over, deciding if I wanted to actually say it out loud or not.
“What is it?” he asked.
He was already so good at reading my facial expressions. “I was just thinking, I mean, doyoureally need to go? You said these pirates are no real match…”
“I am a scion.”
“Right. Which means you get to tell everyone else what to do, and if you tell them that you need to stay on the ship—”
“Then they’ll think I’m weak, and that I’m staying here to breed with you rather than to fight with my men.”
I smiled and shrugged. “I mean…isn’t that why you’re here? To breed? You’ve probably already proved time and time again how strong you are. Isn’t this Seeding of Eden—like—the end of the line kind of?”
“The other packs and scions would question whether we should be First. A scion who sits back and breeds while his pack fights for him? Who would want the best females going to a scion like that? Or to a pack led by such a scion?”
I didn’t now why I felt the need to keep arguing about this, but Ireallydidn’t want Thuliak to leave. He said the pirates were no threat, and that I’d be safe here because of Eriok, but I had a bad feeling about the whole thing, and that bad feeling would disappear if I could just convince Thuliak to stay here with me.
“Logically,” I said, “if the pirates are no match for you or your pack, then does it really prove how strong you are if it’s just a fight whose outcome is already decided.”
“The women must see me leading my pack.”
“Why? I understand why that might be the case for every single other man in your pack, but you’ve already chosen me. It’s not like you need to impress any other women at this point.”
He scowled. “When I return, I’ll have to teach you more about our ways. You clearly do not understand what it means to be a scion, or what it means to Seed.”
“Clearly. So you’re just going to go then? Even though I’m begging you not to? I’m asking you for thisonething, Thuliak.”
“I will return soon,” he said, “as soon as the threat is neutralized.”
“Great. I’ll be alone in my room then. In your room. Your quarters. Whatever. Just waiting for you to put your dick in me, I guess? That’s all I do. Breeding Eve, at your service.”